Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the disbursal of $2 billion from windfall oil savings to the country's 36 states and government agencies, Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola said on Friday.

"I have just gotten an approval this morning from the acting president for the sharing of $2 billion from the excess crude account," Reuters quoted Mr. Babalola saying after a meeting of the Federal Allocation Committee in the capital Abuja.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) clarified that the recent divestment from three oil blocks in North Western Niger Delta does not imply it is gradually exiting its operations in Nigeria.

Shell insisted on Tuesday night that it is not exiting Nigeria and it is committed to continuing its operations in the country.

Speculations were rife that the oil major has set in motion plans to leave Nigeria because negotiations for the renewal of some of its expired licenses were stalled. This heightened after Shell announced the sale of its Oil Mining Licenses (OMLs) 4, 38, and 41 to a Nigerian-led multinational consortium.

Some industry watchers argue that the move was predicated on certain aspects of the Petroleum Industry Bill, particularly the new fiscal regime being proposed, which the International Oil Companies are uncomfortable with.

No plans to leave Nigeria

“Any suggestion that Shell has divested its asset and is exiting Nigeria is misleading and untrue,” said Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of SPDC. “We did not sell the asset because of the PIB, neither did we sell the asset as a precursor to closing shop in Nigeria. We have a long-standing presence in, and commitment to Nigeria. We will continue our onshore and offshore exploration and production activities.” The three blocks have a combined condensate output of about 50,000 barrels per day. For a company like Shell, oil blocks which account for less than five percent of its total assets, are insignificant to its portfolio.

Rationale behind the sale

Explaining the rationale for the divestment in the three blocks, Mr. Sunmonu, who also doubles as Country Chair of Shell Nigeria, said: “Shell has a large and diversified global upstream portfolio, which we regularly review to ensure best value for the company.

“I want to emphasise that we did it also in support of government’s aspiration to support local participation in the industry. We believe that these assets are best developed by a third party and the divestment provides an opportunity for local companies to materially increase their participation in the hydrocarbon sector, consistent with the objective of the Federal Government.”

Operating environment

Since 2006, oil installations in Nigeria’s oil industry have come under attack by militants seeking greater access to the oil wealth, which impacted significantly on the operational costs. But despite a recent amnesty deal between the Federal Government and militants, peace still evades the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Mr. Sunmonu acknowledged that, like other oil and gas companies, the operations of Shell in Nigeria have been impacted by this and by several factors. “We recognise that these are challenging times in Nigeria. We’re faced with security, funding and other issues that have severely cut our onshore production and increased our direct costs.”

According to Austin Avuru, chief executive officer of Platform Petroleum, one of the Nigerian companies in the consortium that bought the three oil licenses from Shell: “We know that security is the major risk that we’ll face. It is also a risk we think we can manage better than the multinationals. So, it’s part of the reason we were considered to come in.”

The agreement is subject to the approval of the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), who hold the proprietary interest in the fields.

Aspirations for Shell

Mr. Sunmonu, who took over as Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria effective from January 1, said his primary goal is to “turn around the reputation of Shell in Nigeria,” which has taken a hit in recent months. The company is perceived by many to be taking a lot more than it is giving back.

With a budget of close to $4 billion this year, he said raising production levels will also be one of his key goals.

“Shell and Nigeria have been important to each other for over 50 years and we want that relationship to continue in a sustainable way. A successful oil and gas industry is key for Nigeria to achieve its long-term goals and Shell will continue to explore ways and means to emphasise our partnership and support of government objectives in Nigeria,” he promised.

shell

A Lagos High Court presided over by H. A. Abiru has granted an order of interim injunction "restraining the defendant (Lagos State House of Assembly) whether by themselves, agents, members, officers, privies or by whosoever from proceeding with or acting on the purported investigation of allegations of financial impropriety levelled against the executive and legislative arms of the Lagos Government ..." Further hearing on the suit has been fixed for February 17.

The suit was filed by Human Rights Lawyer Bamidele Aturu, on behalf of Richard Akinola, a journalist, after a six man committee was set up by the Lagos State House of Assembly to probe allegations of corruption levelled against Raji Fashola, the Lagos State Governor; and the Lagos State House of Assembly. The planned probe was due to an advertorial published in the Punch Newspaper of January 28 by an unknown and unregistered group, "The true face of Lagos" accusing Mr. Fashola and the Lagos House of Assembly of corrupt activities.

