Aviation workers threaten to go on strike
October 27, 2013by Leke Baiyewu, Olalekan Adetayo and Adelani Adepegba
Aviation workers have threatened to protest against the purchase of two armoured cars by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority for the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah,SUNDAY PUNCHreports.
The NCAA had reportedly paid about N255m for two bulletproof BMW 760 Li cars.
The NCAA, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation in Abuja on Thursday, admitted that the Ministry of Aviation approved the purchase of the cars for Oduah.
The Director of Aerodrome, NCAA, Mr. Joyce Nkem-Akonam, who handled the transaction as the acting Managing Director of the NCAA, told the committee that the agency breached no law, as “leased financing, not direct financing, was adopted to procure the vehicles.”
Speaking to one of our correspondents on Friday, the National President, Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Benjamin Okewu, however said the association did not buy NCAA’s explanation and would hold a meeting next week to conclude its plans on the protest.
According to him, other labour unions and civil society groups have been lobbying aviation workers to join them in a mass protest.
Okewu said, “What we are talking about is between now and Wednesday. We should have had the meeting and taken a decision on what to do.”
The General Secretary, National Union of Air Transport Employees, Abdulkareem Motajo, in a separate interview, confirmed that associations in the sector were making plans to protest against corruption in the aviation ministry.
“All the three unions in the industry are doing the same thing; we are leading the fight together and we will not relent until we ensure that everything is put in order. We are working together,” Motajo said.
Apart from the corruption in the industry, the workers are angry that the Federal Government is bent on punishing the whistle-blower who revealed the scandalous car transaction to the media. The unions argued that what the informant did was for public good.
The Federal Government had announced its manhunt for those who leaked official information on the bulletproof cars, but Okewu noted that the Freedom of Information Act protected such persons.
He said, “Let them (FG) try anything, we’ll tell them that we are in charge.”
Similarly, Motajo said the person who leaked the information deserved a national honour.
He said the individual should be given a national award “for exposing what Nigerians have seen as a risk to their common wealth.”
He added that the informant had the cover of the Freedom of Information Act.
“The unions are waiting to see any action that will be taken against such a person. We demand that the National Assembly and the Federal Government should give a national award to such a person, instead of sacking him or her. The union will never allow anybody to be sent out as a result of divulging this information.”
Meanwhile,SUNDAY PUNCHauthoritatively gathered on Friday that the Presidency is angry with Oduah for the leakage of her explanation of the car purchase to the media before the President got his copy.
Oduah in her explanation claimed that she committed no crime in the matter that had attracted public outcry forcing President Goodluck Jonathan to constitute a three-man panel to probe her.
Jonathan was in Israel for the ongoing Christian pilgrimage when the minister’s response was published.
The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, told one of our correspondents that Oduah should have kept silent and allowed the panel set up by the President to carry out its assignment.
“If I were her (the minister), I would be silent until the committee set up by the President to probe the matter finishes its job,” he said.
When asked specifically if it was true that the Presidency was not happy with the minister for allowing her response go public, he replied, “That was why I told you that if I was in her shoes, I would have kept quiet and allowed the committee do its job.”
In a related development, investigations carried out bySUNDAY PUNCHhave revealed that the police have no record of any complaint about threat to the life of the minister.
The minister had claimed that she authorised the purchase of the two armoured cars on account of threat to her life because of the reforms she was carrying out in the aviation sector. However, findings indicated that no formal report about the alleged threat was lodged with the police.
Police sources told our correspondent in Abuja on Friday that the Force would have taken such a matter seriously, if Oduah had lodged a report about threats to her life.
“The minister reportedly said her life was under threat, but she didn’t lodge any complaint to the police; we can’t find anything in our record about the reported threat; there was no petition or complaint that we could have worked with, if indeed her life was under threat as she claimed,” a senior police officer who pleaded anonymity stated.
Further findings showed that none of the ministers had requested additional protection or additional personnel from security agencies in the past months.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, could not be reached for comments as he was said to be out of the country on an official assignment, while Assistant Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Inyang, declined to speak on the matter.
SUNDAY PUNCHfurther learnt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Saturday, asked NCAA officials to tender documents of the BMW cars purchased before it.
“That’s the first step, we need to see the documents before inviting everyone involved in the deal,” a top official of the EFCC, who pleaded anonymity, said on Saturday.
Jonathan had on Wednesday succumbed to pressure mounted on him by Nigerians and other stakeholders on the purchase of the bulletproof cars by instituting a probe into the matter.
The President’s decision came less than 24 hours after members of the House of Representatives ordered an investigation into the matter.
Oduah, who has been under public criticism for the cars, on Wednesday departed for Israel where the President is also observing pilgrimage. There have been reports that her Israel trip was an attempt by the minister to lobby Jonathan to retain her job.
The Presidency had, however, said Oduah was in Israel to sign a bilateral services agreement on behalf of Nigeria with Israel.
The minister played a prominent role during the 2011 campaign for Jonathan’s presidency.

I thank Allah for your life

By WILFRED JIBRIL
There is so much fuss about the capability of the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) to sort out the mess into which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has plunged the country since her return to democratic rule in 1999. The promoters of the party say APC is the panacea for the nation’s protracted and seemingly intractable political quagmire. They are telling us that the party has got the magic wand to take us to the much desired socio-economic and political Promised Land. What gives them the impression that they have the capacity to tackle the myriad of woes staring us in the face? What is unique about APC? Is it any different from PDP? For me, APC is old wine in a new bottle.
Considering the antecedents of the three parties that fused into the so-called mega party, I have no scintilla of doubt in my mind that APC will go down in history as the worst political party to have emerged on the nation’s political landscape. The reason is not far-fetched. The party does not have the interest of the people of this great nation at heart. The reason for its emergence speaks volumes about its mission and vision. It wants to wrest power from PDP at the centre. That is all the party is after. The question is, how does their wresting power from the ruling party better the lot of the downtrodden in the country? Nigerians are very gullible; before you say Jack Robinson, they will give in to the antics of APC and start campaigning for them because the party parades people with sugar-coated tongues. I wonder what magic APC will perform if voted into power in 2015.
For instance, in the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, apart from Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State who has taken what I call real development to all the nooks and crannies of the state, most of his colleagues are only performing on the pages of newspapers. Everywhere you go in Edo State, you notice the presence of his government. Little wonder then that for the first time in the history of the state, a sitting governor won election in all the local government areas in the state. He even crushed his opponent in his ward and retired all the political godfathers in the state as he vowed on his assumption of office in 2008. The governor has wormed his way into the hearts of the people so much so that a commercial bus driver in Benin City reportedly disgorged a passenger from his bus for using a derogatory language on the comrade governor.
But in Lagos State, the reverse is the case. They tell us Governor Fashola is working but he is not doing anything spectacular. He is only concentrating development in areas that are already developed at the expense of the suburbs which have been neglected from time immemorial. Highbrow places like Lekki, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lagos Island and others keep getting his attention while suburbs like Ikotun, Ijegun, Ijagemo, Isheri-Osun, etc, remain neglected. A governor, who performs, is one who connects with the downtrodden. For instance, Ikotun road has been in this sorry state before the 1999 election which threw up his godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as governor.
All Tinubu did throughout his eight years in office was to patch the road. Now the road is in a terrible state and nobody is doing anything about it. For the users of the road, passing through Iyana-Ejigbo is hellish. But the wonder governor of Lagos State does not see anything wrong concentrating development in highbrow areas at the expense of the hewers of wood and drawers of water who queue up under scorching sun to vote for his party at elections. You now spend about two or more hours doing a trip of about 15 minutes.
Methinks a performing governor is the one who makes judicious use of the resources at his disposal to develop every part of the state. The residents pay through the nose to transport themselves to and from work daily. The excuse has always been that the problems of Lagos are too daunting to be surmounted by one government. This is a glib excuse. It does not hold water.
Former Governor Lateef Kayode Jakande of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) only spent four years and three months in office, yet his legacies are still visible everywhere in Lagos. Alhaji Jakande was selflessly committed to developing the state; no wonder he left the seat of power a poor man. He is a true Awoist. The agenda of these latter-day Awoists is diametrically antithetical to that of the UPN governors then. Their own agenda was that of total transformation. Ask the people of the old Bendel, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Lagos states about the performances of these former governors and they will tell you they performed excellently.
Even former Governor Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo of the old Kwara State, who spent only three months in office consequent upon the 1983 coup, performed brilliantly. Were it not for the military intervention of December 31, 1983, Jakande would have catapulted Lagos to the apogee of infrastructural development. Regrettably, these legacies are left to rot away. They are not being maintained. A case in point is the deplorable state of the housing estates built by the former governor across the state.
Aping the dressing style of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo does not make one an Awoist. By nature, Awoists are selfless performers.
There is something unique about Governor Oshiomhole. He does not discriminate against any person or community irrespective of political affiliation in his development drive. For instance, when I travelled to Benin City before the governorship election last year, the driver of the bus I boarded from Lagos, showed me the road to the residence of the two-time governor of the defunct Bendel State and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, which he macadamized. A co-tenant, who travelled to Benin City recently, told me he missed his bus stop because he was held spellbound by the unprecedented development the governor has brought to the city. This is the only ACN governor who has etched his name in gold in the area of development. Some of us are not surprised by the massive infrastructural development going on in Edo State. As President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Oshiomhole became the voice of the voiceless and the defender of the oppressed. He became a thorn in the flesh of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He gave a good account of himself.
In Lagos, people keep paying taxes without anything to show for it. Nothing is working in Lagos, yet they keep telling us,Eko O ni Baje. To borrow the words of my former editor and a columnist, Ebere Wabara,Eko ti baje tan.
You cannot develop a state by sloganeering. Why must a governor take delight in frittering away tax payers’ money in the name of beautification? Infrastructure are collapsing and some people are being awarded contracts worth millions of naira to plant flowers in some parts of the state. Yes, there is nothing wrong with beautification; I believe road construction across the state should be the topmost priority of the government.
It must be noted that the problem we have as a nation is not the system, but the operators. And since it is still the same set of people who have disappointed the electorate at various levels and times that are the brains behind APC, I don’t see the party taking the country out of the woods. It will only give Nigeria migraine instead of curing her headache.
Wilfred Jibril(wilfredjibril@ yahoo.com;08037831431

