The only untouched feature of Prince Ebeano Supermarket is a clean, multicolored signpost emblazoned with the name of the premium shopping centre that served residents of the exclusive Lagos neighbourhood of Lekki Phase I. It still stands at the front of the retail store, overlooking the west side of Admiralty Way as it gazes at motorists and passersby -soliciting patronage.

“As you can see, that’s the only recognisable property left,” says Ngozi Irikefe as hot smoke billows through the burnt roof of what used to be a bubbling property almost a day after a runaway inferno consumed it; her only means of livelihood turned into a disaster facility by the fire whose cause authorities have not been able to establish.

“Even if I sell everything I have and liquidate my bank accounts, I still won’t have a third of my loss in this fire,” Irikefe says as she struggles to fight back her tears. Her nervous twitch eventually gives way to emotional pressure, causing her to bawl uncontrollably. She’s come a long way.


Irikefe grew up in the most humble of homes in the historic Igbo settlement of Arochuku in today’s Abia State. She barely completed primary school before being brought to Lagos by her uncle at the age of 14. For the intervening three decades, Irikefe will sleep in hazardous plastic manufacturing factories operated by Indians at Ilasamaja, hawk household supplies on Lagos highways, and clean dishes and flip hamburgers for fast-food restaurants. The mother of two university sophomores believes she has been dealt a bad hand by fate.

Now a supplier of oral care products, she assumed her breakthrough would last.

Her clients had increased their demand in a desperate bid to stock up products ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays when consumer sales are expected to skyrocket. She wasn’t expecting to get paid until Wednesday, the day after the fire outbreak. Because of the complicated conditions to which suppliers like hers are subjected, Irikefe put her loss at millions.

“We have an agreement to supply them and take the products back if they’re not sold,” she said. “That means if the products get destroyed or expires, I bear the loss.”

She raised her head to gaze at a television antenna planted where the roof of the supermarket used to be. It survived, but its cables were incinerated by the inferno.

“Tomorrow, I really hope to wake up and find that everything has been restored,” she added, as she pointed fingers at the owners of the supermarket. “I learnt they’ve refused to talk to anyone, but I have to find a way to make sure that I speak with them before I leave here, ” she said. “Otherwise…”

Irikefe turns 50 in two weeks, an oxymoronic milestone that leaves her more puzzled than fulfilled. Her last delivery of oral care products contained exactly 50 boxes and it’s been only 50 weeks since she started supplying the Lekki outlet of Prince Ebeano.

She tried to make sense of the mysterious figure: “If I had known that a miserable life awaits me at the 50-year mark, maybe I could’ve been more careful about my wish.”

Like Irikefe, other suppliers formed chat groups outside the main gate of the supermarket, desperate for any information they could get from the management. Some of them said they arrived as early as 4 a.m. Wednesday, but haven’t been able to get the attention of Prince, one of the two brothers who manage the venture. Prince is said to be the brother of Ebeano, which explains how the duo arrived at their business name.

Prince declined all media requests, preferring instead to spend his time doing a pirouette around the facility, his macho posturing belying an unyielding anguish. His black 2012 5-Series BMW saloon parked isolated in the compound, its paint unlikely to get any scratch from drive-thru customers, for now.

By Wednesday morning, the fire was 99% contained, but with very little left for business owners to be grateful for. A line of torched carts buried in ashes were packed at the lower end of the parking lot and desperate retailers assessed the compound for any valuable item.

To the delight of Prince Ebeano’s neighbours, only the supermarket building was affected by the blaze, which began at 4:56 p.m and rapidly ripped through the entire building, scorching billions of naira worth of products and supplies. Its proximity to the Lagos lagoon made no discernible difference to firefighting efforts. Around noon on Wednesday, officials from the Environmental Sanitation and Waste Disposal Unit of Eti Osa Local Government Area were focusing on a mop up operation. But a light cloud of smoke still hangs over the rubble.

Representatives of Orange Insurance Brokers Limited arrived at the scene just before noon. One of them, who spoke strictly off record, estimated the damage at N800M to N1.5B. Attempts to get him to disclose what figure his team arrived at fell through, but he admitted there may be a slight delay in payment to those who purchased policies from their company because they will need more time to properly assess the situation and also work in sync with other insurance providers that also sold policies to business owners inside the supermarket

Despite its destruction, owners of Prince Ebeano Supermarket said they have a lot to still be thankful for. Perhaps it’s the only rational thing to do: the venture has 5 other retail stores scattered across Lagos. Mr. Ebeano, co-owner of the business, can be seen noting down some observations, some of the suppliers mouth that a reconstruction plan is already underway.

This possibility was echoed by a very close aide of Mr. Ebeano who told Happenings the brothers are “not having a sleepless night over the matter.” “At all,” he emphasised.

Firefighters who responded to the emergency refused to speak on the record, but they said an investigation will commence after a holistic examination of the scene.

Joe Offor, the Police Public Relations Officer, told Happenings an “Investigation is seriously underway to ascertain the cause of that terrible fire.” His follow up statement that “No case of arson is suspected” may have come as a relief to other outlets of the supermarket chain, but it did little to assuage the fears of suppliers like Andrew Omosewe.

Omosewe, 41, a home appliances importer, said he emptied his warehouse at Westminster to meet the demand of his clients in the supermarket. “I just need someone to say anything to me here and my heart will settle,” he said while sitting on the driveway of the supermarket entrance. “I will not leave here.”

While business owners whose shops have been gutted by the inferno sit idle, handicapped by their untold losses, the staff of So-Kleen, a medium-scale cleaning service, are having their busiest day of the year.

