Mohammed Atiku, son of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has recovered from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to which he tested positive last month.

Mohammed, who spent 40 days in the hospital, was finally cleared and discharged on Monday.

In a statement he personally signed after he left the hospital, Mohammed thanked Nigerians for the support and prayers, urging them to keep praying for those still being treated for the pandemic that had killed 40 Nigerians.

He said that his discharge could not have come at a better time than in the month of Ramadan, a season marked by sacrifice and supplication to the Almighty Allah.

“I thank the Almighty Allah for my recovery from the dreaded infection and also wish to express my sincere and deep appreciation to Nigerians for their prayers and goodwill while I was being treated.

“In the course of life, we have no idea of what will happen to us because only the Almighty God knows our future.

“When COVID-19 first broke out in far away China, I had no idea that I might be one of those to be infected. This is one of the everlasting lessons I can’t forget for the rest of my life.

“I have been humbled by this experience. Words cannot sufficiently convey the depth of my joy over my recovery and discharge.

Since I tested positive after my return from abroad and my isolation for treatment, I was inundated with incredible expressions of goodwill by Nigerians.

“This pandemic has united the rich and the poor and, indeed, the rest of the world against this novel lethal virus that has caused economic and social disruptions globally.

“No matter our problems, however, we shouldn’t lose hope in our own country. Despite the limitations of our health system, the Federal Ministry of Health and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control have done tremendously well.

“Our doctors, nurses and other front line health workers also deserve accolades for their sacrifices and professionalism during this challenging period of our country.

“Every epidemic or pandemic comes with its lessons. The coronavirus has caught the world off guard and sent us reeling for solutions. It also reveals the weaknesses of our health systems in the developing world. It is an eye opening experience for Nigeria and other developing nations.

“Thanks to coronavirus outbreak, we are now coming to terms with the necessity of adequate funding of our healthcare system. This disease has brought the rich, the poor and the powerful to a common level.

“This is the time our policy makers should reset our national priorities and give our health system adequate attention. No investment in our health sector is too much.”

- The Nation

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Femi Adesina was reported to walk into the press gallery at the Presidential Villa to scream and gesticulate aggressively towards the Punch Correspondent

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Sam Omatseye and his Piper of Bourdilon!

You can incentivize a lie to the point that the liar and his LovePeddler-son, start to smell like rose. Bola Tinubu is the godfather of did-information and Sam Omatseye has emerged as his fecal-brained son in an alliance induced with emolument. Alausa, seat of the Lagos State government has become the ATM for Tinubu - the man from Iragbiji, now lord of Lagos. While Omatseye was writing, "The Lord" of Lagos was busy securing the signatures of Local Government Chairmen to transfer N2 billion from the Local Government reserves. Omatseye might as well check this out through disaffected Chairmen or the Lagos State Accountant-General's office. For there is nothing the combination of money and lies cannot wrought, the imperial Bokassa of Bourdilon has managed to wield his terrible influence, not only on his party acolytes but also his agents of subterfuge in the press like Sam Omatseye. Money will procure lies and falsehood. Money will buy the gift wrap, often of the glittering and colorful type. Money will paint lies as rose petals - propaganda in beautiful prose. However, as the propaganda rises, our democracy languishes and we must respond.

Omatseye is a megaphone of pretentious activism, trapped in the vibration of Tinubu’s anal sphincters. His studied pomp is nothing but a loud flatulence wrapped at first in the folded petals of a rose. But a pig is still a pig, lipstick or not. When you read him, a beautiful rose is what you first encounter, but only from the distance. If you tell your soul to pause a while, to read and smell again, to give his packaged lies a closer scrutiny; that’s when, as they say, the shit hits the fan! The lies begin to fall apart, even as the lavendered stench of rot hits your nose.

Omatseye has singled Governor Amosun out for his funded assault on the APC Presidential rally in Abeokuta. He has tried to sell us a pile of Tinubu’s dung as rose, but we are too smart and too further ahead to buy the nonsense. Amosun was not the cause nor the one to blame. And if anything, the style and height of Amosun’s hat will teach us of a self-assured and progressive, visionary David who dares to stand out and take on the Goliath of his party.

Let it be clear that the gathering in Abeokuta was a political rally and Buhari was in attendance as a political candidate running for the office of President. At political rallies, the people meet their candidates, they chant, they sing, dance, feast, applaud and boo as free democracies permit. The speakers work the crowd with catchy slogans composed to offend and impress simultaneously. One remembers Neil Kinnock of the Labor party in the Uk, who declared at the national rally of the Labor party; ‘if the lady will not bend, she will be broken’ in a direct jab at the sitting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who, was also a candidate.

There was nothing untoward therefore in the nature of the Abeokuta rally. All was smooth and peachy until Tinubu’s agents - highly impulsive Rauf Aregbesola - ex governor of Osun State (who was not billed to speak at the event) and controversial party Chairman Adams Oshiomole - threw in the acid. Amosun did not engineer the rowdiness, neither did he act in any way to inflame the tension manufactured by Tinubu.

