Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Full text of Jonathan’s reply to Obasanjo


December 20th 2013
His Excellency,
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR
Agbe L’Oba House, Quarry Road,
Ibara, Abeokuta.

RE: BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
I wish to formally acknowledge your letter dated December 2, 2013 and other previous correspondence similar to it.
You will recall that all the letters were brought to me by hand. Although both of us discussed some of the issues in those letters, I had not, before now, seen the need for any formal reply since, to me, they contained advice from a former President to a serving President. Obviously, you felt differently because in your last letter, you complained about my not acknowledging or replying your previous letters.
It is with the greatest possible reluctance that I now write this reply. I am most uneasy about embarking on this unprecedented and unconventional form of open communication between me and a former leader of our country because I know that there are more acceptable and dignified means of doing so.
But I feel obliged to reply your letter for a number of reasons: one, you formally requested for a reply and not sending you one will be interpreted as ignoring a former President.
Secondly, Nigerians know the role you have played in my political life and given the unfortunate tone of your letter, clearly, the grapes have gone sour.  Therefore, my side of the story also needs to be told.
The third reason why I must reply you in writing is that your letter is clearly a threat to national security as it may deliberately or inadvertently set the stage for subversion.
The fourth reason for this reply is that you raised very weighty issues, and since the letter has been made public, Nigerians are expressing legitimate concerns. A response from me therefore, becomes very necessary.
The fifth reason is that this letter may appear in biographies and other books which political commentators on Nigeria’s contemporary politics may write. It is only proper for such publications to include my comments on the issues raised in your letter.

Monday, October 7, 2013

62 Reasons Why ASUU is Still on Strike

For those who do not understand "Why ASUU is on strike" - Please read this and share widely.....

1. Less than 10% of the universities have Video Conferencing facility.

2. Less than 20% of the universities use Interactive Boards

3.More than 50% don’t use Public Address System in their lecture OVERCROWDED rooms/theatres.

4. Internet Services are non-existent,or epileptic and slow IN 99% of Nigerian Universities

5. Nigerian Universities Library resources are outdated and manually operated. Book shelves are homes to rats/cockroaches

6.No university library in Nigeria is fully automated. Less than 35% are partially automated.

7. 701 Development projects in Nigerian universities 163 (23.3%) are abandoned 538 (76.7%) are PERPETUALLY on-going projects

8. Some of the abandoned projects in Nigerian universities are over 15 years old, some are over 40 years old.

9. 76% of Nigerian universities use well as source of water, 45% use pit latrine, 67% of students use bush as toilet

10. UNN and UDUS have the highest number of abandoned projects (22 and 16 respectively).

11. All NDDC projects across universities in Niger Delta States are abandoned. About 84.6% of them are students’ hostels

12. 77% of Nigerian universities can be classified as "Glorified Primary Schools" Laboratories are non existing

13. There are 8 on-going projects at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. None of them is funded by the State Government

14. 80% of Nigerian Universities are grossly under-staffed

15. 78% of Nigerian Universities rely heavily on part-time and visiting lecturers.

16. 88% of Nigerian Universities have under-qualified Academics

17. 90% of Nigerian Universities are bottom-heavy (with junior lecturers forming large chunk of the workforce)

18. Only 2% of Nigerian Universities attract expatriate lecturers, over 80% of Ghanian Universities attract same

19. 89% of Nigerian Universities have ‘closed’ (homogeneous staff – in terms of ethno-cultural background)

20. Based on the available data, there are 37,504 Academics in Nigerian Public Universities

21. 83% of the lecturers in Nigerian universities are male while 17% are female.

22. 23,030 (61.0%) of the lecturers are employed in Federal universities while 14,474 (39.0%) teach in State Universities.

23. The teaching staff-students ratio is EMBARRASSINGLY very high in many universities:

24. LECTURER STUDENT RATIO: National Open University of Nigeria 1:363 University of Abuja 1:122 Lagos State University 1:111

25. (Compare the above with Harvard 1:4; MIT 1:9; Yale 1:4, Cambridge 1:3; NUS 1:12; KFUPM 1:9; Technion 1:15).

