2015: ACF, Arewa Youth Differ On Ribadu, El-Rufai Ticket

There are indications that the North is divided over having a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir el-Rufai, and an Action Congress of Nigeria presidential candidate in 2011, Nuhu Ribadu, as presidential candidates of the All Progressive Congress.

Opposition parties – All Nigeria Peoples Party, Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and the All Progressive Grand Alliance – which recently announced their merger to form APC, were said to have preferred younger candidates, with el-Rufai and Ribadu in their consideration.
A member of the CPC, who recently spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, had said, “We are working on a plan B. If Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) does not contest, the party will shift attention to younger candidates.
“Our search will be extended to non-politicians, including young technocrats from the North. El-Rufai and Ribadu will be among the pool of candidates who will be screened.”
The Arewa Youth Forum has however said youth support for the duo might not be automatic, noting that that both Ribadu and el-Rufai were far from events at the grass roots.
National President, AYF, Mr. Yerima Shettima, told our correspondent in an interview that, “the two have a lot of work to do because they are not in touch with the reality in the North. Neither Ribadu nor el-Rufai is in touch with the youth in the northern part of the country.
“They live all their lives in the capitalist world; they are not in touch with the reality of things. It’ll take them a lot of time to build the confidence of the youth in the northern part of the country.
According to the group, el-Rufai and Ribadu are far from the grassroots. “Neither el-Rufai nor Ribadu has done anything meaningful to the well-being of northern youth. As far as I am concerned, they are not popular. They are only known at the national level by the elite and they make their contributions within the confinement of the elitist setting.
“When it comes to the grass roots level, coupled with the situation of northern youths, I don’t think they have much to say. It is a process; I will not conclude that they won’t have the support of northern youth but they need a lot of work; they need to face the realities on the ground,” Shettma added.
However, The North’s apex body, Arewa Consultative Forum, the youth should share in the blame of misrule of Nigeria.
The forum said the youth had continued to blame older politicians for the nation’s woes, while feigning ignorance of the fact that most past leaders ruled the country when they were under 50 years old.
National Publicity Secretary of the forum, Anthony Sani, told our correspondent that there was no correlation between good leadership and age.
He said, “You may wish to know that the youth are part of the problem. This is because they are more in number and so are in position to produce leaders of their choice for the country in a democracy.
“Yet, they are the ones who snatch ballot boxes, who thump print ballot papers and who change results. Consequently, feckless leaders emerge.
We cannot forget the truism that when people do not make judicious use of their democratic rights to elect leaders of their choice, they get the leadership they deserve.”
Naij

Lindsey Graham To Place Hold On National Security Nominees Over Benghazi Attacks

By Igor Volsky

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is threatening to place a hold on key administration national security nominations unless President Obama explains how the White House reacted to the Benghazi attacks and who “changed” the talking points used by U.N. ambassador Susan Rice during back-to-back appearances on the Sunday political talk shows in September.
Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, Graham insisted that Republicans shouldn’t “allow Brennan to go forward for the CIA directorship, Hagel to be confirmed to Secretary of Defense, until the White House gives us an accounting.” “Did the president ever pick up the pohne and call anyone in the Libyan government to help these folks,” Graham asked. “What did the president do?”:

BOB SCHIEFFER (HOST): I’m not sure I understand. What do you plan to do if they don’t give you an answer? Are you going to put a hold on these two nominations?
GRAHAM: Yes…How could Susan Rice come on to your show and say there’s no evidence of a terrorist attack when the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said they knew that night? I think that was a misleading narrative three weeks before our election.
SCHIEFFER: Let me just make sure, because you’re about to make some news here, I think. You are saying that you are going to block the nominations — you’re going to block them from coming to a vote until you get an answer to this? Now, John McCain has already said he doesn’t think the Republicans ought to filibuster this. What will you do? You’re just going to put a hold on it? [...]
GRAHAM: I want to know who changed the talking points. Who took the references to Al Qaeda out of the talking points given to Susan Rice? We still don’t know…. I want to know what our president did. What did he do as commander in chief? Did he ever pick up the phone and call anybody? I think this is the stuff the country needs to know.

