President Jonathan lavish 6 billion naira on UN General assembly trip

By Fejiro Oliver

Africa most wasteful spending President, Goodluck Jonathan has begun another orgy of lavish spending, as sources have told this reporter on his spending of almost 6 billion Naira 68th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The slow performing President arrived at the JFK International Airport in New York early Sunday (today) ahead of the 68th session of the (UNGA). President Jonathan is said to have taken with him his

non elected wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, the Minister of State for Works and supervising Minister, National Planning Commission, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Akinwumi Adesina and a ridiculous  number of 600  highly influential civil servants drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as team members, two medical personnel. Another set of delegation led by his special adviser on political matter and National coordinator of the fraudulent group, Goodluck Support Group (GSG)  had arrived in New York earlier on Friday to make preparations for the trip as well as inaugurate the USA chapter of the group.
the President was received by the supervising Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, the Nigerian Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu and the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S., Prof. Ade Adefuye will be staying in his favorite hotel, The Pierre Hotel across from New York’s Central Park in a presidential suite that will cost Nigeria tax payers money to the tune of at least $10,000 per night. He is expected to lodge at the 39th floor of the massive hotel.
A newyork Journalist who visited the hotel noted that wasteful spending President Jonathan was booked to stay in the hotel for five days; which means he will be wasting Nigeria money to the tune of 8 million Naira only for accommodation. The booking is said to have been done by Gulak since Friday.
The President it is gathered is excited about the trip and has decided to spend any amount it needs to see to a smooth journey. Another source noted that he fancies the ‘history’ he will be making being the first President in Africa to address the UN General Assembly this session

He will be speaking after the leaders of Brazil, U.S. and Turkey. “Up to 6 billion Naira has b een budgeted for this UN trip”, the source said.
 Out of the five days booked by Goodluck Jonathan, he will pay a visit to his political group, the GSG where he will talk to them into supporting his 2015 ambition. Another source told this reporter that the inauguration of the group was purposely delayed till this moment when Jonathan will come for the UNGA, so as to enable him formalize discussion with the group, as well as dole out money to them.
The GSG has Chief Temitope Ajayi aka Mma Diaspora as its USA coordinator. It will be recalled that Mr Goodluck had engaged in this type of spending spree during a UN gathering last year, which drew wild condemnation from Nigerians and the international community. This year delegation will be the highest number of delegates in the history of the UN.

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Exposed: Catholic Nuns Are Rampaging Sexually With Priest In Kenya

Nairobi convents have been turned into a house of sexual immorality, a nun has revealed.

The woman of God has revealed for the first time that priests who are well-connected to John Cardinal Njue, are sex pests and are preying on nuns everyday.

She told The Nairobian that she lives in fear of falling into a sex trap.

The Catholic church’s leadership has neither confirmed or denied allegations that priests and nuns have been engaging in sex.

Open discussion on sex in the Catholic Church is almost taboo, yet there is widespread intimacy between priests and nuns.

A number of priests have abandoned the celibacy vow, succumbing to the urge of the flesh with nuns being the principal partners either willingly or through coercion.
It is a close-knit affair, which has been going on and few dare discuss, save for occasional dramas when priests either defect or are caught in child-paternity cases.

But beneath the confessions and exposes of the wayward priests, lies tales of how nuns engage in sex within the otherwise conservative church known for an uncompromising stance on celibacy.

Men and women who have committed to serve the Lord, exercise a simply life devoid of marriage, sex and acquisition of worldly material within the Catholic hierarchy involving the Pope, cardinals, arch-bishops, ordinary bishops, priests, seminaries and nuns.

The church has an almost a repressive regime on sexual practices, with those truly committed to spiritual matters being made to take celibacy and poverty vows.

In Kenya, the celibacy oath is silently abused. When a few months ago John Karimi from Kirinyaga quit the church, the Father painted a picture of a church deceiving itself and the flock. He hinted of deep-rooted sexual activities among priests and nuns.

“I used to make love to these women. More often than not I would sleep with a woman and the following day on Sunday I’m at the altar delivering a sermon and giving out sacrament. Sometimes I would feel so guilty or feel like dying when I thought of the celibacy vows I took,” he said.

