Monday, 3 August 2015

Anybody close to me knows that I don't like money- Rotimi Amaechi

Former Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi said people close to him know that he doesn't like money. He said this yesterday August 2nd during a special reception held in his honor by some of his friends in Abuja,. The comment was made in response to allegations by Governor Nyesom Wike that he embezzled money while in office. 
 "Governor Nyesome Wike has again sponsored one advert in a bid to rubbish me. Only God knows that if there is one thing I don’t like, I don’t like money. Anybody close to me knows that I don’t like money. The governor and PDP are afraid of me getting an appointment to the national executive council. The current president abhors corruption and the only way they can stop me from getting the appointment is to paint me with corruption. And the people that know me in Rivers State know that I don’t like money. In Rivers, people know I don’t like money.” he said

Akon and Lighting Africa team meets Governor Ambode

Akon and his Akon Lighting Africa Team met with Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday August 2nd at the State House. Also at the meeting was the artiste May D and Akon's Rep in Nigeria Ayo Shonaiya. Another photo after the cut...

Are we about to find out the cause of the infamous elevator fight between Solange and Jay Z?

The answer is Yes..according to New York Times best-selling author J. Randy Taraborrelli. The author claims to have the sordid details of what went down between Beyoncé's sister and husband, which he intends to reveal in his new upcoming unauthorized biography, titled 'Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story'.

The book, according to the author, is based on exhaustive research and exclusive interviews with the people in the superstar’s life who have been pivotal to her personal and professional development.

Among those interviewed was Brian Moore, the former Manager of Destiny’s Child. J. Randy's Publisher, Grand Central Publishing claims that the book will also delve into the Superstar's personal life including details about her ex boyfriends and relationship with her father before and after she fired him and why she fired him.  

Rita Dominic stuns in pink to Stephanie Linus' movie premiere

This is the star actress's look to 'Dry' movie premiere last night. Stunning! Another photo after the cut



EXPOSED: Jonathan’s Minister who stole $9bn secretly named

...another witness emerges with evidence from White House
Just as the dust raised by Governor Adams Oshiomh's statement over the $6 billion dollars allegedly stolen by a former minister in the administration Goodluck Jonathan, another prominent Nigerian, Queen Zainab Duke-Abiola, the Akasoba of Kalabari land in the Niger Delta, has said she had evidence from the White House that a former Petroleum Minister stole $9.3 billion.

Duke Abiola, one of the wives of the late Chief MKO Abiola, in an exclusive interview with The Nation, said: “According to the information available to us, the minister stole more than $9 billion; not Australian dollars, but US dollars.”

“And what I am saying is that the money should be used to develop the Niger Delta. Use this to help the impoverished Niger Deltans,” she added.

Can she prove the allegation? she said she was in Washington DC during President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit, and that she met with White House officials who revealed the information to her.

“My relationship with White House is over 30 years. Americans are very eager to make sure that the money gets back. They want Nigeria to use that money for education,” she said.

She continued, “Oshiomhole said it’s about $6 billion. Information available to me states that the minister and her associates siphoned away $9.3 billion. I’m watching the game that they’re playing. If they don’t publish the evidence, I have documente to support this,” she said.

“If Buhari is not sure of his fact and figures, he should go back to Washington DC. If I read in the papers that they say $9 billion, I would keep quiet. But why are they saying only $6 billion?”

The woman said she was shocked when she received the evidence from the White House.

“Some people said that much money couldn’t have been stolen, I was one of those who didn’t believe. When they gave me the document, I was shocked. I have sent it to the appropriate Niger Delta elders. So, we know that nobody is accusing anybody wrongly,” she added.

via current news

The Okonjo-Iweala who worked for me is different from the Okonjo -Iweala who worked for Jonathan – Obasanjo

In a fresh interview with Premium Times, former President Obasanjo said the Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who worked in his administration as Minister of Finance and later resigned is different from the one who worked in the Jonathan-led administration. Really, Baba? Lol. Excerpt from the interview below
"Take Ngozi (Okonjo-Iweala), who worked for me. And who worked competently for me. Because I know Ngozi’s weaknesses, but I know her strong points. Her strong point is technical competence. But Ngozi needs to be led and to be supervised. Now will you comment on Ngozi who worked for me as the same Ngozi who worked for Jonathan? Will you? But it’s the same person"
PT: At what point do you think she derailed if I may use that word?
Obasanjo: No.
PT: Is it at the point that you changed her – because you removed her as finance minister. Was it at that point that she began to derail?
Obasanjo: She derailed because….when Jonathan even said he wanted her, I said ‘I hope you can manage her.’ And Ngozi herself sent me a text (and) I told her times have changed.
PT: But why did you change her? She was managing the economy very well for you. Why did you now remove her suddenly?
Obasanjo: I wrote it in that my book.

