₦airaland Forum

"House Boy General of the Federation" Ijaw illustrious son, Dr Dudafa Waripamo-Owei PHD. Senior Special Assistant (Domestic & Social Events) to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His Excellency Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Omoluabi Jonathan. Ajepe Aiye Baba!

[b]On an internet forum where many Nigerians (at home and in the Diaspora) identify themselves more by their ethnic affiliations and where trading abuses, curses and hate-speech has become the usual fare,[/b]i.e nairaland something dramatic happened last Sunday afternoon. The moment the match between Cote D’Voire and Nigeria ended with the Super Eagles coming out victorious against popular prediction, there was a ‘ceasefire’ with everybody suddenly becoming proud to be Nigerian.Segun Adeniyi of Thisday Newspaper

The only times Nigeria got to the finals of the nations cup and did not win, they lost to Cameroun... when they were faced with any other team, they won. That history favours Nigeria... but besides history, the cup on the balance of performance in this competition is ours today.

If APGA+CPC+ANPP+ACN=APC
&
EFCC+ICPC+GEJ+ JEGA = PDP,

(ai) Using Pythagora theorem prove that: PDP=APC.

(ii) Using Almighty formular where JEGA is constant what is the value of PDP?

(b) if Tinubu/Buhari/Okorocha varies, what is the coefficient of APC.

(c) if PDP is constant, what is the cube root of rigging coefficient?

(d) use Leibnitz theory & explain all the answers above before 2015.

''Good luck''

That behind every successful man is a woman is a hypothesis to be ignored. Far be it from me to believe or subscribe to it. What about the contributions of the man’s biological mother, father and the siblings? Where was the wife in the struggling days? Is it only when a man is successful that the success is attributed to the wife? What, if the husband is poor and unable to eke a living? Come off it! The saying is a hyperbole. It is a platitude to please a wife. Some wives keep their husbands’ relatives at arms length to deny them of shares in their wealth. Sheila was not like that; she was accommodating to all, because wealth belongs to the world and ends with it. Ascribing the successful life of a man to his wife is fallacious. What I believe in is the conjugal maxim of compatibility- pares cum paribus-birds of the same feather fly together.

Abeg don't be sad if you no get VAL on VALENTINE'S day....because no be everybody dey get aids on AIDS day!!!

Your charm is overwhelming;

It's magic - It's sorcery;

It sweeps me to another world,

Each time you come to me .



I cannot disregard it;

It will not leave me be ;

Your seductiveness and charisma,

Make a potent recipe.



You are a constant fascination;

An attraction; Heaven-sent

Giving to me - unselfishly

Pleasure and enchantment.

I think you are sensational,

Spectacular and more;

Your luscious lips and charming smile

Are things, I can't ignore.



The sound of your alluring voice ...

The way you call my name;

You can't begin to understand

How you set my heart aflame.



And whenever you are in my arms;

Your body soft, sublime...

Gives me a taste of Heaven

And stills the march of time.



You are an inspiration;

You're entrancing and divine;

So fortunate am I, my love

To know that you are mine.

Present at the merged party press conference to unveil the new party APC were, Tom Ikimi, Chairman of the ACN Merger Committee, representative of APGA, Senator Annie Okonkwo, former governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau the Chairman, Merger Committee of ANPP and Garba Sadi, Chairman, Merger Committee for CPC.

Remember a day earlier 10 opposition governors of ACN, CPC, ANPP and APGA namely Borno, Ekiti, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Yobe and Zamfara .....please note that Edo and Anambra state governors did not attend or send representation.

Already the APGA is kicking that Gov Rochas Okorocha was not mandated to go into any merger talk for the party. No wonder Peter Obi of Anambra did not join in. Obi and Rochas have been having running battle over the control of APGA. Gov Obi is sympathetic and loyal to GEJ same way Adams Oshomole of Edo state is.

Labour Party governor Mimiko has never hidden his hate for Bola Tinubu's ACN, this was evident in last October governorship election were camp Mimiko and camp Tinubu slugged it out. As we know, Mimiko is a PDP man in LP cloth and his support for GEJ is not in doubt.

So who and who are united in this merger? Team ACN and Team CPC mostly. Team ACN is centrally controlled by Bola Tinubu and Team CPC is controlled by Gen Buhari and Mallam El-Rufai.

Now the main ish, Mallam El-Rufai is known for his arrogance and I-know-too-much attitude, within the CPC he's not trusted by the members who see him as someone that opens can of worms when bittered. He is more of political excess baggage than asset to the CPC, even though the party is yet to realise this.

Then we have Tinubu factor. A man that has got all to gain and nothing to loose. The supreme leader of ACN has never been trusted even within the opposition parties, they see his inherent ambition to be president at all cost as his weakest link. Tinubu sold 2011 ACN support to GEJ for yet to be disclosed amount and immunity from criminal prosecution.

The likes of Tom Ikimi, Annie Okonwo and the rest of same bedfellows are unlikely democrats. Ikimi the Edo state born controversial politician was an apostle of Gen Abacha when he served as Abacha's Foreign Minister. Ikimi turned the truth of Abacha's evil regime on its head. Today he's in APC. I laugh.

Chief Annie Okonkwo the Okaka of Ojoto is a known 419ner and election rigger, who until recent was a PDP senator before he suffered defeat.

Are these the kinda people APC want to rescue Nigeria? My question is rescue Nigerians from who?

12 Reasons why The New Party APC May Not Be The CHANGE:
1. 85% of them were former PDP members
2. Most of parties in the collation are regional parties.
3. Forming a party just to win election is not the solution we need.
4. Too many cook spoil the food.
5. PDP remains the only true NATIONAL PARTY in Nigeria.
6. War within the members of the merged party
7. Egos, pride, etc will mar the party.
8. None of the parties in the alliance have internal democracy.
9. PDP won't go to sleep as APC would want to think.
10. Most of the members in APC were criminal under PDP.
11. Some of the parties can't even win a state outside their zone
12. Our politics is mostly MONEY CONTROLLED and PDP got the money.

My thoughts:

1. Match rigging attempt should be investigated. Summon the referee for immediate disciplinary actions. His decisions are completely unacceptable.

2. In fact, Referee should be sacked. Summary dismissal the way to go. He should refrain from officiating matches anywhere in the world.

3. This daylight robbery by the referee is a disgrace to CAF and African football in general.

4. Red card should be overturned. Jonathan Pitroipa should be reinstated and allowed to play in the final.

5. The law of natural justice intervened for Burkina Faso.

6. Burkina Faso deserved to be in the final. They over-performed in this AFCON.

7. I love Bance. MVP and my Man-of-the-match :-)

Congratulations Burkina Faso.

See you in the final on Sunday.

baba dey: The end justifies the means always,you need to hear from his mates who went to university of ibadan with him,who he really was. He graduated from UI with a 3rd class,wasn't the brightest @ all then but was known for his fearless,selfless protests he started,per took. The first protest/riot that ever happened started by him and *forgotten his partner name*. They protested,when a full chicken that was meant for two was now meant for 6,7 or so sha. He is also the originator and initiator of the first fraternity but was for a good cause( helping each other academically,anything relating to studies),he was just like an activist,freedom fighter then but wasn't that a prowess academically. It was when he went to England,he restructured,refashioned himself and came out with a first class. So if you think he was born genius have a rethink.

Great men are not born great,they are made.

Wole Soyinka didn't graduate with a Third Class from UI; he graduated with a First Class in English from the University of Leeds. He spent two years (1952-1954) at the University College in Ibadan and transferred his credits to the University of Leeds where he spent another two years and graduated with a First Class in 1957. Why do people spread the falsehood that Soyinka graduated from UI with a Third Class?

