JONATHAN REFUSED TO SAY "AMEN"

Democracy Day Church Service: President Jonathan, Ministers, Refuse To Say "Amen" To Anti-Corruption Prayer By Clergy-PREMIUM TIMES

Posted by SaharaReporters: May 27, 2012 - 23:05

Goodluck, Gov. Yakowa, Senator Ayogu Eze, Patience Jonathan and Gov. Seriake Dickson at Abuja church service today

President Goodluck Jonathan, governors, ministers and top government officials on Sunday failed to demonstrate a public commitment to the fight against corruption.

At the interdenominational church service held at the Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, to commemorate the 2012 National Democracy Day, the guest preacher and immediate past Prelate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Most Reverend Peter Akinola, in his sermon, challenged the congregation to join him in the fight against corruption in the country by committing perpetrators to God.

But the congregation, including the President, who was accompanied by his wife, Patience, the Governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson and Kaduna, Patrick Yakowa, Deputy Governor of Nasarawa state, Dameshi Luka, as well as some ministers failed to respond to prayers to take corrupt officials “to the court of God.”

Apparently, expecting to hear a thunderous YES from the congregation, the Reverend, who instead got a deafening silence, exclaimed: “There you go! Oh, corruption! So, you are not ready to fight it, because you are all beneficiaries of it. Whether you steal in a small or big way, stealing is stealing."

Apparently disappointed with the response he got, the clergyman shot angrily at Mr. Jonathan and his delegation, “See, it is very clear. You are not interested in fighting corruption. If you do, let us take our case to the court of God, if you dare. Who is deceiving who? You are only deceiving yourselves, not God. And you who is stealing government funds, subjecting the poor to untold hardship; you who steal oil subsidy money, making Nigerians pay for fuel through their noses; you who steal funds meant for improving our power supply, deliberately making Nigerians live a life in utter darkness, will you repent today? I doubt it!"

Before throwing the challenge at the president and other officials at the Service, Mr. Akinola  had delivered a homily on the destructive impact of corruption on Nigeria.

“This hydra headed monster (of corruption) has literarily taken over the soul and eaten up the fabric of Nigeria,” Reverend Akinola said. “Officials steal our public funds openly by the pen, while others steal by the power of the gun. Successive governments have declared half-hearted war against corruption to no avail. We know only too well that the fight against corruption is largely selective directed at those opposing the government, with no strong political connection.



“Many of those fighting it (corruption) in police and Judiciary have no clean hands. When any National Assembly Committee or any government agency is inviting anybody for questioning it is because those being investigated have not yet given the agency inviting it their due share of the booty.

“Worse still, those who have cleverly made away with public funds and are living above their legitimate incomes are those who are being honoured by traditional rulers, who make them chiefs and high chiefs. Recently, our universities have joined the queue by inviting those people and giving them some baseless honorary doctorate degrees.Sadly, therefore, corruption will continue in full gear, because Nigerians and the government only pay lip service to its eradication. But, I believed as a Christian, as a preacher, as one who reads the Bible, there a way out."

He continued, “Corruption in a narrow sense is another name for stealing. Stealing is a sin God commands us all not to commit. As you know every soul that sins and fails to repent shall die in his sin and end up in hell. So, let us resolve here today to take to the court of God, beginning from this place, all those thieves, who have failed to repent. Will you join me?

“You who steal the money for road construction, leaving our roads in a state of disrepair, causing several accidents and untimely deaths of thousands of our people, their blood is crying to the creator. You who steal the money earmarked for healthcare delivery, thereby running down and turning our hospitals into mortuaries; you who have destroyed our educational system, because the money meant for schools never got to them; you who make laws to inflate costs included in the budget, are you listening to me?

“All of you, whoever you are, greedy, arrogant politicians and officials who are in government only for what you can steal from it and virtually nothing to contribute to national development and has turned Nigeria into a wretch, repent today, and make reparations and God will have mercy on you. Don’t say Amen, only if you repent.

“It is true that ICPC, EFCC, the Police, judiciary may not catch you stealing. But believe me, the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-wise and the almighty God sees you very clearly. But, He is patiently waiting for you to return to the path of sanity and righteousness.”

In his speech, President Jonathan did not react to the issues raised by the preacher, who also proffered a proposal for a new Nigeria.

The president, who identified terrorism as a major challenge the country is currently facing, said with the prayers of Nigerians and commitment of government, “we will overcome”.

“We are working very hard to reposition our security architecture to cope with the modern challenge of terror. We will overcome,” he said. “Even though some people are predicting the disintegration of Nigeria, let me assure Nigerians that Nigeria will never disintegrate. Our forefathers worked hard to bring us together as a nation. Because of the country’s potentials and resources, no one individual or group can create problems that can disintegrate this country.”By Bassey Udo.


 UPDATE SINCE THE ABOVE POST:

Abuja– Spokesperson for President Jonathan Ebele Goodluck, Mr Reuben Abati, has responded to accusations that Jonathan and members of his cabal refused to say amen to at this weekend’s democracy day Church Service when the preacher offered a prayerful curse against corruption amongst public officials.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Abati revealed aspects of protocol that are not widely known outside Government circles, and which would explain why Mr President and ministers didn’t say Amen to the prayer by Most Reverend Peter Akinola, committing corrupt politicians to the court of God.


According to him, it is a long standing presidential protocol that during Church or Mosque services, the President only offers a fixed number of amens or amis, as the case may be.
The Reverend had offered many prayers and demanded many amens prior to the contentious one, Abati explained, the result of which was that the day’s quota of amens had been used up.
“Why?” asked the spokesperson, “would President not say amen to a prayer against corruption?”
He advised preachers, pastors, imams etc, to familiarise themselves with government protocol and to also limit the length of their prayers and sermons.

“It is the same people accusing the President of not saying amen to anti-corruption prayer that would be accusing him of favouritism if he had broken with protocol and said more amens than is allowed by constitution,” Abati said.
Culled : http://www.wazobiareport.com/reports/Reuben-Abati-explains-why-The-President-didnt-say-Amen-to-Anti-Corruption-Prayer.

 SO WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT THIS ACT BY THE PRESIDENT BEFORE THE ELECTION? TIS THIS NOT THE SAME PRESIDENT JONATHAN KNEELING IN PUBLIC IN FRONT OF PASTOR ADEBOYE?


NIGERIANS PLEASE BE AWAKE-Some Pastors ordred Nigerians to pray for those who are subjecting them and their children to untold hardship because they are all corrupt. It is all part of their distraction strategy. The gullibles get easily distracted by Bible pushers everytime they want to fight corruption and set them self free. It is even more hypocritical for anyone of these people to shout the name of God or hide behind the bible when the fact is that thousands are dying needlessly arouund them. I wonder what they wouuld say if God asked them what they did when thousands and millions of their fellows are dying needlessly. What would their answears be? They were praying and hiding behind the bible? Is that what Jesus did? So which God are they serving?

TRAGEDY THAT AFFECT ALL- RIP NABIL.

For Nabil

Posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 3:58 PM By BellaNaija.com

 

This post was written by one of our readers who would prefer to remain anonymous. She writes from the depth of her heart.

***

On Friday, the 11^th of May 2012, Nabil complained of a headache. His best friend and business partner took him to one of the renowned private hospitals on Lagos Island and that day, he slipped into a coma.  After a series of tests were conducted, they discovered he had a bleed in his brain. For some reason, there was no qualified neurosurgeon available and they were unable to find one within the time frame and it became imperative that he had to be taken out of the country.

My friend Nabil Hanga passed on the following day shortly after their departure from Lagos.  As I type this I’m still reeling from the shock of the sudden loss.  My friend died and it was because our health care system in Nigeria ranges from crumbling to non-existent.  Friends and family rallied round and raised over a $100,000 to try and get him out of here as fast as possible but it was to no avail.

My friend, my kind sweet friend is not here anymore because there was no qualified doctor to help him. He was 26 years old. He was a mathematical genius with a beautiful mind and a loving heart.

