₦airaland Forum

Yari, who vied for the office of Senate President, polled 46 votes, while former Akwa Ibom governor and former minister, Godswill Akpabio secured 63 votes to win the election.
 
Inspired by money accumulated in highly questionable ways, a former Zamfara State Governor, Abdul'Azeez Yari made the contest for Senate leadership of the 10th National Assembly badly competitive with a lot of negative implications to national stability.

Yari, who vied for the office of Senate President, polled 46 votes, while former Akwa Ibom governor and former minister, Godswill Akpabio secured 63 votes to win the election.

He had gone against the dictates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The APC had nominated Akpabio for the position.
Both former governors are currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Yari had said before the election that he was sure that 76 senators were on his side.
“I can say there was a betrayal because as we were taking stock at 3:00 am on Tuesday before the election, we took stock of over 76 people,” he had said.

“We took into cognizance that there could be a fall-out of about 15 and we had agreed that if that happens, we would comfortably still have about 61 people. What we got was the reverse and yes, I felt betrayed over that outcome.”

Speaking to SaharaReporters during the weekend, a former lawmaker narrated how Yari lobbied the leadership of opposition political parties and spent billions of Naira on his aspiration.

He insisted that the former governor was betrayed by “leadership of some opposition parties.”
He added, “In saner climes, everything should not end with Yari's loss in the red hallowed chamber on June 13, 2023. a postmortem of how Yari accumulated the humongous amount of money he used to cause division along regional and religious lines earning him the title of 'rebel leader' to borrow from Senator Shehu Sani's succinct description of his posture is urgent and necessary.

Even Akpabio should be investigated so it won’t be a one way issue.
“Yari started the contest for Senate President immediately after the declaration of his victory as Senator representing Zamfara West Senatorial District in February 2023. He particularly instrumentalised the Lesser Hajj of the last Ramadan (mid-April 2023) to meet and induce Muslim Senators-elect with mouth-watering bunches of dollars in Saudi Arabia.


“In Abuja, Yari booked floors of rooms at the Transcorp Hilton and Continental hotels for the Senators-elect through May and June 2023 escalating the cost of booking in the two hotels to a record high. It was widely speculated that Yari bribed new Senators with houses in the Karsana area of Abuja and was prepared to buy the votes of 60 Senators at 1 million dollars each.”

“To conclude, now that the game is over, Yari's action against consensus should be treated with a strategic outlook to avoid the threat it poses to national stability in the future. Investigating the source of Yari's stupendous wealth that he deploys to disrupt decency in political engagement is apt and timely,” another source added.

“A good starting point is retrieving his many open files since 2007 with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and thoroughly screening his asset declaration form vis-a-vis his legitimate ventures.”

https://saharareporters.com/2023/06/17/how-former-zamfara-governor-yari-spent-billions-naira-senate-presidency-bid-contest

Wike's issue for PDP is like an insect lying on your scrotum. You are carefully in killing it forcefully less you burst your scrotum in the process..Lol

Suspending Wike is a delicate one for PDP. He wields a lot of power and influence and PDP won't like to risk losing Rivers State to another party.

I can't even advise PDP on how to handle this. Its dicey

This shows the level of opposition against Tinubu's candidacy by the inner caucus of Buhari. But its really an height of impunity for these guys to recklessly enact a policy that they knew would affect over 150million people just because of one man. Its the height of insensitivity, wickedness and stupidity. And it turned out to be a waste of stupidity, because the man they did everything to stop, still emerge as the winner. What they were afraid of has fully come to them

Technically, when you make sacrifices for your party even when its not convenient, it means the party and the President owe you one. There will be times in your political journey when you will need the President and the Party, and for Yari, there will be no one to turn to when that time comes.

Jide Sanwo is a good natured man. He is lively and seems to be a free spirited guy. Good to see Ambode in good health. He made unpardonable political mistakes but am sure he has learnt his lessons. Who knows, Tinubu might has some plans in stock for him. After all, the pie is bigger now

Omo to Yayi. One of Tinubu's dependable and reliable protege

Wike missed a button on his suit. Must have been an oversight. Baba needs to be calming down..Lol

You are right. Oshiomole did not challenge his case then because the body language of the President then was in support of his stepping down as Party Chairman. So even if he wins in court, he was afraid he might be on a confrontation with the president and he does not want that.

