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Confusion in Yar'Adua's camp *Turai, cabal members disagree over planned resignation, overseas medical trip

CONFUSION is said to be reigning in the camp of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, following disagreements over the next step to take on the ailing leader.

Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that members of the cabal around the ailing leader have now abandoned the First Lady, Hajia Turai, in view of what was described as her intransigence in finding the way forward.

It was gathered that while some Northern leaders had recently joined the search for a practical solution to the Yar'Adua situation, as they were said to have reached out to the first lady and other members of the cabal, it was learnt that the first lady got many of the interested parties angry with her insistence that her husband should be allowed to remain in the villa..

A source said that the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, appeared to have consigned the Yar'Adua issue to history after his decision to approve fresh funds for treatment of the ailing president was turned down by Turai.

A source said that the first lady viewed the release of the funds with suspicion, as some members of her own inner cabinet were said to have expressed fears that removing Yar'Adua from the Villa could empower the National Assembly and the Executive Council of the Federation to declare him an invalid and permanently incapacitated.

While some members of the cabal were said to have agreed with Turai that allowing Yar'Adua to embark on another medical trip abroad could mean the end of his presidency, they, however, disagreed over his continued stay in the villa.

A source close to the administration informed that other top members of the cabal had now abandoned Turai, following her refusal to adhere to the suggestions by some northern leaders who had proposed a "soft landing" for the ailing president.

A source confirmed that some northern leaders had reached out to the acting president and other influential Nigerians and had come up with the solution that they believed would please all parties.

Their suggestion was to the effect that Yar'Adua should not be disgraced out of office but should be allowed to resign and leave the villa honourably, said a source at the weekend.

It was, however, gathered that Turai was afraid that things would no longer remain in her control if she moved her husband to Katsina.

It was learnt that Yar'Adua's most trusted friend, Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, was one of those displeased with Turai's decision and had subsequently decided to stay away for now.

Sources confirmed that the first lady had expressed the confidence that her husband could suddenly regained consciousness and that she remained hopeful that Jonathan would not move against him.

"She has seen that Jonathan is well disposed to her husband and is not orchestrating his removal and she wants to latch onto that and remain in the villa for as long as possible. She even believes that she could end the tenure in the villa with her husband, but interests in the North are already seeing this as harmful to the politics of the zone," a source stated on Sunday.

The campaign for the former military dictator has resumed with Oshiomole of Edo and Now Former Biafran Warlord Ojukwu extending their arms over his ambition for a second crack at the Top Job.

Ojukwu pledges support of Igbos for IBB

Monday, May 3, 2010

The Ikemba of Nnewi gave this pledge when a group of IBB campaigners under the aegis of Campaign Network for IBB 2011, South East Zone, paid him a courtesy visit at the weekend..

“Tell your principal that Igbos are for him. He has my support and by extension he has the support of the whole Igbo people both at home and in the Diaspora. He is my friend and I am stoutly behind him,” Ojukwu said.

He used the occasion to rechristen Babangida as Okechukwu. “He is now Ibrahim Badamasi Okechukwu Babangida. That is his new name. I wish him success.” Earlier, the leader of the group, Chief Tony Emeka Ani, said the group had come to solicit the support of Ojukwu for the presidential aspiration of IBB, adding that the group had just been inaugurated in the South East.

On the entourage of Ani was Mr. Yemi George, leader of the group in Europe, who came down from Germany to grace the occasion.

'N2.8bn withdrawn from INEC's account in two days'

The sources, who are privy to happenings in the accounts department of the commission, told our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday that the withdrawal made the electoral body's most senior officer, Mr. Philip Umeadi, to freeze the accounts on Friday.

It was learnt that cheques for the sum were backdated to cover payments for contracts and other projects by the commission.

Our sources, however, did not say who gave the directive for the issuance of the cheques and who signed them.

The former Chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, who was directed to proceed on pre-disengagement leave by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, is yet to hand over to Umeadi..

