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PH Stampede in lieu of GJ's Jos Campaign: A Shortage of good luck from someone called Goodluck now going to campaign in Jos !

Posted by 9jabook.com on February 17, 2011 at 8:31pm

For the nation’s 50th year anniversary celebrations the president’s wife, Patience Jonathan, decided to share bags of rice to “alleviate the poverty” of local women – and did this in the crudest, most elementary way possible – by calling people together and throwing them bags of rice like beggars.

By the time she was through, there were plenty of casualties, some fatal, as citizens struggled not just for rice but also against the complete absence of crowd control measures or indeed any kind of preparation to handle the melee that was sure to ensue from that method of distribution.

The bottom line: someone wanted to make a public show of doing good, but the action was neither thought through nor planned well; a metaphor for many of this administration’s handling of crucial issues.

Last week however, it all became a bit too much..

At a campaign rally for the People’s Democratic Party at Port Harcourt sports stadium, where the president was heralded and governors received their party flags, it all ended in avoidable tragedy. Sixteen people died and many others were wounded from the stampede that ensued after a police officer fired into the air to disperse the crowd..

Unfortunately, this is no simple tragedy. According to reports, the problem began when crowds wanted to leave as the president was about to begin his speech. While there is no doubt that this probably had more to do with people’s impatience with speeches rather than any animosity towards the candidacy of Mr. Jonathan, his presidential security seems to have convinced itself that this would be embarrassing to the president. The guards therefore refused to allow the guests leave – especially because it appears the same thing had happened at a similar rally in Kaduna just the day before.

But a crowd that wants to leave is a crowd that wants to leave – and when the armed guards were unable to control the pushing any longer, one of them began to shoot. Evidently, in a democracy, a people cannot even choose whom to listen to and when, and it has somehow become a duty to sit still during a campaign rally. The result was chaos, death, and many wounded at an event where people came to answer the invitation of a man who wants their votes.

The information commissioner for Rivers State, Ibim Semenitari, confirmed the sequence of events. “As soon as governors finished receiving their flags, and the president was about to make his speech,” she revealed, “some of the people, who had come to celebrate with the president and their governors began to leave. Initially, the gates were opened, that is at the Liberation stadium. But people were leaving in an uncoordinated manner, and security personnel were trying to manage the crowd and in the process of managing the crowd, they shut the bigger gate. Then a woman fell down and the crowd started stepping on her, some other people fell subsequently, and more people were stepping on them; that was how the confusion started.

“Now, when that happened, the mobile police men, who were standing outside, shot into the air to scare others. They (MOPOL) released a shot into the air to stop further surge and rescue those on the ground. Unfortunately, that worsened the confusion and more people started pushing, rushing back, rushing forward, leading to more casualties.”

We are left to wonder, are the president and his staff - aware that he is in fact responsible for the security of the people he leads first and foremost?

Everything about this unfortunate series of events shows Nigerians that there is plenty to be worried about: the fact that the security measures were not only insufficient, but the course of action taken by those charged with ensuring crowd control precipitated the tragedy: the fact that the presidential guards took over the security functions that are usually the preserve of the local police: the fact that the government has not taken any steps to heighten security and crowd control measures in this election season that guarantees there will be many more such gatherings of large crowds.

How is the president going to safeguard lives in Jos if he cannot even safeguard lives at his own campaign rally?

As if to add insult to injury, speaking to newsmen after the incident, an obviously clueless Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio, of Akwa Ibom State, urged Nigerians to vote overwhelmingly for Mr. Jonathan as a mark of honour in memory of those who died in the incident. It would be comic if it weren’t so tragic.

After unnecessary denials and a concerted effort to minimise the true import of this story – the president’s team decided to put off his campaigns for a while in a mark of respect for the dead.

However, it is barely one week after, and the president is back on the campaign trail – this time to Jos, the same city he never visited while hundreds, even thousands, were being killed on his watch.

Indeed, there is much to mourn.

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Have more sex, look healthier, younger

