₦airaland Forum

There are strong indications that Gov Al Makura may lose his seat at the tribunal.

Labaran Maku is mounting a spirited battle against him in court. I learnt the former minister has a strong case and has proceeded on well at the elections petition tribunal in Lafia.

The situation is so bad for Al Makura that 2 of his own witnesses came to court and accepted that Maku won the governorship elections in Nassarawa forcing the APC legal team to stop further presentation of witnesses and close their case immediately. Even INEC could not go on to present witnesses in defence of Al Makura's result. The parties have opted to file written addresses.

With this development, the tribunal may have to rely solely on evidence and witnesses presented by Maku and APGA to give judgement and that may not be in the best interest of APC. I'm therefore not surprised that both parties have shifted the battle to media war.

Let's see how it pans out.

@op,
Thanks for releasing this information to the public. But it appears many people are not aware of this programme and how it works. This govt has actually done a lot but it appears there is a big communication gap between the people and government.
Conscious efforts should be made to sensitise the public on such programmes so that they can participate.
It's very necessary.

Benin-Ore road is now good. It is now remaining the Sagamu section of the road. So I give GEJ a pass mark.

Unknown to prof. Alagoa and his group, most of the problems they identified are challenges which Jonathan's new PIB that is presently awaiting passage by NASS seeks to address.

All those issues of gas infrastructure, ecological challenges arising from oil exploration, gas pipelines, infrastructural development of the Niger Delta region and ownership stakes of the oil have been seriously addressed in the PIB. Rather than write political letters which is of no end, they should rather mandate their respresentuves to mount pressure on both the senate and house of Reps to expedite action on PIB.

That Bill was well formulated and holds the key to the development of the oil bearing communities.

And suddenly Obasanjo has become a progressive and advocate of good governance?
The next thing you will hear is that he has been cannonised as a Saint by APC.
It was just like yesterday when OBJ was bribing lawmakers to ammend the constitution to give him a 3 rd term in office.
How do we forget so easily the level of murder cases and assassination of high profile politicians during Obasanjo's tenure as President?
Obj is now retarded and needs to visit YABA left ASAP.

eksammy: The president launched the take off of YOUWIN 3 today (Nov 25) in Abuja. This is opportunity for 1,200 Nigerian youths below 40yrs with bankable business ideas to receive grant of between N1m to N10m to start up of enhance their businesses.

Youwin 2 was open for women alone but this year both men and women will participate.


YOU WIN Has Produced 26,000 Jobs So Far – Jonathan
Posted by: Channels Television Posted date: November 252013 In: Headlines | comment : 0
Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday announced that the Youth Enterprise With Innovation programme has created over 26,000 direct jobs.

The bolded underlies the age category for YOUWIN and which accounts for the most effervescent and dynamic segment of society. It is thoughtful of the Minister of Finance/Cordinating Minister, Dr Okonjo Iweala to pilot such a beautiful project for Nigerian youths. This will help to address the issue of unemployment and facilitate the creation of wealth by a new breed of entrepreneurs.

uzomagic: The last time I checked, Sule Lamido was claiming to be a progressive governor and APC has been wooing him to cross over to their party. Is this the kind of corrupt leadership that he seeks to replicate in APC? I said it that APC may turn out to be a disaster for Nigeria. I rather stick with PDP.

Don't mind them. They can only deceive gullible Nigerians. Overnight they have become progressives because APC needs power at all cost. Imagine the scandal associated with the family of a Governor who wants to be President. People and youths have been lamenting that Community SURE P allowances have not been paid. We now have a clue. This man and his sons pocketed SURE P meant for EMPOWERNMENT of youths in the state.

Tomorrow, he will appear on TV advocating for change and power shift to the north and many will still take him seriously. It's unfortunate.

wiseguy: So because fg released the statement we automatically believe it to be true. Not just Amaechi, most govs have in recent times queried the state of our economy and accrued revenue.
We need to ask some questions:
1. Why is there a shortfall when oil revenue has not gone below the budgeted benchmark?
2. Are the states aware that the amount being disbursed is from the ECA?

Be informed that our revenue projections are not solely on oil. It includes taxes and import duties/tariffs from customs etc
That nothwitstanding, you can't claim not to have heard about the adverse consequences of oil theft on our revenue. These are the reasons why there is a shortfall and NGF led by Gov Amaechi prevailed on FG to dip hands into ECA to make up for their respective states.

Therefore Gov Amaechi cannot claim ignorance of the source of 56b that he has received from ECA.

