₦airaland Forum

Kobojunkie: How does he know they feel safe? Nigerians who have lived in Nigeria all their lives don't even FEEL SAFE . . . na foreigners im go conclude FEEL SAFE? Abeg, make the man go do the job wey dem hire am do o'jare!!! .

Of course you can make anyone confess to feeling 'safe' if you pay am 10 times, or even more than what im suppose worth elsewhere. How safe did the foreigners who were abducted last year, and then reported killed earlier in the year feel? How safe did the hundreds of Nigerians who have had their lives cut short by terrorists who are allowed to roam free feel when they were blown to bits? safe indeed! How safe did the 10 people who were blown to bits at their regular work place, this week?



The U.S already warns its citizens. However, U.S does not bar it's citizens from going to Nigeria. Abeg, Kwashiokor mouth, do your freaking job well, and then you will not have to tell people to feel safe . . . they will know it when it exists.

torkaka: for those living in and around abuja, you might have noticed the recent increase in number of chadiens,nigeriens,buzu & fulani(non nigerian fulani) roaming the streets of abuja freely without hindrance from security operatives. you might have also noticed that these foreigners carry swords and small knives yet we have an organisation in this country called "nigerian immigration service".
these impoverished aliens already known for their intolerance are easy recruits for suicide attacks when wealth is promised their families! the fight against boko haram should start with deporting these aliens! lets seperate the black balls from the red balls first then we will know how to deal with the punctured red balls!

http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=160351:double-jeopardy-for-emergency-rule-lgs-no-salaries-for-workers-as-fg-ignores-senate&catid=2:lead-stories&Itemid=8
Double jeopardy for emergency rule LGs - No salaries for workers as FG ignores Senate
Written by Hamza Idris (Maiduguri), Onimisi Alao & Mahmud Lalo (Jos), Hamisu Kabir Matazu (Damaturu), Aliyu M. Hamagam (Minna) & Abdul-Rahman Abubakar (Abuja) Monday, 23 April 2012 05:04

Government activities have run aground in the 15 local councils where state of emergency has been declared because the Federal Government has seized their fund allocations for four months, investigations by Daily Trust show.

No salaries have been paid in most of the affected areas for the past three months, worsening life conditions for people who have also been suffering curtailed freedoms and other consequences of insecurity and emergency rule.

The local government areas are Jos North, Jos South, Barkin-Ladi and Riyom in Plateau; Maiduguri Metropolitan, Ngala, Bama, Biu and Jere in Borno; Damaturu, Geidam, Potiskum, Gujba and Bade in Yobe; and Suleja, Niger State.


Since December 31 when President Jonathan declared a state of emergency on the councils, in the wake of incessant violence, they have not received their federal allocations on which most of their activities rely.

The funds, totalling about N13 billion, are being held in spite of a Senate resolution passed last month, asking the government to release the monies to avoid worsening the security situation.

No official reason has been given by the Presidency or the Federal Ministry of Finance on why the funds are being withheld. But a chairman of the one of the affected areas told Daily Trust that they were told the development was because of “orders from above.”

No salaries for workers

Interim chairman of Barkin Ladi, Mr Emmanuel Loman, told Daily Trust in Jos that the seizure of his council’s monies was a “terrible” situation.

“We’ve not been given any monthly allocation since December and the situation for us is terrible,” Loman said last week. “What is the essence of the state of emergency when even the resources we were utilising in normal time are not available now that we need them more? The situation is bad because we can do hardly anything.”

“We’ve not been paying salaries to council workers because we don’t have the money. And it’s not just that people are suffering; it is also that you as the boss can’t insist on workers doing their job because you lack the moral courage to do so, after all you are not paying their salary,” he added.

He said he relies on help from “stakeholders” to run the council.

“Stakeholders like state and National Assembly members, commissioners and special advisers, party leaders, and such people have been doing their best; they rally round to come up with resources when we have to carry out certain statutory functions, such as when we had to do the recent congress at our level,” Loman said.

In his reaction, Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang’s spokesman Pam Ayuba said the condition of the affected LGAs was “tasking” the state government.

“If Federal Government would declare a state of emergency as it has done, you would expect that it would even double financial resources for the security needs of the areas affected, but the opposite has been the case, as we are seeing,” he said.

“A hungry worker is an angry worker, and for this and other reasons, all people of goodwill hope that the Federal Government will do what it needs to do to normalise the situation,” Ayuba added.

