Osun PDP manufactures lies from the pit of hell, says Aregbesola aide

Re- Recounting Exercise at INEC: Osun PDP unending Falsehood.

My attention is drawn to another wicked lie being circulated by the PDP cyber rodents which unfortunately is gaining ground particularly in the social media,claiming that a recounting exercise at the tribunal had given the PDP a win with over 100,000 votes contrary to the figures declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the August 9th, Gubernatorial Election in the State of Osun.

This latest falsehood by those who are nothing but a serial liars is calculated at hoodwinking unsuspecting member of the public into believing that they have any iota of hope in the worhless petition they filed at the Election Petition Tribunal.

It is fundamental to point out at this juncture that beyond filing of petition at the registry of the Election Petition Tribunal, no proceedings has started till this moment of writing this piece. What we have had so far was an application for examination of all polling document used in the conduct of the August 9 Governorship Election in the state to enable the petitioner maintain its petition. This application was granted to both APC and PDP and joint inspection is taking place at the INEC Office which involves only scanning of documents.

The Petitioner is challenging the result in the 17 Local Government in the state which are: Aiyedaade; Atakunmosa East; Boripe; Ede North; Ede South; Ejigbo; Ifelodun; Ilesha East; Ilesha West; Irepodun; Irewole; Iwo; Obokun; Ola Oluwa; Olorunda; Oriade and Osogbo Local Government. Out of the Seventeen (17 )Local Governments where Election result were sought to be inspected, only Six (6) Local Government have been inspected as at the close of work today, 27th November, 2014 . The six(6) Local Government inspected so far are: Obokun; Osogbo; Olorunda; Atakunmosa East; Irepodun and Irewole Local Government.

The Tribunal has not granted an order for recounting of ballot papers because at no time did the petitioner seek for any recounting. The stage we are at the tribunal is a preliminary stage where responses are still being filed. No hearing of any sort has commenced. The inspection being done by the paties is entirely their business untill the report of such inspection is filed at the court registry ,heard under the fire of cross examination of those that did the report and the testimony of the witnesses is believed by the Tribunal.

It is therefore preposterous on the part of any party to a petition to seek to arrogate to itself figures that has not been credited to it either at the Election itself or at the election petition tribunal.

It is also pertinent to educate the gullible mind within Osun PDP that an order for recounting will be granted to a petitioner having satisfied the court on the preponderance of evidence brought forward by witnesses called upon by the Petitioner during the hearing of the petition. It is only granted when the Tribunal is convinced that on the totality of the testimony of the witnesses, there is need for recounting of ballot papers. The recounting will be done at the Court Premises Not at INEC Office as being bandied around by the ignoramus.

It is crystal clear that as at today, there has not been any sitting of the Election Petition Tribunal, No application for recount of ballot papers at the tribunal registry and there is no order for recounting any ballot papers. Whatever lie being cooked up by these elements resides only in their imagination and it is nothing but fantasy.

We hereby enjoin all lovers of peace and progress within and beyond our state to disregard this latest falsehood as a ranting of a drowning man who had nothing to hold on to but straw.

I thank you.

Ibrahim Lawal Esq

SSA (Legal and Judicial Sector Reform) to the Governor, State of Osun.

Sent from my HTC

Abubakar Shekau appears in new video, rubbishes military death claims

Last week, the Nigerian Army claimed the Boko Haram leader’s impersonator was killed. Cameroon even claimed they were the ones who killed him,a claim subsequently debunked by the Nigerian Military.Photos and even a video was even released to buttress that fact .

However, in yet another video made available to AFP today, Shekau was shown making a speech debunking reports of his death.According to AFP, he said ..

“Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” He also added that, that his group was “running our… Islamic caliphate” and administering sharia punishments.”

“Nothing will kill me until my days are over… I’m still alive. Some people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah,“It is propaganda that is prevalent. I have one soul. I’m an Islamic student.”

IMPORTANT: Before President Jonathan Borrows The 1 Billion Dollars to ‘Fight Boko Haram’

“I would like to bring to your attention, the urgent need to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of our Armed Forces and Security services to enable them more forcefully confront this serious threat. For this reason, I seek the concurrence o the National Assembly for external borrowing of not more than $1 billion dollars…” – President Jonathan of Nigeria to David Mark on July 15, 2014

The president of Nigeria wishes to borrow a billion dollars from abroad to ‘fight Boko Haram.’

Where is our money? Senate President, David Mark who this letter was addressed to, says that the $20 billion for an only 18 month period examined was not missing but was ‘unaccounted for.’

We will like to advise that the Nigerian government please take one billion from that account and use it for the security upgrade. If the entire 5 years of the Jonathan presidency are audited, the total amount missing/unaccounted for is estimated at up to $127 billion. Why will these wicked people not give Nigeria 5 billion from that missing/unaccounted for billions that they use to buy senators for impeachment processes with sums of $300-1 million; but rather they wish to disgrace the nation and put us in binding and crippling foreign debt with this additional loan?

Why does the senate not immediately truncate Diezani Allison-Madueke’s fraudulent kerosene subsidy scam that plunders $4million daily from the poor families from Chibok to Otuoke, a total of $1.5 billion dollars per year and utilize this money she uses to wear costly jewelry, and diverts through renting private jets, and uses to keep her stooges tripping with Naomi Campbell in exorbitant Yachts in land-of-flowers Switzerland, and ‘borrow’ Nigeria these billions for our security upgrades? While, of course not forgetting to lock her up for the robbery in broad-day-light.

