Saturday 18 July 2015
LMAO. Two stubborn men block each other on a road (photos)
Pics: Kenya's Westgate Mall reopens to a surprisingly huge turnout
On Saturday September 21st, 2013, gunmen from the Somali militant group al Shabaab massacred at least 67 people inside the shopping mall and held out for four days as security forces laid siege to the complex. Photos from the reopening after the cut...
Buckingham Palace reacts to image of a young Queen Elizabeth II giving a Nazi salute
Buckingham Palace released a statement through a spokesman saying "It is disappointing that film shot eight decades ago and apparently from HM’s (her majesty’s) personal family archive has been obtained and exploited in this manner."
The Sun also published a separate explanation of why it decided to run the footage, saying the images must be seen in their historical context.
"These images have lain hidden for 82 years. We publish them today, knowing they do not reflect badly on our Queen, her late sister or mother in any way.
"They do, however, provide a fascinating insight into the warped prejudices of Edward VIII and his friends in that bleak, paranoid, tumultuous decade."
Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952 following the death of her father...
Tragedy as Crane overturns in East China
Courtsy:Oshophil
Serena Williams shows off her butt in a new Bikini photo
What muscular frame? Tennis Star, Serena Williams shows off her sculptured bikini body back
Bukola Saraki Close Marks President Buhari
But on Friday, Saraki ensured he made his way to where Buhari was seated at the National Mosgue during the Eid-el-Fitri prayers in Abuja. Buhari was not happy but he played along. More photos...
Look At What Boko Haram Has Done To This Child
Jonathan's Acts will Continue to Hunt South-South – Obasanjo
Obasanjo said, “I have also said that you can help anybody to get a job but you cannot help him to do it. Let us get it clear, there is nobody who has got into any position who has not been helped by one person or more than one person.
"To become Nigeria’s head of state, it was first of all my performance in the war front. Now if General Gowon had not sent me to the war front, you won’t know whether I can perform or cannot perform. Now, he sent me to the war front, I thank him for it and because I performed we shared the credit. If I had failed, Gowon would not have shared the credit, he would not have shared the condemnation with me, I would have been alone.
“Yes as I have said, I believe that opportunity afforded itself in 2010 for somebody from the minority to on his own steam, become the president of Nigeria. He should never have lost the opportunity but what he did with it was entirely up to him and don’t forget, what he did or did not do with it, will reflect for a long time on that part of the country and don’t take that lightly.
"...but nobody will be there who will not be helped but we voted for him, I was only one of the 18 million voters who voted for him.”
He spoke in Benin on the backdrop of criticism that he worked assiduously in making Jonathan President and therefore should share in the perceived failure of the administration.
He spoke in Benin on the backdrop of criticism that he worked assiduously in making Jonathan President and therefore should share in the perceived failure of the administration.
Don't Rush Me, I'm Working Carefully To Change Things - PMB
President Buhari stated that though there were heaps of misdeeds of the past administration, he would ensure that every wrong of the past is corrected. He added as part of his Ramadan message, that stamping out corruption still remained one of the cardinal objectives of his administration.
Tragedy averted as two First Nation Airways plane collide at Lagos Airport (photos)
Friday’s incident which happened at about mid-day involved two Airbus 330 conveying not fewer than 250 passengers. The two aircraft had their bodies partially damaged as a result of the collision. A source at the airport said one of the aircrafts was taxiing from the runway to MMA2, to disengage passengers while the other aircraft was preparing to take off to Port-Harcourt Airport from the same terminal.
The Port-Harcourt bound aircraft was parked at Gate 4 while the arriving aircraft was bound for the Gate 3 of the terminal. The source alleged that the pilot may have been misdirected by the marshals who misdirected the arriving aircraft to the same Gate as the parked aircraft which led to the two wings brushing each other. Following the incident, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), immediately, grounded both aircraft while passengers were asked to disembark by the airline. It was further gathered that the refunds of tickets were made to passengers on the Port-Harcourt bound aircraft by the airline.
The NCAA also confirmed the incident in a statement issued by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr Fan Ndubuoke. Ndubuoke said no passenger was hurt and that the incident had been referred to the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) for further investigation. He also reiterated NCAA’s commitment to safety and security of passengers.Source: NAN
See How This Guy Messed Himself Up Because of Money
This guy stripped to his boxers at the branch of a popular Nigerian bank, after accusing them of removing N25,000 from his account illegally. According to sources, the guy said after several efforts to get them to refund the money, he had no choice but to react by storming the bank, stripped himself, sat on the floor like a mad man and insisted he won't leave the bank until his money is refunded.