PT: It didn’t come out clearly enough?
Obasanjo: It must have come out. Maybe you haven’t read the book very well. I said I’ve touched reform. I’ve touched almost everywhere except Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So one day, I was in my office and the Head of Service, Yayale (Ahmed), came in. He said ‘look, you are looking not happy, what is the matter?’ I said I am worried about two ministries and the ministers who can do the work I wanted to be done there in these two ministries are already doing good work where they are. And he said ‘talk let me see.’ I said education and foreign affairs. And he said ‘who are the ministers that you think can do the job.’ I said Oby (Ezekwesili), Ngozi, and El-Rufai. He said ‘what is Oby doing for you now?’ I said Oby is doing Solid Minerals. He said ‘Sir, in all sincerity, I know you don’t like to rank ministries, but will you say Ministry of Solid Minerals is as important as Ministry of Education.’ I said yes I don’t rank ministries, they are all important. He said, ‘Can’t you take any of these three to do education and then get somebody else to do solid minerals?’ So I took Oby there. Now in the Ministry of Finance we had got debt relief, so I could afford to take Ngozi to Foreign Affairs. That’s all. And then she had Nenadi (Usman) who was the minister of state. She’s not a buffoon. And then, which is also part of her weakness, she came to me and said, look, since it’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she will like to take International Finance along with it. I said talk to your sister with whom you are working and I don’t see anything wrong with that provided you work out a relationship. But she didn’t accord Nenadi the recognition and the consideration that was necessary. I then said the ministry of International finance should go back to Finance and that happened. She said she couldn’t act. She put in a letter of resignation. And she had done that before, and before she could come and get people to come and beg, I announced acceptance (of her resignation).
PT: She once resigned before and she took it back?
Obasanjo: Yes.
 
PT: Which means you were always having disagreements…
Obasanjo: No no no. I know her character.
PT: So why did she resign the first time?
Obasanjo: She just felt if she cannot have her way, with me…. If I am the one in charge, then it has to be what I see as what is the best interest of the nation.
PT: So even when she resigned, if you didn’t announce the acceptance she would have come back. So all efforts to make her come back didn’t work?
Obasanjo: No no no. Because I had announced.

Oti be re! Burundi president's chief security officer assasinated

              

Gunmen wearing military uniforms shot dead a former Burundian security chief who was a close ally of President Pierre Nkurunziza yesterday Sunday August 2nd. According to presidential spokesman, Willy Nyamitwe who confirmed the news, Gen. Adolphe Nshimirimana (pictured) was assassinated yesterday in a car alongside three of his bodyguards in the Kamenge district in Bujumbura.

General Adolphe Nshimirimana was in charge of the president’s personal security at the time of his death. When a president refuses to step down...he brings war to his people!


 Presidential spokesperson Nyamitwe said;
"I have lost a brother, a companion in the struggle. The sad reality is that General Adolphe Nshimirimana is no longer with this world," he said in a message posted on Twitter.
Police and witnesses said the General's pick-up was hit by two rockets and sprayed with automatic gunfire along with his driver and two others. General Adolphe was a close aide to President Pierre and was seen as the mastermind behind the crackdown on the protests as well as a key player in foiling the coup attempt.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assassination, although the coup plotters have since regrouped and have launched a rebellion in the north of the country, and have also been linked to a string of grenade attacks in Bujumbura. There are fears that renewed conflict in the country could reignite ethnic Hutu-Tutsi violence and bring another humanitarian disaster to central Africa's troubled Great Lakes region. The last civil war in Burundi, which ended in 2006, left at least 300,000 people dead.

AP/Daily Nation 

Quality husbands will be scarce in Nigeria in the near future - Catholic Women group says

According to the National President of the Council of Catholic Women Organisation of Nigeria,Chief Felicia Onyeabo, there will be a scarcity of quality husbands in Nigeria in the near future following the increasing number of male dropouts from schools in the last 10 years. Mrs Onyeabo said this at a press briefing to herald the inauguration of a catholic school in Abuja last week
“The future of this country is going to be very bleak for the male-child. How many girls do you see hawking clothes? Go to Onitsha, they are all men. We have looked round and have come to see that there is a neglect of boys in education. Who are the armed robbers on the streets? They are mostly the boys. Let us concentrate on training boys.
The NCCWO feels that a vacuum is being created, and very soon, we shall be faced with a situation where our educated girl-child will not find a corresponding suitable boy-child to marry. This is because more boys drop out of school, apparently because the high rate of unemployed youth discourages our young boys from appreciating the need to be educated. The NCCWO also considers the fact that in the near future, quality husbands will become extremely scarce, with too many highly educated women looking for husbands, and settling for anyhow husbands, just to get married. The result of this type of situation is better imagined and will not augur well for Nigerians.”she said  

The last time weapons were bought for the Nigerian army was in 2006 - Alex Badeh

Immediate past Chief of Defence staff, Alex Badeh is not done talking about the lack of equipment in the Nigerian army. In an interview with Channels TV, Alex Badeh said the last time the Nigerian army received new equipment was in 2006 and that the Nigerian military flies the oldest fighter jets in the whole world. He's now saying all this after he was removed as Chief of Defence Staff. I see!
"We found out that we had fifth columnist in the military that were leaking information to terrorist and then we also had challenges of serviceable equipment. If I go down memory lane, I think the last time any piece of equipment was bought for the Nigerian army was in 2006 and how many were they? They were few. In fact they were few and if we go way back to 1993, from then on, soldiers were not allowed to even go to range to go and practice. So a soldier that is not practicing how to use his gun, what kind of military are you going to have? So those were the challenges we had so when we were faced with Boko Haram, it became a very big challenge. We have been trying to increase the military by ourselves. You don't give me budget and say go and build barracks. Barracks is capital intensive. So even if we recruit so many people in the military now, we don't have where to house them. So it is a challenge too that government must face. Government must build barracks for us so that we can recruit more. For a population of over 170 million, what we have in Nigeria can not be adequate enough to protect us So those were the challenges we had. Inadequate equipment, obsolete equipment. In fact we are the ones that are flying the oldest fighter aeroplanes in the whole world. Alpha jets we bought them in 1981. That is the backbone of our operations in the Northeast" he said
Watch the video below from 

Photos: Senate president in Maiduguri, to visit IDP camps

Senate President Bukola Saraki arrived Maiduguri this morning where he will be visiting some IDP camps in the state. More photos after the cut...