He believed Nigeria was the future and therefore wanted to invest in his country. He won’t get the chance, because he’s gone. But you and I are still here. We need to do something about the lackadaisical attitude towards the fabric of our society that is falling apart over our heads. We are losing our future because we are not willing to invest in our today. We go overseas for everything education, healthcare and even our furnishing and forget about our dire circumstances.

I cannot do much, I am not a politician or a millionaire but all I have is my voice and my words and I believe we can all raise our voices to speak against the system that allows this kind of meaningless deaths.  A system where a very minimal percentage of the populace is able to afford good health care which is not even available within the shores of this country is not sustainable.

Change does not come overnight or through one article but it has to start somewhere.

***
 

Nabil had an impact on so many people and his untimely passing is inspiring people to act to improve our healthcare system. Here is another submission by a friend of his.

It is painful because if it wasn’t for human error/inefficiency Nabil might still be here. They say it is always the best of us that go first. Nabil was simply a genius, focused, kind and didn’t care too much for the materialistic lifestyle a lot of us are obsessed about. He was simple and always talked with this calm gentle tone even though we all know he could argue. He did not harm his body with alcohol or drugs or cigarettes. He was innovative – it was obvious he was really going to contribute something great to Nigeria YET God decided that he will leave this earth before us. Money was no object so save Nabil’s life, private jets and hundreds of thousands of dollars were at his disposal in a couple of hours, but money cannot guarantee life. Who are we to know better than God but what we can do is to get the message from this sad event. It is time to stop living in ignorance and it is time to grow up. We all need to stop harming our bodies because it is fragile and our biggest treasure. We need to stop focusing on things that really do not matter because even if you lived the pure life that Nabil did, tomorrow might be the day you face God. This is also how we can remember Nabil’s life and he will not die in vain.

Tags: Nabil Hanga, RIP
Filed under: Inspired!, News & Features 


Posted by Nigerian Global Awakening member-Ms Toyin Ajao.


May Mr Nabil soul and thousands of victims of neglect and corruption in Nigeria rest in peace.

"NDI OKEREKE-ONYIUKE'S FAKE DOCTORATE AND PROFESSORSHIP"

  

Notes from Atlanta:http://www.farooqkperogi.com/2011/06/ndi-okereke-onyiukes-fake-doctorate-and.html

 Saturday, June 25, 2011

Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s Fake Doctorate and Professorship. By Farooq A. Kperogi (Notes from Atlanta)

I don’t want to be known as the guy who exposes or popularizes exposés on people’s forged qualifications. But when our reporters have shown themselves to be either unable or unwilling to bring to light cases of shockingly brazen and bizarre certificate forgeries in high places, it behooves those of us on the reportorial fringes but with knowledge of these frauds to fill the gap.

Early this month, the Nigerian diasporan online media were abuzz over the scandal of Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s fake doctorate degree on the basis of which she became so many things in Nigeria. The stories were accompanied by compellingly irrefutable documentary proofs of her culpability. Strangely, however, no Nigerian newspaper has touched the story with a ten-foot pole.

Ms. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke

Essentially, it has been established that Okereke-Onyiuke’s claim to have earned a Ph.D. in business from the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1983 is fake. This shocking discovery was instigated by investigations into her other famous claim to have worked for years at the New York Stock Exchange (the world’s largest stock exchange) before returning to Nigeria in 1983. That claim has since been proven to be false as well.

In January this year, the (American) Securities and Exchange Commission sent a request to the City University of New York’s Graduate School asking to know if Okereke-Onyiuke indeed earned a Ph.D. in business from the school. The Director of Student Services and Senior Registrar of CUNY’s Graduate School, identified as Vincent J. De Luca, categorically said in a statement that she did not.

“On January 18, 2011, I caused a search to be conducted of our student records (including graduation records) at The Graduate Center, at the request of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, to determine if Ms. Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke was ever enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Business and if she received a Ph.D. in Business at The Graduate Center,” De Luca wrote in a sworn affidavit in New York.

“A thorough search of our electronic and paper files for the names, Ndi Leche Okereke, Ndi Okereke, Ndi Okereke – Onyiuke and Ndi Lechi Okereke – Onyiuke was conducted. No record was found that Ms. Ndi Okereke – Onyiuke ever enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Business or received a Ph.D. in Business at The Graduate Center.”   (Click here to see the PDF file of the affidavit).

Even the authenticity of her bachelor’s degree is being called to question. A search in the database of the U.S. Department of Education and the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges by a Nigerian online citizen media site found no record for the undergraduate school she claimed to have attended.

Given that all the things around which the social and intellectual basis of her legitimacy revolve have turned out to be fake—e.g. her claim to have worked at the New York Stock Exchange, her claim to have earned a Ph.D. in business, etc—I won’t be shocked if it turns out that, like Andy Uba, she actually does not even have a legitimate high school qualification. It would really be dismally dispiriting on so many levels if this were to be the case.

I now have no doubt that Nigeria is the safe haven for, and the world’s capital of, fakery in high places. Why wouldn’t it be when we have embraced and internalized a culture of glamorizing incompetence and mediocrity? All it takes to climb to the upper reaches of the social scale in Nigeria is to have the ability or luck to know the “right” people in the “right” places— and to be able to scheme and connive and bootlick.

But, for me as an academic, the bigger scandal in all this is that the University of Nigeria Nsukka, one of our finest universities, actually awarded Okereke-Onyiuke a “professorship” in “capital market studies” in 2007 when, in fact, she has never had a full-time appointment with the university. Let’s even forget for now that her Ph.D. is fake. A professorship is not an honorary title that can be arbitrarily bestowed on people who pay for it—the way the honorary doctorate degree has become in Nigeria. A professorship is the highest-ranking position for a university academic, and people don’t get it unless they actually teach, research, and render services on a full-time basis in a university.

There are three main criteria to rise through the academic rank: teaching, research, and service. Since Okereke-Onyiuke has never taught at UNN and has no scholarly, peer-reviewed publications to her credit, she absolutely has no business being a professor. Awarding a professorship to her in spite of the obvious absurdity of doing so is the most scandalously grotesque profanation of that title I have ever encountered anywhere in the world.

Yes, there are several university professors in Nigeria who are not worthy of that title on the basis of their research output (which requires over 40 peer-reviewed scholarly articles in academic journals or at least two scholarly books published by reputable academic presses), but they at least actually teach—or taught—in a university and render(ed) services in various capacities in the universities as a matter of routine. After all, in the United States, there are people who become “full professors” (as Americans call professors) on the strength of their teaching alone. They are called “teaching professors” as opposed to “research professors.”

Okereke-Onyiuke’s only association with university teaching, according to her official bio, was when she taught “MBA, MBF and MSC classes” at the University of Lagos between 1995 and 1997 as a part-time lecturer. (I pity the unfortunate students who had the misfortune to be taught by her). Interestingly, it is UNN, not UNILAG where she “taught” part time for two years, that conferred a “professorship” on her.

Well, now that it has come to light that Okereke-Onyiuke’s Ph.D. is fake and that her professional profile is willfully hyperbolized (to put it nicely), does UNN owe its students, staff, and alumni an apology for shamelessly desecrating the highest possible honor in academia by awarding it to an undeserving forger?

But it’s not only Okereke-Onyiuke that UNN has awarded an unorthodox, unmerited professorship to. Dora Akunyili is another. Although she taught at the university for long, she left for public service when she was many ranks away from a professorship. Curiously, however, it was while she was officially away from teaching, research, and university service that she mysteriously skipped several ranks and became a “professor.” What’s really going on at UNN?

To be sure, it’s universal practice to appoint people with extensive industry experience (who may not even possess a Ph.D.) to professorships. In America, such people are called “professors of practice.” But in all cases, the professors of practice often resign from their jobs and become full-time employees of the university that appoints them to the position.