The situation is no better in Suleja, Niger State, where an official told Daily Trust that staff salaries have not been paid for three consecutive months. He said activities “have been absolutely paralysed” in the LGA, even though the state government was helping it “to attend to some pressing issues.”

When contacted, commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Yusuf Garba Tagwai, said the state government had been appealing for the release of the funds but to no avail.

Tagwai confirmed that salaries were not paid in Suleja LGA.

‘Hunger has caught up with our people’

In Maiduguri, findings at the Borno State Ministry of Finance show that the withheld funds of the five LGAs for the month of December, January and February stood at over N3.3 billion. Figures for March were not available.

Chairmen and senior officials of the affected councils said the non-release of the funds was compounding problems in the areas.

Some of the hardships brought about by the emergency declaration were curfews, closure of international borders, as well as harassment by security men.

“We are only surviving under the magnanimity of the state government. Governor Kashim Shettima has ensured that we did not default in the payment of monthly salary of civil servants and other administrative challenges,” Yusuf Adamu, the caretaker chairman of Biu LGA, said.

“If not for the intervention of the state government, our people will not even have water to drink because we cannot afford to buy diesel for dozens of generators to pump water from the boreholes in our towns and villages,” Adamu added.

“But despite the intervention of the state government, we are not unmindful of the fact that other developmental programmes that will improve the lots of the people are suffering because the fact is that governance is not all about paying salary. People need good health, affordable education, houses, construction of rural roads and other basic privileges of existence…we cannot do all these things without getting our constitutionally approved allocations,” he said.

Two senior council officials of Ngala and Bama told Daily Trust that the state of emergency was “malnourishing” their people.

“The aim of the measure (emergency rule) has been defeated because hunger has caught up with our people. The borders are closed and businesses between Nigeria and Chad, Cameroon, Niger and even Central African Republic has collapsed and poverty has increased,” the official from Ngala said.

His counterpart in Bama recalled that customs and immigrations offices as well as a police station were attacked recently at Banki town. “If these things would be happening, what is the essence of the state of emergency and the denial of funds to local authorities to address issues relating to poverty which is the major source of insecurity?” he queried.

For the four councils affected in Yobe State, about N2.8 billion is being withheld for December, January and February, officials in Damaturu said last week. No figures were available for March allocation.

“We have not been collecting a dime from the Federal Government,” an official said. “We held meeting with the governor recently and the commissioner of Justice was directed to go and table our grievance to the Federal Government.”

Senate resolution ignored

After a story in Daily Trust of March 13 about the seizure of the LGAs funds for the months of December and January, the Senate passed a resolution asking the Federal Government to release the monies. But this has not been complied with, as the allocations for the month of February were similarly withheld.

Mover of the motion that led to the Senate resolution, Senator Ahmed Lawal, said it was “uncharacteristic” for the executive to disregard a resolution of the Senate.

“It is very uncharacteristic in a legislative democracy for the executive to disregard a resolution of the legislature, especially such a popular resolution that deals with the plight of the affected people,” he told Daily Trust in Abuja last week.

“I believe the President will consider the sufferings of the ordinary people in the affected Local Governments and see the need to immediately release their funds.”

Asked if the Senate would consider another step, Lawan said the Senate has played its constitutional role and can take no other action. “As a legislature there is nothing we can do anymore because we have passed a resolution that the allocation should be released what is left now is for the public to insist that the executive should do what is right. We have done our part, the executive should be reminded to respect the law and release the allocations.”

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/assassination-plots-against-key-yoruba-leaders-uncovered-group
By SaharaReporters, New York

A group, the Yoruba Intelligence Network said it has uncovered a plot to assassinate some key Yoruba leaders by fifth columnists in a effort to arouse the Southwest region into violence.

A statement by the head of the information bureau of the network, Kunle Aribisala said that prime on the list of the targets are Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka; former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt General Alani Akinrinade and former NADECO chieftain, Dr Amos Akingba.

"Information at our disposal indicates that the group behind the plot has chosen to strike against Dr Amos Akingba on Friday, said the network.

The Network also added that the fifth columnists in their build-up to the heinous acts have sold a dummy to Soyinka months ago through some fake security reports that Boko Haram was planning to eliminate him and other leaders which made him grant an interview to The News magazine where he raised the alarm.

The Network also said that in the last few months, the fifth columnists have tried all they could to create a Boko Haram scare in the South West through all kinds of false alarms.

