₦airaland Forum

The APC has exhibited unprecedented desperation and propaganda all in a bid to woo Senator Ekweremadu to its battered and sinking ship. I learned that some of the APC's jobless supporters were dancing and waving brooms in front of Senator Ekweremadu's house in Abuja today, all in a bid to persuade him to enter a house that is about to collapse. I want to state categorically and emphatically that the attached picture to this post is old picture being circulated by propagandists under the payroll of Buhari Media Center, to hoodwink gullible Nigerians that deputy senate president has technically crossed over from heaven of the PDP to the APC's hell of tyranny.

Senator Ekweremadu has denounced insinuations that he want to defect to the APC. He has expressed his grievances which I believe the PDP is sorting out. I want to emphasize that Ikeoha is going nowhere. We the Atikulated Nigerians cannot lose our Ronaldo to a rival football team when we have much-publicised champions league final match to play in few months. The APC should be warned to stop poaching on our key players. Transfer window has ended. Every club should make-do with players they have—whether out of form or injured.

Unfortunately, most star players of the APC got severe injuries during their pre-season matches (party primaries) supervised by its newly hired coach (Oshiomhole) that has proven to be grossly incompetent, temperamental, tactless and clueless. The APC has lost more key players to Team PDP since this accidental coach took over. Oshiomhole should fight for his political survival as coach of the APC and leave our players alone. I learned that one of its key fan—Osita Okechukwu called the Edo mafia unprintable names on Channels TV today. It's obvious that this world cup final will be a walkover for we the Atikulated fans. Please our Messi—Ekweremadu is not for sell or loan; at least till the end of 2019 season. Stop all these poaching attempts on our key strikers or we the Atikulated fans will drag you insufferable hypocrites and desperados to FIFA Court of Arbitration.
#BuhariMustGo
#AtikuObiMeansJobs
#LetsGetNigeriaWorkingAgain

Peter Obi is a well respected individual across the country. He will even pull more votes over Buhari in the North.

He is not relevant in the political happenings of the country. Just another hungry Nigerian looking for political relevance. He has joined the losing team. A team that has done nothing reasonable in the past three years.

The past three years has only shown Nigerians the consequences of our mistake in 2015. The emergence of Buhari into Aso rock has been a total failure.

This has propaganda written all over. The apc has nothing else to offer Nigerians.

No well meaning politician can endure such a corrupt and undemocratic nature the apc has to offer.

The current administration of Buhari has no respect for the rule of law. He merely performs lip service in the fight against corruption. In the developed countries of the world, such person catch in a bribery allegation should have been jailed by now.

Oshimhole as chairman of the apc has done nothing but bring disruption in the party.

Was the nnpc created to finance the election campaigns of current administration. Buhari has turned all government institutions to his private tool in achieving political goals.

I remember in 2015 he saying " a serious government will fix power problem in six months". I have not seen a significant improvement of power in the past 3 years of this Buhari led government. The mistake made was giving Mr Fashola three key ministries to head because he has under performed. At one point he blamed the collapse of a bridge in Niger State to climate change!!!

Everything boils down to the Governor and his style of leadership.We have witnessed a surge in violence under the current administration of Elrufia. This only indicates the inefficiency of the governor and APC at large.

Leaving the PDP will be the greatest mistake of his life. The APC is a ship sinking fast. Even if he leaves the party, he wont be able to get senatorial ticket.

Among candidates from the South East, Peter Obi remains the most credible option in complementing the future president of Nigeria.

Just another case of witch hunting by the Buhari led government.

An individual who canvasses for votes from the masses but is unwilling to come out and debate on issues concerning the nation is not fit to rule because he lacks capacity.

Any well meaning Nigerian will be disappointed at the current state of affairs in the nation. The Buhari led government has failed in all sectors. Voting him in 2015 was the greatest mistake Nigerians have done so far. The economy is a wreck, security of lives and property is non existence, agriculture has fallen, our refineries are still obsolete, power is still very poor, the list is almost endless. Nigerian is going nowhere with Buhari in power.