Given the multiple layers of dissimulation in Okereke-Onyiuke’s educational and work profiles, it’s obvious that she wasn’t worthy of being a professor of practice in any university, except we want to degenerate into teaching what she actually practiced—forgery.

  

OBASANJO, A SAINT OR DEVIL?

Between Obasanjo and the Financial Times By Sonala Olumhense

Posted by SaharaReporters: May 25, 2012 - 17:51

Olusegun Obasaqnjo

I’ll be the first to admit it: journalism in Nigeria is a lover, not a fighter.  Journalists may not be happy with the state of affairs but they do not necessarily address the most pertinent stories.
For some reason, reporters do not get their bad stories hurled back at them.  They do not get tossed back to the streets or to the phone or to the library to in an effort to fill the holes in their stories.  That would suggest a newsroom that does not recognize burnt offerings disguised as a king’s buffet, or even that the editors are responsible for each culinary catastrophe.

But the most dangerous ailment which can afflict a journalist is not lack of capacity, because training can cure that.  The ailment which surpasses all—and is incurable— is amnesia, and that is what currently hounds most of Nigeria’s press.  Send a story to the press and that is the end of the matter.  Everyone treads carefully, avoiding the betrayal of a sneeze that could blow the leaves off the rotting corpse.
Perhaps this is why such an esteemed journalist as Mr. Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times who undertook a “personal” tour of West Africa recently, made Nigeria his first stop.

Once in Abuja, he picked on a larger-than-life first subject: Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ), two times Nigeria’s ruler, who came in for undeserved recognition.  Mr. Barber could have welcomed to his interview no bigger traitor of the Nigerian cause. To begin with, OBJ is not “the father of modern Nigeria;” he is the modern Nigeria menace.  The Nigeria of Mr. Lionel Barber’s time is worse than the Nigeria of his father’s largely because of OBJ.
Indeed, if one must link OBJ with the paternity of “modern Nigeria” in any but a pejorative sense, it is that—especially when confronted by a tiptoeing and ignorant journalist, foreign or domestic—he struts and poses as a significant piece.

 OBJ is a significant piece of Nigerian history, but it is an intensely criminal one.  If Nigeria has failed to gain any development traction in this millennium, OBJ is the sole reason, and his gamble is that history, with the connivance of blindsided journalists, will not recognize this fact.
This is why it is strange to learn from Mr. Barber that OBJ has a “Nigeria First” slogan.  I have written for Nigerian newspapers since 1973, when I left secondary school, and it is the first time I am hearing of this claim, obviously because it was manufactured for Mr. Barber’s benefit.  For OBJ, it has always been OBJ first, and always.
And he is “Baba” only to those who sadly have no father, or who have some seedy relationship him.  He had no compunctions leaving anyone without a father.  And apart from the contradictions of his public life, the shameful stories of his personal life, as published by some of his closest relatives, have not endeared the man to anyone.

But let me acknowledge the highlights of his political career, or what some people call his achievements:
•    In 1979, after three years as military head of state, he supervised the transfer of power to an elected government.
•    20 years later, upon a fortuitous return to office, he set up a couple of anti-corruption bodies, after laboriously identifying corruption as Nigeria’s biggest hurdle to development.
•    He spearheaded the settlement of Nigeria’s so-called debt to the Paris Club
•    He tracked down federal funds looted by Sani Abacha, the general who sent him to prison.
•    He made an avalanche of speeches.
But scratch a little, and you discover that there was nothing OBJ did that was not for OBJ.
Anyone paying attention ought to know by now that his anti-corruption claims were a ruse.   OBJ’s objectives in setting up his anti-corruption bodies were two-fold: to have a tool for intimidating his enemies; and to give the international community the impression that he was an anti-corruption champion.  In the end, his true achievement on this file was to nourish the Nigeria corruption menace from a mouse to a lion. 

Even Nuhu Ribadu, whom OBJ put in charge of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2003, has publicly confessed that OBJ was far more corrupt than Abacha!
Speaking of Abacha, between $2.5 and $5 billion was recovered of the funds the former general stole.  Curiously, almost nothing was recovered from anyone else.  In other words, OBJ’s war against corruption was no more than vengeance against his jailor.

What is even more striking about the Abacha file, however, is that all—ALL—of the so-called “Abacha loot” vanished even before OBJ left office in 2007.    Today, there is no trace of those funds or what was done with them.
Beyond Abacha, it is curious to consider that during his eight years as President, OBJ personally ran the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and corruption stank from here to London and back.  In the past few years, every probe report in the oil sector has yielded the most scandalous of stories, each of them traceable to OBJ’s eight year tenure and control.

Beyond oil, probes by the legislature into such areas of the Nigerian economy as the privatization programme, the power sector, and roads, have revealed astonishing levels of corruption and manipulation that legislators of OBJ’s own party have traced directly to him.
OBJ has also been heavily implicated in at least one international corruption scheme: Halliburton.  Investigations in the United States and Nigeria have reached the same conclusion, that OBJ accepted huge Halliburton bribes, and President Goodluck Jonathan has the reports.

Let me turn to economic reform.  The Nigerian Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), was launched by OBJ in 2004 with tremendous fanfare. He swore NEEDS would resolve fundamental problems of unemployment, electricity and inflation.  But within months, NEEDS was abandoned, unraveling as the biggest single swindle in the history of economic reform in a country with a long history of economic “reforms.”
A word about infrastructure:  The entire world knows that, next to corruption, the areas of transportation and electricity are among Nigeria’s biggest failures.  So did OBJ, and he dragged with him Nigeria’s yearning in each field.

By the time he was done, on the electricity file, somewhere between $10 and $16 billion dollars had vanished.  Indeed, the House of Representatives found that OBJ often paid money to companies that had not even broken ground for the project for which he had paid them.  The funds had disappeared into the hands of his friends and cronies. Roads?  OBJ’s government repeatedly voted funds for roads, at least N300 billion in his first term, and close to N1 trillion by the end of his tenure, according to numbers in a column I wrote on December 4, 2006.

How full of hot air was OBJ?  Perpetually, but here is one example:  On November 21, 2002 when he paid an official visit to Lagos State ahead of the 2003 elections, he swore he would end the city’s traffic jams by building new highways and “ring roads.” It was exciting, but also credible: The day before, BusinessDay reported that his government was negotiating a N20 billion World Bank loan to improve “transport infrastructure” in Lagos.  The host governor, Bola Tinubu of the opposing Alliance for Democracy party, was so happy he told OBJ, “We, the five million registered voters in Lagos declare our support for your re-election.”

OBJ won Lagos easily, and the promptly turned his back on the state.  Not only did he never build one road or one bridge, he sent his Minister of Works into infantile combat with the government of Lagos.
And did Mr. Barber know what great irony it was that that he interviewed OBJ in Abuja’s Transcorp Hilton Hotel?  OBJ’s digs, when he sweeps in, are reported to be the half-a-million Naira per night King Presidential suite, as he is virtually the landlord.  That is because he owns 200 million shares of Transcorp, bought with neither shame nor embarrassment when he was the President, in a “national” project he had just launched.

Speaking of shame, a former chairman of his PDP party, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, who is more credible than OBJ by several hundred miles, alleged in 2006 that a top member of the OBJ government walked away with a N60 billion personal “fee” during the Paris Club debt settlement.  Mr. Ogbeh actually went to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, which is now famous for its indolence and lack of character, to make the complaint.  OBJ has never denied the allegation, and the commission, typically, never investigated it. In addition, OBJ was, throughout his presidency, involved in a variety of lot of dubious deals, including the Nigeria Ports Authority, the Presidential Library, and the Petroleum Trust Development Fund.

