Funds Spended were properly Spended - Nigeria Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung

kontinu lol...

$350,000 Blackmail: Rotimi Amaechi & Dakuku Peterside paid Omoyele Sowore of SaharaReporters $350,000 to blackmail Gov Wike

Ondo State born publisher of SaharaReporters, an online platform that is notorious for blackmailing top public officials, especially those sympathetic to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been caught in the web of a $350,000 (N169 million) bribery scam.

In an attempt to distract Nigerians from the gravity of electoral crimes committed by agents of the Federal Government caught on video across Rivers State during the last Saturday’s National and State House of Assembly rerun elections, Minister of Transportation and immediate past governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi and Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside paid Omoyele Sowore a sum of $350,000 on Tuesday.

Sources who confirmed the deal, said the $350,000 was sourced from NIMASA and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), with NIMASA releasing $220,000 as payment for “international image laundering consultancy” while NDDC paid $130,000 for what they called; “publicity retainership.”

One of the sources said N6 billion was gotten from NIMASA and NDDC to fund the Rivers State rerun elections.

Omoyele Sowore’s assignment was to use his Sahara Reporters to publish anything that will shift the attention of the public from the shameless involvement of federal government security agents in ballot snatching, hijacking of ballot boxes and indiscriminate shootings during the Rivers State rerun elections.

Few hours ago, Sahara Reporters went to town with its modulated audio, trying to hoodwink the public into believing that Governor Nyesom Wike was caught on tape arranging bribery of INEC officials.

In carrying out this brief, Omoyele Sowore who is a master in blackmail and “Jankara Journalism” deployed technologies called Natural Voices and Comparator feature from AV Voice Changer Software Diamond cook

Source: www.scannewsnigeria.com

Video: Aisha Buhari Blast President Buhari in a BBC Interview

'Recession is a Word' Caught on Video - Nigeria’s finance minister, Kemi Adeosun

After the denial of haven't said that 'Recession is a Word', a video has appeared showing that Nigeria’s finance minister, Kemi Adeosun actually said it. Smh...

Remember This Toothpaste Forever and Use Your Words Wisely

Ryan Lochte Apologizes for the Rio Robbery False Story

Atiku May become PDP 2019 Presidential Flagbearer

The crises bedeviling the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been blamed on the adoption of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to fly the flag of the PDP in 2019.

Abubakar was the vice president during the eight years in which President Olusegun Obasanjo ran the country under the platform of the PDP.

A member of the G-34, which saw to the formation of the PDP, the former vice president used his financial war chest to see to the success of the party until schism and internal bickering in the Presidency made him join the opposition.

But things appeared to have changed as emerging facts show that PDP governors and other notable leaders in the party may have identified him as the most viable candidate to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) after the 2015 presidential fiasco.

It was gathered that some hawks in the troubled party had conceived earlier in the year that ex-president and current African most celebrated democratic icon, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, might be the ideal candidate due to his rising domestic and international stocks but he turned it down, advising that the leaders of the party should search more broadly.

Jonathan was said to have been approached by the controversial factional chairman of the party, Ali Modu-Sheriff to provide N3 trillion so that he could be adopted as the party’s sole candidate when “the time was ripe,” a source in the National Working Committee said.

Even though the source could not clarify if Jonathan was personally informed, he was sure the former president knew and when reports were brought back that the former president was not disposed to ruling the country again, “Sheriff started to nurse the ambition. That was why he manipulated some current PDP governors to adopt him until 2018 when he would step down as the party’s chairman and be adopted as the sole candidate to run for president.”

But things did not work out, the source said, adding that in one of the meetings held at the residence of a former senator from the north central zone, Mr Sheriff’s calculations were immediately uncovered.

“His calculations were made clear at the meetings. So moves were made to first unify the northern PDP members and then reach out to the south. The knock out blow was the shrewd role of Senator Ibrahim Mantu and former Minister, Professor Jerry Gana, who stuck to their guns and informed PDP governors and other members of what was in the offing.

“At the first Port Harcourt’s conference, the table turned as Rivers State and Ekiti State governors quickly aligned with the Mantu group and left Modu-Sheriff alone,” the source explained.

“Once that was achieved amid erroneous courts judgement that were obtained by Modu-Sheriff, the need to quickly shop for ideal candidates started. At a meeting in the governor’s lodge of one of the south south states, it was agreed that two PDP members who decamped to APC were ideal candidates.”

The source explained that the two mentioned were Atiku and Senate President Bukola Saraki.

To achieve this, a more amenable and corrupt-free party chairman must be chosen. “The need to zone it to the south was strategic just like the need to zone the party’s candidate to the north was,” another source explained.

