₦airaland Forum

naijaking1:
Despite some obvious problems with sale of NITEL, the fact that we have open market in the telephone industry today remains one of OBJs legacies. There's no way to kill, skin, and share a cow without making some kind of mess. We should always focus on the bigger picture.
I have always said that we'll never have steady power supply until we privatize the industry. We have to creat an incentive for business to want to supply power for 24 hours rather than 12 hours. It's neither going to be cheaper, nor easier, but at the end we should have reason power supply.

No need for the lecture, I don't think anyone was saying we shouldn't "privastise" power, that is very far from the issue. The real issue is, will it be done and properly? How many times have we heard this chant? NEPA to PHCN (what was the difference?). Heck I would pray for its success if only to avoid hearing anymore campaign speeches including the phrases "I will give you power", one more recital of those cheap words could force an unstable man to end it all.

Well. . . . .I will save any celebrations or optimism till June 2011 or till this move is at least backed by some law passed through the legislature. Forgive me if I don't join the celebration just yet but privatisation of the power sector is not a new issue, neither have attempt to privatise been, so I don't get the apparent novelty some seem to attach to this move. I find it amusing the way people have started pontificating over an issue that has been so overflogged to the point that the carcass has since become rotten. Removing the current obligations by states to pump whatever power they generate into the grid would have produced results almost immediately. Rivers State for example, has invested so much in power generation and I believe have a few plants that have not come online because of the current set up. Starting from there would have been a good precursor to this other move as it would have meant some places could have started enjoying 24 hours power and not having to wait so long, there is no need to hold anyone who wants to develop back. Well, if this is a serious move then it is a start, however, I will wait with cautious optimism.

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=470728.msg6301792#msg6301792 date=1277801346]JONATHAN JONATHAN JONATHAN !!!!!!
which kind president be this for God sake ?[/quote]LOOOOOOL. Gosh, you really have no shame. Read the article again, this time without eyes so beclouded by prejudice which has been apparent in other threads.

freegaza:
Navy to buy N3.3bn presidential yatch for Jonathan
Written by Francis Okeke & Turaki A. Hassan   
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 04:39
If the Naval headquarters has its way, President Goodluck Jonathan will cruise in a N3.3bn Presidential Yatch in an “International Sea Exercise and Presidential Fleet Review for Nigeria’s 50th Independence Anniversary.”

Daily Trust gathered from impeccable sources in Abuja yesterday that the request forwarded to the Minister of Defence Adetokunbo Kayode from the office of the Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ishaya Iko Ibrahim seeks to spend N4 billion both for the purchase of the Presidential Yatch and N16m as operational costs for the participation of NN Augusta Helicopters, Defender and Nightcat Interceptor boats in the anniversary celebration.

The proposal has been passed to the Nigeria at 50 anniversary committee in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, sources close to the secretariat told Daily Trust yesterday.

The source said about 15 ships are expected to participate in the exercise with a proposal to repair six non-operation ships including the NNS Aradu which is the pride of the Nigerian Navy.

Similarly, the Naval headquarters is proposing to spend N17m for media coverage of the event while N3 million would be expended on the supply and installation of long and short range communication equipment and split unit air conditioners.

Former President Shehu Shagari is the last known Nigerian leader to have participated in a Presidential Fleet Review to mark Nigeria’s Independence anniversary in 1981.

Checks on the Internet last night showed that the United Kingdom has had 83 royal yachts since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660.

Charles II had 25 Royal Yachts, while five were simultaneously in service in 1831. Since the decommissioning of Britannia in 1997 the Queen no longer has a royal yacht and in Finland the president has a small private yacht.

Yachts are different from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose, and it was not until the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat that sailing vessels in general came to be perceived as luxury, or recreational vessels. Later the term came to encompass motor boats for primarily private pleasure purposes as well.

Don't quit your day job, driving propaganda doesn't really work well for you, it is a skill that requires finesse and tact. . . . . . . and you have neither. Note my response has nothing to do with defending Jonathan (which I am sure you will later claim), it is simply about reasonable discourse bereft of blatant misinformation and lies. Does the name Goodluck Jonatahan get you high? Gosh. Too funny.

N.B.
No need to reply to this post. I genuinely have no interest in having a back and forth with you, just popped in to highlight to trite you were posting. Have a nice day

freegaza:
[b]We’ve no money to fix power sector –FG[/b]
Written by Fidelis Mac-Leva   
Tuesday, 22 June 2010 00:00
Even with President Goodluck Jonathan taking charge of the power sector, the days of darkness in Nigeria may yet be over as the Federal government says it cannot afford the $6billion required annually to sustain the country’s power needs.

This submission was made known by the Minister of State for Power, Nuhu Somo Wya, while addressing electricity workers during a facility visit to the Jebba hydroelectric power plant in Niger State.

“Nigeria would require $6billion annually to meet the Nation’s aspirations for the actualization of vision 20:2020 through sustaining the electricity needs of the country”, Wya said, stressing, however, that “government does not have this kind of money to power the energy needs of the economy hence the resort to seeking the intervention of mega financial institutions on the energy crisis.”

According to him, these institutions have been reluctant to commit public funds into public enterprises run by government because governments are not known to be committed, efficient and profit-oriented managers of public enterprises.

The minister said the abject poverty level among Nigerians is unacceptable in a country richly blessed with abundant human and natural resources.

Wya said the president assumed the leadership of the power sector to underscore the priority the government attaches to the power infrastructure, adding “the President is depressed whenever a comparative report of power output of nations less endowed than Nigeria is presented to him.”

While allaying the fears of electricity workers over the possibility of rationalisation, the minister explained that the ongoing reforms in the sector were meant to encourage private public participation in order to meet the yearnings of Nigerians in the power sector.

Last year the sum of $5.3billion was withdrawn from the excess crude account to fix the power sector with no remarkable result. The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has also announced a N500billion rescue package to fix the manufacturing sector including power.

For how long would the federal government continue to hold everyone down? If you want to fix the power problem give states authority to develop their power infrastructure for their own consumption. The federal government has failed in the power sector, period. Let states that want to develop develop and those that don't want to let them stay like that, this is getting silly.

@ladi02 do you actually take time to read the news stuff you post? ? ? ?

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=465297.msg6242329#msg6242329 date=1276908756]Thats the problem. . Nigeria is too big to be micro-managed and administered from a central Federal location

No nation on earth does that

The things u mention,Security,Power,Water,Housing,Infrastructure are not supposed to be provided by the federal Govt
The federal Govt does not provide them in the countries u mention,namely Brazil,singapore and so on. .