"Their failure to achieve a precipitate action in the region is the reason they are now eager to eliminate these leaders to provoke violent reactions in the region"

The Network equally alleged that the news of a container expulsion at the Tin Can Port on Monday which was broken on AIT but suppressed in the media since then has forced it to cry out on these plots " part of the facts that we gathered was that an explosion would take place at Tin Can before these strikes"

It asked the people of the South West to look closely at a report planted in all newspapers in Nigeria a few days ago that a detention centre for Boko Haram members was to be built in Lagos.

"Who planted this story and to achieve what? Was it to prepare an excuse for strikes in the name of Boko Haram in South West? Are we seeing an orchestrated plan to create a war situation in the country by precipitating violence in a big nation like the Yoruba to achieve some sinister agenda by other people? These are posers to ponder on"

[url]http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/44103-we%E2%80%99ll-stop-and-search-aregbesola%E2%80%99s-convoy%2C-says-omisore.html[/url]
By Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo2 hours 38 minutes ago

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has threatened to stop and search the convoy of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

The former lawmaker alleged that the governor was not using men of the State Security Service (SSS) for his security personnel. He addressed reporters in his Ile-Ife home at the weekend.

Omisore said: “We will stop his convoy, search and remove all the arms his thugs are using.

“It is unethical to use thugs as security. Aregbesola should explain why he goes about with thugs. During the last elections, he rigged with the aids of thugs, but this time round, we are ready for him.

“Who wants to kill him? (Asiwaju Bola) Tinubu is more important than he is. He is a common radio technician. If Aregbesola does not trust the SSS, let him resign. We are going to stop his convoy and search him.

“His action is an embarrassment. He is just one of the 36 governors; how can his case be different? Tinubu was governor for eight years, he did not use thugs as security.

“Together with Aregbesola we were in the Alliance for Democracy (AD). We know ourselves very well. Aregbesola was just one of the thugs shouting outside when we held crucial meetings. If not for Justice Ayo Salami, whose judgment favoured Aregbesola and he is now paying for it by being at home wasting away, who knew Aregbesola?”

The former senator said it was not an allegation that Aregbesola was training and using members of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) to commit alleged electoral fraud.

He vowed “to crush any OYES member found in any voting centre in the next elections”.

According to him, the politics promoted by the PDP in the Southwest from 2003 to 2011 brought succour to the zone and would advance the Yoruba interest faster than the regional integration of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

But the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Sunday Akere, asked in what capacity Omisore would act, if he plans to stop and search the governor’s convoy.

Describing Omisore’s outburst as a direct confrontation, Akere said: “We shall see how he will do that and get away with it.”

The commissioner, who said no harm must come to the governor, noted that the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, was murdered despite the security provided for him by the government.

He said: “If Omisore should be bold to say he would search the governor’s convoy, the whole world should note it. And we are demanding that no harm should happen to the governor. We don’t want to take him for granted.”

Akere said the PDP was a bad loser for referring to OYES instead of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the superintendent of elections.

He added that the PDP had performed abysmally.

kpogede77: Formula 101=killing patrotic Jihadist in the name of boko haram will result in hatred by northerners. Allowing them to destroy their own land and chase away southerners in their midst will result to hatred of northerners by southerners which will give GEJ more vote and support.This shows that God actually sent GEJ. God is using his enemy to favour him in 2015 election.

Beaf: Exactly! It is the people vs the oil barons. That is the current battle going on and everything at the core of Nigerian politics.
I am with you on this.

wesley80: Something tells me GEJ knows exactly what he's talking about in saying Boko Haram is about to be crushed. Something tells me GEJ will have the last laugh pretty soon so mock all u want.

kunlekunle: abi this guy they plan ahead

Ileke-IdI:
Igbo

Megalyn Echikunwoke, Nigerian international actress who is making it big time in Hollywood. Megalyn is the daughter of a Nigerian-Igbo father and a German/Scots-Irish American mother.

[img]http://3.bp..com/-pf9z93Vmp_Y/T2Qh7OTMdxI/AAAAAAAABxg/z-AQcEFB0wk/s1600/Megalyn+Echikunwoke.jpg[/img]

