The Naked King, By Adenike Adebayo

President Goodluck Jonathan is surrounded by sycophants, the author opines.

As you all know, unity and faith are no longer a real part of our national motto, both have been replaced with corruption and sycophancy. Without sycophancy, corruption cannot endure. The level of political corruption in Nigeria is so high that it necessitates a grand, national scheme that feeds, sustains and upholds its values.
Starting from the very top, the players are ministers, members of the National Assembly, clergymen, politicians, state governors, and other powerful individuals, all conspiring to hold Nigerians to ransom by raising the president up on a pedestal of which he is far from deserving. They lie, when the situation calls for speaking the truth. They twist every situation to benefit themselves while misleading the president to make the wrong decisions. Sycophancy is defined as the art of acting obsequiously towards someone important in order to gain favor. I say a sycophant's goal is to blind the mind of the intended target with undue praise using man's inherent weaknesses and desire for love, affection and respect. Hence truth has no place in our national discourse, it has become a stranger wherever important national decisions are made, even in the award of national honors. Truth is now the enemy, the opposition and the critic. Well, some of us still represent that truth, which is now persona non grata.
As I walked down the hallway of the presidential villa, I could hear voices of men and women talking in unison and trying to outdo one another. This was supposed to be the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting where Nigeria's wealth is shared among ministries supposedly to implement development projects on-behalf of Nigerian masses. As I walked closer to the meeting room, I could make out distinct voices, particularly that of the Honorable Minister, Diezani Madueke saying "…wow, that's fantastic!" I could also make out Minister Bala Mohammed saying "Wallahi, gaskiya, this is the best." Then somebody else said "Oga, it is as if they sew these clothes right onto your body, they are a perfect fit." I hesitated at the door that had been left ajar to compose myself a bit, before going inside. I peeped to see the number of people in the room, and my goodness, what I saw was shocking. What in Christ's name is going on? The president was stark naked in the middle of the room, while everyone was praising him on how great he looked. Yes, our very own Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan. I must be seeing and hearing things, so I wiped my face with both palms, to try again. I peeped inside the room one more time in order to ascertain that indeed I wasn't seeing 'things', and indeed, the president was naked! What could be happening? For sure, I was not dreaming.
The president's nakedness as far as I could see was enshrined in the following sins: Subsidy removal, retention of Diezani Madueke and other non-performing aides, depletion of excess crude account for his own election, protection of corrupt individuals, indiscriminate borrowing, new presidential banquet hall, unnecessary purchase of luxury presidential planes, excessive budgetary allocation for his own meals, excessive budget for other presidential fringe benefits, subsidy fraud by his government, massive looting by ministers, insecurity, induced and unattended terrorism, no clear plans for youth employment. The list was long.
As I walked into the room, no one looked in my direction nor acknowledged my arrival, you see, I was invisible because I represented the truth. No one could hear me and even as I screamed, no one paid any attention. Again I shouted, "Mr. President, you are naked, I can see everything Sir!" But no one heard me, and least of all, the president. He was totally taken over by the men and women around him, he was the puppet and they…puppeteers. The president looked at himself one more time, at that moment, I saw doubt in his eyes, I saw unease in his body language. He asked Minister Diezani, "…but I am naked, don't you see?" She looked at him and smiled, Your Excellency, you can be funny sha", she went on, "Sir, you look absolutely gorgeous and everyone will love you. Look at you, look how handsome you are." With that, President Jonathan smiled, raised up his head high, pushed out his chest and stood taller with his hands on his hips, feeling more confident even as his genitals dangled between his legs. Everyone took turns praising the president and admiring his new clothes. All the ministers, with no exception played along in this grand scheme. They reassured him that all the sins of his nakedness weren't really sins; they were indeed the latest fashion, all the way from America, the World Bank, and that Nigerians would love him for it. They told him that, of all Nigeria's presidents, his clothes were the finest, after all it had the inscription PhD on it.
And so it was, the president must address the press and then later face Nigerians. All the ministers and advisors, one former head of state, some governors, a jet flying clergyman, and a fuel subsidy businessman ushered Jonathan out to meet the press and as he stood there naked, the ThisDay reporter began with questions directed at the president, he did not betray any emotions to suggest any acknowledgment of the president's nakedness. All the other news correspondents followed suit, they all in fact commended the president on his new clothes (Punch & Premium Times were not in attendance). After the news conference, everyone collected the usual brown envelope and went on to write up their stories as instructed by Abati.
However, the world reacted, no one loved GEJ as promised by Diezani, the picture was ugly, the prognosis scary and the numbers staggering. All human development indices went off the chart, showing increased poverty in Nigeria, 10.5 million children out of school, 80% of Nigerians living on less than $2 a day and the Nigerian government turned out to be the second most corrupt in the world. Our debt profile rose considerably since Jonathan took office and he had depleted our excess crude account on two things: his own election and frivolous spending on luxury living for himself and his family.
In the beginning, when President Goodluck Jonathan was presented by his party for presidential elections, many simply and categorically stated that he was not qualified to hold such high position. The candidate himself agreed that he was not qualified. Not those surrounding him, what they all saw was an opportunity to pursue their own personal agenda with a weak president in place. Those around him managed to convince him that he was ordained by God to become president, they helped him to believe falsely in himself even as they knew through daily dealings that he was not competent to lead Nigeria.
Ever since becoming president, every step taken by Goodluck has been one calculated to benefit a few individuals. Those around him have all conspired to conceal the truth from him about the narrowness of their agenda. They conspired to disinherit every Nigerian of their common patrimony in pursuit of selfish gluttonous goals. He is fed on a daily dose of lies about the true condition of the common man that he took the oath of office to serve. He is convinced that senseless and frivolous spending on planes, luxury, meals, and even a new banquet hall are all in the interest of the common man. Any agitation from the people is portrayed as the handiwork of the opposition. No one can tell the president the truth, he is unable to hear it. Former president Obasanjo whom everyone credited for bringing Jonathan to power, has been discredited by Jonathan's men for speaking the truth. They have hired twitter hooligans to attack unsuspecting youths and other concerned citizens who tweet the truth everyday on the real state of affairs in the country. These twitter hooligans appear in different forms, religious zealots, intellectuals, so-called insiders, Special Assistants, informed politicians, or just fake twitter accounts used to do their dirty jobs.
Now the president's scheduled encounter with Nigerians via a media chat, dressed in his new clothes, some last minute alterations needed to be made to make sure everything is perfect. He was excited to show off his handsome new look. After all, Diezani herself reassured him of his dashing gorgeous looks. After the alterations were made, the fittings finalized and the questions rehearsed for the nth time, the president was ready. He walked onto the stage in his nakedness and for the first time, it was there for all Nigerians to see. The Nigerian public and other interested parties were transfixed by the president's appearance in his full regalia of incompetence, lack of commitment to the development of Nigeria, unabashed acceptance of corruption, and his blindness to all things truthful. It would be right to say that the president was indeed in a state of controlled consciousness, similar to the state of hypnosis, directed by a group of handlers.
As the media chat progressed, at no single time did the president show any sign of awareness of his own condition. He was incapable of understanding the questions he was being asked, hence the disconnect with the answers. The problem at hand is the force of evil, first in the person of the president himself and second of those surrounding him, the sycophants, the businessmen and women looking to make a quick profit at all cost, religious figures that have abandoned their calling in search of worldly materials, these are all praise-singers who have managed to convince a vain, foolish president that all talk of his incompetence and corruption was the opposition speaking, and that the monstrous greed of the few, is his administration's policy for creating wealth. All calls to NTA by angry citizens to express rage at the president's nakedness were not put through, by order of Mr. Maku. Only praise singers were allowed.
PSN

Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye: Rt. Honourable Kayode Bamisile Dismissed From Great Ife or Not?

Bamisile

‘The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, whom, in the era of moral crises, remains silence’-Danthy Allegieri.

Good people of Ekiti State, I deem it fit, sarcosant and imperative to coin this piece for the sake of history and posterity, and to set the record straight.
Sometimes in the out-going month of December, the former Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Kayode Bamisile, without a dint of fear, explodes to the world and to those who cares to listen, that, their was no time he was expelled from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (OAU) otherwise known as Great Ife. Here are the affirmations of Bamisile then, while speaking with the Nigerian Compass Newspaper: ‘Their was no time i was dismissed from OAU for stealing six fire extinguishires. I was never rusticated from OAU. I left OAU willignlly when my father died in 1988 as a result of financial incapacitations’.
Country people, my investigation to this saga, however, shows that the affirmation of Bamisile while speaking with the Nigerian Compass Newspaper, was an ‘Outstanding Fallacy from the Constituency of Hell’.
Bamisile, was indeed dismissed from OAU in 1987 for examinations mal-practice, and not for stealing, as was being alleged.
Here is the transcript of the letter dated 6th May, 2008 written by the Deputy Registrar of OAU, F.E Ajayi (Mrs) to the Clerk of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr. Famoyegun.
‘Re: Request for Information- Rt. Hon. Olufemi Bamisile
Please refer to your letter reference EKHA/ADM/481/02 of 23rd April, 2008 on the above subject matter.
In your letter, you requested for information on Rt. Hon. Olufemi Bamisile. This is to inform you that we searched our records and have no details about any Olufemi Bamisile and Robert Olufemi Bamisile.
We only have records on Bamisile Olufemi Olawale as our ex-student. It is on this ex-student that we reeport as follows:
1. Our investigation confirmed that one Bamisile Olufemi Olawale was admitted into University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) to read Political science in the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1984/85 session with Registration No 842215.
2. His academic records could be traced up to part 111 1986/87 Harmattan and rain Semester examination result. There was no further information as regards his academics beyond part 111.
3. Bamisile Olufemi was found guilty of cheating in an examination. He was caught copying from prepared notes and bringing prepared answer scripts into the examination hall. He defended himself before a disciplinary Board for Examinations and other academic Matters. The Board however found him guilty, and he was thereafter dismissed from the Univesity via letter reference R.DAA/EO/14C of 10th February, 1988.
4. Further information from our records indicated that this Bamisile attended Mayflower School, Ikenne from 1978-1980 and Government College, Eriemoore, Lagos from 1980 – 1983 for his Secondary School Education. For his Advanced Level Course, he attended Federal School of Arts and Social Sciences, lagos between 1983 and 1984.
Thank you.
F.E Ajayi (Mrs)
Deputy Regisrar,
Examinations and Records.
For: Registrar.
I sincerely hope that this article will do a decent burial to the hues and cries about whether the Rt. Hon. Kayode Bamisile was dismised from the Great Ife or not.