Shm! So this guys with his fine boxers, necklace, phone, etc. can't think of a better to get his N25k from the bank other than to rubbished himself in front of young people? Poverty is indeed a disease!
Here Are The Questions Okonjo-Iweala Should Answer
BLACKMAIL WON’T HELP YOUR CASE, OSHIOMHOLE TELLS OKONJO-IWEALA
As much as her Spokesman tries to dramatize his response in defense of his boss, he has shown a manifest uninformed disposition to issues of simple economics of naira and kobo.
Here is a former Minister who has changed her position four times in the last forty days; each position exposing her dubiety of facts and inherent contradictions in the concocted tales she has been weaving on one simple issue: what happened to t5he $2.1b ECA funds?
PERTINENT QUESTIONS:
The simple questions which the Comrade Governor asked were: how come those accruals into the Excess Crude Account got depleted without the knowledge of the National Economic Council?
How come monies that were supposed to accrue into the said account cannot be found in it going by the balance sheet provided by the former Minister? How come the Minister unilaterally dipped her hand into the Excess Crude Account to spend money in defiance of the constitution and the laws of the land?
How come that the Minister finds it convenient to publish allocations to States and Local Governments, but refused to publish accruals into the same account for us to know the status of the account at any point in time; how much was left from where she was distributing from?
What the Comrade Governor stated was that; it was interesting to note that by December 2012, the ECA had a balance of over $10billion. This had been depleted to $2.07billion by May 2015, according to the former Finance Minister. Between January 2013 and May 2015, not more than $4billion was shared among the three tiers of Government. Indeed, the last time any money was shared from the ECA was in May 2013.
Flowing from the above statement of facts, the Comrade Governor then asked a very pertinent question; how come there was no accretion to the ECA even when Crude oil prices averaged between $100 to $108 within the three years period of 2011 to 2014, aware that the National Budgets were based on $77 and $79 benchmark?
That gives an average of $30 per barrel gains. In fact, based on rough estimates, Nigeria should earn not less than $30billion accretion based on the official oil exports of 2.3 million barrels per day. The question which Okonjo-Iweala could not answer is; how come Nigeria did not make any savings during those three years of unprecedented oil price boom? Simple question that should ordinarily elicit simple response.
Without a scintilla of numerical reference, Okonjo-Iweala went into a voyage of storytelling like an intellectual raconteur, leaving out the real substance of the Comrade Governor’s salient questions.
First, she responded on May 28, 2015 where she denied the allegations describing them as “baseless”. Among other things she claimed that the 36 State Governors who are joint owners of the Excess Crude Account [ECA] with the Federal Government were in full picture of how the ECA was managed.
She stated inter alia; “how can Governor Oshiomhole claim that State Governors were not properly briefed on the status of the ECA when his Commissioner of Finance attends all FAAC meetings where decisions are taken and communicated to the nation?”
On June 29, 2015 exactly a month after, at the inaugural meeting of the National Economic Council [NEC] presided over by Vice President Professor Yemi Osibanjo, and with 36 states in attendance deliberated on the status of the ECA. After a critical scrutiny, it was discovered that indeed Dr. Okonjo-Iweala spent $2.1billion from the ECA without authorization by the NEC.
That money was neither distributed to states nor paid to the three tiers of government. This was the rationale for the setting up of the four-man Panel to look at what accrued, what it was spent for, when and by whom and who authorized the spending, so that Nigerians will have full picture of all the transactions as regards the much talked about Excess Crude Account.
SHIFTING THE GOAL POST
On June 30, 2015, Okonjo-Iweala was once again reported as categorically denying unauthorized expenditure from the ECA under her purview, describing the findings of NEC as “false, malicious and without foundation”.
According to her, decisions on such expenditure and sharing were discussed at meetings of FAAC attended by Finance Commissioners from the 36 states.
In her words; “it is curious that in their desperation to use the esteemed National Economic Council for political and personal vendetta, the persons behind these allegations acted as if the constitutionally recognized FAAC, a potent expression of Nigeria’s fiscal federalism, does not exist”.
Is FAAC superior to NEC? Does FAAC have the constitutional powers to give approval for withdrawals from ECA?
On June 30, 2015 the Comrade Governor stated during his Live Television interview with Channels Television that the power to take money from ECA was vested in the NEC, an institution created by the Constitution and not State Finance Commissioners who were members of FAAC, an administrative arrangement that was not known to the Constitution.
Rather than open up, giving full disclosure, she was opening part of the book and not the entire book. According to Comrade Oshiomhole, the logic of transparency is that every Minister must publish in full what is accruing to the Federation Account month-to-month basis and what is distributed to them.