If Ayu should challenge his own suspension in court, he is likely to win. However nothing is guaranteed in law.

Afamed:
Ayu is right , only NEC can suspend national officer. However, he needs to challenge this in court.

Oshiomole undoing then, was that he refused to challenge similar case in court until it was to late .

Amaechi is no longer the leader of APC in Rivers State. He has not proven sufficient loyalty to the party to retain that title. People like Tony Okocha might be empowered to become the new leader of the party in the state

helinues:
Why do you people always use your deliberate support to send innocent people to political oblivion.

How many people do you guys want to deliberately send to oblivion?

I didn't say Tinubu is a god. I was just stating how Amaechi has not been able to manage his relationship with Tinubu well, despite being members of the same political party

This strategy should have been used by the G5 Governors a long time ago, since they have the Governor of Benue State in their midst. Ayu should have long been suspended before the elections, except if they had kept it as the option of the last resort.

Amaechi did not show a great spirit of sportsmanship after the APC primaries. Tinubu extended olive branch and hand of friendship to him by visiting him at his residence after the primaries despite beating Amaechi hands down at the primaries. Amaechi supposed to build on that to convince Tinubu they can work together and he can be trusted. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I guess that was why Tinubu pitched his tent with Wike, and of course that was a smart move because Amaechi can't really be trusted to deliver the needed 25% of votes in Rivers. In spite of that, he shouldn't have had the latest careless outburst he made in the now infamous interview where he rubbished the legacies of the current administration and tied the INEC chairman's appointment to Tinubu's apron. That was bad, maybe irredeemable. He might have made the biggest blunder of his political career. He might go into complete oblivion in the next administration while APC build fresh party structure in Rivers State

By Dagogo West-George
So after all the hype as the “Lion of Ubima” in the past eight years, Rotimi Amaechi will end up as a rain-beaten kitten at the twilight of the Buhari administration. True, that little feline is known to be at its most disoriented condition when its luminous eyeballs are, for instance, caught in the headlights of an approaching vehicle. At that critical moment, its vulnerability is stripped bare, often grounded in helplessness, unable to haul itself from possible annihilation.
After the crushing electoral defeat of his puppet Tonye Cole in Rivers last weekend, we saw Amaechi in that helpless kitten moment. His congenital lack of grace shone forth. He grew venomous and unguarded. He equated his electoral humiliation by Nyesom Wike as yet another evidence of “leadership failure” across the country. He described President Muhammadu Buhari as “a failure” who retained Professor Mamoud Yakubu as INEC chairman despite the “objection of some of us”.

Like the proverbial canary, Amaechi literally sang while fielding questions from a battery of reporters who sought his view after the electoral umpire declared him loser for the third time in his deluded aspiration to be crowned as the monarch of Rivers politics — first in 2015, then 2019 and 2023. In other words, he has lost elections in Rivers in three election cycles, back to back. What a pity!

But truth be told, Amaechi, like a punch-drunk boxer, has not healed from the trauma of losing his biggest dream: APC presidential ticket last year. He had been assured by his political witchdoctors to be the “khalifa” (heir apparent). He even went to Daura, Buhari’s hometown, to “chop” a chieftaincy as “Amana” (The Trusted One). But all the gaudy costumes counted for nothing when APC delegates eventually gathered at the Eagles Square last year to pick the flag-bearer.

Unable to to conceal his malicious animosity for the man who humbled him at the APC primaries (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu), grumpy Amaechi resorted to the fallacy of ad hominem. But he only sounded confused and pathetic. One, he said Yakubu’s appointment was influenced by someone close to Tinubu, as if the law says whoever becomes INEC chairman must be an extra-terrestrial being who’ll be unrelated or unknown to anyone. But it is a cheap lie by a frustrated man. In any case, the same Yakubu was INEC chair in 2019 when Amaechi, as “super“ Transport Minister, appointed himself the Director General of Buhari Campaign. So, why didn’t Amaechi object then if truly he is a “principled man” he wants us to see now? It is the antic of a conflicted man.

