SEARCHING FOR THE NEXT FIRST LADY

By Osondu Ahirika

While the debate of who will succeed His Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Godswill Obot Akpabio as the next governor of Akwa Ibom State rages, an equally salient and pertinent flipside of this quest has been largely ignored. I reckon, it is, who can fit the jigsaw as the next First Lady of Akwa Ibom State? Thankfully, the discourse was inadvertently opened on facebook, a potent social media, by my friend, promising upcoming lawyer and ace broadcaster, Aniekeme Finbarr, who loves to be addressed as the Prime Minister of the Air waves.
Raising the curtain on this engagement, Finbar simply rooted; “The Next First Lady should come from Akwa Ibom State, those in support say Aye…” As expected, the floodgate of comments was opened with those for, against or indifferent to the motion having their toll. Critical as this hypothesis is, I shall not be drawn into deciding who carried the day. At least I am not Finbar who played the role of Speaker of Parliament in this context. From my glimpse of legislative nuances, the ayes or the nays can be as thunderous or mellowed as can be, it is the discretionary right of the Speakers judgement to rule on the side his ears heard the loudest. Reason why, many times, even when the nays have the floor, the ayes will have their way. So let Aniekeme Finbar rule what he heard at the loudest decibel of voice vote.

But seriously, this matter is very timely. Grazing from where Finbarr conjured his proposition, hindsight offers that of the eight leaders that have enjoyed the privileged fortune of governing Akwa Ibom; whether as Military governors, Sole Administrators or Civilian Governors and an equal number of first Ladies, only two hailed from the State; namely, H.E. Uduak Nkanga and H.E. Obonganwan Imoh Isemin,. This follows that, since the return to democratic rule in 1999, no woman of Akwa Ibom indigenous priming has occupied that august podium.

The visionary Arc. Obong Victor Attah who emerged as governor in May 1999 had the matronly Excellency, Nnenyin Alison Attah as wife and First Lady; she is of the Bahamas and the motherly Obonganwan Ekaette Unoma Akpabio is from Enugu State. Both women, God permitting would share a whooping sixteen years between them. It must be emphasized, Akwa Ibom has not lost anything, by not having a true born daughter of the soil as first lady over this period (since 1999). Fact is, perhaps the people gained more by this match making of fate. These women, knowing this shortcoming, that although they are transfigured by marriage into bonafide citizens of this state, a butterfly in reality can never be deemed a bird, nor the lizard become the alligator simply because it is reptilian with a tail.

Effectively, they made up of this minus, by, driving their hubbies, Attah in the first instance, and now Chief (Dr.) Godswill Obot Akpabio, to churn out, monumental, revolutionary and legacy making stellar strides that has redefined leadership, governance, service delivery, statecraft and statesmanship in the state. Behind the unrivalled success of these men, are the imprints of the pillars at the homefront; their better halves. It is for the positive maneuvers of these women of substance that their hubbies have excelled in pleasing society and earning Public approval. So why should people raise sentiments about the next first lady or her origins?
It is not a hidden fact, that since the advent of late one time First Lady of Nigeria, H. E. Dr. (Mrs) Maryan Babangida, the position of wife of the President, governor or even Local Government Chairman has become a vital life giving artery that pumps the blood of political goodwill into the heartbeat of government. An unbiased exegeses, will reveal that, First Ladies, aid their hubbies to succeed or fail, depending largely on, how much they leverage on their innate feminine qualities of contagious passion, stirring insight, devout spirituality, endurance, genuine courage and nobility of spirit to influence their husband’s every act in office. Women are called of God’s plan to be battle ready helpers and a much needed voice for a stable society. Woe betides a society that forces her women to be swallowed up in the miasma of a male domineering culture.

AKSG RICE PROJECT WITH TRANS4MATION AGRITECH SUFFERS SET BACK

…AS DREAM OF 4000 JOBS FOR AKS PEOPLE REMAINS A MIRAGE

Rice Project pictures above show the activities in the rice farm when it was in force

 Trans4mation Agritech Nigeria Ltd was and is involved in Agric-business in some South- South States of Nigeria, involving AKwa Ibom State.  The Company, which came into the country through Joint Venture(JV) MoU agreement with NDDC on 17^th December 2008, came to Akwa Ibom in 2009 with the intention to plant what the company described as “first world best duration HYDRV (High Yielding, Disease Resistant Variety)  rice seed, the first of its kind in Nigeria and Akwa Ibom State” in 10,000 hectres of farmland and create a minimum employment of 4000 for Akwa Ibom persons as per their MoU signed with Akwa Ibom State Government on August 11, 2009.

Among other things the multi-million naira project intended to achieve in the interest of Akwa Ibom State are “food security; employment creation; sustainable development; capacity building through training and exchange programme and rural development” but the story of the company’s relationship with Akwa Ibom State Government changed when it appeared that the drawdown funds of $100million USD expected between 2009 and January 2011 could not come in.

The Company and Akwa Ibom state government in a Memorandum of Understanding signed on August 7, 2009 agreed that the host State, Akwa Ibom, will fulfill key obligations and responsibilities namely; provision of 10,000 hectares of  land suitable for rice production fully cleared, accurately surveyed and the boundaries stipulated with security of tenure for 25 years  as condition precedent for T4M company to commence activities.