The need for finances and upgrades to combat terror can well be legitimized; however the simple format of organized life demands that before new funds are processed for any operation, there must be an audit and thorough review of prior utility and investment of funds. What is and has the Nigerian government done in the past 5 years and with now up to 25% of the annual budget towards fighting Boko Haram – who are described as having the upper hand today – and overall upgrading of the Nigerian army? Can we have external or open internal (known youth activist) auditors review the current accounts and expenditures of the Nigerian security departments?

Before we borrow this one billion dollars from the white master, can Nigerian have a detailed presentation of the current administration’s strategies against terror, the plan to improve the army currently experiencing as many and over one hundred deserters/week and the long term over all security update target? Can we see the quality control system that is in place and will be in place to oversee the utility of the billions being spent on security from our 25% budgetary allocation to security and this additional one billion dollars?

How does the Jonathan presidency, minister of defense, Spy Aliyu Gusau account for the cobra tanks, APC’s and weapons being transferred to Boko Haram currently, which are being used to decimate unarmed civilian farming populations in the north?

What guarantee do we have that new equipment will not also be transferred to the Boko Haram terrorists and new air defense systems will not continue to be used to rather provide cover for Boko Haram in their activities as obtains today? Without such guarantee the people rather request the full pull-out of the army from the north east as the army constitutes a greater danger by transferring sophisticated equipment to the terrorists while maintaining the de-arming of the sitting duck civilian populace.

What maintenance guarantee do we have for this new expenditure? We purchased drones during the Obasanjo era, as part of the last 15 years of uninterrupted PDP administration of Nigeria and the billions invested into that acquisition are now known to have been nothing more than charity to Israel. It is 2014; we are tired of living as idiots and dying as fools.

Without the arrest of sponsors of terror, funds are simply being poured into a basket. We demand that before any further extra-budgetary finances are secured for ‘combating terror,’ that the sponsors of terror who ‘dine with the president,’ must be brought to book. We demand that Bamanga Tukur a Boko Haram sympathizer at the very least is brought to book for his position in support of the terrorists. We demand that the Borno state government officials implicated in the Abba Moro White report of 2012 on Jonathan and NSA Dasuki’s desk are immediately brought to book.

Combating terror is a multi-pronged approach, simply siphoning billions of dollars alone to a defunct and de-moralized army; funds for technology, training and equipment that does not even actually get to the soldiers involved and dying in combat, simply does not work. Nigeria must go after the sponsors of terror now and lock them up and kill them, before any other methods that have failed for the past 5 years of this administration and that have allowed the pogrom deaths of over 80,000 northern poor farmers and the displacement of over 3 million, to continue. It is time for maturity and responsibility.

We patriotic civilians of Nigeria are ready to step in. We have requested executive approval from President Jonathan and our men, the thousands of civilian-JTF, the hunters in Borno and committed Nigerians across the nation including signed up ex-soldiers are on stand-by for Jonathan’s responsible approval for a civilian army to sack Borno’s forests of the terrorists. Our method will cost next to nothing as compared to the present hopeless and hopelessly expensive approach, and is tested and trusted as we all are witnessing the impressive impact of civilian volunteers in Iraq’s resistance to the ISIS Takfiri terror campaign.

Proliferation and sustenance of terror cannot continue to pay top government officials who see it as a means to swallow billions of dollars committed to the provision of security. Nigerians have had enough of Boko Haram; it is high time these officials who benefit from maintaining the terror and protecting Boko Haram, look elsewhere for funds to embezzle.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah; http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: 

DIASPORA AND THE FLYING GEESE - Pat Utomi

Will Nigeria rise up again? Can the country of promise reclaim the Dream of its founding fathers? And will the Nigerian Diaspora be able to play a pivotal role in the country’s renaissance or are nationals abroad just a group of internet warriors shooting with loaded guns on tweeter and facebook yet unable to make any real sacrifice or contribution to redeeming Nigeria? These and many other questions have come my way these last few weeks as I have met with several Nigerian groups in the United States and in Europe.

The place and role of the Dispora in the rise of many countries, from Japan to India and China is fairly well documented. But much has been said about possibilities of the Diaspora as catalysts for progress in Africa even though documentation of contribution seems largely limited to financial remittances.

In speaking at several gala dinners organized in the United States by United Kingdom based Nigerians on the platform of Nigeria Dialogue, with the ambition of mobilizing Nigerians living abroad into Nigeria’s literal 37th state that could be an exemplar to the others, and help to move Nigeria to a place of pride in the world, I had to pointedly reflect on the string of effort to make Nigerians abroad a positive influence for development and progress.

That effort to organize Nigerians abroad has not always been salutary. Fractured and sometimes divisive as the engagements have been, the potential benefits, if we manage to get it right, clearly justify the effort. A starting point in gauging that value is the experience of other counties.

Much credit for Japan’s ascendance, following the Meiji Restoration, has been given to Japanese returning from Germany and elsewhere in the West but it is in the resurgence of India and China that the full benefits of a Diaspora community provides models we could learn a few things from.

