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PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, stated reasons every property he has, including all his accounts, are domiciled in the country, saying that it was borne out of his belief that where a man's treasures are there his heart also will be.
This came as he noted that he personally did not believe that one became a 'big man' by simply holding a public office.

Jonathan, in a comment on his Facebook page, entitled, "The core of who I am" said public office, to him, was not a means to adding value to the holder, adding that people with that type of mentality were only borrowing moral authority from the office they occupied.

He described the people who accused him of being humble to the point of servility as persons who did not understand that the whole purpose of public office was to serve.

According to the president, "public office, to me, is not a means to adding value to the holder of the office. Public office is the vehicle through which social harmony, happiness and inspirational communal existence is promoted and enhanced."

He said the late president, Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua, while he was alive, used to say they were servant leaders, adding that "we have not come to demand service from Nigeria but to give service...

"This is the principal reason why I opened this page to communicate with Nigerians. I am acutely aware that I do not hold this position of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the wishes of any power other than the freely given mandate of the Nigerian people and the grace of God.

"And that is why I communicate with you because next to the Almighty God, the Nigerian people are my power source and, just as an electrical appliance will not work when not connected to its power source, so also can I not work effectively if I am not connected with you, the good people of Nigeria.

"And while there are politicians who have substantial commitment to Nigeria and others who may have partial commitment to Nigeria, my commitment to Nigeria is total and there is evidence to back it up.

"It is believed that a man's greatest treasures are his children and immediate family and the proverb goes that where a man's treasures are there his heart also will be. All my children, every last one of them school in Nigeria and of course my wife and I are fully on the ground. Some might describe other treasures a man has as his real estate property. And again every property I have in life is in Nigeria. Some might consider money as another treasure and again all my accounts every last one of them is domiciled in Nigeria. In everything I do I make a conscious decision to put Nigeria first whether it is in my dressing or the food I eat, or even the music I listen to. I am totally sold out on Nigeria.

"What does this tell you? My commitment to Nigeria is not partial, neither is it substantial, but it is total. You can trust me to take good decisions on behalf of Nigeria because I am a stakeholder whose progress is tied to the progress of Nigeria.

"This is the core of who Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is. I have made myself an open book, completely transparent to Nigerians because I want to earn your trust. I do not want to demand trust, but I want to inspire it by the way I live my life and with your help and God's favour I shall continue to do this."

 

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12166298253?profile=originalOperatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) 12166215471?profile=originalyesterday arrested the former minister of works and housing, Hassan Lawal, in his home in Asokoro, Abuja, in connection with fraudulent activities currently pegged at over N50 billion.

An operative of the anti-graft agency told NEXT that the commission is currently carrying out the second phase of investigation into the fraudulent activities of the former minister who served in two different offices between 2004 and 2010...

photos: Lawal and Fixit Anenih Two former Works Ministers with questionable wealth

“There are currently two different phases of investigations against this man. One has been on-going for some time now, the second one has just begun. Most of the investigations border on fraudulent award of contracts to unregistered companies. Most of the contracts had to do with road contracts and the sale of federal government houses,” a source in the EFCC, who pleaded anonymity said in Abuja.

The spokesman of the anti-graft agency , Femi Babafemi, says that Mr.Lawal is currently in the custody of the commission, however he declined to speak on what possible date the accused will be arraigned. Our source however revealed that the commission is currently working to uncover and arrest other persons who might have collaborated with the former minister. The charges against the former minister are high degree of massive fraud, abuse of office, abuse of government laid down policy on due process and award of contracts to unregistered companies’.Mr. Lawal served as the Minister of Labour and Productivity from 2004 to 2007. He then served as the Minister for Works and Housing from 2008 to 2010.

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Mohammed the Brit

jpeg&STREAMOID=BI69Q199A1qbd4rgiS8sOy6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxSZ3w41Og4uf07uCA8erK5mnW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-&width=222Goodbye Jack Smith, hello Mohammed Malik, model British subject. Mohammed, in its various spellings, is now the favourite name for newborn boys in the United Kingdom, edging out Oliver. Those named for the Prophet of Islam ride the Clapham omnibus.

Churn is a wondrous thing, grease in the wheels of vital societies able to adjust their self-images over time. But what to think of the Mohammedization of this murky isle?

Say Luton or Bradford, and the vision that leaps is that of the alienated Muslim radicalized by jihadist teaching and ready — like the Luton-incubated Stockholm bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly — to blow himself up to kill the Western infidel. The London bombers of July 7, 2005, also set out from Luton.

These are potent images. Exclusion exists; its other face is danger. But so does a particular British elasticity that registers Mohammed and shrugs...