Olumide Igbalaye, its director of operation, shuttled between the compound and his office at Ikota at frequent intervals. His fatigue easily communicated by his wet jacket.

“We’ve been asked to clean the place,” he said. “It seems they don’t want to waste much time at all.”

While all the merchandise in the building were completely destroyed, a few newly delivered items awaiting clearance before the inferno on Tuesday were piled up outside the premises. The owners were advised to transport them away from the compound. One teenage scavenger made away with a pair of partly scorched shoes from the debris which promptly nudged Irikefe back to reality.

“I think I am still better than some people because I will do anything to make sure my children don’t suffer like this boy,” she said. “God has a purpose for everything; I believe we will survive through this.”

A massive inferno is currently raging through Ebute Metta waterfront settlement along the Third Mainland Bridge in downtown Lagos, eyewitnesses report late Tuesday.

The cause of the fire is not immediately clear, but it happened near the slums that overlook the Lagos lagoon.

Images shot from atop the bridge near the Adekunle Interchange reveal a neighbourhood covered in soot as residents devise desperate means of salvaging their belongings.

More details soon…

Source: http://happenings.com.ng/breaking-news-massive-inferno-raging-in-ebute-metta/

In a rare show of respect for the educators and understanding of their plight, Governor Ayodele Fayose, has apologised to primary schoolteachers in Ekiti State over the mix-up in the payment of their September, 2015 salary.

According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Idowu Adelusi, the governor said, “even though the mix-up was from the state Accountant-General’s office, “he takes responsibility” being the governor of the state.

“I want to apologise for the inconsistency and problems encountered in crediting the accounts of some primary school teachers, it was after my broadcast few days back that I got a lot of text messages from some teachers that were affected.

“I sincerely want to apologise, I have gotten to the root of the matter, I have found out that there were mix-ups here and there, the accounts were credited and later withdrawn for carelessness in the Accountant General’s office, for whatever it is I take responsibility, I apologise and want to assure you all the lapses will be corrected.

“My teachers at the primary school level, this money will be credited to your accounts between now and Wednesday unfailingly. My apologies,” he said.

Source: http://happenings.com.ng/salaries-discrepancy-fayose-apologises-to-ekiti-schoolteachers-promises-immediate-solution/

Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said he will not hold any media chat via the social media with prolific blogger, Japheth Omojuwa, in what is likely the first of such public rejection since Omojuwa started his #JJmeets event on the micro-blogging site, Twitter.

Mr. Omojuwa had during the last Sunday installment of the event which he held with Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, expressed his willingness to meet with several Nigerian governors including Fayose.

Yesterday’s #JJmeetsAmbode became an immediate sensation on Twitter, affording Ambode the opportunity to update Lagosians about his administration’s progress and challenges so far.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola was a guest of Omojuwa on #JJmeets on September 10 under the hashtag #JJmeetsOgbeni.

The event, which usually lasts between 90-115 minutes, allows Nigerians on Twitter to engage their political office holders on salient issues.

Shortly before Ambode joined Omojuwa, the blogger tweeted, “Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State is on the cards #JJmeetsFayose,” while responding to another tweeter. Then during his engagement with Ambode, he reiterated his willingness to have Fayose on, writing, “Great. I will put this to Governor Fayose when I engage him soon #JJmeetsAmbode #JJmeetsFayose.”

But apparently not completely blown away by the online frenzy that usually accompanies #JJmeets, Governor Fayose has come out to publicly decline Omojuwa’s invitation.

“I won’t be holding any meeting on Social Media, especially JJ Omojuwa for now,” he tweeted this afternoon at 2:28.

It is not immediately clear why the governor declined participation, especially given how frequent he uses the medium himself, but observers said the decline may not have been unconnected with Omojuwa’s politics.

Omojuwa, 31, is hardly known for his charitable remarks towards Fayose, former President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP as a whole. More often than not, he’s usually seen attacking PDP sympathisers on Twitter, with his exchanges getting extremely vicious at times.

During the legislative crisis that gripped Ekiti State last May, Omojuwa tweeted that he hoped Mr. Fayose is “gone by the end of the week.” He is also infamous for elevating a pig above President Jonathan on his Twitter page, a post that PDP social media backers still frequently use to hound Omojuwa online.

But a PDP social media consultant said Governor Fayose should not have looked at Omojuwa’s politics, no matter how vituperative he may have been in the past, because the governor also stands to benefit politically from such engagement.

“He shouldn’t have looked at his insults and curses at all, because there are so many youth on Twitter today and they will like to have direct discussions with the governor and I think Omojuwa’s platform is probably the widest,” the source told Happenings in an email.


Source: http://happenings.com.ng/fayose-becomes-the-first-governor-to-openly-decline-omojuwas-invitation/

By Samuel Ogundipe



Akinwunmi Ambode has been a student of progressive politics throughout his adult life. Long before he considered running for governor earlier this year, he served under successive progressive administrations in Lagos State for 27 years.

His stump speeches throughout the campaign included a promise to “consolidate” the progressive policies of his two firebrand predecessors. And shortly after his inauguration on May 29, he set about making the state as sustainable and as financially solvent as his predecessor, Tunde Fashola –eliminating wastes within his own office and streamlining state agencies and parastatals.

“We must establish a system that is both accountable and responsive to all Lagosians and I don’t think we can achieve this if we don’t put prudent policies in place to consolidate progressive efforts of past governments,” the governor said while meeting with permanent secretaries and heads of parastatals upon assumption of office.