Posted by cozzy webtatafo on January 27, 2011 at 6:45pm
Studies have revealed that regular sex does the body good, writes NNAEMEKA MERIBE. Do you dread the wrinkles that come with old age? If your answer is in the affirmative, then you may need to be more active sexually, because scientists say that sex does the body good. In fact, anti-ageing experts say that the more sex you have, the younger and healthier you become. A good sex life, they say, also helps you to live longer. Comment: Well what we need are two from each gender maybe A "nun" and one "eunuch" to verify this .probably we wont ask Tonto Dike or RMD . Certain we wont ask Senate President Mark or OBJ we hear he is quick to laff about his kampe ability in the bedroom . An active sex life is good for your heart, memory and immune system, and, as a new book, Younger (Sexier) You, reveals, you can boost yours just by drinking coffee and eating peanuts... The book, written by a United States anti-ageing expert, Dr. Eric Braverman, says sex not only raises your hormone ­levels (so keeping you young), but can also boost your metabolism, brain, heart and immunity. And if your sex life is tepid, rather than torrid, don't despair, says Braverman, according to the Mail of London. Whether you're 30 or 100, a combination of good diet, nutritional supplements and some 'natural' hormones will restore your drive and ensure that you enjoy the health benefits, too. Many sexual problems, says Braverman, can be addressed by eating particular foods. Drinking coffee, he says, can help boost a flagging libido, while snacking on peanuts can enhance arousal. Eating brown rice can help combat sexual coldness, while avocadoes might increase your capacity for pleasure. But while agreeing that regular sex can increase metabolism and boost hormones, one consultant family physician at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Dr. Tony Aluka, doubts how regular sex can make one to look healthier and younger. However, Braverman says the other great physical enemy of a healthy sex life is the menopause - and the male version, the andropause (both of which entail the loss of sex hormones which affect sex drive and function). But it's not just about the mechanics of sex. Healthy sexual function is also about how your brain reacts to the messages it's receiving from your body, he adds. When your brain is working at its peak, brain chemicals are produced and dispersed at the correct levels. A reduced sexual desire can apparently be the first sign there's a ­problem with one of the four key brain ­chemicals. These are dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA and serotonin. A deficiency in each will produce ­specific types of sexual problem. In fact, some scientific studies have suggested that sex can bring many health benefits. A 2001 study, Sex and the heart: what is the role of the cardiologist?, published in European Heart Journal, notes that sex is good for the heart. According to the study, anything that exercises the heart is good for it, including sex. Sexual arousal sends the heart rate higher, and the number of beats per minute reaches its peak during orgasm. Sex can also be a stress buster. A study on blood pressure and sex published in Biological Psychology of February 2006 claims that sex can help you beat the stresses of 21st Century life style. The 46 men and women who participated in the study kept a diary of sexual activity, recording penetrative sex, non-penetrative sex and masturbation. In stress tests, including public speaking and doing mental arithmetic out loud, the people who had no sex at all had the highest stress levels. People who only had penetrative sex had the smallest rise in blood pressure. This shows that they coped better with stress. Researchers have also found a link between how often one has sex and how strong one's immune system is. A study, Sexual frequency and salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA), published in the June 2004 edition of Psychology Report found that students who had sex once or twice a week had higher levels of an important illness-fighting substance in their bodies. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) was 30 per cent higher in those who had sex once or twice a week than in those who had no sex at all. However, the lowest levels were in people who had sex more than twice a week. But the researchers say more research is needed before it can be proved that weekly sex helps your immune system. However, in another study correlating overall health with sexual frequency, Queens University in Belfast Northern Ireland tracked the mortality of about 1,000 middle-aged men over the course of a decade. The study was designed to compare people of similar age and health. Its findings, published in 1997 in the British Medical Journal, were that men who reported the highest frequency of orgasm enjoyed a death rate half that of the laggards. Sex has also been found to be therapeutic in many other ways. An article on reasons to have sex every week, published on the December 10, 2007 edition of Newsweek magazine lists the following as ways that sex can boost your health: * It's a beauty treatment. In a study at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland, a panel of judges viewed participants through a one-way mirror and guessed their ages. Those who looked seven to 12 years younger than their age (labeled 'superyoung') were also enjoying lots of sex-four times a week, on average. OK, maybe they were having so much fun because they looked young. But it's likely the sex was helping, researchers say. One reason is that it raises a woman's estrogen level, which helps make hair shiny and skin supple. * It burns calories. A little over four calories a minute, or the equivalent of four Hershey's kisses in a half hour of love. * It can cure migraine. For a woman a migraine might actually be a reason for making love rather than avoiding intercourse: the increase in endorphins and corticosteroids during arousal and orgasm is analgesic. * It promotes regular menstrual cycles. A series of studies by behavioral endocrinologist Winnifred Cutler, and colleagues at Columbia and Stanford universities found that women who have intercourse at least weekly (except during their period) cycle more regularly than abstainers or the sporadically active. Cutler argues that intimacy is essential, not orgasms, "Regular exposure to a loving partner has extraordinary effects on health and well-being." * It can prevent accidents. Women use the muscles of the pelvic floor to stem the flow of urine. As they age, they need to keep these strong to avoid peeing accidentally. The same muscles are exercised during intercourse. But is there anything like too much sex? The answer is different for male and females. According to the article, Sex does the body good, published on www.msbn.com, Dr. Claire Bailey of the University of Bristol, says that there is little or no risk of a woman overdosing on sex. In fact, she says, regular sessions can not only firm a woman's tummy and buttocks but also improve her posture. As for men, Dr. J. Francois Eid, a urologist at Weil Medical College New York Presbyterian Hospital, says it's definitely possible to get too much of a good thing, now that drugs such as Viagra and Levitra have given men far more staying power than what may actually be good for them. The male organ, Eid says, is wonderfully resilient. But everything has its limits. Penile tissues, if given too roistering or prolonged a pummelling, can sustain damage. However, arguing that regular sex may not make one healthier and younger, Aluka says that a look at many commercial sex workers will give a lie to the claim. He said, "Yes, sex can increase hormones, raise metabolism and release tension. I have watched a documentary of an elephant on heat. It was very destructive and only became calm after having sex. It can be the same for humans. But that is how far that can go. "But I doubt whether regular sex can make one look healthier and younger. If you look at many commercial sex workers or some people living in rural areas that have more than one wife, you will notice that they do not appear healthier and younger. And these are the people that have sex regularly. He says while some of the studies' findings may be true in the Western world, it may not be replicated in the Nigerian environment where many people do not feed well. "So, telling somebody who is no feeding well to have sex regularly may be telling the person to commit suicide," he says.
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CECILIA IBRU VS BILL GATES: The good the bad and the wicked