When in 1991 India’s current accounts situation was terrifying and the foreign reserves were barely able to sustain a month’s trading, change became imperative and the appointment of Manahan Singh as Finance Ministe,r triggered reforms. These reforms excited the Indian Dispora into such a level of engagement that it was soon ranked second only to the United States, in the listing of sources of the surge of new investments into India. The category of non – resident Indians (NRI) would not only account for new investment funds but also for the engagement of ideas such as outsourcing and globalization in their countries of domicile which would eventually serve India’s purpose. Economists like Jagdish Bhagwati at Columbia wrote a book aptly titled In Defense of Globalization just as several leading business School Deans, such as Deepak Jain at the Kellogg School who served on the board of Relliance Industries helped bring their knowledge and network to enhancing the disposition of global players towards high growth Indian companies.

Attempts, led by government, to engineer similar outcomes for Nigeria have been far less successful. The creation of NIDO, as the umbrella for Nigerians in the Diaspora (Organization), produced, in many cases, unhealthy scrambling for position. Position – coveting, a Nigerian malaise associated with the view that positions are fungible assets that could be converted to personal gain, rocked NIDO in a way that suggested the host cultures had not robbed off on those Nigerians so inclined.

The Federal government even tried to institutionalize Diaspora affairs, giving Joe Keshi, who as Consul – General in Atlanta, had provided guidance for organizing the Diaspora movement, charge over the subject at the Presidency.

Then there also emerged conduct that suggested competition and disputations between the Diaspora and home based bureaucrats and citizens. Some professionals at home, instead of looking forward to what they could learn from colleagues abroad saw them as threats to their livelihood. The reason for the ineffectiveness in harnessing the Diaspora dividend has, in my opinion, been the wrong expectations and government involvement. This is partly why I find the Nigeria Dialogue, a movement by a group of young Nigerian Nigerian professionals to weave the body of foreign resident Nigerians into a tapestry of passionately committed change agents that can be seen as Nigeria’s 37th state, as very laudable.

When they recently put up a road show of Gala Dinners across the United States and invited me to speak at some of them I found the initiative striking. While many battling in NIDO for supremacy were asking what government could do for them to enable them give something back to Nigeria, the Nigeria Dialogue team working with the Future Awards people, and others, were putting out their resources for Dinners in 5star Hotels, before Town Hall meetings which tend to attract more of the Twitter, Facebook internet warrior types, who ask why the problems of Nigeria have not been fixed, rather than what they can do to fix it. I spoke at the Galas at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, and the Houstonian in Houston. It seemed like a good strategy to meet those who like to Dress up and go out at such Gala, then afterward get ready for the people who want to tweet their frustrations, both rightfully and in unhelpful exasperation, and hope eventually to find enough common ground to have collective aspirations on Nigeria that can alter the cause of history. Of course all find social media valuable and many. The variety of dispositions not withstanding there is good news. As chairman of the board I was favored to cut the tape to open the Victoria. I stand offices of a global software Business enterprise created by Diaspora Nigerian which has been doing business with Fortune 500 companies in the US. 

As I told those at the Dinners the net effect could be to get Nigeria to getting it right enough that its neighbors seek a similar path resulting in a region of affluence that would raise the dignity of the person of negroid descent anywhere in the world. So it was of direct personal benefit to them whether they planned to ever live in Nigeria again or not. I am indeed persuaded that a re-oriented Nigeria that leads a pack of flying Geese from Africa towards prosperity and away from media report of the type of the abduction of the Chibok girls and Ebola and Famine and Civil War will be one whose triumph will be appropriated by many far from the continent of Africa.

This is the way of hope but it will be manifest at least cost if all the stakeholders understand how much of a win-win scenario it can be. Not seeing the possibilities clearly, sometimes results in outcomes of competition from people who should be collaborating. A good example can be seen in a tweet I put out on this recently. In indicating that I believed the children of the generation that left town will renew the land I touched off comments among which were those who thought those who left town have no interest in where they left from, and those who thought their children would never come back, as well as those who said they would take meat from the mouths of those who stayed behind. But the majority saw the Diaspora as asset.

The truth as I see it is that working well together all should be able to gain more than any can lose in the collaboration of stakeholders from home and abroad.

Pat Utomi.

Bring Back Our Girls And Our Stolen Dreams Dear President Jonathan, Dare To Be Presidential – Toyosi Akerele

"Useless is a wonderful milk-yield, From a cow which kicks the pail over” – - Hadrat Muinudin Chishti

Globally, it’s quite an agreeable fact that the geographical land masse hitherto known as Nigeria, often described as the giant of Africa, whether towering or lame, is almost not a Nation anymore. Ours is now a safe haven for Terrorism, a dungeon for unemployed, job seeking Nigerian Youth, a grappling economy and a hellish transportation bureau for the abduction and possible trading of our children, especially girls.

I have never been President hence I may not possess the locus standi or requisite experience to advise you on the how-to’s of a Presidency. I may not know what it feels like to sit on, dine in or hand down orders to subjects from a Rock but I sure know what it means to be a beneficiary of effective governance or on the flipside, be a recipient of pangs of pain, shame and molestation of my emotions by gutless, needless strangulation of my fellow citizens, day in, day out.

