₦airaland Forum

– The resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region has been a source of worry to many Nigerians – The issue has been in the front burner in the polity for a while now – President Muhammadu Buhari seem to have found a way to resolve the issue If the report by Leadership newspaper is anything to go by, the managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and first Presidential Adviser on the Amnesty Programme, Timi Alaibe, may return to the post. A source in the presidency squealed that that President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to bring back Alaibe who has huge influence in the Niger Delta region.

Alaibe is credited with reconciling, rehabilitating and reintegrating ex-militants into the society after they laid down their arms in 2009.
He is said to have links with former and current militants and has been fingered as one man that can bring the present agitation to a halt. The report stated that President Buhari is very disturbed by the recent frequent attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta, especially as it affects the country’s finances. The idea of bring back Alaibe is said to be an advice form a senior security and intelligence chief, who recommended that Alaibe be brought back to manage the amnesty office to curb the recent attacks.

“Even though the nation’s security agencies are on top of the situation in the region, the affected officials have been accused of not doing enough to solve the problem. “The perception in the presidency is that the amnesty man (Boroh) is far detached from the people, he does not know the militants well, and we cannot just go into a military operation that will take innocent lives in the name of looking for the boys when there is an easier way to reach the militants and rebuild confidence. “I think at our level, we have done our bit by suggesting to the political leadership to bring Timi Alaibe on board so that we can avoid some of these military operations. “I can bet you that once we engage in any operation, it will take a minimum of 16 months to complete because times have changed. “It is now very clear to the president that some of the ministers from the Niger Delta" the source said.

reverendfather:
facially toolz ugly die. if not for her other features ehn, it would have been a disaster.

Any lady who is sleeping with men for money, using her lack of job as excuse is a child who lacks proper home training and has been destroyed by the spirit of "instant gratification", without her even knowing.

There are many ways to get a job or get someone to consider and assist you financially to start a business, no matter how small. But such will only happen if you are not arrogant, feeling too big of yourself.
The beautiful lady few days back, who stood on the side of the road with a placard that showed she's a Computer Science graduate who needs a job, has just found favour.

sources say the young lady was invited by Billionaire businessman, Tony Elumelu, who is the Chairman of UBA and other big companies like Heirs Holdings, after he read her story online.

He has indicated his readiness to give her something meaning to do and make a decent living. I love that!

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Bassey Akpan, on Monday advocated special amnesty for owners of Nigeria’s stolen money, stashed in the various banks all over the World in order to generate enough forex to drive the nation’s economy.

Akpan, who stated this in his office while addressing journalists, explained that the country currently have hundreds of billions of dollars stashed in various banks abroad and the countries where they were kept, are using them to drive their own economy while Nigerians are suffering.
He said, “The time has come when we have to think outside the box and my own position is this, it is possible that the government can declare amnesty on stolen money. Let every Nigerian that has taken money out of this country be given amnesty to bring back the money and invest in the country.

“We have hundreds of billions of dollars stashed outside the country in the international banks which are being used to drive their economy. Other countries are enjoying this money while we are suffering in Nigeria.

“When owners of the Nigeria’s stolen foreign currencies bring them back to the country as a result of the amnesty, a lot of foreign exchange can be generated to fund our local consumption and we can set target.”

He said those who had stolen the nation’s money and taken them abroad, would in the process, be encouraged to bring back, 70 percent of the money and invest in Nigeria’s economy.

He described as unnecessary, the current pains, which an average Nigerian was being subjected to when the government have what it takes to turn the economy around in their favour.

He said, “Why are we suffering in the midst of plenty? Amnesty was created for militancy, we should create amnesty for anybody that has taken money outside this country so that they can invest them in the country. We can generate a hundred billion dollar in the process in less than six months.

“We need enough forex to fund our importation, rebuild our industries, establish capacity locally and import raw materials for industries before thinking of exporting finished products.

Where we are as a country now, we should begin to look inward.

“One thing is to fight corruption another thing is to let your battle as a fighter of corruption yield the appropriate results. Our economy based on the statistics available to us has gone into full blown recession. There is reduction in revenue collection based on the basis of oil export because of the dwindling global oil crisis.

“The cost of producing a barrel of crude in Nigeria is about $35 per barrel and it is being sold for $48. That means that as a country we earn less than $13 per barrel.

“Countries like Saudi Arabia, and Iran and other co-OPEC countries had fallen back on their quantity to meet up their demands but in Nigeria, where we are losing 800 barrels of oil per day when we are also supposed to be boosting our production.

“We are expected to use income from oil to develop other sectors of the economy. That is why I believe very strongly that, since some countries had also done it in the past, Nigeria also needs to grant amnesty to those who are in possession of our money that we need to develop.

