Eddy Ogunbor

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

OSHIOMHOLE'S STAR WITNESS, PROFESSOR PHILLIP ENAHORO AGBEBAKU'S CREDIBILITY IN QUESTION AT EDO STATE ELECTION PETITION TRIBUNAL.

Eddy Ogunbor.
Tuesday 11, December 2012. Benin City, Nigeria.
At the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City in the Governorship Election petition between General Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere and Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, ACN and three others, Counsel to 2nd Respondent (ACN), Adetunji Oyeyipo(SAN), leading Ken Mozia (SAN) and others, called to the witness box Professor Phillip Enahoro Agbebaku, a Political Science lecturer at Ambrose Ali University (AAU) Ekpoma.
The witness had made deposition that he attended the same secondary modern school(Blessed Martins Modern School, Jattu) with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and that they were class mates in the same school from the year 1963 to 1965. He claimed also that at the time they both attended the school, Oshiomhole's names were Adams Aliu, while his (Agbebaku) names were Phillip Sunday Agbebaku. He further claimed that, at a later date, on completion of secondary modern school education, he proceeded to a secondary school spending additional five years to acquire the secondary school certificate.
Asked to identify his class mate in the secondary modern school, he pointed to and identified Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who was present in court and who sat directly opposite him.
Professor Agbebaku claimed that he is an examiner at Benson Idahosa University, Benin City and NIPSS, Kuru amongst other higher institutions. Therefore, he was in a position to establish that the additional qualifications/certificates produced and submitted to INEC by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for election purposes, were authentic and higher than the secondary school certificates.
He however added that the Petitioner was not competent to ascertain the authenticity of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole's certificates. Rather, the Ministry of Education, Dept of Evaluation is the appropriate authority to authenticate certificates.
Counsel to the Petitioner, Chief Efe Akpofure (SAN) in cross examining Professor Agbebaku demanded to know if his further education certificates now have the name "Sunday" written on them. Agbebaku responded in the negative and that the certificates now bear Phillip Enahoro Agbebaku. Chief Akpofure demanded to know if he followed the official legal process of swearing to an affidavit to the change of his name(s).Professor Agbabaku responded in the affirmative.
Chief Akpofure further made reference to Prof. Agbebaku's statement in the witness box in which he told the Tribunal Judges that the Department of Evaluation in the Min. of Education is the authentic body to certify certificates etc and therefore the assertion by him that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole's certificates were higher in content and quality than the secondary school certificate was a personal opinion, as he is not from the Evaluation Dept. of the Ministry of Education. Prof. Agbebaku agreed with Chief Akpofure. Chief Akpofure demanded that Agbebaku should produce and show to the Tribunal Judges his primary school leaving certifcate, secondary modern school certificate and official letter from NIPSS appointing him as an examiner to NIPSS. These he could not produce with the excuse that he was not put on notice by the Petitoner's Counsel to provide same. Chief Akpofure reminded Prof. Agbebaku that he (Agbebaku) made his deposition in August 2012 and had enough notice, information and knowledge as to what was required from him to produce at the Tribunal.
Prof. Agbebaku admitted that he is not a card carrying member of the ACN but a lecturer at Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma. Chief Akpofure pointed out to him (Agbebaku) that he was only a "busy body" who was meddling as a witness instead of minding and attending to lecturing his students at the University. He was also reminded that he decided to stand as witness for personal reasons to secure the confirmation of appointment of his wife as the Vice Chancellor of Ambrose Ali University and to also secure his own appointment in the same University. Chief Akpofure thereafter had no further question for the witness having established that the credibility of the witness was in doubt and his evidence as witness and deposition before the Tribunal were not to be relied on.
Counsel to 2nd Respondent (ACN) in a suprised move decline to call to the witness box any further witness, though he had informed the Tribunal that he will call two witnesses for today's proceedings and decided to close his submission on the first day, calling only one witness. In the same vein, counsel to 3rd to 5th Respondents (INEC, REC and Election Returning Officer) informed the Tribunal Judges that he had no witness to call nor any submission to make before the Tribunal and therefore closed the submission of the 3rd to 5th Respondents.
The Tribunal Judges thereafter adjourned to 10th of January 2013 for Counsels to begin their addresses before the Tribunal.

