Hello Prof, My generator is working but its not giving out electricity to my home. I'm using an elepaq generator.What could be the cause of this?

A cursory survey of media reports on the
downstream oil sector suggests that the
prevailing popular belief is that a predatory cabal
has a vice grip over the business of fuel
importation.

There is concern, therefore, that this,
presumably, vicious class of businessmen would
do everything to ensure that refineries will never
work, and that the subsidy regime would subsist,
while fuel supply will continue to be carefully
manipulated to regularly induce artificial scarcity
so that bountiful profits can be harvested from
the attendant sufferings and economic
dislocation deliberately caused by the oil cabal.

Nonetheless, it will be useful to examine the
process of fuel importation more closely to
actually identify the real beneficiaries in this
business. Indeed, the major oil marketers, Total,
Mobil, Oando, Conoil, NNPC inclusive, and a few
others have not been fingered for collecting
subsidy with fake import papers.

However, it may be more difficult to vouch for
the innocence of the motley subset of hundreds
of indigenous independent marketers, as this
class also accommodates the ubiquitous
briefcase importer, who is clearly, a more
footloose buccaneer.It would probably be more
difficult to find a contrary view to the above
popular perception, than it is to find the
proverbial needle in a haystack. Besides, the
widely reported ‘extreme’ annual subsidy values
seem to also confirm that these fuel barons
make a kill on the back of fellow Nigerians.

Furthermore, despite several allegations that
marketers collect billions of Naira as refund of
subsidies on fuel supplies which were never
delivered, no convictions have, surprisingly, so
far resulted from EFCC’s tenuos efforts.

Sadly, much to the chagrin of the public, the
snail speed procedure for prosecuting financial
crimes, may, postpone judgment day for fuel
subsidy racketeers, while a judicial process that
is allegedly compromised may actually also set
the guilty free. However, let us examine,
hereafter, how profitable the fuel supply
business is for bonafide importers, who have to
borrow billions of dollars and Naira to finance
their operations.

The available data from the National Bureau of
Statistics indicates that fuel accounts for over
40% of Nigeria’s total foreign exchange
expenditure on imports annually. Thus, the
consolidated forex requirement for genuine
importers will exceed $5bn annually.

Instructively, commercial banks would buy the
required dollars, predominantly, from the Central
Bank at the official rate and then add between
1-2% premium on their purchases before selling
forex to importers; the banks could easily earn
up to $100m from such simple exchange
transactions.

However, the premium on each dollar sold may
well exceed N10 per dollar, whenever dollar is
relatively scarce and the parallel market
exchange rate is over N220 while official rate
remains below N200/$ as is currently the case.

It is also not immediately obvious to non
business persons, that the same banks lend fuel
importers the Trillions of Naira which they
subsequently exchange for dollars; presently,
marketers would pay between...


CONTINUE : http://www.beriahng.com/2015/07/fuel-imports-real-cabal-by-henry-boyo.html

On Saturday, America celebrated 239 years since
its hard-won independence from Britain. Beyond
the fireworks and parades and lofty tributes, I
think there’s an important lesson for us in
Nigeria: that our diversity and our differences
should not/never stand in the way of our
development.

For all its greatness and the patriotism it
inspires in its citizens and even those who are
not its citizens, America is not just a very
diverse country but also a deeply divided one.

The people are divided over their attitudes to
God, guns, drugs, the government, abortion,
homosexuality, and even the Constitution. At the
best of times, America is a giant riot. And yet
that same America still, to a large extent,
manages to function for its people: it gives them
a highly valuable passport they’re mostly proud
of, offers them viable opportunities for honest
and legitimate self-advancement, encourages
them to take their history seriously; pays serious
attention to their complaints and frustrations.

For 25 years, the Pew Research Center has been
asking Americans to respond – by agreeing or
disagreeing – to this survey statement: “I am
very patriotic.” Not once has the portion of
those agreeing fallen below 85 percent since the
survey started. In other words, Americans are an
immensely patriotic people. And you don’t even
need a survey to spot this; you can see it in the
general sense of pride with which Americans
carry themselves around the world, like they put
this planet together and then summoned the
rest of us to it from a distant galaxy where we’d
always existed as nothing.

We should also note that Belgium and Italy –
and even the United States – are in similar
straits: all historically divided along impossible-
to-ignore north-south lines. Yet these countries
have all managed to ensure that their internal
contradictions and (sometimes bitter) domestic
squabbling do not ever stand in the way of their
development. America did not wait to solve its
huge racial questions before putting men on the
moon

I don’t believe anyone has ever done a similar
survey for Nigeria, but I imagine the results
would be very different. Nigeria is, like the US, a
heterogeneous entity, bringing together hundreds
of very different groups of people and...

CONTINUE HERE : http://www.beriahng.com/2015/07/nigerias-most-important-questions-by.html

Nature has a way of regulating and limiting the
number of offspring a woman can bear in her
lifetime. And this process is known as
MENOPAUSE.

Menopause is a universal and irreversible part of
the overall aging process involving a woman’s
reproductive system, after which she no longer
menstruates. Menopause is a natural process
that every woman goes through and every
woman’s experience of the menopause is
different.

Perimenopause refers to the time before
menopause when physical changes , and
irregular menses often commence.

Perimenopause can start 5-10 years or more
before menopause. Menopause, by definition,
begins 12 months after the final menses and is
characterised by a continuation of noticeable
symptoms and by urogenital symptoms such as
vaginal dryness and dyspareunia. A woman “in
menopause “or “going through menopause “is
actually describing the period before the actual
menopause, or a period of Transition.

It is the point in time when a woman reaches 12
consecutive months without having a menstrual
period. If you’re like many women, you may
assume that menopause is the end of fertility
and that, without a period, you couldn’t possibly
become pregnant. While both are mostly true,
it’s important to know that the term menopause
might be somewhat misleading.

Pregnancy just before menopause:

Perimenopause can last as long as six or more
years in some women. It begins with the onset
of menstrual cycle changes and other
menopause related changes, usually in a
woman’s mid-40s, and extends into menopause
(the last menstrual period), which typically
occurs about age 51.

So, yes, while menopause does mark the
permanent end to your fertility, until you’ve truly
reached it, there’s still a chance you can
conceive. While it is definitely possible to get
pregnant in perimenopause, it’s less likely than
in earlier years. Fertility declines significantly in
a woman’s mid- to late 30s, that is 10 to 15
years before the average age of menopause,
which generally occurs in a woman’s early 50s.

Menopause and fertility. —

If you are like many women, you may assume
that menopause is the end of fertility and that,
without a period, you couldn’t possibly become
pregnant. While both are mostly true, it’s
important to know that the term menopause
might be misleading.

Can You Get Pregnant?

It’s also harder to get pregnant during the
perimenopausal transition,. Women are born
with 1 to 2 million eggs, and as menopause
nears, only about 100 eggs remain. The
declining number and quality of these eggs, as
well as age-related uterine changes, contribute
to reduce fertility, perhaps even before signs of
perimenopause are noticeable.

But even if you’ve missed your period for a few
months and have lots of menopausal symptoms,
you should be aware that you are not completely
protected from an unplanned pregnancy until
you’ve officially reached menopause.


Caution ! pregnancy can occur:

Every once in a while a woman in her late 50s
makes headline news for having a baby. You
may find yourself wondering if it’s at all
possible to get pregnant postmenopausal. Yes,
you can, but it won’t happen naturally. After
menopause, the only way a woman can get....

CONTINUE HERE : http://www.beriahng.com/2015/06/menopause-natural-phenomenon-by-bobo.html

Barely six weeks after Nigeria received rare
favourable commentaries in the international
media for its ground-breaking transfer of power
from a sitting president to a victorious
opposition candidate, Nigeria slipped back into
the “bad news” pages in the foreign news media
in the last days of the Jonathan administration

Prominent foreign media organizations were
relaying all over the place, news of acute fuel
shortage in Nigeria that not only threatened the
continued normal operations of businesses,
especially the mobile telephone network
companies, airlines and banks but had the
potential to disrupt the milestone event of the
formal handing-over of power at the end of May
2015, to Nigeria’s sixth (constitutional)
president, Muhammadu Buhari. And this, in a
country that has been, for an unbroken period of
more than forty years, Africa’s N° 1 oil producer
and exporter!

If the self-styled “giant” of Africa could be
misgoverned and kicked into the gutter of
international public opinion in this manner, what
other proof do those who continue to doubt the
capacity of the black man to organize his own
affairs properly and govern himself reasonably
well, need? None, I would say.

While most people within and outside Nigeria
think that President Goodluck Jonathan
“redeemed” himself and fully atoned for his poor
performance (or refusal to perform) in office, by
way of the civilized and patriotic manner in
which he conceded victory to Buhari, it is most
sad that that his last week in office was
overshadowed by a spectre of agonizing
Nigerian citizens and businesses thrown into
disarray and uncertainty, in search of non-
existent fuel! If anything, this should serve as a
poignant warning to Buhari, if he does not want
a similar scenario to play out for him in a mere
48 months’ time.

What then should Buhari do, now that he is in
the job (of president of Nigeria)?

Rather than discuss from a straight answer to
this question which I’m sure his advisers are
already working on, perhaps it would be more
interesting to let an answer flow from our
discussion.

First, let us debunk the fallacies that have been
spun on (and by) successive federal
governments of the last sixteen years at least,
namely:

-once the refineries are re-fitted and begin to
operate at full capacity, Nigeria would no longer
need to import fuel and there would no longer
be subsidy; this reasoning is utterly absurd.

