New York Times calls GEJ lousy, says he's trying to frustrate Buhari

In an article titled 'Nigeria's Miserable Choices' Published on New York Times yesterday Monday February 16th, and written by the editorial board of the US newspaper, they described Nigerian president as a 'lousy incumbent' & described Buhari as a 'former autocratic leader'. 

 

See article below

The Nigerian government was supposed to hold presidential elections this past weekend, which presented voters with the dispiriting choice of keeping a lousy incumbent or returning to power a former autocratic leader. Now they will have to wait at least six weeks to cast votes.

The Nigerian election commission said earlier this month that it had pushed back the vote until at least March 28, after the country’s security chiefs warned that they could not guarantee the safety of voters in northeastern areas of the country where Boko Haram, the extremist militant group, captured international attention last spring when it abducted hundreds of schoolgirls. On Friday, Boko Haram fighters attacked a village in neighboring Chad for the first time, an alarming sign of the group’s expanding strength in a region that also includes areas of Cameroon and Niger.

Any argument to delay the vote might be more credible if President Goodluck Jonathan’s government had not spent much of the past year playing down the threat posed by the militants and if there were a reasonable expectation that the country’s weak military has the ability to improve security in a matter of weeks.

It appears more likely Mr. Jonathan grew alarmed by the surging appeal of Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who has vowed to crack down on Boko Haram. By dragging out the race, Mr. Jonathan stands to deplete his rival’s campaign coffers, while he continues to use state funds and institutions to bankroll his own.

That Mr. Buhari, who helped launch a coup against a democratically elected government in 1983 and ruled until late 1985, has emerged as potential winner is more of an indictment of Mr. Jonathan’s dismal rule than a recognition of the former military chief’s appeal.

Nigerian voters have grown increasingly worried about the stunning rise of Boko Haram, which has committed terrorist atrocities including bombings. 

The abductions and attacks by the group have exposed the weaknesses of Nigeria’s armed forces and the dysfunction of the government. Although Mr. Jonathan’s government has in the past been less than enthusiastic, and at times obstructive, in response to offers of American and European aid, he appears to be growing increasingly worried. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, he said he would welcome American troops to fight the insurgency. 

Beyond security matters, entrenched corruption and the government’s inability to diversify its economy as the price of oil, the country’s financial bedrock, has fallen have also caused Nigerians to look for new leadership. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, and a relatively young democracy, cannot afford an electoral crisis. That would only set back the faltering effort to reassert government control in districts where Boko Haram is sowing terror. The security forces may not be able to safeguard many districts on Election Day. But postponement is very likely to make the security threat worse.

 

Source

Prof Osinbajo calls out GEJ over his comment about corruption

When asked to clarify his statement "Stealing is not corruption" during the presidential media chat yesterday evening, president Jonathan said he made the statement quoting the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Mustafa, who explained to him that his analysis of corruption cases in Nigeria showed that most of the cases tagged as corruption were theft. President Jonathan said that referring to stealing as corruption minimizes the crime. "Ole (thief in Yoruba) should be called Ole and given that treatment. Let us communicate properly. The word corruption, we have abused it." GEJ said. .

Not satisfied with President Jonathan's response, Prof Osinbajo took to his Facebook wall to react.

Forensic audit report indicts NNPC, NPDC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company were on Thursday indicted by the investigative forensic audit done by PriceWater House Coopers into the allegations of unremitted funds to the Federation Accounts.

The highlights of the report was released by the Auditor General for the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, in Abuja.

In the report, the accounting firm asked both organisations to refund to the federation account “a minimum of $1.48bn.”

PriceWater House, was last year hired to carry out the exercise following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, that $20bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.

Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, had written a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that $49bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.

But following the controversy which the letter generated, a committee was set up to reconcile the account.Sanusi later recanted and said the unremitted fund was $12bn which he later changed to $20bn.

Elma's Dream (The GUARDIAN, April 4, 2011, Pp 64) - A Goodluck Campaign in 2011

When President Goodluck won the PDP primary elections, my father was very happy. 

He said it was the beginning of good things to come. He said Power will be fixed and there will always be light so I can do my home work. Education will be improved and all childern will go to good schools and my school will have computers and teach music like they do in private schools; water will be steady and I wont (won't) have to go to the well to fetch water. All roads in Nigeria will be fixed so no one has to die because of bad roads. The president says he will Transform Nigeria. I believe he will, because my father says so.

Stop those trivialising schoolgirls’ abduction, Falana tells Jonathan

May 8, 2014 by Ade Adesomoju

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to stop people from further trivialising the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 19.