Watch it:
Since Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey testified before Congress last week, conservatives have seized on a portion of the testimony to argue that President Obama went “AWOL” the night of the Benghazi attack.
The GOP has touted a portion in the hearing during which Panetta said that he did not personally communicate with Obama, but ignore further testimony during which Dempsey stressed that the White House was focused on the Benghazi attack and Obama’s staff was engaged “pretty constantly through the period, which is the way it would normally work.” As Panetta put it, “The president is well-informed about what is going on; make no mistake about it.”
The unclassified talking points as presented by Rice were edited through an interagency process, wherein the CIA itself removed the references to al-Qaeda. Graham, along with Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and John McCain (R-AZ) led the charge in attacking Rice, blaming her at times for not revealing classified information during her Sunday show appearances.
TP

In Australia, Wind Power Is Already Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, And Solar Is Right Behind

By Jeff Spross

According to the latest research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electricity from wind power can now be supplied more cheaply in Australia than power from either coal or natural gas — and solar and other forms of renewable energy aren’t far behind.
Older coal-fired power plants from the 70s and 80s still compete at lower prices than renewables — but only because their construction costs have depreciated. For the deployment of any new power generation in Australia, renewables now appear to be the way to go.
Australia currently charges polluters $23 in Australian dollars per metric ton of carbon they emit, but the study concluded that wind power would still undercut fossil fuels even without that correction of the market’s failure to properly build in the costs of carbon pollution:

The study shows that electricity can be supplied from a new wind farm at a cost of [$80 per megawatt hour in Australian dollars], compared to [$143 per megawatt hour] from a new coal plant or [$116 per megawatt hour] from a new baseload gas plant, including the cost of emissions under the Gillard government’s carbon pricing scheme. However even without a carbon price (the most efficient way to reduce economy-wide emissions) wind energy is 14% cheaper than new coal and 18% cheaper than new gas.…
Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s research on Australia shows that since 2011, the cost of wind generation has fallen by 10% and the cost of solar photovoltaics by 29%. In contrast, the cost of energy from new fossil-fuelled plants is high and rising. New coal is made expensive by high financing costs. The study surveyed Australia’s four largest banks and found that lenders are unlikely to finance new coal without a substantial risk premium due to the reputational damage of emissions-intensive investments – if they are to finance coal at all.

Here’s a graphic of BNEF’s findings, courtesy of Renew Economy:
So the study expects both coal and natural gas to rise in cost over the next two decades. Among other things, coal power consumes more water than any other source of energy. That will drive up coal’s cost, as fresh water becomes scarcer due to the very climate change driven by coal power’s carbon emissions. And in America, at least, there’s evidence that the major proven natural gas reserves will peak out within the time frame of BNEF’s analysis, rendering the boom in that energy source decidedly temporary.
Meanwhile, while the costs of solar and other forms of renewables are currently lagging, they’re dropping fast:

BNEF’s analysts conclude that by 2020, large-scale solar PV will also be cheaper than coal and gas, when carbon prices are factored in. By 2030, dispatchable renewable generating technologies such as biomass and solar thermal could also be cost-competitive.

According to companies like Ratch Australia, the cost of deploying new solar photovoltaics is already down to between $120 and $150 per megawatt hour, suggesting it may be dropping even faster than BNEF concluded. Kobad Bhavnagri, head of BNEF’s clean energy research in Australia, expects that by 2020 or 2030 “we will be finding new and innovative ways to deal with the intermittency of wind and solar.” And since Australia is most likely set for baseload capacity until at least 2020, when solar as well as wind will be undercutting fossil fuels, “it is quite conceivable that we could leapfrog straight from coal to renewables to reduce emissions as carbon prices rise.”
The world’s biggest manufacturer of wind turbines already has 50 percent of Australia’s market, which it expects to hold. And China’s largest manufacturer is eyeing the market as well. The deployment of rooftop solar is already dramatically reshaping the energy market in southern Australia, and the Green Party in Western Australia recently proposed installing solar panels on all public housing homes.
And while a move towards renewable energy by Australia’s economy certainly won’t fix global warming on its own, it’s a step in the right direction, away from the rash of heat waves and wildfires — worsened by the climate change driven by fossil fuels’ carbon emissions — that have recently slammed the nation.
TP

Birth of APC has redefined 2015 political landscape in Nigeria – CNPP

By Emmanuel Uzodinma

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has called on its members to join the newly formed coalition political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The CNPP, arising from a strategic meeting in Enugu called on members to as a matter of urgent national importance join the APC.
The National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, Osita Okechukwu who spoke to journalists shortly after the meeting, said the wake-up call was based on the urgent patriotic need for all progressives to join hand in halting the dangerous slide of Nigeria to a failed state.
According to Okechukwu: “the interest of our dear country, safety of our fledgling democracy and public good was the hallmark of statesmanship.
“We urge the National Executive Committees or relevant organs of the political parties; especially the Labour Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance and indeed all progressive parties whether deregistered or not to join the progressive train.

