Taharqa the hungry fool and worshipper of the 419 "PHD" fraud that is GEJ. Every person in the diaspora know that I just finished your boy Rossike with the truth. He is a failure and a loser.
No productive or successful diasporan Nigerian will be here asking for certificate obsessively as he does because we understand that what an individual knows and has learned through living/job experience is a cumulative mix that enhances their productivity to society, which is what matters above everything else, whereas mumus like you bandy your worthless triple masters degree about when you cannot even think as effectively as a 16 year old from a Country where the focus of education is quality and not quantity.
Your boy Rossike is a fraud and has always been a fraud. It is only unexposed simpletons like you who will be hailing a failed racist like him because you don't have the exposure to make you know better.
Lack of exposure whatdunnit.
Then again Taharqa's writings betrays the leanings of man who is well travelled but beholden to fraudulent ways.
Dude, you are a failure. A vile example of wasted opportunity others would have turned into a success story. Drug-taking fool like you. You don't seem to understand that those of us who have worked you out know exactly what you are. I.e a total failure who could not measure up. You came to the UK and failed where others in your position thrived and 'mastered' the game. Why will you not be bitter to the extent you are now supporting a monumentally failed cretin with a bogus PHD.
Tell these Niggas the truth and stop disgracing yourself. In the UK you live in folks get admitted to degree courses by virtue of their verifiable work and life experience even if they do not have the required A-level qualification. They are termed "mature students" mumu. You know this about the progressive country you live in that allows a failure like you to eat Chicken everyday yet you want to deny Nigerians in Nigeria of similar. Who obsesses about certificate here? Yet you are comfortable deceiving simple folks in Nigeria because you are a failed racist who blames everything on "whitey" despite the fact that Nigerians in general do well in the UK except for your indolent and emotionally unstable sort.
Buhari has done far more than enough to be accredited a very credible leader who has attained the equivalent of a Masters degree or even beyond. John Major only had GCSE yet he became a Prime Minister of the Nation that sees you going to Tesco daily to shop with £5.00 and eat well yet you are here propping up a failure who has literally ingested billions of dollars only to deliver failure everywhere. A wicked chap like you will continue to be damned. Mark my words. This is why you are a loser.
You are another Aye Dee i.e failed diasporans who could not hack it in an environment where merit is king and now find it natural to align with a weakling and failure like GEJ who could not distinguish himself even after he was given everything, far more than others, to reshape Nigeria positively. Dude, If I ever catch you on the streets of the UK then you better start running. Useless mofo. Has electricity ever blinked in all the time you have been in the UK as a bitter and racist illegal immigrant with visa that expired 10 years ago? Stupid fool. Holla at us and we will feed you and show you how you can make it in obodo London, Stuupid morasucker.
Thanks for putting that pseudo black nationalist without a moral compass, in his rightful place.
Jonathan Orders Arrest Of APC Leaders In Edo…Oshiomhole Cries Out
March 24, 2015
Edo State government says as a desperate last resort to cover lost ground in the state, the Presidency has descended to the use of smear campaign against the state Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Also, the state government said there are plans to clamp down on faithful of the All Progressives Congress in the State, including members of the state executive council, as part of desperate moves to cow the people of the state and pave the way for the rigging of the forthcoming election in the state.
In a statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Louis Odion, the Government said: “We wish to alert the Nigerian public, foreign election observers and lovers of democracy to an evil plot by the presidency to clamp down on All Progressives Congress (APC) in a last-ditch attempt to rig the coming general elections in Edo State in favour of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“The devilish design consists of a vicious smear campaign against Edo Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, in form of newspaper adverts/articles and sponsored television documentary dripping of lies and slander as well as intimidation and detention of APC leaders across the 18 councils in the state on trumped up charges.
“One of such smear campaigns was featured on the national network of NTA yesterday signed by “Edo Political Rebirth Group”, a phantom body, in clear breach of decency and NBC code. We find it curious that whereas decent jingles taken by APC and its supporters to the same NTA are rejected outright, this supposed public trust has been desecrated and parlayed by PDP to slander innocent citizens of Nigeria.
“We are aware that some media organizations, mindful of the laughable and libelous contents, had responsibly rejected the said adverts/documentaries in spite of the huge blood money offered them in dollars.
“We not only condemn this recourse to Nazi tactics by a desperate and – by God’s grace- outgoing PDP government, but wish to reassure that the Comrade Governor remains unshaken in the noble struggle to reclaim Nigeria from a hopelessly incompetent ruling party. Their desperation should be understood.
“In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan polled more than 90 percent of the votes in Edo on account of a singular push by Comrade Oshiomhole who deployed his persuasive skill to sell Jonathan against his own party’s candidate in the hope that the then trenchant promise of “fresh breath” would redeem the nation.
“Now utterly disillusioned by PDP’s monumental failure, Comrade Oshiomhole is convinced the challenge confronting the nation today transcends ethnic solidarity or religious affinity. To him, it is now a choice between those who want a continuity of insecurity, corruption and deepening poverty and a promise of real change as embodied by APC’s General Muhammadu Buhari.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Comrade Governor calls on APC members to remain calm but resolute against the dirty moves by these anti-democratic forces in the rock-solid conviction that Edo people, like other patriots across the country, are now wiser and will vote for change come March 28 and April 11.