One of the sources said, "The amount of money withdrawn from the commission's account in the last few days is unprecedented in the history of the commission.

"This is so because this is not an election year and we are not involved in any major contract. But now, we are almost broke due to the massive withdrawal of money."

THE PUNCH gathered that Iwu, due to complete his tenure in June, lobbied to be retained for a second tenure of five years.

The professor of Pharmacology was said to have told his close friends in the commission that since he was just going on terminal leave, he would still be accessible till June 13.

However, our correspondent gathered that there were moves by Iwu to lobby some Peoples Democratic Party governors to convince Jonathan to allow him hand over to Prince Adedeji Soyebi, a national commissioner in charge of Logistics.

Investigations on Sunday showed that while Umeadi became a national commissioner in August 2006 and is due to complete his first tenure in August 2011, Soyebi on the other hand was appointed a national commissioner in September 2007.

Before then, Soyebi was a resident commissioner in the commission and was elevated to the position of national commissioner when Mrs. Kemi Odebiyi died.

When contacted on Sunday on the alleged withdrawal of N2.8bn from INEC's account, the Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Umenger, politely declined comments.

Umenger had in a statement on Friday said that with Umeadi's assumption of office, the alleged vacuum in INEC's leadership had become a non-issue.

"This development should naturally put an end to insinuations from some segment of the media that there is a vacuum in the leadership of INEC at the moment," Umenger said in statement.

Cases of financial abuses involving INEC staff are pending in court, including a corruption charge against Iwu's Chief Press Secretary , Mr. Andy Ezeani.

Ezeani is facing a two-count charge of corruption at an FCT High Court, Abuja.

In the suit filed on behalf of the Federal Government by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ezeani, a deputy director with the commission, was accused of criminal misappropriation and dishonesty.

He was alleged to have fraudulently deducted N5. 9m from the N7.7m donated to the Abuja chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists by the commission.

Besides, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties had last year petitioned the EFCC over an alleged N28.8bn fraud in INEC.

The coalition, in the petition, said the fraud was committed in transactions relating to the printing of ballot papers, buying of communicating gadgets, among others.

A former governor of Kaduna State and CNPP chairman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, signed the petition.

Others signatories were Chief A. Nwodo of Progressive Action Congress; Mr. Mani Ibrahim of African Democratic Congress; Mallam Yunusa Tako of National Conscience Party; Mr. Milson Ezegwu; and Mr. Osita Okechukwu.

Detailing the allegations, the CNPP said that the commission on January 4, 2007 awarded a contract for the printing of ballot papers for the last presidential, national assembly, and governorship election to the Minting Company, Abuja at the sum of N6,580, 200,000.00.

It said that while INEC paid 80 per cent of the sum, the company failed to abide by the contractual agreement, which required it to deliver the materials within 10 weeks from the date the contract was awarded.

It explained that since the minting company had no facility to execute the contract, the INEC re-awarded the contract to some British and South Africa firms to print the same set of paper "at a much high cost."

The CNPP, in the petition said, "To our consternation, not only did the contractors default in execution of the project, indeed none was utilised for the conduct of the elections and up till date no refund of the said sum has been made to the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria."

On Radio equipment, the conference alleged that while a contract of N222m was awarded by INEC for the activation of existing VHF radios in the states to a favoured contractor, 'the contractor defaulted as the radios were not activated up till now. "The said sum of N222m has not been refunded," CNPP alleged.

On voters' registration, it was alleged that a contract was awarded for a supply of 33,000 units of Direct Data Capture machine at a cost of N4.95bn.

The conference further alleged that the while the term of contract was breached, the company also did not supply the actual number that it was asked to.

It said, "This led INEC to fraudulently change to laptops, commercial fingerprints and cameras and the N4.95bn unaccounted for."

President Barack Obama of the United States(U.S) has been asked to list Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern (CPC) because of the incessant religiouse crises, abuses and violence, especially in the Northern part of the country. A Statutory Independent Panel, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) se up by the government to advise the country's President on Religious Freedom worldwide, said Nigeria has a "10-year terrible record" of religious crises and violence since 1999.