Monday, 10 December 2012

Are Republicans really 'incapable' of beating Hillary Clinton in 2016?

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said over the weekend that his party could not rise to Mrs. Clinton's level. But she might not be as formidable as it appears.

By Liz Marlantes | Christian Science Monitor

If Hillary Rodham Clinton decides to run for president in 2016, would she be unbeatable? That’s the pronouncement of former GOP Speaker and onetime presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Mr. Gingrich flatly proclaimed his party “incapable” of beating Mrs. Clinton in a potential 2016 matchup.
“[I]f their competitor in ‘16 is going to be Hillary Clinton – supported by Bill Clinton and presumably a still-relatively-popular President Barack Obama – trying to win that will be truly the Superbowl,” Gingrich said. “And the Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level.”

Wow. We realize Gingrich has been rehabilitating himself as a Republican wise man of sorts – and for partisan pundits, provocative critiques of one’s own party are always a great way to generate attention (we’re writing about it, aren’t we?). But to blithely write off the chances of the entire 2016 GOP field a full four years in advance is eyebrow-raising, even for a politician as prone to “grandiose” (as he once put it) statements as Gingrich.
We agree that Clinton would, indeed, be a formidable candidate, but we’re not sure she’d be as impossible to beat as Gingrich suggests.
True, she’s currently more popular than every other candidate considering a run. Clinton holds a 60 percent favorability rating – higher than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (39 percent), Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (33 percent), Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (47 percent) and Vice President Joe Biden (46 percent), according to a new George Washington University/Politico Battleground poll.
And she’d probably be unstoppable in a Democratic primary. As Democratic strategist and Clintonite James Carville said on ABC’s "This Week" Sunday, “Every Democrat I know says, ‘God, I hope she runs. We don't need a primary. Let's just go to post with this thing.’ ”
Frankly, the argument being made by some that Clinton was just as much a heavyweight front-runner in 2008 and still wound up losing the nomination ignores the fact that Barack Obama was at that point already an acknowledged political superstar. He didn’t have Clinton’s network or name recognition, but most insiders saw him as a once-in-a-generation kind of orator. He was clearly a real threat.
This time around, there’s no one like that on the Democratic horizon to challenge Clinton. To put it bluntly, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is no Barack Obama. Neither is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. If Clinton wants the nomination, there's a good chance it will be hers for the taking.
But whether she’d have as easy a time in the general election is another matter. It’s not hard for us to envision Governor Bush or Senator Rubio or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie giving Clinton a real run for her money. Yes, the party has some fundamentals to work out. It needs to improve its image on immigration and women’s issues. It needs to raise its turnout game. But many of those eyeing 2016 runs know that – and they’re already working to do it.
Clinton's current popularity, as we've written before, is in part a reflection of the nonpartisan role she's taken as secretary of State, as well as the nostalgia surrounding her husband's now-well-in-the-past White House years. If she were to become an official candidate – coming under attack from rivals, subjected to much harsher scrutiny in the press – it probably wouldn't take long for much of that warmth to fade.
The real question may be whether Clinton ultimately decides to run at all. As The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor wrote over the weekend: “For her last presidential run, Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy nearly two years before Election Day – but the timing did not feel right to her, because it made the race endless, say former aides who hint she would wait much longer if she made a bid again.”
That means we’ve got two-plus years left of this kind of speculation. If, in the end, she winds up deciding not to take the plunge, Democrats would really have to scramble to find a new candidate to rally behind.