The Lagos lawyer in a statement on Thursday said the comment credited to “some people”, including the President’s wife, Patience, that “no child was missing”, was “incendiary” and capable of deepening the agony of the abducted children’s parents.

“President Goodluck Jonathan should ensure that the abduction of the innocent girls is not further trivialised in the interest of our collective sensibility and public morality,” he stated.

He described as insensitive for some highly placed persons to insist that there was no missing child despite the step by the Christian Association of Nigeria to publish some of the abducted girls’ names.

He said, “In spite of the inauguration of the Presidential Committee to investigate the abduction of the over 200 girls  and the publication of the names of about 185 of the missing girls by the Christian Association of Nigeria some political leaders have insisted that no child has been abducted.

“Such level of insensitivity is being displayed by highly placed persons at a time that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau has admitted that the criminal sect abducted the innocent girls and threatened that they would be sold into slavery.”

He queried the basis for the government’s accepting of international aid to rescue the children if truly the girls were not missing.

His statement also read, “Why has the Federal Government accepted the offer of the United States’ Government to join in the frivolous -search for the girls since they are no longer missing?

“No doubt, the incendiary statements credited to certain people to the effect that “no child is missing” must have accentuated the agony of the parents of the abducted some of whom had taken part in street demonstrations to demand ‘Bring Back Our Girls’.”

He asked the President to disband the committee set up by Patience to investigate the incident arguing that she had no power to do so.

He added that even the one set up by the President himself for the same purpose could best serve as a “ministerial act” and never as a Commission of Inquiry.

The Punch Newspaper.

US To Assist Nigeria In Rescue Of Chibok Girls

The US government has offered to assist Nigeria locate and rescue the girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, abducted three weeks ago in by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.

Accepting the offer on Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigeria would appreciate any support that would be given in ending the insurgency in Nigeria’s north east, reiterating a statement he made during a media chat on Sunday.

A statement by a spokesman for the president, Reuben Abati, said President Jonathan welcomed and accepted the offer.

“The offer from President Barack Obama which was conveyed to President Jonathan by the United States Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry in a telephone conversation, which began at 15:30 Hours on Tuesday, includes the deployment of U.S. security personnel and assets to work with their Nigerian counterparts in the "search and rescue operation."

“Mr Kerry assured President Jonathan that the United States is wholly committed to giving Nigeria all required support and assistance to save the abducted girls and bring the reign of terror unleashed on parts of the country by Boko Haram to an end,” the statement read.

President Jonathan thanked Mr Kerry for the call and offer of further assistance and told him that Nigeria’s security agencies, who were already working at full capacity to find and rescue the abducted girls, would appreciate the deployment of American counter-insurgency know-how and expertise in support of their efforts.

After speaking with the United States Secretary of State, President Jonathan on Tuesday met with the Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs and heads of national security agencies in continuation of the national efforts to find and rescue the abducted girls.

He also received updates on the ongoing search and rescue efforts, and gave approval for further actions as recommended.

The terrorist group, Boko Haram, has carried out series of attacks on villages, churches and schools in Nigeria’s north-east. Scores have been killed in bomb attacks, with the latest attack on Chibok on April 14 resulting in the abduction of over 200 girls of a secondary school. The abduction occurred same day that the members of the sect carried out a bomb attack on a Motor Park in Nyanya area of Abuja. The attack left at least 70 persons dead and over 200 injured.

The abduction of the girls has sparked protests in Abuja, Lagos and some other states, with the protesters mounting pressure on the government to take drastic action in efforts to rescue the girls.

Last week a bomb blast also occurred in Nyanya few meters away from where the blast of April 14 occurred. at least 19 persons were killed while over 60 were injured.

The Nigerian government had declared a state of emergency in three states in the north east in an effort to quell the increasing insurgency. But many are saying that the state of emergency has not changed the situation.

The recent attacks in Abuja raised fears of insecurity as the nation prepares to hold the World Economic Forum on Africa from Mar 7-9, but President Jonathan during the media chat reassured the international community of the government’s commitment to the safety of participants.

Ahead of the Forum, there is increase in Police presence in Abuja and surrounding villages.

Fraud: Budget Office Credited N791m To NTI Account Without Any Request, Bursar Tells Reps

The House of Representatives Wednesday expressed shock at the revelation by the Bursar of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) Kaduna, Mallam Abdulkarim Affo,  that a whopping N791million was credited  into the Institute’s bank account on December 31, 2012 by the Budget Office from the Service Wide Vote (SWV) account without prior request for any financial assistance.

The bursar disclosed this when he appeared before the House Committee on Public Accounts, which is probing how the over N4.7trillion was expended by the Presidency through the Budget Office from the Service Wide Vote between 2004 and 2012 financial years .

