₦airaland Forum

The drop in the monthly revenue allocations by the Federal Government to the 36 states of the federation has affected the finances and smooth-running of various governments.
Investigations by Saturday Punch showed that the shortfall in revenue allocation to states by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee which started three months ago, had disrupted payment of salaries, pensions and financing of government projects in many states.
A cross-section of states that spoke with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, lamented that the shortfall in the allocations and non-disbursement of full allocations as at when due, had reduced the financial capacity of their governments, thus making it impossible for them to execute some vital projects.
While blaming the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for not remitting enough revenue to the coffers of the Federal Government, the states urged government to ensure adequate, transparent and accountable revenue remittance by the NNPC.
But as the states lament the toll of the shortage on their administrative efforts, President Goodluck Jonathan has intervened with a view to finding a quick solution to the problem.
Saturday Punch learnt on Thursday that the President had approved a sum of N75bn to be immediately made available to the FAAC to augment revenue shortfall for July.
This development was confirmed on Thursday by the Chairman, Forum of Commissioners of FAAC, Mr Timothy Odaah, during a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja.
He said the amount would be added to the N45bn already provided by the Ministry of Finance to make up the N115bn arrears for the Month of July.
About N336bn is being owed the three tiers of government as arrears of revenue shortfall owing to persistent decline in oil production and revenue.
Odaah said though the timely intervention of the President would help cushion the impact of the problem, state governments still believed the President was not well briefed on what was happening.
In Plateau State, the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, told Saturday PUNCH that the shortage had affected all cash-flow of salaries, wages, contractual obligations, security and the smooth running of government at all levels.
Abraham, who spoke with one of our correspondents, however, assured civil servants that the state government would ensure payment of salaries immediately the shortfalls were released.
He said, “Naturally, the non-disbursement of funds and shortfalls in federal allocations from the Federal Government affects all aspects of cash-flow such as salaries and wages, contractual obligations, handling of security problems and the smooth running of government at all levels.’’
He, however, said, “Sad as the situation may be, Governor Jonah Jang has always ensured prudent management of state resources.”
Akwa Ibom
In Akwa Ibom State, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Bassey Akpan, said that the state government got a loan of N80bn from the Standard Chartered Bank of London, not for the purpose of financing new projects, but to offset the previously acquired credit facility of N50bn from the United Bank for Africa Plc.
He explained that the state government had already met with the state House of Assembly on the need to write off the UBA loan facility which attracted an interest rate of 18.5 per cent per annum.
He stated that the UBA facility was a bridge to support the state government to fulfil its financial obligations as at the time the loan was taken.
Inquiries by our correspondent, however, showed that the state government was not owing workers’ salaries.
He said, “When we consummated the UBA facility, we were also working with international financial institutions. The essence of this loan is to enable us to bring down the cost of governance for the people. We have to do this based on the interest that has been shown by the international financial community based on the performance of the governor.”
Kwara State
In Kwara State, the governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, said the dwindling revenue from the federal coffers had impacted negatively on the state government as it had prevented the state from embarking on projects that required huge funding.
He attributed the dwindling revenue to a shortfall in the state’s allocation from the federation account which he said arose because of the non-augmentation of shortfalls of revenue by either the FAAC or the Ministry of Finance.
“The state government has been suffering as a result of the unwillingness of the appropriate agencies to augment the shortfalls of the Federal Government revenue.
“The problem has lasted for about three months now, FAAC just explained the reasons for the non-augmentation of shortfalls of revenue to us in September.’’
He stated that the state was still pressuring the relevant agency of the Federal Government to augment the revenue shortfall, expressing the hope that the state would soon succeed.
According to him, the shortfalls may not be unconnected with the low remittances from the revenue collecting agencies of the Federal Government.
Ahmed called for more transparency in collecting and accounting for revenue from the Federal Government collecting agencies, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Demola Banu, told Saturday PUNCH that the state was only meeting its monthly financial obligations on payment of salaries, pensions, interests and other recurrent expenditures that could not be differed.
Banu said, “We are facing challenges. But workers’ salaries are being paid. There is never a time that we did not pay salaries. But there could be other expenses that we need to make that could be deferred. But generally it has not affected us drastically.”
Both Ahmed and Banu declined to provide information on the state’s total loan obligations to its creditors.
Osun State
In Osun State, the Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, could not be reached to say how much the state was being owed by the Federal Government.
Also, calls put across to his telephone indicated that it was out of network coverage area.
However, a top civil servant, who pleaded not to be named, because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, said that the state government had been paying salaries despite the shortfall in federal allocations.
He said that the government had been using the state’s reserve to pay workers’ salaries, adding that the reserve would soon be empty.
He said, “The allocation shortfall is biting harder and I know that all the states are feeling the heat. The Federal Government is owing all the states N261bn. There was N121bn deficit in June and N140bn deficit in July.”
“Look around, you will see that some states have not been paying their workers since the shortfall started in June. Many will join the league of such states if the shortfall continues.”
He said that the other two tiers of government would soon be prostrate if the shortfall continued.
He said that Nigerians should appeal to the Federal Government to pay the money, saying otherwise many states would no longer be able to pay workers’ salaries.
Enugu State
In Enugu State, government kept mum on how the state was coping with the non-payment of arrears of allocations and financial commitments to banks, contractors, among other financial issues affecting the state.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Godson Nnadi, on Thursday said, “I am not permitted to speak on any of such matters without the approval of my principal.”
Nnadi pleaded with our correspondent to call the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chucks Ugwoke, “as he is the only one empowered by the State Executive Council to speak to journalists on any matter.”
However,SATURDAY PUNCHcould not get the comments of Ugwoke as he did not pick several calls to his mobile phone. He also did not respond to text messages sent to his phone.
At the Enugu State Budget Office, the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Casmir Ugwu, was unavailable to speak to our correspondent.
Rivers State
In Rivers State, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Chamberlain Peterside, said the state had yet to receive allocation for September 2013.
Peterside also lamented that the state was short-paid for the month of August.
According to him, while the state was expecting N19bn, the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission allocated only N14bn to it last month.
Peterside, however, explained that the state was finding a way out of the problem through its internally generated revenue.
“It (non-payment of monthly allocation) is the reality we are facing. We are even in a better shape than most other states.
“We have been able to fall back on our internally- generated revenue and that is why our situation is different from that of other states,” the commissioner said.
Describing the challenge as a national problem, Peterside pointed out that Rivers State had been able to pay contractors, adding that workers’ salaries had been processed and will soon be paid.
He said, “We have been able to pay contractors and that is why you can see them working at different locations in the state. The September salaries of civil servants have been processed and they will soon be paid.”
He, however, expressed the need to embrace transparency in the developments within the oil and gas sector.
Bayelsa State
In Bayelsa State, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Markson Fefegha, declined to comment on the inquiries by our correspondent. He said, “Those are questions reserved for those who attend Federal Allocation Committee meeting or officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance.”
Odaah said FAAC was owing states N336bn. This amount, according to him, is made up of N128bn for June; 115bn for July while shortfall for the month of August was put at N93bn.
Going by the payment of the N115bn, the arrears have now dropped to N221bn
Odaah said the inability of the Federal Government to pay the N115bn arrears which was already approved in the committee’s July meeting was the major bone of contention at its September meeting.
This, he explained, led to a walkout of the commissioners at both the committee’s meeting held on September 13 and 23 respectively.
The Federal Government had during the meeting provided the sum of N548.393bn as statutory revenue for the three tiers of government for the month of September. This was rejected by the members of the committee.
Odaah told our correspondent that the major reason for the rejection was that the approved N115bn July shortfall was not provided for.
He said, “In July, we approved that the arrears of N115bn be paid to us. We met in August and nothing was done about it. In September when the meeting was held again, they still haven’t paid.
“So when we met in September, instead of paying us the arrears, they told us that from September, what we will be sharing is actual instead of budgeted revenue. This made us to demand the clearing of all our backlog of N336bn and this was what caused the stalemate.
“But now the President has approved the release of N75bn to complement the N45bn already released by the Ministry of finance to make up the July shortfall of N115bn. We are grateful to him for his prompt intervention.”
Odaah dismissed reports that the action of the states was political and insisted that the states needed to get their allocation to carry out developmental projects.
“Our position is not political. We are a patriotic forum and we are doing this to help in developing our states. We are representatives of our respective governors.
In recent times, there had been persistent decline in gross federally collected revenue accruing to the federation account.
The Federal Government had projected monthly earnings of N702.54bn in the 2013 budget, but it only surpassed that target once during the first seven months of this year, earning N651.26bn in January; N571.7bn in February; and N595.71bn in March.