Police called in :

Unconfirmed reports say about 50 armed Policemen from the Force Headquarters, Abuja on Wednesday, stormed the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, with alleged mission to evict him from the office.

This was following unconfirmed reports of his sack as Minister of Justice. Reports of the Minister’s sack rent the air at about 1pm today.

Speaking to Journalists, the Head of Media of the Ministry, Ambrose Momoh, said there was no official confirmation of the AG’s sack. He however confirmed the presence of Policemen at the headquarters of the Ministry.

“I saw the Policemen just like you did, I don’t know their mission here and I cannot confirm the offices they entered”, he said.

Nigeria has had its fair share of controversial Attorney Generals. Few, however, appear to have delighted in creating and perpetuating controversy as much as Michael Kaase Aondoakaa.

From the beginning, the 47 year old Senior Advocate of Nigeria did not hide his ambition to severely clip the wings of the Economic and financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and its then Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu.

Barely a month after his appointment in July 2007, he submitted a memo to the President requesting "that all agencies involved in the prosecution of criminal offences such as the EFCC and ICPC should report and initiate criminal proceedings with the consent and approval of the Attorney-General of the Federation as specified in relevant sections of the Constitution." The President initially granted the request, but was forced to make an embarrassing reversal when it was revealed that it contradicted an earlier ruling of the Supreme Court.

Fighting anti-corruption

The fight against Mr. Ribadu intensified with the attempts by the former EFCC Chairman to prosecute the former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, reputed to be a close friend of Mr. Aondoakaa, and the person who actually recommended him to President Yar'Adua for the position of Attorney General.

Fighting Mr. Ribadu soon became a full time task for Mr. Aondoakaa. In February 2009, only weeks after Mr. Ribadu was dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force, Mr. Aondoakaa filed charges against him, before the Code of Conduct tribunal, alleging that he did not declare his assets upon assumption of duties as EFCC chief, as required by law.

Following revelations that emerged in the United States that American oil servicing firm Halliburton had paid huge bribes to Nigerian officials, Mr. Aondoakaa promised that the government would "constitute a committee ... that will be charged with the responsibility of gathering information. If the quality of information we receive internally is sufficient for us to commence prosecution, we will commence prosecution."

But after assembling a legal team, and announcing that Nigeria had decided to prosecute Halliburton, Mr. Aondoakaa decided to sit on his hands. One year later, none of the Nigerians named and implicated in the scandal has been prosecuted. This applies to the Wilbros and Siemens scandals as well.

A stranger to rectitude

Mr. Aondoakaa's penchant for making unguarded statements to the press is unrivalled. In September 2009, he called a press conference to announce that the EFCC had cleared three former state governors (one of whom was Mr. Ibori) of fraudulent conduct relating to the sale of their states' stake in the telecommunications firm Vmobile. Investigations into the deal commenced when Mr. Ribadu was Chairman of the EFCC.

Mr. Aondoakaa also seized the opportunity of the press conference to lament that Mr. Ribadu was sabotaging the Yar'Adua administration by making false statements to foreign investigators. A day after Aondoakaa's announcement, the EFCC denied that it had cleared the three men.

Passionate presidential defender

Mr. Yar'Adua's trip to Saudi Arabia on November 23, 2009, for medical attention gave fresh impetus to Mr. Aondoakaa's obsession with courting controversy. He has since then been Mr. Yar'Adua's most passionate defender.

Three weeks after the President disappeared from the country - without a handover letter - Mr. Aondoakaa argued: "There is no evidence that [Mr. Yar'Adua] is not exercising his powers as president. He has his vice-president and his ministers whom he delegates power and functions to. He does not have to be in the country before he can exercise his power. He can do that anywhere. The president can delegate his power to anyone and he can even give instruction anywhere in the world, even on his sick bed."

