A Story I Wish I Didn’t Have To Tell

Azubuike Ishiekwene

For three weeks, I have been trying to wrap my mind around it. Moaning is our creed. When two or three are gathered together, moaning completes the party. If it gets worse at election time, you can understand. It’s the only time once in four years we can get the ears of politicians and hope our voices count.
When you read in advertisements or see on billboards the things that politicians claim they have done, for which they insist they deserve election or re-election, you wonder if they’re referring to the same country in which misery has become the daily companion of millions of hard-working families.
Lying politicians don’t give a damn. They worsen our misery by playing politics with it. But they don’t care because they think we’re either too stupid to remember or too impotent to confront them.
On this particular morning about three weeks ago, it was the claim by President Goodluck Jonathan – that he had created over two and a half million jobs in the last four years – that got the conversation going. “Where did he create the jobs?” one of those in my company asked.
And then she told the story of a family I know so well for whom the elegant story of Jonathan’s job creation can only be matched by the puzzle of a Greek movie.
The Adodos (not real name), a family of five, including three boys between ages 16 and 12, are what you may call the average middle-class family. Citizen Adodo, a university graduate, was doing well as the manager of a stockbroking firm. His wife was a trader, bringing in stuff from China. Then the stock bubble burst around 2008 and Adodo lost his job.
At 41, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy finding another job, but he tried all the same. After trying and failing for three years, he started a yoghurt factory with his own savings and half a million naira loan from a finance house.
The business was picking up but he soon discovered that, apart from problems with dodgy staff, defaulting wholesalers were also tying down his capital and shrinking his margin dangerously.
As if that was not bad enough, the costs of generating his own electricity and replenishing raw material stock have gone up nearly three times in the last 18 months, leaving his business on the ropes.
His wife’s business did not fare better, either. In spite of all the nice things finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been saying about the Nigerian Customs and the seaports, wharf rats continue to give Mrs Adodo a raw deal, extorting bribes sometimes over 50 percent of the value of her goods. Her trading business, which supports her family, has now been brought to its knees by a combination of corrupt port officials and a catastrophic exchange rate.
What does it mean when the modest income of hardworking Mum, Dad, or both, can no longer take the family home? Or when Mum and Dad know they cannot ask a neighbour or relation for help because those they may think of asking may, themselves, be in desperate need of help?
It means trouble coming home with its own chair.
Who cares? It’s either you believe Jonathan’s success story or you spare a thought for the Adodos and millions of families around the country like them living a nightmarish existence. To be fair, I’ve heard stories about beneficiaries of YouWin and such government programmes introduced to give a head start to small businesses. But show me one winner and I’ll show you millions of losers denied a fair shake.
Adodo’s landlord, for his part, couldn’t care less about Jonathan’s life-size campaign posters. About nine months ago, he sold his house and turned in all the tenants – including the Adodos – to a new shark, who asked everyone to quit, except if they were ready to pay new rent for two years.
The Adodos have since quit; not to a new, rented house, but to three different destinations. Mum and Dad are living separately, squatting with friends, while the three children were split among good Samaritans.
As nature never fails to leave a witness in every dark cloud, the Adodos got their own silver lining. In the midst of all their troubles, Adodo Jnr obtained seven credit passes, including four A’s, in his school certificate examination. This was at a time when fewer than 30 percent of those who took the school certificate examination passed.
But the joy of his success is fading. Adodo Jnr’s parents are begging him to shelve his results for now because they cannot afford to pay his fees. His younger brother had been forced to repeat primary six, not because he failed but because his parents cannot afford the cost of a private secondary school. Where would the money come from when the family cannot even afford a roof over its head?
When Jonathan asks for votes and his spin doctors tell us he deserves it because of how well he performed in his first term, I think of the Adodos and millions like them with even more heart-wrenching stories. I can’t get my head around them – families on the verge of destitution, shattered by the hard times, and hopelessness for breadwinners and children as well.
Yet somehow, in the shaft of the grim and uncertain days that lie ahead for the young Adodos, our connected world may bring them face-to-face with the story of another young boy, Vidal Chastanet.
Vidal is the 12-year-old boy saved from the streets of Brooklyn, New York, by a documentarian, Brandon Stanton. Just by the simple act of recording and sharing on social media the story of how Vidal became a street kid, Brandon changed his life.
The story caught on with the White House, brought Vidal face-to-face with President Barack Obama and raised enough money to open the doors of Harvard University to the young boy and to many others from his school who may never have dared to dream.
For the Adodos, young and old, it’s a different story. With the children’s education already in jeopardy and their parents running from pillar to post, the last few years under Jonathan have been a nightmare. Should they ever read the Vidal story, it will never cease to amaze them how unkind this world can sometimes be.
Yet it is not incomprehension or cruelty that is at the heart of the two stories; it is incompetent leadership determined to continue.