I do not write you this Missive with any rancor or disregard. I have deep reverence for the office you occupy as bestowed on you by the Votes and Sacrificial exertion of physical and mental power by Nigerians. Like a porous substance, I hope it percolates through your Spirit.

It is intended to compel you to ruminate deeply on how our Nation deteriorated from the sublime to the ridiculous under your watch. How did we get here, President Jonathan? If you as much as admire anything in the nature of truism, you will “man-up” after reading this to prove that the ultimate testament of your manhood is not just a male erection that I presume, is often interrupted by “urgent state matters”, but that you possess virile masculinity which holds an inward sense of conscience, gusto, courage and discernment.

President Jonathan, personally, you have left me disappointed. I know several of your close allies who are befuddled by your inaction too but are too confounded to advise you for the fear of losing “their chop money”. For many months now, I have wondered what has gone wrong or where things went wrong in your calculations and objectives for a greater Nigeria.

20days ago, news broke up hill and down dale that a sizeable number of Nigerian School Girls had been captured and bundled away from their Classes as they prepared to write their Exams in a Community simply known as “Chibok” in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria.

This, we will agree as a Nation is not the first of this kind when it comes to the inane kidnapping, killing and maiming of Nigeria’s Peoples. What is downright disturbing is the deafening, almost unwritten conspiracy of silence of our Governments at various levels and the elites of our Country to a sadistic, sinister occurrence as this one. Your tendency to vacillate and stay irresolute on matters of National Urgency further underscores and lends credence to some assertions by your foes that you are ill-prepared for the responsibilities of a Presidency.

On May 1, Workers’ Day, in Nigeria, various protests were staged across the Country by concerned citizens who have had enough of the injustices meted out to innocent Nigerians which has now extended to undeserving, children of Nigerian Heritage. Our stolen dreams are endless. Seun Kuti who was a toddler when his Father, FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI, in his hey-days waxed records to lampoon the Leadership of Nigeria, years ago was back on the streets protesting for the same fundamental human rights his Father’s music addressed with such clarity of thought. And then your May 1 Workers’ day Speech made me sleepless in Lagos, not that it still doesn’t inspire Nightmares. Your measure of our poverty indices is by the number of private Jets Nigerians own and by Dangote’s unparalleled affluence as he sits pretty on the Forbes’ List. You forget that an injury to one is an injury to all and that Nigeria is technically an aristocracy where our common wealth is being mismanaged, exploited and enjoyed by only a few. One would have expected you to understand the state of numbness that the deprivation and lack of a good meal deals to an Individual given that you, as a child had no shoes at all, as you informed us in your 2011 campaigns. You must not forget, Mr Prez, that a River that forgets its source will dry and soon too. You have let us down as a Nation and a People.

The other day, I watched in utter dismay, as you and your cohorts went “twerking” to sonorous, sumptuous music of different genres only 24 hours after the dastardly act of terrorists left hundreds dead and injured in the Nyanya Bomb Blast. You were even pictured ignominiously wriggling your waist in close radius to another Woman who is not your wife. How can you keep sleeping while your Bed is Burning Sir? That singular act of yours made me conclude that you had Joy unspeakable, dancing on the graves of your own citizens, a People who gave up their nuances, convictions and fixated idiosyncrasies to get you elected as President of Nigeria in 2011. Yours, aside from the Abiola/Kingibe Elections of 1993, has been acclaimed probably the freest and fairest elections in the history of Nigeria. We, they, thought and accepted you as a “breath of fresh air”. That air now smells foul, very pungently.

As if your macabre dance was not enough insult to Nigerians, you went ahead to cancel the weekly Federal Executive Council Meeting in honour of the Vice President’s younger Brother who died in a Car Crash last week. We, the People of Nigeria empathize with VP Sambo but his Brother as things stand is in no way more important or deserving of greater honour than the scores of Nigerians being massacred almost on a weekly basis across Communities in Nigeria. ‘Asise’ is a Yoruba word for ‘error’ or ‘mistakes’. If one is afflicted with ‘asise’, the fellow will continually make mistakes/errors deliberately to cause his/her own downfall. How does one justify the fact that Mr. Abba Moro, who whimsically spearheaded the botched, exploitative, criminal immigration recruitment Exercise is still harboured in your Cabinet as Minister of Interior when by now, he should have been thrown into the Exterior or tossed into a nearby Trash Can as your expression of disapproval of his thoughtless manipulation of almost 1million unemployed Nigerians? How do I comprehend your directive to shut down all Government Offices and Schools in the Federal Capital Territory, expect those on essential services, from Wednesday, 7th to Friday, 9th May, 2014 for the easy flow of traffic within the city to enable participants carry out their assigned roles and participate actively at the World Economic Forum Africa. How could you have removed a Performing Sports Minister like Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi who won us several laurels and restored the glory of Nigerian Sports? Your many Sins against us as a People are somewhat unpardonable and my greatest bewilderment stems out of the fact that I have yet to see a Man or Public Office Holder who has squandered such widespread Goodwill as you have. There is indeed a thin line between Love and Hate and that comes alive eloquently in the reaction and resistance and abhorrence of Nigerians towards you as against the love, excitement and hope you inspired in 2011?

Mr. President, you make the wrongest decisions in the worst seasons of this age. Your insensitivity to our plights as fellow Nigerians is indecent. You seem to be out of touch with reality and your inability to even feign empathy to our common plight as a People makes one assume that the despotic, totalitarian Abacha was a Saint, compared to your Person.