Having lived in France and Germany, I’m struck on returning to Britain after 30 years not by the hard lines hiving off immigrant Muslim communities as in those countries but by the relative fluidity that produces Faisal Islam, economic editor of the influential Channel 4 News, or Sajid Javid, a bus driver’s son and Tory MP...

British identity has proved more capacious than French or German, perhaps because, even before the legacy of empire, it had to absorb the English, the Scottish and the Welsh (as well as fail to absorb the majority of the Irish.) The variegated texture of London — projects full of immigrants hard by upscale housing — stands in stark contrast to ghettoized Paris.

I’ve been listening to a BBC Radio 4 series — how polarized America would benefit from a national broadcaster of this quality! — called “Five Guys named Mohammed,” conceived to mark the name’s first-place surge. The programs are a good antidote to the simplistic caricature that conflates Muslim with threat, and a useful barometer of an integration that is uneven, certainly, but ongoing.

There was Mohammed Yahya, Mozambique-born rapper and creator of a Muslim-Jewish band. Or Mohammed Anwar, of purring Scottish brogue, the manager of a Glasgow Muslim day care center, waxing lyrical about Damson Jam and the crush he once had on actress Diana Rigg (who didn’t?) and his 21-year-old daughter, who could do big things if she was not “so laid-back, it’s just unbelievable.” And there she was, more Scottish even than he, laughing over his premature hunt for a husband for her.

Or Muhammad Hasan, a bubbly Birmingham real-estate dealer in his mid-30s, explaining his Islamic investment theory: Because under Islam you cannot charge or pay interest, Muslim investors in his property deals have to take equity rather than lend money — and that spurs motivation.

Bent on business, Hasan has had little time to look for a wife who, in his mother’s view, “has to be a Muslim and from Pakistan and a Princess Diana clone!” He’s now sipping tea with potential spouses while his binocular-armed Mom observes.

Overall, these Mohammeds see themselves as British citizens, not Muslims in the United Kingdom. Their universes may be distinct, as in attitudes to marriage, but distinct in a way that, at best, complements rather than confronts. “There’s an upward mobility and optimism that is much higher than in continental Europe,” said Muddassar Ahmed, a 27-year-old college dropout and chief executive of Unitas, a public relations firm.

Ahmed is involved in the drafting of a letter by 50 British Muslim scholars denouncing Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the 26-year-old killer of Salman Taseer, the Punjab governor assassinated this month for denouncing Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws that prescribe the death sentence for anyone insulting Islam. Qadri, self-described “slave of the Prophet,” has been feted in Islamabad.

In this context, the readiness of European Muslims, many bearing the Prophet’s name, to stand up for values of free speech assumes bridge-building importance. It reflects the experience of faith as practiced within a modern secular society.

Those bridges do not come easily. Britain has been riled in recent weeks by the conviction of Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27, the ringleaders of a gang that raped and sexually abused several white girls aged between 12 and 18 in Derby.

The reaction of Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, was to say a problem exists with “Pakistani heritage men thinking it is O.K. to target white girls in this way.” He said they were “popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani heritage girls are off limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically” — so they seek the “easy meat” of white girls.

It was a neat — and explosive — argument. Vigorous debate has ensued. Racial slur? Courageous frankness? I don’t think Straw’s argument stands up to scrutiny of overall sex-crime patterns, but I do think Britain’s Muslim community needs to take a hard look at repressive attitudes toward women. The debate is salutary.

There’s a Mohammed — in fact there are many — in Britain’s future. Oliver’s prospects look more dubious given the ties between the name’s popularity and the heady success of the chef Jamie Oliver — but that’s another story of positive British change.

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jpeg&STREAMOID=3TrtnrDnDWYJoMoQ7x3NCC6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxSSJ0nYe6jS$Fm6iBLMYCLMnW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-&width=600 

Residents of more than 74 estates and 18 villages under the umbrella of Lekki-Etiosa-Epe Estates Indigenes and Stakeholders Association (LEEEISA), yesterday in Lagos, vowed to do anything possible to stop the Lagos State government and Lekki Concession Company (LCC) from going ahead to collect toll at the controversial toll plazas on Lekki-Epe Road.

The group, at a rally held yesterday in Lekki first roundabout, called for an outright cancellation of the toll plazas, saying that the indefinite suspension of the tolling announced last week by the state governor, Raji Fashola, was for political reasons and would re-introduce the tolling after the election.

As early as 6.30a.m, the leaders of the residents associations,Ausbeth Ajagu,Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Ayobami Biobaku, and members of the Heritage Group and leader of the Ajah IlajeAssociation, A. Ikuesan, had all converged on the Lekki Phase 1 roundabout for the rally. They were all wearing T-shirts with the inscription; ‘No to fencing, no to toll gate’.