Fellow citizens of Nigeria, I have a very heavy word to deliver to both the church and the nation today and my heartfelt prayer is that we will heed the warnings of Jehovah in order to avert His unbearable blows. I hope it is not too late already.

As is my practice, let me start with some portions of Scripture that will govern my contribution to the issues currently bedeviling our nation. Turn your Bible with me, if you will, to:



Psalm 141:1-6 (NKJV) -

1 “LORD, I cry out to You; Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.

2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.

4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5 Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.

6 Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff, And they hear my words, for they are sweet.”



And Proverbs 15:28 and 29 (NKJV) -

28 “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.

29 The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.”



And verses 31 and 32 (NKJV) -

31 “The ear that hears the rebukes of life Will abide among the wise.

32 He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.”



I have chosen a title drawn from the scriptures just quoted:



THE HEAD THAT REFUSES A LIFE-GIVING REBUKE WILL BE THROWN DOWN THE CLIFF OF PERDITION.



In the past week, the media has been awash with emotive distractions from what is apparently a national calamity and shame. But in the midst of the fury, noise and emotional outbursts, there have been voices of wisdom and courage both from the press, some in government as well as patriotic citizens. Let me start with the Leadership Newspaper editorial on Justice in Nigeria sent to my e-mail box by a well-respected veteran journalist, Chief Tola Adeniyi, yesterday:



Two judgments delivered within the last one week by two different courts send powerful messages to both the poor and the rich in the country. On Wednesday, in Abeokuta, a magistrate court headed by Idowu Olayinka sentenced 49-year-old Mustapha Adesina to two years in prison for stealing vegetables valued N5, 000. This Monday, in Abuja, a former director of the Police Pension Board, Yakubu Yusuf, who admitted he stole N32.8 billion, received an even lighter sentence from Justice Abubakar Talba of the FCT High Court: two years in jail or payment of N750, 000 fine. In other words, the latter convict was told to pay 0.0015 of what he stole and walk home free while the former, who probably could not pay the N10, 000 fine given him as an option, would spend two years in jail.



With these contrasting judgments, no one needs to be reminded anymore that justice in Nigeria is a travesty. Little wonder why the prisons are brimming with the poor and the unknown while the rich and the powerful who commit more grievous crimes get away scot-free. Indeed, convicts like Yusuf have become the new normal. Former Edo State governor Lucky Igbinedion, who was found guilty of stealing N9 billion, was fined N3 million after a fraudulent process called “plea bargaining”. Cecilia Ibru was said to have crippled Oceanic Bank plc after stealing more than N190 billion, but she spent just four months, not in jail but in a hospital; there are now even reports that she has reclaimed most of her properties that had been confiscated. Former inspector-general of police Tafa Balogun stole N17 billion but was sentenced to six months in jail – and he spent most of the term in a hospital too.



Those are among the few celebrated cases that ended up in the court slapping the influential convicts on the wrist. The cases of many others have either been buried in endless litigations or forgotten altogether. The man who stole vegetables – most likely out of poverty and probably to feed himself and his family – will spend two years in jail while all the suspects in the murders of Bola Ige, Marshal Harry, Aminoasari Dikibo, Funsho Williams, Dipo Ojerinde and others have been freed.



While members of the executive arm of government are the usual culprits in embezzlement of public funds, it could be safely concluded that the Nigerian judiciary is the greatest cog in the country’s wheel of progress. For all the public outcry against corrupt judges, the temple of justice in this country is still tainted with the putrid smell of corruption. Almost always, it is chicken thieves who steal to stay alive that get sentenced while those who steal billions of naira can buy their way out of trouble. Knowing that it is money that can set them free, treasury looters have learned to steal very huge sums: “the bigger the loot, the safer.”



Is it strange, then, that no “big man” in Nigeria is in jail today in spite of the monumental corruption witnessed every day? No. What exists in the country is like a cult of the rich and influential who control the executive, legislature and judiciary. Convict Yusuf is lucky to belong to that club. And it has earned him the freedom he needs so much. Out of the N32.8 billion he embezzled, he would have lost less than N1billion through forfeiture of his properties, payment of a fine and getting “justice” done speedily. He may even buy back the confiscated properties with the balance of the looted billions remaining with him. And he will enjoy the rest of the money in the most beautiful cities of the world – and live happily ever after.



The vegetable thief from Abeokuta must be full of anguish now, knowing that Nigeria is hellish to poor thieves but magnanimous to the rich ones. In this country, the judiciary has since ceased to be the last hope of the common man; it has become the last refuge of crooks. Is it surprising then that many of our young people are carrying arms against the state via one terrorist group or the other?



As if that is not enough food for thought, the Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) was quoted by Daily Post as saying that: “Jonathan does not have what it takes to solve Nigeria’s problems”. Let me quote from the Daily Post:

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) has declared that President Goodluck Jonathan-led federal government lacks the requisite knowledge and capacity to tackle Nigeria’s problems, saying that there is the need to effect a change at the centre in 2015 for the country to achieve positive development.

Fashola, who stated this during an exclusive interview with a team of LEADERSHIP editors in Abuja yesterday, was giving the rationale behind the ongoing merger talks by his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) towards dislodging the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre in 2015.

Explaining that their push for political alignment was not only to seize power but to use it to better the lives of the people, he likened Jonathan’s government to an unskilled auto mechanic who consistently failed to correctly service a vehicle, causing it to continuously break down, a fallout that would necessitate the owner to try another technician.

“You buy a car and it breaks down and you go to a mechanic and he fixes it in the morning, and it breaks down again in the afternoon. You go back in the evening, he fixes it but it doesn’t take you home. You go and call him again; he tosses it up and says you should come back by 6am the next day.

“You take it at 6am and it doesn’t take you home. Are you going to stay with that mechanic?” he asked.

“Nigeria needs a new mechanic. The country’s problems need a new pair of eyes and pure heart that can see, and clearer minds that can articulate the problems better. That is the heart of the matter. It is now left for the electorate to decide whether they are satisfied with this mechanic.”

All these came in the wake of a rude-awakening sort of lecture delivered at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka by former Minister of Education and Vice President of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, titled: “The wealth and poverty of a nation: Who will restore the dignity of Nigeria?”

In her timely lecture, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili spoke some naked truths to power in Nigeria in a season when massaging the over-bloated egos of our rulers has become an industry for allied sycophants across all strata of our society.

Though some of the facts she released are not alien, her pedigree as a founding director of the global anti-graft body, Transparency International, and Director of Due Process office, sufficiently exonerate her from the charge of frivolity or ignorance on the subject of profligacy she chose to address in our body polity.

For those who may not have accessed the details of what is now referred to as ‘Oby’s bombshell’, here are some excerpts from the incisive lecture:

Due to profligacy we have dismal human development indicators which are inconsistent with the scale of our earnings. For example using life expectancy as a proxy measuring how we score on human development, 51.4 years for Nigerians falls far short of the 80 years for citizens of Singapore and South Korea, 78 years for citizens of Chile, 73 years for citizens of Malaysia and 72 years for citizens of Brazil. We may in fact be the world record holder in the rank of natural resources rich countries that tend to have worse human development scores when compared to countries without endowments. As our human development scores have lagged, we continued with our binge on oil revenue and became trapped in cyclical decline of national competitiveness. It explains why every other economic sector in Nigeria has suffered the effect of the oil enclave economy. Oil has unleashed shocks and volatility of revenues on our economy due to exposure to global commodity market swing, proliferated “weak, ineffectual, unstable and systemically corrupt institutions and bureaucracies” that have helped misappropriate or plunder public recourses. Nations with abundance of natural resources especially in Africa, Latin America and part of South Asia have experienced the fuelling of official corruption and “violent competition for the resource by the citizens of the nation.”