26. Nigerian Universities Instead of having 100% Academics having PhDs, only about 43% do so. The remaining 57% have no PhDs

27. Nigerian University medical students trained in the most dangerous environment, some only see medical tools in books

28. Only 7 Nigerian Universities have up to 60% of their teaching staff with PhD qualifications

29. While majority of the universities in the country are grossly understaffed, a few cases present a pathetic picture

30. There are universities in Nigeria which the total number of Professors is not more than Five (5)

31. Kano University of Science and Technology Wudil, established in 2001 (11 years old) only 1 Professor and 25 PhD holders.

32. Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, established in 2006 has only 2 Professors and 5 PhDs

33. Ondo State University of Sci & Tech Okitipupa, established in 2008, has a total of 29 lecturers.

34. MAKE-SHIFT LECTURING SYSTEM: Out of a total of 37,504 lecturers, only 28,128 (75%) are engaged on full-time basis.

35. 9,376 (25%) Nigerian Lecturers are recycled as Visiting, Adjunct, Sabbatical and Contract lecturers.

36. In Gombe State University, only 4 out of 47 Profs are full-time and all 25 Readers are visiting

37. In Plateau State University, Bokkos, 74% of the lecturers are visiting.

38. In Kaduna State University, only 24 out of 174 PhD holders are full-time staff.

39. 700 EX-MILLITANTS in Nigeria are receiving more funds anualy than 20 Nigerian universities under 'Amnesty Scam'

40. 80% of published journals by Nigerian University lectures have no visibility in the international knowledge community.

41. No Nigerian academic is in the league of Nobel Laureates or a nominee of Nobel Prize.

42. There are only 2 registered patents owned by Nigerian Academics in the last 3 years.

43. Numerically more support staff in the services of Nigerian universities than the teaching staff they are meant to support

44. More expenditure is incurred in administration & routine functions than in core academic matters in Nigerian Universities

45. There are 77,511 full-time non-teaching staff in Nigeria’s public universities 2 Times number of academic staff

46. University of Benin, there are more senior staff in the Registrar cadre (Dep. Registrars, PARs, SARs) than Professors

47. Almost all the universities are over-staffed with non- teaching staff

48. There are 1,252,913 students in Nigerian Public Universities. 43% Female 57%Male

49. There is no relationship between enrolment and the tangible manpower needs of Nigeria.

50. Nigerian Uni Horrible hostel facilities, overcrowded, overstretched lavatory and laundry facilities, poor sanitation,etc

51. Except Nigerian Defence Acadamy Kaduna, no university in Nigeria is able to accommodate more than 35% of its students.

52. Some universities (e.g. MOUAU),female students take their bath in d open because d bathrooms are in very poor condition.

53. Laundries and common rooms in many universities have been converted into rooms where students live, in open prison style.

54. In most improvised cage called hostels in Nigerian Universities, there is no limit to the number of occupants.

55. Most State universities charge commercial rates for unfit and unsuitable hostel accommodation

56. In off-campus hostels, students are susceptible to extraneous influences and violence prostitution, rape, gang violence

57. Nigerian University Students sitting on bare floor or peeping through windows to attend lectures

58. Over 1000 students being packed in lecture halls meant for less than 150 students

59. Over 400 Nigerian University students being packed in laboratory meant for 75 students

60. University administrators Spend millions to erect super-gates when their Libraries are still at foundation level; Expend millions to purchase exotic vehicles for university officers even though they lack basic classroom furnishings; Spend hundreds of millions in wall-fencing and in-fencing when students accommodation is inadequate and in tatters;

61. Govt interested in spending money on creation of new uni instead of consolidating and expanding access to existing ones; Keen to award new contracts rather than completing the abandoned projects or standardizing existing facilities; Expend hundreds of millions paying visiting and part-time lecturers rather than recruiting full-time staff

62. Govt spending hundreds of millions in mundane administration cost instead of providing boreholes and power supplements; Govt hiring personal staff, including Personal Assistants, Special Advisers, Bodyguards, Personal Consultants, etc.

#WHYASUUSTRIKE ?


Source: Facebook

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Why Is My Former Lover Denying Me? ––Fani-Kayode Replies Bianca Ojukwu

Who is fooling and lying to the Nigerian public between Femi Fani-Kayode and Bianca Ojukwu? Few weeks back, a magazine had quoted Bianca Ojukwu as saying that the relationship between she and Fani-Kayode was not meant to be, that's why they broke up.

