Tinubu set to reveal how APC triumphed in 2015 polls

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is set to launch his memoirs on the 2015 election, The Punch reports.

Tinubu disclosed this on Friday, April 29 in Lagos through his media aide, Tunde Rahman, who represented him at the book launch of “Against the Run of Play”, a book authored by veteran journalist, Olusegun Adeniyi.

Tinubu stated that he was working on a book that would detail how his party removed former President Goodluck Jonathan from office.


Tinubu says he is working on his own memoirs as regards the 2015 elections
The former governor of Lagos played an instrumental role in the merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and All Nigeria Peoples Party to form the APC that presented President Muhammadu Buhari as candidate in 2015.

Buhari went on to defeat then incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, in what became the first power transition from one politcal party to another in Nigeria’s young democracy.

He said people should not dwell on his loss of the vice-presidential seat but on the achievements of Osinbajo, whom he had nominated for the position.

His words: “Some have said that they will tell their story, Asiwaju is also working on his own book to tell his account of what transpired.


“To tell how he was able to mould the APC to the extent that it was able to unseat an incumbent president for the first time in the history of our contemporary politics.

“The account of what transpired as told by Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the book and as presented in some newspapers is not about him losing the vice-presidency and the eventual vice-president emerging, as the reviewer has put it.

“Asiwaju spoke in greater context in that book, and when people are making comments, they should speak with the context in which he spoke. If they are saying that Asiwaju lost the vice-presidency and that a vice-president emerged, where did he emerge from? Who nominated the vice-president?

“I’d like to say that even the vice-president has said on some occasions that a certain political leader from the South-West nominated him for the job and we all know who that is.

“That nomination has been a very good choice from all the wonderful things the vice-president has been doing.”


Tinubu was instrumental to the APC defeating the then incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan
Meanwhile, a former governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu has revealed why the North opposed Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015.

Aliyu said the North backed out because Jonathan reneged on his promise to govern for only one term of four years.

156 children, teenagers abused sexually from 2014 till date

Dr Ekaete Umor, the Medical Officer, Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), Minna, on Wednesday said 156 children and teenagers were abused from August 2014 to date.

Umor made this known in an interview with newsmen in Minna.

“I can confirm to you that in 2014, from August to December, 14 cases of sexual assault were reported; in 2015, between January and December, 60 cases were reported.

“Also, from January to December, 2016, 61 cases were reported, while 21 cases of rape have so far been reported from January, 2017 till date,’’ she said.

forced sex

Umor said that about 20 per cent of the figures reported were males, while the rest were females.

The medical officer said that the incidence of sexual harassment was becoming alarming in Niger, especially as people were taking advantage of the vulnerability of children.

She said that the cases were under-reported.

“The cases in Niger are likely to be more than the figures reported, perhaps because of fear, the personalities involved and to protect the families’ name.

“The families are also afraid of stigmatisation and the shame that when such an allegation is associated to a girl, it might make her to be bullied in school and also affect her prospects of marriage.

“Some of the rapists are even the fathers or step-fathers of the girls.

“Most of the cases are repeated; some children have been abused twice, thrice and more, while some of these vulnerable children were abused when they were hawking.

“We cannot ask them not to engage in economic activities for their parents; we advise that they should do it in groups,’’ she said.

According to her, if they hawk in groups, somebody among them will raise alarm when somebody tries to lure any of them away.

Umor advised mothers to be watchful as family members could also be involved in assaulting their children.

“There was a recent case we had, an uncle raped his four year old niece and she almost bled to death; a lot of suturing had to be done.

“The child lost a lot of blood and she had to go through a lot of blood transfusion.

“The case was reported here, but the family members said they will settle the matter at home.

“They were afraid of the stigma and shame it will bring to the girl and the family at large.

“We have had cases of fathers raping daughters, while some were step-fathers raping their step-daughters,’’ she said.

Also, Mr David Yisa, the centre Coordinator, appealed to parents to stop their children from hawking and running errands at night.

He said that until the ugly scourge of sexual assault was completely stamped out of our society, the centre would continue to sensitise people on factors that predispose them to being victims.

