smellgist.com: 2016-05-01

Saturday, 7 May 2016

Boko Haram: US now to sell attack helicopters to Nigeria …….. Nation

Nigeria appears to have won the confidence of the United States of America (USA) in the fight against Boko Haram with Washington agreeing to sell no fewer than 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Abuja to aid the war against the terror sect.

Besides, the USA is dedicating more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to the campaign against terrorists in the region and plans to provide additional training to Nigerian infantry forces, Reuters reported quoting anonymous US officials.

A team of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives yesterday stormed the Abuja residence of former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode.

It was ostensibly a move to arrest him in connection with the N2.5 billion allegedly withdrawn illegally from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and paid into the accounts of six chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Goodluck Support Group (GSG).

The operatives arrived the gate of the building a few hours after the anti-graft agency formally served him a summons to present himself for interrogation on Monday.

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, yesterday promised early passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill.

Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the signing ceremony of the 2016 budget at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Saraki called for early work on the 2017 budget in order to prevent the delays experienced with the 2016 budget.

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday signed the controversial Appropriation Bill into law, saying it was coming in the middle of Nigeria’s toughest economic period since independence in 1960.
But he was optimistic that its coming into effect will mark the beginning of the change in the structure of the Nigerian economy once and for all.
A sum of N350 billion is being injected into the economy immediately to reflate it.
“The signing of the budget today will trigger concerted efforts to reflate the Nigerian economy, a key element of which is an immediate injection of N350 billion into the economy by way of capital projects,” he said at the signing witnessed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President Bukola Saraki; House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara; APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun; Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun; Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang; Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Samaila Kawu; Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje and Chairman House of Reps Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumuni Jubril.

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U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Friday that occupying the Oval Office “is not a reality show,” in a swipe at outspoken Republican candidate Donald Trump who is vying to replace him in the White House.

Fighting with Obama is a battle Trump would likely relish as he tries to rally support within his own party. During hard-fought Republican primary campaigns, the billionaire delighted in responding to attacks from rivals and found that his support grew when he lashed out at his opponents.

Asked about Trump at a media briefing in the White House, Obama called on the press and public to weigh past statements by the Republican but did not point to any specific issues or remarks.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, and Group Managing Director(GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu recently contemplated a strategic petroleum products reservefor the country. He was thinking about meetingemergency local demands.

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Friday, April 29, visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.

Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Ambode said that Nigerians would soon begin to benefit from the President's trips abroad.

We live in a free world, but virtually everybody is in one form of prison or the other. We are prisoners of nature and nurture. Nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are, while nurture refers to all the environmental factors that influence who we are. Nature is inherited from our parents, while nurture is environmental.

President Muhammadu Buhari is making moves to extradite alleged looters of public funds, who are currently hiding in different countries of the world.

According to a report by Punch Newspaper, the diplomatic process that will ensure the extradition of alleged corrupt politicians/ex-cabinet members in different countries will dominate President Buhari’s discussions at the world leaders summit.

(CNN)Fati Abubakar knew something was wrong when a local preacher started to draw larger crowds with his outspoken rhetoric.

The place was Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno State, and the man in question was Mohammed Yusuf, the late leader of Boko Haram.

Senator Chris Anyanwu has denied reports that she benefited from funds allegedly looted and shared by former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Anyanwu also said that a bullet should be put in her head if she’s found guilty of taking the money, according to Vanguard.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Friday, received a damning verdict from the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

ASUU, at its 19th National Delegates Conference held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said Nigerians were yet to experience the much talked-about change Mr. Buhari promised the nation.

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has described President Muhammadu Buhari as his "grandfather" whom he cannot disrespect.

Speaking at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) World Press Freedom Day lecture held on Tuesday, May 2, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Fayose said Buhari “being his grandfather” however does not stop him (Fayose) from criticising him (Buhari) when going in the wrong direction.

Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has said that his Kogi state counterpart, Yahaya Bello will soon be removed from office.

Fayose made the comment while delivering a lecture titled “Journalism and Politics : Two Sides of A Coin” in Oyo state, The Cable reports.

“Iya Ibadan” actress, Toyin Aimakhu, recently announced a reality series which would focus on her everyday activities titled “Keeping up with Toyin Aimakhu.”

Kiss Daniel has unveiled the full tracklist for his debut album "New Era" to be released under G-Worldwide Entertainment.

The album houses 20 tracks with no feature collaborations:

Last week, April 25, 2016 during a session withHip Tv’s Emma Ugolee, rappers Vector andIkechukwu got in a heated conversation after Ikechukwu asked the ‘King Kong’ rapper what he had done in the industry that was ‘extraordinary

When Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari recently announced that he and his deputy would take a pay cut, it was not entirely surprising for a man known for his austerity, and who faces a challenge cutting back the excess in the country’s finances.