“It is our considered opinion that in their enlightened self interest and collective interest, joining APC early at this initial stage will help all progressives forces in designing and modeling a truly center left manifesto anchored on social justice, welfare and anti-corruption. Is it not a paradox that Labour Party is missing in action, in fact in a movement geared towards the redemption of the working class?”
Continuing, he said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the APGA faction, leadership of Labour Party and other progressive political parties who are opposed to joining the APC, in no distance time will regrettably blame themselves when the mass exodus of their members and supporters commence. Time is of essence before the progressives train leaves station”.
He explained that the birth of APC had redefined the political landscape in Nigeria as the electoral battle of 2015 was now between PDP and APC.
DailyPost

Abati: The Grammarian’s Funeral – By Bayo Oluwasanmi

One of the most important and dramatic emblem of democratic citizenship is the right to criticize a government. No amount of glorious hyperbole by the government or its agents could stop critics from airing their views.
Reuben Abati’s article “The Hypocrisy of Yesterday’s Men” is a sharp rebuke of revolving PDP beneficiaries of political spoils.
Reuben Abati, President Jonathan’s senior adviser on media and publicity as well as Aso Rock attack dog came out swinging on past and present critics of Jonathan’s administration.
I will not dignify the article by responding to the phantom of fear dressed up as substance by Abati. However, a general comment will be in order.
The write-up is undisguised propaganda ploy of Abati’s pleasant fantasy to shut up the critics of Jonathan’s government and hope they’ll for ever remain silent.
The Aso Rock way of operating a democratic government is to hurl accusations and insults on critics who are merely expressing their democratic rights.
Abati’s writings are anti-democratic. They amount to democratic apartheid to stifle the freedom of speech and freedom of expression of Nigerians.
He has been consistently hostile by trying to gag, coerce, intimidate, and muzzle voices of dissent and views diametrically opposed to the PDP led federal government.
In representative democracy, the majority that rules has all the powers over the minority that loses. Elections have consequences. However, the succinct characteristic in the relationship between majority rule and democracy is the right of dissent.
Whenever a government sees critics as enemies, and is all out to erect barriers to prevent opposing views, such government is delicately perched on the coat tail of tyranny of the majority.
James Madison warned, “If a majority be united by a common interest (corruption, fraud, repression of people’s views as in the case of PDP government), the rights of the minority (those outside the ruling class) will be insecure.
Madison elaborates further that in order to prevent the tyranny of the majority, there must be safeguards to protect “one part of the society against injustice of the other part.”
The concentration of all powers in the same hands, Madison warned, “whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Madison’s concern about the tyranny of the majority is that the majority may not represent the whole. As in the case of the majority rule PDP federal government, the government does not represent all the competing interests of our people.
As the PDP central government has demonstrated through financial profligacy, redundant     policies and programs time after time, the majority is self-interested, greedy, arrogant, ignorant, insensitive, and indifferent to the concerns of the people.
The majority becomes tyrannical when the self-interested majority does not give a damn about what the governed thinks, says, or feels.
When the majority is fixed and permanent in power for so long similar to PDP’s hold on power for years now, there will be no checks on its ability to be overbearing. Despotism, Madison insists, must be opposed “whether it came from kings, Lords, or the people.”
Abati, no doubt has taken leave of his senses. He’s an obsessive advocate of anything Jonathan – senseless or stupid.
He believes the critics of Mr. Jonathan are implacably hostile to the person of Mr. Jonathan. Abati feels the critics are not authenticated Nigerians.
The battle for spin control on the views, perceptions, and criticisms of Jonathan’s administration can never be won by propaganda. Rather, it will leave Aso Rock more distracted, more disorganized, more disarrayed, and more paralyzed.
We need a debate on issues not on personalities. What Abati is doing is when the Jonathan administration is criticized, he demonized, when challenged, he demonized some more!
Abati no doubt, is willing to be mean, nasty, rude, crude, and raw because he’s willing to do anything to deceive the people.
It’s been said that “differences of opinion make horse races.” But in Abati’s case they do not. In his pontifical defense of a corrupt, insensitive, and ineffective government; Abati has surnamed thoughtful and creative critics as dangerous radicals.
Tocqueville once asked: “What is a majority, in its collective capacity, if not an individual with opinions, and usually with interests, contrary to those of another individual, called the minority?”
Tocqueville believes that a group (such as Aso Rock propagandists) is not wiser that its parts.
The fact that the PDP run government supports or initiates a policy/program or enacts a law is no evidence of its wisdom. The people’s interests more often than not are excluded in the PDP’s scheme of things.
I think it is a cruel joke on the part of Abati to attack critics of Jonathan’s administration with distorting vituperations and to label them as yesterday’s hypocrites.
In the words of the Sanza Player in Aime Cesaire’s play, A season in the Congo, “Even when a man has good eyes, you have to show him some things.”
If the critics were yesterday’s hypocrites, what shall we call Abati of today? :  Yesterday’s hypocrite and today’s pharisee!
Political struggles should not be a contest between rulers and people. For a government that worth its salt, political struggle should be a struggle to make life happier, safer, better, and prosperous for the people.
The work of a responsive and responsible government is not to transcend different interests, but to reconcile them.
In an ideal democracy, the majority would rule but the people would also be protected against the power of majorities.
No amount of propaganda, arm-twisting, distortions, fabrications, and intimidation by the Aso Rock propaganda coterie will quell the firestorm that the ineptly corrupt Jonathan administration continues to ignite.
The tirade unleashed on the critics by Abati sends our intellectual and moral nature to a fierce revolt. In essence, Abati has derationalized the debate.
Abati’s venom on the critics is a product of some heated imagination. It’s a product of blurred vision typical of ecstatic and half-hysterical propaganda disciple.
In days like these when death is busy and loss is common to Nigerians, when hunger, joblessness, and homelessness ravaged the land, when young ones are written off as lost generations, when the country is headed into the abyss, no academic writing can rewrite the situation on the ground.
The reality on ground lends no evidential value to Abati’s article. Blogger Sunkanmi Adesina on The Nigerian of Our Dream Group sums it better: “The article is full of words, yet it conveys no iota of common sense regarding the allegation on ground.”
Abati reminds me of the great truth which Browning teaches in his poem “A Grammarian’s Funeral.” There he depicts a scholar “dead from the waist down” because of his fastidiousness to the practice of his craft.

