A successful business man was growing old andKnew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children,He decided to do something different. He called all the youngExecutives in his company together.He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO.I have decided to choose one of you. "The young executives wereShocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each oneOf you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to plantThe seed, water it, and come back here one year from today withWhat you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will thenJudge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will beThe next CEO."One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others,Received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife theStory. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he plantedThe seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it hadGrown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives beganTo talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't haveA plant and he felt like a failure.Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew heHad killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, butHe had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however.He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so wanted theSeed to grow.A year finally went by and all the young executives of the companyBrought their plants to the CEO for inspection.Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot.But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sickTo his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing momentOf his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty potTo the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the varietyOf plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful --In all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor andMany of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his youngExecutives.Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees,And flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you willBe appointed the next CEO!"All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room withHis empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him toThe front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm aFailure! Maybe he will have me fired!"When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happenedTo his seed - Jim told him the story.The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim,And then announced to the young executives, "Behold your nextChief Executive Officer!His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even growHis seed."How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in thisRoom a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it,And bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds;They were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants andFlowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, youSubstituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was theOnly one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot withMy seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the newChief Executive Officer!"* If you plant honesty,you will reap trust* If you plant goodness,you will reap friends* If you plant humility,you will reap greatness* If you plant perseverance,you will reap contentment* If you plant consideration,you will reap perspective* If you plant hard work,you will reap success* If you plant forgiveness,you will reap reconciliation* If you plant faith,you will reap a harvestSo, be careful what you plant now;it will determine what you will reap later."Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives You Back"If you like this mail, give us a little reward. 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1.FINE:this is d word women use 2 end an arguement wen dey r right n u nid 2 shut up2.FIVE MINUTES:if she is gettin dressed,ds mean a half an hour.five minutes s only five minutes if u ve jst been given five more minutes to watch d game b4 helpin around d house.3.NOTHING:this is d calm b4 d storm.ds means something,n u should b on ur toes.arguements dat begin wit nothing usually end in fine.4.GO AHEAD: ds is a dare,not permission.don't do it!5.LOUD SIGH:ds s actually a word bt s a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men.a loud sigh means she thinks u r an idiot n wonders y she s wasting her tym standin here n arguing wit u about nothing.6.THAT'S OKAY:ds s one of d most dangerous statements a woman cn mek 2 a man.dat's okay means she wants 2 think long n hard b4 deciding how n wen u'll pay 4 ur mistake.7.THANKS:a woman s thankin u,do not question or faint.jst say welcome.8.WHATEVER:is a woman's way of sayin [clear off] YOU!9.DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT,I GOT IT:anoda dangerous statement,meaning ds s something dat a woman has told a man to do several tyms bt s now doing it herself.ds wil l8r result in a man askin 'wat's wrong?'.for woman's response refer to #3
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The Central Bank of Nigeria, on Friday, fired the chief executive officers of three of the 14 remaining banks at the conclusion of stress audits of their operations.
Like the first five banks whose chief executives were fired in the first round of audit of 10 banks, the three were immediately replaced, with one of the replacements bringing to three the number of female chief executives of commercial banks.
The sacked
Those affected were Francis Atuche, Charles Ojo, and Ike Oraekwotu, who were relieved of their positions as managing directors/ chief executives of Bank PHB, Springbank and Equatorial Trust Bank.
They are to be replaced by Cyril Chukwumah for Bank PHB Plc; Sola Ayodele for Spring Bank Plc. and G.O. Folayan for Equitorial Trust Bank Plc.
Wema Bank was also found to be in a grave situation, however the CBN noted that the bank came under a new ownership and management in June 2009, which “took over a bank already in a grave situation and should not be held responsible for the present condition of the bank.”
The nine banks that survived the CBN litmus test, according to its corporate affairs head, Mohammed Abdullahi, include Access Bank Plc, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Limited and Zenith Bank Plc. Unity Bank, which is the tenth was, according to the CBN, adjudged to have insufficient capital but not in grave situation because it has a healthy liquidity position.’’
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Posted by 9jabook.com on October 4, 2009 at 8:34pm
Government Ekumokpolo Tompolo Surrenders like the thieving/conniving coward he is.
WHAT HAVE THEY ACHIEVED ? except destroying the lives of "innocent" youths and subjecting Women and Children to un
neccesary Violence. they have become Even more corrupt than the system they are trying to overcome .
They have now become tools and lackeys of the government of Go slow.
ASUU is still on strike, Who do they think Yaradua is some sort of Obama ? The Nigeria Delta Crises will continue
with Business as Usual .
Fake Militant Leaders ! At least Saro Wiwa put himself on the line with his life .What does Tompolo and the Rest of
his thieving crew have to say for themselves .No Wonder his names include Governmet as an appendage .
With Weapons you never stood a chance against the JTF .Now how in the world do you think you now stand a CHANCE !
If you had all done your homework properly you would remember that Violence can never solve the problems of a
country like Nigeria.
I assure you that someone like Mahatma Gandhi's Life and times should become part of your Library of people to
read about as you take on this herculean Task of changing President Go,slows mind .
Akin Osunlaja is a Staff Writer for 9jabook.com
Story In-depth
Former militant leader, Government Ekumokpolo (also known as Tompolo) arrived in Warri from Abuja on Sunday
afternoon to a tumultuous reception mounted by Ijaw cultural groups, security officials and stern looking militants
in headbands.
Mr. Ekumokpolo, who was in Abuja on Saturday for a meeting with the Nigerian President, Umaru Yar’Adua, was the
last major militant leader in the Niger Delta to accept the government’s amnesty offer. He had earlier held out by
asking that the programme be extended to allow him meet with his gang and get them to sign to the plan.
The former militant leader arrived in a presidential jet at the Osubi airstrip, Warri, with Defence Minister,
Godwin Abbe, and Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta, Timi Alaibe, in tow.
“Today is the greatest day for Nigeria,” Tompolo said as he stepped out to meet his people. “I and my people will
accept the amnesty and we will work with Mr. President to achieve the dreams of this country.”
He was driven away in a convoy of Hummer jeeps to a camp at Oporoza in the creeks for a formal surrendering of
weapons.
Mr. Ekumokpolo handed over rocket launchers, machine guns and explosives to Mr. Abbe at a ceremony in Oporoza.
“It is an act of patriotism that Tompolo and his group surrendered their arms,” Abbe said. “The time has come for
us to settle down and find solutions to what led to the crisis in the region. Today marks the beginning of the
development of the Niger Delta.”
Mr. Abbe also told the militants that he appreciated their courage for embracing the amnesty offer which, he said,
is a panacea to restiveness in the area.
“The amnesty committee will work with the repentant militants to know the cause of their problems with a view to
providing a permanent solution,” he said.
He warned that whoever is caught with illegal weapons, two days after the disarmament exercise, will face the wrath
of the law.
Mr. Abbe said that oil is a gift from God and should be a source of affection and joy and not a source of hostility
and war.
Tompolo boys in Ondo
The laying down of arms was not limited to Tompolo followers in the creeks. His followers in Ondo also laid down
arms at Arogbo town, in Ese-Odo Local Council.
The militants, who were led by Tompolo’s aides, Biobapre Ajube and Omoh Tonwerie, led other members of the group to
surrender their arms and ammunition in large numbers. The two men, while speaking during the disarmament ceremony,
said they acted in conformity with the directive of their warlord who met with the president on Saturday.
The militant leaders, who appealed to the president to fulfil his promise to alleviate the suffering of the people
in the area, said they took to arms in the creeks in order to fight for their rights.
The Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, said the heap of arms and ammunition he was looking at afforded him the
opportunity to know the challenges of people in the area. He promised to collaborate with the government to
rehabilitate the militants and bring development to the area.
Bakassi boys included
Other militant grous also gave up arms yesterday in Cross River State. The Bakassi Freedom Fighters (BFF) and
Bakassi Salvation Front (BSF) surrendered their weapons as a follow up to the cache of arms turned in at Bakassi
Local Council early last week.
Sunday’s submission by the “creek boys” to the Presidential Committee on Amnesty include six AK-47 rifles, one FM
rifle, 55 live ammunition and eight magazines.
During the first phase of disarmament, the two groups surrendered six AK-47 rifles, one General Purpose Machine Gun
(GPMG), one Rocket Propelled Machine Gun (RPMG), one FM rifle, G3 rifles, rifle rafts, dynamites, grenades, G.
crane machine guns, one Brandi Machine gun and nine 620 assorted live ammunitions.
At a hotel in Bakassi yesterday, the second batch of weapons was surrendered by the leaders of the two groups,
“General” Franklin Duduku (BFF) and “Brigadier” Dan Don Atikpee (BSF).
Mr. Atikpee said the October 4, 2009, mop-up exercise was the final phase of their disarmament and surrendering of
all weapons at their disposal to government.