HNosegbe: The Federal Government has opened a secret detention centre for high-profile Boko Haram suspects in Lagos.
The Associated Press quotes an unnamed security official as saying that the secret detention centre would hold and interrogate suspected high-level members of the radical Islamist sect, responsible for hundreds of killings this year alone.
While the facility could create a more cohesive effort among disparate and sometimes feuding security agencies in Nigeria to combat the sect known as Boko Haram, it raises concerns about its possible use for torture and illegal detentions, AP reports.
The prison is in Lagos, far from the violence plaguing the country’s predominantly Muslim north, where Boko Haram carries out frequent bombings and ambushes, said the security official, who is directly involved in the project. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the facility with journalists.
“All suspects arrested will be taken to the centre and would be interrogated by a security group,” the official said. He declined to say exactly where it is or how many inmates it can hold.
He said authorities are arranging to transport suspects to Lagos.
The detention centre was created on the orders of National Security Adviser, Gen. Owoye Azazi, the official said.
Azazi’s telephone number is unlisted and the AP was unable to contact him for comment.
The Director-General of the State Security Service, Ekpeyong Ita, declined to comment on Thursday when the AP asked him about the prison.
Minutes later, secret police spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar called an AP journalist and said anyone with information about the purported prison should go to the courts instead of talking to journalists. She refused to confirm or deny the prison’s existence.
“Whatever we do, we’re running a democratic system that respects the rule of law,” the spokeswoman said.

http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-to-relocate-boko-haram-suspects-to-lagos/

strangerf: So you want some demented old man, or woman, deciding land mark cases for you? What was your major at OAU again? Underwater Basket weaving?

strangerf: Not really. The FG runs the FGColleges. Why cant they educate the Almanjiris? It is a security issue, which is clearly a FG matter. I cant beleieve they didnt teach you this at OAU?

i-Guru:
Source: http://africacnn..com/2012/04/educating-95m-almajirai-how-far-can-fg.html

Ileke-IdI:
I 've always wondered; who gets their work done while they're oversea?

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=29230
Osun State Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aragbesola, shorn of all airs off office, calls himself an unconventional governor. Amidst allegations that he was coordinating plans by his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to secede and Islamise Osun, he quipped: “I couldn’t even Islamise my nuclear family.” He spoke with KODILINYE OBIAGWU and SEYE OLUMIDE in Lagos. Excerpts:

[b]AT a particular time, your health was an issue, how is it now?

My health was never an issue to me. I never had any health problem and on several times I made Nigerians understand that my health is in a perfect condition. I don’t know why some people chose to make an issue out of my health.

I cannot imagine why people should broadcast what is not there. Anyway, it is their problem. They should be asked what they felt or saw that made them to be concerned about my health.

They said that I travelled abroad and does the fact that I travelled mean that my health is in a bad condition? When did travelling become an issue in Nigeria? I went for the graduation of my daughter and also went for Umra Hajj (the lesser hajj), which was a religious trip.

There was never an issue with my health. I have been healthy all along and I am as fit as a fiddle. The media will do well to ask those people why they are making an issue out of my health.

What is it in the new Osun identity that you are pursuing with so much passion?

The Osun identity was an exercise to inculcate in the people a new way of seeing and doing things; it is an ethical movement, an exercise to let the people peep into their culture and value that which will motivate them to greater appreciation for themselves. It is an acceptance of their identity and roles as individuals.

We deliberately chose February 25 last year, the anniversary of the day that the Western Region gained self-government from the British rule in 1955 to launch it. We gave ourselves a new slogan, designed a flag and adopted the regional crest of the Western Region in which we could be identified. Our people now called themselves omoluabi, which is the epitome of character. This is the meaning of the new identity; it simply celebrated the power and victory of our people. It is working and it is having a positive effect on the people’s well being.
Why do you think some people have said that the Osun identity is an avenue for you to pursue a personal agenda?


Anybody is free to his or her thinking and it is not possible to determine the thinking of anybody. I have repeated the motives for what we did and I do not know what compels the reaction or response of others. But to all genuine Yoruba people, and not just the people of Osun, what we are doing has a lot of meaning and is acceptable.

I do not know why people should feel sad that our people found motivation. But from our survey, what we did is wonderful. I cannot explain what those who have issues with the identity are thinking. It is amazing that some people are faulting such a noble exercise for mobilising our people.

Do you find the allegation branding you a religious fundamentalist amazing?

I see the darts been thrown at me by a tiny group of disgruntled politicians. I want to assume that we are having the death throes of that group. We handled their concerns about my health, yet they held onto it. They acted as if it is a crime to go abroad for a medical check-up. They could not continue to dwell on that and their latest is the battle cry of secession and religious bigotry. Nobody, except the dubious could say that my public life for over 12 years in Lagos State had any religious inclination. If my public life all these years does not have religious stain, how would one year and a half become an issue about religion?