The police, led by the DPO of Maroko Police Station, Mr. Ukoh, were on hand to offer protection to the group and to stop hoodlums from hijacking the event.

Shady project

The group said that Lagos State government has not been able to give reasons why it would toll the only major road constructed for a local government that generates one of the highest income for the government; and yet, there are no government hospitals and only two secondary schools.

“Putting a toll on this road is restricting our movement,” said Lawal Alalekan, the group’s spokesperson.

“Come to think of it, Lagos State government is deeply involved in the financing of this project. Which money are they using? It is the tax payer’s money! Lagos State government gave a 42 million US dollar loan or grant for the take-off of this project. That is over 6 billion naira. Where are the monies got into? Lagos State government guaranteed the loan that was used in financing the project: over 240 million dollars. They have not done the road to ten kilometres, they want to start tolling. Our question is why preferential treatment to LCC? Why has the government committed so much of the tax payers money; and they are still asking us to pay?”said Mr. Alalekan.

‘We are ready for dialogue’

The chairman of LEEEISA, Ausbeth Ajagu, however, thanked Mr. Fashola for the indefinite suspension of the tolling, calling on the governor to carry the people and the stakeholders along, for mutual and better understanding.

He said the group would like to dialogue with the state government on the toll issue, as well as on some other issues pertaining to the smooth and conducive living environment in Lekki-Etiosa-Epe axis.

Secretary of the Lekki resident association, and chairman, Nicon Town Residence Association, Tayo Adebowale, said that it was socially irresponsible for a government to place an additional burden of tolling on people.

“Whether there is godfather behind it or not, I care less! All I know is that, I am not going to put any extra burden on my economic life,” Mr. Adebowale said.

The undertones

Solomon Onyibe, a real estate consultant, said the Lagos State government and LCC have not been very transparent in the execution of the contract since inception. He added that it was obvious “there are a lot of undertones in the contract arrangement.”

“Let them come out and make the contract agreement public! Let’s see how the money was raised. Let’s check the books,” Mr. Onyinbe said.

“Our stand here is that you cannot toll an existing road. We can’t pay. What is special about Lekki? The facility they provided in Lekki Peninsular, is it more than what they provided in: Ikoyi, Yaba, Surulere, and Festac? All the roads in these places I have mentioned are tarred. If you are going from here to Festac and Yaba, you will not go on an untarred road until you get to your house! Why not toll there? The only road they seem to be doing here, they want to toll it. This is oppression,” Mr. Oyinbe added.

In his remarks, the president of Ilasan Housing Estate, and the deputy leader of Maroko Evictee, Tajudeen Jegede, stated that what they want is a total cancellation of the purported toll, saying that a larger percentage of the people staying in the axis are poor people.

“If you look at the people staying at Ilasan Housing Estate, for instance, they are people who were evicted from Maroko in 1990. Now, we have not been able to balance presently as am talking to you now. From Obalende to Ajah is 200 naira. If they should add the toll fee, we would be paying up to 500 naira,” he said.

Mr. Jegede, who also is the chairman of the technical committee, Lekki Free Trade Zone, pointed out that even the Lagos State civil servants on that axis would not be spared, as all their earnings would go into transportation should the government go ahead and imposed the toll on the people.

The protest spilled on to the Lekki-Epe expressway, bringing vehicular movement to a total standstill, with the police and LASTMA officers assisting to control the traffic.

 

 

 ‘PDP government will scrap Lekki toll’

 

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Olatokunbo Kamson, a gubernatorial aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State over the weekend said a PDP government in the state will scrap the planned tolling of the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway...

Mr. Kamson described the proposed payment of N200 on the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway by every motorist as criminal.

“They propose to charge N200 for one toll and there are three tollgates for people living around VGC, Ajah, and the environs. That means anybody working in Victoria Island and living in Ajah will have to be paying N600 toll per trip. That is N1,200 per day. That is criminal, having in mind that the road was constructed with tax payers’money,” he said in a statement.

He promised that the opposition party(PDP) will scrap the tariff if it wins this year’s election in the state.

Too expensive

Mr. Kamson added that the proposed toll rates is among the highest anywhere in the world.

“Again, if you look all over the world, where have you paid more than 25 percent? I have plied lots of roads in the US that are tolled. Minimum is 25 cent. And how much is 25 cent? Is it up to N100? Why are they proposing to charge N200? That is more than a dollar,” he said.

An alternative route

He also berated the Lagos State government for not providing alternatives for people who may not have the huge amount required to ply the road on a daily basis, adding that lots of Lagosians live below the $1 a day.