Your choices of Aides are ludicrous. I suggest you do away with all of them save for certain intellectuals who work in your strategy war room and document your narratives and haven’t lost touch with their constituencies or sold their consciences for a mess of pottage. Others continue to dress up in arrogant ignorance and ridiculous self importance. They run errands you either sent them for which they should advise you otherwise or they just merely carry out their own bidding, doing more damage than good to your Public Image. Their postures are to consistently stay on the defensive lane acting like attack Dogs in a Military Barracks. They know nothing about the Accountability, Decorum and liberty of all Men that epitomize a truly burgeoning Democracy. The collective complacence of your Cabinet and Team Members is coagulating nicely into cooperative imbecility. It is either they are too timid to confront you with the verisimilitudes of the actual state of the Nation or you are not a Listening Leader at all.

Blood is in our Land, on your hands, Mr President. Our People are wailing in Agony. Our Land should be Green not bloody red. International Press and NGOs are drumming and mobilizing support from the four corners of God’s green earth on the missing Chibok Children. This newsy reports about Nigeria has put us in bad light non-stop for Years. Like 20billion Dollars that was said to be missing some months ago, we cannot afford to flush these Nigeria’s Daughters down the drain.

President Jonathan, there is no effulgence in you pushing and shoving our humanity like a Supreme Sultan or sauntering like a Sovereign Commander with a Swagger Staff when Youth and Children of the same age range of your own direct offspring are vanishing from the surface of the Earth, with such quotidian frequency. You are the Commander-in-Chief, Do something. Speak to your People. Show some Human Vulnerability. Deploy the Military. Come clean with us. You should not be able to sleep or eat or attend any Social Functions until those Children are found. You are a Father. The Parents of those missing Children are in Anguish. Those Girls stand the risk of Rape, Early Marriage, Vesico Vaginal Fistula {VVF}, Ritual Sacrifice etc. Our Security as a Nation has been compromised. Do Something, Mr. President. You swore the oath to the Constitution of Nigeria to protect our Sovereignty, I beg your pardon, but you are not acting like a Commander-in-Chief. I am not sure the average Nigerians care about the your cosmetic solutions to our National woes. You are the President, it is a weighty charge that you have, you can make or mar, the buck stops at your Table.

A friend of mind posted a poll online asking, “If Shekau, Boko Haram’s Leader promises to attack a part of Lagos and President Jonathan assures you otherwise, who will you believe?”, your guess is as good as mine Sir, everyone on the thread voted that they would believe the Terrorist Gang Leader when we have a sitting President.

Will you rather RULE THE DEAD, Mr. President? Is 2015 a greater priority for you than the peace and stability of our Nation? Nigerians are being perceived as Cast-Offs by the global society and we now need Foreign Musicians like Chris Brown, Mary J Blige, Wyclef Jean, Keri Hilson, Laecrae amongst others to hold on to the beak of the chirping bird in solidarity, tweeting support for #BringBackourGirls, whereas the meritorious efforts that emerge from Nigeria are stifled by an incompetent Film and Video Censors’ Board who has since disallowed “Half of a Yellow Sun” a blockbuster tale and theatrical production, out of Home, written by the brilliant Chimamanda Adichie, produced by Biyi Bandele and stars the Oscar nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor from being shown in our Cinemas.

Some of your Loyalists also have to be called to order. Many of them whose criminal craving for Bread and Bribe like Judas Iscariot have misled you and insulted the sensibilities of Nations who know Tranquility and Good Leadership by likening you to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jnr and the rest of such noble men.

No Sir, you are not in the class of those immortal men, yet you share a strong metaphorical similarity with them, in that you, like them, are on the verge of your own type of History, one very distant in proportion, intensity and space from that which symbolizes those aforementioned World Heroes. MLK, Mandela and Mahatma were kind men who did not have to ascend to elevated positions to put their lives on the line and shed their blood in the face of injustices against their Country Men. Kindness is Love in Action and this defined the greater portrait of the loyalty of these Men and their godlike prowess and benevolence in the struggle for the triumph of their Nationhood over Politics and oppression in their Countries.

It is YOU, who went dancing and rallying while fingers, eyes, noses and teeth were still being picked up and packed off from the grounds where the Bombs went off in Nyanya, Abuja and killed Nigerians. Your body language does not embrace even the lowest levels of human development. You have retained perpetually, the most awkward, inefficient and brashest Merchants of Political gimmicks and atrocious characterization of a Government for the People, in the most crucial Ministries to manage Education, Labour and Productivity, Youth Development in such maladroit way. How does that tell us that you care about the future of Nigeria’s successor Generation?

234, no 276 Teenage Girls are missing from Borno State; our Military is whining, egoistic, patronizing statements are being thrown around by ignoble politicians, the world has joined in the search using Facebook Posts, Twitter, Beer Parlour Arguments, Hashtags, Prayers, Protests, Threats, Marches, Songs and all what not. The sycophants around you should let you alone for a bit. You need time off, Mr. President. I recommend Harvard- Kennedy School of Government. They offer an extensive Course on Public Administration.