“Today, we have surrendered all our weapons as a mark of total acceptance and commitment to the presidential
amnesty,” he said.
He appealed to the government to map out adequate rehabilitation programme for the boys to give them a sense of
belonging in Nigeria.
Culled and Adapted from Next
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Lara George grew up and schooled in Yaba, Lagos. The singer has fond memories of childhood, and recalls “sharing a huge bowl of pounded yam on a Saturday afternoon with my siblings. It was a family tradition and was so much fun.I also remember Sunday morning breakfast on my father’s lap with my tiny fork and knife and my own little tea set. That memory brings goose bumps all the time.”She says of her mother: “She taught me to think of the long-term and never to be frivolous. This is a big part of the reason why I do inspirational music. To me, music must always have meaning and a positive direction in which it will move people’s lives."My aim is to give hope, life and encouragement through my music, and help people see life from a more positive point of view.”George grew up listening to “people like Victor Uwaifo—for some reason, I was really fascinated by his songs; CAC Good Women’s Choir, Abba and Ebenezer Obey—no thanks to my mom!.Later on, I came to love the sounds of Bebe and Cece Winans, Amy Grant and more recently, Yolanda Adams.” She started singing with her sisters at a very young age. “We had a medley we did often and it was about thirty minutes of pure, non-stop music. Every time we sang, it felt like we had angels in the room.”Choosing MusicLara George has always made her sonorous voice heard. In Queens College, she took some lead parts as a member of the school choir; at university, she joined Rocksolid, the musical wing of House on the Rock, a church.That was where she met other members of KUSH:Emem Ema, TY Bello and Dapo. Despite her love for music, she studied Architecture at the University of Lagos; “the closest compromise between the arts which I love, and the professional course which my parents wanted me to do."I had hoped that architecture would give me the much needed creative outlet I craved for, but was sadly disappointed by the six years I spent studying the course as little or no guidance was given to our talents, and I was uncertain by the end of my first year.”She was part of the very first West African Idols. She did not win, but that was not the end of the story.The Days of KUSHKUSH was not only the first musical group from Nigeria to get signed on an international record label, they had a string of hits, including ‘Let’s Live Together,’ which was almost like a national anthem.Lara George remembers their “very first recording at Abbey Road Studios London (same studio where The Beatles recorded), recording at Record Plant Studios Los Angeles (and Brandy was in the studio next door on that day!), limousine rides from hotel room to shopping mall at Minneapolis, the laughter, the tears, all the fun times on stage. Those memories are irreplaceable.”The members of KUSH moved on to other things eventually. “Our individual visions changed,” George says now, but stresses that they remain good friends.From KUSH she learnt “never to be afraid to dream... I got the opportunity to work with people who in my opinion are truly three of Nigeria’s greatest musical talents, not just in terms of the music, but also because they are such great team players.It was a fantastic eye-opener; we got the unique chance to work with some of the best people in the international music industry, so it was an introduction to true professionalism at its finest.”The end of KUSH led to the birth of George’s solo music career, in November, 2007. She was unsure at first, but with two successful albums under her belt, she admits to being “extremely excited; I’m feeling very ready to do even better than I’ve done before.”So excited in fact, that she’s gone back to school. “I started a course last year on music theory with the MUSON centre,” she says. “I’m also currently taking piano lessons.It’s been a very enlightening experience so far. I can’t believe how little I knew about the music I love so much and am definitely looking forward to excelling in every area of the course.”On the Music IndustryThe singer sees the Nigerian music industry as “fast-growing, exciting, unstructured and yet with huge potential for development in the right direction.” She is concerned about challenges faced by artists, including “the perception of women in music as being somewhat unserious.As an inspirational artist, it’s even more challenging because there’s a faulty mindset that people have that says that you should not, as a gospel musician, put a fee to your performance, especially in the church.Nigerians find it easy to invite foreign artistes and pay their fees, but get offended when a Nigerian gospel artist sends in fee requirements. There’s also perception by the larger society that freebie ‘charity’ concerts should be directed always towards the inspirational artiste.Have we forgotten that gospel artistes also pay exorbitant producer fees for music and director fees for videos?” She would like to see an attitude change towards wholesome inspirational music.Tackling piracyAnother challenge is “an utter lack of respect for intellectual property of the musician even in this day and age.” George has responded to this by starting her own music distribution network.SoForte Entertainment Distribution is an automated entertainment distribution company with the aim of reducing piracy to the barest minimum by creating distribution channels throughout Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world.She is the vice-president of Soforte, and says, “We have partnered with TNT logistics (the third largest courier company in the world), as well as Maevva Solutions in order to provide the best possible services.When a product is released on a certain date in Lagos, it is made available in all the major states before that day. Automation of our services allows our licensed artists to obtain real-time online accounts of their sales without hassle.”The FutureGeorge recently won the Best Female Vocalist of The Year award at the Nigeria Music Award (NMA), but she is not resting on her oars. She looks forward to the day her music will take her beyond the shores of this country to win a Grammy.According to her, true success is when an artist’s impact is felt positively. “It always makes me happy when anyone at all comes to me to say how much my music has inspired them,” she says.
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COPENHAGEN – Like sweet, sultry samba music, Rio hit all the right notes. Chicago had Barack Obama. Tokyo had $4 billion in the bank. Madrid had powerful friends. But none of that mattered. Rio de Janeiro had the enchanting story — of about 400 million sports-mad people on a giant untapped and vibrant continent yearning, hoping, that the Olympics finally might come to them. And the International Olympic Committee was hooked.
Olympians, we'll see you on Copacabana beach in 2016. Let Carnival begin.
On a chilly Danish evening of high drama, the IOC on Friday sent the games of the 31st Olympiad to Brazil's bustling, fun-loving but crime-ridden city of beaches and mountains, romance and slums.
The IOC closed its eyes to the risks — the huge projected costs of the Rio Games, the concerns about how athletes will get around and where people will sleep — to focus on the reward of lighting the Olympic cauldron in one of the last corners of the globe yet to be bathed by its light.
"It is Brazil's time," said the country's charismatic president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Chicago was knocked out in the first round — in one of the most shocking defeats ever handed down by the committee of former Olympians, sports administrators, royals and other VIPs.
While blues legend Buddy Guy twanged "Sweet Home Chicago" in a promotional video the city played to the IOC, bad blood between the committee and its U.S. branch — they've had flare-ups over revenue sharing and lucrative broadcasting rights — proved to be a note of discord. IOC members said the slap to Chicago was more directed at the U.S. Olympic Committee than to the Windy City itself.
The win was decisive: Rio beat Madrid by 66 votes to 32.
Chicago got just 18 votes in the first round, with Tokyo squeezing into the second round with 22. Madrid was leading after the first round with 28 votes, while Rio had 26.
In the second round, Tokyo was eliminated with just 20 votes. Madrid got 29, qualifying it for the final round face-off with Rio, which by then already had a strong lead with 46 votes.
The indignity suffered by Chicago — long considered a front-runner — was such that some IOC members squirmed. Obama flew overnight from Washington to sell his adoptive hometown and its plans for Olympic competition on Lake Michigan's windy shores to the IOC. First lady Michelle Obama, with talk show host Oprah Winfrey and sports stars in tow, jetted in first and spent two days buttering up IOC members, an essential part of the secretive and unpredictable selection process.
IOC members seemed wowed, posing for photos with her and taking souvenir shots of the president with their cell phones. But, in the vote, Chicago was shunned.
Obama called Silva to congratulate him, but the nature of the loss still rang as a stinging anti-American rebuke. Close to half of the IOC's 106 members are Europeans.
"To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving," senior Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper said.
French IOC member Guy Drut said "an excess of security" for the Obamas unsettled some of his colleagues. He complained that he'd been barred from crossing the lobby of his hotel for security reasons, and he grumbled that "nothing has been done" to resolve the financial disputes between the IOC and the USOC.
Of Obama's performance, Drut said: "He didn't do too much. Michelle Obama was exceptional."
"This morning the city was closed because of Barack Obama," he added.
In Chicago, there was bewildered silence when IOC president Jacques Rogge announced: "The city of Chicago, having obtained the least number of votes, will not participate in the next round."
On Rio's Copacabana beach, where nearly 50,000 people roared when the winning city was announced, the party headed into the night.
Rio spoke to IOC members' consciences: the city argued that it was simply unfair that South America has never hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly.
"It is a time to address this imbalance," Silva told the IOC before it delivered its verdict. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country."
Madrid's surprising success in reaching the final round came after former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made a morbid appeal for the Spanish capital, reminding IOC members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time."
Samaranch ran the IOC for 21 years before Rogge took over in 2001.
Beating three rich, more developed nations that had all previously held the games represented a giant, morale-boosting coup for Brazil. The emerging nation is bounding up the ranks of the world's biggest economies but still has millions of people living in poverty.