Yar’adua is sick, impeach him now! – Buhari says in 2010

On March 9, 2010, something happened which given the state of Nigeria right now, can best be described as the mother of all ironies.

and he had been sick and away from the country for a while. The then vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, was made the acting president and the entire country was confused about the exact state of Yar’Adua’s health.
Then an opposition leader, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), joined the growing number of Nigerians to call for the removal of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

READ ALSO: Buhari is not in the hospital – Presidency

According to the This Day article dated March 9, 2010, President Buhari maintained that the only viable option out of the present political logjam in the country was for the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) to declare the president incapacitated and have him impeached.

Buhari, in 2010, said Nigeria should not have been in the situation it was in the first instance because the constitution had made it clear on how an ailing president could be succeeded.

Insisting on Yar’Adua’s impeachment, he said the refusal of the council to follow constitutional provisions with regards to the illness of the then president had thrown Nigeria into crisis and he argued that the 1999 Constitution was clear on the issue of succession when an incumbent president is incapacitated.

Buhari, who is the president now, said all this when he received members of the National Unity Forum in Kaduna who paid him a solidarity visit.

Goodluck Jonathan was not spared, as the former military ruler criticized what he described as “extra-constitutional measures”, the measures applied by the National Assembly to empower Goodluck Jonathan as the acting president when the constitution already had a solution to the problem.

READ ALSO: 6 things Osinbajo has done as acting president

Below were his words from March 2010:

“Political expediency won’t remedy this kind of problem because if the Executive Council of the Federation had acted in accordance with the constitution, by invoking the necessary sections to declare the President incapacitated, we would not have found ourselves in this present situation.

“As you can see, adopting extra-constitutional measures have not addressed the problem. If it had, we would not have been subjected to the raging debates and controversy going on. So, we must go back to the constitution.

“The Executive Council of the Federation must do the right thing because once we start moving away from the constitution, then we are inviting anarchy.”

Looking back at 2010, from 2017, it is indeed ironical that President Buhari is now receiving treatment in another country, and he has placed his vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, as the acting president?!

Source: naij.com

Ambode to barnish yellow buses off Lagos roads

If there’s one symbol that defines Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos it’s the yellow “danfo” mini-bus, the closest thing to public transport in the chaotic, sprawling metropolis.

But on Monday Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said he plans to banish the buses by the end of this year because they are “not acceptable and befitting for a megacity”.

Ambode’s drive is the latest attempt in a seemingly never-ending campaign to tame the wild streets of Lagos, which is renowned for its traffic gridlock and crumbling infrastructure.

The governor’s goal is to replace the buses — as well as motorcycle taxis and three-wheeled motorised rickshaws — with a modern public transportation system.

“When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses and see okada (motorbike) and all kinds of tricycles and then we claim we are a megacity, that is not true and we must acknowledge that that is a faulty connectivity that we are running,” he said.

“We want to banish yellow buses this year,” he said in a speech, according to a state government news release.

“We must address the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease and that is where we are going.”

Like other fast-growing African cities, Lagos, which is home to some 20 million people, has seen its population boom without the infrastructure to keep up with demand.

The first phase of a rapid transport rail system was originally due to open in 2014 and then in December last year, while there are even plans for a cable car system.

The buses may not be pretty — many have doors missing and spew noxious clouds of exhaust fumes — while their drivers seem only vaguely aware of the highway code, indicators and the brake pedal.

But as a cheap form of transport, strictly enforced by a daredevil conductor often found hanging off the side of the bus, they are the preferred form of travel for many workers.

What is the difference between PDP and APC?

The controversy surrounding the Rivers State Government-owned helicopters best exemplifies the saying that in politics there are no permanent positions, but permanent interests.

Politicians will switch sides whenever their interests are best protected. In the course of political adaptability, politicians have been found to destroy national institutions as the helicopter incident is now seen to be doing to the image of the Customs.

The story of the two armoured Bell helicopters flows back to the beginning of the decade when the relationship between Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State and President Goodluck Jonathan was rock solid.

Apparently determined to check the spate of criminality in Rivers State, Governor Amaechi with the support of the Jonathan administration ordered the two Bell helicopters and as we now know, with $15 million support from the Federal Government.