About four months forward, a nun is living in fear in Nairobi. Reason. She does not want to fall into the sex trap, allegedly orchestrated by a clique of well-connected priests, claimed to enjoy the ear of a priest close to Cardinal John Njue.

The priests are said to be preying on the nuns, employing tactics like using second parties to lure the sisters or using unregistered mobile phones numbers when conveying “love message”.

Information pieced together points to an underground activity, in which the priests and nuns are intimately connected, but the practice is swept under the carpet, rarely reaching the attention of Njue.

Father Vincent Wambugu, the secretary general of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) could neither deny or confirm the sex allegations saying that he needs accurate information so as to give an informed response.

“I have no defence to deny because I have no facts and the church has not discussed such an issue,” he told The Nairobian. By virtue of his position, Wambugu speaks on behalf of all Catholics in the country. KCCB was initially known as the Kenyan Episcopal Conference.

When pressed further whether at any time there have been cases of priests harassing and engaging in sex with the nuns, the Father said: “That is a very bad question. I am not aware of that and may not comment on it conclusively.”
Father Wambugu may not be aware because ordinarily, those should be on the frontline exposing the rot, are the same individuals energetically involved in sex.

This was well illustrated by Karimi when he quit the church embracing marriage.
“I made up my mind to walk out of the church and have a wife of my own whom I cherish instead of living a hypocritical life and finally go to hell,” said Karimi in an interview with a local daily.

Back to the dilemma of the nun facing the woman of God who sought the help from outside the church in a bid to establish individuals behind numerous text messages she had been receiving on her from different numbers.

The sex victim sought the services of private investigators who unearthed disturbing details of sexual rivalry in the church.

The investigators traced the origin of some the message to an active lay woman at a city church. The woman had been warning the nun to keep off a particular priest the former had an intimate relationship with.

She was further warned that the said priest is HIV positive as a result of his “sexual libido and amorous ways”.
“But it later emerged that this lay woman was simply attempting to scare the nun because she (lay woman) has an affair with the priest. Her fears were that nuns are preferred by the priests, so maybe she did not want her man to stray with my client,” said one of the investigators.

The private probe also roped in young girls into the scandal. Their mobile phones were used by priests to pass messages to their sexual partners, the investigators found out in this single assignment that took them beyond Nairobi.

The nun confessed to the investigators that sex was rampant in nunneries scattered across the country. Further, even non-Catholics are befriending the nuns and engaging them in sex, it emerged.

According to Father Karimi, celibacy is not practical in the mainstream Church. He consequently opted to quit rather than continue cheating God after serving for 15 years, claiming 95 per cent of the priests were not celibate.
But the church maintained that Karimi’s predicament was personal insisting that it needed concrete facts before discussing the thorny sex issue.

“If we have the facts, we shall discuss the matter, but now that you have informed me, let us discuss it (sex scandal) another day,” said Father Wambugu.

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Jonathan’s one term pact document missing

• Governor hides Jonathan’s one term pact document

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN

Opponents of President Goodluck Jonathan’s yet unannounced bid for another term may have lost a vital weapon of their case.

The one term agreement document the President allegedly signed with the 23 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors is missing.

It was learnt that the agreement was kept with a Southsouth governor, who is now claiming ignorance of where it is kept.

Some governors, especially the aggrieved PDP G-7 governors, have urged the President to stick to the one term pact he allegedly signed in 2011. Dr. Jonathan denies he ever agreed to do just one term.

Leading the agitation for compliance with one term agreement is Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu.

At the peace talks on PDP crisis in the Presidential Villa, the President pointedly accused Aliyu of stoking the fire ravaging the party.

Neither those for Jonathan nor those against him have the one term agreement paper, The Nation has learnt.

It was learnt that when the agreement was signed, most of the governors were not eager to have a copy.

But the paper was allegedly given to a Southsouth governor to keep as a reminder to Jonathan that his zone was in custody of the pact.

It was gathered that since the row over another term broke out, the governor has refused to release the paper.

The governor denies being in custody of the paper.

The said governor is fully behind the second term project with confidence since the pact is in his care.