The MoU available to The Waves also showed that AKSG was to provide all necessary assistance to facilitate T4M’s compliance with local regulations and laws including getting necessary Work Permits for needed experts who were involved in the agribusiness project.  Apart from transferring a minimum of 10,000 hectres of land to T4M Agritech Nig. Ltd. as its contribution to the said project, Akwa Ibom State Government also agreed to provide necessary security for the expatriates and other management staff working on the said project in the state.  This Paper further learnt that AKSG equally promised making available certain equipment and machinery(in particular bulldozers) for the purpose of initial land clearing operation prior to the arrival and deployment of T4M mechanized Agric Equipment from overseas, for the purpose of producing large-scale commercial rice and other agribusiness produce including aquaculture activates.

Picture of the rice farm in Akwa Ibom While it was operational

The AKSG, among other things, also agreed to provide secured suitable accommodation for T4M expatriate staff and management team for the initial period of 12 months only from the commencement of the project in the state. The Public Private Partnership Project started having problems of funding when T4M Agritech Nig. Ltd felt it has put a lot of money (N95,596,000.00 from March 2010 to  February 2011excluding machinery and equipment brought into the country rice seedling cultivation) into the project and were not having necessary support from AKSG and the other Join Venture partner, the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC). 

Another letter from the company to Governor Godswill Akpabio dated August 17, 2010 complained of “dysfunctional generating sets” and incessant power outage at the abode of the expatriate; non-provision of security escorts to guard the expatriates to and the farm which made them unable to go the farm anylonger; threat by Ibiono Community who sought compensation for their land and other unfulfilled MoU agreements by AKSG.

In a letter dated August 18, 2011,  Ref. AKSMOA11/013/T4M08  addressed to the then Agric Commissioner(Obong Eno Akpan), Trans4Mation Agritech  Operations Director lamented that Akwa Ibom State Government did gave them land in Ikot Asidem, Ibiono Ibom local government area but the land was “not fully cleared and accurately secured” which made them commenced operation by hiring land-clearing equipment for the initial clearing of the land.

The Company also complained bitterly that the State did not provide all the necessary security for the expatriate and other management staff working on the agribusiness project as agreed in clause 3.04 of the MoU.  She stated in the letter that  other Joint Venture partner, the NDDC did not also put any money forward nor reimburse expenses incurred on its behalf during the period work was on at Ibiono.

The company further complained that the terrain and topography of the land added “hugely to the cost of the land clearing” as over N40m was sunk into clearing about 50 hectares of land for the first few months.  It said such cost was unplanned for when matched with other operational cost of salaries/wages and other running costs.  It said that problems of having its expected drawdown funds of $100m transferred to it from the overseas was no fault of theirs but was caused by the Central Bank of Nigeria which delayed sending what the company called “the capital importation letter” blaming such experience on regions of any country “where the confidence of investors is at all time low” and that “bringing in funds into such a country” is always very difficult.

However, the company complained of being blackmailed as “fraudsters” by some Akwa Ibom state people, adding that the NDDC approach to the whole issue was tantamount to “corporate manslaughter”, adding that the guaranteed security of  their United Kingdom and Socialist Republic of Vietnam expatriates was still an illusion, even as the difficulty in their pulling in the draw down funds  was turned into “blackmail and ridicule” by some people in the state. 

The Company also complained further that their plight of bad publicity was capable of making it almost difficult for foreign investors to invest in the Niger Delta Region and Akwa Ibom State in particular. It lamented that things got worse when the unpaid workers threatened to kill the expatriates who were subsequently relocated to a safe place of abode until they left the country.

The letter stated that repeated letters to NDDC in Port Harcourt yielded no fruits as letters dated August 12 and 17, 2010 and January 3, 2011 were never acknowledged.  It said NDDC had never put any money upfront to care for their obligations under the MoU but that it made a reimbursement, first to cover expenses incurred on their behalf from June 2009(when the Vietnamese arrived Nigeria) to December 2009 which was paid in January 2010, adding that other reimbursements were made up to May 2010. 

The company complained that work started since June 2010 in Ibiono and since then neither NDDC nor Akwa Ibom State government has given her monetary assistance and that N106million was outstanding in the Joint Venture Account in Oceanic Bank Plc awaiting the signature of the Director of Agric who perhaps could not allow them have access to the funds because of non-arrival of their counterpart funding.  The company craved for a meeting of minds to re-evaluate  and proffer lasting solutions to the challenges militating against the Joint Venture Project which it reasoned was sought to be killed by persons who had selfish reasons, but all their letters were rebuffed as none, according to Dr Sample A. Ibemerum, Group Operations & Project Development Director of Trans4mation Agritech Nig. Ltd, was acknowledged.

For instance, the Company wrote to Chief Godswill Akpabio through its Operations Director, Glory Eric in a letter dated November 22, 2011 seeking his intervention and audience to brief him on the state of affairs of the project and its teething problems, but such a letter was believed never to see the light of the day as the receipt of same was never acknowledged.  The same officer earlier wrote to the Governor through the Agric Commissioner at that time requesting for accommodation, security as well as  logistics support for the T4M project in a letter dated March 11, 2010 but never, perhaps, was told a word.  

Dr Sample Ibemerum wrote to NDDC Managing Director/CEO on December 14, 2010 that his life and that of the expatriates were threatened by the local staff of Trans4mation Agritech Nig. Ltd. which made the company hurriedly harvest all the matured rice fields in Odi – Bayelsa, Rumuewhor – Rivers State, Ndi Okereke – Abia State, Oshi, Adim and Asiga in Cross River State and Ibiono in Akwa Ibom State, but his letter which NDDC got  on same date and acknowledged receipt via a stamp, appeared to have made no sense.