“Meanwhile, intelligence report at our disposal reveals that the following are among the APC leaders security forces have been directed to detain on or before the election day:
OREDO LIST:
(1) John Osazuwa. (2) Ifeanyi (Deputy to John Stone). (3) Edo exco members (4) Austin Vboot. (5) Dogo C-class (6) Sunday Shark ( Ward 03 chairman). (7) Sunny Erhengbo (03) ( Mr. Aiyeki. (9)Councillor Mighty man. (10) Ogundezi (Uzebu chairman). (11) Eghe Edebiri (02). (12) Foster Iyangbe (04). (13)
Otutu Obaraye (07). (14) Fedeco (07). (15) Number Five (05). (16) Osazee Osakue (05). (17) Emma Culture (08). (18) Super (09). (19) Mike Mikado (10). (20) Ogbelaka Youth Chairman. (21) Osama. (22) Aideyan Lucky – Vice Chairman Driver’s Welfare. (23) School boy – member, Driver welfare. (24) Igbinosa Jude.
EGOR LIST:
(25) Joshua Uwagboe. (26) Agbonwanegbe Evans. (27) Osayi Saddam. (28) Kuanki. (29) One Man Squad. (30) Edo Aguebor. (31) Iyase Emmanuel. (32) Nosasu Edigin. (33) Eguakun Austin. (34) Odion Olaye.
In a country where hedonistic indulgence is the order of the day, I find his asceticism ennobling. In a clime where cynical opportunism reigns supreme, I admire his supposed stubbornness.
I was old enough when he was in charge to appreciate what he was trying to do for Nigeria; especially considering the path the gang that forced him out took Nigeria. We are still living the consequences of that.
Given the wide gulf that exists between continued perfidy and possible promise, it is my considered view that you have made the wise decision here Comrade.
RIVERS POLITICS: PDP PLANING TO STEAL CARD READERS FROM INEC WAREHOUSE – APC ALLEGES
March 24, 2015 1:52 pm
LEGISREPORTS NG – The All Progressive Congress in Rivers State has alleged that Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is planning to break into the warehouse of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state to steal the card reading machines to be used for the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
The allegation was contained in a statement issued Tuesday in Port Harcourt by Dr Ibiamu Davies Ikanya the Chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him, “We wish to alert the security agencies and the general public of the diabolical plan by the leadership of Rivers PDP to break into INEC warehouse in Port Harcourt to steal the smart card reader machines.
According to our informant in PDP’s Campaign Organisation who was privy to the sinister plot, the Chief Security Officer of Rivers INEC, who has been comprised, assured the party chieftains that the gate of INEC would be thrown open around 2am on 26th March for what has been tagged ‘Operation Bat’.
[b]According to our informant, this arrangement was perfected during the visit of the First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, during her South-South PDP Women Presidential Rally in Port Harcourt, few days ago,” Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, said.
He quoted APC’s informant as disclosing that Rivers PDP intends to use the card reading machines to be stolen during ‘Operation Bat’ to accredit only PDP members during the election in the state. “If this fails, then option two will be used – to frustrate INEC from using the smart card readers in the state or totally stop the conduct of the election in the state to save the party and President Goodluck Jonathan from imminent defeat awaiting them during the 2015 polls in the State. We cannot ascertain if the INEC Resident Commissioner, Mrs. Gesila Khan, is aware of this plot as she took ill after her plan with a top official of the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC) to rig the election in favour of PDP was busted,” Ikanya said.[/b]
Rivers APC called on the security agencies in Rivers State to intensify surveillance in the INEC State Headquarters and nip this wicked plot to rig the elections in the bud.
Actually, that was not the Guardian's poll...that was a paid advert by MoveOn Nigeria.(facebook page here). It appeared on the front pages of many papers...including Leadership Newspapers.
Question is; why has this advertorial been credited to the Guardian Newpaper rather than TAN-addled MoveOnNigeria?
Is it fair to assume that both @OP and the mod who moved this one to the frontpage, are a tad disingenuous?
doctokwus: Op u are a bloody liar or just trying to be mischievous! That wasn't a Guardian newspaper projection but an advertorial by an arm of d PDP that also appeared in some other newspapers today.The advertorial used phantom opinion polls by 2 entirely discredited organisations with no known addresses. These groups are one or two individuals that sat in their bedrooms and came up with figures so as to reap their own largesse from the GEJ ATM machine. The only credible group there is Eurasia whose earlier projection in January on which PDP is basing its advert was actually an analysis and not an opinion poll.Even at that the same group in an updated projection based on further analysis, has come out to say GMB would win conservatively by 60:40 ratio. PDP can deceive themselves all they can but d fact remains that GEJ cannot win these elections even if he tries to rig because he can only rig in ss and se with a minority of total votes.Any attempt to rig in d nwest, neast,ncentral and swest would be impossible,so he loses even with rigging in some parts of the south. On d other hand in a free/fair election GEJ would lose by a landslide as has been projected in opinion polls carried out by credible organisations using well known,globally accepted sample methods.
From the contrived advertorial...
The re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan appears inevitable according to some surveys conducted by major internal political risk analysis agencies
The surveys from Eurasia Group, Kevin Charlyn and Kimberley Associates and Diaspora Nigeria Nationals Network (DNNet), all returned positives for Jonathan in the March 28 presidential elections
(1) Anyone who regards Kevin Charlyn and Kimberley Associates as a major risk analysis agency, needs to have his head tested.
Director of Kevin, Charlyn and Kimberly Associates, Vincent Onyekwelu aka OC Vince, of the 'no partisan interest' fame
In a statement by Mr O.C Vince, the Vice President of the firm for West Africa, while addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Thursday, explained that the firm has no partisan interest in the outcome of the election which is left for the people of Nigeria to decide.
[size=20pt]Listen to the message by President Obama, Even Mr Obama recognises the progress that has been made under president jonathan in Economy, security, democracy etc and is urging Nigerians to vote for continuity to consolidate the gains that has been made so far.