Olu Obasanjo: Politics Of The Garrison Ideologue

NOT many people know him as Olu nowadays. When the police authorities in Port Harcourt, Rivers State decided to name a police station after General Olusegun Obasanjo, they found the name more appealing or at least to make the police station look a bit friendly. To a very large extent, the shortened form, Olu instead of Obasanjo or Obj; seems a very practical way to emasculate Obasanjo’s attributes especially his hideous aspect and ignoble designs. At his first coming as military Head of State in 1976, the ready image of Obasanjo was that of a soldier and that image was well advertised by his launch of operation feed the nation, (OFN) programme in the fight against world hunger. Some people do not fail to associate the image of Obj in full military regalia with the Unknown Soldier figurine. In politics, especially at his second coming as democratic president of Nigeria, Obasanjo’s image and public perception changed. That was when the Obj sobriquet came into full application.
But what happened recently when the members of his Ota ward in Abeokuta, Ogun State; visited him depicted the true character and content of General Obasanjo’s political philosophy.  Nigerians were in shock as they beheld Baba telling the Ita Eko ward chairman, Surajudeen Oladunjoye,”tear it”. As a soldier, the former President loves the ‘command and obey’ style of the military. As Yoruba man, Obasanjo cherishes the traditional respect reserved for the elderly. Perhaps a combination of both roots, the former president appreciates loyalty and does not recoil from using men: he understands the meaning of proxy and master-servant relationship. Baba encourages cronyism! However in all aspects, Obj’s dicta give elucidation to his jackboot mentality. Brutal use of power and ferocious use of words go together to define Chief Obasanjo’s garrison ideology. Those who have come in close political contact with him, especially those whose ideas or stances bifurcate from his do not fail to recount their encounter with the Ebora of Owu. And they are legion:
At the build up to the 2007 election, towards the tail end of his eight-year two terms, Obj descended on his Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. When the Vice President saw that enormous road blocks had been raised against his ambition to succeed Obasanjo on the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) platform, he quickly moved to the Action Congress of Nigeria, (AC.N). But before he could consummate his defection plans, Obasanjo had served the Vice President notice to quit his government. Atiku, who saw the order as a show of ignorance of the workings of a democracy on Chief Obasanjo’s part, decided to ignore it. The bull in Obasanjo was unleashed by that show of ignominy and he ordered that the VPs section of the Villa was barricaded thus literarily sacking his Vice President by fiat. Wincing from that show of impunity, Turaki approached the courts.  So tensed and heated up was the Nigerian polity that on the day the Federal Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, ruled that “President Obasanjo does not have any right to sack the Vice President” people in the wide court precincts went wild in exultant jubilation. A touchy feature of that judgment was that all the Appeal Judges were unanimous in the ruling delivered by the President, Court of Appeal, Abdullahi Umaru that “the allegiance of the Vice President should be to the constitution, not to the President”.
Many people also see Chief Obasanjo’s tireless tirades against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as further evidence of his aversion to young people who show independent affront to his command and control politics. The only posture from young people that is acceptable to former President is that of a crouching, unquestioningly obedient, subservient underling. Perhaps that must have explained his dismissal of the younger generation as incompetent, effeminate and dishonest leaders. Speaking at a summit for sustainable development in University of Ibadan two years ago, Chief Obasanjo declared that emerging Nigeria’s leaders are highly deficit in integrity. From that summit another image of Obasanjo loomed large: that of holier-than-thou! He engages in unconscionable sanctimonious verbifications. Continuing his remarks at the occasion, Obj stated: “During my administration as president, we had some people who were under 50 years in leadership positions. One of them was James Ibori, where is he today? One of them was Alamieyeseigha, where is he today? Lucky Igbinedion, where is he today? The youngest was the Speaker, Buhari, you can still recall what happened to him”. “You said Bola Tinubu is your master. What Buhari did was not anything worse than what Bola Tinubu did. We got them impeached. But in this part of the world, some people covered up the other man. The man claimed he went to Government College, Ibadan, but the governor went to Government College and packed all the documents so that they would not know that he did not go there… I wanted someone who would succeed me so I took Atiku. Within a year, I started seeing the type of man Atiku is. And you want me to get him there?”
Obasanjo’s years as civilian President gave Nigerians few reasons to smile, but greater part of his eight-year reign was lived in tears, sorrow and blood. From the Odi and Zakibiam massacres to the dubious impeachments of state governors he encouraged and supported, Olu Obasanjo sees force as the veritable expression of leadership acumen. The Four governors that received the impeachment treatment included Governors Lateef Ladoja, Ayo Fayose, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alameseigha and Joshua Dariye. While six out of 24 legislators impeached Dariye, 15 out of 24 impeached Alameseigha and 18 out of 32 impeached Ladoja. In the case of Ekiti, out of the 22 legislators that okayed Fayose’s impeachment, 10 later turned back to confess that they were misled. It is not only lowly state legislators that Obasanjo’s misleads into taking wrong actions, wealthy and influential people also fall victims to the man’s guile. It took the confession of one big man for Nigerians to know that.
Mr. Buruji Kashamu, while reacting to Obasanjo’s legendary letter to President Jonathan, disclosed that former President Obasanjo used him in a proxy political warfare to conquer former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel. Short of shedding tears of regret, Kashamu lamented that Obj was an ingrate stressing that he, (Olu) used him to achieve his political designs. “He used me to fight Gbenga Daniel and I spent over N3 billion to fight his cause and took the PDP structure from Daniel and handed it over to him,” Kashamu moaned. It is not as yet known whether the quarrel between Obasanjo against President Jonathan is the incumbent president’s reluctance to or rejection of any suggestion to hound Kashamu to US for alleged phantom trial for drug related offences.
To former Abia State Governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, Obj is a vindictive leader. Kalu had a running battle with the former President during which both were thorns in each other’s flesh. The former Abia chief executive disclosed that he fell out with Obasanjo when he prevailed on the erstwhile national Chairman of PDP, Chief Barnabas Gemade, not to refund the N500 million he loaned the party. Kalu believes former President Obasanjo is the worst leader ever produced in Nigeria since the advent of democracy in 1999. He said that apart from obstructing the refund of his N500 million lifeline, Baba Iyabo ensured the grounding of Slok Airlines, owned by him, (Kalu). In an interview with The Guardian two years ago, the former Abia State governor disclosed that his political quarrel with Obasanjo started when he took the then president on over issues that affected the (Enugu-Port Harcourt) Express way, the Igbo people, and Onitsha-Owerri expressway. “I quarreled with him on issues that bordered on the dry port he promised and never did. In fact I quarreled on issues concerning my people… I have a lot respect for the person of President Obasanjo and his office then, I still love and respect him as a statesman, he loves this country but he applied a different way to different people,” Kalu noted. He added that Obasanjo’s plot to have an unconstitutional tenure elongation widened their disagreement.
Perhaps still reeling from the bitter experience he had with Obasanjo, former Bayelsa Governor, DSP Alameseigha, accused Obasanjo as an expert in corruption by proxy. The former governor while speaking during the last National Confab said Obasanjo has a list of oil thieves in Nigeria who he shielded as the petroleum minister during his administration. Alameseigha had said: “I had one experience. Tankers were loaded in Bayelsa. I got the information and laid ambush for them and arrested them. About 14 big tankers and they were handed over to the police. They were charged to court and the judge ordered that the product should be tested if they were crude oil. NNPC was invited, they came took the sample and after a week the result came out as agro chemical and before I know it all of them were released”. “I went to President (Olusegun) Obasanjo. I even accused him that he is the chief bunkerer, that he should not call me again. I also accused him that those that are involved are also sitting in this arena and if he pushed me beyond that I am going to mention names. It became so hot that I was persuaded to follow him to his office”.
In Lagos parlance, ‘Obasanjo no send’. That is usually how most people chose to describe the fact that the former cannot be intimidated or shamed. Add that he has an acerbic vocal capacity. When he in 1980 Obasanjo espied the growing popularity of Chief M. K. O Abiola, he said Abiola is not the messiah a lot people believe the late philanthropist to be. Now in order to get even with President Jonathan, Obasanjo remembers espirit de corps to favour General Muhammadu Buhari, who he mobilized Nigerians against in 2003 and 2007. He had once engaged in sordid altercation with former military President Ibrahim Babangida. Watching his politics and style, many people are wont to ask, what makes Obasanjo restless? Perhaps, he loses his cool when he is not in charge. As such feeling uncomfortable with the possibility of joining a political party founded by the Bola Tinubu political engineering and bitter at the reality of staying put in a PDP where new Pharoahs that do not recognize Joseph hold sway; Olu had to invite his former ward colleagues to showcase the vintage Obj style! Chief Obasanjo may not be a Barkin Zuwo equivalent in Nigeria politics but there cannot be another like him. There is a possibility that as he elects to join the late Bola Ige’s party, SLLP (Siddon Look Political Party); more yabis is sure to flow from the celebrated garrison ideologue.

IS 2015 ELECTIONS ABOUT RELIGION?

