PHOTOS: Triumphant Super Eagles Arrive Home To Heroes Welcome

Nigeria’s Super Eagles arrived back home here on Tuesday, after winning the country’s first Africa Cup of Nations trophy in nearly two decades and were welcomed by adoring crowds ahead of meeting the president.








Hundreds welcomed the team back at the airport in the capital of Abuja before an ceremony later in the afternoon at the National Stadium.
They were also due to attend a reception on Tuesday, to be hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Along the road from the airport toward the city, school children dressed in their uniforms waited for the team convoy and waved Nigerian flags.
Check out more photos below



Vanguard

PDP is causing chaos

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is creating political chaos in Nigeria. Note that the principle of rotational presidency was not contested until Dr. Goodluck Jonathan decided to take undue advantage of the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. All the major opposition political parties chose their presidential candidates from the North-west in 2011, to indicate they found rotational presidency reasonable and just.
Surprisingly, confusionists keep saying rotational presidency is undemocratic, as if democracy implies lack of political order. They also argue that it will lead to choosing mediocres as President; they have not indicated which zones harbour only mediocres, so that we can exclude such zones from the rotation roster. Then, they have not told concerned Nigerians how else the nation can engender political equity, peace, and progress. They should explain also why the Jonathan-led administration has refused to allow an electoral commission whose principal officers are not chosen by the PDP.
The PDP and its beneficiaries should explain the foregoing, and outline their proposal for equity, peace, and progress in Nigeria. I propose that the President should come from (Yar’Adua’s) North-west zone in 2015 to serve a single term of four years, and afterwards the baton should pass to the South-east, since Jonathan (from South-south) has spent many years in the presidency. Thereafter, the presidency should rotate from zone to zone, on north-south basis.
The most recent act of intolerance and desperation betrayed by the PDP was the seizing of Offa Local Government from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), using inter-communal clash as an excuse. Offa is the only local government won in Kwara state by the opposition political party (the ACN). The long-standing bad blood between Offa and Erin-Ile (in another local government) which resurfaced recently provided an opportunity the PDP had been looking-for to seize Offa local government.
The state Governor, AbdulFatah Ahmed, also sacked the other chairman to convey appearance of even-handedness, and replaced both with caretakers. I enjoin the Offa people to endure the humiliation, hold their peace, but never succumb to intimidation and deceptive “gifts”. Nigeria must sack the PDP after many years of chaos, disorientation, and retrogression.
I appeal to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to solidify rotational presidency, and work for the establishment of a truly independent electoral commission whose principal officers will not be chosen by the partisan President. I enjoin support for General Muhammadu Buhari to be the presidential candidate; he is a highly trustworthy person from the North-west. At worse, there should be primary election, rather than begging the General to drop his ambition.

• Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,
NaijaCenter

Bill Gates, Vaccines and Population Control and the Death of 9 Nigerian Health Workers

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Feb. 12, 2013
NewsRescue- You might be wondering what Bill gates has to do with the killing of 9 health workers in Kano state in Nigeria.
Well, a simple Google search of terms like, “Bill Gates, Vaccine, reduce, population,” will yield rather unusual results.
Not only the three journalists arrested by the Nigerian government as a sign of “action,” against the horrific murder of the Nigerian polio health workers by unscrupulous elements, are participants in the propagation of this concept that “vaccines are a globalist tactic of population control,” but hundreds of United States and other international editorials of all calibers have also been caught in this “conspiracy,” and raised this accusation by inferring to a statement made by Microsoft billionaire, Bill Gates on vaccines in his “Decade of Vaccines,” talk at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in 2010 [Video appended].
During which he also pushed his weight behind the controversial “carbon-credit,” system whereby big corps no longer bother to cut their carbon emission, but rather “exploit,” the developing world – buying “land-for-trees,” from the natives.