On his part, Sam Omatseye writes in streams of diarrheic verbosity; rose petals bellying a lie. His piece on the Ogun State Presidential rally, where all he does is nothing but a hatchet job on Governor Amosun is wrapped in the glitter of words. What a waste of skills and talent! Even the Academy of Letters award on his wall is fallen in shame. It would be easy to excuse Omatseye’s journalistic subterfuge, if it were not exceptionally moronic! Omatseye is a weasel; a genuflecting, body-scratching weasel whose head is stuck in a pit of dung! He has emerged as this political season’s howling, calculating opportunist with an immense appetite for manure! He is cheap and he is a cheat.

Like the sponsored propaganda he now peddles, Omatseye and his piper of Bourdilon should smell the coffee after the elections when Amosun would have emerged as a Senator from Ogun State, Akinlade as the Governor of Ogun state and Buhari as the second term President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria - QED!

- Atanda Odewole (Ojodu Abiodun)

Is Senator Amosun really an “Alaseju”?


Ibikunle Amosun, Governor of Ogun State
By Atanda Odewole

Keen observers of Ogun State political developments are still trying to discern the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries. On one hand, the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) seems to be irreconcilably divided with the Dayo Adedayo led faction emerging victorious through the judicial process. This has almost certainly assured Senator Buruji Kashamu the gubernatorial ticket.

On the other hand, the Ogun APC primaries brought a different dimension. While the PDP gladiators fought their battles in courts, the Ogun APC leaders opted to settle scores through the ballots. A former Governor of the State, in tango with an erstwhile Governor of Lagos State have pitched their tent with the official APC candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, who emerged through a process described by most observers as lacking democratic participation by APC party members. In essence, Prince Abiodun’s emergence as the gubernatorial candidate was ordained by the aforementioned erstwhile Governors through the National Chairman of APC Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The other party in the Ogun APC, simply opted to restructure their electoral participation through the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), where Governor Amosun’s preferred gubernatorial candidate and many others emerged as INEC recognised candidates for various elective offices.

So what could have led to this scenario? Is this a case of Ogun APC becoming the jewel of the shrine in the 2023 political calculations of Capo Du Tutti? Or as some have suggested that the Governor is an “Alaseju”.

Be that as it may, the point must be made that as fractious as APC appears, the opposition, as personified by PDP, is equally so weak that it poses little threat to the outcomes of the 2019 Ogun electoral battles.

But in order to comprehend the causal factor of the Ogun APC fracture, it is necessary to highlight the departing pressure points. First is the October 2nd 2018 gubernatorial primary and second the October 7th primary. Both primaries were conducted by two different NWC panels led by Indabawa and Col. Ali Ciroma (Rtd.). The October 2nd 2019 primary conducted by the Indabawa NWC panel became controversial following the annulment of the primary results that threw up Hon. Abiodun Akinlade as the winner. On another note, the October 7th national and state assembly primaries were rancour-free and the results were declared by the NWC Panel Chairman Col. Ali Ciroma (Rtd). These results, won fairly by Amosun loyalists, were also jettisoned by the Chairman of APC Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on the instigation of the aforementioned erstwhile Governors. It is this that finally led to the parting of ways by the Ogun APC leaders.

Bearing these in mind, the question that lingers in the minds of some who desired mechanical unity is that “Is Amosun an Alaseju?” As the leader of APC in Ogun State, Senator Amosun has tried his best to keep the party together as one family. Up till September 2018, before the primaries, the party was strong and united. If all other things were to remain equal, there is a high probability that the APC will coast home to victory in the 2019 governorship election without much ado.

But the same cannot be said of Ogun APC today. The party is now in a big mess following the controversial primary election in which the mandate given to Hon. Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade was annulled and handed over to Mr. Dapo Abiodun by the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. This was a rape of democracy, the height of injustice and the most inglorious electoral robbery ever perpetrated in the history of APC.

It is only natural that the governor, who is the leader and conscience of the party, must respond to that development. In the midst of his response, which was not palatable to his detractors, we often hear a riposte that Senator Amosun is an “alaseju”, meaning, when literally translated, that he is overdoing things and cannot be kept under check. Haba! I am tempted to say that this kind of riposte on the part of some supposedly learned individuals lacks a sense of history and fails to understand the power play within the party.

A recount of how the APC under Senator Amosun got to where it was, before hell was let loose, will clear the air. Prior to the 2015 elections, a group within the party led by a respected former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, stirred the hornets’ nest and decided to organise a parallel governorship primary in Ogun APC, which did not jell. In an attempt to avoid the shame of losing out in the primaries, Chief Osoba and co, including all their disgraced candidates, left APC to contest the election under the banner of Social Democratic Party (SDP). Osoba boasted to high heavens that the SDP would win the 2015 elections and put the Amosun-led APC to ignominy. As it turned out, the results showed that Chief Osoba and his group were electoral liabilities as they lost the 2015 elections woefully.