“The calculations were not to scheme out people but to let a popular candidate win and that popular candidate, by the governors calculations who are scheming to clear the way for Atiku, was Jimi Agbaje. The PDP governors accepted him without a dissenter. And he is not running for the Alausa office again.”

Sources then said that the governors settled for Atiku owing to his complete understanding of the political process, broad political space he has created, stupendous financial possession and his position on key issues plaguing the nation – true federalism.

“He is for true federalism. The larger south sees him as one of theirs. Far above that, his acceptance to provide a whopping N3 trillion for the party since PDP is no longer in power and would compete against federal resources was far seen as an incentive than anything else,” the source averred.

According to the plan, Abubakar would officially decamp early next year after all the party’s structures have been created. A lot of consultations are ongoing such that once he decamps, “about 30 political parties would adopt him to send a strong message of his acceptability.”

According to another source in the PDP’s National Executive Committee, Abubakar prefers to use the platform he helped to form, he nurtured and “served in as a VP. Far from that, you can see the disenchantment in the nation. Even the APC is bogged down with internal crisis. The party is disappearing because of infighting. PDP did not witness this when it was in power. While it had crisis, the party’s chairman was not made to look like a little and confused boy as you see in APC.

“But the APC’s undoing is their unreadiness to lead the country. The indices are against them. Nothing is working. Even those ruling us are hungry and angry, could you imagined? That is why they are confused and Nigerians are against them.

“Would you run under such a crazy platform? Abubakar I know would not accept that. In no time, he would come back home because the PDP is his home. He would come with over 300 Atiku Abubakar support groups. Do you know what that means?

“With last Wednesday’s Federal High Court ruling in Abuja barring Modu-Sheriff from parading himself as the PDP chairman, sources say a new convention date might be announced and the venue could be changed to Abuja.

“This hint emerged on Friday as almost all PDP bigwigs gathered in Abia State for late Chief Ojo Madueke’s interment. Leaders of the party, a particular source said would discuss the last Wednesday’s botched party convention in Port Hacourt informally and seek for a short date for “a mother of all convention.”

Conclusive Polls Not Guaranteed in 2019 - INEC Chairman

The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on Friday said he was not in a position to guarantee conclusive polls in 2019 because he would not be pressured to step outside the lines of the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the Guidelines to impress anyone.

The INEC boss, who said this last night during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, noted that the conclusiveness or otherwise of any election owes greatly to the behavioural pattern of voters, of which he has zero control, adding that he would not dare second-guess any election.

He, however, frowned at the non-existence of any law prosecuting electoral offenders, saying the absence of such a provision or law has allowed for an abiding culture of electoral malpractices responsible for some of the many hitches the commission has been dealing with.

Dismissing the swirling assumption that virtually all the elections conducted by the commission under his leadership were inconclusive, Yakubu said so far since he assumed office, the commission had concluded about 137 elections, 80 of which were rerun and the rest were isolated polls like the Kogi and Bayelsa States elections, including also, the recent elections into the Federal Capital Territory.

While noting that the commission has continued to conduct elections practically every weekend unknown to many Nigerians, Yakubu maintained that “We won’t conclude elections at all means. But we will only always conclude elections with regards to the laws of the land and the Electoral Act.”

The INEC chairman, who noted that inconclusive polls were not peculiar to his leadership, went down memory lane to recall some of the major elections that were not concluded in the past with resounding emphasis on the 1983 re-election of former President Shehu Shagari, which propelled the military takeover of the Muhammadu Buhari junta.

Although he claimed not to be proud of such developments, Yakubu said the narratives trailing some of the elections conducted under his watch have made it look like it had never happened before, citing also the start of the 2011 elections, which the former INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega had to postpone even when voting had commenced in some parts of the country.

He, therefore, reiterated that “I can’t guarantee conclusive elections in 2019. I cannot second-guess Nigerians and I don’t know where they would head in 2019,” adding that he would not step a foot outside what the laws and guidelines dictate for the conduct of elections, urging Nigerians to work with him in ensuring that the polls are conclusive through shared roles and responsibilities.

Continuing, Yakubu said “The Electoral Act envisages the commission to sufficiently comply. You can’t second-guess any election. You can’t conclude an election on behalf of the people. The Kogi election came within two weeks that we assumed office and with its peculiar challenge. I don’t think anyone should blame the commission, but we found a way out.”

Identifying some of the challenges being encountered by the commission, Yakubu said the prosecution of electoral offenders was crucial to successful elections but noted that INEC neither has its own police nor the capacity to investigate infractions during elections.

He also identified threats of violence as well as over-voting as some of the challenges that informed why some of the elections usually turned out inconclusive. He maintained that “every vote in Nigeria must count and every polling unit must account. What they do at the polling units must be recognised and respected,” he added.