So the next step is to give more powers to the states
In areas of Power generation and distribution
and in other areas like security,Infrastructure,water and so on states like Lagos are doing well

Also the private sector has to play a more active role
and before Nigerians start demanding they should also be willing to pay taxes as at when due

cause thats how its done in those places u mention

but yea we could be growing at 10+ plus,structural impediments like poor electricity probably takes 3-4% out of growth[/b][/quote]Such things are arguably not supposed to be handled by the federal government but in Nigeria they are, so you see why I say we don't need to white wash issues? There is no need for the essay because the simple truth is the federal government is too big and power needs to be decentralised by the federal government giving it up so we have a more grass root oriented democracy closer to the people and hence more in tune with the various and particular needs of the different constituences. I sincerely think the solution to the power situation would simply be abolition of this whole rule which forces states to pump whatever power that is generated by them into the federal grid and such would take action at the federal level. By so doing states that have been serious about power generation can get 24hour power, no body should be hindering the other (Rivers would probably be among the first to get 24hours power due to all the investment in that sector).

Private sector this private sector that. For the private sector (the Nigerian private sector) to play a more important role in the development of the country we need stronger banks that have the capacity to fund enterprise and innovation, as well as major government projects. Rivers State governor has ambitious plans but the problem has been funding of some of these government projects which can in turn improve conditions for the private sector to thrive. This is currently not the case in Nigeria and in Lagos Micro Finance banks have had to be formed purely for the purpose of funding expansion and start up of small businesses. I am simply stating the way things are in Nigeria and I did not just say 'Singapore, Brazil' etc without knowing a some of the structures which makes real growth thrive in such areas. You see how I used the term 'real growth'? Growth which affects the real sector of the economy and hence people on the streets. That is what Nigerians want, not more news on how GDP has improved when things seem to look thesame or even worse.

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=465297.msg6242271#msg6242271 date=1276906198]
why dont u emigrate to brazil,singapore and china. . . .see how things are for u there as a black person. . .

These countries u mention,have had over 20yrs of growing rapidly. . .

Nigerias economy collapsed btw 1980 - 2000. . a span of 20yrs
and only returned to growth in 2001 Pls see link. . . .
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&ctype=l&strail=false&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:NGA&tstart=-315619200000&tunit=Y&tlen=48&hl=en&dl=en

The point is your economy is growing at 7% plus. . .It takes growth at this level for a long period of time
to get an improved standard of living. . .

and if u must compare with Brazil,china or singapore. . then at least start from 2001
cause the military leaders u had for over 20yrs(1980 - 2000),were brainless idiots

sorry but thats were we stand. . i look forward,and its going to get better from here[/quote]And what makes you think I am not looking forward?? Looking forward does not mean I have to whitewash issues to make myself feel better. I did not lambast the 7.23% growth, was simply stating the obvious that real conditions on the ground and economic growth could be better if government actually took things seriously. With the huge market Nigeria has, the oil, etc, it seems to me government does not really have to do that much to get such growth rates because people know Nigeria is a huge market and good place to invest (even if very high risk). Nigerians simply need to demand better because the potential is still hugely unfulfilled and at the end of the day 7.23% growth though laudable does not translate to security, power, electoral reform, clean water, housing, improved infrastructure, etc. So with that in mind what does 7.23% mean to the average guy on the street? The silver lining seems to be a very few state governors like Fashola and Amaechi who seem to be doing their job. Apart from that, on the federal level, things are still bleak and disappointing.

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=465297.msg6242139#msg6242139 date=1276902975]am sure there are other issues,but u guys should quit talking like other countries are heaven cause its not
and anyone telling u that is str8 up lying to u

emigrate and see the stress ppl face here.  .am not talking AFRICANS in the west
am talking regular citizens.  .

For example in MEXICO over 22,000 ppl have been killed since only 2006 in just the U.S border region of the country
cause of drug wars,corruption,police brutuality and so on. .

U wont find a mexican who isnt stressed about the situation. .

dont think your situation is the worst cause there are lots of ppl on this earth that got it worse than u. . .true story[/quote]No need to state the obvious, I would rather set Nigeria loftier goals than being better than Niger republic instead of the 'one eyed man in the land of the blind' situation you are suggesting. You might say look at Niger and Somalia, I say look at Brazil, look at Singapore, look at China. If Nigeria would rather compare itself with countries in the calibre you mention then it should stop boring the whole world with the claims of being "Giant of Africa" already, we are getting extremely bored of it; na we get mouth pass. The quality of life in Nigeria needs to improve and excuses would not do anymore.

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=465297.msg6242060#msg6242060 date=1276901733]@Xterra2
Nigerians frustration is the power issue.  .If Govt(with help from private sector) can fix that then am sure most Nigerians will complain less
However that is no excuse for the constant negativity i see  here

To be frank with u the first time i got to london even USA i didnt see what the big deal was.  .
not to talk of places like mexico(which i have visited). . .we are all developing countries

Its not like u are coming from sudan or Niger. .

I mean Nigeria had a stock market in the early 1970s(most african countries dont have one today)[/quote]Power is a huge deal but the frustration goes waaaaayyyy beyond that, so let us not oversimplify issues.

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=464409.msg6238359#msg6238359 date=1276865410]you havent answered my question.''is jonathan fit to be our president based on his spending spree tendency ?'' Yes or no[/quote][quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=464409.msg6235434#msg6235434 date=1276813487]Beaf will always see anything ''jonathan'' as good.how do you justify spending a whooping #10 billion on common party?
i dont yaradua would have acted in this stu.pid manner if he was alive.this has really showed the naivety of some region to effectively rule this country.na wao,everybody wan produce president,they get am finish they dey mess up[/quote]I could go on and discuss wether Jonathan is fit to be president of Nigeria or not but that was not the reason for my post at all and you know it but as usual would want to divert attention, the part in bold is what I was responding to but you would choose to feign ignorance just to save face. I will not indulge you and would certainly not oblige. Please just ignore my posts and don't feel the need to respond to them, just move on. I am not interested in having exchanges with you. Have a nice day.

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=464409.msg6235434#msg6235434 date=1276813487]Beaf will always see anything ''jonathan'' as good.how do you justify spending a whooping #10 billion on common party?
i dont yaradua would have acted in this stu.pid manner if he was alive.this has really showed the naivety of some region to effectively rule this country.na wao,everybody wan produce president,they get am finish they dey mess up[/quote]You either missed the point of my post because you have a tendency to do so, or perhaps on purpose. Was simply drawing attention to the ethnic chauvinism that is so glaringly apparent in your post. In retrospect I over reacted because I should really expect no different from such a staunch supporter of rotational presidency (even if flawed and not taking all ethnic groups into account) and quota system, so why did I even expect different? What on earth does the following statement mean?

this has really showed the naivety of some region to effectively rule this country.na wao,everybody wan produce president,they get am finish they dey mess up

What nonsense? So what do you want? A medal for acknowledging Goodluck (a Nigerian citizen) as president of Nigeria? 'The naiveté of some region to effectively rule the country'? WOW. Don't even bother answering because I really don't think I should even bother replying to your posts or joining issues with you because it would probably be a wasted effort, my bad, I apologise. Have a nice day.

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=464409.msg6235434#msg6235434 date=1276813487]Beaf will always see anything ''jonathan'' as good.how do you justify spending a whooping #10 billion on common party?
i dont yaradua would have acted in this stu.pid manner if he was alive.this has really showed the naivety of some region to effectively rule this country.na wao,everybody wan produce president,they get am finish they dey mess up[/quote]What a silly, childish, patronising and condescending statement to make, the cheek and audacity of it all. I don't know why I actually expected a little better from you.