The Federal Government has indicated its readiness to dialogue with the Niger Deltamilitants following a recent attack on Chevron Valve Platform in Warri South-West Local government area of Delta state.

Nigeria’s scapegoats By Olatunji Ololade

The journalistic cult of poverty has a supreme theme – the morally-deficient journalist. This theme is pitifully projected by journalism’s highly celebrated ambassadors in the corridors of power and the public space. Rather than evolve as heroic shiners of light and purveyors of truth, speaking to keep all savagery in straits, in the true tradition of modern, high-cultivated men of letters, they choose to manifest like accidents to society.

These, indeed, are strange times for our beloved nation. Harsh economic realities occasioned by sharp decline in global price of oil coupled with incessant fuel scarcity, unemployment, inflation, hunger and poverty have continued to make life tough for the people. To complicate things, the political situation remains as charged and volatile as ever. However, of all our nation’s current troubles, insecurity is, perhaps, the most complex.

There is a new code of conduct many Nigerians now live by: it’s the conspiracy of silence that has enveloped the land. Nigeria’s vocal human rights activists, lawyers and other advocacy groups have suddenly grown silent in the face of serious dereliction of duty by government at all levels to protect lives and secure properties. Where are the social critics-cum-activists? Where are the human rights lawyers – the defenders of public good and the conscience of our country? They used to hold press conferences on the state of the nation to vent their anger on the establishment but have all lost their voices; they are now blind to the impunity and all the ills they once vigorously condemned in the past. A friend joked recently that they are on leave of absence from activism.

I hardly ever single out governors or specific persons whenever I write except on few, rare occasions. My focus, most times has always been on issues. I am making an exception today, to write about the Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode.

The decision to write about the Lagos governor came on Tuesday. I had left the office very late. And immediately I hit the road, I was confronted by a vista that was unlike what I used to see at that particular time and at that particular axis, the Charity Osodi, Toyota bus stop and the airport road areas. I saw a different Lagos. A lagos that I knew as an undergraduate, visiting Lagos on few occasions at that time. Lagos of well-lit streets, which endeared that city to me and which made me swore that come what may, I would live and work in that city. The idea of a city paved in gold or a land full of milk and honey was clearly not a major consideration, the major consideration was the cosmopolitan nature and the beauty of street lightning of Lagos at the time.

For months, the United States presidential election primaries have engaged the attention of political analysts, writers, politicians and others the world over. This is so because who emerges the leader of the world’s most powerful nation means a lot to other countries. Nigerians and other Africans are also interested on who becomes the next American president and what he has for the continent, even though Africa has not mattered much in America’s foreign policy outside trade.

A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has condemned the rivalry for supremacy among Yoruba monarchs, which has recently pitted two prominent traditional rulers against each other.

Obasanjo, who spoke when the new Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji, paid him a courtesy visit at his Presidential Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Thursday, described the supremacy battle as “a distraction, which could result in a setback.”

“I hear the World Bank says Nigeria is now the worst place to do business in the entire world.”
“I don’t believe it.”“I also hear that of the 15 fastest growing economies in Africa, Nigeria is no longer on the list.”
“I say I don’t believe that. And stop hearing bad things.”

“We are not even in the top 10 of the World Top 10 oil producers anymore. Yet, we used to be No. 6.”
“I still don’t believe that.”

Opalaba asked me the other day how I would describe my experience of change almost one year to its introduction into our political lexicon. Perceiving a deviously laid trap, I cleverly wiggled out. “What is your definition of change? What does it involve?” I asked him.

In undoubtedly the greatest triumph in the history of the English Premier League, little known Leicester City Football Club won the 2015/2016 Premier League season. The Foxes won the title with two games to spare on Monday night courtesy of the 2-2 draw played between last season’s champions, Chelsea, and this season’s relentless runners-up, Tottenham Hotspur.

It was unscripted. Highly improbable. Nobody gave them a fighting chance at the beginning of the season. And rightly too. They weren’t even remotely considered dark horses who could somehow spring a surprise. They were far flung outsiders. How does a team who only escaped relegation by a hair’s breadth about a year ago turn around to become champions the following season? A lowly football club whose players were largely unknown before now. Virtually anonymous lads who were vastly inferior to many million pounds rated elite players of the EPL.

“The reading of history proves that freedom always dies when criticism dies” —John Diefenbaker

If as one often hears these days, the All Progressives Congress was ill-prepared for governmental power at the centre, then the Peoples Democratic Party was even worse prepared to play the role of an opposition party. Obviously, for our struggling democracy to thrive, there is a need for a government with developmental forte in a hurry to achieve, as well as a strong opposition party increasingly wearing the look of government in waiting.