“It is the standard internationally that people must be given alternatives. If you want to build a road that you are going to toll, then you must provide an alternative for people to ply so that people who are incapable financially can also have access to the amenity. It is wrong for government to insist on toll fees without the provision of alternatives.

“Besides, the road is not even completed; that means the government is trying to use people’s money to complete the road and also tax them. It is not fair,” Mr. Kamson said.

On December 29, 2010, the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, ordered the suspension of the planned toll collection on the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) until further notice.

 

 

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A humid night two years ago, sitting beside a male friend in his car, and I roll down my window to tip a young man, one of the thousands of unemployed young men in Lagos who hang around, humorous and resourceful, and help you park your car with the expectation of a tip. I brought the money from my bag. He took it with a grateful smile. Then he looked at my friend and said, “Thank you, sir!”

This is what it is to be youngish (early thirties) and female in urban Nigeria. You are driving and a policeman stops you and either he is leering and saying “fine aunty, I will marry you,” or he is sneering, with a taunt in his demeanour and the question so heavy in the air that it need not be asked: “which man bought this car for you and what did you have to do to get him to?” You are reduced to two options; to play angry and tough and to thereby offend his masculinity and have him keep you parked by the roadside, demanding document after document. Or to play the Young Simpering Female and massage his masculinity, a masculinity already fragile from poor pay and various other indignities of the Nigerian state. I am infuriated by these options. I am infuriated by the assumption that to be youngish and female means you are unable to earn your own living without a man. And yet. Sometimes I have taken on the simpering and smiling, because I am late or I am hot or I am simply not dedicated enough to my feminist principle.


I have a friend who is, on the surface, a cliché. An aspirational cliché. She has a beautiful face, two degrees from an American Ivy League college, a handsome husband with a similar educational pedigree and two children who started to read at the age of two; she is always at the top of Nigerian women achievers lists in magazines; has worked, in the past 10 years, in consulting, hedge funds and non-governmental organisations; mentors young girls on how to succeed in a male-dominated world; recites statistics about anything from trade deficits to export revenue. And yet.

One day she told me she had stopped giving interviews because her husband did not like her photo in the newspaper, and she had also decided to take her husband’s surname because it upset him that she continued to use hers professionally. Expressions such as “honour him” and “for peace in my marriage” tumbled out of her mouth, forming what I thought of as a smouldering log of self-conquest.

Another friend is very attractive, very educated, sits on boards of companies and does the sort of management work that is Greek to me. She is single. She is a few years older than I am but looks much younger. The first board meeting she attended, a man asked her, after being introduced, “So whose wife or daughter are you?” Because to him, it was the only way she would be on that board. She was, it turned out, a chief executive. And yet. She lives in a city where her friends dream not of becoming the CEO but of marrying the CEO, a city where her singleness is seen as an affront, where marriage carries more social and political cachet than it should.

Another friend is a talented writer, a forthright woman who makes people nervous when she speaks bluntly about sex, a woman who describes herself as a feminist, and who talks a lot about gender equality and changing the system. And yet. She earns more than her husband does but once told me that he had to pay the rent, always, because it was the man’s duty to do so. “Even if he is broke and I have money, he will have to go and borrow and pay the rent.” She paused, rolling this contradiction around her tongue, and then she added, “Maybe it is because of our culture. It is what they taught us.”

There is, of course, always that “they”. Two years ago, we were slumped on sofas in his Lagos living room, my brother-in-law and I, talking about politics as we usually did.

“I think I’ll run for governor in a few years,” I said in the musing manner of a person who only half-means what they say.

“You would never be governor,” he said promptly. “You could be a senator but not governor. They won’t let a woman be governor.”

What he meant was that a governor had too much power, and was in control of too much money, none of which could be left to a woman by that invisible “they”. And yet. I realise that 15 years ago he would not have said, “you could be a senator.” Civilian rule brought greater participation of women in politics and the most popular and most effective ministers in the past 10 years have been women. In the next decade, my brother-in-law could be proved wrong. In the next three decades, he will certainly be proved wrong. But she would have to be married, the woman who would be governor.

My first novel is on the West African secondary school curriculum. My second novel is taught in universities. One question I am almost always certain of getting during media interviews is a variation of this: we appreciate the work you are doing and your novels are important but when are you getting married? I refuse to accept that the institution of marriage is what gives me my true value, and I refuse to come across as silly or coy or both. The balance is a precarious one.

“Would you ask that question to a male writer my age?” I once asked a journalist in Lagos.

“No,” he said, looking at me as though I were foolish. “But you are not a man.”

title created by me as article has no titltle culled from

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"Toni and I are separated and a divorce is already in the pipeline. We can never come together again. If people are being fed by wrong sources about the possibility of reconciling, they are hearing from me now that it is not possible. We can't come back." 9ice said in a recent interview.


