Opinion: Mrs. Buhari Will Vote For President Jonathan by Obasi Akpa

As a father of five daughters, whenever I think
of Muhammadu Buhari, what comes to my mind is a regime that was. completely insensitive to the feminine gender.

First of all, Muhammadu Buhari had an all male cabinet at the very time when the world had very good examples of the sterling nature of females in power. including the Iron Lady herself, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher of The United
Kingdom and the phenomenal Indira Gandhi of India. Does it mean that neither of these women could inspire Buhari to have included even one woman in his cabinet?

All his ministers and advisers, his Military Governors and the ambassadors he appointed were men! And to rub salt to injury, Buhari is promising to close down the office of the First Lady if he is elected! In the year 2015! Are we moving forward or backward?

President Jonathan has been campaigning and
everybody sees his wife by his side. If I may ask, where was Mrs. Buhari until recently presented for political purposes? Is she wrapped. up in seclusion somewhere? Does her complete isolation from the public personae and campaigns of her husband not indicate that he still does not think that women have a role to play in government even if is ceremonial? And nobody should tell me that it is unislamic to honour your wife with a visible place by your side.

Is Buhari more Muslim than the people of Indonesia who elected a woman to head their government in the person of Megawati Sukarnoputri?

Is Buhari more Muslim than the people of Pakistan who elected a woman to lead them in the person of the late Benazir Bhutto?

I deliberately cited Indonesia and Pakistan because they are the largest
and second largest Muslim nations in the world with deep Islamic traditions that date back to centuries. If these nations can entrust women with political power at the highest levels, why should Buhari tend to put women in the background? I dare to say that it has not escaped the attention of Mrs. Buhari that President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed more women into his cabinet and into other high positions than any other government before his.

Again, I suspect that Mrs. Buhari is not unaware of the respect and recognition which the President accords his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan. Seeing how a secure man treats his wife and seeing how she has been relegated not just to the background, but to obscurity, I have a strong feeling that Mrs. Buhari will not vote for her husband. I do think President Jonathan would score an unexpected vote from the Buhari household.

I mean, take a look at the campaign rallies of the All Progressive Congress. How many women do we see in prominent positions? Not many or not at all.

Look at the report we are reading from Taraba. On Christmas Day, we were awaken with the headline 'Taraba: Buhari rejects female APC guber candidate'. From the story, we understand that General Buhari was not comfortable with the candidacy of Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan who made history as the first woman to win a gubernatorial ticket on a major party and with a landslide at that.

As a former gubernatorial candidate, I know what it takes to win a party primary for the
gubernatorial ticket. It is a heavy weight fight in which the winner must defeat several heavy weights.

After Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan performed this feat, instead of being congratulated, she met with rejection from Buhari. It only goes to show how deep seated his prejudices against women is. If there were ever any doubts as to the role Buhari expects from women that story wipes it away. If the women of Nigeria want to undo whatever gains they have made in the
last four years where they have had 12 women appointed as ministers, in which they finally had entry into the Nigerian Defense Academy courtesy of an Executive Order issued by President Jonathan and the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria appointed under President Jonathan, they may go ahead and vote for Buhari.

But before they do so, they better ask their husbands to buy air conditioners for their kitchens because they may be spending the next four years there.

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Chief (Dr.) Obasi Akpa Obasi is a former Gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress in Ebonyi State.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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Breaking: Catholic Diocese Of Warri Reshuffles Her Priests In Various Parishes

The Catholic Diocese of Warri, Delta State, has announced the transfer of her Catholic Priests in several parishes across the diocese.

The transfer comes as a surprise to the lay faithful; though not the priests, for they are constantly rotated and shuffled into various parishes every two-years interval.

As at the time of filing this report, it remains unclear the total number of Priests that were transferred this time around. However, in the coming days, things should become clearer.