Catholic Cardinal Says Adam and Eve Didn’t Exist

Cardinal George Pell

In comments that may shock some staunch Catholics, Cardinal George Pell has described the biblical story of Adam and Eve as a myth. He appeared alongside renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins, on the ABC’s Q&A program last night.
Cardinal Pell said the existence of Adam and Eve was not a matter of science but rather a mythological account.
“It’s a very sophisticated mythology to try to explain the evil and the suffering in the world,” he said.
“It’s a religious story told for religious purposes.”
According to Genesis, God created Adam and Eve as the first man and woman and all people are descended from them.
Cardinal Pell’s explosive comments came after he was questioned about evolution.
He said it was impossible to say when there was a first human.
It is widely accepted in the scientific community that life on Earth has evolved over about four billion years
ConsciousLifeNews

The Tragedy Of Nigeria’s Civil Service By Godwin Onyeacholem

By Godwin Onyeacholem

In the uncontainable urge for agitated minds to continuously reflect on the state of affairs, it is necessary to briefly pause, once again, to review the impact of the public sector, more commonly known as the civil service, in the largely self-imposed crisis of underdevelopment hobbling post-colonial Nigeria. Please take note: this is by no means a tendentious evaluation of the civil service. Rather, it’s a detached undertaking inclined at best toward rendering a factual assessment of a critical segment of government relative to where we are today as a country.
For the benefit of those still confused, who may be thinking that only those who work in the Ministries are civil servants, it is important to emphasise that any employee of state-owned institutions – be it Ministries, Departments, Agencies, Councils, Research Institutes, Corporations, Commissions or any government-controlled establishment of whatever arcane nomenclature – is a civil servant; and therefore a worker in the public sector (civil service).
In its heyday, the Nigerian civil service was the poster child of robust bureaucracy, a sort of metaphorical heirloom honed in the best tradition of Victorian thoroughness and rigour, and handed down to honest, but inexperienced local administrators by the British colonial masters. It was an efficient and functional structure; a reasonably admired establishment and a fruitful hunting ground for job seekers inspired by productive forerunners to build a career under the wings of government. If the middle class enjoyed its best run at that time and became a decisive catalyst in those early stages of the country’s development, there would not be any fulmination against the civil service stepping forward to take a larger share of the credit.
It was under this stirring atmosphere, suffused with alluring nostalgia of the 60s and 70s, that one grew up in one of the “government quarters” scattered around Yaba, a throbbing Lagos suburb, to know a father who woke up every working day to exhibit a quiet sense of purpose and the compelling seriousness that captured the dignity of labour in an era the phrase truly had meaning. And then a mother, who demonstrated the fierce diligence and clerical dedication that embedded public service and earned it silent acclamation in those good old days.
Cumulatively, both offered well over five decades of selfless service in government offices, and before the patriarch’s final departure, they repeatedly singled out that period as the golden years of their lives, in spite of the measly pension. They had nothing to show for having worked in the civil service other than the calm satisfaction of being actively involved at the time of its consummation, and then the random goodwill gesture that came as a token of appreciation.
There was no estate to point at as personal property in the city, no tens of acres of land to show off, no mansions in the country home to call their own, no 4-star hotel anywhere to cause not a little swagger, no fleet of cars and buses to boast of, no super market or shopping malls to gloat over and no petrol stations to produce the excessive arrogance of oil magnates.
And it was not just about one’s parents. The civil servants of old evinced discipline. Looking around the quarters then, one noticed an overpowering air of self-restraint – the type that goes with acceptance of responsibilities and certainty of integrity. All manner of exotic automobiles didn’t clog up a sizable portion of the space in the quarters and in the offices. It was an age the Nigerian story was sweet to tell.
Hardly can anybody say the same of today’s civil service, whose steady decline began with the destruction of values engineered by errant political leaders and their counterparts in military uniforms. My friend and colleague, Chido Onumah, sketched the decay in government offices in one of his latest articles. And civil servants should thank him for limiting the deterioration to “channel flipping”, “ghost workers” and turning office premises into huge bazaars. The rot goes deeper than that. Truth is, Nigeria’s civil service is dead. That institution no longer serves anyone outside those charged with the responsibility of running it.
