Clay Richie

There is this story of a hardworking man who as usual arrived home from work very late to meet his young son in the sitting room waiting for him. “Why are you not asleep?” the man asked as he slumped on the sofa, tired. “I was waiting for you because I have not seen you in several days,” the boy replied before he asked with childlike innocence, “Daddy, how much do you earn per hour?”

That the minister of aviation popularly called “Madam Princess” is in some trouble is not in doubt and hasn’t been for the past one or two weeks. She had it coming in my opinion and she played right into the hands of her detractors. Every political office holder in Nigeria has three broad categories of enemies. The first are those who want you, your principal and your political party out of power and will do all to discredit you just to make all the others look bad. The second are those who want you out of office because even though they support your principal and your political party, they feel you are not worthy to occupy the position you occupy. The third category are those whose financial, professional and survival interests are threatened by your occupying the office and they include contractors and civil servants whose toes you are bound to step on even if you stand still and they run into you from behind: you’re a stumbling block all the same.

Perhaps, the most vilified civilian President Nigeria has ever had is Goodluck Jonathan; and perhaps, also, for sometimes legitimate reasons.

Right from his years as the deputy governor, and later as the governor of his home state of Bayelsa, Goodluck Jonathan was considered by many to be weak, naive and indecisive. His status was such that not many thought highly of him. And even when he showed up at the national stage, not many paid him meaningful attention. But like so many others, I failed to see his heart.  We failed to see the sort of man he really is.

Embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, broke her seven-day silence on social media on Tuesday, amidst backlash over the N255m bulletproof cars bought for her by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

The challenge of national integration is often a continuous one for most nation states or countries. The goal of National Integration is an evolving one hence most nation states or countries are seen as organic entities, which grows and evolves over time. In essence nation states are seen as work in progress.

Many have written about the pros and cons of the national dialogue. The difference between the writers, however, does not lie in whether they think the national dialogue should go ahead or it should not, the difference has been in the intention of each writer. Some have taken an opposing stance on the issue simply because of the name of the man who proposed it, i.e. Goodluck Jonathan,

At least 128 people have died in a five-hour gun battle between troops and members of the outlawed Boko Haram in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.

In what looks like a confirmation of possible fusion, the leadership of the opposition All Progressives Congress(APC) yesterday had a public show of companionship with their counterparts in the splinter group of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, new PDP.

The deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Nkem Okeke, Tuesday admitted a degree of corruption in Mr. Peter Obi’s administration when he said the reason the state had not exceeded its current level in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was because people were printing receipts and sabotaging the revenue generation.

Confusion ensued in Isreal yesterday between President Goodluck Jonathan and his Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, over signing of Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with Israel.

Clara Chime, the First Lady of Enugu State, says Governor Sullivan Chime, has placed her under house arrest, and has cried out for assistance to reach human rights bodies to rescue her.

President Goodluck Jonathan may have finally succumbed to public pressure to  move against the embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, who is currently being probed over the N255m  bulletproof cars bought for her by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

The new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) has suffered setback as one of its major sponsors, Niger State governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, says he is pulling out because he was no longer comfortable with the group.

As the moment of decision for who will preside over the affairs in Anambra State draws near, I feel the compelling need to speak to my people and respectfully offer some advice on how to go about it and get the man Anambra needs. I am sticking my neck out because Anambra is too important to be left in the hands of mediocres for four or eight years. I feel the compelling need to speak to Anambra leaders to rise up to the occasion to get the best for the most strategic state in Igboland. I feel the need to speak to my people because evil triumphs in any society simply because good people do nothing.

The meeting attended by the New PDP stakeholders resolved as follows:- 1. The meeting congratulated and commended the Alh. Abukakar Kawu Baraje-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for exhibiting quality and purposeful leadership

Traders in Onitsha Main Market today resisted the order by the state government to close the markets in order to welcome Mr. Willie Obiano, the embattled candidate of APGA now facing two court cases for double registration.

Kano state Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has said that himself and other aggrieved governors in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, otherwise referred to as G-7 Governors are open to four options in its ongoing battle with the Bamanga tukur led Leadership of the party.