Lagos’ progressive experiment has attracted the attention of all Nigerians across political spectrum, as they continue to see the Centre of Excellence as the model state whose direction the remaining 35 must emulate. This is hardly a surprise considering the fact that the state has the busiest local and international airports, three congested seaports and a massive revenue base. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the state recorded over N1T in internally-generated revenue between 2010 and 2014.

Ambode’s background as a highly-educated civil servant with primary skill in taxation and auditing shatters any doubt about his intellectual wherewithal. But as he continues the struggle to improve the atmosphere in Lagos or maintain the pace of his predecessor –amidst rising criminal activities–Ambode risks facing the ire of Lagosians who say they’re growing disillusioned with him.

Dupe Killa, a lifelong progressive, campaigned vigorously for Ambode’s victory, because, she said, she had “too much at stake to leave the affairs of Lagos to PDP.”

Six months later, Killa has joined a growing chorus of despondent Lagosians who say they’re beginning to decipher a stark disconnect between their new governor’s priorities and those of his predecessors on the back of whose benevolence Ambode cruised to victory.

Governor Ambode “is not doing as well as is required for Lagos,” added Killa. “This position draws on the salient contrasting points of Lagos’ needs versus his current pace.”

Kenneth Haastrup, an insurance broker who commutes daily from Ilupeju to Marina, said he was amongst those trapped in a traffic gridlock that gripped the state on September 21, after a disagreement between the state government and transport union culminated in truckers parking on Ikorodu Road, the busiest in the state.

“I was uncontrollably furious when I learnt that the governor was partially to blame for the traffic,” said Haastrup, 46. “I began to regret my donation to his campaign and also the vote I gave him, because he can’t tell us he didn’t know about these problems before he became governor.”

Another demoralised Lagosian is Madam Faith Afegbua, a Festac grocer who witnessed the fatal robbery of banks along the busy 4th Avenue–the fourth of such armed robbery operations since Ambode assumed office. She said she never lived under a more frightening administration in Lagos than the current one.

“Before, we used to have petty-petty thieves, but now we have big robbers using heavy shooting machines to rob banks in our neighbourhood,” said Afegbua. “I moved to Lagos in 1973 and I have never been this fearful–tell him to get to work,” a visibly angry Afegbua added.

One of the topmost requirements expected of anyone seeking elective office in Nigeria is the ability to understand Nigerians’ impatience and move quickly to preempt it upon assumption of office.

Many in the Class of 2015 Nigerian governors, like Kaduna’s El-Rufai and Wike in Rivers, recognised this and acted in a timely manner to display their mettle. But Governor Ambode has not been able to justify the trust Lagosians placed in him when they gave him their mandate on April 11.

According to CIAPS Governors Performance Index, CGPI, an advanced mathematical tool that grades the performance capability of each of the 36 governors, Ambode has consistently performed below par every month since he assumed office.

CGPI, which is an initiative of the Centre for International, Advanced and Professional Studies, CIAPS, a non-partisan public policy think-tank, ranked Ambode below the 60% performance average in July, August and September and the centre’s director, Professor Anthony Kila, warned that, as a result of the growing cases of armed robbery and increase in threat level to peace of Lagos residents, Ambode’s showing is unlikely to improve when the index for the month of October comes out early next month.

“Although he’d just announced his cabinet,” said Kila, “the cases of armed robbery and other criminal activities that continue to threaten the peace of Lagosians will be weighted.”

Commenting in its September report, CGPI wrote of criminal activities in Lagos: “Security however is becoming an issue again as we are now seeing some marginal increase in crimes around the state.”

Kila, a Jean Monnet professor of Strategy and Development at Cambridge University, said Ambode failed to understand that an elected public officer has just a three-month window to get to work, no matter how naturally lethargic the individual may be.

“No matter how sluggish you are at doing things, you must understand that you have only a three-month window to start taking measures that display the leadership quality in you.”

While Mr. Ambode may be slow in making sweeping policy decisions compared to his predecessors, his ability to run a state as massive as Lagos without commissioners for several months shows that he has a good grasp of his new job. The governor has met every crisis with decisive gusto. He abandoned all tasks to witness a fire outbreak at the suburban community of Iyana-Ipaja on June 2, barely 3 days into his administration.

Less than a month later, the governor had started paying victims of the inferno. Also compensated were survivors of another fire outbreak at Idimu, which occurred on June 6, in an apparent attempt to avoid the elitist label that impugned the empathy posture of his predecessor, Mr. Fashola.

The governor also approved release of about 2,500 pending Certificates of Occupancy as a great relief to many downtrodden landowners across the state.

Ambode’s Chief Press Secretary, Habib Haruna, told Happenings some mischievous elements are only out to tarnish the image of the administration because his principal has done what is humanly possible for him to do and will continue to do more.

“People will complain about one thing or the other, but most of the complaints are coming from those who have sinister motives of tarnishing the image of the administration.”

“Within few months,” said Haruna, “our government has been able to start capital projects, compensate all victims of Idimu and Iyana-Ipaja fire disasters and paid N11B to pensioners.”

Apart from the foregoing measures, Haruna averred that Ambode is the only governor in the Class of 2015 that has begun capital projects.

“Lagos State is the only state that is currently embarking on capital projects; others are either trying to pay salaries or barely paying salaries.”

On traffic gridlock and intense criminal activities across the state, the CPS said Mr. Ambode has already contained the gridlock and placed orders for new choppers to properly improve policing.