Google search results for “Bill gates Vaccines Reduce Population”

There is no justification for the acts of terrorism carried out by these unscrupulous adherents to the Boko Haram cult insurgency ideology. Such barbarism has no place in the modern world or in any past period since the existence of humanity.
See: NewsRescue- Boko Haram Kills 9 Polio Vaccine Female Staff in Kano: Muslim Group Words Strong Condemnation
However it is important, as important as it is for journalists to be prudent in their releases, for Bill Gates to quickly and clearly re-propagate his intended message to the world in clear terms, to avert similar recurrence.
Bill gates said on lowering the world population by 15%,

“Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent,”

This statement has been read to mean, “vaccines reduce population.”  But how it does so has been an active topic of attack, debate and mixed personal interpretation over the years.
Bill Gates has scantily clarified his statement on the basis of a population theory[citation needed], that “better health care, ensures better survival of children and consequently reduces the desire to have more kids.” This explanation is founded on a theory [citation needed], that with improved health care, which includes vaccines, survival of offspring is reassured, and parents who desire larger families to protect their name and their heritage, are less tempted to mass-procreate, in a sort of, ‘plant many so more survive,” primitive mentality.
What of the many more theories that suggest the other cultural and religious reasons for large families and that also relate the decreased family size in the western hemisphere with socio-religious and not health-care changes?
This theory has been regarded to be  insulting and degrading at the very least. The evolutionary-theory based insinuation that people procreate in larger numbers merely to increase the chances of more surviving children, is strange, animalistic and a bit extreme, one might say.
Due to the multiple issues the Bill Gates statement has raised, and also due to the actual fact that in the past, there is precedence of vaccines having been associated with infertility:

Previous vaccination programs have been shown to have covertly been used to sterilize women.  In 1995, the Supreme Court of the Philippines found that vaccines used in a UNICEF anti-tetanus vaccination program contained B-hCG, which when given in a vaccine, permanently destroys women’s ability to sustain a pregnancy.  Approximately three million women had already been given the vaccine. source

A fully published clarification has become necessary, not just to discourage the senseless killings, but also to abate the hampering of global efforts in eradication of Polio, and again to clarify the “derogatory” explanation also attributed.
It is quite pertinent and urgent, that Bill Gates in his noble efforts and capacity as an ambassador of research and the promotion of vaccines, malaria therapy and over-all better health care especially in the “developing world,” releases a comprehensive statement clarifying the misconceptions drawn from his TED statement.

News+Rescue

Senator Mark: Why Keshi Wanted To Quit

The Senate on Tuesday in Abuja passed a vote of confidence on Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, the team’s technical team and Nigerian coaches. The Senators gave the Super Eagles a standing ovation and congratulated them for making the country proud by winning the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

The resolution was sequel to a motion on the country’s glorious outing at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) moved by the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu. The motion was unanimously supported by the senators, who spoke glowingly about the spectacular performance of the Super Eagles on their way to emerging as Africa champions.
Senate President David Mark, who lead a team of VIP cheer leaders to the finals in South Africa, said the exploit of indigenous sports talents must be appreciated and encouraged in order for the country to achieve more excellence. Mark said the achievement of the current crop of Super Eagles’ players was enough for "our sports administrators to believe in our indigenous coaches and players.
“We need to have faith in ourselves, because if we don’t believe in ourselves, we cannot make progress. Even if we have all the facilities and the funds, if we don’t have faith in ourselves we cannot make progress. Keshi has demonstrated the need for Nigerians to have faith in themselves both in our own coaches and in our players. He advised sports administrators to desist from interfering with the work of coaches appointed to handle our sport teams, because such attitude will not help the country’s sports development."
Mark said Keshi’s purported resignation was due to his opposition to plan by the Sports Ministry to hire a foreigner to head the Super Eagles’ technical crew. He described the interference by sports administrators in the running of the national teams as "unhealthy and counter-productive" to the achievement of good results in international sports. The Senate President urged the senators to prevail on Keshi not to resign his appointment at a time when the country needed his services most to nurture the array of talents under him.
"Stephen Keshi confirmed to me this morning that he has resigned due to interference by administrators and plans to hire a foreign technical adviser."
The reason  for that was too much interference and that even before the final match on Sunday, a lot of pressure was mounted on him to accept a foreign technical adviser.
"Keshi said he was opposed to the plan, because there were Nigerians, who could work with him, and that he did not see the gain in bringing foreigners."
"Once we give the team to him to manage, we should give him the free hand to manage it. Once we begin to meddle in the way he is going to run and manage the team, then, we cannot get results. Once we give him the task, we should give him the free hand to accomplish the task," Mark said.
He also decribed the over dependence on government for funding of sports, saying that it was inimical to the growth and progress of the sector. "The procedure for getting fund out is not easy. It’s not straight forward. If government gives you fund, there will be middlemen, who will administer it," the Senate president said.
The Senate urged the Federal Government to reward the team and their handlers by conferring befitting national honours on them and naming streets after them in their states of origin. It also urged Keshi not to resign his appointment as head coach of the Super Eagles.
Naij.com