Despite all of this—indeed, on top of all of this and more—OBJ poses as something special, dropping such notable names as Nelson Mandela and Jim Callaghan and Helmut Schmidt. It is significant, for instance, that OBJ thought that Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade was wrong [“I’ll deal with him in the morning,” he told Mr. Barber] in not yielding the Senegalese presidency when he appeared to have lost last month’s election.
[Mr. Barber, as programmed, went on to sign OBJ’s political credit-worthiness certificate: “Sure enough,” the Financial Times editor wrote, “he did. Wade stood down within minutes of the general’s démarche.”]
But only six years earlier, the same OBJ spent at least N23.45bntrying to bribe members of the National Assembly—at N50m per person—in an effort to gain an illegal third term in office.  Several members of the legislature have confirmed these payments.  I must note that these numbers do not include what he spent on other “influential” figures, such as traditional rulers.

But perhaps the greatest damage OBJ has inflicted on his country is what he did in 2006 when he found no support to continue in office.  He imposed Umaru Yar’Adua, who was dying, and Goodluck Jonathan who—apart from a singular record of lack of performance anywhere—had been indicted that same year by a top-level OBJ anti-corruption panel.  Jonathan’s wife, Patience, was also alleged by the EFCC to have been involved in two money-laundering incidents within the space of just one month. 

OBJ is currently trying to have all of these re-written in his favour, of course.  He has a campaign which says that he never tried to obtain a third term in office.  And just this week, he loudly lamented the absence of “integrity” in Nigeria’s politics, lambasting the national and State legislatures as being peopled by “rogues and armed robbers,” and the judiciary as “corrupt.”This is at first serious, then it is hilarious:  Many of the people to whom he refers are his own friends, so you know he knows them well.  One of them, remember, was the one who used OBJ’s presidential jet to launder funds in the United States, and turned around to use about $40,000 of it to buy stuff for OBJ’s Otta farm.  

And yes, Mr. Barber acknowledges OBJ as Nigeria’s “biggest chicken farmer.”  Truly impressive, when you consider that by 1997, the farm was stinking so badly that the Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Authority issued a public notice about the overwhelming pollution.  When OBJ returned from prison, the following year, he was down to his last N20, 000, and owing the banks at least N200 million.  Within a couple of years of his presidency—abracadabra!--Obasanjo announced that the farm was making about N30 million per month. It is this same two-faced creature that Mr. Barber, lacking the decency to report that OBJ twice rigged his way to Nigeria’s presidency, also described as having “won two elections marred by fraud.”

You do not win by fraud.  The truth is that OBJ routinely and repeatedly used the police, the electoral commission and the police to ensure that his party rigged elections.  When the notorious Ibadan chieftain, Lamidi Adedibu, was caught with ballot boxes in his home, ready for stuffing, OBJ urged critics to leave the man alone.  And it is well known that OBJ institutionalized the PDP’s “do or die” policy, repeatedly stating that his part will rule for “100 years.” So far, OBJ has been right: he has maintained the PDP mission, using men and women who are incapacitated physically, intellectually or ethically, while playing the international community like a piano in a rock concert.

Anywhere else in the world, OBJ would have been in a maximum security jail, with no possibility of parole and no conjugal visits; and only undercooked beans for his three meals.  But this is Nigeria, where the political elite enforce the policy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).  That is why, no matter how much OBJ insults President Jonathan, for instance [“It is not enough to talk about leadership”], or the rest of the PDP [“rogues and armed robbers,”], he will get away with.  In the end, despite all the mayhem and menace OBJ has committed, they are—one and all--deathly scared of a mud-wrestling match with the old man with the fat watch. Hopefully, journalism in Nigeria will understand that the most important response to these issues is to report them fully, firmly and fervently.  It is difficult to see that happening any time soon, however, given the ownership pattern in the business, and the natural desire of professionals to protect themselves and their families from readily-available harm.

But until something of that shift occurs, the media will continue to appear to the world as if it is a part of the mess rather than a reporter or fighter of it.  And Nollywood-watching tourist- journalists will visit the country and report the counterfeits and charlatans who, having robbed the bank, return in police uniforms to investigate the crime.

By Columnist: 

Sonala Olumhense

sonala.olumhense@gmail.com

DREAM OF A CORRUPT FREE NIGERIA

                                            DREAM OF A CORRUPT FREE NIGERIA.


What a sad time we Nigerians all over the world found ourselves in the 21st century. We have to seriously wake up and put a final stop to decades of recombination’s of skewed ideologies that are threatening the future of our generations. The truth is millions of people are suffering in Nigeria unnecessary. We cannot afford to deny what is so obvious, if truly we believe in God.

However, I still believe without any shred of doubt that the masses are more powerful than few corrupt evil minds that are subjecting the populace to untold hardship and premature death in Nigeria.

One of the saddest realizations is that these corrupt rulers show lack of care to people that are in their prospective villages and town. The evidences are all there for the world to see, all you need to do is to type ‘corruption in Nigeria’ on Youtube and any other viable website and you’ll see how millions of people died in a country so richly blessed in natural resources like Nigeria. You will see how decades of neglect and corrupt practices have reduced millions of Nigerians to serious hardship.

You will find that NOTHING WORKS IN NIGERIA, hardly any good safe roads, no good clean safe water, no constant electricity, the education systems are neglected, youths are neglected and not invested in, the hospitals are not functional while the corrupt leaders travelled oversee for medicals. There are pollutions and devastation almost everywhere

Shamefully, corrupt leaders in Nigeria have chosen to continue to enslave the majority with lies and primeval ideologies instead of providing services that could improve educational growth, self-actualization, peace and longevity.

The reality is this, your villages and town’s people need you to lead and fight for what could improve the quality of their lives. But realistically, you can’t do it on your own but together we can.
Let us leave our comfort zone, and think of others that are genuinely suffering, visualized yourself in their shoe, think not about pride and the ‘I’s and then think deep of what the future could be ‘IF’ you act to eradicate the root of suffering-which is corruption.

You have the power so strong to change the world around you for the betterment of all.
So ‘you’ and ‘I’ will become ‘us’ that will start a movement for the betterment of a peaceful, progressive and corrupt free Nigeria, and other countries that needed our voice.

Our togetherness, our presence, our cry for justice and equity could create peace and progress for ALL.


 Please join us for the first stage of realizing this DREAM OF A CORRUPT FREE NIGERIA.

HELP SPREAD THE NEWS, INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES TO THE GLOBAL PROTEST ON SATURDAY THE 23RD OF JUNE 2012 BET 1-6PM.


Support by adding friends to the group so that they will have opportunity to be aware and have choice to participate.

Please follow this link for all information you need about all locations of peaceful global protest against endemic corruption in Nigeria.

May our world be peaceful. Thank you and remain blessed, you are indeed the presence that is needed to change the world for the betterment of ALL.

Link for all information about global protest, action plans, aims and objectives.

http://nigerianglobalawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/nigerian-global-awakening-day-brochure.html

(PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LINK IS SAFE, THE WARNING IS A NORMAL WARNING FROM FACEBOOK WHEN ACCESSING OTHER PROVIDER, AND WE APPRECIATE THEM FOR THAT UNFORTUNATELY, FACEBOOK DOES NOT ALLOW A PDF FILE UPLOAD THAT WAS WHY WE DECIDED TO OPEN THE BLOGG AND WEBSITE FOR OUR MEMBERS)

Thank you.

JONATHAN, SHELL, ETETE, IN FRESH N155BILLION SCANDAL.

 

 Jonathan, Shell, Etete, in fresh N155billion scandal

By Premium Times. 21/05/2012 20:51:00 Idris Akinbajo

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan

The Federal Government is enmeshed in court cases in the U.S. and UK over a curious $1.1bn (about N155 billion) payment made to a company belonging to former oil minister, Dan Etete

Four years after he was convicted of money laundering in France, Dan Etete, a former Petroleum Minister, through his company Malabu Oil, has become a billion dollar richer, courtesy of the Nigerian Government and Shell. According to documents (filed March 22, 2012) before the Supreme Court of the State of New York in the US, President Goodluck Jonathan discreetly approved the transfer of the sum of $1.1bn to Mr. Etete on April 29, 2011, two weeks after he was re-elected.The money was first paid to the Federal Government by two multinational oil companies: Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited (Agip) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (Shell) in respect of oil block OPL 245.

