₦airaland Forum

The OP really knows SW wella.

Buhari will have a landslide victory in SW, not because he is the best candidate or APC is the next best thing to have ever happened to Nigeria, just because GEJ failed woefully.


Local politics in SW transcends dollar rain and all those shenanigans.


PDP can have a strong showing in gubernatorial, parliamentary and LG elections, but national politics ie Presidency election is a different ball game entirely in SW.

GEJ losing OBJ is one of his greatest mistake. He could have whittle down APC's influence in SW to a large extent. Who is Bode George, Kashamu, Jelili, Obanikoro and FFK in SW?

It is either GEJ or his sycophants refused to understand the average mentality of a SW voter. Performance is very key. Even if you will rig, you must have performed to a large extent. Why was Fayose accepted in Ekiti? His people felt he performed better than the incumbent. Period. No matter the machinery of rigging Fayose could have put in place, if the people were not in support of him, he can not do ANYTHING. It was easier for him.to rig because the people wanted him.

If this is Jonah's best student, as reported, then it calls for the questioning of Jonah's IQ.

Jonathan has turned to ATM for most people.

Telecoms reform

Banking reform

Pension reform

Nafdac reform

Anti-corruption crusade through EFCC and ICPC.

Power reform

Debt forgiveness

Increased national reserve from 2bn to 35bn

Created visible and verifiable employment.

Created the non-existent middle class

Built Abuja National Stadium

Nigeria was respected in the International commmunity, notwithstanding that Nigeria was a pariah state when he took over. Niger is the one summoning us nowadays and Morocco is refusing to pick our call. Na wa o.

Equipped 5 Teaching hospitals

Railway reform

UBE programme

School feeding programme.

Remember the guy inherited almost zero infrastructure country with looted treasury.

OBJ does not need NTA or AIT to be running propaganda adverts for him because even the cattle seller in Kaura Namoda, fish seller in Ogoja and yam flour trader in Igbeti can see it and testify to it.

I will like to see Jonah's the king of trans-deformation achievements.

As revered as the stool of an Oba is in Yorubaland, does GEJ thinks a King controls anybody during election in SW, apart from himself and his household.

Whoever advised Jonah the Mandela of Otuoke to go on this NGO-like charity spending spree in SW definitely does not know the psyche, history and culture of the people.

U

freshdude99:
Sinx wen did u graduate from the school of international protocols The last time I checked u still in primary five Get over urself u APC mofos that claims to know more than their brain can ever carry Besides international protocol or not, this is Nigeria!!!

U dey craze, who be u or who u be?

Wetin concern me and APC? I recognise good governance and good speech when I see one.

Madam Patience's and your reply are one and the same -- daft.

Quote me again at your peril.

freshdude99:
I think that was when she came back from the surgery that almost claimed her life in Germany. But aside that, in the school of marriage, I heard 1+1 =1 so it doesn't matter who came out first

It is not done in International protocol, even if she just came back from heaven.

ramdris:
Any time dis woman talks, GEJ looses a vote. To me she is the best campaign manager for APC.

She lacks decorum and has the grace of a motor park alomo seller.

Idrismusty97:
And your 500k already collected PVCs in Bayelsa would keep him in office .

I tire for am o.

Does she thinks we are talking of traditional title here?

Who told her an elected officer holder must do 2 terms?

Those comparing her to Gbagbo's wife are not too wrong afterall.

The wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Saturday insisted that her husband would remain in office for eight years to complete his two terms in office, despite the opposition.

Mrs. Jonathan, said this during the Peoples Democratic Party women rally, under the auspices of Women for Change and Development Initiative, in Benin, Edo State.

She was accompanied by national and state leaders of the party.

Women, drawn from different support groups across the state had turned out for event as early as 9am. They, however, began to leave the stadium at about 1.30pm, when Mrs. Jonathan arrived at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, venue of the rally.

‎Unable to bare the scorching heat, two women fainted but were later revived by a medical team provided by the party.

A mild drama ensued shortly before the ‎First Lady’s address, when two men, said to be aggrieved PDP youths, tore down some banners bearing the image of the President’s wife.

They were, ho‎wever, whisked away by some security operatives at the arena.

Addressing the women, she said that the presidency had been occupied for eight years by other ‎geopolitical zone and wondered why the South South should be denied the opportunity.

She also noted that the Jonathan administration had performed creditably in various sectors, such as transport and education, and by her assessment, was satisfactory.

Mrs. Jonathan described the present administration as a gender sensitive government, which had prioritised women development through the appointment of several women in key positions, the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme and the YouWin initiative.