While these countries moved up the manufacturing and economic development ladder, in my fifty years of existence all I can say for Nigeria is that during the same period I have known at least five cycles of commodity booms that offered us rare opportunities to use revenues generated from oil to transform our economy. Sadly, each cycle ended up sliding us farther down the productivity ladder. The present cycle boom of the 2010s is however much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90, 2000s. This is because we are still caught up in it even as I speak today and it is more egregious than the other periods in revealing that we learned absolutely nothing from the previous massive failures.

Furthermore, it is happening back to back with the squandering of the significant sum of $45 billion in foreign reserve account and another $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007. Six years after the administration I served handed over such humongous national wealth to another; most Nigerians but especially the poor continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions. One cannot but ask, what exactly does Nigeria seek to symbolize and convey with this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources? Where did all that money go? Where is the accountability for the use both of these resources plus the additional several hundred dollars realized from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last five years? How were these resources applied or more appropriately, misapplied? Tragic choices! Yes.

Our national dignity continues to be degraded by cycles of stagnation because of the terrible choices my generation and those before repeatedly make as a result of free oil money. The wealth and poverty of a nation never found a better symbol!

Towards the tail end of her lecture, she threw a serious challenge to the Class of 2013 – It’s vintage Oby. Hear her:

But I warn you to be mindful and not rush to decide. You will need to fully assess all the possible costs of your decisions and choices and then determine whether you have the strength of will to bear them. Whatever choices you make from today for the purpose of helping build a New Nigeria will most certainly cost you something. Such is the reality of nation rebuilding. Those who truly build their societies pay a price. For example you cannot be one given to the lure of free money, one who cannot defer gratification and one for whom the path of least resistance holds abiding fascination; and then say you are part of the Turning Point Generation. No! The willingness to “enjoy” wealth that is not earned is not consistent with such Turning Point paradigm. For example, for anyone of you in the Class of 2013 you cannot having perverted the maxim “reward for effort” cheating in exams or using forged certificates to gain your admission and say you are a catalyst for the emergence of the New Nigeria. If your decisions or choices from today are driven by some selfish interest of replacing the failed and fading generations so as to repeat their nation-hobbling pattern then please know that you are not of the Turning Point Generation.

I have spoken to you today to stir up your collective effective angst at the indignity of your inheritance. If I have succeeded in raising your determination to free our nation from the trap of oil, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in helping you see how continuous education and not more extraction of oil will help you outperform and take Nigeria up the economic development ladder, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in preparing you to embrace dignity of labor as your philosophy of life – never shunning legitimate vocation that helps you earn a living regardless of how lowly it might seem – then my coming is worthy. If today, I have succeeded in preparing you for a life of private and public integrity then my coming is worthy. If I have deposited in you a deep seated contempt for poor governance, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in preparing you for a lifetime of costly choices that invariably ennoble your path, then my coming is worthy. If I have succeeded in helping you realize that you are not weak – that you are actually very powerful – and have both the exceptional opportunities and the tools like your peers in other nations to solve our own Big Problem then my coming is worthy.

If I have moved you to decide that you will be one of those that will redefine and build a New Nigeria of our dreams, then is my coming worthy. If I have succeeded in inspiring a resolve within you to uphold from today a strong sense of personal responsibility for the political governance of Nigeria then my coming is worthy. Above all, if I have succeeded in getting you motivated and empowered enough to walk out of this hall being ready to walk and work as a part of the Turning Point Generation that courageously dares to restore the dignity of Nigeria, then my BEING is truly worth it!

Rather than giving a lucid, reasoned and mature response to Dr. Ezekwesili, the Federal Government, through its spokespersons, went into all manner of tirades against her person, virulently attacking the messenger while ignoring the message. Prior to belatedly presenting some mumbo-jumbo statistics on our foreign reserves from 2007-2012, which have only raised yet more integrity questions for the administration, the first puerile action of the Federal Government was to ask Oby to account for four years of budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Education of which she spent only a few months as Minister.

This puerile approach must have incensed many Nigerians with a sense of decency and propriety in public affairs. One young Nigerian with such righteous indignation went on Twitter to comment, among other things, that if Christ in all His holiness were to criticize the present administration, it would, out of its intolerance, accuse the Messiah of having slept with Mary Magdalene.

It was the re-tweeting of this figurative expression by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that the agents of diversion have latched onto in order to take our focus from the fundamental issues Oby raised and to which they have no answer.

Nigerians must be used to this worn out strategy by now as they have seen how the $620,000 Otedola-Farouk bribery saga has been used to bury the N2.6 trillion subsidy theft uncovered by the House of Representatives Probe.

For how long are they going to bewitch us like foolish Galatians?

It is rather unfortunate that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that should bring understanding to the simple on matters like this has chosen to confirm its description by the Catholic Church as an arm of the government in power by fanning the propaganda of agents of the administration that Nasir El-Rufai is a “bigot” for a statement that did not originate from him and whose meaning should be clear to a non-mischievous person.

This is nothing but feeding on mass neurosis and widening the gap between people of different faiths in our country. Is CAN saying the gentleman who wrote the “offending” statement who happens to be a Christian is a “bigot”?

If they are not saying so, they are only showing selective integrity by picking on El-Rufai who re-tweeted simply because he is a Muslim!

And can El-Rufai justifiably be called a “bigot” by any stretch of the imagination? I say NO as he has worshiped with us at the Latter Rain Assembly on several occasions and shared Christian messages from our services with all who follow him on Twitter. He is a liberal Muslim who respects the faith of others. Given the fragile state of our country today, we need faith leaders who are voices of moderation across the faiths who will preach harmony and not divisions.

It must be pointed out that CAN’s bellicose posture came after El-Rufai publicly apologized for the re-tweet. Jesus Christ, who asked the Father to forgive those who nailed Him to the cross when they didn’t even acknowledge they did anything wrong, must be wondering what those who are supposed to be His servants are doing in His name to a man who asked for forgiveness.

For those who do not really know him, let Mallam El-Rufai speak directly to you from his fantastic book, The Accidental Public Servant, due to be presented to the public on the 7th of February in Abuja, and you will perhaps understand what quality stuff he is made of. Hear him as I quote from pages 91 and 92 of this must-read book for every Nigerian who loves truth:

By the time I came to the BPE, my thoughts and life experiences had already aligned in one particular direction, which can be summarized in four points. The first was that although Nigeria had a population then of some 120 million people (now more than 160 million) over 500 languages and more than 300 ethnic groups, I had come to the conclusion through my experiences up to that point that there are simply two kinds of people in Nigeria. There were good people and there were bad people, period! Each can be found speaking every language, in every religion, every ethnic group, every village, every town and every city. In my private sector career, I had been helped more by people from the south of Nigeria despite the fact that they knew me as a ‘northerner’, and I had more often than not been let down by fellow ‘northerners’ perhaps because I grew up knowing more of them. I therefore do not perceive my country and its population through tribal or ethnic lenses.

Secondly, I believe that human beings are generally about the same, and to a large extent, strategic and rational in their thinking and conduct. Everyone pursues what he or she perceives to be in his or her interest. An effective way I have found of relating to people is to consider what I would do if I were in their position pursuing my rational strategic interest. Any negotiation that bears that in mind will result in a deal being made. Our common humanity suggests that people of all religions, ethnic groups or races are essentially all the same, which leads to my third point.

