Mr Olumide's Blog .com |
- Dear Senator Tinubu, Buhari has thrashed us all!
- There is still high-level corruption in Nigeria — Sultan of Sokoto
- Cardinal Okogie Tackles President Buhari On Leadership
- So Sad! Woman Dies Hours To Her Wedding In Delta State
- How Armed Robbers Fleeing With Stolen Cash Were Arrested
- Senate Caucus Sacks Pro-Buhari Senator, Replaces Him
| Dear Senator Tinubu, Buhari has thrashed us all! Posted: 22 Feb 2018 12:09 AM PST  On Tuesday, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of the erstwhile strongman of opposition politics, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, expressed her frustration at how her husband was "thrashed" by the President Muhammadu Buhari government he helped put in office. Even a minimally savvy observer of Nigerian politics would have figured out that a palace coup has consumed the so-called Jagaban of the game. Asiwaju Tinubu's position in the All Progressives Congress is no longer what it used to be, and his profile as a master politician gifted with a deft understanding of Nigeria's political roulette tanked long ago. He has denuded from a quick-thinking opposition figure to one of the many gadflies milling around Ask Rock. These days, his comments on political issues seem like a forced attempt to be relevant. One looks back at the time he was such a political force that could put his wife and children in offices without even a whimper from any of the voices that now complain about Buhari's sin of nepotism and wonders how the mighty fell so hard. Was the man ever a brilliant political strategist or his success was as a result of the coincidence of historical events that neatly aligned in his favour? Senator Tinubu wants us to believe that her husband helped Buhari to power out of sheer love for the country and nothing else. Despite her husband being sidelined, he still loves Nigeria and is giving his best from the place where he has been consigned. If Tinubu's motive was all patriotic, why complain about his not being at the centre of things? Why not simply chalk up all the humiliation to the larger sacrifice we are asked to make for the sake of Nigeria? Here is what Remi has perhaps not considered: Buhari sees her husband as duplicitous and has outplayed the old fox. We can all remember all the politicking and insensitive shenanigans that took place during the 2011 elections between the old APC (then known as the Action Congress of Nigeria) and Buhari's then party, the Congress for Political Change. Then, the calculation was that both parties would band together, field Buhari for President, and the ACN would supply the Vice President – Tinubu as the VP, nonetheless. The idea did not fly for both parties because – it was insinuated – they were both Muslims and Nigerians were not going to be excited by a presidential team composed of two Muslims. Both parties went their separate ways with the ACN picking a former EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as its own presidential candidate. The elections came and went, and it was amazing to everyone how the ACN candidate was badly beaten in the South-West, the ACN stronghold. Apart from Osun State where he won, he lost everywhere else. It was strange that the party did not mobilise her teeming supporters to vote for its candidate. In my mind's eyes, I still see poor Ribadu looking at the election results from the South-West the morning after the election and wondering what happened. He probably knew he did not stand a chance of winning the whole nation, but, at least, the South-West should have been a shoo-in. Then, came the post-election analyses, speculation, and putting together of pieces of different puzzles to understand what happened. The story then was that Tinubu abandoned his own party candidate to support the incumbent, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, of the Peoples Democratic Party who thought if he lost the South-West to Ribadu, and was not guaranteed the North, it could result in an electoral run-off. To ward off that possibility, he allegedly "bought off" Tinubu to "deliver" his party and since the ACN wasn't going to win anyway, Tinubu did the most practical thing: he deliberately lost his stronghold. When Ribadu, betrayed and humiliated, finally packed whatever was left of his dignity to join the PDP, he alleged that he was leaving because his party traded him during the 2011 elections. Ribadu's allegation sounded like the bitter rant of a scorned lover, and a man who was going to join the band of men he had previously written off as irredeemably corrupt is not the most credible person. The account of Tinubu being "bought off" by Jonathan remained mostly speculative; just strands of historical possibilities reconstructed from both whispered rumours and the insight and clarity we sometimes achieve in the wake of events. It would have remained that way if, Tinubu himself, in a moment of human slip – and perhaps a hubristic perception of his omnipotent power – had not admitted that, indeed, he betrayed his party candidate. In March 2015, while campaigning for Buhari at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, Tinubu unwittingly confessed that he sold his party's candidate on a silver platter because Jonathan made him believe then that he was a breath of fresh air. Tinubu did not admit whether he was compensated or not, but we can guess that his motives could not have been purely altruistic. Politicians do not give out such huge favours like that if their other hand is not stretched for a recompense. One suspects that Tinubu did not support Jonathan a second time for two reasons: One, it would have been awkward to betray his party a second time. Two, he saw a clear path to the Presidency and although he jockeyed to be the ACN vice-presidential candidate, he failed. Had he succeeded, he would have been just one heartbeat away from the Presidency itself, his ambition all along. Looking back now, Buhari, from the time he joined the APC, must have planned to mitigate Tinubu's prostitution of his political capital. Tinubu's 2011 and 2015 conduct must have taught Buhari that a man who betrayed his own party's candidate will do something equally mischievous if he were not rendered redundant. In order not to have to beg Tinubu for his re-election, he fired Tinubu as kingmaker and compensated him with the cynical task of reconciling the