But now Bianca is claiming, through her lawyers, that she don't know who Fani-Kayode is and has never dated him before, either openly or secretly. She has threatened to sue him.

In his reaction to Bianca's "denial", Fani-Kayode said:
He sympathises with her delicate situation and once again he expresses his regrets about the fact that he expose their once sweet love affair in his harmless write up. But what he can't understand is why his former lover will be denying ever knowing him. He just can't understand!

Consequently, Fani-Kayode has instructed his own lawyers to meet Bianca's lawyers in court if they so wish to take the matter that far, after he has said 'sorry' for revealing their affair.

I hear Fani-Kayode has proof that he had ‘a long-standing and intimate relationship’ with Bianca. Lolz!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Football Referee Beheaded For Stabbing Player

A referee who fatally stabbed an amateur player over his refusal to leave the field was decapitated by a mob and police has arrested one man after the incident in northern Brazil.
 
According eyewitnesses, referee Octavio da Silva, 20, stabbed player Josenir dos Santos, 30, on June 30 after dos Santos refused to heed his order to leave.

A mob then turned on da Silva, killing him before severing his head in the remote town of Pio XII, named after a former pope.

Relatives of slain referee da Silva reacted to the incident said they are sad and appalled because nothing can be done because none of his relative was present at the scene of the incident.

“We feel revolted to have something like this so terrible happen here,”

According to local police, Luis Moraes de Sousa, 27, was arrested on July 2 and police in the regional headquarters of Santa Ines are continuing to investigate the incident.

Sousa told reporters about the incident.

“I left soon from there and didn’t stay there (scene of alleged crime), you understand? I got information that my brother cut him a little with a sickle and another guy put a knife into his throat,” Sousa said.

Police said they were searching for two more suspects who they named as Francisco Edson Moraes de Sousa and Josimar de Sousa.

Brazil has made significant strides in lowering homicide rates in recent years, as millions were lifted from poverty, but it faces mounting pressures to show it is a safe place for tourists before 12 Brazilian cities host the 2014 soccer World Cup and Rio de Janeiro the Olympic Games in 2016.

In Rio de Janeiro on the day of the brawl, Brazil’s national team handily defeated Spain in the Confederations Cup, considered a test run for next year’s much bigger championship.

The eight-team tournament was marked by an unexpected wave of demonstrations, some violent, in part to protest the $14 billion being spent on World Cup preparations amid a lack of adequate public services.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

A MOTHER'S LETTER TO HER CHILDREN ABOUT MARRIAGE (WORTH SHARING)

A MOTHER'S LETTER TO HER CHILDREN ABOUT MARRIAGE (WORTH SHARING)
Dear Children,

Should the Lord give you the good gift of a husband or wife, and I hope He does, there are a few things I want you to know; things that you may not hear from anyone else, and certainly not on TV or other media. Sadly, your church may not even tell you.

Marriage, sweet little people, is not for the purpose of your happiness. Happy as I want you to be and hope you will be, you must yet understand that marriage is God’s design and His purposes must be pursued in order for you to be truly happy. His end is holiness and He will use all things in a life devoted to Him to fulfill that end.

To my girls:

Marry a man whose first pursuit is Christ. After that, he is not hard to please. Admire him, cheer him on and show gratitude, and he will fall over himself trying to please you. Smile often, speak well of him always, and do whatever necessary to try and maintain a pleasant mood about you so that it transfers to your home, making it a place where he and your children love to be.

You’ll have bad days of course, crying days even, and that’s when you go to your bedroom, kneel on the floor and beg the Lord to carry you. Then get up, get a fresh perspective (crayons will come off the wall), and try again. Above all else, make a home.

To my boys:

Marry a woman whose first pursuit is Christ. After that, she may be hard to please only if you don’t know “the secret”. What is that? I’m glad you asked. The secret to pleasing your wife is to make her feel safe and treasured. You may have to move out of your comfort zone to do this at times. She won’t always readily translate the oil change to love, though it means that. But let me give you a “secret question”–a question you need to ask her often. 