NEW YORK – Police found an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said Sunday.

Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours after a T-shirt vendor alerted police to the suspicious vehicle, which contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

"We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

The bomb appeared to be starting to detonate but malfunctioned, top police spokesman Paul Browne said Sunday.

Firefighters who arrived shortly after the first call heard a popping sound, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who described the sound as not quite an explosion.

"I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said.

No suspects were in custody, though Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it parked between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Police were looking for more video from office buildings that weren't open at the time.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that officials are treating the incident as a potential terrorist attack. The mayor said earlier Sunday, "We have no idea who did this or why" but said it's not surprising the city is a frequent target of terrorism.

"These things invariably ... come back to New York," Bloomberg said.

The SUV was towed early Sunday to a forensic lab in Queens, where it was being "thoroughly checked for prints, hairs and fibers," Browne said Sunday. Napolitano said fingerprints had been recovered from the vehicle.

The T-shirt vendor alerted police at about 6:30 p.m, the height of dinner hour before theatergoers head to Saturday night shows..

Smoke was coming from the back of the dark-colored Pathfinder, its hazard lights were on and "it was just sitting there," said Rallis Gialaboukis, 37, another vendor who has hawked his wares for 20 years across the street.

A white robotic police arm broke windows of the SUV to remove any explosive materials. A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up, Bloomberg said. Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told them he had sent the plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said.

Heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city's busiest streets, choked with taxis and people on one of the first summer-like days of the year. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.

The car was parked on one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as "The Lion King" and "Billy Elliot."

The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half-hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown.

Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds.

"It was a mass of people running away from the scene," Neubauer said.

Said Saunders: "There were too many people, too many cops. I've never seen anything like it."

Bloomberg left early from the White House correspondent's dinner Saturday night. President Barack Obama, who attended the annual gala, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

He has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support.

Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation, Shapiro said.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York responded along with the NYPD, said agent Richard Kolko.

The latest terror threat in New York came last fall when air shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway system.

The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007. No one was injured when police discovered two Mercedes loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline.

Officials said the device found Saturday was crudely constructed, but Islamic militants have used propane and compressed gas for years to enhance the force of explosives. Those instances include the 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marines barracks at the Beirut airport that killed 241 U.S. service members, and the 2007 attack on the international airport in Glasgow, Scotland.

In 2007, the U.S. military announced that an al-Qaida front group was using propane to rig car bombs in Iraq.

Times Square has been a frequent target, if not for potential terrorists, then for rabble-rousers.

In December, a parked van without license plates led police to block off part of the area for about two hours. A police robot examined the vehicle, and clothes, racks and scarves were found inside.

In March 2008, a hooded bicyclist hurled an explosive device at a military recruiting center, producing a flash, smoke and full-scale emergency response. No suspect was ever identified.

Police have spent years trying to crack down on street hustlers and peddlers preying on tourists. But there have been two major gunfights in recent months. A street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December, shattering a Broadway theater ticket window, before police fatally shot him.

Four shootings and more than 50 arrests on a mile-long stretch of Manhattan last month around Times Square prompted the mayor to call the mayhem "wilding."

The dramatic search for James Ibori, the former Delta State governor who has been declared wanted for financial misdemeanour, by the Nigerian Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), may be nothing but a ruse.

Sources who spoke with NEXT over the weekend said that not only is Mr. Ibori hiding in Agbor, a town in his home state, but the two anti corruption agencies, the EFCC and the police, are aware of Mr. Ibori’s whereabouts. Contrary to reports that the former governor has been hiding in his country home in Oghara, he is allegedly hiding with a friend of his in Agbor, a small town which is about 2 hours away from Oghara.

Multiple sources in the Nigerian security circles told NEXT that the EFCC is aware of Mr. Ibori’s current location and that this would not be the first time that the anti corruption agency would be feigning ignorance of his whereabouts.