Posted by 9jabook.com webmadam on October 31, 2010 at 8:12pm

PHOTO L-R: DISGRACED AND CONVICTED FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR OF OCEANIC BANK PLC, CECILIA IBRU AND MICROSOFT FOUNDER AND PHILANTHROPIST, MR BILL GATES.

This piece is not about the man and woman, not about the two persons but two people; it is not entirely about Cecilia Ibru and Bill Gate but about the society as personified by them. It is about selflessness against selfishness; altruism as opposed to egotism; and magnanimity versus self-centredness.

Cecilia and Bill both grew up in the middle class homes having lawyers as their fathers. Cecilia Ibru’s father, late Chief Edward Gbagbeke Sido was an educationist, a social entrepreneur and most especially an erudite lawyer while Bill Gate’s father, William Henry Gates, Sr is a retired American attorney, philanthropist and an author.

Cecilia and Bill both started the businesses that they become synonymous with. Cecilia Ibru dropped out of the main Ibru’s family business to start and head Oceanic bank with the family’s wealth. She succeeded in taking the bank to an enviable height nationally and even internationally. Oceanic Bank International was seemingly one of the fastest growing and most profitable banks in Nigeria until August 2009. Bill Gate also dropped out of Harvard to team up with his childhood friend, Paul Allen with whom he shared a passion in computer programming and on April 4, 1975, they started Microsoft with Gates as the CEO. Microsoft would later become the world’s biggest software maker.
They are also both married to spouses who were deeply involved in their businesses. Cecilia is the most prominent of the five wives of Olorogun Michael Ibru who served as the founding chairman of Oceanic bank from its inception on March 26, 1990 until he attained the mandatory retirement age. Gate is married to Melinda Ann Gate who was the General Manager of Information Products at Microsoft before she left the company to focus on starting and raising a family with Bill, together, they have three children.
The list of their similarities is long but their most notable common denominator is money. When you talk about money, they both have it and in abundance. As much as money is their commonest denominator so also it is their commonest divider.

They are apparently two rich persons who differ in how they made and spend their money.

Gates is undoubtedly the ‘Eze ego’ - the king of money - of our time. He was number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2007 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" until recently. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $101 billion, causing the media to call him the only "centibillionaire" ever. Since 2000, the nominal value of his Gate’s wealth has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In March 2010 Bill Gates was marginally bumped down to the 2nd wealthiest man behind Carlos Slim, a Jewish Mexican telecom magnate. A 5% upward movement in the share price of Microsoft will thrust him back to the top position.

Though not listed by Forbes, Cecilia Ibru must have been making jest of Forbes in her closet when in March 2009, the financial magazine officially named Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola as Nigeria’s wealthiest men with net worth of $2.5bn and $1.2bn respectively - Dangote’s net worth was revised downward to $2.1bn in 2010 while Otedola was dropped from the list of global billionaires. While being investigated for her role in running Oceanic bank to near collapse, EFCC’s investigation revealed that Cecilia’s assets value dwarfed the combined reported net worth of the two businessmen listed as purported richest men in Nigeria. The security agency unearthed assets that were in excess of N500bn out of which she would later give up a chunk valued at $191bn in a guilty bargain plea and she also received a 18 month prison sentence that will run concurrently for 6 months. She is currently serving her time at a N90,000 per night royal suite of Reddington multi-specialist hospital, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Ibru represents a typical Nigerian businessman/woman or a public office holder whose net worth can never be guessed correctly. Most top businessmen and public office holders are worth far beyond any logical reason. Not even in the wildest imagination could someone have appropriated such an astounding level of wealth to the innocent looking ‘God-fearing deaconness’ from Udu kingdom in Urhobo land. Most office holders live above what their legitimate income could possibly have guaranteed and most times launder money through established businessmen. Who knows if Ibru is holding some of their assets? Or how do you explain a civil servant having chains of properties, fleet of cars and children in expensive colleges abroad?