She stressed that re-electing of her husband was an opportunity for Nigerian women to appreciate his good performance, adding that the opposition party was not dependable ‎and had nothing to offer.

http://www.punchng.com/news/my-husband-must-complete-his-two-terms-mrs-jonathan/

If our govt can be lying about a worthless phantom telephone call to one relatively unknown and inconsequential morrocan king, why should i believe our electricity is now at 6,000MW; 1.2million invisible jobs have been created, trans-deformation agenda etc

If this is true, this will be another lowest of lows of this govt.

SA embarrassed us for buying weapons through the back door.
Chad president is summoning our president to N'djamena.
Morroccan king is calling our govt a lying govt.
Our Army is being rumoured to have recruited foreign fighters to help out.

If our govt can be lying about a worthless phantom telephone call to one relatively unknown and inconsequential morrocan king, why should i believe our electricity is now at 6,000MW; 1.2million invisible jobs have been created, trans-deformation agenda etc

Hundreds of mercenaries from South Africa and other countries are playing a decisive role in Nigeria’s military campaign against Boko Haram, operating attack helicopters and armored personnel carriers and fighting to retake towns and villages captured by the Islamist militant group, according to senior officials in the region.

The Nigerian government has not acknowledged the presence of the mercenaries, but a senior government official in northern Nigeria said the South Africans — camped out in a remote portion of the airport in Maiduguri, the city at the heart of Boko Haram’s uprising — conducted most of their operations at night because “they really don’t want to let people know what is going on.”



African Training Exercise Turns Urgent as Threats GrowMARCH 7, 2015
Boko Haram Generates Uncertainty With Pledge of Allegiance to Islamic StateMARCH 7, 2015
In Newly Sophisticated Boko Haram Videos, Hints of Islamic State Ties FEB. 20, 2015
He said the mercenaries’ role was crucial, part of a new offensive against Boko Haram after a nearly six-year insurrection. The Nigerian military, under pressure because of a presidential election to be held this month, has recently claimed a string of successes against Boko Haram, boasting about the recapture of a number of towns.


The mercenaries “are in the vanguard in the liberation of some of the communities,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

A senior Western diplomat confirmed that the South Africans were playing “a major operational role,” particularly at night. Equipped with night-vision goggles, the mercenaries “are whacking them in the evening hours,” the diplomat said.

“The next morning the Nigerian Army rolls in and claims success,” the diplomat added.

The mercenaries “are doing the heavy lifting,” said the diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Another diplomat, also unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter, said he believed the mercenary force was composed of fighters from other countries as well, but mainly South Africa.

For months, parts of Nigeria have been lost to Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group that has stormed into villages, killing civilians at random, abducting women and girls at will, and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee across the northeast.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, said that his group had accepted Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance, making it an official branch of the Syria-based terrorist group.

The spokesman said that foreign fighters wishing to wage jihad did not need to travel to Syria, but could now help build the Islamic State’s so-called Caliphate in Nigeria.

“Oh Muslims, for this is a new door opened by Allah,” said the spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, according to the SITE monitoring group, which tracks jihadist statements.

The war against Boko Haram has become a regional one as well, with Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin agreeing to contribute troops to an 8,700-member force to fight the militants. According to the senior Nigerian official, Chad’s army was playing a significant role against Boko Haram, having recaptured a number of towns from the militants. But he said the South African mercenaries had also changed the momentum in the military effort.

“They are on the ground; I have seen them,” he said. “They came in with much more sophisticated equipment than the military. Thanks to their involvement the tide is turning. I believe because of them we will witness a seismic shift.”

Photographs showing white soldiers atop armored vehicles on what appears to be a major road in Maiduguri have been posted in recent days on Nigerian Twitter feeds. A correspondent for The New York Times in Maiduguri identified the location as the Baga Road. The correspondent has seen the South African mercenaries jogging around Maiduguri’s airport, now closed, where they are encamped.

The mercenaries “came in with quite a handful of attack helicopters,” the senior government official in the north said. “They are being used to take out the Boko Haram in the Sambisa area,” the official said, referring to the Sambisa Forest, a 23,000-square-mile area where the Islamists have their principal encampments. After more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped a year ago in an episode that focused worldwide attention on Boko Haram, the girls were thought to have been brought there.

“It’s not the best of options for a nation to compromise her sovereignty by bringing in mercenaries,” the senior official said. “But if talking to the devil is necessary, it’s worth the price.”

Others said that the use of mercenaries by Nigeria raised questions about the weakness of the country’s major institutions, especially the army, hollowed out by years of top-level corruption.

“They are subcontracting the national polity,” said a leading Nigeria scholar, Paul Lubeck of Johns Hopkins University. “It’s the destitution of Nigerian nationalism.”