Population: How many are we in Nigeria?on September 28, 2013 at 2:00 am in Special Report
BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE Dep Political Editor
AS Nigeria marks 53 years of independence next week, one question that has defied answer is what the actually number of Nigerians is. This question, as simple as it appears, has been difficult to answer in the last 150 years.
Few weeks to the country’s 53rd independence anniversary, five months to100 years of the amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorates to create Nigeria and three years to the 2016 scheduled population census, the issue of how many we are was flung to the front burner of raging issues, recently.
National Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Chief Festus Odimegwu stirred the hornet’s nest when he said, in an interview with journalists in Abuja late August that the country had not had any credible census since 1816.
Subsidy Protest: Protesters at the Gani Fawehinmi Park Ojota, Lagos
Blaming the irregularity on distortion and falsification of figures for selfish and political reasons by politicians, he said: “No census has been credible in Nigeria since 1863. Even the one conducted in 2006 is not credible. I have the records and evidence produced by scholars and professors of repute. This is not my report. If the current laws are not amended, the planned 2016 census will not succeed.”
Odimegwu’s comments raised a quantum of dust in the polity with the presidency firing him a query. He also received an avalanche of attacks from many northerners especially, Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who during a visit to President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, called for Odimegwu’s sack over his denigration of the 2006 Nigeria census.
150 years of controversial headcounts
The question of how many Nigerians are there has been popping up long before the people evolved into a nation through amalgamation in 1914.
The first recorded headcount was at the Colony of Lagos in 1863. Another one was held at the then colony in 1871. It was, thereafter, conducted every 10 years.
The first national census was in 1911. Of the 16.054 million persons counted, the Northern Protectorate had 8.12 million, about 50.1 per cent of the total population.
After the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, another exercise was held in 1921. The population was put at 18.7 million with the South having 48 per cent of it.
Other exercises were conducted in 1931, 1953, 1962/63, 1973, 1991 and 2006. Except in the 1962 exercise, the North has always maintained an edge over the South, thus affirming the 1911 projections.
The 1952-53 exercises put the nation’s population figure at 31.6 million. This census was considered an undercount for a number of reasons: apprehension that the headcount was related to tax collection; political tension at the time in eastern Nigeria; inability to reach many remote areas; and inadequate training of enumerators in some areas. The undercounting was estimated at 10 percent or less.
The 1962 and 1973 censuses were most controversial and were subsequently cancelled by the governments in power. The mid-1962 exercise was canceled after much controversy and allegations of over-counting in many areas. Of the 45 million Nigerians counted in 1962, the South had 24 million, thereby “overtaking” the North, which was allegedly favoured in past exercises.
A second attempt in 1963, which was officially accepted, was also encumbered with charges of inaccuracy and manipulation for regional and local political purposes. Indeed, the official 1963 figure of 55.6 million was inconsistent with the census of a decade earlier because it implied a virtually impossible annual growth rate of 5.8 percent.
The equally controversial 1991 census posted a figure of 88.9 million people with a projected growth rate of 2.9 per cent
Before the 2006 headcount, intense bickering arose regarding the proposal to include ethnicity and religion in the questionnaires to generate the statistics of the various ethnic and religious groups in the country given claims and counter-claims regarding their relative strengths. The North threatened to mobilize its people to work against the exercise should these two indices appear in the questionnaire. There was equally a counter threat from the South-east to boycott the exercise if they were not included. In the long run, the North had the upper hand and religion and ethnic group was excluded to the chagrin of Southeasterners.
Consequently, population figures had always been a subject of mudslinging between Southern and Northern politicians. For Southerners, the belief is that the population of the North had been “over-counted”.
They argue that going by simple demographic distribution pattern across the globe, population increases as one move from the hinterland (desert or Savannah regions) to the coast. They wondered why in the case of Nigeria, the North which lies in the arid zone, is more populous than the coastal South.
For Northerners, their extensive landmass and population must not be taken for granted, facts that several head counts had confirmed. And the controversy continues.
Odumegwu’s comments belie Nigeria’s topsy-turvy experience with population census. Acclaimed as the most populous nation in Africa, the true number of Nigerians has always remained a matter of estimates. Currently, Nigeria’s population is between 160 – 167 million based on projections from the 2006 census that put the nation’s population at 140 million with the North accounting for 73.6 million and the South having 64.9 million.
Lagoscomplaints
One state that strongly disputed the 2006 census was Lagos, which promptly filed a petition at the Census Tribunal and got a favourable judgment. At the 1991 headcount, Lagos had 5.686 million inhabitants while Kano had 5.632. However, in 2006, Lagos recorded 9.014 million people compared to Kano’s 9.384 million.
The state government, whose parallel headcount recorded 17,553,924 people, described the NPC’s figure as too low. It prayed the tribunal to order a repeat headcount in 14 Local Councils, namely, Alimosho, Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Apapa, Lagos-Island, Lagos Mainland, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Kosofe, Mushin, Badagry, Oshodi-Isolo, Shomolu and Surulere and the prayer was answered.
The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, said: “In the final analysis, the official national census results for the 14 old Local Government Councils (now 40 LGAs and LCDAs) in LagosState have been nullified. This vindicates the resolve of the government to base its physical and economic plans on a projected population of 17,553,924 in 2006 and over 21,000,000 currently. We now expect that the National Population Commission will urgently announce plans for a recount as ordered by the tribunal,” he said.
However, Lagos may not have a repeat headcount in the affected areas until 2016 when another nationwide census would be carried out. Feelers from the NPC indicate that the commission lacked the basic benchmark and requirements to conduct a census now.
Paucity of funds has always hindered scheduled censuses. That was one of the major reasons it took 15 years to hold the 2006 census after the 1991 exercise.
N600 billion budget
Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan approved a budget of N600 billion to the NPC for the 2016 census exercise. The amount is to take care of the activities of the commission for the period of five years at the rate of N120 billion per year.
Population is a major asset; as resource for development, and is also the prime beneficiary of development in society. It constitutes the bulk of the producers and consumers of goods and services. Having a fair estimate of the population of a country enables the government to plan effectively for the betterment of the citizenry. Otherwise, economy planners will be groping in the dark.
In Nigeria, population has been a rather sensitive and controversial issue because of its implications for shaping geopolitical regions, state and ethnic relations and balance of power. It is the attitude towards the population question, in terms of its absolute size, as it concerns election, the states and the sub-regions that constitute the background to census controversies.
Given the controversies stoked by Odimegwu’s comments, his assurances and the hefty budget approved by the government, it is to be seen if the 2016 census will live to expectation.

Nigeria@53: Our people are suffering, says Senate
September 27, 2013 by Sunday
President of the Senate, David Mark
| credits: File copy
Senators on Thursday, unanimously submitted that the nation’s leaders, apart from those who fought for its independence, 53 years ago, had failed to provide the required leadership that could make the country socio-economically independent.
They also admitted that the nation’s leadership since the return to full democratic rule, 14 years ago, had taken no serious step to tackle corruption, unemployment, rot in the education sector, decayed infrastructure and nepotism.
However, while some of them believed that the situation could be improved upon through a change of attitude by the leadership, others believed that a total take over of government by the progressive politicians in 2015 would save the country from the current mess.
The senators said this during their contributions to a motion moved by the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who requested the Senate to congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan, the government and people of Nigeria on the nation’s 53rd independence anniversary.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, in his contribution, noted that the crisis in the nation’s educational sector and the reduction of Nigeria to a mere raw material provider for manufacturing firms in other countries, was not good enough for a truly independent nation.
He said, “A truly independent nation is measured by its quality of education and economic sustainability. A situation whereby our universities are shut for months and manufacturing companies and relocating daily to neighbouring countries is not good enough for an independent nation
“How can we claim to be an independent nation when all we do is just to produce raw materials for processing firms outside the country and nothing serious is being done to address the high rate of unemployment “
Senator Barnabas Gemade urged the nation leadership to improve on the social infrastructure, the power supply and develop its agricultural potential as a startegy to tackle unemployment.
Senator Kabiru Gaya, said, “Nigeria always take one step forward and several ones backward whenever there is a change in government.”
He also noted that a deliberate attempt to improve the agricultural sector and a committed effort to fight corruption was required to tackle the social and economic challenges facing the country.
Senator Smart Adeyemi noted that the problems confronting the nation was selfishness, greed and absence of nationalistic spirit in the nature and attitude of the nation’s leaders.
He recalled with regret that while the current leaders were self-centred by putting the interests of their family and community first in their activities, the leaders who fought for the nation’s independence were selfless and made national interest their priority.
However, the Senator representing Lagos East, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, changed the course of the discussion when he said that only the emergence of the progressives could bring about the desired change.
Ashafa, who lamented that past and present leaders had mismanaged the nation’s resources, expressed confidence that the situation would change when the progressive politicians take over power in 2015.
His position was supported by Senators Ayoade Adeseun, Ganiyu Solomon, and Akin Odunsi, who in their submissions, believed that Nigerian leaders had failed the citizens.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, noted that since there could be no democracy without democrats, Nigerian leaders should encourage shades of opinion because those with contrary opinions also love the country.
Senate President David Mark commended his colleagues for their frank, sincere and objective appraisal of the nation’s polity, a development he noted, showed that the senators were worried about the current situation in Nigeria and were genuinely seeking a positive change.
He commended Nigerians for their patience and urged public office holders to live above parochialism by seeing every Nigerian as their brother and sister in line with the contents of the old national anthem.
He said, “Nigerians have every reason to be anxious and to be impatient. We are endowed with abundant human and natural resources but our people are still suffering. We have to congratulate them for their patience.”

I Remain Speaker Of Kaduna State House Of Assembly - Gangara
Posted: September 25, 2013 - 18:35
Hon. Muazu Gangara, who was reported to have been forced out of office as Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly yesterday by 18 of its 34 members loyal to Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, insists he is the substantive Speaker and will challenge the issue in court.
Gangara spoke at a press conference in Kaduna last night, surrounded by 15 loyal members that included his deputy, Dr. Dogara Mato, as well as the Majority and Minority Leaders, Hon. David Umar and Dr. Shehu Usman Danfulani.
He described as “illegitimate” the action of the 18, led by Philemon Usman and Jerry Kantiok, by which they claimed to have impeached him and replaced him with Shehu Usman Tahir and Hon. Peter Adamu as Deputy Speaker, stressing the sitting did not enjoy the required quorum of 22 members.
“The purported sitting by some members of the Kaduna state House of Assembly is a nullity,” he said. “Section 92 of the Constitution said no impeachment can take place until two-third of the elected members of the House are present, which have to be 22 out of the 34 members. They did not reach two-third of the membership of the House. The House has since suspended its sitting until further notice and it cannot reconvene without the permission of the chairman, Business and Rules Committee, which they did not get. The mace they used was brought out of the museum for the exercise. It was not the mace in use by the House. We must respect the constitution of the country. The alternative is that we are heading to court to challenge the impeachment. We are going to follow it through in the court of law.”
SaharaReporters also gathered that supporters of Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, despite absolving the governor of responsibility for the impeachment effort, cannot prove his non-partisanship in the crisis that is rocking the House.
We understand that the clerk of the Assembly was acting upon the instructions of the governor to enable the 18 lawmakers to impeach the substantive speaker despite their inability to form a quorum.
It has unfolded that the 18 members who “impeached” the principal officers of the Assembly settled for a sum of money with the governor, some of which has been paid to them. Security agencies are also said to have been compromised in the state to side with the “new Speaker.”

The social media world is huge, very huge. The statistics could make one’s head spin. I believe you and your brand(s) are on one social media platform or the other and I am sure you are having a swell time. Everyone on the social media has a story to tell about his or her experiences. I have a collection of my own awesome experiences on the social media. What is the volume of your experience? Can you have a repeat of your awesome personal experience in your company as well?
Companies today should not find it difficult to embrace social media as a means of enhancing their business. Speaking to the chief marketing officer of a multinational recently, he said, “Social media is beginning to have a great deal in today’s business world. The more we use it in our company, the more we are learning”. Social media has changed marketing, sales, public relations, human resources and the entire way of running a company.
Reinforcing your stand in a fierce competitive market requires doing the extra ordinary. Taking your personal brand or company brand to the next level requests more – social media. The first time I introduced many of my clients to social media, they saw no reason for joining the platform personally or business wise. But after a little experimental activity on the platforms, they jumped at the initiative. If, however, you are among those doubting the importance of the social media, the following reasons can make you have a change of mind.
Fascinating traffic
The biggest social media platform, Facebook has 1.15 billion users. If Facebook was a country, it will be the second largest country. Its number is so huge you cannot overlook it. Imagine what the traffic of other social media platforms can do when harnessed.
About three years ago, I was in the office of a managing director of a newly established hotel in Ikeja, Lagos. At the meeting, another top executive of the firm worked in. He looked outside the window and said, “The traffic on this highway is so much today”. Surprisingly, the managing director replied, “It is good for our business. People will notice us”. The social media traffic is so huge that you and your business can go unnoticed. Why do you think companies pay more for advert space in traffic zones? Why do you think companies pay more to put their adverts in the first, two pages of a newspaper? Simple: so that people can notice them.
Your company is competing for attention against everything. Attention is what you seek. Unfortunately, getting customer’s attention does not translate into purchase. Today’s customers do not have time. They are too distracted to pay attention to your adverts. They are also tech cum social media savvy. They make their purchase decision on informed information, many of which circulate via social media. Social media does not just make customers to notice you or your brand but provides you with a platform to meet your targeted audience.
Awesome statistics
Nigeria has one of the largest Internet population in Africa and the 11th in the world. Incredibly, Nigeria’s Internet population is more than the entire Tanzania’s population. More than 3,326,468 persons became new Internet users between December 2011 and June 2012. The male Internet users stand at 67 per cent, leaving the other 33 per cent for the female folk. You may ask what people do most on the Internet.
Sharing news and information comes first, followed by social networking. Over nine million Nigerians are active on social media. Nigeria’s telecoms industry being the largest in Africa, has aided the use of social media. Virtually everyone has a smartphone. Even many of these phones have facilities for browsing the Internet as well as for social networking apps.
As the world continues to embrace social media, the ways we use the social networks are becoming clearer. Twitter with its brief and snappy messaging is very dependent on mobile usage and smartphones. The rise of the virtual web is making Pinterest and Tumblr the fastest growing social networks on the planet. Facebook is where we share with friends and family. I will be waiting for reason you or your business would not be on the social media platform.