“The traffic has now reduced,” he said, “administration officials are not sleeping over these matters because they mean a lot to the governor.” “We’ve also concluded plans to purchase police helicopters for rapid response to crimes such as armed robbery.”

The jury is still out on whether Lagosians will face higher tax prices for the governor to be able to implement most of his progressive agenda. He recently lamented that the plummeting oil prices are beginning to affect the state’s tax receipts, N276B in 2014 (Credit: NBS), urging residents to brace themselves as his administration makes tough choices in the coming months.

Ambode is no stranger to financial distress in public service. As the state’s Auditor-General and later Accountant-General (2001-2012), Ambode is widely acclaimed as the brain behind the state’s deep revenue base and he helped to prudently manage the state’s inchoate financial resources after President Olusegun Obasanjo illegally withheld the state’s statutory monthly allocations during the last decade. But his real test will probably be how he augments the state’s dwindling revenues against a rising demand from the ever-growing Lagos population.

Ambode’s political opponents see no bright spots. Dr. Adegbola Dominic, a Lagos PDP chieftain, told Happenings he still finds it difficult to understand Ambode’s policy thrusts several months after he assumed office. “It doesn’t look to me like this is a serious man,” he said. “We don’t even know what his policy fundamentals are; maybe it’s because he rode into office by being someone’s political errand boy.” Dominic added that he is hardly upbeat about “any meaningful change” anchored by Ambode because “the governor has been dithering on almost everything that is important to Lagosians.”

Killa, who uses her Twitter presence to champion progressives’ causes, concluded of Ambode’s exploit in office so far: “It is a sad, shocking fail.”

Ambode’s commissioners were inaugurated last week, consequently eliminating one of the administration’s oft-repeated alibis. They will now have to work under a more demanding atmosphere at a shorter time frame.

Notwithstanding, how the governor and the ruling APC manage the growing concerns of Lagosians will have broad implications for the viability of the progressive experiment —whether it would eventually be adopted by states in other regions of the country or crash under the political weight of its foremost crusader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Culled from: http://happenings.com.ng/disillusioned-lagosians-express-growing-disappointment-in-ambodes-leadership/

By Samuel Ogundipe


Kidnapped Vanguard columnist, Donu Kogbara, has been released by her abductors, a Twitter update by her brother, Dumle Kogbara, claims early Saturday.

Kogbara was abducted from her home in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, on Sunday, August 30, 2015, by unknown gunmen who drove her away in an unmarked SUV.

Her family was present at the time the abduction took place.

“Pleased that my sister, #DonuKogbara has been released by her kidnappers in #Nigeria. She is back home. Thank You! for all support,” the tweet by Kogbara, whose profile says he’s based in London, UK, reads.

The tweet was sent around 2:07 a.m. Saturday, and it’s not immediately clear when the journalist was released or under which condition.

Police said they immediately launched an elaborate operation to free Kogbara after the news broke that she’d been kidnapped from her home.


Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, this week, told journalists efforts to locate Kogbara and safely bring her back to her family were being intensified.

Vanguard Newspapers has also released a picture of Donu Kogbara with Rivers State Commissioner for Police, Musa Kimo, shortly after her release.
WP has not been able to independently verify Dumle’s relationship with Donu, but he claimed to be her brother and several tweets confirming this can be seen on his Twitter page, @Dumlekogbara

Several telephone calls to the spokesman of Rivers State Police Command were neither answered nor returned on Saturday morning.



Source: http://westernpostnigeria.com/abducted-vanguard-columnist-regains-freedom/

One of the PDP chieftains that received him at the party secretariat said he knows for a fact that the man didn't make the trek. He said they did it for a show.

Not like I believe you didn't see the source earlier, but here it is: http://www.westernpostnigeria.com/eleven-apc-lawmakers-set-to-decamp-to-the-pdp/

About eleven serving lawmakers on the platform of the All Progressives Congress are set to dump the party for the Peoples Democratic Party, as political horse-trading intensifies ahead of the 2015 general elections, WESTERN POST authoritatively gathered on Wednesday.

The lawmakers, who’re all from APC strongholds in the northern part of the country, have agreed to openly declare their allegiance to the ruling PDP as well as the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

At a high-profile meeting held this morning at a secret location in Abuja, the lawmakers expressed high disappointment in the candidature of General Muhammadu Buhari.

The meeting was chaired by Senator Nimi Barigha-Amange from President Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa. Senator Barigha-Amange was also very instrumental to the facilitation of the APC lawmakers decision to cross carpet.

“I can categorically confirm that about 11 APC lawmakers are set to dump their party for the Peoples Democratic Party in the next 2-3 days,” Senator Barigha-Amange, who’s also the Director of Planning, Research and Strategy for Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign, told the Western Post.

The news of many APC lawmakers joining the PDP has permeated the political grapevine for almost 3 weeks. Last week, a House of Representatives member from the APC decamped to the PDP in Kano State.

Another source also confirmed to The Post that, “Senator Barigha-Amange has been holding a series of meetings with the APC lawmakers and I can tell you that the lawmakers have made it clear to us that they’re coming to the PDP.”

But the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, declined to entertain any notion of APC lawmakers leaving the party in the coming days, adding that the PDP is only a mockery of itself.

“There’s no way our lawmakers will dump our party right now, the PDP is just making a mockery of itself in a desperate attempt to show that they’re still relevant,” he said.

“They should tell us the lawmakers that are crossing and from which state then we can take them serious. Other than that, the APC is as strong and unshakable as ever.”