Naijagunner83: Every sane mind knows that it will be the hieght of foolishness to kick out a performing president who is pioneering transformation in key sectors of our national life.
Every sane mind will lend support to President Goodluck Jonathan's ongoing reforms in power sector and the landmark privatisation of PHCN.
Every sane mind will be happy at the prospects of new PIB and will vote GEJ in 2015 to revolutionize our oil and gas industry with the passage of PIB.
Every sane mind will be excited to see the continuation of the Agricultural transformation Agenda beyond 2015.
Every sane mind will acknowledge the rehabilitation of our railways and the continuation of such efforts to link up Nigeria by rails beyond 2015.
Every sane Mind will be happy with the aggressive construction of our roads by works Minister Onolemenen, and will like to see the steady construction and completion of ongoing road projects like Lagos-Ibadan, East-West, Benin-Ore, Kano-Maidugri Dualisation.

Every sane mind will like to see GEJ as President beyond 2015

They will never see anything good in this administration. They are just blinded by hate and tribal sentiments.

Demdem: We are already in November and budget implementation is below 40%.
Shame on u Ngozi.
Shame on u Jonathan.
On this issue, the rep that raised these objections is really on point.

I disagree with you. The rep member that raised the objection is totally wrong.

No 1, it is the presidents constitutional right to present the budget and no Jupiter can prevent him from doing that.
No 2, A budget starts running from the time it's signed into law. The 2013 Budget was initially signed late March but was subsequently amended in July. At best, the budget could only be said to have started by March and this is November. There are more 4 months to go in the life of the present budget. In fairness to GEJ/ Ngozi, they have even tried to achieve 40% in this period. At thus rate, they can hit 80% by March.

NO 3, The rep member who raised the point of order largely accounts for whatever deficit in implementation. If only they had passed the 2013 Budget in due time, then they will have the moral locus to complain about poor implementation. I tell people that NASS Members could have finished 2013 Budget by December so that it can start running by January 2013 but they goofed the opportunity.

This is one good reason why I rate the performance of information minister very high. The man has taken public information management to a whole new level that his predecessors could not attain. This good governance tour of a thing showcases developmental projects in each state and gives us a fair picture of activities of government in each state.

Look at the number of projects on display here, they could have passed unnoticed if not for the ingenuity of the information Minister to package a programme that will evaluate performance and showcase the transformation agenda of the FG. Kudos Maku.

Inspite of all these hysteria about GEJ being corrupt, three things stand out for me as his zero tolerance for corruption:

1. His decision to close the leakage pipe of corruption called subsidy.
2. His decision not to jump into the wasteful and corrupt venture of turn around maintenance of Refineries like his predecessors used to siphon good money.
3. His decision to move for dissolution and disintegration of Nigeria's corruption cow-NNPC as encapsulated in the new Petroluem Industry Bill.

GEJ's govt is really working well in delivering governance to the power sector. I salute the level of work going on there.
Its very visible even to the blind and audible to the deaf. The transformation in power sector will be very strategic to overall national development.

While I appreciate ASUU's demand for proper funding of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, the point must however be made that FG under Jonathan has done its best to meet the demands and it's irrational for the striking lecturers not to accept to go back to class in the interim. The long gap in funding cannot just be bridged overnight.

He has improved the state of our airports from what they used to be.
He has improved Benin-Ore, Abuja-Lokoja, Aba-Umuahia, Owerri-Onitsha, zaria-Funtua-Gusau, Kano-Maidugri, Ibadan-Ilorin roads from what they used to be before he came in.
He has increased education funding to 450B, gave ASUU additional 130B more than any other govt in Nigeria, established 12 new federal universities, launched the Almajiri school projects.
He has reformed fertiliser distribution, built new rice mills, new silos and promoting the cassava bread revolution.
He has completed the NIPP Power Plants and Privatising PHCN to new DISCOS and GENCOS
He is working. I voted for him before. I will do it again.

This administration is simply magical. They met only 13 silos on ground but they have actually added 20 kilos thereby surpassing what other heads of states including Buhari put in place. How do you beat that feat?
The Agricultural minister is really on his toes working day and night to revolutionalise agriculture in Nigeria.
He has succeeded in breaking the fertilizer cartel and has reformed fertilizer distribution in such a way that it's easily accessible by farmers.
His cassava bread revolution is well on course with a target of 3.5M jobs and export of 2m metric tonnes of cassava chips per annum.
His rice policy is coming up with aggressive construction of rice mills and silos for storage.