“The EFCC knows that Ibori is not in his hometown. When the EFCC first said that they were looking for Ibori and went looking for him in Oghara, they knew that he was right here in Abuja. He was at that time in the Kwara Guest House, in Asokoro,” a source said.

The police’s charade

Behind the elaborate display shown by the Nigerian police in a bid to arrest Mr. Ibori, was an apparent decision to do the contrary, sources said. Security sources who spoke to NEXT said the authority chosen to effect Mr. Ibori‘s arrest, showed that the police was not really interested in arresting the former governor.

“If they really wanted to arrest him, why would they pick the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), for works and for operations to be in charge of the operation? Why not use the DIG in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department,” a security source queried.

“The police intelligence is fully aware of Ibori’s movement but there appears to be the lack of operational will,” our source added.

The police spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu however denied that the police has any knowledge of Mr. Ibori’s current location saying that the police is still looking for the former governor.

“We are still looking for him wherever he is. I cannot say that the police is aware of where he is but all I can say is that we are looking for him,” Mr. Ojukwu said.

EFCC responds

The EFCC also says that it is at the moment working on a new strategy to beat Mr. Ibori to his game. A strategy which the commission says it is no longer interested in sharing with the Nigerian public.

“We don’t want to discuss this because every information we give out gets back to him [Mr. Ibori],” the spokesman of the commission, Femi Babafemi, told NEXT in Abuja.

Mr. Ibori’s spokesperson, Tony Elumunor, however said that Mr. Ibori’s current location is not relevant and should not be a subject of public debate.

“The man you are talking about is a private citizen and he is not on the run but simply obeying the court ruling which asked that everyone should maintain the status quo,” Mr. Elumunor said in a telephone interview with NEXT..

In the last two weeks, media reports have placed Mr. Ibori in several places; Oghara- his home town, the Niger-Delta Creeks, and as having escaped the country en route Dubai. The latest location,

has in history served as a refuge for a larcenous prince who ran away from his home town.

Text: Matthew 18:10; Psalm 91:11; Hebrews 1:14

Summary: Angels protect all children of God.

Jesus loves children. He loves you. Jesus loves you so much that he has a plan for your life. He wants you to grow to love Him and learn more about God. He sends his angels to protect every person that will one day accept Jesus as their Savior.

Think about that for a moment. That means that for every person sitting here in church, their guardian angel is hovering over the pews or sitting on the roof! I know what you may be thinking. If you can't see them, how do you know they are here? Because the Bible tells us so.

Angels are spirits and can only be seen if God chooses to let us see them. Angels of God appeared to many people in many different stories in the Bible. [Read Matthew 18:10] Jesus was telling grown-ups that we should never think we are better than children, or do anything to mislead or harm you, because your angels are close to God. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. (Psalm 91:11) God has a guardian angel to protect you from harm. I suppose many of the grown-ups here today could share a story about how God has protected them over the years. God sends these angels to protect us from danger. In another verse in the Bible we see that everyone who will be saved has an angel to protect them. [Read Hebrews 1:14].

We can give thanks to God for his protection by angels. We never worship angels. We worship Jesus (God). God created the angels before Adam and Eve were made. Some of the angels did not obey God and decided to follow the worst angel of all, Satan. He is very bad. He is a real and powerful angel that was so bad God threw him and the bad angels (demons) out of heaven. You have a good angel that loves and obeys God that is watching over you. Satan, the bad angel, tries to get us to do bad things. But since Jesus created him, Jesus is stronger than Satan (the Devil). Jesus will protect us and use His angels to protect us from harm because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

"As much as it can be it's been an amicable split," the source said. "They both traveled a lot for work anyway, so they were used tospending time apart for long periods, but I think Halle has taken itpretty badly, she truly loved Gabriel and thought she had found theone."

Halle has been married and divorced twice before: to former baseball player David Justice who abused her and Eric Benet who cheated on her.

"I took [President Obama] to various locations while he was looking for campaign funds. Vera accompanied him to each meeting.