When you allocate one barrel of crude for
domestic refining, you reduce by one barrel, the
quantity available for export at world market
prices, say US$53 and thus reduce your export
earnings by same amount. Now, if you sold the
locally refined products at say, half its true
(world market) price, you would have obtained
the equivalent of US$26.50 instead of the US$53
that you would have obtained otherwise. In
other words, you would have provided a 50%
subsidy to the price of the locally refined fuel.

Alternatively, if you sold the refined product at
the true market price, you would obtain the same
proceeds (assuming full recovery of refining
costs) as from exporting the crude (feedstock).

Upshot: subsidy is present whenever you sell or
exchange any good below its true (economic)
cost-petroleum is “God-given” to Nigeria; therefore,
Nigerians should be allowed to “enjoy” the
resource as cheaply as possible: utter nonsense.
Water is also a God-given resource and you
know what you pay when you pick up a 1-litre
bottle of table-water off a supermarket shelf.
Government has never subsidized (bottled) water
and I have never heard anyone complain of
scarcity of the item, yet millions of litres of the
stuff is consumed daily. And this is despite the...

CONTINUE HERE : http://www.beriahng.com/2015/06/memo-to-buhari-remove-fuel-subsidy-by.html

It was the standout phrase from President Muhammadu Buhari’s Inauguration Day speech on May 29, 2015: “I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody”. The phrase went viral, triggering an output of comical expressions. Continue...


In one of them, the presidential spouse was shown asking Buhari if he meant that he doesn’t belong to the wife anymore, to which the President answered that he merely joked. In another more politically mischievous interpretation, APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, was facing an imaginary reporter, who accosted him in a court.

Asked what he was doing there, Bola Tinubu answered that he came to change his name to”Everybody Bola Tinubu”! It seemed clear that Buhari was underlining the fact that as Nigerian president, he would endeavour to be president of all, but would at the same time not be hostage to individuals. It is a courageous statement coming from a president who was elected on the platform of a political party that was at best, an amalgam of disparate interests. It is never easy to stay aloof from the currents of the mass and the individual, given the pitiless tides of politics.


But more poignantly for me, is how to extrapolate the thought which midwifed such phrase into the realities of contemporary Nigerian society. Despite what many might think, Nigeria today is a class society with expressions of some of the most vicious levels of inequalities and injustice in the world today. While a tiny band of our national bourgeoisie creams off some of the greatest levels of luxurious existence comparable to ruling classes elsewhere, we also have some of the greatest and most frightening levels of deprivation in equal measure.

So the issues that face the new president today are directly related to the change slogan which encapsulated why he got the vote of the majority of Nigerians in the first place.

This is a country in need of reformation at levels that might be more than the President himself either realises or could be too frightened to head towards. Nigeria sits atop a volcano of potentially dire social discontent and the slogan of change must sooner than later, begin to take a concrete outline in terms of positive impact on social being of the mass of our people.

Unfortunately, ruling class politicians are practically the same everywhere; they never seem to be in a hurry to look at the problems of society in the face. What is central to their political existence is the posturing for advantages that consumes critical time and resource, but in the long run leads to the sidestepping of the vital issues that trouble the people. Buhari went to the Nigerian people canvassing a strong security posture, a definitive onslaught against corruption as well as finding ways and means on the ...


Continue here: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/06/belong-to-everybody-belong-to-nobody-by.html

Last Tuesday’s humiliation of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and the ensuing bad blood has drawn assertions from its foes that the party was only formed to win power and not to govern.


Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary tried to play down his enthusiasm over the distress of the ruling party yesterday.


“We want them to survive because the key to the stability of the country is in the survival of the party because they are in power,” Metuh said in a telephone discussion. That was a farfetch from the Metuh of before who before now had been severally quoted as describing the APC as group of power seekers only united by a common quest for power. APC


Last Tuesday as the power quest by the different tendencies in the party peaked during the National Assembly leadership contests, references to Chief Metuh’s questions on the survival of the ruling party inevitably came to mind.

That question was further driven by the APC’s terse rebuttal of the election of the four presiding officers, none of whom got the endorsement of the party.

Senator Bukola Saraki emerged as Senate President despite the party’s inclination for Senator Ahmad Lawan while even more agonising for the ruling party, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP returned to office as the Deputy President of the Senate. It was the first time in the Fourth Republic that a bipartisan leadership had been thrown up in the Senate.

In the House, the party’s favourite, Femi Gbajabiamila lost to the unofficial candidate, Yakubu Dogara while the favoured candidate for deputy speaker, — Moguno was edged out by Lashun Yusuf who strode to office on the back of the rebellion spearheaded by Dogara.

The APC’s pain was manifest in a terse press statement issued by National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in which the party threatened sanctions against those ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/06/will-apc-breakup-by-emmanuel-aziken.html

Nigerian Democracy Is A Time Bomb And Bukola Saraki Is The Judas Iscariot Of Nigeria By Dr. Wumi Akintide


President Buhari‘s insistence that he was not going to interfere on the affairs of the Parliament is a major gaffe any way you slice it. The Parliament, as stipulated in the Nigerian Constitution, would determine whether or not his change agenda would fail or succeed in Nigeria. As a Political Science major with a deep passion for politics, I can tell you that.


The PDP began to irredeemably fall apart the day their own Speaker of the House, Tambuwal began to show more loyalty and favoritism for the opposition party, and there was nothing the PDP could do to bring him to order before the situation got out of control. Only in Nigeria is that kind of disloyalty tolerated in a party official. It is true that the Speaker of the House must be neutral in his dealings with members as much as humanly possible, but the ‘river that forgets its source or origin’ as reminded us by Elemure Ogunyemi, the Ekiti country music idol, is bound to dry up sooner than later.


Tambuwal got away with his disloyalty because he figured out that he could only be removed as Speaker by a majority of members in his Chamber, and nobody else, as stipulated by the obnoxious Nigerian Constitution. Unwritten ‘laws of decency’ should have required the Speaker to do the right thing without being told, but because politics in Nigeria is all about self rather than the ultimate interest of the Nation and the institution, Tambuwal got away with his perfidy. Not only that, he went on to be called a hero and a consummate politician in a country where corruption has become a virtue and a way of life.

Everybody in the PDP knew he was to all intent and purposes an APC member, but the PDP and President Jonathan were in total denial. Tambuwal kept that advantage until the very last moment when he publicly admitted he was going to be the APC Governorship candidate in Sokoto since he could not run for President. He won the governorship election by a landslide. That could only mean he had been rooting for the APC long before he made it official.

Even though Goodluck Jonathan tried to shake Tambuwal up by using the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Abba by withdrawing his security details and the official cars and drivers assigned to him as Speaker. Tambuwal went to Court to challenge the move and won on legal technicalities. The PDP went into the last elections totally embarrassed and humiliated by their own Speaker, legislators like Bukola Saraki and ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/06/nigerian-democracy-is-time-bomb-and.html

His name is now as household as the “report of
fashion in proud Italy”. He is a leader of leaders;
and a true leader at that; because he commands
not from the rear, but he braces, with his chest
the heat and the chill of all battles. He is the
veritable “Knight of the Garter” of our
contemporary politics; “valiant and virtuous, full
of haughty courage, such as is grown to credit
by the wars; not fearing death nor shrinking
from distress, but always resolute in most
extremes”. Time has proved that where “your
‘good’ word cannot advantage him, your slander
never can en-damage him”.


He is petit and unassuming; as ‘modest as the
dove’; as ‘temperate as the morning’; “for
patience, he will prove a second Grissel”; his
words are “bonds and his oaths are oracles”; his
‘truth’ is as the ‘truth’ of Martin Luther; it is
‘Marching on’; his code of battle as mosaic as
Malcolm X’s: to “Forerun woe with woe”. His is
“courage mounted with occasion”; and although
he is not the war-mongering muckraker, yet he
is one ready always “to parley or to war” -as the
occasion demands. That is the stuff that
‘courage’ is made of: namely that although great
men should not be “mutinous in peace”, yet
when the occasion demands they should be no
less “bold at war”.

He did once assert that the ruling political
dynasty was a deeply rooted evil-iroko tree; hard
put to uproot except it is axed ‘limbs’, ‘trunk’
and ‘torso’! And now he has proved to us that
every ‘obstacle’ has odds to which it must yield;
and that “many strokes, though with a little axe
will hew down and fall the hardest timbered-
oak”. Little did we know he was a prophet of his
own time; – a voice in the wilderness of our
troubled democracy, prophesizing the looming
fall of a ‘behemoth’.

He is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju and the
Jagaban; once ‘Leader of the Opposition’; now
the great ‘masquerade’ himself daring to be
opposed –if any the courage have! “The blood
stirs more” they say “to rouse a lion than to
start a hare”; but who dares to rouse a lion
must have more than a mortal’s measure of
blood! Tinubu is the Hannibal of our time; the
scourge of the ruling political dynasty –now in
its inevitable throes of death. For device and
tactic, he has proved another Hercules; for “grim
aspect” and for knitted brow in moments of
battle, he is the Hector of our age. Thus Tinubu
is Hannibal, Hercules and Hector all in one!
It is said that “When ‘Fortune’ means to men
most good, ’She’ looks upon them with a
threatening eye”. Tinubu did not, yesterday, walk
the paved or gilded roads to the hill station of
today’s renown; he has braved the dry and
dusty weathers of Fortune’s threatening stare;
and in reward of which both “Nature and Fortune
have now joined to make him great”. He is now
the “theme of Honor’s tongue, Sweet Fortune’s
minion and her pride”; but more than else he is
today, “among the groove of his rank, the
straightest plant”.

