₦airaland Forum

Its about time Nigerians stop debating what the Bible said or what the Bible did not say with men of God and start asking them what their contribution to their immediate society is. The average Nigerian is ready to skip meals to pay his dues in church but my worry is I hope this men of God do not exploit the vulnerability, poverty and hopelessness of our society to exploit unsuspecting Nigerians.

I don't understand how they live in affluence while most of the congregation could hardly eat.

go to www.wikipedia.org

type in Nigerian governors or anything you want.

Note that this can only be for information purposes as it is not advisible to quote or reference wikipedia.

Our society need to show some respect for kids

It is enough shame that militants will kidnap kids for ransom, but what our Army let those kids in that pics experience is unacceptable. While what they are doing in PH is necessary, it is also necessary that kids found in harms way are shown some sense of belonging.

kenflipper:
Bros & Sisters, weather u all like it or not, this is a welcome development.
To answer some of the question on naira re-domination.
1. some say there will be pricing confusion - Certainly not, if you were born before 1985 or if you started spending the the naira before 1985 u would understand that there will be no confusion. When the naira was devalued Nigerians adjusted, Nigerians are smart i tell u.
2.Exchange rate- The exchange rate is not being pegged!!! it is still dsame as while we used the old naira, it a matter of putting on a new shirt for an old one, nothing changes please nairaland landers its simple. While there will be no added purchasing power immediately, overtime the purchasing power of the naira will improve. Did i hear you ask how?? ok, right now Nigerians are not consious of the future, we buy what we need and don't need and let tomorrow take care of its self. when u know that 625naira is 500USD i m sure u would want to think twice before u spend. And by the time we all get consious of wht we spend and stop spending on things we can really do wit out, that will certainly bring about drastic price fall.
Those of you who live overseas understand wht i m saying, u don't buy a car because' u re living in the UK, because u know u don't need it and its expensive to fuel to u go on local transport, yes some would say they have a better system when it comes to transportation, but ours will only get better. We have gotten to a level in the country where things have gotten to the bottom and there is no worse it can get, rather than for things to gradually pick up.
People will return to the farms, city life wuld no longer be the in thing, for every profession, there will be value. Robbery will certain reduce!!! because if u have a small business u might want to think twice than take the risk. Corruption wit police will reduce, will the police ask u to bribe them wit 1naira when they are so used to 20 naira?? can u bribe police 20 naira when u know its almost 16usd. Its for the better!!! I m glad nigeria is taking a new turn.
Employment opportunities wont readily change, it will be gradual but you can all help yourself. Self employment will go a long way. Hair dressers, barbers, caterers will no longer have to cry over small income. if u take 10naira home a day. that day will need to be celebrated because at the end of the month u would have 300 naira which will be good.

If you are thinking of where to invest your money before August 1 2008, i would simply advise u to go for landed properties. Property owners will have a swell time.
Also self employment is another way to go, If u have 50,000 today, the ultimate would be to go to the village and get your own land in preparation for farming because' farmers would no doubt have a swell time too. We are blessed wit rain in Nigeria and our land are fertile. I have lived oversea and i know wht i m talking about.
Less i forget, there will be drastic drop wit the youths queening at embassies for visa and time will be money. I am sure u wouldnt want the embassies to steal your 100naira because u now know the value. Day dreaming will stop and hard work will begin.

Lets clap for soludo and Y'aradua i always knew the a Northern President will be the one to deliver Nigeria, i 'm from the south south!! going by history. I m sure Obasanjo surpressed Soludo's plan.

?

If this was an economics exam 0% would be injustice to the subject. I will rather give -ve10%

Dont mind Lai Mohamed, I wonder why he has not commented on Micheal Aondokoa's spin with Anti-corruption agencies.

May be those who say AC is Alliance for corruption are not wrong afterall.

The Man, Aondoakaa
Posted by admin on 2007/8/13 12:01:57 (1367 reads)
Can the new Attorney-General be apolitical?

By Tony Orilade/Abuja

Ontil his appointment as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice by President Umaru Yar’Adua, he was a legal practitioner in civil, criminal, commercial, electoral matters and general litigation. He had appeared at all levels of the Nigerian courts structure and had contacts within the legal systems in Nigeria and overseas. Born on 12 June 1962, the University of Maiduguri-trained lawyer completed his elementary education at LEA Primary School, Ge Mbagwa in 1974. He proceeded to St. Gabriel’s Secondary School, Makurdi and obtained his WASC in 1979. He has been in private legal practice for 21 years.

