Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Plateau state signs N1.35b MoU on land management


  • Monday, 12 August 2013 22:01

Saturday, August 3, 2013

BOKO HARAM: THE MOST DEADLY POISON OF NIGERIA

by DAPAR SATMAK ALEXANDER
Nigeria is undoubtedly passing through one of its most debilitating and enervating moments. In fact, Nigerians has never known peace since the emergence of Boko Haram, a terrorist organization that literarily means “western education is sacrilege”. Nigerians have perpetually lived in deep fear and apprehension because of the deadly scourge of this dreaded group whose sole aim is to antagonize western education and democratic structures. This group of deadly insurgents have killed, maimed, and destroyed valuables in horrifying proportions. Apparently not satisfied with their utterly diabolical movement, they keep increasing in unquantifiable dimension and keep killing on a massive scale. I have watched their activities closely, and I have come to the logical conclusion that these insurgents are the greatest enemies of our dear country Nigeria and enemies of democratic progress. I condemn in the strongest possible terms, their heinous, barbaric, diabolical and sinister activities. They have truncated development, shattered peaceful co-existence, ruined the destinies of people, instilled incurable pain in many hearts, sabotaged concerted efforts towards growth and development, stoked the flames of division across religious line, and as well made life short, brutish, and fraught with numerous uncertainties. 
By and large, Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora have directly and indirectly tasted the bitter pills and did bear the brunt of Boko Haram insurgency. It is unhelpful at this time that we need peace as a matter of urgency to effectively and efficiently contribute to nation building and make our dear country stand tall in the comity of nations. 
At this juncture, I sincerely salute the courage of President Goodluck Jonathan for fearlessly confronting the evil and satanic menace of Boko Haram by declaring a state of emergency in three Northern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa considered to be the strongest spiritual base of the insurgents. This giant stride and worthy development is a step in the right direction and capable of curbing the recklessness and menace. 
To a large extent, the military blitzkrieg and onslaught going on there is yielding fruits as we are seeing the gradual return of order and stability.
Ironically, despite the fact that Muslim faithful all over the globe are observing a 1 month fasting and prayer to commemorate the peaceful and holy month of Ramadan, some agents of destabilization are still bent on unleashing terror on innocent people. These insurgents have killed students, youth corpers, old men and women, children, pastors, Islamic clerics, and even foreign nationals. Nobody is left out of their wrath. They have bombed churches, government establishments, destroyed telecommunication installations, attacked journalists, burnt down schools, destroyed media outlets, looted money in banks, destroyed police stations and carted away with sophisticated weapons meant to be used to engender security. Certainly, these are not the best of times for Nigerians. Some have been rendered sick, homeless, hopeless, poverty-stricken, and slaves. These are not friends of Nigeria. These bloody murderers are more blinder than the bat, utterly visionless, grossly unpatriotic, blatant retrogressive and saboteurs. They are standing on the wrong side of history. I cry for my dearly beloved country Nigeria. I wholeheartedly sympathize with those affected from the unsavory activities of our enemies. I encourage our people to be more vigilant. I equally encourage the government not to rest on its oars in flushing these agents of darkness out of our land. 
(Culled from viewpointnnigeria.com)

CRISIS HITS FAKE GOVERNOR'S FORUM

Crisis is currently rocking the Governor Jonah Jang faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. Investigations showed that some governors in the faction are grumbling over happenings in the forum.

A governor, who belongs to this fake Governor's Forum faction, said that some of them are not happy with what he called the “over-bearing influence of one of us.”

The governor told Punch that with what is happening, it might be difficult for the forum to meet its target. He said, “As I speak, the strategic committee, which we named ‘Think Thank Committee,’ has not been able to meet. Members of the committee, headed by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, have not met even once.

“Apart from Akwa Ibom, other states in the committee are Delta, Katsina, Abia and Bauchi.”

Besides, the governors were said to have been divided over several letters written to different embassies by its Sole Administrator, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, informing them about the “change in the NGF leadership.”

In the letters, Onaiwu informed the embassies not to attend to letters written by Bayo Okauru, the Director General of Gov Rotimi Amaechi's authentic faction.

But at a hurriedly called meeting of the forum, which was held at the Benue Governor’s Lodge in Abuja last week, majority of the governors were said to have frowned at the attempt to make their disagreement with Governor Amaechi, who actually defeated Governor Jang, an international issue.

The aggrieved governors are of the opinion that the international community can never accept 16 as winner over 19. Thus, majority of the governors are said to be against the action of their DG, Osaro Onaiwu.

At a point, one of the governors was said to have asked who employed Onaiwu since he had not been given any employment letter.

A governor at the event said, “We resolved that it was wrong for him to have done all those things without our consent and moreover, we have not employed him as our DG.

“We know that we are making moves to resolve this matter and at the end of the day, we would all come together under one umbrella. That is why we scolded him.”

It was also gathered that President Goodluck Jonathan was under an intense pressure to recognise Governor Rotimi Amaechi as the chairman of the NGF. Jonathan is seriously considering the options.

(Culled from olufamous.com)