Electoral reforms and allow states to generate their own power. None of these requires any great deal of funds but would make a huge difference. Note, I did not say he should fix the power problem.

marvix:
Permit me to leave you on the rule of law as you urself have little or no understanding about what the rule of law is, I have explained it in d simplest terms but u want to remain in your utopian dreamland u are free to do so, but on d foundations I will take u again one by one.

1. Do you really think federalism is the problem of d ND, if we grant them full autonomies how many more Iboris, Odili, Igbinedion and Alams would we be breeding and this time we would even be breeding bigger ones, true federalism is a journey and an end and we will get there one day, just like if we had allowed the british a longer period b4 getting Independence we may as well have been like South Africa, because the independence would have meant more and those that would have gotten in charge would have become more matured like Mandela.

2.The govt of Yaradua had said it times without number that we cant continue subsidizig fuel and fixing prices but it is the labour union who are yet to bulge on the deregulation issue, Unlike the dictator Obj he engaged labour and all stakeholders in an effort to reach a consensus and this he couldnt achieve before his demise and Jonathans govt is still engaging with the civil societies and labour.
Credit should be given to Yaradua for not imposing deregulation on us and resisting pressure of artificial scarcity used by marketers to get an increase in the love-vendor price of petrol.

3.You claim to know how many MWs we were producing b4 yaradua but u ask if you are not mistaken, then are u sure about your figure and what figure is 'approachin 4000MW' and was it this figure that Obj had that he promised 24hr power supply 4 all by dec 1999?

4. Your understanding of the rule of law is poor, but if it helps, in the rule of law principle you cant accuse and judge, so Yaradua never judged anybody, it wasnt in his place to give Ibori favourable court judgements it was the place of the judiciary, but his duty with the rule of law is to enforce whatever court declaration, that is if someone could get a court injuction askin the FG to withold staff salaries,ooops Im sorry all staff salaries must remain withheld until the court reverses d order or another court of higher authority cancels the order, hope u can make sense of that!

5. The military hangover, what does the word inept mean? A man who calmed tensions in the ND, inept, A man who maintained fuel prices in the face of dwindling resources inept, A man who hosted the world cup with 17bn and had change after hosting a very successful event even when the original budget brought to him was 57b, A man who finally began the dredging of the River Niger, who stood firm and cancelled all phony sales of govt assets by the past administration, a man who called for the removal of immunity clause in the constitution that the level of corruption in this country should not allow any public officer be shielded by the law, A man who recomended a paycut for himself when his colleagues in the legislature were demanding and approving a 100% increase in their allowances, please if to be inept guarantees this then pls let us have more inept leaders.

6. Yaradua had nothing to do with probes because he knows from experience u achieve nothing by probing the past, it was the house nof reps dat probed d power sector and they themselves got involved in awarding contracts to themselves the Haliburton and others are going on because somke people have been covicted outside our shores for defrauding Nigeria.

7. If Obj had made any impact in the power sector why did Yaradua had to contend with fighting power from 2,800MW and try to bring them to 6000MW, Obj never told us the truth abt the power sector or did u know abt the6b dollars or 10b or 16b dollars whichever d case is that Obj spent and did u see where he spent it, but Yaradua drew up a comprehensive plan detailed and arrived that we need 5.6b dollars for critical projects and this money he got approval from al;l states to withdraw from d excess crude account unlike Obj who unilaterally drew from d acc without approval and still achieved nothing.
If power has not improved in your area it doesnt mean it hasnt improved elsewhere and if it took 11yrs for Objs effect to be felt now then please wait 4 another 5yrs to c d effect of Yaraduas work on power, but I know that as it is now the improvement in power supply is directly attributable to Yaraduas efforts and thats why Jonathan should not and would not slow it down!

8. I cant ujnderstand ypor point here, were the refineries built as dilapidated structures or did Yaradua leave the refineries better than he met them?


On the 7point agenda all I have to say is that the agendas as they are are not a 4yr or 8yr manifesto but should be a national framework with which we can use to judge any govt, it should always be a work in progress, or do u think there is a point where we would have generating capacity and say it is over, or can we say we are thru with building infrastructure, can we solve Security and say its over or invest in education and say that is ok? No we must continue to develop with the 7point agenda because they encompass everything we have to do as a nation!

Your response to point 1 is nothing more than insulting. "Them"? Niger Deltans are Nigerians and using the excuse of how many more Ibori's could possibly spring up if we allow people to control their resources is simply wicked and cowardly and doesn't address the issue at all, hence no surprise you were quick to give Yar Adua pass mark; it seems you just don't get it or you choose to ignore it. Corruption is nation wide in Nigenria so no need to make it seem like a recluse of the Niger Delta. The people want to control there resources, end of story. More Ibori's cropping up is not the issue so no need to take panadol for another man's headache. The hypocricy of it all, especially when you end with such condenscending trite. "Federalism is a journey"?

I am sure about the figure being between 3000 to 4000MW. I used if I am not mistaken because I had forgotten the exact figure so please go hide under some other line. You can do the research yourself instead trying to use such lame excuses.

No need to preach rule of law to me as I knew the justifications you were trying to use. But again, you seemed to completely miss the point about my problem with Yar Adua and electoral reforms. There were no electoral reforms under Yar Adua and that is the issue with regards to that area, not rule of law. A man claimed he was going to reform the electoral process and system to give credible elections. Under his administration reruns of elections were a massive fail. Anyone remember Ekiti? I repeat, there were no Electoral reforms under Yar Adua. If you have information to the contrary then please provide it and stop trying to change the issues as a means of running from them.

Tensions in the Niger Delta were not calmed but simply stalled to see what happens next, guess why? Because the people actually want peace. After the ceasefire what happened next? Please do tell since you keep bringing up the Niger Delta issue. What happened next and where are we today? If Jonathan wasn't rightly allowed to be VP you think there would have been stalled peace. Postphoning violence and then not really addressing the issue is not a solution. Calling for removal of immunity clause and paycut is a none issue as I had said earlier that Yar Adua's problem was never mainly financial corruption. Unfortunately visionless/directionless leadership is not a crime so we had to endure all those uncertain years. I guess the fact that you think hosting of junior worldcup (in which NEPA took light) and proposing the dredging of the river Niger justifies three years worth of presidential leadership in a country in such a state says it all. Inept is the wrong word to use? Sorry, I just assumed inept to be synonymous with incompetence, no? Seven point agenda, what was achieved?

Stop peddling fallacies please, it is embarassing. You might have chosen to ignore a lot of issues raised in my earlier points but I don't mind reminding you. How many power plants did Yar Adua start building? How long does it take to build a power plant? So why are you now telling us Yar Adua is the reason we can generate more power when a lot of the projects were started under Obasanjo?