Of course, those weaned on the diet of iniquity are often the ones who view others by the low standard they were nurtured. Amaechi thinks everyone is like him who operates in a universe of low ethics. Tonye Cole, the man he was packaging to become Rivers governor in 2023, is widely known to be his “business partner”. Already, Wike is hunting both of them for sundry “sins”. Once upon a time, Rivers owned a gas turbine. It was built by Dr Peter Odili. Like the biblical Prodigal Child (what the Yoruba call “akotileta” or “Omo oni na kuna”), Amaechi allegedly sold the state asset for a whopping $370m to Sahara Energy owned by Tonye Cole towards the end of his second term. But Wike claims what was left in the state account he met in 2015 was only a little over mere $100,000! This is just one of the grave charges preferred against Amaechi and Cole before a Rivers court in an ongoing suit.

Now, in Amaechi’s worldview, that Yakubu worked as Executive Secretary of TETFUND when Wike was Minister of State (Education) was enough reason to suspect him of bias for Rivers PDP against his anointed in APC colours. But wait a minute — Tinubu is APC. So, is Amaechi also suggesting that Yakubu is promiscuous: bedding PDP and APC concurrently? Of course, that is the logic of a confused man.

That Amaechi has suddenly turned against Buhari, the man who was generous to him by allocating him a “juicy” portfolio for seven uninterrupted years, did not come as a surprise to those who have followed his career as “government pikin” in the last twenty-four years. He suffers from what psychologists call entitlement mentality. The same Buhari he now abuses recklessly had also indulged him by turning a blind eye when Amaechi went around Rivers State for seven years as Transport with truckloads of soldiers, bigger than the contingent a President travels with. Well, maybe his anger started when Buhari refused to grant his prayers to return as Transport Minister after he lost at the APC presidential primaries in June 2022. The story is told that he desperately begged for a reappointment. But in vain did he grovel.

In Buhari’s first term, Amaechi virtually hijacked all the keys positions zoned to the South-South. He handpicked NNDC Chairman, heads of NIMASA and NPA etc. He obviously expected to inherit the presidency after Buhari. As we know, when spoilt brats don’t get what covet, they instinctively resort to tantrums. After May 29, Buhari should brace for worse invectives from the spoilt upstart from Ubima. Here is a guy who has not done anything else in life other than contesting elections and growing a big tummy from public trough.


He did even worse to the man who gave him a headstart early in life: Peter Odili. For the eight years he was imperial governor of Rivers, Amaechi humiliated his erstwhile “godfather”, creating a hostile climate that banished Odili to virtual exile in Abuja throughout! Yet, the same man had supported him through Rivers university and gave him his first job as admin officer at PAMO Clinic, Port Harcourt. So much that he also met his future wife, Judith, as PAMO Clinic. The lady was an assistant to Justice (Mrs) Mary Odili.

In 1999, Odili it was who bought Amaechi form to stand in the election for Rivers State Assembly. The former not only won the governorship polls but also lifted his protege to victory, smoothed his way to become Speaker for eight years. In 2007, the then outgoing Rivers governor also arranged Amaechi’s selection as PDP governorship candidate, only to be overruled by Obasanjo. The option left for Odili was to pick Amaechi’s relation (Celestine Omehia). Odili had naively assumed that would serve as “consolation” to his beloved boy, since Obasanjo literally held the yam and the knife as PDP’s Alfa and Omega.

Well, maybe Odili’s crime was his ignorance of an existing family feud between Amaechi and Omehia, his cousin. As Speaker, the “Lion of Ubima” had allegedly caused the arrest and detention of Omehia’s dad. The old man didn’t survive the trauma of detention as he died shortly afterwards. Who dared offend the almighty Speaker again? So, making Omehia candidate was too much a slight for Amaechi to bear. Nothing had been forgotten. Nothing forgiven. No mercy.

In one word, Amaechi would not be mollified by the Omehia substitution. Once he managed to get the Supreme Court to award him Rivers governorship on October 25, 2007 even though he didn’t campaign nor vote in the election, he launched a vicious reprisal against Odili. But come 2015, Karma dramatically appeared at Amaechi’s doorstep in Wike’s image.