Building collapse: Beyond poor quality materials
September 25, 2013 by Francis Adeyemo
On June 6, 2013, it was reported that a four -storey building had collapsed in Philadelphia, the United States killing six people and wounding 13 others seriously.
Could you imagine this scenario, your first site visit on Monday morning together with your client to show you his newly acquired two plot site to build two units of architecturally designed stately homes for his two wives, at Mende Estate, Maryland, Lagos?
As you came out from your car, you firsthand witnessed some titled buildings around you. Suddenly, a five-storey building very close to the vicinity, snapped in your very presence. That was when you critically took note of all titled buildings ready to give way around you and you started wondering what might be responsible for all that. At that moment, you took a look at a two-storey building and the roof is about to collapse. The collapse of residential or commercial buildings have become a frequent occurrence all over the world. On April14, 2013 it was reported that an eight-storey building that housed a garment factory, bank etc collapsed, killed over one thousand people in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Back home in Nigeria, collapsed buildings hardly make front page stories as these have been recurring so often, particularly in Lagos and its metropolis. That brings us to the crucial issue of the causes of building collapse. There are many factors deduced from this. Many building experts believe that collapsed buildings are caused by foundation defects; ground movement, leading to subsidence as often occurred at Mende Estate, Maryland with many buildings with titled structures. Other factors are dampness on the surface of the walls, cracks caused by inferior building materials, poor quality iron rods, low quality concrete blocks, cement and aggregate, leakage of roofs, and many more. Some experts also believe that buildings collapsed are caused by disproportionate mixtures like high quantity of sands and low quantity of cement.
It is obvious that all this can contribute to the collapse of buildings. My view on this is a bit different, speaking from my years of experience. In the last 30 years I have been conducting soil evaluation for my ministry which has been busy putting up strong buildings for places of meetings and residential and commercial buildings in different parts of the country. They have zero per cent of collapsed buildings. What is the secret? The secret is found in soil evaluation of a site. All potential building sites need to be investigated to determine their suitability for building and the nature and extent of the preliminary work that would likely be needed. Particular attention should be given to the nature of the soil and likely, its probable load-bearing capacity by means of practical trial holes or by mechanical borings as there may be variations over the site. You must also establish the level of water table as a high water table may necessitate subsoil drainage and this could cause flooding during rainy season. You also need to establish the position and size of main services. It is advisable to take a grid of levels over the site to indicate the amount of earth work and ease of drainage. Among other things, consideration should be given to matters as access, storage space and work conditions which could all effect the cost of the project. Indeed, it is good practice to assess the approximate cost of site clearance work in building up and estimate of likely cost of the complete job to avoid cutting corners as the work progresses.
Among other requirements to guard against building collapse, there is a great deal of lack of well-trained skilled builders, craftsmen and quality controllers. The nation is seriously suffering from an acute shortage of places of training in some of the higher institutions due to inadequate infrastructure and qualified professionals. For example, a small job offer puts an architect or surveyor to a greater test than a larger project. The reason is that an architect is usually the only person supervising the project. There is rarely a clerk of works, quantity surveyor or civil engineer to help out. For this fact, an architect must therefore be familiar with various operations taking place at the site. On a large scale of buildings, an architect usually has assistant(s). This would be prepared to make a one-off on the spot decisions about for example, saving building materials from waste.
The most important loss however is the quality controller, as site visits by an architect are unlikely to be more than twice a week. A good deal of work might have been carried out without any scrutiny and much of it could be out of view as they are under or behind plaster. Hence, it is imperative to know just when to visit a site so that certain items could be inspected and corrected before they are done away with.
For instance, simple residential buildings on reasonable sites may require digging several holes about three spits deep, drilling holes up to 1.2m3 or 2m3 deep with hand anger, or driving a pointed steel bar about 1.2mm into the ground. However, with larger buildings or more difficult sites such as Mende Estate, Maryland, or Ajah areas the following methods can be applied:
(1) Excavating trial holes about 1.5m3 deep outside the perimeter of the building
(2) Drilling boreholes by percussion or rotary methods. The difference between the percussion and rotary methods is that the percussion uses a steel bit with a chisel point screwed to a steel rod while rotary method employs a hollow rod with a rotating bit and a core of strata is used to back-up the hollow rod.
(3) Load-testing often using a reinforced concrete slab about 1.2m2 to 1.5m2 and 300mm thick to which loads are added at about two-hour intervals and amount of settlement is determined with a level. The safe bearing capacity of the soil is found by dividing half the load applied period to appreciable settlement into the area of the slab.
My experience of soil can be classified as follows:
1. Cohesive soils such as clays where the constituent particles are closely integrated and stick together are found in parts of Ikorodu environment; and Abesan areas etc;
2. Non-cohesive soil such as gravels and sands whose strength is largely dependent on the grading and closeness of the particles are found on parts of Ikorodu, Ogijo, Ita-Mogan; Soil Ijaiyi and its environment: density and loading paid foundations may be designed for bearing pressure.
3. Peat, which is decayed vegetable matter of low strength with high moisture and acidic contents, designed with large safety factor on end of resistance of piles and consolidating may cause a downward load on piles.
4. Dump fill often contains waste of any kind and could cause settlement problems. About 70 per cent of Lagos areas contain peat and dump fill. Hence, there should be a comprehensive soil investigation before any building construction is carried out to avoid collapse before it reaches its lifespan of 60 years.
•Adeyemo, an architect, wrote in from Lagos

The Punch Newspapers
In the news today:
* Jonathan ineligible to run in 2015 – New PDP
* Confusion as Kaduna assembly impeaches speaker
* Floods wreak havoc in Ibadan, kill two
* Military deploys more fighter jets in Borno, others
* Why some states can’t pay salaries — Uduaghan
* Senate investigates Abuja killings
* N6.4bn fraud: EFCC appeals discharge of UBEC officials
* Kenya announces victory over mall attackers
* Housemaid, agent in police net for multiple robberies
* FIFA instructor rates Enyeama high
*For details and other stories, kindly visit
www.punchng.com

Woman rescued from drowning over N500
ONITSHA—There was pandemonium, yesterday, in Awka when a middle-aged woman escaped death at Ezu River, where over 23 mystery corpses were found few months ago.
The woman, Ms. Peace Nnabuife, from Ezeoye, Nibo in Awka South Local Government of the state, had entered the river on a “spiritual journey” when she suddenly slipped and almost drowned.
Some young men, using canoe, were said to have gone to the river bank to perform some sacrifices when they saw the drowning woman and helped her.
They were leaving when her N500 fell into the river. She went for the money and got swept off by the river. Roots of trees were said to have stopped her from being taken away by the river.
She said: “I came here so that Ezu River will carry me to Nibo. We travel through rivers to our meeting place in the depth of the river, where our queen’s kingdom is.
“I came with cellophane bag and I had N500 in it. The N500 fell into the river as the water carried me.”
Asked where she was going for the meeting, she said, “we hold our meetings at Ezu Agulu and I am still in the junior category.”

They should regulate corruption first

I just want an answer from my muslim brodas and sister. My question is did Almighty Allah really bless Israel in the quran. I need the verse,thank you

September 24, 2013by Ihuoma Chiedozie, Abuja
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Mukhtar
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Mukhtar, has said security agencies in the country take suspects to court before looking for evidence to prosecute them.
Justice Mukhtar identified the practice as one of the reasons for undue delays in the criminal justice administration system in the country.
The CJN spoke at a special session organised by the Supreme Court to mark the commencement of the 2013/2014 Legal Year, as well as the inauguration of 17 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria in Abuja on Monday.
She frowned at the “unwholesome practice of some security agents involved in the criminal justice administration system,” particularly the arraignment of suspects without first gathering evidence for prosecution.
“It is common knowledge that our security agencies usually rush to the courts with suspects, before looking for evidence to prosecute them.
“The persistent use of the ‘Holden Charge’ by these agencies to detain awaiting trial suspects, is a major contributor to the high number of cases pending in our courts,” she said.
The CJN advised the security agencies to emulate the practice in other parts of the world, where adequate evidences were obtained before suspects were arrested and charged to court.
Admonishing the security agencies to adopt a more effective approach, she said, “This procedure is a far cry from what obtains in other democracies, where discrete surveillance is placed on crime suspects who are painstakingly stalked by security agents, until such a time when enough evidence would have been obtained for their arrest, arraignment and prosecution.
“But in Nigeria, suspects are promptly arrested and often times arraigned in court, even when no evidence for prosecution has been gathered.
“The backlash from such failure of proper investigation by our security agencies is the resultant hike in the number of cases pending in the courts.”
Justice Mukhtar warned that “an extreme consequence of these glaring lapses may lie in the loss of confidence in our domestic justice administration system which rubbishes our often brandished favourable investment climate and translate to a huge disincentive to potential foreign investors in Nigeria.”
She restated her call for an overhaul of the country’s criminal laws, which she described as “archaic and culturally irrelevant.”
The CJN further expressed concerns at the slow pace of administration of justice in the country.
“To exhaust complete remedy in a case, that is from trial court to Supreme Court, could take up to 20 years with the original litigants dead and substituted and in some cases the substitutes also dead and substituted,” she said.
She added that the process of interlocutory appeals aggravates the situation to the extent that by the time the Supreme Court decides that they be continued in trial court, most of the witnesses might have died or alive but senile, with documents no longer traceable.
Justice Mukhtar also spoke on the challenges militating against her resolve to restore the fading glory of this country’s judiciary.
She stressed that, for her to achieve the objective, “certain indices have to be guaranteed, for instance government must at all times ensure total compliance with the rule of law as well as adherence to the principle of separation of powers.”
Speaking of the need for compliance with the principle of separation of powers, the CJN noted that the National Judicial Council had the exclusive powers to deal with policies relating to policy and administration in the judiciary.
Noting that, under a democratic dispensation, the three arms of government must keep faith with the doctrine of separation of powers as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, she stressed that “the Judiciary must continue to defend its independence so that it should not merely be apparent but must be seen to be real.”
“By virtue of Section 153 of the Constitution, the National Judicial Council is the apex body for the nation’s Judiciary.
“By paragraph 21(1), part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, the Council has the power to deal with matters relating to broad issues of policy and administration of the Judiciary,” she added.
Also speaking at the event, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Okey Wali, SAN, canvassed the inclusion of NBA’s representatives in the NJC in disciplinary proceedings against judges.
Wali also spoke of heightened efforts by the NBA to address issues of indiscipline among legal practitioners.
He said seven lawyers were expelled from the bar in the past legal year after being indicted for various acts of misconduct, while two others were suspended.
The NBA President also echoed the CJN’s concerns over the “poor funding” of the judiciary.