Again I have to refer you to seven point agenda. You might choose to give Yar Adua a grade A for his performance but not everybody shares that view. What were his goals and did the resources and time available to him justify what he achieved (whatever that was. . . . .)? In my estimation his leadership was a failure. At each response you choose to ignore core issues like electoral reform he failed to address and would rather we focus on hosting of world cup. I don't want to keep lambasting the legacies of a dead man since I am sure he meant something to those close to him, but please stop expecting us all to forget the era of Yar Adua's directionless leadership and let the man be.

marvix:
Where was Yar Adua when all this was going on[color=#990000][/color]?
He was in his office attending to serious executive issues and leaving that to his AGF and the judiciary. The executive president is not responsible for quashing charges be they real or fabricated that is the job of the courts and if the courts cant do their job then why shift the fault to the president. Place blame at the appropriate quarters.

All that you said about Aondoaka and Yaradua does not show in anyway y Yaradua should be blamed, my arguement is that Aondoaka had a free hand to do his job and that is the way it is supposed to be in a democracy not one where the President is the all in all.

On the Uwais report, people just decide to use the report to blackmail Yaradua and his govt, Yaradua gave an assignment, the assignment ended with their recomendations and he should first be given credit for allowing the committee free hand to do their job, but then their recommendations as it is cannot be forced on the president or the nation as a whole, the committee is not above the FEC or the NASS or the Council of state for that matter, and whatever amendments you are to make in laws or constitution must have the support of the majority, so he sat with his FEC to draw a white paper and an implementable reform that everyone would be happy with or cant complain about, the senators who are to pass the reform did they win their elections and did they announce to you that they were tired of the senate and would not want to return, They are the beneficiaries of the flawed elections more than Yaradua because in a free and fair contest Yaradua would have come ahead of all the opposition candidates but most of the senators would have lost flawlessly in a free and fair contest.
Yaradua allowed the recommendation that INEC should be on first line charge and insisted that the Police should have a more defined role during elections, reforms are not meant to be revolutions they are gradual process that would finally take us to where we want to be.
It is most disappointing and shows us as a very ungrateful set of people not appreciating his efforts and pls it is not in his place to put pressure on the senators to do their job, they are paid to do their job, we pay them not the president so if we felt they werent doing their jobs then we the masses can take the march to them and tell them or we start recalling our senators at the different constituencies not the president sitting on their neck like Obj was fond of doing to get his way.



You can not see the foundations laid by Yaradua because you have been blinded by your hate and dislike for the man and his govt.
Some foundations are
1. Resolve the militancy issues without a single gunshot, now the new administration can go onwith implementing the other aspects of the amnesty programme.
2. The foundation for the solution of the fuel crisis in this country was laid by him, now fuel sells across the land for 65naira. He asked that all issues with outstanding subsidy payments be verified and properly audited after all this he approved payments for all subsidy claims, he set up a fuel pricing committee which decides and recommends to him on fuel price and this committee has representatives of labour and this is what is responsible for fuel prices remaining stagnant since 2007 and only went down when it moved.
3.Before Yaradua did you know how many megawatts we were generating, but now we can follow up on the level of power generation, the clear roadmap Jonathan is working with was prepared by Yaradua and dont forget that even while Yaradua was alive he assigned the power sector to Jonathan.
4. Now we all know that court judgemnets must be obeyed by all, Yaradua set the precedence, he stood solidly for rule of law and following all due process as a way of resolving issues permanently, this foundation is what Jonathan relied on and waited till all powers were given to him to act before he went on to become the substantive president.
5.Do u remember that Yaradua took a paycut when senators doubled their allownaces some yrs back, do you also remember that he has approved enhanced paypackage for different sectors of workers in the service, and incase you didnt know Yaradua had setup a committee whose duty it was to recommend wages for the civil service viz a viz the economic situation of the country and it was the work of this commitee that Jonathan used in arriving at the 18000 minimum wage he promised.
6.Deregulation, unlike his predecessor Yaradua never forced or tried to force deregulation on us instead he employed dialogue with all stake holders and even got the TUC to say we are not totally against deregulation but would like to see somethings in place before deregulation, some of those conditions like fixing the refineries and a living wage among others was what his govt was working on before he passed on and this is what Jonathan is working with today.
7. Power situation in the country has improved do you truly think that Jonathan just went to switch on existing power stations that were built before Yaradua or he conjured some of the power stations to be, ask any NEPA/PHCN staff they would tell you that no other govt ever released money to the power sector the way Yaradua did because unlike others whatever was released to the sector got to the sector.
8.Refineries are working in the country today I work very close to the Eleme refinery and my friends who work there confirm to me that the refinery had been working for sometime now, when Jonathan wanted to redeploy the former MD that was when the man callously shut down the refinery causing alot of damage but that has been resolved and it is back to production even if not at 100% capacity same for Warri refinery.

The Attorney General of the Federation is pretty much the lawyer of the government. It is not the job of the President to quash fabricated charges, but as is the case all over the world, the AGF or other such institutions represent the legal face of the government and by extension the direction that government wishes to take with regards to judicial issues, etc ( the legal representation that sells the case od the federal government and its agendas). The AGF is nominated by the President and is hence a presidential appointee. That lame and weak excuse you would rather peddle that the AGF is his own man would not fly. If we are to go by your logic then no one ever dare open there mouth and blame the Obasanjo administration for lack of better federal roads since there was a minister for works, no one better blame him for lack of power too, we should all forget that it was his administration and the buck stopped with him, right? I know it is inconvenient for you to accept the AGF as part of the Yar Adua administration since it is not in tandem with the gentil and rule of law image you would want to portray, but we clan not all be deceived. Yar Adua let a blatantly corrupt AGF stifle the anti corruption fight and engage in act bordering on treason; it is called very very poor leadership.

With regards to the Uwais report and electoral reform in general, you seem to want to quickly blame it all on the senate and house of reps, but please do tell, was it the members of the legislature that had a problem with the President no longer having the power to appoint the INEC chairman as sugegsted by the report? Contrary to your positions, it was Yar Adua's job to put pressure on and negotiate with the legislature to get bills passed, it was after all his administration, it is called leadership and that is how it is done. Obama had to put pressure on congress to pass health care reform and we have the same system as them. The legislature is simply there to checkmate the executive.

Now with regards to your 'foundations'

1 Yar Adua's solution to the core issues of practising federalism as raised by the Niger Delta militants was to create a 'ministry of Niger Delta' and provide an amnesty deal. Short term solutions to the bigger issue of an upside down system of governance which creates a very powerful central government and takes away even more power from the people.

2 You think continued subsidy and government setting of fuel prices is a foundation or to the solution of the fuel crises?

3 Speak for yourself please, if you didn't know how much power Nigeria was generating before Yar Adua say so and don't asume we are all like that. Befor Yar Adua power generating capacity was above 3000MW (approaching 4000MW if I am not mistaken). He got into power and his minister said we will get 6000MW by last year, they did not meet the target (because they could not secure gas - and Nigeria has one of the richest known gas reserves in the world). Question to also take into consideration. How many power plants were actually started (in terms of construction, etc) under the Yar Adua government? What became of the power probe?