The helicopters were to form part of the security architecture that Amaechi was building to check crime. As part of that set up, scores of policemen were trained in Israel by the Amaechi administration, while a number of Israeli security advisers were ferried into the state. Security cameras and dogs were also deployed around the state that at that time had become a haven for criminals and bandits.

The helicopters were to be at the peak of the security architecture that Governor Amaechi boasted would leave criminals totally exposed. From the air the armed helicopters equipped with night vision equipment would beam their searchlight on the bandits.

However, at about the time, the deal to import the helicopters was agreed, Mrs. Patience Jonathan and Governor Amaechi had their famous falling out at the Okirika Water Front when the First Lady publicly scolded Amaechi. That became the turning point in the relationship between the Jonathans and Amaechi, and led to the politicisation of governance and the relationship between the two men.

The specially trained policemen who had received training in Israel to operate in the state were not long after reportedly transferred out of Rivers State making a waste of the millions of naira invested into their training.

Even more, the Federal Government subsequently dithered on the earlier gentleman agreement to support the importation of the armoured helicopters.

That was how the helicopters were stranded while crime made a resurgence in the state.

However, with the switch in administrations in Rivers and at Abuja in 2015, the drama and intrigues it seemed did not go away.

Months after the Nyesom Wike administration came on board it claimed to have discovered that the state had helicopters wasting away at the ports. The PDP administration asked the APC Federal Government for a waiver to the custom duties including demurrage which reportedly ran into billions of naira. The state government buttressed the need for the waiver on the fact that the helicopters were not for commercial use but for security purposes.

The APC Federal Government according to documents presented by the Wike administration turned down the application for the waiver.

In frustration, Governor Wike wrote the National Security Adviser to hand over the helicopters to the Nigerian Air Force on the ground that the state cannot afford the money to clear the helicopter.

It was thus a shock when officials of the Customs at a ceremony last week handed over the two helicopters to the Nigerian Air Force, claiming that they were confiscated from unknown importers. That was despite the fact that the state government had been in correspondence with federal authorities.

How Customs officials would allow their institution to be used for such murky political passions, show how politicians damage national institutions. It is a shame that the two aircraft that would have curtailed the reign of insecurity in Rivers State became pawns for political manipulation.

The shame goes to both the PDP and APC which at several times had control of the Federal Government but allowed partisan politics to becloud good judgment! It is a shame!

Origin Of Names Of States In Nigeria

SOURCES OF THE 36 NIGERIAN STATEs’ NAMES: 

*Abia*

Abia is an acronym derived from the name of the four main groups of people in the state as at the time it was formed in 1991: Aba B ende Isuikwuato Afikpo
*Adamawa*

This state was named after a warrior that conquered the region in the begining of the 19th century. His name was Modibbo Adama Bin Ardo Hassan.
*Akwa-Ibom*

Akwa Ibom is named after a river, the Qua Iboe (or Kwa Iboe) River
*Anambra*

It was derived from the name of the Oma Mbala (Omambala) River (in Ibo, the native name of the river is Ànyịm Ọma Mbala).
*Bauchi*

There are three versions of how Bauchi got its name. One version says ‘Bauchi’ is Hausa word meaning the southern flanks of Hausaland. Tribes living in the southern parts of the Hausaland were referred to as kasashen bauchi and the area they lived in later came to be known simply as Bauchi. According to the second version the state was named for Baushe, a famous hunter who settled there before the 19th century while the third states that ‘bauchi’ is Hausa word for slavery since it was a center for slave raiders.
*Bayelsa*

Bayelsa was formed as a result of the clamour from the three LGAs in old Rivers (Brass LGA known as BALGA, Yenegoa LGA known as YELGA and Sagbama LGA – SALGA). The name came about from the combination of their acronymns.

