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Politics › Enough Mudslinging Politics and Elections Is About Reporting To The Electorate by Nwoguphillip(op): 2:51am On Mar 04, 2015*

This election is about PDP's report card , how have they done if they have failed what are the options opened to Nigeria. Personality tussles , mudslinging and defamation is wholly uncalled for. We have law courts both in nigeria and abroad and Tinubu is walking free in these places and have been hoodwinked tortured and tried by the Obasanjo government even when EFCC was most effective and Tinubu walked free so what is the problem he moves in and out of America month in month out Asiwaju can go anywhere in the world and is recieved with dignity and respect. Obafemi Awolowo faced the same tyranny blackmail and betrayal from his breathrens in Yorubaland. Asiwaju is a legend of our era an icon and spirited visionary . Yoruba ronu is my call to Fani-Kayode and others in AFenifere etc . Everybody cannot be a political genius but Asiwaju is one. This shows he is just been badly painted because of the extraordinary feat he has accomplished in the south west and now with the merger which is still the most formidable coalition of progressives on the mission to rescue Nigeria from want, starvation, degradation, stagnation, repression, ineptitude, corruption, bastardisation of our economy , nepotism, scandalisation, moral decadence, acute poverty due to lack of accountability and many other scourges inflicted on a people at unprecedented levels in her History. Nigerians have indicated their desire for change . The want to give GEN Buhari and Prof Osinbajo a chance to lead us out of this Augean stable. The quagmire is as a maze full of confusion with no exit route. Hope in APC is our exit strategy to break away from the shackles of tyranny and disgrace. Please vote for change in March and April so the PDP can cool off and rebrand itself , purge itself and beg Nigerians for forgiveness. They should beg God too. The PDP has offended Nigerians and God .

Politics › The Menace Of Insecurity In Nigeria. by Nwoguphillip(op): 2:18pm On Mar 03, 2015

The importance of peace in the development of a nation needs not be over-emphasized. One can say without any fear of contradiction that any nation or state where peace does not exist relatively can hardly witness any progress to say the least. It follows that there exists an undeniable relationship between peace and development. The crave for democracy globally is hinged on providing leadership capable of engendering nation-building. While acknowledging that Nigeria is not the only country entangled in security challenges, her case is worrisome as the rising spate of insecurity serves as albatross to any meaningful development. Insecurity, especially internal is not a problem that is unique to Nigeria alone, other countries both developing and developed face this challenge. The difference between some of them and our country, Nigeria is how they manage the threat. In the last few years, heightened social insecurity in Nigeria has arguably fuelled the crime rate, leaving unpalatable consequences for the nation’s economy and its growth.
The socio-political and economic landscape in Nigeria has been blighted by the endemic twin evil of crime and violence. The abysmal failure of successive administration in Nigeria to address the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequitable distribution of wealth among ethnic nationalities, ultimately resulted to anger, agitation and violent crimes against the Nigerian state by some individuals and groups. Such crimes include militancy, kidnapping, bombing, armed robbery, destruction of government properties, among others. Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder that can explode if things are not put right within the shortest time as asserted by former president OBJ some months ago. Dimensionally, “the pattern of Insecurity in Nigeria has been regionalized. Militia groups’ Insurgency in the north, kidnappers in the eastern and southern part of the country, ritual killing in the west, political and non-political calculated assassinations across the nation. The regionalized structure of Insecurity has also given rise to regionalized unlegislated security formation in the country in a bid to curtail the alarming rate of insecurity, this disturbing sense of insecurity poses a daunting challenge towards Nigeria’s effort at national economic development and consequently put to questioning the level of Nigeria’s preparedness to be ranked among the twenty (20) developed countries of the world by the year 2020.

Like any other terminology, security does not lend itself to easy definition, but it means safety or freedom from danger; and protection from external attack or infiltration. This is security defined from the military point of view, but even at that, security involves but does not just mean defence. Security is more than military security or security from external attacks. For many of the four billion inhabitants in the developing countries, security is conceived as the basic level of the struggle for survival. Therefore, in order to provide an integrated African security assessment, the non-military dimensions of security should be added. Henceforth, African security as concept should be applied in its broadest sense to include economic security, social security, environmental security, food security, the equality of life security and technological security. Concurring with the contemporary school of thought, any society that seeks to achieve adequate military security against the background of acute food shortage, population explosion, low level of production and per capita income, low technological development, inadequate and efficient public utilities, and chronic problem of unemployment, has a false sense of security. Absolute presence of poverty in a country is the harbinger of unrest, internal upheavals, violence, and escalation of extremism. For developing societies, political leaders must note that without development there cannot be national security.

In a modernizing society, security means development, security is not military hardware, though it may include it; security is not a military force, though it may involve it; security is not traditional military activity, though it may encompass it; security is development, and without development there can be no security. A developing nation that does not in fact develop simply cannot remain secure for the intractable reason that its own citizens cannot shed its human nature… that is what we do not always understand and what governments of modernizing nations do not always understand. Social movements occur when frustration leads to collective, often aggressive behaviour. Frustration has a variety of sources and can take two forms. First, it can be absolute, which happens when people do not have enough to survive, and second, it can be relative, which happens when people have enough to survive but have less than those around them. Insecurity as a result of criminal activities individually or corporately creates insecurity and breach of the peace that are likely to or indeed affect legitimate social and economic activities in the country. This problem has the damaging consequence of raising the signal to the rest of the international community that Nigeria is not a safe and secure place and as such not suitable for economic Investment and activities. No wonder, investors particularly foreign, are leaving the shore of Nigeria for other African countries with relative peace. This has the tendency of rubbishing the so-called transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan and making the expected gains from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) a mirage.

The rates of terrorist bombings, kidnapping, armed robbery attacks on banks as well as other violent crimes in recent months, have led to a prevalent massive loss of the nation’s human resources. This ugly trend poses a threat to the future of the nation’s agricultural productivity level, private sector investment volume, petroleum sector growth rate, manpower and overall economic development. According to the Human Rights Watch, about 2800 lives were lost to terror-related violence between 2009 and 2012. Within the first nine months in 2012, 815 people were killed in 275 suspected attacks by the Boko Haram group and this represents more than the total number of deaths recorded between 2010 and 2011 combined. About 211 police officers were killed while over 60 police stations in at least 10 northern and central states were attacked by the terrorist group apart from the police headquarters that was bombed in Abuja. Similarly, social cohesion amongst the various component units is a desideratum in the process of national political development. This feeling of alienation and mutual distrust as a result of rabid competition for power and positions among federating units in Nigeria has been eliciting widespread discontent and loss of confidence in governments’ programme and policies with a dire consequence on political stability and by extension democratic consolidation which is a sine qua non for good governance and development. This is almost practically unattainable under the present security challenge in Nigeria. Even as Nigeria struggles with the teeming youth unemployment, companies in their numbers are closing down operations through the north to the south and relocating to other African countries for fear of loss of lives and properties. The few remaining companies operate on skeletal basis. Workers, both local and expatriates had fled these regions. This development has multiplied the number of unemployed youth roaming the street and they have become easy tools for violence. This scenario has not only deepened the existing unemployment rate but also paints a gloomy picture of poverty.

Ordinarily, money which is supposed to be channeled to human capital development now being deployed to the rehabilitation and renovation of human and properties destroyed. Since the inception of the Amnesty Programme by the Federal Government to quenching the Niger-Delta militia, billions of naira were spent and did not commensurate with the expected results, an indication of wastages occasioned by the menace of insurgency. Public commentators have turned the Federal Government into a laughing stock when they almost dangled Amnesty in the course of negotiating with Boko Haram leaders, this would have amounted to a colossal loss. While other countries are showing commitment in tackling insecurity, Nigeria was lackadaisical in this regard for so many reasons. Firstly, poverty being a global phenomenon; Africa is most hit because 40 of the 76 “chronically deprived countries” in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, while in Nigeria, people living below poverty level increased from 87million to 112.5million between 2004 and 2010. The poverty-security nexus constitutes a ‘tangled web’ with overlapping threats of intervening variables and strands of reverse causality, as poverty and violence reinforce one another.

Poverty breeds insecurity by undermining the capacity of states to deliver basic physical security, legitimate governance, economic growth and social welfare.
Moreover, unemployment as well as lack of database of criminals also in no small measure, contributes to instability and insecurity in Nigeria. Therefore goes that, ‘a hungry man is an angry man’. We have a large number of unemployed youths in Nigeria and jobs are not forthcoming. Some of these unemployed people inadvertently go into crimes to survive while others have penchant for criminality. With youth unemployment, it is not unlikely that it will contribute significantly to security challenges confronting the country. A similar factor is the unprecedented level of corruption that has permeated the fabrics of our national life. Imagine an individual steals, embezzles billions or even trillions of naira without blinking an eye lid. It would seem there is a competition for winning the highest award for corruption. Corruption leads to the loss of revenue meant for infrastructural development, human capital development, enhancement of production capabilities and health care-all variables of development that should promote poverty eradication.
The perception of Nigerians, particularly, the disadvantaged is that, in spite of the institutional mechanisms to curbing corruption, the system is being encouraged by lack of political will as evidenced in the handling of corruption related cases. This encourages rather than discouraging corruption with money meant for development going into private pockets. This is now what is creating a war-like situation in a bid to survive. On illiteracy, it is believed as one of the major causes of insecurity and a very strong factor leading people against their own country. Illiterate northerners came up with the ideology that education is bad. In the end, we are faced with an existential threat to the nation; several major attacks in the country have been attributed to this group, which is nurtured mostly by illiteracy. The psyche of many young people have been destroyed through the collapse of government, we have created those criminals through the collapse of educational systems in the northern part of the country. The neglect of agriculture, population explosion; indigene-settler dichotomy; Incapability of government’s security apparatus at guaranteeing safety and security, limited opportunities for women empowerment and lack of political will and strategically sound and articulated policies. All these can be generalized as government ineptitude and complete lack of direction which can be adduced to the inexperienced of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Dare Olowolayemo
Lagos.

Politics › Asiwaju Bola Hamed Tinubu Knows Fani-kayode Is A Drowning Bastard by Nwoguphillip(op): 1:07pm On Mar 02, 2015

You Need To Read What Tinubu Said About FFK And PDP by jonathan12345: 12:25pm
The PDP campaign continues its descent. This is to be
expected. Because the truth stings them harshly, they
have become a factory of lies. A few days ago, the agent of
character assassination who doubles as the busy hatchet man
of the PDP accused Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of plotting to be
vice president then President through subterfuge.
Clearly, he has exposed the confusion and contradiction
within his party and has veered off from the real debate.
But he cannot avoid the storm of change already unleashed by
the APC.

However, the only subterfuge involved in this entire
episode, is that eating at Fani-kayode’s mind. His
mind is an agent of mayhem and a foreigner to facts. The
last time we looked the APC ticket was a Buhari/Osinbajo
one. That is what is and that is what shall stand.
Fani-Kayode is not as smart as he thinks. If you read
between the lines of his hysteria you see another extreme
sentiment: that of surging desperation. His statement
indicates that even he now realizes that his pay master has
lost to Buhari/Osinbajo. The game is over. The whistle has
blown. What the fantasy man seeks to do is change the
game. He seeks to run against Tinubu in hopes the
outcome will be better. Fani now grasps at straw in the
night wind.

Fani Kayode is on a futile journey to shield the populace
from seeing the failures of his paymasters. His
statement taken in context indicates that his paymasters
will lose the election. They are now worried about what will
happen thereafter. The majority of Nigerians have concluded
that they have done enough damage to our politics, economy
and security; and cannot be tolerated any longer. Rather,
they should be voted out by the people. Their journey
of lies and deception is at its terminal point. It
lied to Nigerians and the international community that
elections had to be shifted first because of the PVC issue
and later it became a security ambush to change the date
thus aborting Nigeria’s date with destiny at the polls.
That FFK is the best a ruling party can do as a spokesman
speaks volumes about the PDP. They are bereft of
talent and character. They are filled with lies and
chicanery. FFK is simply the worst and most outspoken of a
bad lot. However, we welcome his interventions. They
are of such low quality and base character. His utterances
frighten people but not in the way FFK intended.
Instead of scaring the people away from the APC, his
work scares people that someone so unfit is so close to the
seat of power, someone so unhinged is given free rein to
spit bile and call that public discourse. One must wonder
who is unbalanced, the misfit or he who hires him. Keep at
it FFK. Continue!

Most Nigerians are fed up with this government and
desire change. They await eagerly that opportunity at the
polls. They cannot tolerate four more years of a Fani Kayode
of his paymasters and his utterances. That is your agony
Fani Kayode and of course that of the PDP and its gang of
destroyers. You will not be able to persuade majority of
Nigerians who are prepared to use their vote for a positive
change. And if only to shield the populace from your
peculiar brand of abuse of power both you and your boss must
go. The APC is committed to bringing reforms to our
institutions, recovery to our economy and relief to millions
of our citizens who are suffering.