4 Refer to the first issue addressed in the post

5 No one necessarily accused Yar Adua of being corrupt or greedy for money (power perhaps), people are just saying he was inept, couldn't deliver, and didn't achieve much.

6 What has been the progress or result due to such dialogue? What has been the results of the dialogues and probes and what have you?

7 Are you being for real? Really? If there has been an improvement in power supply in the country then I am sorry but that has been as a result of numerous power plant projects started under Obasanjo. Yes you are free to lambast OBJ for the ,ammount of funds spent with arguably little to show, but a few power projects were started under him. How many power plants did Yar Adua (not individual state governors using state funds like like Amaechi) start? You think power plants take months to build?

8 Would just like to point out that refineries in the country have been in different degrees of dilapidation for a very long time and definately before Yar Adua.

Finally, as I said earlier, I had no personal vendetta against Yar Adua, but would definately not close my eyes to what I considered inept leadership just because he is dead. If you want to take criticism of his administration as hate for the man then that is your prerogative and honestly, e consain you. I have better things to do with my energy than hate. If you want him to rest in peace then let sleeping dogs lie. But don't come on and paint a different picture now he is dead because you think such positions would not be challenged. What was the outcome of seven point agenda?

mistakay:
The police have asked Lagos-based lawyer Barrister Festus Keyamo to produce one of his clients, Olajide Ibrahim Oyewole, who is accusing the Comptroller of Customs Abdullahi Dikko Inde of allegedly forging his academic certificates.

Oyewole is accused of falsely parading himself as a student, a youth corps member and a civil servant.

Keyamo admitted that his client forged his certificate but challenged the police to also bring out the report of its investigation on the Customs CG.

I will always advise nairalanders to always exercise restraint and stop acting on mere allegations to condemn innocent persons for one and only reason "HATE".Now after more than 30 pages of venom spitting condemnation of this innocent custom man by nairalanders now who will apologize to this man for Gods sake?Shame on you all those who accuse this man unjustly.You accused,judged and executed now what? I guess its silence we will hear.So unfair but i guess thats the norm on nairaland,who is a northener if not dr.evil ?

http://www.news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19664:forgery-police-ask-keyamo-to-produce-client&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=119

Apologies people!

You conveniently did not see the part in bold? Or is that request no longer valid?

otawa:
Relax.

These are state of the art torches.

They auto-start when it is 6pm.

They are custom made to match finger print of each senator.

They can be shined on the senators numerous 'babes' to see who is HIV or not.

They can be use to detect evil forces when they hide in the Apo-Village in Abuja.

Aaah. I see. That explains it all.

marvix:
Every Yaradua hater believes that anyone who tries to paint a true picture of the mans aspirations is trying to rewrite history or outrightly telling lies, this could be no more farther from the truth. It is those who believe that Yaradua achieved nothing in his 3yrs of leadership that are trying to deceive the future generation and if we dont strive to put issues in proper perspective history itself will not be kind to us!

Aondoaka is not Yaradua and Yaradua is not Aondoaka, Aondoaka was appointed by Yaradua and his job was to supervise the Justice ministry, he was able to get away with a lot of his atrocities because he had a boss who does not interfer in your job, unless the issue is reffered to him. A case in mind was when the EVC of NCC wrote off a debt unilaterally without recourse to his minister and the FEC, and awarded a licence to the same company, Yaradua set up a committee to look into it with the Minister of Justice, and vintage Aondoaka recommended that the licence be allowed to stand so as not to destroy investor confidence but Dora stood her ground and Yaradua took Doras position and asked that the process be cancelled for the reason that the minister was not carried along and due process was not followed in the debt write off saga.
Yaradua abides by the rule of law principle which a lot of us dont understand, consider a scenario where you saw a man murder your father he was later caught and brought to court, but during the trial there was no proof beyon reasonable doubt that he commited the murder and the Judge discharges and acquits him, the rule of law expects u to abide by the judgement even though you know that he did commit the murder as a matter of fact under the law you cannot call the man a murderer, this is what Yaradua always did he never sat in judgement in anyones case, if you had a case you are to clear it with the appropriate authorities if you come out clean why should he be the one to judge you.
Aondoaka went out to defend Nigerian citizens against been tried in foreign lands this is not a new phenomenon in law, even the US sometimes ask that its nationals be repartriated back instead of trying them under foreign laws, Aondoaka also held sway in the justice ministry and we should be able to get Aondoaka to answer for his own actions because Yaradua had made a proclamation while in office that if he gave a directive that did not comply with due process that his ministers should not carry such directives out but rather come back and inform him, so whatever Aondoaka did should be placed squarely on his shoulders just like the case against him in cross river that has now banned him from ever holding any public office in Nigeria.
How do you want to ascribe election tribunal fiascos to Yaradua, was he the chief judge and was there any judgement or order given by any court of due jurisdiction that Yaradua disobeyed either in his personal capacity or as a public servant I make bold to say NO!!![size=8pt]
Yaradua was a firm believer that 2 wrongs could never make right, take the Lagos state as a case study, Obj held their funds because the gov had illegally created more LGAs but a court had ruled that the FG had no right to withold such funds, Yaradua released the funds immediately the issue was brought to him, and then wrote the gov an official letter informing the gov who happens to be a lawyer of the illegality going on in his state with the creation of the additional LGAs, Fashola made noise but when Fashola calmed down and analyse the implications of his actions viz a viz constitutional provisions he saw wisdom in Yaraduas position and reverted the LGAs to LCDAs which brought about a peaceful resolution, the moral of the lesson is that one right can make all right!!

Dropping the charges against Ribadu is the call of the AGF, the previous AGF had an issue with Ribadu and brought up trump up charges against the man what Yaradua stood for was that Ribadu should go ahead and defend himself, that is rule of law in practise not rule of thumb, if Yaradua had intervened and asked that Ribadu be left alone it would be a bad precedent as anyone who has a case with the law will complain and ask that the president intervene. The new AGF is also the one who agreed that he has seen the declaration documents and that he had no reason to continue the case, what about the Judge who was wasting everybodys time attending to the case when she should have demanded that the assets declaration form submitted by Ribadus lawyer be tested if it was actually the real assets declaration form, simply put its not in Yaraduas place to intervene in matters before the court as he has enough on his plate as executive president, the chief Justice of the federation could have thrown the case out of court and even sanction the Minister of Justice but failed to do so then why blame a man who practised seperation of powers to the full without ever interfering.
With regards to the issue of sending Ribadu on course it wasnt a Yaradua idea, the PSC members who never liked Ribadu and his colleagues who were not happy with his rise in the police force wanted him sacked outrightly and Yaradua didnot oblige them because as at that time there was no disciplinary case hanging on his head, that was why they had to play by the rules, first Ribadu was an AIG and had not undergone a course that all AIGs had to undergo before becoming one, so lets end him off so he doesnt have the power of the EFCC anymore and Yaradua would approve because an AIG must have completed that course before getting there, next stage lets review promotions, Ribadus process didnot follow due process according to the PSC and they forwarded same to Yaradua, was Yaradua supposed to now defend Ribadus promotion when even a dead officers name was included, so he approved again, now the final plot send him to a hot zone where we can easily assainate him and then ribadu fled again what was Yaraduas own in all this? agreed Ribadu was being hanted but the PSC tried following due process and that indeed is an irony of due process!!