But shortly after the funds were credited to the Federal Government's account, Mr. Jonathan ordered that it should be secretly transferred to a London account of Mr. Etete's company, Malabu Oil.

It is not clear what deal Mr. Jonathan struck with Malabu, and on what basis the payment was made. President Jonathan's spokesperson, Reuben Abati did not answer or return calls seeking his comment for this story. He also did not respond to a text message sent to him for the same purpose.

The government made the payment to Mr. Etete’s company even when it had repeatedly insisted that the award of the oil block to Malabu was done in violation of laid down procedures.

Shell insisted it had no knowledge that the government passed the funds to Mr. Etete's company.

OPL 245: History

While serving as Petroleum Minister under late Head of State, Sani Abacha, Mr. Etete awarded his own company, Malabu, an oil block, OPL 245 in 1998.

The allocation was however reversed by the Federal Government under President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2001 when the FG described the allocation process as dubious. The block was allocated to Shell in 2002. Following the revocation, a prolonged legal battle ensued with Malabu taking the Federal Government to court. In 2006, the Federal Government reversed itself and re-allocated the oil block to Malabu. This angered Shell which then filed arbitration proceedings in Washington.

Following the protracted legal battles, an agreement was reached between all parties.

The agreement

In an agreement titled “Block 245, Malabu resolution agreement” dated April 29, 2011 between Malabu and the Federal Government, the FG agreed to pay Malabu $1,092,040,000 in “full and final settlement of all its claims, interests or rights relating to OPL245.” The agreement also stated that the rights to the oil block would be reallocated to Agip and Shell.

In a separate agreement between Shell and Nigeria, titled “Block 245 resolution agreement,” the two multinationals (Agip and Shell) agreed to Pay the same sum “for the purposes of FGN settling all and any existing claims and/or issues over Block 245…” In other words, the multinational oil firms agreed to pay $1.1bn to the FGN with the knowledge that the money would be used to settle any existing claims that existed by any other party to the oil block.

We didn’t pay to Etete

Despite knowing that the money was to be paid as settlement to a third party and knowing that Malabu was the only company with bragging rights over the oil block, Shell claims it did not know the money was to be paid to Mr. Etete’s Malabu.“Shell was not aware that that money was to be paid to Malabu,” said Precious Okolobo, a communications officer with the oil company in a telephone interview.

Mr. Okolobo confirmed in a follow-up email that the “the Federal Government of Nigeria has allocated the deepwater offshore block OPL 245 jointly to Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo),” and that “each now holds 50 percent in OPL 245, with NAE as operator of the block.”

“Any payments relating to the issuance of the license were made only to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” the Shell official said saying “in line with Shell's information policy, we cannot reveal commercially sensitive information, and hence cannot comment further on the papers filed in the New York court proceedings.”

The American court case

Mr. Etete ‘s company is being sued in the United States for alleged refusal to honour an agreement with ILC, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The company claims it helped negotiate the agreement Malabu had with the FG and was thus entitled to payment under “an engagement letter and fee agreement” it signed with Malabu on January 19, 2010. “ILC contends that it fully performed its obligations under the fee agreement entitling it to a 6 per cent success fee amounting to $65,522,400 and that Malabu has indicated that it will not pay this amount,” the company told the court.

Another company allegedly owed by Malabu over OPL 245 had also sued the company in the UK which led to a court freeze of some accounts linked to the company and also to Nigeria. The Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke had objected to the freezing of its account in a letter dated July 16, 2011 to the court saying “the FGN does not submit to the jurisdiction of the English courts and that this letter is sent only to claim immunity.

A history of corruption

Mr. Etete, who served as minister between 1995 and 1998, was convicted of money laundering in France in 2007. He was sentenced to three years in prison and given a fined $300,000. He was also asked to pay $150,000 to the Nigerian Government. The former Minister appealed the ruling. In March 2009 however, a French appeal court confirmed the money laundering charges against Mr. Etete, and fined him $10.5 million after conviction. Apart from money laundering and his controversial in oil block dealings, Mr. Etete is also believed to be a major beneficiary of the Halliburton bribe where $180 million dollars was paid as bribe to senior government officials by a consortium including a subsidiary of an American company, Halliburton.

Mr. Etete was an ally and business associate of Jeffery Tesler, the British middleman who coordinated the bribe scheme and who was recently convicted in the United States for his role in the bribe payment. Neither Mr. Etete nor any other Nigerian has been convicted for the collection of the bribes; though the companies that made the payment and the middlemen have all been convicted or indicted in the United States and other host countries.

Buhari, Violence, and Distractions By Okey Ndibe

Posted by Sahara Reporters. May 22, 2012 - 00:29

Columnist: 

Okey Ndibe

Last week, General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.) set off a typically Nigerian kind of storm when he reportedly asserted that Nigerians are bound to react violently to the rigging of the 2015 general elections. Mr. Buhari’s stipulation triggered verbal exchanges that pitted him (as well as several opposition parties) against the – many would argue – misruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Several officials of the PDP charged Mr. Buhari with that vague indictment of Nigerian politics: seeking to “overheat the polity.” They accused the lanky retired general of an unpatriotic scheme to foment a bloodbath in Nigeria. Not to be outdone, Mr. Buhari’s apologists accused President Goodluck Jonathan of running the most corrupt political shop in Nigeria’s history. As if not to be sidelined, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its main man, former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, sought to put on record their opinion that last year’s elections – including the presidential polls that enthroned Mr. Jonathan – were marred by fraud.

In a sense, the brouhaha that Buhari set off is, in the final reckoning, empty. It was sheer political theater, an exercise in distraction. There was a lot of fury, but little illumination. Buhari’s prediction of violence should the 2015 elections be subjected to mindless manipulation amounts, I suggest, to an over-optimistic, sanguine perception of Nigeria. First, there is no question that the country’s political players are determined to do the usual in 2015 – rig. Nigeria’s political parties, especially (but not limited to) the PDP, have fashioned no alternative to electoral fraud. The country’s electoral culture is fertilized to serve as a rigger’s paradise. From (harsh) experience, we must now own up that Nigeria’s electoral umpire, INEC, has witnessed little or no qualitative evolution since Maurice Iwu’s shameless era came to an end. Under current chairman, Attahiru Jega, INEC has displayed with stubborn consistency a pattern of ineptitude and incompetence. In fact, Mr. Jega’s elevation has hardly witnessed any wrinkle in the PDP’s (and, to a lesser extent, other parties’) rigging genius.

Add to the mix the fact that the Nigerian judiciary’s image is in tatters, that too many of the country’s magistrates, judges and justices are ethical paperweights, men and women susceptible to inducement, willing (for a mess of porridge) to authenticate daylight electoral robbery – once one adds that factor to the mix, then one is bound to conclude that the season of rigging isn’t about to disappear in 2015. And rigging certainly won’t go away simply on account of Buhari’s grim, bloody prognosis.
Nigeria is designed and run as a criminal enterprise, an entity where crime thrives. And those who run the machinery of the polity must prove themselves, first and foremost, as adept, intrepid riggers – or, at the very least, loyal believers in the culture of vote theft. That explains why rigging is hardly punished. On the rare occasion that cheated candidates establish in court that their opponents rigged, no sanction is ever stipulated against the beneficiaries of electoral crime. Or against the electoral officials as well as law enforcement and security agents (the police, the military and the SSS) whose conspiracy facilitates rigging.