In Washington, Nigeria’s chief of defense intelligence, Rear Adm. Gabriel E. Okoi, said in an interview on Wednesday that South African contractors had been hired in recent months to help train Nigerian troops. But he said he was unaware of any current or former members of South Africa’s military or security services hired to engage in active fighting against Boko Haram.

South Africa’s apartheid-era military, led by white South Africans, was used domestically to quash the anti-apartheid movement, as well as to fight leftist groups in Mozambique, Angola and other African nations.

In Nigeria, more than 200 schoolgirls have been held captive since last April. Some background information on the Islamist group that has been trying to topple the country’s government for years. Video by Natalia V. Osipova on Publish Date May 9, 2014. Photo by Sunday Alamba/Associated Press.
In 1998, South Africa’s black-majority government explicitly barred South Africans from working abroad as mercenaries.

“They’re relics of apartheid,” Jakkie Cilliers, executive director of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said of the South African mercenaries in Nigeria. “They love this gung-ho kind of stuff, and they’re good at it.”

A report on his group’s site quotes a “former military intelligence officer” as saying that in Nigeria “most of the gunships” are being piloted by former South African Air Force members, “and they are flying a huge number of sorties, including nocturnal operations, with great success.”

“There is also close involvement at HQ level,” the report said, “assisting in the planning of operations and the coordination/interpretation of the intelligence effort.”

Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
South Africa has issued strong warnings against any mercenary activities in Nigeria, saying that any of its citizens fighting there would be prosecuted upon returning to South Africa.

South African news organizations have carried a number of reports since January about former members of its armed forces traveling to Nigeria. Other news reports have said that mercenaries from former Soviet republics have also been enlisted. One South African contractor said in an email to The New York Times that Ukranian helicopter pilots were among the foreign fighters.

On Wednesday, the death by so-called friendly fire of a South African mercenary in Nigeria was reported by South Africa’s Netwerk24 and Daily Maverick, and there have been several articles in the Nigerian news media in recent weeks on the subject.

Joy Peter, the spokeswoman for South Africa’s Defense Ministry, said that while the government would not confirm the presence of South African mercenaries in Nigeria, it had acknowledged the death of a South African citizen in that country.

“We are disturbed by the death of this one person,” Ms. Peter said. “Unfortunately, they went to Nigeria in their own personal capacity. We’d like to advise that this would serve as a warning to others who are considering engaging in such activities to really think twice and really consider the repercussions.”

Former members of the apartheid-era South African military have a long history of mercenary activity. The best-known group was Executive Outcomes, now defunct, which fought in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola.

In one of the most unusual cases involving mercenaries in Africa, a group that included Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was stopped from overthrowing the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in 2004.

419-tocracy --- govt of the 419s, for the 419s and by the 419s.

This is a new low of this govt.

Voting out GEJ is a divine calling that all right thinking, non-corrupt and patriotic Nigerians must heed to on March 28.

And GEJ bribed him in 2011.

You reap what you sow. Simple.

Table soccer

tonychristopher:
becuause the are christains and predominantly orthodox christian and infant baptism requires you taking up a name after a patron saint or good biblical character but every igbo has pure igbo names and igbos rare bear foriegn names as surnames....I hope you are claered. Next time do a proper research before you come and make jest of urself


now its like asking why do hausa people and Nigerian muslim even yorubas bear Arabic names.... Names like Azeez, Yusuf are pure Arabic names


now yoruba still bear english names like Gbenga Daniel, Bankole Wellignton, Tiwa Savage, Peter Ojo etc

Don't turn this tribal, you know if you want to, I will gladly oblige you.

Yes I quite agree that Yorubas have English names but they hardly bare them as first names. Your grandparents will never even reckon with your English name, no matter how sweet it sounds and no matter how sophisticated they are. Infact, they will take it to the next level by calling you by your unique "oroki" name, which is a special name that is peculiar for eulogising you as a person.

Religion and westernisation or arabicanisation should never make us to lose our identity and be proud of heritage. If you like bear Roseleen or Cassandra or Maureen, and be speaking with English with your nose, you will never be seen as a proper English man, as long as you are black.

Likewise, you can recite the quran in Arabic even in your dreams, it will never make Arabs not to see you as their subjects.

Just be proud of your identity and rep it to blazes.

Why do Igbo people like bearing English name, especially the ladies?

It baffles me atimes. Most times, I usually ask for the African name.

Why should my children be speaking only English?

That is why I love grandparents in yorubaland, no matter how sophisticated or backward they are, they will always speak yoruba to their grandchildren, God help the wife if the children cannot respond appropriately. She will hear the history of her family, clan and town.

The same way my children will speak French or Spanish, they must also speak their language. That is their heritage, culture and who they are. The children can never be English or Spanish.