In addition to some of the distractions that the commission has had to deal with, Yakubu said his leadership met about 680 litigations in which it was joined, adding that whilst 600 of them were dismissed, 80 were upheld and that 80 were part of the ones responsible for some of the reruns held so far.

Tinubu, PDP and the Road to 2019 by Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, you must be wondering what this title is all about. Please, calm down, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, one of Nigeria’s iconic politicians, is not about to dump his party, APC, for PDP, the party he fought hard with others to sack from power just last year.

The reason for bringing PDP into this article which largely concerns the Tinubu conundrum is very simple and straight-forward. PDP has suffered calamities upon catastrophes since General Muhammadu Buhari sacked President Goodluck Jonathan from office. It is hard to imagine, or believe, that a party that held Nigeria by the jugular for 16 solid years could attain meltdown so soon and almost disappear into oblivion.

One would have expected PDP, despite its electoral misfortune, to provide a formidable opposition to APC and keep President Buhari on his toes but that has not been the case. APC has wasted no time in sending PDP to an early grave by throwing poisonous darts at it from every angle.

The war against corruption has been a most veritable weapon with stupendous impact used by APC to scatter most of the PDP apparatchik to the winds. The strategy was to weaken them by showcasing the humongous corruption that was perpetrated and perpetuated during their reign. The PDP brand was thus obliterated in a jiffy. Many of their bigwigs confessed to nefarious and horrendous crimes of looting and brigandage. They coughed up or vomited incredible sums of cash. All entreaties and shouts of a vengeful witch-hunt against President Buhari fell on deaf ears. The more they screamed the more they were horse-whipped into submission and made to weep bitterly.

As if that was not bad enough, PDP engaged itself in a war of attrition and became a house divided against itself. It was only a matter of time before it crumbled like the proverbial cookie does. Today, PDP has become its own worst enemy with the brickbats being thrown at one another by members of what used to be touted as the biggest political party in Africa. How are the mighty fallen!

The aim of my piece this week is to attempt what I did in 2014 when I wrote a permutative article titled ‘In Search of Mathematicians’. That was how I predicted a win for Buhari when many pundits still doubted such possibility. I intend to do so again in this column by painting a picture of what to expect in 2019. If you think that year is still far away, perish the thought.

The battle for the next Nigerian Presidential election started as soon as the last one was lost and won. The hurly-burly of the elections had not yet settled down when the potential gladiators picked up their gauntlets in readiness for the next combat.

The ruling party APC has suffered its own casualties as a result of its self-immolating wars of anticipation. What do I mean? The new men of power are already thinking ahead and wondering who may be too ambitious within their own fold. Any of such recalcitrant and ambitious rebels must be cut down to size, no matter his or her contribution to past victory and glory. Without mincing words, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is the first victim and he has suffered massive collateral damage on account of suspicion. APC itself has suffered almost fatally in the process. The only thing holding it together for now is the fact that it is the party in power and thus presumably has limitless opportunities to distribute largesse to the army of party operatives and their cronies.

By this time next year, as this government enters its third year in power, reality would begin to set in and President Buhari will begin to discover and see original animals in human skin.
I foresee and predict a re-alignment of political forces from 2017. President Buhari will be encouraged and persuaded to run a second term by those who are currently profiting from his government. It is only normal and it is their legitimate right. Nothing stops the President from seeking a re-election within our Constitution. The only snag is that many politicians are going to gang up against him because they see him as an outsider in politics who has benefitted from their massive support but in return has been messing things up for them.

If the President remains stoically stubborn and refuses to play ball with politicians, he would have to fight dirty to win his ticket. It seems to me that he would have to do everything to retain the loyalty of one man by all means, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is almost impossible for any candidate to become President of Nigeria without the overwhelming support of the Yoruba and their current generalissimo, Tinubu, in particular.

Tinubu derives his stranglehold on power from his iron grip on Lagos. Lagos is a microcosm of Nigeria. Whoever controls Lagos owns the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria, just like the California of America. Tinubu has been very lucky in that his anointed candidates, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode, have been very cerebrally successful. The current Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, is already set, after just one year in office, to surpass all expectations.

According to impeccable sources, Buhari may therefore be forced to risk and pick Tinubu as his running-mate if push comes to shove. Tinubu’s protégé, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is the current Vice President, who comes with intimidating credentials but may not have enough political muscle to deliver enough votes to the kitty. The dilemma for Buhari is whether he should buck the trend set by his predecessors, starting from Shehu Shagari, and jettison his Vice President, especially when a cordial and mutually respectful relationship exists between them. In addition, Osinbajo has been doing exceedingly well and he is seen as one of the few shining lights of this Administration. There is also the fact that Prof Osinbajo is a highly regarded and esteemed senior Christian figure and the President has needed him to silence those detractors that consider him an Islamic fundamentalist.