It was a good thing that the PDP leaders from the South-West gathered in Akure on Wednesday to position the zone for contesting the chairmanship of the party, setting aside differences and costly ego games that would have denied them a fighting chance. Noteworthy too is the fact that a bigwig like a former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, indicated a fortnight ago that he would contest the presidency in 2019, on the platform of the PDP. Hence, a party which spent a whole year mourning its loss for the first time in 16 years of the presidency is now warming up for a possible comeback.

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in Abuja, said the process of recovering stolen funds had become tedious.

The President made the statement while receiving the Executive Secretary of United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, and stressed that the process had “become tedious” to the consternation of Nigerians.

The trial of Gabriel Suswam, former governor of Benue state and his finance commissioner, Okolobia Okpanachi, continued on Thursday with the prosecution presenting its fourth witness, Abubakar Umar, who told the court how billions of naira were converted to dollars and given to the governor.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has donated a three year old chimpanzee named Patience to a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Pandrillus, operator of the Drill Ranch Afi Mountain.

Co-founder of the zoo, Liza Gadsby disclosed this in a telephone interview with Vanguard.

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, has rejected the position of Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, who recently said President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policies are archaic.

As a guest The Platform, a programme organised by The Covenant Christian Centre, Ezekwesili had advised Buhari to review his policies, saying they were not benefiting the masses.

There were indications on Thursday that President Muhammadu Buhari would not immediately proceed to sign the corrected version of the 2016 Budget, transmitted to him by the National Assembly, as being expected in some quarters.

Ministers, who raised concerns on the earlier version received by the President, would study the new document again, it was learnt.

A decision on whether the President should sign the document or not will be based on the advice of the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo-Udoma.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed this to The PUNCH on Thursday.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Thursday adjourned plenary for one week to enable members of the Peoples Democratic Party, in the chamber, to attend the ongoing party’s congresses.

The Senate did not consider any motion or bill as the number of senators present during the day’s plenary was not up to the required number to form a quorum.

The absence of senators mostly from the PDP fold compelled the Senate to hurriedly adjourn.

The Senate stipulates that quorum is formed for plenary when one-third (at least 37 senators) of the Senate members are in attendance.

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said Thursday he is looking for a vice-presidential candidate who has a close relationship with Congress, so that as president he can avoid having to sign executive orders that he described as a common feature of the Obama presidency.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, the billionaire said he would look for a nominee who could help “get something passed.”

“I think somebody with political experience, that really has a close relationship with the Senate, with Congress, where they go in and help so we don’t have to sign executive orders like President Obama does every hour,” Trump said. “It would be nice to actually get something passed as opposed to just saying ‘we’re signing it anyway.’”

As to who specifically he is considering, he denied outright recent reports that he was looking at South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for the role.

Former Lagos State Commissioner for Sports Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele is dead.

The politician, fondly called the ‘Prince of Hope’, died in India, after a brief illness. He was 60.

Adeniji-Adele was said to have been flown out of the country few weeks ago for treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

He was one of the children of the late Eleko of Lagos, Oba Musendiku Adeniji-Adele, who reigned from 1949 to 1964.

The former commissioner took Lagos grassroots politics by storm in the early 1990s when he became the Chairman of Lagos Island Council.

His administration recorded a lot of monumental achievements, which made him a model administrator.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, says he divulged a letter which a former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor and now Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, wrote to former President Goodluck Jonathan on oil revenue theft in order to check corruption.

Amaechi said the claim that he ‘clandestinely’ leaked the letter was not true.

Sanusi had on Wednesday claimed that Jonathan threatened him for writing a letter to inform him (Jonathan) that $49bn was missing from the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The top elected Republican, Paul Ryan, said on Thursday he was not ready to endorse Donald Trump, a sign of the challenges the party’s presumptive presidential nominee faces rallying the Republican establishment behind his White House bid.

Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said conservatives wanted to know if Trump shares their values.

“I hope to support our nominee, I hope to support his candidacy fully,” Ryan said on CNN. “At this point, I’m just not there right now.”

Trump, who has built a huge following with an anti-establishment message, shot back at Ryan in a statement.

“I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda. Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people,” he said.

At least 110 Nigerian individuals and companies have so far been identified by PREMIUM TIMES in the leaked internal data of Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonsecca, as operators of offshore shell companies in tax havens.

I saw a traumatised community in shock and despair. I saw a dead body. I wept. I wondered what has become of our quest for a united, peaceful and prosperous nation. —Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

The Gonernor was visibly pained as he relived his efforts to nip in the bud the herdsmen gruesome attack on Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State on April 28. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi battled not to betray emotion as he read his speech last Friday while constituting a judicial panel of enquiry into the dastardly act. As I watched him on television I felt his pains as he recalled all he did to stop the attack as soon as he got wind of it. According to him, he mobilised the security agencies to forestall the attack and they assured him that everything was under control.

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