Most of my igbo friends speak igbo fluently sha, at least with the way it sounds in my ears.

barcanista:
Jonathan told John Kerry that May 29 Handover date is sacrosanct. February 14 was set by INEC(not Jonathan nor the constitution) and the shift was made by INEC(of course based on advice/pressure/whatever).

He told the whole world the election will not be shifted.

Look for another lie to defend him.

barcanista:
The President has again said he has no plan to remove Prof Attahiru Jega. I thing the opposition party should stop the unwanton allegation against the President. They should focus on their campaign to appeal to electorate(which will be unssuccessful anyway). As for the President, we should give him the benefit of doubt. One thing is sure, election will come and go and the winner(Goodluck Jonathan) will be inaugurated in May29.

The same lying president told the international community that Feb 14 was sacrosanct.

He told us he was not aware of the postponement until it was implemented.

How are we sure he will not be aware again, till Jega is removed?

This is a victory for democracy.

This is a victory for free and fair election.

This is a victory against the cheats and riggers of election.

This is a victory for a better Nigeria.

Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday rejected an application for an order stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission from using the electronic card readers in the forthcoming general elections.

The application filed as ex parte was filed by four political parties – the United Democratic Party, Action Alliance, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria and Alliance for Democracy.

A similar suit challenging the exclusive use of the Permanent Voter Card and the card reader is pending before Justice Abdulkadir Abdul-kafarati of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in his ruling on Monday on the application filed on behalf of the political parties by four Senior Advocates of Nigeria, held that INEC deserved to be heard before making a pronouncement on their prayers.

He noted that the political parties had shown that they had legal rights to institute the action and that the case was one that could be litigated on, but he insisted that he could not grant the interim orders sought by the applicants without first hearing INEC.

‎But the court ordered INEC to file its defence within four days of receiving the court papers.

It fixed hearing of the substantive suit for March 10.

The application was argued on behalf of the plaintiffs on Monday by Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), who led two other SANs – Bolaji Ayorinde, Ikechukwu Ezechukwu and Adekunle Oyesanya – in filing the main suit.

The plaintiffs had argued on Monday that the use of the electronic card reader was contrary to the provisions of the Constitution as well as the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

The plaintiffs are challenging the powers of the electoral body to introduce a process not specifically provided for in the statutes ahead of preparations for the the rescheduled polls.

He maintained that the proposed use of the electronic card readers is in breach of the provisions of section 52(1) of the Electoral Act which he argued prohibits electronic voting.

He said, “My lord, this is what brought us to this court. INEC wants Nigerian voters to subject themselves to electronic voters card reader, an electronic component which is expressly prohibited.

“Any thing to do with electronic magnetic capturing properties cannot be allowed in the conduct of the election.”

He urged the court to temporarily restrain the electoral body from “implementing, commencing or directing the use of the card reader machine for the forthcoming election, pending the determination of the suit.”

He further urged the court to bridge the time within which the electoral body would be allowed to file a response in view of the nature of the case which, according to him has a robust electoral jurisprudence.

He cited a decision of a Federal High Court in Ebonyi Division in 2003, when open secret ballot system was adopted by the state Independent Election Commission in the conduct of local government elections contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act which prescribed an open ballot system.

He pointed out that the court went ahead to nullify that election and that “the heavens did not fall.”

He insisted that the the card reader could not be allowed to take the place of accreditation as prescribed by the Electoral Act.

The parties are among the 16 parties that supported the Peoples Democratic Party in objecting to the conduct of the elections as earlier scheduled. They also have adopted President Jonathan (the presidential candidate of the PDP as their candidate.

13years

13years

The only way forward for this country is to go back to regionalism that was truncated in 1966.

This monstrous federalism has only successfully bred continuous succession of corrupt govts and individuals underneath a cloak of different nomenclature.

This is commendable of FG.

She should have said the identity of the 14 Ghosts that are standing trial are being kept secret.

Is that how things are done in World Bank?

GEJ has definitely infected this woman with dumbness.

Is that how to fight corruption? Trying corrupt people in secrecy.

Na wa o

What is what the tax figure of Lagos before Alpha Beta took over?

What was the same figure after?

Which other example can you give where Public Private Partnership has worked beta?

Is Alpha Beta not entitled to consultancy payment after improving the tax revenue of Lagos massively? A labourer is worthy of his wages.

Do we have any other state performing better in terms of mode of tax collection and actual amount being collected in Nigeria?

What is the tax revenue of your home state that did not contract Alpha Beta?

Answer all those objectively and get back to me.

I have never been a fan of jagaban, but you should not allow your prejudice against him to becloud your objectivity.