Like a football team before a big final, Rio's bid leaders and Silva held hands in silent prayer before walking out to deliver a flawless and impassioned presentation. A bid official said Silva's last words of encouragement were "let's stay calm, and stick with our plan."
Brazil's central bank governor reeled off impressive statistics about an economy predicted to be the world's fifth-largest by 2016. The state governor pledged that taxes would not be raised for the games and played down safety concerns. Computer-generated bird's-eye images of how venues will spread across the city, with sailing in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain and volleyball on Copacabana, provided the wow factor.
Then Silva delivered the knockout.
"Among the top 10 economies of the world, Brazil is the only country that has not hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games," he said. "For the Olympic movement, it will be an opportunity to feel the warmth of our people, the exuberance of our culture, the sun of our joy and it will also be a chance to send a powerful message to the whole world: The Olympic Games belong to all peoples, to all continents and to all humanity."
Silva, a bearded former union leader, disappeared into a huge group hug with the joyous Rio team after Rogge announced that the city had won. Football great Pele had tears in his eyes. Brazil will now hold the world's two biggest sporting events in the space of just two years: in 2014, it is hosting the World Cup.
"There was absolutely no flaw in the bid," Rogge said.
Now, Africa and Antarctica are the only continents never to have been awarded an Olympics.
"We have sent out a message that we want to go global," IOC member Gerhard Heiberg said.
Obama held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush. He told the IOC that the "full force of the White House" would be applied so "visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people."
An uncomfortable moment came during Chicago's presentation when an IOC member from Pakistan, Syed Shahid Ali, noted that going through U.S. customs can be harrowing for foreigners. Obama responded that he wanted a Chicago games to offer "a reminder that America at its best is open to the world."
But the IOC's last two experiences in the United States were bad: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Former IOC member Kai Holm said the brevity of Obama's appearance — he was in and out in five hours — may have hurt Chicago.
"Too businesslike," Holm said. "It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect."
IOC members said Asian voters may have banded together, at Chicago's expense, in the first round in favor of Tokyo, which offered reassurances of financial security, with $4 billion already banked for the games.
"The whole thing doesn't make sense other than there has been a stupid bloc vote," Gosper said.
The last U.S. city to bid for the Summer Games, New York, did scarcely better. It was ousted in the second round in the 2005 vote that gave the 2012 Games to London.
Now, Chicago can only rue what might have been.
And Rio ... well, what an excuse for a party.
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A few years ago, I was deeply engaged in conversation with a woman while my little girl, Alani was standing beside me and really wanting my attention. This woman was pouring her heart out to me, and I didn’t want to cut her off mid-sentence, but Alani was tugging on my pant leg, desperate for my attention.
I started to get frustrated with my little girl, but instead of acting on that feeling, I decided to make a positive deposit into her heart. I interrupted the woman very respectfully and said, “Just one minute. I need to speak with my daughter, but I really want to hear the rest of your story.” Then I knelt down beside Alani and looked attentively into her big brown eyes and whispered, “I know you want to talk to me right now, but I am already speaking with this woman, and I can’t listen to both of you at the same time. Honey, what you have to say is so important to me, I don’t want to miss one single word of it, so give me two minutes to finish up, and I’ll give you my full attention.”
Alani smiled at me and nodded in agreement. In fact, her whole body language changed because she felt important. She stood a little taller and prouder knowing that I truly wanted to listen to her. That deposit in her life let her know how much she mattered to me. She knew that she would have her mother’s undivided attention in a few minutes, and she was content to wait for me.
It’s easy to get busy in life, and if you’re like me, you can listen and work at the same time. We call it “multi-tasking,” but sometimes multi-tasking isn’t the best use of our time. Sometimes we have to stop, look people in the eyes, and give them the gift of listening. We need to take time to deposit value in their hearts. We need to support one another, and listening is an amazing way of doing just that.
As you go about your day, remember to give people the gift of listening. It seems like such a little thing, but those little deposits will eventually make a big difference. When you make deposits in people, you are making deposits in eternity, and that is what pleases the heart of God.
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry (James 1:19, NLT)
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Posted by 9jabook.com on October 2, 2009 at 4:00am
The U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has described the situation in Nigeria as heartbreaking. Mrs. Clinton gave this description yesterday while speaking at the Corporate Council on Africa's Seventh Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Washington.
Mrs. Clinton, who acknowledged efforts by members of civil society in Nigeria for electoral reforms and an end to corruption, attributed the situation to the mismanagement of revenue.
"There is no doubt that when one looks at Nigeria, it is such a heartbreaking scene we see. The number of people living in Nigeria is going up. The number of people facing food security and health challenges are going up... because the revenues have not been well managed," she said.
Mrs. Clinton said that she had met with leaders in Nigeria and emphasised U.S.' "commitment to partnering with Nigeria in areas such as electoral reform, anti-corruption activities, better stewardship of oil revenues, and efforts to build a more diversified economy, as well as the resolution of the conflict in the Niger Delta."
According to Mrs. Clinton, the Obama Administration has strategies to help spur economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa and create conditions that will improve the lives of the African people.
"We are eager to move beyond stereotypes that paint Africa as a land of poverty, disease, conflict, and not much else.
And we will continue to lay a strong foundation for a new kind of engagement with Africa, one that is built on shared responsibility and shared opportunity, and on partnerships that produce measurable, lasting results," she said.
"From our perspective, for too long, Africa has been20viewed as a charity case instead of a dynamic continent capable of becoming a global economic engine of the 21st century. So it is time to change the narrative."
To this end, the secretary of state said the U.S. will help to create the right conditions for opportunities to be seized by focusing of five key areas: trade; development; energy security; more public-private partnership; and good governance, transparency and accountability, ending corruption, and adherence to the rule of law.
"We will focus on country-led plans and market-based investments in areas like food security, infrastructure, and women. We will focus on metrics and accountability, on nations eager to attack corruption and promote good governance," she said.
Mrs. Clinton however warned that the success of the Obama administration's ‘big agenda' and ‘very positive vision' for Africa is dependent on the continent's leaders.
"We have to acknowledge that none of this can happen without responsible African leadership, without good government and transparency and accountability, without acceptable rule of law, without environmental stewardship and the effective management of resources, without respect for human rights, without an end to corruption as a cancer that eats away at the entrepreneurial spirits and hopes of millions of people," she said.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on October 1, 2009 at 8:55pm
Quicklly bows out before being bowed out ! No Fuss No Theatrics
The Managing Director of Bank PHB, Frank Atuche, has resigned his position as the bank's chief executive.
Mr. Atuche made his decision known in a farewell letter to staff of the bank on Friday.
In the letter, Mr. Atuche did not say why he is leaving the bank at this time but said, "As in all things however, there is a time to say GOOD BYE. As I bow out today from the Bank, I earnestly urge each and everyone of you to keep the PHB passion aflame so that the height, the mount everest which we envisioned shall not only be accomplished, but shall be surpassed and we would have created an institution that would outlive".
He also said, "In the course of my stewardship we took decisions which affected all of us in different ways but they were in the best and overall interest of the Bank".
Mr. Atuche's resignation comes after sources saidT last night that the Central Bank of Nigeria had concluded plans to sack him today.
The central bank's decision, the sources said, was as a result of the inability of Bank PHB to pass its latest audit of banks. Since the audit began some months ago, the chief executives of five banks have been sacked. Four of the former executives are now being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for various offences.