No doubt, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was also acquainted with the 36-page Act establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The Ushongo, Benue State-born lawyer, who was conferred with the SAN honour in September 2006, was particularly not well informed of Section 6 (m) of the Act which provides that the Commission shall be responsible for “taking charge of, supervising, controlling, coordinating all the responsibilities, functions and activities relating to current investigation and prosecution of all offences connected with or relating to economic and financial crimes”. Under Section 7(1) (a) of the Act, the “Commission is specially empowered to cause investigations to be conducted as to whether any person, corporate body or organisation has committed an offence under this Act or other laws relating to economic and financial crimes”.

When, therefore, he reversed his position on the powers of EFCC and ICPC to initiate independent investigation and prosecution of those who commit economic crimes within 24 hours, it was naturally assumed that, since he is not infallible, he was trying to correct an error made in good faith.

However, the country’s chief law officer’s insistence that the EFCC and ICPC will continue to carry out their assignments under his direct supervision is suspect, to say the least. This is more so that his first assignment as a Minister was to initiate a memo which tried to whittle down the powers of the foremost anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria.

He had said: “In the course of prosecution which they will initiate independent of me, if I have good reasons to believe that they are not carrying out prosecution in conformity with the constitution, we will exercise the right of the Attorney-General under the constitution to take over the case or even discontinue where the facts permit.”

An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Anthony Agbonlahor, expressing sadness that such a threat was coming from the Attorney-General of the Federation, said: “This is a man who ordinarily should have been a source of hope and succour to the various anti-corruption bodies in the country.”

Humphrey Adedayo, another lawyer, was in agreement with Agbonlahor. “ You know,” he said, “in Nigeria we always try to push our personal ambition far above national interest. I want to say unequivocally, that more than 50 per cent of public officers occupying various offices today do not really have the interest of the nation at heart.”

He added: “I don’t know if Nigerians have forgotten so soon that he was one of the lawyers that stood in for former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Besides, he was former Governor George Akume’s lawyer when the anti-corruption agencies took up the fight of corrupt enrichment against him. Don’t also forget that these cases are on-going and his chambers are still handling them.” It is believed that the attorney-general harbours some animosity against the EFCC for the single-minded manner it handled cases against Aondoakaa’s clients and that this explains why he has been preoccupied with trying to render the EFCC impotent since he became the nation’s number one law officer. Adedayo, on his part, reasoned that the restrictions imposed on the anti-corruption bodies would “terribly injure the reputation of the Yar’Adua administration” , portraying it as being desperate to protect some corrupt persons currently being investigated by the EFCC and ICPC .

To buttress his point, the lawyer cited the case involving a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence which was referred to the Federal Ministry of Justice. He said the case had not reached an appreciable level because of bureaucratic problem.

This magazine learnt that it took a five-page submission by Rotimi Jacobs, counsel to EFCC, and another two-page argument entitled “Constitutionality of Criminal Prosecution Under other Laws, by the State House counsel, Mr. Gafai, to convince President Umaru Yar’Adua that the Attorney-General had not only misled him (the president), but that the decision had to be reversed.

“…Sections 6(m), 7(2), 13(2) of the EFCC Act have expressly conferred power on the EFCC to initiate criminal proceedings in any courts and in the exercise of the power to initiate criminal proceedings, the consent of the Attorney-General is not required both under the Act and under the constitution,” Jacobs reportedly said, quoting from the EFCC Act.

Gafai, on his part, was said to have cited a Supreme Court decision to buttress his argument. “There has been the contention whether officers prosecuting cases on behalf of agencies specially empowered by the laws setting up these agencies need clearance from the AGF as a condition precedent. But the Supreme Court in laying the matter to rest made a final pronouncement in the case of FRN v Osahon and 7 Others, 25 NSCQR, where in interpreting the meaning and intent of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it said it [the constitution] does not preclude other persons permitted by an existing law from prosecuting criminal cases nor do such persons require any fiat from the Attorney-General of the Federation to proceed,” Gafai said.

A Senator who requested anonymity told this magazine that what happened between the Justice Ministry and the anti-corruption agencies in Abuja last week can be likened to the biblical hand of Esau and voice of Jacob. “Even though I don’t have verifiable proof to support my claim, I still want to believe that the Minister is too lettered to fall into such a mess. I want to believe that he is being directed by forces far above him,” the Senator said. He added that it was to avoid being put in such compromising position that he campaigned against the emergence of a former governor as the Senate President of the sixth republic.