The practice is for the courts to order a re-run. As a rule, the proven riggers are permitted to remain on the ballot. These riggers also often retain all their illicit advantages, including access to public funds with which to re-bribe INEC officials, the police, and judges. A culture of impunity does not reform itself without some compulsion. For now, that compulsive element is absent. Buhari’s warning of violence hardly rises to a deterrent.
And here’s why: Nigeria is already mired in a veritable state of war; it’s a space besieged by violence. Yet, the political class – from the Presidency to the municipality – remains far from concerned. In any settled country, the savage quality of armed robbery, kidnappings and terrorist acts that prevail in Nigeria would have occasioned direct, alert responses. In Nigeria, the deterioration of life and the rampancy of violence have triggered desperate levels of accumulation in government and corporate officials. The climate is one of cynicism. As Nigeria totters on its way to “somalia-nization,” those who hold political and corporate power appear bent, not on steadying the ship, but picking it clean of any nuts and bolts (and then bolting) before it sinks.

On their part, dispossessed Nigerians seem sunk to new depths of fear – and to a concomitant cleaving to the idea that God is going to emerge to save us all from the consequences of our human-made disasters.
Last week, President Jonathan proclaimed to Nigerians that Nigeria’s manifold crises did not begin with him. Only a fool with no sense of history would contest the president’s claim. Nigeria did not take the wrong path last year – or the year before – when Mr. Jonathan found himself in the position of undertaker-in-chief. It’s fair to argue, in fact, that the edifice called Nigeria was always defective from the moment of British conception, and that its maladies have progressively worsened since birth. No, Mr. Jonathan did not create the mess that’s Nigeria. It’s also true that he’s done nothing to ameliorate the mess. It’s not farfetched to propose that he can do nothing about the mess – in part, because he is part and parcel of (to use the title of Chinua Achebe’s booklet) the trouble with Nigeria.

Nigeria’s leaders (who should really never be called leaders) do little more than occupy space, aggrandize, and loot. Their approach to governance has brought us all to the present pass where many – perhaps most – Nigerians now openly suggest that Nigeria’s dismemberment is the only way to go, with the amorphous organism called Boko Haram doing its bloody best to achieve that end. Boko Haram is not the first group to use militant means to challenge the idea of Nigeria. It’s simply the group that’s doing the job with awful confidence and sophistication.
There’s little evidence that Nigeria’s security apparatus understands the nature of the group, much less that the machinery of law enforcement and state security is equipped to curtail Boko Haram’s spree of destruction and death. Jonathan’s administration has fought the BK scourge with two ineffectual tools: on the one hand, issuing an ill-conceived, questionable summons to negotiation, on the other hand, deploying facile, fire-breathing speeches.

Nigeria is in a bad, bad place – and getting worse by the day. And the trouble with Nigeria is not only the Boko Haram fanatic whose body or car is rigged with explosives. The bigger enemy, I suggest, are the presidents, past and present, who acquired hilltop mansions, private jets, billions of naira in looted assets even as most Nigerians couldn’t find a good meal to eat in a day. The bigger enemies are state governors who steal their way into office, and then commence to steal security votes and to guzzle contract sums as if money were going out of style. The more unconscionable enemies are members of the National and state assemblies who amass millions of dollars in salaries and allowances without passing a single law in more than twelve years of a nascent, nasty “democracy” to improve the lot of Nigerians.

Seen in this context, then, the debate over Buhari’s prognosis must be seen for what it is: a distraction. The 2015 elections will be rigged, with or without Buhari’s jeremiads. In the hysteria created by Buhari’s statement, Nigerians paid scant attention to two scandalous news items. One was a revelation – by Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke – that Nigeria loses an estimated 180,000 barrels of oil daily (or the equivalent of $7 billion yearly) in stolen crude oil. The other is that Nigeria, which may be flirting with a serious cash flow crisis, is on the cusp of borrowing $7.9 billion.

It all goes to prove the point that Nigeria is a carefully designed scam, a space run by criminals for the benefit of criminals. Look at it this way: those who run Nigeria permit themselves and their cronies – in other words, “steakholders” – to steal $7 billion worth of crude oil per year. Nobody is ever arrested, much less prosecuted, for this grand crime. Instead, the same set of men and women who misgovern Nigeria arrange to borrow from international banks – at usurious rates – approximately the sum that their fellows steal in broad daylight! Few are asking the hard questions that ought to be raised. Only a few years ago, Ms. Okonjo-Iweala (then President Obasanjo’s economic guru) declared “eureka!” after she and the former president negotiated to hand over some $20 billion to Nigeria’s creditors. Some of us argued then that a country that had no roads, no hospitals, no universities worthy of the name, little electric power and stratospheric rates of poverty and unemployment – that such a country could not justify doling out such princely sums to questionable creditors.

Today, the same woman who trumpeted the great wisdom of paying off the country’s debt is cheerleader for embarking on a borrowing bonanza. They’re happy we’re talking about Buhari and 2015, instead of focusing on how we are being screwed today.
Please follow me on twitter @ okeyndibe
Email: (okeyndibe@gmail.com)

THE SUSPECTED BOKO HARAM (christian) Mr JOHN AKPANUM AKALU WHO WAS CAPTURED AT MINISTERIAL BRIEFING AT ABUJA.

PHOTONEWS: A Suicide Attacker John Akpabu Arrested At The Radio House In Abuja

Posted by SaharaReporters: May 21, 2012 - 14:11

 

 




John Akpanum Akalu 39 the would-be  suicide bomber of a ministerial briefing , arrested with 37 rounds of live ammunition and 3 hand granades and other explosives at the National Press Centre, Radio House in  Abuja today.

In another news from Leadership-

"Police Arrest Suspect In Connection With BUK Attack

 

The Kano State Police Command yesterday said it has arrested Augustine Effiong (aka Abubakar Garba) as one of the suspects behind the recent attack on Christian followers at Bayero University Kano (BUK).
Effiong, an indigene of Akwa Ibom was born and brought up at Maiduguri before he later converted to Islam. The police said, “he has been transferred to Abuja for discreet investigations”.
The command said Effiong was arrested over an attempt to murder a civilian at Danlasan Village in Warawa Local Government Area of Kano state.
During the preliminary investigation, the suspect, a resident of Bulunkutu Abuja Quaters in Maiduguri confessed to have relocated to the Kano state last April.
He also confessed to have participated in series of attacks, killings of policemen and military personnel in the state in the wake of attacks launched on Kano early this year". Culled from Leadership.



However, all these latest development should remind us about Pastor Kukah statement about the issue of Boko Haram.

 BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD (Ps 46:10): AN APPEAL TO NIGERIANS BY REVEREND MATTHEW HASSAH KUKAH

On the occasion of the Carol of Nine Lessons organized by NTA and Radio Nigeria on December 10th last year, I was invited to deliver the message. I chose to speak on the theme, Do Not Be Afraid as a means of encouraging our people against the backdrop of fear and frustration that was mounting at the time. Since then, it would seem that things have gotten progressively worse in our country. In the course of my reflections, I sought to encourage my fellow citizens not to be frightened by the events of the time. I insisted that despite these tragic and sad events and the situation of our country, we needed to conquer fear. I argued that the message of Christmas was a message about the good news of the birth of the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, (God-with us) and the Saviour of the world. Against the backdrop of other developments in the country at that time, I concluded by calling on the federal government not to carry through its plans for the removal of fuel subsidy.

Since then, things have gradually snowballed well beyond what one had either feared or hoped. On Christmas day, a bomb exploded at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, in Niger State, killing over thirty people and wounding a significant number of other innocent citizens who had come to worship their God as the first part of their Christmas celebrations. Barely two days later, we heard of the tragic and mindless killings within a community in Ebonyi State in which over sixty people lost their lives with properties worth millions of naira destroyed and hundreds of families displaced. In the midst of all this, on New Year’s Day, the President announced the withdrawal of fuel subsidy and threw an already angry and frustrated nation into convulsion.

Right now, I feel that perhaps like the friends of Job (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar), who came to visit their sick friend and found the burden beyond comprehension, we find ourselves in the same situation. For, as we know, when they came and found Job in his condition, they spent seven days and seven nights, and uttered not a word (Job 2:13). Right now, no one can claim a full understanding of the state we are in. However, even if we cannot understand the issues of the moment, our faith compels us to understand that God’s hand is in all this. The challenge is for us to have the patience to let His will be done.

