What they didn't write about Fayose once being a Danfo driver

Read the press statement below...

Thursday, 30th day of July was significant in the lives of members of The Road Transport Employers' Association of Nigeria. It was a day set aside for the inauguration of the association's inauguration of its new executives, members from across Nigeria, including the National Chairman and other Exco members from Abuja converged on Adetiloye hall of the trade fair complex, Ado Ekiti. Members were all in a beautifully designed customized Ankara.

I wasn't at the venue long before the arrival of the Executive Governor of Ekiti, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, I arrived only few seconds before he did, but what I saw on his arrival was electrifying, that the governor was given a rousing welcome is an understatement. Ordinarily, I see no reason to write about the accolades showered on the governor on this occasion, it's a scene I witness on daily basis, it's a thing I hear everyday.

Fayose as far as am concerned is undoubtedly the most popular man in Ekiti today. I will also not blame our drivers for welcoming him in that manner, this must be the first time a sitting governor is attending such event. The governor spoke with them in his address, of course Fayose doesn't read prepared speeches, that's rare of him, he spoke with them offhand, he addressed them like a father would address his son! I have no problem with the body of Punch's reportage of the event, just that the headline was misleading, very misleading.

Those who already had a biased mind towards the governor jumped for joy when they read the governor say he was once a Danfo driver, they were like "Yes, we said so!" It is for this reason I will be dishing out word for word what the governor said at the event, his motive was to charge and inspire all youths, not just the drivers who happen to be his immediate audience at thie event.

They were indeed inspired, it is a story that will inspire anyone with an open mind. Am not coming out this morning with all he said at the event, let's just have that side that has to do with him being a one time Danfo driver. Let's Go! Oshoko Uncut ...Lakotan, mo fe ki opolopo o taraa mi keko(In all, I want a lot of people to learn from me), I want a lot of people to learn from my experience, particularly those people ti won ti roraa won pin ni Oo(those who has lost hope) ti o de ripe toripe o je driver Oo le make e mo(and you think you can make it no more because you are a driver) , you are claiming that you are a driver, driver's work is driver's work.

I was once a driver like you(Claps) and I want you to learn this lesson from me. Please, I want young people to learn this lesson from me. I want young people to learn from this : Many young people today, they don't want to go through the ladder to become human beings at all... they are in a hurry, they want to either do drug business or join bad gangs...because you are a driver.

I was a Danfo driver in Ibadan for almost 3 years (Claps and Hails). Listen... Ejoor. Baba mi, awaa 27 lo bi(my dad had 27 children) , iyawo mefa lo de fe(he married 6 wives). Ko si bi Olowo ba ti lowo to, to ba ti fe iyawo pupo, to ba ti feyawo pupo(No matter how rich a man is, one he has many wives), to ba tii ngberu yen lo oke, Aa maa fiwo, Aa maa fiwo(as he tries to live up to his responsibilities, things will be shaky), Eru a di Eru awon Obirin(and the responsibilities falls on the women).

Opolopo Obirin lowa nibiyi to jepe awon lo nto omo bayi(we have a lot of women in this gathering who are now the one taking responsibility for the family's upkeep), omo ti Obirin ba de to, to lo ya garawa, o fi Iya eemeji je Iya e(it will amount to double jeopardy if you were raised by a woman and you become a nobody in life). Ti Baba e a gba loju pe(your father slapped her), to gba ori e pe(hit her on the head), ta a gbe Obirin min wale pe(the father comes home with another woman), to o ba sope(if you say) after your mother had laboured for you, you want to be a vagabond then that is so sad! My father had 6 wives, my mother is in the 3rd position.

When I finished my OND, life was no longer the same. I saw an advert in Nigeria Tribune, they want to sell some of their used vehicles, so I went to my mother, she sold her DATSUN 120Y, won npe ni Shalaake(the car is called Shalaake), awon Agbalagba lo le mo motor ti won npe ni Shalaake(the young ones might not know the car called Shalaake). My mother sold that vehicle, gave me half of the money. We went to buy Danfo from Tribune Newspaper and I had to go for HND, my brother was in the polytechnic, others have to go to school, I happen to be the first son.