"About 10:30 pm, I drove them to the hotel and they went in together. She didn't ask me to wait or to be taken back to her friend's home - or to her home"

Calif. governor tells Leno he would run ‘without any doubt’ if he could

California's actor-turned-governor was born in Austria and the U.S. Constitution prevents foreign-born citizens from holding the nation's top job.

Jay Leno asked Schwarzenegger on "The Tonight Show" Thursday if he would make a White House run if the law was changed.

There are few people who knows the ins and outs of the web as well as Joe Hewitt 0pt ! important; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px;min-height: 0px; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; border: 0pt none; font-style:normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchetms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static;left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image:url("http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/theme/silver/palette.gif";);background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px;height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat:no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;" src="http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/t.gif">. For the past decade,he’s had his hands deep in everything from Netscape, to AOL, to Firefox,to Facebook (where he currently works). Hewitt also knows a thing ortwo about the iPhone. He’s the one who first built Facebook’s excellentiPhone web app (before there were native apps on the iPhone), and thenthe native app — which is one of the bestapps on the platform. So when he rants about something (as he doesfrom time-to-time),people listen. And today he went on one such rant.

Following Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ post min-height: 0px; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; border: 0pt none; font-style:normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchetms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static;left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image:url("http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/theme/silver/palette.gif";);background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px;height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat:no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;" src="http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/t.gif"> about Flash thismorning, Hewitt went on Twitter 0pt ! important; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px;min-height: 0px; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; border: 0pt none; font-style:normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchetms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static;left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image:url("http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/theme/silver/palette.gif";);background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px;height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat:no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;" src="http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/t.gif"> and started going offwith some of this thoughts. I asked Hewitt if I could recap them; hisresponse, “sure, why not.” Hewitt, some may recall, quitiPhone development over his distaste for some App Store policies.Today, seeing a wave of anti-Flash talk on Twitter spurred by Jobs’post, Hewitt startedout min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; border: 0pt none;font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchetms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static;left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image:url("http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/theme/silver/palette.gif";);background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px;height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat:no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;" src="http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/t.gif">:

Redirect your hatred of Flash to the W3C, whose embarrassingly slow pace forced devs to use a plugin because thestandards were so weak.

Also, I am looking at you, developers who bitch whenever a browser offers “non-standard” but .innovative APIs.

Browser makers need to go nuts with non-standard APIs and let the W3C standardize later. Waiting for the committee to innovate is suicide.

So basically, Hewitt’s take is that Flash (and all plug-ins) only exists because the W3C 0pt ! important; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px;min-height: 0px; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; border: 0pt none; font-style:normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchetms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static;left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image:url("http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/theme/silver/palette.gif";);background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px;height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat:no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;" src="http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.28/t.gif"> (the governing body forweb standards) is too slow to formalize and approve innovative newtechnologies. He urges browser-makers to break away from the W3Cconstraints and start going crazy with new APIs.

He then comes in defense of Microsoft, the company that once all-but destroyed (through what just about everyone including the U.S.government thinks were unsavory means) the company Hewitt started hiscareer at (Netscape).

10 years ago we bullied Microsoft into stopping innovation on IE so the W3C could take over. How’d that work out?

For those too young to remember, IE was innovating like crazy from 4.0 -6.0, right up until the DOJ and web standards commies intervened.

@jeff_lamarche Oh c’mon. Aside from ActiveX, Microsoft moved the web forward faster from 96-00 than any other browser maker has.

I don’t know why MS abandoned IE, but I do know that web developers were begging them to stop innovating and just follow the committee.

Hewitt’s take here is that the antitrust action against Microsoft halted innovation in Internet Explorer. In 1996, when Hewitt says IEinnovation really started, that browser didn’t even have 10% share ofthe market, while Netscape had nearly 90%. As an underdog, IE had toinnovate. Until, of course, they took over the web, and then Microsoftinexplicably all-but abandoned the product.

Hewitt then turns to the rise of the app stores (including, yes, the App Store).