He went further to reveal that he will never get married again, though he plans to have two or three more children. He already has one son, Zion, with his ex, Toni Payne.

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jpeg&STREAMOID=c4bORIwbDP2BkThRKD7WDS6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxQs9jt1LYXUy9VsPfeJFJ_znW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-Following an alleged intelligence report that there are planned attacks in Abuja by the popular militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), during the 50th anniversary celebrations, the Nigerian government allegedly prompted the South African Police to invade the Johannesburg home of Henry Okah, the leader of MEND, in the early hours of yesterday.

Sources who spoke in confidence with NEXT revealed that over 30 South African police officers smashed down Mr Okah’s doors and gained entry into his home at about 3am South African time, with sophisticated weapons in full display as well as about six sniffing dogs, at the instance of the federal government of Nigeria.

“We have been told that the Nigerian government informed the South African police that it is imperative that Mr Okah’s home is searched yesterday because they would find arms and explosives. The federal government has been sending spurious petitions to the South African government about Mr Okah, alleging all kinds of things..

“They said he is exporting arms and explosives from South Africa into Nigeria. But when the South African police invaded his home, they found nothing. Even with their sniffing dogs, they did not find anything,” a source said to NEXT yesterday in Abuja.

Reports have it that the search at Mr Okah’s home, which lasted for about 10 hours, from 3am till about 1pm, yielded neither explosives nor arms.

Ima Niboro, the spokesman for the federal government neither responded to the phone calls nor the text messages sent to him to make enquiries about the role of the presidency in the role.

Federal government’s gripe

Although the Umaru Yar’Adua led government released Mr Okah from a 13-month long detention and granted him amnesty in 2009, unconfirmed reports state that Mr Okah’s name has been placed on the INTERPOL red alert in Nigeria, in connection with arms and drug trafficking.

Emmanuel Ojukwu, the spokesman of the Nigerian Police, has denied any knowledge of the raid. Mr Ojukwu, who told NEXT in Abuja that he is also the spokesman for the INTERPOL in Nigeria, said that he was unaware that Mr Okah’s name had been placed on red alert by the INTERPOL.

“I have no information. I am not aware of that. I speak for the Nigerian police and the INTERPOL and I am not aware of either the invasion or any red alert,” Mr Ojukwu said in a telephone interview.

Mr Okah, in response, said that he was unshaken but that he was upset that his children were frightened by the police officers who tore down their bedroom doors and barged into their rooms with rifles.

“I am not surprised by the federal government’s actions. What I am surprised at is that the South African government would allow themselves to be used by Nigerians. I am, however, not moved by whatever means the government is trying to use to intimidate me. I am constantly fighting against the oppression of my people in the Niger Delta,” Mr Okah said in a statement obtained by NEXT.

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Dagrin RIP .Terry G take am easy o !
Terry G just announced on twitter that he is ok after the accident, He just needs some rest.


hitmanTerryG

I dey o. Thanks for all the love, God pass them, I wan go rest small!! Ginjah no go die. God guide us and One love my people! I appreciate
25 minutes ago


Previously:


Was He Drunk or high on weed ? With the latest takeaway of our Top indigenous Rap Artist Dagrin by Car Accidents .Terry G almost joined the crew of posthumous talents.See Dagrin here
http://bit.ly/c2R9Xx




Word reaching us, is that Gabriel Amanyi, aka Terry G has been involved in a terrible auto accident and is critical condition.

The accident occured at about 3am saturday morning, when the singer/producer was on his way home from an outing with friends in Ikeja, Lagos. Apparently he ran into a road demarcation somewhere in Ogba.

According to eye witnesses, Terry G was the driver of the vehicle, and had other passengers with him who are also members of the House of Ginja. It is unclear the condition of other passengers, but Terry is currently undergoing treatment at an undisclosed hospital.

No word yet on where he’s being treated. His mobile phone is off, his BlackBerry inactive. And although his manager assures us ‘everything is under control’;

The car- A Toyota Camry – is now lying at the office of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).

Please say a prayer for Terry G and other members of the House Of Ginja involved in the accident.


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Who will be promoted & who will join Bode George ? Who is your favourite mallam ?


Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday told a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, that it lacked the power to try him over allegations of abuse of office as minister. He said that the proper court to try him was the Abuja High Court.

Counsel to the former minister, Akin Olujimi, filed a preliminary objection saying that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Matters Commission (ICPC) Act of 2000, which his client had been charged on, had been repealed and so the federal court lacked the jurisdiction to try the matter. “The prosecution acknowledges that the charges stand on nothing,” said Mr Olujimi. “The effect of a repealed law is that it is a nullity, and no charges founded on it can stand.”