On July 7, 2015, barely a week after Okonjo-Iweala claimed that FAAC was involved in the unauthorized spending from the ECA, members of FAAC under the aegis of Forum of Finance Commissioners in a public statement, denied approving any withdrawal of the said $2.1 billion.
The 36 Finance Commissioners categorically described the former Minister’s claim as “misleading, and far from the fact”. Hear them; “the Law setting up FAAC, which pre-dates the ECA did not empower the Commissioners to approve such withdrawals, and that there were records of Committee’s meetings to show that they had always queried the activities on the ECA, particularly on withdrawals.
FAAC did not and could not have approved or took the decision to withdraw the sum of $2billion from the Excess Crude Account”.
On July 8, 2015, Okonjo-Iweala opened up a bit of the real gist when she admitted that $2billion was indeed withdrawn from the ECA this time, on the directives of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
She further confirmed that the money was used to pay petroleum subsidies and not shared to the 36 states as she earlier declared.
The former Minister was quoted as saying; “payments made were used for paying for petroleum subsidies for the Nigerian people and were approved by Mr. President”.
She then made a volte face saying she did not claim that FAAC members approved the spending but that they were informed of the decision, “if monies were used to pay for subsidies for the Nigerian people and duly approved, why is Okonjo-Iweala’s name being battered in this way? She wondered, adding that “this persecution should stop”.
In fact, she is the one that is persecuting herself.
Subjecting this position to the crucible, one is prompted to ask Okonjo-Iweala if in all her experiences at the World Bank and elsewhere whether, the President has the right and powers under our laws to give approval for the withdrawal of $2billion from the ECA?
Whether the President has the power to usurp the powers of NEC with respect to withdrawals from the ECA? Whether the President has the powers to touch any money that belongs to the States and Local Governments?
It may interest Okonjo-Iweala to note that when the $5billion Power Intervention Fund was approved by NEC with all the 36 states Governors in session, due process had to be followed before the money was withdrawn from the ECA. Indeed, each of the 36 Governors had to seek the authorization of the Houses of Assembly, the 774 Local Government Chairmen and their Legislative Councils.
Just waking up in the morning to declare that “Mr. President” gave the approval and it was used to pay subsidy claims flies in the face of logic, common sense, due process and law. Was payment for subsidy not captured in the Appropriation Law?
Why would a Minister that is worth her salt dip her hands into our collective patrimony to take that much, a whopping $2billion on the directives of one Mr. President?
Can any World Bank Chief Executive dip hands into the till to take what belongs to all vide approval against what the laws and rules guiding World Bank specify? Was the Federal Government portion of the $2.1billion appropriated by the National Assembly before it was used to pay oil marketers?
To the best of our knowledge, there was nothing of the sort. We think very seriously that Okonjo-Iweala has more questions to answer. She has shifted grounds on four different scores. That tells so much on her integrity.
According to Brian Tracy, that celebrated author; “integrity is more than a value.
It is the one quality of mind that assures or guarantees all the other values that you select. You cannot have a little bit of integrity.
It must be all or nothing”. If Okonjo-Iweala truly understands the whole essence of integrity, we had expected her to come clean on these serious allegations of financial malfeasance instead of allowing her ill-informed Spokesman, such vend-able lick-spittle, to be vomiting incoherent and inconsistent banalities on issues that border on our collective patrimony.
This was the same attitude she put up when the issue of misappropriated N19.5billion Aviation Fund was being investigated under former President, Chief Olusegun Obaanjo. Till date, she has not been able to clear the air on the N6.5 billion loan she allegedly raised from Commercial Banksto fix Control Towers of Four Airports.
That is a story for another day.
Her latest resort to blackmail using her refusal to grant Edo State Government a loan request as the reason why the Comrade Governor is asking her valid questions that border on fraud and financial recklessness is completely at variance with the real issues at stake.
What has the request for loans got to do with the claim that someone dips her hand into the public till to spend what was not approved by the collective? How does she expect the states to survive when she refused to make full disclosure on accruals and declined to give them their share on a regular basis as required by law?
Because she plundered the resources with reckless abandon, she is now running from pillar to post without addressing the real issues. Please help us ask her; Madam Okonjo; what happened to ECA withdrawals?
What is the meaning of “numerical diarrhea” in the context of financial malfeasance and official sleaze that characterized Okonjo-Iweala’s regime as Finance Minster? From the records we have seen so far and the tantrums she has been throwing rather than address the real issues, it is appropriate to conclude that she was indeed Coordinating Minister of Economic Fraud and Financial Malfeasance.