Bamisile’s dismissal letter

The uploaded document is the copy of the letter written to the Clerk of the Ekiti State House of Assembly by the authority of the Obafemi Awolowo University, dated 6th May, 2008.


Merry Christmas and Happy New year in Advance!
Maxwell , a Public Affairs Analyst, writes in defence of Truth and Morality from Lagos, Nigeria.
DailyPost

Don’t bring calamity on our land – Azazi’s kinsmen warn Gov. Dickson, insist he must be buried at Peretorugbene

inShare1

Some members of the Peretorugbene community in Bayelsa State, the hometown of the late former National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi, have warned against burying him in Yenagoa, capital of the state.
Azazi died in a helicopter crash on Dec. 15 alongside Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and four others, on his way from the funeral of the father of an aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Oronto Douglas.
The Bayelsa State Government had pledged to give him a befitting state burial in Yenagoa after a compromise was reportedly reached between the Nigerian Army and family of the late NSA.
But Azazi’s kinsmen, led by Chief A. Ebikake and Tubereoke Azazi, demanded that he should be buried in Peretorugbene in line with the tradition of the people, adding that the entire community would boycott the burial ceremony if the state government went ahead with its plan..
Ebikake said the late  general’s kinsmen were trying to avoid a repeat of the misfortune that befell their community when the grandfather of the deceased was wrongfully buried in a neighbouring community without due consultation with the extended family some years ago.
He said Azazi personally supervised the exhuming of his grandfather’s remains for proper burial when it was apparent that the wrongful burial was responsible for the disaster that befell the community.
Ebikake said, “We are afraid of what will happen if our illustrious son is buried in Yenagoa. We were witnesses to the calamity that befell our community after Pa Azazi, Owoeye’s grandfather, was buried in Egbeme-Angalabiri. Even the late general himself participated in the cleansing of the land by personally exhuming the body when he was a major in the Nigerian Army.
“He (Azazi) respected the tradition of his people. So we cannot fold our hands and watch few individuals ruin our land.
“The Ijaw nation has traditions and culture, which we hold in very high esteem. In Ijaw tradition, the larger family, the community and the bereaved have the right to determine the final resting place of the dead.
“But these people violated our tradition and went ahead to tell the world that our illustrious son would be buried in Yenagoa without consulting us. We won’t be a part of such arrangement.”
YNaija.com

Suicide Bomber Attack Averted in FCT

Indications emerged, on Thursday, that authorities of the Nigerian Army Garrison Headquarters in Abuja, foiled a suicidal plot by members of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, to carry out a Christmas and New Year celebrations’ bombing in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
According to the Vanguard newspaper, two drums loaded with explosives, several sizes of cans, including those of vegetable oils and palm oil converted to Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs; about six AK-47 rifles and timing devices were recovered.
The Vanguard also reported that two persons, the landlord of the house where the high caliber explosives were recovered, and another man described as the middle man who facilitated the movement of the plotters and IEDS to the house, where the attack was to be coordinated, have been arrested by operatives of the Army Garrison Headquarters.
Also, a manhunt is also said to have been activated for the persons scheduled to carry out the bombings. Operatives, made up of Military Intelligence and counter-terrorism personnel, stormed the house located in Suleja area, following a tip-off at the dead of the night, but were unable to apprehend the two suicide bombers, who did not return from wherever they went on that day.
InformationNigeria