In response to the preliminary objection, the prosecution said that the court could assume jurisdiction in the matter because it involved an agency of the federal government and a former minister in the federal cabinet. Trial Judge, Adamu Bello, adjourned ruling on the case to 13th October.

Mr. El-Rufai and two others were accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of illegally allocating land in the FCT to friends and relatives, some of whom included Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the daughter of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The other accused persons are Altine Jubrin, former director general of the Abuja Geographical Information System, and Ismail Iro, former general manager of the agency. All three men pleaded not guilty.


AC Ribadu & Oshiomole ticket : as Asiwaju Tinubu Drops Vice Presidential Ambition

If he had held Fash close to his breast who knows as Alamiyesegha is reaping the rewards of patient GodFatherhood


Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no longer interested in the vice presidential race and is, instead, strategising on how the Action Congress (AC) would team up with another party to claim the presidency as well as win all the South Western States, Sunday Independent can reveal.

It also emerged that AC may have concluded plan to field the former anti-graft czar, Nuhu Ribadu as its presidential candidate, with Edo Governor and former Labour leader, Adams Oshiomhole, as his running mate.

That appears to be a fantastic political masterstroke, designed to woo the disenchanted Northerners who appeared certain to lose the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential ticket to President Goodluck Jonathan and draw the organised Labour and younger elements who see Ribadu and Oshiomhole as emerging leaders they could count on.


Tinubu, former Lagos Governor and AC foremost financier, has long been rumoured to be in alliance talk with Muhammadu Buhari to float a joint presidential ticket, a very risky arrangement that would have repeated the Social Democratic Party (SDP)’s Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 1993 presidential ballot.

Late Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe were Muslims, but the ticket won a landside across the country widely split along ethno-religious lines.

Tinubu’s rumoured VP ambition has seen him criss-cross the length and breadth of Nigeria in the last two years to build bridges as he consulted with top opposition leaders and political parties, including the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

He is said to have resolved to sit back and map out strategies for the AC to regain all its lost states in the Yoruba-speaking South West geopolitical zone as a bargaining chip for the party in its merger talks with other political parties in the country.

This agenda is believed to enjoy the backing of the five former governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) with whom he had been involved in series of mobilisation for the new party to be consummated from the years of consultations.

He was also said to have revealed the new move to his political associates and groups in the South West and across Nigeria in the last one month, a decision believed to be behind the lull and change of strategy in the political consultations among the opposition parties.

Sources close to the godfather of Lagos politics said he backs the decision by AC to support a younger element from the North with a running mate from the oil-bearing South South geo political zone, a deft move to dwarf the influence of Jonathan whose support base political scientists say is weak.

Tinubu and AC favour the candidature of Ribadu and Oshiomhole, two fellows whose support bases they believe could jolt the PDP in the ballot, sources said.


The choice of Ribadu over some other young Northerners like former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nasir El Rufai, is said to have been informed by the high profile and public sympathy over his performance in the anti-corruption crusade, regardless of his romance with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and allegations that the latter used him to hound adversaries.

The choice of Oshiomhole as a running mate, sources added, flow from his coming from the same region as Jonathan and his wide appeal among Nigerians who relished his presidency of workers’ movement, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

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A federal grand jury is about to indict John Edwards, sources tell the National Enquirer. The grand jury has been investigating the former presidential candidate since April 2009 for possible misuse of campaign funds -- Edwards had mistress Rielle Hunter on his payroll -- and indictment is now imminent. The Enquirer talked to one friend who revealed that John was "terrified":

s-JOHN-EDWARDS-INDICTED-large.jpg

"While he believes he's done nothing illegal in trying to hide his extramarital affair with Rielle and their daughter, he thinks the Feds are going to make an example of him."

It hasn't been a great winter for the former presidential candidate. On the one hand, there has been Andrew Young, former Edwards aide and admitted accomplice in concealing the affair, stepping forward with a tell-all memoir of campaign trail debauchery and details of an Edwards-Hunter sex tape. On the other, recently-separated-from wife Elizabeth has threatened to sue Young for "alienation of affection," while friends told the Enquirer that Edwards beat her in a marriage-ending fight.

Meanwhile, rumors float about that Edwards proposed to Hunter and the two plan to move into a recently purchased $3.5 million beachfront home. If the couple do in fact intend to move in together, plans could be delayed if Edwards ends up serving jail time.

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Sunday, March 7, 2010


Obasanjo A Hypocrite, Says Soyinka

FOR pontificating on current issues in the polity, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has earned an acerbic criticism from Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.


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Soyinka describes Obasanjo as a hypocrite, who has no moral standing on the prevailing political crisis in the country.