Opposition asks INEC not to recognise substituted candidate
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has alerted Nigerians on a fresh plot by desperate politicians to circulate leaflets in mosques and churches asking Moslems to only vote for Moslems in the forthcoming elections.
  In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the plot was in line with the track record of those who had consistently been using religion to divide Nigerians in order to feather their political nest.
  ‘’They are hoping that by further inflaming passion with the highly emotive issue of religion, they can revive their shrivelling political fortunes. That is why they have devised the latest strategy of pitching Christians against Moslems through the circulation of satanic leaflets. Nigerians should not be taken in by this cheap plot,’’ it said.
  But the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said the alert by the APC that certain desperate politicians were planning to circulate leaflets in mosques and churches to urge Moslems to vote only Moslems in the coming elections is an unintended leak from the APC’s massive arsenal of religious bigotry and viscous divisive politics.
   A statement yesterday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, said the APC whose presidential candidate stands to benefit from such unpatriotic conduct and who together with his party has consistently been aligned to such insensibilities is scared of the possible backlash and desperately looking for a scapegoat.
  In another development, the national executive of APC has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reinstate Wasiu Eshilokun as the candidate of the party for election into Lagos Island Constituency 1 of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
  Eshilokun, who was the chairman of Lagos Island Local Council, had sued the party for substituting his name with that of Hakeem Masha after he had won the primaries.
  The instruction to reinstate him was in an affidavit attached as exhibit by applicant, which was a letter jointly signed by the party’s National Chairman and Secretary, John Odigie-Oyegun and Mai Mala Buni respectively, washing their hands off the applicant’s travails and instructing his reinstatement.
  Dissatisfied with the substitution, Eshilokun had filed a suit before the Federal High Court, Lagos, challenging the action and sought among other orders, an order reinstating him as the candidate of the party.
  The PDP further said:   “The PDP needs neither religious nor ethnic cleavages to campaign and win the 2015 presidential elections.  Our history of consistency in form, structure and core values as well as track record of delivery, which have endeared us over the years to Nigerians have not changed. We, therefore, remain the best and do not need recourse to narrow politicking, especially when our presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan epitomises the unity, progress and prosperity of the nation.”
  When the matter of reinstatement came up before Justice Ibrahim Buba yesterday, Masha’s counsel, Bonojo Badejo (SAN), informed the court of an application which he just filed and served on other parties to the suit challenging the service of the processes in the suit on his client.
  Badejo, therefore, requested for more time to respond to a counter-affidavit filed in response to the said application by the applicant (Eshilokun).
  But the applicant’s counsel, Wahab Shittu, said despite the fact that the matter was adjourned for almost a week, the second defendant (Masha) did not serve his client until Wednesday evening.
    Also, counsel to APC, Femi Falana (SAN), had initially filed a preliminary objection to the suit asking that same be dismissed owing to lack of jurisdiction.
 But Justice Buba said it would be in the interest of justice to give the defendant time to respond, but assured that the matter would be heard timeously.
  The judge then fixed February 26, 2015 for definite hearing after all the necessary processes must have been exchanged.

CBN Introduces New Policy On Dormant Accounts



Nigeria’s apex bank has introduced new guidelines for the treatment and management of dormant account balances by deposit-taking financial institutions across the nation.

According to the Central Bank Of Nigeria, CBN, part of the objectives of the policy is to ensure that dormant account funds are identified and channelled through appropriate institutions to make them more productive to the economy and eliminate the possibility of banks converting dormant account balances to income, Punch reports.

This development was communicated on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 via a circular released and signed by its Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Mr. Kevin Amugo.

Amugo observed that the disproportionate treatment of dormant account balances by addressed financial institutions was as a result of lack of clear guidelines for the management of such accounts.

According to him, the idea was born in order to enhance the banking system and the Nigerian economy.

The circular said, “It is in view of the above and the imperative to promote transparency in the financial system that the CBN hereby issues these guidelines to provide a standard for the treatment and management of dormant account balances in Nigeria.

“The purpose of the policy is to curb possible abuse in the operation of dormant accounts, set operational standards for banks and other financial institutions in line with best practice, and to reinforce the property rights as guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

“A dormant account shall be a bank account that has no customer or depositor originated transaction within a specified period of six years after the last customer or depositor initiated a transaction. However, such an account shall be recognised as inactive after the first six months of non-depositor or customer originated transaction in it.”

The band added, “Accounts shall retain their interest earning status during the period of dormancy in the bank. Deposit-taking financial institutions shall continue to monitor accounts that show tendencies of inactivity and where necessary, initiate actions for their activation or protection from wrong usage.

“Once dormant accounts exceed a six-year period, they shall be reported to the CBN along with efforts made by the obligor bank to locate the owners or their personal representatives.”

The CBN stated that three months to the end of the six years, both the account holder and the next-of-kin would be notified, adding that revalidation of inactive/dormant accounts would not attract any charge to the account holder as the banks would have made ample use of the idle funds.

It said, “Dormant account balances shall continue to be reflected in the books of banks as deposit liabilities until they are eventually withdrawn by the account holders or disposed of on their instructions. Dormant account balances shall, therefore, be regarded as deposits and shall be covered by deposit insurance.

“In the case of government-owned inactive/dormant accounts, banks shall notify the relevant government agency of their existence, with periodic returns of such notification sent to Banking Supervision Department. Banks are also required to turn over the funds to the concerned treasury after six years of inactivity.”

The directive further stated that account opening forms would provide a space for the next-of-kin, who would be contacted at the point of declaring the accounts dormant.

“The provisions of the guidelines shall take immediate effect. Sanctions for contravention of the provisions of the guidelines shall be imposed under Section 60 of the BOFIA (1991) as amended,” the CBN said

APC Majority: Tambuwal Blocks Leadership Change In Reps


With the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the majority in the House of Representatives, a plot by the federal lawmakers from the APC to effect a leadership change in the House failed yesterday.

At yesterday’s plenary, the House deputy minority leader, Hon Suleiman Kawu Sumaila (Kano/APC) raised a point of order, reminding the House of the new majority status of the APC following mass defections from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said based on this, APC should be the party occupying the positions of House leader and deputy House leader as well as chief whip and deputy chief whip in accordance to the Rules of the House.

The House speaker, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, however, cautioned against any move to change the House leadership, reminding lawmakers of a court action on the issue of defections.

Following six defections (all from PDP) yesterday, the 360-member House now features APC with 181 seats; PDP 156 seats and other parties 23 seats.

The members that defected yesterday were Tobias Okwuru, PDP to LP (Ebonyi); Peter Ali, PDP to LP (Ebonyi); Chinenye Ike, PDP to APGA (Abia); Micah Umoh, PDP to ACCORD (A/Ibom); Robinson Uwak, PDP to APC (A/Ibom) and Ibrahim Garba, PDP to APC (Jigawa).

In January, APC emerged as the political party with majority members in the House, a first by an opposition party since 1999. The PDP had dominated the House since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.



Poll Shift, A Dent On Integrity Of 2015 Election – Tambuwal

Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has said that the postponement of the general elections has “inflicted an indelible dent on the integrity of the 2015 Elections and indeed the country’s entire electoral process”.

Tambuwal said majority opinions showed that the postponement was ill-timed, the excuse of security concerns notwithstanding.

“Government owes Nigerians a duty to make deliberate and honest efforts to restore public confidence in the process and in it’s commitment to free, fair, peaceful and transparent elections,” Tambuwal stated in his welcome remarks as House members resumed from their month-long recess yesterday.

Ahead of the March elections, Tambuwal said recent inflammatory utterances by some Nigerians which are inimical to the nation’s unity, peace and public order give cause for serious concern.

He said, “I am persuaded that the nonchalance or at best reluctance of the security agencies in resorting to the laws of the land in arresting the trend constitutes a direct affront on the revered doctrine of the rule of law. Nigerians have never needed intimidation or threats from any quarters to vote candidates at elections and they surely do not need any now.

“Our Constitution makes elaborate provisions for the rights and liberties of all citizens and, therefore, when certain misguided individuals or groups seek to unlawfully curtail these rights and liberties, the appropriate agencies of state must rise as a bulwark against such infractions”.

Tambuwal added that Nigerians will elect their leaders through the ballot and will resist all retrogressive forces that seek to truncate democracy.

On the 2015 national budget, Tambuwal assured of speedy passage despite the budget’s “belated submission”.



Constitution Amendment: Reps Approve Free Education, Healthcare For Nigerians

Deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, yesterday presented the report of the concluded nationwide review process of the 1999 Constitution, highlights of which include the right to free basic education and free healthcare services for all Nigerians.