However, I believe that the controversy that could ensue from a potentially volatile Muslim/Muslim ticket may have been fixed substantially. Firstly, there is a precedent set by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola the acclaimed winner of the 1993 elections who picked a fellow Muslim, Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe, as his running-mate and still won in Nigeria’s freest and fairest election to date. Secondly, though Tinubu is a devout Muslim, his beloved wife is a hard-core Christian and a top-notch member of the same Redeemed Christian Church of God as the Vice President. Thirdly, there is the fact that Tinubu supported a Christian, Akinwunmi Ambode, as his anointed candidate for Governor of Lagos State, a deft move calculated to pacify those who may wish to foment religious crisis and conflagration then and in the future.

Tinubu is believed by many to have served Nigeria meritoriously and selflessly by suppressing his own personal ambition for that of others and it is believed that the kingmaker deserves a chunky reward the next time around if he so desires. He is acknowledged as being one of the most knowledgeable leaders in Nigeria today and a lot of people feel that his background in business and politics could bail Nigeria out of the economic quagmire of the moment. He is known to be a practical politician who knows how to make the world better for most people.

If the hawks succeed in getting Buhari to snub Tinubu because of his perceived threat to the President himself, the APC may split like PDP did before the collapse of the Jonathan Presidency.
One potential candidate is hovering in the wings and that is the Turaki of Adamawa, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has never hidden the fact that he wants the Presidency by all means. My next permutation is that the former Vice President and Tinubu who are two of the three most powerful and influential politicians in APC today (the third is Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki with his firm control of the Senate) may combine forces to thwart a Buhari re-election bid. They have been old allies since the time of Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. If they join forces, it may therefore spell doom for those seeking the re-election of President Buhari.
After the seeming lull in the Buhari-Tinubu love, it seems the recent appointments given to some of Tinubu’s acolytes appear designed to assuage his feeling. But would this be sufficient to bury the combustive ambition of a man who believes he still has so much to give to his country?

The third option which also involves Tinubu in the mix is one on which for a variety of reasons Buhari chooses not to run again. Without doubt, there are several other forces contending for power in case Buhari decides not to seek re-election. In this category, Tinubu’s name still features prominently. No one can deny the ability of Tinubu to transform Nigeria the way he did in Lagos. It is presumed that Buhari may generously want to pay Tinubu back for the support he gave him. He may also want to leave a lasting legacy and shed the toga of an ethnic jingoist by handing over to a Southerner. If this happens, I foresee the visionary Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, a core Buhari loyalist, becoming Tinubu’s running-mate, notwithstanding that this is another Muslim/Muslim ticket. Many APC loyalists believe this combination may fly.

There is a fourth option and this is coming from the direction of PDP. The theory here is that PDP can still spring a surprise on Buhari and pay him back in his own coin. The PDP apologists believe the North has lost more under Buhari despite allocating many political appointments to the region. They are of the opinion that former President Jonathan did more for them and gave them access and respect than their own man Buhari who they accuse of being standoffish. This is the reason that many Northerners, apart from his kinsmen in the South South, have become the biggest promoter of PDP.

In case you think Jonathan is dead and buried politically, perish the thought! He still holds the biggest ace in PDP. In fact, many in PDP today see him as their best candidate in 2019 because some of his transformation agenda are beginning to come to fruition. They are hoping and banking on Buhari becoming so unpopular that Jonathan would be sorely missed by Nigerians who would practically beg him to come back.

The rising profile and the promotion of Jonathan in the international community is part of that systematic way of re-polishing, repackaging, redefining and preparing him for a return to power. Every attempt to smear him with a tar brush would be rebuffed by his die-hard loyalists who see Buhari as someone trying to kill any future role for Jonathan as Nigerian President. They are totally committed to ensuring that Jonathan is well protected between now and next year when serious politicking would have reached a crescendo again. The hope is that as a former civilian President, he can bounce back to power like President Mathieu Kerekou did in Benin Republic, when he returned in 1996 after quitting in 1991.
Who knows tomorrow?

Minister of Education urged Governors to access education grants

Nigeria Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has told state governments to provide matching grants to the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, to enable them gain access to additional funds. He said a situation where billions of naira were not accessed each year by state governments, was unhealthy for educational development.

Adamu, who flagged off the 2015 National Teacher Professional Development Programme at Government Junior Secondary School, Jabi, Abuja on Tuesday, also noted that professional and qualitative teachers were at the core of building a globally competitive and development oriented education system.