It took a Bellview Airlines plane crash on 22 October 2005 and a family wrangling to uncover that a late financial director of INEC and RCCG Abuja area Pastor, Timothy Olufemi Akanni had embezzled more than 6 billion naira from INEC. He would never have disclosed such stupendous wealth being a career civil servant. Tafa Balogun would never have declared his assets to show the over N7bn he stole from the Police force and neither would Bode George have shown his stolen billions being a career public servant/retired military man. And neither would their tax records reflect such since they hardly pay.

Similarly and to the surprise of not a few, in the course of EFCC’s investigation, assets worth over N346 billion belonging to Erastus Akingbola, a pastor and the former Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc were unearth and frozen. While as bank CEO of many years, reasonably, everyone would expect Erastus to be rich but not to that level. Only Heavens could explain while the affluent and respected banker from Oke Igbo in Ondo state would succumb to financial greed to the extent of causing the bank he built from zilch to be on the brink of collapse.

With the discovery of the vast assets of Ibru, Akingbola and Francis Atuche, the former CEO of Bank PHB, one could not help to be suspicious and even picture the worth of the other banks CEOs (present and past). This imagination could also be extended to the other businessmen.

If after Abacha’s death, it was discovered that he had stolen more than $5 billion from our national treasury, then one cannot help to think of the other big players before and after him. We may not know their worth but we know they flamboyantly flaunt a lifestyle and assets that their legitimate income could not have supported.

Gate knew there was time for everything; time to build portfolio and time to use it for mankind, time to acquire and time to disburse but Ibru never knew. For her and her likes, acquisition is for all season. While Gate is busy selling off his holdings in Microsoft to enable him finance his passion for helping mankind, Cecilia is known to be recklessly acquiring landed properties as if they were endangered species that would soon run out of supply or abscond from the surface of the earth. In the course of her insatiable acquisition, she almost bought up a whole street in the US and an entire estate in the Dubai, U.A.E.

Having being the world’s richest man longer than most teenagers have lived, Gate has long realised that there is more to life than material wealth, he needed to affect others, empower the powerless, support the weak, care for the less privileged and that is exactly what he has been doing in the last few years. Gates goes round the globe touching lives with his wealth. He is undoubtedly the most generous man ever having already spent over $28bn out of around $40bn of his personal money which he has committed to humanitarian causes through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He goes from Asia to Africa fighting poverty, illiteracy and diseases ranging from malaria and polio to HIV/AIDS. He has spent over $120m in eradicating polio in Nigeria. He has also inspired other wealthy men around the world to be committed to giving back to the society. Warren Buffett, the world’s third richest man was one of the first to catch Gate’s drift when in June 2006 he pledged $30.7bn donation to Gates Foundation saying "I greatly admire what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is accomplishing and want to materially expand its future capabilities."

Currently, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett are inspiring American billionaires to pledge to give at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. The programme called ‘The Giving Pledge’ has 39 American billionaires (including Gate, Buffett, New York Mayor, Michel Bloomberg, Paul Allen, Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, George Lucas and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of EBay) as signatories. They have also recently taken the campaign to China where some wealthy Chinese were happy to pledge their wealth at death. Gate himself has promised that 99% of his assets will go to charity at his death.

Cecilia and her likes are hardly known to be involved in any significant humanitarian causes and neither do they plan to remember humanity at their death. They scarcely give back to the society while they live and more rarely when they die. They hardly affect lives outside their cocoon rather they enjoy oppressing people around them; suppressing the under-privileged and wrongly applying the world of God that says that “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” – Matthew 13:12.

In the course of Gates thrust to affluence, he carried so many people along with him in the wealth creation. His company, Microsoft made so many millionaires and even billionaire from investors and employers of the company. Steve Ballmer, an old friend of Bill at Harvard who is the current CEO and one of the richest people in the world with a personal wealth estimated at US$13.1 billion is a career Microsoft employee. Most employees of Microsoft during the Internet boom of the late 90s were worth several millions of dollars.

In contrast Cecilia Ibru and some like her are known to have amazed great wealth at the expense of people around them. Many underpay their workers, cheat their shareholders, collaborate with public officials to inflate contract values, get paid without executing contracts, embezzle fund entrusted to them and beat the government by evading taxes. It is a known fact that the richer they are the poorer they pay their private workers. Cecilia is also known to have directly wiped out the lifesavings of many shareholders of Oceanic bank by diverting the funds of the bank illegally and giving unsecured loans thereby causing the bank to turn to borrowing and featuring permanently at the Central Bank of Nigeria - CBN’s Expanded Discount window; and publishing false results to deceive innocent investors into buying her schemed scam. The investors who bought Oceanic bank shares when it was trading at a peak price of N45.00 in 2008 would have lost over 95% of the value of their investment as the stock now trades around N2.00. Many people, families, organisation and institutional investors and traders have lost all due to her financial gluttony.