Now to cut through the fluff.

Aondoakaa was not Yar Adua but Yar Adua was his boss. Aondoakaa inteferrence with justice went way beyond trying to defend Nigerian citizens from being tried abroad and the very fact that you can allude to that is patronising, insulting, desperate and condencending. So where was Aondoakaa when Nigerian citizens were threatened with beheading in Saudi arabia, and poor treatment in Libya and other parts of the world? Spare us the trite please. What about when Aondoakaa stifled plans by Scotland Yard to come into the country to invesitgate money laundering charges? What Nigerian citizen's right was he defending then? Aondoakaa's charges against Ribadu went beyond trumped up charges, saying you did not declare your assets when your asset declaration form is in the AGF office and assessible to the AGF is not trumped up charges, it is fabrication. So Nigerian money would have been better used debunking fabricated charges? Where was Yar Adua when all this was going on? The new president did what Yar Adua did not have the liver to do in three years, he got rid of a blatantly corrupt and internationaly disliked AGF, that is not called inteferring with the rule of law, it is called leadership.

Have you read the electoral act? When there is proof of vote rigging elections are normally cancelled. Forget the fact that there was so much submitted evidence that the court had to tell Buhari and co to stop submitting evidence in order to speed up the trial, even forget allegations of bribery, what I want you to focus on is the fact that Yar Adua came out openly and said the elections were flawed and told us we would have electoral reforms and improved future elections. We had to go through the whole Uwais panel, got solid recommendations. Now Yar Adua please push for the implementation of the recommendations, no. Instead what did he do? Stalled it because he was unhappy with the part that took away power from the president to appoint the INEC chairman? This was a man that was reported to during a meeting where NEPA took light about three times swear we will see the end of power outages. One would have expected such 'righteous anger' to translate to greater expediency in dealing with the power issue. What was his legacy in that sector? Doesn't that pretty much sum up Yar Adua's legacy as president? A man who could simply not deliver. Have we all of a sudden forgotten seven point agenda?

Yar Adua's records are there for all to see. You are yet to bring to light new information which could paint a different picture. How is what I have said now different from the truth of events? You keep talking about foundations and I keep telling you to be more specific instead of pontificating and making vague statements. What genuine solid achievement can we ascribe to Yar Adua? Spare us 'he was a good and humble man' ranting please. For those who did not know him, what has been his legacy? What were these achievements which you seem to know better than the rest of us but refuse to mention?

marvix:
Mbulela I apologise for the bad wishes to you.
It is just not fair to think you know someone better than those who stayed with him, most especially when a man dies serving his nation in truth we should be able to acknowledge them, can we in any honesty compare Yaradua to Obj or any of our past leaders.
The man was building strong foundations in almost all sectors of national lives foundations that were non existent and because of this foundations Jonathan is making progress.

What foundations? Is it insulting of me to ask that such statements be quantified a bit or at least elaborated on? What was the power generating capacity of the nation before Yar Adua and what was it before he died? Apart from the long list of probes, what reforms were actually instigated by the Yar Adua government? Why don't we go through each ministry and sector and you tell us what reforms or 'foundations' were laid to that effect?

marvix:
Mbulela you are just full of poo, you are a person that will never amount to anything in this life and if you ever come back to life again you will come as a deformed baby who will be dumb because thats exactly what you are.

You based your judgement of a man from all that you read of him on papers mostly written by his opponets and political adverseries and now someone who was close to him tries to put him in perspective and you try to rubbish that person as though you were to know the man more than Adeniyi did.

Yaradua was humble and believed in the rule of law and ruled this country with the fear of God. He wasnt a dictator like Buhari or Obasanjo, who will just throw people into jail because he knows that they are guilty, dont you realise that if you kill someone who despoiled your 6yr old daughter, you are a muderer and your punishment under the law is meant to be worse than the rapist! Yaradua never sat in judgement against anyone not Ibori or Tinubu or even Fashola, he always left every judgement at the feet of the judiciary, if his lieutenats and other accused find a way of reaching out to the judges and gettin judgement in their favor either by bribing or using coercive tendencies on the Judges that cannot be blamed on the president.

Yaradua never ran a oneman show, he believed in the superiority of collective reasoning and professional advice, he never took any action on law without consulting his AGF, his AGF being good or bad is besides the point, at least we have had a man who paid advisers and said he didnt have to take their advice.

Critically examining Adeniyis piece we could all see why the amnesty programme could even see the light, can you imagine a president sitting with an  like Okah, who for sure would have been screaming true federalism and all what not and the president who could just decide that they should take himout and execute him have his body shredded and no mention of him should be allowed in public, now telling him that I understand your challenge and I will redress the wrongs, he must have said this convincingly.

Yaraduas strength was in his humility and calmness, he disarmed the militants without a single gunshot being fired all he showed was his sincerity, which a lot of us could see from outside.

Yaradua had nothing he was doing with power while on his sickbed in Saudi, it was those who had something to benefit that didnt want him to give it up, also Yaradua by our constitution did not need to issue any letter asking Jonathan to act for him, because the constitution was clear and didnot give room for lacuna in the system, the constitution stipulated that the VP acts whenever the president is not around, that means the VP takes charge even if its only a day the president would be away, infact if in the middle of an FEC meeting the president excused himself to take a leak the VP can as well dissolve the cabinet and ask all the ministers to go home as the AG president, but when the president returns the president can either confirm the action or overrule this action that was what the constitution put in place, but now with the introduction of the clause that the letter must be written within 7days a principal can hold on to power even on his dead bed showing up at intervals of 6days to chair a meeting for five mins and dissolve cabinet and other issues would still come up in the future because of this amendment.

In conclusion I would like to appreciate Adeniyi for his writeup it was a wonderful piece and I expect more from those who were close to him

With regards to the parts in bold, the evidence says different. No need to even dig deep on the issue, I just have to think of Aondoaka stifling investigations against corrupt officials even by Scotland yard, and the whole electoral tribunal fiasco, and that would pretty much throw out your rule of law arguement. How come the charges against Ribadu were dropped by the present administration. One of the accusations against Ribadu was that he did not declare his assets, well, the new AGF got to his office and apparently saw the asset declaration form Ribadu had submitted before his appointment, making the charges simply fabricated and politically motivated.  I don't hold brief for Ribadu, but why send him on some course instead of outrightly firing him? That is less crafty than throwing people who might not agree with you in jail? I could go on but I would move on to other issues.

With regards to the second part in bold, so why was the pushing of the Uwais report delayed? For a man who clearly admitted that there was work to be done with regards to electoral reform right from day one I might add, there seemed to be a lot of foot dragging on the issue.