So I repaired this Danfo, we live at Orita Challenge and I go to school in Poly, Ibadan Poly. So I have to enter Danfo, carry my Danfo at 5:30(am), I will call Ring Road/Dugbe, Ring Road/Dugbe, Ring Road/Dugbe, Ring Road/Dugbe (Claps and Hails). When I get to Dugbe (in Ibadan), I will call Mokola/Sango/UI/Ojoo..., Mokola/Sango/UI/Ojoo... When I get to Ojoo, I have to go back to Poly via Apete, I will call Sango/UI, Sango/UI nikan ni Oo because am no longer going to Dugbe, I have to from Sango go to Poly. So when I get to Sango I will call Poly/Waec/Apete, Poly /Waec/Apete... I will go to take my lectures in the morning. I used that money to train myself and train my siblings and apart from that, I travelled abroad after my HND at service year, it was from that small money that I was able to buy my ticket, I got to London before I called my Dad. All am just trying to let you know is that being a driver, you can make it in life! (Claps). You can make it in life! There is dignity in Labour, awon to nfoju Egan womi lana, won ndobale niwaju mi leni(those who looked at me with reproach yesterday are now prostrating before me today), Iya mi Ojosi yen naa, inu e amaa dun pe Iyaa governor lounaa bayi Oo(my mum sure will be happy that she's today a governor's mum). Am just appealing to all young men who are drivers today... You can be all you want to be!... You can be what you want to be if you are conscious of tomorrow. Olorun a ran yin lowo Oo, I love you very Dearly, I congratulate you all, I congratulate myself, I congratulate His Excellency (Rev. Barr. Agbede), The Road Transport Chairman in Ekiti State, long long long may you reign peacefully, Congratulations... Ese Oo(Thanks so much), Oluwa a pelu yin Oo(may God be with)

Mugabe accuses US & British ambassadors of instigating anarchy in his country, threatens to expel them

Relations between Zimbabwe and the European Union has not been cordial since 2002 after the European Union imposed sanctions on the Zimbabwean government following allegations of human rights abuses and election rigging.

On Wednesday July 29th, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said the US and British embassies paid vendors to stir up trouble in the country.

"These are ambassadors of countries that imposed sanctions on us, so we have said we will kick them out of the country. They do not want to see peace in developing countries.
They just want to see chaos; people fighting each other, terrorism everywhere. British and American ambassadors - what kind of people are they? They are no good for us. Behave and you will be in peace with us. Misbehave and we will kick you in your bottom. It is our country," he threatened.

Pics: Heidi Klum indulges in passionate PDA with younger boyfriend

Bikini-clad mother of 4, Heidi Klum, 42, looked good and happy as she laid on top of her beau Vito Schnabel during a very passionate display in Sardinia yesterday. The couple took the vacation in Sardinia to mark Vito's 29th birthday. More pics after the cut..

Oprah blamed for BFF Gayle King's inability to find and keep a man

Insiders are blaming Oprah Winfrey for her bestie Gayle King's inability to find & keep a man. #silly

From The National Enquirer

More than 20 years after divorcing her cheating husband, Gayle King still can’t find love – and one pal blames her BFF, Oprah Winfrey!

“It’s odd that for over two decades, an attractive, vibrant and financially successful woman like Gayle hasn’t been able to find ‘Mr. Right,’” said a friend.

“You could say Gayle squandered some of her best years to get her love life back on track, and Oprah could be partly accountable for that.

“Just look at all the times Oprah demanded Gayle be her ‘plus one,’ traveling the world on deluxe vacations, and accompanying her to all sorts of swanky events, including romantic candlelit dinners!”

Gallant Soldiers Ambush and Kill 117 Boko Haram Terrorists

Someone said the Chadian soldiers are more experienced and sophisticated than our Nigeria soldiers. I was finding it difficult to believe, considering their size, but those guys are making some great impacts.

Over 100 terrorists have so far been killed in an operation launched recently against the dreaded Boko Haram jihadists holed up in the islands of Lake Chad.

Speaking on the successful operation, the Chadian Army said, “117 terrorists have been killed, two Chadian soldiers died and two others were wounded” in the operation.

Chad Army spokesman, Col Azem Bermendoa Agouna, added that they are all out against Boko Haram.

Top 30 African universities: Times Higher Education reveals snapshot university ranking

Institutions from 10 countries feature in a top 30 that previews what a new ranking, being discussed at the Africa Universities Summit, might look like

July 31 2015

• BY ELLIE BOTHWELL

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SOURCE: ISTOCK

South Africa dominates a snapshot of what a new ranking for African universities could look like, making up two-fifths of the institutions in the list.

Egypt is the second most-represented country, with six universities in the top 30 table, which was drawn up by Times Higher Education and measures research impact. Morocco and Tunisia both have three institutions making the running.