DSS: Of Sycophants and Demystified Southern "Slaves"

Chidiebere Nwobodo

President Buhari, with the nepotic appointment of new DG of DSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi from Kano State, has rode roughshod over the intelligence of southerners and widened the growing gulf of division between the south and core north. With this insensitive and provocative appointment, President Buhari has literally and instinctively told the South to go to "hell" once again. This outlandish, lopsided and un-presidential decision has further damaged already bruised ego of an average southerner—except for those political jobbers in the APC, that will always see such development as an opportunity to reassure their masters of their slavish loyalty, by defending the indefensible.

And they will insult collective intelligence of southerners by telling us that the president "has the prerogative to appoint whoever he wants", as if Buhari is the president of northerners alone and Southern Nigeria is bereft of security gurus. When pundits like us; who are driven by the quest for justice and equity, decides to puncture their illogical, sycophantic and slavish submissions, they will digress by telling us that "security issue" cannot be subject of public discourse or left at the mercy of public opinion. When you hear such infantile propaganda and dignity-bankrupt assertion from a southerner, struggling and sweating profusely to defend President Buhari's outrageous assault on his people, be rest assured that a "slave" has been let loose to run amok against his own rights and privileges.

As I write, slavish propagandists in the south, masquerading as the APC members will be getting their briefs now to swing into damage-control action. "Senior slaves" like Joe Igbokwe, Rotimi Ameachi, Festus Keyamo, Kenneth Okonkwo, Femi Adesina, Laolu Akande, Rotimi Fasakin, Ita Enang, Osita Okechukwu, Cairo Ojougboh, Orji Uzo Kalu, Godswill Akpabio, etcetera, on my mind. The "junior slaves" under the payroll of Buhari Media Center (BMC) must have concluded their own briefing and duly "mobilized" to hit the ground running. Any moment from now, they will start appearing on national TV programs and featuring on newspaper columns to drum it into our "deaf" ears and ram it down our "stubborn" throats that President Buhari took this action solely on "national interest cum security". The "junior slaves" popularly known as e-rats, will start terrorizing dissenters on social media with their boring "looters" or "corruption fighting back" idiosyncratic narrative.

When Nigeria's "defacto" president, Abba Kyari—Buhari's Chief of Staff, ordered ousted DG of DSS, Matthew Seiyafa, to rescind his reforms in the spy agency, people like us knew that the storm was gathering and the sledgehammer would soon hit. I saw the rampaging tornado encroaching but couldn't see through its fogy political cloud. I never believed that President Buhari—a presidential candidate in next year's election, who is in dare need of southern votes, could shrug off the lamentations of Southern and Middle Belt Forum as verbiages and parroting, by descending into the ignoble valley of nepotism, parochialism and unprofessionalism to recall his kinsman from retirement, just to maintain sheer ethno-religious domination of Nigeria's security agencies.

The disconsolate and ridiculed Southern Nigeria should know that President Buhari's parochialism and unparalleled nepotic dispersal of power, has exposed hidden weakness cum sanctimonious cowardice of an average southern political and religious leader. A disgusting situation where the south controls only one out of seventeen (17) security intelligence agencies, should outrage any southerner still left with strata of self-worth cum dignity. And that analysts of southerner extraction will rational this impunity and rape of equity just to be politically correct, is self-evident that we have all been reduced to insufferable buffoons and helpless atoms of individuals.

Northerners who are direct beneficiaries of Buhari's sectionalism, will maintain criminal silence, while southerners—supposed victims of the exclusion and marginalization will be "pushed" out to go and rationalize their own enslavement, just to get the crumbs. What a bunch of demystified slaves! What's essence of all the educational qualifications we always brag about? Where lies our dignity? Who infested southerners with this incurable disease of inferiority complex? What is still being left of Yemi Osinbajo's reputation and dignity, after being reduced to mere "house boy" by the reversion of every of his decision as acting president?

Let us turn the table. Imagine that this injustice is being perpetrated by a southern president against the north. Will you see any core northerner go on national television to rub salt and pepper on the injury of his people? Will northerners go about their normal businesses as if nothing is happening? Will the north be calm the manner the south is now? Will some northerners have the audacity to openly campaign for the same southern president on the streets of Kano or Bauchi States? I'm not a purveyor of violence or alarmist but a courageous crusader for egalitarian society where all men and women will live as humans not instruments. Why are southerners this docile and naive yet claim to be educated cum sophisticated? Where lies the sophistication in slavery? Or, is it a case of "sophisticated morons" or "demented nincompoops"? Your guess is a good as mine.
Let us change all the Changeable.
Buhari, Toby and all that have served their term.

