A prayer Point to pray right now-- some might take it not serious....

This is a serious prayer point for today. the lord shall lift you up in  presence of thy enemies..

• let ur enermies bow before u
• the lord shall crown u before ur enemies.

Alleged $20B Missing Oil Money: Sanusi evasive, got his facts wrong— Allison-Madueke

*‘Pitfalls in the N10billion jet hire story’
*Says audit cleared NNPC
*On corruption in subsidy system: I removed 92 firms with one stroke of the pen

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, in this interview, speaks on issues in the oil and gas sector including the subsidy regime, local content, the alleged billions missing oil revenues, and the controversial N10billion allegedly spent by her to hire planes.

On Kerosene Subsidy

There was a presidential directive to withdraw subsidy on kerosene. It is possible that the Minister of Petroleum at that time went to discuss with the President and may have been able to convince him on the need to stay action on the directive. but he (Minister) overlooked regularizing in terms of getting the President to rescind the order.

So, if anybody flouted the presidential order, it must have been the Minister of Petroleum at that time. But since the directive was not gazetted and was not announced it was not a law; it was mainly a directive on paper because there are procedures that a directive must follow to become a law and become implementable. I don’t know why people keep referring to this. Anyway, another president came and appointed his own cabinet and moved on.

Now, because of the confusion created by this situation, marketers who, prior to that time were bringing in kerosene, pulled back. The reason was that if they brought in kerosene at the international landing cost and sold at our subsidized rate and didn’t get paid the difference, they will go bankrupt. So, there was immense confusion and, I think, it was at that time that the NNPC had to step in and started supplying.

Nigerians have made up their minds to vote out Jonathan – Kwankwaso

Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano State was in Lagos last week for consultation with the Arewa community even as he used the opportunity to receive an award from the Global Excellence magazine. In an interview at the departure lounge of the Lagos airport, Kwakwanso said the smear campaign against his party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, can only further help the APC in the coming elections, because, according to him, “There are some who have already made up their minds, no amount of smear campaign that would change the minds of Nigerians”.

*Kwankwaso

You are coordinating three states in the North for your party, APC, regarding the March 28 election. What would you say are your party’s chances in these states?

The issue of change now has gone so deep and wide to the extent that no one man, no matter how influential, can change the tide. People are yearning for change at all levels, and, therefore, I have no doubt in my mind that, at least, the states that I know best, that is the northern states, I believe APC will capture them.

Including Jigawa where Lamido holds sway?

Yes, including Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Plateau, Nasarawa, all the states, 19 of them.

There is something perhaps you know that some of us don’t know which gives this kind of

confidence, what could this be?

INEC moves card readers to secure, secret locations

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega
| credits: File copy

On March 14, there was a fire incident at the warehouse of the electoral body in Abuja which lasted for two hours. Non-sensitive materials such as envelopes, voter education materials and bags for conveying electoral materials to registration areas were completely burnt.The Independent National Electoral Commission is not leaving anything to chance as it has beefed up security around the smart card readers to be used during the March 28 and April 11 elections. The adoption of the card readers for the general election has attracted a lot of controversies.

This has raised fears in many quarters about the safety of the card readers with six days left to the March 28 presidential election.

The Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, toldSUNDAY PUNCH that measures had been put in place to secure the card readers.

He said, “They are very secure from arson, stealing, vandalism or any other effort to disrupt the elections.

“It is not only card readers we are using for these elections. We are using a lot of other materials. We are also using ballot boxes, cubicles, etc. Those are all election materials and they are secured and are well protected. Where they are now, they are safe.

I regret not impeaching Obasanjo — Na’Abba

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba

What have you been doing ever since you left the forefront of Nigerian politics?A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, in this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, speaks about his trials, regrets, triumphs and joining the All Progressives Congress

I have been facing my private business since I left the House of Representatives and I am also involved in politics. Politics is something that I cannot really bid farewell. Therefore, I am still in politics.

Have you met President Goodluck Jonathan before and what is your relationship with him?

Yes, I have met President Jonathan. When he started his campaign to contest the Presidency in 2011, he invited me to join his campaign and after discussing with him and agreeing on certain things, I joined the campaign and I played a very active role in it. Eventually, he won, and of course, he was sworn in as the President and we have been interacting.

What is your impression of his government?

My impression of him is someone who doesn’t carry people along. There is so much disconnect between him and the people of Nigeria. First of all, this is somebody who has never for once worked at the centre; he has been a provincial person all his life. He didn’t really know people around the country when he became the president. And what is worse is that he did not try to know people. He was cocooned in the Villa. He hasn’t got reach and this has been his failure. He has been caged and put under the impression that he is performing well; and that he is the best thing to happen to Nigeria since its creation. Today, he is seeing the result of all of these things. Nigerians have turned their backs on him because he cannot perform; he simply lacks the capacity to perform.