BA + YEL + SA = BAYELSA
*Benue*

It is a word from the Batta language ‘Binuwe’ which means ‘Mother of Waters’
*Borno*

The name was derived from ‘Borno’, an alternative name of the Kanuris who form the predominant ethnic group in the state.
*Cross River*

The state took its name from a River called Oyono or Cross River
*Delta*

It was named for the delta of the River Niger formed as it enters the Atlantic Ocean.
*Ebonyi*

The state was named after the Aboine River that cuts through Abakaliki, the state capital
*Edo*

Named after the Bini people who had always referred to themselves as Edo or Iduu
*Ekiti*

‘Ekiti’ is a term that is said to denote a settlement of many hills
*Enugu*

Enugu derived its name from two local words enu ugwu which means ‘top of the hill’
*Gombe*

Named after the dialect of Fulani language (Fulfulde) spoken in the area ‘Gombe’.
*Imo*

This state is named after the Imo River (Imo Mmiri)
*Jigawa*

The state was named after its distinctively golden-coloured soil, Jigawa.
*Kaduna*

The state after the crocodiles in Kaduna River. Kaduna is Hausa plural word for crocodiles
*Kano*

The state was named after a blacksmith of the Gaya tribe who settled in the area while sourcing for ironstone. His name is Kano.
*Katsina*

Katsina was named after the wife of the local ruler known as Janzama. Her name was Katsina.
*Kebbi*

Legend has it that Kebbi was named after the Ka’abba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
*Kogi*

The name Kogi was said to have be derived from ‘kogin’, hausa for river. This is to represent the fact that the two biggest Rivers in Nigeria, River Niger and River Benue form a confluence in the state.
*Kwara*

This was named after the River Niger which forms the Northern border of the state. The Nupes used to call the river Kwara.
*Lagos*

The name is a Portuguese word for lakes. The Portuguese were the first set of Europeans to reach Lagos in 1472. The name was inspired by the lagoons and rivers in Lagos.
*Nassarawa*

It was so named by the founder of Nasarawa kingdom, Makama Dogo. Nasarawa means Victorious.
*Niger*

Named after the popular River Niger.
*Ogun*

Named after the Ogun River
*Ondo*

This was named after the settlers of the old Ondo Kingdom. Ondo is a word for settlers.
*Osun*

Like a number of other Nigerian states, it was also named after a river; River Osun.
*Oyo*

It was named after the Old Oyo empire.
*Plateau*

The state was named for the Jos Plateau
*Rivers*

A state with many water bodies, Rivers State was named for many of the rivers present in the area
*Sokoto*

Named after the defunct Sokoto Caliphate. Sokoto is the anglicized version of the Arabic word ‘suk’ which means ‘market’ or ‘place of commerce’
*Taraba*

The state was named after the Taraba River.
*Yobe*

The state was named after Komadugu Yobe

(Waube or Ouobe) or River Yobe (or River of Yo).
*Zamfara*

Zamfarawa is one of the subdialects of Eastern Hausa linguistic group and that is where the name came from.
//Source: Engr. Rotimi Fabiyi

2 August 2016

https://m.thenigerianvoice.com/news/224548/origin-of-names-of%5Btruncated by WhatsApp]

Glo Increases Interest Rate of “Borrow me Credit” to 15%

And Glo is in the news again!
Barely 24hours after discontinuing its Blackberry Internet Services (B.I.S) (Read HERE if you missed the news), Globacom have decided to break the hearts of its subscribers once again.

In a text message sent to Glo subscribers this afternoon, which reads “Dear customer, Please note the service charge on Borrow me Credit recharge will be revised to 15% starting from 21st Dec. 16.”, Glo alerts subscribers that starting tomorrow, charges on airtime borrow under their “Borrow Me Credit” scheme will attract a service charge of 15%.

In plain and simple terms, any N100 airtime borrowed attracts a N15 service charge. N200 attracts N30, a service charge of N75 follows a N500 airtime loan.
Moving backwards a bit into memory lane, it would be recalled that Etisalat started the 15% service charge trend, Airtel took the baton, now, it is definitely clear in crystal colors that Globacom has followed suit.
Now do we blame this on “Recession” or the need to step up their game? Or just a “copy and paste” game by Globacom?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section

Indonesia announces new visa policy for Nigerians

The Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Harry Purwanto, on Tuesday announced his government’s new policy for issuing visas to Nigerians and other foreigners wanting to visit Indonesia for any purpose.