He said: ÒFirst of all, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo is a hypocrite. He bears full responsibility for the situation in which we find ourselves today.

"And I don't take him seriously and that"s all I want to say about him."

Soyinka, in the forefront of the campaign by civil society groups to ensure the resignation of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua and transfer of full powers to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, was fielding questions from three Nigerian writers in Jaipur, India recently.

His comment was sought on the statement credited to Obasanjo, calling on Yar'Adua to resign and his (Soyinka's) leading of protest marches in Nigeria and abroad to pressure Yar'Adua to respect the Nigerian Constitution.

According to Soyinka, Obasanjo, Òwho is now coming up to offer hypocritical hogwash," was among Nigeria leaders and political office holders, Òwho have nothing but contempt for the rest of society.

However, the Nobel laureate, who made a presentation at the Jaipur Literary Festival, said he was leading the political campaign in Nigeria so as to take the country back to the people.

"You should demand your nation back and don't just sit and watch it being degraded and expropriated by people who have absolutely no respect for you, no respect at all, even to their own,Ó he said.

He continued: ÒI didn't just lead the march to Abuja; I had been calling for marches. My last three lectures in Nigeria, I had been calling, trying to get Nigerians to wake up and seize their destiny in their hands and take their rightful place in the making.

"Rescue the nation from the cabal of reprobate gangsters, extortionists and even political murderers.

"Some of them are political murderers, political assassins responsible for some of the assassinations, the unprecedented scale of political assassinations we've witnessed in Nigeria in the last 10 years.

Soyinka said he had been asking Nigerians just how much they could take, stressing, "you (Nigerians) don"t even feel you are degraded as human beings to exist in such a community and you go about your work everyday.

"These were the themes of my lectures within Nigeria for quite a while.

"So, doing it, participating in that kind of march and ensuring that it worked was simply a continuation of something I had been saying for a long time.

