Eagles to get $15,000 each for Cote d’Ivoire match

Super Eagles’ players will each receive $15,000 if they beat Cote d’Ivoire and qualify for the semi-final of the 2013 African Cup of Nations on Sunday.
A top Nigeria Football Federation official reconfirmed an MTNFootball.com exclusive of several weeks ago when he also disclosed each player will be $20,000 richer if they triumph in the semi-final.
For victory in the championship game on February 10 inside the National Stadium in Johannesburg, each player will pocket another $30,000.
Each player received $30,000 a day after the team qualified for the quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Team sponsor Guinness has also made a financial commitment for goals scored at the AFCON, while the Eagles are expecting billionaire Aliko Dangote to splash more cash after they reached the last eight.
Each player was paid about $80,000 when Nigeria finished third at the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola.
On Sunday afternoon in Rustenburg, the team will face 1992 champions Cote d’Ivoire.
The winners of this match-up will clash with the winners of the quarterfinal between hosts South Africa and Mali.
NaijaCenter

Jonathan performance in the CNN Amanpour interview left much to be desired

On January 23 in Davos, Switzerland, President Goodluck Jonathan briefly fielded questions from CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on her Amanpour programme, in a satellite-relayed interview.
The president’s responses were unbefitting of a country that has produced a Nobel Laureate in Wole Soyinka, a globally acclaimed writer in Chinua Achebe, and an extremely articulate international civil servant in Emeka Anyaoku, among many other illustrious Nigerians. Briefly put, the Jonathan pedestrian performance was sad. But it was also a fearfully vivid metaphor of leadership lagging behind the people, the bane of governance in Nigeria.
The president’s responses failed almost on all counts: substance, style, depth, class and even basic logic. It also suffered from basic untruths: the president’s claim that Nigerians were “pleased” at the level of power supply in the country was too sweeping to be true. Another flat promise (without any proof) was that at the end of 2013, Nigeria would be a power El Dorado. The president was spot on, however, when he contradicted the earlier assertion by saying that if Nigeria had all the money and political will, fixing the power problem would still take some time.
But it was on the issue of Boko Haram that he showed a scandalous lack of grasp of the situation, though he projected himself, to a squirming global audience, as one of those providing a solution to the problem by getting involved in rooting out terrorism in Mali. Still, he rightly reasoned that rooting out the alleged Boko Haram nursery in Mali was crucial to curbing the menace in northern Nigeria– a menace that has consumed thousands of innocent lives.
Ironically however, beyond the derring-do of a Nigerian strong man come to solve Mali’s terrorism challenges en route to checkmating Boko Haram, the president was at sea at the basic trigger of the terrorist group. When Ms Amanpour suggested that it was basic misrule, poverty and corruption that gave Boko Haram its initial boost – which were true – President Jonathan combatively demurred and denied that self-evident fact, to the utter embarrassment of his viewers.
However, President Jonathan committed the gaffe of the day when he cautioned the US State Department – and others who believed that Nigerian security agencies widely abused citizens’ rights in the name of fighting Boko Haram – not to play politics with the terrorist group! Is the American foreign ministry then part of Nigeria’s local politics? Such un-presidential naivety!
Failing in basic analysis of the problem, the president latched on to an embarrassing illogic of a combined appeal to pity and clambering on the global train to fight and defeat terror, rather than demonstrating his own understanding of the dire situation for his country. Pray, if a president does not even understand a problem, how does he go about solving it?
On umpteenth theft of Nigerian crude, President Jonathan was no less flat. His riposte to Ms Amanpour’s quote of a figure by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy, that 400,000 barrels of crude was daily stolen, was not how to stem the financial bleeding. It was rather an annoying counter-blackmail to the “international community” who nevertheless accept to refine the crude, knowing it had been stolen! So, traders in international crude, licit or illicit, should do Jonathan’s job for him?
Even on the power question, Ms Amanpour, who was relatively soft by her own hard standard in this satellite-relayed interview, virtually drew rings around the president when she made a joke that she was at a loss at what to tell Nigerians who said they hoped they would have electricity to even watch the interview on which the president was being featured!
Whoever dragged Jonathan to CNN, without adequately preparing him for the chore, had done the country a lot of ill. The president also did himself no credit by his below-par performance. In future, it is either the president prepares and excels; or perpetually keeps his peace. Enough of this image of a drooling president that does neither himself nor his country any good.
NaijaCenter