APC Governors To Implement Free Education, Okorocha Confirms ‘Real APGA’ As Part Of Merger

Governors in APC

Governors who are members of the new All Progressive Congress (APC) party, say they will position and pride themselves as social democrats, with free education as their leading programme.
The 10 governors, who come from the former All Progressive Grand Alliance, the Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressive Change, met in Abuja today where they rolled out their programmes under the yet-to-be registered APC.
There are 11 opposition governors in Nigeria and all of them, except the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, were present.
They are: the Governor Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), (Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Rauf Aregbesola(Osun), Tanko Almakura (Nasarawa), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara).
Almakura, who spoke on behalf of the governors, said that the programme priorities in the new party will be agricultural development, jobs creation, free education, affordable healthcare, infrastructural development, adequate power supply, eradication of poverty and corruption, and rapid technological advancement and industrialisation.
“We shall pride ourselves as social democrats that are committed to organise our society based on the values of justice for all and individual freedom where everyone’s basic needs are fulfilled,” he said.
He also announced the formation of Zonal Contact and Mobilisation Committees, which are headed by six of their members.
Almakura himself will head that of North-Central; Fayemi, South-West; Yari, North-West; Okorocha, South-East; Geidam, North-East; and Oshiomhole, South-South.
Also speaking with reporters, Oshiomhole underlined his commitment to the merger.  “I am fully convinced about the need for this merger,” he declared.  “There is no question about my conviction and my commitment to the merger.”
Okorocha also insisted that although there are problems in his party, APGA, the party was committed to the merger.
“Let me say that APGA is in the merger talks. We have our little challenges and we are just trying to sort out about who are the APGA-APGA and who are the APGA-PDP.
“But I can tell you that the APGA-APGA (the real APGA) is already in the merger talks.”
  Saharareporters

How far can APC go?

KUNLE ODEREMI writes on the prospects of the newly formed All Progressive Congress [APC] in the political arena if it is eventually registered.
The social media network is abuzz with comments by most Nigerians from far and wide that the mega party formed by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the All Progressive Alliance (APGA) about what they consider as the necessity or otherwise of the merger of four of the main opposition parties into the All Progressive Congress (APC). In his capacity as the chairman of the merger committee of the ACN, Tom Ikimi, last Wednesday in Abuja, unfolded the party, flanked by some of the leading promoters.
Some critics see the initiative as bordering on the personal ego of the main gladiators.
However, there are many others who see the ‘arrival of APC as god-sent, highly desirable and so deserving of popular support. They corroborate their position with what they regard as the unsalutary effect of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] administrations in the country since 1999, arrogance and insensitivity of the leaders to the welfare of the citizens and inertia by fragmented opposition parties. The assumption, according to some observers, is also that PDP appears to be taking things for granted because it realises that the populace has lost confidence in electoral process. They no longer believe that their votes count on who wins an election.
But can the initiators of the new parties absolve themselves from the various negative tendencies that have continued to manifest in the polity since 1999? These untoward factors include seamless corruption in the land, pervert values, general indiscipline among the elite, brazen conversion and acquisition of state properties by privileged few, money politics, unguided ambitions, inability to strike the necessary balance between religion and politics and absence of internal democracy within the parties.

Big names
Some of the other big names include Chief Bisi Akande; Senator Bola Tinubu, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Senator Annie Okonkwo, Chief George Moghalu, Chief Olusegun Osoba, Chief Niyi Adebayo, Senator Chris Ngige, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senator Kabiru Gaya and Senator Buka Abba-Ibrahim and members of the opposition parties in the National Assembly.This list includes the governors of Yobe, Borno, Nassarawa, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and Imo and Edo.
Buhari and ANPP
He ran on its banner for the presidency twice before dumping the arty to found CPC.  His exit led to acerbic verbal exchanges between his loyalists and some major players in ANPP. Proof that those individuals in both camps have been able to overcome their ego could significantly determine the inroads of APC in the North-East zone, where they had maintained an uncanny rivalry that became the game of PDP.