This latest episode shows that Fani Kayode’s hallucinations
are now uncontrollable. Again, unable to
make headway against Buhari and Osinbajo he now wants to run
against Tinubu.
This plot will not work. Tinubu is not scheming to become
president through the back door. He, just like any qualified
Nigerian has the right to walk in through the front door if
he so desires. But he is not on the ticket.
For the job he is hired to do, it is expected that a Fani
Kayode will be blinded to the positive nature of the
Buhari/Osinbajo ticket. If he has failed to read and do some
research on the character of an Osinbajo, let me help him.
Yemi Osinbajo is fiercely independent. A
brilliant mind of great character and and a consummate
reformer and legal crusader. You will not dare speak
of him in this manner. The APC ticket is of people of great
resolve. But because among your own crowd you have people
who will willingly destroy not only our institutions and
country you think so of others. APC is a party with people
of impeccable character. Courageous and patriotic leaders
who are out to rescue our nation. And you, Fani Kayode are
on record to have said so in several interviews.
If FFK cannot recognize that Tinubu is a talent seeker, man
of vision, one who creates opportunities for the best minds
to thrive and serve the public, then he deserves our pity.
Tinubu’s hand is writ large in the brand of good
governance pervading the South West and other parts of
Nigeria. He is a hunter for talents as exemplified in
Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos who has redefined
governance.

Talented and hardworking Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun
State. Indefatigable Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State.
Eclectic Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state. The relentless Comrade
Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State. And until recently,
Kayode Fayemi who served Ekiti well. Yemi Osinbajo
belongs to this tribe of excellent public servants.
The APC still parades other governors who continue to excel
across the country. The likes of Governor Rabiu
Kwankwos in Kano, the tireless Governor Wamakko of
Sokoto State and other governors in Borno,
Rivers, Yobe, Kwara- all of them committed to bringing
change to their people.
Bola Tinubu help build the great platform for change
,wholeheartedly work abd supports the APC ticket because he
believes it is the last best hope to rescue Nigeria from the
disaster FFK and his ilk will want to continue to rule us if
allowed to. I pray Nigerians will not allow them to
misgovern us a day past May 29. If FFK pretends not to know
of Tinubu’s efforts to build and support the
APC, it comes as no surprise . Fani
Kayode tried before to be part of the party but left when he
found out there was no room for his games. Because APC
could not help to free him from EFCC and Aviation fraud he
ran away to the party that blocked the EFCC on his behalf.
On record are Tinubu’s efforts and his contributions to
rebuilding the nation and ensuring its democracy. They
are his patriotic obligation. People like FFK will never
understand this. Patriotism is not part of their personal
constitution. Everything they do has a private beginning and
personal end. They do nothing regarding the public purpose
except lie about it.

I will not dignify FFK’s outrageous lies with any
reply. All I know is that Nigerians know that he is a
peddler of falsehood. And millions of Nigerians are with APC
and its leaders.
Tinubu, like millions of APC members is pleased with the
performance of the APC ticket on the campaign trail and
looks forward to greater accomplishments from the Buhari
/Osinbajo team once in office.
Let me restate that Tinubu is a committed democrat and he
has demonstrated that times over. He is one man that has
chosen to serve this country to the best is his
ability. By God’s grace, the support of millions of
Nigerians APC will go on to win the March Presidential
elections and General Buhari and Osinbajo will go ahead to
be sworn in to lead this country to better times.
.Femi Fani Kayode cannot just leave Tinubu alone because
they see him as their political nemesis. But Tinubu will not
be their dart board. If they want to see the culprit behind
their flagging misfortune, they do not need to glare at
Tinubu. They should go home and peer into the nearest
mirror. Therein their trouble lies.
Now that FFK has revealed why his party, the PDP has
consistently persecuted Bola Tinubu through phony code of
conduct tribunal, massive unjustified
attacks against his character and integrity, intimidation
and harassment.

They all have failed. In what is a classic
case of abuse of power, the government you now work for have
accused Tinubu in the past of baseless and unproven
allegations whereas in your party, including yourself there
are wolves feasting on the commonwealth of the people. For a
leadership that cannot define corruption and theft, we are
left with a gang of plunderers. You have openly and secretly
stolen and plundered the wealth of the nation without the
slightest concern about morality and the suffering masses.
The fiction of a thousand Fani Kayodes cannot stop an idea
whose time has come. The APC is committed to upholding and
respecting the tenets of democracy and of bringing a new
government that will usher in a new day for a new Nigeria.
And that is what Fani Kayode and his party cannot handle.
The nation has had enough of their shamelessness. Please
pack up. It is time to go.
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Politics › Asiwaju Bola Hamed Tinubu Knows Fani-kayode Is A Drowning Bastard by Nwoguphillip(op): 1:02pm On Mar 02, 2015

Politics › Ten Take Aways From The Gen. Buhari’s Chatham House Lecture, London by Nwoguphillip(op): 2:23am On Feb 27, 2015

26 February 2015

1. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and largest economy, is at a defining moment, a moment that has great implications beyond the democratic project and beyond the borders of my dear country.

2.Given increasing global linkages, it is in our collective interests that the postponed elections should hold on the rescheduled dates; that they should be free and fair; that their outcomes should be respected by all parties; and that any form of extension, under whichever guise, is unconstitutional and will not be tolerated.

3. Driven by patriotism, influenced by the prevalence and popularity of such drastic measures all over Africa and elsewhere, we fought our way to power. But the global triumph of democracy has shown that another and a preferable path to change is possible.

4. It is much more important that the promise of democracy goes beyond just allowing people to freely choose their leaders. It is much more important that democracy should deliver on the promise of choice, of freedoms, of security of lives and property, of transparency and accountability, of rule of law, of good governance and of shared prosperity.

5. Boko Haram has sadly put Nigeria on the terrorism map, killing more than 13,000 of our nationals, displacing millions internally and externally, and at a time holding on to portions of our territory the size of Belgium. What has been consistently lacking is the required leadership in our battle against insurgency.

6. Let me assure you that if I am elected president, the world will have no cause to worry about Nigeria as it has had to recently; that Nigeria will return to its stabilizing role in West Africa; and that no inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to the enemy.

7. But I must emphasize that any war waged on corruption should not be misconstrued as settling old scores or a witch-hunt. I'm running for President to lead Nigeria to prosperity and not adversity.

8. As a progressive party, we must reform our political economy to unleash the pent-up ingenuity and productivity of the Nigerian people thus freeing them from the curse of poverty. We will run a private sector-led economy but maintain an active role for government through strong regulatory oversight and deliberate interventions.

9. On March 28, Nigeria has a decision to make. To vote for the continuity of failure or to elect progressive change. I believe the people will choose wisely.

10. I have heard and read references to me as a former dictator in many respected British newspapers including the well regarded Economist. Let me say without sounding defensive that dictatorship goes with military rule, though some might be less dictatorial than others. I take responsibility for whatever happened under my watch.

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Politics › Ten Take Aways From The Gen. Buhari’s Chatham House Lecture, London by Nwoguphillip(op): 2:18am On Feb 27, 2015

Politics › Wither The Nigerian State- President Jonathan Must Go by Nwoguphillip(op): 9:46pm On Feb 25, 2015

Of deceptions and cross carpeting, politics in Nigeria is truly the study of human behavior. The 2015 elections has a huge potential to be the yard stick for the crystallization of democracy or can be the panacea for the dismantling of the nation into clusters of nation states against the amalgamation or existence of the entity call Nigeria. Systemic leaks to the media before the INEC world press conference appeared like a conspiracy to feel the pulse of the nation on the possibility and potential dangers inherent in the postponement of the elections. When the announcement was made the whole nation had been aware days before. It appeared the conspiracy worked despite the overwhelming objection to the postponement it was accepted. All stake holders continued to sue for peace and we all maintained the status quo. Whatever the strategy in place by the PDP it looked obvious they had played the nation. The excuse given was credible. The security situation in the North east part of Nigeria had to be under control, this was also supported with a full statement from Prof ATTAHIRU JEGA the INEC chief. He also claimed the lack of total readiness of the commission to conduct elections with 75% of permanent voters card ready and enough ballot papers not fully or readily available to conduct a free and fair election. The excuses did sound credible as earlier reiterated, what remains unclear are why the situation is so, giving the time he had to prepare. He had four years and a huge budget to prepare however the postponement remains the order of the day and all stakeholders have conformed. The ARMY could be easily deployed into the trouble spots and elections held like in Iraq, Afghanistan…Sambo Dansuki thinks not.

Nigeria remains most vulnerable to serious uprising, anarchy and war , with the polity responding to an uneasy calm with disdain and suspicion . A dangerous political UPHEAVAL is BREWING with mixed feelings of uncertainty. What are the causes of disruption in the political equation in black Africa’s most populous nation? Whenever there is a general election looming THIS IS WHAT WE GET. 1999, the fourth republic began after a power tussle that brought down Ibrahim Babangidas military junta the interim national government , Gen Sani Abachas government and the transitional junta of Gen Abdulsalam Abubakars government. The tussle began with the cancellation of primary elections won by Shehu Musa Yar Adua followed by the formation of the SDP and NRC by the military. This idea was welcomed, it ran up unto the conducting of general elections, it witnessed the cancellation of the freest and fairest elections ever conducted in the history of Nigeria and won by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola on June 12 1993. For Nigeria what the world does not understand is what is so strange and uncommon about power or leadership change in a democracy, that it, threatens the lives of people, stability in the political system and the general functioning of government all over the nation? The power game remains very strange to observers and political monitors outside the country. Many have opined that its primary cause is corruption and maladministration. The need to cover tracks and maintain a huge financial empire acquired from the spoils of office it is believed and is now quite obvious to a novice that it remains the greatest threat to a smooth running of the democratic process in Nigeria and AFRICA AT LARGE.

Today it appears this ugly scenario is rearing its head again. The Goodluck Administration has since its inception 6years on been bedivilled with all sorts of accusations of corruption ineptitude fraud and exploitation of resources in all sectors ….from scams in the stock market , aviation sector, power sector,oil subsidy scams , bureau of public enterprise, and various other contract scams in other sectors of the economy. The exposure of corruption in government has been so pronounced it qualifies this government as the most corrupt ever. Coming up to the elections the cry for change is not only been vociferous within the opposition parties it has received the approbation of the whole nation causing a great scare within government and its cohorts or accomplices outside government. What has compounded the situation is the character of the presidential candidate of the leading opposition party. Gen Mohammadu Buhari, the ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) has a reputation that is cast iron. A strict disciplinarian, anti- corruption crusader, a man of integrity he commands the respect of many well meaning Nigerians, the popular masses and the international community. His reputation precedes him and his tract record as military leader from 1983-85 stands as the most correctional regime ever in the history of Nigeria. The perception today, is that his predicted victory at the polls will lead to the same correctional government and under a democratic constitutional government a lot of changes will be made to break the cabal of corrupt government agents and past corrupt leaders. The fear of prosecution by current members of government known by most to be suspects in the various scams has led to a gang up against the electoral process. Every attempt to scuttle these coming elections is in the offing. It has been postponed with cogent credible excuses, more excuses are being muted by the cabal and its kitchen cabinet to further postpone or cancel the elections is brewing. The fear of Buhari is their beginning of wisdom ……..

America saw them coming, knows their game for the interest it has in our land and resources, sent her foreign secretary John Kerry to warn us and he warned us not to rock the boat , don’t overheat the polity let the elections hold . He met with the President and Gen Buhari after. The PRESIDENT gave his word and broke it almost before John KERRY could report to President OBAMA he broke his word and postponed the elections. Will he go the whole mile and scuttle the electoral process remains to be seen. He will go down in history as the man who ruined the lives of all Nigerians rich and poor for it will lead to a major political crises as predicted by the CIA, MI5, MOSSARD, GCHQ, KGB and most intelligence agencies the world over that is why foreign secretary to warn us.

Nigeria must move forward, these elections nationwide must hold …no individual or collective group is more important than the entity or nation called Nigeria. The rule of law remains supreme making may 29 sacrosant.However the threat of cancellation is real , former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the most experienced political and military leader in the nation has spoken up against the maneuvers of the government and has disassociated himself from the GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY. In a show of shame and a disgraceful television broadcast he tore his membership card . Many thought it was wrong and he ought to have just returned the card and announce his resignation, but the rot was unbearable for him and his anger uncontrollable. His actions, unprecedented in the history of Nigeria more also because he was the past president of Nigeria under the PARTY’S FLAG and former Chairman Board of Trusties. A big blow to the party all they could say is his card has expired ……I would have thought his membership was for life like all other party members.

The politicization of the military has been most disgraceful in this saga. Their maneuvers to quell the insurgency in the north east of Nigeria has improved tremendously giving their excuse for postponement no credibility , rather its creating more suspicion. What happened in the past six years , why all the lives lost, kids killed, kidnapped chibok girls and many many displaced Nigerians that will never be reconciled with their parents again. Why did he not uphold the constitution and protect them. This President does not give a damm ,this is what people believe today. This president cannot continue to preside over the most populous black nation in Africa . This president is not listening and is not leading us. As the commander in chief of the armed forces he has failed . This Presidents time is up. The obvious and most obvious show of desperation is the recent 3 DAY BRIBERY visit to lagos . So conscious are the lagosians that the lined up to collect as much money as they could receive from him and reported to their leaders verbatim.