Jonathan has ordered EFCC to arrest Tinubu –APC

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu
| credits: File copy

The party alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was bent on decimating the major opposition party in order to gain what it called an undue advantage in the March 28 and April 11 general elections.The All Progressives Congress on Saturday raised the alarm that the Federal Government and the Peoples Democratic Party have sent a red alert to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to arrest one of its national leaders, Bola Tinubu.

“Without mincing words, we are aware that a red alert has been sent to the EFCC to arrest the national leader of our party, the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on trumped-up charges anytime from now. In addition, anyone who is suspected of being a financier of the APC is to be arrested, all in efforts to decapitate the main opposition party which is undoubtedly cruising to victory in the forthcoming elections.

“And as part of the offensive against the APC in the days ahead, there is a plan to freeze the accounts of companies, individuals and organisations believed to be financing the party, with the ultimate objective of crippling the party so it won’t be able to sustain its activities, like paying its agents on Election Day and other logistics,” a statement issued on Saturday by the party said.

Confab and shameless opportunism

Even for many of those who supported the convocation of last year’s national conference, last Wednesday’s decision by the Goodluck Jonathan government to begin the implementation of the report about a week to a crucial election is hasty, indecent and grossly opportunistic. Barometer never supported the conference in the manner it was convoked, and many of its decisions are patently unrealistic and impractical. But to announce the commencement of the report’s implementation at the time they did is nothing but a flagrant abuse of trust and a clear attempt to hoodwink the gullible and misdirect the electorate a few days to the March 28 presidential election.

For the love of country, Nigerians Vote wisely....and save your Future.

During the oil subsidy crisis, he thoroughly bad- mouthed Yorubas and canvassed that non-Yoruba elements in Lagos, who he claimed are more than Yorubas, should gang up against their hosts

While some of us continue to relish the past and insist that our leadership position is not threatened, the more discerning among us realise that failure to correctly appraise the situation could only be calamitous to the destiny of the Yoruba people. The truth of the matter is that the lives and destiny of over 30 million souls cannot and should not be trampled upon by reprobates, renegades, revisionists, and impostors. The contemporary self-proclaimed spokesmen and supposed protectors of our people just have to cease and desist from their sanctimonious and opportunistic crusade and become true subscribers to the common cause’.

The Jurisprudential Professor of Professors, Akin Oyebode, in his lead paper at the authentic  Pan -Yoruba Summit in Ibadan,  Thursday, 19 March 2015.

‘For the love of country’, ‘for the love of country’ etc. So goes one of the multibillion naira television adverts of President Goodluck Jonathan urging Nigerians to vote him for another term of four years with his duplicitous government that keeps assuring foreign envoys of peaceful elections while for two whole months it has continued to deny visas to over twenty foreign journalists from such stables as the influential The Telegraph, The Times and Channel 4 News; something that should take no more than two weeks. Candidate Jonathan showed the extent of his love for Nigeria and Nigerians this past week when he inspired the country’s wretched of the earth, to lay Lagos prostrate.  Earlier, another  phalange of these  miscreants, operating  under the aegis of  the  anti-Nigerian ragtag organisation which  recently publicly launched vehicle and driver’s licences, as well as what it called the  passports  of its still-born Biafra Republic without a whimper from the  security agencies-  by the way,  dollarized Afenifere should try doing the same  for Oduduwa Republic  to gauge  the real depth  of Jonathan’s love for  Yoruba. Unlike them, however,   those under the lead of the carpenter completely shut down  Lagos and laid  it  prostrate for hours,  causing  the citizenry untold hardship. The scallywags, members of the outlawed Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), who had long become thugs -for hire, brandishing assorted guns and live ammunition, broken bottles  etc, with the PDP- police and  DSS, even soldiers, watching in amusement, smashed their way through Ikorodu Road,  laying waste everything on its way, including APC billboards.  With the resultant traffic snarl, Lagos was completely crippled for a whole day.