The Amosun-led APC won the said elections with a landslide victory. Senator Amosun immediately initiated policies that transformed the APC into a virile and the most organised chapter of the party in the country. As it were, the rancour-free congresses of the party in May 2018 had kept the other chapters in the country wondering how the Ogun State chapter did it.

Though Chief Osoba and co found themselves back in APC on the eve of 2015 elections, one cannot really blame them for this. Chief Osoba is a well discerned politician. He realised that while he was outside the APC, Senator Amosun had used his resources to build the party. There is nothing bad in wanting to be part of the success story. However, Chief Osoba and co had a different agenda; the intention was to come and hijack the APC structure and feed fat where they didn’t sow.

What happened before, during and after the primaries in Ogun APC is no longer news. Chief Osoba, in concert with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, upturned the will of the people and imposed Mr. Dapo Abiodun as the governorship candidate of APC in Ogun State. The imposition of Mr. Dapo Abiodun was a volte-face.

In his response to this treachery, Senator Amosun didn’t do anything unwieldy to warrant the shout of “alaseju” as some gullible observers would want us to believe. He only allowed those who were cheated in the primaries to exercise their democratic rights. Would it be right for Senator Amosun to stop them from dumping APC and moving to a new party?

Indeed it is unreasonable to expect Senator Amosun to agree to the Oshiomhole-led treachery. It would have amounted to committing a political hara-kiri, just as Wole Soyinka said: “The man dies in him who keeps silence in the face of tyranny.”

Senator Amosun is perceived to have acted rightly by standing firm without betraying his conscience.

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CHUKWUEZE'S STAR SHINES IN SPAIN

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WOMAN SHARES NEWS WITH HER BUTTOCKS

Legit.ng, a news and media website, and which describes itself as "Nigeria's #1 media, leading the way", has posted the photo of a lady that shares news with her buttocks on its Instagram page.

More details here https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=448008015731275&id=430757934122950

WOMAN SHARES NEWS WITH HER BUTTOCKS

Legit.ng, a news and media website, and which describes itself as "Nigeria's #1 media, leading the way", has posted the photo of a lady that shares news with her buttocks on its Instagram page.

More details here https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=448008015731275&id=430757934122950

LAGOS APC GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE, JIDE SANWO-OLU, FACES TROUBLE IN EPE


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AT A GLANCE: The DSS Breakdown Of How Politicians 'Bribed' Oshiomhole In Dollars
At a glance, below, is a table showing those names confirmed by SaharaReporters to have been listed by the DSS report as paying or attempting to pay bribes, in millions or hundreds of thousands, to Oshiomhole and his cronies.

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK
NOV 15, 2018







As exclusively reported by SaharaReporters on Thursday, the Department of State Services (DSS) has written to President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to prosecute Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for allegedly receiving at least $55million in relation to the nationwide primaries of the party.
Asides the presidency, the DSS also forwarded its findings to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Total $55 million is what Adams is alleged to have received. Some party chieftains claim it is $80 million,” a source aware of the contents of the report had told SaharaReporters.
SEE ALSO


EXCLUSIVE: DSS Asks Buhari To Prosecute Oshiomhole For ‘Making Millions Of Dollars’ From APC Primaries
0 Comments5 Hours Ago
According to report, $17 million is what Oshiomhole allegedly received as bribe from Zamfara: $10 million for him, $7 million shared between Farouk Adamu, former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives; Niyi Adebayo, former Governor of Ekiti State; and other party chieftains.
“Adamu was the collection coordinator,” said the source. “Hope Uzodinma, the APC governorship candidate in Imo State, gave $3 million; Rochas Okorocha, Governor of the state, offered $500,000 but it was rejected; Dapo Abiodun, the APC candidate in Ogun State, paid $5 million. The DSS also said some of the money was paid into Oshiomhole's niece’s account.”
At a glance, below, is a table showing those names confirmed by SaharaReporters to have been listed by the DSS report as paying or attempting to pay bribes, in millions or hundreds of thousands, to Oshiomhole and his cronies.
Source
Position
Amount
Zamfara
---
$17 million​​
Hope Uzodinma
APC Governorship Candidate, Imo State
$3 million​
Rochas Okorocha
Governor of Imo State
$500,000​ (Rejected)
Dapo Abiodun
APC Governorship Candidate, Imo State
$5 million​
Others
---
Unknown
TOTAL

$55million/$80 million

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Posted By Wole Elegbede


Attentions writers, authors, poets and reporters from all across the Commonwealth: The 2018 Competition is now open! �✍️

Head to our website for full details: https://thercs.org/youth-and-education/the-queens-commonwealth-essay-competition/


* Elegbede is a selected judge in the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition for 2018