Alao-Akala is a nonentity and Oyo PDP’s greatest liability – Former Governor of Oyo

Former governor of Oyo State, Dr Omololu Olunloyo, has taken a swipe at the immediate former governor of the state, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, over his statement that he (Olunloyo) has no electoral value in the state.
Dr Olunloyo, while speaking with newsmen at his residence in Molete, Ibadan, in a response to the statement credited to Alao-Akala in some national dailies, said ordinarily, Alao-Akala should be ignored, adding that “the immediate former governor is the greatest liability of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.”
Dr Olunloyo added: “I don’t know how a man like Alao-Akala can begin to talk of pedigree when he is publicly and widely known as a nonentity. Nigeria is unfortunate to have such goldsmith in position of great social, political and intellectual import”. In his own statement, Alao-Akala had said: “who is Olunloyo? Olunloyo is just somebody who does not have pedigree. His problem is that he is consistently inconsistent. He is not a politician. What is his electoral value? He has no electoral value. If he has decamped, let him show us his followers.”
Reacting, however, Olunloyo said “ordinarily, on no platform should Alao-Akala and I be in the same party. He is the greatest liability to the PDP and, by now, he must have learnt that wisdom is more important than money. He spent a hundred times more on the election he lost in 2011 than on the one he was alleged to have won in 2007.”
InformationNigeria

CPC, ACN, ANPP raise committees over mega party

 by  Taiwo Adisa- Abuja

Fresh crisis appears to have hit the top echelons of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), following the intensification of plans to form a mega party alliance with top opposition parties, including the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).
Sources close to the parties confirmed that, notwithstanding the formation of Joint Negotiating Committees and the nomination of chieftains into the committees by the different parties, some leaders of the CPC were unhappy that they were not being carried along in the process.
A meeting of some chieftains of the party, held in Abuja, on December 26, was used to ventilate the misgivings among the top leaders of the party with the way General Muhammadu Buhari had been going about the merger plans.
It was gathered that the new mega party would emerge through the registration of a new political party, in which all the three merging parties would dissolve into one political party.
Sources said that the three parties would encourage their members to register with the new party, following the conclusion of talks on the outstanding issues.
Sources close to the meeting of the CPC chieftains  confirmed that the leaders were unhappy that Buhari had brought in a former deputy governor of Bauchi State, Garba Ghadi, as the member representing the CPC at the Joint Negotiating Committee of the three parties, adding that the leaders were also unhappy with Momoh and Buhari for following the perceived propaganda championed by the ACN, which tended to indicate that, without merger, the CPC could not make any headway in the 2015 election.
Some of the leaders expressed sentiments that Buhari did not seem to trust them despite the fact that they had put in over 12 years into the pursuit of his political agenda.
According to sources, the new mega party would emerge after the conclusion of deliberations on three key issues, including political power structure and sharing; harmonisation of the constitution and the manifesto of the parties involved; and programmes and development plans, while the concerned political parties would be in power.
A source said; “While the above would be going on, a new political party would be registered, after which the concerned political parties: CPC, ACN and the ANPP would eventually abandon their respective parties to join the newly registered party that would emerge.”
“As soon as the negotiating meetings begin, a political association would commence registration processes of the planned new political party, and that as soon as consultations and talks are concluded by the concerned parties, they would consequently move to align with the new political party.”
NigerianTribune

“Balotelli is my boy and he is glad I am dating his sister” – Obafemi Martins

For a while now, the rumour mills have continued churning out stories, insisting that there were strings attached between Obafemi Martins and Mario Balotelli’s elder sister, Abigail.
The pair had been spotted together in at different locations, with love clearly in their eyes and the Levante frontman has finally confirmed that they are having an affair.
He also insisted that the erratic Manchester City forward, had no qualms about him seeing his sister, as they have a good relationship dating from their time together at Inter Milan.
“Mario is my boy. The respect is there because I used to play at Inter, in the youth team with him. He’s giving me my respect and I’m doing same. People are putting it in the news that he’s upset, of course he’s glad,” he said.
“He’s glad that Obafemi Martins is dating his sister. But if he gets jealous then it means he doesn’t want his sister to grow. But it’s not like that. The boy is not a bad boy.
Martins, who was recently dropped from the Nigerian squad to the Nations Cup, however insisted that marriage is not on the agenda yet.
He said: “The relationship is true but getting married or not, we haven’t discussed anything like that. She’s upstairs and we’re happy together.”
24-year-old Abigail, had earler told the The Sun in an interview in April that she couldn’t date a footballer.
“Mario wouldn’t let me anyway. He knows only too well what they are like. They are surrounded by women. Girls throw themselves at them,” she said.
DailyPost