A top source said: “No doubt, there was an agreement but it was not circulated to all the then 23 PDP governors. But a copy was kept with a Southsouth governor for strategic reasons.

“When the issue came up recently among some PDP governors, no one could produce a copy.

“I think the Presidency was aware of where the pact was kept and that is why it has been confidently denying any pact.”

Responding to a question, the source added: “If the pact cannot be produced and the court does not allow the New PDP to exist, the Kawu Baraje faction of PDP may either team up with the All Progressives Congress or Accord Party as the last option.

“But the G-7 governors and New PDP may form a coalition with the APC to ease out Jonathan in 2015.

“People of like minds are already putting heads together on how to effect change in 2015.”

A Northern governor confirmed last night that the “agreement is with a Southsouth governor”.

The Niger State governor had on Liberty Radio in Kaduna early this year alleged that Jonathan entered into a one-term pact with PDP governors

He said: “I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind.

“And I recall that some of us said given the circumstances of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and given the PDP zoning arrangement, it was expected that the North was to produce the President for a given number of years.

“I recall that at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement. Even when Jonathan went to Kampala, in Uganda, he also said he was going to serve a single term. “I think we are all gentlemen enough; so when the time comes, we will all come together and see what is the right thing to do.”

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, had insisted that there was no time Jonathan entered into a single-term pact.

He said, “Rather than insisting on an agreement that does not exist – since anybody can contest for the highest office in the land, those who are so interested should declare their interest and contest.”

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EXCLUSIVE: Security agencies plotting to plant weapons in Apo building where squatters were killed

Abdulrahman Abdulmalik

Building where killings took place

To cover up their extra-judicial murder of at least seven innocent squatters at an unfinished building in the Apo District of Abuja, Nigerian security agencies are plotting to plant weapons in the building as a purported evidence that it was used for terrorist activities, multiple security sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.

Soldiers and operatives of the State Security Service had on Friday stormed the building, inhabited by homeless artisans and petty traders, and immediately began shooting at random, killing at least seven and injuring 17 others, witnesses said.

They then tried to cover up their atrocity by labelling the murdered men Boko Haram insurgents plotting an attack in Abuja. They claimed they carried out the raid to recover hidden weapons but that they were shot at shortly after they began digging up the weapons.

They are however yet to tell the world whether any of the operatives were injured or killed in the purported shootout. They are also unable so far to display the weapons they purportedly recovered from the building.

The two security agencies have come under global condemnation for the killings, and, our sources said, are now plotting fresh cover-up schemes to convince the world that the raid and the killings were done in the interest of national security.

Our sources said on Saturday night that the Army and the Department of State Security have now resolved to return to the building, plant weapons therein and then pretend to have dug out hidden weapons  from there.

The weapons will then be displayed right in front of the building with journalists in attendance, our sources said.

“Our people are really embarrassed by the way the issue of this killing is turning out,” one of our sources said. “They are desperately planning a cover-up and some of us have resolved not to be part of it. They are going back to the building to plant weapons and then accuse the murdered men of having buried them there. It’s really sad but that’s what our people are planning.”

Another of our sources said the operatives that are being selected for the cover-up operation would be sworn to secrecy.

Spokesperson for the SSS, Marilyn Ogar, did not answer or return calls seeking her comments for this story.

While news of the killings and pictures of the victims spread on social media on Friday morning, the SSS released a statement saying its officials acted based on information obtained from two Boko Haram suspects, Kamal Abdullahi and Mohammed Adamu, who it claimed had earlier been arrested for terrorist activities.

“They led the security team to the uncompleted building where arms were purported to have been buried underground,” Marilyn Ogar, the SSS spokesperson said in the statement. “No sooner had the team commenced digging for the arms than they came under heavy gunfire attack by other Boko Haram elements within the area.”

But several witnesses and residents of the area have debunked the claim by the SSS. All those interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES said no one shot at the security team that stormed the building.

Unable to afford the excessively high cost of housing in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, these squatters usually gather in scores to sleep on mats in the few uncompleted buildings on the street, after returning from their daily jobs.