As money is evidently the root of all evil, so is it the root of all good done by the likes of Bill Gate. Money has enabled him to touch lives all around the world from Asia to America and from North Korea to South Africa. The love of money enhances the greed of the likes of Cecilia.

Gate also knew that the best time to quit the stage is when the ovation is loudest. He resigned as the CEO of Microsoft at the age of 44 taking up a lower position of the chief software architect. He then disengaged from Microsoft as full time worker on 27 June 2008 at the age of 52 retaining only the position of the chairman. He did this so that he could dedicate the rest of his life to charitable causes. The likes of Cecilia do not quit the stage unless they are forced by law or circumstances beyond their control. And trust that whenever they quit, they leave for their children to take over regardless of their capabilities. Cecilia had been grooming her son, Oboden Ibru to succeed her whenever she attain the mandatory age but fate would not allow it to happen as she was disgraced out of office on 14 August 2010 at the age of 64 after 20 years as CEO in what was dubbed ‘Sanusi Tsunami’ in which the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi fired Mrs. Ibru and four other banks CEOs and their executive directors. The other affected CEOs were Mr. Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank Nigeria Plc), Mr. Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental Bank Plc), Dr. Bartholomew Ebong (Union Bank Plc), and Mr. Okey
Nwosu (Finbank Plc)...

Gate and Ibru are not unique in their ways; they only represent two groups in the society. The ones who want to live and let others live and the group who want to live and let others die.

How pleasant is it if we have more of Gates among us, the world will surely be a better place but it’s unfortunate that we have too many Ibrus and just a few Gates?
Must someone be billionaire before he can have the heart of Gate? No! Must someone even be millionaires before he can make a difference in the world? No! Mother Teresa was never a rich women and one of her popular quote is “If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one”

Everyone one has a God-given ability to make a difference in the life of somebody. If everyman touches a soul even in his/her little capacity, the world will surely be a healthier place.

After his unprecedented wealth, King Solomon summed it all by saying that “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he laboreth under the sun? One generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to its place where it ariseth. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it turneth about continually in its course, and the wind returneth again to its circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again.” - Ecclesiastes 1:2-7
At the end of it all, it will not matter how much you make but how you use it because we came here with nothing and we’d surely go with nothing.

What you give to yourself is a need and a treat, what you give to your family is your responsibility but what you give to others is liberality which will live with you in eternity. Charity starts but does not end at home.

Rufus Kayode Oteniya – oteniyark@hotmail.com

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Mariam Abacha My Husband was a good man .Widow Preaches Forgiveness. Will Nigerians Forgive Her?

Posted by Paul "EFCC" Hawk Adams on August 2, 2010 at 9:44pm
Mariam Abacha Preaches Forgiveness. Will Nigerians Forgive Her?

Ever since she lost her husband, Gen. Sani Abacha in 1998, Hajia Mariam Abacha has led a quiet life, unfazed by the avalanche of public criticisms of the tenure of the former military head of state, who presided over one of the most turbulent times in Nigeria’s political history.
After performing one of the unenviable tasks of evacuating her family out of the seat of power on the death of their bread winner, and the spirited battle she waged to save her son, Mohammed, from Obasanjo’s vengeful mission, the matriarch of the Abacha family has simply returned to Kano and settled to a quiet life after power.

Nigerians caught a glance of Hajia Mariam Abacha in May when she joined the other first ladies to condole Turai Yar’ Adua who faced a similar fate of taking her husband home, after his fruitless struggle to stay alive. Sunday, July 4, 2010 was therefore a moment to remember as Hajia Abacha and her family received a gathering of Christians from southern Kaduna, who live in Kano and came to offer their support as well as campaign for the success of Mohammed Abacha in the forth coming governorship contest.
The former first lady, who spoke in Hausa language, told the crowd that she was not surprised by the close relationship her family had maintained with the Christian community, adding that the Abacha family had over the years savoured the relationship of other Nigerians irrespective of the “ethno religious divide.” She said the head of her domestic staff is a Christian who enjoys freedom of worship in a Muslim family. She said apart from learning from Christians on her staff the teachings and values of the Christian faith, they are regarded as relations and members of the extended family. “You are my relations, the head of my domestic staff is a Christian from Kaduna, we allow freedom of worship and from him we have come to learn a lot on Christians values”, Mrs. Abacha stressed.

Mariam Abacha stated that his late husband’s belief in the unity of the country was evident in his appointment of Christian military officers as governors in the Muslim dominated northern states, and the appointment of Muslim officers as governors in the Christian populated south.
She told the gathering how General Abacha influenced the stay of execution of death sentence passed by a tribunal on the former Rivers State governor, Major General Zamani Lekwot and his kinsmen over the Zango Kataf crisis in 1992.
Seven members of the Kataf ethnic group, including Lekwot, had been sentenced to death for murder in connection with religious riots in northern Nigeria, leaving them with no right of appeal against the convictions.