Has the President lost the plot , my answer is yes. Let us now come together to usher him out of government as peacefully as we can and let Nigerians begin to experience change under a true leader a bastion of hope , a tested man of integrity closely supported by Professor Yemi OSINBAJO a proven man of intellect , integrity and vision .

In the month of March Nigeria can be ours again…….. vote BUHARI /OSINBAJO VOTE FOR CHANGE VOTE APC

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Politics › Wither The Nigerian State- President Jonathan Must Go by Nwoguphillip(op): 9:35pm On Feb 25, 2015

Politics › The President Jonathan Cloned Abubakar Shekau. by Nwoguphillip(op): 5:50am On Feb 25, 2015

Undoubtedly, the news of the purported capture of the resurfaced leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau presently hovering around the Nigeria political space which may have been credited to feeders within the Nigeria Defense HQ or its mercenaries, is a bid to present a cloned individual as the original leader of the group, further blackmail certain people in the society, and ultimately result to further mudslinging of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. No doubt, Nigerians believe that the monster was a creation of the ruling party in their pursuit to maintain a firm grip on power, the nation’s treasury and extend their 16 years of futile rule at the center. This is at the expense of the lives and properties of the people, who are believed to be helpless in the face of the PDP’s misrule.

In accordance with the statement of a former Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha on the consent of the government in power, if terrorism last for more than 48hrs in a country, and with a deep understanding of the relationship between a creature and the creator, Nigerians will collectively subscribe to the submission that a relationship convincingly exist between President Goodluck Jonathan and the leader of the most dreaded Nigerian based Boko Haram terrorist group. This evident claim has aided the fast rise of the terrorist group and the military’s inability to end the activities of this terrorist group for the past six years in power, which has brought so much shame on us as a people.

The decision of the President Goodluck Jonathan led government to satisfy the conditions on which the February polls was untimely postponed, after President Goodluck Jonathan claimed to have underestimated the activities of the dreaded group from its inception, is believed to have instigated the presidency to match the battle field in an attempt to either subdue or eradicate the Boko Haram Terrorist group, so Nigerians should neither be utterly shocked nor perplexed by the swift swing of the President Goodluck Jonathan led Nigerian Military to combat the over six years terrorism that has ravaged the entire North Eastern Nigeria and its environs, for this is a clear indictment of the incumbent administration which is in accordance with claims from well meaning Nigerians that the President Goodluck Jonathan led government has deliberately allowed the insecurity in the North eastern Nigeria to degenerate in pursuance of political points best known to the Presidency and the ruling party.

Nevertheless, the position of some members of the ruling class and the Nigerian masses that the Boko Haram terrorist group is a creation of the ruling party can be best justified with the ongoing perceived determination of the presidency and the ruling party to employ all necessary mercenaries towards bringing peace and tranquility to the North East, after the government’s nonchalant attitude for over six years that has led to the displacement of more than 3 million people, death of more than a hundred score, destruction of many over homes and death of our unborn cities, this calls for a probe by both national court of law and the international criminal court of law.

Conclusively, Nigerians are glad to join the government on their sudden awakening from their six years of slumber by giving the insecurity in the North East a good fight. This will help us restore peace in our country and return sanctity in our society. Nonetheless, we also express our disappointment in the deliberate inactions of the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration to combat the dreaded terrorist group.

Whatever becomes the outcome of the ongoing fight for peace in the North East, we will always remember that the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration consumed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced over 3 million people, for people will be remembered for their actions and inactions.

Kazeem Sulaiman
sulaimanadeshina@yahoo.com
@KazeemDiary

Politics › The Psycho-analysis Of Peter Ayodele Fayose by Nwoguphillip(op): 5:07pm On Feb 23, 2015

I woke up this morning to another scathing news about Ayodele Fayose. This time, he had threatened secession if Buhari wins. The story isn’t as raging on social media like the gullible pictures released which was a mockery of himself as Governor of Ekiti State. Either ways, within the shortest period of 16minutes on Nairaland, it has garnered over 200 comments and reactions from Nigerians. I didn’t take offence at the swipe taken on his person. I didn’t want to tally round the intolerable perception of Fayose, but the moment I saw this “Is this how foolish the Ekiti people are to have voted Ayodele Fayose, I got chagrined and insulted.
Did the Ekiti people actually vote Fayose? Was he elected in free and fair contest? Logically, that isn’t an issue for the court alone. With the stormy information made available to Nigerians via the various institutional leaks, obviously, the last hasn’t been heard about Ekiti Election. Apparently there is need to set the record straight. Who is Ayodele Fayose?

Not many know that the man, Peter Ayodele Fayose, is a dead man alive. Just few populist know his human analytical method. He is a mentally deranged man. The few that do are cowards who are extremely fearful of the hemorrhagic bite of his street urchins, if they dare say. In honesty, I don't enjoy swipe at those in vantage positions. I strongly believe they are authorities in their ruptured beliefs. However when a leader who is supposedly expected to be a democrat of conscience, democrat of character, democrat of discipline, democrat of leadership through respect for constitutional authority, respect for laws that made it out rightly luxurious for everyone to be Governor or President at a time is found flouting the norms, values and ethos of democracy, the consequences are catastrophic. The effect of this would carve a wrong niche on upcoming leaders; it will cause a generational stir on the concept of leadership and service. So, I won’t retire my effrontery in addressing Fayose’s ills.

Governor Fayose is a misfit; he is more efficiently resourceful a Kingpin and drug baron but certainly not as political leader with such an exalted cum crept position. He needs to be silenced or called to order in time, if not, it would lay a bad precedence of purpose on the people. Peter Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti, is a bad example to anyone he is associated with. His person is mysteriously fundamental. There is not always a need to mock those who take him serious if political analysts can take a pleasure out to educate the people on how he has suddenly become a tragedy of time. Obviously, no one would want to attribute a reading-single line for Fayose. He is such an uncouth mess like that. His irate jab on people is though comic and desecrating of his position. Those that horribly/terribly believe anything sensible can come out his pudding head other than the gaseous waste of steroids overloads are mistaken and probably sitting on keg of gun powder.

The psycho analysis of this man fayose, as a political leader to his cronies wouldn't stem his corrigible records but may in a long run recycled an ordinate dispatch to the people of his likes who strongly believe in throwing comfortable taunt at people without a clear purpose or basis.

For Fayose, he has been enjoying the euphoria of his office and forgotten soon that he is no longer, Peter Ayodele Fayose an addict of steroids and any damning substance that could elevate his reasoning might beyond normal and makes him do things extra-ordinarily. He is now, an elected leader. By the word leader, it comes with a ransom; service to the people.

A friend in Ekiti describes him as a “commercial caretaker”. Well, whatever that may mean, I know he is the Governor of Ekiti and he needs to enjoy the glitz of it.
Fayose, Mr Governor, you are misbehaving is no longer a limit to his vituperation. His gaffe and spurious attack is delinquently associated with one with mental. This is best measured by the volume of the utter insults his alcohol stinking mouth spews weekly on just a man, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

Insignificantly, Buhari isn't the first man to have suffered consistent insult from this man PAF. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu amongst others has had their dose over-measured in the name of politics. Based on what I termed “Personal Political Interest. That brings to fore the character of those we elect as leaders in this country.

Fayose was once a Governor, impeached by his own house for crime against public service act lining up to ten. He escaped the wrath of the people or better-put shielded from the law, packaged and polished to fulfill the interest of his cohorts in PDP. When coming, he came in white chameleonic cloth that deceived the people of Ekiti state as a change agent.

The intelligence surrounding his "I am a changed man" story was never a habit. It lasted for just a week in print. His people at the Deeper Life ground took a borrowed shade to wink the lies to shave. What a shameful character of a man.

Consequently upon the emergence of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; when all signs and gears have been shifted to his candidature, PAF, the chief thug to the President resumed his duty actively with immunity. At the coordination of concocted lies, blackmail, propaganda he registered his name yet again as the most unpolished person that has occupied the position of Governor. He's always in the news for the wrong reason. It takes the fusion of the Ekiti people to counter his death wish position on the incoming President. The statement co-signed by ekitipanupo elders in the state buried what could have been ethnic war between Yorubas and Hausas. As if that wasn't enough, trending events in Ekiti retiled the trouble all opposition leaders in the state had suffered. From assault to death threats. Fayose sat conveniently on laws but is ready to deal vigorously with any common man that flouted the laws. He has forgotten that “he who make his law a just, by his own law shall he surely die” apology to lupine. You won't imagine he is that evil and creepy to fault at first glance. His life though picked from street remains on the street with garment of honour stained and tilted by shame.

Fayose in his usual comfort zone put a piece to justify his ace gaffe quoted saying "Buhari’s visit to UK is in conformity with his lies. He went as far as saying he is visiting a London Hospital that has no name. What hypocrisy!

How best do we define someone that fakes his own death? Ran to Nigeria with another name to pick a career in advance trance using politics as platform? Mad! I wouldn't agree less. Fayose is also a man that won't take breakfast unless he takes a finger-tip of mixed steroids to boost his human deficiency to erratic efficiency.

His words fall to mere rocky land and bear no fruits. It takes a character like him to consider him relevant or serious in his stupidity.

Maxwell Adegbenro writes from Lagos

The talkative, uncouth, unpolished governor of Ekiti State, in western Nigeria, Ayodele Fayose, has released photographs of Maj. General Muhammadu Buhari, APC presidential candidate, on his ‘hospital bed’ in a ‘Cavendish Hospital’ in London.

Politics › President Jonathan Is A Tragedy Of Democracy; Lustful, Evil by Nwoguphillip(op): 10:55pm On Feb 21, 2015

President Goodluck Jonathan is a pathological liar. In fact, he is the first President in our modern politics that can lie even in his sleep. His life style is uncanny and deliriously inhumane. I don’t know why people still take him seriously. I have enjoyed taken unapologetic swipe on Obasanjo for giving us such a huge mistake. Four years isn’t a joke. The damage is alarming and could be generational. He lied on all things; he is just a devil incarnate. There is no single truth, not in iota reference of him. I am really ready to take anyone on this.
Reading through his many lies again about the coming elections gives an illogical farce that I know won’t survive unless we are just bunch of morons the Presidency thinks we are. The meddling with the affairs of INEC, the one of the few institutions that Nigerians should trust gives an ominous indication that the Presidency isn’t sincere about conducting elections in 2015. This would anger anyone that has tasted development in developing countries, missing basis of democracy.
This is likely going to open another draconic debate between warring political ideologies. The good thing is, it will definitely achieve its aim, but only the intellectually sage person can translate without remedy to mischief. Nigeria project without extremely cast iron doubt is populism concentrated. The people are conscientious; more actively involved in passing comments and reeling blames having understood that conscience and silence are knotted principle that makes a thriving and sustainable democracy. Not many countries survived the tragedy of democracy in the hands of their political leaders unless they are actively veracious in the process and activities of government. Not even, in developing nations. This, I presume Nigerians soon realized and boom, there perception is re-awakening after the many lies turned tragedy suffered in our nascent democracy by our political leaders.
I have mentioned lies; Jonathans/Gejites would find the inkling insulting and probably ignore the basis. There is no need to take history on any journey; I will analyze the basis with clues from recent gaffe of Jonathan. Starting with his numerous and unfounded lies cum deceit that our modern understanding of government philosophy called failures.
Haven’t he promised a more transparent and fair electoral process? Didn’t he promise not to dabble in affairs of judicial system? Haven’t we read he promised issue based campaign? What that means is nothing personal about what you want to do and what you intend doing for the people. It also means, the 2015 electioneering won’t be confrontational to anyone not even the electorates, who dare that?
Didn’t he promise an improved power? Do we have now electricity in full moon at least for 12hours a day in any part of Nigeria? Oh! Do I hear you say, the failure is peculiar to party in government?
Didn’t he promise second Niger Bridge? But he is yet to make do his promise. How many of Jonathan empty promises do you have in your memory tackling corruption? We have had and always have his flimsy assurances to battle terrorism not knowing he has refused to equip our soldiers with ammunitions and weapons to curb the insurgency. Who is to blame? Who is lying? Why has he lied on the soul of many Nigerians? Are we settling for this lying bitch yet again against the backdrop of his failures and unfounded lies that have heaped tragedy and pain on us?
In honesty, President Jonathan is my worst nightmare that I wouldn’t want to see beyond May 29, 2015.
The opposition and political analyst should begin to take his words with mere pitch of salt. This isn’t the first time we would be having a chief executive promising something and doing the other. Obasanjo did it and the bridge didn’t fall, Governors and Senators are doing it while we take solace and hold them accountable at a logical time like this, the electoral season is always momentum in memories. The fate of Nigerians in another 4years from local government to the Presidency begins with the choice we make. So, as an apostle of good governance and respect for democratic principle, I owe my country a duty of erecting accountable leaders through any laudable means I can think of and Jonathan isn’t just an option. He is the worst tragedy of our democracy.
From Abuja last weekend I returned to Lagos through the available air metro of Emirate. As I landed at the Muritala Muhammed Airport, was a haughty smell that would arise anyone’s fear the moment you take revolving attempt to make a stop at the airport extension. I had once read about the damning condition of Muritala “International” airport on Newspaper, the one that have ever ossify my worries was the piece Tolu Ogunlesi put together last year. The toilets, the flagship, the conveyor and the lifts that connect you to any route are all in bad and shabby state. There I wonder what the money hungry “TAN” Transformation Ambassadors are actually projecting about the President with pocket sticking lies. I also remember we had a Minister, a woman that loves her country and extended the affection through her sapping effort of service but won’t negotiate her comfort in exotic cars, and have never hid her taste for luxury managing the aviation industry for more than 3years.
It means, it takes 5years of a mentally deranged person to identify failures and still want to associate, let alone canvass support for such after 5years in power.
In the wake of 2011 during President Jonathan electoral campaign was a file of some exciting electoral promises that look like a solution to our long run of ill luck in leadership. In total ninety one. The promises have proved to be a mirage that may never see any good light till the expiration of his tenure. The lists of the promises are not the focus but the many lies turned tragedy amidst tyranny spewed by Jonathan with no complicity.
Power; In 2012, President Jonathan jolted and rebooted our confidence coming bold and elegant with global assurance of fixing our power sector. He reminiscent-ally said, our power generation is facing rehabilitation of all existing power generation; distribution and transmission assets to give a minimum of 6,000mw of electricity; the harnessing of alternative sources of energy such as coal, wind and solar to generate an initial 13,000mw, and the unbundling of PHCN into 18 successor companies. As if the deceit hasn’t suffered a huge condemnation enough, Jonathan had again gone sneaky, recently undertook a MoU with General Electric mostly to add up to 15 percent in power projects to achieve 10,000mw addition by 2020. Having done this, it is wisdom to expect the effect of this move but no, Nigerians aren’t swayed, they understand the idea is motivated by desperation for 2015 election. Such political calculation is dead on arrival. Yes, dead and buried.
Nigerians are seeing his evil machinations rolling up his gladiator’s sleeve. They don’t have the interest of Nigerians. They are bridled by desperation to return to power.
Ofcourse, his desperation can be measured by the latest #Ekitigate saga. Nigerians can hear an army General saying he is under instruction to mastermind the rigging of Ekiti gubernatorial election and pervert the cause of justice. Perhaps a long narrative of his evil would suffice. Nigerians must be warned!