Unlike what obtained in the past (and one actually refers to the glorious past), the civil service ethic, with its evident overarching kernel of service to the public, has been completely abandoned and its place taken over by a pernicious culture that has no other description beyond self-serving. The typical civil servant of these days is not just lazy, but also irrepressibly corrupt. A brief stopover in any government department, federal or state, will suffice. There is no passion to do the job. The staff just sit idly or hop from one office to another, blathering away the whole day. Records are poorly kept, that is when they are kept at all, and so an interminable search for letters and files is a normal, everyday story.
Files pile up untreated sometimes for as long as four weeks on the bosses’ desk without anyone being struck by conscience, or awakened to the fact that such habitual act of undeviating slothfulness amounts to a huge disservice to the country. And then any attempt by an assertive outsider to point out the anomaly, if not dismissed by an outright contemptuous silence, gets the standard reply of Na so government work be o!
Given this kind of attitude, it’s no surprise that programmes and projects rarely get implemented; while something as normal as requests for approvals for useful projects that ought to take no more than one week to wrap up take almost eternity, if it manages to overcome the obstacles of narrow-minded bureaucrats.
As a result of the bankruptcy of its public institutions, Nigeria remains the only country in the world where it takes unduly long time to conclude paperwork on any issue. In a bid to reverse this negative identity, former president Olusegun Obasanjo established a service delivery watchdog called SERVICOM with a marching order to every government establishment to set up a branch of its own. The idea is to restore efficiency by fast-tracking services in all government offices.
Typical of the administration, the scheme was launched with fanfare. Then the public was charged to send observations and complaints regarding service delivery to this body. But it turned out to be a futile effort, as the unraveling of the civil service, in the face of widespread prodigality of the political class, assumed a more disturbing dimension even with Obasanjo still in office. In no time as expected, SERVICOM more or less disappeared from the radar of public governance.
In furtherance of this relentless sectoral degeneration, a simple, straightforward exercise of staff promotion has been added to the growing list of victims. No longer is it a secret that promotions are for sale in the civil service. Workers on different levels are routinely called out for interviews or examinations for promotion, but in the end, performance almost always does not determine who gets promoted. It is always those who are able to pay some specified amount of money that get lifted to the next levels.
The bigger shame is that members of the Federal Civil Service Commission and the Head of Service and his lieutenants know that Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors and others down the line offer bribes in order to gain promotion, but they have refused to do anything to stop the ugly practice because they are said to be receiving remittances from some group of workers called schedule officers. Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors pay as much as N1m and more to be promoted.
No doubt the impulse for paying that much can’t be divorced from the assurance of recouping what was paid, thanks to the ongoing massive corruption in the system. Evidence of this is the scandalous material wealth being displayed by many public officers. In spite of the regular complaints of lack of funds, civil servants ride the most expensive cars in the market and buy mansions, build estates, shopping malls and acquire all kinds of property across cities.
On a regular basis Ministries, departments and parastatals budget money for seminars and workshops, but the big guns end up diverting the cash into their pockets. For them, there is usually enough to steal. Under the guise of holding meetings, they dip their hands into the office purse and share public funds behind closed doors. This orchestrated stealing goes on virtually every week, and only the generous ones among them extend the loot to other junior staff.
There is no question that a civil service like this one has only helped to preserve the country’s stagnation. The way to turn things around is not to embark on mass sack of workers as recommended by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Instead, Nigerians should insist that the current civil service serves no useful purpose and, therefore, a new, strictly enforced orientation for the workforce in public institutions is urgently required.
Saharareporters.com