In early December, he reacted angrily to a call by Rotimi Akeredolu, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association calling on Mr. Yar'Adua to resign from office on health grounds. "The statement of the NBA President is his personal opinion. The FEC is the only body recognised by the constitution to decide on the matter... We should not allow somebody's ill-health to be politicised ... We should not play politics with human health. The President's health is improving everyday..."

Since then he has never wasted an opportunity to dismiss all calls on the ailing President to hand over to his deputy. At the end of the January 27 Federal Executive Council meeting, after more than two months of a vacuum in the highest office in the country, Mr. Aondoakaa announced, on behalf of the Council, that "the president is not incapable of discharging the functions of his office, and [the] medical treatment outside the country does not constitute incapacity to warrant or commence the process of the removal of the president from office, under section 144 and 146 of the 1999 constitution."

This was in reaction to a January 22 ruling by Justice Dan Abutu of an Abuja Federal High Court, giving the council two weeks to "consider, pass and publicise a resolution in accordance with the provisions of section 144 of the 1999 constitution declaring whether, having regard to the absence of the president from Nigeria on medical ground since the 23rd of November 2009, the President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office." As before, he insisted that the President's health and the decision to not hand over "is not a matter that ought to be mixed with politics."

Mr. Aondoakaa was reportedly the first person to oppose the move, last Wednesday, by his Federal Executive Council colleague, Dora Akunyili, minister of information and communications to present a memo to the Council urging it to compel the President to hand over to his deputy.

Aondoakaa must go

Calls for Mr. Aondoakaa to be sacked have intensified over the last year. In September 2009, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), The Movement Against Corruption (MAC) and the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) called for his dismissal from office for the comments he made regarding the investigations into the Vmobile scandal. Another anti-corruption group, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), in November 2009, marched to the National Assembly to demand the sack of Mr. Aondoakaa.

OLUSOLA FABIYI

The sudden decision by governors to back Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as acting President has changed the tone of debate on the lingering crisis in the Presidency over the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua, writes OLUSOLA FABIYI Until Thursday last week, there was no serious scare in the camp of members of President Umaru Yar'Adua's kitchen cabinet. They were upbeat that the clamour by several people for the President to step aside and allow his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to act, would soon fizzle out. Even when the 36 governors, under the aegis of Nigerian Governors Forum called for an emergency meeting in Abuja that night, there was nothing to suggest that the game was up. But after the meeting, it was glaring that the pro-Yar'Adua group were certainly becoming orphans.

President Umaru Yar'Adua

But if the pro-Yar'Adua group had been following events, they would have realised that they might not be able to carry on for long. Before the governors met, their counterparts from the Northern part of the country, the President's immediate constituency, had met the same day in Kaduna, where their leader who is also the Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, raised the alarm that some cabals had hijacked Yar'Adua's government.

While cautioning that the regime of late General Sani Abacha experienced the same thing when his security aides usurped government structures and shielded him from public view, he warned that the same thing should not be allowed to happen to Yar'Adua.

It was this mindset that the governors brought to their emergency meeting in Abuja. To show the seriousness the meeting deserved, 31 states were represented. Out of this, 28 state governors were in attendance while seven deputies represented their governors. Only Plateau, Ogun, Yobe, Zamfara and Anambra states were not represented at the meeting. Two of the governors in attendance are sons-in-law to the President. They are Usman Dagingari (Kebbi) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi). Unlike before, our correspondent observed that the meeting started early, with almost all those who attended coming early.

But while the governors at their last meeting said the President was getting better based on his contentious interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation's Hausa Service, their countenance at the end of Thursday's meeting was different. After the over five hours meeting, the governors changed their position and canvassed for support for the Vice-President to act in the President's stead. They also said they would visit the leadership of the National Assembly with a view to supporting them to pass a resolution to that effect.

What would have necessitated such change of heart? Was it their love for the country, as canvassed by the chairman of the Forum, who is also the Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki? Findings by our correspondent revealed that the governors were confronted with the reality that the clamour for Yar'Adua to cede power to his deputy was assuming a dangerous dimension.

A source at the meeting, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said that the governors realised that they needed to act fast to save the country from imminent crisis, which he said the governors realised was capable of jeopardising national security. Not only that, it was also learnt that the governors were confronted with several arguments that their job would also be on the line if the agitation against Yar'Adua's continued hold on to power, which was said to have generated a lot of tension, was not doused.