Purwanto told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that under the new policy, his Embassy would no longer be involved in visa processing, but only in the collection of visa applications.

The Ambassador, who did not give any reason for his government’s new visa policy, said that the processing of visas to Indonesia would henceforth take a much longer time.

“Nigerians seeking visas to Indonesia should know that the Indonesian government has introduced a new visa application and issuance policy.

“Under the new policy, we as an Embassy in Nigeria have been withdrawn from processing visas.

“All we are now required to do is to collect visa applications and send them to Indonesia for processing. We now have to be taking authority from Jakarta.

“We, therefore, want to tell Nigerians seeking visas to Indonesia to now begin their applications at least two weeks in advance, to enable us send their applications on time to Jakarta,’’ he said.

Purwanto enjoined Nigerians to always ensure that authentic information and documents were provided in their visa application forms, to avoid visa refusal from Jakarta.

The Ambassador, who restated his government’s commitment to issuing more visas to Nigerians, said that about 1,000 Nigerians were issued visas to Indonesia this year.

He also said that his government would continue to create the right environment for mutual trade relations and people-to-people interactions between genuine Nigerians and Indonesians.

Beware! MMM Nigeria May Not Come Back, Here Are 7 Reasons Why

MMM Nigeria promised to unfreeze accounts of its participants by January, however, things might not be as we think.

According to an article written on one of Nigeria’s popular forums, here are seven reasons why MMM Nigeria may not be coming back after accounts were frozen till January.

1. There’s no central account. This implies that the so called Mavros are simply electronic money. Everyone waiting to get help had provided help which they paid directly to other people in the past. They themselves argue that there’s no central account. If there’s indeed no central account where is their matured mavro? In the cloud?

2. I believe the system calculated that the get help overwhelmed the provide help. This overload may have happened a month ago and the system had no option than to shut down.

3. Unless new entrants provide enormous help in January, there’s no way the get help group can recoup their money and that happening is very unlikely. The only way out is for the scheme to ask those whose monies are trapped to provide help again. That’s akin to what happened in South Africa and Zimbabwe and we well know where they are now.

4. The outrageous bonuses drained the system of money that would’ve been used to settle new entrants. But the organizers knew all along that it’s a scam so they built a long system of bonuses and cashed out. If the system was simply to help each other why the big bonuses?

5. It’s very likely that there’s a group who don’t provide help but get help multiple times. Who can check except the site admin who will always include his cronies when matching for payment comes up. Why will they do this? Because they know it’s gonna crash.

6. When Mavrodians started showing off their ‘wealth’ I knew the end was near. All that show off was to get new entrants but they miscalculated the number of gullible people in Nigeria. Once the limit of people who want to reap where they didn’t sow was reached, the scheme had to crash.

7. That letter to the government was the clincher. If mmm doesn’t return in January all the blame will go to the government and the media. That has always been the scape goat in every country that mmm failed.

I loathe everything gambling. Even breweries that give millions of free drinks during promos are simply getting rid of expired stock. Telecom companies will give you 1000 percent return on your recharge but will bill the hell out of you during calls. Nothing in the world is cheap or free.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele Bags International Job

         Godwin Emefiele

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has been elected as the Chairman of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation. He was elected on Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

By this development, Emefiele had also become the head of the general assembly of the financial body comprising nine countries and the Islamic Development Bank, with headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation is a global institution established by central banks, monetary authorities and multilateral organisations to create and issue short-term Shariah-compliant financial instruments to facilitate effective cross-border Islamic liquidity management.

By creating more liquid Shariah-compliant financial markets for institutions offering Islamic financial services, the IILM aims to enhance cross-border investment flows, international linkages and financial stability.

The body’s major mandates include developing a robust Islamic liquidity management as a catalyst for cross-border financial linkages and facilitating effective cross-border liquidity management instruments for institutions that offer Islamic financial series.

The organisation is also charged with the responsibility of enabling a future global finance industry with greater connectivity, stability and sophistication.

The current shareholders comprise of central banks and monetary authorities of Indonesia, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Development Bank.