If successful, the decision of the lawmakers will give a significant boost to President Jonathan’s reelection efforts as it’s likely to guarantee him the prerequisite 25% minimum votes share in northern states.

Analysts predict the 2015 elections will be the closest in the nation’s presidential elections history.



Source: http://www.westernpostnigeria.com/eleven-apc-lawmakers-set-to-decamp-to-the-pdp/

By Samuel Ogundipe


“I have a list of names of people who have been receiving money from President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari at the same time. Your days are numbered.” Mukhtar Dan’Iyan (a.k.a: @MrAyeDee), a U.S.-based Nigerian political analyst cum social media expert, thundered on his Twitter page Tuesday night.

Whatever its nature, the notification promises to be a bombshell given the impact generated by Dan’Iyan’s previous exposé.

Over the past 3 months, Dan’Iyan has become the de-facto spokesman of the Jonathan administration on the Nigerian blogosphere, putting the opposition on perpetual defensive while shredding ad hominem attacks on the president into pieces

General Buhari’s week-long visit to London has become the latest red meat for Nigerians on the Internet as supporters of both parties sparred over the true state of health of the presidential candidate.

Even though the APC has maintained that its candidate is in London on a working visit, the PDP skeptics, egged-on by Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, have remained married to their position that the presidential candidate is receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in London. “I still believe Buhari is receiving treatment in a London hospital,” Fayose said in a statement Wednesday.

On Monday, some major newspapers (Not WP) were forced to print apologies after they ran a picture that purportedly showed General Buhari being interviewed as part of what his party says is a working visit to London.

The picture purportedly showed General Buhari being interviewed by Ms. Kemi Fadojutimi, a U.S.-based journalist, in London.

“General Muhammadu Buhari with CEO, All Eyes on Africa TV Show, Kemi Fadojutimi, During Buhari’s working visit to the United Kingdom,” reads the caption of the picture as tweeted by former Minister of Federal Capital Territory and APC governorship candidate in Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. “In Fayose ambulance,” he added in an apparent rebuttal to Governor Fayose, who said Buhari was flown out of the country in an ambulance because he’d failed to grant interview to aviation correspondents before he flew out of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Soon afterwards, Mr. Dan’Iyan debunked the authenticity of the picture in a series of posts on his Twitter account, describing it as “another fraud from a party of those who specialize in blatant lies.” He illustrated how the interview was actually conducted in a “King Ambassador Suite” at Transcorp Hilton Hotels, Abuja, as against the London location originally claimed.

The Internet swiftly went berserk, prompting Governor Fayose to go in search of the suite at Transcorp Hilton in company of media cameras. That night, NTA ‘Network News’ reeled images of Fayose in a room identical to the one widely circulated by APC operatives.

This prompted many curious individuals to question the identity and motive of Dan’Iyan who maintains he’s not a paid PDP operative.

“I’ve spent considerable time and money doing research and sourcing materials to push the narrative forward,” he told WESTERN POST in a telephone interview from his office in New York City, “but I’ve never sought nor received a dime from anyone, I do it because I believe GEJ is truly the better choice at this point in time, and whatever I can do to ensure he gets elected, I shall.”

Those who question the identity of Dan’Iyan will be surprised to learn that he’d been a part of the Nigerian civil disourse for over two decades.

Writing in his 2007 memoir “You Must Set Forth at Down,” renowned Professor Wole Soyinka describes Dan’Iyan as “a self-hating Igbira, a minority tribe from the Nigerian hinterland, whose yearning to be mistaken for a Fulani aristocratic scion had resulted in his changing his name from Daniyan to Dan’Iyan.”

But Dan’Iyan said he respectfully disagrees with the Professor’s description of him. He explained that he is Nupe/Fulani from Bida, Niger State and in fact Dan’Iyan, his family name is a title that can be found in most Northern Emirates. ”

On why he was harshly criticised by Mr. Soyinka, Dan’Iyan explained that he became a victim of the Professors “campaign of calumny” after he refused to compromise on principle when he was a part of a group that was devising a means of setting up a parallel Nigerian government in exile following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections.

“I was a member of the United Democratic Front of Nigeria, a group that was planning to set up a government in exile after the annulment of the 1993 elections. Wole Soyinka was the convener of the group,” he said.

“I left the United States and travelled to Dakar, Senegal, to hold a secret meeting there with representatives of other pro democracy groups so as to fashion out a way of setting up a government in exile. We had an agreement about what to do. But soon after we left Senegal , Professor Soyinka took an approach that was totally at variance with what we’ve all agreed to at Senegal.”

“Many of us, said we will not go with the path of Soyinka. We refused to compromise on our principle. That was when Soyinka began a campaign of calumny against us. He did a lot to malign us then because he couldn’t believe we could stand up to him.”

But he said he doesn’t have anything any against the Professor and not on any mission to avenge what he suffered in his hands.

“I remain a very committed fan of Mr. Soyinka. We both wanted to save Nigeria then but we had different approach which is normal. Everything is history now,” he said.

Dan’Iyan’s biggest scalp came when he convinced Google to take down Nigeria’s biggest entertainment Website, Linda Ikeji’s Blog. His request that Google shut down the blog on allegation of copyright infringement put discussions of copyright infringement, which many Nigerians were hitherto unaware of, on the front burner at many Nigerian online forums as well as in the mainstream media. Ms. Ikeji’s blog was reinstated 24 hours later, but it was long enough for her to describe it as the “most traumatic event of my life.”