Testifying before the committee, the bursar said:  “On December 31st 2012,we just received an alert and the sum of N791million was credited into the Institute’s bank account from the Budget Office without any prior request for financial assistance from the Federal Government. We tried to make enquiries and we wrote to the Office of the Accountant ant General of the Federation to find out what was the purpose of the whopping amount but all efforts yielded no result.

” At end of the day, what the Institute did was to pay back the money to the treasury at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as required by the law of the federation. We have the evidence of payment, we never made request for any money,” he added.

Reacting to the revelation, chairman of the House committee, Hon Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, directed the Institute to furnish it with the official Treasury receipt to show that it actually returned the money to the Treasury as claimed and not that it actually went into individual bank accounts while further investigations into how the money got into the Institute’s Account in the first instance continue.

He described the transaction through the Service Wide Vote as a monumental fraud which had been allegedly going on for a long time unabated and lamented that several billions of naira of the tax payers’ money had gone down the drain.

According him.” Only last week, the NAFDAC officials appeared before the Committee over the whopping sum of N5billion claimed to have released to the Agency by the Budget Office from the Service wide vote and Agency claimed it received only N365million from the amount.

“Also, just a while ago, the National Boundary Commission appeared before the Committee over the N2billion the Budget Office claimed it released to the Commission which the Commission also denied ever receiving a kobo from the Budget Office under the Service Wide Vote. Where are we heading to? We must get to the root of these claims and counter claims. The fraud must stop, ” he lamented.

“It is disheartening that the National Assembly approved about N2.1 trillion for the Service Wide Vote Account in the period under review but at the last count over N4.7 trillion had been expended by the Executive.”

SAINT MUGAGA, ABUJA.

Source: THEWILL, http://thewillnigeria.com. Posted date: February 19, 2014

THEWILL_ Posted date: February 19, 2014http://thewillnigeria.com

NAIJA GOVERNANCE: WHERE I STAND

NAIJA GOVERNANCE: WHERE I STAND

Irrespective of the number of years of military rule in Nigeria, I am in the class of the people that believes that Nigeria ought to be better and greater by now. This is not because of the political manifestos of our leaders or the freedom of expression. I would not want us to start the debate of whether Nigeria is a nation or a country. Politics without principles will only plunge our Nigeria deeper and deeper in corruption and injustice.

In Nigeria today, anyone that wants to make a difference is seen as an antagonist. Martin Luther King (Jr.) was seen as such in America many years ago. However the result of his “antagonism” is there today for everyone to see – Barrack Obama. Records are meant to be broken, bars are meant to be raised. We cannot say that investors should come into Nigeria when we are not ready to empower our people. The enduring legacies of our founding fathers are still in place today in various structures and institutions. Chief Obafemi Awolowo craved for the empowerment of the Southwest. Nigerians have benefited from his legacy of free education today in structures like the Obafemi Awolowo University. The Coca House and the Nigerian Television Authority both located in Ibadan are the results of his vision for Nigeria.

If at all we have been following the trends in Nigeria, we would have noticed some great disparity between what our leaders say and what they do. That is where the value edge seems to be falling off before our own very eyes. Nigerians have to begin to shoot at their target – the ideal Nigeria. To achieve this, I strongly believe that what we need to fear is fear itself. We are in a new era, we are in a new age, and we are not supposed to be given what we do not bargain for as a people. When we vote, we should put aside sentiments, resentments and frivolities. If our leaders perform below expectation, let us arise to challenge them. If they refuse to listen, then let us ask for their recall at their constituencies. Enough is enough.

Let us come up to the round table and discuss the way forward for our dear Nigeria. This is one of the reasons why this page has been put up for us to really dig deep into the basics of rebuilding our dear Nigeria. If Nigerians succeed abroad, then they should be able to succeed here in Nigeria. Let us remember that the more we keep silent, the more we become more vulnerable in our own Nigeria. The ruling class in Nigeria today is not up to 5% of the entire Nigerian population. Let us remind our leaders that they are leaders because we are followers. Let us hold them accountable and begin to think of voting out the “benchwarmers” amongst them. Let us free our minds and liberate our mentality. Post relevant suggestions, comments and constructive criticisms and let us break the vicious cycle of bad leadership and value disorientation. The New Nigeria would not be a coincidence. God bless Nigeria. 

My Nigerian Vision: I see Nigeria in the future having solid infrastructural development, utilizing state-of-the-art Information Technology facilities and well-trained and well-remunerated public and civil servants. I see Nigeria with a master plan that encompasses all the sectors of the economy with a view to planning for the security, environment and education of our youths. I see the best Nigerian technocrats giving the best advice on achieving the vision of a new Nigeria. Welcome to the future!!!