Online, FG still parading sacked ministers as FEC members
October 14, 2013 by Temitayo Famutimi
Thirty-two days after nine ministers were axed in the first major cabinet shake-up since President Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration on May 29, 2011, the Federal Government has yet to make necessary changes on the nation’s official web portal.
A check on Sunday on www.nigeria.gov.ng reveals that the names and portfolios of four of the nine axed ministers were retained as subsisting members of the Federal Executive Council. On the portal, erstwhile Minister of State for Defence, Olusola Obada, leads the pack of sacked ministers still being referred to as cabinet members.
Apart from Obada, former Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Buka Tijani; that of Science and Technology, Prof. Okon Bassey-Ewa; as well as the Minister of State for Power, Zainab Kuchi, who were relieved of their positions, were still being referred to as FEC members on the portal.
But apart from the official national portal that still parades axed ministers as FEC members, some ministries are also doing the same.
For instance, the Federal Ministry of the Environment has yet to see reasons to describe Hajia Hadiza Mailafa as a former minister on its website. Both local and foreign visitors toe nvironment.gov.ng, hoping to conduct official businesses with the ministry, are still being welcomed by a “Welcome Message’’ written by Mailafa.
Besides, Mailafa’s name appears atop the list of principal officers of the ministry.
On the website of the Ministry of Defence, mod.gov.ng, Obada’s photograph appeared conspicuously on a picture gallery section of the portal where the profiles of the management team of the ministry were uploaded. No mention was made of the supervising minister for the ministry, Labaran Maku, who doubles as the minister of information.
The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also yet to make the changes on its website, www.foreignaffairs.gov.ng.On its list of past and present ministers who held sway in the ministry, Olugbenga Ashiru, who was at the helms until September 11, is still being referred to as the incumbent.
However, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, which prides itself as the Federal Government’s engine room for harnessing technology for Nigeria’s social and economic development , has reflected the development on its website.
The name and profile of the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, who was appointed as the supervising minister for the ministry, has been inputted on the ministry’s web portal.
Also, the National Planning Commission appears to take its digital presence more seriously as it has reflected on its website the supervisory minister of national planning and deputy chairman of the commission, Amb. Bashir Yuguda, as the new helmsman. Yuguda, is the incumbent minister of state for works.
A digital media expert, Mr. Akeem Baiyewu, berated the Federal Government for “mis-informing” local and foreign visitors to the national official portal.
Baiyewu described the present state of the portal as a “stagnant river”, adding that it as an “embarrassment.”
He noted that the general best practice for the management of a digital presence is the need to present relevant information in a timely manner to interested members of the public who need them to make decisions that affect them and their organisations.
He said, “Definitely the state of nigeria.gov.ngdoes not depict a well managed digital presence. Once there are information changes in government circles, websites should be one of the first places such changes should be effected.
“Part of what government websites are meant for is to give accurate updated information and there is more convenience of information changes in a website than other traditional media. This development tells the numerous visitors that our MDAs do not care about their brand visibility.
“It is obvious that some visitors to the official portal as well as the websites of the ministries that have yet to effect the necessary changes have beenmal-informedand this is highly embarrassing.”
Baiyewu, who argued that the advantages of having a well updated government portal cannot be over emphasised, said it was high time government stopped paying lip service to leveraging the digital media for information dissemination.
According to him, not having a website is as bad as laying claim to a website that is not regularly updated.
He added, “Normally, ministries should have webmasters who should be in touch with all its departments and agencies for information. But in a situation that the web maintenance is outsourced, it is the duty of the ministry and the web maintenance company to ensure they are in constant touch with each other for informational exchange.
“Besides, to have a fully functional and well updated website, MDA’s should dedicate resources to manage and optimise them.”

The Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday raised the alarm over his safety and pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan, to ensure that he is not killed.
Amaechi said this in an interview with Sahara TV, which was monitored by one of our correspondents.
The governor, who narrated his ordeal in hands of the police and aviation authorities since he fell out with the President, said he felt unsafe.
“I don’t have an aide de camp. I don’t have a chief security officer. They’ve withdrawn so many policemen. They’ve withdrawn all policemen from the commissioners. I feel unsafe. I just know that they want to kill me. Beg Mr. President to ensure that I’m not killed because I’m sure they are planning towards that.”
Amaechi also accused his political opponents, including the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, and the President’s wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, of using the police to intimidate him and the people of the state.
He said, “It is not just Wike that is controlling (the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph) Mbu. It is not just Mrs. Patience Jonathan that is controlling Mbu. There are some people on the street controlling him.
“They are doing two things under the watch of Mr. President and the Inspector-General of Police. They are trying to intimidate the Rivers society so that they can rig elections. And they are trying to intimidate me and expose me to danger.”
Amaechi also accused the National Aviation Management Authority of monitoring his movement and deliberately delaying his flights.
He described the level of impunity under Jonathan as worse than what Nigeria experienced under late General Sani Abacha.
Amaechi said the Nigeria Governor’s Forum crisis would be resolved at the end of the 2015 election, adding that there would have been peace in Nigeria had the President not interfered in the forum’s election.
He told his interviewer that President Jonathan confirmed his involvement in the NGF election at the last meeting the rebel governors had with him.
“While Akpabio was denying it, I reminded him that the President confirmed to me that he participated. Jonathan said he canvassed support for Governor Shema and that he called governors and showed them a video recording of my speech on the oil well that was taken from Soku to Balyesa, and he therefore told them that if I won, he would never work with me,” he said.
He said the possibility of peace between him and the first family was left in the hands of the President and God.
“If the President wants peace, I will be available. And it should not be the type of peace that we had in 2011, that was because of the election,” he said.
In a swift response, the Presidency described Amaechi as a drowning man, whose intention was to pitch the President and Nigerians.
Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, toldSUNDAY PUNCHthat Amaechi, by his utterances, did not have respect for the office of the President and by extension, the sovereignty of Nigeria.
Gulak said, “Amaechi is a drowning man whose plan is just to pitch the President against the people of Rivers State but people of the state know better and they have turned against him (the governor).
“On his claim that the President is after his life, Amaechi himself knows that President Jonathan is a peace-loving man who cannot hurt a fly. On the contrary, maybe he is the one planning that against the President. He should stop pitching people against the President. Nigerians know the President that he is a gentleman.”