Mariam Abacha explained that the gesture by the late general was propelled by his ‘humane spirit of forgiveness’..
The former first lady stated that the late head of state supported the unity of Nigeria especially the cordial relationship between the Christian Kataf and their Muslim brothers who had for years lived peacefully together.

‘We voted for Nigerian unity, one people one nation, these what my late spouse lived and died for, and we are promoting the legacy for its attendant benefits in a multicultural society’, Mrs. Abacha stressed.
In a speech earlier, leader of the southern Kaduna people resident in Kano, Mr. Ayuba Dangana, described the late General Abacha ‘as a friend and a relation’ whose administration elevated the people to the forefront of Kaduna politics.

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Naija Man : I sell Snakes and make good money

Posted by Jane Okinedo on June 23, 2010 at 9:02pm
Ngwogwo Osumri is not only fearless, but also good when it comes to animal hunting; perhaps, his training as a soldier had prepared him for this vocation. Mr. Osumri, also known as MC Obi, does not hesitate to educate anyone who is ready to learn about his profitable animal hunting business, and the satisfaction he has derived from it for over five years.

He says his skills as a retired soldier gave him the courage to handle various reptiles such as python snake, crocodiles, and alligators, whose length ranged from 15 to 30 feet, and other wild animals. “I have been doing this over five years now and without fear, no fear,” he says.

Popularly called “old soldier”, Mr. Osumri, along with his group of four boys, got onlookers curious when they carried a “resting” python snake from a swamp in Opebi to Sheraton Hotel yesterday, where they displayed it, awaiting any interested customer with a penchant for wild meat.

Mr. Osumri, who switched to pidgin whenever he wanted to stress a point, boasts of customers from Victoria Island and other parts of the metropolis, who are ready to part with as much as N35,000 for a lifeless python or N250,000 for a live one; N40,000 for dead crocodiles, and between N80,000 and N90,000, for a live one. “The difference is clear. If I say I hold am alive, na N250,000, no reduction of one naira. But as it dey like this now, it is in a weak condition, which can be N30,000 to N35,000.” He admits there are difficulties in finding the reptiles. “I used to get it all the time, three times in a week, once in a month, or even once in 10 months because it’s not easy to get.” He said that he often sells them under the bridge at Oregun, Ikeja, and even though he sells them, he cannot eat them.

Fearless hunter

Explaining how he started, he stated that he loves wild animals and his need to survive engineered the idea. “There is a swamp in Opebi where all these animals sometimes come to and so we set traps for them, and kill them,” Mr. Osumri explains.

“It’s my job. When I resigned from the Nigeria Army, I face hunting because I like wild animals. I am a bush man in Nigeria here, so I am here to fear no one. Both crocodile, python, anything at all, it’s my possession, alligators, tortoise...if anybody need from me, I am the one that produce it.”

Mr. Osumri and his boys said they kill because they need money to survive. “When I no get money, na to fight heaven and earth till I get am, not by force but to see I eat my daily bread. When we were kids, we used to kill rabbit and bush meat, so we don’t fear anything again,” he said.

“We use sense to kill it; if we no use sense, it will kill us,” one of his boys, Dare Shonibare, said, describing the python as “resourceful and medicinal.” He added, “This python is gold and silver. You can use the oil to fix bone problems in your body; all the parts are medicinal.”

He doesn’t have enough money to set up a large house, or maybe a zoo for the reptiles and other animals he catches. “I get cage, reservation area for my house which I keep some animals, but anyone I bring out here is for marketing purpose. I no get money to buy land in Lagos. For now, na for my house I dey keep all of them,” he said.

As the crowd, which had gathered, watched, 47-year-old Mutiu Kareem, a police officer, came to the scene and offered to buy the snake. According to him, he does not eat them, but trains them and uses the parts for personal experiment. “I do train live animals in my house, I just like it. My house is like a zoo. Some of them I use for personal experiment, like the bones. I have bought so many animals from him (Mr. Osumri); sometimes I buy crocodile which I am training at home.”

Ben Ayonha, a trader, who is familiar with the business of Mr. Osumri, said, “I see more than this all the time. It’s good business; my prayer is that God will help him not to see bad one who can wound him. He uses the money to do business and train his children for school.”

Another observer, Seun Makanjuola, a student, expressed his surprise. “I have not even seen such a thing like this before. For me, seeing such a thing like this seem somehow to me,” he said.
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Bye Bye Turai : You turaid your best but your best was not good enough

Posted by Paul "EFCC" Hawk Adams on March 21, 2010 at 9:01am
Turai’s secret agony: Yar’Adua’s wife now prisoner in Aso Rock • Dad ill, flown to Egypt • Abandoned by friends and associates
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First Lady, Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua, is currently in agony, which is known by only a few people. Although she cuts the image of a toughie and a superwoman, who, through her iron will, has held on doggedly to the reins of power on behalf of her ailing husband, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, Saturday Sun can exclusively reveal that she is in much more pains than is known to the public.

Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua


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Sources revealed that the First Lady has many woes, which has left her devastated.

Her father, Alhaji Alkali, suffers a serious illness. Also, her once-upon-a-time close friends and associates have not only shunned her but now hobnob with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan.

Saturday Sun also gathered that Mrs. Yar’Adua has been quarantined in Aso Rock villa, where she’s stuck with a husband in dire need of midwifery and cannot venture out to even see her daughter, who recently gave birth to a baby girl. To compound her problems, it was gathered, many Nigerians are calling her names, describing her as a ‘greedy, power-hungry woman’ who won’t let go despite strident calls for Yar’Adua to step down due to his health constraints.

Impeccable sources at the presidential villa revealed that this catalogue of woes has traumatised the First Lady, to the extent that she has become a shadow of herself and in most cases stays indoors to avoid the scorn of former members of the federal cabinet, especially, before they were sacked by Jonathan on Wednesday.

Saturday Sun learnt that the grandeur and perks of office, which, before the illness of President Yar’Adua, were at their peak, have reduced. At present, it was gathered, governors’ wives, who used to visit her as well as other dignitaries, who do her one favour or another, while in Abuja to see Yar’Adua, no longer do so.

The expansive living room, that used to burst at the seams, prior to last November, is now desolate. The army of sycophants, including those older than her, who called her ‘mama,’ has found other allies in the family of the acting president.

The fragile health of President Yar’Adua has weakened the First Lady as we reliably found. This was made worse, it was gathered, when the National Assembly approved Jonathan as acting president. She complains to the few remaining close associates that the transfer of power to Jonathan has banned her from reckoning. She is said to be greatly pained that Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of the acting president, who she earlier had brushes with, is now the person holding court at the presidential villa and getting all the attention at the villa.

The source said of the agony of the First Lady: “She still can’t believe that people like Prof. Dora Akunyili will turn against the president and his family. Of all the ministers, Dora was the closest. She had access to everywhere in her house, including the kitchen. Every Friday, Madam Turai used to prepare masaran (Hausa delicacy) and send to her. She used to fall over her. But today, she’s calling them names.”

It was gathered that Akunyili is not the only person in the recently dissolved cabinet who has deserted Turai and her ailing husband.

“There are some governors and ministers who made Aso Rock their second home. You will think that these governors live in Abuja, but now you can’t find them. The ministers have turned their back against the president and his family. Madam is shocked at this cruel and insensitive side of human nature,” the source said.

Saturday Sun learnt that even more agonising for the First Lady is her dad’s ill-health, which came about the same time her husband was in critical condition in Saudi. According to sources, Alhaji Alkali (her father) had to be flown to Egypt for urgent medical care, which was supervised by Turai’s personal doctor, Rasheed.

“She has been deeply troubled. Imagine a woman saddled with taking care of an ill husband and father at the same time. Imagine a woman who, because of these two critical events, couldn’t go and take care of her new grand daughter in Kebbi State. That woman is in pains and she is being abused daily and portrayed as a bad woman,” the presidential villa source said.

It was gathered that the dissolution of the federal cabinet devastated the first lady, as it means she has completely lost power. Sources said that until the sack of the Federal Executive Council, she was still getting information on the plans in government from the few ministers, who remained loyal to Yar’Adua. But with the dissolution of the cabinet and the planned constitution of a new one, she fears that she and her husband would not make any input.

The First Lady’s close confidant told Saturday Sun: “Wednesday’s dissolution of the federal cabinet would be the most fatal blow the First Lady got in recent times. She never thought it would happen. She had reckoned that with the presence of her husband in the villa, Jonathan would be cautious in taking some actions. Now with the ministers sacked, she is greatly in agony.”

When Saturday Sun sought answers to why Yar’Adua can’t simply quit over these travails, our sources said: “Madam would want her husband to leave power. She doesn’t believe it’s a do-or-die matter. She is only after protecting the family name and ensuring that they are not humiliated out of office. She doesn’t think it is right to continue to abuse a sick man and heap all kinds of blame on him.”