Minesota1:
First hand experience..m still wowed by the battery life

Adeniyimi:
You are right bro. Only those people that have never travel out of Nigeria believe Nigerians are suffering, many countries are extremely suffering more than nigeria.

On Sunday, British tabloid, Daily Mail, published a rather derisive story about the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. The paper taunted Amaechi, “friend of the president” with a rhetorical question that asked if he was “fantastically corrupt.” That piece by the conservative press was a well-timed slung shot, calculated to land in Nigeria at the time when President Muhammadu Buhari’s band of disciples were still celebrating his almost unexpected riposte to the British PM, David Cameron; his earlier diplomatic gaffe at the anti-corruption summit in London had shown the level of contempt and condescension Cameron had for Nigeria.

Daily Mail seemed desperate to stanch the indignation that accompanied Cameron’s comment and what better way to do that damage control than to first scoff at Nigerians’ huff and puff at the Cameron’s colonialistic condescension, and then turn the joke on them? And what better way to turn it on Nigeria than pointing out to everyone that Buhari, the celebrated incorruptible leader of a “fantastically corrupt” country, has a huge log in his eyes that needs to be reported?

The report had nothing new to say — for Nigerians, that is — and it cannot be described as a particularly intelligent piece of journalism. It was largely a pastiche of recycled speculations about the role Amaechi paid in the 2015 election of Buhari.

By now, everyone in Nigeria has either heard of or read about how Amaechi was said to have “bankrupted” Rivers State while he was governor so as to finance Buhari’s election and for that reason, the President remains indebted to him, politically and morally. The paper did not present proof of this accusation and it is rather doubtful it had any. We know that money spent on election in this part of the world is neither invoiced nor receipted and anyone asking for empirical evidence in this case is either extremely naïve or simply duplicitous.

However, when the snide remarks and the inciting comments in the article are subtracted, one is left with a rather amusing portraiture of Buhari and the paradox he embodies — an incorruptible messiah of his people gallantly riding to Jerusalem on a donkey paid for by powerful but extremely corrupt friends. Perhaps, the only people who are not bothered by the apparent contradiction are the self-labelled “Buharists” whose zealotry and enthusiastic faith in Buhari are akin to religious worship.

Whatever the point or the politics of the piece by Daily Mail, what cannot be dismissed is its likely potency. Nigerian leaders tend to recoil at bad press when it comes internationally than when handed out by local critics. Nothing nurses the Nigerian leader’s narcissism better than to be given that much coveted back pat from the West. That perhaps explains why Buhari speaks more to the foreign media than he engages local journalists. At some point, whether by local or foreign journalists, he will be asked how he manages to balance his anti-corruption agenda with the company he keeps.

For a while now, his government’s anti-corruption drive has led to some really dazzling revelations of how past government inordinately dipped its hand into the public till to fund the 2015 elections. The Dasukigate involving the immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, was one of the most sensational stories of corruption ever sold in Nigeria. It has all cooled off now but when it was raging, it generated enough disaffection for the previous administration that practically sealed their death sentence. For months now, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has dedicated itself to picking up and questioning members of the Peoples Democratic Party who were said to have participated in squandering public resources used to fund the party’s presidential campaign. People like Dasuki, Olisa Metuh, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ibrahim Shekerau, Olu Falae, Nenadi Usman, have — in the court of public opinion — already been tried, found guilty and in some cases are already crucified.

These efforts to stem corruption should all have been commendable except they tilt in only one direction — towards the main opposition party members. In the long run, it may just turn out to be another Obasanjo-esque method of fighting corruption: crushing potential dissidence rather than reaching for the more challenging task of evolving scientific methods of quenching abuse of public trust.

How can the EFCC sincerely confront the PDP about campaign funds and not once turn the light on the All Progressives Congress and ask the same question? How could the APC have funded its elections if the party did not coopt public funds? Do they mean to tell us that the huge sums of money the party spent during the elections came from the torokobo donated to them by a few members of the public? Should not the EFCC be genuinely interested in finding out if indeed Amaechi played the role that has been ascribed to him? For a party that promised to fight corruption, promote transparency and be accountable to the public in a way their opponents never were, should the house-cleaning not have started from their own backyard?

The question of campaign spending is such a critical one that should not be left to the vagaries of politics; a sincere leader who wants to reform the polity will at some point have to confront it and its implications on the government. Those who fund campaigns are not doing it out of sheer altruism, they are paying forward and the payday must come. When that time comes, they will not simply roll over and play dead. They will expect that certain policies be tailored to favour them. This coterie of big spenders will get a lot of benefits higher and above the ordinary citizens around whom the entire concept of democracy is supposedly centred.