ANAMBRA 2013: PDP crisis distorting permutationson September 28, 2013 at 8:35 pm in Politics
BY VINCENT UJUMADU
IF the on–going crisis in the Anambra State branch of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over who should be its flag bearer for the November 16 election is not resolved in the next few weeks, the party would have made itself a less contender in the impending governorship race. For now, supporters of the party in Anambra State are confused and it is therefore not surprising that many of them have become willing tools for swelling campaign rally grounds of other political parties. A typical example was the flag off of the LP governorship campaign in Onitsha on Thursday where many former members of PDP were seen adorned in Ifeanyi Ubah’s uniforms and caps and directing affairs.
While the other major party contenders namely, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, All Progressives Congress, APC, and Labour Party, LP, are seriously mobilizing for the election with their candidates making great inroads in the state, supporters of PDP are behaving like the sheep without the shepherd. Many of them say they have become more confused with the unfolding scenario, especially with two candidates – Tony Nwoye and Senator Andy Uba – laying claim to the ticket of the party.
The latest in the PDP drama is that a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Thursday declared that Senator Andy Uba remains the PDP candidate for the November 16 election and that his crony, Chief Ejike Oguebego should remain the state chairman of the party. The court ordered the Prince Ken Emeakayi-led PDP in Anambra State to maintain the status quo, pending the final decision of the court. In the ruling handed by Justice H.A Nganjiwa, the court also directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to identify with the Oguebego group that produced Uba as the authentic governorship candidate of the PDP.
Permutations
After the primaries of the various political parties, the picture was that Tony Nwoye from Anambra North senatorial zone emerged for PDP in the primary supervised by the national leadership of the party, Willy Obiano also from Anambra North emerged for APGA, while Senator Chris Ngige from Anambra Central and Chief Ifeanyi Ubah from Anambra South emerged for APC and LP respectively. Senator Andy Uba, another contender for the PDP ticket is also from Anambra South.
When the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur leadership of PDP declared Nwoye as the party’s flag bearer, the fear in the camp of Willy Obiano of APGA was that unless the people of Anambra North were persuaded to dump the PDP candidate on election day, votes from the area are likely to be shared between PDP and APGA, thereby giving Ngige and Ifeanyi Ubah some kind of advantage as they are the major candidates in the other two senatorial zones. However, if PDP dumps Nwoye and gives the ticket to Senator Uba, the people of Anambra North would heave a sigh of relief that their block votes would go to their own son, Obiano.
On the other hand, if eventually Uba gets the ticket for PDP, the worry would shift to Anambra South as himself (Uba) and LP’s Ubah are likely to share the votes from the area. Uba is from the Aguata section of the senatorial zone, while Ubah is from Nnewi section of the same zone. While it would seem that Senator Ngige is in the world of his own in his Anambra Central, the truth is that he has Governor Peter Obi to contend with in the zone. From all indications, Obi is not just waiting to hand over to anybody that would emerge winner after the November 16 election, but he wants to make sure that he hands over to a trusted person who would not rock the boat after his eight years of picking the bits and pieces of what was left of Anambra State after the unfortunate years between 1999 and 2006 when intra party crisis in PDP led to the destruction of lives and government property worth millions of naira.
Ngige, APC; Obiano, APGA; Nwoye, PDP; Uba, Labour
Indeed, were it not for Obi’s clamour that power should shift to Anambra North after his tenure and going further to ensure that somebody from the zone picked the ticket of his party, the situation would have remained as it had always been in the previous elections where the best Anambra North usually got was either the deputy governor, or the speaker of the House of Assembly. For instance, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju who governed the state from 1999 -2003 had his deputy from Anambra North and when Ngige mounted the saddle in 2003, he chose his deputy from Anambra South in the person of Dr. Okey Udeh, with the speaker of the House of Assembly coming from Anambra North.
When Mr. Peter Obi, who is from Anambra Central recovered his mandate after three years in court, he worked with Dame Virgy Etiaba who is from Anambra South and for his second term, he chose Mr. Emeka Sibeudu also from Anambra South, while the speaker of the House of Assembly, Mrs. Chinwe Nwaebili, is from Anambra North. Dr. Andy Uba, who governed for 17 days in 2007 before the Supreme Court stopped him, also chose his deputy from Anambra North. This is why the people of Anambra North see 2013 election as their best opportunity to produce the governor of the state for the first time since the creation of Anambra State.
Before the primaries of the political parties, stakeholders from Anambra North held several meetings warning their people not to accept to be campaign coordinators or deputies for candidates from South and Central and so far, it had been obeyed. For instance, it was gathered that Ifeanyi Ubah desperately wanted to choose his deputy from Anambra North, but because those approached for the position declined, he settled for Dr. Emeka Eze from Ukpo, Dunukofia in Anambra Central. There are also indications that Ngige will choose his deputy from Anambra South as he did during his first outing in 2003. Willy Obiano of APGA has already chosen Dr. Emeka Okeke from Enugwu Ukwu in Anambra Central as his running mate. With these running mates coming from Anambra Central, the implication is that the area would be up for grabs by the various political parties contesting the election and this may not be good for Ngige who is from the area.
Perhaps one of the greatest issues that would determine the outcome of the election is the political party cohesion. Apart from LP, the other three parties – PDP, APGA and APC have some issues to sort out before the election. Like in the previous elections, the signs are there that aggrieved members of political parties may work against their parties.
Take PDP for instance, if Senator Uba finally gets the ticket, it is not likely that the national leadership and the Kenneth Emeakayi –led group of the party would stick out their neck to support him. This is because while most of the erstwhile governorship aspirants were together and obeying the guidelines stipulated by the party for the conduct of the primaries, Senator Uba and his family members, with Chris Uba as the arrow head, stayed away and held its primary with the senator as the only contestant. It was felt initially that the Uba family was wasting its time, but when the tunes from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, began to sound in their favour, it became clear that the family was not acting in isolation. The climax was the recent ruling of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt making Uba the authentic candidate of the party for the election. If all the former governorship aspirants in the state refuse to work with Uba, he may not find things easy.
Observers believe that for Uba to win the election, he must work with the Emeakayi group who controls the grass root of the party as could be seen in his recent outing before the controversial governorship primaries of the party. For instance, the group has all the ward and local government officials, as well as all the candidates for the postponed local government election. What happened in 2010 when the party forced the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Professor Charles Soludo on the state as the PDP candidate is still fresh in people’s minds and a repeat of such would be a mistake too many for PDP.
Already, most of the people who were with Chief Chris Uba in his hey days as the political godfather in the state have abandoned him for other political parties. One of them, Dr. Emeka Eze, is presently the running mate of Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, while many others are mobilizing for the LP candidate. One of them wondered recently how Chris Uba would achieve his objective in the November election since those of them who were actually doing the abracadabra during the past elections have deserted the family.
For APGA, the wounds inflicted in the party during the leadership crisis between the national chairman, Chief Victor Umeh and Chief Maxi Okwu have not been properly healed. Okwu is still feeling left out and that was why he flew a kite recently by saying that his group had nominated one of those screened out by the party, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, as his candidate for the election. No further action has however been taken either by him or his candidate since he made the nomination in Awka a fortnight ago, fueling speculation that he may have decided to bury the hatchet. However, some of the some who were in either sides of the divide during the crisis became victims of the resolution of the crisis and some of them finally decided to decamp to other political parties. Also, some of those who lost at the party primaries simply vamoosed and have not been responding to the overtures being made to them by Chief Willy Obiano who won the ticket. Unless something is done urgently, the subdued acrimony may cost the party some votes in some parts of the state.
In APC, there is a lot of manipulation going on and unless the situation is handled with utmost care, the lid may soon blow open with its attendant consequences. For instance, a former governorship aspirant, Senator Annie Okonkwo and deputy national chairman of APC, who appointed his cronies as officials of the party in the state, is no longer getting the support from many members of the party, including the governorship candidate, Senator Chris Ngige. With the haphazard manner in which the state congress was held in a hotel in Awka, some members of ANPP and CPC, the two parties that merged with ACN to form APC, have either pulled out or are threatening to pull out of the merger arrangement in the state. CPC, led by its former chairman, Prince Chuba Ikeagwu has since left APC to join the newly formed PDM, while the former state chairman of ANPP, Chief Pat Orjiakor, who at one point, acted as interim state chairman of APC, is being wooed by the governorship candidate of Accord Party, Mr. Hygers Igwebuike, to be his running mate in view of what the Accord Party candidate described as his wonderful mobilization ability. Also, some APC members in the state are complaining that most of the national officers of the party were picked from Ngige’s senatorial zone, adding that such appointments did not give the people from the other two zones a sense of belonging.
In addition to this is the Ezemo factor. Mr. Godwin Ezemo, who contested with Ngige for the ticket of APC, is still angry and it would require the intervention of the national leadership of the party to persuade him not to decamp to another political party as being speculated. It was gathered in Awka that another political party may field Ezemo during the period of the substitution of candidates and if that happens, the ranks of APC would be further depleted.

About two months ago a video of Stella Damasus, a renowned Nigerian actress went viral on almost every social media network. The self-made video captured the light skinned actress vehemently condemning the fact that the Nigerian Senate were going to be deliberating on legalizing child marriages in the country.
I read about the content of the video on several online publications but it was not until recently, I decided to watch the video. A feminist issue like this is of grave interest to me.
Elaborating categorically on all the issues raised in the video will be a little redundant, because I think the various print and online publications did that well enough with the vivid descriptions they gave of the contents of the video.
However, there is one issue that Stella hinted that left me pondering over certain realizations. She mentioned something about the first lady of Nigeria; Patience Jonathan. In the video, Stella Damasus asked of the whereabouts of the first lady and asked what she was doing about the topic at hand. She also entreated her in her own words to “get up and put a stop to this madness!”
One thing I keep asking myself about that aspect of the video is what the role of a first lady in a country is, or rather should be. Stella said, “You derive pleasure in issues that do not concern you”. What are the issues that should concern a first lady? I immediately began to research into the duties and responsibilities of a first lady.
From what I know, there is no law or constitution that specifies any laid down responsibilities for the spouse of a president; and this cuts across the world. However, there are some first ladies who have distinguished themselves against the odds to make a mark for themselves.
One name that comes up is Eleanor Roosevelt. She was the wife of the depression era and World War II president Franklin Roosevelt. And according to history, she was “a ground breaking first lady”.
She took advantage of her position to advocate greater rights for women, workers and racial minorities. She is also reported to have maintained a position in public life after her husband’s term of office was over and even after his death.
Even if you didn’t know much about Hillary Clinton (wife of former president Bill Clinton), you should have heard of her when she assumed post as the 67thUnited States Secretary of State from 2009-2013. Just like Eleanor Roosevelt, she continued to serve in public office even after her husband’s tenure was over.
Laura Bush, whose husband’s government was met with a series of military issues even before the first year of his tenure could end, championed the causes of education and literacy and created an annual National Book Festival to provide funding for America’s libraries.
Then we come to the reigning first lady of America, Michelle Obama. In 2011 she launched the “Joining Forces” campaign. A nationwide initiative that mobilizes all sectors of society to give service members and their families the opportunities and support they have earned, and to raise awareness of military families’ unique needs as pertains to employment, education and wellness.
She recently launched the “Let’s Move!” campaign which seeks to raise awareness of childhood obesity in America. The “Let’s Move!” campaign is giving parents the support they need, to provide healthier food in schools, help their kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of America.
I don’t mean to bore you with so much history but I am driving at a point here. Any time I look around for first ladies who have made a mark in history, it is only the first ladies of America that stand tall.
My interest about the duties of first ladies came after Stella Damasus drew my attention to the fact that the role of the first lady in our part of the world has more often than not been reduced to ceremonial functions which is mostly used to showcase their fashion sense and donations of ridiculously huge sums of money to score political points. As such, a whole year can pass without any news on the first lady.
I am just in my early twenties and my few years as a citizen of this country have seen at least three first ladies: Her Excellencies Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, Theresa Kuffuor and currently Lordina Mahama. However, the first lady I really remember most and has laid a very huge mark on my mind is Mrs. Rawlings; and not just because her husband served the longest term.
I was just a kid when Mrs. Rawlings and her husband were in office, and I may not remember vividly all the events that took place under their tenure but one thing I remember is the 31stDecember Women’s movement. I remember how this movement empowered women all over the country, I remember how children of the under privileged benefited from the many schools they set up.
The office of the first lady might not be well defined in any constitution but I remember how she gave it a role and a responsibility. She was passionate about the independence of women, she stood up for the children and the less privileged. She was my very first lady and still remains the only one I know.
The ones who came after her might have also worked in a way. But the question is; what is it that they did? There must be something to show their works but I see none. I am trying very hard to attribute certain initiatives and projects to them but I simply cannot figure it out.
It is always the husbands who are in the news for one thing or the other. We don’t hear about them, we don’t even see them. The office of the first lady is an intriguing position that has no specific job description yet has enormous potential of championing causes and effecting change.
We want to see our mothers work towards this effect. They can do a lot to impact on this male dominating atmosphere that Africa faces; by fighting for the rights of women, children and the oppressed in the society.
Stella Damasus was heavily criticized by a sizeable few and condemned by many on the video she fearlessly did. However, I want to believe the issue would have been different if she had the support of Nigeria’s First lady. Or if Patience Jonathan had been preoccupied with other equally important pressing issues, I don’t think Stella Damasus would have attacked her in the manner that she did.
Although I am not attracted to politicians or people with political ambitions, If I were the first lady of any country, I would take a cue from my “sister first ladies” in the USA and make sure that I leave more than just a mark in people’s lives and in the national history.