Maybe you can ponder for a while and do the needful as The Lord of the Manor in this Animal Farm or weigh the consequences, throw in the gauntlet, and leave the Kitchen, if the heat therein is too hot to bear. You may eventually decide to pick up your Mat, and walk, AWAY, Sir or develop within yourself the “audacity to bring back our girls and restore our stolen dreams”.

And this is not Politics. If you see it from that lens view, you will probably lose the useful Lessons in it Sir. No one can afford to have paid or induced me to write this. The APC and other Opposition Parties should not jump on this and analyze it till its soul fades. The ruling PDP should not antagonize the shed blood of innocent Nigerians that speaks through this message.

I have heard Nigerians whisper to one another that we all need to purchase and own Cutlasses and Guns, Qurans, Bibles, Anointing Oil Bottles and Holy Water. If your Government cannot protect and provide us Security from Boko Haram and other insurgencies, we shouldn’t cower in trepidation against those toothless bull dogs and since the US Embassy in Nigeria has provided first hand warning that Boko Haram may invade Lagos, we might as well, make hay while the sun shines after all, we cannot deny, that WE ARE UNDER SIEGE AND WE ARE AT WAR and it may be coming soon, to a town, nearby. My own Campaign now is not just to bring back our Girls but to bring back our Girls, ALIVE. I RISE.

Toyosi, who wrote from Lagos, is an Entrepreneur with ardent interest in Human Development, Advocacy, Media and Technology.

Looking For Jobs, Finding Death - By Femi Fani-Kayode

By Femi Fani-Kayode

Whether anyone likes to accept it or not the bitter truth is that 80 per cent of our GRADUATES are unemployed in Nigeria today whilst 51 per cent of our PEOPLE are also unemployed. As a frightful and grave consequence of these shocking statistics, which I happen to believe may well be a world record in terms of unemployment, a terrible tragedy occurred in Abuja and other parts of our country on 16th March 2014.

Approximately 68,000 of our youths gathered at the National Stadium in Abuja for an aptitude test for just 3000 jobs in the Immigration Service. 10 of those children were killed in a stampede whilst looking for those jobs. It did not stop there. Another 20,000 youths gathered in the stadium at Port Harcourt, Rivers state for aptitude tests for the same 3000 jobs and there was another stampede there as well in which 4 of their colleagues were killed and four more were so badly wounded that they remain in a coma up until now.

Similar gatherings for the same Immigration aptitude test took place in cities all over the country all for the same 3000 jobs and three young pregnant girls together with three male youths were killed in a similar stampede at the stadium in Minna, Niger state.

The only crime that all these children that were either killed, maimed or injured in these horrific stampedes in the stadiums of all these cities like Abuja, Port Harcourt, Minna, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Benin and elsewhere had committed was to try to get a job, to fight for a better life for themselves and to try to secure their future. What a tragedy.

One day Nigerians will appreciate the importance of facts, figures and statistics and the consequences of tolerating atrocious, lousy, insensitive and unaccountable governments. They will also understand the implications of having a government that has no qualms about taking advantage of the pitiful plight of it's own youths and citizens and scamming them in the most obvious and shameful manner.

Why should anyone be surprised that hundreds of thousands of youths gathered in stadiums all over the country on the 15th March 2014 just to apply for a tiny handful of jobs that are available in Immigration? This is so SIMPLY because there are NO jobs available for these children in our country.

I repeat 80 per cent of our graduates are unemployed and 51 per cent of our people are unemployed. Why won't they die and be killed or injured whilst looking for the few jobs that are available? Why won't they gather in stadiums all over the country in their hundreds of thousands just to do an aptitude test for a job in Immigration for which there are only 3000 vacancies? Why should anyone be surprised by this madness and this turmoil? Why should anyone be moved by this horrific carnage when it is now a regular phenomenon in our country for children to be slaughtered. If they are not butchered whilst at school by islamist fundamentalists they are slaughtered whilst they are looking for jobs from a heartless government which has effectively destroyed their future.

Yet look for jobs they must because these children and these youths are desperate and they are suffering. To make matters worse they are also being taken advantage of and scammed by their own government who are desperate to extort money from them by all means available. If this were not the case why would the Comptroller-General of Immigration and the Minister of Internal Affairs order that each and every one of those youths that flooded the stadiums in their hundreds of thousands and that stood in the sun should be made to pay 1000 naira each for the forms that they were to use to do the aptitude test at the various stadiums all over the country.

Someone was set to make a whole lot of money considering the fact that over one hundred thousand youths were involved in this shameless exercise and the amount of cash that they must have made runs into hundreds of millions of naira. The whole thing was just a massive and monuemental scam to extort hundreds of millions of naira from these poor, young and innocent souls and many of our youths have paid for it with their lives.

This is what President Goodluck Jonathan's Nigeria has done to them. We now have an army of angry, jobless, frustrated, disillusioned and desperate youths on our hands in this country and consequently we are literally sitting on a keg of gunpowder. May God help us and may He forgive us for failing these children and destroying their futures.

Other than this I will say no more on this matter because the truth is that most Nigerians no longer ''give a damn'' when blood is shed and when lives are taken. This is so even when those lives are those of children. Permit me to give an example. On the very same day that our youths were dying in stadiums looking for jobs with Immigration another 100 innocent people were being slaughtered by ''unknown gunmen'' in southern Kaduna and no-one seems to care. Again only two days before then, on March 12th 2014, 110 innocent Nigerians were butchered by what were described in the press as a group of ''fulani gunmen who were on motorbikes'' in Katsina state whilst the President was on an official visit there. What a tragedy.

