Thursday, April 2, 2015

Ex- late Yar'Adua's spokesman berates OBJ, lauds President Jonathan for putting Nigeria 1st.


In his article titled ‘In Losing Power, Goodluck Jonathan Finally Finds Himself’, chairman of the publication board, Thisday Newspapers & previous Special Adviser on Communications to late President Yar’Adua, Segun Adeniyi subbed OBj and lauded Jonathan for putting Nigeria first.

He wrote;


“The fact most people ignore is that given the objection of his party to the use of the card reader, if the president had stormed out of the polling unit at Otuoke when three card readers failed him, that probably would have been the end of the election. And by now, Nigeria would be on the boil. Fortunately for all of us, Jonathan chose not to travel that familiar road often trudged by African leaders and history will forever be kind to him for it.” Read the full article after the cut…



Goodbye Ebele Jonathan – by Segun Adeniyi as published on Thisday


It remains for me the most memorable moment in the movie. The captain was informing the ship owner (who had bought into the lie that no force on earth or in heaven could sink the Titanic) that the ship had hit an iceberg. “From this moment, no matter what we do, the Titanic will founder,” he said. Having put so much faith in his own propaganda, the ship owner retorted: “But this ship cannot sink.” Without missing a beat, the captain responded: “She is made of iron, Sir. I assure you she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty.”


Because those who survive on rent in our country are adept at marketing their greed, they always succeed in selling to whoever occupies the number one office in Nigeria at any period that he is not only above the law, he is so powerful that he can never be defeated in an election. But with the current defeat of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), it is now very clear that the president of Nigeria is human, afterall and he can be ousted by the same people whose votes put him in power. That message has been most eloquently passed and our country will never remain the same again. It is a new day!

For sure, the president of Nigeria has enormous financial resources he can mobilise at any given time while the security agencies and critical institutions of state work at his pleasure regardless of what is written in the Constitution. And he is forever surrounded by clowns and jobbers of all sorts—I was privileged to have seen many of them at work in the Villa—who sing the mantra that, as “President and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”—a title that is so needlessly repeated for his pleasure almost as if it is a line in the national anthem—he has such unlimited power that he can even turn a man into a woman. Now we know better.



Having never bought into the scam that a president of Nigeria cannot be defeated, I have since about four months ago been telling some people very close to President Jonathan that he was electorally vulnerable. But they never took me serious. In my personal encounter with the president in his office on July 23 last year (he sent for me), I particularly explained to him that he was increasingly being perceived as “anti-North” and that it could hurt him at the general election. I recall the president interjected by saying “but Segun, you know me…” to which I replied that it was not my view but a perception challenge he should deal with. If he made efforts in that direction, they were either too little or too late, going by the results of the presidential election across the entire Northern zone where Buhari won outright in 16 out of 19 States. Details of that private encounter I had with the president will come in my coming book on the 2015 general elections in Nigeria that should be out before the end of the year.


Needless to say, I am not one of the people surprised by the outcome of the presidential election. In the fourth instalment of my 2015 election series, “A Time to Choose”, on 29 January this year, I wrote: “as the incumbent, Jonathan will run on his record which unfortunately would include not only his performance in office (which is not as bad as being projected) but also mismanaged relationships that may have been more costly in terms of the eroded support base. We may never know how much political damage the president inflicted on himself by his failed bid to install a Speaker for the House of Representatives in June 2011 and the refusal to accept defeat gracefully thereafter; the futile attempt to oust Rotimi Amaechi as the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman and how that eventually led to the split within the ruling party; the ill-feelings from aggrieved party members who lost out at the recent PDP primaries; the unfortunate Chibok ‘Waka-Come’ theatrics at the Villa by the president’s wife that went viral internationally; the saga of the ‘unaccounted for billions of Dollars’ in oil receipts that is yet to be conclusively resolved and the accompanying drama with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that played out from the CBN Governorship office in Abuja to the Emir’s palace in Kano; the presidential redefinition of corruption as being different from–and perhaps more tolerable than—stealing; the evident contradictions inherent in the fact that those who once ran a vicious media campaign against Jonathan, baptizing him with the moniker, ‘clueless president’ are now the ones speaking for him etc. The thing about elections is that choices are usually made by most voters on the basis of sentiments (and emotions) such as the foregoing and that is why the incumbent is often disadvantaged, especially when the public mood is as fouled as it is in Nigeria today…”