They should know that my administration has given opportunity for all religions, including animists to participate in official functions. Which other state does that? If that is the only thing I have done, does it signpost me as a religious bigot? In the history of Osun, no administration has given fillip to Christian celebrations as much as we have. In the last two Christmas seasons, we have decorated major cities in the state. Last December we went beyond the decorations and had an hour fire works to usher in the New Year. Beyond that, I am the only governor that ever gave free ride to travellers during the festive period. During the Easter celebrations, we provided free transportation to Christians travelling from Lagos to Osun. Will a man pursuing the Islamisation of a territory do that?

I campaigned with a promise to build a convention ground for Christians that will accommodate nearly 200, 000 people. I met with Pastors Adejare Adeboye, Williams Kumuyi and Matthew Asimolowo and all other Christians in Osun to see that the project is realised and they are already working on it. How could any sane mind accuse a government that does all that of Islamisation?

My background does not justify their suppositions. For example, if I have not succeeded in Islamising my nuclear family, how will it be possible for me to Islamise a state. My immediate younger sister, from the same parents is a Christians. I have not been able to convert her to Muslim; how would I therefore attempt to Islamise a state?

How worried are you about this allegation of fundamentalism especially at this time when the Boko Haram religious sect is carrying out attacks against churches in the northern parts of the country?

It can’t be a comfortable feeling when you are not an armed robber and somebody is associating you with it, but I am not rattled by the propaganda. I don’t feel anything rather than the need to educate people on this falsehood.

Did you travel to North Africa recently?

I did not travel to North Africa.

But it was alleged that you went to Cuba…

There is no iota of truth in all that. Should I continue to explain the lie in all this? It will be unbecoming of a man that has been in the public life for more than a decade to suddenly turn to a religious extremist. I am as tolerant as I have always been and nobody associated with me during my stint in Lagos would accuse me of religious extremism.

The talk about North Africa is another reason we should not take them serious. North Africa is no longer a territory free for fundamentalism. There are five countries in the North of Africa and they are no longer territories fit for fundamentalism. Egypt and its neighbour Libya (with the ouster and death of Gadaffi) have been stripped of any extremism. The fundamentalists cannot even survive talk less of anybody going there to propagate fundamentalism. Tunisia, Algeria and Morroco are countries free from any extremist tendencies and any form of fundamentalism. They are mindless characters without imagination.

What of the plans to secede?

Osun is landlocked between five states, Kwara, Ondo, Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and Ekiti. Where is the chance in hell for such a landlocked territory to think of secession? It is laughable.

As a governor, you have also been accused of perhaps being too forthright, saying things without mincing words…

I have been like this. Those who know me know that this is how I have always been. I have not aspired anything different. I am not a conventional governor. In my campaign documents I wrote that we are going to have an unusual governor and not a conventional governor. I have a duty to initiate a project of rapid phenomenal development. When I was in school I used to say that time chases Africa and Africa is in a hurry and cannot be at the bottom of the world and still be sedate and calm. I am a reflection of the turmoil in our land, which we must do everything to remove. We must do everything to mobilise our people to the hype of productivity and understanding of self-worth that will take us out of the rot we are in. If there is anything about me it is the passion to see to quick realisation of our march to progress. At the back of my action and my words, I do not see myself in expensive regalia, imperial or robust and moving and instructing like a king but I see myself as a worker.

What is your relationship with the former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu?

He is my brother, my mentor and motivator and he represents the focus of our political determination. He is what our land needs now.

Have you heard of the speculations that your loyalty to Tinubu is part of a succession plan in which you feature strongly?

Tinubu should answer if there is anything he is thinking about a succession plan. He is not yet ready to quit the stage; in fact we have just celebrated his 60th anniversary. If the likes of Robert Mugabe and Olusegun Obasanjo are still in politics, what is the issue about Tinubu? He is waxing strong; he is not about to go yet.

What is your relationship like with the Ondo Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko?

We are both governors and we have some similarities. I have no problem or personal issues with him other than that I want my party to progress across all the states of Nigeria and even win the presidency.

You are seen as the arrowhead of the push to oust Mimiko…

If democracy is the basis of government, it calls for struggles of territories and states. We are contesting in a democratic setting for powers and it is my desire as well as those of all the ACN members to expand beyond where we are at present, Ondo inclusive. It is my desire that my party extends beyond Ondo, Kogi, Kwara and all other places where a people friendly government is needed.

Comment on the plans of the PDP in the South West to find its feet?

PDP will self-destruct. Where do you place a party that held power for eight years and could not leave anything lasting? PDP will go with time and we are determined to provide a better alternative.

http://www.punchng.com/news/lagos-acquires-osun-land-for-agriculture/April 19, 2012 by Sesan Olufowobi Leave a Comment

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola says his administration has purchased land in Osogbo, Osun State for agriculture in order to tackle the challenge of food shortage in the state.