GEJ carry go.[/size]
[/s]
^^^A lie that could only have been conceived in the mind of a reprobate. Where in Obama's plea for free and fair elections, devoid of violence, is your brand of "continuity" mentioned?
"Hello.
Today, I want to speak directly to you—the people of Nigeria.
Nigeria is a great nation and you can be proud of the progress you’ve made. Together, you won your independence, emerged from military rule, and strengthened democratic institutions. You’ve strived to overcome division and to turn Nigeria’s diversity into a source of strength. You’ve worked hard to improve the lives of your families and to build the largest economy in Africa.
Now you have a historic opportunity to help write the next chapter of Nigeria’s progress—by voting in the upcoming elections. For elections to be credible, they must be free, fair and peaceful. All Nigerians must be able to cast their votes without intimidation or fear.
So I call on all leaders and candidates to make it clear to their supporters that violence has no place in democratic elections—and that they will not incite, support or engage in any kind of violence—before, during, or after the votes are counted. I call on all Nigerians to peacefully express your views and to reject the voices of those who call for violence. And when elections are free and fair, it is the responsibility of all citizens to help keep the peace, no matter who wins.
Successful elections and democratic progress will help Nigeria meet the urgent challenges you face today. Boko Haram—a brutal terrorist group that kills innocent men, women and children—must be stopped. Hundreds of kidnapped children deserve to be returned to their families. Nigerians who have been forced to flee deserve to return to their homes. Boko Haram wants to destroy Nigeria and all that you have worked to build. By casting your ballot, you can help secure your nation’s progress.
I’m told that there is a saying in your country: “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.” Today, I urge all Nigerians—from all religions, all ethnic groups, and all regions—to come together and keep Nigeria one. And in this task of advancing the security, prosperity, and human rights of all Nigerians, you will continue to have a friend and partner in the United States of America." ~ President Obama
Children for sale heartbreakingly easy to find in ravaged Nigeria
March 24, 2015
Editor's Note: Nearly a million Nigerians have been displaced to date by Boko Haram. According to UNICEF, over half of them are children. CNN's Nima Elbagir and her team, producer Lillian Leposo and cameraman Fabien Muhire, investigated claims that many of the children are sold and trafficked, then filed this exclusive report.
(CNN)"It really depends what you want. Boy? Girl? Young? Old?"
The man on the phone was offering us young children with the casualness of a market trader. After a week of back and forth phone calls, his initial caginess had given way to greed. He'd heard my foreign accent and clearly decided I would pay more than the domestic rate.
"We can get," he said.
We'd been put in touch with the man through a contact on the ground. We were told he was one of the men running this "unofficial" displaced camp -- one of the many that has mushroomed in the town of Yola as the influx of people fleeing Boko Haram has grown beyond the capacity of the official camps.
It had all been heartbreakingly simple. We'd asked who had children available to "foster" -- a catch-all code word designed to conceal the true intent of those offering up the orphaned children. The man on the phone was the end result of those inquiries.
When our colleague want to see them, he was shown a group of children and asked which one he wanted to take. One, two maybe? He escaped by saying he needed to check with his "madam" -- me.
I called. The man picked up and began referring to me as "sister." I told him we wanted to know what we'd need to do, if we decided we did want to "foster" the children.
He told me, "Sister, Jesus will reward me," so the "fostering" was free, he said. No need for any pesky paperwork -- just a reassurance from me that the children, if I chose to take them, would "live in my heart." If I could also then find it "in my heart" to donate to those still in the camp, then that would be "God's work."
In spite of the harsh measures the Nigerian government has put in place to punish human traffickers, by the government's own admission, 8 million children are currently engaged in forced labor.
The Global Slavery Index says Nigeria has the highest number of people in modern slavery of any sub-Saharan country. Paradoxically, the group also rates Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency, Naptip, as one of the strongest government responses on the continent -- but it's clearly overwhelmed by the realities of working in what is now a zone of military operations, Nigeria's north. As the insecurity in the region has spiraled, the worry is that more and more children are falling through the cracks. And as Boko Haram increases its reliance on child suicide bombers, concerns are growing that orphaned children could end up in the hands of the terror group.
At the camp where we finally met the man face to face, there was no attempt at subterfuge. We spoke in normal tones in full view of the children playing. I could have had one of them, I was told, but because I'd specified a younger child, they'd only identified one so far -- a 3-year-old. Did I want to consider an older girl? A 12-year-old maybe? She could look after the 3-year-old, and cook and clean. Either way, two girls would be ready tomorrow, he said. I could see them then.
Our last phone conversation revolved around what an appropriate "donation" would be in exchange for the children. He couldn't, he said, bargain for it. He then proceeded to do just that, laughing down the phone at my first tentative guess of $200. Laughing again at $300.
We finally found a figure he didn't find funny -- $500. I put the phone down and we traveled back to the capital that day to show Naptip what we'd found.
barcanista: OP your source pls!!!! APC and Propaganda
Only the blind would deny the obvious resemblance between Olusegun and Ayodele Fayose.
The Ayo Fayose camp which include the first born of the late Octogenarian, Olusegun Fayose and Mrs. Moji Ladeji want the old man buried in his home town, Afao-Ekiti, Ekiti State, while their other group insist on respecting an alleged last wish of the former Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) leader that he be buried in his Ibadan home, which adjoins one of the five churches he founded in his 50 years of work as an ecclesiastic activist and missionary in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Disagreement over the final resting place of Pa Olorunfemi Oluwayose, renowned cleric and father of former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose has snowballed into a dirty war among the deceased’s children.
Daily Sun gathered that the children of the late cleric are pitched in a battle over where and how to bury their father.