It’s not just in the asking, though. Be sure to focus your eyes on hers, maybe even touch her shoulder or face, and then ask: “What’s on your mind these days? “ And then be ready to listen. She wants you to draw her out. She will perceive this as your protection over the matters of her heart. Tenderness, listening, protection. That’s what she wants.

To you all:
If your wife or husband does something really stupid, forgive. If they do it again, forgive again. Forgiveness must be the propelling force in your lives each day. Dwell on the strengths, push out thoughts of their weaknesses. Take every thought captive–choose to love.

Here’s that part you are not going to hear often:
If you find yourself “not happy”, having lost attraction, disinterested, etc., you are not permitted to even think about a divorce. If you find yourselves arguing more and more, don’t think for a minute that “the children will be better off out of this”, because they won’t.

The vows you took on your wedding day were not suggestions. They were covenant vows, before a Holy God, family and friends, to stay with this person the rest of your life, even if you don’t feel like it. You swore a solemn oath and if you can’t live up to it, don’t get married. Decide up front that your marriage is irrevocable. There is far more motivation for getting along if your “marriage house” has no door.

Do not share intimate thoughts or feelings with anyone of the opposite sex. Do not find yourself alone for any length of time with such either.

Divorce is not a “private option”. It will affect multiple families for many generations. When you “separate what God has joined” you permanently injure far more than just yourself.

Guard your marriage as fiercely as you would guard your own life. Treat your spouse as an extension of your flesh, just as God sees you. Treat your spouse like other family members. You know, “you gotta love ‘em, they’re the only family you’ve got”.

I want you to be happy, I surely do. But I will pray for you to be holy.

Friday, May 31, 2013

MEET THE MARRIED COUPLES WHO NEVER HAVE SEX BUT INSIST THEY ARE HAPPY

MEET THE MARRIED COUPLES WHO NEVER HAVE SEX BUT INSIST THEY ARE HAPPYWhen married couples live like brother and sister. No sex for years and they insist they are happy. Are they deluded - or just honest? Read and tell us what you think...

Most evenings, with their little girl safely tucked up in bed, Charlotte and Chris Everiss enjoy a kiss and a cuddle on the sofa in front of the television.

Happily married for a decade, the couple cannot bear to even imagine their lives without one another. Yet, astonishingly, they haven’t made love for more than two years.

Both insist that their marriage, which followed a two-year courtship after meeting on a dating website, is stronger than most. It’s just that sex, they say, is not important to their happiness.
‘We still turn each other on but we don’t want to take it any further,’ says Charlotte. ‘We don’t have the time or the energy.

‘I find it hard switching off knowing that our four-year-old, Addison, is in the next bedroom. I think if Chris really missed sex he would tell me, or I’d catch him watching porn on the internet as a substitute.

‘But he doesn’t seem to want to go back to having sex, either.
‘We sound like Darby and Joan, I know - even though I’m only 34 and Chris is 40 - but that, to us, is contentment.'

Charlotte and Chris, it seems, aren’t the only ones whose sex life has dwindled to nothing. A recent survey estimated that 15 to 20 per cent of couples have sexless relationships - defined by experts as making love fewer than ten times a year - while around 5 per cent go without altogether.

Actress Helen Mirren spoke for many of these couples earlier this year when she said: ‘I think the power of partnership in marriage is under-recognised in our society. That’s what makes marriages work, not sex.’

In a sex-obsessed society, where everyone - young, old, male and female - seems to be boasting of how many times a week they ‘do it’, it may come as a relief to many that couples like Charlotte and Chris are happy to admit that sex plays no part in their marriages at all.

Most couples who find themselves at a point where sexual intimacy has died tend to confide their predicament to no one at all. But today three brave couples reveal to Femail how they have learned to live contented lives without sex.

You don’t need a degree in psychology to work out why Charlotte, a social media consultant from Great Wyrley, Staffordshire - who in the early years of her marriage made love to her husband three times a week - may have problems surrounding sex.

Three years ago, when their daughter was 18 months old, Charlotte almost died after an ectopic pregnancy resulted in her having a partial hysterectomy during a six-hour operation. Since then, she and Chris have made love only once, around ten months after her loss, an encounter from which she derived no pleasure.