The House members unanimously adopted the report.

The report is a summation of the resolutions of the State Houses of Assembly on the amendment of the constitution which is a culmination of the process for amending the nation’s grundnum after both chambers of the National Assembly have harmonised their positions as stipulated by law.

In another landmark amendment which returned approved from the states, national security agencies, the Nigeria Police, State Houses of Assembly, attorneys-general and auditors-general are now listed as bodies and offices to enjoy a first line charge from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

“This shall grant them financial autonomy to enable them carry out their assignments without the hindrance of non-release of their allocations and ensure their operational autonomy,” Ihedioha said, quoting the report.

NGF crisis: Obasanjo peace move crumbles -PUNCH

THE efforts of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to douse the tension among the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party have failed.

Obasanjo met with the governors on Tuesday night at the Presidential Villa, Abuja to intervene in the crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

A major decision at the meeting was to persuade both Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; and his Plateau counterpart, Jonah Jang, to step down for a neutral person as Chairman of the NGF.

But The PUNCH learnt on Wednesday that the two governors had refused to step down.

Amaechi and Jang are both claiming the chairmanship of the forum since its controversial election three months ago. The NGF has since split into two with Amaechi and Jang controlling different factions.

Before the Tuesday’s meeting, which ended at a few minutes after 3am, Obasanjo had earlier met with the governors on Monday night.

The two meetings were said to have centred on discipline in the PDP, the NGF crisis and sundry issues among which are the crisis in Rivers State; matter of  automatic tickets for political office holders, and lack of cohesion among the governors.

On Wednesday, it was gathered that some of the governors in the Jang faction of the NGF raised the matter of persuading both Jang and Amaechi to step down but those in the Amaechi Camp objected, saying that the matter was beyond what could be discussed at the meeting.

Though a source at Monday’s meeting said that there was hope that the issue would be resolved, he said that the matter assumed a new dimension at the resumed meeting on Tuesday when both parties refused to shift ground.

A source close to the two governors, on Wednesday, said, “There was nothing like that. Both of them have agreed to stick to their mandate.”

He added that though Jang was “almost ready to step down because those who voted for him were at the meeting, Amaechi however said he needed to meet those who elected him since his supporters cut across party lines during the election.”

The source added that Obasanjo had agreed to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan on the matter.

Speaking through the Plateau State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, Jang said, “The meeting is still inconclusive.”

The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, described Amaechi as a defender of democratic principles and would not hesitate to yield to the opinion of the governors that voted him as their chairman.

Semenitari, who spoke with one of our correspondents in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, explained that the governors had not asked Amaechi to step down, so he remained the NGF chairman,

She said, “What I know is that Nigerians are aware of the democratic process by which the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum was picked. As far as I know Governor Chibuike Amaechi, I also know that he believes that the democratic process should not in any way be one that we will treat with levity.

“Everybody who knows Amaechi knows that he does defend democratic principles. What I am certain of is that the Chairman of the NGF as of today is Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

“But if all of the governors, especially the governors who voted for Governor Amaechi, ask him to step down, that would mean that the majority of the governors have decided that there should be a new chairman. Naturally, he would concede to his colleagues. But today, that is not the case.”

Meanwhile, one of the aggrieved northern governors, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, on Wednesday met with the President behind closed-doors at the Villa, Abuja.

That was the first time Nyako would meet with Jonathan alone since the crises rocking the PDP and the NGF started.

While speaking with State House correspondents at the end of his meeting with Jonathan, Nyako insisted that Jang did not have any claim to the NGF chairmanship because he did not win the election.

When asked specifically whether the governors resolved at their recent meeting with Obasanjo that both Jang and Amaechi should step down as the chairman of the NGF, the governor said, “You are saying Jang should step down, step down for what? Did he win the election? What we are saying here is that if he is going to step down because he is second winner, then that is their business and it is not the business of others or the winner to tell him to step down. He is number two, he got the second highest votes and that is the way forward. Step down for what? From number two to where? Number three or four?”

Nyako said the crisis in the NGF was unnecessary because it was clear that Amaechi won the election.

He said one of the criteria of electing a leader for the forum was that their chairman must be trustworthy.

He said while the governors wanted a chairman that would have a cordial relationship with the President, they could not be comfortable with a chairman that would turn himself to the President’s “yes man.”

Nyako said, “The election in the governors’ forum has become an issue. It should not be an issue. When you say 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, even someone who is in elementary school knows which one is higher.

“If one group got 19 votes and the other got 16, in a democracy even in the eyes of the people in elementary school, they know that 19 is higher than 16. It should not be turned into a controversy.”

When asked whether the NGF issue was discussed in the meeting with Obasanjo, he simply said, “It was part of it but you should understand the rationale.”

REGINA ASKIA WRITES FEMI FANI-KAYODE OVER SEX RANTS

 

I’ve Just Been Told That Having Sex With An Igbo Woman Is A Great Accomplishment!!! After reading another hard-drug-influenced-essay by the Yoruba idiot parading himself as Femi Fani-Kayode,Ex-Minister of the Nigerian Federation, I felt there was no need to blame him for giving us another reason why his family members should as a matter of urgency, BUNDLE HIM BACK TO A REHAB! No! I don’t blame Femi Fani-Kayode for having a fun-filled day telling us how he ‘breezed’ through Bianca Onoh before our very revered Eze-Igbo married her… I blame Bianca Onoh , Chioma Anasoh & Adaobi Uchegbu for being naive or to have rather stooped so low to have intimate relationship with a Yoruba rascal/urchin/idiot whom i’m very sure was on heavy use of cocaine (and still is) at the time!

Were Bianca, Chioma & Adaobi blind to Femi’s madness/drug-addiction or maybe he flashed his Ministerial/Ex-Ministerial portfolio to entice them? This is the first time a former public figure (I blame Former President Obasanjo for giving him that privilege) has preferred to reel out the names of women he had sex with, in a bid to show-off how he has been able to conquer tribalism in Nigeria or maybe trying to tell others he has been able to have sex with one of the prettiest ex beauty queens another tribe may boast of, like Bianca Ojukwu (Nee Onoh) of the Igbo tribe.

Some persons have adviced that Femi Fani-Kayode should be ignored due to his MENTAL INSTABILITY but i say NO to it! I will not ignore him because when a mad-man chases one into his house & still want to exhibit that madness there, the owner of the house will definitely react except he doesn’t value his house!

This has taken a tribal angle & its such a shame that many Yorubas have been applauding Fani-Kayode’s spiteful comments against the Igbo. I may not want to generalize the behavioural disorders of even the average Yoruba, but i want to use this ample opportunity to remind our single Igbo sisters that if “He” is not Igbo, He can’t be like an Igbo-man who won’t be so ridiculous to think that giving us some of the names of our ladies he had sex with makes him a superman, as Femi Kayode must be ‘thinking’ in his fool’s paradise.

Right now in Nigeria, the likes of a Yoruba bastard like Femi Fani-Kayode have proved that Igbo women should think “wisely” in making choices as regards whom they allow ‘ACCESS’ to their much fancied bodies. An Igboman would NEVER do what Femi Fani-Kayode did with the names of Bianca Ojukwu (Nee Onoh), PDP’s Adaobi Uchegbu & the relatively unknown Chioma Anasoh or even women from other tribes. He typically exhibited behavioural disorder of the Yorubas, which is to them, a normal way of life. What a shame!