The governor added that the state was making moves to acquire land in other states where it would commence the planting of cash and food crops such as pineapple and citrus.

Fashola, who was represented by the deputy governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, spoke at the inauguration of the state’s Farm Service Centre in Oko Oba, Agege, Lagos on Wednesday.

He said the country was facing a challenge of feeding its huge population.

He said, “Our food security is being threatened by rising food prices. Between 2007 and 2010, prices of major staples rose by over 50 per cent. Nigeria was listed by the World Bank as one of the countries with the highest domestic food price increase among 58 countries surveyed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.”

The governor explained that the state had come up with an Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy to tackle the challenge of food shortage.

At the event, which was also used to mark the 2012 Farmers Appreciation Day, Fashola said his administration would ensure that by 2025, 30 per cent of the food needs of the state would be produced locally and by 2050, the state would produce 60 per cent of its needs.

“Lagos State under the present administration has done a lot to make the agenda possible. We have built a 20,000 metric tonnes per annum rice milling plant. A lot of work has also been done in the cassava sector of the transformation agenda. These will provide employment, promote rural development and reduce poverty,” Fashola said.

Earlier, Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, said the centre would expand the scope of government’s support to farmers in the state.

Beaf: ^
Ok o! De deh for US de talk who de run and who no de run!
Phone home, my broda; so they can tell you how many desperate meetings are being held by ACN and its clowns. Ode!

Come and dump on minorities to feel big na.



To the level headed observer, Yoruba people, not ACN people voted for GEJ. Please lets stop this conflation of ACN and Yoruba people, it is ethnic blackmail and it will only cause further annoyance.

Sorry, GEJ has called CPC worse names. In reaction, CPC has replied in kind; the one thing both CPC and PDP and all other parties do not do is employ ethnic blackmail. What kind of primitive people are in ACN?

For the bolded, except for a miracle, I think it might now be too late.

Beaf: You are a fool.

They are ACN people, and it ends there. Your daft lies and ethnic blackmail will continue to fail you. Ethnic bigotry is the ACN modus, so there's little surprise.
Cowards resort to ethnic bigotry, then tell lies. Dude, you are a bunch of cowards who thought you would get an easy ride and street cred from dumping on minorities. But, who is getting the black eye today and running around like headless chickens? Lol!
Every coward tells lies to hide their obvious deficiencies.

Your party is jam packed with talking fools; I keep saying it, there are those who talk little. Let us see who will lose.

cogitoErgo: The leaders come out of the people, therefore the people are the leaders. The leaders are criminals, and since the people are the leaders, therefore the people are criminals! Nigerians are criminals that is why we have criminal leaders.

Beaf: That was before ACN's politics of ethnicity.
Suddenly, every ND person has become a drunken fisherman, because Tinubu said so; before Tinubu said it, ND people were not referred to in that way.

Maybe now that SSS is crawling around Aregbe's bedroom, ACN will be too busy hiding incriminating evidence in Osun to spew more ethnic bigotry.

I will hold any non-ACN hand.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=29085
Youth Unemployment: Philosophy And Praxis Of The OYES Scheme
[b]Speech by the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, while declaring open the World Bank seminar on public works toolkit in Nigeria at the Royal Park Hotel, Iloko Ijesa, on [/b]April 12, 2012.

Protocols,Let me thank the organisers of this seminar, the World Bank and the committee on Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) for the invitation to be here today.

I must thank the World Bank especially for the interest in our youth empowerment programme, OYES, through which we created 20,000 jobs in our first 100 days in office.

I must say in passing that this gesture by the World Bank was initiated in 2011 when I had the pleasure of playing the host to the first mission of the World Bank to Osun State since the beginning of my administration.

The enthusiasm and spontaneous promise of Onno Ruhl, the erstwhile Country Director, is what has crystallised today.

Throughout the world today, youth unemployment has become a significant marker in assessing the health of both the society and the economy.

As the mature economies falter on the brink of recession, youth unemployment in economies with well trained working force has triggered alarm bells for social and political strife in countries like Greece and Spain and contributed in no small measure to the 2011 London riots during which lives were lost, the social fabric overstressed and losses running into almost half a billion pounds were incurred as raging and rampaging unemployed youths took over the high streets, factories and warehouses, ransacking and looting.

Third World economies and societies, especially in Africa, now carry a demographic pattern in which almost 45 per cent of the population is under the age of 30.