While he was Rivers governor for eight years, egoistic Amaechi behaved like Hitler to those around him. His SSG, Magnus Abe, was humiliated right in his home. When rumour started swirling that the latter was nursing a 2015 ambition, according to Abe himself, Amaechi stormed his home one night and growled at him, “You can’t be governor!”, right before his (Abe’s) wife. His overbearing attitude also drove Wike, his Chief of Staff, to the bossom of President Goodluck Jonathan who made him minister and thus afforded him an escape to Abuja in 2010. When Ibim Seminatari bruised his elephantine ego later in the Buhari administration, he orchestrated her removal as NNDC chairman.

In 2015, Dakuku Peterside was the apple of his eyes. So, he made him APC governorship candidate and when he lost, influenced his appointment as NIMASA MD. But once he felt his protege was growing too popular in Port Harcourt, Amaechi promptly clipped his wings by ensuring his tenure was not renewed in 2019. As for the governorship, he had found a new lackey in Tonye Cole.

An Igbo saying goes thus: he whose palm kernel was cracked by benevolent gods should not forget to be humble. Indeed, before fortune smiled on him in 1999, Amaechi was a nameless guy in Rivers. While his star shone, he was full of arrogance. Sadly, twenty four years later, the erstwhile roaring “lion of Ubima” is now castrated politically and seems fated to fall down to political wilderness. A big lesson for others.

• West-George, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Buguma, Rivers State.

https://thenationonlineng.net/amaechi-the-fall-of-overrated-child-of-entitlement/

It will be difficult for Ayu to recover from this.
Party membership is at ward level, and once you are suspended or expelled from the party by the ward executives, you are gone for good. Some State NWC might over-ride resolutions of ward executives but its not legal. When tested at the courts, it will be upturned easily. Technically, Ayu is no longer the National Chairman of PDP. This might be the beginning of of the end of his tenure

W

Oh, do they knee down to collect degree at Cambridge? Was wondering why he had to knee down.

So Tinubu has been unable to reconcile Aregbe and Oyetola despite the two of them belonging to the same political family and having the same leader. Sometimes we over rate some of our political gladiators.

Yes biopsy is not a cure. It's a diagnostic procedure to know whether cancer is in the prostrate or not. If there is, he will discuss treatment options with you one of which is radical prostatectomy (castration as you said). Try and do the biopsy first and take it one day at a time..All will be well

Yes. Let him see an urologist first. He will be the one do order for a biopsy.

The PSA result is quite high. I think you should see a consultant urologist for proper diagnosis. At times, chronic BPH can also cause a huge spike in PSA. At the same time, it can be caused by prostrate cancer. The gold standard in determining this is to have an MRI guided biopsy. The samples of the prostrate picked during the biopsy would be analysed to see if cancer growths are present. You need to move fast. If it's prostrate cancer, picking it early will have a better prognosis. It's much better when it is discovered early before it spreads outside the prostrate to other organs. There are treatment plans such as proton therapy and others that have an improved chances of attaining total cure if picked early. Don't delay. Get your dad prompt specialist care. Best of luck

There has not been any counter research since then. If you have, you can show us, as nobody is an island of knowledge. Interestingly from age 50 and above, masturbation is beneficial to prostrate health but from 20-30, it is dangerous and will most likely lead to early prostrate enlargement in 50% of all cases, according to the Harvard study I posted earlier.

Matheusmartin:
.
2009 research..
Bros, u nor try.

https://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20090127/masturbation-and-prostate-cancer-risk#:~:text=Jan.,man's%20risk%20of%20prostate%20cancer.

Matheusmartin:
.. It's actually the other way round..


Or maybe, u can help us with a link to this scientific studies..

Scientific studies have shown that excessive masturbation in young people can lead to early enlarged prostrate.

Prostatitis is a strong possibility from the symptoms you shared here. It will cause inflammation of the prostrate which might be the reason you are finding it difficult to completely empty your bladder at a single stretch. You need to see an urologist.

Beautiful writeup. However, inspite of all the measures put in place by ISON, how come one infected staff was able to infect over 78 co-staffs? That is a very high rate of strong community transmission that could only have been possible in a closed environment. The ISON cases can be the game changer for Covid 19 cases in Oyo State. The 78 infected staffs could have infected 10 people each and that is 780. If those 780 people infects 10 each, your guess is as good as mine. The anger of the Oyo State populace towards ISON is understandable