Bianca Ojukwu & the other two ladies should as a matter of urgency, reply Femi Fani-Kayode’s show of lunacy, stupidity, foolishness, infantile reasoning & utter disrespect for them!

Femi Fani-Kayode consciously & gladly made a spiteful remark of Igbo women & our women should take the fight to him in a very deserving impudent manner! I am waiting for the responses by Bianca, Adaobi & Chioma.

By the way, I never knew men from other tribes take having sex with an Igbo lady as a great feat… Bianca & others should hold their heads high up.

I slept with Bianca ...Ojukwu's Wife -FaniKayode

Those that call me a tribalist are simply misguided. Perhaps they do not know the meaning of the word or its true import. Those that know me well can confirm the fact that I am not a tribalist, a racist or a bigot and that I consider such sentiments as being unworthy of a man of class, good breeding and culture. I am however a firm believer in the propagation of truth and I appreciate the value and importance of history. Sadly many of our igbo compatriots do not believe in that. For them history consists of only one thing- how other Nigerians have always marginalised them and treated them badly.
If only they knew their own history, where they are coming from, what they used to be, where they were 100 years ago and what their forefathers did to the rest of Nigeria over the last 80 years they would know why they have always had such a hard time in this country. Sadly because they dont know any of these things they cannot learn from them. And if they cannot learn from them they will continue to make the same mistakes. That is why they can come to another mans land and territory and call it their own and when we say ”no” they tell us to shut up and call us tribalists.
I was not a tribalist when I wrote a tribute to Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu after he died or when I condemned the ’60′s pogroms that took place in the north in which their people were slaughtered like flies. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against my good friend Senator Ahmed Sani Yarima and child marriage in the north. Yet now I am a tribalist because I spoke the truth about our history and who the yoruba are. I was not a tribalist when I had a long-standing and intimate relationship with Miss Bianca Onoh, an igbo lady, who many years later married Ojukwu and who is now our Ambassador in Spain. I was not a tribalist when I had a long-standing and intimate relationship with Miss Chioma Anasoh, another igbo lady, who I almost took as a second wife. I was not a tribalist when I had a long-standing and intimate relationship with Miss Adaobi Uchegbu, another igbo lady, who was exceptionally close to me and who is now at the National Headquarters of the ruling PDP.
I was not a tribalist when I wrote essays defending the rights of the igbo and every other Nigerian nationality to exercise their right of self-determination and leave Nigeria if that is what they wanted to do. I was not a tribalist when I consistently wrote that Nigeria must have a Sovereign National Conference where the rights and obligations of all its various nationalities would be clearly defined and agreed upon. I was not a tribalist when I employed more igbo people as a Presidential spokesman and a Minister of the Federal Republic than even my own yoruba. I was not a tribalist when I wrote an essay, just two years ago, extolling the virtues of igbo women and telling the world about their sudden and meteoric rise and how far they had gone in the power circles of this country in the last 10 years. I was not a tribalist when I condemned the bombing of predominantly igbo and catholic churches and the killing of the igbo and others by Boko Haram in the north over the last three years.
I was not a tribalist when I risked my life by consistently writing against Boko Haram and urging our President to do a better job at protecting the lives of all Nigerians even though I live in the north. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against political sharia in the late ’90′s and I participated in protracted and sometimes acrimoniuos debates with islamic fundamentalists and islamists. I was not a tribalist when I was in NADECO and when we fought against military rule in Nigeria. I was not a tribalist when I fought for a President from the south-south or the south-east. I was not a tribalist when I wrote in defence of the igbo when it came to the abandoned property issue. I was not a tribalist when I wrote about the excesses of the Federal troops during the civil war. I was not a tribalist when I commended Azikiwe and the virtues of the NCNC in Nigerian history. I was not a tribalist when I wrote that it was unfair and wrong for the Federal Government of Nigeria to leave the igbo with only 20 pounds each after the civil war. I was not a tribalist when many years ago I attended and gave my life to Christ in a church called TREM which was established by a great igbo man by the name of Bishop Mike Okonkwo. I was not a tribalist when my grandfather Justice Victor Adedapo Kayode, taught Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe at Methodist Boys High School in Lagos and when my father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, was appointed as the leader of the predominantly igbo NCNC in the Western Regional House of Assembly. I could go on and on. These people have very short memories and anyone that does not agree with them all the time or that says one word against them at any point in time is labelled a tribalist for life.
They called Chief Obafemi Awolowo a tribalist, an igbo-hater a genocidal maniac and a child-killer simply because the man refused to join sides with them in the civil war yet they forgot that on one of the occassions that Awolowo ran for the Presidency his running mate was from the east and not from the north. They called Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Chief S.L Akintola and Sir Ahmadu Bello igbo-haters and tribalists simply because they saw through the igbo agenda at a very early stage in our history and they marked and killed them all for it. They called General Yakubu Gowon a genocidal maniac, a child-killer, an igbo-hater and a tribalist simply because opposed Biafra, stood up to Ojukwu and insisted on keeping Nigeria together and even though he declared that there was ”no victor and no vanquished” after the civil war.

They accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of being a tribalist and an igbo-hater even though he appointed an igbo man as the first GOC in the Nigerian Army since 1966 and even though he appointed more igbos into key positions in his government than any President before him. They accused President Shehu Shagari of being a tribalist and an igbo-hater even though he pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return back home after a long period in exile. They have accused the Nigerian people of being tribalists and igbo-haters simply because we have not had an igbo President since 1966 forgetting that Nigeria was magnamonious in victory and that she not only gladly welcomed them back into the fold after the civil war but that she also gave them the Vice Presidency of the country only ten years later. They have labelled the northerners as tribalists and igbo-haters simply because the north has refused to tolerate their excesses and accept their complicated ways. They have labelled the Niger Deltans as tribalists and igbo-haters simply due to the ”abandoned property issue” and because historically many of them have always resisted the idea of igbo domination.
They have labelled the yoruba as tribalists and igbo-haters simply because we have refused to accept their claims to our land and territory and even though we were more charitable, hospitable, accomodating and generous to them than any other nationality in Nigeria after the civil war. The yoruba particularly have been too kind and gentle with them. That is the problem. They see our liberal and accomodating nature as stupidity and weakness. That is why they always call the yoruba cowards forgetting that the history of the yoruba proves otherwise. It is now time to tell the truth. They despise the yoruba and they only pretend to believe in one Nigeria as long as they can always have their way and laud it over others. Worst of all, generally speaking, they have no restraining factors because money and the acquisition of wealth is their sole objective and purpose in life.
Someone ought to tell them that this is not a virtue but a vice. It is a cultural deficiency which is borne out of not having any history. If they did they would be less aggressive, more restrained and far more civil to others even where and when they disagree with them. If speaking these bitter home truths and yearning and fighting for a better Nigeria makes me a tribalist then it is a toga that I would be happy to wear. I will not sit by quietly and allow my people, the yoruba people of south western Nigeria, to be rubbished, insulted and cheated by anyone no matter how aggressive and given to extreemities that anyone may believe he is. I make or offer and no apology for my views. My numerous assertions on the igbo stand.
Meanwhile I have read all sorts of strange submissions in various newspapers and blogs that have held themselves out as rejoinders to my two articles titled “Lagos, The Igbo and the Servants Of Truth” and “The Bitter Truth About The Igbo”. Sadly other than the usual abuse and ungodly clap-trap not one of them has been able to address ANY of the issues that I raised in either of the two articles, answer any of the questions that I posed in them or successfully challenge my presentation of historical facts.
The bellicose nature and sheer crassness of these so-called rejoinders goes to prove two things. Firstly that those that I have descibed as being collectively unlettered, uncouth, uncultured, unrestrained and crude in all their ways really are all those things and a lot more and secondly that they cannot put up any reasonable or serious arguement to discredit or refute the message so instead they are attempting to destroy the messanger. Meanwhile the two essays have been published in various newspapers in our country and outside and it will continue to be published by others long into the forseeable future.
The message is clear and it is already out there. It cannot be called back in. The horse has bolted from the stable and the falcon has left the nest. No matter how hard those that are attempting to intimidate us into silence may try it will not work and we will not be cowed. The message is already out there and the genie is already out of the bottle. Those that seek to continue to denigrate and belittle the yoruba and lay claim to what is rightfully ours should desist from doing so. They should grant us our peace and give us our due respect and they will get the same in return. If they do not do so those things will elude them and eventually history will repeat itself again in this country.
Meanwhile when anyone reads a rejoinder that addresses the issues that I raised in my essays and that has some level of scholarship and intellectual content they should please let me know and I may well dignify it with a response. The shameless and emotional thrash and disjointed verbiage that have been described as rejoinders so far are just not up to scratch. They are bereft of any scholarship and intellectual content. They also invoke pity in me for the faceless plebians that wrote them and those they claim to be speaking for. When the igbo, or anyone else, find a real champion that can cross swords with me and give me a good run for my money someone should please let me know. I am itching for a real debate with a worthy adversary on this issue.
Like the great Achilles I feel that I have no match. Are there no Hector’s out there? Sadly it appears that my accusers, traducers, opposers and haters cannot find one. All they have is their hate, their ignorance, their insults and their inbred crudity and vulgarity.