Kidnappers of Okonjo-Iweala’s mother demand $1 billion ransom

The Kidnappers that abducted 82-years-old mother Of Finance Minister Prof. Kanene Okonjo at their family home in Ogwashi uku, Delta state, are demanding for a whopping $1 billion ransom.
Majesty, Professor Chukwuka Aninshi Okonjo Agbogidi, the reigning Obi of Ogwashi-Uku kingdom was kidnapped Sunday at about 1:30 pm from the husband’s palace at Ogbe-Ofu quarters in Ogwahi-Uku by eight gunmen who stormed the palace in two Audi cars.
The demand for a $1billion ransom according to source was relayed to the family of the woman this morning.
Its yet to be seen how the family will react to this development, but in a statement made available to elombah.com yesterday, the minister’s spokesman Paul Nwabuikwu said; “at this point, it is difficult to say whether those behind this action are the same people who have made threats against the Coordinating Minister in the recent past or other elements with hostile motives. No possibility can be ruled out at this point.”
Meanwhile Umu Anioma Foundation Worldwide has demanded the immediate release Of Dr. Okonjo Iweala’s Mother. In a statement made available to elombah.com and signed by Prince Charles Anyasi, the National Coordinator / Spokesman, the group said:
“Once again, the image smear on Delta State has been brought to the fore with the unfortunate kidnapping of the aged mother of Nigeria’s energetic Finance Minister, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo Iweala from her home in Ogwashi-Uku a few hours ago. A few months ago, it was the turn of another prominent Anioma family to sweat in search of their mother who was abducted in her farm.
“Nothing can be hurting as the current worldview of Delta State encapsulated in BBC’s report of the unwholesome development, stating inter alia: Nigeria is one of the worst countries in the world for kidnapping, where it is a lucrative criminal enterprise worth millions of dollars a year.
“The crime is particularly prevalent in the oil-rich Delta State, although high-profile victims are uncommon.
“The question is; how did we get here? Whether this latest heinous act was orchestrated as a payback for the Finance Minister’s principled stand on the current Oil Subsidy imbroglio or as a message to scare innocent indigenes making preparations to be with their kit and kin in this festive season, the perpetrators had better get it clear that, as Daniel Defoe would say, Justice is always violent to the party offending. Yes, the offenders may not feel the violence now, but, before long, they certainly will.
“Umu Anioma Foundation Worldwide wishes to state categorically that a situation where citizens toiling diligently for the society’s positive turnaround are being punished by satanic elements can no longer be condoned. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of this old woman.
“As thousands of people get into celebration mood, many travelling to their respective home lands, we call on the security agents to beef up action and assure the public of safety.
“The time to act is now!”
DailyPost

Meet the ‘water babies’: 9-months, can’t walk or talk, but can swim the length of 25-meter pool (PHOTOS)

They are too young to walk and talk but tiny twins William and Ellenita Trykush can swim a length of a 25-metre pool at just nine months old.
The water babies love gliding up and down on their backs, kicking their legs to propel themselves along.
And as this delightful underwater picture shows, they even smile while they’re swimming.

Like ducks to water: William, left, and Ellenita, right, in their local pool

Splashing around: William, right, copies his sister Ellenita in the water
Their achievements are even more astonishing given that they were born by emergency caesarean six weeks early.
The twins’ extraordinary talent emerged during a family holiday to Cyprus in October when they began to swim underwater, unaided and without armbands.

On their return to Cirencester, Gloucestershire, their mother Charlotte, 35, took them to local baby pool at the Cotsworld Leisure Centre where they both suddenly set off on their backs.

‘It was astonishing. First they did five metres, then a width at seven metres, and then a length of 12 metres,’ said French-born Mrs Trykush, a former swimming coach.
‘There was hardly anyone in the adult pool, so I suggested to their teacher that we try the big pool.
‘They were loving it so much, they set off and did an entire length with me swimming underneath them on my back to make sure they were alright and to steer if they went off in the wrong direction.
‘Ellie was first – she always is – and William seemed to be copying his big sister.