I salute the Agricultural transformation agenda

Since Gov Al Makura became Governor of Nassarawa state, it thus appears the state has retrogressed. No visible development. All we hear is one crisis to another. From Nassarawa state university crisis and shooting of students to ombatse and now Alago crisis. What is really happening? APC has failed woefully in Nassarawa and must give way to a more competent hand to manage the state. Enough is enough.

National mirror? Mtchewwwww! See source.

Just like a broken record, so many retards are stuck on replaying the "clueless" word. It used to make little sense earlier but it has lost its value in the face of many developments and landmark reforms initiated by the Jonathan led administration. You can't label someone who is succesfully Privatising PHCN in Nigeria clueless. It doesn't just add up any longer.

As for me and my household in Enugu, we will vote Jonathan and PDP come 2015.

so surprised that you guys are taking this rumour to another level.
Such a thing will not happen. The names mentioned form a backbone to this administration and cannot be replaced just like that.
Let them trick another trick.

fkaz: Truth be told, nobody need labaran maku to come and tell the people of a state, the good things happening around them before they know. Since the citizen has EYES and EARS, the tour is just another jamboree. It will not add any value to the state.

Common will you s,hut up! You have eyes? Oya tell me the projects you know about in Delta state and Kebbi state! Also tell me the cost of the projects.
The level of foolishness that some of you exhibit here is worrisome.
instead of you to be grateful and happy that we now have a minister of information who is keen to go the extra mile to undertake a physical inspection of projects across the federation.

If you could take a little leave from your insanity and follow the tour, you would understand that it goes beyond mere showcasing of projects.
Minister Maku always makes sure the projects costs are disclosed to the public.
For non performing contractors, he chides them and gives them ultimatum to deliver or face revocation.
That is the much needed feedback mechanism that FG needs. Is not just enough to award contracts in Abuja without periodic monitoring of the projects.

KnowAll: I give credit to Lebaru Maku for devicing, initiating, and fronting such a well oiled money spinner for himself, kudos to him. Well we all know d ministry of information is one of those dead ministries where all d 'Minister does was inform d nation of what transpired in d monthly cabinet meeting' in fact d Minister of Information is a "glorified minute taker" .

Once the task of dispensing what happened in that esteemed chambers of d cabinet is over, d Minister becomes an idle man. No wonder Dora Akunyuli will rather be a contented house wife than continuing in that role.

Well we must give Maku kudos for thinking outside d box E be like say Oshiomole wan take egunje from maku's mouth.

I appreciate the fact that you finally conceded to truth (as embolded above) after all your beef for Minister of information portfolio.

Mekusnwa: Absolute rubbish from a sworn hater of truth. Mr lie Mohammed baffles me how he manages to spewn this rubbish and publish.
In the first paragraph, Lie Mohammed betrayed a complete ignorance of the Good governance tour and it's workings.
First, it's not compulsory or binding or a rating adventure. It's merely a product of consensus of Governors forum and FG. It is in line with the federal ministry of information's role to inform Nigerians about activities of governance.

I don't blame Lie Mohammed, he is not accustomed to the democratic culture of informing the people about activities of governance.
Coming from the spokesman of a party, which is run as a one man show, his phobia for such public disclosure of internal projects of govt is well understood.

Lie Mohammed is so used to the dictatorial one man set up that has made him a life ACN spokesman therefore he finds the present commitment by Maku to inform Nigerians strange.

But there's is nothing he can do about it than blab. As We speak, the tour is ongoing in Delta state.

The ACN states are just simply afraid now that the tour is getting to them. We saw this tour in Nassarawa state and Governor Al Makura of CPC did not complain but took part effectively in the tour. He also attended the town hall meeting.
The tour has also moved to IMO state and was well received by Governor Rochas Okorocha of APGA.
The tour went to Anambra and was cordially hosted by Gov Peter Obi of APGA.

ACN are trying to dodge accountability

These ACN goons are just so funny . Yesterday, Adams Oshiomhole came out to condemn Maku's Good Governance Tour.
Today again, their spokesman followed suit. Aren't this a strategy to discredit the ongoing good governance tour which has really showcased projects executed by both state and local government in over 12 states so far?
I don't know why anyone will be afraid of a move by ministry of information to perform its primary role of providing adequate information to the people on issues of Good Governance.
If you say you are not hosting for the delegation, no problem. Allow the FG continue their exercise. They have sufficient funds to bankroll it.