“Small curs” they say, “are not regarded when
they grin; but great men tremble when the lion
roars”. They are right Tinubu, you are truly a
Lion in a rare den that is uniquely yours; but
they are dead wrong, you are not ‘The Lion of
Boudilon’; that is a den too small for a Lion with
your kind of Mane! The Asiwaju is more suited
to ‘The Lord of the Nigerian Manor’ –that is a
befitting ‘den’ truly your size.

“Strong reasons make strong actions”; or so the
Great Shakespeare would say. Once a troubled
nation we did stand as “upon a rock environed
by a wilderness of sea”, waiting for the surge of
the ocean’s tempests to make of us a
sumptuous meal; but just when we were
hovering around the precipice, when it seemed
almost as “far from help as Limbo is from
bliss”, just then Tinubu, in a league of amity
with our nation’s greats, alighted right in the
firmament of our political woes”; for the
inevitable to happen, -a battle long foretold
between the army of ‘good’ and the forces of
‘evil’; between ‘change’ to a libertarian today and
tomorrow and ‘continuity’ of the impunity and
arbitrariness of old.

Let the annals of our history bear witness, that
in that battle the Jagaban “stirred as the time”,
you were “fire for fire”, you “threatened the...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/05/tribute-to-tinubu-parody-of-shakespeare.html

With about 20 plus days to the much-awaited
inauguration of Buhari and Osinbajo respectively
as President and Vice-President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, given the current realities of
Nigeria’s economy, there is growing debate in
various circles over what this might mean for
business. Will the next four years be a time of
real growth buoyed by change or will this be a
time of stagnation or, God forbid, decay? What
impact can the change agenda have on the
fortunes of the private sector – can the Phoenix
rise from the ashes; can Nigeria obtain a new
life by arising from the ashes of the Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan administration? The short cop
out of an answer is, “it depends


According to World Economic Forum 2014-2015
Global Competitiveness Report, there are some
problematic issues holding Nigeria back from
more inclusive growth including: the need to
deal decisively with corruption, insecurity and
crime; the need to fix institutions urgently (such
as its Criminal Justice System); the need to
diversify government revenue sources and
improve taxation; the need to improve access to
finance and fix ailing infrastructure (such as
power supply); the need to reform inefficient
government bureaucracy and a poor work ethic,
to name a few items. Fixing these issues would
provide the environment for growth and yes, the
APC manifesto addresses nigh on all of these
issues, but are there indications that these are
things a Buhari Presidency will in actual fact do?

Buhari has mentioned in a number of media
interviews that his priority will be security,
economy, unemployment and corruption,
however these statements are currently lacking
in details. Will the incoming APC administration
try to do too much too soon in response to the
huge expectations and if so, would they run the
risk of a certain level of policy inconsistency or
even reversals?

Stagnation or decay could be the result if the
incoming administration fails to take the hard
decisions needed for change. The wrong signals
could also be sent if the same old corrupt
politicians are re-cycled into the Buhari
administration, then businesses would fear that
perhaps we are not in line for change after all.

The 19-man transition committee was met with
mixed reactions but it is perhaps better to hold
off from making hasty conclusions till the shape
of the starting line-up of Ministers is known.

More important than perceptions is the fear in
some business quarters that Buhari may end up
“over-delegating”. Those who push this viewpoint
cite the “fact” that his team members have
always been given room to do the work – not a
bad thing at all in and of itself, but they fear if
political “hawks” find room in his government, it
will ultimately lead to an erosion of his power
and allow wrongdoing to be perpetrated right
under his nose – you only need to see parallels
with the Brazilian situation. They expect he
would then move to deal with it but it will not
be without a loss of credibility in the public eye.

Some also fear that if the administration is not
strategic in prioritising what to take on and fix,
then it could take on issues that erode its
momentum and distract it from the change we
seek. Failure to deal with the fissures in Nigerian
society would also eventually mean that the
administration would rapidly erode the enormous
goodwill that brought it to power.

So, what is the absolute minimum needed for
growth and, therefore, the set of issues that the
new administration must prioritise? If the
antecedence of the APC is anything to go by,
fixing the Criminal Justice System and improving
Tax Administration are two things one would
expect to be high on the agenda. If the...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/05/what-inauguration-of-buhari-as.html

There are undoubtedly Nigerians from different
walks of life with their experiences of Nigeria
and many may include sacrifices made. Be it the
ordinary Nigerian in remote villages; the retired
old man who was a young man when Nigeria
was still under British governance or during the
Civil War; average Nigerian in different states
feeling short of proper police justice; youths who
have gone astray due to impoverished family
units, or; even Diaspora Nigerians who feel their
statuses as Nigerian emigrants automatically
stereotypes them whether in South Africa or
elsewhere. All will have their stories no less
important to tell. The hope is where their stories
are of less than ideal returns from their
government as citizens of Nigeria; one day their
sense of imbalances in public government will
be a thing of the past.


At this time in Nigeria’s history therefore when
people had it in mind as campaign slogans
encouraged, to vote for change in 2015 national
elections. In the wake of national electoral body
having declared by in large that the peoples wish
for change has become a step towards possible
reality; in victory of the opposition party, APC
that promised change. Various opinion articles
are being written about what the President
Elect’s focus should be.


Personal assorted experiences of this writer in
Nigeria as a lawyer in private occupation, a
political science post graduate in casual hobby
musings, and, from privy knowledgeable snip
bits discussions of what I call Nigeria’s X files;
has prodded my conscience to add to opinion
articles. What the reader takes out of any
personal narration will depend on the mind of
the reader. Though personal snip bits narration
are intended to draw out the essence of
achieving great heights in public service for the
greater good of Nigeria, Africa. Not going into
public service for power sakes or personal
wealth. And; equally draw out existing
challenges of a multi ethnic society even for
best of statesmen. With conclusions,
fluctuations of a multi ethnic society should not
at this stage in Nigeria be forgotten, for thinking
that waging war against corruption is the end of
all. On account of how even best friends of
different ethnic groups can though remaining
best friends; along the lines realising that as
different proud ancient origin nations under a
united states of Nigeria, there must be an all
out radical progressive nature of nation building
for nations within nation to rest at peace as
equals. The personal narration will explain
better.

The average Nigerian and many Africans
generally will be familiar with name of late
General Muritala Mohammed. His picture is on...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/05/republic-of-nigeria-x-files-by-muyiwa.html

THE police have unearthed a massive fraud
allegedly being perpetrated by officials of the
Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on
Sale of Government Properties.


They reportedly utilise phony companies to
defraud members of the public interested in
buying any Federal Government property being
offered for sale.

A team of investigators at the Police Special
Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos made the discovery
while investigating a petition by a company,
Multiplication Global Trade Limited.

The investigators, in a report, a copy of which
The Nation sighted yesterday, revealed how
some officials of the PIC, working with some
cronies outside the committee, defraud tenants
by denying them the right to buy such houses,
contrary to the government’s laid down
procedure for selling the property. They then
offer the houses for sale to members of the
public at inflated prices.

They said the method was recently deployed in
relation to the sale of the property identified as
No 6, Ruxton Street and No 3, Rumens Road
(both in Ikoyi), Lagos.

The investigators stated that their “discreet
investigations reveal that there actually exists a
cabal within the PIC, whose modus operandi” is
described below.

“As soon as sitting tenants of any government
property expresses interest to buy their flats in
accordance with government policy and the PIC
has profiled such tenants and found them
qualified, the information about such property is
immediately passed to members of this cabal,
who would approach the tenants and make
offers to buy the property off their interests at
very ridiculous rates, usually between N10
million and N12 million maximum per flat, with
subtle threats and intimidation that either they
accept or they shall be disqualified.

“The tenants are usually informed that they
must all make payments for their respective...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/05/police-discover-fraud-in-sales-of-fed.html

THE way Igbos voted in the 2015 general
election has been widely misunderstood. The
South East and the Igbo electorate gave their
almost undivided votes to President Goodluck
Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in the Presidential and National Assembly
polls, such that the in-coming All Progressives
Congress (APC) will not be able to effectively
zone any of the its political offices to the Igbo
heartland.

Some Igbos have been despondent that by
“putting all their eggs in one basket”, they have
voted themselves “out of contention”, at least for
the next four years. For the first time in our
political history, no Igbo person will be
President, Vice President, Senate President,
Deputy Senate President, Speaker, House of
Reps or Deputy Speaker, House of Reps.

Non-Igbos who like to criticise Igbo politics have
also been having a field day, saying their “blind
following” of President Jonathan has rendered
them “irrelevant” in the new APC dispensation
which General Muhammadu Buhari will preside.

Those who hold these views are either too
young to understand the post-war Igbo political
history or they are simply indulging their
ignorance and mischief.

In the first place, there are no losers of the
general election. Agreed, some people will be in
power and some will be watching from the
sidelines. But since there is peace instead of
killings and people running helter-skelter, since
Nigeria is not sliding into a major crisis or war
of disintegration as some had predicted,
Nigerians are all winners. The architect of that
general victory for Nigerians is President
Goodluck Jonathan, who gamely conceded
victory to Buhari even when he knew that the
elections was “manipulated” against his party.