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Brigadier General Alabi Isama was one of the very privilege Nigerians who witnessed Nigeria’s independence in October 1, 1960. He said that at that time, he had already enlisted in the Nigerian Army and was just 20-years-old.A military strategist, he fought as member of the Nigerian Army for the unity of the country during the Nigeria civil war. At the moment Alabi Isama who retired as a Brigadier General is involved in telecommunication businessHe told Daily sun that in Nigeria’s 49 years of Independence the situation in the country has graduated from good to worse and the hope that was left for the country by the colonialists has turned hopelessness. He spoke with Philip Nwosu in Lagos, excerpt;After 49 yearsI am a military strategist and I will only look at it in a military way, for instance by 1960 at independence I was 20 years old, nobody assassinated anybody, but today assassination has become the order of the day and those who carry out this nefarious act are never found. Beginning from Chief Bola Ige, the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Harry Marshall, the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) stalwart, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Aminosari Dikibo, Dele Giwa, Alhaja Suliat in Ibadan, in fact the list is endless.Then The Atlas Cove attack all these things never happened, anybody who was killed the police were able to fish out the killers immediately. But look at the long list of persons assassinated which the police could not account for. This was after independence. That is as far as I can talk on security. Militarily, we are surrounded by French countries and if your military is moving today against any enemy and we are importing over 50 per cent of our food, what happens if the person we are buying from has sympathy for the country we are fighting against, that means that we will not have food and you cannot underestimate the importance of food to any population then when you look at all these things, you begin to ask if we have moved forward or we have remained stagnant at a position. At moment our universities, we have one university in the 1960, we have so many now what is the standard compare to that of 1960. So if we look at that progress you will also discover we are going back.The roads we have in 1960 were very few, we have tiny winy roads like the British roads, but they were passable, today we have many roads but they are not passable. At 49, Nigeria has only two roads, Lagos North and Lagos East, both roads are impassable, you see I can only look at it as a military person, now we are importing fuel and if our military has to move we should not be dependent on fuel imported from other countries, these are the things that has made this nation worse off. We have the oil, we have the man power and the geo-politics of Nigeria is just the best for anyone to take off, but we are still importing oil and this does not tell well of Nigeria at 49.Looking at all these things I believe that something is wrong fundamentally and I am not one of those who believe in restructuring, but what I believe in is that the situation is a political problem. I think the Nigerian leaders rather than be looking for their personal gain they should work towards integration of the country and the only way they can do this is through political awareness and education. For instance, there is nothing wrong in having two political parties so that Nigerians can just belong to the ones that best suit them. But as long as you have three political parties, everything will be reduced to ethnicity and tribalism.On Independence DayThe enthusiasm of every Nigerian living then was high, because we saw that with independence the sky was to be our limit, especially with many educated people in the country then, we are suppose to be the best in Africa. After 49 years could we have moved forward from where the British stopped because then, everything was working for us especially after oil was discovered. There was hope for the future because everybody and every unit of the country were competing for development. There was oil, ground nut and palm oil respectively in the regions of the country and Chief Obafemi Awolowo was talking about good life and freedom for all. There was free education here in the west and every other part of the country was trying to have entrenched in the system. So that was the situation then and everything was good and life was good and there was hope for the future.Way forwardWe need to do away with all these vices that had been holding the country down and get our acts together, we need to address the issue of corruption and work towards a better society. In Nigeria we do not need a benevolent president like General Yakubu Gowon or a tough president like General Sani Abacha, what we need is a leader who understands the situation of the country and can be able to be firm in his resolve to solve the problem of the country.BY PHILIP NWOSU
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Posted by 9jabook.com on October 1, 2009 at 7:30am
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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Posted by 9jabook.com on October 1, 2009 at 12:04am
In the name of God, the Beneficent and Merciful.
Your Excellency, The President of Nigeria. Peace and the mercy and blessings of God be with you.
Dear Umaru Yar’adua
First congratulations on your nation’s 49th Independence Day Celebrations, I am writing you this letter on behalf of the loving people of Saudi Arabia and myself. I need not emphasis to you the place of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, not just on you as a person but the fact that we represent the ground for billions of faithful and peace-seeking Muslims.
The next few lines I pen to you would be painful—the reason being that it is the truth and I dare say, you and I know that the truth hurts. I have been told and warned by my kinsmen that I am not saying anything new but I will still say it. Let me start with your recent visit to my domain. Your countrymen are sickened and cannot fathom the reason why you would abandon the UN General Assembly for the second time just to come for a University commissioning.
As it regards that I will skip for now. Do you know reasons why you were welcomed by a governor…well let us leave that to local gossip? Your absence is sad because it is one of the many reasons that you and your countrymen and women are not taken serious. If you recall early in the year you had complained to them and the world that it was unfortunate that the world did not reckon with you and your nation during the G-8 summit in London. Here was an opportunity to try and remedy the serious image problems you have with other nations by confronting their leaders face to face. This I think you missed…and your citizens I believe feel same. You told me that you minister for foreign affairs would handle the UN but I disagree with you.
The minister I am told flew to the US from Brazil where he had gone for negotiations on how the nation can achieve the 6,000MW power generation by December. It is sad that at 49 years and with a population of approximately 150milliion you are still battling with generating a mere 6,000 MGW. I gathered that no part of Nigeria has a one-hour uninterrupted power supply for a seven-day week. Since your assumption of office you have been on hijra to my domain on three occasions and this excludes the hajj you have come to perform. Can’t recall when we suffered a power outage last.
One of your revered writers a certain Wole Soyinka's said that "the man (Yar'Adua) is on permanent sabbatical". "… A permanent sabbatical from critical national duty,”. This I see as an insult because no one in my domain dares insinuate that of me. Your nation is adrift and all is not well and citizenry do not see any concerted effort at solving these issues. You came to commission a university, and mysteriously some 90 public universities are shut down in your country. Most of your states are battling with primary school teachers’ strike.
At 49 years you do not have a University in the top 1000 Universities listing, none of your public schools can be certified as first class. And I hear that most of your lieutenants are products of these schools that you and past governments have allowed to decay. On your other visits, you have been treated and attended to by some of the best the medical field has to offer in my domain, and each time I wonder to myself…why can you not build such in your country. Do you think if I was sick I would come to Nigeria for healthcare.. .? (subhannallah) Allah forbid that much you know. I am told that nothing works in your land and despite all the opportunities. You have continued to remain a nation of misplaced priorities and dashed hopes.
The Kingdom of Saudi is faced with its own troubles which are peculiar to us and some problems which you are familiar with. However we continue to tackle them. But I gathered that you are massaging your issues rather than deal with them headlong. In my domain we deal with corruption too, but be rest assured that our tolerance level is low. We do not hesitate to cut with sword the erring part, hand, eye, or ‘that part of the body’.
This results in serious human rights questions but we do not murder or assassinate journalists or opposition people either. Many people I have spoken to from your land say they had hope in you, but that after just two years…they called you go-slow, later it was snail, now they have resigned themselves to fate. I have my integrity and that of my people to protect; besides it is not in my place to say, yet I will ask. What is the place of your wife in government …is she a feminist, is she the only wife you have? I have no problem with all these but if she is indeed the de-facto president…then there is a problem? On a scale of preference we have long shifted our attention to the likes of South Africa, Ghana, and Egypt and recently tiny nations like Namibia, Mozambique are not left out. I do not envy the enormous problems you face but I am saddened that you have not solved any. You have not improved on a faulty electoral system that brought you to power. Your banking sector we hear just underwent partial oncology but the real cancer is still there.
Some of your elites now build helipads and move around in helicopters in cities like Port Harcourt, Onitsha to avoid kidnap and your roads remain hellish and all we hear is that the Federal and state governments are perpetually engaged on whether it’s a federal or a state road while people die on these roads. You have at 49 years some of the best brains in various fields but you have not been able to harness their potentials. There are several policy somersaults by various functionaries of your government and these paints you in bad light. You rule of law mantra has been questioned by the lawlessness of those underneath you and then people find out you are in the know. Your citizens are suffering loss of appetite, fatigue and memory slip at what best government practices are.
Infact I am told that citizens rejoice when government officials do what they are supposed to do because the reverse is the case. I am even told that there is a phrase used…’the man stole but he worked too’. Even in hitherto familiar terrain like soccer I hate to say that soon boys from my kingdom will beat your team whether super eagles or gentle doves. I gathered you never plan for anything in your nation anymore and the inevitable happens…you all fail. I have not proffered any solution to you in this Independence letter, so also have I left out many other issues and my reason is that I do not intend to insult you but awaken you. You have the manpower, the resources.
You can if you want to, my fear is, a doubt that you and your people want to. Leaders in the past have refused to take counsel and have never bothered about any legacies, I do not know if you want to be any different or will be different. I do not know if you will read this or an aide will browse through it as usual. Bisalam King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz
NB: As at press time it could not be ascertained if indeed the 85 year old royal father wrote this letter, but the contents are very correct. And our sources say that the Villa is not taking it lightly.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on September 29, 2009 at 11:30pm
Purpose, Passion, Peace. A Rebirth of a Nation.
There was ONE who embodied this while he was "on" earth .Is
your October Ist going to be just another Holiday or a prequel to the
3Ps .Live 80years but 3Peed 5years,5 years of purpose,passion and peace out of 80 ? what a waste !
We MUST transform ourselves from name calling and buck passing to Name Builders and Buck giving.
It is Clear Our Leaders are USELESS nincompoops hellbent on destroying what ever Sanity that is left in our Nation.I have traversed this country for two months and Have not found one "nobility" Person that readily takes or has the pride of life of Naija .I have however met many plebeians,Street people .Unknowns ! Who see Nigeria as the only solution to their problems.
Illiterate and without connections nor money to Andrew and check out of the country .These are the Real Nigerians , Who have no stakes anywhere, no hidden bank of ibori accounts abroad.Who will look at October ist and realise and say "Naija for life" .E go better syndrome is what keeps them for they know nothing else.
October ist to them might turn out to be the day President Go slow has a positive Brain Transplant or better Still RESIGNS ! and then Dancing on the Streets as the day a certain Aviator Sunglasses wearing General Baddest President for Life Sanni Abacha gave up the ghost in office .Remember that day ? There was dancing on the streets of Lagos.
When the wicked perish there are Shouts of Joy !