The top 30 snapshot was released as THE holds its inaugural Africa Universities Summit at the University of Johannesburg, and builds on the top 15 that was previewed earlier this year.

Rank	Name	Country	All publications (2009-13)	Citation Score
1	University of Cape Town	South Africa	5540.21	99.90
2	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa	4387.17	99.76
3	Makerere University	Uganda	1112.69	99.72
4	Stellenbosch University	South Africa	4357.33	95.48
5	University of KwaZulu-Natal	South Africa	4235.09	89.41
6	University of Port Harcourt	Nigeria	573.55	88.92
7	University of the Western Cape	South Africa	1154.77	84.61
8	University of Nairobi	Kenya	671.72	84.60
9	University of Johannesburg	South Africa	2192.74	83.64
10	University of Marrakech Cadi Ayyad	Morocco	910.82	78.61
11	University of Pretoria	South Africa	4544.33	75.89
12	University of Ghana	Ghana	804.53	73.31
13	University of South Africa	South Africa	981.67	72.51
14	Suez Canal University	Egypt	998.98	69.69
15	University of Hassan II Casablanca	Morocco	960.25	69.03
16	Addis Ababa University	Ethiopia	893.90	64.84
17	Rhodes University	South Africa	1296.96	64.54
18	University of the Free State	South Africa	1512.56	62.83
19	North-West University	South Africa	1707.94	60.75
20	University of Tunis	Tunisia	879.63	57.26
21	Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax	Tunisia	822.31	57.24
22	Université Mohammed V – Agdal	Morocco	1503.69	56.85
23	American University in Cairo	Egypt	700.89	56.40
24	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University	South Africa	885.77	53.29
25	South Valley University	Egypt	636.85	52.49
26	Alexandria University	Egypt	2550.15	52.24
27	Assiut University	Egypt	1588.64	50.41
28	University of Sfax	Tunisia	2355.30	49.79
29	University of Yaounde I	Cameroon	876.33	49.72
30	Minia University	Egypt	694.79	48.36

The Africa Universities Summit includes a consultation on proposals for a full THE ranking for the region, building on the flagship World University Rankings. This would combine the citation scores from Elsevier’s Scopus database, used for this snapshot, with a wider range of performance metrics designed to meet the region’s specific challenges.

The University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand, both in South Africa, take first and second places respectively in the preliminary top 30.

In third place, a lone Ugandan institution – Makerere University – bridges South Africa’s domination of the top five, with Stellenbosch University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal taking fourth and fifth place respectively.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, Phil Baty, editor of the THE World University Rankings, said that the plan is to “develop more metrics to capture a wider range of activities at African universities”. This top 30, he continued, is designed “to get a conversation going”.

“Naturally what you find is the richer, better-funded universities in Cape Town and Johannesburg are more likely to attract and retain the leading scholars; they can offer slightly better terms and conditions and it means they are publishing higher quality work in higher quality academic journals,” he said.

The top 30 snapshot was calculated using the ratio of the citations received by an institution’s publication output between 2009 and 2013 and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field. To be included in the table, an institution must have published a minimum of 500 research papers in the five-year period assessed, with at least 50 papers per year.

How PDP Officials Looted Their Own N12bn In Nine Months

Angry workers in the office of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abuja have accused members of the National Working Committee of the now opposition party of squandering N12bn in nine months.

Out of the total sum, the workers said N11bn was realised from the sale of nomination forms while N1bn was got from the sale of delegates forms.

They alleged that the money was squandered shortly after the sale of the forms commenced on October 27, 2014 till date.

The workers said this in their response to

the letter sent to them by the party’s National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, on Wednesday. He had, in the letter, informed the workers about the decision of the NWC to reduce the party’s workforce by 50 per cent and to also cut the salaries of those to be retained by the same percentage.

The national secretary of the party said the decision, among others, would take effect from August.

He said, “Establishment staff who would remain are required to obtain individual letters of revalidation from their state chapters within one month of this circular to their suitability for service at the national secretariat.”

But the workers, after a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, sent a reply to Oladipo.

Their reply, which was directed to Oladipo, was dated July 30, 2015 and titled, “Re: Organisation and Restructuring of staff at the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party.”

They sent copies of the letter, which was exclusively obtained by our corespondent, to former President Goodluck Jonathan and the acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, Alhaji Haliru Bello.

Also, copies were sent to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, PDP caucuses in both the Senate and the House of Reps, Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum, Segun Mimiko and all PDP governors.