“The keke-napep (tricycle) men that stay in the house (where the shooting occurred) are almost 100,” Abu, a construction worker in another uncompleted building on the street, told PREMIUM TIMES. ”Apart from keke-napep, some also sell recharge cards act as phone chargers on the street.”

Witnesses told this paper that the owner of the house (or his representative), believed to be a top army officer, visited on Thursday morning and ordered the squatters to vacate.

“He gave us one week, one week to leave his house,” said one survivor, who declined to be named for fear he could  be arrested or targeted by soldiers. “He threatened us saying he would bring soldiers to do anything to us if we don’t leave after one week.

“But just two days later, they came to attack us,” one of the tricycle operators who used to sleep in the house cut in in Hausa. He pleaded anonymity saying he feared he could be targeted by  ‘soldiers’.

Many of the residents of the building, who escaped being killed or arrested, have already fled the area.

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How Not To Be A Nigerian, By Ifeanyi Uddin

Ifeanyi Uddin

Monday, last week, I “unfollowed” an erstwhile “follower” on my Twitter account. It was the first time I had ever done this, although I had previously “unfriended” a Facebook “friend.”

The latter’s post were of a prurient nature, and whereas I do have an appetite for unusually interesting material, I was convinced that this particular person’s posts were inconsistent with my under-aged children’s continued access to my Facebook account. There was evidently a functional reason for the Facebook action.

And the Twitter “unfollow”? At heart, I find social media exchanges incestuous for the most part. You are “followed” by those who largely agree with your views. You end up violently disagreeing with those who do not. And because the culture of engagement here is still at crèche levels, every disagreement deteriorates into an exchange of invectives. Havens form that do not push the frontiers of the known (or the knowable) further than at their inception. Pity then, that the processes of “unfollowing” and “unfriending” (by winnowing disagreeable views) further aggravate this state. It was therefore after deep reflection that I trod this path down in the mouth. But first, a background account.

A couple of weeks back I was with colleagues at one of these interminably long meetings at work. After fiddling to no end with her phone, this female coworker invited me to lend her my device because she could not access the Internet on her phone. I did not think twice of it before handing it on. And that was all. So long as she returned the device. She did. My sense when she did return it, was that the connection on my device had served her no better (and may be even worse) than that on her phone.

Later that day (back home, after work) I received a couple of notifications of retweets of my earlier tweets. Not just were these earlier tweets strange. I could not remember ever tweeting them. It turned out that my colleague/friend/Twitter account follower had (in the small interlude during the meeting, when she asked for my device) accessed my Twitter account, and from there, retweeted a couple of her own tweets. Only then did the “retweet is no endorsement” caveat on most Twitter accounts make sense.

I felt worse than being mis-represented. My space and person had been wantonly despoiled. An acquaintance had defrauded her way into my most private places. Had appropriated my thoughts (felt worse than if she had conned me of money). I was not sure who was the more culpable. Me, for trusting her so blindly? Or her, for taking me for a mug? I did act to remedy whatever damage this series of events may have caused. Promptly and most explicitly, I disowned the tweets in very strong terms.

Next day, she essayed an act of contrition. And I thought to remind her that the biggest problem with Nigeria is our failure to recognise others’ inalienable rights, especially to their private spaces. It is the reason why the church next door to me thinks that its parishioners redemption (as they make joyful noises on to their lord) is inconsistent with me having a good night’s rest. This also explains why a state governor will privatise (to the detriment of the “people”) funds meant for schools, roads, and healthcare services in his state. In the teeth of these, her weightiest contribution was to describe my rejoinders to her fraud as “hypocritical”! At that time, I was unsure how she had reasoned this conclusion out.

My 9-year old twins (whom I told this tale) loved the weight of that adjective, and how easily it rolls off the tongue. So since hearing of this incident, I occasionally am asked: “Dad, don’t you think you are being hypocritical?” I can understand that kids might find it a hard slog to wrap their heads round one, pretty long word that tries to describe the practice of “feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not”. But for a colleague at work, it was simply unimaginable that she would use words so completely out of context!

That was before Monday, last week. The whole point of her Twitter activity, that day, was to rail at Nigerians’ complete disrespect for “private spaces”! Only then did it dawn on me that Nigeria has no problems! Nigerians do. And none bigger than this disquieting capacity to say one thing, to mean something entirely different, and to act in violation of both the ordinary meaning of the sequence of words used, and their intended meaning.