“What on earth would have made an ex-convict visit Mr. President in the Villa hours after his release from prison? What would make a man who had just been granted bail over the looting of his state’s treasury be a guest of Mr. President in the Villa? The Attorney-General did not see anything wrong in this ugly development; all he is quick to correct are the powers of the EFCC and ICPC which he considered too enormous and should therefore be slashed. It is very wrong, a bad signal coming from the nation’s number one law officer, and the earlier he is redeployed to a less sensitive ministry the better for this nation,” the Senator fumed. But is Aondoakaa a mole in Yar’Adua’s cabinet?



http://nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html

This conspiracy was masterfully crafted. To be honest I was also caught by their game as I wished Mallam Nuhu Ribadu will resign not knowing that was even the sole objective of the plot. Intrigues!!!! those who whittled down the powers of EFCC were the same people who went to the media with the story and yet they were the same people who approached Ribadu in sympathy asking him to resign.

T[b]his administration claims to have zero tolerance for corruption but the fact that the same administration will appoint someone who spent the last 4years defending treasury looters as AGF leaves more questions than answers[/b]. It is no coincidence that Micheal Aondoakoa's first assignment was the attempted assasination of the EFCC.
Inntitially I thought the AGF is simply being more loyal to his chambers and old friends than Nigeria, thus should resign or be sacked. I said this in the belief that he had misled the President or even when he will like to claim he acted in good faith, he should go for being unaware of subsiting Court Judgements on the same matter and thus should resign for being incompetent.

The truth is that its been a forthnight since we saw what could only be described as an attempt to encourage sleeze by the Presidency and yet heads are yet to roll. The AGF has not been axed and I think Nigerians should start asking the following questions:
Is Micheal Aondoakoa doing the President's dirty jobs and taking responsibility for the outcome? could Ibori's media onslaught against Ribadu accusing him of acting alone be a clue to what the actual policy of this administration on anti-graft is?

I only hope to be proven wrong with time by seeing Ibori actually appearing before the court.

Dont worry Orji Kalu will not be alone in jail. He will have company.

Mike Okiro said they might have to do a DNA on Soboma's corpse, well what will they compare the data they obtain with to confirm. Except they actually have records of his DNA from the previous times he went to prison but I doubt if our police do actually keep records DNA of all those they arrested in the past.

So someone honestly thinks a country that is yet to provide basic electricity for every household should be talking about placing priority on green issues??

Epoma

Soboma George is not less than 30, Ignore the age quoted by Vanguard. I grew up in Borikiri area and I know Soboma George. Marshal Harry's death had nothing to do with 3rd term as Marshal Harry was actually killed in the run up to 2003 elections.

I do agree with all parties on this debate on the issue of leadership and attitudinal change, because I think its a bit of both. Though if attitudinal change is achieved the latter which is better leadership is likely to be achieved. Lets not forget that our leaders are also part of the society.

On the issue of breaking up Nigeria, no rational being should want that. In these days of globalisation countries are forming bigger unions and pulling up resources to achieve more for their people, we should not honestly be talking about secession at this stage in our National history. Though I also think no slogan has done this country more harm than "ONE NIGERIA". In that slogan we enmask and bury all the necessary debates that would have made this country stronger, with that slogan we bully people from airing their differences so that when such differences are resolved we could build better trusts across ethnic devides.

I don't believe in ignoring our problems with the hope illusion that somehow they will solve themselves. We talk about the USA being a heterogeneous country but yet a strong Economy. But we often tend to forget that once upon a time in this America black pregnant women were made to stand in buses so that white men or women could sit, we tend to forget that in this USA once upon a time white kids and their black counterparts will not go to the same school nor use the same kind of textbooks, we also tend to forget that the likes of Martin Luthar King, MalcomX etc. fought for the America we all admire today, we also tend to forget that America is what it is today because the white folks in Government thought it was necessary to have an honest debate and listen to the plight of these people.

Nigeria's problems will not be solved by the kind of rhetorics put up here by Chtax (with all due respect), they will be solved by some degree of sincerity on our parts as citizens having honest debate about their country Nigeria.

God bless Nigeria!!!!!!

Is it possible that this could be an attempt to divert President Yaradua and the whole of Nigeria's attention from fighting corruption. May be if everyone is pre-occupied dislodging Militants EFCC will not remember to probe ex-Goverors from South-South.

Soboma George has been an employee of Rivers State Government. In fact his team assasinated Prince Igodo for attempting to disrupt Omehia's innauguration, he is also an upland commander of MEND.

So why he has gone Haywire leaves more questions than answers, I hope the crisis in PH is not diversionary.