Those police thugs don't abide by the law

Columnist: Okey Ndibe
There’s this apocryphal story that a friend of mine, an exiled Zimbabwean writer, told me a few years ago. It went like this. President Robert Mugabe had sent one of his ministers to represent him at an important state function in Japan, to which other leaders from different countries were also invited. On the day of the event, Mr. Mugabe’s representative was beset by a monstrous, migraine-grade headache. There was a danger that he would not be able to attend the event.
Urgent arrangements were made to take the pain-racked Zimbabwean biggie to a hospital. Japanese doctors x-rayed his head to determine the source of his malaise. Then they prescribed one or two medications, and, pronto, the man became fit enough to attend the official ceremony. As the Zimbabwean official left the hospital, the Japanese doctors gave him a sealed envelope addressed to President Mugabe.
Back in Zimbabwe, the minister went straight to President Mugabe’s office and delivered the envelope. The president slit it open. As he read the short letter, an expression of astonishment seized his face. The letter contained a simple request, expressed in a disarmingly direct tone. The Japanese doctors offered, upon the minister’s death, to buy his brain for $10 million. Mr. Mugabe’s astonishment soon gave way to fury.
“What is this?” he raged. “I’m the president of this country, and nobody has offered even five hundred dollars for my brain. But the Japanese want to pay $10 million for the brain of a man who is my mere minister. Something is wrong here.” For a moment, he held his minister in a blistering gaze. “You must have told them that you’re the brain of my cabinet. In fact, you must have boasted that you do all the thinking for this country,” he accused the man.
The minister, beads of perspiration on his forehead, body quavering, assured Mr. Mugabe that he never made any such boast. “Please call them,” the fear-gripped minister suggested, afraid that his life was on the line. “They will confirm that I never claimed to be Zimbabwe’s brain.”
Mr. Mugabe held his rage in check, and then dialed Japan. “President Mugabe here,” he announced imperiously. “What is this nonsense about buying my minister’s brain for $10 million when he dies?”
“Well, sir,” said a Japanese doctor, “we’re delighted that you called. You see, we treated your minister for a paralyzing headache during his visit to Tokyo. We scanned his brain in order to find out what caused his headache. We marveled at what the scan showed. You see, Mr. President, your minister is 75 years old, but his brain is still almost brand new, hardly used. That’s why we made an offer to buy it when he dies. We plan to implant the brain in somebody who knows how to make use of a brain. Let me assure you, Mr. President, that your minister made scientific history. This was the first time scientists anywhere in the world discovered a virtually unused brain in a certified old man. By the way, sir, if you can find a few more unused brains among your ministers, your country can earn huge revenues from brain exports.”
Mr. Mugabe smiled. “That’s no problem. I guarantee a steady supply.”
This narrative – the parable of the brainless leader – struck me as a powerful way to grasp the tragedy of Nigeria and many African countries caught in “a recurrent cycle of stupidity,” to borrow a phrase used years ago by Wole Soyinka. As I write, President Goodluck Jonathan and his delegation are on their way to the United States, to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Jonathan and his delegation have visited numerous other countries in the world, among them France, the UK, South Africa, China, Ethiopia, Brazil, Botswana, Belgium, Rwanda, and Germany. Without exception – even if to varying degrees – these are countries whose institutions work, where a visitor immediately gets a sense of a vital, organized leadership bringing vision and intelligence to bear.
The Nigerian president and his cohorts must see, in many of the countries they haunt, that streets are planned; water runs; there’s dependable electric power; police officers do their jobs, without prompting or intervention by the powers-that-be; the judiciary is demonstrably independent; the healthcare system is healthy and caring; schools deliver quality education, equipping students with skills and ethical grounding; the environment is clean; and the economy is buoyant, constantly producing jobs and enhancing the quality of life of citizens and residents alike.
By contrast, Nigeria is a veritable zoo, a social jungle where might determines right, a sheepdom run by a coterie of mediocrities. To hear somebody described as a “chieftain” in Nigeria is, almost as a rule, to encounter a thief – a “thieftain”! When Nigerian officials speak about somebody as a “stakeholder,” the person so identified is invariably a certified, brainless buffoon who contributes nothing to society, but who receives huge handouts – oil blocks, security votes, constituency allowance, or inflated contracts. These thieftains and steakholders relish foreign trips aboard the presidential jets or in the first class cabins of commercial airlines. They gloat as they luxuriate in the comforts provided by the ingenuity and enterprise of other people, and bask in the fineries of societies that have struck a prudent balance between production and consumption.
Chinua Achebe wrote inThe Trouble with Nigeria,his most polemical work, “There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”
I’d add that there’s nothing wrong with the brains of Nigerian leaders – nor with the broad class of the country’s elite. The tragedy lies, I suggest, in the refusal of a good number of them to exercise their mental faculty for their good and the good of their society. In their shameful fascination with conspicuous consumption – especially of the goods and services of other people – those who run (and ruin) Nigeria forget that the expensive products they treasure and the comforts they bask in when they travel to better-organized societies – are the result of human imagination matched by commitment.

Omar Hammami of Daphne, Alabama, grew up Baptist and converted to Islam when he was in his teens. In a lengthy autobiography that Hammami posted online last year entitled "The Story of an American Jihadi," he explained his long journey from growing up Christian in a small town in Alabama to fighting on the front lines in Somalia with Al-Shabaab.
The journey began with a life-changing trip to Syria, the homeland of his father, when he was 15 that sparked his interest in Islam. Hammami wrote in his autobiography (PDF), "when I came back from that vacation, I had become a different person."
Over the past several years, Hammami rose up the ranks in Al-Shabaab, becoming an important leader. Disputes with other Al-Shabaab leaders led him to split off from the group. He was killed this month, probably by members of Al-Shabaab, according to Islamist websites.
In the wake of many of these developments, for the past three years, the Justice Department and the FBI have engaged in a serious effort to crack down on U.S. support for Al-Shabaab, in particular in Minnesota, in an effort codenamed Operation Rhino.
This seems to have had some success, as the number of Americans indicted for supporting Al-Shabaab on the front lines or with their wallets has dropped sharply since the launch of Operation Rhino.
Over the weekend, Al-Shabaab issued a list of nine names it claimed were among the attackers who carried out its deadly assault on the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Al-Shabaab alleged that three of the attackers were from the United States. The FBI is looking into whether these claims are true.
Whether or not any Americans played a role in the massacre in Nairobi that has claimed 62 lives, there is a deadly history of American support for Al-Shabaab.

The third American to conduct a suicide attack was Abdisalan Hussein Ali, a 22-year-old from Minneapolis who took part in a strike on African Union troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on October 29, 2011.
There may even have been a fourth American suicide attacker in Somalia. On September 17, 2009, two stolen U.N. vehicles loaded with bombs blew up at the Mogadishu airport, killing more than a dozen peacekeepers of the African Union. The FBI suspects that 18-year-old Omar Mohamud of Seattle was one of the bombers.
For those Americans who have traveled to Somalia to fight for Al-Shabaab, it has often proved to be a one-way ticket. A 2011 report by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security found that at least 15 Americans had died while fighting for Al-Shabaab (as well as three Canadians).
Some of the young men who volunteered to fight in Somalia had grown up in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, which is one of the poorest places in the United States. In recent years, Somali-American family incomes there averaged less than $15,000 a year, and the unemployment rate was 17%.
Al-Shabaab's American support network also extended well beyond Minnesota.
Basaaly Saeed Moalin, a cabdriver in San Diego who was in contact with an Al-Shabaab leader, was convicted of sending funds to the group along with three co-conspirators this year.
In St. Louis, Mohamud Abdi Yusuf pleaded guilty in 2012 of providing funds to Al-Shabaab.
A resident of Ohio, Ahmed Hussain Mahamud, was indicted in 2011 for funding Somali-Americans traveling to join Al-Shabaab.
Al-Shabaab's support network in the United States has reached beyond the Somali-American community. Ruben Shumpert, an African-American convert to Islam from Seattle, was killed in Somalia in 2008.
A former U.S. soldier, Craig B. Baxam, 24, of Laurel, Maryland, was arrested by Kenyan authorities in December 2011 as he tried to make his way to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab, which he told FBI agents he considered to be a religious duty.

UPDATED: 06:09 PM EDT 09.23.13
Of all al Qaeda's affiliated groups, the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab has over the past several years had the deepest links to the United States. Some 15 Americans have died fighting for Al-Shabaab, as many as four of them as suicide bombers in Somalia, and an American citizen even took up a leadership role in the group.
Al-Shabaab has also found supporters in places as diverse as Seattle, St. Louis, San Diego, Minnesota, Maryland, Ohio and Alabama.
Al-Shabaab had particular success recruiting Somali-Americans to its cause after the Ethiopian army invaded Somalia in 2006, which Al-Shabaab cast as Somalia being taken over by a "crusader" army. Ethiopia is a majority Christian nation.
The largest group of American citizens and residents who have provided manpower and money to Al-Shabaab reside in Minnesota. According to a count by the New America Foundation, 22 residents of Minnesota have funded or fought with Al-Shabaab during the past four years.
Three of them provided funds to Al-Shabaab, and 19 have been indicted for traveling to fight in Somalia or have died in the war there.
The story of Minnesotan support for Al-Shabaab began in late 2007, when Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax, an American citizen of Somali descent in his early 30s, and several other men met at a Minnesota mosque and discussed traveling to Somalis to fight for Al-Shabaab.
Faarax told the group that he had "experienced true brotherhood" while fighting in Somalia and that "jihad would be fun" and they would "get to shoot guns," according to the U.S. Justice Department.
That meeting resulted in seven men traveling from Minnesota to Somalia to fight for Al-Shabaab in late 2007.
One was Shirwa Ahmed, a 26-year-old naturalized American citizen. Ahmed became the first American to conduct a suicide attack when he drove a truck loaded with explosives toward a government compound in Puntland, northern Somalia, blowing himself up and killing 20 other people in October 29, 2008. He is buried in a cemetery in Burnsville, a suburb of Minneapolis.
Other American suicide attackers would follow. In early June 2011, Farah Mohamed Beledi, 27, of Minneapolis detonated a bomb, becoming one of two suicide attackers responsible for killing two African Union soldiers in Somalia, according to the FBI.