Thirdly, human beings respond to incentives and sanctions, and shape their conduct accordingly. People like to say Nigeria is a corrupt country; it simply is a matter of incentives or absence of sanctions. I have seen many British, Italian and American citizens who have come to Nigeria and were they to be judged strictly on their corrupt tendencies and actions, one might easily then think they were born in Nigeria, which proves that environment trumps race or ethnicity anytime. They conduct themselves simply in response to the incentives they find, a person looking around the system and subconsciously asking, “What can I get away with?” The reason people are more honest in one society than another is because there is a very high chance of being caught and sanctioned somehow, for dishonesty. In Nigeria, the unfortunate verdict seems to be that if you are dishonest, not only is there very little chance of getting caught, there is very high chance of being rewarded with senior appointive or elective positions in politics or public service, honoured with chieftaincy titles, and with praises and respect of one’s community. As a nation, we have become unquestioning of wealth, no matter how ill-gotten, and generally forgotten to name, shame, and ostracize bad people, while failing to recognize and adore the good – those that sacrifice and resist all temptations in order to be decent and serve the nation honestly.

In the forward to the book you will read my considered opinion of a good man being vilified by religious zealous, viz: “In this book, Nasir El-Rufai enumerates four cardinal points which governed his orientation and disposition as a public servant. First is a detribalized, religiously neutral humanistic view of the Nigerian person – whether good or bad…”

No book in recent history has fully diagnosed our leadership problems and proffered solutions like this book written by an accomplished patriot who is calling our attention to how we can still turn our numerous potentials as a nation into major assets for national development and greatness.

I have read most publications in Nigeria in the last week and I am yet to come across a word spoken by the leaders of CAN on the weighty issues Dr. Ezekwesili raised on how the “prodigal sons” have run our country bankrupt – what a sinful silence!

Instead of speaking truth to power or putting the ‘House of CAN’ in order following the withdrawal of the Catholic Church from CAN’s activities at the national level, it is a big shame that the response of CAN’s leadership is that the Catholics are withdrawing because they lost election to the current leader. What do we expect those in government to do when critical issues of good governance and accountability are raised and leaders in the church leave the substance and chase shadows? No wonder President Jonathan thinks the way he thinks and talks the way he talks because he is surrounded and encouraged by the likes of the present CAN leadership. I recall the response of President Jonathan to the Fuel Hike Protest in January 2012. To him, the protest was spearheaded by election losers.

And now the Catholics are said to have pulled out because they lost election to a Pentecostal pastor. How shallow can we be in our thinking? Let’s have a roll call of past CAN Presidents to debunk this flimsy assertion.

The Founding President of CAN: Eminence Dominic Cardinal Ekanem of the Methodist Church. Neither the Catholics nor any other group withdrew during his tenure;

He was succeeded by Bishop Olubunmi Okogie – a Catholic. No group withdrew during his tenure;

Followed by Sunday Mbang of the Methodist Church – the Catholics did not withdraw, nor did any other group;

Then Jasper Akinola of the Anglican Church – No withdrawals;

Then John Onaiyekan – a Catholic. No group has ever withdrawn.

But now, “O do ri aka yin – akara de gun” – Now it is the turn of the gospel czar, bean cake has transformed into a very hard bone.

Indeed we have “promoted” men into leadership positions both in the Church and the nation beyond their mental capacities and the incompetencies are now very glaring to the whole world except the leaders themselves, or how do you categorize our using ring worm medicine to cure leprosy?

The reason the Catholic bloc gave for their withdrawal – namely that “CAN is being dragged into partisan politics thereby compromising the ability to play its true role as the conscience of the nation and the voice of the voiceless” was never addressed – rather the shallow response of their losing election to one of us became “the badge of honour” we wear on our oversize Episcopal garments. Shame! Big Shame!!

Nothing can be more appropriate at this juncture than the very words of Jesus Christ, the one and only true Head of the Church, as recorded in Revelation 2:5 -

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent.”

One final word from the Lord for those who make mountains out of molehills; the religious zealots who confuse the zeal of God with the ‘zeal for God, and (that) not according to knowledge’:

Matthew 7:1-5 (NKJV) -

1 “”Judge not, that you be not judged.

2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen: “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it” (James Russell Lowell); for “truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

The emotive distractions flowing from different spokespersons of the government is the problem you encounter when you tell truth to those who are not worthy of it.

May God help us all know the truth and may the truth set our nation free. Amen.

Thank you for listening, God bless you all, and may God bless Nigeria.





Pastor ‘Tunde Bakare

Serving Overseer

The Latter Rain Assembly

(End-time Church)

Lagos, Nigeria

The Delusions of Today's Men by Femi Fani Kayode
I read Dr. Reuben Abati's article titled 'The Hypocrisy Of Yesterday's Men'' (3rd Feb.2013) which was published in virtually every newspaper in the country with amusement. He sought to ridicule and demean those of us that served President Olusegun Obasanjo's government and that are not very impressed with the performance of his boss. The fact that we asked President Goodluck Jonathan to account for the 67 billion USD that he squandered from our foreign reserves has clearly upset him. We dared to ask about the money and so we were singled out and targetted for a tongue-lashing and a long lecture from the Presidency. Yet we remain undeterred. This is how weak governments that have nothing to offer and something to hide always behave. They come after their perceived enemies with full force and they are petty and oversensitive. This is all the more so when they lack experienced hands and when they do not have anyone with deep insight or wisdom about the art of governance or politics within their ranks. In his response instead of answering our questions, addressing the issues or making any pertinent and sensible points about the numerous allegations against his principal, Abati chose to go on a delusional and self-serving joy ride. He simply refused to address any of our numerous concerns but instead indulged vainly in what can only be described as an utterly vulgar and distasteful form of intellectual, spiritual and psychological masturbation by telling us that he and his master were ''today's men'' who needed no lessons from the ''men of yesterday''. The essay was nothing but the usual smear campaign and a crude attempt to intimidate which has been the hallmark of this Government whenever they are faced with even the mildest form of criticism. I will not dignify most of the insulting and childish submissions that Abati indulged in with a response other than to say that he told a shameless and pernicious lie when he wrote that as Minister of Aviation I ''shut down Port Harcourt Airport for two years'' and ''allowed grass to grow all over it''. This is false. It is a classic case of disinformation coming from a man that is obviously suffering from a very low self-esteem. It is clear that Abati, who is a journalist, has forgotten the most important tenet of his profession which is that ''facts are sacred and opinion is cheap''. Ordinarily one would have ignored his bitter rant but it is important that I set the record straight for the sake of posterity. The facts are as follows.