Conversation inside Delta City buson September 24, 2013 at 12:47 am in Viewpoint
The vehicle, a newly acquired 14-seater Haice Toyota bus painted in DeltaState commuter colours of blue and white was on a 45 minutes journey from Warri to the university town of Abraka. I looked forward to alighting from the vehicle to conduct my private business and begin a quick return journey to Warri.
As we took off from the Delta city park by Deco Road and meandered through the Warri-Sapele road towards Effurun Junction, I could not help but admire the beautiful transformation which has repositioned Enerhen Junction referred to, by some people, as an axis of evil and difficulty.
It was at Enerhen Junction as I was pondering the aesthetic changes that had taken place that our journey took a dramatic twist for more than 30 minutes. Nerves were frayed, voices were raised, the bus was polarized and anger stared anger on the face. There were occasional outburst of laughter but two clear divide had emerged and both sides engaged in a fierce debate inside the bus popularly called Uduaghan bus.
We hardly knew when we passed the Effurun roundabout as we all got entangled in the debate to assess the performance of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in the more than six years on the saddle. My position on the socio-economic development of DeltaState is clear in my mind and you can be sure I was one of those who staked a position in the raging debate. But I have no wish to feed you with my thinking alone, since that will be an unfair representation of the dialogue inside this bus.
Actually, it was a petite fair- complexion young lady that started it all. Hear her: “Thank God for this Uduaghan bus”, she began. “Only God knows how students would have been making it to Abraka. All these transporters were exploiting us seriously until Uduaghan came with these buses that have eased our problems and made commuting easier,” she explained. “Now look at the beauty of Enerhen Junction; this place is greatly transformed, it looks like little London.
” But that was the turning point as the lanky man who sat two seats away asked: ”What has Uduaghan achieved?” He was almost screaming. “What has he really done for the people of the state in the last six years? Can you compare Delta to Lagos or Rivers or even our sister state Edo or Awka Ibom or Cross River with all the oil money that Delta generates; is it just this Enerhen Junction thing that the man could do?” he hissed.
“Others are building overhead bridges and what he did was just to confuse us by expanding the road and putting a few things in place to make it seem as if he is working”. Another commuter picked it up from him, this time a lady.
“I graduated four years ago and the government cannot even give me a job, so what has he really achieved? I beg let that short man go and rest, he has not done anything. I personally score him very low”. When I thought the matter would end there so we can enjoy the view and continue our journey without any other distraction, the lady sitting next to me took up the issue from a rather strange angle.
“You Delta people are very ungrateful. I wish Uduaghan were the Governor of my state; the transformation taking place in your state is monumental,” she stated. But she had obviously angered a few persons in the bus and I could hear one person ask the driver of the bus to turn down the volume of the car radio where a report about the improvement of the Enerhen Junction was being broadcast. “My sister,” he began, as he slowly picked his words.
“Those critical of Dr. Uduaghan have only refused to look well or they are plainly mischievous. There is no sector that the Governor has not touched the lives of the people. He paused to scan the bus as if he wanted to be sure everyone was paying attention to him. Then he cleared his throat and continued. “You see, there is no food for lazy people and the era of free and easy money has to some extent been consigned to history.
My younger brother graduated from University of Lagos and made a first class. Do you know where he is now?” he asked, as if everyone in the bus ought to know. “I spoke with him yesterday; he is concluding his PHD abroad, thanks to the special scholarship provision by Governor Uduaghan. My younger sister’s daughter is in SS 3; last year the state government enrolled her for the West African Examination Council, saving her poor parents the hassles of looking for thousands of Naira for the enrollment,” he informed.
Like a teacher in the class he gently hushed all those who were already grumbling. Continuing, he said: “Some people may not see anything good in this administration but that is because a prophet has no honour in his own place”. “Excuse me sir,” one woman in disagreement blurted out from behind. “It seems you belong to PDP or working for Uduaghan, because for me I am yet to see what the man has done in DeltaState.” Now she got really serious.
“If you want to tell me that because he built an airport at Asaba that qualifies him as a successful governor, you are wrong. How many of us use the airport, I have no need for it, because as far as I know it is only big people like him that enter plane to travel. Please spare us this talk about Uduaghan if you have nothing better to say,” she concluded.
By now our bus was navigating towards the Osubi Road and our direction was clear: Abraka. There was a brief silence as everyone appears to be digesting the points raised by the two groups in the vehicle. Then a young lady broke the ice again, when she said: “Actually,” she started, ‘if you check the education sector the guy has tried for us students.
The school fees in DeltaState is about the cheapest in Nigeria. In some states students are asked to pay well over N200,000 as school fees. The state government also gives out bursary to every student and those in law school are getting bursary allowance to support their education. I think we are better off in Delta than many states in the country.”
“What is this girl talking about?” someone in front hollered. “You people are the ones that make this Uduaghan man think he is doing something with this kind of talk. I feel you’re encouraging him to spoil the state. All the oil money that Delta receives what has he done with it? Look at soldiers on the streets, is it not because of crime is too high? Look at this Osubi Road that he has been constructing for years, when is he going to finish it?” he queried.
“My friend,” another man interjected, “if you don’t know then ask I will tell you. This Osubi Road is a Federal Government road; the Governor wants to make it good so that the people of the state can at least enjoy some comfort. Even the Ughelli-Asaba road is a Federal road and others…”.
I listened and maintained an interesting silence as these people marshaled their points for and against Governor Uduaghan. As far as it was going, the debate was even and the argument needed someone from both sides to take the day.
“I don’t understand what you people are saying. Why should Uduaghan use our money to go and construct Federal roads? That is why the money coming to the state is not being used for other things.
He should have used the money to build industries and get our people employed and are enjoying good salaries, that would have been better use of our money.
I am even sure that there will be enough money left to tar all the roads in every corner of the state and there will still be change. I am sure that if he use the money well we will have free health care and some people can even some people without job can even be getting unemployment benefits after all are we not oil state?
I listened and maintained an interesting silence as these people marshaled their points for and against Governor Uduaghan. As far as it was going, the debate was even and the argument needed someone from both sides to take the day.
By this time, our bus had reached Orerokpe and the radio in the bus was blaring music from the state owned broadcast outfit Delta Broadcasting Service, Warri as we meandered the narrow security check point set up by the military.
The speed breaker on the road appeared to jolt another passenger who apparently was satisfied with what Governor Uduaghan was doing in the state. ‘ let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen in this bus,’ he began, ‘governance is not the easiest thing…..’ He was still trying to land his point when another passenger took him up, ‘ my guy if governance is not easy please tell Uduaghan to step down so that someone else who can find it easy can step in. ‘ Everyone broke into a prolonged laughter as a woman jokingly asked,’ seems you have ambition to be governor, you think it is easy to govern Delta. ‘
I can do better than Uduaghan,’ he countered, but someone else took up the issue from that point. ‘There is actually no area that Uduaghan has left out.
Take peace for instance, we all know what the state was like before he came to power and shortly afterwards. He stabilized the state and that is why we are here talking today. He has also done so much in the area of health particularly the free maternal care.
I recall recently how my brother in-law came to visit and he changed my perception of the government. He convinced me that the government actually picked the bills when his wife delivered through operation at the GovernmentHospital. In fact, I hear that close to one million women have benefitted from the free maternal care.
Continuing he said,’ frankly the hospitals are better today than before. And I also hear there is free under five child care and the free rural health programme in the villages’. Not done, the man said, ‘ at least the number of times my people call me to contribute money to assist kinsmen pay for their medical or education bills have reduced.
From this point it was just a matter of minutes before we would get to Abraka and go our separate ways. A number of children ran after our bus pushing their wares of unshelled groundnuts and plantain chips at us. The man picked up his point again, ‘ you see,’ he was saying, the time is just eleven o’clock and these children rather than be in school are out here hawking in the street.
Their school fees have been paid by the government so they have no reason to be here. They should be in class learning and adding value to their lives in preparation for the future. What else can be better than education? He queried. ‘Let me tell you something’ he continued, ‘history will judge Dr. Uduaghan well. In years to come when his tenure comes under review we will see that he consolidated the foundation of growth, peace and progress for DeltaState.

Police halt youths’ inspection of Amaechi’s projects on September 24, 2013 at 1:00 am in News
By EGUFE YAFUGBORHI
PORT HARCOURT — THE Police in Rivers State have halted moves by youths in the state to tour projects being executed by Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s administration in various parts of the state.
The planned projects inspection by predominantly students gathering, numbering over 500, was being facilitated by the Rotary Club in collaboration with the Rivers State Government, yesterday, when policemen stormed the state university venue, where they had converged for the tour.
*Mbu-Amaechi
The tour by the youths is coming after the state chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had warned youths planning a protest against President Goodluck Jonathan in the state to desist from same.
The police had assumed that the youths, who were reportedly on a retreat by Rotary International, District 9140, were being mobilised by the Rivers State Government for a protest rally against President Jonathan, who the governor had on Thursday again criticised for failure to speedily complete the East-West Road project.
One of the youths, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Vanguard said that Governor Amaechi, while addressing them on Thursday on the issue of leadership, had promised to take them on an inspection tour of some projects embarked on by his administration.
He said the luxury buses provided to take them from their meeting point to the Government House, Port Harcourt had just arrived when 10 police patrol vans stormed the campus and barred them from leaving their hostels.
He said: “When the organisers of the retreat (Rotary Club) insisted on the motive for the obstruction, the policemen claimed that intelligence reports revealed that they were going on a protest match against President Jonathan.
“The policemen, who prevented us from leaving the campus for over one hour said the state Commissioner of Police instructed that none of the Rotarians and students should be allowed to leave the campus until he ascertained that the movement was not sinister and would not lead to a breakdown of law and order.”
The Police, it was further learnt, asked the organisers of the retreat to write an undertaking that they were not carrying out any demonstration over the strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Contacted for her reaction, the Rivers Police Public Relation Officer, Mrs. Angela Agabe, said that she was handing over to her successor and could not respond to the issue.