The new transfer takes effect within two weeks.
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Idoma Students Commends Senate For Sustaining Democracy | NEWSBEAT PORTAL

Idoma Students Commends Senate For Sustaining Democracy | NEWSBEAT PORTAL

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Idoma Students Commends Senate For Sustaining Democracy

The National Association of Idoma Students wish to eulogize the doggedness of the Senate President and the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their unflinching commitment to the Sustenance of our nascent democracy.

In a statement jointly signed by the President of the union, Igoche Egwa and the Secretary, Tony Onazi, the union also sympathized with the people of North eastern Part of the country on the terror unleashed on them by the insurgency and salute the courage of the Nigeria armed forces which, it said have not relented in battle to sustain the nation's sovereignty and reclaim its territory from the insurgents.

''We sympathize with our brethren from the North eastern Part of the country on the terror unleashed on them by the insurgency and salute the courage of the Nigeria armed forces which have not relented in battle to sustain our
sovereignty and reclaim our territory from the insurgents.

''Our heart goes to the fathers and mothers, wives and children of these great men who laid down their lives in the defence of our great country and pray that God gives their family the fortitude to bear the loss,'' the union said.

On the forthcoming elections, the students' body reiterated its support for president Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate President for their effort in keeping with the tenets of democracy.

In view of their commitment to Nation building and sustenance of democracy the Union, made the following declarations:

"That the Idoma Students shall vote and defend their Vote for President Goodluck Jonathan at the Forth coming polls, that Senator Dr. David Mark remains the best representative the idoma Nation can produce and urge Idoma Students to come Out en-mass to vote and defend their vote.

"That the National Association of Idoma Students shall declare any individual who contends with Sen. Dr. David Mark a personal non-grata keeping in mind that the choice of a Senator who will return as President of the Senate surpasses any form of personal or group interest who will jeopardize the chances of the Idoma Nation.

"That there is no better candidate than Prince Terhemen Tarzoor who has all it take to turn around the fortunes of the Benue people.

"The National Association of Idoma Students shall mobilize to deliver a fellow Youth as Governor come 2015 and that all students and youths conduct themselves and Shun violence during the forthcoming election as Nigeria
students are better than being thugs to selfish and greedy politicians.
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The Figures That Convince Me President Jonathan Is The Man For 2015 By Adeyemi Johnson

Recently, some APC stalwarts principally the party's chairman claimed that Nigeria has deteriorated under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and that APC offers a better solution, but is that true ? Rather than make subjective claims, it is better to examine the facts by global verifiable standards.

The most acceptable global composite standard for judging progress or development is the HDI Index. Many accept that Nigeria has not moved as fast as it should in this index. It measures three basic dimensions of human development, such as long and healthy life, knowledge and a descent standard of living.

The highest development is measured as 1, and anything below from 0.9 to 0.01 are a continuum from very high to very low respectively. But if we examine the facts from this measurement, in 2013 the Nigerian measurement on this index is 0.504. ln 2010 when Jonathan assumed office the Nigerian measure was 0.492, but in 1985 when Buhari left office Nigeria was second from last at the bottom of the table with our rating at 0.421. So, although Nigeria has not reached the highest ratings such as 0.810 to 0.870, under the Jonathan administration, it has moved up the Index since the time of Buhari.

But to show that this is a factual measure, If we examine some of the key indicators which make up this index such as life expectancy, which measures how long a person will live if all the prevailing conditions at his/her birth remains so throughout the person's life, we also see that, in 2012 the life expectancy of a Nigerian was 52.7, in 2010 it was 51 when the Jonathan administration assumed office.

There are some who will say that this is an effort to polish the image of the administration, but these measures are not conducted by Nigeria but by independent organs allied with the United Nations to measure the progress of mankind, and they often speak frankly to developing nations to let us know that where we are presently is far from the ideal and we should keep aspiring to that ideal.