"And all I have to say to you, all you people is; this nation is yours, this country is yours. You should demand; you should take it back by any legitimate means you are capable of.
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The extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Self-taught William Kamkwamba has been feted by climate change campaigners like Al Gore and business leaders the world over. His against-all-odds achievements are all the more remarkable considering he was forced to quit school aged 14 because his family could no longer afford the $80-a-year (£50) fees. When he returned to his parents' small plot of farmland in the central Malawian village of Masitala, his future seemed limited. But this was not another tale of African potential thwarted by poverty. Defence against hunger The teenager had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. William Kamkwamba and one of his windmills Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy - people thought I was smoking marijuana William Kamkwamba And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him. The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi's worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation. Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library. Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill. Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: "I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water. "I thought: 'That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself'." When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings. But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people. "Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy," he recalls. "They had never seen a windmill before." Shocks Neighbours were further perplexed at the youngster spending so much time scouring rubbish tips. Al Gore William Kamkwamba's achievements with wind energy show what one person, with an inspired idea, can do to tackle the crisis we face Al Gore "People thought I was smoking marijuana," he said. "So I told them I was only making something for juju [magic].' Then they said: 'Ah, I see.'" Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire. "I got a few electric shocks climbing that [windmill]," says Mr Kamkwamba, ruefully recalling his months of painstaking work. The finished product - a 5-m (16-ft) tall blue-gum-tree wood tower, swaying in the breeze over Masitala - seemed little more than a quixotic tinkerer's folly. But his neighbours' mirth turned to amazement when Mr Kamkwamba scrambled up the windmill and hooked a car light bulb to the turbine. As the blades began to spin in the breeze, the bulb flickered to life and a crowd of astonished onlookers went wild. Soon the whiz kid's 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family's mud brick compound. 'Electric wind' Out went the paraffin lanterns and in came light bulbs and a circuit breaker, made from nails and magnets off an old stereo speaker, and a light switch cobbled together from bicycle spokes and flip-flop rubber. Before long, locals were queuing up to charge their mobile phones. WINDS OF CHANGE 2002: Drought strikes; he leaves school; builds 5m windmill 2006: Daily Times writes article on him; he builds a 12m windmill 2007: Brings solar power to his village and installs solar pump Mid-2008: Builds Green Machine windmill, pumping well water Sep 2008: Attends inaugural African Leadership Academy class Mid-2009: Builds replica of original 5m windmill Mr Kamkwamba's story was sent hurtling through the blogosphere when a reporter from the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote an article about him in November 2006. Meanwhile, he installed a solar-powered mechanical pump, donated by well-wishers, above a borehole, adding water storage tanks and bringing the first potable water source to the entire region around his village. He upgraded his original windmill to 48-volts and anchored it in concrete after its wooden base was chewed away by termites. Then he built a new windmill, dubbed the Green Machine, which turned a water pump to irrigate his family's field. Before long, visitors were traipsing from miles around to gawp at the boy prodigy's magetsi a mphepo - "electric wind". As the fame of his renewable energy projects grew, he was invited in mid-2007 to the prestigious Technology Entertainment Design conference in Arusha, Tanzania. Cheetah generation He recalls his excitement using a computer for the first time at the event. "I had never seen the internet, it was amazing," he says. "I Googled about windmills and found so much information." Onstage, the native Chichewa speaker recounted his story in halting English, moving hard-bitten venture capitalists and receiving a standing ovation. Bryan Mealer (left) with William Kamkwamba William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (left) spent a year writing the book A glowing front-page portrait of him followed in the Wall Street Journal. He is now on a scholarship at the elite African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr Kamkwamba - who has been flown to conferences around the globe to recount his life-story - has the world at his feet, but is determined to return home after his studies. The home-grown hero aims to finish bringing power, not just to the rest of his village, but to all Malawians, only 2% of whom have electricity. "I want to help my country and apply the knowledge I've learned," he says. "I feel there's lots of work to be done." Former Associated Press news agency reporter Bryan Mealer had been reporting on conflict across Africa for five years when he heard Mr Kamkwamba's story. The incredible tale was the kind of positive story Mealer, from New York, had long hoped to cover. The author spent a year with Mr Kamkwamba writing The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which has just been published in the US. Mealer says Mr Kamkwamba represents Africa's new "cheetah generation", young people, energetic and technology-hungry, who are taking control of their own destiny. "Spending a year with William writing this book reminded me why I fell in love with Africa in the first place," says Mr Mealer, 34. "It's the kind of tale that resonates with every human being and reminds us of our own potential." Can it be long before the film rights to the triumph-over-adversity story are snapped up, and William Kamkwamba, the boy who dared to dream, finds himself on the big screen?
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He should get an Airbus to help Aviation in naija !adv.ertisem.ent click for NollyWood videos on utube4naija AndyUba Airways ! Though Andy Uba has no bank account in his name, huhuonline.com can disclose that the former special assistant (domestic affair) to President Obasanjo just took delivery of a N49 billion private jet. To conceal the entire transaction from law enforcement and media huhuonline learnt that Andy Uba instructed that the jet be delivered to his bossom friend Sayoe Dantata. Andy Uba for eight years was the go to guy, he reigned supreme in Aso villa as the un elected defacto vice-president under President Olusegun Obasanjo, he determined who, where and when people could see the former president. His influence was monumental, thus revered. Many cabinet ministers had to submit their official memo for him to peruse prior to submitting to President Obasanjo for approval. adv.ertisem.ent click for NollyWood videos on utube4naija Andy Uba, hired as personal assistance domestic, with job description such as ensure that tuition fees of Obasanjo many children are paid as at when due, also doubled as President Obasanjo`s official pimp, as he was noted for driving his government assigned pimpmobile to the homes and offices of female minister to chauffeur them . Recall that Farida Waziri led Economic and Financial Crime Commission commenced what has been viewed largely as a clampdown on politicians believed to have close ties with ex-president Obasanjo. This huhuonline .com learnt is Andy Uba `s worst nightmare. Sources close to him told our correspondent that trepidation has become his stock in trade, alleged to be one of the richest men in Nigeria; Andy Uba has no bank account to his name in Nigeria. Andy Uba huhuonline 9jabooks media partner learnt is now Persona non grata (PNG) with President Yar`dua, our impeccable sources within the villa told that since the election tribunal bribery saga, which was widely reported in the media, President Umaru Yar`dua has refused to have an audience with the embattled governor in waiting. we gathered that the bribe money which was leaked to the media, was a major source of embarrassment for President Yar`dua, and it appears he is taking it personal, which is a complete departure from his mantra ?I don?t see what people do to me but what they do for me? . Andy Uba sources within the presidency disclosed provided the funds. But conception theorist has it that the funds actually came from Forbes list billionaire Aliko Dangote, who is not a favorite of the Yar`dua administration. Aliko Dangote a monopolist by nature, abhor competition, under President Obasanjo, his fortune ascended, notable was Dan sugar. But since the advent of the Yar`dua administration, Dangote group has lost its monopoly, particularly in cement and sugar. Thus provision of funds for bribery and subsequent leak to the media was a calculated attempt to mortify Umaru Yar`dua led government, however, his friend Andy Uba took the fall for fear of the after effect of reprisal. Recall Andy Uba does business by proxies. Andy Uba Emergence in the power game But for Atiku`s greed, Andy Uba probably would have remained just a pimp for Obasanjo. To be continued adv.ertisem.ent click for NollyWood videos on utube4naija
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