As the clock ticks in the nation’s volatile political terrain, with all kinds of permutations and gladiators posturing for the plum job, it remains to be seen if Turai’s wish for her ailing husband (not to be humiliated out of power) will be met or not. For now, the waiting game continues as the big woman conrinues in her agony.
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Why Nigeria lacks good leaders, by Gov Fashola

Posted by Choochoo Sports Book on May 18, 2009 at 11:36pm
By Seyi Odubanwo and Ekene Okoro, LagosLack of conducive environment for the emergence of credible personalities has been identified as responsible for the seeming lack of quality leadership in the country.Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, said deterioration in the country's value system was to blame for antisocial tendencies among Nigerians in the present dispensation.Fashola, who made the declaration on Thursday, at the re-launch of uniformed voluntary organisations and clubs in Lagos State public schools, at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, noted that the re-introduction of clubs such as the Boys Scout, Red Cross, Sheriff Guards, and the Girls Guide, was to begin the process of "building leaders from the scratch by using tried but abandoned methods".Fashola, while charging the students of the various associations to be prepared to take up leadership roles in the nearest future, also noted that the quest for a new generation of leaders and those to exercise uncommon leadership quality has become a matter of global concern, adding that the situation has not been helped with the fact that role models, and institutions created by leaders of yesteryears, such as the United Nations in 1945 and the World Bank in 1946, are the only references available for dealing with the global problems."Ironically, across the world, the models that are being studied are leaders before our generation like Winston Churchill, Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, Napoleon, Cyrus to mention a few", he said.Fashola also told the students that great Nigerian leaders, both past and present, living and dead, did not become great leaders by taking political office or by attending leadership training institutes, noting that they were leaders in their various professions first."This is the defining element of leadership, responsibility for self, responsibility for others and responsibility to a cause. Mandela, Awolowo, Bola Tinubu were responsible for themselves, so they took responsibility for others and for causes like the fight against apartheid, the enforcement of free education and the enthronement of democracy."This is what we expect from these young faces, who will lead our Police and Army in the not too distant future, people who will be our professors, doctors, teachers and professionals to train others".
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REBRANDING NIGERIA

Posted by Odofin Caleb on March 20, 2009 at 10:45am

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So many controversies has erupted on this issue of rebranding Nigeria Project by the new information minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili. Many have said it is a mere waste of money, many said, it is a wrong thing to do now, many said it is a move to discredit all the good works done by the minister while she was the DG of NAFDAC. Amidst all these, allegations, comments and complaint, the Rebranding Nigeria Project has been launched today, 17th of March, 2009 and a total sum of N150M has been set aside for this project. The new brand is “NIGERIA, GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION”.Before I continue, I will just like you to know what branding and rebranding is. A brand is simply something that has become an identity of a particular product or service or company in simple language. When you think about a particular characteristic, you remember that company, for example when you think about yellow, you remember MTN, when you think about noodles, in fact you call it Indomie, talk of washing up detergent, we call it Omo, when you think about inconsistency, we remember NEPA, when you talk about NEWS, we remember Channels TV or CNN (thinking globally), when we talk about entertainment TV in Nigeria, STV comes to mind. This is a simple explanation of branding.Rebranding is now a situation where a particular company or entity wants to change what it stands for in the mind of people and many things are set in place to do this, it could be a simple change of Colour, Change of Logo (Like intercontinental bank did), change of use ( Omo rebrands with “dirt is good”). These changes are advertised until the new brand is impressed in the heart of the populace.The Brand Nigeria has been known for scam, fraudulence, unsafe business terraine, power problem and so on. This has made Nigeria to be disadvantaged in so many area globally. A Nigerian will not be allowed to arrive a country without a thorough security search which will even follow him about till he leaves that country; Nigerians will not be accepted by Paypal or Clickbank, the largest Payment processor and Digital Product bank respectively on the internet. Nigerians have been branded as corrupt and dangerous.Prof. Akunyili now decided to initiate Rebranding Nigeria Project which is aimed at branding Nigeria with a positive image. Many Nigerians have kicked against this move saying that, it is out of place for now, that concentration should be more on prevailing on the government to intensify its power project, intensify its fight against corruption, develop the economy and provide employment for the youths and food for the masses.I want to say, all what the people are clamouring for is correct and also the Rebranding Nigeria Project is also not out of place. Rebranding Nigeria Project is an external affair program, while development and fight against corruption is internal.The question we should ask ourselves as Nigerians is:Are there no honest people in Nigeria ? There are honest people in Nigeria.Are there no places in Nigeria that is safe for business? There are plenty of places in Nigeria that is safe for businessAre there no honest Nigerian Internet marketers and Information marketers? In fact, we are many!Are we not good people in Nigeria? We are good people in Nigeria.Are there no other countries that are having corruption problems in high places? Most nations do!Should we continue to be discriminated and deprived globally? No, we shouldn’t.This is the work of the Information minister to do, she will not be the one to fight corruption, she will not be the one to threat the power problem.I encourage Nigerians especially youths to support the Rebranding Nigeria Project. I believe in Nigeria, I believe in a new Nigeria. We are beginning to see it unfold. When it becomes good, we need a global acceptance to make Nigeria reach its full potential. So, let us REBRAND NIGERIA. To Non- Nigerians reading this post, if you have not met honest Nigerians, it means you are looking in the wrong places. You have at least met one here on this site.NIGERIA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!NIGERIA, GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATIONCheersOdofin Caleb www.youthsbusiness.com
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