According to family sources, a meeting held at the Orita-Challenge home of the late Oluwayose went awry two weeks ago as Fayose, leading 10 of his siblings including the first born, disagreed with the 16 other children led by the second born, Ms. Modupeola Fayose, a United Kingdom-based nutrition expert and Apostle (Mrs.) Bimpe Oluwayose Sorinola, Fayose’s sister by same mother kicked against the burial arrangement for their father.
The Ayo Fayose camp which include the first born of the late Octogenarian, Olusegun Fayose and Mrs. Moji Ladeji want the old man buried in his home town, Afao-Ekiti, Ekiti State, while their other group insist on respecting an alleged last wish of the former Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) leader that he be buried in his Ibadan home, which adjoins one of the five churches he founded in his 50 years of work as an ecclesiastic activist and missionary in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Pa John Olorunfemi Oluwayose passed on February 14, but he is yet to get a befitting and quick burial as he reportedly instructed at his 82nd birthday celebration last year.
Both groups of his surviving children had published separate conflicting obituaries and funeral programmes.
While the Modupeola/Bimpe group fixed the rites of passage for between last Wednesday and Friday (April 1-3) to hold at the Orita Challenge residence of the deceased, Ayo Fayose’s scheduled theirs for April 9 and 10 at Afao Ekiti.
Although some of the children observed the April 1-3 programme, climaxing in a burial service at Oloruntedotimi CAC at Orita Challenge, Ibadan and interment, it was more of mockery, as the corpse could not be buried, having been ordered detained by the police allegedly on Fayose’s instruction.
Daily Sun gathered that when the Modupeola/Bimpe group got to the private hospital (names withheld) where the remains of the late cleric were being kept, the corpse could not retrieved as mobile policemen had been drafted to the hospital.
The group was said to have gone back disappointed with an empty casket, which they eventually interred with Pa Oluwayose’s priestly regalia and his Bible.
The development shocked mourners including relations and church members of the late priest.
The former Ekiti governor’s group is alleged by the Modupeola/Bimpe group to be backed by traditionalists in their hometown who allegedly had been cursing members of the camp for wanting to shame Ekiti.
An unrepentant Bimpe told Daily Sun last night: “They have given our phone numbers to Babalawos, traditional rulers and other dark principalities in Ekiti who have been cursing and making threats.”
The conflict has even assumed a frightening dimension as Bimpe alleged that she had been receiving threat messages on her mobile phone allegedly sent by her brother of same mother (name withheld), who is hand-in-glove with Fayose on the move to bury their late father’s remains in Ekiti.
Daily Sun gathered that the new Oyo State Police Commissioner, Baba Bolante has waded into the matter with a directive to the hospital in Ibadan, where the deceased’s body is kept not to release it to any of the parties.
A meeting of the family and elders of the late Pa Oluwayose’s church has been summoned by the police commissioner in his office at Eleyele headquarters today to broker peace among the feuding children.
A cynical Bimpe and Modupeola said they suspected the forum was to brow beat them into submitting to Fayose’s plan. But they vowed never to concede any ground against their “father’s last wish”
Contacted, former governor Fayose declined to comment on the development, asking when his father’s burial became an issue for newspaper publication.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the Oyo police boss was out of town, attending a conference of commissioners of police in the federation with the Inspector General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro in Maiduguri.
But police spokesman, Miss Bisi Okuwobi, who confirmed the scheduled parley, said her boss had delegated two senior officers and herself to preside at the meeting.
Okuwobi also explained that the deployment of police detectives in the hospital where the corpse of Fayose’s father was being kept became necessary to avert a breakdown of law and order.
“In order to ensure that there is peace all over the state, the police have to step in to maintain law and order. Our interest is to ensure peace,” Okuwobi stressed.
Jonathan knows those ‘power-grabbers’ who want to ruin our democracy – Soyinka
March 20, 2015
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has stated that some “illegal, sinister and power-grabbers” want to ruin Nigeria’s democratic process.
According to Soyinka, the power-grabbers were those working for the imposition of interim government on the country.
Soyinka made this claim during an interview with SaharaTV.
He alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan knew such people but was afraid of them. The literary doyen said in spite of the challenges, what worried him most, was the plot by some people to take over the affair of Nigeria through the back door.
Soyinka said, “This is what bothers me deeply: There are people who see this as an opportunity for their own political and sinister activities in the country.
“Therefore, we are not even united against the dangerous enemy of the country. The elections themselves are being used as an opportunity of sowing bitter seed of discord and for power-grabbing.
“It is now an established fact that there had been moves towards scuttling the democratic process by instituting a so-called interim government. But the proof is there of some participants in meetings for the formation of an interim government. Why form an interim government when there is an electoral process?
“I went to President Jonathan and I asked him, and he was to all appearances outraged by the very suggestion. I remember he used an expression, ‘If such a thing is going on it is outside my wish or my will. After I have been elected by the entire nation, isn’t being the head of an interim government a demotion and an undignifying position?’.
“Maybe there are forces in operation in this nation during this very critical period about which he knows of that is the answer which I could make and it is up to him to sort himself out in contending with these illegal forces,” the literary icon said.
Soyinka, therefore, called on Nigerians not to be complacent about the current political situation in the country.
He said, “I believe that these elections, going by his (Jonathan) body language… it is very difficult to penetrate truthfully and deeply into the minds of politicians… going by his body language, I think Jonathan has no intention of scuttling the elections.
“In other words, the elections would take place but what kind of elections would we have? And what might be the aftermath of the elections? He has repeatedly said, ‘I’m going back to Otuoke if I lose the election.’ I just hope we don’t wake up one day with our complacent attitude and find out that we, as a people, have been overthrown by very sinister, illegal and useless forces,” he added.