PURPOSE
3Ps
WE wish for a purpose in our Nation.We have been ridiculed to what they call rebranding ? How can you rebrand a brand that never was ? When the people ,The State ,The Fatherland is being run by charlatans.Our Day of joy as a Nation Birthed 49years ago will come and go amidst the pomp and pageantry and possibly The New Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia might just do another hiatus and not even be present for it.
Rebranding is not our purpose.Our Purpose should be Prosperity ,Good Roads,Running Tap Water,Electricity,Education,Health Care.What is the purpose of a country ? If not its citizens welfare ? Please, Pray tell me.what is the purpose of the Body if
not to provide the pleasures of life to its owners !
Passion
The passion of the Christ movie stems from responsibilty, It was engendered by talent and sustained through sheer determination to accomplish Purpose .The ultimate goal of any passion is to accomplish.Mel Gibson did that movie in aramaic ? He could have done it in English but then that is what passion is all about !
Have we a passion for our Nation ? As citizens , do we share a national pride in being nigerian, Artisans,Academics,Soldiers Of all the professions in this country there is "none" that shows true passion than our Armed Forces .In a nation riddled with corruption and hopelessness of the pushed to the wall and break it type.There Still exists people that would willingly give their lives to protect this country !
Willingly not conscripted.Not forced. They dont get huge bank bonuses nor offficial cars and drivers .Their salaries and living conditions are pitiful.A life of armed Robbery would be more profitable for these unfortunate souls , And yet they still do it ! They are true Soldiers What then is Nobility ? Is it by birth or class standing or is it by Character that pervades selflessness and the Joy of Purpose fuelled by this passion to serve without expecting anything in return ?
Passion for This october ist will give us all a chance to another holiday or another chance to say hmm 49years old country .
Add 1 for center u go get 4-1-9years. Life begins at 40 ... A fool at 40 might still be a fool at 80 . Someone said "we are still a young country, dont compare usto america they are 200 odd years ) .LOL (lights on Lightsaber) Let me make a daring thrust at the heart of this malaise wielding rhetoric.
If Alexander the Great barely before he was 25 in a span of less than 10years was running the show in what was The larger part of this Real EState called Earth and a host of other nations like Ghana, Malaysia who in the earSixtiesed to look up to us as big brother .Then the "Age" of a country should be measured by its leadership accomplishments .The bible always in the old testament and i often wondered at this .
"In the Reign of so and so King........" In the Reign of Obasanjo.... The king " Behold a king shall reign in righteosness and Princes shall rule in justice .Isa 32:6 He fall him own hand as OBJ he had a passion ,passion to become UN Secretary General not president.Yaradua's pasion might be to become a Saudi Prince or citizen or to get healed.He has lost the P he is a president for. He lost his passion We cant lose ours. This passion has to return back to us to the point that Our Ori E must 4kasibe naija must gongo aso and enta the place where
all the African Kings and Queens are bracketing because love is a beautiful thing.Mister naijaman that will be most definitely incredible stuff coming straight out of Naija.
As for The third P , Peace
We shall not spill our blood for the "Aristos" in power WE have done it before .He is here, many of us are not
Peace be unto You and all (Who no like peace even al qaeda want am bad well after dem don erase America off the face of the
earth )
So lets keep 3ping 3Ps to Success Which October ist are you ?
Happy October Ist
Abi John Balogun
Aka Weboga
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Posted by Eddy Etuk on September 29, 2009 at 10:30pm
National Youth Corps members serving in Borno State have been thrown into mourning following the gruesome killing of their colleague, Miss Grace Adie Ushang by unknown persons.Adie was allegedly raped to death last weekend and her body dumped beside a river at the Customs Area, Maiduguri.The late Batch B 2009 corps member reportedly left her room at the Corpers’ Lodge of the El-Kanemi College of Business Administration (ECOBA), Customs area where she was serving around 6.30 p.m in search of food. Sadly, the sudden windstorm, which made many people in Maiduguri scurry home last Saturday evening allegedly provided a cover for Grace’s assailants as she was allegedly assaulted and murdered in cold blood.The principal of El-Kanemi College, the deceased, employer, Mr Alfred Adikwe confirmed the alleged rape and death of the corper in an interview with Daily Sun. He added that the doctor’s first post mortem report revealed that she was assaulted and raped to death.“The doctor who examined her body confirmed she was assaulted and raped by unknown persons. In fact, there was a cut on her fore head and blood was discovered on her nose and mouth as at the time she was picked up at the place where her body was discovered,” he disclosed.Explaining further, he said “Grace told her colleagues at the college quarters that she was going out to buy food around 6.30 p.m on Saturday but did not return on time and that made her colleagues to get worried. Few hours later, they were informed that a lady’s body was lying near a river at the customs area. It was discovered that the trouser she wore when she went out was no longer with her. She was almost naked.”The doctor also said that the deceased’s body was discovered by some people few hours after she left the lodge in search of food. Her colleagues who spoke to Newsmen on condition of anonymity claimed she must have struggled to free herself from her assailants.Grace, 25 a graduate of Education Administration from the University of Calabar was posted to Borno in July in the wake of the Boko Haram crisis. She was later posted to the Business Administration College on August 4.When contacted, the Borno State NYSC coordinator, Mr Moshood Adebayo declined comment on the matter, adding that only the national directorate of the scheme has the authority to comment on such. Daily Sun gathered that the NYSC Director General, Brig Gen Tsiga was expected to visit the state in respect of the matter.The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Isah Azare, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, could not confirm the report in a telephone conversation as his line suddenly went off while subsequent efforts to get him proved abortive.
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Mr. President of the General Assembly,Mr. Secretary-General of the United Nations,Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations,
Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Prime Ministers, Deputy Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers, My Royal Highnesses, Heads of Governments, Heads of Observer Missions to the United Nations, Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, First Ladies, Excellencies, My Lords Spiritual and Temporary, United Nations Employees, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
All Protocols Preserved.
It is with great respect that I have asked my Foreign Minister, Mr. Ojo Maduekwe, to come before you at this 64th General Assembly and read this important speech.I could not come to New York because of extremely important and urgent matters of state that required my personal attention.
First, I had to travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in response to the invitation of the King requesting my august presence at the opening of a new university. I could not in good conscience turn that down because as you all know, university education is very important. I had the benefit of a university education myself, and without doubt, it has been responsible for much of my personal success. I wanted to lend the same support to the children of Saudi Arabia.I know that many people have said there is a contradiction in this, as Nigerian universities are currently closed. I say there is no contradiction. If 50 universities are closed in Nigeria, does it mean that university education everywhere must stop? Certainly not, and that is why I went to Saudi Arabia, with apologies to nobody.
The truth is that the people of Nigeria must learn to be patient. Impatience is our biggest problem. I came into office only two years ago, but already, people are complaining that I am not doing enough. The trip to Saudi Arabia was not for me, but for the people of Nigeria, yet they complain. I have told them I will declare a state of emergency in the power sector so as to conquer the electricity problem once and for all. Still, they complain.I gave them a new Inspector-General of Police so that they will feel safer. Still, they complain.I gave them a new Central Bank Governor so that the Naira will have more value. Still, they complain. I gave them a new C-G of Customs, but they call him a certificate forger, saying he never went to school. Can you imagine that insult, my own friend a certificate-forger? This is proof that the people of Nigeria just like to complain and accuse others. Even me, they say I am a sick man. Ask Ojo, who is reading this speech to you, Am I sick? Ask Turai, the First Lady of Africa, Is her husband not performing at the peak of his powers? This is why I want to caution you, the international community, about applying the same standards to every nation. My nation is different. They are never satisfied. So when you say we must implement the Millennium Devaluation…I mean emm…Development Goals (MDGs), it is a critical mistake to include Nigeria in the list. This is because our people always complain and will still complain.
We are developing already.The problem is that the United Nations has led Nigerians to think that we must be in a hurry. How can we lower poverty in Nigeria in just five or 10 years? I mean, poverty has existed in Nigeria since time began. And you people think we can just tell poverty to leave, just like that?It is not possible. We must take these things one at a time. My People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is working hard to deal with poverty the only way that is meaningful: by creating millionaires among party members. If you look at the PDP, you will see that poverty among its members is going down. We give them access to budget allocations at the federal and state levels; we give them fat contracts; we protect any members that may be er…er…misunderstood by the law abroad or by overzealous government agencies at home. What this means is that if Nigerians want to conquer poverty, the easiest formula has nothing to do with the Millennium Depreciation…I mean, emm…Development Goals, but to join the PDP.In any event, I must be frank with all of you.