Port Harcourt International Airport was closed on Dec.10 2005 after the Sossolisso Air crash in which 100 people were killed. The crash affected the runway of the airport very badly and consequently the then Minister of Aviation, Professor Babalola Borishade closed it. I was redeployed from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to the Ministry of Aviation in November 2006. This was 11 months after the Sossolisso crash took place and that Port Harcourt Airport had been closed. It is clear from the foregoing that I was not the one that shut down Port Harcourt Airport. When I took over at Aviation my priority was to carry out all the necessary repairs at Port Harcourt Airport and to open it as quickly as possible. I was saddened to discover that in the previous 11 months before I got there nothing had been done and the contract to repair the runway had not even been awarded. Consequently within a month of my being appointed Minister of Aviation we set to work and awarded the contract to Julius Berger at the cost of 3 billion naira. 50 per cent of the money was paid up front and Julius Berger set to work immediately. The runway was fully completed and the airport in pristine condition before I left office on May 29th 2007 just 6 months after I awarded the contract. However despite this the airport could not be opened before we left because the runway lighting system was still in the process of being installed. The Yar'adua government went ahead and opened the airport a few months after we left office even though the runway lights had still not been installed. The record shows that from the day that I was appointed Minister of Aviation and the time that our mandate ran out 7 months later my staff at the Ministry and Julius Berger worked night and day on the runway project at Port Harcourt International Airport in order to ensure that we finished it in record time. And this we managed to do. It was my project. I sourced the money for it, I paid for it, I forced the contractor to move fast on it and I finished it. The fact that the Yar'adua administration did not complete the lighting system and open the airport for another few months after we left office, even though the runway was ready, is for them to explain and not for me. Even though nothing was done at that airport for 11 months before I got to Aviation, once I was appointed we swung into action immediately. I repeat that it was under my watch that work commenced, that it was rebuilt, that it was completed and that it was fully restored and after that the airport was ready to be fully utilised. Given these facts how Abati can peddle the lie that I was the one that not only closed the airport but that I also kept it shut for two years, did nothing there, caused it to remain idle and allowed ''grass to grow all over it'' honestly baffles me. I was Minister of Aviation for only 7 months and not 2 years and within those seven months, from scratch, I did all the work that needed to be done in order to make the airport functional again. I am proud of the fact that we succeeded in meeting our target and completing the job.

Abati also so asserted that I closed down ''other major airports'' whilst I was Minister of Aviation ''for the purposes of renovation''. Again this is not true. Not one of the four major airports in the country were closed down for renovation works or any other reason whilst I was Minister of Aviation. And neither, to the best of my recollection, did I close or suspend the operations of any of the smaller airports except perhaps for safety reasons. As a matter of fact the opposite was the case. I actually installed and completed the sophisticated Safe Tower Project in three of the four major airports in the country, resurrected and funded the Tracon Radar System which is operational in our country today and which gives us full radar coverage in our airspace, upgraded the facilities in many of the old smaller airports and granted permission for the establishment of new airports in places like Gombe. Quite apart from that we not only stopped the terrible cycle of plane crashes that was prevalent at that time but there was not one aircraft that crashed under my watch and no loss of life from the air under my tenure. I am the only Minister of Aviation in the last 10 years of our country that can boast of that and yet Abati seeks to tarnish my name, stain my record and rubbish my efforts with his lies. All this and far more and Abati accuses me of ''running the aviation sector down to a state of near collapse''. For that I commit him to God's judgement. It is obvious that he is just being malicious and dishonest. I take strong objection to his specious lies, his brazen falsehood and his distortions of fact. The suggestion that I closed Port Harcourt Airport and neglected it for two years, that I closed other airports for renovations and that I ran the aviation sector down to the ground is what I would refer to as a figment of his malicious, overactive and fertile imagination. It is a glaring mendacity, a brutal assault on truth and an affront to my sensiblities. I find it utterly reprehensible and repugnant that a man that is entrusted to speak for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can indulge in such petty lies.

Let me end this contribution by pointing out the fact that being ''yesterday's men'' does not mean that some of us cannot be ''tomorrows men'' as well. Only God knows what lies ahead for each and everyone of us. So when Abati glibly writes people off as if they will never be in power again it is a sad reflection of his lack of experience and naivety. It is God that determines our tomorrow. It is He that lifts men up, that pulls them down and, sometimes if it be His will, lifts them up again. There are countless examples of that in our history. Finally I have a few questions for President Jonathan and his ''todays men''. When will they take President Obasanjo's advice and finally do something concrete about Boko Haram and our security situation? Does the fact that at least 4000 Nigerians have been killed by these terrorists in the last two years under their watch not bother them? How can they sleep well at night with all that innocent blood that has flowed and precious lives cut short whilst they were at the helm of affairs of our nation? More innocent souls have been killed in the last 2 years by terrorists than at any time in the history of Nigeria outside the civil war. How does President Jonathan and his ''today's men'' feel about winning such a dubious and dishonorable title? Does he still regard Boko Haram as ''his siblings'' who he ''cannot hurt''? Why has the President refused to visit the good people of the north east despite the fact that dozens of people are still being slaughtered there by Boko Haram every day? Moving to the issue of corruption and the economy when will our President and ''today's men'' answer the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron's question and tell him what they did with the 100 billion USD that they made from oil sales in the last two years? When will they answer Obi Ezekwsile's question about how they squandered 67 billion USD of our foreign reserves? When will they answer the question that Nasir El Rufai asked sometime back about how they spent over 350 billion naira on security vote in one year alone? When will they answer the many questions that Dr. Pat Utomi and many other distinguished and courageous leaders and ''yesterday's men'' have raised about the trillions of naira that have been supposedly spent on oil subsidy payments in the last two years? When will they implement the findings and recommendations of the Nuhu Ribadu report on the thivery that has gone on in the oil sector? When will they cultivate the guts and find the courage to respond to a call for a public debate to defend their abysmal record? When will these ''today's men'' stop being so reckless with our money? Why would our ''today's man'' FCT Minister budget 5 billion for the ''rehabilitatioin of prostitues in the Abuja''? Why would he budget 7.5 billion naira for a new ''FCT city gate''? Why would he budget 4 billion naira for a house for the First Lady? Why would the Federal Government of ''todays men'' budget 1 billion naira for food in the Villa? Are these the priorities of ''today's men and women''? And all this when Nigeria is back in foreign debt to the tune of 9 billion USD and is still borrowing, when local debt has hit almost 50 billion USD, when graduate unemployment has hit 80 per cent, when 40 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to good food and ''are hungry'' and when 70 per cent of Nigerians are living below the poverty line? Is this the vision of ''today's men and women''? If so may God deliver Nigeria.

By Femi Fani - Kayode

“A true Christian will always realize that the Battle is of The Lord. He was called a glutton, a friend of tax collectors, a sympathizer of prostitute, yet, He never responded with insults...”
It’s time for Christians to follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.

boron10: Atleast I will be able to answer this when asked in a who wants to be a millonaire game show. Palindrome

Sorry the question was asked sometimes last year when Sheila Solarin appeared on the Who deserves to be a millionaire version.

The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Wednesday, described recent statement linked to former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on Jesus Christ, as not only reckless but also indicative of deep-seated moral bankcruptcy.

El-Rufai had tweeted on January 28, that “if Jesus criticises Jonathan’s government, Maku, Abati or Okupe will say that he slept with Mary Magdalene”.

Addressing newsmen on the issue, CAN warned El-Rufai that “if he persists in such matters and making such divisive commentaries, he must prepare himself for a very forceful and vigorous reaction from the Church and the Christian community in Nigeria”.

Speaking through its General Secretary, Rev. Musa Asake, CAN warned that the “maturity and dignified restraint of the Christian populace, in the face of inflammatory and provocative statements, should not be taken as licence for unbridled assault.

“We urge his religious leaders and political associates to advise him to be far more sobre and circumspect and put a padlock on his mouth before he lights the candle that sets our country on fire.

“On our part, we urge the Christian community and our Christian youths to continue to be restrained and always seek peace, love and harmony, in spite of the provocations that they are facing from the likes of Nasir El-Rufai and those he represents.

“We must not allow him to turn Nigeria into a cauldron of fire by his reckless, bigoted and twisted commentaries about our Lord or our faith and we must view him for exactly what he is, a failed, desperate, hate-filled and drowning politician, who is now stoking embers of religious division to create a political base for himself amongst his people.

“Nigeria has no place for a religious bigots who delight in insulting the Christian faith.
“We urged the Federal Government to call Nasir El-Rufai to order and not to overlook the possibility that his joke was not only contrived but was actually calculated to create an even greater wedge between Christians and Muslims with the attendant consequences.