Maxwell Adegbenro writes from Lagos
07068252316
@maxwellcare

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Politics › Project Rescue Democracy (prd) by Nwoguphillip(op): 4:57pm On Feb 21, 2015

PROJECT RESCUE DEMOCRACY (PRD)
10, Afolabi Lesi Street, Ilupeju, Lagos.
Email: projectrescuedemocracy@gmail.com

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW.

Being the text of a World Press Conference held on Saturday 21/02/2015.

THEME: State of the Nation…The 2015 General Elections, Matters arising.

Good morning, Gentlemen of the Press, Comrades, Compatriots, esteemed Countrymen and women, This press conference is the initiative of Project Rescue Democracy (PRD) a coalition of over 60 Civil Society, Self-determination, Ethnic and Professional Groups, who, compelled by the recent happenings in our country regarding particularly the 2015 General Elections have elected a concerted collaborative effort as patriotic and public spirited groups desirous of rescuing our democracy and country from the abyss, yes we cannot fold our hands and watch politicians attempt tenure elongation under any guise or means. We cannot allow the musings of same, nor shall we watch unaddressed any attempt to further postpone the 2015 General Elections.

The signs are ominous as a very dark cloud hung over the Nigerian political horizon as a result of the impending violations of the tenets of democracy and the constitution by forces of evil who are determined to plunge the country into unwarranted chaos whose consequence portends grave danger to our collective peace and security.

There is a general rule of engagement in this trade which is known all over the world, it is definite that there will be a handover date because there is tenure for political office and as such, it is the responsibility of the elections management body to start preparing for the next general elections immediately after a general election and government has a responsibility to providing an enabling environment for the elections management body to perform its statutory responsibility. Then the dates are fixed, wherein all efforts are put in place in ensuring that the dates for the election and swearing of a new government remains sacrosanct.

But what we are seeing today is that all the known values of transparency, fairness and credibility of the electoral system are about to be compromised. We have observed that the principle of one man, one vote is about to be imperilled. The E-card reader which the electoral management body has introduced to promote the sanctity of one man, one vote is about to be circumvented by political actors. Or what do we make of the attempt by some members of the Senate to discredit the use of E-card reader during the presentation of the INEC Chairman on Wednesday 18th February, 2015?

For a government to be legitimate in a democracy its, power must derive from the people through the ballot box which must be seen to be free, fair, transparent and credible, which are all under threat in the unfolding Nigeria’s case.

A whole lot of issues have been thrown up and are going to be thrown up to stop, derail, circumvent, discredit and frustrate the whole electoral process, from the issue of PVC, E-card reader to eligibility, security, threats of war, violence, intimidation, mudslinging, character assassination and so many other mundane issues which have no bearing with elections and sound democratic values.

The following are issues which we want to present to the whole world so as to call to order, anti democratic elements and forces of evil.

Free, fair, transparent and credible elections, a must!

For a long time, Nigeria has basked in the embarrassment of controversial elections, but we have come of age with the introduction of the E-card reader by the electoral management body that will forestall any form of rigging and manipulation which the Nigeria electoral system is known for. Unfortunately, we are shocked and disappointed that major political stakeholders are up in arms against the use of E-card reader which we all know will eliminate multiple voting, because the number of accredited voters will not be more than the number that will cast their votes as recorded by the E-card reader.

Small arms and arms proliferation:

The threats of war and violence have no place in democracy and must be condemned. Thus, we are surprised that some characters in utter violation of democratic and civilized tenets have resorted to threatiocracy, that unless a particular candidate wins, there will be war and one would expect the security agencies to have responded to the threat by calling them to order, but we are not surprised that boko haram have been emboldened by such official negligence to issue threats against the conduct of the 2015 general elections. More so, we are disturbed by the proliferation of arms, small, big and deadly weapons. We are worried by the use of explosives in Okrika, Rivers State only recently which is a frightening dimension in electoral violence in our land. We use this opportunity to call on the security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities and urge them to further strengthen their intelligence gathering units to mop up all arms, ammunitions and explosives for us to have a violent free pre, during and post elections environment.

No to militarization of elections:

The constitution is very clear and explicit as to the duties and responsibilities of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as provided for in Section 217 and 218 of the 1999 constitution which states explicitly the role of the military and nowhere is it provided for in the aforementioned section of the constitution where the military is given powers to be involved in election matters. The Court of Appeal recently held that the military has no business in election matters. We want to add that election matters are purely civil matters which is called the festival of the voters, it is not a day of war, it is the day the voters through the ballot paper award a pass mark to a government or rejects it, that is the practice all over the world and Nigeria cannot be an exemption. So the use of the military to conduct elections, suppress voters, intimidate political opponents is an aberration and unconstitutional. However, we are surprised that Mr. Femi Fani Kayode is asserting that they are going to use the military irrespective of what the law says and we wonder, if he is a court of superior jurisdiction?

No to extension of election dates

We are opposed to any extension of the 2015 general elections by any means whatsoever. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 in Section 135 (2) is clear as to the tenure of the government which is the handover date and any move or step taken against the actualisation of this date, will lead to serious constitutional crisis.

Transparency from the National Assembly

We shall continuously demand transparency and responsibility from the National Assembly regarding their actions and or inactions targeted at compromising the electoral process as Nigerians shall demand for open voting at the floor of both Houses should any such matter come before the National Assembly.

Strict adherence to constitutionalism

We demand that Prof. Jega adhere strictly to the provisions of the Electoral Act and the 1999 constitution empowering him to uphold the sanctity of March 28th and April 11th 2015 general elections dates without the interference of the Security Agencies, and to only postpone election in the places directly embroiled in uncontrollable crisis or war. We call on Professor Attahiru Jega to affirm his constitutional responsibility and refuse to be teleguided to carry out his statutory functions without fear or favour.

No to interim government

It is important to warn that Nigerians are opposed to any tinkering with the current electoral process either by way of an illegal Interim National Government or military intervention and that March 28th and April 11th 2015 elections dates and May 29th Handover dates remain sacrosanct because any deviation will result in constitutional crisis that may implode the system.

Tenure elongation

We are not unaware of the proliferation of arms, armed conflict and orchestrated crisis to heat up the polity and give plausible reasons for the intended six months tenure elongation of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

National security

We demand that the National Security Adviser (NSA) and service chiefs concentrate on their constitutional responsibility of defending and protecting the territorial integrity of the nation and hands off matters of election and electoral matters as recently upheld by the Court of Appeal because acting contrary for political expediency will be tantamount to violating the constitution.

 Collection of PVC

We call on all Nigerians to ensure that they collect their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) which is the only guaranteed passport to vote on Election Day for a candidate of their choice devoid of intimidation, inducements, ethnic, religious and other mundane sentiments.

Conclusion

Gentlemen of the press, it is said by Frantz Fanon that every generation out of relative obscurity must discover its mission and either fulfil or betray it.

We are not unmindful of the pains and tragedy of the June 12, 1993 debacle and that we may not walk that path again, we insist that the government and INEC make March 28th and April 11th, 2015 and May 29th 2015 sacrosanct, immutable and definite.

We want it placed on record that times have changed and that what Nigerians permitted with little or no resistance in 1993, will not be allowed to repeat itself anymore as it’s obvious that the groundswell of public opinion is for the conduct of free, fair, transparent and credible polls come March 28th and April 11th 2015, no more, no less.

Thank You.

Yours Sincerely,

Signed,

Comrade Titilope Akosa

Secretary.

Politics › King Nebu Becomes Laurent Gbagbo Of Nigeria: by Nwoguphillip(op): 1:28am On Feb 18, 2015

Following his administrations misgovernance, misrule, insensitivity, promotion of lawlessness and impunity as a state policy for which he was appropriately tagged King Nebu by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, President Goodluck Jonathan has been conferred with a new name of Laurent Gbagbo of Nigeria by former President Olusegun Obasanjo following his imitation of the inglorious sit tight which culminated in the forceful exit of Mr. Laurent Gbagbo of Cote Diviore from power after plunging his country into a evil and unnecessary blood letting.

This new name is being conferred on President Gbagbo of Nigeria because of his civilian coup against democracy executed through the military which arm twisted and blackmailed INEC to postpone the 2015 general elections for six weeks in a phase one of his self perpetuation plot which has been exposed for what it is.

The truth of the matter is that unless Nigerians take their destiny in their hands just like they did during the days of military despotism when the people came together and chased away the military from our political life, President King Nebu Gbagbo Goodluck Jonathan is not interested in any peaceful, free, fair and credible general elections.

In the light of the above, ladies and gentlemen, please join me to congratulate President King Nebu Gbagbo Goodluck Jonathan on his new title.

It is my prayer that President Gbagbo of Nigeria hearkens to the voice of reason and democracy by putting a stop to this game of causing constitutional crisis by undermining democracy. Its an exercise in futility.

A word is enough for the wise!

Politics › The Umbrella, The Broom by Nwoguphillip(op): 4:58pm On Feb 13, 2015

Unarguably, the country has experienced a skyrocketed level of the importation of umbrellas, which is the symbol of the Peoples Democratic Party, which is as a result of the inability of the ruling party to fund our metal and steel production company, this has ultimately increased the level of umbrella importation amongst other produce into the country; surprisingly, the production of locally made brooms has experienced a pragmatic boom as a result of the increased patronage by members of the All Progressives Congress across the length and breadth Nigeria in identification with the symbol of their political party, this increased patronage has left a direct impact on the internally generated revenue of our heritage, and also encouraged unemployed women and youths to tap into the stream of the All Progressives Congress indirectly created empowerment programme.

The symbol of the All Progressives Congress, Nigeria is believed to symbolise collectiveness and the strong will of different people from different regions of the country, in order to enhance a collective performance; this is synonymous to the collections of strands of brooms from different sources, binded together to form a bundle of strands, which becomes difficult to break and does the cleaning job better. Unarguably, the broom which is the symbol of the All Progressives Congress can be seen in every home, workshop, office, market place and other places, as it importance cannot be underscored in the cleaning of the earlier mentioned places; while the importance of the umbrella is pertinent to rainy season on the calendar of every year, Nebuchadnezzarists have in a long time argued that the umbrella is an all season protection object, but it is pathetic that we only make use of the umbrella during the rainy season because we are Nigerians.