Besides querying how the N11bn was spent, the workers also said they were aware that the party realised another N1bn in sales of delegates forms recently.

With this, the workers wondered how a party that was in power for years could be in a financial mess.

The workers reminded the NWC members that the establishment staff of the PDP national secretariat were engaged on the basis of a well-articulated establishment manual that expressly stated the conditions of service therein.

Married Woman Leads Robbery in Lagos, Strips Female Officer

26-year-old Victoria Momidu, is a lady one could described as a shy person at first glance. But as she stood along with her partner in crime behind the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Command, Ikeja, one could best imagine how calm but deadly she could be while operating alongside her robbery gang.

Victoria and one other member of her gang were arrested recently by the men of Lagos State SARS, who had been on their trail after receiving a tip-off about the gang’s plan.

In her confession, Victoria said: “I was hustling before I met Okokawon, who is my boyfriend. He told me to join his gang. When she was asked to explain what she meant by hustling, she replied in one word “prostitution.”

She and her gang had robbed some passengers along the Mile 2- Badagry Expressway. They operate from private cab, a police source alleged.

It all began some months ago, Victoria narrated. She said another member of the gang, Okolawon, (also in SARS custody) had approached her on the need for her to join the gang.

Victoria Momidu said she was once a prostitute but had to stop prostituting six months ago because she was not making enough money from the aged long profession.

“I ran away from my husband’s house in February, abandoning my three children in the process. I came to Lagos to hustle soon after I left my husband and children in Benin. It was a lady I met inside a commercial bus at Mile 2 Motor Park that introduced me to prostitution. She took me to where she was leaving in a hotel at Seme. I later joined other ladies in the act.“I was making between N2000 and N3,000 per night anytime I have a customer, who will take me home for the night. This was what I was doing, until I met Okokawon. He came to the hotel where I was staying along with some friends to drink. He later asked me if I will spend the night with him,” she said.

She added that Okolawon came back three weeks later to take her out again, saying that they actually spent the whole day together. She explained that it was at their third outing that Okolawon started picking passengers with his car, a thing which he had not done in her presence before.

“He picked up four passengers, who were going to Badagri, from Iyana Oba bus stop on that day. That was around 9p.m. Somewhere around Okoafon, he stopped, pretending as if the car had suddenly developed fault. It was a lonely stretch of road. Suddenly, another car stopped and the occupants of the car jumped out and I noticed that they were armed with dangerous weapons. They collected all cash and valuables that were in possession of the passengers,” she said.

Vick, as she is known by the gang, alleged that at first she was afraid, but that she later discovered that they were Okokawon’s armed robbery gang and that it was a planned attack.

“I was not given anything the first day out with the gang since it was my first experience. I discovered that I was only used to deceive passengers to board the car. The second time out I was given N10,000 after the operation. Outside cash, Okolawon goes with all phones collected from victims,” she said.

She further confessed that she eventually joined the gang after she discovered that she will make more money from the operation than prostituting.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Cornelius Kayode Aderanti, who confirmed the report, said that the suspect along with four others, were involved in series of robbery along the Mile 2/Badagry.

How Obasanjo made Buhari intervene in Reps leadership crisis

It has emerged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s call to President Muhammadu Buhari played a vital role in making the President change his decision not to intervene in the leadership crisis that rocked the House of Reps which ended Tuesday with the emergence of Femi Gbajabiamila as the Leader.

Following the stalemate that emerged after the emergence of Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House and the insistence by President Buhari that he will not intervene, some leaders of the party approached Obasanjo to intervene with Buhari to avert a crisis in the lower arm of the National Assembly.

According to a member of the House of Reps who was privy to the decision

a group of concerned members of the House decided that since President Buhari was adamant on his position about not intervening in the National Assembly leadership crisis, it was decided that they should approach the former President to  talk to him and make him change his mind.

“Initially, we wanted to approach members of his transition committee, especially those who have been with him for a long time, to impress on the President on the need to have a say in the leadership of the National assembly. We met a brick wall and decided that the best bet is the former President, who is respected by President Buhari and he knows the implications of not having his foot in the National Assembly leadership. And he was amenable to our suggestion,” the member told Vanguard.

It was gathered that after speaking with President Buhari, the former President told him that it is important for the country’s democracy that he should intervene to ensure party supremacy. 

“We believe that it was that intervention that led to the resolution of the crisis,” the source confirmed.

WOW! This Lady Is Really In Love

Dear ladies, if your guy is wasting time and you truly love him, buy him a ring and propose... Hahaha!