party. The Buhari unravelling would not have been as painful if the man had not thrashed everyone else along with his sponsors. The Nigerians that voted his opponent, along with those that even had no voter card, are all currently being invoiced and forced to pay for Nigeria's poor choices of candidates in the 2015 election. Issues such as corruption, security, and building up the economy were some of the biggest concerns of 2015. Buhari does not have much to show in those areas other than sterile figures whipped out from their propaganda playbook. The economy has regressed; from Benue to Taraba to Kaduna, human lives and property have been wasted; the country is directionless; the administration's so-called fight against corruption has lowered the bar of integrity for itself so many times that the whole affair looks like a poor joke. In short, we have all been thrashed by Buhari. Tinubu backed a dying horse because of his ambitions. Nigerians of all shades too bought the myth of a messiah who would do wonders for their country. All of us are paying for it right now. While Tinubu's punishment is that he has been rendered irrelevant, millions of other Nigerians have watched their lives and the things that make them meaningful dwindle to almost nothing. Despite everything, Senator Tinubu still thinks that Buhari is a candidate to beat because some poor indoctrinated masses love him and want him returned to power. If I were her, I would work against such a possibility. If her husband still has any joker left, he had better bring it and ensure Buhari is not re-elected. If Buhari is returned to power in 2019, she and her husband's problem would no longer be mere thrashing. With power in his hands and no other presidential contests in his future, Buhari will probably have Tinubu jailed! - By Abimbola Adelakun for The Punch  culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog |
| There is still high-level corruption in Nigeria — Sultan of Sokoto Posted: 22 Feb 2018 12:09 AM PST  The monarch, who doubles as the President-General of the Nigerian Council for Islamic Affairs, called on the Federal Government to fish out the killer herdsmen stigmatising the Fulani ethnic group, noting that there are millions of Fulani in the country including him who are not herdsmen. The Sultan made these remarks at the public presentation of a book, Dynamics of Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences in Abuja. The book was written in honour of the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, where the Sultan was the Royal Father of the day. The Sultan said Nigeria no longer have statesmen but men of state, adding that the government must find ways of getting things right in the country. He said, "We have so many issues coming up in our polity today and I will just pick one. Nigeria is a country where we don't celebrate innocent and honest people until after their death. After they are gone, you will now name universities, airports and other things after them. "The issue of N36m being swallowed by a snake is a sad reality for our country. Where is our moral value; where is our ethics? The reality is that we must wake up from our sleep. Let us not fail further. Things are bad. Corruption is at a very high level and it is left for us to fight it to a terminal end. "We cannot just sit down and think that things are okay. Things are not okay. We have to find ways of getting things right in this country. We cannot continue with these negative things. Nowadays and like I said recently in Rivers State, we don't have statesmen; we have men of state." The Sultan said it was unfair to label all Fulani as killers, noting that criminality must not be mixed with ethnicity. He said, "We don't accept criminals in our midst. We must fish them (the killer herdsmen) out and deal with them. The worst word you can hear nowadays is the Fulani issue. There are millions of Fulani who don't even know what a cow is. I am a Fulani and I am not a herder. I am a proud Fulani. But everyone believes that when you see a Fulani, he is a killer. It is not true. So, for anyone to label any particular ethnicity is wrong. Let's give criminals their ideal name; not Christian criminals, not Fulani criminals, not Muslim criminals. If the government has failed, let them call us to come and help out. "Uthman Dan Fodio founded the caliphate many years ago. He said conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it. We must take a negative inner feeling away from us. We must not allow our biases to prevail over truth." Speaking on the JAMB state officers being investigated for various cases of corruption, Oloyede said they had been asked to return the government's money in their possession. He said, "It is a continuous process. When anyone is found to be unable to account for whatever belongs to the government, our first duty is to ask the person to refund. If the person refunds honourably, there will be little or no need to go further. But if they refuse, we will take a necessary step of calling on the security agencies to recover whatever belongs to the government. "But we know that there are many honourable people that even when they make mistakes, they are ready to rectify them. For these people, there is no problem."  culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog |
| Cardinal Okogie Tackles President Buhari On Leadership Posted: 21 Feb 2018 09:41 AM PST  Speaking in a statement, Okogie, a former Lagos Archbishop of the Catholic Church, also called on the President not to discard the advice given to him by former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria as their thoughts reflect what Nigerians think about his government. In a statement entitled, "There's anger in the land" and made available to newsmen, the cleric said, "The truth is: Nigerians are not happy; Nigerians are hungry and angry. "They are not happy because their lives and their belongings are not safe. They work so hard while the value of the money they earn cannot make them enjoy basic things of life. "Nigerians are unhappy because the economy has been so mismanaged that some cannot pay the school fees of their children. Nigerians are unhappy because they have not got jobs. Nigerians are unhappy because, instead of hope, they are offered propaganda and insults by the President's men. Nigerians are angry because their loved ones are butchered by