MY WALK WITH UOU: 31 REASONS HE'S MY 2015 PASSWORD! -Bush

MY WALK WITH UOU: 31 REASONS HE'S MY 2015 PASSWORD!

 
6) He's Uniquely-ENGAGING:

1.0 I was somewhere today when an AIT programme came on air. Presenter Gbenga Aruleba, while introducing one of his two guests, spent sometime eulogising the man. He spoke of how the man has been in the National Assembly since the 1999 return of democracy. When Mr. Aruleba named the guest, a guy who was also watching hissed and said, 'Is Senator Ita Enang not tired?' Bla bla bla. As a rule, a politician (sorry, a public office holder) must be very good for me to defend him/her in public. I don't pretend about these things. For Senator Ita Enang, even his enemies know he is one of the best in the history of lawmaking in Nigeria. I said so to the guy, and with facts. As my people say, the guy changed mouth immediately: 'Ah, it is people like Senator Ita Enang that Nigeria needs!'

2.0 From the foregoing, Nigerians are moving from the point of anything-goes. We are tired of change for change sake; tired of sending our family or friends to power only for them to draw blank all through the tenure. Our interest now lies in people who can deliver. Post 2015, I see an Akwa Ibom where Oro nation will prefer Ibibio as governor once sure such a one can perform better than its own son or daughter, and vice versa. As Ibibio myself, I want to root for an Eastern Obolo man or woman who boasts of the right credentials to be my governor. Angling to be my governor only on the basis of where you come from, smacks of stone age politics. For me, that is a no no. So, I ask again: what will the man or woman you want bring to our 2015 table?

3.0 Straight up, here's more of what I consider to be the USP of my Choice 2015. I like very few of the leaders I see in Nigeria. I can say that again. Most of the people leading my country should be behind someone else. Enter UOU. With his monumental capacity, content and quality, this ENGAGING personality is a leadership asset. An NLC Chief at home once told me that his family and he decided to follow UOU the day the man was called up at very short notice to address some Niger Delta Oil & Gas Forum. The Labour Boss said he never thought any Akwa Ibom man or woman could speak that well and factually, extempore, in a field he/she was not a known authority. UOU is that all-weather expert, or rather a Jack of all trade and master of all. He knows a little of everything. I joke with him regularly that he should be a journalist. As for our State Search 2015, I pray Heaven considers this EARNEST, EASEFUL, EDUCATED, EFFECTIVE, ELEGANT, ENIGMATIC, EXPERIENCED figure, IJN. Jesus is Lord! ...B

Fight in Rivers State House of Assembly

PUBLIC SERVICE WEEK 2013

 

Wedding Controversy: Deeper Life Suspends Kumuyi's Son, Daughter-in-Law

John Kumuyi, one of the sons of the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, and his now-wife, Love, were suspended by the leadership of the aforementioned church and banned from carrying out any activity in this church. The decision is grounded by the recent controversy over the couple's wedding in Jamaica.

It would be recalled that John and Love wedded in Jamaica on 15 June, 2013, only to receive thousands negative comments from members of the church. Many condemned the wedding gown worn by the wife-to be, also other aspects of the wedding that were at variance with the church's standards.
Love's attires turned out to differ from the conventional ones set for Deeper Life members. Lots of people noticed her hair wasn't "natural" and that she applied lipstick as part of the make-up.
A limousine hired to deliver the couple to their destination after the wedding, a huge cake that was served at the ceremony were contrary to the church's tradition.
The church leaders decided to place the couple on suspension to give them time to pray and seek forgiveness from God for their action, following countless comments on social media and by the members of Deeper Life.
John and Love's suspension from church activities was announced last Saturday, at Deeper Life's monthly Miracle and Revival Programme, held at the Deeper Life Conference Centre (DLCC), Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The news was delivered by Pastor Philip Oluwi, a key leader in the church, who obviously was following the instructions from the General Superintendent of the church, Pastor William Kumuyi. Oluwi stressed that the standard of Deeper Life regarding wedding and moderacy had not changed.
"The church, Deeper Life, remains committed to the biblical practice and standard of almost 40 years Christian dressing and still remains and does not compromise on biblical Christian dressing.
"Hence, deviation warrants the displeasure and frown of God and the leadership of the church. John and Love are now under discipline," Oluwi announced to the entire congregation.
The couple has already apologised to the church for the inappropriate way the wedding was conducted. The letter was read by Oluwi and re-read several times to church members by the Church's Secretary, Pastor Jerry Asemota. The letter, addressed to the Church Secretary and titled 'Letter of Apology,' expressed the deepest regret of the couple for bringing the church into disrepute.
Moreover, further investigation has revealed that John and Love's wedding was not conducted in a Deeper Life Bible Church. It was also not conducted by pastors from the church, as Deeper Life Bible Church in Jamaica has not been licensed by the country's government to join couples in wedlock, according to the laws of Jamaica.
The wedding was taken to another church where the ministers in the unnamed church conducted the wedding and joined them in holy matrimony.
Deeper Life leaders that came from Nigeria were said to have disapproved of the earlier gown Love was to wear for the wedding, while another was hurriedly sewed the night before the wedding.
Church leaders were said not to have seen the new dress until the couple was marching into the church and by then, it was too late to take any action as the wedding was not conducted in a Deeper Life church.

AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR HELEN ESUENE

My dear senator,

I have chosen to write to you through this medium because I have made several attempts to see you in private to have this discuss, but all attempt proves abortive, and also because I have heard rumours emanating from different quarters about your gubernatorial ambition come 2015.