But what is the APC offering? Looking back at the life expectancy of Nigerians in 1985 when Buhari left office, it was 47.18years and by 1999 when the civilians took over from the military that claims to have come to correct the ills of democracy, the life expectancy of Nigerians had actually fallen to 46.71years.

Moreover, it must also be pointed out that, although the national average in terms of HDI measurement is used as the standard for a country, it does not reflects the lived reality of everyone or the reality everywhere in a country. This is especially true for some of the indicators used to measure the HDI such as the standard of living which usually takes account of things like poverty rate and distribution of poverty. If we take the national distribution of poverty, low life expectancy and low literacy rates in Nigeria, it is discovered that the worst indicator measurements can be found in states that were formally ANPP.

The leadership value of ANPP can be directly associated with the leading presidential candidate that APC is offering as an alternative to the Jonathan administration. And the APC is saying publicly that the development that Nigeria is boasting about does not reflect on the people, but in actual fact, it is states under the leadership of the legacy members of APC which is pulling down the national average.

The data from states under Buhari's former legacy parties, are pulling down the national average. If we take away the data from these states, we might fare a lot better, what this means therefore is that what has worked better in other states should be emulated by these states, not the other way round.
So ,the question is: What is APC offering Nigerians? Is it progress or regression? Because apart from these quantitative facts, the APC is also offering qualitative expectations. They tell us that Buhari is an upright leader without administrative blemish. But many have pointed to the public records not political statements to verify this claim.

They point to human rights abuses. For example, Tai Solarin spent 17months in jail arrested with an illegal warrant of arrest which had only a photocopy of the signature of the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters. A Nigerian journalist, Vera Ifudu published that she was informed by the late Chief Olusola Saraki who was then in the Nigerian senate when the matter was probed that, the 2.8Billion United States Dollars which was missing at the NNPC under the Obasanjo regime while Buhari was Minister for Petroleum was traced to Buhari's private account' at the Midlands Bank in the United Kingdom. She was forced to resign because of this story without evidence to refute her story. While late Fela Ransom-Kuti was arrested for possession of Foreign exchange by the Buhari regime, money that was meant for the upkeep of his band on a foreign tour.

He was forced to spend 18months in jail, by a judge who was forced to imprison him by the Buhari regime, whereas on the same matter of illegal foreign exchange, when the Buhari regime was kicked out, his head of security, Lawal Rafindadi was found to have operated several personal foreign accounts, and until he died he was still fighting to unfreeze the accounts seized from him.

Also, Buhari and his deputy, Tunde Idiagbon made a law for Nigerians, that no one, under 18years should go on pilgrimage to the holy land Mecca but Idiagbon himself was found returning from Hajj with his 14year old son, when they were dethroned. Buhari was aware that Idiagbon went on hajj with his under-aged son. So they made one law for themselves and another for Nigerians.

Similarly, while Buhari was Chairman of PTF, an audit of the Agency found that over 25 billion Naira was missing though the agency, his relative Ahmad Salihijo, whom he appointed as the sole consultant in charge of all the transactions of the agency, died when the audit committee was constituted, some say he committed suicide to hide the facts, we will never know. But the audit report found many cases of clear over-invoicing and importation of expired products by the agency.

Therefore, looking at the quantitative progress of HDI indicators since 1985 and qualitative evidence the farce of Buhari's mythical uprightness, it is hard to understand, where the confidence of the APC lies that it is offering Nigeria a better choice for 2015

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The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Adeyemi Johnson
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Opinion: Why I Endorse The 'Clueless' President For A 2nd Term By Uzochukwu Okafor

I have been thinking seriously on why President Jonathan is constantly being derided and abused by a few but vociferous individuals. The most recent being that emanating from President Obasanjo's latest book. But what now propelled me into contributing to this debate is the article written by Mr. Nnimmo Bassey, who I have very high regard for since our student days at the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus.

In that article captioned " A Clueless president," he stated how an African friend he had not seen in years asked him about "his clueless President." This demonstrates the need for us to remain decorous even in instances of very sharp disagreements. Quite often, Nigerians complain of disrespectful treatments at the airports by immigration and custom officials.