herdsmen while the response of government is woeful. "The issue at hand is more serious than getting re – elected. It cannot be resolved by way of a facile intra – party reconciliation. Before it can succeed, this government must admit it has failed . Before it can retrace its steps, this government must admit that it has strayed from the path of keeping the promises it made, promises that made Nigerians to vote as they did in 2015. "Apart from seeking intra- party reconciliation, this government must first reconcile with Nigerians by treating them with respect. "May this government not suffer the fate of the proverbial hunter's dog that got lost in the forest because it obstinately refused to heed the hunter's whistle. "Anytime there was an infringement that escaped the attention of the referee, he would ask his colleagues, Sebastian Ofurum or Tolu Fatoyinbo, if they too saw the infringement. If they confirmed what he saw, he would say in Igbo , 'What two persons have seen and confirmed to be a boa must not be mistaken for a piece of diamond.' "One may apply that maxim to the situation in our country right now. There is anger in the land. Many voices are echoing it . These voices of anger are so deafening that it can no longer be denied. The level of discontent in Nigeria at this point in time is like the proverbial boa sighted by even more than two persons . It would be unwise to mistake it for a piece of diamond. "It has been sighted by retired Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, who have spoken of the anger in the land in clear and unmistaken terms. It has been sighted by traditional rulers , who have called the attention of government to it . It has been sighted by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria when the bishops went to the corridors of power to speak to power in the way Biblical prophets directly confronted kings in Israel. "This can no longer be treated as the cry of wailers. Even leading members of the party ruling at the centre have demonstrated commendable candour by openly acknowledging that the hopes of 2015 have been shattered by the disappointment of 2019." Okogie added that "presidential aides in our country do not seem to grasp the wisdom in those words. "By their own reckoning, anyone who raises doubts as to the rightness of government policies, actions and statements is an enemy of government. He or she is ridiculed as speaking because there is no more access to ill- gotten wealth. "A police officer, appointed to his office, demonstrated unspeakable insolence on television, calling an elected state governor a 'drowning man.' In other climes, he would lose his job. In Nigeria, he keeps it." "Every line, every word of every intervention emanating from the Conference was chosen to offer frank and friendly advice," he said.  culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog |
| So Sad! Woman Dies Hours To Her Wedding In Delta State Posted: 21 Feb 2018 09:41 AM PST  The sad incident happened after Maggie's partner decided to pay the bride price after years of being together. A source simply identified herself as Ofua, told Vanguard that the marriage was slated for February 15 and 16, and that they had even slaughtered a cow that will be used for the ceremony, when the bride suddenly clutched her chest and screamed. Ofua said: "We were rushing her to the hospital when the car ran out of fuel and before we could get fuel, she gave up the ghost." Those who knew the late woman, described her as a nice person, who was fond of saying nice words to everyone she met. "She would greet you and ask of everybody including your husband and even your dog; we will miss her," said a woman who refused to disclose her name.  culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog |
| How Armed Robbers Fleeing With Stolen Cash Were Arrested Posted: 21 Feb 2018 09:41 AM PST  The states commissioner of police, Chris Ezike said the N450,000 belonging to the victim was recovered from the suspects. Ezike gave the names of the armed robbery suspects as; Isaac Onwuguzo (45) from Umuoma-Ndegwu, Irette in the Owerri West Local Government Area; and Anyahie Ehirim (36), a native of Umuaka in the Njaba LGA of the state. He said a Toyota Camry car with registration number EPE 44 ET was also recovered from them. The CP said, "The Surveillance Team, while on patrol along Okigwe road, got a tip off that a man who withdrew N500,000 from a bank was trailed from the bank to Jevnik Junction, Ikenegbu, where he had made a brief stop. "While the car was parked, the suspects used the master key to open it, removed the money and drove off in an ash colur Camry car. "Our men gave them a hot chase and in the process of escaping, the robbers had an accident with another vehicle and our men rounded them up immediately. "A master key, cash of N450,000 and the car the suspects used for the robbery were recovered." Ezike said the suspects would be charged to court at the end of investigation.  culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog |
| Senate Caucus Sacks Pro-Buhari Senator, Replaces Him Posted: 21 Feb 2018 09:41 AM PST  The letter signed by the Public Relations Officer of the forum noted that Adamu was removed for "financial mismanagement and other related matters." The removal of the senator was announced in a letter read by the presiding officer, Ike Ekweremadu, shortly before the end of the plenary on Wednesday. The letter reads: "This is to inform the Senate that the majority signatories of members of the Northern Senators Forum. We have removed Sen. Abdullahi Adams as chairman of the Northern Senators Forum for financial mismanagement and misadministration. We announce his replacement with Senator Aliyu Wamakko immediately. Find the attached names and signatories of members." The removal is coming a week after Adamu led nine others to oppose the Senate passage of the amendment to the electoral act, and the conduct of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in the passage process. Adamu had said: "We are part of the whole body of senators who oppose the process by which the so-called conference report was laid and considered as rushed. I had the opportunity (to speak), I was heard but the Senate President said my observation was being noted."  culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog |
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