Secondly, after careful consideration, I have
come to the conclusion that having people from
your area occupy plum national offices does not
translate to development for that area. It only
gives people the psychological satisfaction that
“we are in power”. It gives a few people access
to those in power. It also makes a few multi-
billionaires out of a few privileged individuals.
That’s about all.

Just take a look at this. The North has produced
one Prime Minister, two presidents and...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/05/igbos-winners-or-losers-2015-by.html

Some Nigerians have continued to advocate for
Goodluck Jonathan to be nominated for the
Mo Ibrahim prize and the Nobel Peace prize
for conceding defeat in the just concluded
Presidential elections. There is nothing
spectacular about what Jonathan did that calls
for celebration. In every election, there is always
a winner and a loser. Conceding defeat is
therefore a rational thing for anyone in any
civilised society to do. In the case of Jonathan,
he had no option than to concede defeat
because he tried other options to discredit the
polls, which however did not scale through.


Nigerians remember the Orubebe/Jega story and
the sacking of former Inspector General
Suleiman Abba, of recent, for not helping him rig
the elections. These groups of Nigerians
embarking on this advocacy for President
Jonathan are entitled to their opinion as
provided by the Nigerian Constitution.


The Mo Ibrahim award is granted to exceptional
leaders who have engaged in lifting people out
of poverty and paving way for sustainable and
equitable prosperity, and who have left office
three years prior to the award. The Norwegian
Nobel prize, on the other hand, awarded since
1901, lists outstanding contribution to peace as
the yardstick for nomination. Going through the
website of the two organisations, I do not see
where President Jonathan fits in.


For us to decide whether Jonathan deserves an
award, it is important to take a historical
excursion into his six-year sojourn at the helm
of affairs. Many will recall how Nigerians fought
for the implementation of the doctrine of
necessity when it was apparent that the Late
Yar’Adua could no longer pilot the affairs of the
nation and also for the manner in which the
“cabal” treated him. Shortly after this, Jonathan
shared the excess crude account to the
governors in the country so as to allow him
contest for a fresh term in 2011. Next, he fired
Vincent Ogbulafor as National Chairman of his
party for insisting there was a one term pact.

Then he sought to amend the constitution for a
six year single term, which he claimed he would
not be a beneficiary. Nigerians were too smart
for him, as it was dead on arrival at the National
Assembly. I believe the Late Dora Akunyili will
be turning in her grave now seeing what has
become of the Jonathan presidency that she
fought for.

At the party level, he brought in Bamanga Tukur
who had lost touch with modern day political
realities as National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP). Tukur rubbished the
little that was left of internal democracy within
the party and gave state governors the party
machinery to run. Most of the founding fathers
of the party were either chased or frustrated out
of the party. The climax was an implosion with
five governors leaving in one fell swoop and all
he could do was watch like a man lost in
thought.

Jonathan went a step further by refusing to...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/05/no-accolade-for-mr-jonathan-please-by.htm

I have allowed a decent interval between the two
articles to get some feedback from the
supporters and the critics of Part 1. The
feedback I got from those who like the Part 1
have been profoundly positive. Many of them
cannot wait to see the Part 2. I pay attention to
what the critics of the Part 1 have said because
they force me take a second and third look at
the Part 1 to see if their criticisms call for any
apology from me because I don’t play God. I
also realize that the closest I would ever get to
perfection is to admit my mistakes and to go on
with my life. I apologize for the length of the
Part 2. It is so because I don’t want to do a
Part 3

I will be suffering from neurosis to pretend that
my views on anything are sacrosanct or perfect.

I am first and foremost a historian and a
storyteller. I do appreciate that storytellers are
historians in their own right, but they do not
carry the extra burden and critical analysis and
interpretation like good historians must do. I am
only going to dwell on what the critics have
said, because I realize that the good that men
do are often interred into their bones while the
evils live after them.

There is a particular gentleman named Uche
Ndidi who wrote a protest titled “Shame to
Wumi Akintide” as his rejoinder to my Part 1.
The gentleman accused me of “Igbophobia”
despite all my denials. He strongly believed that
I deliberately target the Igbos for criticisms in all
of my articles. He was particularly pissed off
that I did not criticize the Oba of Lagos when he
declared a “Fatwa” on all Igbo “Lagosians” who
refuse to vote for his hand-picked candidate,
Akinwunmi Ambode. Even though I support
Ambode but I know enough not to condone what
the Kabiyesi has said and the way he said it. I
was in fact embarrassed to see the Kabiyesi talk
like that. You will never see Omo ”Oba N’Edo
Uku Akpolokpolo or the Alaafin of Oyo, “Iku Baba
Yeye” lose his cool like that in the public. The
Oba’s statement was nearly as offensive to me
as the statement created to the Zulu King of
South Africa.

One critic pointed out that John Odigie Oyegun
was not one of the AD Governors who lost his
seat when Obasanjo and the PDP managed to
take all of the Southwest, minus Lagos State,
from the AD in 2003. I apologize for that
mistake. The other critics were pissed off by my
saying anything good about Tinubu. Left to
them there is nothing good about Tinubu and
they thought I committed a crime to say
anything good of Tinubu.

No Nigerian in any position of power can be
totally called a Saint. We all have our good and...

CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/04/the-good-and-bad-tinubu-part-2-by-dr.html

The organisations said they had collaboratively
made an FOI request, dated March 17, 2015, to
the clerk of the National Assembly requesting
the detailed breakdown of NASS budget of
N150bn for 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014; a​s​ well
as the performance report for National Assembly
budget of N150bn for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

“This request was made following the long-
standing secrecy around the budget of the
National Assembly, the organisations said.

“From 1999 to date, an estimated budgetary
provision of N1.26 trillion has been made to the
National Assembly, with Nigerians kept in the
dark on what or how this huge sum was spent.

“On the 27th of April, a response letter, dated
23rd of March, 2015 was received from the
Legal Services Department of the NASS, refusing
this request, on the basis that:

“Some of the information in the National
Assembly Budget for 2011-2014 is “personal,
third party related and privileged and are all
exempted under Sections 14 and 15 of the
Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and that the
other information you requested for are
published and available in public libraries and
cannot be applied for by virtue of Section 26 of
the Freedom of Information act, 2011”
Section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act
2011 exempts personal information including
“files and personal information maintained with
respect to clients, students, patients, residents,
students or individuals receiving social, medical,
educational, vocational, financial, supervisory or
custodial care or services directly or indirectly
from public institutions, personnel files and
personal information maintained with respect to
employees, appointees or elected officials of any
public institution or applicant for such positions,
files and personal information maintained with
respect to any applicant, registrant or licensee
by any government or public institution
cooperating with or engaged in professional or
occupational registration, licensure or discipline;
information required of any taxpayer in
connection with the assessment or collection of
any tax unless disclosure is otherwise requested
by the statute; and information revealing the
identity of persons who file complaints with or
provide information to administrative,
investigative, law enforcement or penal agencies
on the commission of any crime.​”​

The civil society organisations said it is difficult
to imagine that a publicly funded budget falls
within the category of information that the...


CONTINUE HERE :
www.beriahng.com/2015/05/personal-information-reason-we-cant.html

WITH a month to the inauguration of an All
Progressives Congress (APC) federal
government, the street partying to celebrate the
sweeping success of the nation’s most
successful opposition party in history is winding
down. Now is the time to tackle the challenges
of success.


The question on our lips today is: can the APC
survive the two tests of its manhood which lie in
wait for it? Between May 29th 2015 and May
28th 2019, the incoming ruling party will be
sorely tested with two challenges: (1) power
sharing at the outset of its reign and (2) the
struggle for the party’s tickets towards the end
of the tenure. How will the APC fare? Continue...
The party’s supporters and enthusiasts will
answer right away by saying the APC has
already conquered the biggest obstacles of
forging a successful merger of parties and
unseating the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). But it needs to be noted here that
capturing power is one thing, keeping it is yet
another.



PDP collapsed because it could no longer
maintain the internal cohesion necessary for
continuation as a ruling party. It had little or no
problem with power sharing, but the integrity
could no longer be maintained in the struggle for
its tickets in 2015. If the APC wishes to last
long as a ruling party, these two elements must
be satisfied, in addition to good governance, of
course.



There are some danger signals that, once you
see them manifesting within the APC, then you
can start a mental countdown to the end of its
reign. One of them is political greed.


That was one of the factors that led PDP to
failure. The Party thought that the larger its size
the more invincible it would be at the polls. This
was the factor that made former President
Olusegun Obasanjo to ensure that the opposition
was not allowed to stand on a firm footing.


Eventually, many opposition party leaders
dumped their parties, jumped into PDP and some
of them even got prestigious posts at all levels.
PDP was reduced to a free-for-all bazaar.
The upshot was that there were too many
interests, and once they could not be satisfied,
they automatically turned around to constitute
internal opposition in the PDP.


If you check the history of the PDP as a ruling...

CONTINUE HERE :


www.beriahng.com/2015/04/can-buhari-tinubu-share-power-by.html

About 12, 15 years ago, when the issue of who
is really a Lagosian was nothing more than a
stimulating debate among friends, I had asked a
friend to write an article on it for me. His was
one of the more passionate voices when the
issue was discussed at Ikoyi Club amidst banter
and drinks then. He had every reason to be
passionate. He was born and bred in Isale Eko,
the ‘cradle’ of Lagos of Edo father and Yoruba
mothe


He bears his Yoruba name and his spoken
Yoruba is rich and often laced with proverbs and
idioms. He is also now a Chief in one of the
suburbs in Lagos. Surely he qualifies to be
called a Lagosian. Unfortunately, his surname
gives him away. Another friend who was also
born and bred in Isale Eko goes to the Campos
area every fortnight to ‘feel the earth’ and
identify with his roots.