I wrote that three months ago and I have been proved to be correct. However, despite the bitterness that characterised the 2015 presidential election campaigns, President Jonathan redeemed himself when it mattered most not only by the way he gracefully accepted defeat and congratulated Buhari even before the collation of results was concluded on Tuesday but also by the manner in which he rose to the occasion last Saturday.



Despite the discomfort of having to stand in the heat, Jonathan comported himself very well as the president, not a partisan, as we all watched on national television how three card readers failed to read his biometrics and accredit him for voting at his home town, Otueke, Bayelsa State. At a time television camera could project very clearly that his wife was already boiling with anger, the president said he was prepared to wait for as long as it would take for it to work before he was eventually accredited manually. Calm in disposition and measured in his utterances, Jonathan refused to be goaded by the reporters who were asking him leading questions about the use of card reader, knowing where he stood on the issue. “President Jonathan is just one person, so if we have problem with one person, as far as the election is going on well nationally, I am not worried. There might be a delay, my interest is that we conduct a credible election,” he said.


At the end, even if he lost the election, President Jonathan has turned out to be a man of his word. The fact most people ignore is that given the objection of his party to the use of the card reader, if the president had stormed out of the polling unit at Otuoke when three card readers failed him, that probably would have been the end of the election. And by now, Nigeria would be on the boil. Fortunately for all of us, Jonathan chose not to travel that familiar road often trudged by African leaders and history will forever be kind to him for it.

That Nigerians are today proud of Jonathan is not in doubt and it is a shame that it would take a defeat for him to approximate to the president many had wanted to see in recent years. But in the days and weeks to come when he begins the self-introspection as to how he lost the presidency, Jonathan should look no farther than his immediate environment. From his overbearing wife who used the campaign podium to preach hate, forgetting that there indeed is a God in heaven who promised in the Bible to “overturn, overturn, overturn… until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him” regardless of whether such a person is “analogue” or “brain dead” to people like Godsday Orubebe who made a disgraceful public show of himself on Tuesday not to mention Chief Edwin Clarke and confederates who, forgetting that politics is a game of addition, imagined they could abuse and blackmail the whole of Nigeria into re-electing their Ijaw kinsman.

How and why Jonathan lost will be a subject of interrogation in my coming book but it is a pity that his handlers paid scant attention to my warning of 19 January 2012, in a piece titled “Their Son, Our President”, which rankled Aso Rock and for which someone procured the services of hacks to attack me. I hope that Jonathan’s people will go back to read (http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/their-son-our-president/107435/) and reflect on what might have been had they taken counsel in the Yoruba adage that when your tuber of yam is growing too big, you use your hand to cover it.


For an election that had been predicted to be the end of our country, Nigerians have every right to be happy about the turn of events but there are just too many heroes and the first to be commended is the ordinary voter who stood under the sun and in the rain to exercise his/her franchise. And then the much-maligned chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega. Calm under pressure, mature in his approach to issues, serene in the face of provocation yet so firm and resolute in his conviction, Jega has written his name into the history books by delivering when it mattered most. With any other person, it is doubtful if we would be where we are today as a nation. And of course we must commend our president-elect, Buhari, not only for his tenacity of purpose (having lost three previous times) but also for the maturity with which he handled the campaign irritations from some PDP bigwigs and the president’s wife.