JECBOSS: Why is Amaechi making noise? Is he a saint? Sign of a drowning man! Click 'LIKE' if you think Amaechi is a BIGGER CRIMINAL!

go get a life

All na wash

No mind the bling bling pastor jor

Obasanjo vs Farida: Drummer and dancer Our Reporter September 23, 2013
By Maurice Chukwu
The heat generated by a recent interview former president Obasanjo granted Zero Tolerance, a magazine published by the EFCC takes my mind back to a novel I read a very long time ago: Cyprian Ekwensi’s The Drummer Boy. The story revolved around Akin, a talented blind boy who entertained people with wonderful drumming skill and melodious voice. Given the irresistible nature of the rhythm that flowed from his tambourine and the melody of his songs, the drummer boy becomes a focus for all each time he performs.
Just like Akin the drummer boy, Chief Obasanjo is a master-verbal-drummer. His calculated vocalizations are imbued with the sensual feel and hypnotism of Akin’s drumbeats. Each time he speaks, or rather drums, the earth stands up and listens. Those experienced at the spellbinding power of his drumbeats and melodious songs, dance briefly and retrieve. The inexperienced continue dancing unabashedly till they are left stark naked.
Obasanjo, whose administration established the EFCC, in the said interview, displayed another masterstroke at drumming. The rhythm flowing from OBJ’s tambourine as he beat his drum in the course of the interview was world class. He accused former vice president Atiku Abubakar of Sunday oftences and alleged that Atiku risked a jail sentence should he travel to the United States.
Of course, Atiku has heard the sound of the enchanting drums many a times. He media aide, Mallam Garba Shehu immediately hit back with equal venom. Said Atiku, President Obasanjo’s repeated jokes about Turaki not being able to go to America has become a cliché, tiresome and not true, so we are used to those taunts”.
In the same interview, Chief Obasanjo also said that former EFCC boss, Mrs. Farida Waziri, was a disaster to Nigeria’s effort against corruption, questioning her qualification for the appointment in the first place, and accusing her of having been appointed on the recommendation of convicted former governor of Delta State, James Ibori. Further concordant tunes flowing from OBJ’s drum suggested that Mrs. Waziri, a retired police officer, did so much during her tenure to reverse Nuhu Ribadu’s achievement in the war against corruption. Mrs. Waziri had succeeded Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as the EFCC boss in 2008. She was removed from the position almost two years ago by President Jonathan.
Unlike Atiku, who took OBJ’s drumbeats for a mere joke, Mrs. Waziri was seduced out of retirement and into public glare by the drumbeats. Ensnared and mesmerized and, with the agility of an athletic atilogwu dancer, she swiftly jumps into the dance arena and begins to rotate to the old school ‘iche-na mmadu-bu-ewu’ drum beats. She viewed OBJ’s taunts as ‘the height of mischief’. She accused OBJ of altering the EFCC Act so that he could appoint Nuhu Ribadu whom she succeeded as the EFCC boss and also manipulating the EFCC with Mr. Ribadu as his tool, to seek a third term in office. She defended her competence for the job by citing a string of academic and professional qualifications, amongst which she claimed to have supervised Mr. Ribadu and the current EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, when they all served in the Nigeria Police. She insisted that OBJ’s memory has being ‘blurred by his real age’. She then committed sacrilege as she retorts that she “will like to warn that those who live in glass house don’t throw stones and as such Obasanjo should not allow me open up on him”
Now, let’s take a sharp detour back to Cyprian Ekwensi’s The Drummer Boy. I am sure if Ekwensi were to be a modern-day Nollywood movies director, he would have flavoured the story with the concoction that a certain market woman who was entrapped by the allure and magnetism of Akin’s drumbeats danced and danced, oblivious of the fact that her wrapper has fallen off her waist even as she continues gyrating non-stop for many days, naked in the marketplace – to the snare of Akin’s work of genius. The last scene of the movie would have probably been when the charmed woman regained consciousness after a powerful jujuman engaged by her humiliated husband had exorcised seven strong spirits (which entered her from drums-land) off her deluded head.
Ribadu took to Twitter to state that ‘inasmuch as I try not to comment on EFCC after my tenure, I found Mrs Waziri’s utter lies totally unsafe to let pass. In fact, it was I that actually lectured her and others, on fraud investigation and prosecution’. Femi Fani-Kayode further attacked Waziri on Facebook with more venomous spleen. He screamed that ‘I am glad that President Olusegun Obasanjo has finally described the former Chairman of the EFCC, Farida Waziri, for the beast that she has always been’.
Almost immediately, a letter surfaced from the spirit world and starts circulating widely online. In the letter, printed on a purported EFCC official headed paper, Mrs. Waziri allegedly promised to reward Obasanjo by turning the EFCC against his opponents and critics if he would prevail on President Jonathan to approve a fresh term for her. Expectedly, Mrs. Waziri, still hypnotized on the dance floor, quickly issues another press statement disassociating herself from the letter, describing same as ‘a total forgery’ and threatened legal action against. those involved in its
Is it not sacrilegious for Madam Waziri, who occupied the position of Nigeria’s foremost corruption fighter for three solid years, to know some misdeeds by Obasanjo and fail to make it public during the subsistence of her tenure? Should she not have gone forward and opened up on Obasanjo a long time ago? If she does know something sinister about Obasanjo, why did she not approach any court of law to prosecute him? Is it not a shame that she never bothered to flip open Obasanjo’s file until she left office? Is it not sheer impiousness on her part to have waited until Obasanjo spoke against her?
Why now, after almost two years of leaving the EFCC that she is recounting what she ought to have done while in office? As these thoughts battled in my head, the words of blogger Jude Egbas came to my rescue: ‘Let Madam Farida spare us the drivel and can of worms on Obasanjo. It is already too late in the day to crow. We’ll rather lick our wounds in peace and bemoan our luck…..yet again’.
■ Chukwu, a legal practitioner, writes from Lagos. mauricechukwu@ gmail.com,

Fairfax consortium bids $4.7 billion to take BlackBerry private
Reuters- 2 hrs ago
By Alastair Sharp and Andrea Hopkins
TORONTO (Reuters) - Smartphone maker BlackBerry has agreed to go private in a $4.7 billion deal led by its biggest shareholder, allowing the on-the-go email pioneer to regroup away from public scrutiny after years of falling fortunes and slumping market share.
The $9 a share tentative offer, from a consortium led by property and casualty insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, will set a floor for any counteroffers that might emerge for Blackberry, which has been on the block since August.
As an investor, Fairfax Chief Executive Prem Watsa is often described as the Canadian Warren Buffett because he also takes the long view.
Blackberry shares peaked above $148 in June 2008 when the company's devices were still the top choice for bankers, politicians and lawyers.
The stock, halted pending the announcement on Monday, closed below the offer price on Nasdaq, at $8.82, indicating the market's lack of faith that other bids would emerge.
"I would think a competing buyout offer is quite unlikely,"said Elvis Picardo, strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver."The miniscule premium, and the muted market reaction, is another indication that the market views the odds of a competing bid as slim."
BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, once dominated the market for secure on-your-hip email. But it introduced consumer-friendly touchscreen smartphones only after it lost the lead to Apple Inc's iPhone and devices using Google Inc's Android operating system.
BlackBerry has until November 4 to seek superior offers, which the Fairfax group has the right to match. The group is seeking financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets to complete the deal and has until that November 4 deadline to conduct its due diligence.
A BlackBerry statement did not name members of the consortium, although many in the financial community see Canada's deep-pocketed and influential pension funds as likely participants.
"We need to be careful given disclosure constraints, but we can say that we are focused on a strong Canadian solution,"said Fairfax spokesman Paul Rivett.
The pension funds, with assets around the world, traditionally take a long-term view in their investment decisions. Officials at the biggest funds either did not reply to requests for comment, said they had no information or declined to comment.
"We never discuss whether or not we plan to enter into any investment,"said Deborah Allan, spokeswoman for Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
CANADIAN BUFFETT
Watsa stepped down from the BlackBerry board of directors in August, citing a potential conflict of interest, as the company said it was exploring a sale.
Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper quoted Watsa as saying that a significant amount of the equity in the deal will come from within the country. The consortium included neither strategic players, nor other technology firms, he said.
BlackBerry's recent challenging years have been in stark contrast to the rapid growth it previously enjoyed.
The Z10 touchscreen device that the company hoped would claw back market share from the iPhone thudded badly at launch in January, and it has lost ground even in emerging markets where it had carved out an important role.
A spokeswoman for phone company MTN Nigeria, for example, said that while BlackBerrys are still very relevant in Nigeria,"the adoption rate has declined significantly from a year ago due to lack of newer low to mid-end smart phone models."In Brazil, locally made iPhones are the first choice for government workers."I have never seen a Brazilian government employee using a BlackBerry,"said one government source.
And while some U.S. government agencies still use only the BlackBerry, others allow devices like iPhones as well.
The American Lawyer surveyed 83 of the top 200 U.S. law firms in November 2012 and found that 90 percent of them expected to see a drop-off in the number of Blackberry devices.
John Sroko, chief information officer at Duane Morris, said that three years ago the firm only offered BlackBerry devices because they were deemed most secure. But in recent years, the firm has allowed their lawyers to use other devices too.
"People like Blackberry for the keyboard and email,"he said."The switch was caused by a better browsing experience and the apps."
NOBODY ELSE
Donald Yacktman, president and founder of Yacktman Asset Management which holds something under 1 percent of BlackBerry according to Thomson Reuters data, said he does not expect a counteroffer to emerge.
"This is pretty much Plan B. They've clearly not hit the targets,"he said.
Jack Gold, principal analyst and founder of J. Gold Associates, said"this is probably the best possible outcome of several unattractive options for BlackBerry."
"Going private and potentially bringing back the founder of the company, Mike Lazaridis (as has been rumored) could buy them some time to put the house in order,"he noted.
Lazaridis, BlackBerry's co-CEO until early 2012 and a board member until March, did not respond to requests for comment.
On Friday, BlackBerry said it would step back from the hypercompetitive consumer market and focus on what it calls enterprise customers - businesses, governments, legal firms and security forces.
The company warned it would report revenue on the sale of just 3.7 million of its phones for the entire second quarter, and write down almost $1 billion.
By contrast, Apple sold 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models in three days after their Friday launch.
A Defense Department official said the Pentagon had more than 600,000 mobile devices in use in spring, including 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 devices with Apple operating systems and 8,700 smart phones with Android systems.
"We are moving towards a secure mobile communications infrastructure that supports a variety of devices,"the official said.
Blackberry has rarely traded below $9 a share even in recent years when it issued profit warnings, slashed jobs and launched devices that arrived late to disinterested audiences.
In the past 12 months the stock has risen as high as $18.32 and fallen as low as $6.22 on the Nasdaq.
BDT&Company, LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors, and Shearman&Sterling LLP and McCarthy Tétrault LLP are acting as legal advisors to Fairfax in connection with the transaction.
(Writing by Janet Guttsman; Additional reporting by Solarina Ho, Julie Gordon, John Tilak, Leah Schnurr, Cameron French, Sinead Carew, Todd Benson, Tim Cocks and Casey Sullivan; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Carol Bishopric and Richard Chang)