He said government had adopted a deliberate policy on teacher training to boost their quality and professional output. The Federal Government places high premium on the training of teachers and the education of managers at the basic level. But in addition to government’s concern for quality teachers, quantity is also of the essence. There is a wide gap between the number of teachers required and the current number available in the basic education sector.

That is why, in addition to its existing intervention through the agency of the UBEC, the Federal Government is working to recruit and inject 500,000 teachers into the basic education sector across the country. This, when completed would place more responsibilities and higher expectations on states and local governments in terms of the roles they would be playing in providing more teaching infrastructure and institutional materials. However, the inability of some state governments to promptly access the matching grant and other non-conditional grants from UBEC should be of great concern to all of us.”

Read more at www.scannewsnigeria.com

Gospel Faith Mission International @60: Buhari Felicitates with GOFAMINT

As the Gospel Faith Mission International (GOFAMINT) celebrates its 60 years anniversary, President Muhammadu Buhari felicitated with the General Overseer, the leadership, and members of the Christian organization.

According to a statement by his special adviser media, Femi Adesina, in a letter to the church, the President said, “Sixty years is a significant milestone in the life of any individual or organization. As the Gospel Faith Mission International turns 60, it is my pleasure to rejoice with the leadership, the teeming members and adherents of the Christian faith, who worship in the church.

Six decades of labour in the Lord’s vineyard must have produced innumerable fruits, with great impact from now to eternity. I wish GOFAMINT many more successful decades of fruitful service to the nation.

As you celebrate, accept my best wishes. And kindly tell your members that a new dawn beckons in the country. We see it ahead, and we shall step into that land of unity and prosperity. God will take us there by His Grace,” President Buhari added.

Read more at www.scannewsnigeria.com

Nigeria’s Third Mahdi And The Last Of The Amalekite Kings By Femi Fani-Kayode

Forgive me for my curious silence over the last few months but this was due to circumstances beyond my control.

As you know I was locked up in President Buhari’s gulag and I was not allowed to write from there.

Needless to say I missed all my readers. I have chosen to share my views about our nation today because I am aware of the fact that President Buhari has not finished with me yet and I may be picked up and thrown into detention on other trumped up charges very soon. This government will do and say anything to silence my voice but they shall not prevail.

Whatever the case my safety, life and future lies in the hands of God and not theirs. Despite the obvious dangers and various warnings that I have received from both my persecutors and well-wishers I shall continue to write as long as God gives me life and liberty.

It is not what happens to me that matters but rather what happens to Nigeria and the millions of ordinary people that are suffering in our country from the daily oppression of our modern-day slave masters. That aside, permit me to share my views.

A couple of weeks ago a 73 year old Christian grandmother was beheaded in Kano because she asked some muslims to stop washing their feet in front of her door before their prayers.

A few days later a female pastor of the Redeemed Church of God was hacked to pieces by a mob of muslims in the Kubwa district of Abuja simply for doing her morning cry of evangelism and urging the people to give their lives to Christ.

Not too long after that two hundred muslim youths burnt down a Catholic Church and attacked worshippers in Niger state claiming that they had no right to go to church on a friday because it was the muslim day of worship.

A few days later a Christian traditional ruler in Plateau state was matcheted to death by a group of Muslim militants and Fulani herdsmen.

Such attacks are now common place in our country and they are no longer isolated events.
Worse still cases of institutional racism and religious bigotry are on the rise because our government appears to be encouraging it. Permit me to share one example.

During my prolonged detention at the EFCC a group of cell mates were conducting an all night christian prayer. All of a sudden the cell guards burst in and screamed at them saying that this “nonsense” must stop and they must go to sleep immediately.

The inmates complied sheepishly out of fear and the prayers stopped. It was one a.m. in the morning. I was in the opposite set of cells but I heard all the noise and warnings of the guards.

I sent for one of them and I asked him why he stopped the inmates from doing an all night prayer. His response was that that was efcc policy because the prayers were too loud and they may be planning an escape. I told him that all he had to do was to ask them to lower their voices.

And that God and prayer was all they had. I also told him that if the inmates that were praying
were muslims he would not have ordered them to stop. He stormed off in anger.

The efcc has become a tool of oppression in the hands of the core muslim north who are using it to crush dissent and silence the opposition.

This assertion is confirmed by the fact that 98 per cent of those that are detained be the efcc for 2 days or more are southerners and middle belters whilst 98 per cent of those that run the agency at the top are from the core muslim north.

Worse still the lingua franca of the agency is hausa whilst the overwhelming majority of detainees are christians both in Lagos and Abuja. Core northern detainees are treated like royalty whilst Middle Belt and southern inmates are treated like filth.