Finally, the biggest accolades go to the president who conceded defeat so that his nation can move on. By that simple but important gesture of patriotism, honour and nobility, Jonathan has earned the status that one old man imagined he could confer on himself just by the theatrics of tearing his party card before television camera. I just hope that the leaders of the victorious APC would have the decency to treat the president with respect in the remaining period of his tenure and after he leaves office. He deserves it.

I will be a bloody hypocrite to say that I was praying for Jonathan to win the presidential election. To be honest, I felt the country could do with some Change (even if I still don’t know its content) because of the way Jonathan mismanaged a couple of serious national issues, especially the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east. There was also this academic interest about whether the proposition in my May 2011 research paper ‘Divided Opposition as Boon to African Incumbents’ on factors shaping incumbent elections in Africa with special focus on Nigeria, would prove to be correct. Now that my thesis has been validated, I enjoy no real satisfaction that Jonathan is leaving office this way because, despite my misgivings about some of the people around him or his mixed stewardship, I still have a strong affection for the president who I consider a very good man.




If the president needed any validation that he acted wisely, it is by the outpouring of congratulations to him from all over the world and the way he has practically repositioned our country for business. Perhaps nobody has captured the situation as succinctly as Mr. Mo Ibrahim, one of Africa’s wealthiest men and philanthropist, who said yesterday: “The news from Nigeria today is wonderful. Africa’s largest country has concluded a peaceful election process. Furthermore, the incumbent has already gracefully conceded and congratulated his successor – a first for Nigeria and a benchmark for other African countries to follow. Today, we Africans are all proud of Nigeria and President Jonathan. Thank you Mr. President. If you are seeking a legacy, you have definitely achieved it.”


Last Saturday in my hotel room in Lagos, my friend and research assistant, Dipo Akinkugbe, with whom I was watching on television the drama of Jonathan and the Card Reader as the election accreditation exercise unfolded, said after the president had fielded questions from reporters and left: “This is a rare display of statesmanship that I have not seen in President Jonathan for a long time.”


That, I told him, is the essential Jonathan whose Ijaw handlers and a few power mongers from other parts of the country did not allow to blossom. But in falling from power through the electoral process, Jonathan has risen in the estimation of Nigerians for his statesmanlike concession to General Buhari.


Perhaps, in this final moment of loneliness, the President finally acted as Jonathan, unencumbered by the hidden motives of the army of power merchants and ethnic salesmen who have held him hostage all these years. Perhaps it is this last act of selfless submission to the will of the people that will eternally redeem Jonathan in Nigerian history. This end, then, could justify the murky path of this humble man from Otuoke who started life without shoes but has risen to great power and now to the honour roll of great Nigerians.



The message from the foregoing is profound yet so simple: In losing power, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has finally found himself.

Buhari vows to eradicate Boko Haram when he gets into office

In a meeting with foreign news media CNN yesterday night, Nigeria’s leader elect Gen. Buhari guaranteed to “plug” corruption and pulverize Boko Haram in 2 months.
buhari

He told CNN’s Amanpour from Abuja the previous evening


“We know how they started and where they are now and we will rapidly give attention to security in the country. And I believe we will ef­fectively deal with them in two months when we get into office. We will be needing the cooperation of neighbour­ing countries such as Cam­eroon, Chad and Niger. There were efforts made by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, but it was not good enough and it came rather late”


“We expected the Federal Gov­ernment four years ago to sit down with these coun­tries andmake sure they do not allow the terrorists free movement across bor­ders, training facilities and movement of weapons. These were only done a few months ago and we have seen how Cameroon, Chad and Niger are fighting Boko Haram more than Ni­geria is doing until recently. Really we have seen enough and we have enough law enforcement to face Boko Haram squarely.”


Buhari said the military didn’t perform as well as they should have because of corruption in the system


“They will…if you re­call, the Nigerian soldiers out of all ethical expecta­tions were granting inter­views to foreign journalists, saying they were being sent to fight terrorists without proper weapons. And then the National Assembly attempted to conduct a hearing to find out how much money was approved for training and weapon in the last three years but that hearing was scuttled by the administra­tion.”