I don't even know where to begin on the issue of militancy and the Niger Delta. We had a president who thought one of the solutions to the Niger Delta problem was more bureacracy and hence the creation of the ministry of the Niger Delta. That was progress? Where are we today? How did the proposed amnesty touch on the core issues of federalism raised. The new president signed the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Bill (2010) into law on April, a move which some could easily argue would do more for the Niger Delta (at least a move which touches closer to the heart of the real issue) than three years of Yar Adua ever did.

I have no personal vendetta against Yar Adua, I just think he was a less than stellar president (to be extremely kind) who could not get things done. Now you could spend your life arguing that it was due to sickness or whatever but let us not forget that he could have resigned if he thought it was a bit too much, but chose not to do so. If people who felt his presidency was that great want him to rest in peace then let him rest in peace. But please, stop trying to rewrite history because we have not all forgotten what the Yar Adua years were like and you won't get away with such revisionism so easily. If you have new evidence or inside information to support such optimistic retrospects than please go ahead and post them so we could be enlightened, if not then I would advice you stop shoving the same tired trite down our throats in hopes we would all contract collective amnesia.

marvix:
I just said a prayer for his soul didnt realise its 40days already, he is another man who has made his mark and left the scene I miss him and I know that his dreams and aspiration for fatherland will be achieved most especiaslly because he has laid the solid foundation to get us going.

Adieu Mr President

What foundation? Please do tell. No vague statements, lavish us with details please and specifics if you can

monkeyleg:
@chiozor,

Peter Odili's time will come. Please lets not forget that justice is being served by a foreign govt. Nigeria needs to get its act together, and stop relying on someone else to do the right thing for them, but any Victory I will take

Interesting extract from an article. The problem might not be all down to EFCC.

EFCC recovers $3.5billion, says Waziri
http://thenationonlineng.net/web2/articles/49414/1/EFCC--recovers-35billion-says-Waziri/Page1.html

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chair Mrs. Farida Waziri, yesterday said the commission has over 400 cases pending in various courts in the country.

She also said that the EFCC had secured 100 convictions and recovered about $3.5billion.

Waziri, who made the disclosures at the public presentation of an Anti-Corruption Handbook written by Tabi Joda, said the slow pace of court processes is depressing.

She said: "As I speak to you now, we have over 400 cases in court including over 50 high profile cases. Only recently, we achieved conviction in a very high profile case involving the former chairman and members of the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA).

"At every single opportunity, I have always pointed out that by far the most depressing aspect of our fight against corruption is the slow pace of court processes.

"Clearly, this state of affairs is unacceptable and it is high time the Judiciary and the National Assembly set up a separate court for Economic and Financial Crimes with its special rules of procedure to expedite trials.

"I have also called for laws that will enable us sequestrate the assets of accused persons and convert them to government assets upon their conviction whereas those are long term goals. I think the judiciary can do a lot to speed up our trials."

The EFCC chairman however explained that despite the slow judicial process, the EFCC was able to secure 100 convictions and recovered about $3.5billion.

She added: "The first thing I want to do today is to assure all Nigerians of the determination of the EFCC to continue the fight against corruption with unstoppable vigour and commitment and to fight it at every level and facet of our society.

"Just last month, a strategic initiative on our part will cut down by between 50-70 per cent the incidence of Advance Fee Fraud. At our instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria has issued a circular regulating the modality of remittance of funds into Nigeria.

"We have advanced our technology to match the sophistication of cyber criminals by deploying Project Eagle Claw. We have initiated tax investigations which have led to recoveries of over N3billion.

"These achievements have caused our global corruption index to jump from 0.5 points to 2.7 points leaving us as 121st out of 179 countries sampled by Transparency International (TI). Whilst this is still a deplorable record, the improvement has been no doubt an acknowledgement of serious remedial efforts."

misterh:
If Ibori should be jailed, a lot of heads will roll cos those corrupt poli-trick-tians will have some explanations to do.

One of the reasons why I anticipate his trail and prosecution. Let the can of worms be open and make fowl yansh open.

monkeyleg:
Possibly wont be granted as he is wanted by 2 countries, there is not proof to suggest that Ibori is being hunted down for other reasons than to answer corruption charges. Why is he so scared to defend himself. Never knew such a coward.

Hey, don't diss the guy, he is running away from "selective justice"

OAM4J:
Good! then lets fight the real battle and stop the show of sympathy for the likes of Ibori. Let's address the real problem, make enough noise so that the law will be enforced on all the guilty.

My grouse is when we start making the likes of Ibori looks like victims instead of looking at the likes of IBB, Odili, Tinubu & co as benefactors of unfair system.

The question should be 'Why cant  you arrest IBB, Odili, Obj & co if you can arrest Ibori?' instead of 'why did you arrest Ibori when others are still free?'- Emphasis should be on those who are still free not on those already arrested.

Point. That is what I find irritating too. Very very well put and pretty much sums it all up. The system should be improved, but its inefficiency should never be used as a justification for letting people like Ibori off the hook, when in fact if there was a perfect and utopian system Ibori would still be trying to run away.

wirinet:
https://sirenschronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/lady-justice-statue-330x300.jpg

The reason why kinsmen, friends and relatives of very corrupt people still support them is because of the skewed sense of justice as exhibited by some people here in Nairaland, who support Ribadu's sense of justice.

I say that selective justice is no justice at all.

What selective justice breeds is sycophancy, and someone asks why all Nigerian politicians are sycophants and are tagged " any government in power". I condemn the persecution of Ibori, Ogbulafor (for an alleged crime he committed way back in 2003), the persecution of Ribadu, El-Rufai and even Bode George, while the likes of Odili, Sani Yerima, Alao Akala, Tony Anneni, are walking free enjoying their loot.

Nigerian political class is like a huge gang of armed robbers, it is only a member that is on the wrong side of the current powers that be that is labeled and persecuted. In that kind of arrangement corruption can only get worse not better.

The main aim of trying and punishing of a criminal is not to subject the criminal to suffering and humiliation but to reform him and make him see that his criminal activities is abhorred by the society. but mainly it is to serve as a detriment to others that are contemplating such corrupt activities. Once that detrimental factor is missing, corruption would continue to spread as it is doing today.

Fight against selective justice, it is the worse kind of corruption there is.

LOOOOOOOOL

I hope you are not going to take offence but I feel I just need to make an observation: your idea of justice seems to be selective too. No offence, but I find it a tad patronising when people come on and yarn unecessarily long gist and feel it is enlightenment when even the market woman with no education would probably have been able to say thesame thing with even more depth. Here is the reason why I say your idea of justice seems to be selective. The police man on the road who collects twenty naira, the civil servant who takes bribe in secratariats, the customs official who also takes bribe to look the other way, the citizen who pays bribes, ghost workers, etc. Do you know how endemic corruption really is in Nigeria? So why does your scope seem to only encapsulate well known political office holders and stop there? Why is it that to you selective justice only applies to going after Ibori or Ribadu or El Rufai; while leaving Odilli, Obasanjo, Annenih etc? Why? Do you know how many people are in Nigerian prisons today awaiting a court hearing? And your justification for that essay you posted above is that justice is selective unless everybody is prosecuted at the same time? What rubbish.

