Sunday 9 August 2015
Prayer Crusade for the release of James Ibori
President Buhari to head Ministry of petroleum for 18 months
President Muhammadu Buhari is set to head the Ministry of Petroleum for
18 months before appointing a substantive minister for the ministry.
The President said this while meeting with some members of his political
party, the All Progressives Congress, in Abuja recently.
So far the president has fired the board and management of the company
and replaced its Jonathan-appointed chief with Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu,
who was executive vice-chariman of Exxon Mobil Africa. He has also
ordered a review of oil-swap contracts and barred 113 vessels from
loading oil and gas, about 250,000 barrels of Nigerian crude, about 10
percent of the country’s daily output, are stolen daily, Buhari has
said.
Punch
One of those at the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, on
Sunday said that the President said he would use the 18 months
of heading the petroleum ministry to reposition it.
According to him,
“At the meeting we had recently, we discussed the issues of portfolios and other matters,” the President said he was going to handle the Ministry of Petroleum himself for about 18 months.
“He said it was after this that he would appoint a substantive minister for the ministry. He said he would only personally handle the reorganisation of the much-important ministry.
“Besides, he said the ministry needed to be reformed and be rid of corruption. He promised to sanitise the ministry.”
It was, however, gathered that the President was thinking of appointing
an experienced person as his special adviser on petroleum.
The President was once a minister in charge of the ministry so due to
this experience, he was said to have vowed to make sure that he blocked
all the loopholes that enabled stealing of money or petroleum products.
He plans to split the NNPC in two, creating a regulator and a vehicle
for investments, according to Femi Adesina, a presidential spokesman.
Speaking on the issue, the Peoples Democratic Party said it would be too
early to speculate on whether the President would head the ministry or
not.
Rather, the opposition party urged Nigerians to wait till September when the President promised to name his cabinet.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim
Jalo, told our correspondent that he was only sure that the President
was going to split the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Jalo said, “That Buhari is going to head the ministry is speculative.
But what we know, going by his body language and actions so far, is that
he is going to split the NNPC.
“This is what we know. So, let’s wait and see what he’s going to do before we make comments.”
However, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties said the
constitution vested powers on the President to head any ministry or
parastatal of his choice or appoint a representative.
The National Publicity Secretary of the organisation, Mr. Osita
Okechukwu, said that Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution “vested
executive powers on the President.
He said
“He can decide to exercise such powers by himself or delegate it to his deputy, or public officers of the public service of the federation. That’s what the law says.
“Whether he chooses to manage any ministry by himself is immaterial. Whether he decides to be in charge of ministries such as power, works, women affairs or culture does not mean anything to the Nigerian people.”
Punch
Fashola N78 Million Website Saga: IT Firm Says ‘Less than N10 Million’ Was Paid
The alleged N78 million said to have been spent on former Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola‘s personal website, is still a hot topic.
The IT firm said to have been awarded the contract, Info Access Plus Limited,has released a statement claiming that it was a N10 million contract and not for N78 million.
Here is the statement as reported by Premium Times:
Our attention is drawn to the twitter campaign alleging that the Lagos State Government (LASG), led by His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN spent Seventy Eight Million Naira (N78M) to upgrade the www.tundefashola.com web site, a site dedicated to giving citizens unfettered access to the Governor’s daily activities and open access to information.It is imperative to state here that, the website in question is not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s personal website but an official website which reports and documents his official activities as a way of socially accounting for his stewardship to the people of Lagos State.This initiative of having an official website for the Governor was to build on the earlier commitment to open access which saw Governor Fashola being the first serving governor to publish his telephone number on the pages of newspapers. As pressure mounted on that number, the website and all of its social media handles became alternative platforms for people to directly engage with their elected governor.While we do not hold brief for the Lagos State Government, the selective loading of contracts awarded and executed by the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency is itself suspect and aimed at a pre-determined end. The statement of the Contract Line Item and the cost ascribed on the website of the agency are therefore misleading and mischievous.For avoidance of doubt, we are by this medium therefore laying bare the facts for the public:IntroductionThe former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, set out to streamline easy access to himself, while in office and to document his activities for the citizens.From 2008 and up till May 29, 2015, the www.tundefashola.com web site has processed thousands of press releases/speeches, more than 6 million pictures, thousands of videos to generate world class, content-rich online information collaterals for the former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN.The same www.tundefashola.com web site provides great opportunities for the Lagos State Government, as it collates all activities of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, and his government during his two terms.What Did LASG Get For the alleged “N78M”?