He proudly bears his Yoruba name but there is
nothing he can do about his surname. Does that
make him less of a Lagosian? Another, a
colleague in my days at the Vanguard is an Ijaw
from Bayelsa, but was born and bred in Lagos,
and attended one of the popular secondary
schools in Lagos. Even when he ventured out, it
was to the University of Ife and it was to Lagos
he came during breaks and holidays. He says
proudly ‘omo Eko l’awa’. (We are Lagosians)
despite his names which scream Ijaw. Is he in
denial?



Now, let me come home. My brother’s wife is
from Akwa Ibom but was born and bred in
Lagos and has a Yoruba middle name. Her
Yoruba is more fluent than her Efik. My wife is
Edo but born in Lafiaji in the heart of Lagos
Island. She even has a Yoruba ‘oriki’ which she
uses from time to time when she wants to
praise herself. She has lived in Lagos all her life.
Yet anybody who comes from a Yoruba
hinterland in say 20 years ago, would feel more
entitled and demand more ‘ownership’ than
these people.


When I, an ‘ara oke’, (upland country man) came
to Lagos some 50 years ago, it was to a small
city. Surulere, the middle class suburb, was
walkable. The Island was also walkable and the
only bridge that linked the two was Carter
Bridge.


I have since watched this city develop in leaps
and bounds into a mega city. I feel I am part of...

CONTINUE HERE :
www.beriahng.com/2015/04/who-is-lagosian-by-muyiwa-adetiba.html

NIGERIANS and indeed people from all races need not die from cancers and malaria any longer.

United States and Nigerian researchers have, in two recent but separate studies published in reputable medical journals, validated the use of local herbal drugs for the treatment of lung cancer and malaria. Continue...


The basic constituents of the herbal drugs SAABFAT6 and SAABMAL include: garlic (Allium sativum), lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), green vegetable/Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus), Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) and sesame (Sesamum indicum).

United States researchers from Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas, found that a Nigerian-made herbal supplement, SAABFAT6, have potential for the regulation the growth of colorectal and lung cancer.

SAABFAT6 has been registered by the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

The study published in April 2015 editions of The FASEB Journal and Experimental Biology is titled “Antiproliferative and Cytotoxic Evaluation of Herbal Supplement SAABFAT6 on HT29 Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Cells.”

The researchers, Syntia E Kwende and Momoh A Yakubu, who recently presented their findings at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) yearly scientific meeting concluded: “The consumption of herbal supplements has been one of the remedy for several aliments including cancer for a long time. Cancers, especially colorectal adenocarcinoma are diseases with high morbidity and mortality and are often associated with suffering and poor quality of life.
“Herbal supplements are an attractive cancer therapy, we have investigated the antiproliferative and cytotoxic properties of the herbal supplement SAABFAT6 on colorectal adenocarcinoma cell (HT29). Ethanol extracts of SAABFAT6 (0.5-2 mg/mL) was incubated with HT29 and in vitro antiproliferative/cytotoxicity activities were evaluated using MTT assay.

“Treatment of HT29 with SAABFAT6 significantly reduced cellular proliferation at 48 and 72 but not at 24 hours except for 2 mg/mL concentration. Cytotoxic evaluation showed significant reduction in cell viability at 24 and 48 hrs (2 mg/mL) and at 48 hours (0.5 and 1 mg/mL). This preliminary result indicates that SAABFAT6 supplement may have a potential for the regulation of HT29 growth and survival.

Further study is required to identify the mechanisms by which the anti-proliferative and cytotoxic effects of SAABFAT6 is mediated.”

Also, Nigerian researchers from the Departments of Pharmacology & Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Technology & Raw Material Development, NIPRD and Halamin Herbal Centre, Abuja, have demonstrated the efficacy of SAABMAL, a local herbal drug, as a herbal antimalarial formulation against chloroquine sensitive malaria and its potential use in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria infection.

The study published in February 2015 edition of Indian Journal of Medical Research is titled “Antimalarial properties of SAABMAL: an ethnomedicinal polyherbal formulation for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria infection in the tropics.”

The researchers led by Prof. Martins Emeje of NIPRD include I.C. Obidike and Ben Amodu of Haalamin Herbal Centre Abuja.

They concluded: “In conclusion, our results confirmed the efficacy of SAABMAL® as an herbal antimalarial formulation with acceptable capsule qualities. However, there is a need for development of an appropriate analytical technique for monitoring drug release from the formulation. This will assist in developing appropriate stability parameters and bioavailability/bioequivalence studies during clinical trials.”

Amodu who is also the director and chief researcher of the Centre said the study showed that SAABMAL is a remedy for cancer. The phytho-medicinal researcher also added that his products when taken to America had been found out to have curing capacity of over 75 per cent of both cancers of lung, colon, and pancreas, among others.

Malaria is a serious problem in the countries of the developing world. As the malaria parasite has become resistant to most of the antimalaria drugs available currently, there is a need to search for newer drugs.

This study reported the pharmaceutical quality and in vivo antimalarial activities of a polyherbal formulation (SAABMAL®) used as malarial remedy in Nigeria.

The antiplasmodial activity of SAABMAL® was determined by using the four-day suppressive test in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice. The formulation was tried on three different experimental animal models for in vivo antimalarial activities, which are prophylactic, suppressive and curative in mice. Chloroquine and pyrimethamine were used as standard drugs for comparison.

The suppressive study showed that, SAABMAL® (200 and 400 mg/kg/bw) significantly produced a suppression (29.39 to 100 per cent) of parasitaemia in a dose-dependent manner, while the curative study showed that SAABMAL® at 400 mg significantly reduced (95.80 per cent) parasitaemia compared with controls...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/herbal-cures-for-lung-cancer-malaria.html

When I met members of a women’s secret society in Sierra Leone this February, they proposed drastic measures to stop Ebola from spreading through sexual contact. All survivors should be quarantined for three months, they said. Male survivors need to be locked up because they cannot control their urge to have sex. Women need to be locked up because they cannot stop their husbands from forcing sex upon them. When I asked them whether using condoms might be easier than quarantine, I was greeted with rolling eyes and hissing. Their men would never accept this. “They would put holes in the condoms as soon as they saw them”. Female condoms? Forget it. “They are disgusting. They get stuck deep into women’s body.”




These responses suggest that international health organisations’ official recommendations for preventing the transmission of Ebola through sexual contact, which advise survivors returning from treatment centres to use condoms or refrain from sex, are not being adhered to. global development professionals

Join the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network
Join up to access commentary and insight from development experts across the world.


Being clear about how Ebola is spread is vital. According to the World Health Organisation, “men who have recovered from the illness can still spread the virus to their partner through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovery”. The view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is that sexual transmission of Ebola has not been definitively established, but it agrees that “multiple studies have shown the Ebola virus can persist in semen for longer than in blood or other body fluids”. As my meeting with the women’s secret society made clear, contradictory communication on Ebola as a sexually transmitted disease leaves people to come up with their own preventive methods.

Women’s secret societies are ancient cultural institutions found all over Sierra Leone. They teach Sierra Leonean girls to become women through a comprehensive hands-on curriculum which includes sex education. Outsiders lack detailed knowledge of these rituals. But secret societies have become notorious for conducting female genital mutilation (FGM) as part of this education during “Bondu” rituals.

Given the secret societies’ poor reputation on sexual and reproductive health, it would be easy to dismiss their idea of a three-month quarantine as another “traditional” erroneous belief. But the behaviour-change messages from international NGOs, on how to prevent Ebola spreading through sexual contact, are confusing and maladapted to local gender inequities.

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Abstinence-based sexual messages are problematic because people have sex – voluntary and involuntary – for lots of reasons. That’s not going to stop because of Ebola. Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, which is closely related to the high prevalence of teenage pregnancies. More than a quarter (26%) of girls aged 15-19 have already given birth, and 40% of all maternal deaths are teenage pregnancies. Billboards all over the country encourage girls to stay in school and not get pregnant, but without sex education and access to contraceptives this has been idealistic.

The summer holiday is locally well known as a period when schoolgirls get pregnant. Schools have been closed since last summer, prolonging this high-risk period to almost nine months. There is little to do for young, curious people. Sexual abstinence messages are not likely to work when unmarried teenagers lack access to both contraceptives and safe-sex negotiation skills.

Moreover, poor girls may be engaged in transactional sex. Travel restrictions have prevented people from working, planting and trading for many months, causing hunger and a depletion of already scarce resources. Farmers have had to eat their own seeds to survive. They have had to stay at home while their tools and harvests were rotting on their land. Without traders, both quarantined and non-quarantined households in quarantined villages cannot not buy food. In this context it is not unlikely that girls will exchange sex for food or other basic needs more than during a normal school holiday.

Before Ebola, when teenagers became pregnant – by choice or by force – they entered a weak primary health care system that focused on maternal and child health rather than safe sex and the prevention of unwanted teenage pregnancies. During this outbreak, however, young people have been left even more to their own sexual devices than before. In a few months, girl’s bodies will show us the results.