Pathetically, Nebuchadnezzarists have been unable to focus the King Nebuchadnezzar camera focus on the need to atleast encourage our local manufacturers of umbrellas through the SMEs or subventions so as to create an atmosphere where unemployment can be reduced to its minimal. Nigerians have always been provided with google based achievements of the incumbent administration, of how new tertiary institutions have been established at the expense the existing underfunded ones, how they have done reasonably well in the agriculture sector when the prices of farm produce has not stopped to increase by the day, how the King Nebuchadnezzar led regime has successfully refurbished our abandoned old locomotive trains, when a country that got the same amount of loan from a China based financial institution was able overhaul their dilapidated rail tracks and also usher in modern trains.

In addition, they make claims of how the King Nebuchadnezzar have successfully revive our infrastructures when nearly all federal infrastructures to include Federal Prisons in the country are underfunded and insecure, how the incumbent administration has created over 20million jobs via a raffle draw on the pages of national dailies while over 70million Nigerians remain jobless, how the incumbent administration has been able to construct over 25,000km of roads to link the 36 Nigerian States, when our major roads remain in a dismay situation and are dead traps for the Nigerian people, and above all cast aspersions on the opposition for other failures that has been credited to the incumbent administration; whenever Nigerians make a request for the King Nebuchadnezzar 6years performance spreadsheet.

At a critical time like this, when decisions that will either make or mar our future is about to be made at the forthcoming polls, it is vital for us as a people to make an undiluted comparison and contrast between the importance of the umbrella and the broom as in accordance to how they have performed in their respective States and at the center, and as they apply to our everyday life, and how they have been able to affect our economy both in terms of how much the incumbent administration has exhausted on the importation of the umbrella at the peril of the Nigerian people, when we should be a big exporter of um brella considering the availability of the resources..

Kazeem Sulaiman
sulaimanadeshina@yahoo.com
@kazeemDiary

Politics › Goodluck Jonathan's Media Chat Tells Us He Is Burnt Out Tired And Ready To Leave by Nwoguphillip(op): 6:16pm On Feb 12, 2015*

The presidential media chat of 11/2/2015 will go down in history as the worst e re media briefing of any President anywhere in the world. Nigerians were glued to their TVs expecting to hear serious explanations about the most pressing issues the nation is facing which is the postponement of the general elections and the issue of insurgency, curbing corruption etc.
What we heard that startled the nation was his denying any knowledge of INEC's postponement of the election.

That was a rude shock and awakening that we had a President unfit for office , a leader that is being led . Who makes decisions on national issues ? Did he lie ? On the Presidential media chat we saw a president that dithers , a paranoid leader unable to articulate very pressing national issues.
The Presidents response on the issue of security was totally shameful and unimpressive. Nigerians don't believe he will resolve the insurgency in the north east in six weeks. This situation had been going on long before he came to power and throughout his tenure he has not been able curb insurgency . So much kidnapping , the Chibok School girls, killings , suicide bombings infact the death toll is humongous and this president dies not give a damm. His response mode has been ridiculously embarrassing to say the least . His government totally capitulated in its bid to defend lives. The army has been out manoeuvred out gunned and displaced in the battle to protect lives and territory. This was purely a function of ineptitude and corruption. The budget for weapons was never utilised honestly and judiciously . Untold corruption in the defence ministry has led to serious disruption disunity and mutiny within the ranks of the army . Court Martials and death sentences followed leading to very low moral in the army. How can they fight insurgency with inferior fire power, low moral and motivation . On the media chat he refuted all this promising that in collaboration with The Cameroon Republic and Chadian Army they will crush the insurgents in six weeks. That remains to be seen .
He spoke about stealing and corruption hiding under the umbrella of a Justice Mustaphas quote . For serious viewers this explanation did not augur well , his disposition body language and lack of seriousness exposed him nagatively . He cannot hide behind ineffective organs created and weakened by government . ICPC, IPC, EFCC etc are organs that have proven ineffective in the past six years while this administration has witnessed untold stealing and corruption from the oil sector to aviation etc all he could reference is fertilizer theft and how it has been curbed.
He was scored very low , albeit unconvincing and a let down to the Nigerian people . Goodluck Jonathan is unfit for the exalted office. His weaknesses and timid approach to governance has ruined the economy, security apparatus ie the armed forces, education sector , social cohesiveness and societal values , employment opportunities and our international standing . Now he is running scared realising his deficiencies . His advisers are urging him to flout the constitution in their bid to rescue a damaged presidency and president . This is too little too late . Nigerians have opted for change and are screaming it loud in every nook and cranny of the state . They also had the opportunity of watching General Muhammadu Buhari on CNN take on the ferocious probing Christiana Amanpour and was very precise in his responses , no ambiguity no mediocrity . A stately presentation and response befitting for a President . No wonder Gen Obasanjo has dropped his anointed GEJ and express support for Gen Muhammadu Buhari . Change is imminent , the elections must hold and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan considering the possibility of loosing has agreed to give up power. We pray he does as his cabal might urge him to fight again God and the Nigerian people's wishes .

Politics › The Elections Will Hold On March 28 And April 11.... by Nwoguphillip(op): 2:35pm On Feb 12, 2015

The attempted plot to thwart the will of the Nigerian people in 2015 will fail for so many reasons overlooked by the Goodluck Jonathan led autocracy and dictatorship clouded in a democratic structure. Nigerians have shown serious disappointment by Prof Attahiru Jegas announcement of a forced, fraudulent attempt to hoodwink , trample and crush a smooth transitional process.
The international community has very strong influence on events in African communities. They are for elections and democracy in Nigeria. John Kerry came to Nigeria to enforce that policy . He has responded to the postponement with the European Union and Canada warning The Nigerian government not to abuse its citizens by not adhering to the provisions of the constitution . The Nigerian President is insisting the May 29th is sacrosanct yet all efforts to keep it so have been derailed. We have it on good authority that while he means that he has vowed not to concede the elections to the nations favorite, Gen Mohamadu Buhari . The international community know of the plot to hand over to an interim government in his place . Everything to avert this will be done.
Nigerians in the diaspora have started a serious protest against postponement and possible aversion of the will of the people. How effective their collective resolve is remains to be seen as we draw closer to the fraudulent six weeks before te real showdown .
The political parties in Nigeria are divided on the issue . Rumour has it that monies were transferred to some of the parties to agitate for postponement . The main opposition party the APC have protested vehemently against postponement . They see the reasons stated by the INEC as hogwash . The military can provide security and protect us in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states during the elections. Iran ,Afghanistan and Iraq have all conducted elections successfully yet their nations are at war or near anarchy . Why can't Nigeria do the same and better. The six weeks is a hoax and a fraud to give the federal government the opportunity and time to plan effectively where they had failed previously. The totally under estimated the APC and its campaign for change . The surprise is why they have called fir 6 weeks so they can put plan B into action . They have no intention of conducting any elections . The hand writing is on the wall. The Second excuse they gave was that only 66% of the electorate have collected their permanent voters card which is a pre-requisite to eligibility to vote. While no one wishes anybody to be disenfranchised we have on good authority that the number of PVC holders surpasses the 2011 registered voters and so might be enough to go ahead . The collection exercise was however extended by the INEC giving rise to the number of eligible voters and probably would have improved significantly by election date of febuhari 14 . The opposition APC are forging on despite serious intimidation and major stifling by the PDP to encourage its members to shun violence and remain steadfast resilient and commited to the new dates so the can cast their votes and sweep away injustice ,insecurity , insurgency, waste, degradation, stagnation, want, corruption , and all nagative ties perpetuated by this failed government of crooks ,weaklings ,bandits, have baked stooges ,professional con men and evil marabouts .
The people of Nigeria are the third face of resistance in this tragedy imploding on our democracy. Often described as docile seem to have taking a stand this time . The urge is to wait and see if the postponed date is real or a farce. It seems like it's show time . This time unlike in 1993 when hope was dashed Nigerians will resist .
Presently, Nigeria has the international community ready to come to its rescue by threatening sanctions and urging the government to strictly adhering to its promise and constitutional duties. Secondly, the Nigerian people have their greatest opposition party ever in its history campaigning strongly and effectlively for serious civil disobedience and resistance to any act of fraud or deceit that will lead to the thwarting of the people's constitutional right to effect peaceful democratic change by conducting free and fair elections . It's leaders have sworn that the extension announced will be upheld and contrary to any suspicious detraction from this date will be resisted . Finally , the Nigerian people who hold the ultimate power to resist tyranny are resolved to resist any attempt to subvert their quest for change. Goodluck must go the dye is cast .

Politics › Fashola Condemns Soldier’s Siege On Tinubu’s Residence. by Nwoguphillip(op): 4:34pm On Feb 11, 2015

“In the last three days, they deployed soldiers to the home of Asiwaju. Every night now, they send a truck load of soldiers to his home. But I have news for them, we will not be intimidated by their actions. Our votes will speak for us. Let me remind them that if Yar’Adua was alive, the owner of this mandate, he will be preparing to leave the office now. When President Goodluck Jonathan was seeking for our votes in 2011, he didn’t deploy soldiers to our homes rather he was begging us. He said that he had no shoes. And after he assumed office, he has since inflicted pains on us. After giving him 1.2 million votes, we have no minister and that shows that he doesn’t care about Lagos. But we need to let him know that Lagos is unique. The Federal Government said that they have constructed 25,000 kilometres of road network since the beginning of this administration. And if one divides the number by the states and the FCT, it means that FG would have
succeeded in constructing 690 kilometres in every state. From Lagos to London, it is 5,025 kilometres. But it is alarming that Nigerians cannot see the roads. For instance the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is 104 kilometres, and it is not good. This administration has never budgeted 40 per cent of its budget for capital project,” - Governor Babatunde Fashola.

Politics › : Text Of The Press Conference By The National Chairman Of APC by Nwoguphillip(op): 1:17am On Feb 10, 2015

STATEMENT BY THE ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

· Thank you for being with us this afternoon. This is yet another critical moment in our history. We have gone through difficult moments like this in the past. Nigeria survived and came out stronger. We are confident that we shall survive this too; because no one, no matter how powerful, can subvert the collective will of the people.

· In our preliminary reaction to the postponement of the 2015 General Elections, we noted that the decision taken by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has thrown up so many questions, and that these questions will be reviewed by our party organs for a comprehensive response from the APC. Whilst consultation with the party organs is on-going, this briefing is to provide us opportunity to raise some pertinent questions and put some issues in their proper perspective.

· You will recall that on the 22nd of January 2015, Col. Sambo Dasuki(rtd) , the National Security Adviser (NSA) at Chatham House declared that INEC was not ready for the elections and he has therefore advised the electoral body to postpone the election. The reason he gave for his unsolicited advice was that substantial number of registered voters had not collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC). He did not say anything about security concern even though Boko Haram was an issue then as it is an issue now. So, at what point did concern over elections shift from PVC to security concern?

· When the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry visited on January 25th, he wanted a categorical commitment from President Jonathan that the elections would hold as scheduled. The President assured the American envoy that the elections would hold. Was it that his Security chiefs had not briefed him on the security situation in the country and how this would affect the election time table at the time he was making this promise?

· On the 2nd of February, at the National Peace Committee meeting in Abuja with the representatives of different political parties, the service chiefs gave assurances of their readiness for the elections. At the occasion, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh gave assurances of the Armed Forces’s preparedness for the elections. According to him “even though we are busy in the North East, we also have capabilities across the nation.” Badeh also admitted that the role of the military is merely to support the police in providing security during elections. At the same event, Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Minimah said, “we are aware of the need for security, before, during and after the elections. We will deploy across the States of the Federation in areas we discover that have capacity for violence. We are prepared to ensure we have peaceful elections.”

· Also speaking at the event, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Adesola Amosun said “we have commenced the air lift of the materials needed for the elections, starting from Abuja. We will continue with the elections.”

· The sum total of all these is that only 12 days before the elections and despite the state of insecurity in the North East, the entire military high command assured the nation of their readiness to provide security for the elections. However, only 3 days later on Friday February 6th, these same Service Chiefs wrote to INEC, in a letter, which by all practical purposes could be described as blackmail, saying that they would no longer be able to provide security for the elections? What happened in those 72 hours that brought about this complete volte face?

· It is also important to note that at the National Council of States meeting on Thursday February 5th, INEC reaffirmed its readiness and commitment to hold the elections as scheduled. Even though the Service Chiefs briefed the Council that they had security concerns, the consensus of opinion at this august body of eminent citizens was that elections should go ahead nationwide except the 14 LGAS identified as problematic by the security chiefs.