Why are app stores threatening the web and luring developers like me away from it? “Evil” proprietary tech is blowing theweb away.

I want desperately to be a web developer again, but if I have to wait until 2020 for browsers to do what Cocoa can do in 2010, I won’t wait.

The “‘Evil’ proprietary tech is blowing the web away” quote is pretty compelling (I’m still kicking myself for not using it in the headline).Again, Hewitt’s point here is that the web is nowhere near wherenon-web technologies like Cocoa are — and won’t be for a decade.

@KuraFire Did Microsoft patent their non-standard html/javascript/css extensions, preventing other browsers fromimplementing them?

@johnfoliot True, they [w3c] don’t dictate, but developers shame others who use non-standard APIs. That’s the problem.

He wonders here why some of Microsoft’s standards weren’t adopted by the W3C? Then blames the web developers for shaming other developers whouse tech not sanctioned by the governing body.

I am ranting because I want to drop Cocoa and go back to the web, but I am upset about how much power I have to give up to dothat.

How it should go: browsers innovate differently, users pick the best one, later W3C standardizes what users chose, losing browsers conform.

The core of Hewitt’s argument. Web technologies aren’t moving fast enough, and why should he have to use a less powerful language toconform to web standards? Again, he hopes that browsers will start toinnovate and force the W3C to conform to them.

@joseph_wanja I love what Cocoa can do, I just don’t like C-based languages for UI programming.

The reason why Hewitt doesn’t just stick with Cocoa if he finds it superior to web-based languages.

@eston Users might be aware of their choices if more developers wrote browser-specific sites. Developers really pick thewinner.

An urging for developers to take action to reverse the trend.

@JamesWatch IE6 was fucking amazing in 2000. It’s not fair to compare it to modern browsers.

A word of caution for those who bash IE6 — remember what it was like when it came out.

@joseph_wanja unfortunately I would recommend Cocoa [rather than web languages] at this point. Wish I didn’t have to saythat.

Cocoa, while not perfect, is better than web languages.

@michaelvillar So launch a different browser. Not a big deal. Know what is a big deal? Having to buy a different phone for eachapp store.

An interesting point. Hewitt is saying that while it may seem like a hassle to have the web coded for different browsers, it’s much more of ahassle to have apps coded for different phones.

@jjathman I’m not justifying ActiveX, but the html/css/javascript side of IE which at one time was state of the art.

Again, more defense of IE back in the day.

From here, Hewitt goes into a series of thoughts on web vs. native apps.

@ppk Yes, exactly. I’d rather developers had forced users to launch different browsers instead of making watered down x-browsersites.

@ppk That’s sort of what is happening with mobile web vs. native mobile apps, except app stores don’t extend the browser, they replaceit.

@slauriat “best viewed in X” was not as bad as “buy another phone”, which is what we got for letting the web go to shit so apps could rise.

@ppk As someone who has tried to do both cutting edge native and web iPhone apps, iPhone Safari is a joke compared to iPhone Cocoa.

App stores replace the web, simply because their languages are better, in Hewitt’s mind. And it’s our own fault for letting the web goto shit, and letting this happen. His last tweet is particularlypowerful: Hewitt does have a lot of experience on both sides, andconsiders iPhone Safari to be a “joke” compared to what you can donatively. This is a sentiment a lot of developers whisper about, butseldom say publicly.

Finally, Hewitt qualifies some of his statements a bit.

I’ve been hard on Flash, but we should all thank Macromedia/Adobe for 10 years of picking up the slack of the W3C,Microsoft, and Mozilla.

And really, how screwed would we be if the WebKit team weren’t so god damn competent? Ok, signing off now, thanks for listening. :)

Fair enough, plenty of juicy post-worthy comments for one day.

Editor's note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable,a popular blog about social media. He writes a weekly column aboutsocial networking and technology for CNN.com.

London, England (CNN) -- Facebook dropped a bombshell on the tech industry last week in the form of a Web-wide"Like" button and the launchof the "Open Graph."