There is a saying in Igbo land to the effect that when you describe your cooking pot as useless, people will treat it as rubbish. We Nigerians have often not been mindful of the damage we do to our country and ourselves when we denigrate our institutions and our leaders in a careless and reckless manner. It is even more so when such recklessness comes from a former president who should be more thoughtful and circumspect in his utterances and writings.

As we approach the 2015 presidential elections, the denigration of the office of the president is being escalated. The launch of the book, My Watch, by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) was seen in this light by many commentators. The opposition party, the APC is also determined to do maximum damage to President Jonathan and the office of the President. The utterances from its leadership need a lot of moderation and scrubbing. They have also at various times described Mr. President as clueless and one who runs an auto pilot government. The radical changes promised by President Jonathan during his campaign were captured in the Transformation Agenda document.

Programmes identified in this document will be used to evaluate the government of president Jonathan to see if his government can be described as clueless and running on auto pilot. An important barometer of a viable democracy is the sanctity of the voter's wish.

When late President Yaradua took office, he acknowledged that his election was largely flawed and vowed to clean up the electoral process. President Jonathan who succeeded him have not disappointed in this regard. It is to his credit that subsequent elections have been largely declared as free and fair by international observers. Another important index and benefit of democracy is the freedom of expression, freedom of association and statutorily guaranteed access to information.

Under President Jonathan, freedom of speech has remained unencumbered in spite of some unwarranted abuses his government has suffered. President Jonathan remains to date the most demonised, abused and derided President Nigeria has ever had. But it is to his credit that he has never used the security apparatus at his disposal to persecute any one. One can also acknowledge that he signed the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill into law, a bill that the previous governments avoided for years.

Under President Jonathan, the power sector has witnessed the privatisation of the generation and distribution companies. If international and local assessments of this process are anything to go by, the bidding process has been mostly transparent. With this process concluded, one can anticipate an irreversible process in achieving stable power supply in no distant future, the same way the telecommunication sector benefited from privatization.

The rehabilitation of the railway system deserves special mention. This important means of transportation has been unfortunately ignored by previous governments. The progress being made in this sector in reopening the railway links to the major cities in Nigeria is commendable. This is being complemented with the dredging of the lower River Niger. We also take particular note of the ongoing construction of the new bridge over the River Benue and the commencement of work on the Second Niger Bridge.

The aviation sector is another area that has witnessed significant transformation. The modernisations of the existing airports and construction of new airport terminals have improved the standing of Nigerian airports within the international aviation community. It is therefore not surprising that Nigeria has attained and retained the FAA Category One status. The launching of the National industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), and the National Enterprise Development Programme has led to the resuscitation of Nigeria automobile industry.

Nigeria has moved from a net importer of cement to a net exporter of cement by increasing installed capacity from 16.5 million metric tons per annum in 2011 to 39.5 million metric tons per annum in 2014. The transformation agenda of Mr. President, if implemented faithfully, will no doubt significantly improve Nigeria economy. But we must be mindful of the fact that its impact and success rests on tackling the monster of corruption. One, therefore, cannot fairly evaluate this administration without assessing its approach to addressing the issue of corruption. Although Nigeria has improved slightly with respect to the perception index of Transparency International, perception of corruption in Nigeria is still high.

While there is often a mismatch between perception and reality, one cannot ignore perception. The truth, is that Mr. President needs to demonstrate that his government abhors corruption. While I agree with Mr. President that dealing with corruption is not about parading people on the television but devising creative and systematic means of addressing it, there is still need to combine the long term measure of Mr. President with some short term prescriptions.

One short term measure could be initiating an executive bill to set up Tribunals dedicated to trying cases of corruption. These tribunals should be presided over by credible retired judges. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has often complained about their frustration with the process at the existing courts. The conviction of Governor Ibori at the UK Court vis a vis the merry go round experienced in the same case in Nigeria is a case in point.