· After all, it was recalled that in 1999, elections were not held in Bayelsa State because of the activities of militants at the time, but it held all over the country. The activities of Boko Haram were clearly limited to 14 Local Governments in three States out of 774 Local Governments in 36 States and FCT. How would this then warrant the blanket postponement of elections in the entire country? Considering all factors building up to this postponement, it is difficult not to come to the obvious conclusion that the Military High Command is in an unholy and dangerous alliance with the ruling party, the PDP, to subvert the democratic will of the people. We have no doubts that the letter sent to the INEC, warning it not to proceed with the elections, emanated from the Service Chiefs’ hands of Esau and President Jonathan’s voice of Jacob. Isn’t it curious that only the PDP and its supporters are celebrating the postponement? We know that at the Council of State meeting, all the former Heads of State in attendance spoke against the postponement except in the 14 LGAs and all the former Chief Justices’ also concurred. And every non-PDP Governor present in the meeting spoke against postponement.

On PVC Collection

· Another issue that has been brought up is the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards. The Federal Government and the ruling party have made a song and dance of the challenges INEC has had with the distribution and sought to underplay the achievements of the electoral body in this respect. The truth is that average national collection of PVC is between 65-70%, which would increase in the remaining days. According to INEC, this level of collection actually reflect a better voter participation that in the previous election in 2011. The question we should ask is what threshold is acceptable? In any case, it is the democratic right of every citizen to pick up or refuse to pick up his or her PVC and if a citizen refuses to do so, should INEC be blamed for this?

The Role of Security Agencies

· The greatest threat to our democracy today is the way the ruling party has compromised the leadership of the Nigerian military to serve the personal agenda of President Jonathan. This is a dangerous game. A recent court judgment in Sokoto clearly ruled that the military had no role in the electoral process. What happened with this postponement is that Service Chiefs simply vetoed a democratic process on the directive of President Jonathan. We know what politicisation is doing to our once proud military institution.

· We are aware that the Presidency has forwarded a secret memo to all commanders of divisions and battalions of Nigerian Army for a 3-day strategy meeting in Kaduna from today on how to use the military to intimidate voters in APC States to rig election in favour of President Jonathan. Since recent revelations about the role of the military in Ekiti elections is demonstrable proof of how far this government will go to compromise the military as an institution, could it be that when the Service Chiefs said they would not have enough personnel to provide security for the elections, what they are actually saying is that they would not have enough soldiers to intimidate voters in favour of the ruling party if the elections had proceeded as scheduled?

Divided We Stand?

· Never in the history of our country had a Federal Government and the President of Nigeria so wantonly mobilized ethnic and religious sentiments to divide the people against themselves for selfish political reasons. By now, everyone is aware how a close confidant of President Jonathan, Chief Edwin Clark, called for the sack and arrest of the Chairman of the INEC because, according to him, the INEC Chairman is working for the interest of the North. He said this under aegis of a Southern Nigerian People’s Assembly.

· We are also aware of how the Vice President of Nigeria, Architect Namadi Sambo unfortunately invoked religious sentiment to campaign for his party in Niger State. The level of ethnic and religious baiting that we are currently witnessing is unprecedented in the political history of Nigeria. The road to Rwanda and other countries that have suffered tragic ethno-religious conflicts is not far from what PDP is currently invoking on our country.. We owe it a duty to stress the point that under our watch, Nigerians regardless of their ethnic origin or religious disposition would be free to operate without let or hindrance.

· Only few days ago, the Director of National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, claimed that government has uncovered a plan by Boko Haram to bomb polling centres without providing a single shred of evidence. The following day, President Jonathan declared in a church in Lagos that Boko Haram has planned to bomb the entire country. We see this as deliberate scare-mongering to discourage Nigerians from coming out to exercise their democratic right to vote. This is quite unfortunate. The President that should be protecting the people and assuring them of their safety is now the one scaring them.

The Making of a Constitutional Crisis

· It is important to note that the Service Chiefs’ letter to INEC demanded postponement for “at least” 6 weeks. This, we must note, is a booby trap. Embedded in that phrase “at least” is a window to push for another postponement. It is clear however, that any further postponement can only lead to a constitutional crisis. The constitution demands at least 30 days before the hand over date of May 29th . We have strong suspicions but hope this postponement is not part of an agenda to create a constitutional crisis in the country. We are just recently recovering from the crisis precipitated by the political crisis of 1993. We cannot afford another.

Intimidation

· We are all witnesses to the way INEC was intimidated into postponement of the elections despite repeated assurances of its readiness. We are aware of plans for worse intimidation in the days ahead. We are aware of plans to intimidate and orchestrate arrest of our leaders across the country on frivolous grounds. We are now aware of how PDP used intimidation and arrest to rig the last Governorship election in Ekiti State. We are aware that this is the plan of the PDP. But we have no doubt that Nigerians will stand up to this. We have no doubt that the international community is watching.

Our Position

· This postponement comes with a huge cost to all Nigerians and every one involved, directly or indirectly, in this election, including international observers and journalists. However, we should see this as the sacrifice we need to make for the survival of democracy in Nigeria. We must remain steadfast and committed to the cause of change. Like our Presidential candidate, General Buhari said, “our desire for change must surpass their desperation to hold on to power at all cost. We have no other country other than Nigeria, and we must remain focused and salvage it.”

· Gentlemen of the press, the contradictions we have pointed out in this briefing represent a clear and present danger to our democracy. It is clear that this is a surreptitious but badly disguised attempt to subvert the will of the people. But we must assure Nigerians and friends all over the world that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. These too shall pass and we shall overcome.

John E.K. Odigie-Oyegun, CON

National Chairman, All Progressives’ Congress, APC.U

Politics › Policy On Power And Where We Are Today by Nwoguphillip(op): 4:57pm On Feb 05, 2015

Policy on power and where we are today

In 2009, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan PRESENTED a manifesto which included a lot of revolutionary ideas on his power policy boasting to the media and public how he would revolutionise Nigeria. Today Nigeria has regressed as far back as the pre-Obansanjo days.
He swore to :
Deliver stable, constant supply of electricity
To provide stable power supply by the year 2015 so that small and medium scale industries can thrive again.
To ensure that Nigerians do not use generators more than two times in a week.
To explore the coal deposits in Benue and Kogi>?”
states for improved power supply
To construct more dams to build more hydro-power stations.
To reduce the importation off generators to at least 90 percent in the next four years.
To raise power generation to about 4,747 megawatts by December 2011
To put an end to epileptic power supply in the country just as fuel queues at petrol stations were ended.
These policy issues albeit good have not been made real. Nigerians are today suffering the worst form of power outages imaginable in all 774 local governments in the country . Small and medium sized companies are comatose, with the cost of power stifling them from inception. Small scale industries have limited output and are not very competitive due to cost. Industry is a no no and existing ones have had to shut down because their products cost however well produced or otherwise could not compete with similar products imported . There is no vibrant domestic economy in Nigeria today because of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, PDP, and their policies on energy amongst other failed policies..With the breakup of the Power holding company of Nigeria and the set up of distribution companies one would have imagined it would be a panacea for improved power supply. What Nigerians are faced with today is huge electricity bills for the little periods they provide electricity.
Corruption in the power sector has been prevalent since before the Obasanjo regime, under PDP, mandated the incorruptible person of Bola Ige to take control and solve the problem since nobody in the PDP starting with Sen Liyel Imoke could successfully solve the problem. Bola Ige exposing the monumental corruption was moved to the Justice ministry as Attorney General and invariably killed.
Nigerians are using generators in multiple numbers the demand has accelerated beyond imagination. The effect of this is increased pressure on families and their resources further exacerbated by increased pollution in the environment and their immediate surroundings leading to cancer, lung infections and other diseases cause by carbon monoxide.

To date the Ministry of Mines and power is still the most inefficiently run body and solutions to make it more efficient, led to its splitting up to two now the Ministry of Power and Ministry of Solid Minerals both still seriously underperforming and creating untold hardship on Nigerians and the other loosing aggregate revenue in humongous numbers .
Today Kogi and Benue states have coal mines that are neglected by government. The drive and intention was to increase the deposits but through poor funding corruption, lack of will poor implementation of policy and lack of drive or interest nothing significant has been done .. the primary concern abandoned and replaced by the squandering of resources.
Similarly is the creation and building of dams. Nothing significant enough to improve the situation. the commissioning of substandard dams unfit for the purpose is what we have witnessed in the past 6 years of Jonathans Presidency leaving us with no significant improvement in the increase in power supply.
Generators are in every nook and cranny all over Nigeria. There is no end to its importation and fabrication …No where in the developing societies are generators needed than Nigeria which is an indictment on the governments showing and failed policy.
Power generation has not been raised to acceptable aggregate levels as promised. Infact the performance has been made worst by neglect of power generation by discouraging and frustrating independent power projects especially those initiated by the opposition APC especially in lagos state.
There is no evidence to support the policy drive towards constant electricity, either in 2015 and beyond . the PDP government has through ineptitude, maladministration, corruption, wanton disregard for human life and dignity embarked on a programme that has created the worst ever kind of hardship on Nigerians. The iability to solve the power problem to a manageable or acceptable level since 1999 is a serious indictment and a clear signal to vote out this corrupt evil government at the next general election on the 14 of febuary 2015. Nigerians through the amalgamation of progressive have shown a clear signal that its time for change. Its time to fix Nigeria so it can take its place in the committee of nations. Its time we stopped being a laughing stock . The APC manifesto addresses this critically. without power Gen Buhari has said how to we get the nation working how do we create jobs how to we make our roads safe at night …he opined how such visionless leaders have worked hard to bring Nigeria DOWN. An APC government Gen Buhari says, will make this needed change a reality , Nigerians will be accountable and so a hands on approach to governance will be the order of the day fuelled by discipline , organization , truth and capacity .

Politics › Jonathan Must Go by Nwoguphillip(op): 3:06pm On Feb 05, 2015

Why Jonathan must go....

Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan must go in May 2015... He has ruined the Nigerian economy . To substantiate this justifiably we must take a look at the comatose state of the Nigerian Economy . Unprecedented in the history of Nigeria is the cry for change despite the warmth in which he was elected in 2011 . Nigerians thought electing him was the beginning of a new dawn, rising from an oppressed minority, taking over the highest office in the land ,odds on , he will change the situation and fortunes of the masses for good . He started well telling Nigerians to have hope. Using himself as an example he told Nigerians he had no shoes to go to school and today he is President. He has since made a u-turn and Nigerians are screaming through disappointment that Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, must go .

The All Progressives Congress (APC) said the Jonathan Administration has succeeded in running the country’s economy aground with a combination of incompetence, massive corruption and unparalleled profligacy, hence Nigerians cannot afford to reward the President with another four years.

The political and economic landscape under PDP, under Goodluck Jonathan, has ruined the political system and landscape of the country to such an extent that the state has failed and we are near anarchy. He once said in a presidential chat on the state of the nation that he does not give a damm. He must go. He once said the oil industry in the country is being controlled by very powerful people and so there is nothing he can do about bunkering , oil theft , manipulation , corruption in NNPC. I think he is not fit for the exalted office.
The commander in chief of the Armed forces the number one citizen of the country uttering such balder dash is a disgrace to the office.
Insurgency: thousands of Nigerians,children included have suffered abuse death displacement kidnapping and murder in the hands of insurgents and it took an 18 year old Pakistani girl to jolt him to his responsibilities regarding the 200 plus kidnapped Chibok girls. He is not a president for Nigerians.
His aides advised him not to go to Adamawa, Bornu, Yobe states because his safety could not be guaranteed . The commander in chief has become a hostage in his land. He needed to resign at this failure but he didn't now he asks Nigerians to re-elect him . I wonder if they will.
The Educational system he inherited from the past regime was not smoothl,but now it's in an Augean stable. standards have fallen . The longest ever ASUU strike in Nigeria is down to his regime. The worst set of graduates in the history of Nigeria is associated to GEJ. He must go.
The power sector has been polarised and ruined with the most corrupt ever privatisation policy . He broke NEPA/PHCN into power generation and distribution and structured the sale of the newly designed units to his cronies most of who have no knowledge of the power sector and grossly incompetent to appoint technical partners of repute to supervise and redesign a new power regime to bring succour to Nigerians. Today power is still a luxury to Nigerians, more businesses and industries have grounded to a halt leading to increased poverty unemployment insecurity and fright . He must Go.
Social welfare . Workers are in arrears , salaries are owed for months on end . Teachers , doctors , civil servants etc. All the machinery to keep government working effectively for the masses are dead. How can he stay as President.
For the first time Nigeria has been led by a President who is being led by a gang of corrupt usurpers. A new brigade cabal that has edged out good cadre of presidential advisers only to cage the president wrongfully advise him and embark of looting and corruption on an unprecedented level.