Buhari is by nature decisive, resolute and firm – almost to a fault. His former commanding officer, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma (who served with Buhari in the military and in a previous military government) has on multiple occasions described him as “a very inflexible person.“ Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo, another retired general, has also characterised Buhari as “inflexible”.
That resolute temperament means Buhari is unlikely to seek a negotiated peace with militants, and may not shy away from simultaneous confrontations with armed insurgents in the north and south of Nigeria.
However, Buhari might be constrained by the need to respect the interests of political “godfathers” such as Bola Tinubu and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, both of whom are funding his election campaign and were architects of the multi-party merger that created the APC. Younger, more reformist APC members now backing him are also likely to wield significant influence over his economic and social policies.
Meanwhile, although Buhari will be expected to fight corruption as a top priority, he may not go as far as some would hope. After all, he was overthrown in 1985 precisely because his anti-corruption crusade rocked too many boats and stepped on too many powerful toes.
A Buhari victory cannot be taken for granted: many voters who do not want President Jonathan do not want Buhari either. Many Nigerians recall his previous regime with dread, and fear that he will be an uncompromising and repressive leader. In some ways the election is a chance for the electorate to demonstrate who it most dislikes, rather than who it likes.
And at the age of 72, this is almost certainly Buhari’s last chance. If he loses a fourth successive presidential election, no party is likely back him ever again.
Although the kidnap attempt was foiled, the alleged involvement of Nigerian diplomatic and security officials caused a serious rupture in relations between Britain and Nigeria, during which the Nigerian High Commissioner in London was declared persona non grata by the British government. Full diplomatic relations were not restored until years after Buhari was overthrown by yet another military coup on August 27, 1985.
Buhari’s critics accuse him of being repressive and intolerant of dissent. They recall that his government arrested and detained critics without trial, executed convicted drug dealers by firing squad, and approved incredibly lengthy prison sentences for government ministers convicted of corruption (including some prison sentences that exceeded a hundred years).
Although most Nigeria rulers are routinely accused of corruption, rarely are those accusations leveled at Buhari. After being overthrown he maintained his reputation for honesty and for refusing to use the public purse to line his pockets, unlike many other Nigerian politicians. He ran for president in 2003, 2007, and 2011 – losing each time to the current and previous two presidents of the governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
But this time, Buhari’s supporters sense that the momentum is on their side.
Full circle
Multiple factors have combined to re-ignite Buhari’s popularity. Corruption allegations have dogged the government; it has also struggled to respond to the deadly Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed over 10,000 Nigerians and displaced 1.5m others.
Nigeria has come full circle. While Buhari’s previous tenure was criticised for its severity, the public now wants a leader who can simultaneously fight corruption and extinguish the Boko Haram insurgency. And whatever advances have been made against the jihadist group, Goodluck Jonathan simply cannot pretend to have better security or anti-corruption credentials than a disciplinarian general such as Buhari.
Still, now is hardly a great time to be the Nigerian president. If Buhari wins the election he will be handed a platter of diabolical problems.
Besides the murderous insurgency in the north-east, he will have several burned diplomatic bridges to repair, and an economy hobbled by a sharp drop in world oil prices. Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, has been devalued by nearly 20% since the start of 2015, and is now exchanging at the extraordinarily high rate of almost 310 Naira per pound.
On top of all that, a latent insurgency in the far south’s oil-producing areas will require delicate handling when the amnesty deal between the government and militants there expires later in 2015. President Jonathan’s home state is in the far south, and some militants there have threatened to take up arms again if he is not re-elected.
At 72, Muhammadu Buhari could yet be Nigeria’s comeback kid
23 March 2015
Nigeria’s saviour-in-waiting? EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
Nigeria is just weeks away from what many believe will be the most closely contested presidential election in its history. No incumbent government has ever lost a presidential election in the country’s history – yet many Nigerians believe that they could be on the brink of their first ever change of government via the ballot box.
The man who could become the first candidate to defeat a Nigerian president in an election is the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Major-General Muhammadu Buhari. In a country plagued by corruption and insecurity, his reputation for probity and his experience as a retired military officer and former military head of state have led opposition political parties to coalesce around him.
Yet in some ways, Buhari’s choice as the APC’s presidential candidate is surprising. How has a 72-year-old man who was overthrown in a military coup nearly 30 years ago managed not only to re-emerge, but to get to the very threshold of power?
Rising star
Buhari had his first taste of government in 1975, when he and other middle-ranking army officers overthrew the military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, in a bloodless coup. Buhari was soon appointed military governor of the North-Eastern State.
Once in office, he built a reputation for avoiding the turgid corruption that bedevils Nigerian politics, which in turn got him appointed as the Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources (with oversight of the lucrative oil industry that dominates Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings).
The military government ceded power to an elected civilian government in October 1979, but Buhari’s return to army duties was brief: he was appointed head of state when the military returned to power on January 1 1984.
The new military government led by Buhari governed in a manner unlike any previous government in Nigeria’s history. Buhari’s supporters praised his anti-crime and corruption campaign which placed scores of public officials in prison for corruption, and his “War Against Indiscipline” (WAI) aimed at promoting patriotism, orderly public behaviour, respect for public property, and civic virtues.
The zenith of his anti-corruption campaign was an extraordinary incident in which a former minister of transport, Umaru Dikko (who had fled to Britain in order to evade arrest by the military government) was kidnapped while walking on a London street in broad daylight and stuffed into a crate in a bizarre attempt to forcibly return him to Nigeria to face trial for corruption.
Fake US Envoy Exposed As APC Campaign Labels Him PDP Media Contractor
March 22, 2015
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) has denied a claim by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was promoted by an opinion article in Washington Times by a one-time US ambassadorial-aide-turned-media-manager, Richard Grenell implying that the APC Presidential candidate and former military Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is an Islamic fundamentalist prone to terrorist leanings, and therefore, should not be returned to power through the ballot on March 28.