Just as the Nigerian military was an institution that was designed and used to suppress and intimidate all the so-called lesser ethnic groups in Nigeria between july 29th 1966 and May 29th 1999 so it is with the EFCC today.

That is how emboldened the hegemonists in our midst have become and that is the level of barbarity that we have descended to as a nation.

Yet it gets even worse. Just a few weeks ago, the Minister of Internal Affairs told a bewildered nation that the Sultan of Sokoto (the leader if the Muslim community in Nigeria) “directed” him to declare a particular day of the week a public holiday. Without any hesitation he complied with despatch and, with pride, he announced it to the public. Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Nigeria where the caliphate rules.

Is it any wonder that every single one of the numerous security and intelligence agencies in our country except for one is headed by a northerner?

Whether it be the army, the navy, the air force, the police, the Department of State Security (DSS), the EFCC, the National Security Advisor’s Office or the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), they are all headed by individuals that are from the north.

The only exception to the rule is the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), the agency which is responsible for external intelligence and international espionage and which is headed by a southerner.

Can such a state of affairs be justified under any circumstances? Are southerners and Christians not Nigerians as well? Are they not qualified to head more security agencies?

Does the concept of Federal Character have any meaning in President Buhari’s Nigeria? For how much longer will our people tolerate such reckless impunity, racism and injustice from those who believe that they are the Boers and supremacists of what is fast turning into apartheid-Nigeria?

My father’s generation fought the battle for independence from our erstwhile British colonial masters.

It was indeed my father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, that successfully moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in Parliament in 1958.

The battle that must be fought today by my generation is the battle for independence from the sons of Futa Jalon: our internal colonial masters who are relentless in their quest to subjugate and enslave others and who believe that they were born to rule.

This quest for expansion and domination and this insatiable desire to islamise our nation is best reflected by the words and actions of the three Mahdis of the north.

The first was Usman Dan Fodio, the second was his great grandson Sir Ahmadu Bello and the third is Muhammadu Buhari. The hegemonists must be stopped. It is our duty to either restructure or break Nigeria and to ensure that Buhari is the last of the northern Mahdis through a peaceful and democratic process.

Consequently the prayer is no longer “God bless Nigeria” but rather “God break Nigeria”. It is no longer “God defend Nigeria” but rather “God restructure Nigeria”. It is no longer “God deliver Nigeria” but rather “God deliver us from Nigeria”.

It is no longer “God preserve Nigeria” but rather “God redefine Nigeria”. It is no longer “God remember Nigeria” but rather “God dismember Nigeria”.

We must break our chains of oppression because no one else will break them for us. We must reject slavery. We must rise up and resist our oppressors.

We must break the yoke of servitude and set ourselves free. For this great cause no price is too high to pay. If it means laying down our lives or suffering the bitter pain of persecution then so be it.

No price is too high to pay and no mountain is too high to climb for attainment of freedom and the restoration of our self respect and collective dignity. No matter what it takes we shall carve out and build our own nation and we shall be free.

The heavy yoke of the last of the Amalekite kings must be broken. The rulership of the third and last Mahdi must be brought to an end in a free and fair election. That is the challenge that we face today.

That is the great work that the Lord would have us complete. That is our duty and our calling: to bring the unbelieving pagans to heel and to pull down the evil structures of caliphate power.

Those that joined forces with the internal colonial masters and helped to enslave their own people shall pay a heavy price for their treachery, collaboration and betrayal.

Our new nation has no room for such people. They will be herded into labour camps and ultimately deported. They are a shameful eyesore: animals with no sense of dignity and pride. They are not fit to live amongst us.

Yet blessed are the courageous and faithful who speak nothing but truth, who despise the oppressor and who champion the cause of the oppressed. They shall flourish like the palm tree in season and their seed shall excel.

Blessed are those that are persecuted for their faith and that are regarded as the “hewers of the wood and the drawers of the water”: so-called ethnic inferiors in their own nation.

They shall inherit the land and, in the fullness of time, they shall be liberated from their tormentors and they shall rule over their adversaries.

That is the promise of the Alpha and the Omega and the Ancient of Days. That is a sure word from He that is known as the Lord God of Hosts and the Man of War. That is the counsel of the God of All Flesh: the Adonai, the Elohim and Jehova El Shaddai. None can resist Him.

Femi-Fani Kayode is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an evangelical christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006. He was the minister of culture and tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June 22nd to Nov 7th 2006 and as the minister of Aviation from Nov 7th 2006 to May 29th 2007. He tweets from @realFFK.

Meme of the Day!

Now there's a thought...