Somali leader says threat of al-Shabab is global
Associated Press- 6 hrs ago
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Islamic extremist group claiming responsibility for the weekend terrorist attack at a Kenyan mall presents a threat not just to the region or Africa but to the world at large, the president of Somalia said Monday on a trip to Ohio.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said reports that some of the attackers may have been Somalis who lived in the United States illustrate the global nature of al-Shabab.
"Today, there are clear evidences that Shabab is not a threat to Somalia and Somali people only,"Mohamud said in a speech at Ohio State University."They are a threat to the continent of Africa, and the world at large."
Kenyan authorities say dozens of people have died in the attack. Mohamud said he has spoken with the president of Kenya and plans to visit the country.
Mohamud likened the attacks to an al-Shabab assault on Somalia's main court complex in April that killed dozens, and a 2010 al-Shabab attack in Uganda's capital that killed about 76 people.
Mohamud said his government is committed to uprooting al-Shabab. He said maintaining security is his top priority as Somalia rebuilds after decades of civil war and terrorist threats. But a relapse is a possibility, he warned.
In his speech, he called on people from Somalia who are living in Ohio to consider coming home to help rebuilding efforts. Central Ohio has the second-largest number of Somalis in the U.S. after the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., area. The president said his current government has Somalis from the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere. Many more have returned to set up businesses.
"The government will prepare the ground for you to come,"Mohamud said.
The president pledged to continue the policy of creating a unified country bringing together all regions. He also promised free elections in 2016. The key to success, he said, is a country stable in all ways.
"Stable in terms of security, stable in terms of politics and stable in terms of economy,"Mohamud said.
Mohamud started his U.S. visit in Washington, then planned to travel Monday to New York for a speech at the United Nations.
Secretary of State John Kerry praised Mohamud's efforts building a government Friday.
"We encourage you to continue the work of reaching out, of reconciliation and rebuilding the democracy, and I know he's committed to that,"Kerry said.
Outside Monday's university event and at another speech Sunday night, a few dozen Somali protesters challenged Mohamud, saying he was not committed to the constitution or creating a unified country, and he was siphoning too much international aid to the capital of Mogadishu.
"We would like him to unify the country, not separate the country,"said Liban Abdi, who runs a health care business in Columbus and has lived in the city for 14 years.
___

Fashola is a failure

Rivers PDP: Wike gives Amaechi condition for peace
September 17, 2013by Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt
Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike
| credits: File copy
THE supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, on Sunday gave the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi a condition for peace and before the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party could be returned to the governor.
Wike said if Amaechi desired the state PDP structure the governor should hand over his office to Mr. Celestine Omehia, who was at the helm of affairs in the state before the October 2007 court ruling, which removed him from office.
The minister spoke during the inauguration of the chapter executives of the Grassroots Development Initiative in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area.
He maintained that the state PDP was ready to hand over its structure to the governor if he was ready to surrender his position to Omehia.
Wike said, “As far as the PDP structure in Rivers State is concerned, nobody gave us any PDP structure. We fought for our mandate and we won in court.
“If they say that they should take the structure from us after the court had given judgment, therefore, the PDP should also take the governorship in 2007 and return it to the man who was serving as governor at that time.
“Our own condition is this: we will surrender the party structure since he says he will no longer obey court judgement. He should also surrender the court judgement of 2007. If you (Amaechi) do that, then we would also surrender the court judgment that brought Felix Obuah.
“We are telling the PDP national leadership that our own condition is this; we are willing to make peace. We are willing to surrender the party structure, if he (Amaechi) would also surrender that mandate that the court gave in 2007. He should give it back to the man who had that mandate.”
Reacting, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, described Wike’s condition to Amaechi as unreasonable, maintaining that the current situation in the state had nothing to do with the position of the governor.
Okocha pointed out that rather than come to the state to campaign for President Jonathan and abuse Amaechi, the minister should face the challenges facing the nation’s educational sector and bring in ideas that could improve the sector.
He stated that Wike had shown that the only way he could sustain his position as a minister was to continue to attack Amaechi, whom he (Wike) perceived to be Jonathan’s enemy.
Okocha said, “What he is portraying is the saying that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. Let him bring good ideas to the educational sector. The only thing he is doing to sustain his stay in the ministry is to continue to abuse Amaechi.
“Wike is just a beneficiary of undeserved goodwill. He should be able to tell the people what the President has done while campaigning for him here in Rivers State and stop abusing Amaechi who has done so much for him.”

Excitement is almost palpable in Anambra State as candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Willie Obiano, flags off his governorship campaign. The exercise is billed to commence today in Awka, the capital.
Obianao’s emergence on the scene, according to political analysts in Anambra State, has further raised the bar. Watchers of political events in Anambra believe that the contest is essentially a two-horse race between the ex-banker and Senator Chris Ngige. Not much is expected of other candidates, they argue.
Of all the candidates bracing up for the November 16 governorship election, Obiano is considered as one of the most “outstanding.”
Unlike others, Obiano is the political dark-horse, untainted by the political corrosion in Nigeria and the greed that sounded the death-knell on many career bankers.
His years in Fidelity Bank, where he played a formidable role as the Executive Director and Head of Business Banking, were the bank’s most buoyant years as his financial wizardry and vast contacts shored up the bank’s multiple forays in the domestic and international financial markets for funding.
Obiano is fondly remembered by his erstwhile colleagues in the bank as an ebullient and amiable leader who knew when to deploy the carrot and the stick to maximum effect.
Part of what stands Obiano apart is that he is from the oil-bearing Aguleri in Anambra North Senatorial District, which Governor Peter Obi has adjudged best suited to produce his successor.
Grassroots politicians and kingmakers in Anambra North see him as one of their own, because of his generosity of spirit and philanthropy

Presidency sources have disclosed how President Goodluck Jonathan pressured Tanko Isiaku Gwamma, the treasurer of the Abubakar Baraje-led new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), to announce his resignation on Sunday.
In a statement earlier today, Mr. Gwamma claimed that he arrived at the decision to quit “after a careful study of the unfolding events in the polity and a deep sober reflection of the consequences of the outcome of such impasse on our party.” However, two reliable sources within the Presidency revealed that his arms were twisted and he was maneuvered into leaving the splinter faction of the party and renouncing his post as treasurer.
“Alhaji Tanko Isiaku Gwamma resigned after he was promised a juicy political appointment,” said one of our sources. The source added that Mr. Gwamma asked for some time to weigh his options, but Mr. Jonathan’s aides made it clear that they wanted him to act immediately. “He initially insisted that he needed to consult before tendering his letter [of resignation], but Alhaji Gwamma was asked to bring his letter immediately and speak with reporters at the [Presidential] Villa. He could not reject the offer,” the source added.
.SaharaReporters also learnt that Mr. Gwamma was not warned beforehand that cameramen and reporters would be brought in and he would be asked to speak to them immediately announcing his departure from the Baraje faction of the party. One source said he hesitated a little before consenting to speak to the press.
He stated, “Our desire is for the PDP to continue to lead while others follow. As such, we must eschew all vices capable of unnecessarily heating up the polity.
“I pledge my loyalty to the Bamanga Tukur leadership, while calling on all party faithful to do [the] same.”
One of our sources said the Presidency, Mr. Bamanga Tukur, who heads a faction of the party, and Tony Anenih, the faction’s chairman of the Board of Trustees, had decided that the best strategy for confronting the Baraje group was to use cash and political appointments to woo some of its members back to the Tukur fold.
The source stated that former Vice President Abubakar Atiku was the main financier of the splinter group, adding that most of the seven governors with the Baraje group were scared of funneling money to it for fear of the Presidency sending officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after them. “Atiku has money, but he can’t match Federal financial power,” the source said. He said the Jonathan administration was confident of using the strategy that won Mr. Gwamma to persuade more members of the Baraje group to rejoin the Tukur group.
“In the game of politics, money talks. And the fact is that Alhaji Baraje’s group cannot mobilize the kind of money that Dr. Bamanga Tukur commands,” said the source.
C

