Clay Richie

“Kaka ki Kiniun se akapo Ekun, kaluku a ya se ode ti e l’ototo ni.” (The Lion would rather hunt separately rather than be the bag bearer for the Tiger) - Chief Obafemi Awolowo at a campaign rally in Mapo Hall, Ibadan. 1983. “We planned for one transition but ended up with two and one is not acceptable. The transition we planned is Military to Civilian and not North to South.”

Former Military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, has joined his counterpart, Atiku Abubakar in declaring for the office of the President on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest the 2015 presidential election.

Everything turns upside down in Nigeria. Logic becomes illogical. Wisdom becomes foolishness. Two plus two becomes seven. Hospitals become mortuaries. Stealing is not corruption. Education is a sin. In Nigeria, so many things fly in the face of simple commonsense.

Ahead of his plan to next week declare his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election, a leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari, has commissioned a study on how he and the opposition in Nigeria could defeat the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its potential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, in the poll.

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has accused the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, of breaching the provisions of Company and Allied Matters Act through the use of a private jet belonging to a company in which he had interest to ferry $9.3m cash to South Africa.

The Buhari Support Group strongly condemns the statement attributed to the President, Civil Rights Congress, Malam Shehu Sani, where he alleged that General Muhammadu Buhari is among the former Presidents and Leaders of Northern Nigeria extraction to be blamed for 70 percent of the problems bedevilling the region. It is disheartening, uncharitable and false for Malam Shehu Sani to mention General Buhari alongside General Yakubu Gowon; Alhaji Shehu Shagari; General Ibrahim Babangida; General Sani Abacha and General Abdulsalami Abubukar.

The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, broke the silence over his alleged involvement in the $9.3m cash for arms purchase seized in his private jet in South Africa. Oritsejafor who spoke during the National Executive Council meeting of CAN at the National Christian Centre, Abuja on Monday, declared that his hands are clean concerning the controversial money involving his jet.

A former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, says there is a need for the country to undergo a “common sense” revolution. Tinubu, who is a national leader of the All Progressives Congress said the many years of misrule by successive Peoples Democratic Party presidents had continued to sink the country further into crisis.

The Defence Headquarters has said that it was aware that members of the outlawed Islamist sect, Boko Haram, were in the habit of looting its armoury. The military authorities stated that they were making efforts to secure all armouries in its various formations across the country.

The Federal High Court on Monday ordered the State Security Service to apologise to a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai, and to pay him N2 million in damages for unlawful detention.

The war against the rise of violent jihadist movement in Nigeria suffered a major embarrassing setback last week in the hands of the Nigerian security forces in the battle currently raging in the northeastern region of Nigeria inside Borno State at the town of Konduga and its immediate surrounding communities.

One of the most exciting things I have ever done, and I mean it, was my study of oil-producing countries in 2008. I set out on a study of five countries: Norway, Venezuela, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. On a comparative basis with Nigeria, I looked at their policies and practices: local content, product pricing, revenue sharing between national and sub-national governments, “resource control” and management of “excess revenue”.

Before June 21 Governorship elections in Ekiti State Professor Jide Osuntokun spoke from Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world that Ayo Fayose may be bad news for Ekiti State, Yoruba Nation and Nigeria, if he is forced on the people Ekiti judging from the feelers he got from the powers that be. In that historic piece, Prof. Osuntokun screamed: “How on earth, in the year of our Lord 2014 can anybody compare Kayode Fayemi, our incumbent Governor with Fayose, our former Governor who we are trying to forget that he ever ruled our state.”

By Vanguard The  All Progressives Congress, APC was at the weekend headed for a serious crisis following strong reservations among its major presidential candidates over the procedure for adopting the 2015 presidential candidate for the party.

We are a funny people. We accept what we want to accept and discard the unacceptable, regardless of the size of evidence to the contrary. We are like the man that says ‘My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts’. This total disregard for facts helps maintain our emotional erection, so we do everything to look away from the facts. Emotion is king, to hell with facts.

Reports from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital has it that, Personal Assistant to Senator representing Southern Borno Senatorial District, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, Iliya Adamu alongside six other persons have been rounded up by security operatives and have been taken into custody for alleged membership of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, according to Daily Post.

From the latest boko haram video Many Nigerians who think that the killing of “Abubakar Shekau”, the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram sect may videos released by the sect may be in for a shocker, as the sect has reportedly released a new video few days after the  Nigerian military released said they have killed “Shekau “.