Chris is understanding about her aversion to sex. ‘It can be hard knowing that our cuddles will never lead to anything more intimate,’ he says. ‘Charlotte is a gorgeous woman and I’m still very attracted to her, but she nearly died and I count my blessings every day that she’s even still here.’

‘I have an hour-long commute at either end of my working day so, to be honest, most of the time I’m too tired for sex anyway.’

Chris, a digital marketing manager, says he doesn’t discuss with friends the absence of sex from his marriage, but believes it is more common than people admit.
‘I don’t know that we’re all that different from other couples, we’re just more open about it,’ he says.

In all other respects, the Everisses have an enviable lifestyle. They live in a beautiful, four-bedroom detached home, have a Mini Cooper convertible and a VW Golf parked on the driveway, and enjoy several foreign holidays a year.
Tracey Dowler, 42, (pictured above with husband) spent several months worrying that husband Julian, 55, didn’t want to make love to her because he was attracted to other women. But she has now accepted that the stress of his demanding job as director of a motor mechanical and haulage company is the reason they no longer have sex.

And, while she admits there have been times when she has felt like walking out of their immaculate, three-bedroom semi-detached home in Rugby, Warwickshire, over the lack of intimacy, Tracey values other aspects of their marriage too highly.

‘We got married in 2007 after only knowing each other for six months, so it was pretty whirlwind,’ says Tracey, a wedding fair organiser. ‘When we were dating, we’d have sex up to three times a night, which was wonderful, but after the wedding we only made love once or twice a week. We started going months between encounters and now we haven’t made love for well over a year.’

Tracey still feels very attracted to her husband, and he says the same of her. The couple are loving in other ways, holding hands when they go out together, kissing one another goodnight before going to sleep and saying “I love you” at the end of telephone conversations.

But Julian has 40 employees under him and says his job has become far more demanding in the years since their wedding. He gets up at 4am to start work at 5am, puts in a 12-hour day and, as he is on 24-hour call, his phone often rings several times during the night with drivers needing advice.
Weekends are no more relaxing as Julian also runs a photography business, which he is hoping will take off enough for him to concentrate on it full time.

They are both keen to have a family together. They’ve had IVF and plan to have another round of it in August.

‘We talk about rekindling our love life but never seem to get around to it,’ says Julian. ‘We had a weekend away at a country hotel a couple of weeks ago and I was so exhausted I spent most of the time asleep.’

Julian regards Tracey as his best friend and soulmate - a fact common, it seems, to many couples enduring sexless marriages - and believes that once he retires they will be able to rekindle some semblance of romance.

Once a couple gets out of the habit of having sex, however, this can be easier said than done.
‘Couples who don’t make love start living like brother and sister or friends and get out of the habit of seeing one another in a sexual way,’ says Relate counsellor Paula Hall.

‘If both partners want to reintroduce sex, we encourage them to do so slowly, learning how to be sensual with each other and gradually building up to intercourse.’

Culled from UK Daily Mail

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Femi Fani-Kayode "Ports" From PDP to APC


A former minister for aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has dumped the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the yet-to-be registered All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former minister’s move is contained in a message on his social media page,  wherein he stated that he had abandoned the PDP for the APC after a meeting with the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Kayode Fayemi in Ado-Ekiti.
Fani-Kayode’s decision followed speculation that became rife for some weeks regarding his impending move to the new party where sources believe he would contest the Osun East senatorial seat at theforthcoming general elections.
He was sighted lately with top echelon of the APC and has been a strong critic of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
According to the Ile-Ife born politician who served the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in various capacities before completing the tenure with him as the aviation minister, he hassucceeded in bidding the PDP bye.
In the post of his facebook wall, he said he attended a book launch of a friend in the state and decided to meet the state governor after which he arrived at the decision.
“I was at the Afe Babalola University to chair the book launch of my old friend, Dr Bunmie Aborishade this morning. I had a meeting with Govenor Kayode Fayemi afterwards and I have just publically and formally declared for the APC. For me this is a great and historic day. Goodbye forever PDP,” he wrote.
As  the 2015 general election, there will surely be more krikata krikata dances like this that will make even Saka go yellow with palor!