Elections are a form of audit on government to test their real popularity against their claims . Today elections in Nigeria are conducted unfairly so a real measure is not truly aggregated to confirm the true wishes of the populace. Having said this there are local laws or custom albeit jungle justice that also says you cannot rig where you are not popular so the will of the people is somewhat protected by this local attitudinal malfeasance of uproar or revolt or riot if the wrong results are released in an area.
Rigging elections in Nigeria is not yet a thing of the past despite serious effort by the electoral commission to curb it or end it. Various systemic approaches are used to thwart the will of the people like in Ekiti state governorship elections conducted recently where the army, police ,paramilitary, civil defence corps and thugs were used to manipulate the system suppress and coerce the incumbent government into an uneven playing field. If this is happening in Nigeria today Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is not fit to be our President .
The President of Nigeria is being led so he must go. He is surrounded by conspirators against the Nigerian people. Goodluck Jonathan is truly clueless and that's a real problem for Nigeria . ”When they promise millions of jobs if re-elected, Nigerians should ask them how many jobs they have created in all of six years. When they promise to tackle corruption, Nigerians should ask them what has happened to the $20 billion missing oil funds and the $24 billion that accrued to the Excess Crude Account in 2014 alone. They should ask where TAN got the 25 billion Naira it has frittered away on a campaign that is heading nowhere. They should ask why the likes of Ifeanyi Uba are now part of the President’s men, when he should be answering questions on the kerosene subsidy fraud. They should ask where there is no money in the Pension Fund,” the questions of missing funds are too many and non yet unanswered. The EFCC is moribund and hopeless in action .....stifled for lack of direction and will to fight corruption, on a the tempo it was formed . If he has no will , he has no way . If he has no way he is not fit to stay so he must go.

Politics › Election Shift: When Logic Is Illogical By Egghead Odewale by Nwoguphillip(op): 2:21pm On Feb 05, 2015

Preparations for the coming General Elections have now reached fever-pitch levels, as Nigerians are only days away from the epochal dates. One would easily surmise that the interesting days were nigh when President Goodluck Jonathan threw caution to the winds at the commencement of his party’s presidential rallies in Lagos where he unashamedly declared that he had “directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to achieve 99.9% distribution of the permanent voter’s card (PVC) to all Nigerians”, which has now become the most essential commodity with respect to the elections. A president who has the presence of mind or moderation in such matters should be aware that it is ultra vires his powers to issue such directives, especially when he is a candidate and has more than a passing interest in the elections. What is more when the president wants ‘all Nigerians’ to receive PVC, be they eligible voter or not?

If it was not enough to exercise such gaffes, which is merely one of the many that his presidential years have strove to bequeath on a beleaguered nation of disillusioned citizens, it was quite unfortunate that a president, who lays continuous claims to unverifiable high academic qualifications, would expect such unrealistic rate of PVC distribution. To be sure, that call is asking too much by someone who should be in the know after years of milling around high political office. It is important to clarify that aiming high is not offensive in and of itself but a discerning leader of people and institutions is expected to be realistic in his expectations.

Would it have been possible to achieve Jonathan’s directive of 99.9% PVC distribution? My unabashed inclination is that even if INEC were to put in place the most efficient and effective process of registration of voters and distribution of PVCs, not everyone would be able to collect, considering that life happens continuously that deaths, relocation and unavoidable population displacements would have occurred even at short interval of time between registration and collection of the voter’s cards. I do not claim to know rate of deaths recorded in Nigeria but one would be safe to project a high figure considering how every odds are stacked against life and living in the country due to the wanton mismanagement of resources practiced consistently under Jonathan and his cohorts.

Even if there were no deaths or the death or displacement rates were negligible, there is a plethora of empirical evidence to prove that there is growing voter apathy towards elections globally. For instance, despite the brazen allocation of votes, Nigeria has only achieved its highest voter turnout of 69.08% in 2003, since 1999. This is to say that collection of PVC does not necessarily equate to participation in the elections, such that it becomes puerile to think that all PVCs must be distributed or collected before elections can hold.

Was it not in the same country where two governorship elections were held in Ekiti and Osun after only PVC distribution rates of 65.72% and 70.59% respectively were attained in both states? Is the logic of those bandying low PVC collection rate as the basis for the call for a shift in dates of elections that those elections in Ekiti and Osun were not properly conducted?

In addition, I believe it would amount to infringement on the rights of eligible voters in Nigeria to compel them to collect the PVC if they do not intend to do so. Quite unfortunately, the elections management body, being INEC, has not discharged its duties diligently despite the enormous amount of resources and supports that it has enjoyed. INEC effectively had four years to plan for this election and it seems that it is heading towards bungling the entire exercise. Else, an exercise as basic as collection or distribution of PVCs should not become rocket science for an agency that has repeatedly claimed it was ready for the elections whose dates were announced almost a year hence.

I am one of those who do not think that INEC is prepared for this election – that being my personal opinion. Well, not that I have ever thought they were ever prepared in any election. It has always been that the autopilot mode, in which they push us, cruises through the very torrential moments of passage of the electoral process. Give INEC another four years and we would still be expressing the same concerns as now. To be sure, the same last minute scurrying is replete in virtually all of our national or public life. So if the electoral body continues to maintain that it is ready for the elections, as it has done repeatedly, why would anyone, not of wicked intentions, trigger a campaign to force them to postpone, when there is no assurance that the situation would improve beyond the present level?

My modest estimates show that so far, between the election management body, political parties and their candidates and other political actors, over N200bn have been expended. This is my conservative estimates which I am sure would be much higher, if all other variables and financial heads were considered. This is tragic in the face of an economy that is in teetering on the brinks and one in which austerity measures have been proffered as the… Besides, the amount of human and time resources invested already in the campaigns should be sufficient to re-energize an economy in dire need of intervention, if strategically channeled.

Others who have chosen to blackmail us with the growing wave of insurgency in parts of the country should be pointed in the direction of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen. These countries, I believe, have far more serious security situation than we have presently, but that has not deterred them from conducting elections even in recent times. And those elections were acclaimed as free and fair, in the circumstances in which they were held. Those who want to hide their mass behind one finger can continue to wager their lucks but the illogicalities of their actions, nay intentions, are not lost on those of us who are patriotic and ready to move the nation truly forward.

We could assert many more intelligible reasons for wanting to postpone the elections, but to hinge it on low PVC distribution/collection or inadequacy of security, which is now being orchestrated even in the highest quarters of government, is mischievous, disingenuous and ill conceived.

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Politics › Femi Fani Kayode Tantrums And Blackmail Of Inec As A Distraction by Nwoguphillip(op): 10:03pm On Feb 01, 2015

1st February, 2015.

Ever since his appointment as the Director, Directorate of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential Campaign Organization despite still answering corruption charges in court committed as then minister of aviation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode has not disappointed Nigerians and the rest of the world, who have become used to the vintage FFK as a person who has been described in all sorts of derogatory terms based on his antecedents, but the summary of which is that “Some mothers do have them”.
Like in his character, FFK was in his usual elements only recently when he addressed the media and ridiculously threatened, “….INEC, to address the issues surrounding the certificate of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress [APC] Muhammadu Buhari, or face a vote of no-confidence from the party”.
Ordinarily, one would have expected that as the elections approaches, Femi Fani Kayode would be busy reeling out facts and figures about the achievements of his party’s presidential candidate which makes him worthy of re-election by the Nigerian electorate, but in justification of the saying that, you don’t give what you don’t have, Femi has been very idle playing tantrums with the age, sex, health, marital status, height, educational qualification, etc of General Muhammadu Buhari to the amusement of all just to distract. We won’t be surprised if Femi Fani Kayode in the coming days ahead raise questions about the nationality of General Buhari, definitely, it will be in vintage FFK character.
For the education of our garrulous FFK, General Muhammadu Buhari in submitting his documents to INEC as constitutionally required, deposed to a sworn affidavit that his certificates are with the secretary of the military board, having served the Nigerian army and state meritoriously for years. In case, vintage FFK does not know, an affidavit is a legally recognized instrument whose violation by any lie on oath is a criminal offence punishable by law and we only hope he would be serious for once to bring this alleged infringement of the law to the notice of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who is a member of the Federal Executive Council for investigation and prosecution by the police.
Unfortunately, the role of the Nigerian military in this saga is despicable and dishonourable. The explanations provided by the military was less than tidy and it did incalculable damage to its image as an institution and symbol of unity of the Nigerian state by subjecting itself to politicization and ridicule just to satisfy other than national interest and image.
For the military to shamelessly come to public and assert that “Neither the Original Copy, Certified True Copy (CTC) nor Statement of result of Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s WASC result is in his personal file”, speaks volume of the integrity and character of our once revered national institution and what it has become. If the military does not have these documents in the personal file of an officer who was at one time the number one military officer and head of state of Nigeria, then we wonder whose file would not have been balkanized in the military archive? No wonder, General Buhari expressed surprise at this development just like millions of Nigerians who were equally shocked. Definitely, this are trying times for our military which has become a national embarrassment in dire need of surgical operation just like the Nigerian state.

Rather than playing tantrums on national media, which he could have spared an economically traumatized nation, Femi Fani Kayode should borrow a leaf about responsible, focused and civilized conduct from the Ekiti E-11 who went to court seeking the disqualification of Mr. Ayo Fayose from contesting the Ekiti gubernatorial elections in 2014 on the grounds that he was impeached from office as governor of Ekiti state in 2006 and so he was in violation of the constitution which stipulates 10 years ban from public office for an impeached person before he can contest any elective office again and of which the matter is still in court.
It is in this vein, that one must commend INEC for being responsive in coming out publicly to educate that it doesn’t have the powers to disqualify a validly nominated candidate of a political party. According to INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, “Those asking the commission to disqualify Buhari were free to go to court.
He said the Electoral Law permitted that if any presidential candidate cited any documents that he could not produce, he could swear to an affidavit.
On the eligibility of Buhari and the calls for INEC to disqualify him, Jega said, “When a political party presents a candidate and he meets all the requirements of submission -deadline and the forms- INEC cannot reject such a candidate.
“There is a provision that the candidates should provide documentary evidence of whatever qualification they have cited, but the law also permits that if you cite documents and you don’t have photocopies, you can swear to an affidavit and in this case, INEC by the provision of the section 31 of the Electoral Act cannot disqualify an appropriately nominated candidate of any party. We can deregister a political party, but the law says we must accept any candidate; it is a matter for the court, they are free to go to the court.” Chikena!
Even after General Buhari publicly came out to address the needless distraction of the Nigerian people by presenting his certificate at a world press conference, which was also corroborated by his school principal , FFK and the PDP have turned deaf ears and eyes to logical reasoning by insisting that the certificate is a forged one knowing fully well that forgery is a criminal offence punishable by law.
By insisting that General Buhari’s certificate is a forged one, even after the General quoted his examination number and year, Femi Fani Kayode and the PDP are only exposing the ineptitude and incompetence of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in abdicating its constitutional responsibility of upholding the law by not directing the security agencies to investigate and prosecute this alleged infraction of the law.
Therefore, as Femi Fani Kayode continues in his tantrums of trivializing issues just to distract the Nigerian people from pressing societal, economic and political issues of general insecurity, missing school children, security men, air force fighter jets, commercial kidnappings, massive corruption at all levels of government, mass unemployment, lack of basic infrastructures, perennial public power failure, threats to democracy, national peace and security, etc, we are not amused but only looking at him as a clown who is insensitive not to realize that the music has stopped while he continues to embarrass himself and his party on the podium.
As he continues in this exercise in futility, one can only wish FFK, Goodluck while he amuses and ridicules himself, his candidate and party only.
Thanks,
Yours Sincerely,
Signed,
Nelson Ekujumi.

Politics › PDP Recruits Iwu As Consultant To Rig Election by Nwoguphillip(op): 5:26pm On Jan 26, 2015

Posted by: DispatchNG in News, Politics January 26, 2015 0 10 Views

The People Democratic Party (PDP) has contracted former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu to help it come up with innovative ways to rig February general elections.
Iwu, who is reputed to have conducted the most discredited election in Nigeria’s history, was contacted by the PDP after other plots to thwart the growing fortunes of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari failed.
His recruitment is part of a wider plan that also involves recruiting influential clerics to exploit their position in dictating to their followers on who to vote.
A source in the PDP, who wanted to remain unanimous for fear of being charged with anti-party activity, said his party is desperate to get “useful suggestions from an insider” on how to manipulate the presidential election because the body language of the incumbent INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega has not been favourable to rigging the polls.
Jega had remained resolute that elections will hold on schedule even when the ruling party orchestrated a campaign calling for a shift in election dates.
The source said “We had hoped that the spin about the General’s certificate can cause a major dislocation for their camp but it seems Nigerians have waved that aside. There was also a massive rejection of the kite we flew about shifting election dates over PVC distribution but the widespread rejection from Nigerians scared us away from that even though we had hoped to better gain ground if elections were shifted even by two weeks.”
“What is left for us is now to act fast and Iwu has done this successfully for the PDP in the past. That is why he is being brought in as a kind of consultant. He can tell us how he did it in the past and what further strategies to adopt.” He said.
It was further revealed that the desperation of the party was further worsened by the bashing it has been receiving from persons they had expected to be on their side including a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, who advised the Jonathan administration not to campaign on the strength of its dismal performance.
“My advice to President Jonathan and his handlers is to stop wasting their time trying to campaign on his job record. Those who have decided to vote for him will not do so because he has taken Nigeria to the moon. His record on the economy is a clear ‘F’ grade. As one reviews the laundry list of micro interventions the government calls its achievements, one wonders whether such list is all that the government could deliver with an unprecedented oil boom and an unprecedented public debt accumulation. I can clearly see why reasonable people are worried.” Soludo wrote in an opinion article.
It is not clear if Iwu has accepted the offer to consult for the PDP but it was reliably gathered that the matter was further discussed in Ilorin, Kwara state on the side line of the party’s presidential campaign rally.