- N12.5m was quoted for the upgrade of the www.tundefashola.com web site, which includes complete re-design of all the hundreds of page templates. Meanwhile, the LASG spent less than N10m on this and not N78M being bandied on the social around.
- Info Access Plus Limited will provide free technical support for the entire life cycle of the web site.
- Info Access Plus Limited will manage the contents of the site, which consist of press releases, speeches, photos, videos, etc for one year.
- Info Access Plus Limited developed and managed the first and only web-based 1-year Countdown Clock to May 29, 2015 on a 24-hourly basis off the back of this same service cost for a period of 1 year from 2014 to May 29, 2015.
- Info Access Plus Limited developed mobile apps for the top four platforms, namely Apple iOS, Google Play, Microsoft Windows Phone 8 and Blackberry World off the back of this same service cost.
- Info Access Plus Limited will provide free technical support throughout the life cycles of all these mobile apps also off the back of this same service cost.
For the Records
- In addition, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, personally paid for the www.brforg.org web site, even when he was the Lagos State Governor. He felt that www.brforg.org is the online presence of his Non-Governmental Organization, BRF Organization. Again, we state for the records, that the website in question is the official website of the Governor of Lagos State and not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s personal website as being disparagingly alleged by the campaigners.
Quality Software Development Takes Serious Effort, Time and Resources
- According to Bloomberg, the Obamacare Enrollment Systemweb site costs more than $2 Billion.
- According to the YCharts, the Annual Facebook Cost of GoodsSold for December 31, 2014, is $2.153B from revenue of $12.47B.
- According to the same YCharts, the Annual Twitter Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $446.31M from revenue of $1.403B.
- According to the same YCharts, the Annual Microsoft Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $33.04B from revenue of $93.58B.
- According to the same YCharts, the Annual Google Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $25.69B from revenue of $66B.
- According to the same YCharts, the Annual Apple Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $112.26B from revenue of $182.80B.
- All these private sector driven Operating Costs still run into several billions, while taking serious effort to reduce waste.
- It’s evident from these stated facts that good products take huge amount of planning, time and resources.
- Was the Facebook built and maintained with less than $500,000? Anyone making this claim is dubious.
Signed on Behalf of Info Access Plus Limited
Rahma Babangida Refutes Reports that She Was Robbed
On Saturday August 8th and Sunday August 9th respectively, Sahara Reporterspublished stories stating that armed robbers snatched Mohammed Babangida‘s wife Rahma‘s 2015 Mercedes Benz S550 on Saturday morning in Kaduna town, and that three of the four culprits were arrested in Katsina.
However, Rahma took to Instagram earlier today to state that the reports are false:
Vector Advises Fans Not to Rate Nigerian Rap Music by American Standards
Hip hop artiste, Olanrewaju Ogunmefun, popularly known as Vector, has urged the public not to rate Nigerian rap music by American standards.
According to Vector, rap music is usually unique to a people as it tends to focus on their history, experiences, culture, and tradition.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that rappers owed the listening public the responsibility to produce good music for their listening pleasure.
“The purity of Hip-Hop is dependent on the person doing it. A Frenchman can only do Hip-Hop in a pure French form, so somebody who is doing Hip-Hop right now can only do, like me I’m only doing Hip-Hop how I know how to do Hip-Hop. Is it pure? To me, yes.I think we need to just at this point, try to understand more because people who understand, for example, Dialect Rap, right, to them people who rap in English are pretty much, ‘abeg I no hear wetin you dey talk.Likewise the reverse, I think at this point we should just try and accommodate each other’s definitions of what purity is and that way we will grow. We should stop trying to measure our rap here by American standards or anything, it’s just pretty much if you can rap, rap. How do you know how to rap, if it’s Yoruba do it well, if it’s Igbo do it well, if it’s Hausa, awesome, kill it.…which was the main idea in the ‘King Kong’ remix, bring all the major tribes together that know how to do their rap, how they feel. Validation is not needed that’s the point, just do the art form, if your audience accepts you and you make money off it, it’s fine, that’s it, if you accept you, that’s the most important thing.Validation is with the self, if you by yourself, you wake up in the morning and you like what you are doing and you are content with what you are getting from what you are doing, then its fine.”