It was learnt that unlike before, when some of the governors were always sceptical to discuss issues concerning the President with caution due to the presence of his in-laws among them, Thursday's meeting was said to have been different.

The governors were said to have argued that since the President left, none of them, including his sons-in-laws, had been able to speak with him to actually know the true position of his health. Not only that, they were said to have made reference to the claim by Saraki, at their last meeting that the President spoke with Jonathan; Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole.

Saraki had claimed that the President assured these people that his health was improving and that he would soon return to the country. The governors, according to the source, said it was not true that the President spoke with these people as Mark was said to have denied speaking with the President.

They were said to have wondered how long it would take to take Nigerians for a ride since none of them could say when the President would actually return. The source said, "Several issues were considered. The governors were confronted with the security implication of unending agitation by the people for the President to hand over power to his deputy since they are from the same political party.

"They realised that since several eminent Nigerians, irrespective of party affiliations and geo-political consideration, have all called on the President to cede power, there was no need to disregard such calls.

"Not only that, it was argued that since none of them have seen the President since he left the country 75 days ago, there is no need waiting for him before doing anything again. The governors also said that Nigeria was becoming a laughing stock in the comity of nations and that there was the need to address it so as not to stem the tide."

Though the governors said they also discussed the recent crisis in Jos, which led to the death of over 230 people, the meeting was actually centered on what Saraki called the state of the nation. At the end of the meeting, the governors according to Saraki, "resolved to meet with the leadership of the National Assembly with a view to urging them to pass a resolution to formally recognise the vice-president as the Acting President in the interest of the nation."

He also said that the Forum called "on all arms of government to continue to give full and total support to the Acting President until the President returns in the interest of our dear and beloved country, Nigeria."

Though the governors were silent on how this would be done as the constitution insists that the President must transmit a letter to the National Assembly before such a resolution could become valid. But the source dismissed that, wondering whether Nigerians were not told that the President signed the Supplementary Budget, even on his sick bed.

"So, if he could do that, what stops him from doing that," the source quipped.

Before the governors made their U-turn, the leadership of the party, led by its National Chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, had paid a solidarity visit to Jonathan in his office.

During the meeting, Ogbulafor had said, "On behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party, I pledge our unalloyed support to you as you continue to steer the ship of our nation. You can count on our support in this regard at all times. Furthermore, the words of the Holy Scripture in Psalm 62:11 are apt for this moment, that 'God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God."

Ogbulafor, while pouring encomium on Jonathan, also said that the party's leadership was satisfied with his (VP) performance and that he had also demonstrated "patriotism and an enviable measure of loyalty and statesmanship" since Yar'Adua left Nigeria on November 23, 2009.

A party source told our correspondent that the leadership knew that the game was up and that it was a matter of time before their numerous manoeuvres would fall like pack of cards as Jonathan would soon become Acting President. "So, in the new power game, none of them want to lose out," the source added.

Historians might be tempted to suggest that Goodluck Jonathan rose to power without lifting a finger. For 78 days, forces loyal to president-in-absentia Umaru Yar’Adua battled for the soul of the nation, bent on maintaining the status quo. Nonetheless, the clamour began to rise with calls for a handover of power to Jonathan.

The resolve in Yar’Adua’s own Cabinet started to crumble, most glaringly with Minister of Information and Communications Dora Akunyili’s incendiary memo, shot down by her colleagues. According to reports, when Mrs. Akunyili looked for support from the clear beneficiary of her memo, Mr. Jonathan merely told her to follow the process. He would not be seen to help Akunyili or any others calling time on Yar’Adua’s doomed presidency. He could not afford to be seen to be openly disloyal or to be unduly ambitious for himself. Yar’Adua and the totally discredited former ‘First Lady’, Turai – had clearly demonstrated their lack of trust in Jonathan anyway. Why reinforce the paranoia of the Yar’Adua camp? None of that for Jonathan. He kept it under his hat. He kept it cool.

Mr. Jonathan played a clever game, some would say. By why play a game at all when the inexorable march of history is on your side? Memorably, 24 governors went to Jonathan like the ‘Three Wise Men’ of yore and offered their goodwill to the man named Goodluck. They called him ‘Acting President’.