The Minimum Development Goals are not realistic at all. While I respect all of you, I do not know which of you came up with such outlandish ideas such as ending poverty and hunger. Yes, it is possible to end poverty within the PDP by spreading the national cake, because we are the party in power. But that is not the same thing as ending hunger. We do not see hunger as a problem, but as the will of God. I have never been hungry all my life, because God loves me. My children are never hungry because God loves them. Any of you that saw me in Saudi Arabia last week must have seen me with two rich men, state governors in my country. They are also my sons-in-law. I have guaranteed that my daughters and my grandchildren will never be hungry by giving them to such men in marriage. But there is something else about hunger. It is a natural order, and I do not think I should interfere with the natural order. Some people will be rich and prosperous; others will be poor and pathetic.
That gives them something to aspire to; if you wipe out hunger as the UN says, all those poor people will become just like us. I don’t think that is what God wants, for everyone to be happy and well-fed. What will be the difference between them and us? That is why this so-called battle against hunger has no priority with me, and I have told Nigerians it will not happen in my time. We cannot implement the MDGs as it relates to hunger.Mr. President, The same concern applies to such concepts as universal education, gender equality, and combating HIV & AIDS. Why should education be universal? It makes no sense. That means that there will be more Nigerians trying to assert their rights or to challenge the PDP. To me, that is a prescription for chaos, and I don’t want to have to send out soldiers or “Kill & Go” to wipe out educated militants. Education should be for those who need it, such as rich families and royalty, to enable them protect their property and tradition. Can you see all the trouble that lawyers and journalists cause? And why do we need scientists and engineers when we can always get some from Germany, the UK or Saudi Arabia?And one of the things that make me the angriest is when I am told that the United Nations wants gender equality. Equality? So men and women will enjoy the same rights? That is scandalous. Women are inferior people, and their job is to look after their husbands and children.
That is why I do not mind giving my daughters to men that already have many wives. Apart from the First Lady of Africa, my dear Turai, women are dispensable, and are worth far less than all the trouble they manufacture. Just ask Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.And why should HIV & AIDS be my problem? I did not cause it, and I should not have to be concerned with it. I believe that health is a private matter, and anyone who contracts HIV should deal with it himself or herself. There are hospitals in Germany and Jeddah that can cure emm…emm…anything. If you are in the PDP you will get enough contracts to go there and get the best treatment on earth, but I should not be asked to face the problem as national leader. I am being frank, Mr. President, a quality that is missing here at the United Nations.
You people even went and put child health and maternal health on the Minimum Development Goals. Child health and maternal health are not problems in Nigeria. Ask Ojo: All our children and pregnant women are healthy.In any case, even if they have problems, it is the responsibility of the parents of a child or the husband of a woman to take care of them. That is why we have good hospitals in Nigeria: to take care of health problems. Why did the United Nations find it necessary to dabble in issues like this, instead of its real job?The real job of the United Nations is peace on earth…I mean, international peace and security. That is why Nigeria wants to be a permanent member of the Security Council, armed with the power of veto. As the giant of Africa, Nigeria is capable of bringing peace and security to every corner of the world.That is why I have asked Ojo to do whatever is necessary to ensure Nigeria becomes a permanent member. We have the money. We have the oil. We have peacekeepers, 27 of whom are now in jail for not being disciplined. I have been told we may even have a lot of diamonds. We have the police…I mean, political will. We have the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who was with Ojo here last year. He is a fine lawyer. And I am ready to lead. I am healthy. Despite the rumours, I am not a weakling. You will see what I will do in the Security Council. It is equally important to remind you all that this is a wonderful time for us in Nigeria. Nigeria turns 50 this week, an excellent country that has been misunderstood for so long. One of the reasons we have been misunderstood for so long is that we permitted other people to call us names. That will not happen any more. Our Rebrand Nigeria scheme is now in motion, and our Minister for Information, a very persuasive woman, will soon be coming to as many as 150 countries to tell you what a wonderful country Nigeria is.
Did you see how we crushed Sony Corporation recently? They dared air an offensive advert, and we made them apologize. Did you see what we did with the movie “District 9”? It made us look bad, so we banished it from our borders. Actually, it was Ojo himself who announced our foreign policy thrust two years ago: you mess with Nigeria, and Nigeria will mess with you. If you say Nigeria has no water, we will buy water and pour on you. If you say Nigerians are not educated, we will show you a Nigerian that has won a Nobel Prize, or one that is a Special Representative of the Secretary General, my predecessor, the illustrious Obasanjo (not Obesanjo as they called him in “District 9.”) If you dare say a former governor of a state is guilty of corruption, we will show you that cannot be true; those former governors are my personal friend. How can a friend of the President be guilty of anything?As Nigeria celebrates its 50th year of independence this week, we remind you we are the happiest nation on earth.
I am going to make a big speech telling Nigerians to learn to be grateful and not to be impatient. Rome was not built during the day. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,I am not sorry that I am not personally present at the GA this year. Yes, I know you had High Level Summits Nigeria could not participate in, such as the Food Security Summit, the Climate Change Summit, and the formation of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance. What I do not understand is why people are so disappointed I was not there. Nigeria does not lack food at all (so why do we need a food summit?); our climate has not changed since independence, and we have M & B for treating malaria. In any case, last year I missed the High Level Meeting on Africa’s Development Needs and the High Level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals.
What is the big deal? These are all just Summits about development, and we should not take them too seriously. We cannot be talking about development and progress all the time. Is there nothing else? That is why, in the PDP, we avoid these subjects. For instance, Ojo that is delivering this address came to the General Assembly from Brazil. And while you have all been talking about development and change, life and liberty, he left New York for Venezuela. In between, he has planned private trips to Boston and other places. Yet he is here to deliver this address. That is the lesson we in the PDP can teach the world: government is for those that govern!Finally, I would like to invite you all to Abuja for our 50th independence on Thursday and throughout the weekend. Come to Aso Rock and see why they say Nigerians are the happiest people on earth.
You will also see that we are a very forgiving people, because some of our nation’s so-called corrupt former governors will be there. I have forgiven them. I suggest you plan for a couple of days of incredible merriment in Abuja. And then you can return to the General Assembly and let the talking continue. I assure you, the people of Nigeria will not complain. And neither will I. I will make you one promise. It is still a long way away, but next year, I will come to the General Assembly. I understand the Secretary General wants to discuss the MDGs. I will come and tell you all why the MDGs are a waste of time. In its place, I will present you all with an incredible plan, a seven-point killer plan.I thank you.
** Its a satire
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Posted by 9jabook.com on September 28, 2009 at 11:30pm
Nigerians spend about N796.4 billion on fuel to generate electric power every year, the National Electricity Regula-tory Commission (NERC) has said.
This figure is strikingly similar to the federal budget of N796.7 billion for capital expenditure for the current fiscal year. A breakdown shows that N540.9 billion is spent on diesel and N255.5 billion goes into the purchase of petrol annually for power generating sets.
These facts were contained in a document authored by Assistant General Manager, Project Monitoring Office, Ify Ikeonu. Although all the details were not available at press time, THISDAY investigations show that of the amount, industries operating under the aegis of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) spend over N350 billion to fuel their generating sets.
Early in the year, the Federal Government came under heavy criticism for budgeting N2 billion to buy, maintain and fuel generators this year. According to the details of the budget passed by the Senate in December 2008, the Presidency will spend N27 million to fuel its generators and N14.3 million to maintain them.
Other details were: the National Assembly, fuel, N233 million; National Assembly Office -fuel- N63 million; maintenance, N57.2 million; the National Assembly White House, which houses Chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives - N58 million for fuelling and N55 million for maintenance; the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), fuel and maintenance - N25.8 million; and Police formations nationwide - fuel and maintenance, N110 million. THISDAY did not gain access to the number of generating sets currently in use in the country as contained in the survey report.
There was also some controversy over the actual estimate of what Nigerians spend to fuel their generators because of a recent report that the entire amount was N50 billion. It has since emerged that the recently reported figure was for Aba, Abia State, alone.
THISDAY gathered that the amount concerning the monetary value of fuel used in Aba was contained in the report of a survey commissioned in 2007 by Geometric Power, Aba. The survey was conducted by National Rural Electricity Cooperative Association (NRECA) in Washington, U.S.A. Making the clarification about the amount spent by consumers in Aba in the course of THISDAY investigation, Senior Manager, Public Affairs, Geometric Power Limited, Oseloka Zikora, said:
“According to statistics, Nigerians spend about N540.9 billion on diesel and N255.5 billion on fuel (petrol) to generate power and not N50 billion as ascribed to Prof Nnaji in newspaper reports.”
According to him, “the (about) N50 billion quoted is only the share of Aba industries, commercial and residential consumers’ expenditure on fuel and diesel to generate power.”
His reference was to a newspaper report which he said quoted the Chairman of Geometric Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, as saying Nigerians spend about N50 billion for fuel to power their electric generating sets every year. He said the former Minister had to clarify that aspect because it was understood in some quarters to mean that the figure represented what was spent around the country.