NAN reports that Vector is one of the notable contemporary rappers in the country.
He has released two albums so far, namely: State of Surprise (SOS) and Second Coming.
Vector has also produced a mix tape titled, Bar Racks – a compilation of songs he has recorded over time.
He is presently involved in a Rap Talent Hunt project titled, Rhythm Freestyle Fury, organised by Silverbird’s Rhythm FM.
The project is intended to discover and promote new rappers in the country.
Pres. Buhari: We Must Go Back to Agriculture as Oil Revenue Shrinks
President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigerians must stop paying mere lip service to agriculture, as crude oil and gas exports will no longer be sufficient as the country’s major revenue earner.
The president gave the charge at an audience with Kanayo Nwanze, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
“It’s time to go back to the land. We must face the reality that the petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffice. We campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many want to go into agricultural ventures,’’ Buhari said.
Buhari pledged that his administration would also cut short the long bureaucratic processes that Nigerian farmers had to go through to get any form of assistance from government.
He told the IFAD President that improvement of the productivity of farmers, dry season farming and creative ways to combat the shrinking of the Lake Chad will also receive the attention of his administration.
“There is so much to be done. We will try and articulate a programme and consult organisations like IFAD for advice,’’ he added.
According to the president, foreign exchange will be conserved for machinery and other items needed for production “instead of using it to import things like toothpicks.”
Nwanze had earlier congratulated Buhari on his victory at the general elections and assured him that IFAD was ready to give all possible assistance to the Federal Government and Nigerian farmers to boost agricultural production in the country.
Nwanze, who later spoke to State House correspondents, said IFAD had since 1985 been providing loans and grants in the nation’s agricultural sector to boost agricultural production.
“Nigeria has the largest portfolio of IFAD’s investment in Western and Central Africa and the second largest in Africa. But the case point here is that this country has all the endowments that it takes not only for it to produce enough food for its population but also to be the bread basket of the region. And this is where my institution on my behalf, I offered our services and our support in the agenda of rural transformation as a key ingrate in this country’s economic and social development,’’ he said.
“Nigeria has the largest portfolio of IFAD’s investment in Western and Central Africa and the second largest in Africa. But the case point here is that this country has all the endowments that it takes not only for it to produce enough food for its population but also to be the bread basket of the region. And this is where my institution on my behalf, I offered our services and our support in the agenda of rural transformation as a key ingrate in this country’s economic and social development,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that IFAD is an international organisation dedicated to addressing issues of agriculture and poverty alleviation.
It was established in 1978, and has been collaborating with Nigeria for over 30 years.
VP Osinbajo: Buhari’s Probe of GEJ’s Government is Nothing Personal
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday stated that President Buhari’s probe of former president Goodluck Jonathan‘s administration is nothing personal – it is just a general initiative for fighting against impunity.
Osinbajo stated this at the funeral of Elizabeth Adesola Mamora, mother of former Lagos senator, Olorunmibe Mamora, held at First Baptist Church, Ijebu-Ife, Ogun State, Premium Times reports.
He reportedly stated:
“It’s not about a probe of a past government, that’s not what this is about. We are talking about our future, we are saying that we must put in place a clear strategy going forward,” the vice president said.Not just about ensuring that people are made to pay for looting the treasury, our system of justice must be fair to ensure that anybody who does anything that is wrong is brought to account. We can’t allow impunity to continue. So it’s not about the previous government, it’s about any form of impunity,” he said.
Former president Jonathan reportedly met with Buhari last week
Chris Brown replaces Karrueche with a girl that looks just like her
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