Like the Grammarian, Abati pursues the goal of distortion and disinformation with effortless stylistic literary gem believing that will change the hard life faced by impoverished millions of Nigerians.
The Hypocrisy of Yesterday’s Men – is Abati’s Grammarian’s funeral!
Only last week, US Billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates in an interview said: “Nigeria really needs to think that relative to its level of wealth, it is really far from behind.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron the G8 President in a similar vein remarked: “…corruption and mismanagement of huge oil wealth still continues to deny the nation’s (Nigeria) people of their prosperity.”
“Nigeria oil exports were worth almost a hundred billions,” continued Cameron. “That is more than the total net aid to the whole of sub Saharan Africa,” said Cameron.
“So, put simply, unleashing the natural resources in these countries dwarfs anything aid can achieve, and transparency is absolutely critical to that end,” concludes Cameron.
Instead of Mr. Jonathan and his staff to roll up their sleeves and get down working and solving the country’s problems, they continue to churn out useless and sickening cacophonies.
I’m sick and tired of the threadbare excuse that Mr. Jonathan didn’t create the problems. That’s not the issue and of course it is beside the point. That’s a dishonest way of debating the issue.
What we’re saying is what’s Mr. Jonathan doing and what’s he going to do about the problems?
Can Abati and other conprivate part fools employ some rational thinking and nuggets of wisdom instead of using reverse psychology to slice and dice important national issues?
Is Abati saying that we don’t have right to question the government for allocating N4bn for First Lady’s Mission House?
Can’t we discuss the rationale for: N5bn rehabilitation of Abuja prostitutes? Seven billion Naira for a new city gate for Abuja?  N16bn for the Vice-President’s house? Cell phones for farmers?
How can a government gets its priorities so twisted, so warped, so comedic, and so completely out of logic to allocate money for the above absurdities when the country’s safety and stability are being threatened by 80% unemployment and 70% of our people living below the poverty line?
The critics of the government may lose in the short run, but they cannot be suppressed in the long run. Public dialogue is critical to represent all perspectives. No one viewpoint should be permitted to monopolize, distort, caricature, or shape public debate.
Suppressing the people’s viewpoint is part of the tyranny of the majority. It is excluding their representation or preferences from government’s priorities and policies.
We need a broad public conversation about issues of representative justice that seeks practical solutions to real-life problems.
 InformationNigeria