On Friday while campaigning for the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Anambra state, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made a bogus claim that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government through Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund paid a whopping $2billion for the Second Niger Bridge.
Here are the facts:
The Second Niger Bridge was awarded to Julius Berger in 2014 by former President Goodluck Jonathan at the cost of N177 billion. The contract was based on a Public-Private Partnership arrangement.

Julius Berger‎ is to work on the project on the basis of Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT), at a total cost of N108 billion. The money was reduced from an initial cost of N138 billion down to N108 billion by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

The Federal Government is to contribute N30 billion (28%) of the project cost. The remaining 72% will be raised by Julius Berger.

The project, which is divided into three phases, will bypass Onitsha and Asaba to connect the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway at Nkwerre-Ezunaka, and then cross Atani to the Asaba-Benin Expressway at Okpanam with a total length of 44 kilometres.

Note that the entire Second Niger Bridge project is to cost N108 billion after the review by the BPP.

Osinbajo’s claim
“In fact, I am being reminded that just two days ago, the Sovereign Wealth Fund paid$2billion for that same project [Second Niger Bridge ]. So we will definitely see our Second Niger Bridge. We will not make promises we cannot keep.” VP Osinbajo said on Friday in Anambra.

The claim by Osinbajo is not just false, but also very deceptive. It can best be described as a political statement meant to deceive those clamouring for the construction of a bridge that was awarded in 2014 which has now become a subject for political campaigns.

First and foremost, there is no way $2billion translating to N712 billion can be spent on a project that was awarded for N108 billion. If we are to go by Osinbajo’s statement, it means that the project will gulp an additional N604 billion apart from the contracted amount.

It is either Osinbajo didn’t know what he was saying or he intentionally decided to mislead Nigerians on national television to create the impression that the Buhari-led government has the interest of people from the region at heart.

Another fact:
As at September 2017, Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth fund stood at $2billion, according to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, Uche Orji in a report by Bloomberg.

So, it is preposterous to say that the government released $2billion for the Second Niger Bridge which is the exact amount in the SWF account.
In June 2017, the Chairman Committee on Media and Publicity in the House of Representatives, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas revealed that the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Mr. Babatunde Fashola refused to spend a Kobo out of N12 billion appropriated for the Second Niger Bridge in the 2016 budget.

Conclusion
It is clear that Osinbajo’s statement is absolutely false. It should be disregarded. Three years since the contract was awarded by Jonathan’s administration after boasting to complete the bridge in 48 months, the completion of the bridge seems far-fetched.

‎The reality at hand shows that the bridge may likely be completed in 2020, according to Orji.

Baba has failed, why are some people so blind to see it.. The Buhari of 34yrs ago is not the Buhari of today. Buhari of 34 years ago was a soldier who ruled with decrees. Buhari of today is a politician brought in by people who looted the nation's treasury. The appointment Buhari of today had made runs contrary to the Buhari they sold to us. How we measure the performance of a president is on performance. Look at economy,is it better under his leadership? Security is worse off, a country where a cow is valued more than a human being. Unemployment is highest ever. Education, almost all public schools are dead.

In a civilized world Buhari would have resigned long ago. Obviously he doesn't know what to do. He appointed wrong people in his cabinet .This is the simple reason the economy is performing so badly. How many jobs has he created. What of healthcare, himself goes abroad for treatment. What a shame. Nigeria had become a laughing stock because of him. Power, of all the billions of dollars pumped into power there is no electricity. His fight against corrupt is simply a fraud. If Buhari were to leave office today, What will be his legacy?

This questions are for those trying to market Buhari for a second term.

Governor Dankwambo is the only presidential aspirant who is clean from any case of corruption.

For the past three years president Buhari have been running a government of non inclusiveness.

Under the visionary leadership of Prince Secondus, any action that is not democratic in nature will not be tolerated.

With Buhari's third and final rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment, we can now all forget about the 2019 election.

It will be almost impossible for NASS to veto him considering the division in the two houses.

The electoral Act amendment was supposed to be an executive bill. If INEC has no objections to the Bill, then Buhari has no right to reject the Bill.

If Buhari is interested in a credible election, he would have worked with INEC & NASS to ensure that a perfect bill is resent for easy consent. He chose to ambush them. Again and again.