Aluta Continua..!! Seun Kuti thanks APC leader, The Jagaban for bringing change to Nigeria

GMB may have imprisoned his dad yet Seun Kuti appears to have proceeded onward from it.


He took to twitter to express gratitude toward Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for conveying change to Nigeria…

Maheeda changes mode of dressing as Buhari wins election

Photos: Atiku Abubakar meets Buhari in Abuja to congratulate him

The previous VP met with the president-choose yesterday in Abuja to praise him on winning the presidential race.


He imparted the photographs on his Facebook page. Another pic when you proceed.

Abia PDP accuses INEC of double standard !

The Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has commended President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat at last Saturday’s presidential poll.
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The Chairman of PDP in the state, Senator Emma Nwaka, who addressed journalists on Wednesday in Umuahia on the outcome of the elections, said Jonathan had by conceding defeat distinguished himself as “an icon of peace.”


He said the President had by his peaceful disposition demonstrated that he valued Nigeria’s peace and unity more than his personal interest. Nwaka called on the nation’s leaders to emulate him. Nwaka, however, blamed Jonathan’s electoral misfortunes on the Independent National Electoral Commission, which he accused of introducing two different rules for the polls.


He argued that whereas voters in the South, a region considered Jonathan’s stronghold   were strictly adhering to the use of card readers for accreditation, manual accreditation was allowed for voters in the North.  This, he said, accounted for the low number of accredited voters recorded in the South during the polls, a situation he said gave Buhari an edge over Jonathan.


He argued that if the massive number of voters who trooped out in the South to vote but could not be accredited following the failure of card readers were allowed to vote, Jonathan would have won.  Nwaka described the card reader as a huge disaster but urged the PDP faithful to remain calm and steadfast in their support for the party.


On the continued delay in announcing the result of the Abia North senatorial election , Nwaka called on INEC to declare the winner of the contest without any further delay so as not to undermine the integrity of the exercise. He claimed that the PDP candidate had been declared winner in four out of the five councils in the zone by the collation officers, and urged INEC to declare him winner.


Nwaka said it was unacceptable for INEC to fail to declare the winner of the contest four days after the poll.

Jega for Nobel award !

Now that the change in the political leadership we desire in Nigeria has become a reality, what is our immediate need? Stable, relatively cheap electricity is our major need.


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The multiplier effect of uninterrupted electricity cannot be over-emphasised. Our moribund refineries must work again. I salute Prof. Attahiru Jega’s uncommon determination for success. l recommend Jega for a Nobel Peace award. Except God, no one could have restrained Jega from losing his head when Godsday Orubebe acted the fool in the full glare of cameras.


Pastor Taiwo Ekun-ode,


SangOta, Ogun State,


+2348059052

Pay dying Imo contractors

It is no longer news that an Army of Imo State contractors under the aegis of unpaid Imo contractors are being owed over N180bn since 2011.
Imo contractors


The contracts range from road construction, buildings, supply and other civil engineering works. Unfortunately, the association has suffered untold hardship in accessing their pay before the administration (which keeps on making failed promises) inspite of the harassment meted out to its members by banks over loans.


Worst still, 19 of their members have reportedly died of heart attack,while government is insisting it is owing none. This serves as a distress call to the state governor, Rochas Okorocha,who claims to be running a rescue mission.


ONYEYIRI Chidi,


Owerri, Imo State,


+2348035428

We may return to the Creeks, says Asari-Dokubo

A former Niger-Delta militant, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, says with the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan, he and other militants may be forced to return to the creeks.
asari_dokunbo


Asari-Dokubo, who hails from the same state as Jonathan, said the voting pattern showed that the South-West and the North ganged up against the South-South and South-East geo-political zones.


The ex-militant said in a statement by his spokesperson, Rex Anighoro, that it was unfair that the minorities were being emasculated by the majority ethnic groups.  He said he feared that the government of the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, would be vicious.