If you agree that corruption needs to involve everyone, then do you believe Nigerian courts and law enforcement agencies have the capacity to actually carry out a cleansing of the country at thesame time? Must we leave logic at the door just to defend Ibori and co? I see what you were trying to say but I am simply stating that everybody knows justice has to pursue the corrupt dilligently and with nor recourse for favouritism, etc. However, here are some things to consider. A fight against corruption is better than no fight against corruption and it always has to start from somewhere. In such genuine fights against corruption only people who are guilty should have reasons to be afraid and flee the country. There has to be a system before we talk of improving a system. So unless you have the courthouses, judges, lawyers, police officers, sss officers, extra holding cells and other resources that would be able to supplement a system that does not seem able to cope with what it already has to cope with, I suggest you spare us the patronising essays. In light of such I really would have to say all that pontificating above is condenscending to the point of being insulting.

pro01:
Exactly! Wish the gullible masses knew that. It makes no sense to rejoice over dubious tokenisms such as the Ibori charade and Ogbulafor soap opera. Instead, let them FIGHT for the entrenchment of institutional mechanisms for an effective and impartial war on corruption. All humans have the natural tendency to gain competitive advantage via illegal/corrupt means. Only an institutionalized system can neutralize these innate proclivities on a mass scale - thereby ensuring collective 'good behaviour'.

How pathetic. Americans don't suffer from eppileptic power supply, poor infrastructure, and the myraid of basic problems still affecting Nigeria, yet you think it makes sense to to even attempt a justification of the trite that happens in a nation where people still die from polio? Una no dey shame?

Been following his progress from afar too and I must say, he is making strides and seems to be focussed on development. That school was impressive, especially when you consider that many of these schools are been built around the state. I hope Jonathan would be able to push for laws that enable states generate their own power for their own consumption, so that those that want to can.

pro01:
I don't understand your views. To the best of my knowledge, NOBODY has said Ibori is innocent (and mind you, no court has yet found him guilty either), and nobody is defending him that he should not be arrested. Why do you people like making claims that have no basis? Why do you deliberately obfuscate issues just to buttress your dogmatic and subjective opinions? My points are very very very simple and straightforward:

1. Why deploy unprecedented maximum state resources and sensationalism to hunt down one "thief" and then turn a blind eye to the others (e.g. the Haliburton crooks)? What is the rationale behind this, considering that there are far too many crooks that have been ignored? Please explain.

2. If you say the maximum resources, sensationalism and the Interpol involvement were necessary because he purportedly resisted arrest and ran away, then what can you say about Nuhu Ribadu, Nasir El’ Rufai, and Erastus Akingbola? They all escaped from justice and ran overseas as fugitives . . .why did they not receive the Interpol treatment and all of the sensationalism attached to the Ibori case? Somebody should give me a sensible explanation.

3. I do not support corruption, and I want corrupt individuals to be punished to serve as deterrent to others. BUT, this war has to be fair and seen to be fair for it to succeed. If it is openly selective and dramatically politicised and prejudiced as it is in Nigeria today, then I cannot be impressed or fooled by the ridiculous deceit inherent in the so-called anti-corruption war. If this is how it would continue, then corruption would not be reduced in our life-time, mark my words! It is preposterous to say that one day it will be the turn of folks like IBB, OBJ and the rest; anyone that thinks that these people would ever be brought to justice under the present arrangement is a naïve day-dreamer. Only a revolutionary change in the socio-political order can bring about the sort of change that is badly needed. The current rickety, hypocritical, politicised and selective anti-corruption mirage would never ever work; at least not in our life-time.

That's the core of my argument.

This thread was about the Haliburton scandal, it was amusing how easily people were ready to bring Ibori into the equation, and then claim government is paying too much attention to Ibori when ordinary people seem to be the one doing so. If you want government to pursue OBJ and co then what has that got to do with government going after Ibori? Why make things unnecessarily complicated and then claim someone else is obfuscating issues? Was Ibori mentioned in the article? So who is being sensationalist here? Who is the one confusing issues? Why can't we just urge and push government to shine the spotlight on the haliburton issue? What really was the point of bringing in Ibori? Gosh! Armed robber is caught by police tomorrow and someone would bring in Ibori. Putting pressure on government to also focus on pursuing other cases does not mean less focus should be shone on Ibori. Ibori should be left to his fate, if he has nothing to hide he should be prepared to defend himself instead of waiting for another corrupt AGF to be in control before returning to Nigeria. Each case should be argued on its own merit.

Hardtalk:
Please all forgive me, but why is Jonathan biased? I have not seen Ibori's name being mentioned here, but the energy invested in arrested Ibori is alarming, when half of that, can be used to catch all those mentioned in this scandal. They are all free still walking the streets of Nigeria, even some are aspiring to become President of this nation.

Is Jonathan realy selecting those to deal with? Time will tell.

pro01:
Thank you. This is essentially the point I made in my thread about the Ibori melodrama. I wonder why the majority of Nigerian masses allow themselves to be fooled and carried away by deceitful stratagems of government purporting to be waging a war on corruption. Any sensible person would wonder why the government deployed unprecedented resources and sensationalism in hunting down Ibori, but is turning a blind eye to 'saints' like Obj, Atiku and the rest. Who is fooling who? I can't be impressed by this cheap chicanery. It is absolutely ridiculous.

The irony of these posts. Some people would indeed do anything to bring up the Ibori issue. Is there no shame left in Nigeria anymore? Or is defending criminals now the in thing? Are catching Ibori and challenging OBJ mutually exclusive? Why not focus on trying to get the government to actually pursue the case, why bring Ibori into this thing? I genuinely have to ask, HAVE YOU NO SHAME? Is Ibori guilty or not? Ofcourse more resources would be expended on Ibori, he is afterall on the run after it sunk in that he didn't have a corrupt AGF stifling attempts at bringing him to justice anymore. Are we now going to let every thief and armed robber walk because OBJ has not been tried in court? The length at which some people would go to defend armed robbers really is indeed amusing.

kosovo:
Speechless
This is so so sad, Pls lets celebrate his achievements. . .  

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4 Play:
SkyBlue, in all your blithering drivel and copy and paste, there is still no evidence of the private sector prepared to fund a new major airport in Lekki. Not one iota of evidence.

As for there being examples of PPPs not having public financing, Lekki is surely not one of them: http://allafrica.com/stories/200904061035.html

If the private sector is to fund an airport, the private sector alone will determine the size of the airport taking into consideration its commercial viability if they are supposed to bear the financial risk alone. Not yet seen any of these private investors, have you seen them?

Erm. . . . . .maybe thats why the article states that the governor is still "scouting" for investors just like was the case about a year or two ago for the rail project? You didn't read that part in your frantic quest to 'make a point'?

With regards to the second bolded part; did not claim Lekki was completely funded by the private sector, put up the article to show a list of local and private investors, a breed which from the way people post on this thread you would believe do not exist, with (going by your pasted article) government contributing about 18% of the capital as well as other concessions.

Everything else in your post has been addressed earlier so I won't repeat myself.