The tragedy in Madalla was seen as a direct attack on Christians. When Boko Haram claimed responsibility, this line of argument seemed persuasive to those who believed that these merchants of death could be linked to the religion of Islam. Happily, prominent Muslims rose in unison to condemn this evil act and denounced both the perpetrators and their acts as being un-Islamic. All of this should cause us to pause and ponder about the nature of the force of evil that is in our midst and to appreciate the fact that contrary to popular thinking, we are not faced with a crisis or conflict between Christians and Muslims. Rather, like the friends of Job, we need to humbly appreciate the limits of our human understanding.

In the last few years, with the deepening crises in parts of Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, and Plateau states, thanks to the international and national media, it has become fanciful to argue that we have crises between Christians and Muslims. Sadly, the kneejerk reaction of some very uninformed religious leaders has lent credence to this false belief. To complicate matters, some of these religious leaders have continued to rally their members to defend themselves in a religious war. This has fed the propaganda of the notorious Boko Haram and hides the fact that this evil has crossed religious barriers. Let us take a few examples which, though still under investigation across the country, should call for restraint on our part.

Some time last year, a Christian woman went to her own parish Church in Bauchi and tried to set it ablaze. Again, recently, a man alleged to be a Christian, dressed as a Muslim, went to burn down a Church in Bayelsa. In Plateau State, a man purported to be a Christian was arrested while trying to bomb a Church. Armed men gunned down a group of Christians meeting in a Church and now it turned out that those who have been arrested and are under interrogation are in fact not Muslims and that the story is more of an internal crisis. In Zamfara State, 19 Muslims were killed. After investigation it was discovered that those who killed them were not Christians. Other similar incidents have occurred across the country.

Clearly, these are very troubled times for our country. But they are also very promising times. I say so because amidst this confusing debris of hate, anger and frustration, we have had some very interesting dimensions.

Nigeria is changing because Nigerians are taking back their country from the grip of marauders. These stories, few as they may be, are the beginning of our song of freedom. Christians are now publicly crossing the artificial lines created by falsehood and bigotry. Let us take a few examples of events in the last week alone:

In Kano, amidst fears and threats of further attacks on Christians, a group of Muslims gathered round to protect Christians as they worshipped. In Minna and recently, in Lagos, the same thing repeated itself as Christians joined hands to protect Muslims as they prayed. In the last week, Christians and Muslims together in solidarity are protesting against bad governance and corruption beyond the falsehood of religion. Once freed from the grip of these dark forces, religion will be able to play its role as a force for harmony, truth and the common good.

Clearly, drawing from our experiences as Christians, we must note that God has a message for us in all this. To elicit what I consider to be the message, I will make reference to three lessons and I know there are far more. First, these times call for prayer. At the height of our confusion during the Abacha years, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria composed two sets of prayers; one, Against Bribery and Corruption and second, for Nigeria in Distress. Millions of Catholics have continued to recite these prayers and we must remain relentless in the belief that God hears our prayers and that God’s ways are not our ways. We know that our Muslim brethren and millions of other non-Christians feel the same and are also praying in a similar way for our country.

Two, these times call for solidarity of all people of faith. We are a nation of very strong believers and despite what anyone else may say, millions of our Christians and Muslims do take their religion very seriously. However, you might ask, if that is true, why do we have so many killings in the name of

God and of religion? My answer is that we have such killings because we live in an environment of a severely weak architecture of state which allows evil to triumph. It is this poverty that produces jealousy and hatred which leads to violence.

We live in a state of ineffective law enforcement and tragic social conditions. Corruption has destroyed the fabric of our society. Its corrosive effect can be seen in the ruination of our lives and the decay in our society. The inability of the state to punish criminals as criminals has created the illusion that there is a conflict between Christians and Muslims. In fact, it would seem that many elements today are going to great extremes to pitch Christians against Muslims, and vice versa, so that our attention is taken away from the true source of our woes: corruption. As Nigerians, Christians and Muslims, we must stand together to ensure that our resources are well utilized for the common good. This is why, despite the hardships we must endure as a result of the strike, the Fuel Subsidy debate must be seen as the real dividend of democracy.

Three, religious leaders across the faiths must indeed stand up together and face the challenge of the times by offering a leadership that focuses on our common humanity and common good rather than the insignificant issues that divide us. We therefore condemn in very strong terms the tendency by some religious leaders to play politics with the issues of our collective survival. Rather than rallying our people, some of our religious leaders have resorted to divisive utterances, wild allegations and insinuations against fellow adherents of other religions. In the last five or so days, text messages have been circulating across the country appealing to some of our worst demons. We are told that many senior clerics either believed or encouraged the circulation of these divisive and false text messages. We must condemn this for what it is; a grand design by enemies within our folds who are determined to destroy our country. Whatever they may call themselves, they are neither true Christians nor Muslims.

For those Christians who have reacted in fear, they require conversion. If we wait for these evil men or women to decide when we shall stand for Christ, then we have surrendered our soul to the devil. If we fear to stand up for Christ now, let us remember that He has already said: Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my father in Heaven, Whoever denies me before others, I will deny him before my father in Heaven(Mt 10: 32). Again, Jesus warns that rather than fear at times of uncertainty, adversity or upheavals, we should be confident. He said: When these things begin to take place, stand erect; hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand(Lk. 21: 28). Furthermore, St Paul has assured us that; If we die with Him, we shall live with Him. If we endure with Him, we shall reign with him( 2 Tim 2: 11-12). Surely, those who are asking us to go under our beds, to flee in the face of persecution must be reading a different Bible.

These are difficult times but they are also times of promise. Our country has turned its back on all forms of dictatorships. Our hands are on the plough and we are resolutely committed to democracy. Like a Catholic marriage, we may not be happy but we cannot contemplate a divorce. God does not make mistakes.

Although the freedom and growth promised by democracy are not here yet, we must remind ourselves that a better tomorrow is possible, a more united and peaceful Nigeria is possible. The challenges of the last few days have shown the resilience of our people and their commitment to democracy and a better life. We believe this is possible. The government must strive to earn the trust of our people. All sides must take lessons from the demonstrations and resolve to build a better and stronger nation. Let us hold on to the words of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI when he told the President, religious, traditional rulers and people of the Republic of Benin in the Presidential Palace on the 19th of November: Do not cut off your peoples from their future by mutilating their present....There are too many scandals and injustices, too much corruption and greed, too many errors and lies, too much violence. All peoples desire to understand the political and economic choices which are made in their name; they wish to participate in good governance. No economic regime is ideal and no economic choice is neutral. But these must always serve the common good.

* Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese

THE CORRUPT WHO ARE KILLING U SOFTLY FEARS ONLY ONE MAN WHO COULD SAVE UR LIFE.

PDP, Jonathan’s controversy with Buhari diversionary, says David-West

By David-West

 

Former Petroleum Resources Minister Prof. Tam David-West yesterday decried the controversy over former Head of State  Gen. Mohammadu Buhari’s warning against rigging the 2015 elections.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidency have condemned Gen. Buhari for making the statement.

But David-West yesterday pitched his tent with the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

According to him, those calling for Buhari to be crucified are diverting the attention of Nigerians from the failure of the PDP to offer good governance.

In an exclusive interview with The Nation in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the former minister noted that neither Jonathan nor the PDP has the right to arrest Buhari for saying an attempt to rig the 2015 elections would lead to violence.

He said: “I consider the controversy sparked off by the PDP over Gen. Buhari’s statement on election rigging as not only unnecessary but also diversionary of the PDP’s failed governance. The PDP should give us good governance and stop reacting stupidly to statements it has not put under intellectual scrutiny.

“I know there are good intellectuals in the PDP, who I respect; some of them are my friends. But a number of things have come out of the PDP that are intellectually fraudulent and stupid.