Louis Klaassen, Chairman of A.M.C.L. Financial Services cc, a company based in Western Cape, South Africa, wrote on December 14, 2010 to NDDC Managing Director, Mr Chibuzor Ugwoha stating that the problem of getting the draw down funds was no problem of Trans4mation Agritech Nig. Ltd and that the Company should not be doubted, adding that the $100m meant to be sent by one Mr Lee, the lead investor, was trapped in Sentinel Bank & Trust in Nassau for many months awaiting clearance by authorities (which mention the letter did not make), but assured that the said clearance, once given “by the early part of next month” (January 2011) Mr Lee and other “colleagues” would move into Nigeria.

The Group Operations & Project Development Director wrote to the then Commissioner for Agric, Obong Eno Akpan on August 12, 2010 alleging that AKSG had abandoned all parts of the deal the government agreed to do, adding that Ibiono Community which the project was done was threatening to shut staff out of the project location for lack of payment of compensation for the land.  The letter also regretted that Cross River and Bayelsa States did past Akwa Ibom which was amongst the very first to sign the MoU.

Perhaps as a last resort, the company wrote to the Governor of Akwa Ibom State again in a letter dated January 3, 2011 that they mobilized to Umoekene farm at Ibiono Ibom LGA since April 1, 2010, employed 110 local staff and had spent up to N643m in five Niger Delta States(including Akwa Ibom), appealing for a “short term bridging fund of N150m” in support of “T4M/AKSG PPP Joint Venture Agri-business Project” to help them start the production of the rice in commercial quantity which was to be due for harvest in April 2011.

The company also explained why their draw down funds delayed, but stated thus, “we had only recently received the letter of approval for Capital Importation form CBN”.  The company assured to make refunds soon as they got their $100m funds in March 2011 or alternatively increase AKSG “Stake-holding to 25%” in exchange for such financial contribution.  Though the Line F Plot 56 of Ewet Housing building which housed the T4M project office also created accommodation for the expatriates, the company sought 5years Lease/Rental extension agreement which is unconfirmed whether it was granted.

In an email dialogue with Dr Sample Ibemerum he said that though T4M Agritech appealed for some terms of the MoU to be met by AKSG that only accommodation was given and nothing else and that for the time being, the Company was no longer operational in Akwa Ibom State.  He said they “were forced out of AKS with great impunity due to the lack of security, failure of AKS and NDDC to meet their obligations under the terms of our MoU especially the provision of land, logistics, accommodation, security and the much needed investor friendly enabling environment. Our team had to be evacuated following a number of attempted kidnapping and other threats on the lives of our expatriate staff and our senior management team in AKS”.

He said that their expatriate and senior management personnel were gone, but that all their equipment, tractors and accessories, rice seeds, chemicals, etc., were all still in AKS.

For the period of operation Dr Sample said they achieved capacity building and specific training called, “Training the Trainers”, to over 100 AKS  indigenes who were employed as farm hands without any previous experience, on the best practice in the following areas: (a) Land preparation for both upland and lowland rice, (b) Germination Test and seed planting for increased yield, (c) Seed multiplication for both upland and Lowland rice varieties, (d) Fabrication of Threshers, Techniques for detecting disease/pest, pre-emergence and post-emergence measures, (e) Crop management, rice harvesting techniques, use of farm tools and equipment for both upland and wetland rice, etc.

He said the T4M Vietnamese Expatriates trained several AKS indigenes as Agronomists, Project and Farm Managers, Supervisors and Farm Assistants on land preparation, seed planting, detecting of insects, pest control, harvesting and use of farm tools and equipment for both upland and low land rice production, adding that the indigenous employees’ so trained acquired some essential technical skill for agric farming and more knowledge and skills transfer needs to be impacted in the months and years ahead.  He said the rice yield they cultivated for commercial production was good quality and cut cost of about $10m USD which would have been spent to import same rice from Vietnam for commercial cultivation.

According to him T4M cleared 60 hectares of land and planted 8 hectares between June and July 2010 with world best hybrid HYVDRV (High Yielding Variety Disease Resistant Variety Seed,  harvested over 140 bags of Paddy Rice (50Kg bag)

each from 2ha out of the 8 ha planted and harvested.

He blamed the delay in the transfer of the draw down fund of T4M to Akwa Ibom on the AKSG and the NDDC, regretted that the funds never arrived till date adding that the initial delay was due to the delay of the approval from US Federal

authorities for remitting of the USD$100m to the troubled area of the NIGER DELTA REGION,  saying that such delay was aggravated by the obvious and unexplainable subsequent year delay by the CBN for the granting of the all important capital importation approval letter sought and the failure of NDDC to assist with the CBN approval which were completely ignored.

Dr. Sample said, “the money was not released despite both the US and CBN approvals being obtained eventually. It was sadly not released as improper conditions were demanded by the former MD of NDDC Chibuzor Ugwoha that

the USD$100m funds be placed in a bank account nominated and controlled by him and not T4M. This quite clearly was a radical departure far removed from and against the interest of the project and above all runs contrary to the terms and conditions contractually agreed between T4M and AMCL Financial Services CC our syndicate investor”. 

Dr. Sample said since Akwa Ibom never appreciated their project they shifted efforts to Edo State at Angbette rice farm, where T4M has completed yet another Seed Multiplication Programme, but have now commenced her first Commercial Rice Cultivation having cleared over 2,000 ha for commercial rice planting in lots of 500ha which he said was underway.  For his experience with how AKSG and NDDC related with his Company he said, “put quite simply – shocked, speechless and sick to the bones”.