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has written the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, asking it not to tamper with its nomination of Mr. Tony Nwoye as its candidate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State.
In a letter to the commission dated Friday September 13, 2013 the PDP through its counsel, J.K. Gadzama, alerted the commission to reports in the media where it was alleged that Senator Andy Uba had been upheld as the party’s candidate for the election upon the order of the courts.
In the letter, signed by Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama and Managing Partner, J.N Egwuonwu Esq., it was deposed that the judgment of the court ordering the parties to the dispute on the legitimacy of the Anambra State PDP executive should maintain the status quo, however, did not in any way infer that the nomination of Nwoye through the primary conducted by the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC should be upturned.
Noting that the conduct of gubernatorial primaries is the exclusive function of the NEC of political parties as stipulated by Section 87 of the Electoral Act, the letter said that a change of leadership even if enforced on the party cannot alter the job procedurally done by the NEC which produced Nwoye as the party’s candidate.
Integrity of the commission
While appealing to Jega to maintain the integrity of the commission under his leadership, the PDP while referring to the order of the Federal High Court asking the parties in Anambra State to maintain the status quo, wrote: “Sadly, this order of court, most especially the third paragraph which states that the 1st and 2nd Defendants (the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Independent National Electoral Commission) should recognise and deal with the 1st Plaintiff (Ejike Ogbuebego) in all matters in Anambra State has been badly misconstrued and the position of the court deliberately and mischeviously misrepresented.
Soludo, Ogene, Odenigbo, Uzoh, Mrs. Ekwunife , Okonkwo, Ndubuisi and Ifeanyi Uba
Some media houses even reported that the Court had upheld Andy Uba’s nomination as the PDP Anambra State Gubernatorial Candidate when nothing of the sort transpired in court.
Maintaining that the court order “does not in any way relate to the nomination and election of Hon. Tony Nwoye as the Gubernatorial Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State (which nomination and selection has not been invalidated or nullified by any court in Nigeria), rather it is with respect to who is the State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State.
“The issue of who is the valid gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State does not in any way concern the state chairman of the party in Anambra State; rather it is a function of the National Executive Committee of the party,” Gadzama wrote .
He made copious references to judicial pronouncements which he said were in accordance to Section 87 (1)(4)(b)(i) of the Electoral Act as amended which he said “confirmed that only the National Executive Committee of the party has the power to conduct primaries for governorship elections in Nigeria.”
“Therefore, the fact that the Court directed the party to recognise Ejike Oguebego and work with him in respect of its affairs in Anambra State does not translate to the recognition of Andy Uba who never participated in the primaries organised by the National Executive Committee of the party. Andy Uba cannot therefore by any form of ingenuity become the Anambra State PDP Gubernatorial Candidate when he was never an aspirant along with several others at the Primary Election that was transmitted by media houses in Nigeria and watched both nationally and globally.
“Your esteemed commission is therefore urged to and enjoined to tow the path of legality and accept the nomination form of Hon. Tony Nwoye who is the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for Anambra State, having won the primaries of August 24, 2013 organsied by the only appropriate National organ of the Party that has the constitutional and statutory powers to do so, to the exclusion of all other organs.
“This recognition is necessary to ensure that the polity is not unduly overheated as the Commission’s silence on the issue has led to misconceptions, most notably the recent report by media houses that Dr. Andy Uba had been declared the Anambra State gubernatorial candidate by the Federal High Court.
“The Commission is therefore urged to recognise Hon. Tony Nwoye as the Anambra State Gubernatorial Candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party as required by law. His name has already been submitted to your Commission.”
The letter was copied to the Secretary of INEC, Chairman Legal Services Committee of INEC, Director of Legal Services, INEC, Federal Commissioner, Political Party Monitoring INEC, Director Political Party Monitoring, INEC, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, national chairman of PDP and the Acting National Secretary of PDP among others.
Ubah kicks off campaign in style
THE Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah has kicked off his campaign at the famous Holy Trinity Cathedral field, Onitsha in style with a mission statement that his vision for Anambra State is bigger than whatever fears he had been made to face.
Addressing supporters, Ubah said he had gone through pains in the course of wanting to serve Anambra people. He insisted that he is not deterred because he is determined to take the state to a higher level.
He said: “My Bible tells me that anything that will be fruitful will be achieved through hard work. Many people have been boasting that they will stop me, but I believe in God to take care of every situation. I don’t want to over advertize myself, but I want to assure the people of this state that I am prepared for this race.
“I have no godfather, but I have God Almighty who has been directing our affairs. When other political parties are busy fighting each other, we are busy preparing for the election and with your support, we will reach our destination,” he said.
Ubah said he believed in the ability of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega to conduct free and fair election in November and urged the electorate to ensure that their votes counted.
Essentially, he listed his priorities if elected governor to include provision of adequate security, building of super infrastructure, industrialization, job creation, youth empowerment and provision of quality health care services, among others.
National chairman of LP, Mr. Dan Nwanyanwu said Ubah is currently facing what Governor Olusegun Mimiko faced while he was campaigning in Ondo State, adding that those who are saying that they own President Goodluck Jonathan are not telling the truth because the president is also a very good friend of LP.
Nwanyanwu said: “Lagos State government deported Igbos and one of those who want to govern Anambra State said they are right in doing that. When LP forms government here in Anambra State, we won’t deport Yorubas, Hausas or anybody because they are all Nigerians.
When Governor Mimiko faced a similar situation in Ondo, he did not deport anybody, but he rather built a modern market for the Igbos where they are doing their business happily. That is the kind of thing LP government under Ubah will do.”
According to him, Ifeanyi Ubah is a self –made young man who has a lot of ideas on how to develop Anambra State and should therefore be given the opportunity to do so.
Waiting for the final list of candidates
Tomorrow is the last day for the substitution of names of candidates by the various political parties for the November 16 election and there are indications that there might be surprises.
Such surprises are expected from the PDP and other smaller political parties that have been waiting to adopt some of the candidates that failed to make it during their party primaries.
Also, it was gathered weekend that the churches are deeply involved in the selection of deputies for some of the political parties that have selected their candidates.
For instance, when a governorship candidate of a political party hinted of a name of a member of the Anglican Church, the Bishop in charge of his Diocese invited the said deputy governorship aspirant for questioning.
The man’s name is among those that will be submitted to INEC tomorrow.

•Says governor’s bid to remove him as minister failed
•Minister is an empty vessel— Amaechi
The Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, has described Rotimi Amaechi’s government in Rivers State as fraudulent. He asked the governor to pack and go and that he is no longer sleeping, as he (Wike) promised him.
He also declared that he would not allow Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), to open a secretariat of the parallel Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, not even in Government House, Port Harcourt.
Wike, a two-term Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, stressed that Amaechi is not God and cannot be God, while teasing him that the condition he gave President Goodluck Jonathan to remove him as a minister did not work.
He stated these yesterday evening at the playground of the Girls’ Secondary School, Abonnema of Kalabari Kingdom, the headquarters of the coastal Akuku-Toru LGA of River state, at the LGA and Wards (17) inauguration of the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), of which Wike is the grand patron.
There was a thanksgiving service earlier at the same venue, with the minister of state for education, whom sources said would soon be made a senior minister, arriving the venue at 4:41 pm, in an Aero helicopter, marked BN-BHG, which left immediately.
Wike immediately proceeded to the nearby palace of the Amanyanabo (monarch) of Abonnema, King Gbobo Disrael Bobmanuel, on a courtesy visit, with the royal father asking the minister to give the ancient town a federal secondary school.
The minister of state for education returned to the playground at 5:41 pm for the inauguration, while the chopper returned at 5:50 pm, but had to wait till the end of the programme.
Wike, a former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, was also the Director-General of the Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011, before being appointed as a minister, while he and Amaechi are both Ikwerre.
Earlier on Thursday, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, inaugurated the Rivers secretariat of the New PDP at No. 38, Forces Avenue, old GRA, Port Harcourt, before policemen invaded and sealed off the expansive premises.
The New PDP secretariat, directly opposite the old GRA Police Station, was the headquarters of Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011.
On Thursday evening, policemen prevented Amaechi and the visiting former speakers from accessing the nearby Government House, through the Forces Avenue.
Amaechi, through Okocha, in a telephone interview last night, described the minister of state for education as a misfit, empty vessel, intellectually dry, a ragamuffin and playing God.
Wike said: “Change has come to Rivers State. I will plead with you to join me and say this: ‘Amaechi, you are not God and you cannot be God,’ because you are a tenant. Your house rent has expired and you cannot pay. Pack and go. Tenant, pack and go.
“Man proposes, God disposes. They thought they could give condition, because of your prayers, all they have done have come to nothing. Help me thank Mr. President, for the confidence he has in me, to keep me back, as a minister in the Federal Executive Council.
“Continue to support our brother, continue to support our son. Preach the message that come 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan will come back. Continue to support Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“There is only one PDP. Those who said they have two million votes; they are still going for meetings to give conditions. We are not accepting any condition. The only Chairman of this party is Felix Obuah.
“They wanted to dare us, to see whether we are still in government. We are in government. We are PDP government and nobody can open office of any parallel party in Rivers State. They should go to their Government House. I will not allow them to open it, even in Government House, because their rent has expired.”
According to him, “Before, they said we were Abuja politicians. Now they are saying we are in Rivers State every week. The politicians have come home. When I told them they would not sleep, they did not understand. Are they sleeping now? You can now see 4-1-9. They have been showing the same model primary school since 2007. 4-1-9 government, pack and go.”
Amaechi stated that every citizen of Nigeria had the rights of the freedom of association, freedom of speech and the freedom of movement, and that the minister of state for education had no right to restrict the governor’s movement.
Rivers chief of staff said: “Wike should be told that the new PDP, led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje, has come to stay in Rivers State. There is nothing anybody can do about it. The secretariat of the New PDP has been opened and the party’s flags have been hoisted.
“Wike has no pedigree. He is a tout. I do not know who is more 4-1-9 than Wike. He awarded to himself, all the contracts under the auspices of Almajiri, using pseudo names, without following due process. He never bothered about the quality or standard of education in Nigeria, but he is concerned about infrastructure to make money. ASUU strike does not concern Wike.
“Wike, as a lawyer, has never worked in any firm. He has never practised law anywhere in Nigeria. Wike, as the supervising minister of education, is a misfit and appointed in error. Wike is one of the indices to measure a failed state, by putting a square peg in a round hole, when all nations of the world know the importance of qualitative education.
“Governor Amaechi is not playing God. Wike is the person playing God. What is Wike’s business of campaigning for Rivers 2015 governorship in 2013, when INEC has not lifted ban on campaigns? He is using President Jonathan as a smokescreen. Wike is playing to the gallery, instead of focusing on ASUU strike.”
The Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Uche Secondus, in his remarks, stated that change had come to Rivers State, while the Rivers PDP Chairman, Chief Felix Obuah, said there was no cause for alarm, with President Jonathan to be re-elected in 2015.
The President-General of the GDI, Bright Amaewhule, said members of the Rivers PDP would never be part of the Baraje-led PDP, while the Coordinator of the GDI in Akuku-Toru LGA, George Georgewill, assured that Wike would ensure good governance.