Zones
The success or otherwise of APC will largely depend on the formidability of its machinery across the six zones. PDP has a relatively huge presence and formidable structures in all the zones, though they had suffered some seizures in a couple of zones. Other factors other than service delivery and good governance have been the staying power of the ruling party in the zones where it consolidated its hold in past elections. The readiness of APC to contend with the factor of incumbency with other tenuous factors cannot be de-emphasised, especially in the South-South, South-East, North-Central and North-West.
But in the South-West, the new party could rely on the strong presence and structures of ACN, which could boast of influential politicians, who have hold their own. The party will need to work extra hard to make serious incursion not the South-East and South-South if most the governors in the two zones should choose to remain in PDP despite likely reservations some of them appear to have for the party, ostensibly because of the 2015 presidency. The governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has promised that other governors will soon join the new party. APC will count substantially on Buhari and Shekarau and the governor of Borno State in the North-East, while Senator George Akume and Chief Audu Ogbeh among its leading lights in the North-Central.

Leadership character
There are issues such as the strength and weakness of the leaders, as well as their electoral value, influence and financial standing. The strength of character of the individuals behind the new parry is already becoming a subject of public debate in many circles. Some have raised the issue of integrity which some claim makes General Buhari to stand out in the political scene. Others have identified some of the political actors as of very high electoral value, especially in their constituencies, which could rub off on the APC during elections. But there are others who have been categorized as more of a deficit and liability than asset to the new party.  A lot of them are seen as mere featherweights in view of the fact they have consistently lost in any major poll and offered puerile arguments for their dismal failure or cried blue murder when their parties failed at the polls.
The public perception that a couple of the forces behind the party are still under a moral burden to explicitly convince Nigerians about allegations of gross abuse of office while holding elective positions remains an issue. The social stigma has persisted, making many to believe that it would be suicidal for Nigerians to entrust their life in the hands of such individuals at a higher level of government in the land.
Optimism
Since the party was introduced to the public, the promoters have not only been trying to justify its birth on the failure of PDP to provide good governance and rescue Nigeria, but also intensified efforts to shore up APC’s rating and chances in the political scene. According to a former presidential aspirant of ANPP, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the leaders had resolved to subsume their personal interests in order to make the project succeed. He said, “I think to the best of my knowledge and understanding, all the people you may think have ambition in all the political parties involved are all ready to sacrifice and play the game of give and take.’’

PDP and others
No doubt, the mega party is bound to give PDP some goose pimples, given its relative unimpressive record of governance and general impunity. Coupled with that is the calibre and pedigree of some of the promoters of APC, some of whom were at one time or the other members of PDP. Another school of thought is the feeling among some party faithful that such persons were familiar with PDP tricks which could come in handy for the new coalition in its quest to create an upset in the next elections. The clamour for power shit could also affect the ability of PDP to leverage in the South-East and the entire northern part of the country, where the feeling is that the next president must come from.

Forces against APC
There are accusations and counter-accusations that PDP was behind some elements working openly or discreetly against the merger. It was accused of giving support to some aggrieved members of the opposition parties involved in the new party in their destabilisation antics and tactics.
The protracted leadership tussle and other internal contradictions in APGA has further widened the gulf among some of the party members after the APC was proclaimed by the leaders. The crisis, which persisted even while the then APGA de facto leader, late Chief Chwukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was alive, has thrust to the front burner, the issue of ego and personal interest. Consequently, APGA deputy chairman, Chief Uche Ejike, has predicted that APC become history in a matter of six months.