Meanwhile, AKSG in the MoU was to take 20% while T4M Agritech Nig. Ltd was to earn 80% of the profit made from the rice production project.  But Prof. Etok Ekanem, who was Agric Commissioner when the project was mooted, in a telephone conversation with our reporter said the Company was to take 78% profit, AKSG 20% and 2% to the  host local community.  He disclosed that the project employed 300 farm hands and 124 other employees including agronomists, soil scientists, agric extension experts, admin staff(including a Ph.D graduate), accountants(three of them), environmental scientists, technicians, tractor drivers, messengers etc.  He said that the project had two Britons and about seven Vietnamese and that other expatriates were to join in due course.

Prof. Ekanem who was worried that some of the agric projects and programmes he instituted under Chief Akpabio’s government were allowed to wane into insignificance within a short time that he left office hence sending many persons back to the labour market, said the rice project which started in Ibiono Ibom, was also to be sited in Ibikpe Uruan and Oruk Anam LGA.  He said that as at August 2010 the 10 hectares of land which rice was cultivated out of the 50 hectares cleared, yielded a 50kg bag each of 400 bags which were produced, and the T4Magritech report of February 2011 said harvest was yet to be concluded then.

He stated that though the process of land acquisition was not formalized as at when he left office that the project was sure of providing, at minimum, 4000 jobs for Akwa Ibom people.

When asked what the situation with the project was and whether expatriates were still in the state; whether the $100m funds of the T4M company had arrived, whether the project was alive, dead or kept in abeyance, the Commissioner for Agriculture & Natural Resources, Mr Godwin Afangideh replied thus, "the truth of the matter is that the said project has since been terminated due to the failure of T4M inability to fulfill their side of the agreement".  He was silent on what the side of their agreement was which they did not fulfill and gave no time at which the project was terminated and the processes that was involved.  He only referred the reporter to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry for more explanations.

When contacted on cell phone via calls which did not go through, many questions were sent to him via a text message at about 1.31pm of Saturday September 22, 2012, but as at Press time he did not respond to any of the questions raised.

The Waves, as at press time, could not also reach out to any of the employees of the said Company to know their fate as to whether they were absorbed by Ministry of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Akwa Ibom State, or whether their hope of being employed had been dashed.  Efforts to reach the former MD of NDDC, Chibuzor Ugwoha for his comments proved abortive.

FCT MINISTER THREATENS TO REVOKE CoC OF ALLOTTEES

FCT Minister Senator Bala Mohammed has threatened to revoke the certificate of occupancy of allotees who fail to develop their plots at the Idu Industrial Layout. The Minister issued the warning at the Idu Industrial Layout in continuation of the National Good Governance Tour of projects in the FCT. He said the purpose of the project was to provide necessary infrastructure for the establishment of industries that would create employment in the territory. The project which is at 68% completion stage commenced in September 2003 at a cost of over N3 billion which was later revised to over N6 billion because it was a design and build project. The layout has an area of 588 hectares and is demarcated into 208 commercial and individual plots. Infrastructure being provided include road networks, culverts, vehicular and pedestrian bridges, sewage treatment plant, lorry parks, electric sub-station, water supply network, street lighting among others. Senato...

r Mohammed promised that the project would be completed within the lifespan of this administration. The National Good Governance Tour Team was also at the Karmo Residential District, which is meant to complement the Idu Industrial Layout in providing residential accommodation for the industrial workers. The project which is at 90% completion stage covers 700 hectares of land with 344 plots. Infrastructure being provided at the area include 160 kilometer road network, water supply, telecommunication ducts, sewage, culverts, bridges among others. The FCT Minister therefore appealed to land allotees in the District to develop their plots of land to fully utilise the infrastructure provided. In his remarks Information Minister Mr Labaran Maku said he was impressed by the quality of work carried out at the area.
Joseph Mutah

How Do I dump Him!

I'm A Graduate And My Boyfriend Is A Truck Driver, How Do I dump Him Without Hurting His Feelings?
Dear friends

I am a 23year old female.
My parents died when i was 8 then I dropped out of school because no one could afford to pay my fees. I then met this guy when i was 14 and he sent me back to school.
He was selling fruit then but still he was Able to pay my fees.
He then got a job as a truck driver and sent me to University.
My problem is that i feel i can't continue with this relationship because he is not my type, he isn't fluent in English, he is a very short man, plus some other Personal stuffs.

I feel I have paid him back for his Good Deeds because I give him sex anytime and anywhere he wants. But now he can't meet up to my demands.

How best can i tell him that he is
not my type without hurting his feelings??
I am grateful that he sent me to
school but i can't be in a relationship with him anymore.
I want somebody in my own class
not a truck driver.
Please help! - via 18+ Celebrity News.

Feel FREE to SHARE!
**************
Report any suspicious persons and object to the law enforcement agencies, as that will save lives.

PHOTONEWS: Pedestrians Pay to Cross Over An Open Sewer At Oshodi In Lagos | Sahara Reporters

PHOTONEWS: Pedestrians Pay to Cross Over An Open Sewer At Oshodi In Lagos |

Anniversary Announcement

Anniversary Announcement Of Akwa Ibom State. Please contact the link below for details of the Silver Jubilee Celebration of AKSG at 25 yyears

FINISHING STRONG – AN OPEN LETTER TO SECOND TERM GOVERNORS.