“Had it not been for the maturity, fortitude, patience, decency, forgiving nature and deep sense of restraint that the majority of Christians have in our country, El-Rufai would not have been safe anywhere in Nigeria today after cracking such an expensive joke.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/can-blasts-el-rufai-over-alleged-comment-on-jesus-christ/?fb_comment_id=fbc_229111067225629_938325_229117343891668

The Nigeria Football Federation and officials of the sports ministry misinformed Nigerians about the status of referee Grisha Ghead, the official who was in charge of the match between Zambia and Nigeria in Mbombela.

While the NFF and officials of the ministry of sports claimed that Ghead had been sent home by Caf, it was observed that the Egyptian was the fourth official in Wednesday’s Group D game between Algeria and Cote D’Ivoire in Rustenburg.

In a previous release by the director of media, Demola Olajire, the NFF had claimed that Ghead had been punished by Caf for his poor handling of the encounter between the Super Eagles and the Chipolopolo where a late penalty call was given to the defending champions.

However, events on Wednesday proved that the football federation had sold a dummy to Nigerians as they tried to shift attention from the team’s inability to win matches.

When contacted, Olajire told Goal.com: "That was the impression that Caf gave us [that he had been suspended]."

After the news broke last week in Nigerian media circles, Goal.com sent an email to the Caf Media Channel but never got a response.

http://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/4687/2013-africa-cup-of-nations/2013/01/30/3713218/egytian-referee-grisha-ghead-still-working-at-afcon?source=breakingnews&ICID=HP_BN_1

donroxy: Where is the source to the news!!!


People that create this kinda news shd be locked-Up!!

Mr Olopa-here is the source:http://www.facebook.com/ttaremo?ref=ts&fref=ts

http://www.naijapundit.com/news/activist-complains-that-30k-match-bonus-to-eagles-unfairly-benefits-igbos

I think that it is a pity that President Goodluck Jonathan's Government declined to take up the challenge of the former Minister of Education, Mrs.Obiageli Ezekwesile, to a public debate on the $67billion USD savings that President Obasanjo left behind in 2007. I do not think that our government ought to have run away from the debating ring. They ought to have accepted the challenge of a rigorous public debate and allow the Nigerian people to listen to it and make up their own minds about who was right and who was wrong. I thought that the response of the Special Assistant to the President On Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, to Obiageli Ezekwesili was more logical and made far more sense than that of the Honorable Minister of Information, Labaran Maku's, but I still believe that Obiageli Ezekwesili was right. I believe that the Government's position on this issue and it's attempt to over-aggressively defend what I personally consider to be the indefensible is not only disengenious but it is also essentially dishonest and self-seeking.

The charge that our foreign reserves were heavily depleted between 2007 and 2013 cannot be convincingly or logically denied. In 2007, President Olusegun Obasanjo left 45 billion USD in our foreign reserves and 22 billion USD in our Excess Crude Account. If the two figures are added up the amount that you will come up with is 67 billion USD of savings for our country. This is the figure that Obiageli Ezekwesili cited. It represents what was in both our foreign reserves and our Excess Crude Account put together.

Let us look at the history. When President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999 Nigeria only had 1.5 billion USD in her foreign reserves and consequently no-one in the world took us seriously. We were poor, weak and lonely and we were viewed as a failed state and a pariah nation. No-one trusted us, no-one wanted to do business with us and no-one seriously believed that we as a people or as a nation were capable of enduring the rigours of serious economic recovery, prudence and fiscal discipline. As far as the developed world was concerned Nigeria was only good for it's endless supply of sweet bonny light crude oil. Yet Obasanjo proved the world wrong and showed them that Nigerians could do far better than they thought. After eight years of good stewardship and the display of fiscal discipline and remarkable prudence he built up those foreign reserves from a measly and pitiful 1.5 billion USD in 1999 to no less than 45 billion by 2007. This was quite an achievement yet sadly what took place after Obasanjo left power was very disheartening. It was not only a downer but it was also sad and unfortunate. I say this because by the Federal Governments own admission, and four long years after leaving 45 billion USD for the Yar’adua administration to build on in 2007, we still only have that same figure of 45 billion USD left in our foreign reserves today. Worse still this was after it had plummeted to a shameful 30 billion USD under late President Umaru Yar Adua. Had it not been for the fact that whatever was coming in after we left in 2007 and over the last 4 years was being recklessly shared and spent by the Yar’adua and later Jonathan administrations our foreign reserves ought to have doubled and reached at least 100 billion US dollars by now. That is just the foreign reserves alone and I am not even adding the Excess Crude Account figures yet. If I were to do that I would be talking about an expected increase of up to 150 billion USD by today. That is what we ought to have in the savings kitty today if the two governments that succeeded Obasanjo knew anything about prudence, good management and fiscal discipline.

The difference is that under Obasanjo it was ”save, save, save” whilst under Yar’adua and later Jonathan it has been ”spend, spend, spend’. Yet if they insist on spending the question is what do they have to show for such high expenditure and what has this cost the Nigerian people in real terms. I believe that these are legitimate questions. Mrs. Ezekwezile may have been inelegant or a little too harsh in her use of words when she made those weighty assertions in her speech but her analysis and conclusions surely cannot be faulted. Yet the Government has given no reasonable explanation or response to her or the Nigerian people and they do not even appear to like the fact that questions are being asked.

As a a matter of fact they appear to believe that it is an achievement for us to be exactly where we were four years ago in terms of our foreign reserves by openly boasting that we have 45 billion USD saved today. The questions that we should put to them are as follows - did you not save anything in the last 4 years in either foreign reserves or the Excess Crude Account? Where did all the money that accrued to you and that you ought to have saved go? How come 4 years after being handed 45 billion in foreign reserves and after billions have come into your hands through record price crude oil sales you still only have 45 billion saved? Is this not strange and absurd? Is this the way a responsive and responsible government ought to behave? Do they know the true meaning of ''saving for a rainy day''?

It is not surprising that the Prime Minister of Great Britain, The Right Honorable David Cameron, asked just a few days ago where the 100 billion USD that Nigeria received from oil sales in the last few years has gone. Would our Government be good enough to answer his question and tell him even if they feel that they don't owe the Nigerian people themselves an explanation? As far as I am concerned it is not something that our government should be proud of that 4 years after Obasanjo handed 45 billion USD to them as savings in foreign reserves they have not built on it in all that time but rather they have spent all the receivables and inflows that came in after that time and that ought to have been saved.

Yet the story does not stop there. It gets worse. Apart from the sorry tale about our foreign reserves, the story about the usage and outright draining of our Excess Crude Account is even more damning. It goes like this. When President Obasanjo left power in 2007 the Excess Crude Account had just over 22 billion USD in it’s coffers. This figure was built up by Obasanjo from zero in 1999 because at that time there was no Excess Crude Account. In 8 years he built it up from zero to 22 billion USD. Yet when the Yara’dua administration and later the Jonathan administration came in ALL the money in that account was shared with the state governors and spent.

The Federal Government saved nothing for a rainy day and instead chose to just spend all the money. It was was initially run down to zero by President Umaru Yar Adua's government but, in fairness to President Jonathan, he has now been able to build it up to approximately 10 billion USD. This represents approximately half the figure that Obasanjo left in that account in 2007 but at least it is a step in the right direction. Yet if both the Yar adua and Jonathan government’s had continued to save and not just spend all the money we would have had at least 50 billion USD in the Excess Crude Account today and not just a paltry 10.