He said: “The mega party is made up of strange bed fellows. Yes, there are strong personalities there, but I give the party six months. It will fall apart soon; it can only be together between now and the next six months.” The anger of some APGA members could be owing to the race for the governorship and other elective offices as some members holding elective offices are bent on seeking another term.
Presidential ticket
Cynics believe the party could face testy times over sharing of key elective offices. So, various permutations are being made as to how the APC leaders hope to address the issue of presidential ticket of the party once it is registered. Initial speculations were that the matter had created a wedge between Buhari and former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State. There was insinuations that while Buhari was uncompromising on his eligibility for the 2015 presidency, the Tinubu camp, nay ACN, said the issue of the presidential race remained open. There is another calculation that the incumbent governor, Fashola, or Oshiomhole of Edo, is being touted as running mate to Buhari, while some claim that the factor of religion favours Chief Segun Osoba or Mr Niyi Adebayo, who were governors between 1999 and 2003 of Ogun and Ekiti states respectively on the banner of the once virile Alliance for Democracy [AD].
NigerianTribune

2015: How PDP Plans to Defeat APC

Alhaji Bamanga Tukur

Banks on South-south, South-east, North-central for  victory

Chuks Okochain Abuja


The formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC) by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressive Congress (CPC) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) may have forced the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rethink its chances in the 2015 presidential election.

THISDAY gathered that the party was gradually evaluating its chances within the zones and where the weak and strong points of the party lie.

A source spoke to THISDAY yesterday on what could be described as the chances of the party in the face of ‘one leg in, one leg out’ of governors from the North-west and North-east in the newly formed APC.

Inside sources within PDP and the Presidency said with the look of things, the stronghold of the APC would concentrate in the South-west states of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo, as Ondo State will back the presidential aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 general election.

The source said by the calculation of the PDP, the party will at least score the mandatory 25 per cent in the South-west states and more than 60 per cent in Ondo State.

In the same line of permutation, the source said that the PDP would be at home in all the South-south  states, including Edo State.

This is because of the relationship between the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiolmhole, and President Jonathan. THISDAY gathered that the relationship between the President and the Edo State accounted for the victory of the ACN in the last governorship in the state.

PDP is also calculating that it will win the votes cast in the following states of the South-south with more than 60 to 75 per cents.

In the same line of calculation, the presidency and PDP said the party would coast home to victory in all the South-east states. By the PDP political permutations, the source said, “We will carry the day in Anambra State, despite the fact that it is under the governorship control of APGA. Majority of the voting electorate are in the PDP. The party has a majority in the state House of Assembly and two out of three senators are members of the PDP. The state governor, Peter Obi, cannot conduct the local government election in the state because of the fear that the PDP will win all the seats.

“Apart from this, Obi is very sympathetic of the PDP. He is a member of the PDP at night and also a member of the President Jonathan economic team. So the state is for the PDP anytime.

“The party is in perfect control in the states of Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia and even Imo States. We are aware that Rochas Okorocha became governor because of the crisis in the state, where some members of the PDP worked for his governorship.  The Imo State governor is playing a game. He wants to contest as a presidential candidate. As we talk, his party is in crisis of leadership between him and Obi who is seen as a PDP sympathiser. All these are to the advantage of the PDP both in the governorship and the presidential election.”

In the North-west, the source said the PDP will encounter some problems, but not to the extent that the ruling party will not get more than 25 to 30 per cent of the votes cast. 

The source said in the run off to the 2015 general election, that there would be no governorship elections in Sokoto and Kebbi States. This is because of the by-elections in the two states that put the gubernatorial elections in the state in 2016.

According to the source, “PDP will get more than 30 per cent in Jigawa State, if Sule Lamido decamps to the APC, but if he remains in the party, the state remains a PDP state. The same will happen in Kaduna State. The Vice President, Namadi Sambo, will deliver his state for the PDP and President Jonathan.

“We may encounter some problems in Adamawa and Taraba States, but other states like Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Yobe will vote the PDP, or at least, the party will get more than 50 per cent.”

“The PDP will have free victory in the North-central states of Benue, Plateau, Kogi and Kwara. The only problem is the Niger and Nasarawa States.  Nasarawa State is under the control of the CPC, but the majority of the state House of Assembly members are of the PDP,” the source said.

According to the source, “like Jigawa State, if theNiger State governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, stays in the PDP, the state will vote for the PDP, but if he dumps the PDP and join the APC, it goes the other way.  The governors of Kwara, Kogi and Plateau States will ensure that PDP carries the day. Mind you, there is this offer of first refusal for the governors of the party that are seeking a second term of office.”

The source explained that by and large, PDP will still carry the day, but “all these plans depend on President Jonathan contesting for the presidency.”

ThisDay