And so it would seem, that the man now declared Nigeria’s ‘Acting President’ did nothing to earn his momentous rise to the highest office in the land. He merely rode the tide. It was just his luck. A more serendipitously named President has never assumed office anywhere.

In just ten years (having joined the PDP in 1999), Mr. Jonathan has risen seemingly out of nowhere to prominence. As deputy to then Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha in Bayelsa State, Jonathan finished off the former’s term of office after he fell from grace. He was only a compromise Vice Presidential candidate to the now ailing Yar’Adua after the dropping of Peter Odili. Now, yet again, Jonathan will finish off Yar’Adua’s presidency. How lucky can one man get?

Born November 20, 1957 to a canoe carver in the Ogbia Local Council of then Rivers State, Goodluck Jonathan had his Primary education in Otuoke and Oloibiri, places synonymous with the troubled history of oil-prospecting in the Niger Delta. He is the first Nigerian ruler to emerge from the Niger Delta, the first not to come from one of the major ethnic nationalities in the country. An Ijaw man in Aso Rock.

Jonathan attended the Mater Dei High School in Imiringi. After a two-year stint as a customs officer, he embarked on a Zoology degree at the University of Port Harcourt, graduating with a B.Sc in 1981. He taught at the Department of Biology at the Rivers State College of Education in Port Harcourt, leaving in 1993 to become Assistant Director in the now defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC). He bagged a doctorate degree in Zoology in 1995.

It is noteworthy that all of the qualified zoologist’s academic and working life was played out in the area of his birth, in the festering sore of the Delta, where ordinary people may now view his ascendancy as their own. 52 years largely spent in one geographical area may suggest a man of limited travel and experience, but this should not mean that we have a George Bush on our hands. Then there is his wife, Patience, who was the subject of a $13.5 million seizure by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in September 2006. We will be hoping that the Acting ‘First Lady’ - who now prefers to be called ‘Dame’ - will engineer no further embarrassments.

Mr. Jonathan’s rise heralds a realigning of the traditional power blocks in Nigerian politics. Some of those now trooping to assure him of their ‘loyalty’ might have sworn just months ago that a South-South Nigerian President would not emerge in their time. None of their certainty holds in the face of so much luck contained one man’s name.

In a highly superstitious land, it is just the kind of story that gets the masses believing again. Just how much of a good luck it is for the Nigerian nation, will depend on Mr. Jonathan’s actions from now on.

As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago’s Pink Monkey gentleman’s club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

STRIP CLUB HOLDS JOB FAIR

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they’re seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

“You’re seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things,” said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City’s Sin City gentleman’s club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

The transition to the nightclub scene isn’t always a smooth one – from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.

Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.

“It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you’re the one who’s naked,” Brown, 29, said.

Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires “a thick skin.”

OPINION: DEADBEAT DADS CREATE STRIPPERS OF TOMORROW

Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn’t rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.

“Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone,” said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. “Once you make an adult film, it never goes away.”

The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and “it’s easy, it’s fun and all of us girls … look out for each other,” Brown said.

In this economy, “desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable,” said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who’s had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they’ve found their niche.

Dancers at the upscale Rick’s Caberet clubs in New York City and Miami can make $100,000 to $300,000 a year – in cash – even with the economic downturn, club spokesman Allan Priaulx said.

Priaulx said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.

Rhode Island’s Foxy Lady held a job fair Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers. The Providence Journal reported that more than 150 job seekers showed up to apply for work at the strip club. Foxy Lady co-owner Tom Tsoumas said a recent promotion to cut prices helped the club regain business lost due to the bad economy, forcing it to hire more employees.

Still, analysts say, the industry isn’t immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 percent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman’s clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.

“In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof,” said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. “I definitely don’t see thatmaybe recession-resistant.”

Strip club dancers and managers said they’re drawing in the same number of customers, but fewer high rollers.

“They’re not getting the big spenders,” said Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a trade group for adult nightclubs. “They’re not getting the guys who come in and drop $3,000 to $4,000 a night anymore.”

Still, the clubs’ operating structure leaves them with low overhead and profit margins of up to 50 percent, Wold said.