Ebube Nwagbo #NollywoodSwagGang

Ebube Nwagbo is a beautiful Nigerian actress from Anambra State, Nigeria. Ebube is the oldest of six siblings and grew up in Warri, Delta State. She studied Mass Communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State between 2002 and 2006.

She started acting in 2003 at the age of 20 and has garnered a long list of movies to her name. She won the most fashionable actress award in 2014 and was in a romantic relationship with Limpopo crooner Kingsley Chinweike Okonkwo – KCee Limpopo and was also rumoured to have dated Nigerian footballer, Emmanuel Emenike.

Ebube is an entrepreneur as well as an actress, she established an entertainment company called Posh World Productions (2003) and a hair extensions business called Posh Hair by EB (2010).

Melania Trump: 'I Wrote' My RNC Speech 'With As Little Help As Possible'...

Ouch...

The Stolen Pot Of Soup By Reuben Abati

I am depressed, my brother.”

“You are always depressed. I am actually used to that. I can’t remember when last you were not choleric, depressed, obsessed, uptight, down-spirited, what’s that your word again, yes, anxious. You better watch it, buddie-bae-bff-bros, stop carrying the world on your back, man. There was Atlas before you. There was Sisyphus. But the world has never stopped moving on.”

“I read this story”

“What story?”

“Pathetic story about how right now in Ilorin, Kwara state, it is risky to leave a pot of soup on fire because it is most likely to be stolen. Armed robbers are now targeting pots of soup.”

“Armed robbers? Not burglars?”

“I say armed robbers are now so hungry, even a pot of soup cannot be spared. I can give you the web link to the story.”

“Give me the gist. The theft of pots of soup is definitely a crime of serious magnitude and should be a matter of urgent national concern. Pots of soup being stolen in Nigeria?.”

“Let me read some excerpts from the story to you. “Amidst the stinging hardship occasioned by the present economic recession in the country, the spate of insecurity is rising and taking a tinge of the ridiculous by the day. In Kwara State, cooking a pot of soup is now an invitation to robbers, as cases of eagle-eyed hungry men absconding with cooked food still on the fire is a daily occurrence. The incident is widespread in areas without perimeter fencing and among women who cook or have opted to cook with coal pots. At each of such areas such as Tanke, Basin, Sango, Offa Garage, and Kilanko, the incident occurred according to The Guardian investigations, over five times in just a week…”

“An epidemic of vanishing soup pots?”

“Nothing can be more dehumanizing. To think that Nigerians can be so hungry and poor, they will begin to carry guns and machetes to steal pots of soup.”

“Not cars. Not jewelry. Stomach first.”

“My first reaction was to ask whether they even have a Governor in that Kwara State. Whoever the Governor is, he cannot provide opportunities for people in the state to be able to cook a pot of soup?”

“I hear the Governor like other Governors cannot pay salaries. The Governors are helpless. ”

“But the Governors and their wives are eating from multiple pots of soup”

“Yes. Yes. Actually, if you ask me, I would say that the real crime of serious magnitude that we are talking about and that we should worry about is how the Governors and government officials have stolen the people’s pot of soup. The armed robbers who go from house to house to collect pots of soup on fire are actually copying the big men.”

“You are now asking me to decode something.”

“It is not every pot of soup for example, that gets stolen. The location is important. The opportunity is important. The content is all-important. And if you read that story you were quoting carefully, the soup snatcher monitors the soup. He waits till all the condiments are in, and he or she steals at the right moment. It is the story of Nigeria. Sign of the times.”

“I don’t want to go that far. I won’t reduce Nigeria to a pot of soup. But I agree with you that only particular kinds of soup pots get stolen. Good point. Smart point. ”

“Particularly if the pot of soup contains goat meat. You know goat meat can smell when combined with Maggi and Tomato. Tomato, these days, is expensive.”

“Tomato with goat meat, perfect combination.. Hmmm. Mua. Shuhhhh. Ahhhhh uuuu. I must tell you one secret about tomato today.”

“What?”

“It clears the prostate. It contains carotene, which is good for the prostate, as an anti-oxidant.”

“What has that got to do with soup snatching?”

“When you eat better tomato, and your prostate is very clear, I hear that your downstairs will function very well, and you can crack fire much better, upstairs and downstairs. Combined with goat meat, ha, something else. And you know goat has a strong smell.”

“Are we now a country of goat-meat chasers on fire?”

“I hear that even among the robbers themselves, who takes what part of the goat meat is a serious issue. That was how one woman eventually found her pot of soup. A big fight broke out. And as the goat thieves quarreled over the pot of soup, the owner arrived and started screaming,, neighbours joined and everybody started screaming and the truth came out. ”

“I think this country should just ban tomato and goat meat.”