The current security situation in Ekiti State today is a big threat to our nascent democracy, political stability and judicial independence. Above all, it is an afront to our peaceful co-existence in our immediate environment and to our nation in general.

You believe you know so much about me, but the truth is- you have no idea! Most times I laugh at you whenever I quietly log on to any of the social networking sites to read one or two things you all write and say about me based on my actions in government. Some of you write so much about me as if you were my mother.

If you are in your thirties and above and anybody is deceiving you that the just and fair Nigeria we are struggling for will happen in your life time, please do not deceive yourself. Struggling for the dreamable, refusing to relinquish the imaginable, hanging on stubbornly to the possible, as some of us are doing 24/7, are all praxes that must be rooted in pragmatism and an acknowledgment of the degree of the rot. The rot that will prevent you and this writer from seeing a reimagined and remade Nigeria is not corruption. It is not Boko Haram. It is none of the unending dysfunctionalities and irrationalities of statehood that have turned the Nigerian tragedy into a nightmare from which Africa struggles to awake.

There is a long history of French betrayal, including in the Nazi wars. And these were not only of foreigners but also of friends and family. I am definitely not going to stereotype a people or nation based on culture and language, and then, our neighbors, Cameroon and Chad, etc are not French but only partially French cultured; however it is becoming critical to analyze and review the attitudes and policies of Nigeria’s neighbors in view of the fight on terrorism.

A member of the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin, has asked a leader of the party, former head of state, General Muhammad Buhari, to protect his integrity by not contesting in the next elections in fulfilment of the promise he made to Nigerians in 2011, Leadership reports.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday claimed his administration has succeeded in cutting the widespread poverty in the country by at least 50 per cent, adding that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, fully subscribes to the principle of “stomach infrastructure”.

Enugu state Governor Sullivan Chime is believed to have chosen Hon Ifeanyi Ugwanyi as the one to succeed him as Governor in 2015. Hon Ifeanyi Ugwanyi the member representing Igbo Eze North /Udenu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives was said to have been chosen at a meeting presided by Chime in Enugu last night.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday described the defection of a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom IKmi, from All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party as spelling the end of the APC.

Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, former Archbishop of Lagos and first president of CAN, in this interview with MICHAEL UCHEBUAKU speaks about the politicisation of CAN, involvement of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in the $9.3 million cash-for-arm deal, among other issues:

Nigerian military intelligence officials say they were surprised at the sophisticated weapons being used by Boko Haram insurgents. The reaction came after Nigerian troops captured a T-55 armored tank and a highly sophisticate Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) from the Islamist insurgents in a battle yesterday at Konduga, Borno State.

No fewer than 300 Boko Haram fighters have surrendered in Nigeria’s neighbouring country Cameroon in the past three weeks, Cameroon’s defense ministry has said. According to the country’s military spokesman Lt. Col. Didier Badjeck, the Islamist militants gave up their arms and asked for asylum in Cameroon.

Fellow Nigerians, please permit me to refresh our memories a little. The story I’m about to tell started some 21 odd years ago. A few of us were seated at the home of Nduka Obaigbena, Publisher of ThisDay, somewhere in Ikoyi, Lagos, working and planning what would later explode on the African continent as the most influential media conglomerate, Leaders & Company.  I had the privilege of being invited by the Publisher, Nduka, to be the pioneer as well as coordinating Editor. We had very tall dreams and I was able to recruit some of the core staff.

Nothing irritates religious extremists more than a woman being in control ─ and it could not be worse for the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria as a woman in hijab flew one of the fighter jets that bombed the terrorists on Thursday. Some Arab nations, including UAE, joined the US in carrying out the strikes against IS in Syria, marking the first time they are taking part.

As the battle for the Alausa seat of government hots up, analysts and pundits are having a field day rationalizing over which candidate and what party will clinch the governorship seat at the end of the day.

The news coming out of Ekiti State is terrifying, to say the least. All peace loving Nigerians should get really scared. Nigerians will do well to pay close attention to the rumble in the jungle of Ekiti Parapo.

President Goodluck Jonathan has told the United Nations that the Boko Haram insurgents are being funded from outside the country. The President, who challenged the international community to “act now,” and put a stop to the global menace of terrorism said the deadly sect has killed 13,000 Nigerians in the country’s North-east zone in the past five years.

In their relentless attempt to take over the strategic town of Konduga in Borno State, the Boko Haram insurgents group on Friday stage yet another attack on the town with the ultimate aim of invading Maiduguri, the state capital.