 

Dear Brothers and Friends, Your Excellencies,

MAKING THE MOMENT COUNT.
Pondering the human capacity for contemplative action, famous American writer, Sarah Dessen once observed “there comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your heart.” If I know anything at all about life and political leadership, it is the fact that I am sure that some of you must be having your own Sarah Dessen moments by now. This is the moment when the gun of life goes temporarily silent and we are left a small window of time for contemplation. This all important indulgence is a necessary fragment in the life of any conscionable public office holder who has enough reflective power to worry about history’s inevitable verdict. Naturally, such leaders would also show a great concern on how to make every moment of their 'last lap' count.

As your approach the final bend in the river of your administration, the time has come to make the moment count. This is not for only those whose terms are grinding to a final halt but for even those who have their sights set on a second term in office. Regardless of the stage you are in your elected office position, it is always important to make every moment count. Truth is, no one has travelled this route more than twice.

ENDING WITH A FLOURISH
Watching the National Convention of Democratic Party at Charlotte, North Carolina, it struck me just how America’s greatest orators always ended their speeches with a flourish. A purposeful political leadership should be like a great oration – it should end in a flourish. There should be a sequenced progression from inauguration to heightened project execution and service delivery and finally a glorious handover. It is true that not many political office holders have shown any real concern about how their tenures had ended since our current democratic experiment. But our democratic culture is still evolving and must improve with every term. Hopefully, what this means is that if we have any will power at all, we should be able to change things for ourselves. We should be able to eschew the bitter pull-down-and-destroy-if-you-lose tone of our politics and begin to give our actions and utterances a new and weighty tone of statesmanship. We should be able to de-emphasise personal interest and re-emphasise people interest. If we set our sights on people interest, we would be able to appreciate the fact that the only way we can firmly secure our political future is by completing projects and programmes that we either initiated or met on ground.

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/ 2009/07/07/pope-admits

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/ 2009/07/07/pope-admits

Kufre Okon Today: Man Caught with Dead Body in Suitcase Says it was his Son's Body

Kufre Okon Today: Man Caught with Dead Body in Suitcase Says it was his Son's Body

Kufre Okon Today: Man Caught with Dead Body in Suitcase Says it was his Son's Body

Kufre Okon Today: Man Caught with Dead Body in Suitcase Says it was his Son's Body

THE END OF GOD

By Osondu Ahirirka
“The end of God is near”, This is the claim of one Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo in a piece by the same title, published on Page 14 of Weekly Insight of Sunday, July 13, 2012. Two pregnant hypothesis as untested as they are, constitute the soul of his excitement at announcing that the so called “God Particle” has finally been discovered by Scientists.

For ages scientists, scholars, philosophers and even some theologians have been busy trying to prove that either God does not exist, or that, if He ever existed, He is dead. According to Okonkwo, since Scientists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research Laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, have discovered the God Particle, he enthuses that; “If Scientists had not found the God particle, everything we know about the universe (1 presume, he is referring to the Biblical account of creation in Genesis 1) would have been false. Now that they did, everything we knew about the universe had been false. It is a brand new word”.

Even more impudently, he adds, a conclusion, “The discovery of the God particle, the very basic building block of the universe, firmly connects us to the Big Bang Theory. The Universe is no longer the question, and God is no longer the answer. Scientists are set to unmask God. It is the end of God as we know it. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I’M RIGHT”.

It is his last challenge, which I render in italics that I want to take up. He is right to say God has come to an end. At least, for him and his type; who say there is no God, I won’t waste time faulting their logic. You may ask me what the God Particle or the Big Bang Theory is? Again, that I don’t know, nor do I desire to inquire. Not every knowledge is expedient. All I can volunteer, is that, the God Particle and the Big Bang Theory are; at their best, mere revisionist updates of the failed and much derided Darwinian Theory of Evolution. All these are attempts by men to sideline and expel God from reckoning while trying to rationalize or explain how this wonderful universe came about. I continue to wish them luck, where more “illustrious” atheists before them failed.

Folks’, I only delight to share with you, a message I received long ago from a columnist, with the Daily Sun Newspapers, Onuoha Ukeh, as an appropriate addendum to the end of God. It is my hope that this message titled; God can never be mocked,” will reassure you and dismiss from your imaginations, the missteps of those, who, attempting to play God, try to remove him from our curriculum. The message reads: “It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7): “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Here are examples of some men and women who mocked God.

“John Lennon: some years before (in 1966), during his interview with an American magazine, he said: “Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple. Today, we (members of the then popular pop music band, The Beatles) are more famous than Him”. Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times. The Beatles disintegrated.

“Tancredo Neves (One time President of Brazil) “During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his Party, not even God would remove him from the Presidency. Sure, he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President and died.

“Cauza (a bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet), during a show in Cane (Rio de Janeiro), while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said: “God, that’s for you”. He died at the age of 32 of AIDS in a horrible manner. AFTER THE CONSTRUCTION OF TITANIC, A REPORTER ASKED THE MAN WHO BUILT IT HOW SAFE THE TITANIC WOULD BE. WITH AN IRONIC TONE, HE SAID; “NOT EVEN GOD CAN SINK IT.” THE RESULT? THE GREAT SHIP SANK ON ITS FIRST VOYAGE FROM SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND TO NEW YORK AND IT TOOK ONLY TWO HOURS FORTY MINUTES. ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED OF THE 2,000 PASSENGERS ABOARD WERE LOST.