In a swift reaction in Abuja, Mallam Garba Shehu, APCPCO’s Director of Media and Publicity punctured the said provocative advertisement as the handiwork of a failed President and his ruinous party, the PDP to tarnish the hard won credibility and integrity of Gen. Buhari.
“The PDP is a troubled-cannon; firing salvos in all directions, accidentally and incidentally, without caution, care or conscience. With the stark reality of defeat staring them in the face on March 28 and April 11 general elections, a reward for their maladministration, incumbent President Jonathan and his co-travellers have intensified their global campaign of calumny and outright fallacy – their well-known stock in trade.
“Nigerians are yet to forget the phoney phone call to the King of Morocco that never was or the futile effort to stop Buhari from speaking to the world at UK think tank at Chatham House, where their rented crowd confessed to being paid for a hatchet job,” Shehu said.
Shehu said the PDP was only clutching to irrelevant and irreverent decoys after abandoning serious issues of lack of power, insecurity, disunity, unemployment, infrastructural decay, comatose economy, and dysfunctional educational and health sectors, among others that affect the lives of the citizens and are concrete and poignant to the polls.
“How does a former media aide to US Ambassadors to the United Nations, now a partner in www.capitolmediapartners.comsuddenly got adorned in the garb of an emissary or envoy by the PDP?” Shehu queries. For the avoidance of doubt Richard Grenell is not a US ex-envoy but a former spokesperson for four past US Ambassadors to the United Nations
According to his bio, in 2009 Richard Grenell launched Capitol Media Partners, an international strategic media and public affairs consultancy. His agency provides strategic counsel for companies and individuals (like Jonathan and the PDP) facing critical media and public policy challenges. Mr Grenell’s firm ”Capitol Media Partners” was recruited by the Presidency and the PDP to say those unfortunate statements about General Buhari. Mr Grenell made those statements not as an envoy or diplomat but as a media contractor for the Presidency and the PDP. You may confirm the authenticity of Mr Grenell from his firm’s website http://capitolmediapartners.com/
The APC Spokesman said the latest lie by this government and the ruling PDP underscores the new low to which Nigeria’s foreign policy drift has sunk under the Jonathan government, which hires all manners of local and global quacks, to manage their tattered image marked by cluelessness, incompetence, squander-mania, meteoric corruption and dearth of developmental ideas.
Meanwhile, the supreme laws of Nigeria as enshrined in the country’s Constitution does not allow for the dominance of one religion above the other. Nigeria is a multi religious state and cannot be a theocracy as propagated in Grenell’s a-dozen-for-a-US-Dollar opinion article.
“With popular political indicators embracing the APC message of Change, and the PDP losing followership all over the country through mass defections, the drowning men of PDP are clawing to weightless straws for survival.
“How can a foreigner without a grasp of the ethics, ethos and ethno-religious diversity of our country be the one to tell us who and how we should be governed as a people? Only a cheap and sleazy government would increase its dastardly mission of increasing disaffection at home, where it has caused split in national institutions such as the Nigeria Labour Congress, National Association of Nigerian Students, Christian Association of Nigeria, Afenifere Group, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Association, Ohaneze Ndigbo, among a legion of others by venturing disastrously abroad for global mercenaries,” Shehu stressed.
He continued: “Buhari in the early 1980s, as a serving General Officer Commanding, led the army that promptly and effectively defeated the Islamic Sect of Maitasine. So for anyone to link Buhari to religious insensitivity and fanaticism is grossly unfair, malicious and libellous. The APC is a party is reflective of the diversities of Nigeria. The Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, a former state governor, is a Christian; same as the Director General of APC Presidential Campaign, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. Other stakeholders are Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Tony Momoh, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, among others. How can anyone under a democratic dispensation Islamise or Christianise a country in the 21st Century.”
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) says it had been vindicated on its stance of not participating in the presidential campaign debates, owing to the outbreak of rumpus among the organizers, the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) has been compromised.
A press statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu on Sunday, noted that sordid details coming out of organizers of the debate would have tainted the APC candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, had he presented himself to the group.
[b]A civil society group with knowledge of the working of the NEDG, Value and Integrity Group alleged at a press conference on Friday, that a First Bank account opened for the NEDG had the Founder of AIT and Raypower, Chief Raymond Dokpesi as sole signatory, even though he is not listed as one of the directors of the NEDG.
The group also alleged that the leading private television’s network address was used for the documentation of the First Bank account instead of the NEDG’s office address.
According to leaders of the Value and Integrity Group, Sina Odugbemi and Popoola Ajayi, co-ordinator and secretary respectively, “an initial deposit of N1 million was paid into the said First Bank account, and on March 28, 2011, another N20 million belonging to the NEDG was paid into the personal account of the said Founder of the leading private television network.”
“We at the APC Presidential Campaign got the eye-opening news of the press conference by the Value and Integrity Group accusing the Nigeria Election Debate Group, the crux of the allegation being that some members of the NEDG have been monetarily influenced. [/b] “Although the group failed to mention from what source the monies came from, we had taken a position, based on intelligence made available to us that the PDP has compromised the integrity of an unnamed few in the NEDG with huge and ridiculous sums of money.
“And watching President Goodluck Jonathan reading from a prepared script gleefully as he answered questions in the debate confirmed our suspicion that there will be “EXPO”. Without a fore-knowledge of the question to be asked, how did the president come with prepared answers?
“These two scenarios: The allegation of corrupt inducements in the NEDG and the president reading from a prepared script during the debate validates our reasons for abstaining from the debate.”