Having stated the issues above, it will be germane to acknowledge what this administration has already done to tackle corruption at its roots. These include the restructuring of the pension payment system, the restructuring of the integrated salary payment system, and the deregulation in the oil and gas sector to check corrupt practices in the downstream sector.

The disappearance of perennial queues at our filling stations is one testimony to the success of the creative approach to stemming endemic corruption in the oil sector. Signing of the Anti-Money Laundering Act into law, introduction of an electronic-wallet scheme, that has reduced significantly decades of corruption in the fertiliser and seed sectors are also very creative.

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The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Uzochukwu Okafor
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Top 10 Trending Hashtags In Nigeria For Jan 14, 2015

As the February 14, 2015 presidential elections draws closer by the day, it appears the incumbent president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is gradually making waves on TWITTER - one of the most popular social media platform in the world.

Among the hashtags created in Nigeria, president Jonathan appears to be heading back to Aso-Rock going by this hashtag: #Gej_WillWin. This is has been trending now for the past two days and it remains to be seen how strong it can go.

Here are the hashtags that have made the list so far:
#EveryVillainNeeds [image] Promoted
#GEJ_WillWin
Zahra
#Presh_Davido
#GEJistheChange
#OGAARA_byBrain
#Courteville10thAnniversary
Nigeria
Ronaldo
Baga
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UNIBEN HOSTEL Accommodation Update: Unity Bank To Process Payments

BANK CHARGES: all students are advised to pay their bank charges into the banks as specified below.

1) Hostel access and maintenance charges: unity bank Ugbowo campus. All students: 1000

2) SUG dues: access bank ugbowo campus.
A) old students; 300
B) new students ; 500

3)Clearance charges: Guaranty Trust bank, Ugbowo campus.

4)School fees: payment online.

5)Students record file(new students): First Bank Plc, Ugbowo Campus

NOTE:
receipts for hostel access and SUG dues are to be presented to the deans office, students affairs division before registration for hostel request.

Old students could commence their request for hostel accommodation with effect from 15th Jan, 2015, provided that:
A)their sessional result have been approved by
senate and
B)they have paid their school charges

Please also note that hostel allocation are strictly on a first come-first serve basis as the
bed spaces available are limited.

Signed: Prof Victor Edosa Omozuwa
Dean of students.
14/01/2015
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Exclusive: Delta Central APC Councillors Hold Two-Days Meeting

Newsbeatportal can authoritatively report that the All Progressives Congress (APC) Councillors from Delta Central Senatorial District are holding a two-days meeting.

The meeting is ongoing at the secretariat of the party in Ughelli South Local Government Area, Ughelli, Delta State.

The priority of the meeting is to make proper preparations and strategize towards the forth-coming general elections in the state and Nigeria at large.

The governorship candidate of the party, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, is expected to meet with the councillors tomorrow, the 15th of January, 2015.

Delta Central Senatorial district consists of eight Local Governments; namely, Uvwie Local Government, Ethiope East Local Government, Ethiope West Local Government, Okpe Local Government, Ughelli North Local Government, Ughelli South Local Government, Sapele Local Government, and Udu Local Government.


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Satisfied With Electricity In Nigeria? Engage PDP Now On Twitter

The Largest Political party in Nigeria and Africa, The Peoples Democratic Party, is currently engaging Nigerians on the state of the power sector in Nigeria.

Earlier today, the party, through his social media handle on twitter, wrote:

"@PdpNigeria will be answering questions on the Power Sector today. Tweet using the hashtag #AskPDP"

Wherever you may be, as long as you have access to twitter, kindly engage the party today. You are at liberty to ask your questions as you deem them fit.

You can follow the party on twitter by clicking http://twitter.com/pdpnigeria

What are you waiting for? Tweet your questions now using the hashtag: #AskPDP
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