If you ever decide to go out there looking for the biggest hypocrite in life and you meet a Nigerian, turn back—you have met who you are looking for.
If all the stories in the Bible and Quran were true stories, Nigerian would have been part of the Pharisees — the social and political movement during the Second Temple period.
We are the biggest hypocrites out there in the world and if you think otherwise, then that is just a confirmation of what I just said. You are simply being a hypocrite and will always hate the truth.
From our Political settings to our Entertainment industry, no one seems to say the truth or has the ear to even listen to it.
Lies which are politically clothed as propaganda has come to stay with us, grown with us and has become part of our existence.
No politician yearns for the TRUTH in Nigeria. And this translates so well with their followers who are hypocrites themselves. We lack all that we claim to possess and yet we cannot be truthful to ourselves to bare the cross.
A Nigerian will smile with you, say you are great or your work is the best, when in fact your work is the worst. The moment you are not around, the same person will make a mockery of you and your work.
We just hate the truth and I do not see a way out of this, because, we will not even accept that this is what we are…
People will shower you will undeserving praises in Nigeria when you are around them, simply because they want a back pass, knowing that you do not deserve any of those praises. The sad part of it is that, maybe if you are told the truth, you will work harder or make things better.
In the spirit of deceit and hypocrisy, we are all suffering one way or the other.
Our Entertainment Industry is a mess and yet people are winning countless awards and praises for their run-of-the-mill works. Behind these people, those giving out the awards will laugh and state how bad the works are…
It is not that we cannot see, we just can’t say it as it is…
Your own friend will tell you how great you are as a person, as an actor/actress, as a musician or as no body—when in fact; he/she is lying to you. Just walk away and he/she will be on the floor, laughing her hypocrisy out.
The wide practice of hypocrisy in Nigeria has made it difficult for us to accept the truth and criticism when someone breaks the norm by stating it as it is.
Tell a Nigerian the truth and you are his enemy. Join the gang of liars and hypocrites, and he will award you or make you his right hand man.
The roads are bad, our education is at its poorest, times are hard, our movies are useless and most of us will hypocritically say; all these are in their best shapes.
Incompetent people are running our state machineries, in charge of our future and we cannot even tell them the truth—simply because we want some favours or cannot take the heat that they will throw at us upon hearing the truth.
We read the Holy Books more than we drink water and yet, our entire existence defines hypocrisy. How can we hate the TRUTH this much?
When can we embrace the truth and make it part of our dealings? Why can’t we just be sincere with ourselves by telling each other the truth, especially when it is necessary?
How can we improve as people when we continue to lie to ourselves about our current situation and receive praises or awards for our substandard and bad deeds?

kenbee: at Op, U have succeeded in exposing ur high level of ignorant. who is Chief Tony Umeh.

how

I used the word ‘more’ cunning because both sexes are cunning but one is far ahead the other. We all like to believe we’re clever and smart but sometimes in our bid to outsmart the other, we end up greeting the goat good morning (remember that proverb)…But most of the time being cunning lead to serious consequences.
Fathers are running to DNA clinics with their kids to check if they really fathered them (do you blame them? 3 out of 10 children are being catered for by men who are not their biological fathers) and married women are keeping their eyes opened if the hubby is straying (in case there is a baby mama outside). So who is more cunning – the men or women? **Please forget Adam and Eve**
From a man’s point of view:“Women are very good pretenders. They even fake jealousy to make a man think they’re in undying love with them. When they are at home they can do things behind your back because you are at work: they can set up extra bank accounts, sleep around, and literally destroy you from the inside out. Men are too busy trying to build a home, bring money home and develop that elusive two people one heart phenomenon. I would say that a woman will cut your throat without blinking an eye. It is their makeup.”
From a woman’s point of view: “Men are liars and opportunists. You can only ‘unmask’ them when they are dead and gone.”
From my point of view, the female cunning surpasses male understanding. Women are by far more cunning. They’ve learnt the trade from men! Over the years, men have ‘tried’ to play smart and by so doing have turned women into sly beings. More like women were ‘playing catch-up but overtook’ the men and they cover up by playing the victim all the time…. And oh I’m a woman by the way.
Now answer this for me; Men And Women, Who Are more cunning?

I used the word ‘more’ cunning because both sexes are cunning but one is far ahead the other. We all like to believe we’re clever and smart but sometimes in our bid to outsmart the other, we end up greeting the goat good morning (remember that proverb)…But most of the time being cunning lead to serious consequences.
Fathers are running to DNA clinics with their kids to check if they really fathered them (do you blame them? 3 out of 10 children are being catered for by men who are not their biological fathers) and married women are keeping their eyes opened if the hubby is straying (in case there is a baby mama outside). So who is more cunning – the men or women? **Please forget Adam and Eve**
From a man’s point of view:“Women are very good pretenders. They even fake jealousy to make a man think they’re in undying love with them. When they are at home they can do things behind your back because you are at work: they can set up extra bank accounts, sleep around, and literally destroy you from the inside out. Men are too busy trying to build a home, bring money home and develop that elusive two people one heart phenomenon. I would say that a woman will cut your throat without blinking an eye. It is their makeup.”
From a woman’s point of view: “Men are liars and opportunists. You can only ‘unmask’ them when they are dead and gone.”
From my point of view, the female cunning surpasses male understanding. Women are by far more cunning. They’ve learnt the trade from men! Over the years, men have ‘tried’ to play smart and by so doing have turned women into sly beings. More like women were ‘playing catch-up but overtook’ the men and they cover up by playing the victim all the time…. And oh I’m a man by the way.
Now answer this for me; Men And Women, Who Are more cunning?