Carlosein:
same thing that caused the war in iraq and in tens of other places: GREED, GREED, GREED AND MORE GREED!!!

Sometimes when we talk about greed its important to put what we mean in perspective, are you talking about greed on the part of these boys or on the part of politicians.

I have never been in support of Soboma George and co cause I thought the future of Nigeria should not be left in the hands of touts, I thought that as touts at some point power, money and guns might get into their head and they will loose control.

But the fact remains that Nigeria has a Soboma George today cos the country let youths down, elite politicians let youths down.
So when you talk about greed make sure you put your argument in perspective.

Afam

You tackled me the other day for saying one get's tempted to think sometimes that Nigeria is hopeless.

The title of this thread does not suggest anything different from a feeling of hopelessness.

A militant posing without his gun is as good as any innocent citizen

That is the complexity of the situation.

I am waiting for Mamajama to take over this topic

He is Nairaland's Nigerian Armed Forces Expert.

Anointed:
The whole effect of the redenomination is not instant. it is something that will make more sense in the long run. it is also more of an economic concept. It's to affect pricing in the long run which is very key to inflation. If after production your good is to be priced at 3.75, you won't round it up to 5.00, you'll sell it at 3.75. and if there's a unit increase in the price of your good. that unit increase, say a kobo, can stay at what it is. it does not have to be rounded up there by pushing the prices of goods and services higher. this means that in the long run, inflation is being strategically slowed down. you cannot run away from not spending coins now because it will make up about 50% of the economy's currency. this is just one of the pros. there's more to the removal of zeroes mr edetcnn. read between the lines. pretend you know a bit of basic economics and do a bit of economic forecasting.

I totally agree with you, may be that explains the earlier puzzle I put up.

Can you imagine this policy hasn't even touched the ground yet and the BBC is already hailing it. When did the BBC ever celebrate anything good about Nigeria

Well I was skeptical about that too, but Soludo is no fool. We can only make his policy work by supporting Government innitiatives.

Denex

This plan is evil. Let us not sit and watch it pass into law. The older generation that sat back while the Naira was being devalued are responsible for our 20 years of suffering. Let us not be responsible for another 20 years of suffering.

it does not get any easier figuring out when you are serious and when you are kidding. If you think the devaluation of Naira brought about 20years of suffering why are you opposing the reverse of devaluation??

There is no direct economic benefit to the move from the average Nigerian point of view, as a matter of fact for all intents and purposes the move became necessary because the African Union is thinking of having African Central Bank in Nigeria and thus Naira as the common currency. Thus their was need to make the exchange rate of Naira and those of other world recorgnised currencies reasonably comparable.

However if the move sails through and Naira becomes the common legal tender in the African region, it will do us more good in the foreign exchange market as their will be more demand for Naira and thus we will have a stronger currency.

But like some economists rightly pointed out that what improves a Nations's economy is local production and manpower development not the number of zeros in the currency. However I think the CBN under Soludo should be given a chance, when he talked about Bank Consolidation no one liked it cause it was a difficult decision but today we are all happy it happened.

While I can not prove scientifically that there is any benefit to this but I am out of hindsight tempted to think that its a good move. Cause I have seen the Naira go from bad to worse whenever a higher denomination was introduced, so when the reverse happens you can only expect a reverse effect.

Even in Britain (though not particularly sure) it looks like there is a Government regulation on High Street stores to put the value of products as £1.99, £2.99, £3.99
You begin to wonder why £1.99 and not £2. Because they want lower denominations of 1p, 10p, 20p, 50, to remain in circulation.
One can not explain the very essence of this, but their is sure a reason for it. Hence I am in total support of Professor C.C. Soludo.

I can not launch any Missile on any person as no one knows the identity of anybody on this site, all you can do is attack someones[b] tribe, religion or political affiliation.
[/b]

Yes I attacked someones tribe or region but that was after the person made rash comments about mine. If Laudate is simply saying that my attack was unprovoked then he has simply gotten so used to Igbo bashing or hating that he does not think I have the right to be angry when rash comments are made about my tribe.

Pages 1, 2, and 3 of this thread are here to prove whether my attack was unprovoked or not. And I still like to state categorically that I have no regrets for my posts on this thread and will not appologise.

Planner:
Emmmm, let us leave out Laudate from this for now. Lumping him with Batu, Ono, Dimka is not entirely fair. At least Laudate post has been quite intelligent.

You are simply attempting to put out a fire while at the same time choosing to leave a tank of petrol just 1m away.