A new group, Goodluck Voters Forum(GVF)  has emerged from its inaugural Council meeting in Abuja, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for a second term in  the 2015 elections, “based on his current achievements”, stating that those opposing the re-election of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan if he decides to run are either ignorant of current developments in the country or are unpatriotic elements who are just interested in running down the administration before Nigerians because of their selfish interests of occupying Aso Rock in 2015.

When in 2009 President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan emerged president of the fedral republic of Nigeria after the death of president Shehu Musa Yar”adua it brought tremendous joy to not only to his ijaw nation but to the entire south-south region who hitherto have felt marginalized despite been the goose that lay the golden egg of the nation. Infact he was not seen as an Ijaw man but a Niger deltan who will protect the interest of the entire region which accounted for the massive support he got from the region during the PDP primaries and even the general elections.

A mild drama ensued at the River Jordan when the Nigerian delegation in Israel led by President Jonathan went there yesterday to offer prayers, led by the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Ayo Oritsejafor.

CONTROVERSY surrounding the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan for 2015 general election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was laid to rest yesterday as National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur disclosed that the President will remain in office after 2015, after re-contesting same year and finally end in 2019.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has dared ex-Niger Delta militants to leave Abuja and do battle with them in the creeks.

I was, believe me, under no illusions last week when I asked the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, to say “sorry” to Nigerians for her role in the outrageous purchase of two armoured cars. For the life of me, I knew she wouldn’t apologise. That would be very unNigerian. Part of the qualifications for being a public officer in Nigeria is to be greedy, arrogant and shameless. How can a whole minister apologise? How can a whole minister say it is wrong to buy two bullet-proof cars for over a quarter of a billion naira? How can a whole minister say “I was wrong to approve the transaction”? How can a whole minister say, “As the supervisory minister for the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), I hereby take full responsibility for this mess”? There is too much shamelessness in public office for people to cultivate a moral conscience.

We have incontrovertible information that a batch of able-bodied young men between the ages of 23 and 29 have been assembled in a town in Anambra Central Senatorial District by the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), using their members serving in Anambra State government, with the aim of posing as fake policemen and National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members to compromise the integrity of the November 16, 2013 elections in favor of APGA.

Passover Haggadah – The Fall Of Satan: Satan, the greatest of the angels in heaven, with twelve wings, instead of six like all the others, refused to pay heed to the behest of God, saying, “Thou didst create us angels from the splendor of the Shekinah, and now Thou dost command us to cast ourselves down before the creature which Thou didst fashion out of the dust of the ground!” God answered, “Yet this dust of the ground has more wisdom and understanding than thou.”

The ambition of Senator Chris Ngige, Anambra State gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to return as governor in the November 16, 2013 governorship elections got a very big boost as he outshined opponents, including Mr Willie Obiano of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the First round of Governorship Debates which held today at Emmaus House Awka.

2015 election is fast approaching so one is not surprise at the propaganda and pull him down campaign going on against notable politicians. Politics, as we know, is generally assumed to be a dirty game. Indeed, it is dirty in so many ways and senses to the extent that most politicians and their gullible followers often pretend against positive steps of distinguished achievers as a means of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

The photos are grim. Dead bodies — all men to the extent one can determine — arranged like sardines on the ground. According to reports being circulated internationally by Amnesty International and the Associated Press, they are casualties of the Nigerian military’s campaign against the Boko Haram.

There appears to be a crack within the ranks of the aggrieved governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), otherwise known as the G-7, as some of the governors’ individual ambitions to run for various elective positions in 2015 have threatened the collective struggle they embarked upon two months ago.

Unmoved by the full of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja which barred the officials of the breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) otherwise referred to as the New PDP from parading themselves as officers of the party, the factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Kawu Baraje, has declared that more than five PDP governors would soon join his faction.

The United States government yesterday dissociated itself from a comment credited to Republican Senator Ted Cruz that Nigerian fraudsters were the brains behind the failure of the Obamacare website. This was just as the senator said on Sunday that he was misquoted by journalists.

A Boko Haram member, captured on October 6, says the sect has little to nothing with Islam, but is rather focused on armed banditry, looting and killings.

Last Wednesday, as has become his wont, during Sallah, Bukola Saraki, former Kwara State governor and Senator representing Kwara Central, gathered people in Ilorin to distribute money and pieces of cloths.