On the other hand, many lessons have been learned during the Ebola outbreak. There’s been an increase in knowledge, skills and, in some cases, access to water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) through extensive collaboration with national and international government and non-governmental organisations. Wells have been rehabilitated, buckets and soap donated, and handwashing campaigns have been run. Teachers and ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/ebola-can-be-transmitted-sexually-for.html#more

On 29 May, 2015, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode will
be officially sworn in as the 14th governor of
Lagos State , having won the 11 April
governorship election in the state. He will be
taking over the baton from the outgoing
Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. As
Lagosians look foward to this historic date, the
task before Ambode no doubt is a huge one.


As a man with required experience, all eyes are
on Ambode to sustain the cumulative lofty
achievements of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu and Fashola. One of the critical areas
that Ambode must consolidate on is the issue of
security. Since Lagos is an emerging mega city,
there must be a plan in the pipeline to boost the
state’s Security Trust Fund already put in place
by Fashola. Ambode must embark on the
acquisition of the latest advanced security
communications technology. These would track
and monitor the daily activities of citizens of the
state. More awareness should be created to
make it all inclusive once it becomes
operational.


As an avid lover of quality education, Ambode
has promised free education up to secondary
school level, as a basic right for the child.


He has also pledged to continue the current schools
renovation programme, upgrade libraries to e-
libraries as well as making Lagos State
University , LASU, and the Lagos State
Polytechnic as centres of academic excellence.
Lagosians earnestly await the fulfilment of this
noble promise.


The Ambode administration must also do more
on health and housing. The governor must
improve primary health care system to make it
more affordable and accessible. One thing he
must do in this direction, is to establish medi-
parks and bio-parks in collaboration with health
experts and organisations. This would stave off
the issue of huge capital flight occasioned by
medical expenses embarked upon by the noveau
riche abroad.


Apart from expanding the Lagos Home
Ownership Mortgage Scheme (HOMS) to
involve more people, the incoming Ambode
administration must focus on affordability. The
candid advice in this direction is to embark on
mass housing scheme to target the lower class
of the society. This would reduce the emergence
of slums, given the fast exploding population of
Lagos.


The Fashola administration has done well in the
area of transportation. But the in-coming
administration needs to...

CONTINUE HERE :
www.beriahng.com/2015/04/the-task-before-ambode.html

Despite the continuous outcry by Nigerians in
South Africa that they have been subjected to
xenophobic attacks meted out by the citizens,
the heinous act has continued to thrive, writes
Martins Ifijeh

One thing common with most Africans is their
spirit to accommodate strangers who either
come to visit them or live amongst them, and
the reason is not far fetched from the fact that
Africans are naturally happy people who love to
embrace not just fellow Africans but people
from other races and continents.

Popular among such countries is Nigeria, which
is home to all 53 African countries, including
South Africans , Ghanians , Kenyans , Benin
Republicans , Zambians, as well as other
countries outside the continent, without being
threatened by their presence here in the country.
All Nigerians do is help such foreigners nurture,
guide and provide enabling environment for them
to excel in what ever brings them to the
cosmopolitan country.

Popular among countries that have made
Nigeria their business hub because of the huge
financial returns and the enabling environment
they benefit is South Africa – known to own
DSTV ; which is arguably the biggest cable
network in Nigeria and MTN; one of the biggest
telecommunication giants in the country as well.
But this spirit of accommodation cannot be said
of South Africa, a fellow African country that
constantly reminds foreigners, mostly Nigerians,
that they are not welcomed in their country as
they believe their economic opportunities are
being hijacked by these foreigners. Their major
issue against Nigerians and other immigrants is
that these foreigners have penchants for hard
work and ability to make good economic use of
any environment they find themselves.


Many Nigerians who have lived in South Africa
often share sorry tales of how they have been
unfortunately targets of hate crimes propelled by
xenophobia from South Africans.
The recent xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and
other foreign black nationals living in South
Africa reportedly originated from a statement
credited to the King of Zulu, Goodwill Zwelithini,
when he asked all foreign nationals living in
South Africa to go back to their country because
they are depriving their own citizens of job and
other economic opportunities.


Though the king has claimed that his comments
were distorted, the locals however interpreted
his speech to mean that they have been given
go ahead to commit hate crimes against
Nigerians and other black foreigners. An
interpretation that has snowballed into the loss
of lives of six persons while shops and other
businesses of foreigners have either been looted
or destroyed in a bid to force them out of their
country.


What is worrisome is that the government is
doing very little to quell the outcry; evidenced by
the fact that no South African has been
prosecuted for these heinous crimes against
fellow humans.
Even more disturbing is the recent video of a
black foreigner being....


CONTINUE HERE :

www.beriahng.com/2015/04/why-do-south-africans-hate-nigerians.html

Former Minister of State for Works, Engr. Chris
Osa Ogiemwonyi, in this interview with SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT,ISAAC OLAMIKAN, on challenges
for president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, and other
issues. Excerpts…


Muhammadu Buhari has emerged Nigeria’s
president-elect, do you think he will meet
people’s expectations?

I have 99 percent confidence that the man
elected president by Nigerians will perform. In a
simple language I see him as the messiah that
we have all been waiting for. I see hope and a
new dawn in Nigeria. I see the locust days gone
forever in Nigeria. It is definitely the Lord’s
doing that this man emerged to take Nigerians
to the Promised Land. It’s something that we
must celebrate.

There is so much corruption in Nigeria.
You must have seen some of it while in the
public service. How will you advice
General Buhari to tackle corruption?

We have laws in Nigeria. We have institutions to
check corruption. But the truth is that these
institutions were not allowed to work. First, I am
going to say we must strengthen these
institutions – ICPC (Independent Corrupt
Practices and other related offences
Commission); EFCC (Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission); the Police Force etc. So,
by the time we strengthen these institutions
such that there will be no sacred cow, the rule
of law will prevail, if you’re guilty… I see the
President-elect as a man who believes purely in
the rule of law. It is for Nigerians to support
him because in the process we might get to
some areas where people will want to be spared
but we’ll encourage Mr. President-elect that
there should be no sacred cow. Whoever is
corrupt should face the music because this
country is blessed but it got to a point where
about three percent of Nigerians were sucking
this country dry like mosquitoes. So the time
has come for reckoning and whoever is found
corrupt should not be spared. I will explain to
you in due course why I said that the institutions
to check corruption should be strengthened.

Personalities all over the world have been
giving kudos to President Goodluck
Jonathan for conceding defeat in the
presidential polls ahead of the
announcement of the final results. What is
your opinion on this?

What was his option? What option had he? It
was so obvious that he had lost the election. I
think by the time he called the President-elect
we had probably heard 90 percent of the poll
result so there was no option for him than to
concede defeat. People said he conceded defeat
in magnanimity but what was his option? He
had no option than to throw in the towel.

The results of the presidential and
national assembly elections held in Edo
state on March 28 contrary to expectations
swung in favour of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP). But the situation was reversed
in the house of assembly polls held two
weeks later. What was the reason for this
ding-dong affair?

First and foremost, you asked why the results of
the election held on March 28 went the way it
did. You see, many Nigerians were not too sure
that Jonathan could be defeated. They were so
concerned about the incumbency factor. But I
tell you that what happened was that Nigerians
were fed up in view of the various ills that
bedevilled the country – corruption (the highest
we have seen so far), insecurity, poor economy,
bad power situation etc. Everything was going
downwards. So, Nigerians voted for a change.
That is the truth. Then for the April 11 elections
why a reversal? Many of us came out to speak
publicly. You’ll recall that we held a press
conference on the 6th of April telling people the
need to align properly. That Edo State will never
again be in opposition. The Edo people listened
and many other groups came out with that same
slogan “we’ll never be in opposition” and people
realised the benefit of having a government at
the centre in their states. Edo people wanted to
be in the scheme of things. Definitely, once we
are properly now aligned with the centre the
benefits are enormous. I am very happy that Edo
State did. The Middle Belt did; the Yoruba with
their high level of literacy saw the need. I am
happy that the Edo people did too.

Buhari and the National Chairman of the
APC, John Odigie-Oyegun have both said
that they will not welcome defectors to the
party. What is your opinion on this?

Again, the issue of the defectors – people are
probably looking at the area of integrity. People
should be firm, people should be principled.
Having said that I should say we should open
our doors to those who are coming. We should
welcome them. But they should realize that they
are coming after the rain has fallen. Like the
Binis would say, “if you want to fetch water you
should fetch it when the rain is falling.” You
should not fetch water when the rain has
stopped falling. The time people could have
joined the party was when the struggle was on
with high level of uncertainty.

Which of the serving ministers would you
recommend to be retained by the in-
coming administration?

They say that when the head is bad then
everything would be bad. The government of
President Jonathan was sick so probably only...

CONTINUE HERE:
www.beriahng.com/2015/04/corruption-soared-under-diezani.html?m=1

Further details emerged at the weekend as to the factors that informed the decision of top bigwigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to betray President Goodluck Jonathan at the just-concluded March 28 presidential election.

Insiders in the party said at the weekend that the “age factor” played a major role in forcing a number of the top echelons of the party to drop their guards at critical points and in some cases allow some untoward things happen to the votes. Continue...


A source described the “age factor” as the age-related campaign mounted by the PDP in a bid to checkmate president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.

It was learnt that in a bid to draw attention to the fact that a 73-year-old should not be allowed to preside over Nigeria’s affairs, the PDP went too far and in the process forced its chieftains into believing that there would be no hope of being allowed to contest the presidential election in 2019.