I Really Hope My Son Gets to Be a Boy Scout

I grew up in boy scouts from the age of 12-18. I absolutely loved it. I hope that some day it is an experience my son and I can share together. This week, the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America delayed a decision on whether or not to allow the LGBT community to be open members of their organization. I'll be dropping this letter in the mail today. I thought I'd share it here too.
Dear Boy Scouts of America,
I need to tell you something that I suspect you already know. There are already plenty of LGBT people in your organization. In my troop alone there were three gay men that I know of. Two remained closeted until later in life and are still my friends. One came out while still in the troop. We ridiculed him, teased him and bullied him. He was eventually asked to leave the troop by our leadership. He left, broken-hearted.
His mom, Barbara, was a kind and quiet woman. Before her son left the troop, she had already volunteered to be one of the adults who would attend a once-in-a-lifetime Boy Scout trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch. Knowing that if she didn't attend we wouldn't be able to go, she still went with us -- even though her son wasn't allowed.
For two weeks we would get to backpack through the wilderness in New Mexico learning outdoor, teambuilding and leadership skills. And for two weeks she would hike silently among us while we used words like gay, queer and faggot.
About halfway through our second week we were all sitting around the camp fire joking and Barbara hit her breaking point. I don't recall what was said that made her tip, but it was probably something insensitive and hateful. She lashed out sobbing and yelling as she pointed at each one of us accusingly.
"It is your fault that my son isn't here! It is your fault he is at home crying! It is your fault he lost all of his friends! It is your fault I worry about him every day! You are all so mean!"
"No," said one of the boys. "It's his fault."
And then she broke down into sobs, stood up and walked away into the darkness to find her tent.
She didn't bring it up again. We spent the rest of the week joking and hiking and singing songs on the trail. And while we went home having learned how to tie knots and build a fire without matches, not a single one of us had learned anything that night at the fire.
A Boy Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.
We were none of these things. And while our cruel behavior was not endorsed by the BSA, the seed of it, an institutional policy of discrimination was.
It took me a lot of years, and a lot of life experience to realize how wrong we all were sitting around the campfire that night, and how right Barbara was to point her finger at us. So now I'm going to do the same thing to you.
It is your fault that these kids have to live in fear. It is your fault that they feel isolated and different. It is your fault that LGBT parents of Boy Scouts have to sit down with their kids and explain why they can't be a leader in their troop. It is your fault, Boy Scouts of America.
It is time to change. I believe you can change -- and as scary as it is, I believe you can survive that change.
There is so much right about the Boy Scouts. It makes me sad that all that is talked about these days is your policy on homosexuality in your membership. I learned a myriad of different practical, social and leadership skills in the Boy Scouts that have directly contributed to my success today. Not only that, I made some of the greatest friends of my life -- almost all of which I still keep in contact with. Three were groomsman at my wedding. Being a scout was an incredible force for good in my life... but I also sat around a campfire one night and looked into a crying mother's eyes and told her that her son was not good enough to be a Boy Scout, or my friend. And I just can't risk my son ever learning that that is OK.
Most of the mistakes we make in life, we are not conscious of until after they are made. I made mistakes when I was 13 that you are still making today. But it isn't too late. Please make the right decision in May. Please amend your policy of exclusion. I really want my son to be a Boy Scout, but regardless of how he turns out, if the BSA doesn't change, he won't be wearing the uniform. And that makes me incredibly sad.
John Kinnear
Life Scout and father of two
HuffingtonPost

PHOTO: Tonto Dike’s New Look

The attention-grabbing, drama-loving Nollywood actress is looking quite different in this photo taken by popular photographer Tobi Balogun of TCD Photography.

Tonto Dike’s make up was done by Joyce Jacobs.
We guess it’s all part of her re-branding process as she’s making a ‘headway’ in the world of music.
InformationNigeria