Patience’s fears

Are the guilty afraid?
Except for the fact that her jokes are sometimes dry and insensitive, Dame Patience Jonathan’s interventions in her husband’s campaign have been as intriguing as they could be. But, when I say intriguing, I mean intriguing in reverse, because, virtually everything she said recently on the podium could be used, as they say in the police station, against her. Take for example her speech at the rally of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) women wing in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Monday. She said “What did they forget in Aso Rock? If you vote the PDP and Jonathan, it would be better for you. If you vote the APC, you will go to prison. How can you jail somebody for 300 years? I’m not ready to carry food to my husband inside prison oh!”
Now, if Mrs Jonathan is wondering what someone forgot in Aso Rock, does she not feel we should also ask what is it that is making them this desperate not to want to leave the place? I know she had said everybody who goes there does two terms; so, they too should be allowed to do theirs. No one is saying they cannot do two terms but the thing is not automatic. What Mrs Jonathan wants is for us to return her husband unopposed. Unfortunately, there is no such provision in the constitution. They have to work for the presidency. It is difficult for one to blame the First Family though; this is the first real election they would be having in their lives. So, one can understand their desperation and frustration with the turn of events. Perhaps if Nigerians had been as perceptive as they are today in 2011, the Jonathan administration would not have taken them for granted as it has done.
The point I am making is that Mrs Jonathan does not have the moral right to ask what anybody forgot in Aso Rock. They know how many churches they had attended to pray to retain their hold on power in recent months. That is for the ones we can see or know about. Some Senegalese Islamic clerics were in Aso Rock in May last year to pray for peace and an end to the insecurity challenges in the country. A few days ago, it was also reported that the Witches Association of Nigeria has thrown its weight behind the president’s reelection bid. As I said, there is no way we can verify some of these other connections, like that between the seat of power and the witches. We do not know too whether the wizards would go with their female counterparts. So, for someone whose husband has traversed the places the president has traversed, the question of asking what anybody forgot in Aso rock does not arise.
Then in Lagos on Thursday, the president’s wife said at another rally where she addressed PDP Lagos women at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, among others, that “I want you to know that a lion cannot give birth to a goat, a lion can only give birth to a lion, and Dr Goodluck Jonathan has delivered Jimi Agbaje to deliver Lagos. What Goodluck Jonathan is doing at the federal level is what he has asked Agbaje to reenact in Lagos State, if he wins the election. Nigerian women your messiah has come, so vote freedom for yourself in Lagos.” Some comic relief?

Patience Jonathan doesn’t need your advice, PDP tells Buhari’s wife

First Lady

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign organisation has spurned the assurance given the First Lady, Patience Jonathan by Hadjia Aisha Buhari, wife of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

Mrs. Buhari had offered a word of assurance to Mrs. Jonathan that neither she nor her husband, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan will go to jail if Buhari wins the presidential election.

Mrs. Buhari’s advice followed the First Lady’s repeated statements expressing fears that Buhari might jail the first couple, apparently for corruption if the APC candidate becomes president.

But in a statement yesterday, the PDP campaign organisation asked Mrs. Buhari to keep her assurances to herself, saying Mrs. Jonathan did not need the assurance.

The Director of Media and Publicity of the campaign organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode said, “the entire PDP presidential campaign did not appreciate her counsel because the First Lady has not committed any offence.

Between ourselves and our institutions and between Marx and Rousseau: election eve reflections (1)

Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances but under existing circumstances
Karl Marx
Man is born free but he is everywhere in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but he remains more of a slave than they are.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
The thing caught in Nte’s trap is much bigger than Nte.
Chinua Achebe
It is of course pure guesswork whether or not we are actually on the eve of the 2015 election cycle in our country. On December 24 every year – and after year – we know we are at the eve of Christmas. But there is no such natural certainty with the current election cycle in Nigeria. We were on the eve of the institutionally fixed presidential election on February 13, 2015. But ten days before that date, the elections were postponed for six weeks. Now as we move closer to the postponed dates of March 28 and April 11 for the presidential and governorship elections, the only certainty we know is that institutionally, the elections can be further postponed only at the risk of moving too dangerously close to open and blatant flouting of the Nigerian Constitution. This is because constitutionally, elections in our country MUST be held no less than 30 days before May 29 that is the date for the reinstatement of the incumbent government if it is returned to power or the inauguration of a new administration if the opposition candidate wins.

Jonathan versus Buhari: The final permutations

In six days, Nigerians will file out for the long-awaited poll. The past six weeks has been dotted with intense bickering, lobbying, ‘naira and dollar rains’, and outright hate campaigns. Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation, Sam Egburonu, Associate Editor, Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo, Assistant Editor and Sunday Oguntola review the outlook in the 36 states and the FCT and project likely outcomes.
This Saturday Nigerians will determine who will lead them in the next four years. Out of the 55,904, 272 eligible voters who had collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs) as at Friday, March 20, 2015, 31, 957, 327 will vote in the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Before the February 7 postponement the momentum was clearly on the side of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The six-week shift pushed through by the Presidency was supposed to enable President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) regain the initiative.
However, certain unscripted interventions may have worsened the case of the incumbent in certain regions. First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan may have gravely damaged her husband’s chances in the North when she accused Northerners of poor family planning. She said: Wetin him dey find again? Him dey drag with him pikin mate…Old man wey no get brain, him brain don die pata pata. Our people no dey born shildren wey dem no dey fit count . Our men no dey born shildren throway for street. We no dey like the people for that side.”
Not even the successful military campaign against the insurgents in the North-East has altered the dynamics of the race in the North. A status report on the presidential contest from state to state follows – beginning with those in the North.