Nnaji had explained at a meeting with the Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr. Christopher Anyanwu, that the expenditure pattern in fuelling generators was that residents/small commercial entities spend N14.4 billion on generator fuel while the large industries part with N43.2 billion for the same purpose. However, in the publication, the fact that the figures were limited to the expenditure in Aba was not expressly stated.
Unreliable power supply in the country has seen most households resort to the use of power generating sets as their primary means of electricity, while the state utility company, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, (PHCN), which is essentially a monopoly, hardly meets up to 20 per cent of the nation’s demand. It generates between 2,000mw and 2,500mw.This has led to a situation where power supply from PHCN is viewed as a standby source, to be used when available, while generators are seen as the principal mode of catering for power needs. To make PHCN more efficient, it was unbundled into 18 successor companies comprising 11 power generating companies, GenCos, six power distribution companies, DisCos, and one transmission company, Transmission Company of Nigeria.
The country is moving towards a situation where other means of generating power that will involve less expensive fuel, such as solar, are being explored.
Although the initial financial outlay in setting up a solar-powered plant is astronomical, it can last for 25 years without fuel other than solar energy which is captured by the solar panel.
The government also recently signed a contract with a French outfit to establish a wind-fuelled plant in Katsina as a mark of its seriousness to diversify public power supply sources from the traditional hydro and thermal to wind, solar and coal, among others.
To improve power supply however, it has been realised that the private sector must play a critical role, which has led to NERC licensing about 29 independent power producers, IPPs, which are in various stages of completion.
A gas master plan has however been put in place to make gas more readily available to fuel the over 70 per cent of power plants that depend on thermal source of energy.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on September 28, 2009 at 10:30pm
How Ribadu plotted to sack Yar’Adua, says Ibori
LAGOS — THE verbal exchange between former Governor of Delta state, Chief James Ibori and former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, is far from over, as Ibori yesterday, lashed out on Ribadu, calling him a serial liar.
Ribadu, on his part, challenged Ibori to return his alleged loot to the state coffers and make peace with God.
Chief Ibori, in a press release yesterday, said: “Ribadu engaged self-glorification in his press statement published on September 27, 2009, taking an ignoble flight of fancy instead of addressing the issues I raised in my media chat of the preceding Friday, which, by the way, did not focus solely on Ribadu. The indecorum and name-calling in his language was not surprising too, they have combined to become the Ribadu signature tune.
I never bribed Ribadu
“Yes, I maintain that I never, repeat never, bribed or attempted to bribe Ribadu, who, always loose with the facts, tried to hoodwink the public by alleging that I was speaking after two years of being investigated. Yet, the bribery allegation I reacted to publicly, was the one he made in a witness statement in London as recently as August 26th, 2009.
I had to reply to that one publicly because, as Ribadu himself knows, that allegation will not be tested by any trial, as no charge whatsoever, whether related to that bribery allegation or not, has ever been leveled against me in any court of law in the entire United Kingdom. His allegation of two years ago, which I have not publicly reacted to, is being tested in court.
“I expected Ribadu to disprove the contradictions I pointed out in his Nigerian and London statements as well as those of his Director of Operations and second-in-command at the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, and Mr. James Garba, a Central Bank of Nigeria staff seconded to EFCC. Instead, he employed his usual rabble-rousing antics of name calling, which was the trademark of his reign as EFCC chairman.
“On my position on resource control and the driving principle behind my determination to redress the injustice done to the people of the Niger Delta, Ribadu asked “if it is in keeping with his promise that he became a billionaire overnight on behalf of the suffering masses of Delta State.” Ribadu should know that before I became Governor, my collective wealth was substantial.
Even the London Metropolitan Police admitted in their own witness statement filed in court that one of my private companies earned in excess of $5 million annually. I have been the most investigated Governor in Nigeria and the EFCC and London Metropolitan Police are in possession of my Account statements from the Bank of Austria, Merrill Lynch, Citibank (I was a CitiGold memberùa club of high net worth customers) and Barclays Bank before I became a Governor.
Both the EFCC under Ribadu and the London Metropolitan Police have dubiously refused to exhibit these Account statements to maintain their lie.
How Ribadu plotted to unseat Yar’Adua
“Second, Nuhu Ribadu must be a serial liar, to attempt to deny that he approached me to help unseat the present President. This is one of his numerous on-going attempts to recruit both local and international friends to undermine President Yar’Adua’s administration.
Chief James Ibori
The persons he approached, including me, are still alive and they have given testimonies to security agencies. Ribadu even contacted a high-ranking member of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with complaints that a “sick Yar’Adua” should not be allowed to remain in office, and also wanted a serving judge and member of the electoral panel to convince the team of INEC officials to concur with his evil plot that the ballot papers were not serially numbered — to damage Yar’Adua’s defence. And he did this with some of his foreign friends who, to date, still wish President Yar’Adua dead.
“Thirdly, Ribadu said: “I am also open to his friendship but that will never be at the expense of my loyalty to my fatherland and commitment to transparency and honesty in public office.” Ribadu should shut up and stop boasting about having been Nigeria’s anti-corruption Czar.
He compromised himself, politicising his office, and teamed up with politicians to influence National Assembly members in the failed third-term tenure elongation gambit. He was a politician, not anti-corruption fighter.
“Ribadu should wait for the persecution by him and his London Metropolitan Police friends of my associates to break open in a full trial. Then I will enclose copious documentary evidence to substantiate every claim I have made. The opportunistic and brazen-faced Ribadu is nothing but a fraudulent “anti- corruption Czar” who operated with instruments of blackmail.
“He should tell the world who paid for his hotel accommodation at 47 Park Street, Mayfair, London where he stayed on his way from San Francisco, USA. Additionally, Ribadu went about soliciting for support from those he claimed to be investigating, towards a non-existent EFCC Football Club
He lobbied me to become IGP
“Worst of all, Ribadu denies that he lobbied me to be Inspector-General of Police, (IGP). I never expected him to admit that fact. But if he did not approach me to be IGP, at what point did he inform me of his intention to seek appointment into a narcotics control arm of the United Nations?
That day, he appealed to me to keep it away from the public, but surprisingly, former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, told me, a few days after, that Mr. Ribadu was indeed seeking for the office and he heard this from the former World Bank boss, Paul Wolfensohn. Of course, Ribadu also pursued Kalu everywhere in the name of investigation, while, all the time hiding evidence that Kalu had millions of dollars in foreign accounts before he became Abia State Governor.
Furthermore, that Ribadu claims to have deposited $15 million at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is not, and cannot, be proof that I gave that or any sum of money to him. Also, what greater character could there be than he, an architect of a third-term tenure for a President whose constitutional entitlement is for two terms only, and who tried to induce, harass, embarrass and humiliate National Assembly members to support the project.
“Now, Ribadu is using colonial police in London to settle petty political scores in Nigeria, and he, a lawyer, denigrates and disrespects our judicial system by constant allegation of judicial incompetence. My advice to Ribadu is that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has been elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by the Grace of Almighty God.
Ribadu should respect the mandate Nigerians gave to Yar’Adua and stop hopping from one international capital of the world to another like a junketing gadabout, maligning the elected President of his country.
“Ribadu also ranted he would use the London Metropolitan Police to send a certain Nigerian businessman to prison for alleged money laundering because he wrote and published a damaging piece about former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He actually tried to but only succeeded in wasting British taxpayer’s money as the businessman was discharged and acquitted on the orchestrated money laundering charges. My question is, was that businessman a public officer in Nigeria? Was it not his masters’ bidding to go after that man? May I also ask if Otunba Mike Adenuga, the eminently popular business mogul and chairman of Globacom, whom he targeted and hounded into exile, is also a public officer?
“The same Ribadu, master-minded the ex-convict plot against me. One night after a meeting of the co-conspirators to frame and denigrate me at all costs, Ribadu called the businessman to “shoot his mouth” as usual.
That same night, the benefactor phoned former Vice President Atiku Abubakar alerting him of Ribadu’s plot against me.
“Sooner Nigerians would know how Ribadu purchased by proxy the shares that he owns in his friends’ companies. Ribadu would then have to tell the world whether he bought those shares with proceeds from his salary. No wonder he has failed to declare his assets — which is tantamount to a crime.
Ribadu still my friend
Who are they kidding !
Finally, Ribadu, on our friendship, said: “Since I couldn’t see you when I visited Lagos recently why don’t you visit me in London to catch up with your other friends”? I will accept his invitation to visit London as soon as he can prove to me that the matter in London is not driven by malice and vindictiveness.
Let me remind Ribadu my friend, that by now I am too smart to be caught in a political game which himself and his collaborators in the London Metropolitan Police are playing. If he indeed believes that the trial of the women they have held hostage in London is not political, he should allow the process of the court to prove that, instead of pronouncing people guilty even before they appear in court as he usually did as EFCC chairman in Nigeria.
He is not a staff of the London Metropolitan Police. He is not a member of the Crown Prosecution Service. Neither is he a member of the jury nor the Judge in the matter.