Pastor Pulls Out Gun On Church Accountant In Benue

The Benue State Police Command, yesterday, arrested the pastor of a new generation church in Katsina-Ala (names withheld) for illegal possession of fire arms and assault on the church’s accountant.
Vanguard gathered from sources that the pastor was apprehended with the firearm by men of the Benue State Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, in Katsina-Ala where he allegedly tried to kill the accountant of the church, Mr. Philip Toryila, during a serious disagreement over money.
According to our source,”the incident occurred on Tuesday evening when the pastor ordered the church accountant to handover church monies to him for execution of a project and he refused.
“The refusal of the accountant angered the pastor who engaged him in a fracas and in the process pulled out a gun on the accountant.
“In the process, the accountant shouted for help which attracted the attention of another church official who alerted the police and they quickly drafted some armed men of the squad to the place and arrested the pastor.”
The source added that “the accountant sustained a major facial injury and other parts of his body and was quickly rushed to a private hospital in Katsina-Ala where is now receiving treatment.”
Confirming the story, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Deputy Suprintendent of Police  Daniel Ezeala, said: “The arrested pastor was brought to the state command and he will soon be charged to court for illegal possession of firearms but we are still conducting investigations into the matter.”
Naij

European Investment Bank ready to invest in Nigeria’s power sector

By Robert Obi

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is interested in investing in Nigeria’s power sector, Rogr Kelly, an official of the bank, said on Wednesday in Abuja. He said this when he led a delegation from the bank on a fact-finding visit to the Ministry of Power.
The Loan officer said the bank was willing to assist Nigeria to reduce or eliminate the challenges it was facing in the power sector, adding that it had assisted some developing countries in solving their energy problems.
He said the bank was willing to invest about 50 per cent of its equity share in renewable energy, small hydro plant and Biomass.
Responding, Zainab Kuchi, the Minister of State for Power, said that Nigeria had planned to generate over 10,000 megawatts in 2012, but could only generate about 4,500 megawatts. She said that Nigeria had an enabling environment for investors, “ who are interested in investing in the power sector’’.

Kuchi said that Nigeria would need N3.5 billion annually if it was to meet 40,000 megawatts by 2020.
EIB is the European Union’s non-profit long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome.
BusinessNews

Appeals Tribunal Declares Winner of Ikoyi-Obalende Council Poll

The Lagos Sate Election Appeal Tribunal has returned Adewale Adeniji, the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as the Chairman of the Ikoyi-Obalende local council.
The Appeal Tribunal reversed the decision of the Election Tribunal that declared Ibrahim Obanikoro of the Peoples Democratic Party the rightful winner of the election after the Lagos electoral commission had declared the ACN candidate winner.
Naij

$620,000 bribe scam: Court strikes out Lawan’s plea of immunity

 by John Chuks Azu

The preliminary objections brought by Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and Representative Farouk Lawan seeking to uphold their immunity in the suit filed by businessman Femi Otedola over a $620, 000 bribery allegation has been struck out by an Abuja High Court for lack of merit.

Tambuwal and Lawan had in July and November 2012 separately objected to Otedola’s claims of intimidation and N250 billion in damages from the National Assembly following the attempt to re-list his firm, Zenon Oil and Gas Ltd, in the list of indicted firms in the fuel subsidy scam.

Defence counsels Mike Ahamba (SAN) and Kehinde Ogunwumiju Esq. had argued that the principal officers of the House of Representatives are covered under section 53 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, 2004.

In his ruling, Justice Peter Kekemeke, held that he has the jurisdiction to entertain the matter. He further held that Speaker Tambuwal is a necessary party in the suit because his absence will affect the fair outcome of the matter. He adjourned the suit to March 30 for hearing.

DailyTrust

During Brazil Nightclub Fire, Lt. Leonardo Lacerda Machado Died Returning To Building To Save Others

  By Jessica Prois

In the wake of the tragic fire in southern Brazil that killed 234 victims, stories of selflessness and courage have begun to emerge.
Lt. Leonardo Lacerda Machado managed to escape Kiss nightclub after a fire raged through the facility during a concert, but the 28-year-old decided to return to the scene and help others. He saved one person, but died of smoke inhalation, Jornal Do Brasil reported, as translated by the Huffington Post.
PHOTO: Lt. Leonardo Lacerda Machado, Facebook. Story continues below.

"He had already gone outside and come back to help a fellow officer. After getting him out of the club, he came back one more time. This is the natural attitude of an Army official," Colonel Mario Fonseca of the Eastern Military Command told the news outlet.
Eight soldiers died trying to save people in the fire that started during a pyrotechnics display by the band Gurizada Fandangueira, Band News reported.
Marcelo Moreira, the lieutenant's 73-year-old neighbor, told Jornal Do Brasil that Machado was admired widely: "That boy was the son that every father hopes for. He never got into trouble, didn't smoke, never went too far. He died a hero," he said.
Brazilian police have arrested four people in connection with the fire, including two club owners and two members of the band, CNN reported.
In Santa Maria, a college town of 260,000 people, funerals began earlier this week, according to the news outlet. On Monday, mourners gathered for a series of funeral processions and paid respects at coffins scattered in a gymnasium that sever as a makeshift morgue.
The city council declared an official mourning period of 30 days and has made psychologists and psychiatrists available to those mourning the loss of loved ones, Jornal De Brasil reported.
HuffingtonPost

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