Disability not a death sentence, says Buhari

•Promises commission for the disabled
Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), has a message for Nigerians with disabilities.
Their disabilities, he said yesterday, do not amount to a death sentence.
He said with strong power and will power they can surmount any obstacles on their way.
Buhari, who spoke at a town hall meeting with people with disability and the physically challenged in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, promised to set up a National Ombudsman to look after the welfare of people with disabilities.
He pointed at the late American President, Franklin Roosevelt, and Professor Steven Hawking, astrophysicist of Cambridge University, England as example of physically challenged figures who rose to prominence. The presidential hopeful said nobody with disabilities has any good reason not to succeed and contribute to humanity.
According to him: “Physically challenged people have rights and also have contributions to the national efforts.

“If, by the grace of God, APC wins the elections next week, we will fulfill our electoral promise to appoint a Federal Ombudsman for people with disabilities to combat discrimination against the disabled.
“The Ombudsman will take care of rehabilitation, employment of disabled persons and participation in public life, among others.”
The Director, Disability APC Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Sam Ankeli, said this was the first time any presidential candidate was interfacing with people with disabilities.
He stressed it was a clear sign that the APC will run an inclusive government.
Ankeli said: “APC has shown us that they are compassionate, faithful and have integrity. They are fair and powerful.
“Nigerians with disabilities are more than 23 million. But no government has remembered us.
“We are confident that APC because they have included us at this level will remember us when they form government.”

Polls: INEC accredits US, UK embassies, 105 others

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has accredited the embassies of the United States, the United Kingdom and 105 others for the March 28 and April 11 elections.
Most foreign missions in the country have also opened desks for the monitoring of the election, as facts begin to unfold on why the planned meeting between the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, and INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, failed to materialise.
Overall, INEC, according to investigation, has accredited 82 domestic and 25 foreign observers.

Troops kill 20 insurgents in Bama

More than 20 Boko Haram insurgents were killed by troops yesterday in a botched reprisal attack on Bama in Borno State.
A soldier was killed and seven others wounded while repelling the attack.
The Air Force patrol went after some of the fleeing insurgents and struck them to death. This could not be independently confirmed.
But there was fresh tension in the North yesterday following the kidnap of the Emir of Bukkuyum, Alhaji Muhammadu Usman Tafida by five gunmen.
The Director of Defence Information, Maj- Gen. Chris Olukolade, who made the disclosure in a statement, said those injured had been evacuated by air for medical attention.

Politicians pushing for ING will face the wrath of the law, says Jonathan

jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday in Daura, Katsina State, that those pushing for interim national government (ING) in Nigeria would face the wrath of the law.

The president, on a courtesy visit to the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Faruk Umar, warned that no one should accuse government of clamping down on suspects if it began to arrest and prosecute those behind rumours of interim government.

He said the agitation amounted to treason.

APC raises fresh alarm over planned clampdown on Tinubu, other leaders

 The All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged yesterday that the Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP) was bent on decimating the opposition in the build up to the coming elections due to start next Saturday with the  Presidential/National Assembly elections.
The APC said the ruling party was proceeding with its  planned arrest of   its  National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on trumped-up charges anytime from now.
The plot, according to the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is for the PDP to gain an undue advantage ahead of the elections.
The APC also alleged plot by the federal government and the PDP to unleash a fake leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, on the opposition party.
Alhaji Mohammed told reporters at a press conference in Lagos that also to be arrested by the authorities is   anyone who is suspected of being a financier of the APC “all in efforts to decapitate the main opposition party which is undoubtedly cruising to victory in the forthcoming elections.”

The two leading candidates in Saturday’s presidential race, President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday commenced the last lap of their campaigns, reaching out to the electorate in different parts of the country to canvass for votes.

General Buhari spent time with groups of the physically challenged in Lafia, Nasarawa State to give them words of encouragement while President Jonathan inagurated a N2.5 billion fly-over in Kano and named it after the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.
He later visited Daura, Katsina State, Buhari’s hometown for a whistle stop.
The various security agencies, meanwhile, are busy perfecting their arrangements for the elections.

Nigerians:Shey Dem jazz us or politicians de use us play?

U won't believe this until u watch this video. Nigerians its time to make decisions. Elections are here, vote wisely

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I tire for this country. I go run oohh!!!! Lol