Under water fun: The pair first swam five metres before progressing to the full length of the pool

Natural: The twins now visit their local pool twice a week because they enjoy splashing around so much

Encouragement: Former swimming coach Charlotte swims underneath her babies to check they are alright

Tired out: The babies take a well earned nap after their swimming exploits

‘We were so excited – all the receptionists and swimming coaches came to watch and were amazed.
‘One of the coaches has been teaching for 20 years and she said she’d never seen anything like it.
‘I think it comes naturally to them, as they are too young to actually learn the strokes.’
Mr and Mrs Trykush, who are both youth workers, married in September 2008 and discovered they were expecting in July last year.
It was only at their 12 week scan that they discovered they were having not one, but two.
Mr Trykush, 49, said: ‘When I saw the two little dots on the screen it was just amazing.
‘I sank to my knees and shouted “Yes!” as if Chelsea had won the cup.
‘Twins do run in both families, but it was still a bit of a shock.’
There were more surprises in store for the family.
While visiting her mother in Normandy, France, Mrs Trykush was rushed to hospital with a placental abruption – each twin had their own placenta but William’s had ruptured.

In the family: The confidence in the water of mother Charlotte, a former swimming coach, and father Victor, helps William, centre left, and Ellenita, centre right

They were born by emergency Caesarean on 7 February, Ellenita first at five pounds (2.24kg) and then William at four-and-half pounds (2.07kg).
William had swallowed a large amount of blood, which had to be sucked out his stomach, and was severely jaundiced.
‘It was a very traumatic birth and William nearly died,’ said Mrs Trykush. ‘They were in incubators for three weeks but I was just so relieved they were going to be OK.
‘They were so premature and small that although I’d intended to take them swimming as soon as possible, I was worried they would get too cold in the water.
‘So we waited until they’d had their inoculations and until they were big enough to regulate their temperature better.’
Now aged ten months, the twins go swimming twice a week – to their Duckling lesson with teacher Amy Stanley, and a practice session on the weekend.
Miss Stanley, 27, said: ‘They are the youngest children I’ve ever seen swim.
‘Normally children can swim at age three or four at the earliest.
‘A lot of babies can hang in the water, but Ellie and William can swim on top of the water and breathe independently.
‘It’s remarkable how they can do it, but they haven’t learnt, it just comes naturally.
‘They are so relaxed because Vic and Charly are so relaxed in the water and love swimming. It rubs off on them.’
Mr Trykush now has half an eye on the Olympics, having taken the twins to London this summer.
‘We won’t push them but it would be amazing to see them at the 2028 Games.
‘If they continue like this, who knows.’

On dry land: Father Victor hopes Ellenita, left, and William, right, compete at the Olympics in 2028
YNaija

Banned Lagos Motorcycle Operators Protest Despite Warnings, Saying Governor Fashola, After All, Ignores Tobacco Warnings And Still Smokes

An encounter between aggrieved motorcycle operators who converged at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters in Lagos on Monday to embark on a protest, and armed policemen who closed road junctions resulted in a ‘no-retreat-no-surrender’ situation which grounded traffic on the Yaba-Ojuelegba road link.
Policemen formed a preventive wall in their armed and hefty presence at the take-off venue of the protest at NLC building, but the determined leadership of the Joint Action Front [JAF] ignored the advice of the police to abort the procession. The police also stationed men at other strategic locations and arrested any person perceived to be headed towards the protest warm-up venue.
In an attempt to stop the protest, they had earlier whisked away four men for sharing leaflets among the gathering crowd. The number of protesters however continued to swell, and the organized movement of JAF began the rally from the NLC building. The police, conscious that the rally would turn huge, as other motorbike operators were reportedly waiting at other road junctions to join in, inched towards leaders of the procession to negotiate peace.
JAF Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, engaged the police team and suggested among other things that "if Fashola still smokes despite warnings that tobacco smokers are liable to die young; motorbike operators also have a right to continue their operations with provided warnings that bike passengers are liable to be injured in an accident".
As it became apparent that the police team might not be able to handle the growing crowd, the police barricaded the road with one of their vans. Protesters however seized the road and sat on it until several pleas got JAF leadership to lead the protesters back to the NLC building for an invitation to discussion the matter of the ban on motorcycles with State officials.
JAF leadership has insisted that motorbikes must be permitted to return to commercial operations, arguing that if a BRT lane could be dedicated for Lagbus, the same option would work for bikes to operate safely, in opposition to creating mega unemployment in the guise of creating a mega city.
Saharareporters.com