From federal to state to local government level in Nigeria, electioneering is a big investment and after each election cycle, there is always a huge bill to pay. In the past days since the subsidy/deregulation discussion started, people have tried to comparatively weigh the present times against the 2012 protests when ex-president Goodluck Jonathan removed subsidy and the public became outraged. One of the factors that many of the analysts have failed to advance is that the subsidy bill shot up astronomically and people attributed the huge disparity in the sums racked up in 2011 to Jonathan trying to push this election bill to Nigerians.

No democracy is immune to money malaise and the United States, currently undergoing electioneering, typifies this. Since their party primaries began earlier this year, candidates have spent obnoxious amounts of money to either win or lose. There are estimates that suggest that the amount of money spent so far is nearing $1bn and the main election itself has yet to start. Even though the US economy can afford such vast sums, their citizens are just as disgruntled about billionaires owning their politicians, a factor which partly explains why candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are hugely popular. People are driven by the urge to find a politician who has not already sold out to the moneyed class. In Nigeria where there are no reliable data, we will never know how much the average vote costs but the effects of the spending are obvious when we look around us — there is never enough money left for development purposes.

The matter of where campaign funds come from is one that should be dealt with properly, not as a convenient excuse for hunting down political opponents.

Buhari’s APC needs some introspection on how elections can be funded without ordinary Nigerians paying a debt they did not solicit. There are definitely no easy answers but the question is worth asking nevertheless. How can a system like ours that thrives on corruption produce candidates who will not have to steal and will also not need those who did to pick their campaign tab?

The Yoruba movie industry has once been thrown into mourning as one of the strong pillars of the association, Alhaji Ajiboye Fatai Onibuade popularly known as Legend is dead. Onibuade was a chieftain of Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners.
Onibuade who was a veteran actor and a chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (ANTP) Lagos chapter was alleged to have slumped in his living room on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. He was said to have been rushed to the hospital unfortunately he died two hours later. Onibuade was the former chairman ANTP, Ikeja, Lagos state chapter.
– He allegedly slumped in his living room on Tuesday, May 17 and died two hours later

optional1:
Sarkodie jst give me hope.


Lolz

durels101:
Flavour..... Looks like those aba boys selling fake shoes in onitsha
Wizkid..... When he was still a good boy, reciting memory verse in church
Don jazzy..... Been forming don since 1960
Tiwa Savage.... Looks like those edo girls that just confessed...
Patoranking..... Looks like all those boys that pick scraps and metal can from dustbin
...... Well, e good for them,Baba don pick their call.... Still waiting for mine to be picked...
God abeg reason my matter thus year oo

hemartins:
Never forget the days of your humble beginning.

EroticAngelina:
hahahahahaha!!!! you made my night.

Chai, iceprince looked like Fulani herdsman walahi

reekado

The Presidency on Friday has debunked the rumour that the young man who accompanied Amina to meet President Muhammadu Buhari is a terrorist abductor.

The clarification came after Nigerians had criticized President Buhari for hosting a terrorist at the Presidential Villa on Thursday. President Buhari had in the aftermath of the girl’s rescued had hosted her and her baby, her mother and the young man in question in the company of members of the Bring Back Our Girls movement.

A statement issued by the Presidency on Friday, read:

“Our attention has been drawn to rumours and insinuations that the young man who accompanied Amina Ali to the State House to meet President Buhari is her alleged terrorist abductor.”

“This is false; there is absolutely no truth to it. The young man who was in the State House (extreme left, in the photograph below) alongside Amina and her baby and mother, is her older brother.”

“He is different from the man who appeared with her in photos released by the Nigerian military, in the immediate aftermath of Amina’s rescue.”

The statement said insinuations alleging otherwise are false, mischievous, and should be wholly disregarded noting that under no circumstance would presidential welcome be extended to terrorists or abductors.

anonym0us:
the mgbeke wey Dem dey die 4 dey like person wey don do abortion retire

Tolexander:
These are Innoson vehicles.

That is very good of the Minister of interior!

Our products are receiving attention

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Martin Abeshi to immediately vacate his seat as the number one officer of the service, 247ureports.com reports.

247ureport’s correspondence exclusively gathered this morning that the president has come under pressure to take the decision as a result of imbalance in the federal character policy among the heads of agencies under the Federal Ministry of Interior.

Abeshi who head Immigration service hails from Nassarawa state in the north-central, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC)’s Comptroller General Abdullahi Gana hails from Niger state, the Controller General of Federal Fire Service (FFS) Eng. Anebi also hails from Benue state in the North-central while only Peter Ezenwa Ekpendu of the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) who retired today from the service comes from the Imo state South-east region.
It was also gathered that the Immigration CG ought to have retire since last year December but lobbied his way back to the seat.
247ureport learnt that the decision to sack the Abeshi has been a welcome development to some of the DCGs and the ACGs who were said to have been denied opportunity to rise as a result of Abeshi’s continuity in office.