Asari-Dokubo said,


“The conditions that advanced the need to embrace the creeks have been sadly re-energised. It is clear that a vicious government who may maim and murder the voice of the so-called minorities may have just been birthed.  “Indeed integration is non-existent as regional gang-ups and supremacy is symbolic with this victory.”


The ex-militant, who had in January said he and his colleagues would wreak havoc if Jonathan lost the election, praised the President for being a true statesman.  He said it was the struggle of the militants that led to the Jonathan presidency.  Asari-Dokubo said since the South-South had lost the presidency, ex-militants would meet to decide the next line of action.


He said,

While President Jonathan enjoys his moments and basks in the euphoria of a new world-renowned statesman having congratulated Muhammadu Buhari, we must quickly be reminded that our struggle was never about Jonathan or about the presidency.  “President Jonathan is an establishment beneficiary of our struggle, our sweat and blood that many bled and died for. He was never in the struggle and he can never wish away our collective march for statesmanship.


“Yes indeed, to an extent, he was a mitigating factor in self-determination pursuit as we went on sabbatical. This mitigation he seems to have willingly repudiated. The days coming will be critical. We shall study all the conditions and consult widely before determining the way forward for our collective existence and survival as a people. The days coming shall either drive the quest of integration or further separate us.”

Jega & his colleague profs

Watching how the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, was relating with his colleagues, all professors and heads of universities in the country, at the presidential election collation centre, is a lesson in civility for us all to imbibe.
jega


You could see the show of respect from these distinguished academia to their colleague, Prof. Jega in their presentation of the collated presidential election results, notwithstanding that they are equal in the academics.


This culture of respect exhibited by these professors is a challenge to our youths to emulate. Respect your elders and those in authority with civility. But the challenge to the system now is that; how will a successor in office to Jega, who is not an academia draw from this poll of academia? This is a food for thought.


Prof. Jega, well done for this initiative in election process management.


Gabriel Ipheghe,


206 Road, FESTAC Town,


Lagos State,


+2348022920

Palestine Officially joins ICC

Palestine has formally attained membership of the International Criminal Court, a move that could open the door to possible war crime indictments against Israeli officials despite uncertainty over its wider ramifications.
Palestine formally joins ICC

The accession on Wednesday is another landmark in the Palestinian diplomatic and legal international campaign, which gained steam in 2014.


The Palestinians moved to join The Hague-based court on January 2, in a process that was finalised on Wednesday, setting the scene for potential legal action.


“Palestine has and will continue to use all legitimate tools within its means in order to defend itself against Israeli colonisation and other violations of international law,” said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat.


Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from The Hague, said despite their membership, the Palestinians may still have to wait for the ICC to begin investigating Israelis accused of war crimes.


“This is such a heavily politicised case, that the court will have to think hard before taking action against the Israelis. It may be years before we something.”


Diana Chehade, a former ICC official, told Al Jazeera, preliminary examinations could be completed by the end of this year, but the court would not investigate cases already being looked in to by other judicial institutions.


“Based on the principle of complimentarity, the ICC would not investigate if an Israeli judicial institution is investigating a war crime to ICC standards,” Chehade said.

20 dead, 36 injured in Afghan suicide bombing

Details later
AFGHANISTAN-UNREST-KABUL

Students held hostage in Kenya university attack

Masked gunmen have attacked a university in the town of Garissa in northeast Kenya, police said, as ongoing gunfire could be heard from the university premises.
Kenya university attack


Witnesses said explosion and heavy gunfire rocked Garissa University College early on Thursday as the gunmen stormed the complex. Ambulances were seen driving injured students to local hospitals.


The gunmen were holding an “unknown number of student hostages,” the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement. Some “50 students have been safely freed”, the organisation said.


Police spokesperson Zipporah Mboroki told Al Jazeera that the situation is ongoing and that the gunmen were holed up inside the university complex.