By now, Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, should have only one prayer request. It will not be difficult for her to cry to the high heavens since she is currently in Israel. That is however if her battle for survival will give her room to engage in any spiritual activity there. The short prayer point which Jesus Christ himself prayed in the Holy Bible should be: “Dear Lord, if it is your wish, let this cup pass over me.”

Chief Willie Obiano, APGA candidate for the November 16, 2013 gubernatorial election in Anambra State proved cynics wrong Friday when he put up a sterling performance that the audience unanimously agreed eclipsed the performance of a far more experienced Senator Chris Ngige of the APC in a debate organised by Silverbird Television for the candidates in Awka.

The Nigerian Army announced a 24-hour curfew on Damaturu, the Yobe state capital today after a bloody encounter between soldiers and Boko Haram insurgents left 21 persons dead in addition to the declared casualty figure of 74 others killed in neighbouring Borno state.

It was a disappointed for the embattled minister of aviation, Stella Oduah as what she thought would be a tea party between her and President Goodluck Jonathan to discuss her fate over the purchase of two BMW bullet Proof cars at the cost of N255 million ended up with nothing.

Ladoke Akintola was a one-time premier of the then Western Region of Nigeria. Smooth-talking, loquacious master of jabberwocky, Akintola was often accused by his many opponents of crass corruption.  His sarcastic response sickened many both in his party and outside. The line is memorable.  “I didn’t eat the money, I spent it, whose grandfather can swallow a penny?” he had said.  The premier, in a manner of a stand-up comedian, trivialised the behemoth called corruption, and today, the monstrous Godzilla is still very much around sinking Nigeria deep into thraldom and towering tribulations.  Friends, this is the fungus among us.

Contrary to the perception that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would make former vice-president Atiku Abubakar and his associates in the New PDP face the disciplinary committee set up by the party, the PDP has said that there was no such plan.

On assumption of office, President Goodluck Jonathan committed himself to the delivery of transformational leadership to the people of Nigeria. Well, it is true to say that he did not use these words exactly, but when a man  describes his plan for the country as a “transformation agenda”, I think it would be pretty safe to conclude that such a man intends to provide some measure of transformational leadership.

By Edith John Recent happenings in the Aviation industry in general and in particular; the government Agency saddled with the regulatory responsibility of civil Aviation in Nigeria; The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has thrown up a number of ethical issues which borders on professionalism, integrity, loyalty, patriotism and trust.

‘Dino Melaye will do anything for money if the pay is right from a willing paymaster,’ a friend, Mohammed, who is familiar with Dino’s antics right from his school days in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, once said disappointedly about this latter day activist .

A few months after the dissolution of the Abdulrasheed Maina-led Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), another stolen N35 billion pension fund has been uncovered at the office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF).

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed to be in touch with abductors of two “high profile Americans” from an oil supply vessel off Brass, Nigeria.

In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably, the most dangerous people seek power. – Saul Bellow, American Writer; 1976 Nobel Prize Winner.

Barely two weeks after it was reported that the Peoples Democratic Party has been hit by financial crisis and several of its staff and service providers are owed salaries as well as payment for services rendered, the National Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Bamaga Tukur has declared the party broke and called for concerted effort at raising funds for it.

First, I sincerely apologise to my non-Yoruba readers who might feel bothered by the title for today’s piece, especially considering that I could simply have used the word “impunity” which conveys more or less the same meaning. However, what I have found out about the Yoruba language (I guess it is the same with all our local languages) is that certain phrases have far deeper meanings than their literal interpretations. Therefore, when Yoruba people say someone is displaying a behaviour akin to “tani o mu mi”, the kind of impunity being so described carries with it a certain sense of hubris for the perpetrator(s) and danger for the larger society.

The embattled Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, who is facing separate probe panels set up by President Goodluck Jonathan as well as the National Assembly over the purchase of N255 million armoured cars has written the president to explain her side of the story.

Controversy is brewing over whether the minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah will today appear before the House Committee on Aviation, which on Tuesday invited her to today answer questions concerning the NCAA’s  purchase of two bullet proof cars for her at the cost of N255m.

Niger State governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu has urged those who are advocating a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) with a view to dismembering the country to go on self exile as Nigeria would remain indivisible.

The Senate President, David Mark, has said that representatives of the Federal Government who signed the 2009 agreement between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU), were incompetent.