The PDP has found a new bride in Mr. Dan’Iyan, as officials of the party shower praises on him daily. The PDP National Chairman, former Governor Adamu Mu’Azu, ministerial-nominee, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, National Youth Leader of the part and presidential aide, Reno Omokri, are amongst the few who have publicly acknowledged his “invaluable contribution” to the party’s new media efforts.

“Mr. Dan’Iyan is a loyal and dogged comrade,” gushed Mr. Demola Olanrewaju, the Coordinator of KoroNation, a political action committee affiliated to Senator Obanikoro. “He rarely backs down even when outnumbered, he is ever confident in the knowledge that the truth he holds on to will prevail over falsehood. I also sense he likes to operate alone so as to be clearheaded and avoid herd mentality.”

“We’re glad to have him on our side,” a sanguined Olanrewaju added.

His political activities have earned him criticism from those who find his antics repugnant, which he said is hardly surprising.

“Mr. Dan’Iyan is a man who has earned a nefarious career in Internet terrorism, cyber squatting and Internet fraud,” said Mr. Gbenga Olorunpomi, a media assistant to Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the vice presidential candidate of the APC. “He’d become infamous for his blackmailing tactics. He tried it with Asiwaju Tinubu but failed. He also tried it with Linda but also failed. He’s been paid to attack people which is why 80% of what he pushes is easily disputable.”

Mr. Olorunpomi also told WESTERN POST that Mr. Dan’Iyan is of Eastern European origin, as against the Nupe/Fulani origin he currently claims.

“He doesn’t have an identity,” said Olorunpomi. “I am not going to dignify the attitudes of anyone who is not even a Nigerian but claiming to be a Nigerian with a response. He’s someone of Eastern European origin who has continued to make career for himself by bamboozling gullible Nigerians on the Internet because we refused to let him work for us after he made several attempts.”

But Mr. Dan’Iyan said the allegations are “baseless and spurious.”

“I have no single website registered to my name. So how can I be a squatter? Cyber terrorism and fraud are both criminal offenses, no one has ever charged me with a crime,” he said

Responding to allegations of how he attempted to blackmail Tinubu and Ms. Ikeji, Dan’Iyan said he has been a friend of the blogger for many years and that they’re still friend as can be witnessed on Twitter where they both still follow each other. But he acknowledged going after Tinubu.

“I and Linda are still friends and we both still follow each other on Twitter. We had a disagreement,resolved it and have moved on”

“But I am not surprised that these Tinubu supporters are coming after me, because I’ve been fighting their principal for 20 years,” he said. “I called Tinubu out on his hypocrisy of dealing with Shell Corporation while publicly attacking Shell and Abacha Government during NADECO and Ken Saro Wiwa standoff as well as his history with the US justice system, So I am not surprised they’re coming after me.”

He also said all the efforts APC has made to have him work with them, he has turned down, and if any of them has evidence to the contrary, the person should shame him by making it public.

“If I made applications to work with them several times, they should have evidence to ridicule me. Tell them to come out with such evidence because I will continue to dismantle their online narrative and I expect them to shame me.”

“These people have maintained monopoly of the narrative on social media for long, I expect them to fight back now that they could see their dominion falling down like a house of cards right in their presence,” he added.

Despite all the accolades he receives daily from teeming PDP supporters on the Internet, Mr. Dan’Iyan acknowledges his limitations. He also said he’s not doing anything special, but the environment in which he’s doing it is what makes it appear special.

“These stuff are right there on the Internet, so all it takes is a click away and people will find them,” he quipped. “I am not doing anything special, but in the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king.”

No one within the PDP has done anything official with Dan’Iyan, but the situation is likely to change anytime soon, said a PDP chieftain at the party’s headquarters in Abuja.

“No, we don’t have anything with him yet, but we’ve been studying the activities of Mr. Dan’Iyan and we have never seen someone as charitable towards us. He’d done things to us that even those who are paid have not been able to do,” said the source.

On why the party has not done anything with him in official capacity, the source said the party leaders are trying to be very careful because of the perilous situation of the Internet.

“We want him with us, but we’re taking a careful approach with anything that can officially link us with him. He’s a good asset, but one can’t be too careful with someone of Mr. Dan’Iyan expertise.”

But Mr. Dan’Iyan said he’s not helping the PDP in anticipation of an appointment or any reward.

“I’ll continue to help both the administration and the party whichever way I can, but I’m not looking for a job or any political appointment,” he said.

A presidential source told WESTERN POST that Mr. Dan’Iyan will be moderating an event with President Jonathan on March 1. This will be the first time Mr. Dan’Iyan will be publicly doing anything official with the PDP or Jonathan administration.

Dan’Iyan isn’t all powerful, but 2015 election is shaping up as a race in which the use of the media has continued to prove unprecedentedly vital. Just this week, Mr. President acknowledged he and his party have underrated the need to deploy media essentials for their campaign and said it’s part of why he’s now ensnared in an increasingly narrow race with General Buhari. That Mr. Dan’Iyan is on the side of the president gives him a semblance of respite as far as his online media battle is concerned.

Established media consultants and even Mr. President’s media aides are likely to feel threatened by Mr. Dan’Iyan’s uncommon approach to online electioneering and they’ll devise a strategy on how to deal with him. That is likely to be where Mr. Dan’Iyan will ultimately acquire his real influence.


Source: http://www.westernpostnigeria.com/alexander-daniyan-formidable-media-aide-pdps-greek-gift/

Seven pages of comments and no one was able to discern the FAKENESS of both the OP and the story. No wonder Buhari is running for president. And newly released data show about 21M suffering mental issues. Think, folks.