“The attackers shot the guards at the entrance of the university. Police officers responded but the attackers managed to get into the [university] hostel,” she said.


“We can confirm that two watchmen were killed; we cannot confirm student casualties,” Mboroki added.


Local journalists, however, reported that at least 10 bodies were brought to a hospital in Garissa.


“The Kenyan Defence Force and all security agencies within Garissa have been deployed to the scene,” Mboroki said.


The attack on the university facility began at dawn, Alinoor Moulid, a freelance journalist based in Garissa, told Al Jazeera.


“According to some of the students who escaped, there are around five gunmen and they entered the university dormitory while students were sleeping,” Moulid said.


“It is hard to tell [about casualties] because the area is now cordoned off, and it is heavily guarded,” he added.

Letter To Mr President

gej

Mr. President Sir,


I have watched in the past years up till this moment how things have unfolded since you came into power as The President Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria and I will commend your efforts so far amidst criticisms this letter might bring up from anyone.


Sir, you are the only president I know that has ruled with so much pain, pressure, abuses, attacks, hate and still, in one way or the other made meaningful progress in this nation whether haters accept it or not. Sometimes I wonder if you eat well, sleep well or even have a personal time with yourself, your wife and your family.


Sir, you developed other parts of this country so well, still they couldn’t stand for you when you needed them, and the South that was yet to enjoy you as their son still stood by you and gave you their votes. This just goes to show that blood indeed is thicker than water. You are our own and we will never reject or abandon you.


As you have accepted our new President Elect General Muhammadu Buhari so have we, and as we love you, so do we equally have a deep regard for him.


You are the only selfless Nigerian President who had no problem giving up his dreams, aspirations and ambition for the safety of his people. For this sir, we owe you a debt of eternal gratitude, for you have given us a new story for our children, a new song in our mouth. You actually achieved your transformation agenda by transforming Nigerian politics, the People’s Democratic Party, Nigerian History and so many other sectors.


A president that was highly and widely scorned is now a president that is highly and widely celebrated, one to reckon with.


Take a bow Mr. President, for you have rewritten our political history.


You are a legend and my hero sir, THANK YOU.


 


Signed


A Nigerian citizen with the love of country at heart!


 


Abang Dove is a writer, a poet, an entrepreneur and an activist, she blogs HERE tweets @abangdove and you can also reach her HERE

PDP congratulates Buhari, alleges irregularities

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has congratulated Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.) for winning the March 28 Presidential Election.
pdp_chairman


It said if the outcome of the election, which its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, lost, was the wishes of the people, it would respect it.


The party’s position was contained in a statement by its National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mua’zu, in Abuja on Thursday.


His position appears to be at variance with the views expressed by agents of the party during the collation of the votes in Abuja early this week.


One of the party’s agents, Col. Bello Fadile(retd.), had said the party would challenge the outcome of the election at the election petitions tribunal.


Mua’zu, in his statement, also said the party noticed some irregularities in the conduct of the election.


The party’s complaints on such irregularities, he said, would be channelled through the appropriate quarters.


The former governor of Bauchi State nevertheless went ahead to congratulate Buhari for winning the election.


He said, “We also congratulate the APC flag bearer, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, for his resilience and victory in this election while wishing him success in the onerous task of leading our nation once again.”


Details later…

What is wrong with this Photo ?

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How would you caption this Photo ?

Major A. Hassan Passes on !

Major A. Hassan

Major A. Hassan was killed on Sunday March 29 by Boko Harram men that assaulted Bauchi state. He was the flush authority of 33 ordnance Brigade, Bauchi.


Sun re O. Ase !

Photos: PDP Governors pay solidarity visit to President Jonathan.

PDP Governors led by the Chairman of the PDP governors forum, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state, paid a solidarity visit to President Jonathan at the Presidential villa yesterday April 1st.