Dancers are independent contractors, paying clubs a nightly flat fee depending on how long they work. At the Pink Monkey, for example, dancers who arrive at 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday pay a $40 “house fee,” while women who don’t arrive until midnight pay $90. And they keep their tips.

Wold and others say it’s almost impossible to estimate the size of the adult entertainment industry because few companies are publicly traded. He does pay close attention to three that are: Lakewood, Colo.-based VCG Holding and Houston-based Rick’s Caberet, which own clubs, and New Frontier Media, a Boulder, Colo.-based adult film producer and distributor.

All three are profitable.

Rick’s Caberet had $60 million in revenue in its 2008 fiscal year, up from $32 million the year before, Wold said, and he estimates VCG will have $57 million for last year, compared with $40.5 million in FY2007. New Frontier Media generates more than $400 million in consumer buying a year.

Larry Flynt, whose half-billion dollar Hustler empire publishes magazines, produces and distributes films and operates a casino, said he’s continued to do well. But he doesn’t expect those who are solely in the film business to survive.

“A lot of the small studios are out of business now, there’s no doubt about that,” Flynt said.

Adult magazines also are struggling along with the larger publishing industry, and have to cut pages like everyone else.

But the economic realities aren’t keeping jobseekers away.

Vivid Entertainment’s Hirsch said the number of women in his business has doubled in the last couple years, with roughly 800 working as adult actresses. “It is more competitive than I’ve seen it in 25 years,” he said.

That doesn’t mean all the newcomers are planning on lengthy careers in the industry.

Stone, who has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, took up dancing four years ago to help pay her student loans. She plans to go to graduate school this year to pursue a master’s in education.

Brown, meanwhile, has a ready answer for those critical of her career choice.

“I have job security,” she said.

Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth -- nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web.

But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he's seen it with his own eyes:

There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?"

Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.

Bob says there's no readily apparent claim of ownership on the billboard, so he's heading back to the scene to see if he can find out who's behind the message. He's also got some local politicos looking into it. He'll keep us posted.

At first glance, it would seem to be from some person or group who isn't thrilled by President Barack Obama's performance so far -- unless it's a more ironic message from those who didn't think too much of Bush and want to remind voters about him.

Anyone out there know anything about where it came from? Tell us and we'll pass the word to Bob. As he says, we could do a little crowdsourcing.po

Nigeria's Senate on Tuesday passed a motion that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should be acting president in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

The motion, backed by the majority of Senate members, puts further pressure on Mr. Yar'Adua to formally transfer powers but there is no provision for such
a move by the upper house of parliament under the terms of the constitution.

"The Vice President ... shall henceforth discharge the functions of the office of the president, commander in chief of the armed forces of the
federation, as acting president," the motion said.

Mr. Yar'Adua has been in Saudi Arabia for more than two months receiving treatment for a heart condition but has not formally transferred power to Vice
President Jonathan, triggering confusion over who is in charge.

The Senate passed a second motion that Mr. Jonathan would cease to be acting president when Mr. Yar'Adua transmits a letter to parliament saying that he has
returned from "medical vacation".

The Senate said it based its decision on a BBC interview with the president on January 12. In that interview, Mr. Yar'Adua said that he
would return to work once his doctors cleared him.

"The BBC interview granted by the president is as good as the letter envisaged in the constitution
because if you go onto the Internet, you will see a copy of what he said,"
the Senate president David Mark said.

presidente

Nigeria's Senate on Tuesday passed a motion that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should be acting president in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

The motion, backed by the majority of Senate members, puts further pressure on Mr. Yar'Adua to formally transfer powers but there is no provision for sucha move by the upper house of parliament under the terms of the constitution.

"The Vice President ... shall henceforth discharge the functions of the office of the president, commander in chief of the armed forces of thefederation, as acting president," the motion said.

Mr. Yar'Adua has been in Saudi Arabia for more than two months receiving treatment for a heart condition but has not formally transferred power to VicePresident Jonathan, triggering confusion over who is in charge.

The Senate passed a second motion that Mr. Jonathan would cease to be acting president when Mr. Yar'Adua transmits a letter to parliament saying that he hasreturned from "medical vacation".