On the other hand, one could actually comment on the story but not before acknowledging that it's fake to begin wth. This is how Andyblaze became famous before anyone knew what he was up to. Pathetic.

Junk journalism at its best.

berem:
I saw Buruji Kashamu's campaign boards at Ogun state on my way to Lagos yesterday.
Damn! The facial expresssion of the dude is enough not to vote for him. He looks like a hardened criminal.

Can you say this to Kashamu's face if he invites you to his office at Best Western, Bar Beach? Where were you coming from, by the way?

Is the Professor of Tinubu Politics saying if his party is elected to power (hypothetically speaking) he won't advertise whatever it has done in the first four years while campaigning for a second term (Alice in Wonderland)?

The AP is now reporting that the elections will be postponed. According to one of its latest tweets.


@AP: BREAKING: Official: Nigeria postponing Feb. 14 elections so multinational force can secure Boko Haram areas

How about the someone please summarize crew? And I guess you didn't include the end time guys because they've almost completely fizzled out.

What's so “exclusive” about this report? Upon all the carnage that is ravaging the Northeast (and now inclusive Northwest), this is the only picture Premium Times reporter that is purportedly traveling around that area was able to beam? Online media houses manufacturing stories in a desperate bid to win the Web impressions war. This is just pathetic.

Go to Akerele, Surulere (2 locations on this road), Commercial Road, Yaba, local airport, Festac after the area command. Suyas are sold all over Lagos during the day, you just need to know where to go.

How

Great

I got a notification that you sent me an email but couldn't read it even after Nairaland asked me to reply to an electronic communication. You may look my up on Twitter as samuelOgundipe and well exchange mails there.

As a journalist, I've tried my best to correct my colleagues that some of the expressions the OP pointed out do not befit a mainstream journalist but they'll never heed. Sometimes I'll write a correct sentence and my editor will reconstruct it to an incorrect one. Whenever I point it out to him he would apologise, but that's after the story has already been published, and since I get the byline, I get the insult.

How?

what?

What advice does he have to give? This is a former president who failed to deliver even his own ward during the last general elections. The only way Obasanjo can affect anyone politically is if it's to the detriment of that person. He can't make any positive impact on any candidate. His irrelevance became palpable when Ogun PDP resolved its internal crisis sans Obasanjo.

By Samuel Ogundipe

When Mr. Ayodele Fayose was inaugurated as the new Governor of Ekiti State following a resounding victory he secured at the polls in June, he didn’t shy away from seriously scolding the media in his inaugural speech. He accused the press of being biased and urged journalists to be more responsible in the course of carrying out their lawful duty.

His reprimand was not misplaced. In fact, his landslide victory was as much a shellacking for Fayemi as it was for the members of the press, who overwhelmingly backed the unpopular former governor.

But it seems some of us are either impervious to the truth or shamefully indifferent to reality.

In a paradoxically-titled opinion piece written by a former President Yar’Adua’s spokesman, ‘Segun Adeniyi, then governor-elect, Ayo Fayose, was unfairly pilloried –in a story titled: A Word for Ayo Fayose– as a man who’s suffering a mild form of bipolar disorder. This is unacceptable, especially when it’s coming from a man who, in 2008, goaded his principal to sue Leadership Newspapers because the media house reported the exacerbating illness of the former president.

READ: Olusegun Adeniyi: A Word For Ayo Fayose

As much as I remain an ardent proponent of free speech (as if I have a choice), and while I am not in any way a fan of Fayose –I called him a “pyromaniac in the field of political jingoists” in my May 26 column — I believe the time for Nigerian opinion writers to eschew the illusion that they can make or break any individual with their pens (or, more accurately, keyboards) has reached its acme.

Media’s criticism of politicians can be beneficial to the people if it’s constructive and devoid of conspicuous personal vituperation. Although most political players detest being called out by the press, still, they’re not stupid: Substantial majority of elected public office holders recognise –and often yield to– constructive criticism when they see one. Moreover, constructive criticism of politicians is congenial in a constitutional republic because it enables politicians make an informed judgement of a narrative which, in turn, benefits the citizenry.

Media houses always fight back on concrete and perceived accusation of bias, because they know the general public largely prefer an independent press. Hence the counter-intuitive irony: The most damaging criticism of politicians in the media often comes from the least responsible arm of the media, opinion pages. The unfettered autonomy that media houses grant their columnists has made it increasingly difficult for readers to distinguish a honest journalist who earns a living working for his employer from a political consultant. This would be superfluous if Nigerian politics is ideologically-oriented. But since all political parties have no discernible ideological differences, media practitioners often find it easy to target a politician’s personal character as against his or her belief system.

Also, while many politicians often claim, albeit with antic indifference to definition, to be either progressives (See: Liberalism) or conservatives, Nigerian journalists see no need to espouse their ideological tenets. (Perhaps they can be excused for avoiding a subject that could force them to lie about a topic that is contemporarily inconsequential to their career.)

In the better-advanced climes, if you pick up a newspaper –e.g: The Wall Street Journal; Conservative, The New York Times; Liberal– you know what you’ll see on its opinion pages. If you switch to a news channel –e.g: Fox News; Conservative, MSNBC; Liberal– you know what its opinion programs will look like. Some card-carrying members of political parties often have their own opinion airtime on news channels, as with MSNBC’s Krystal Ball who once ran as a Democratic Party’s candidate for Congress. But this is not the case in Nigeria, which is why many often find it difficult to fathom what paper supports which political party. In Nigeria, you’re just as likely to read a piece critical of Bola Tinubu in The Nation as you are to watch an impressive news report about President Jonathan on Television Continental. These show that the overarching influence of Nigerian media is largely about the individual writer as opposed to the institution he or she represents.