I suggest people ignore all hate threads refered to Igbos and the South-East because they will soon change names. If you see any name consistently posting news from the South-East, Ignore it.
I also call on you Xris=Dokokwy=whatever to stop your own games cause your activities justify the actions of some fools on Nairaland.

Laudate

The evidence on this thread speak volume for themselves, its not about big gramma or semantics.

laudate:
So what have you figured out, please?? Let us all know.

The comment I made was done on page 7 where I asked a simple question :

I reacted to that comment, because I wanted clarification on something I had noticed, and also because I know quite a few people from your region, who do not share your point of view. This isn't the first time that people have asked questions, based on remarks that were adressed to others. So is it a crime to do so?

There is nothing wrong in asking simple question, may be you might also like to explain to us why your gospel of tolerance for simple questions did not prevail when someone simply inquired about someone elses tribe on this thread.

You Laudate questioned why people wanted to know his tribe and whether they wanted to turn the thread into Igbo VS the person's tribe.


Wanna know what I figured out? I think it does your heart a great pleasure inciting hate amongst others while they abuse one another. And you were disappointed that I spoke to Obong nicely and you tried to incite more hate.

Doyin

No disrespect but I will rather engage you in politics of Gordon Brown and David Cameron than discuss Nigeria with you.

You are not at home with what obtains in Nigeria and its no fault of yours, however I will not engage you in a debate about Nigeria let alone tribal or divisive politics.

Laudate

I have made up my mind never to react to this thread but your call for black and white proof brings me back.

Could you please shed some more light on your motivation for reacting to a post which I refered to OBONG telling him that I did not wish to go into any kind of argument with him cause the Igbos never knew finer friends and allies than the Efiks and Ibibios. I made that comment cause I thought we the Igbos could only remain indebted to the Efiks and Ibibios.

You Laudate reacted to that comment when you were neither Obong nor were you from Efik or Ibibio, you reacted telling Obong that we look down on his tribesmen like they were lesser humans.

I could not figure out what could be the motivation for your comment until I began to see the remarks made about you.

all criticism, that is all we do. We don't profer solution

Govt does this we complain, Govt does that we complain. Probably Govt should even do nothing so that there will be less critics

Mamajama

I dont mean to be rude, but you have to purge yourself of thinking only about Police, Army or what obtains in the forces.
These 10million people are not employees of ICPC neither are they some kind of corps, they are voluntiers and spies. They could be Grandparents and pensioners who will do their job very well in the believe that by that their children will have a better future.

Lets stop being negative to everything, as far as am concerned it is a good move. EFCC's fight against corruption has only been retroactive, I have always wished for a more proactive fight against corruption and this is a good example.

State of Emergency is not the solution to everything, at least not this one.

Government should set up a Counter-Terrorism Agency that will be dedicated to monitoring the activities of these boys.

I don't understand why in these days of state of the art ICT, triangulaion etc. these boys will use mobile phones to make calls arrange to kidnap a hostage, contact the relatives of the hostage in mobile phones yet their is no agency monitoring all the calls made through the masts in that area. There is nobody using satelite Navigation to track down these boys and pick them up un-expectedly and individually.

I get so disappointed when I hear Army, Navy, or the creeks or terrain being too difficult. do they enjoy their wealth in the creeks? the flashy cars they use do they drive them in the creeks the clubs they go to are they in the creeks?? or are their girlfriends even in the creeks with them??

All this useless talk of release Asari today or release Alams tomorrow all in the hope of resolving hostage taking or stoping arms proliferation is arrant nonsense. Even if they like they should go and wake Isaac Adaka Boro from grave, he can not appeal to those boys to stop the multi million dollar business of hostage taking. You can not convince them to stop you can only stop them.

Nigeria is simply using 15th century tactics to address 21st century problems. How will it work?? 

Trust me if the Presidency uses better approach, the Odili's, Amaechi's, Omehia's, Alams, Clark that are backing these boys will start looking for a hiding place.

Did you not see this news on the BBC?

Or did you not hear Segun Adeniyi's explanation to the issue the next on Thisday, Gaurdian etc?

I honestly dont see what is wrong if the hospitals would have been actually built.

No LGA Chaiman in Nigeria can give account of what he has done in Nigeria, all they do is share money. Now tell me which is better to deduct the money and co-ordinate a Nationwide building of hospitals or to keep furnishing money to LGA chairmen that do nothing with it.?

This President is still very naive, he thinks he will get anywhere by running his Government by the book. Lets see how far he goes.

Chidicris

if you like cry wolf till thy kingdom come, if Orji Kalu is found guilty in the court of law he will simply "head straight to jail without passing Go". No £200 for him.