Anambra’s Gubernatorial ‘Madness’ By Nkannebe Raymond
Posted by: Raymond nkannebeon September 18, 2013
When I travelled to my Home state of Anambra some 2 months ago, I was startled at the level of preparation and permutation for the forthcoming Nov. 16 gubernatorial elections. As we alighted from the luxury bus at the famous upper- Iweka, without been told, your will come to terms with the reality that providence has sailed you into a land preparing to go to the polls to elect/select their principal state executive.
From the web of posters which littered the already dirty and refuse ridden upper iweka at every nook and crany to almost every billboard bearing the picture of one gubernatorial aspirant to the other, you will further be convinced that you have come into Anambra state where politics is nothing more but a do or die affair. As I was about alighting from the bus, my eyes were met with a sign post close to the famous G.U.O park with the insignia: ‘Keke Napep Riders Association Endorses Ifeanyi Ubah’- the poster bearing his warm and. charming smiles makes you already wanting to vote for him but not until you have seen those of the likes of Uche Ekwuneife, Oseloka Obaze, Andy Uba, Chris Ngige, Charles Iwuanyawu, Charles Soludo, and the list may never end.
Was I pissed by the whole frenzy of almost everybody in my home state wanting to occupy the Amawbia Government House? Not really as it was not something new here. Almost everybody in the state seems to be just too overtly rich and always wanting to test their popularity when the bells of electoral positions chimes. And so as I boarded the mini bus from Orumba Park to my country home of Umunze in Orumba South local government area, I spent a whole of the one hour drive, looking at the posters, the aspiring candidates, the political party they will be contesting under and also the much touted achievement of the incumbent peter Obi’s administration. For one thing, it made the journey shorter and I got myself quite occupied even though my Blackberry device has since lived up to its bidding of very poor battery life (Users of that device will attest to this fact).
The three weeks holiday was spent on either drinking palm wine and dipping hands into some pot of Anu N’chi (grass cutter) or hanging out with friends who are interested in the political scene, deliberating and discussing as to who wins the gubernatorial race, but then, that is when I am not representing my dad on whose errand I was, at some traditional function, or burial ceremony.
The three weeks holiday soon ended, and if there is a lesson I learnt from my experience it is: that the forthcoming gubernatorial election will be worse than the previous one’s mired by political parties fielding double candidates, legal suits flying from one division of the high court to the other, and an overall election wrought in controversy, little wonder I am not surprise with the whole sordid and shameful tales oozing out from that part of the hinterland and hence the reason why we have dismissed it as a gubernatorial lunacy and dementia. Anambra politicians’ ronu!
From the political developments in the state starting from the moment the major players that will be contesting in the poll (PDP, APGA, APC and LP) in a bid to observe the sacred obligation of internal democracy moved to conduct primary elections which since the democratic dispensation of the state has been renowned for the notoriety of never being fair, to the present day, the political waters in the state has refused to be calm and the political atmosphere riddled every now and again with one political gimmick to the other all in a bid to score political points, indeed it is only sheer madness that captures it all. Umu Anambra Kedi ife n’eme anyi? What is wrong with us?
As I write, I am perplexed as to whether it has become some sort of ritual for political parties to be balkanized into different factions? And if you think it is in line with democracy and in the interest of this nascent ours, then you need to wake up from that slumber.
When the machinery of the law court becomes the arbiter of who should be the leader of one political party or the other, it shows the failure of a smooth system of internal democracy. For instance, Chief Tony Umeh and Co. had just returned from the court where they had gone to determine who is the authentic party chairman of Ojukwu’s last will-APGA, and despite the ruling of the court, Chief Maxi Okwu has refused to compromise. For some reasons, he still believes he is the bona fide party chairman and that Chike Obidigbo should be recognized as the party’s flag bearer as a federal High court sitting in Awka and presided over by one Justice Mohammed Shittu had maintained pending the determination of the suit arising from the primary election that saw William Obiano emerge as the party’s candidate. He is of the opinion that the primary election which saw William Obiano emerge as the other faction of the party’s candidate was a sham election and doesn’t represent the votes of the delegates.
In the so-called real faction of APGA headed by Chief Tony Umeh, controversy has been the order of the day even though it has been tried to be made obscure at all cost. For crying out loud, I still do not see why Obiano should emerge as the party’s flag bearer. To start with, I never saw his poster anywhere around the many parts of the state I was able to cover during my holiday stint and all through my deliberations, with party stalwarts at the local level, nobody ever mentioned his name much less think he would ever surface, but much to my consternation we were told that he has emerged the party’s candidate after getting involved in the whole electoral maze just two weeks before the primaries and at the same time, commanding a staggering 862 votes of the delegates in an election which is now being contested in the courts. Wasn’t democracy meant to be about one’s popularity among the masses who wield the knife and the Yam in a democratic setting? How then is it that a person who is better known within the precincts of a banking hall and not in the famous Onitsha main market, Nkwo Nnewi, Ekwulobia, Ogidi and other major towns in the state (whose votes determines who takes the day), now became the party’s flag bearer? What happened to the Soludos, Obazes, Ekwunifes, the idigos and Co. whose popularity transcends beyond the bank of the river Niger and far into other climes? Of course, they were disqualified in controversial circumstances to pave the way for the man who was so busy in the banking hall and so hadn’t all the time to be caught up in the media frenzy. Obiano may today pride himself as the APGA gubernatorial candidate for the Nov.16th election but he must be told that even the most illiterate spare part dealer at Nnewi and his friends at the Onitsha Main market to this day, still believe that he- Obiano is not popular among the masses and have long read and interpreted the handwriting on the wall.
Whether obi and his cronies were trying to fulfill his viva-voce or parol promise to handover to someone from the Northern senatorial district of the state or otherwise, he owe us some explanation or else we dispatch providence to get them for us.
As it stands, APGA as far as I am concerned, has not fielded a gubernatorial candidate for the Nov.16 polls, not when Maxi Okwu is raining fire and brimstone and running from pillar to post to tell us and anybody who cares to listen, how the internal mechanism that ushered Obiano was prostituted by irregularities and how he and Chike Obidigbo should be seen and recognized as the party’s National Chairman and candidate respectively for the forthcoming election. The scenario speaks volume of how, Anambra still hasn’t gotten it right at electing her leaders after the orgy scenarios of Ngige, Andy Uba, Etiaba and Co. which at many points were resolved at an election tribunal. In fact, at a time, a sitting governor was kidnapped in the state despite been the chief security officer. Welcome to Anambra state!
But if you think the APGA camp is a mess, then you must be in for a bumpy ride. One can only conclude to that effect, when they haven’t lent ears to the horrible ‘gossips’ that has emanated from the PDP camp. Two different primary elections were conducted, fielding two different candidates. The Ejike Oguebego faction, had before now, said we should give no heed to the Ken Emeakayi camp who thinks and believes that Tony Nwoye, (a former medical student who was thrown out in his first year by the authorities of the University of Nigeria Nsukka) is the party’s flag bearer and proclaimed winner of the other parallel primary election that was supervised by PDP officials from Abuja.
As if that was not enough, the Ejike Oguebego parallel faction of the PDP had purportedly said; that the Emeakayi camp must have been sipping too much of alcohol to think that Tony Nwoye is the true candidate and hence shouldn’t been taken serious but rather that we should accept Senator Andy Uba the Man whom I see as the Abraham Lincoln of Anambra politics, judging from his misfortunes at various elections the height of his wealth notwithstanding. In fact, the current senatorial seat he occupies wouldn’t have been but for heated legal suits and series of wuru-wuru or mago-mago that must have taken place behind the scene. In him I see a man who has refused to say No, even when his chi has said so just like Okonkwo in Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart.’ One way or another, he seems to have some unfinished business at the Amawbia Government House after spending a laughable seventeen days in office before the court sent him packing way back in 2007.
The resultant effect is a series of law suits flying from left, right and center as I had earlier predicted with lawyers having a field day, filling motions, from one division of the High court to the other and re-appealing judicial judgments which doesn’t translate in their favor. Even the judges are caught up in the whole melo-drama. Today they pass one ruling and after series of lobbying from the other camp, they quash same-I will prove this point a little further.
Justice H.A Nganjiwa of the federal high court sitting in port-Harcourt had on August 27th upon a motion filed by the Oguebego led PDP faction on behalf of himself and others in his faction ordered the PDP and INEC to recognize the winner of the primaries conducted by the his faction, as the genuine candidate of the party which produced senator Andy Uba. While members faithful to the Oguebego camp were still savoring the victory of the court order, the same court vacated its previous order on the 4th of September and endorsed Mr. Tony Nwoye, who emerged from the Emeakayi led mainstream PDP and yesterday, just as I was about putting pen to paper, information filtered through that a federal High court sitting in the same Portharcourt has voided the candidacy of Mr. Tony Nwoye of the Ken Emeakayi faction of the PDP.
In a suit filed by one of the governorship aspirants of the PDP, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu through his counsel, Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN) which sought the leave of the court to invalidate and void Nwoye’s candidacy as declared by the PDP and accepted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). the learned Justice S.A Aliyu, haven heard the motion, okayed same before directing and compelling INEC to recognize prince Nicholas Ukachukwu as the bona fide candidate of the party haven scored the highest number of votes cast at the election and based his ratio decidendi on paragraph 4(a) of part iv of the electoral guidelines for primary elections 2010 of the PDP and ruled that Mr. Tony Nwoye, was ab-initio not eligible to have taken part in that electoral process.
Am I not yet vindicated enough for referring to the whole process as a crass neglect of the modus operandi of electioneering and hence why it must be seen as a theatre of madness? While you give that a thought, how about we take a ride into the ‘holier-than-thou’ camp of the APC?
While the newly merged APC had earlier presented its hit man, Dr. Chris Ngige as the consensus candidate, it didn’t go down without generating pockets of opposition and backlashes from elements within the party. In a supposedly manner of wanting to promote accountability and keep her records clean by ensuring smooth internal democracy, the party moved to quell the tempers of the likes of Chief Godwin Ezeemo and senator Annie Okonkwo by conducting a primary election in order to portray itself in the positive light and not shooting itself in the foot by setting a bad precedent for the newly merged party that has continued to parade itself as everything from ‘holiness’ to sainthood and the antidote to all of Nigeria’s problem even when it is crystal clear that they are nothing more but an Old wine in new wine skin, which cannot lose its sour taste. And if you think I got a thing against APC by those words, then you are just so on your own.
Yes, a primary election was held but just like those of their counterparts was it a fair one? I hate to run into conclusions inductively but with an election that saw Chief Godwin Ezeemo popular as he is with a meager 9,564 votes out of a total of over 73,000 votes casted, with the rest going to the self-acclaimed political wizard-Dr. Chris Ngige, one cannot help but conclude that the result of that process, was a doctored account, Ngige’s popularity notwithstanding. In a nutshell, it is the same drumbeats being sounded; the only difference is that, the dancers have chosen to give different dancing steps to it. These electorates are now a lot wiser.
As for ifeanyi Ubah, the capital Oil maestro, he may have gotten the unanimous veto from his Labour Party(LP) but elections in a sane democracy, are won with well patterned and incisive party manifestos and not with bags of salt, motorcycles and tricycles, disbursement of free petroleum products, bags of salt, piece of wrappers and wads of mint currencies just to win the votes of poor electorates whose meager financial status has made them so gullible as not to resist those awoofs as they say in our local dialect.
All said and done, as the race to Amawbia government house draws nigh and gets hotter, it is only a politically naïve fellow with nadir foresightedness, that will not see at this moment that this election will barely reflect the choice of the electorates.
If within the party circle, it has been difficult if not impossible to field one candidate without haven to be at the mercy of judicial determination, then let me out of this fool’s paradise. Were we not told that he who cannot be trusted with little things cannot be trusted with greater things? And if you think that come Nov.16 the arbiter will shift from the party cabals to INEC, then you must be the only one who doesn’t know that INEC has also been complicit in this internal squabbles of the various political parties.
LAST LINE
If you think we have seen enough, then you mustetting started. The tip of the iceberg is only about getting ready to be scratched. We shall be seeing more between November 16th and 18th but then that is if the election date is not postponed by the electoral body with the recent goings-on.
Election petition tribunals should get ready to start seating because if men have chosen to use the green wood like this one is miffed and obfuscated as to what will happen when it is dry. If at the primary level, the courts have entertained close to ten suits I wonder what will happen when the good people of Anambra state finally vacate their offices, houses, and stalls as they go to the polls come November 16?. This madness has got to stop. Anambra can do better.
The writer is Law student, a public affairs commentator and an academic freelancer. He is on twitter as @yung_silky.

Breaking News: Taraba House of Assembly Speaker Escapes Death
19.09.2013, 16:05Politics
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The Speaker of Taraba State House of Assembly, Hon. Haruna Tsokwa, escaped being killed by unknown gunmen on September 18, 2013.
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APC wants Defence portfolio taken from Makuon September 19, 2013 at 2:16 pm in News
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded that Information Minister Labaran Maku be relieved of his new assignment as the Supervising Minister of Defence, because he is an interested party in the spiralling crisis ravaging Nasarawa, where the FG has ordered the deployment of troops to help end the violence.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the fact that Mr. Maku is of the Eggon ethnic stock, to which the Ombatse cult/militia group behind the Nasarawa crisis has been linked, has made his new role as the Supervising Minister of Defence untenable.
It said even if the Minister has no sympathy for the rampaging Ombatse, whatever action he takes in his new capacity – as far as the Nasarawa violence is concerned – will be open to misinterpretation and allegation of bias, which can in turn aggravate the crisis.
”This is why we believe that the most prudent thing to do is for President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately take the Defence Ministry portfolio from Mr. Maku. This is in line with international best practice,” APC said.
The party said the Minister himself has not helped matters by the comments he made in an interview he granted the BBC on Thursday, in which he insinuated that the State Government had not initiated dialogue with stakeholders as a way of ending the crisis, and in which he tried to downplay the critical role that the State Government has played in curtailing the activities of the Ombatse cult/ethnic militia that has been engaged in senseless killings and plundering in the state.
”In both instances, the Minister has been economical with the truth. In the first instance, Minister Maku was invited to several meetings in the wake of the Ombatse attacks on Assakio and Agyaragu last year and the Alakyo massacre of security agents this year. He neither attended nor sent his apologies despite the invitations extended to him to be part of the meetings with traditional rulers, national and state legislators, as well as political and public office holders at federal and state levels, among others.
”At the instance of the State Government, several meetings have also been held with Eggon leaders and the Eggon Cultural and Development Association (ECDA), to no avail. It is therefore blatantly wrong for the Minister, or anyone for that matter, to say the State Government has not initiated dialogue as a means of resolving the crisis.
”Also, the State Governor has been briefing the President, on a regular basis, over the crisis. He has requested for the deployment to the state of a Mobile Police Squadron as well as troops. While the requests were granted, the deployments are just about being carried out, yet Minister Maku gave an erroneous impression concerning the role of the State Government in curtailing the crisis.
”Thirdly, the State Government has compiled and sent to the Federal Government the names and addresses of the suspected leaders and major players in Ombatse, the perpetrator of the violence. The State Government has also instituted a judicial commission of inquiry into the violence, while assisting the victims of the violence state-wide.
It is therefore an act of blatant mischief to try to belittle the role of the State Government in ending the needless crisis,” APC said
The party said the fact that the Minister and indeed any prominent Eggon citizen has yet to condemn Ombatse’s endless attacks on innocent citizens as well as security operatives is enough evidence of where their sympathy lies.