Under President Goodluck Jonathan we have become a nation of vampires where the death of innocent children and youths means nothing and where we cannot even provide jobs or a decent standard of living for our young ones. Instead we attempt to scam them and to extort money from them. What a government, what a country.

If our government had any sense of decency, justice or accountability the Comptroller-General of Immigration and the Minister of Internal Affairs would have not only been compelled to resign or fired by now but they would also have been arrested and would be facing criminal charges for, at the very best, criminal negligence and manslaughter and, at the very worse, accessories before the fact to murder. Yet we know that that will never happen as long as President Goodluck Jonathan is in power. Far from it.

As a matter of fact instead of bowing his head in shame and showing any sense of contrition or remorse the Minister of Internal Affairs has come out shamelessly and blamed the dead youths themselves by saying that ''they did not exercise enough patience during the exercise''. May God forgive this man. I wonder if he would have expressed such sentiments if any of his own children had been killed in the stampede.

Permit me to end this contribution by quoting from a moving email that I received from a dear Nigerian family friend who herself is a mother and who presently resides in the United Kingdom with her family. She sent it to me the day after the tragic death of the youths in the stadium. I have obtained her permission to share her words in this write-up but for obvious reasons I will not mention her name. She wrote-

''Good morning uncle Femi. I honestly don't know where to start from. My heart is so heavy. What is it about Nigeria that (or is it we as a nation) nothing  good comes out of the news. I'm beginning to wonder if there is nothing wrong with me when I go through websites expectant of only bad news. Why don't I ever expect anything good to come out if Nigeria? I don't even know what to tell my children again. I try to give them a balanced view of the country but something would always come up to make nonsense of that. Why would any sane person want to come and live in that madness called Nigeria where nothing is guaranteed. Life is not guaranteed, jobs are not guaranteed, education is not guaranteed, security is not guaranteed, a decent daily meal is not guaranteed. I could go on and on.

I came to a realization recently which is self-preservation. Abi shebi it's life/self first. When I saw the early morning pictures of the crowd of youths at the Abuja stadium my heart just sank because I could almost write the script of what would follow. And so I waited (expectantly?)and wasn't disappointed. Would anything come out of it? No. Would life go on? Yes. Do they care? No. And the moron of a Minister had the gall to say that candidates died because of ''impatience''. Meanwhile the so-called aptitude test was just a ruse. They had handpicked their preferred candidates weeks ago. The crowd alone told me that we have a serious problem of youth unemployment yet Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala would come out and be reeling stupid figures. Please tell her that she's not fooling anyone. As if the unemployment is not bad enough government is opening more universities like daycare centers and still granting licenses for private universities. Who is going to absorb these teeming unemployed graduates? Where are the industries? Are you creating an enabling environment for investment? In fact I'm just done with agonizing over Nigeria. Self first please!''

Her words and counsel moved me to tears. As far as I am concerned she captured the mood very well and her simple yet succinct submission is reflective of the thinking and deep pain of millions of Nigerians from all over the world that are fast losing hope in their nation. Yet what can we do but just continue to hope and pray. What can we do for the future of our children and to better the fortunes of our nation? This is indeed food for thought. As the bible says, ''may God deliver us from bloodthirsty and evil men'' and ''may the balm of Gilead heal our wounds and comfort our mourning souls''.




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Religionalisation’ Of Presidential Politics By Jonathan: A Bad Precedent

By Sen. Olubunmi Adetunmbi

In the past few weeks, Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan has embarked on a rigorous exercise some have now humorously christened, ‘Church tourism.’ It started with a trip to Jerusalem, the Holy Land.  Nineteen governors, as well as some serving ministers and key government functionaries including the ever aggressive President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor accompanied the Nigerian President on a pilgrimage of sorts to Israel on his spiritual sojourn of discovery. At the end of the presidential spiritual odyssey, hands were laid on the president and prayers offered for his success in an unusually trying time in the nation’s history where he is believed to be in charge.

Perhaps still energized by the spiritual rebirth he was experiencing after the trip bankrolled by tax payer’s monies, the president embarked on another round of church voyage with the usual array of top government functionaries and spiritual leaders tow. In the last couple of weeks the president has visited not less than four churches and still counting. The Dunamis church has played host to the new found love of the number one citizen who worshipped there a few days ago. The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, the Living Faith Church and the Apostolic Church, Utako have also opened their doors to the president who has more or less used their hallowed pulpit to perpetrate what many have tagged, ‘the political patronage of the average church goer.’

The Nigerian Constitution clearly grants the President freedom of association, movement and religious affiliation. But it must be noted firmly that he also holds a unique position as an embodiment of the diverse ethno-religious, social and political cleavages of over 160 million Nigerians. This position was entrenched the day he was sworn in as President of Nigeria. In other words he is not just the president of Nigerian Christians but he equally holds sway for non-Christians even those who form the atheistic segment of the society.

The President has been criticized serially by political foes and associates in the past for being a master at playing the ethnic and religious card whenever and wherever it suits him best. His sporadic visits to churches filled with Nigerians who more or less share his religious views and lifestyle (while harmless on the surface) undoubtedly gives credence to this school of thought if one takes a deeper look at the reasons usually proffered by his handlers.