This latest call by Lai Mohammed for the tour to end flies off in the face of Reason.

brownlord: Laptop no. 3 booting, oga you dont need 120 people to carry out that inspection beside, the federal govt. Should take care of this tour and not the state, was the minister employed by the state or federal govt. Why put the burden on the state, oshio only said, he cant use tax payers money for such jamboree, that does not stop him from visiting if the fed. Govt, make available the resources, na simple english them be write the post o

S.ut up my friend. Who and you wan begin they do laptop? I'm telling you something and you went off on a tangent. Who cares where Oshiomhole wants to spend his money on. That's his business and Its left for him to decide as the chief executive of the state. And who even told you that FG can't sponsor the trip? Does Labaran Maku look like someone who doesn't have money to foot the bills of his team comprising of media men and civil society groups.

The problem with so many of us is that we are too myopic and are easily swayed by the antics of politicians. A governor attends a meeting where it was unanimously resolved that a tour should be undertaken to inspect projects acros the federation. Months later, he decideds to use the avenue of a meeting where he seeks to impose higher taxes on the people to discredit the tour and form mr Prudent so as to divert attention from his new taxation drive.

I just wonder what somebody will do in Nigeria and people will accept.
If a minister of information talks on TV, they will say he talks too much.
If a minister of information does rebranding, they will say its waste of money.
If a minister of information holds media briefing, they will say na wash and the projects don't exist.
If a Minister of information responds to criticisms about performance, they will say he lied.
If a minister of information now decides to make physical inspection of the projects and show them to the world, they will say its not necessary and a waste. Haba!
Critics are insatiable and hypocritical.

Op, you are wrong. This list is fundamentally faulty for ever including Maku. Labaran Maku is the first information Minuster to catch my fancy in Nigeria.
He exemplifies humility and passion. whenever he speaks, you could feel the passion to deliver. I love him a lot. The hatred against him is understandable given the desperation of some not to see anything good in Jonathan. But he appears very intelligent and speaks smartly.

Demdem: Ffuck ACN. dont give a damn about them.

Stop fooling yourself. Focus on the issues raised. A sane mind will try to look at the projects posted @op and verify such.
You must not be predictably foolish all the time on your hatred for GEJ. Be matured and raise objections(if any) on grounds of the achievements raised.
Be intelligent in your hatchet job for APC.

earthgreeners: stop comparing Bad with worse..all we want is Good...
We should stop comparing a govt to its predecessor.. We need to set a standard for development which shouldnt be based on comparison

How else do you draw comparisons? What other standards do you want him to set? British standards? Magical standards?
Here is a president that is pursuing the best agricultural transformation policy in our history. He is also setting a standard in the oil/gas industry with PIB.
He is reviving the railways and Privatising ailing PHCN. Isn't that standard enough?

The way you guys talk atimes is funny. This system has been bad for a long time and you expect Jonathan to wield a magic wand and turn everything overnight?
Things like fixing power are not oral activity. Jonathan is doing well so far by completing all those NIPP projects abandoned by Obj. Many of them are now working but the impact will not be felt immediately until the privatisation process of PHCN is finished.

There's a huge gap between performance and perception. Jonathan's perception is relatively low compared to the work he is doing.
Maybe because of the controversial subsidy removal, he is highly underrated. He is actually doing far more than most of his predecessors in every sector.

In power, Energy, Agriculture, Transport, Aviation etc Jonathan is doing very well. The port deongestion drive and rehabilitation of the railways is a wonderful transport strategy capable of removing pressure on our roads.
The Agric reforms too are impressive. I'm impressed with the Minister's cassava bread revolution agenda and rice mill programme. Have heard of the Igbariam silos and importation of 100 rice mills. in Aviation, Stella is doing a nice job. At least, some of our airports are wearing a new look with upgraded runways. I also welcome the zero duty policy on Aviation spare parts and the bail out planes.
Work has started on Enugu-PH expressway. I saw Julius Berger and Nigercat working on the road. That's good. But they should ensure that ongoing construction on Benin-Ore-Sagamu and East -West roads are completed before 2015. We need more of that including the completion of ongoing power reforms and privatisation programme. Nigeria can only g

OBY Ezekwesili, with due respect to her person, is playing politics with her speech. She has a point in her questions over the whereabout of 67 billion dollars.
But the questions ought to have come far earlier than this. This question was to have been answered by late Yaradua who was the recipient of the said sum as President in 2007.

That Nothwithstanding, president Jonathan has rebuilt the Foriegn reserves to over 40 Billion. The last time I checked, ECA had about 9 billion dollars in it. So if you add these 2 accounts together, you will have 53 billion dollars in all.

I recall the clamour by governors for Sharing of these funds last December but it was rejected. So OBY should not politiciase this issue.