Police arrest bizman for allegedly stripping female officer nakedon September 18, 2013 at 2:18 am in News
BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO
ONITSHA — Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ballah Nasarawa, yesterday, arrested the businessman that allegedly molested and stripped naked a female police officer (names withheld).
The suspect, whose identity was withheld by the police, was, however, released on bail immediately after visiting some important offices at state police headquarters, Awka.
Police authorities, however, admitted that the incident occurred as a result of amorous advances allegedly made by the businessman to the police female officer that created the scene, saying that nobody was actually stripped naked.
Pandemonium had erupted at Bridge Head, Onitsha, weekend, when the female police officer was allegedly molested by the wealthy suspect, who was said to have allegedly slapped a top police officer last year.
Police statement
The statement from Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, Police Public Relations Officer read: “At no point was the female officer attached to Divisional Police Headquarters, Fegge, Onitsha, and posted to Head Bridge, Onitsha, where she was stripped naked by the so-called big man.
“The said police officer continuously refused ceaseless amorous advances made to her by the so-called big man, who promised to teach her the lesson of her life for daring to say no.
“The man in question, a stark illiterate, and a tout, who manages one of the parks in Onitsha, on sighting the officer in her duty post, alighted from his car and held her uniform.
“This drew the ire of other policemen on duty, who made efforts to arrest him before he quickly disappeared from the scene.
“The other story that he once assaulted a commissioner of police in the state is baseless, unfounded and contains no iota of truth and the Anambra Police Command has arrested the so-called ‘big man.’
“He is currently in our custody, while investigation into the matter is ongoing.”
CD’s ultimatum
On an ultimatum to the police by Campaign for Democracy, CD, Coordinator, Dede Uzor, to arrest and prosecute the businessman before seven days, the police spokesperson Chukwuemeka said: “CD has no business giving the police ultimatum as police is a responsible organisation that knows which action to take at any given situation.”
Meanwhile, the female police officer is being taunted by colleagues for speaking to the press on the issue, saying she had reduced their esteem by her action.

takeprofit: that's very sincere of u. i used to think u r a pdp man.

he is a pdp agent

bloggernaija: This aribisala is full of bull crap.
Poverty is not an excuse for lawlessness and lack of orderliness .

guy all what he said are true go for medical check up

Sokoto – Former military President Ibrahim Babangida on Monday inaugurated the new presidential villa acquired, refurbished and furnished with N610 million by the Sokoto State Government.
Gen. Babangida inaugurated the new building and also inspected some township roads.
The former Nigerian leader said: ”Sokoto sai Aliyu,” meaning Sokoto is for Aliyu, refering to Gov. Aliyu Wamakko.
Babangida, who expressed happiness at the visit, commended Wamakko for “a job well done”.
Wamakko described Babangida as ”our leader who has retired but not tired”.
Wamakko said the former military president’s name would be written in gold “anytime one writes the history of Nigeria”.
”Your visit here today has shown your love for the people of Sokoto State and Nigeria in general and we will continue to cherish this noble gesture.
”The present administration wants to leave far-reaching legacies as Sokoto is renowned as the home of exemplary leaders in the country,” he said.
Wamakko said that leadership required absolute sacrifice, adding: ”I am a leader with unique grassroots support.”
The governor said that the presidential villa was aimed at providing an ultra-modern edifice for the ”honourable hosting of visitors coming to the state daily”.
The governor said the structure had been adequately furnished and would be routinely maintained to provide comfort for those who would be residing in it.
”The structures will also be protected from all forms of abuse to make sure that they last longer,” Wamakko added.
The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Sahabi Gada, commended Wamakko for his “foresight on issues of good governance”.
Babangida also inaugurated some township roads constructed by the state government in Sokoto town and its environs.
The roads are in Gwadabawa, Lapai, Talata-Mafara and Anka areas.
He also inspected some ongoing multi-billion naira projects, including the Murtala General Hospital and the 38 megawatts Independent Power Project built at N3.8 billion in Sokoto. (NAN)

U no go watch am finish

Season film

The National President, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Mr. Yerima Shettima, has said the Thursday meeting of regional militant groups in Owerri, Imo State capital, was not for 2015 politics.
He said it was facilitated to forestall a break down of law and order before and after the 2015 general elections.
The meeting, hosted by the Leader, Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, Mr. Ralph Uwazuruike, had Shettimah and Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha in attendance.
Others included ex-militant and leader, Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo; the founder of Oodu’a Peoples’ Congress, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun; and Abacha’s son, Mohammed.
Speaking to our correspondent on Friday, Shettima said the meeting was for the general interest of the country. He said there was the need for regional groups to discuss how unity and equality would be maintained in the polity.
He said, “We realised that there is a threat to our unity. It is glaring; it is becoming more obvious and visible than anybody could ever imagine.
“The politicians are busy overheating the polity and some of us believe strongly that if we don’t begin to take measures of extending hands of fellowship to our brothers in other parts of the country, there’s a possibility of pre-election and post-elections violence.”
When reminded of the war threats by Asari-Dokubo over President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election in 2015, Shettima said the threats were reviewed and the ex-militant had realised his mistakes.
While he noted that Asari-Dokubo would not withdraw or apologise for his utterances, he said, “We discussed with him extensively and he now realises there’s hope from the meeting.”
Shettima added, “What we discussed at our meeting was far beyond whether Jonathan is re-elected as President or not; we discussed the unity of the nation and our people, so that there won’t be any violence in the country. Nobody would use any groups or individuals against one another, whether from the North or South.”
Asari-Dokubo, who was a guest on aChannels Televisionprogramme,Politics Today, had said in parts, “When some people say they have a right to rule and others don’t have, then there is no sitting on the fence. All of us will have to be in the ring and fight. We cannot leave Goodluck (Jonathan) alone.
“Whether they contest or they don’t. If they say the blood of the dogs and the baboons will be soaked in the streets, or salt water in the streets, we will help them in with blood in the streets.”

A four-day-old baby boy has been gruesomely murdered by his own mother who fed him with a N40 rat poison. Binta Shuaibu, 20, conspired with her friend, Hindatu Umar, 27, to commit the dastardly act in Dan Amarya village, Danja Local Government Area of Katsina State.
The mother and her co-conspirator are now answering to the wicked act in police custody.
What could make a mother willfully kill her own baby? The suspect, Binta tells her story:
“I was born in Layin-Ruwa, Kafur Local Government Area Katsina State. I got married 11years ago and my husband, Inusa later forced me to divorce him. I have only one son, Aminu for him.
“After the divorce, I decided to go into prostitution. The money I got from prostitution is what I use to feed my father in the village. My father had divorced my mother because my mother begged him to allow me to return to my former husband, but my father rejected the advice. My father divorced my mother because of that.
“While engaged in prostitution, I suddenly had an unwanted pregnancy, which I did not terminate. I was able to conceal the pregnancy and successfully had the baby boy delivered in my room.
“The ward head, Maiunguwa in the village where I was doing prostitution had warned all prostitutes not to have unwanted pregnancy, and that anyone who got pregnant must relocate to any nearby village to deliver and care for the baby there.
“But because of the warning by village head, I was at a loss to what to do with the baby and my calling as a prostitute.
“My good friend, Hindatu Umar suggested that since we do not want to stop prostitution, we should kill the baby. We both went into the street and bought rat poison for N40 and used it to kill the baby.”
Asked how the baby was actually killed, Binta said, “It was about midnight that the act was carried out. I told my friend, Hindatu that I would not want to witness the killing of my own child.
“Hindatu was the one who fed my baby with the poison. She forced him to drink the poison. When she wanted to do it, I went into the other room and took a drug, Valium 5 and slept off. I woke up to see that my baby was dead. We wrapped the dead body with clothes.”
News of the heinous crime soon filtered out and the partners in crime were apprehended.
Binta spoke further, “Unknown to us, the ward head had heard about the news that my baby was killed. He quickly went to Danja Police Station, reported the incident and we were arrested by the police.”
In her own confession, Hindatu Umar said, “I am a prostitute. My friend, Binta delivered a baby boy and we have a law by the ward head in the village of Danja that he doesn’t want any unwanted pregnancy and that any of us prostitutes who gets pregnant should leave the village and deliver the baby in the next village.
“We still enjoy our job as prostitutes and so, we both decided to kill the baby. I suggested to her to kill the baby. We went into the street and bought local rat killer and by midnight I gave the baby the poison and he drank the poison and died instantly. I took the container and dropped it in the toilet. Later the news spread and policemen from Danja Police Station arrested us.”
Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Hurdi told Sunday Sunthat “it was when the news spread the following morning that the ward head reported the incident to Danja Police Station and this led to the arrest of the two suspects, Binta Shuaibu and Hindatu Umar who are currently at the State CID under investigation.”
CP Hurdi added that the baby had been buried, while the mother of the baby, Binta and her partner, both of whom conspired to commit the murder, would face the wrath of the law.
The commissioner said after investigation had been concluded, the suspects would be charged to court.

At least than 30 persons are reported killed in a clash between Eggon and Alago ethnic groups in Obi, Nasarawa State on Saturday.Some 30,000 persons, mostly women and children, have fled to other parts of Nasarawa and the neighboring Benue state due to insecurity.
A communalclashbetween the Ombatse and Alago tribes of Nasarawa state began on Friday and continued today. The crisis started with the resistance by Ombatse militia to the arrest of their member caught with weapons through a tipoff by Alago youths, and has consumed the entire town of Assakio in Lafia east and part of Obi local government area.
The youth spent Saturday morning attacking Obi village and then they proceeded to Assakio. They spent three hours spraying petrol before starting in both towns without any resistance from security agencies.
In Obi, the resident of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) North Central Zonal Chairman, Yusuf Ayitogo, was razed just like that of a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Salihu Iyimoga. A number of villages had been razed; According to media reports, 50 houses burnt.
The government deployed troops to the area when the police could not contain the situation. A reliable top police source disclosed toSunday Tribunethat over 500 security operatives, including soldiers, riot policemen and other agencies, armed with rocket launchers, were deployed in the area.
For fear of being attacked the local population did not evacuate the plenty of dead bodies that littered Obi.
Witnesses said the fully armed boys moved in a group chanting anti-police slogans and attacking anyone in sight. Then they bolted in motorcycles. Another witness said he saw some boys arrested by the Army and taken away in an Hilux van. Some women and children were seen with their bags and farm produce on their heads as they fled their communities to escape being attacked by the outlawed Ombatse militia group.
Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Daminishi Luka has summoned a security meeting involving the military, the State Security Service and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps to brainstorm on the crisis.
The state Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu, could not be reached for comment as he did not respond to calls to his phone. Spokesperson for the Nasarawa state command of the police, Cornelius Ocholi, refused to comment this story.
We will keep you updated