This, according to the World Bank, is certainly the case in Nigeria where we have been made to understand the youth population as defined above runs in some urban areas as high as 55 per cent.

More alarming especially is the observed presence among this huge colony an equally high percentage of skilled and tertiary graduate young men and women.

When for example my administration announced its plan to employ 20,000 youths, applications were received from over 250,000 skilled and tertiary educated graduates from across the 30 local government areas of the state.

In quite a substantial number of cases many of these had been on the job market for three or more years.

Before I assumed office here in Osun state I, as the Commissioner for Works in the Lagos State government of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as well as a leader of my political party in an area of Lagos teeming with the exploding population of the new megacity, I could hardly have failed to notice this new phenomenon of youth unemployment in the Alimoso area of the state.

After I decided to run for the office of governor in my home state of Osun and as I crisscrossed the state, canvassing for support, the same problem stared me in the face and invaded my socio-political consciousness.

Next to the generally visible absence of prosperity among the population at large, nothing touched me more painfully than discovering in personal interviews with young men and women, many of them commercial motorcyclists, that a high proportion of them were high school graduates who could neither find employment or opportunities for acquiring modern skills for a niche in the workforce.

Against this background, it became a moral obligation for my planning team and to prioritise youth empowerment through employment, next only to agriculture for food production in my pact with the people of Osun State.

As I said earlier, the success of our Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme remains for me as a parent and as a political leader with a social concern a matter for great joy.

I must at the same time give expression to my deep sadness to know that out there on our streets and in our homes, thousands of young men and women, a substantial number among them secondary and tertiary institution graduates, many with skills or anxious to acquire skills remain without a window of opportunity to work and earn a Jonestown income.

There is a saying among our people that work generally is nothing to be ashamed of; it is stealing that brings dishonour. There is dignity in labour. The holy books enjoined all to do with one’s might whatever one’s hand finds to do.

We have found inspiration on work from the view of William Beveridge, the post-World War II British political economist in his influential book ‘Full Employment in Free Society’ where he wrote: “It is better to employ people on useless project like pyramid building or digging holes and filling them up again, than not to employ them at all…Any of these may be better than doing nothing at all.

Those who are taken into useless employment will by what they earn and spend, give useful employment to others. It is better to employ people however the money for paying their wages is obtained, than not to employ them at all.

Enforced idleness is a waste of real resources and a waste of lives, which cannot be defended on any financial ground”
OYES is not just about the 20,000 volunteers but also about integrated economic development in the state, especially at the grassroots level.

For instance, all the uniform worn by the corps members were sown by tailors in the state. This includes the entire kit of booths, socks, caps and singlets which are purchased in the open markets in the state.

This also applies to all their implement such as cutlasses, wheel barrows, iron rakes, C-caution, blade files, reflector jackets, security boots etc. which were procured from artisans and traders in the various markets in the state.

This has not only given stimulus to the economy of the state, it has economically empowered thousands of families in the state.

Pumping the N200 million allowance we give OYES corps members into the grassroots every month, ladies and gentlemen, you will agree with me, is a great economic stimulus.

My advisers and I are proud and happy that the World Bank as it is popularly known, but in reality the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has lent its support to our initiative and experiment by exposing the sister states here gathered to the work we are doing, our joy, frustrations and success in attempting to combat youth unemployment in the State of Osun.

I would like to welcome participants representing my brother governors to Osun hoping that as they share our experiences.

This seminar will open new insights through their observations and suggestions which will facilitate the rapid expansion and turnover of our scheme to wipe out youth unemployment here.

As we engage in theorising, let us not forget that the youth is not only a critical demographic factor but a societal element and group on whose shoulders the future of our country rests.

Rapid economic expansion, modern technological innovation and general socio-economic growth depend to a large extent on a well educated and virile workforce which can only be built from a young population bristling with hope for the future.

It is our vision here in Osun to move our youth from the regime of disillusionment we found them into a world of hopefulness. It is our mission in Osun to remove the canopy of despair which hovered over our youth and retool them for prosperity.

All hands are literally on the ground, from my desk and boots as OYES 1 to my advisers and our able and dedicated Commandante and his experienced team of field mentors and prefects, now the work – proud first batch of our volunteers, to rebuild self esteem in those who had been idle for years, to reinvent in us all the dignity of labour (apalara) and to open the window to a new world of HONOUR and integrity in all our endeavours…GEGE BI OMOLUWABI.