Fake US Envoy Exposed As APC Campaign Labels Him PDP Media Contractor
March 22, 2015
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) has denied a claim by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was promoted by an opinion article in Washington Times by a one-time US ambassadorial-aide-turned-media-manager, Richard Grenell implying that the APC Presidential candidate and former military Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is an Islamic fundamentalist prone to terrorist leanings, and therefore, should not be returned to power through the ballot on March 28.
In a swift reaction in Abuja, Mallam Garba Shehu, APCPCO’s Director of Media and Publicity punctured the said provocative advertisement as the handiwork of a failed President and his ruinous party, the PDP to tarnish the hard won credibility and integrity of Gen. Buhari.
“The PDP is a troubled-cannon; firing salvos in all directions, accidentally and incidentally, without caution, care or conscience. With the stark reality of defeat staring them in the face on March 28 and April 11 general elections, a reward for their maladministration, incumbent President Jonathan and his co-travellers have intensified their global campaign of calumny and outright fallacy – their well-known stock in trade.
“Nigerians are yet to forget the phoney phone call to the King of Morocco that never was or the futile effort to stop Buhari from speaking to the world at UK think tank at Chatham House, where their rented crowd confessed to being paid for a hatchet job,” Shehu said.
Shehu said the PDP was only clutching to irrelevant and irreverent decoys after abandoning serious issues of lack of power, insecurity, disunity, unemployment, infrastructural decay, comatose economy, and dysfunctional educational and health sectors, among others that affect the lives of the citizens and are concrete and poignant to the polls.
“How does a former media aide to US Ambassadors to the United Nations, now a partner in www.capitolmediapartners.comsuddenly got adorned in the garb of an emissary or envoy by the PDP?” Shehu queries. For the avoidance of doubt Richard Grenell is not a US ex-envoy but a former spokesperson for four past US Ambassadors to the United Nations
According to his bio, in 2009 Richard Grenell launched Capitol Media Partners, an international strategic media and public affairs consultancy. His agency provides strategic counsel for companies and individuals (like Jonathan and the PDP) facing critical media and public policy challenges. Mr Grenell’s firm ”Capitol Media Partners” was recruited by the Presidency and the PDP to say those unfortunate statements about General Buhari. Mr Grenell made those statements not as an envoy or diplomat but as a media contractor for the Presidency and the PDP. You may confirm the authenticity of Mr Grenell from his firm’s website http://capitolmediapartners.com/
The APC Spokesman said the latest lie by this government and the ruling PDP underscores the new low to which Nigeria’s foreign policy drift has sunk under the Jonathan government, which hires all manners of local and global quacks, to manage their tattered image marked by cluelessness, incompetence, squander-mania, meteoric corruption and dearth of developmental ideas.
Meanwhile, the supreme laws of Nigeria as enshrined in the country’s Constitution does not allow for the dominance of one religion above the other. Nigeria is a multi religious state and cannot be a theocracy as propagated in Grenell’s a-dozen-for-a-US-Dollar opinion article.
“With popular political indicators embracing the APC message of Change, and the PDP losing followership all over the country through mass defections, the drowning men of PDP are clawing to weightless straws for survival.
“How can a foreigner without a grasp of the ethics, ethos and ethno-religious diversity of our country be the one to tell us who and how we should be governed as a people? Only a cheap and sleazy government would increase its dastardly mission of increasing disaffection at home, where it has caused split in national institutions such as the Nigeria Labour Congress, National Association of Nigerian Students, Christian Association of Nigeria, Afenifere Group, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Association, Ohaneze Ndigbo, among a legion of others by venturing disastrously abroad for global mercenaries,” Shehu stressed.
He continued: “Buhari in the early 1980s, as a serving General Officer Commanding, led the army that promptly and effectively defeated the Islamic Sect of Maitasine. So for anyone to link Buhari to religious insensitivity and fanaticism is grossly unfair, malicious and libellous. The APC is a party is reflective of the diversities of Nigeria. The Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, a former state governor, is a Christian; same as the Director General of APC Presidential Campaign, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. Other stakeholders are Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Tony Momoh, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, among others. How can anyone under a democratic dispensation Islamise or Christianise a country in the 21st Century.”
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) says it had been vindicated on its stance of not participating in the presidential campaign debates, owing to the outbreak of rumpus among the organizers, the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) has been compromised.
A press statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu on Sunday, noted that sordid details coming out of organizers of the debate would have tainted the APC candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, had he presented himself to the group.
[b]A civil society group with knowledge of the working of the NEDG, Value and Integrity Group alleged at a press conference on Friday, that a First Bank account opened for the NEDG had the Founder of AIT and Raypower, Chief Raymond Dokpesi as sole signatory, even though he is not listed as one of the directors of the NEDG.
The group also alleged that the leading private television’s network address was used for the documentation of the First Bank account instead of the NEDG’s office address.
According to leaders of the Value and Integrity Group, Sina Odugbemi and Popoola Ajayi, co-ordinator and secretary respectively, “an initial deposit of N1 million was paid into the said First Bank account, and on March 28, 2011, another N20 million belonging to the NEDG was paid into the personal account of the said Founder of the leading private television network.”
“We at the APC Presidential Campaign got the eye-opening news of the press conference by the Value and Integrity Group accusing the Nigeria Election Debate Group, the crux of the allegation being that some members of the NEDG have been monetarily influenced. [/b] “Although the group failed to mention from what source the monies came from, we had taken a position, based on intelligence made available to us that the PDP has compromised the integrity of an unnamed few in the NEDG with huge and ridiculous sums of money.