 I am articulated to refresh in your memories the history I came to hear my grandfather say before his death, which I know will make you pause and think before you act, not just acting from people’s perception and advices. My grandfather told me of missionaries who came into our land with bibles because that was all they had, and all our people had was the land. These missionaries came to them and said they had to pray. When they closed their eyes and prayed, by the time they finish praying, and opened their eyes, they had the bible and the missionaries had their land.

You might be perplexed while I start my letter with the history you are aware of, but the reason I am doing this is to depict the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes our grandparents knew by praying, but they were not wise for closing their eyes distinctively. These history I am talking about is the same thing you and your accomplices are trying to make it repeat itself again.

I can remember vividly that before you were given an opportunity to serve in the capacity as a senator, it was not because you were more qualified to the likes of the emeritus Senator “Eme Ekaette” or Bishop Samuel Akpan, but because the people thought that you will actualize the dream of your late husband, that alone gave you an edge over them. Prior to your emergence as a Senator, I was forced to read your profile and I discovered that you had occupied other political offices ranging from First Lady of the South Eastern State-1968, Honorable Minister of State for Health -2005, Minister of Environment-2006-2007, First Minister of Environment, housing and Urban Development 2007- May 2007, yet the only thing you can ride home about for yourself and your family is Villa marina hotel and Grafen Nig Ltd which you claim provides 300 employment opportunity to the people of Akwa Ibom State.

There is a great need for you to understand that industrialization is the pivot of every governance, and if you lack it when given a smaller opportunity like the ones you have as stated above, then it is a misdemeanor that will never be corrected when given a bigger opportunity like the hilltop mansion.

My Senator, I liken you to be the Missionary that lured my grandparents into surrendering their land at the conviction of the words in the bible. Why I say so is that you have turned around to make a caricature of the manifesto you presented to the masses.

If I fail to comment on issues affecting my person and my people, I will be worst than a hypocrite. Eket senatorial district I come from is suffering. It is suffering not because it’s not blessed with natural resources, but it’s suffering because you and other representatives lack the intellectual depth to paddle the affairs of this senatorial district.

Everyone will attest to the fact that, Eket senatorial district is rich with natural resources; oil and gas to be precise, and contributes immensely to the growth of both the state and the country’s economy, yet it is one of the most impoverished oil producing communities, Because of the oil politics played by our representative and the miss-governance.

My Senator, you lack the wisdom to know that the youths need to be employed, not just employed in organizations that is owned by you, but organization that should be as a result of the funds you receive to develop the senatorial district; you lack the knowledge to know that education that is the bedrock of great society should be given high priority to. Mayhem is caused by irate youths who have oil in their community but cannot feel its derivatives. If you are performing these good as a Senator “irony”, what will you have to offer if you are given a chance to the Hilltop Mansion?

My Senator, I will advise you to take a bow out of politics after the expiration of your tenure because you are sleeping deeper than Senator Eme Ekaette except you wake up now that is early. Ever since Senator Udoma Udoma left Eket senatorial seat, the seat have remained vacant, though it has been occupied by you to suit the whims of the Ogas at the top , but you know less of yourself not to talk about governance.

 The lies that wrapped around your lips whenever you said; I will....., during your political campaign, told me of the calamity and misappropriation of funds awaiting us as your electioneers.

The plans of late Udoakaha Jacob Esuene, was a locality where youths who are eligible will find a place to work and carter for themselves, a terrain where education will be the bedrock that will project youths to greatness. But now, the reverse is the scenario; Poverty have eaten into the fabric of our senatorial district, yet we are represented; our youths who have a lot to offer after graduation, are forced into crime and prostitution because of joblessness, yet we produce and explore from this zone. Should the Governor alone be blamed if a state fails? , I think the fat sum accrued to the Senators for senatorial district development, and house of assemblies (federal and state) should go a long way in restructuring or revamping some forgotten projects.

 I want to advice you of the need to re-write the gigantic signpost I see in grace bill road in Eket Local Government Area bearing “SENATOR HELEN ESUENE CAMPAIGN OFFICE AND JOB NETWORK CENTRE” because my senator’s political manifesto was a debacle that portrays an act questionable in the court of competent jurisdiction.

My dear senator, you are sleeping deeper than Senator Eme Ekaette; at least Eme Ekaette tried by introducing a bill of indecent dressing to the senate, even though it suffered defeat on the floor of the senate.

The immediate paragraph is to awaken the consciousness of Senator Helen Esuene in regards the purported infrastructural development she receive funds from the federal government in its behalf, there is a great need for our Senator to mimic the unique political characteristics of the Late U.J. ESUENE (her husband) in regards development.

Please my dearest Senator, do not misconstrue the essence of this letter, my wish for you is to sleep little and wake early to attain to the pressing needs of the people who gave you their vote to secure your senatorial dream, if you let them down, as you are about to, then there is no need having any other ambition.

One love as we partner together for a new, great and uninfluenced Akwa Ibom 2015 and its continuity