The Presidency yesterday described former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister and Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Malam Nasir el-Rufai, as “a double-minded and an unstable man in all his ways”.
The Special Assistant (News Media) to the President, Mr. Reno Omokri, made this remark in a statement issued in Abuja.
He was reacting to an interview published in the Saturday Sun of September 14, in which el-Rufai said: “Nothing can make Jonathan succeed.”
el-rufai said the President “is grossly incompetent, he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t even understand the issues”.
The presidential aide urged the public not to be misled by the machinations of el-Rufai, “a man who is in dire need of prayers and perhaps psychological assistance”.
Omokri recalled that contrary to his position in the interview, el-Rufai had at a meeting with Ambassador John Campbell in April 2007 said that Jonathan, the then vice presidential nominee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), “is clean and honest”.
He said el-Rufai told the ambassador that “Jonathan was the only candidate that met Obasanjo’s guidelines on honesty.”
According to him, unknown to el-Rufai, the ambassador kept a record of their conversation, which is now a public record in America.
He said: “Beyond that, Nasir el-Rufai, who had gone into voluntary exile under the presidency of Malam Umaru Musa Yar’Adua after he was accused of corruption and abuse of office while he was Minister of the FCT, felt safe to return to Nigeria as soon as President Jonathan ascended to power.”
Omokri recalled that when el-Rufai returned to Nigeria in 2010, he visited President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on May 11, 2010, and was the first major political figure to call on him to contest for the 2011 presidential election.
Omokri said in the double speak nature of el-rufai, he showered encomiums on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the latest interview, contrary to a damning conclusion on the General in 2010.
He recalled that el-Rufai on October 6, 2010, said Buhari was not a suitable person to rule the country.
“Mallam el-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded.
“His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known.
“In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new.
“Against all canons of legal decency, he used retroactive laws to execute three young men for drug-peddling after they were convicted by a military tribunal and not regular courts of law.
“Buhari was so high handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity even from truthful reporting.
“That obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defence, was used to jail journalists and cow the media as a whole.
“That tyrannical legislation shows the essence of his intolerance. These are facts of recent history.
“The story of counter-trade and import licensing, the cornerstone of Buhari’s stone-age economic strategy and those whose interests it served, is a tale for another day.”
el-Rufai also came under fire yesterday for his comments on the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.
el-Rufai, at the weekend, in an interview in a national newspaper (not The Nation) said: “Look, Pastor Oritsejafor is the propaganda chief of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He lacks credibility. He is not a religious leader. He is a religious pretender. From his statements, he is a bigot, he is an ethnic irredentist and no one should take him seriously. It is sad that such a person is the head of CAN. So, he can say whatever he wants to say, but we know who he is working for, we know who gave him his private jet. So, why should we worry about someone like that? He has zero credibility.”

Update4 hours ago
Towards resolving the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday met with the aggrieved governors at the First Lady Conference room in the Presidential Villa.
The aggrieved governors had on the 31st of August break away from the main party to form the ‘New PDP’ under the chairmanship of Kawu Baraje.
Journalists were barred from entering the venue of the meeting which started some minutes after 4 p.m. They were told that the meeting did not need media coverage.
Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, wearing white shirt, drove himself to the First Lady office around 5:14 p.m. in a Black Range Rover jeep with plate number Nasarawa AE 153 NBB behind Babangida Aliyu, Niger State Governor’s vehicle.
Other aggrieved governors at the meeting included Kwara State, Abdulafatah Ahmed, Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, Jigawa State, Sule Lamido,
Among the Pro-Jonathan governors at the meeting included Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema, Cross Rivers State , Liyel Imoke, Kogi State, Idris Wada, Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwanbo,

THE political crisis in Rivers State further deepened on Saturday when the supervising Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, said the State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, should stop playing God.
Wike made this remark during the inauguration of ward and chapter executives of the Grassroots Development Initiative in Abonnema, Rivers State.
Amaechi and the minister have been in a long drawn battle over who controls the Peoples Democratic Party in the state since the political crisis began.
The minister, who is the grand patron of the GDI, a group used to mobilise Rivers people for President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP, called on Amaechi to leave the PDP, saying, “Amaechi, pack and go. Your rent has expired.”
“Amaechi you are not God. Amaechi, I say you are not God, and you cannot be God because you are a tenant, your house rent has expired. Therefore, pack and go.”
Explaining that those giving President Goodluck Jonathan conditions for peace to reign in the state should be ashamed of themselves, Wike added that their plans had failed.
On the opening of a parallel PDP in the state, the minister maintained that it was not possible for the New PDP to exist in the Rivers.
Describing the state chairman of the party as the leader of the PDP in the state, Wike vowed that theNew PDPwould not be allowed to exist in the state, adding that any move to set a parallel PDP will be frustrated.
He said, “There is only one PDP in the state. We are not accepting any condition. Our only leader is Felix Obuah. We are a PDP government and we cannot allow parallel office in Rivers State.
“Their rent has expired. Even if they want to open it at the Government House, we cannot allow them. We will make sure that we frustrate every move to open a parallel PDP in this state.”
The minister, however, charged the people of the state not to relent in their support for President Jonathan, especially as it concerned the 2015 presidential election.
“All they have done have failed. Nothing will make you to change. Continue to support our son, Mr. President. In 2015, mobilise and make sure Jonathan wins.
“When I told them they would not sleep, they thought we are playing. Are they sleeping now? They should pack and go,” the minister added.
Reacting, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Mr. Tony Okocha, said Wike was not decide where the people should lean politically, adding that the freedom of association in the constitution gives the right to join any political party of their choice.
Okocha noted that theNew PDPhad come to stay despite sealing of its secretariat in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
“Wike is not in a position to decide where we should lean. We have our inalienable rights as citizens of Nigeria, which include the freedom of association. We are also aware of our limitations.
“TheNew PDPhas come to stay in Rivers State. Our flags are official, not minding what their co-travellers; the police are doing around that axis,” he stressed.
Okocha, disagreed with the minister that Amaechi was playing God, saying, “Wike is the man who is acting the octopus. He is the one who is acting God. For him to have said Amaechi and Rivers will sleep with one eye open means he is the one playing God.”

A vaccine for the monkey
equivalent of HIV appears to
eradicate the virus, a study
suggests.
Research published in the journal
Nature has shown that vaccinated
monkeys can clear Simian
Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV)
infection from their bodies.
It was effective in nine of the 16
monkeys that were inoculated.
The US scientists say they now want
to use a similar approach to test a
vaccine for HIV in humans.
Prof Louis Picker, from the Vaccine
and Gene Therapy Institute at
Oregon Health and Science
University, said: "It's always tough
to claim eradication - there could
always be a cell which we didn't
analyse that has the virus in it. But
for the most part, with very
stringent criteria... there was no
virus left in the body of these
monkeys."
Search and destroy
The research team looked at an
aggressive form of virus called
SIVmac239, which is up to 100
times more deadly than HIV.
Infected monkeys usually die within
two years, but in some inoculated
primates the virus did not take
hold.
The vaccine is based on another
virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV),
which belongs to the herpes family.
It used the infectious power of CMV
to sweep throughout the body. But
instead of causing disease, it has
been modified to spur the immune
system into action to fight off the
SIV molecules.
"It maintains an armed force, that
patrols all the tissues of the body,
all the time, indefinitely," explained
Prof Picker.
The researchers gave rhesus
macaque monkeys the vaccine, and
then exposed them to SIV.
They found that at first the
infection began to establish and
spread. But then the monkeys'
bodies started to respond,
searching out and destroying all
signs of the virus.
Of the monkeys that successfully
responded to the vaccine, they were
still clear of infection between one-
and-a-half and three years later.
Prof Picker said his team was still
trying to work out why the
vaccination worked in only about
half of the monkeys.
"It could be the fact that SIV is so
pathogenic that this is the best you
are ever going to get.
"There is a battle going on, and half
the time the vaccine wins and half
the time it doesn't," he said.
Human trials
The researchers are now testing the
vaccine to see if it can be used
after SIV exposure to treat and
potentially cure infected monkeys.
They also want to see if the
technique could work in humans.
Prof Picker said: "In order to make a
human version we have to make
sure it is absolutely safe.
The researchers now want to move
from monkeys to test the vaccine in
humans
"We have now engineered a CMV
virus which generates the same
immune response but has been
attenuated [modified to lose its
virulence] to the point where we
think it is unequivocally safe."
This would first have to pass
through the regulatory authorities,
but if it does, he said he hoped to
start the first clinical trials in
humans in the next two years.
Commenting on the research, Dr
Andrew Freedman, from Cardiff
University School of Medicine, said:
"This suggests that prophylactic
vaccines - vaccines designed to
prevent infection - using CMV
vectors may be a promising
approach for HIV.
"While they may not prevent the
initial infection, they might lead to
subsequent clearance, rather than
the establishment of chronic
infection."

SOURCE: mobile.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24051860