Before now, he minimally knew about Nigeria other than its name. He befriended no Nigerian aside from the few he stumbled across in his ministerial assignments as a preacher. But in recent times, Joe, my white American friend, has learnt so much about my country and its people that he now believes he is more equipped than a Nigerian Professor of History or any Nigerian alive, about all that is in Nigeria’s past, present, and what will be in the future. That was his confession.

Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court has discharged and acquitted the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, of the alleged laundering of about N600m. The Judge also discharged Ikuforiji’s aide, Oyebode Atoyebi of the same alleged crime.

Vanguard – The United States voiced skepticism Thursday over reports from the Nigerian military that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been killed in recent clashes with troops. “The Nigerians have announced several times that the head of Boko Haram was dead and every single time we find out that it is not true,” a senior State Department official told reporters.

In preparation for the Governorship elections in their various states, six ministers may quit President Jonathan’s cabinet in October. The said ministers are Senator Bala Muhammed (Federal Capital Territory), Mr. Labaran Maku (Information), Chief Emeka Wogu (Labour), Mr. Nyesom Wike (State, Education), Dr. Samuel Ortom (State, Trade, Industry and Investment) and Senator Musiliu Obanikoro (State, Defence).

by Oluwatosin Fatoyinbo The Coordinator of the National Information Centre (NIC) and Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, said at a news briefing yesterday that the Federal Government will rehabilitate members of the Boko Haram group who recently surrendered their arms before they are reintegrated back into society.

The report making rounds that the United States of America had blocked the sale of a CH-47 Chinook transport aircraft from Israel to Nigeria has been denied by the US embassy in Nigeria. The US embassy’s press attaché, Sean J. McIntosh has released a statement to that effect:

Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Party (APC )Mallam Nasir  El-Rufai,  on Thursday   counseled  the Nigerian political elite  to see politics as a service to the people and not a do-or-die affair as  being currently witnessed  in the nation.

Following the surrender of  268 Boko Haram terrorists  to Nigerian troops, the Nigerian Army  has warned that any other person or leader who emerges using the name ‘Shekau’ will receive the same treatment. 

The above is the picture of the brave and talented, blessed commander who led the Nigerian army to its victory over Boko Haram terrorists in the Konduga battle. Col. Abubakar led the operation at Kudan Zuma.

There is a palpable sense of expectation in Anambra State. The surreal feeling can be felt in the renewed spring in the stride of Ndi Anambra everywhere you find them in the surface of the earth, irrespective of political affiliations. It is a sense of pride and fulfilment borne out of the people’s re-discovery and belief in their state’s growth and prospects. In a re-enactment of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, there is a new found ‘can do spirit’ enveloping the heartland of the Igbo race. In the street parlance of the yuppies, it is called ‘swag’.

The River State Governor Chubuike Rotimi Amaechi is probably one of the most misunderstood Nigerian politician in recent times. From nowhere those who perceived him to be a potential threat crafted an image of a stubborn, disrespectful man who listens to no one and that perception hung around his neck till date. They successfully leveraged on a minor political difference between him and the President to portray the governor as a cantankerous hater of President Jonathan. He struggled with it for a while but later it stuck.

One of the female students, named Susan, who was abducted by the Boko Haram sect from Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State last April, was found by the police in the early hours of yesterday in Mubi, Adamawa State, two days after she was thrown off a truck by her captors.

Barely 24 hours after the emotions of Nigerians where raised and later dashed over reports that some of the school girls abducted from Government Girls Secondary Chibok in Borno state had been freed, a report that turned out to be false, it has emerged that one of the ?girls have miraculously escaped from their abductors.

Speech by Atiku Abubakar, GCON, former Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the occasion of his Declaration of Intent to seek the Nomination of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to Contest the 2015 Presidential Election, at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

On June 14, 1993, two days after that memorable presidential election between the late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC), I was (among several other reporters) at the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), as it was then called, in Abuja awaiting the final collation and release of result. Around 3 PM on that day, we were invited to the office of then NEC Public Affairs Director, Dr. Tonnie Iredia, who gave us a terse press statement to the effect that further release of the Presidential election result had been suspended in deference to a court injunction obtained by the Chief Arthur Nzeribe-led Association for Better Nigeria (ABN).

Nigerian troops have been conducting coordinated air and land operations in furtherance of efforts at containing the terrorists in the North East part of the country.  Somehow, it became apparent that the terrorists in continuation of their campaign of terror were determined to take over communities around Maiduguri which is their prime target.