The governors inattendance were Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe); Ramalan Yero (Kaduna); Lyel Imoke (Cross River); Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa); Sullivan Chime (Enugu); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Martin Elechi (Eboyi); and Idris Wada (Kogi).

Speaking with newsmen.

Mama Peace calls on Nigerian women to support Mrs Buhari

1st Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan has approached all Nigerian ladies to show backing to the approaching first woman, Mrs Aisha Buhari.


In a celebratory message signed by her media assistant, Ayo Adewuyi, Mrs Jonathan wished Mrs Buhari well in her new errand as First Lady of Nigeria.


“The First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan (Mama Peace) has congratulated the wife of the President elect, Hajia Aisha Buhari on the election of her husband, Gen Muhammadu Buhari. The First Lady appeals to the Nigerian women to work with Hajia Aisha Buhari and give her the maximun support to make her succeed in her new assignment. The First Lady (Mama Peace) wishes her well in her new task.” the message read in part

OBJ writes GMB a letter

obj_gmb


The full text of the letter below…


I hasten to congratulate you on your success and victory in the Presidential Elections of March 28, 2015. Your success and victory after three previous unsuccessful attempts must be great object lessons for you and for all politicians, particularly in Nigeria. For me, the totality of 2015 elections hold many lessons for our democracy and democratisation process, which are both maturing. On this occasion, the system has been unnecessarily overheated before and particularly during the campaigns when emphasis was more on trivialities and hate, divisive, undignifying and disrespectful statements and comments rather than on pressing issues requiring attention.


I know that in victory, you will be magnanimous to start binding the wounds and bitterness occasioned by the campaign and the evil disciples.


With so much harm already done to many national institutions including the military, which proudly nurtured you and me, you will have a lot to do on institution reform, education, healthcare, economy, security, infrastructure, power, youth employment, agribusiness, oil and gas, external affairs, cohesiveness of our nation and ridding our land of corruption.


Your varied and wide experience will undoubtedly stand you in good stead. I am also sure that there are men and women of goodwill, character and virtue across the board that you can mobilise to join hands with you in the reform, repairs and redirection that will be imperative to put Nigeria back on the fast lane of good governance, unity, cohesiveness, development and progress.


Once again, I felicitate with you and wish you well.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

01.04.2015 Ukrainian crisis news. Latest news of Ukraine, Kiev, USA, Lukashenko

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31.03.2015 Ukrainian crisis news. War in Ukraine, DPR, Poroshenko, Yatsenuk, India

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Ribadu praises Nigerians, congratulates Buhari, Jonathan

A former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, has commended Nigerians for the orderly manner in which they conducted themselves during the just-concluded national election and its aftermath.


mallam_nuhu_ribadu


Mr. Ribadu who praised President Goodluck Jonathan for providing a level playing field for free and fair election, also congratulated the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) for what he described as a hard-earned victory.


He stressed the need for fairness and justice to all as requisites for achieving national unity and integration.


A statement issued in Yola by Mr. Ribadu’s media aide, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, quoted the Adamawa State Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the April 11 governorship election, as hailing the Nigerian electorate for “mature and orderly manner during the polls and their reaction to the results” saying that attitude “has shamed agents of doom”.


He said the peaceful conduct and sportsmanship exhibited at the polls despite passion and high hopes from both sides were signs that “Nigeria’s democracy has come of age.


“I am particularly happy that despite ominous predictions of violence, the process has come and gone peacefully,” Mr. Ribadu noted, “Credit should go to President Goodluck Jonathan who promptly conceded and called for calm.”


According to him, “the two leading candidates demonstrated exemplary restraint and maturity by staying resolute and focused and by their refusal to be dragged into attacking each other throughout the campaign period”.


Mr. Ribadu called on the electorates to reflect this conduct when they return to the booth to elect governors and state assembly members on April 11.


“It is important to note that at the end of the day, our country, our states and democracy should be made the ultimate winners”.


“As we approach the next round of election, we should remember that the first winner should be our states and our people, thus the need to be peaceful conduct,” statement further added.