Nigerians are to expect more of such visits in coming weeks as Jonathan has vowed to worship at least once every month at churches outside the palatial presidential villa. This portrays a president who is willing to use the intimidating paraphernalia of office to sway a segment of the society to his side even as the political climate heats up. This is a sad development Nigerians must condemn.

In retrospect, the president, must be urged by well meaning Nigerian to learn to separate the pulpit from politics even if he banks on the voting strength of the Church in tilting the tide in his favor in his thinly veiled mission to succeed himself in the face of mounting opposition. History has shown that when politics is brought into the church, or the church begins the dizzying dalliance with the trappings of power, society is affected negatively at the end. A multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like ours is certainly not immune to the scourge awaiting a nation which allows the coils of power and politics to lie snugly around the shoulders of its religious institutions.

The fragility of the Nigerian polity will be further jeopardized nay exacerbated by heightened religious and ethnic tension which is naturally although indirectly being stimulated by the President’s ‘church tourism.’ Many across religious and even political divides agree that these frivolous visits are harmful at the long run to the president’s score card which is dismal at best and his warped political calculations. As a political pundit puts it succinctly, church or not, issues of performance with evident indices of excellence are what would define the next elections and gladiators like the incumbent.

Ironically critics have slammed the president for using the pulpit to make policy statements of government which has not led to any appreciable decrease in the siege of insecurity bedeviling the country. The president’s serial speeches from the podiums of these large churches now attract disdain and incredulity from a large percentage of the populace and sadly are now viewed from the myopic prism of campaigning for votes.

Many say that this is not the first time the president would play the religious card in his political voyage. In 2010, before the 2011 presidential election, he visited the RCCG to secure the votes of Christians. Two years after that presidential electioneering, he paid another widely publicized visit to the camp to give thanks to God and asked for prayers to enable him rule the country. It is not on record that he paid similar visits to other religious institutions to pay allegiance for their support during the elections making many to believe that he may perhaps hold the view that his stay in office is largely enabled by his religious circle.

The president holds the sacrosanct freedom to decide where his religious leaning and ideological faith lies and equally practice such in any Christian denomination of his utmost preference. However Nigerians including those of other faiths also own the inalienable liberty to express their dissatisfaction at a situation where the nation’s Chief Security Officer and number one citizen makes pertinent and sensitive political pronouncements Churches.

The President needs to be called to order quickly in order to avert a potentially divisive situation in the ever tense ethno-religious setting called Nigeria. As canvassed by no less a religious figure like President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Ignatius Kaigama, the president needs to stop forthwith his politically motivated visits to churches and the usage of Church pulpits to indirectly request for votes of Christians.

His is not just a lone voice in this call.  A prominent clergyman, George Ehusani perhaps puts in succinctly. “I think that the current President is mixing politics with religion. He is the President of the whole Nigeria; he is not only the president of Christians. He is a Christian who is President but while a Christian is President in a country that is 50% Christian and 50% Muslim, you have to be careful.”

For the church it is time to take up the gauntlet against this subtle presidential onslaught on its age-long integrity. It is wrong for the church to allow the soapbox to be brought into the sanctuary. The sanctuary is a hallowed chamber that should not be debased by politics of transient power. This is a desperate bid of a Christian politician to use the church for a subtle endorsement without reference to the capacity to perform and deliver welfare to the people as Jesus Christ did in the Scriptures by the miracle of the fishes and loaves.

The President should be encouraged and advised to rise above partisanship and religious bigotry and scale up to the status of a statesman. The weight of earthly desires and the clamour for power is quite heavy on the human mind and it takes the Grace of God to rise above this. The President should ask God for this exceeding grace to overcome self and all primordial desires that do not edify him, the church and the nation.

Nobody should make the error that my observation is ‘anti-Christian.’ No! Far from it, I am a confessed believer in the person and the divinity of Jesus Christ and He constitutes the centre of my being and the author and finisher of faith and hope for eternal life. I therefore consider it as degrading to the status of Christ to be dragged into the politics of state/temporal power in a manner that excludes people of other faiths that Jesus gave his life that they may come to him.

And if Mr. President feels he must continue on his religious trail I enjoin him to visit Pastor Tunde Bakare's Church, the Latter Rain Assembly, T.B Joshua's Synagogue Church of all Nations and Catholic Bishop, Ignatius Kaigama. He should also extend his worship to churches in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno. If Mr. President cannot worship with the Christian community in these volatile states, then he should stop henceforth with the religious campaigns.

Furthermore, from the history of the church and the state in the Holy Bible, Priests took messages of God to kings of nations and read riot acts to them through the famous quote, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord God.’ Ironically, we are now faced with the situation where an un-ordained person climbs on the altar of God to say "Thus sayeth the president". This is a reversal of spiritual and divine order as we know in the Holy Bible and is a subordination of spiritual authority of Priesthood to the temporal powers of kings and presidents.

Indeed the president needs to be careful in his new found vocation. His decision in the coming weeks will determine if Nigerians have a president who shares the yearnings and aspirations of ALL Nigerians irrespective of tribe or religion or a leader who quickly recedes into his religious or ethnic cave when the need arises.