“Marilyn Monroe: she was visited by Rev. Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the preacher had to say, she said: “I don’t need your Jesus”. A week later, she was found dead in her apartment. “Bon Scott; the ex-vocalist of the AC/DC: on one of his 1979 songs, he sang: “Don’t stop me, I’m going down all the way, down the highway to hell”. On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead. He had been choked by his own vomit. Back in 2005 in Champinas, Brazil, a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend. The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and holding her hands, she said to the daughter, who was already seated in the car: “My daughter, go with God and may he protect you”. She responded: “Only if he (God), travels in the boot, cause inside here is already full.” Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident. Everybody died. It could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the boot was intact. The police said there was no way the boot could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the boot was a crate of eggs, none was broken:

Bakassi belongs to Nigeria – Fresh facts reveal

Fresh facts have emerged, showing that the disputed Bakassi peninsula which the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ceded to Cameroon, actually belongs to Nigeria.
Vanguard gathered that the jurists at ICJ might have been misled by the legal teams of Cameroon and Nigeria, who did not show vital information that clearly placed Bakassi as a territor...

y within the geographical, political and administrative jurisdiction and control of Nigeria, contrary to the October 10, 2002, verdict which awarded the sovereignty of the peninsula to Cameroon.
Bakassi protesters. Photo by Johnbosco Agbakwuru
International relations experts, renowned historians, researchers and politicians told Vanguard in Lagos, last week, that contrary to the claims by the Cameroon and Nigerian legal teams that the first legal treaty on the Land and Maritime borders between Nigerian and Cameroon was the 1913 Anglo-German treaty, it was discovered that the limits of the Land and maritime boundaries between both countries went as far back as 1811 when the British made the treaty that went from the Lake Chad region down to the Atlantic ocean through the Rio Del Rey Estuary.
The Great Fraud
1. There are evidence to show that in 1994 when a dispute erupted between Nigeria and Cameroon, Nigeria asked the British government to attest to the true status of Bakassi Peninsula, the British government replied to assert that the Peninsula belongs to Nigeria.
2. This was when Alhaji Babagana Kingibe was Nigeria’s Minister of External Affairs but curiously that document was not tendered at the ICJ trial.
3. There are fresh evidence to show that in the March 18, 1961 plebiscite in Southern Cameroon, to determine areas that either wanted to stay in Cameroon or join Nigeria, Bakassi Penisular was not among the areas that participated in the exercise because it was given that it was not part of Cameroun.
According to Southern Cameroon gazette, Volume 7 no. 14, the areas that were asked to determine where they wanted to belong included Mamfe, Bamenda, Kumba, and Victoria. Also, the people of Bakassi have voted in Nigerian elections and the Nigerian Customs has been in control of the territorial waters since 1811.
4. The 1913 Anglo-German treaty which Cameroon rested its claim was not signed by both countries before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
5. Germany renounced all its terrirorial claims at the end of the war in 1919 and all the former territrories controlled by Germany came under the mandate of the League of Nations.
6. There were clear cases of ethnic cleansing in Bakassi peninsula in the past 10 years in violation of the Green Tree Agreement.
According to Prof. Walter Ofonagoro, a historian and former Nigerian Information Minister, who did his Ph.d thesis on Southern Oil protectorate, “fresh facts have emerged to show that the Cameroonian legal team deceived the ICJ into believing that before the Anglo-German treaty of 1913 upon which it rested its case, there were no other treaties that delineated the land and maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon, which is a fraudulent claim”. Prof. Ofonagoro said that he has in his possession, 1822 documents which vested ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula to the Old Calabar Chiefs, by extension to Nigeria, and debunked claims that the 1913 Anglo-German treaty was the first recognised treaty on the land and maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon. Said Prof. Ofonagoro: “This is not true because as far back as 1811, the British had already established a strong sphere of influence over the territories that eventually became Nigeria in 1914. The Anglo- German treaty upon which Cameroon built its case was contestible because after the First World war ended in 1919, all the territories controlled by Germany were taken away from them and given to the League of Nations.

Wealthy Nigerians spend $6.5bn on 130 private jets

 

The growing penchant for private jets acquisition has cost wealthy Nigerians a sum of $6.5bn (N1.02tn) in the last five years. Aviation sources reveal that the luxury trend, which rose by 650 per cent between 2007 and 2012, is encouraged among the rich by the need for...

privacy, fear of insecurity and the urgency required by modern business, TUNJI ABIOYE reports
Private jet ownership in Nigeria has grown by 650 per cent, from 20 jets in 2007 to over 150 jets in 2012.
According to documents sighted in aviation agencies, the development means that wealthy Nigerians acquired, at least, 130 private jets with a sum of N1.02tn ($6.5bn) within the last five years.
This put the private jets aviation market in Nigeria (the monetary value of all private jets in the country) at N1.18tn ($7.5bn), using $50m as the average cost of each brand new private jet.
A private jet goes for between $40m and $65m, according to the websites of major private jets manufacturers, like Bombardier of Canada; GulfStream and Hawker Siddley of United States; and Embraer of Brazil.
According to findings, the common brands of private jets in Nigeria are Gulfstream 450, 550 and 650; Bombardier Challenger 604, 605; Global Express; Embraer Legacy and Falcons; and Hawker Siddley 125-800 and 900XP.
Top aviation officials told our correspondent on Friday that Nigeria currently rivalled China as one of the two fastest growing private jet markets in the world.
An official with in-depth knowledge of the situation, who spoke under condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment on the matter, said most of the jets were bought by top politicians, oil magnates and other business moguls in Nigeria.
He explained that the economic downturn in Europe and the United States had made Nigeria and China to become two of the fastest growing private jet markets in the world.
He said, “Two countries buying private jets now are China and Nigeria. Europe and America are going through turmoil; so, their people are no more buying. This accounts for the trend that whenever some of the private jet manufacturers develop any new jet, they take them to Nigeria and China.”
“The private jets in Nigeria are owned by top politicians, oil magnates and business moguls. It is difficult to get the real identities of owners of some of the private jets in Nigeria because they buy them through some foreign companies in North America, especially the US. The foreign company then leases it to another company in Nigeria.”