Whichever way one looks at it, when one sees all these figures and considers the strong position that we were coming from in 2007 it represents a failure in fiscal discipline by both the Yar’adua and Jonathan administrations. This is because the Federal Governmentt was meant to build up on the legacy that they inherited in 2007 and not spend and squander all that money. For the purpose of emphasis permit me to repeat the fact that had they been doing the right thing in the last 4 years and not overspending we ought to be hitting at least 100 billion USD in our foreign reserves by now and at least 50 billion in the Excess Crude Account. Yet we have not seen anything near that and instead all we have seen is a depletion and a drain of both accounts and the monies that ought to have accrued to them since 2007.

Finally when President Obasanjo came to power in 1999 our foreign debt was 30 billion USD. Yet by sheer dint of hard work by the time he left office 8 years later he had paid off the foreign debt compltely and for the first time in its history Africa had a debt-free nation. This was a monuemental achievement by any standard and one that which every serious-minded and patriotic Nigerian ought to be proud of no matter what side of the political divide they stand. Yet sadly 4 years later we are back in chronic debt to the tune of 9 billion USD and we are still borrowing. In view of the foregoing it is perfectly legitimate for anyone to ask how come so much money was spent, what it was spent on and how the government has managed our resources over the last 4 years. As a matter of fact not asking any questions would be most unpatriotic and it would lay some of us open to the charge of cowardice and collusion.


Since 2007 we have seen nothing but depletion of our resources and more and more borrowing. Unlike President Obasanjo, both President Yar Adua and President Jonathan's governments did not build up our reserves or save any money. Instead they both spent recklessly and borrowed more and more. As a matter of fact if our government continues to borrow at the rate it has been borrowing for the lastr four years for another two years Nigeria will be back to having a foreign debt of close to 30 billion USD very soon. That was where we were in 1999 and if that were to ever happen it would be a tragedy of monuemental proportions.


I sincerely hope that other than the usual insults, intimidation, sponsored stories, persecution and baseless allegations that are channeled against and heaped on some of us for pointing out these matters and raising these questions, the Federal Government will endeavour to change it's ways and display a greater degree of fiscal discipline and accountability to the Nigerian people. To that extent I am in total agreement with my former cabinet colleague in the Obasanjo administration, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwezile.

BY:FEMI FANI KAYODE

An activist, Tounbo Aremo Odua, has complained that the $30,000 match bonus giving to the Super Eagles for winning their match against Ethiopia is against the Federal Character principles as it enriches the Igbo nation to the disadvantage of other players.

Tokunbo said because most of the players are of Igbo origin the dole out is unfair.

The activist’s post is reprinted below verbatim;

Now the Igbo Nation or Igbo people will be $330,000 or 60million Naira richer than every other ethnic nation /people in Nigeria...
This is the kind of inequality, injustice and unfairness that I'm talking about. If that country seriously want peace and progress it should learn how to unite Nigerians and treat every Nigerians equally and not favouring or promoting one ethnic nation /people over the others. Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians and her success or failure in any events should be the joint responsibility of all ethnic nationals that made up the country. We might as well not qualify or win the Nations cup than putting forward all the Igbos to represent other ethnic nations.

I propose that the time has come for us to begin to isolate and treat religious extremists as a different breed of human beings who are a threat to both Christians and Muslims. The war against extremists will be difficult to fight as long as we lump all Muslims together and refuse to acknowledge that many, if not most, of them are genuinely embarrassed by the activities of terrorists who are tarnishing the image of their religion. I argue that every religion has its own “lunatic fringe”—and although Christians are successfully dealing with their own lunatics, making them virtually irrelevant, the words of the Bible are nonetheless subject to manipulation the same way a few Muslims are twisting the Qur’an to justify suicide-bombing and mass murder.

On what ground can we conclude that every single Muslim subscribes to the philosophy of terrorism? On what ground can we conclude that because it is very rare to see Christians take to terrorism, then all Christians are “good guys” and do not contribute in any form to fuelling ethno-religious crises in Nigeria? I don’t think name-calling, stereo-typing and blame-trading can ever resolve any conflict.


The first is the fact that we all believe we were all created by the same God. This is very key. Muslims and Christians have different beliefs that can never align. Christians say Jesus is the only begotten son of God; Muslims say God does not beget and therefore does not have a son. We can never come to an agreement on that. Christians say Jesus is the only way to God; Muslims say Islam is the true way to God. On this, again, we can never agree. However, even the most extremist Christian and the most fanatical Muslim agree that all human beings were created by the same God, no matter your religion or colour or race. That is a very important fact in this discourse. We were all created by the same God. Even extremists cannot deny it.


The second is “accommodation” or “tolerance”.A Muslim extremist will even quote the Qur’an: “O you who believe, take not the Jew and Christian as friends” (Surah 5:51). But what of several verses from the Qu’ran where Christians and Jews (“people of the book”) are called believers and Muslims are urged to love them? A Christian fanatic will also open the Bible to 2 Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers… What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” But what of Bible passages that say we should love our neighbours as ourselves and that we should live in peace with all men?


That is what I mean when I say you can quote the Bible or the Qur’an to justify anything. All you need to do is quote verses out of context—simply ignore the circumstances, ignore the audience, ignore the intent and ignore the historical background. That is how extremism works. Extremism thrives on proclaiming differences above similarities, hate above love, war above peace and destruction above salvation. Extremists conveniently avoid scriptures that preach that say we were all created by the same God, that we are all brothers and sisters irrespective of our differences. And, sadly, the extremists always have the upper hand. So if 1.2 billion Muslims are ready to live in peace with Christians, it is the one or two million who engage in terrorism that get heard. And it is this tiny minority causing havoc that gets all the publicity.


The third message is: we can understand our differences and live in harmony with one another! That is the philosophy that drives me in life. We cannot all be Christians; we cannot all be Igbo; we cannot all be white; we cannot all be women; we cannot all be PDP. The diversity we have in the world today was created by God himself. So having differences is not the problem. The real question is: how may we live in peace and harmony in spite of our differences? I’m not interested in being a Muslim; you’re not interested in being a Christian. Should that be the end of the world? Why don’t you stick to your Islam and allow me to stick to my Christianity? Why should we be preaching and promoting bigotry and hate in the name of religion and ethnicity?


Someone told me recently that Muslims are violent by nature. I replied: “But my Muslim cousins are not violent! My Muslim cousins are not violent!” He replied in a similar manner, saying his own Muslim cousins are not violent too. So if he knew that, why make such a sweeping statement? I was reflecting on the issue of integration recently and it dawned on me that my inner circle of friends is made up of people from different religions and ethnic groups. There are millions of Nigerians with a similar story. I know Muslims who are married to Christians, Igbos married to Yorubas, and so on. How come then that it is the divisive agents that control the public sphere? Are we not yielding too much space to the bigots and ethic chauvinists such that they now appear to be more in number?
We who believe in living peace and harmony must begin to speak out now. We must begin to raise our voices to condemn extremism in any form. We must hijack the airwaves from the bigots. Now is the time for us to start our own war—what I call the “war for peace”—by pushing these lunatic bigots to where they belong: history.

CNPP Gives FG 7 Days Ultimatum To Organise Debate Btw Oby & Maku


Conference of Nigerian Political Parties {CNPP} gives the Federal Government of Nigeria a 7 Day Ultimatum within which to organize a public debate between the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku or any other official for that matter and/versus Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili.

This is sequel to the challenge to public debate thrown by Mrs Ezekwesili in connection with the allegation of monumental corruption bordering on the squandering of $45 billion and $22 billion Foreign Reserve and Excess Crude Accounts respectively by Yaradua/Jonathan administration, which she levelled during her convocation lecture at the University of Nigeria Nsukka last week.