Now back to Mr. ‘Segun Adeniyi’s mundane assault on the person of now-Governor Ayo Fayose. Even though some people have said THISDAY Newspapers, which Mr. Adeniyi chairs its editorial board, has a soft-landing for the Peoples Democratic Party, there’s no established fact to this claim. The paper is just like every other Nigerian daily, and Mr. Adeniyi is just like every other Nigerian columnist.

Mr. Adeniyi started his piece with a self-praising paragraph about how he denied several invitation to meet Mr. Fayose when the latter was governor in 2004, a narcissistic claim that should strike even the most apolitical as petty.

He then went on to write a poorly-constructed straw man:

If you spend just ten minutes with Fayose, he was likely to tell you almost ten times that he is the Governor of Ekiti State as if he needed to keep reminding himself. There are stories of him staying in front of the mirror and hailing himself as “Your Excellency!” aside going to address rallies at the University of Ado Ekiti campus, telling students he is ‘the boss’ of respected Professors like Akin Oyebode. Ordinarily, all these should not matter except that the serious personal complex (which the Yoruba people would call ‘oju o r’ola ri’) responsible for such dispositions is at the root of the crisis in Ekiti State and the tragedy of Fayose’s administration.

Coming from a self-proclaimed intellectual like Mr. Adeniyi, the apocryphal claim that Mr. Fayose always stands at the front of a mirror to yawp himself as the governor is unfortunate. It’s unfortunate because it gives credence to the claim of the governor that the Nigerian media is a cesspool of corruption and immorality. No journalist that knows his onions will write such a cheap attack, much less a former presidential spokesman.

Indeed, when, on November 8, 2008, Leadership Newspapers ran a story about President Yar’Adua’s worsening health situation, ‘Segun Adeniyi came out the next day not just to vigorously refute the negative report about his principal but to threaten excruciating legal consequences for the newspaper thusly:

“In keeping with his commitment to upholding the rule of law at all times, Yar’Adua has directed his lawyers to take appropriate legal action against the Leadership newspaper…There is no truth in the entire report … the only reasonable conclusion is that the publishers … ran the report … to embarrass the President and destabilise his administration. [sic]

What conclusion can anyone draw after reading Mr. Adeniyi’s piece about Fayose other than the conclusion Mr. Adeniyi himself reached against Leadership some 6 years ago? Another common trend is Mr. Adeniyi’s penchant for making stuff up, which borders on pathological. Yet, he can be forgiven, after all he was only working to justify his salary –and other government boondoggles– back then.

As if he hadn’t already made enough mockery of himself, Mr. Adeniyi went further to assert that:

“….this second chance is an opportunity for Fayose to learn the ways of decent leadership. Converting the existential desperation of the people to electoral advantage may be politically expedient in the short run. But it does not invalidate the developmental strides made by his more enlightened and refined predecessor in office. Fayose should have the humility to learn from Fayemi’s legacy while seeking to improve on it. Turning Ekiti into a battle field state is not the best way to step into office on a second chance ticket. Similarly, storming court rooms to inflict corporal punishment on judges does not justify the confidence of the ordinary Ekiti man that their mandate should buy them peace, civility and some modicum of progress. Even as I hope he will learn from his first misadventure in power, I wish Fayose a successful tenure as Ekiti State Governor.”

By “existential desperation,” it won’t be out of place to assume that Mr. Adeniyi was alluding to the stomach infrastructure meme. Stomach infrastructure may be derisive political assault, but it’s not as damaging as those who coined the word anticipated: Fayose has since turned the insult into a popular campaign slogan, he made the appointment of a special adviser for Stomach Infrastructure his first official assignment as a governor. Also, Mr. Adeniyi seems to be lost on the irony that any elected individual that governs a state where lack of food has triggered an existential desperation for its inhabitants is undeserving of reelection.

Mr. Adeniyi should also tell us what is so “refined” about a leader that plunged his state into an abyss of unnecessary debt. Mr. Fayose left ₦10B in the state coffers when he was shown the way out in 2006. Fayemi did not only deplete the windfall, he also plunged the state into a ₦500M budget shortfall. The supposedly enlightened Fayemi also failed to advance the position of Ekiti State in the overall ranking by WAEC, choosing instead to let the “Fountain of Knowledge” motto of the state become a laughable irony.

READ: “We’ve Done It Before; We Shall Do It Again”: Read Gov. Fayose’s Full Inauguration Speech

And Mr. Adeniyi needs to tell us when appearing at the court in a suit that one is a party to became an attempt at inflicting “corporal punishment” on judges. Apparently, some individuals do not understand that, no matter their level or exposure or education, they cannot make the people see black if the object is white.

I owe readers an apology for not pointing them at the real culprit of Mr. Adeniyi’s yellow journalism on time: The Nigerian Union of Journalists. Yes, Nigerians would have been spared all these obnoxious ranting he’s masquerading as authoritative journalism had NUJ either censured or thoroughly banned him from practicing journalism after all the shameful antics he exhibited amidst President Yar’Adua’s health crisis. After all, Michael Aandoakaa, former Attorney-General of the Federation, with whom Adeniyi colluded to keep the nation in darkness, was permanently stripped off his SANship and his license to practice law temporarily withdrawn.





Source: http://www.thescoopng.com/former-president-yaraduas-water-boy-strikes/