(15) JONATHAN, ONLY TWO...

(15) JONATHAN, ONLY TWO...

[VIDEO] RICK ROSS LIVE IN NIGERIA SUMMER JAM FEST 2012

[VIDEO] RICK ROSS LIVE IN NIGERIA SUMMER JAM FEST 2012

Jobs, Careers In Nigeria » VACANCIES at TRIMEX MULTIMEDIA LIMITED

Jobs, Careers In Nigeria » VACANCIES at TRIMEX MULTIMEDIA LIMITED

RAVINE COMMUNITY SENDS SOS TO GOV. AKPABIO OVER LANDSLID

Part of the landslide caused by large body of gulley

water entering the Ravine from Etim Umana Street

just behind Ravine Estate.

 Some notable members of the Ravine Community Welfare Association, in a letter captioned, “Save Our Soul: The Ravine Behind the Ravine Estate is Collapsing and Threatening Our Continuous Existence” have drawn the attention of  the Works Commissioner of Akwa Ibom State to intervene in the landslide problem of the Ravine Estate before they are swept away by the Ravine gulley water one day.

The three-page letter dated Wednesday 12, 2012 and ref. RCWA/UY/GC/VOL.1/2012 made available to Weekly Insight  news desk was also copied the sitting Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Dr. Godswill Akpabio; the Environment and Natural Resources Commissioner, Mr Enobong Uwah and the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elder Sam Ikon.

Expressing their deplorable and helpless condition, the five signatories of the said letter, believed to be speaking the mind of others living in the area stated, “if you do not swing into action soonest you may one day wake up to hear that the people living around the Ravine Estate have been swept away by the Ravine gully water”.

The people who said they had lived in Etim Umana and other adjoining streets since 1986 up until the coming of Marlum Nigeria Ltd. (a construction company said to be handling the construction of underground drainage connecting gully water from Oron road to the Ravine).  They reasoned that the Indian bamboo used to control erosion by those living around the Ravine area had “paid off” up until Marlum came. 

The Ravine Community argued that MARLUM has “defaced most part of such plantations, replacing same with what could pass for a precast drainage”.  They also complained in their letter that “the drainage area from where it ended in the Ravine base had since been cut off and washed away and the threatening large body of water has caused treacherous landslide targeted at human structures around the Ravine area bordering Etim Umana street” in Eniong Offot.

The letter further disclosed that the matter had been reported to one of the Supervisors of MARLUM Nigeria Ltd., but wished that the Works Commissioner could be disposed to see the threat the gulley water was causing people living closed to the Ravine area.

According to them, “as it is now, the large body of water has chopped off the precast drainage up to the middle of the Ravine, and the heavy running gulley water from Oron Road to Urua Udofia and into the Ravine has cut off and sink the Indian bamboo and caused severe landslide putting human existence around the Ravine at serious threat”.

The Ravine Community Welfare Association appealed in their letter to Akwa Ibom State Government through the Ministries of Works, Environment & Natural Resources to step into the matter, look closely at what MARLUM Nigeria Ltd.was doing and find what they called “a lasting solution” to such “human-existence threatening problem”.

While observing that the gulley water from Etim Umana Street has contributed to what they termed as “disgusting landslide menace threatening houses of people living around the area bordering the Ravine”, they appealed to the State Government to “enlist Etim Umana Street(off Urua Udofia Street) in the next number of roads to be constructed as such action will help curb the erosion and landslide problems threatening buildings in the area”.

They claimed that in December 12, 2012 in a letter to the Hon. Commissioner, Ministry of Works, the issue of Etim Umana Street/Etim Umana Lane as well as Udo Idiong Nka Street were mentioned to government for construction and believed that such matter would be dully considered this time around to keep the Ravine landslide under check.

The letter was signed by Pastor Augustine Udosen(Chairman); Evangelist Daniel B. Daniel(Vice Chairman); E.E. Ituen(Secretary); Sylvester Edet A.(Treasurer) and Mr Hanson Yellow Etukudoh(PRO) of Ravine Community Welfare Association.

UYO N.U.P. CARETAKER COMMITTEE DEMANDS RE-INSTATEMENT, THREATENS COURT ACTION IF…

The “purportedly dissolved” members of the Caretaker Committee of Uyo Local Branch of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Akwa Ibom State, has sent a letter through their Solicitors, Barr. A.E. Akpanumo to the State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners that they be re-instated seven days from August 22, 2012 or else “action to seek judicial redress” would be the alternative.

Akpanumo who is of the Grandpa Chambers in Uyo had described the action of the State Chairman of N.U.P., Akwa Ibom State Branch, Obong Cletus Thomas Uko as lacking “any lawful justification” despite what he called the “exceptionally brilliant performance in office to the satisfaction of all and sundry” by the purportedly dissolved Caretaker Committee.

He said that to the “dismay of all and sundry” the Obong Cletus’ executive “refused to pay to them the 2012 second quarter allocation which became due since 30^th June 2012, despite repeated demands”.