According to sources within the party, constant references to the fact that the PDP believes in the younger generation and that it would ensure that those to take over from Jonathan would be younger than him alienated a number of chieftains who immediately lost interest in mounting a vociferous campaign.

A source stated that President Jonathan himself played into the hands of those who betrayed him when he repeatedly mentioned the age factor and the role age would play in determining his successor in 2019, if he succeeds in winning the 2015 election.

According to the calculations, President Jonathan’s declaration would automatically disqualify the like of Vice-President Namadi Sambo; Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido; Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Senate President David Mark, National; Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and the Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda from the 2019 race.

It was learnt that following repeated mentioning of the age factor, the camps of many bigwigs became jittery and lukewarm towards the Jonathan campaign, thus paving the way for the All Progressives Congress(APC) candidate.Though Governor Aliyu said last week that Jonathan’s refusal to respect the single term pact he had with the governors led to PDP’s defeat, information gathered at the top hierarchy of the part have confirmed the real issues.

“I was with one of the top brass during the campaign, and I saw his countenance when the president mentioned the issue of age and suggested that the PDP would ensure the emergence of a younger successor for him if he wins the 2015 election. I recall the man was cold and that was the way it affected all other chieftains, who began to feel what would be in the offing for them if they frontally backed Jonathan to the Presidency in 2015,”a source said.

The source stated that Aliyu could not be trusted, because he was in Lagos to attend ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/how-pdp-leaders-betrayed-jonathan.html

These two individuals are not the most corrupt members of the now infamous Goodluck Jonathan led presidency—and it will take a very long time before the full extent of the damage done to our economy can be fully established, if at all possible! However, in the case of Diezani and Okonjo-Iweala, the information gleaned from the several House of Representatives investigations into the 10 Billion Naira NNPC plane maintenance contracts, and oil subsidy payments that were not budgeted for provide the incoming President with enough information to order their immediate arrests and have them charged with the appropriate offenses the same day.



I can afford to take the risk of concluding that the majority of Nigerians would like to see brought to justice, and swiftly so, the people who brought Nigeria to her knees through the looting of our commonwealth.

Many Nigerians are afraid that some, if not most of these looters, may flee the country after May 29, 2015, before investigations are commenced/concluded. The purpose of this article is to advocate that the President elect, Mohamadu Buhari, should start the blitzkrieg against corruption immediately after concluding his swearing-in ceremony at Eagle Square on May 29, 2015.

Based on readily available public information, there is no better way and place to start that fight than the arrest Allison Deziani Madueke and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala before the end of day on May 29, 2015. Both women are currently serving as minister for Petroleum and Finance respectively. They both represent some of the biggest fishes, yes fishes, in the pond.

These two individuals are not the most corrupt members of the now infamous Goodluck Jonathan led presidency—and it will take a very long time before the full extent of the damage done to our economy can be fully established, if at all possible! However, in the case of Deziani and Okonjo-Iweala, the information gleaned from the several House of Representatives investigations into the 10 Billion Naira NNPC plane maintenance contracts, and oil subsidy payments that were not budgeted for provide the incoming President with enough information to order their immediate arrests and have them charged with the appropriate offences the same day.

The new president should demonstrate his commitment to the rule of law and the time limit requirement for charging arrested persons with offences known to law and having such persons presented before a court of law by ensuring that both women appear in the court on Monday June 1, 2015 to enter pleas and apply for bail. (May 29, 2015 being a Friday). Like many other Nigerians, I believe that both women are surely guilty of more heinous offenses than the ones mentioned above. However, arresting and charging them will send a clear and unambiguous message about the ferocity of the incoming President’s war against corruption, yield valuable information into the more complicated investigations and encourage others to step forward and make voluntary disclosures, thereby reducing the time and resources needed for the fight against corruption.

The President-Elect can then offer leniency on the basis of voluntary disclosures, have a hiatus of a few days and wait to see if there will be takers of the offer. The majority of Nigerian politicians are cowards and trust me, seeing the powerful Deziani and Okonjo-Iweala charged before the court, they will be lining up to confess. This approach will be cheaper, point you to previously unknown and maybe otherwise never possible to find stolen resources. I believe it will also yield more of the stolen resources. This topic will be fleshed out in full in another article.

For me, calling for the arrest and trial of Okonjo-Iweala is personal anguish for me but the nation’s interest must be the over-riding consideration. It is anguish for me because ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/how-buhari-can-arrest-diezani-and.html

The recent dismal reports in some Nigerian
tabloids on the high rate of the incidence of
kidney diseases are frightening, especially
because they concern the productive sector of
the country’s demography: the youth.
Incidentally and unfortunately, the affected
group can barely handle the cost of seeking
medical relief and, for the most part, they are
left with two dire choices: to despair or die.

A nephrologist was quoted in the report as
saying that “we estimate that we get about
15,000 new patients with chronic kidney disease
every year. About 50,000 patients in Nigeria
require dialysis, but just 1,000 are on it as we
speak. The prevalence rate of kidney failure in
Nigeria is 15 per cent and this is high in every
sense.”

Of course, the expert could only refer to the
figures of reported cases because the difference
between sufferers and reported cases accounts
for many people who die from lack of
appropriate care, which is usually induced by
poverty and ignorance. There are also many
other cases that are being handled, though
inexpertly, by alternative care givers which may
have escaped the quoted statistics. There are
also many heart-rending stories of punctuated
lives and suspended hopes that probably could
have been different if the context had been
altered by solid public health policy and
education.

The sufferers’ need for medical intervention and
relief, both of which are prohibitive in terms of
cost, has made the country’s dailies to become
usually inundated with solicitous articles
appealing on their behalf to philanthropists for
financial assistance. To an extent, some
philanthropists have tried to assist many of
these sufferers, but the truth is that it is clearly
the function of the state to protect life and
property.

It is meet and proper to expect the state to find
out the reason for the prevalence of kidney
diseases through research and thereafter find
how the national problem as identified can be
solved. If experts have concluded that the
prevalence rate is high then it naturally behoves
the state to intervene meaningfully through
funding and massive public education to reduce
this prevalence rate.

Both lifestyle and other diseases like HIV,
hypertension and diabetes are implicated in the
prevalence of chronic kidney diseases. The
resort to herbal cleansers and various analgesics
that are not on doctors’ prescription have also
aggravated the situation of renal failure in the...


CONTINUITY HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/04/rising-cases-of-kidney-failure-among.html?

Before the commencement of political activities
heightened, the National Assembly was on the
verge of amending the 1999 Constitution .

In
fact, some people were of the view that such
amendments should accommodate some of the
vital issues in the report of the National Political
Reform Conference, chaired by Justice Idris
Kutigi . But that appeared to have been
abandoned in the interim. In this interview,
former chairman of the Lagos NBA, Abiodun
Dabiri told GODWIN DUNIA that the entire
process needs surgical operation, which the
President-elect must not shy away from
tackling. He also spoke on the appointment of
judges, delay in justice delivery, conflict in the
award of SAN, standard of legal practice among
others.

Do you think there is going to be change in our
constitution in this coming dispensation? The
process of changing constitution is very
cumbersome and the elected president has a lot
to do. He has not promised anything, but when
he get there he will see the rot that need to be
cleared first because the whole place need some
surgical operation.

He has won election, but to me, I don’t know
where he will start from. Obama made lots of
promises, but when he got there he was to
some extent overwhelmed by the rot left behind
by George Bush.

I wish Buhari case will not be like that anyway.
Are you okay with the mode of appointing
Judges? Honestly, you raised a very good
question. I think in appointing Judges,
preference should be given to integrity.

To appoint a judge, you need to ask questions
and verify facts about the individual. But in this
part of our society, for instance, if someone
asks me about you now there is possibility that I
would not disclose certain fact about you.

I will not want to block your chances. This is
our culture and attitude and it will definitely
come to play. Unlike in the Western world where
a child would tell you; oh my father is a thief
and even call in police to arrest him.

In this part of the world, nobody we wants to do
that. Where do you lay the blame for cases of
10 years and above in the High Courts? Even in
Supreme Court cases less than 7 years are not
attended to. Justice delayed is justice denied!
We, as counsel contribute a lot to this delays.

For instance, the case of Joshua Dariye, who
was charged with certain offences. The lawyer
started by challenging the charges. It took over
seven years and the Supreme court was
annoyed.

The lawyers contributed to all these kind of
developments and the point is that they don't...

CONTINUE HERE :

www.beriahng.com/2015/04/nigerian-constitution-needs-surgical.html

The Chief Executive Officer, Natural Healing
Alternatives, Dr. Leye Popoola has revealed that
the type of food eating by men and their health
status can play a major role in their masculinity
and reproductive ability.


Popoola said a man’s strength of sexuality is
influenced directly or indirectly by the type of
food eaten, hence the need to eat food
containing muscle and blood building nutrients.
According to him, this type of food will not only
give energy, but will as well enrich the heart,
which has a direct impact on the ability of a
man to have erections.


“Research has shown that the same
eating patterns that can cause heart
attacks due to restricted blood flow in the
coronary arteries can also impede blood
flow to and within the male sexual organ.

“The blood flow is needed for it to
become erect. Diets that include very few
fruits and vegetables with lots of fatty,
fried, and processed foods can contribute
to decreased blood circulation throughout
the body. Anything that is bad for a
man’s heart is also bad for his genital
organ,” he stressed.