All the acclaimed World Bank experiences were just part of the hollow rituals to hoodwink the Nigerian public from addressing the real issues of mismanagement. We will continue to insist that she comes out clean, no matter how ostentatiously dramatic she chooses to go.
SIGNED….
PRINCE KASSIM AFEGBUA
Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs
To The Edo State Governor
Fayose condemns DSS invasion of Col. Dasuki’s homes, says; “Dictatorship returning to Nigeria”
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has condemned the invasion and sealing-off of the Abuja and Sokoto residences of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) by men of the Department of State Services (DSS), saying; “persecution of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts and others perceived as opposed to the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government is an ominous sign of imminent return of dictatorship and draconian rule in Nigeria.”The governor, who said he still believed that the invasion of Col. Dasuki homes may not have the backing of President Mohammadu Buhari, said; “if this is being done by some people to please the president, he should check the excesses of those behind it and call them to other because overzealousness by those that are close to the president is inimical to the image of the government.”
In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti today his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said he was sad that democracy is already being put on trial, less than two months that President Mohammadu Buhari assumed office, adding that; “Rather than invading homes of Nigerians and putting people under house arrest, the government should invade Boko Haram territories and arrest the insurgents.”
Governor Fayose, who also condemned the persecution of Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said; “the desperate plot to remove Senator Ekweremadu from office is dangerous to democratic rule in Nigeria because there is no portion of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution that made positions of Senate President and Deputy Senate President the exclusive rights of the political party with highest number of senators.”
He said; “President Buhari should rather keep Boko Haram under house arrest, not opposition party members. Those heavily armed security men that invaded Col. Dasuki’s Abuja and Sokoto homes should have been put to a better use by sending them to the Boko Haram ravaged North Eastern part of Nigeria. “The president should keep the rising exchange rates of Dollar, Pound Sterling, Euro and other foreign currencies under house arrest.
He should pay attention to governance, be guided by the rule of law and be for everyone and for nobody as he promised when he was sworn into office.” He advised President Buhari to be magnanimous in victory, act like a leader and father of all Nigerians instead of seeing his return to power as an opportunity to revenge against those perceived to have wronged him in the past. The governor asked; “Was there any invitation by the DSS to Col. Dasuki that he refused to honour?
Isn’t it worrisome that in this democratic age, security agents could in a commando-like invade the house of a former NSA to carry out his arrest when there is no record that he was invited and he refused to honour the invitation, or that he resisted arrest? “Could Col. Dasuki’s present ordeal be as a result of his advice that the presidential election be postponed? “Is this not an indication of an impending clampdown on PDP members and other Nigerians perceived not to be on the same page with the President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government?
“We in the PDP supported our party during the presidential election like every other loyal party members should do, should this display of support for our party and its candidate now warrant persecution by the federal government? “If Col. Dasuki actually committed any offence to warrant his arrest and questioning by the DSS or any of the country’s security agencies, shouldn’t warrant of arrest have been issued against him? Shouldn’t he have been invited by the DSS instead of invading his houses and sealing them off in a commando-liked manner?
“Nigerians must therefore rise against this emerging dictatorship and save the country’s democracy from imminent collapse because today, it is Col. Dasuki, tomorrow it can be any other person.”
SSS Arrests Ex-NSA Sambo Dasuki In Abuja
The operatives in four Hilux vans, led by one Mohammed, stormed the home of the former NSA at about 6:40pm and laid siege on the residence, insisting on seeing Dasuki.
Soldiers guarding the home prevented the DSS operatives from gaining entry into the premises which prompted the DSS boys to threaten to force their way into the house.
According to LEADERSHIP, a similar scenario played out in Sokoto, in the home owned by the former NSA’s father, Ibrahim Dasuki, a former Sultan of Sokoto, where some other DSS operatives also stormed the home apparently in search of retired colonel Dasuki.
The operatives who visited the Dasukis’ Sokoto home were said to have searched the property, including a large container that had been in the compound for many years. They were said to have locked in all occupants of the house and would not allow anyone in or out of the building.
The invasion of the erstwhile NSA’s home may not be unconnected with media reports of a planned probe of the defence budget and other alleged abuses of office by the immediate-past service chiefs who were relieved of their duties this week by President Muhammadu Buhari.
DSS men, in the night, whisked away the ex-NSA to one of their facilities in Abuja for interrogation. A top security source last night confirmed the arrest of Dasuki to LEADERSHIP. As at press time, no reason was given for the former NSA’s arrest.
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