Holding that as a “statutory body” which running and operation he said were laid down and not run “by the whims and caprices of anybody or functionary”, Akpanumo stated that “Rule 13(Vii)(b) of the N.U.P. Constitution and Code of Conduct 2008 provides that a Caretaker Committee shall run the affairs of the Union until fresh elections are held”. 

He argued that since elections were not held and their “Appointment Letters” did not indicate same, the Caretaker Committee was to be regulated by the “Supreme Law or Regulation of the Union”, adding that “any other rule or anything done which is not in consonance with the Constitution is thus null and void” as noted in Rule 5(Vii) of the said Constitution.

He argued further that since the “purported dissolution was blatantly done without regard to the provisions of the said Constitution and due process of law” it was “arbitrary, unconstitutional, wrongful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever”, adding that the said Caretaker Committee of Uyo Branch of Nigeria Union of Pensioners(N.U.P.) made up of Comrade G. E. Samuel(Trustee); Comrade Bassey T. Atai(Treasurer); Comrade (Mrs) Umo W. Idem(Secretary); Comrade B.E. Inyang(Auditor) and Comrade S.E.Akpan(Member) was still “legitimate” Caretaker Committee of Uyo local Branch of N.U.P.,  “and so shall they remain until fresh elections are held”.

PDP, 2015 AND THE BURDEN OF A CARRY OVER PAST (2)

By: Udeme Uyoata

Behind the festering sore of mass character murder of those who would have contributed immensely to advance the ship of State by building the dreamed commonwealth, what heinous damage have those, who conservatively believe and conceive themselves to be concretely entrenched in the power corridors not adopted to do criminal harm to otherwise perfect characters? What have they not achieved through tainted gossips on the so-called “loyalty” and “anti-government” insinuations?

What democratic advancement has the “Owo Esa” or “Owo this and that” syndrome added to our culture of democracy? To my mind, besides offering a setback to growth structure, it rather reveals the presence of quite a petty and insecure band of muckrakers, who daily spring up within the cultural depths of the party to continually target and destroy the innocent and creative; causing in the process, a collateral damage to progressive growth.

Still, for the party to meaningfully move, this negative culture must to every extent be discouraged, because as one would be aware, it is about time the party as an agent of growth and civilization, must take a definite step and stop those who do not really wish it to grow in a most positive, and formidably meaningful direction.

The party must do away with those who are traditionally out to derive material benefits and parochial satisfaction by maliciously working the political exclusion of those otherwise considered as huge political capital by the masses through a tactical or systematic disadvantaging of such class from stepping into the party to flush it of the ever increasing influence of otherwise cultural ambassadors pampered to mediocrity and destructive mendacity.

Actually, the socially disadvantaged, in terms of capacity intellectual assets are universally identified as causing the ever crippling undertow or undeserving drag in the mechanism of human progress. So, as the party has arrived at a point, it deserves a degree of elitism to drive its required face for the next level. And being very crucial to its life, the party should not fail to grasp this vital point except it is too self-conscious to do so.

But meaningfully speaking, the party must be knowledgeable of the fact that a likely future collapse of its growing entity and acclaimed popularity will come as a result of discontent with its internal processes and a lack of commitment to reflect what is essential. The blitzkrieg of the “broom revolution” in the last electioneering, should of course, act as a guide in point. The party must take responsibility now and realign for tomorrow.

Much as the party will become aligned to moving away from the bogey-men of opposite interest and practically step in to appreciate the reality that would confront it in its 2014 primaries, it must necessarily be seen as effectively strategizing and carefully ready to gauge the appropriate people’s interest and particularly work to justify such popular interest.

More to this, such commendable actions on the other hand, will afford the party the capacity to walk itself from suffering a damning crisis of public confidence to winning popular endorsement by simply effusing those appropriate and democratic methods which will present it as being very accountable to the people.

In a critical sense though, acting otherwise may save the party in the short term, but it won’t certainly serve the state and her people who may stand-up to demand for the better, the best in 2015. In such sense, it would certainly pay well to hearken to this warning.

If it were to be carefully observed, many absurdities are increasingly happening at every turn in the life of the party. And it is particularly necessary the party learns to look beyond concessionary interest and the self indulgence of some class of party men who would rather sink with an unstructured party than flow with an efficiently restructured one.

Part of this will involve stemming the misplaced arrogance of a self believed biggest party in Africa that is inflicted with a propensity to rule and by directing its strength and subscribed power in the interest of the majority – the masses.

So long as the denial of justice and the corruption of the political process, remains the single major bane of political development in this part of the world, its continuity in the discriminatory technique of evolving the required and necessary political leadership in every cadre of the State and national political life, will in the end constitute a grand failure of the system.

But for it to appear that the party is no further degrading the system, she must be seen as lividly living up to its purpose of providing and promoting good governance through a truly responsible and accountable system that would at all times produce and not ordain its set of political leaders.

In all parameters, and for fairness and a consolidation of purpose, it is really considered a time that the best of opportunities be given to those who can meaningfully take the party as an institution, and the State as an entity of people to the deserved and desired levels of governance.

If PDP were to learn to become a master of opportunities, by always looking for stellar political capital like Chief Ime Albert Akpan, most of the institutional issues militating against the party would have long been overcome.

As an essential of the way forward, the party as a crucial necessity must fall back on past experiences to know the right and most appropriate way to go. But in this direction, transparency and internal democracy among other democratic traditions should become treasured as the very corner stone of Peoples Democratic Party.