“The first example was when Gen. Buhari wept openly on the last day of his election campaign last year. The PDP and advisers to President Jonathan said ‘Gen. Buhari was shedding crocodile tears’. Yet, they said he was a serial loser of elections. Crocodile tears are only shed by victors, not vanquished. So, the statement was just intellectually flawed and stupid. The allusion to crocodile tears is that when crocodiles catch their preys, they shed tears. So, such tears are shed by victors.

“The second stupidity from the PDP and Jonathan’s advisers was when Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, during the campaign, said those who make peaceful transition impossible will make violence inevitable. Jonathan himself said he was going to arrest Atiku for the statement, calling it treason. Now, the stupidity of such a reaction is that the statement is 500 years old by Machiavelli and, of recent times, by former President John F. Kennedy of the United States (USA). It shows the reaction was flawed. Atiku only repeated what had been said several years earlier.”

The academic punctured the threat by the Federal Government to arrest Buhari, saying it confirmed that the PDP is a rigging party.

“The caveat in Buhari’s statement was that ‘if’ the 2015 election is rigged, there will be bloodshed. The reaction of the PDP is stupid because of the following reasons.

“Like the caveat, ‘if’ means do not rig the elections to avoid violence. I completely support him. Any right-thinking person will. In other words, by PDP’s reaction, it is indicting itself that it will rig the elections in 2015.

“PDP cannot arrest Buhari for the statement. It has no intellectual or moral basis to arrest him because he said ‘if’. PDP should use that statement to purge itself of election impunity.”

Also, for branding Buhari a serial loser of elections,

David-West said the PDP should burry its head in shame for calling Buhari a serial loser of elections.

According to him, historical facts show that the party has been a serial rigger of elections.

“They are used to calling Buhari a serial loser of elections. If Buhari is a serial loser of elections, it is because PDP is a serial rigger of elections. The PDP itself admitted that when former Vice President Atiku was fighting former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He said in a national daily: ‘We rigged the elections’. The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua accepted that his election was flawed. President Jonathan also accepted that his election was not perfect.

“Another evidence to show PDP’s rigging of elections was the Supreme Court judgment that affirmed Yar’Adua’s election in 2007. The six justices were split into two equal number in support and against the election. The Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN) had to vote in favour of Yar’Adua to resolve the 3/3 tie. If a sitting President can have his election nullified by three Supreme Court justices, it means the election was really flawed.

“Now, the latest was the 2011 election. All ballot papers must be serialised according to the INEC law. In 2011 it was established that a lot of the ballot papers were not serialised. Justice Isa Salami has already ruled that INEC should allow CPC to subject ballot papers to forensic test. That ruling was subsisting when the removed Justice Salami. And it was the beginning of Salami’s problems because they knew he would uphold forensic results. They removed him and his successor said that INEC does not have to do that.

“Nigeria is bigger than anyone or any party. PDP cannot be toying with Nigeria. They can’t subject Nigeria to the folly of party nonsense because Nigeria is bigger than all the parties.

“They have been hunting Buhari because they are afraid of him just because he is the only Nigerian leader to whom no stain of corruption has been established. Even when Ibrahim Babangida detained him for 40 months, and in the process his mother dies and he was disallowed to go and bury his mother. When he was released, he challenged IBB to tell the world about his corruption.

“Again, Obasanjo set up a probe of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) but he suppressed the conclusion of the probe. Buhari challenged Obasanjo to publish the report. I am saying all these because I have all the facts. They are afraid of him because they are a bunch of corrupt people.

Culled from The Nation.

N186 MILLION SPENT ON ROLEX WATCHES WHILST MILLIONS OF NIGERIANS LIVE IN ABJECT POVERTY.

Stock Exchange council spent N186 million on 165 Rolex wrist watches – Arunma Oteh

 



Financial schemes and misappropriation of funds by former council members of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was responsible for the near collapse of the capital market. According to the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh, the former council members carried out fraudulent transactions which includes the purchase of N186 million worth of wristwatches without proper accounts and a yacht for N39 million.

This was part of the revelations of the Director General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh on Monday at the resumed hearing of the House of Representative ad-hoc committee probing the near collapse of the capital market. Speaking about the NSE, she said “it was brought to my attention that there were incidences of financial scheming, misappropriation, false accounting, misrepresentations, and questionable transactions”.

“For instance, the council of the Nigeria stock Exchange bought a yacht for N37 million and wrote down the book value within one year by recognising it in its books as a gift presented during its 2008 long service award” she alleged.“Yet there are no record of the beneficiary,” she added.

Dr Oteh also alleged that the council of the stock exchange also spent N186 million on the purchase of 165 Rolex wrist watches, as gift for awardees out of which only 73 were actually presented to the awardees. “The outstanding 92 Rolex watches valued at N99.5 million remained unaccounted for.”
“These were the kind of financial imprudence that were perpetrated at the Nigerian stock exchange,” Ms Oteh said.

The SEC Boss accused the NSE of “weaknesses in corporate governance, weaknesses in risk management, weaknesses in internal control, insufficient oversight of brokerage firms and listed companies and inabilities to enforce rules.”

She noted that the inspection team that examined the NSE found out that “more than 2, 700 investors complaint lodged with the Nigeria Stock Exchange had yet to be treated.”
Culled: Channelstv

WHO ARE GLOBAL ORGANIZERS?

WHO ARE GLOBAL ORGANIZERS?            

We are Global organizers representing Nigerians who are based in the country that we are based.

Our main duties are to campaign and network using all forums possible to ensure that Nigerians across the globe is aware of our protest and to give them opportunity to come out in their thousands for the protest.

The main work for us Global Organisers is to get Nigerians and friends of Nigerians out on the 23rd of June to protest against endemic corruption in Nigeria. That is why we changed our profile pics, adding friends and liaising outside of Facebook. We feel that all Nigerians has the right to be informed and the easiest way is for all our members to help spread the news. And changing our profile picture and emailing the Brochure, twitting including using physical approach is the best way.

PROTEST PERMIT:

 United Kingdom Global Organisers has there event on the event list of the Police Authority, they are in support and we have the file number and an officer in charge. Please send the Brochure to the Police Authority wherever you are based to seek permit.

LETTER TO NIGERIAN EMBASSIES:

The letter that we intend to give the Embassy is similar to the Brochure, but it contains more evidence of corruption and all what our logo, the octopus stipulated. We have been gathering evidence for over 4 months; all will be complied by first week of June by researchers.

MEDIA:

World Media is going to be informed by end of May.

The video production crew will be ready to shoot our Global Campaign at the end of May. Please copy the octopus logo and make your T-shirts. This is the film that will be aired around the world and it will be on Youtube for free and easy access.

We are all going to download our messages wearing the T-shirt via private uploading system on Youtube by end of May so that all Global Organisers and members will be featured in the film. First week of June is the deadline for the release of the film. So please make your T-shirts and upload your video on Youtube. Youtube will give you an option for the upload, please choose “private” and email the code /URL to ngadp@ymail.com Please do this as soon as you can because we still have to do a lot of editing in order to produce excellent work for you.

DRESS CODE:

The dress code on the 23rd of June 2012, protest day is the Octopus logo. This is what we want the world media to capture. It is important so that the Nigeria government does not hick jack our messages to the world.

WE NEED HELP:

It is also important that non Nigerians come out to support; we need support from international countries, so have to liaise with human rights groups, churches, mosques, clubs, and restaurants to get both Nigerians and non-Nigerians to join our protest. We even have non Nigerians, friends of Nigerians who are part of the Global Organisers for some of the country and they are campaigning already, this including United Kingdom. That is why we have been so busy with networking outside of Facebook.

Each Global Organisers has the right to appoint more Global Organisers to join and campaign for the country they are based. All we need is their names so that it will be written in the final acknowledgements. Please let us have this by first week of June.

Please see the brochure for all information that you need for your campaigning.

Brochure link:

http://nigerianglobalawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/nigerian-global-awakening-day-brochure.html

Thank you.