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Politics › Nigerians Demands President Jonathan PH’D Thesis by Nwoguphillip(op): 4:32pm On Jan 23, 2015

In the wake of growing lies and political propaganda widely circulated
by politicians to discredit one another especially after the noise
about All Progressive Congress Party Presidential candidate, Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari has been laid to rest following the official release
of his WASCE leaving result and certificate by Katsina Ministry of
Education and further documents by Nigeria military, Nigerians home
and in the diaspora have joined other concern Nigerians in requesting
for President Goodluck Jonathan Ph’D thesis.

This is coming from the recent statement credited to former President
Olusegun Obasanjo while reacting to the wranglings that surrounded
Gen. Buhari certificate as pelted and sponsored by Pres. Jonathan
campaign team. Obasanjo mentioned the likes of Fayose, Kashamu and
other corrupt people do not want Buhari as a President because of his
anti-corruption slogan. He further said, “Do you know that even
Jonathan did not finish his PhD course and when it was presented we
accepted it, we told him it does not matter but many people do not
know because it was PDP thing”.

Jibrin Lawal, Political Science students of University of Lagos and
Coordinator of Youth Engagement Nigeria, accused President Jonathan of
leading Africa most populated with half-baked education. “I wont blame
Mr President for his utter gaffes and flaws which is seemingly
unforgivable of his position as President of Nigeria, because not
having a certified Ph’D thesis have a bad influence on your
intelligent.

It is good fmr. President open up this time before we make another
mistake. I advise the lord of Aso Rock to immediately disclose all
relevant documents to the public to back his educational qualific
up”. Lawal said this in a chat with our reporter today.

Furthermore on social media, there has been ongoing request by concern
Nigerians that the President should also lead by example by disclosing
his thesis. “Its becoming clearer and clearer day by day. President
shouldn be blame for his open mistakes. Earlier yesterday, I watched
a video of his promising to create “unemployement”. How can a
president of a country like Nigeria make such horrible mistake? The
answer is simple, “You can give what you don’t have. I joined every
Nigerians to ask for his Ph’D. Atleast, we are done with GMB”. Oladapo
Makinde tweeted
--

Maxwell ADEGBENRO

--
Maxwell ADEGBENRO

Politics › Press Statement By Buhari, GCFR, On The School Certificate Issue by Nwoguphillip(op): 12:23pm On Jan 21, 2015

Press Statement by General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the School Certificate Issue

Good Morning , Gentlemen of the Press.

I only consented to address you this morning because of the genuine concern expressed by many supporters and other well-meaning Nigerians that the issue be addressed. Otherwise, I would have dismissed it for what it is—sheer mischief and would not have considered it an issue worth the nation’s while.

I had assumed all along that all my records were in the custody of the Military Secretary of the Nigerian Army. Much to my surprise, we are now told that although a record of the result is available, there are no copies of the certificates in my personal file. This is why I formally requested my old school the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina [which is now known as Government College, Katsina] to make available the school’s copy of the result of the Cambridge/West African School Certificate. This will be made available to the press the moment this is available.

However, before we obtain that, let me say for the record that I attended Provincial Secondary School, Katsina. I graduated in 1961 with many prominent Nigerians, including General Shehu Yar’adua, former chief of staff at the Supreme Headquarters, and Justice Umaru Abdullahi, a former President of the Court of Appeal. We sat for the University of Cambridge/WASC Examination together in 1961, the year we graduated. My examination number was 8280002, and I passed the examination in the Second Division.

And although the ruling party may want to wish this away, the issue in this campaign cannot be my certificate which I obtained 53 years ago. The issues are the scandalous level of unemployment of millions of our young people, the state of insecurity, the pervasive official corruption which has impoverished our people and the lack of concern of the government for anything other than the retention of power at all costs.
Thank you very much.

General Muhammadu Buhari

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/175370-buhari-requests-secondary-school-release-details-wasc-results.html

www.nairaland.com/attachments/2051194_b73sbdbcyaadfh7_jpega919f8d0bb9afcc3b8d512acdfdf1cfc

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Politics › Certificate Or Competence And Performance? By. Nelson Ekujumi by Nwoguphillip(op): 5:09am On Jan 05, 2015

Certificate or competence and performance?

The greatest tragedy that has befallen our country is the celebration of certificates at the expense of competence and performance. Because of the misplaced values, lots of people do anything just to acquire certificates which have no impact on human lives. People buy, forge and manipulate just to possess a certificate.

Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a first degree holder managed Nigeria's economy as minister of finance during the war period and there was no oil to generate revenue to the extent that the country didn't borrow money to finance the economy or the war which lasted for about 3 years.

But today, a Ph.D holder Dr. Okonjo Iweala is in charge of the economy in peace time and oil dollar rain, yet the economy is in tatters and the government is borrowing from left, right, centre and behind to fund its activities and it is even unable to pay workers salaries for months.

My people, shine your eyes and lets focus on the direction where there is light rather than celebrating persons whose academic qualifications deserves to be scrutinized and withdrawn for impacting negatively on society.

Sent from my iPad

Politics › Certificate Or Competence And Performance? by Nwoguphillip(op): 5:02am On Jan 05, 2015

Politics › Jonathan’s Ph.d Versus Buhari’s “semi-illiteracy” (1)by Dele Sobowale by Nwoguphillip(op): 5:05pm On Jan 04, 2015

“An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher [PHD holder]. A society which scorns excellence in plumbing, because it is humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy, because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” John Gardener, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

I was living and studying, in the USA, in the late 1960s when Gardener rendered this piece of good advice to graduating students at Harvard University. His aim was to warn the students not to think that their degrees made them superior to others who might not have university education but who were contributing greatly to society.

I also worked at Polaroid Corporation, founded by Dr(Honorary) Edwin Land, the university drop-out who started the revolution in photography by inventing the first instant camera – which all professors of Physics said could not be done. Dr Land eventually employed nothing less than 345 Ph.D holders in various departments of Polaroid Corporation. Some of those who came in with B.Sc received doctorate degrees based on experience and research they conducted at Polaroid.

This is important because Professor Wale Oladipo, National Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party had been wasting everybody’s time comparing Jonathan, a Ph.D holder with Buhari – who he described as a semi-illiterate. Oladipo, naturally, failed to define semi-illiteracy in his bid to score cheap political points. That is standard practice for Nigerian professors once they enter the murky waters of politics – they invariably fail the minimum test of scholarship which calls for the definition of terms used in their presentations.

But, let me now take Oladipo up on his own terms by acknowledging that Jonathan holds a doctorate in Zoology. To begin with few, if any applicants for admission to university apply for Botany or Zoology. Their first preferences are often Medicine or Pharmacy. It is when their cut-off marks fall below the requirements for those two highly exalted professions that they are offered Zoology or Botany as a condition for admission to university. It would be interesting to know if Jonathan, ab initio, opted for Zoology or was shunted into that course.

More to the point, my questions are: what had he done with it? In what way had the Nigerian society benefited from his work as a Zoologist? How many papers had he got published in reputable academic journals of Zoology? In what ways had he advanced knowledge in Zoology? Those are the minimum requirements for excellence in academic work and not just the mere possession of a degree – which is a personal thing. There are millions of people all over the world with doctorate degrees who do nothing with them; they are just contented to hold the certificates. Meanwhile, there are technicians who have invented millions of useful equipment, household items, medical and diagnostic materials without the benefit of doctorate degrees. Professor Oladipo will surely agree with me, if he is not too far gone for redemption, that a Bill Gates or Edwin Land, both without Ph.Ds, had benefited the world far more than a million Jonathans and Oladipos who have nothing comparative to their credit but their certificates.

CONTINUITY – FROM THOSE WHO MADE YOUR CHRISTMAS MISERABLE

“Continuity” Jonathan’s adverts lining Abuja Airport.

Nigerians had the worst Christmas since I was born. There was no money. Even Federal Government staff were not paid. There was even black out for several hours on the 25th. Lean pickings at dinning tables and thread-bare clothes rounded up the dreary occasion.

Still PDP wants continuity. Among other horrors and atrocities implied in that request, consider these — continuity of bleak Yuletides; continuity of excuses for not generating more than 4000MW of electricity in 16 years; continuity of frequent ASUU strikes; continuity of mass failure in WASC and, now, Law School; continuity of Ministers purchasing bullet-proof cars and spending billions chartering jets; continuity of Ministry of Interior and other services collecting money from young job applicants and killing some of them and nobody got punished for it; continuity of pensioners dying on queues; continuity of missing Chibok Girls and kidnapped women; continuity of 400,000 barrels of crude stolen everyday in the Niger Delta; continuity of an unelected woman going about disrupting the lives of people everywhere she goes; continuity of NNPC not accounting fully for revenue generated; continuity of depleting External Reserves; continuity of depleted Excess Crude Oil….Need I continue?

In short CONTINUITY at your own peril. You will have a choice in February – to decide if that is what you want.

POWER SECTOR VERSUS NIGERIANS: WAR DECLARED.

“A man [or group] cannot be too careful in its choice of enemies.”

Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900

I spent the whole of last year persuading people in my community that Power Distributors were slow in providing metres because they didn’t have the funds. I pleaded they be given more time. After that stupid N500m donation, I will lead the attack on DISCOS from now on.

THANKS FOR STAYING WITH US IN 2014.

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Politics › Tinubu Not Copying Fayose With Any Stomach Infrastructure Programme by Nwoguphillip(op): 3:30am On Dec 24, 2014

How can the Jargaban Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu be copying Fayose. Is it today that his foundation has been helping the poor , feeding the hungry ,educating the masses through scholarship funds etc. Asiwaju is no longer a politician seeking office or relevance . He is the father of Nigerians , statesman, leader and grand crusader ,bastion of hope for all . He has been going out like this for years at every season muslim Christian celebration to give his goodwill message and gifts. I think the press are always sensationalising their headlines just to sell papers . Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has been done great harm by this headline and the reporter should retract the headline. Fayose is an opportunist who has taken advantage of the people's situation and mocking them by uttering that term or coining that phrase . He actually is also mocking hardwork public works and environmental reconstruction as unnecessary compared to feeding the people. Asiwaju believes both can be achieved simultaneously and the term stomach infrastructure is derogatory anti-people and unprogressive.

Politics › Governor Ayo Fuayose, Let Peace Reign In Ekiti State Now! by Nwoguphillip(op): 1:53pm On Dec 23, 2014

23/12/2014

PRESS STATEMENT

GOVERNOR AYO FuAYOSE, LET PEACE REIGN IN EKITI STATE NOW!g
The attention of the Centre for Rights and Grassroots Initiative (CRGI) has been drawn to an allegation circulating in the media on Monday 22nd of December, 2014 of a directive credited to Governor Ayo Fayose ordering the police to arrest majority members of the lawfully constituted Ekiti State house of Assembly for holding a plenary in Ado Ekiti, the State capital.

We condemn this alledged unconstitutional and illegal directive by a power intoxicated governor who has acquired the reputation of leading thugs to assault the temple of justice even as a governor in-waiting and getting away it because of impunity in the land.

We want to admonish the Ekiti State police command to immediately distance himself away from such brazen abuse of power and constitution by a governor in dire need of inculcating civility and decent conduct as a public officer occupying the exalted office of the governor of a state.

Because of his antecedents, the Centre for Rights and Grassroots Initiative (CRGI), like millions of Nigerians was very suspicious of Governor Ayo Fayose as the chief instigator of the crisis rocking the Ekiti State house of Assembly and our suspicion has been proved right by the Governor’s perpetuation of illegality through series of acts among several others such as the presentation of his commissioners nominee list as well as the State’s 2015 budget to an illegal sitting of 7 renegade members in violation of the constitutional provision of the presence of 2/3 of 26 members to make a legally constituted legislature. All the actions of the Governor on matters of state interest taken with the approval of his sponsored rebels in the house amounts to nullity since they are not recognized by law.

We at CRGI are hereby calling on the good people of Ekiti state in particular and Nigerians in general to hold Governor Ayo Fayose responsible for the threat to public peace, democracy and safety of lives of the majority members of the lawfully constituted Ekiti State house of Assembly.

We want to call on the Ekiti State Police Command and other security agencies to immediately put in place security measures that will enable the constitutionally recognized Ekiti State house of Assembly and its leadership to conduct legislative business for the good of the people of Ekiti State.

We also want to call on Governor Ayo Fayose, to let peace reign in Ekiti State by withdrawing state maintained thugs who have laid siege on the house of Assembly and as well call his loyal renegade members of the Ekiti State house of Assembly to order, now!

Thanks,

Yours Sincerely,

Signed,

Nelson Ekujumi,

Executive Director.

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