Using this new platform, Web sites can drive Web traffic from Facebook by including Like buttons on theirpages; every Like posts an update to that user's Facebook page.

What's more, any Web site can customize its experience for you, if you'relogged into Facebook: Suddenly CNN.com stories can be ranked not just byan editor but by your friends too.

Likes replace links?

Facebook announced Likes as a form of "social links" -- better than a link because it's related to a specific user. If Like buttons take off,that's really bad news for Google, since its algorithm uses linksbetween sites to determine their order in search results.

Facebook seeks to replace this open system of links between pages with the"social links" (or Likes) that it controls. Google and other searchengines won't have full access to all these Likes, so the company bestpositioned to rank the Web will be Facebook. No wonder the "open Web" advocates are sounding the alarm, concernedthat a single company will stockpile all of our personal informationand preferences.

Already there are calls to create an "OpenLike" standard that's accessible to all, reports Facebook watcher Nick O'Neill.

Facebook optimization?.

Can the measurement of an industry affect the output of that industry? If an Academy Award is the ultimate measure of a movie, dodirectors set out to create great films or Oscar-winning ones?

Appearing on the first page of Google results for your chosen search term isperhaps the online equivalent of an Oscar win.

As Google rose to become the barometer of all that's worthy on the Web, publishers rushedto change their sites to appease the Google god. "Search EngineOptimization" became a massive industry; a multitude of SEO consultantssprung up, offering to tweak your Web site to better fit Google'smeasure of the Web.

What if Facebook Likes take off? Or to use the proper jargon: What if the Open Graph becomes the measure of theWeb? Will publishers change their sites to appease our new overlord?

I'm already seeing it: Thousands of sites are adding Facebook's version of semantic data in preference to the open standards as Facebookbecomes the new kingmaker. In the week since launch, more than 50,000Web sites have added Facebook's "social plug-ins." All of which willmake it blissfully easy for Facebook to organize the Web:

Facebook Optimization may be the new SEO.

Open Web advocates have reason to be concerned. Privacy experts are also raisingred flags. No doubt they'll find an ally in Google: Without access tothe stitches that bind Web pages together, the search engine couldfalter.

WHAT IS IBB DOING AT AN AC RALLY ! ! !

The highly publicised ‘One man, One Vote’ rally organised by the Edo State government to promote democracy ran into trouble yesterday when Wole Soyinka, and leaders of the Action Congress, including Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, and party chairman, Bisi Akande, staged a public walkout.

The boycott was carried out to protest the presence of former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, and Senate President, David Mark, who were at the rally.

Earlier, the former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tunubu; National Publicity Secretary of Action Congress, Lai Muhammed; the party’s governorship candidates in Osun and Ogun States, Raufu Aregbesola, and Kayode Fayemi; and party secretary, Usman Bugaje had flown out of Lagos to the Benin rally around 10:00am while Mr Fashola and his team joined the event shortly after.

However, two hours after the plane that took Mr Fashola to Benin took off, it returned to the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, followed by a private jet with Mr Soyinka on board. The men had refused to remain at the rally grounds, thus shunning an event attended by the Edo State governor and AC member, Adams Oshiomhole; Bayelsa State governor and representative of the Acting President, Timpreye Sylva; Mr Babangida; and most of the governors of the South-south.

Explaining why they had to turn their back on the event, Mr Bugaje told journalists that participating in the rally would be tantamount to his party endorsing the presidential ambition of Mr Babangida, who is not an AC member.

He also said it was not possible for the party’s delegation to have remained in Benin to attend a rally with a senate president who destroyed the report of Mohammed Uwais’ electoral reforms panel.

“We went to Edo for a rally on “one man, one vote,” meaning a rally on electoral reform, so that we can press home the point that we cannot afford to continue with the kind of electoral system that we have seen. That we must have a free, fair, credible and transparent election. But when we went, we found out that a stage had been set for one of the presidential aspirants on a platform, which is not our party and we thought our participation will mean some kind of endorsement, which we were not prepare to do.