“If you, Nuhu Ribadu, a Nigerian in London, think you have the right to invite me to London to face some trumped up charges, I, a Nigerian with all the rights as a Nigerian, invite you to Nigeria your home country, where you are a pitiable fugitive from justice”.
Ibori should return loot to Delta – Ribadu
Ribadu, however challenged Chief Ibori, to return his alleged loot to the state and make peace with God. Ribadu said Ibori was desperate and would do anything to escape justice.
According to him, “instead of wasting the money of Delta State people that he stole to pay lawyers all over the world, isn’t it better as a ‘Christian’ that he claims to be to return his loot to the people of Delta State and have peace with his God? If he fails to do so, at the appropriate time, no matter how much the Iboris of this world run from the law, they would one day be made to atone for their sundry crimes.
If they are able to bribe their way through in Nigeria and get men and women of questionable character appointed into office to shield themselves from prosecution, they cannot do the same in the United Kingdom and before God. But even in Nigeria, the protection that they enjoy today is temporary.
Ibori desperate to escape justice
“Ibori, just like the others we tried to bring to justice, is desperate and would do anything to escape justice as he has always done. Nothing emphasizes Ibori’s capacity for falsehood and felony than his claim, at the press conference, that I “framed” him for attempting to bribe me with $15 million dollars.
As he told the lie, and as I write this, the $15 million remain as an exhibit deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“It has now become fashionable for all sorts of morally-bankrupt people to try to use me to do one thing or the other. I had it on record, while in office as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that James Ibori was a double convict.
First, as a police officer and also as an anti-corruption campaigner who was committed to doing his part to rid Nigeria of rogues, how could I have been seeking the assistance of a convicted felon for the highest police position in the country? If I wanted to be IG, he would be the last person I will consider to help me.
IGP? Ibori lied
“Any close observer of the events in Nigeria in the last decade would agree that what we were able to achieve as founders and operators of the EFCC was of a more fundamental nature, in the context of our urgent national crisis, than becoming IGP.
It was a waste of time attempting to dignify Mr. Ibori, former governor of Delta State, with a response to the tissue of lies and cheap fabrications that he let loose,” but added that it was “important to set the records straight, particularly against one of those who perpetrated the worst heist against the treasury since Nigeria’s independence.
That Ibori is finally finding his voice after two years since his prosecution both at home and abroad started is a testimony to his desperation as the cases, particularly the ones in the United Kingdom, move toward legal resolution.
“As regards the allegation that Ibori made on the 2007 presidential election petition, let me state clearly that it is totally untrue. However, I am also aware that there is a whole industry of seeking favour from President Umaru Yar’Adua based on the legal tussle over the 2007 presidential election.
Already, many fortune and favour-seekers have imagined many plots and many plotters in their attempt to deceive the man in power that I tried to scuttle the Appeal Court case on the election. Many got offices, positions, and others and even got me out of the EFCC telling this lie to Aso Rock Villa.
“They continue to use it. If Ibori claims that I sought his support to truncate Yar’Adua’s contested victory at the Appeal Court, is he claiming to have the power to influence the judges and pervert the course of justice?” He asked.
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I wonder why an African and Naija Secret Cult would take on the guise of a group(Ku Klux Klan) that was created specifically to persecute and denigrate the Black Man.It baffles my understanding !
It had always been taken as allegation that the Akwa Ibom government may have been a main sponsor of the militant group called KKK or Viking.
Going by the report in the News Star newspaper of September 23, 2009, page 6 titled “Militants: Police investigate Akwa Ibom govt”, this cult group had been investigated six times by security agencies, with the outcome pointing to the involvement of top state official as their backer.
It also revealed that four serving commissioners in Akpabio’s cabinet were drilled by the police team that arrived Uyo on Wednesday 23rd September; one ex-commissioner who was a close ally to Akpabio (Dr. Christopher Ekong) having been quizzed in Abuja on Saturday September 19th. Few weeks back, the report alleges that N5million was given to boost the activities of the KKK group.
One frightening dimension is the mention of one Prince who is a personal assistant to the top government official who allegedly serves as link between KKK and the government and touted as arms procurer for the group. A Police wanted criminal, Joseph Udofia, who once confessed a kidnapper is said to a member of the KKK. He was once arrested and paraded as a breakthrough in crime fighting by the governor but reported later to have escaped from police custody.
The report confirmed that IGP Onovo did report the activities of this group to President Yar’Adua who expressed dismay that such a thing was happening at a time when the Federal Government is trying to stop militancy in the Niger Delta region through amnesty programme. It could then be that some State governments are paying lip service to this programme.
It should be recalled that various reports, in the past, mooted the existence of government-sponsored AKPF, ADV etc, and that in Akwa Ibom AKPF rather than PDP is in power.
American Klan Origins
Ku Klux Klan (KKK), informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in the Southern states and eventually grew to national scope. They developed iconic white costumes consisting of robes, masks, and conical hats. The KKK has a record of using terrorism,[2] violence, and lynching to murder and oppress African Americans, Jews and other minorities and to intimidate and oppose Roman Catholics and labor unions.
The first Klan was founded in 1865 by Tennessee veterans of the Confederate Army. Groups spread throughout the South. Its purpose was to restore white supremacy in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The Klan resisted Reconstruction by assaulting, murdering and intimidating freedmen and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871 the federal government passed the Force Acts, which were used to prosecute Klan crimes. Prosecution and enforcement suppressed Klan activity. In 1874 and later, however, newly organized and openly active paramilitary organizations such as the White League and the Red Shirts started a fresh round of violence aimed at suppressing Republican voting and running Republicans out of office. These contributed to white Democrats regaining political power in the southern states.
In 1915, the second Klan was founded. It grew rapidly in a period of postwar social tensions, where industrialization in the North attracted numerous waves of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and the Great Migration of Southern blacks and whites. In reaction, the second KKK preached racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, nativism, and anti-Semitism. Some local groups took part in lynchings, attacks on private houses, and carried out other violent activities. The Klan committed the most numerous murders and acts of violence in the South, which had a tradition of lawlessness.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan
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WHAT A LEGAL AND POLICE SYSTEM CAN THIS HAPPEN TO JAMES OHANEFE IBORI ?Film director Roman Polanski, whose turbulent life has come close to resembling the violent, perverse world of his movies, was arrested in Switzerland on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old.Polanski, 76, had been due to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday evening, opening a retrospective of his film career but was arrested on arrival at Zurich airport on Saturday night.Calling Polanski, who won Best Director Oscar for "The Pianist" in 2003, one of the greatest film directors of our time, the festival directors said they had "received this news with great consternation and shock."Polanski's Los Angeles agent and the U.S. embassy in Zurich were not immediately available for comment.Zurich Cantonal Police spokesman Stefan Oberlin said Polanski's arrest had been carried out on instructions from the Federal Justice Department in Berne.Polanski was arrested in the United States in the late 1970s and charged with giving drugs and alcohol to a 13-year-old girl and having unlawful sex with her at a photographic shoot at Jack Nicholson's Hollywood home.Maintaining the girl was sexually experienced and had consented, Polanski spent 42 days in prison undergoing psychiatric tests but fled the country before being sentenced.Considered by U.S. authorities as a fugitive from justice, Polanski, whose films include "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown," has lived in France avoiding countries that have extradition treaties with the United States.Turbulent lifeFew lives have turned into the macabre public spectacle that Polanski's has, first after the gruesome murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate in 1969 by the Charles Manson murder gang, and again eight years later when he was arrested for the statutory rape of the 13-year-old girl.But few directors have laid bare their inner fantasies and fears like Polanski in films such as "Repulsion," "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Tenant" -- films of disturbing brutality shot through with voyeurism and dark humour.From early childhood when he escaped the Nazi holocaust in Poland, Polanski's life has appeared, like his movies, to hover precariously on the brink of tragedy.Born Raymond Polanski to Polish-Jewish parents on August 18, 1933, he spent the first three years of his life in Paris before the family returned to Poland.When the Germans sealed off the Jewish ghetto in Krakow in 1940, his father shouted to Roman to run and he escaped. His mother later died in an Auschwitz gas chamber.His first full-length feature film after graduation, "Knife in the Water," won awards and, most important for Polanski, was his ticket to the West.As his reputation grew -- first with "Repulsion," his study of a woman terrified by sex who becomes a psychotic murderer, and then with the absurdist masterpiece "Cul de Sac" -- Polanski developed a taste for the high life and beautiful women.In 1974 Polanski had another major Hollywood success with "Chinatown," a stylish thriller starring Nicholson, but his private life stayed unsettled as he drifted between Paris, Rome and Los Angeles and embarked on numerous short-lived affairs.In 2003, he won the Oscar for "The Pianist.""I am widely regarded, I know, as an evil, profligate dwarf," Polanski wrote in his autobiography. "My friends -- and the women in my life -- know better."
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