Written by

Edet Edet

Eket

+234 818-428-9288

Sanusi Lamido, his CBN mistress and their sweetheart escapades

Twenty minutes to midnight on February 25, 2013, and a day before the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria was due to meet, Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi developed a craving for romance—he badly needed a kiss.
The governor, married, with children, grabbed his mobile phone and typed out a message.  “Maybe you should come kiss me before board meeting tomorrow,” Mr. Sanusi wrote and then squeezed the send button.
At about 9 a.m. the next day, Mrs. Maryam Yaro, a married mother of two, an assistant director and subordinate to the governor at the CBN, arrived at Sanusi’s unnamed Abuja hotel, seeking to keep the date and help address her boss’ craving for a kiss.  (Insiders say board members, including those who live in Abuja, are usually lodged in hotels ahead of board meetings).
But by the time Mrs. Yaro left the hotel to return to her official desk at the CBN, the duo had also struck out an arrangement to spend the rest of the week together in Lagos.
So, in the evening of Wednesday February 27, Mrs. Yaro flew to Lagos ahead of Mr. Sanusi and checked into a hotel in the city, skipping work, at taxpayers’ expense, on Thursday February 28 and Friday, March 1.
To keep faith with Mrs. Yaro’s date, the CBN governor arrived Lagos, travelling on a chartered flight, on the night of February 28, and checked into the Federal Palace Hotel, passage and boarding all at taxpayers expenses.
Both Mr. Sanusi and Mrs. Yaro rendezvoused in the hotel till Sunday when both of them returned to Abuja, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
“…I had such a wonderful weekend,” Mrs. Yaro confessed to the governor while aboard her Abuja-bound flight. “You have revived in me what I thought I lost long ago. I thought I lost the passion to love again,” she claimed.
“Alhamdulillahi. Love you,” Mr. Sanusi responded in a measured tone.
Insiders say repeated violation of the statutory code of conduct for public office holders such as hiring his girlfriends and mistresses without complying with public service rules, dating married and unmarried women within the bank, and flirting with them during official work hours have become defining characters of Mr. Sanusi’s governorship of the central bank.
An official of the bank spoke of how Mr. Sanusi had enthroned nepotism at the bank, arbitrarily hiring girlfriends and relatives and engaging in extramarital relationships with staff.
“This man (the CBN governor) is the most morally bankrupt governor the CBN has ever had,” the official, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, told PREMIUM TIMES. “Forget all the pretences, he is a shameless man of loose character.”
Investigations by this newspaper revealed that Mr. Lamido hired his latest mistress, Mrs. Yaro, without complying with the CBN recruitment policy that stressed, “all appointments shall be made on the basis of merit, through a fair and open selection process.”
“The principles underlying the recruitment process are those of fairness, credibility, equal employment opportunities, merit and optimization of career prospects for currently employed staff,” the bank said on its website.
But Mrs. Yaro, insiders say, was hired in July 2012 without adherence to these principles. Those who should know say Mrs. Yaro, who was a staff at the National Programme on Food Security, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, was brought into the bank as assistant director without  “advert for the vacancy and after a kangaroo interview.”
When contacted, Mr. Sanusi said due process was followed in hiring Mrs. Yaro.
He said having worked for years in the ministry of agric, Mrs Yaro came highly recommended and qualified for the job for which she was hired.
The CBN governor continued, “I have known Dr Yaro since 1981. She was my student in Yola and she later came to ABU Zaria. We have been very good friends but this is not why NIRSAL took her. You may wish to check her CV against all the other CVs in NIRSAL. And she did go through an interview process with the NIRSAL CEO making the decision not CBN HR.
“As for the personal allegations, this is all strange to me but I have a personal policy of not responding to such allegations since in Nigeria anything can be published on any public officer without proof.  I have limited myself to what concerns official allegations and leave you to your God and your conscience on whatever else you want to publish. Thank you for telling me though.”
Mrs Yaro however declined comments when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES.
“Be careful what you are saying,” she told one of our reporters on the telephone. “I have nothing to comment to you on anything.”
When asked if she would be willing to respond to specific questions about her trips to Lagos to keep dates with Mr. Sanusi, she simply said, “Whatever it is, I don’t know. Will you just let me be?”
But our investigations revealed that the governor’s claim was far from accurate. Through several interviews and review of records, PREMIUM TIMES was able to determine that Mrs. Yaro and Mr. Sanusi had dated each other for at least six months before she was hired.
Insiders say Mr. Sanusi repeatedly pestered the human resource department of the bank ordering it to bring Mrs. Yaro’s application to him for approval. And once the file reached his table, the governor wasted no time in treating it.
On June 25, 2012, Mr. Sanusi, who was travelling in South Africa at the time, telephoned Mrs. Yaro to break the news to her that he had approved her recruitment in what critics consider a clear conflict of interest and a violation of a provision of Nigeria’s Code of Conduct which stipulates that “a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.”
Mrs. Yaro, (whose businessman husband, Ahmed, is largely based in Kaduna but visits Abuja regularly) assumed duties at the CBN in the first week of September 2012 and was deployed to the Development Finance Department.
The department then put her in charge of the bank’s Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System For Agricultural Lending, (NIRSAL), a unit that attempts to fix the agricultural value chain, so that banks can lend with confidence to the sector and, encourages banks to lend to the agricultural value chain by offering them strong incentives and technical assistance.
Sources said Mrs. Yaro married Ahmed (or Shuaib, according to another source) six years ago after her first husband, Waisu Yaro Bodinga (then an executive director at the Nigeria Ports Authority) died in the ill-fated ADC plane crash of 2006.
The romance between Mrs. Yaro and Mr. Sanusi became even hotter after she began work at the bank, with the two lovers regularly exchanging telephone calls and text messages during work hours to profess love for each other.
At times, Mrs. Yaro would remain in her office far beyond close of work to enable her to keep appointments with the CBN governor, records show.
Sometimes, Mrs. Yaro would raise concerns about Mr. Sanusi’s other girlfriends and mistresses (such as Sutura and Rose) and how they were blocking her from getting the governor’s full attention, but the relationship continued nonetheless.
Mrs. Yaro also began to have access to confidential information known only to top management and board of the bank, insiders say.
At a point, one source said, she began to strategise to corner contracts for one Goke Akinboro, the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos-based Cellullant Limited, an information technology company. Mr. Akinboro is also described as “very close” to Mrs Yaro.
On March 15, 2013, the CBN lovers headed to Lagos again for another weekend of fun. The initial plan was for the duo to fly to the nation’s commercial capital on Saturday, March 16, returning to Abuja on Sunday. But the trip had to be brought forward by a day after the lovers realized that the Area Council election in Abuja was holding that Saturday and that movement might be restricted.
Mrs. Yaro arrived Lagos on the night of March 15, and immediately checked into the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel on Victoria Island. Mr. Sanusi flew from Kano to Lagos via chartered jet on the bills of the Nigerian taxpayers. He arrived at about 11 p.m., stopped by his Ikoyi home, before dashing to the hotel where Mrs. Yaro was waiting in a seductive dress in Room 23. The lovers spent that night and the next day together in the hotel.
As he flew into Abuja March 17 on a chartered jet, Mr. Sanusi sent a message to Mrs. Yaro saying, “Love. Just landed in Abuja. Thank you for a wonderful weekend.” Mrs. Yaro replied, “Alhamdulillah. I had a wonderful weekend too. I am able to get the 3:15 flight on Arik Air. Love you.”
But in-between these rendezvous in Lagos, Mr. Sanusi and Mrs Yaro also found time to get together elsewhere.  They were to meet on March 11, 2013, in Makurdi but somehow Mrs Yaro could not make it to the Benue State capital.  But earlier on February 14, (Valentine’s Day), the lovers had a good time together in Maiduguri. Although, the two of them travelled to the city on different missions, they somehow found a way to get together.
At a point, Mrs Yaro voiced open frustration when Mr. Lamido delayed in taking her calls as she tried, frantically, to track him down. “I’m thinking that one Shuwa girl has snatched you away from me,” Mrs. Yaro wrote in a message. “I don’t trust them (Maiduguri girls) with you.”
A velvet-ranking figure within Nigeria’s economic and political circles, Mr. Sanusi, is generally perceived as one of the intellectual anchors and moral conscience of this administration. When his five-year term expires next year, he has indicated he would not renew his contract. Mr. Sanusi has a well-advertised ambition to become the future emir of his native Kano, where he is already a top chieftaincy holder (Dan Maje Kano). Dan Majen Kano, a historic title, which means Son of Emir-Maje, is reserved for the royal family members from the Kano Habe dynasty.
A zigzag prospect to run for the Nigerian presidency is also believed to be floating in the horizon for Mr. Sanusi.
Multiple sources at both the CBN and First Bank, where Mr. Sanusi was managing director before his appointment to the central bank, describe the governor as an “incurable womanizer.”
“This guy seems unable to resist anything in skirt, and it is unfortunate that a lot of young people look up to him as an example,” one of Mr. Sanusi’s aides in Abuja said, expressing widely held concerns in banking circles that “It is sad that he wouldn’t even let married women be.”
Mr. Sanusi, 51, appointed CBN Governor on June 3 2009, is a smart economist and award-winning banker with a background in risk management.
He holds a graduate degree in economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a diploma in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the African International University in Khartoum, Sudan. Today, Mr. Sanusi is also commonly regarded as an important voice in Islamic jurisprudence.
The Banker, the UK-based financial magazine honoured him in 2010 as global Central Bank Governor of the Year as well as African Central Bank Governor of the Year. In 2011, the TIME magazine listed Mr. Sanusi in its annual publication of 100 most influential people.
At the African Banker Awards gala dinner held Wednesday in Morocco, Mr. Sanusi also emerged the “2013 Africa Central Bank Governor of the Year.”
“There  is no doubt that he is a fairly effective banker,” an official of one of Nigeria’s leading banks, who requested anonymity  for fear his bank might be targeted, told PREMIUM TIMES. “But he is a man of zero morality despite his public posturing.  It is really sad.”