“I have not finished the story. In this particular woman’s case, it was discovered that even her husband was part of the plot to steal the pot of goat meat.”

“How?”

“The man wanted to play a fast one. He wanted to take the pot of soup to his second wife. Rob Peter, please Paul.”

“What? He should be castrated.”

“But can I say something? This thing didn’t just start oh. I think poverty is correctly defined as a disease. Last year, there was actually an incident in Calabar about a man who was butchered and set ablaze because he robbed a woman of a pot of soup.”

“Last year?”

“Yes”

“We should check and be sure”

“Last year, in fact, in August 2015.”

“August?”

“Yes, August 2015, after everything changed. The fellow and his group attacked a woman’s home and stole her pot of soup. As they rushed out, the woman raised an alarm, but the man with the pot of soup did not want it to spill, so he couldn’t run as fast as the others, and that was how he eventually got caught and he lost his life. He was butchered and set ablaze.”

“And there is a Governor in Cross Rivers State?”

“There is but let’s spare the Professor. If you had lived in Calabar or Cross River State, you will know that a pot of soup is a serious source of temptation in that place. I mean, in Calabar, they don’t just put goat meat, they add everything else on top, from periwinkle to snails, fish, and tomato.”

“I feel like my sense of being human is right now under grave assault.”

“Come to think of it, the destiny of Nigeria is about the pot of soup and its politics.”

“Pot of soup? Well, may be. You know, I heard a story recently, about one of these face-me-I-face-you houses in Lagos where a pot of soup just as we have been saying disappeared from the general kitchen. The woman left the kitchen to attend to her suckling baby. Five minutes max. By the time she returned, her soup pot had vanished. The landlord had to summon a babalawo, a father of secrets, a dibia, to identify the culprit and the punishment was meant to be open confession or instant death.”

“Sign of the times”

“Yes oh. But to be fair, there is hunger, poverty and a terrible food crisis across Africa, not just Nigeria. In Malawi, for example, the newly elected President has told his people to stop complaining about hunger. If the people are hungry, they should start eating mice and grasshoppers.”

“May that never happen in Nigeria.”

“Well, if the people can’t eat goat meat and tomato, they will opt for sub-human options. Even kerosene is now too expensive, ordinary people are now buying gas. And charcoal.”

“And God you are on the throne”

“Please, don’t blaspheme. This is a holy season.”

“ I know what I am talking about.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“In Kano, I should tell you this. One man went to buy a bag of rice. He went along with his son. He left that five-year old son behind, and promised to come back with the money. But he never showed up. He disappeared with the bag of rice”

“God. God. God Almighty. What happened?”

“When the shop owner waited and waited, he had to ask the boy for the way to his home. Good enough, the boy is old enough. Eventually the father was traced to his home and he confessed that he was willing to give up the boy to have the bag of rice because he had no money to pay.”

“What happened?”

“There are still good people in this country. The rice-seller donated the bag of rice and returned the boy to the father.”

“God bless him. God bless him. God bless the rice seller. Great message. In this country, the strong must learn to help the weak. That is when we can have a country and a nation.”

“Food For Thought, indeed. In the end, it is all about food, feeding the people, rescuing them from a life of danger and criminality or a resort to a menu of mice and grasshoppers, or carrying expensive AK-47 guns to steal pots of soup.”

“People are dying”

“I know. Nigeria and the tragedy of broken pots.”

“Stolen pots. Broken pots. Burnt pots. Oh, Nigeria. Chief Ojo Maduekwe. I hear, slumped at the airport on his arrival from the United States from his son’s graduation, heading towards his wife’s 70th birthday. Elechi Amadi, famous for the novels, The Concubines, The Great Ponds and his plays, Pepper Soup and The Women of Calabar has also dropped the pot. In Ojota, Lagos, a young hawker, pursued by LASTMA officials ran into the path of a moving trailer and was crushed, his intestines splattered all over the highway and there was pandemonium resulting in more deaths and destruction. ”

“Man, you speak in parables and proverbs. Goat meat that caused trouble, deaths, broken pots and stolen pots.”

“Those who have ears let them hear. Only God speaks to the people in parables and proverbs.”

“I have faith. Nigeria will survive.”

“Of course, I see people are beginning to padlock their pots of soup. I have seen pictures of padlocked pots of soup in this country. Even if you steal it, you’d make some effort to break it open. Smart housewives are saying they will never again leave the kitchen until the soup is done and ready to be served.”

“Na wa oh, you mean we are now a country of sealed and broken pots.”

Dr. Reuben Abati was spokesman and special adviser, media and publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan (2011 – 2015). He tweets from @abati1990.