We are alarmed that instead of responding to the grave allegation made by Mrs Ezekwesili the presidency tepidly said, ‘it is obviously preposterous for Mrs Oby Exekwesili to be asking for a National Debate on the outlandish and reckless disinformation she made to incite the Nigerian people against the government. This was deliberately calculated, albeit unsuccessful effort to bring the Jonathan administration to disrepute unjustifiably.’

For the avoidance of doubt many public commentators, anti-corruption crusaders and we of the CNPP had severally bemoaned the pervasive corruption in the land, the criminal squandermania of our patrimony and uncommon culture of impunity, in the last 13 years.

However, it is our considered view that this debate is germane, absolutely necessary and a matter of urgent national importance based on the fact that Mrs Ezekwesili is not an ordinary citizen, she is not only a former vice president of the World Bank, but she also served as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and once headed the Bureau of Public Procurement, under one of the most corrupt regimes in Nigeria.

Secondly and most importantly is the fact that the Minister of Information, Mr Maku also leveled allegations of monumental corruption on the former minister.

Thirdly, ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo under which Mrs Ezekwesili served had serially labeled the President Goodluck Jonathan’s regime as incurably corrupt.

Fourthly, we are deeply concerned that the splash of mud on the image of the country can only be wiped-out; if the government musters the political will to convoke the public debate as requested. To do otherwise will further tarnish the image of the country and discourage direct foreign investment, which we badly need.

For us, corruption is a major contentious issue and there is no better time than this for the Jonathan administration to use the public debate to erase the epitaph of engraving its name in the hall of infamy as the most corrupt regime in the annals of the country.

Now that the opportunity has offered itself for the government to cleanse itself or allow the good people of Nigeria to go home with the impression that the regime is absolutely corrupt; it will be regrettable if the government denies us, indeed itself this golden opportunity.

Therefore we challenge the Jonathan administration to climb down from the high horse and embrace the debate; which more than any press conference offers them the window to wipe out the inciting information, which is gaining ground.

Also, there is no better platform for Mrs Ezekwesili to disclose her source and substantiate her grave allegations than the debate.

The debate in our view - point is a win-win scenario which indeed offers the government a rare vista to clear the lingering doubt over its commitment to war against corruption.

In sum, we challenge President Jonathan to convoke this debate within 7 Days or we stand on Mrs Ezekwesili’s allegation to prosecute the government for unbridled and wanton looting of the national treasury.

Osita Okechukwu
National Publicity Secretary
CNPP


http://247ureports.com/press-release-cnpp-issues-7-days-ultimatum-to-fg-on-ezekwesilis-public-debate-challenge/

More of his tweets

Important Announcement for Nigerians:
If you love our football team, Super Eagles, and wish them victory today, please don't eat okro, okoho, ogbono or ewedu, or any soup that draws! May God help us to break 'draw draw' spirit. Amen!

A Nigerian blogger @zebbook on Twitter, had in the wake of the Nigerian government’s predictable reaction to citizens who in anyway pick holes in the mess that is their style of governance, had tweeted thus “If Jesus criticizes Jonathan’s govt, Maku/Abati/Okupe will say he slept with Mary Madgalene.” This tweet was a direct response to the Goodluck Jonathan led government’s reaction to a lecture delivered by former World Bank Vice President (Africa) Oby Ezekwesili where she highlighted the extent of waste and corruption under the administration. The government in reacting called her out and was just short of calling her a thief. This reaction is nothing new as it is the modus operandi of a system that obsessively refuses to take corrections to better itself.

The uproar generated by @zebbook ‘s tweet is well documented but it has since gone out of control. He has been receiving death threats and a caller actually read out his address to him saying they’d come kill him. It has to be said that the tweet was just another tweet until a politician Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a constant target and an obsession of the Jonathan government retweeted same. If you are not a Nigerian you’d wonder how this could become a controversy but in Nigeria people get killed for their religious beliefs. Three different numbers have since called to threaten @zebbook and his family. The calls were made yesterday and continued today with the calls now made through “private numbers.” We will get to the root of this.

As I speak, @zebbook has been chased from his house even as Nigeria’s dirty bloody politics gets even bloodier. His tweet was saying anyone, no matter how highly placed or clean would be derided, cursed and abused if the person ever seeks to correct the style of governance and gargantuan state of corruption under the Jonathan administration. This is why @zebbook ‘s life is in danger and is the reason why freedom and liberty remain under threat in Nigeria’s democratic caricature.

SOURCE:http://www.facebook.com/akodu.soji

childrenoflight: @ MAYOWAAK Stop grandstanding. it is you , who is empty that needed to be filled up through the use of the Holy Name MAHARAJ JI. The truly wise neither criticize nor condemn what they are stupendously ignorant about. Can you tell me what is happening to you right now, or in the near future? The nightmare you had recently, what was the cause? hey, run fro your life now. MAHARAJ JI is waiting for you.
You ramble-rouse because we can see you now. Many like Late Gov. Yakowa and Azazi are not as lucky. Remember the case of the prodigal son? that's the way it works.
On a note of caution, don't forget disrespect for elders and the Holy Spirit is unpardonable. Hence, whosoever sows the seed of this discord, disrespect, disregard, dishonour should be ready to reap in the abundance of the misdemeanor of his labor at the due date. Nature always cart it's cause.

sat guru mahraji is a senseless cave man from the stone age on the path of oblivion.

Attitude22: @MAYOWAAK Ignorance is one of the deadliest disease human can ever have; and i'm very sure u're inflicted with it, anyway i don't have time to trade words with you here, I believe time will tel...... just watch n see

Better not to talk and be thought of as a slowpoke moronic dude than to speak and remove all doubt.sat guru mahraji is a senseless cave man from the stone age on the path of oblivion.

seanet01: Please What is the name of the Judge?
I need it for something very important tonight. Please can somebody help me out on that?

InJustice Talba Mohammed

PehaKaso: The name of d convict is YAKUBU YUSUF. He is an ABOKI like you. He's not 4rm GEJ's region. Dan Iska, banza, rogo kawai........duri uwa nka

And the name of the judge is Injustice Talba Mohammed.

Nigerians are not getting certain things clearly! ...The trillions of Naira that has gone into oblivion; yes, developed wings and ended in the pockets of those we now know and who they are related to, under the watch of GEJ and his petroleum resources minister, has really dealt a deadly blow on our country's psyche and would henceforth, be a standard, even when unenviably so, for a very long time.

If any one is expecting Judges of northern origin to sentence their kinsmen to life jail when the criminals down south are being slapped on the wrist, then such individuals will wait forever. ...because it won't happpen!

It was here that Tafa Balogun got 6months jail sentence after N17billion in public money was traced to him. Ibori had all 170- count charges dismissed against him despite all he took only to be unlucky to end up in British Jail, by being unnecessarily antagonistic to GEJ, which forced him into exile and got caught . It was only Chief Bode George that got 2years, which some have attributed to the politics of Lagos State, even when he was found guilty of the charges against him.

Nigeria and Nigerians have departed from the path of honour from the north to the south. I, at this moment, think that there should be a general amnesty for all criminals, with an opportunity to own up and return their loot, substantially, to the National Treasury for a State pardon, so we can start afresh.

It is the only way to go ...because what is going on here is a charade!!

So according to reports then Brazilian Night club fire that killed 245 people was overcrowded by over a 1,000 people. An estimated 2000 people were in a club designed to contain 1000 peeps.

Important lesson here is to avoid crowded places, no matter the nature of the place. whether na crusade, football stadium, or concert. Once there is a stampede, your survival is in the hands of God, not yours...........