“Secondly, and perhaps much more importantly, the fact is that the guest of honour as we saw in one of the dailies inside the plane, was the Senate President, David Mark. This is the same senate president who literally supervised the destruction of the Uwais report that went to the National Assembly. In other words, this was the man who supervised the mutilation, and destruction of the hope that this country had for a better electoral system. We cannot see how such a man can be the special guest of honour in a rally, which is all about free, fair and credible election after he has destroyed the report that virtually provided for free, fair and credible election.

“So, with all these contradictions, we discovered that the place was not for us and, therefore, we withdrew, excused ourselves, we wished them well and see how things unfold and we will let you know what our views are.”

Mr Soyinka, in reply to reporters’ questions, said: “Let me just put it this way, this is the last straw (pointing to a newspaper ). I saw this and this is the last straw, the guest of honour (David Mark).

That is all I will say to you right now. I think the people that gave me a ride will have a lot more to say (referring to Mr Tinubu and the AC delegation). The special guest of honour, for me, is Oro pesi je, as they say.” (Oro pesi je’ literally means ‘the matter is beyond comments.’) Mr Bugaje said attending such an event was antithetical to the beliefs of his party..

“Nigerians are already wise enough to see through some of these tricks and gimmicks. I don’t think anybody will be deceived by that kind of crowd, that this is the kind of crowd that gathers for electoral reform,” he said. “Nearly all the dignitaries that are elected officers there were the very beneficiaries of this corrupt, mutilated electoral system that was supervised by Maurice Iwu and how can these people really be there in the forefront in a rally which is all about free, fair and credible election?”

Then Mr Ribadu the more popular of the two .

The former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nasir el-Rufai, will return to Nigeria on Saturday, NEXT can exclusively report.

Mr. El-Rufai has been on a self-imposed exile since November 2009, and even though he had announced that he would return to the country in December, he released a statement, five days to his planned arrival, saying he had postponed his return for security reasons.

At the time, his lawyer Bamidele Aturu, in an interview with NEXT, said that “in the light of the uncertainty surrounding the exercise of public power in Nigeria in general, and security matters in particular, it would be decidedly unguarded for Mallam El-Rufai to return to Nigeria on 27 December 2009.”.

Since then, a lot has changed on Nigeria’s political scene, with the former Vice President stepping into the shoes of ailing President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. It is still not clear if this has a bearing on Mr. El-Rufai’s decision to return, but sources close to him told NEXT that his flight is booked and he will be arriving at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, on Saturday, aboard a British Airways flight BA0083.

It is also unclear what Mr. El-Rufai’s plans are once he returns to Nigeria, or what he intends to do about the two arrest warrants issued against him. The first warrant accused Mr. El-Rufai of conducting treasonable activities abroad. While the second, issued on November 5, described Mr. El-Rufai as wanted “for acts contrary to Sections 96, 120, 123 and 124 CAP 532 laws of the federation of Nigeria” as well as “some provisions of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act (of) 2000.” Former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, had also announced the commencement of extradition proceedings on Mr. El-Rufai, based on the Senate Committee on FCT’s report, which also allegedly indicted the ex-minister.

Mr. El-Rufai is also being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to account for almost $250 million spent during his tenure as Minister of the FCT. He, however, in a terse email letter to the anti-graft agency, ahead of his planned return last year, stated that “for the avoidance of any doubt, I am returning to Nigeria on the 27th of December, 2009. I will never be afraid to face a bunch of lackeys like you.”

He is facing an eight-count charge for criminal conspiracy and abuse of office while he served as minister along with Altine Jubrin, a former director general, Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), and Ismaila Iro, former general manager of the same organisation.

As of the time we went to press, neither Mr. El-Rufai nor his lawyer Mr. Aturu could be reached for comments.

Mr. El-Rufai’s return might add to the complications and internal crises presently experienced within the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He is a card carrying member of the PDP, although it is not clear which of the factions in the party he belongs to.