On behalf of the people of IPINLE OMOLUWABI, all my colleagues especially those on the OYES front, I thank once again the World Bank for considering this initiative worthy of their support for showcasing and possible emulation.
I thank you all for your kind attention.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=28996
•It Is A Confirmation Of Opposition’s Threats – Speaker

The Leader, Osun State House of Assembly, Honourable Timothy Owoeye, last week Wednesday escaped assassination attempt on his life in Osogbo, the State capital.

Owoeye was waylaid by four unknown gunmen with unmarked SUV car around St. Charles Grammar School, Ilesa Road in Osogbo, while he was returning to his Ilesa residence on Wednesday evening.

Narrating his ordeal to OSUN DEFENDER during an interview session, the lawmaker said: “It was God that saved me from the gunmen; I strongly believe that their inability to ascertain my identity on time aided my escape”.

He said: “The gunmen blocked my car at Sadiat Junction along Ilesa road. I drove the car while my driver sat on the passenger’s seat.They came down from their black Sport Utility Vehicle. One of them suddenly pointed his gun at me, while the other two of them were dragging the door with my driver at the other side, but my driver successfully locked the door, which prevented them from entering the car.

“It was during this process that I zoomed off and escaped from the gunmen, but my investigation from the area after the incident confirmed that they had been mounting surveillance in the area for some time before our arrival,”Owoye said.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Honourable Najeem Salaam, has condemned the assassination attempt on the Leader of the House, saying that those who were threatening the security and peace of the state might have begun to make statement.

He maintained that the state parliament would be waiting for the report of a thorough investigation by the police before stepping into the fray with a view to preventing prejudice.

Salaam then tasked all security agencies in Osun State and all states in the South-West to be up and doing in ensuring security of lives and properties of all representatives of the people in government, suggesting that all nexuses should be used on the matter.

The Speaker in a statement signed by his spokesman, Goke Butika, in Abuja stressed; “an agent of violence and nest of killers has recently given a notice that the people of Osun State would soon experience violence, because his group would make the state ungovernable for the government, and now that a lawmaker in Osun State House of Assembly was nearly assassinated, what evidence do we need to connect the dots except investigation shows otherwise?”

According to him: “When I disclosed that the threat of some politicians, who had vowed to make Osun State ungovernable should be taken serious, the statement was passed for a political game; now that the leader of the parliament in Osun State only escaped assassination by the whiskers through God, it is my belief that all clues connecting to the assassination attempt should be unraveled.

“The assassination attempt on the member of the state parliament would not be allowed to be manipulated or subverted for any reason; all arsenals at the disposal of the Assembly would be deployed to get to the root of the matter.

“A House of Assembly is an institution on its own, and no member of that institution would be allowed to contend with violence by some unscrupulous set-up, whose stock-in-trade is violence and assassination.” The statement read.

The state parliament had earlier warned the ousted governor of Ekiti State,now the National Vice-Chairman (South-West) of Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Segun Oni, who said recently that his party would make Osun State ungovernable for Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

http://www.punchng.com/news/pdp-hails-jonathan-on-planned-political-appointees-interview/
April 17, 2012 by Fidelis Soriwei 4 Comments

Leadership of the Peoples Democracy Party has commended President Goodluck Jonathan’s statement that political appointees will be subjected to interviews before their appointments.

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisah Metuh, said in a statement on Monday that the President’s decision to appoint government officials on merit rather than favoritism was a commendable step in the move towards transformation.

Metuh also hailed Jonathan’s recent move to turn around the fiscal planning process which he said was marred by corruption.

The PDP spokesman praised the President for the decision to lay off some heads of parastatals and agencies for inflating the 2012 budget.

He said the President’s stance was in consonance with the recent suggestion by the PDP to collaborate with the Federal Government to intensify the campaign against corruption.

Metuh said, “The move by the President is an arrow straight in the portal vein of the monster of corruption. It tallies with the multi- pronged approach the new leadership of our Party has advocated.

“We urge the President to go beyond the dismissal of these bad eggs to bringing them and their accomplices in other arms of government to book. He that must be corrupt must bear the full consequences of corruption.

“The deliberate inflation of budgets by ministries, departments and agencies of government has been a major drain on our national resources. The era where the nation budgets to satisfy the greed of unpatriotic few must be put behind us.”

Metuh also said the National Working Committee of the PDP believed that the President had assured the citizenry that he had the political will to ensure a successful pursuit and realisation of the transformation objectives of his administration.

Kayday: @beaf. I wonder what kind of person u are. U a either starting ethnic hatred or party hatred. Why are u such a nagative minded dude? Is it a crime that one of u is the president? It's just for awhile.