Popoola therefore advised men who are
experiencing weak erection to watch what they
eat as this may be the cause, especially, men
suffering from Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
popularly known as impotence.

He said his personal study and researches have
pointed to the fact that the lifestyle and food
habit of most people complaining of ED often
predisposes them to the health issue.

According to him, abstaining from denatured or
devalued food like bread will be a step in the
right direction.

“They should abstain from smoking and
taking of alcohol,” he said.

He added that “it is alarming the rate at
which men suffering from ED go for
orthodox drugs as respite without even
taking account of the fact that it may be
caused by their lifestyle, food habit or
even stress. These are issues they should
even first address, which may be the
underlying factors.”

He said there was need to understand how a
man’s body is composed in order to understand
ED and the way out.

“Even headache, cough or high blood
pressure can affect sexual relationship. If
a man is stressed up; experiences
sleeplessness or eat too much fatty
foods that clog the blood stream, then
the person is most likely to have ED.

“In fact, impotence is an early warning
sign that cardiovascular disease (CVD)
may be looming. ED caused by narrowed
arteries commonly develops years before
any symptoms or problems of CVD,
hypertension or diabetes become
apparent,” he said.

According to him, ED is sexual dysfunction
occasioned by the inability to develop or...


CONTINUE HERE : www.beriahng.com/2015/04/how-poor-diet-can-affect-libido-by.html

FELLOW LAGOSIANS, yesterday, election day,
History beckoned. Courage stood tall. Fairness
and Justice raised their heads. Democracy blew
its trumpet. You, the people, the electorate,
answered its call by marching to a victory only
you could achieve.

You contested against an old and ancient device,
the use of money and power to manipulate the
result and thwart democracy. In the end, the
sovereign will of the people proved worthier than
money and mightier than brute force. Your
collective voice remained the voice of Lagos.


Now, the official announcement from INEC has
come. Democracy has triumphed once again.
INEC has declared me the 14th governor-elect of
our beloved Lagos. I know that it is only God
that crowns KINGS. To Him be all the Glory.
I may have won your vote but it is you, the
people, who won the election. The true winners
are the people of Lagos state. I accept this
victory on your behalf.

Let me congratulate INEC for a Job well done
and keeping alive Nigeria’s hope for a brighter
democracy. To my main opponent, Mr. Jimi
Agbaje of the PDP, I thank you for a keen
contest and invite you, alongside other
gubernatorial candidates, to join hands with me
in moving Lagos forward.

The people of Lagos have spoken. With one
voice they have chosen continuity over an
uncertain future. You came out peacefully to
cast your vote. Not even the threats of our
opponents to unleash mayhem could have kept
you from having a date with destiny. And
because you have answered our call to come
out and vote and handed your party, APC victory
at the polls you have sealed a pact with
democracy and good governance.

I am humbled that you have placed your trust
and faith in me. The love of this state and our
common belief in what we can accomplish, our
belief in what this state already is, and in what
it is destined to become binds us together in a
social and moral contract of high purpose.
I shall honor that contract with every fiber of my
being. This day I pledge to you that I shall...

CONTINUE HERE :

www.beriahng.com/2015/04/the-path-of-continuity-and-progress.html

Lagos, the economic nerve centre of arguably the West African sub region is the smallest state in Nigeria. Its gross domestic product is $90 billion which makes it bigger than that of Kenya, $66 billion, Ghana, $62 billion and Tanzania, $58.4 billion. It contributes 20% to the country’s GDP and 60% of you take away oil. Whoever sits in the Round House, Alausa should be of great concern to the world because of its strategic importance in the scheme of things.


Nothing much was known about Akinwunmi Ambode until 2013 when it was whispered that he was the anointed of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who has the unofficial title of Governor Emeritus of the state. He beat other experienced politicians to clinch the party ticket in 2014 and metamorphosed from a silent former civil servant to a serious contender for the plum job. His resume is quite intimidating. He spent all his working life in the Lagos State Civil Service rising to the position of a Permanent Secretary at the age of 37 and Accountant-General at 43. He is credited with helping the Tinubu administration come up with creative ways to keep the state running when the Federal Government under the Obasanjo regime withheld some funds due to the state because of the creation of 37 additional Local Council Development Authorities. The increase of the internally generated revenue from 400 million naira to 20 billion naira has his input. His brilliance has been recognized globally and he has been a Fulbright Scholar in addition to attending courses in the United States courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Jimi Agbaje is the quintessential private sector man. He established the popular JK Pharmacy at the tender age of 25 barely four years after getting his pharmacy degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He later became a founding member of the Board of Directors of the hugely successful Guaranty Trust Bank at the age of 33. He teamed up with the likes of Pat Utomi, Olisa Agbakoba et al to form the concerned professionals as a response to the annulment of the June 12 Presidential elections. He was involved with the Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere and was active in the struggle for the restoration of Late Chief M.K.O Abiola’s mandate and the subsequent enthronement of democracy. He was a member of the Action Congress but read the handwriting on the wall by defecting to the Democratic Peoples Party as the Lord of the Manor now resident in Bourdillon threw his weight behind the candidacy of the current incumbent, Babatunde Raji Fashola. He lost that election but was the most charismatic as he articulated a well-crafted campaign. He did the unthinkable by shedding off his progressive toga and teaming up with the conservatives by joining the Peoples Democratic Party and getting the gubernatorial ticket. That ticket was subject to much controversy as he won the primaries with 860 votes when there were only 806 delegates thereby casting a slur on his credibility and integrity as being a beneficiary of a highly corrupt and flawed system.

Ambode has hinged his campaign on the need for continuity. The pertinent question is the continuity of what? What really has Fashola achieved beyond the beautification of the Lagos Island? What has been the impact of his economic policies on the mainland? The motorcycle riders were given crash helmets in the run up to the 2011 elections only for the motorcycles popularly known as okadas to be severely restricted after Fashola got a second term.

There is the menace of the area boys who are an eye sore for a state with a mega city agenda. They harass motorists and ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/between-ambode-and-agbaje-by-tony.html

Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has warned Nigerians against making unruly and unbecoming comments against the paramount ruler of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu and warned that all those involved should desist from such unbecoming acts forthwith.

In a statement issued by the National Coordinating Council of OPC, Comrade Monsuru Akande, it stated that the “Yoruba institutions are not meant to be trampled upon”.

Read Full Statement Below:


The attention of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has been drawn to some unruly and unbecoming comments purportedly in reaction to alleged comments by the paramount ruler of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu and warn all those involved to desist from such unbecoming acts forthwith.


The institution of the oba is one the Yoruba race hold in high esteem, and the OPC as irredentist defenders of Yoruba culture and heritage would therefore not tolerate anybody -irrespective of their places of birth of conviction- to denigrate what their hosts (Yorubas) hold sacred.
While we accept that that institution should remain non-partisan, it must also be acknowledged that the Palace of the Oba of Lagos has already claimed that the royal father was misrepresented in the press and pleaded for understanding.


Be that as it may, the Yoruba’s accommodating and loving nature should not be misconstrued as timidity. As hosts, we have given all our visitors enough space and opportunity to bloom and flourish without molestations, and of all the tribes and visitors in Lagos, none has enjoyed the benevolence of Lagos and indeed all of Yorubaland as much as the Igboman and nation.


The evidence of the claim above can be found in the fact that Yorubaland as a whole is the most cosmopolitan area in Nigeria. We Yoruba have allowed other tribes to own businesses, properties and even contest and hold political positions on Yoruba soil in a manner unreciprocated anywhere else in Nigeria.

Using the same Lagos as an example, the fact that the likes of Pastor Ben. Akabueze and Joe Igbokwe have ....

CONTINUE HERE:http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/opc-warns-against-unbecoming-comments.html

The Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) has called on the EFCC to commence an extensive investigation into an allegation against the spokesperson of the State Security Service (SSS), Marilyn Ogar, over an allegation published by Premium Times that she accepted a N15 million bribe from government officials in connection with last year’s Osun governorship election.



In a petition signed by its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, CSNAC said it had also last year sent a similar request to the ICPC to investigate the bribery allegation against Ms. Ogar without any action from that agency.

Details of the latest investigation as published by Premium Times, CSNAC said, are as follows:

– Ms. Ogar was treated to a special offer by the Nigerian government by been referred to the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in charge of marketing and distribution of petroleum products.

– She and the Managing Director of PPMC, Haruna Momoh, purportedly met, and a deal was struck between the first and second week in June, 2014.

– Ten trucks of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) were directly allocated to Ms. Ogar by PPMC.

– Mr. Momoh allegedly advised Ms. Ogar that the allocations be channelled through known fuel independent marketers who were to receive the allocation, sell them and deliver cash to Ms. Ogar.

– Ms. Ogar went with the suggestion and the act was carried out accordingly.

– PPMC selected three marketers to deliver four, three and three trucks apiece on her behalf. Thereafter, she was introduced to the three marketers and they agreed that N1.5 million for each of the truck of DPK be made as payment to her.

– Therefore, Ms. Ogar received N15million for doing nothing beyond meeting the PPMC boss as directed by higher authorities.

“This contradicts the statement made by Ms. Ogar in August, 2014 around the period of Osun elections. She claimed SSS officials are above bribe as the service is well funded and it provides a competitive reward package for its personnel, even before assignments,” the petition said. “So, if that were true, what is her ...

CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/04/csnac-asks-efcc-to-investigate-marilyn.html