“And watching President Goodluck Jonathan reading from a prepared script gleefully as he answered questions in the debate confirmed our suspicion that there will be “EXPO”. Without a fore-knowledge of the question to be asked, how did the president come with prepared answers?
“These two scenarios: The allegation of corrupt inducements in the NEDG and the president reading from a prepared script during the debate validates our reasons for abstaining from the debate.”
Members of Igwebike's union have paid heavily for the privatisation programme, and not just through their electricity bills. Many households are clamouring for prepayment meters because the newly privatised companies are so poor at conducting meter readings and often over-estimate bills.
Around a quarter of the workforce, about 10,000 people, were made redundant following privatisation. When questioned about this, the UK's Department for International Development claims that the Nigerian government has provided compensation for those workers that have lost their jobs, and set up a retaining scheme. But the NUEE says they have heard nothing about this programme and describes how many workers have not received pensions or redundancy benefits that they are entitled to.
Given the scale of job losses, it's hardly surprising to hear reports that electricity generating capacity has actually been reduced, with several power stations experiencing shutdowns due to poor management. Nigerians that are connected to the grid report frequent blackouts, to the extent that last year the regulator was forced to agree that the newly-introduced standing charge would not be payable by people who experience 15 days or more days of continuous interruption to their power supply. And it has been reported that the Nigerian government has had to budget N837m (around £2.5 million) last year for fuelling and maintaining generators for its offices in 2014 as a result of being unable to rely on the national grid for power.
With the vast majority of the NIAF project's budget being spent on international consultants, not on new power stations or connections to link poor communities to the grid, it's difficult to imagine a more disastrous use of aid money. As Ken Henshaw, senior programmes officer at Nigerian civil society group Social Action, sums it up: "Regardless of whether or not the privatisation process leads to better power supply, the truth is that with the recent frightening increases in the cost of electricity, the vast majority of Nigerians won't benefit from it as they can't afford it. Sixty-seven per cent of the people in Nigeria live on less than $1.25 a day. So you have to ask the question, who is benefitting from the privatisation of energy in Nigeria, as it's certainly isn't the people of Nigeria?"
While we should welcome a commitment to providing fairer quantities of aid, it is meaningless unless we ensure it is of a quality that genuinely reduces poverty and inequality, rather than simply exporting failed neoliberal approaches.
How Britain's aid budget pays for the privatisation of energy in Nigeria
Sunday, 22 March 2015
Last week's Budget comes hot on the heels of the news that the coalition government's pledge to spend 0.7% of the UK's national income as overseas aid has finally made it into law (pending royal sign-off). It's welcomed by anti-poverty campaigners as a means of redistributing the grossly unequal manner in which the world's resources are currently divided. At least in theory. But how does it measure up in practice?
While there are undoubtedly many projects funded with UK aid that bring genuine and much-needed benefit to people living on the lowest incomes in the world, there's also a trend in ones that actually helps tilt an already uneven playing field further in favour of the rich, entrenching inequality and corporate power.
Nigeria, one of the countries that receives the most UK aid, is a good place to see this play out. Only 40% have access to electricity. So the Department for International Development is backing a project overseeing wholesale privatisation of the country's power sector, despite saying that goal is "seen by many as being so ambitious as to be unrealistic".
The project in question is the Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF) which is currently in its second phase, having spent its initial £33 million budget ahead of schedule. Now a further £100 million has been authorised.
The UK's own experience of energy privatisation should be enough to set a few alarm bells ringing. Millions of families have been pushed into fuel poverty by bills that have risen eight times faster than wages, while the Big Six energy companies pocket billion-pound profits. Energy corporations are used to peddling the line that we can either have cheap energy or green energy. But in fact, under privatisation, we've got neither. Our electricity supply remains stubbornly hooked on fossil fuels, which still account for around two-thirds of our supply.
But these problems pale into insignificance when compared to Nigeria's experience, less than 18 months after privatisation. There too Nigerians have seen major price rises, the latest being 29% in Lagos. There is no doubt that massive price hikes were built into the process. As early as 2012, the FT reported that prices would increase by up to 88% as part of the efforts to attract private investors.
In fact, the only investment that has materialised has been from the Nigerian government. The Nigerian central bank had to provide a bailout for the newly privatised energy companies last year after investment flows into the sector dried up. As Igwebike Dominic, assistant general secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), which has been fighting the privatisation programme, puts it: "Can you imagine a landlord sells their property to someone else, and then uses the money from the sale to paint, furnish and upgrade the house for the new owner? This is what the Nigerian government is doing."
Exactly. The difference is clear. Buhari has people like Dr Kayode Fayemi, Fashola, El Rufai and Amaechi planning his campaign strategy and GEJ is relying on people like Fani Kayode, Okupe, Reuben Agbati, Omokri and many other jobless young men desperate for money. No wonder his campaign is in tatters.
To buttress your point; isn't it the height of deceit and thus reprehensible that an unreconstructed TANoid like O.C Vince can run to town with an arithmetically flawed survey, while denying his affiliation to GEJ's rudderless campaign train?
In a statement by Mr O.C Vince, the Vice President of the firm for West Africa, while addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Thursday, explained that the firm has no partisan interest in the outcome of the election which is left for the people of Nigeria to decide.
There are times when I wonder if the FFKs, Abatis, Okupes and OC Vinces of this world, are not stealthily working for the opposition - as a result of some undocumented accord - by deliberating undermining the interest of their principal
Politics / Re: Can APC Substitute Buhari If He Is Finally Disqualified? by TheOtherview: 10:20pm On Mar 24, 2015 
Mr. Aiyeki. (9)Councillor Mighty man. (10) Ogundezi (Uzebu chairman). (11) Eghe Edebiri (02). (12) Foster Iyangbe (04). (13)