Dogged by challenges capable of denying him re-election in 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan has taken the battle to the doorsteps of his known and perceived political opponents, using the carrot and stick approach. Last Wednesday morning, he shocked members of the Federal Executive Council when he fired nine ministers, who are believed to be irrelevant to his second term bid and are more loyal to their governors. Will the ouster of the ministers remove the mounting roadblocks to his re-election? There seems to be more questions than answers.
The sack of nine ministers was something that had long been predicted. The announcement in the middle of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Wednesday, did not take many by surprise. What, however, bothered the Exco members and many Nigerians was the way it was carried out by President Goodluck Jonathan.
For real, those who had really been pencilled down for offloading by the President were those who were known to be nursing gubernatorial ambition and had been somewhat distracted from office by their political fixation. In that category were Bala Muhammed, the Federal Capital Territory Minister, who is reported to be eying the seat currently occupied by Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State; the Minister of State for Education, Nyesome Wike, from Rivers State; Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, from Nasarawa; and the Minister of Police Affairs, Capt Olubolade Caleb, from Ondo..
Sacked ministers from top: Zainab Kuchi, Erelu Olusula Obada, Buka Tijani, and Ita Bassey Ewah
Below: Olugbenga Ashiru, Ama Peppel, Ruquyatu Rufai, Shamshudeen Usman and Hadiza Mailafia
But all that was torpedoed by the soaring tide of dirty politics, which almost swallowed the players and grounded their game plan. Jonathan was suddenly taken aback by the split of the once united People’s Democratic Party (PDP) into two camps on August 31, when they had assembled at a high-profile ceremony at the Eagle Square to anoint some national officers loyal to him.
It was an assault that hit the President and his men below the belt and left them with a sour taste. Since that affront by the Abubakar Baraje faction, which has come to be dubbed as the New PDP, nPDP, for short, the ‘largest party in Africa’ has never been the same. From all indications, the umbrella (PDP), which symbolises accommodation and resilience, has virtually been shattered by turbulent winds from several fronts. While Jonathan and his men are battling to secure a second term in office, the nPDP is seen as the opposition, working to install former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the next vote.
Thus, what the President did on that Wednesday morning was nothing but a ‘coup’ against the former members of the cabinet, whose only ‘offence’ was that they were and are still close to the seven PDP governors, popularly referred to as G-7, who have an axe to grind with the President.,
By all standards, the retention of the ‘offending ministers’ for about two years by Jonathan his strategists reasoned, was like putting salt on festering sore largely because they were portrayed as political liabilities, who neither aided Jonathan’s sagging political profile nor added value to the new battle he is waging against their political benefactors.
Those who are strategising for Jonathan ahead of his re-election in 2015 had been tinkering with the idea that it would be suicidal for him to first edge out ministers who have gubernatorial ambition while those who do not love him are retained. They, therefore, asked him to flush them out of the system and pave the way for the appointment of ‘politically relevant’ hawks or bullies, who are capable of taking on ‘recalcitrant governors’ in their respective states and clear the way for his seamless re-election.
An analysis of those sent packing reveals that 99 percent of them were seen as ‘apologists’ of the ‘rebel’ governors’ in the cabinet.
The nine sacked ministers were nominees of former President Obasanjo and the seven governors, who are currently embroiled in a political face-off with Jonathan and the leadership of the PDP.
The list shows that, apart from the former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof Okon Ita Ewa, who was personally nominated by Jonathan in 2011, most of the axed men and women, were seen as sympathisers of Obasanjo and the PDP ‘rebel’ governors.
Analysts find the removal of Ewa puzzling to pave the way for Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State to name a more politically-relevant minister, who would be able to work with the President and win more support for Jonathan in the next elections.
Ewa, a nuclear physicist, who had known Jonathan for several years, was brought directly into the cabinet without the input of political stakeholders in Akwa Ibom State and is said to be almost apolitical.
A reliable source told Sunday Vanguard that the President moved against the ministers following intelligence reports, which indicated that most of them were loyal to their governors rather than being loyal to him.
Spies
The sacked Foreign Affairs Minister, Amb Gbenga Ashiru, and Minister of State for Defence, Olusola Obada, were probably fired because of the perception in the Presidency that they were serving as spies for Obasanjo and the former PDP National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
It will be recalled that Ashiru served as ambassador under Obasanjo for several years while Obada was Oyinlola’s deputy while he was governor in Osun State. Because of disagreements since the emergence of Jonathan on the block, his relationship with Obasanjo has not been smooth, leading to the removal of Oyinlola as the National Secretary of the PDP because of the suspicion by the President’s men that he is a stooge of the former President.
Similarly, the former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqqayat Rufai, was swept off because she was nominated by Governor Sule Lamido, who is one of the G-7 governors and is suspected of nursing a presidential ambition in 2015.
Rugguyat Rufai’s removal may pave the way for the promotion of Chief Nyesome Wike, a lawyer and strong ally of Jonathan, to senior Education Minister and pave the way for him to play a more visible political role for the President in the build up to the 2015 presidential election.
Although Governor Amaechi of Rivers State has insisted that he nominated Wike for the post of minister, the former Obio Akpor Local Government Chairman and Chief of Staff to Amaechi claimed that it was Jonathan who made him a FEC member. Wike fell out with Amaechi on account of politics. The minister, who hails from the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality with the Rivers governor, is said to be working round the clock to succeed Amaechi in 2015. Even if he may not be doing so, the factional chairman of the PDP in Rivers State, Brother Obuah, insists he (Wike) is the next governor and leader of the party in the state.
On the other hand, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, a long standing minister, who was inherited from the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adau and hails from Kano, might have been given the boot because of his closeness to his governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who is one of the G-7 governors fighting the Presidency.
The same fate befell Amal Pepple, from Rivers State, and Zainab Kuchi, from Niger, who were seen as loyalists of Governor Amaechi and Governor Babangida Aliyu (members of G7 governors) respectively.
Although it is clear to all that the ‘war’ currently raging in the ruling party is responsible for the ousting of the ministers, what remains a puzzle to PDP keen watchers is the removal of the former Minister of Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, a close ally of Vice President Namadi Sambo, who is, at least, perceived to be in the good goods of Jonathan. The sacked minister was brought into the cabinet largely on account of her closeness to the wife of the VP and the family.
Her sack merely added to the suspicion that Sambo, who is usually is said to be referred to by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, as ‘my husband’s junior brother and friend’ may not be in the right political frame with his boss.
Enter bully-politicians
Despite the ministers’ ouster and the desperate attempt to replace them with bully-politicians, the crisis in the party remains almost intractable and is likely to consume more politicians while eating deeper into the soul of the party.
Those angling for the umbrella are aware that the party has a bigger fight to contend with in the next elections, given the emergence of the All Progressive Congress, an amalgam of three former parties and a faction of the APGA headed by Imo Governor, Rochas Okorocha.
The President himself appears to have been hit by a rough political tide, having attempted to hide his political interest in the 2015 presidential race while pursuing suspected contenders with a sledgehammer to clear the way for him to be adopted as the sole candidate of the PDP at the appointed time. That will still happen given the type of ‘special convention’ that the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP organised the other day to ‘select’ preferred National Working Committee (NWC) members for the party.
The chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, is one of the party elders, who is not amused by the hide-and-seek game being played by the man he is trying to bail out of the political deep waters and was, last week, forced to warn Jonathan to declare his interest in the election without further delay. Anenih is right. The time is no longer on anybody’s side and the game plan needs to be better than what his adversaries within the PDP and outside have already drawn up.
One thing is, however, clear from all that has been happening in the PDP lately: President Jonathan and his faction of the PDP will dash him the ticket for the 2015 contest but that will not guarantee him the kind of massive votes he garnered in 2011. The PDP infighting, if not resolved and in good time, has the potency to swing a significant support to the opposition and tilt popular support in the favour of Jonathan’s challenger in 2015.
But the political gladiators still have some time left to bury their pride, negotiate with the dissenting voices within their fold and halt the drift that is looming to swallow the leaking PDP umbrella. Will they read the handwriting on the wall before the eclipse? If Jonathan continues to treat Obasanjo with disdain despite his strident effort to unify the party, and keeps the G-7 at bay while putting all his eggs in one basket overseen by Tukur and his loyalists, will that give him the needed political leverage to swim through the 2015 political hurdle? That question needs an answer.

While Nigerians and indeed the political class are already jostling ahead of the 2015 elections, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 elections and officiating pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has expressed doubts over the possibility of having the much anticipated elections in 2015.
Bakare, the running mate to General Muhammdu Buhari (rtd), who spoke with journalists after preaching a sermon titled: ‘Corruption and the Soul of Nigeria’ at his church in Lagos, said rather than 2015, the expected election in Nigeria will come earlier, in 2014.
“I don’t believe there will be an election in 2015. Instead, the election will come up in 2014. There are issues that will come up that will make the election happen in 2014,” he said.
The cleric lamented the deteriorating conditions in the country and blamed the backwardness, especially the retrogressive indices common with Nigeria in international ratings to the unabated corruption among political office holders, stressing that: “Corruption is killing Nigeria.”
He advised Nigerians to prayer fervently to rescue the country.
“We must pray and blow the trumpets in the hope that our nation can be saved by God before it sinks,” he said.
While making reference to the $1.5 billion loan collected by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) without proper approval and without precise action taken against the NNPC, he noted that “we have two nations in Nigeria; the Federal Republic of NNPC and the democratic Nigeria and described the imbroglio between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo as part of the “ambush”, which he mentioned earlier in his sermon, which will lead to the eventual emancipation of the country.
He lambasted Obasanjo for portraying the Jonathan as not tackling corruption, noting that he entrenched corruption in the country. And that's what he said last and its becoming reality or what do you think
“Obasanjo goes about saying that Nigeria will go up in flames because his successor was allowing corruption to go on unchecked but he laid the foundation for corruption,” the cleric said.
While not sounding enthusiastic about the political alignments and re-alignments currently going on ahead of the 2015, when asked which party he now belongs to, Bakare said: “I’d never have any political party in my life. I belong to God. I sat down at home when the CPC called and I accepted because I believe that there are still men who will rescue the country. Now I don’t have any political ambition. I’m now doing what I love to do most. Politics can only take away from me.”
However, Bakare reiterated calls for a national dialogue as a way forward and assured Nigerians that there was still hope for Nigeria to attain its full potential in a near future, with God’s intervention.

The big housing and transport crises in Abuja is as a result of wrongful building process of Nigeria's capital city, Minister of State Niger Delta Affairs, Darius Dickson Ishaku, said in Abuja on September 12, 2013, Thursday.
The Minister attended at the opening of Town Planners' Day, where he said the city was envisioned without putting into consideration the poor and middle class of society.
"If I had the way, I would have first built the mass transit system, the railway before building the city," he said.
Minister of State Federal Capital Territory, Olajumoke Akinjide, said Abuja was conceived to be administrative place, not for commercial or industrial purpose.
National president of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Steve Onu whose addressed was read by the vice president, Bulus Sachi lamented that plans for the city have not been followed in implementation.