We clearly cannot help the country forward, until we each help ourselves. And as an ongoing part of this necessary process of atonement, I “unfollowed” this vile character!

Mr. Uddin, a financial analyst and economic historian, writes a regular column for PREMIUM TIMES from Lagos

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Chinese court sentences top politician, Bo Xilai, to life imprisonment for corruption

Bo Xilai

The politician is also to forfeit all his asset.

Top Chinese politician, Bo Xilai, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption.

Bo Xilai was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

Apart from life imprisonment, the court also ordered confiscation of all the property of the former governor, and deprivation of his political rights for ever.

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ASUU vows to continue strike, blames NUC boss for rot in Nigerian universities

Jide Jegede

ASUU has been on strike for about 3 months.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has blamed the rot in the Nigerian university system on the Executive Secretary of the National University Commission, Julius Okojie, saying his failure to insist on quality has bastardised Nigerian universities.

The lecturers also vowed to continue their strike unless the federal government honours the 2009 agreement it had with the union.

In a statement signed by its University of Ibadan branch chairman, Olusegun Ajiboye, ASUU renewed its call for the scraping or a total overhaul of the regulatory institution if the nation wishes to get it right in university education management.

While calling on the National Assembly to beam its searchlight on the activities of the NUC, Mr. Ajiboye said the recent NEEDS assessment report on universities reflects how much the commission has failed in its duties as a regulator.

According to him, the report undertaken by genuine academics contradicts NUC’s accreditation exercises which gave ‘controversial’ clean bill of health to most universities through “magomago accreditation.”

The union contended that only in a society like Nigeria would Mr. Okojie still remain in office after being heavily indicted in the report, saying “in sane climes, the NUC boss ought to have resigned through the revelations made in the NEEDS assessment report.”

Mr. Okojie had, last week, absorbed his commission of any wrongdoing in the rot plaguing public universities in the country, particularly as regards undeserved accreditation, blaming members of the ASUU instead.

Mr. Ajiboye, who described the statement credited to the NUC boss as ‘careless’, accused Mr. Okojie of using his cronies who can do his biddings to embark on accreditation.

He said the success of the 2011 elections was based on the patriotic zeal and contributions of genuine and patriotic ASUU members nationwide saying that was why the election was free of hanky-panky recorded in past elections.

The ASUU statement titled ‘Where Okojie Got It Wrong,’ insisted that the NUC boss is fond of using his ‘yes sir’ boys to do hatchet jobs during accreditations, thereby compromising quality most of the time.

The union said its almost three-month-old strike is fully on, adding that the it would not allow itself to be fooled again with ‘promisory notes’ of the federal government which had never worked in the past.

“ASUU cannot be blamed for NUC ‘magomago’ accreditations. Rather than blaming the Union, Okojie should take full responsibility for all the fraudulent deeds in the NUC, including the work and eat accreditations.

“The NUC knows the kind of academics they select for their ignoble exercises. These are cronnies of the big man in the NUC. They can never say no to his biddings. Nigerians should be proud of ASUU in it’s efforts at repositioning public universities in the country. One of these major efforts is the NEEDS Assessment Document.

“This was a product of a rigorous academic exercise carried out by dependable and credible members of our Union. Unlike the numerous faulty accreditation reports which had given these universities clean bill of health, the NEEDS Assessment Report stands out as a classical document of reference detailing the rot and decay in public universities in Nigeria. All well meaning Nigerians can see the contrast between okojie’s ‘packaged accreditation reports’ and a credible job done by ASUU.

“It has become very clear from the Needs Assessment that Okojie and his cohort of accreditors have fooled this country for too long. Enough they say is enough. Time is now for the Government to beam a searchlight on the activities of the NUC.

“The Education Committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives have an arduous task to do here. Nigerians are calling for dismantling of an omnibus body that has done the country more harm than good. NUC must go.

“Professor Julius Okojie cannot absolve himself from the rot in the university system by regulating quantity instead of ensuring quality delivery,” ASUU said.

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