If INEC is a truly independent commission, they would release a statement expressing their disappointment in the President's recent decision.

We cannot go into another election without legalizing the card readers, without criminalizing the use of incidence forms, without legalizing the electronic transmission of results. These are imperative reforms.

If the proposed electoral Act amendment contains some contradictions and ambiguity, the Supreme Court is there to correct it. After all, many of our previous laws and even our constitution contains contradictions and ambiguity too!

NASS has shown more maturity by removing the reordering clause and other issues Buhari cited in PMB's previous rejection.

PMB is just a sophist. I am losing hope in this contraption.

The 2019 election cannot have credibility without those reforms in the electoral amendment bill.

He rejected the APC Committee Report on True Federalism, he rejected the restructuring of the oil & gas industry through PIGB, he has rejected reforms in the electoral process.

Yet people cannot see through his real conservative feudal unitarist intentions.

Nigeria is finished under Buhari.

I need to leave this country and return to my village.
... Tony Osborg

Firstly:
1). Dankwambo is an Officer of the Order of the Nigeria (OON),
2). He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (FCIB),
3). He is a fellow of Nigeria Institute of Management (FNIM),
4). He is a fellow, of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA),
5). He is a fellow of Nigeria Economic Society (FNES),
6). He is a fellow of Chartered Institute of Taxation (FCIT),
7). He is a fellow, Nigerian Association for Educational Administration and Planning (FNAEAP).

Secondly:
a). Dankwambo holds a degree in Accountancy with a Second Class Upper Division (B.Sc 1985);
b). He has a Masters in Economics (1992),
c). He has a PGD in Computer Science (1998) and,
d). He holds a Ph.D in Accounting (2013).

Thirdly:
1). He is an undisputed all-rounder economist,
2). A renowned chartered accountant of note,
3). An expert in taxation,
4). An expert in forensic auditing,
5). A wizard in fraud detection,
6). A guru in international banking and financial management.

Fourthly:
a). He is a technocrat in the true sense of it.
b). A former Civil Servant,
c). A former member of CBN Board of Directors;
d). A former President/Chairman of Accountants-General and Auditors-General Forum of West Africa;
e). Chairman, ECOWAS Audit Committee;
f). Board Member, Extractive Industries and Transparency International etc.

Fifthly:
As Accountant-General of the Federation he is remembered for the introduction of many transparent inspired reforms, such as:
1). Treasury Single Account,
2). E-payment and Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS),
3). Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) among others.

Sixthly,
Dankwambo is currently the Executive Governor of Gombe State for 7yrs running and has earned several awards as a doyen of good governance.

With Dankwambo's presidency one can be rest assured the future of Nigeria is bright.

He is proactive and poses the will to deliver the change Nigerians truly desire. I believe his time is not now.

Governor Dankwambo is the only aspirant who can bring the much desired development Nigerians crave for. He surely has my vote.

Buhari will kill Nigeria if we don't push him out come 2019. Numerous cases of funds going missing under his administration with no end in sight.

Buhari is old and weak. Its a pity we have a president who prefers running overseas for medicals instead of building world class facilities here in Nigeria. Billions of Naira budgeting yearly for the state house clinic yet it lacks common syringe. If the change wont start with him, then i wonder who it will start with.

What happenes when the 5000 runs out

It will reduce the incumbent pilfering his security votes because in an attempt to stay in power the incumbents tend to misuse the ‘power of incumbency’. The incumbency factor is a known dreaded weapon, which gives them a considerable edge above their opponents. Such an election is naturally flawed because it gives the incumbent an array of advantages which naturally makes the outcome lopsided.
Another important disadvantage of tenure renewal is in the area of election preparation with its concomitant expenditure. The Independent National Electoral Commission spends over N200 billion in any general election from voters registration to election proper. If we consider a period of say 12 years during which a four-year term election would be conducted three times, the cost would be about N600 billion. However if it is just six- year tenure the cost would be about N400 Billion for two elections.
The N200 billion saved in the elections would be used for infrastructural development, including educational and health- care delivery. The total funds used in conducting elections are all recurrent expenditure. At the time the nation is spending 75 per cent of its annual budget in recurrent expenditure, the money saved from infrequent elections would be channeled to better use.

Ndi Ara