Gani Adams praises Buhari, says he’s Nigeria’s Abraham Lincoln

The Oodua Peoples Congress on Wednesday sent a congratulatory message to President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, over his election victory.


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The National Coordinator of the Congress, Gani Adams, in the congratulatory message made available to PREMIUM TIMES said the success of Mr. Buhari at the election across the country proved he is the choice of the people. Mr. Adams commended him for his resilience and tenacity over the years.


“I wish to send my congratulations to the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his success in the recently-concluded presidential election. By his resounding success in the election across the country, General Buhari has proved that he is the choice of the people,” Mr. Adams stated.


“I commend his resilience and tenacity over the years which have seen him equal the record of great leaders like Abraham Lincoln of the USA. His victory is a lesson to all of us that we can be what we want to be if we are patient and persistent in our legitimate pursuits in life”.


“His speeches before, during and after the election are also commendable because they went a long way in dousing the tension in the country.


This actually shows that the ‘Peoples General’ as he is fondly called is indeed a statesman’.


The Congress leader called on Mr. Buhari to begin to see himself as the president-elect of all Nigerians and not just that of the All Progressives Congress.


“However, having won the election, I want the president-elect to begin to see himself as the president-elect of all Nigerians and not just that of the All Progressives Congress (APC). For him, it is time to mend whatever differences that may have arisen as a result of the election.


“It is time for all Nigerians, irrespective of political affiliation, to come together to continue to build our nation in a positive way, which of course, should be the focus of the president-elect himself and every other political leader across the various political parties in the country”, Mr. Adams said.


“And for all of us, it is a new dawn in the annals of the country for an opposition party to win in a popular election.


Mr. Adams also congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan for creating a level-playing ground for all the parties that contested the election and the high spirit of sportsmanship he displayed when he called to congratulate the president-elect even before all the results were released.


“By his action, President Jonathan has truly lived up to his statement that his ambition is not worth the life of any Nigerian. This is an exemplary feat, which any other presidents coming after him must not fall short of achieving.


“And to all Nigerians, who by their participation in the election also deserve kudos as they defied the weather, distance and other hurdles to cast their votes. Their actions have revealed that democracy in the country has come to stay”.


“I urge them not to rest on their oars as their consistency in holding leaders accountable to their promises will go a long way in bringing out the best from the public office holders.


Mr. Adams was among notable personalities in the South-West opposed to Mr. Buhari’s election.


Shortly before the election, he organised a pro-Jonathan rally in Lagos which turned violent.


He promised to deliver six million votes to Mr. Jonathan, but he was unable to do so.
Source

Lobatan!! Nigerian Pr*stitutes Congratulate Buhari, Declare Nationwide Free S*x

The National Association of Nigeria Pr*stitutes, NANP, has congratulated the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on his victory in the just concluded presidential election.
pros


The group while describing Buhari’s emergence as the president-elect as victory for all Nigerians, equally saluted the outgoing leader, President Goodluck Jonathan for accepting defeat without pushing further.


Restating its earlier promise, the group said it is declaring three days of free s*x nationwide to celebrate Buhari’s victory.


The group had in a statement issued in January promised declare a-three day free s*x across the country if president Jonathan eventually loses the seat to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of APC.


NANP in a text message forwarded to DAILY POST Wednesday morning urged its members nationwide to comply with the directive.


The terse statement sent by its National Secretary, Jessica Elvis called on Buhari to legalise commercial s*x work as well as improve their welfare.


“Hi Ameh, please kindly extend NANP’s felicitation to Gen. Buhari for winning the presidential election. On behalf of every member of NANP, we heartily congratulate the People’s General for winning the poll. As part of our earlier promise, we will be declaring a three-day free s*x nationwide. We want all our members to honour this directive. We want to use this privilege to beg the President-elect to look into the welfare of this association. We believe his victory will surely better this harmless struggle,” the SMS read.


Source: Dailypost