Clay Richie

Director Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade at Defence Headquarters, has briefed the media on the women and girls rescued from the den of the Boko Haram sect as well as the operations of the military in Sambisa forest, considered to be the armed group’s last stronghold

By Premium times ng In spite of Federal Government’s efforts to restore normalcy in fuel supply, indications are that the crisis may linger for a while, as long queues of anxious motorists continue to build outside filling stations across Nigeria.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday predicted that those decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to other parties will return with empty stomach. He made the remark while receiving the PDP campaign report from its Director General, Ahmadu Ali at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The All Progressives Congress promised Nigerians change; now the party has power, it must show us that change in truth and in deed. One place where that change will be mostly needed is the National Assembly. It is supposed to be a public National Assembly but on matters of finances and spending, it is largely private. From a budgetary allocation of just about N50bn during the Obasanjo presidential years, the National Assembly now spends some N150bn per year. Apart from this unjustified budget, no one knows exactly how this money is spent.

The proprietor of Daar Communications PLC, Raymond Dokpesi, has stated that documentaries aired by Africa Independent Television (AIT), on the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari during the heat of the 2015 presidential elections were factually correct.

Outgoing governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) are set for showdown, following the party’s defeat at the recently conducted general elections, Daily Trust learnt yesterday.

Let me use the opportunity to congratulate the president elect on his recent victory at the poll. His tenacity and perseverance has indeed paid off; his victory it is hoped, will indeed offer Nigerians the opportunity to enjoy his robust programmes, which he has over the years sought to implement if given the opportunity to govern the country. Thank God that opportunity has finally presented itself.

You are right again Einstein. The old thinking that created this problem will not fix it. Nothing is more desperately needed than a new way of thinking about our problems in Nigeria, but there is ever present dangers if old ways still hold sway. In the area of the greatest urgency, saving the country from impending bankruptcy, wiping the unemployment scourge, and boosting confidence in future prospects, through inspiring our youth to recreate the future, challenges of approach remain. Has change really come? It is common talk amongst those who know that if we do not do an extra- ordinary job of cutting our coat according to out cloth we shall be knocking on the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before the end of this year.

This is one of the consequences of promoting hate campaigns. AIT management was supposed to tell Jonathan and PDP that such hate campaigns were against the fundamental ethics of journalism. But because of partisan politics and financial gains from Jonathan and PDP, AIT crossed the line. And they are already paying the price for them.

`This leopard has not changed its skin. It is asking much to expect Buhari to change his habits at the ripe old age of 72. Buhari is already caught in his own anti-corruption hogwash. Anti-corruption is likely to become a Pandora’s box of unanticipated wahala for the in-coming administration.

` `No fewer than 22 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram members in Marguba community and surrounding villages of Beneshiekh, the headquarters of Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State.

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has advised the incoming government of Gen. Muhammad Buhari (Rtd), to will the political power and reverse the current privatisation exercise of the Power sector for Nigeria to move on.

It also called for a review of the current NNPC Act to make it pay all revenues accruing from crude oil sales into the Federation Account. In the final report made available by the government on Monday, the auditors said the corporation over-claimed $980m (N19.3bn based on the interbank exchange rate of N197 to a dollar) as subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit and Dual Purpose Kerosene between January 2012 and July 2013.

In 2012, I wrote a column titled “military coup in Bayelsa,” and it referred to how President Goodluck Jonathan deployed all the branches of the Nigerian military to oust Timipre Sylva as governor of Bayelsa State. It was an election as military operation. The police were also involved.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday said he is ready for any probe of activities under his watch when he leaves office on May 29. In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President said that he is not afraid of any investigation after leaving office.

In my opinion, only a handful of state governments since 1999 have shown vision and innovation on the level of the Fashola-led one in Lagos. Its many shortcomings aside, it has, in ways small (ambitious street-signage and street-lighting projects) and big (the BRT, Marina CBD, Independent Power Plant and Housing Scheme projects, the Lekki-Ikoyi bridge, and the ongoing light rail) proved itself to be a worthy model for the rest of the country. Recall that it was as a Peoples Democratic Party state governor that Rabiu Kwankwaso visited in 2011, barely two weeks after being sworn in, to tap into Babatunde Fashola’s urban development vision.

Niger’s army is fighting to recapture an island in Lake Chad after it was seized by hundreds of Boko Haram militants aboard motorised canoes, army sources said on Sunday. Boko Haram, hardline Islamists who want to establish a caliphate in the region, attacked the island of Karamga at dawn on Saturday, their second attempt to capture it since February, army and government sources said.

About 100 suspected Fulani mercenaries late on Saturday and Sunday morning attacked and killed 30 people, mostly women and children, in Guma, Kwande, respecively in Buruku and Keana local government areas of Benue and Nasarawa states.

The plot to replace the incumbent chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mu’azu is gathering momentum as an unnamed governor from the South South region is being tipped to replace him. Mu’azu is being targeted by many party faithful for the party’s disastrous outing in the recent elections, its worst since it swept into power in 1999.

President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), on Sunday said his administration would take a second look at the claim by a former Governor of the Central Bank, now Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, that $20bn, that was supposed to be remitted by the NNPC to the federation account, could not be unaccounted.

Months have slimmed down to weeks, and soon we will be counting days and hours to the historic change of baton between President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. Soon and very soon, Buhari will start dominating the headlines: Buhari did this, Buhari did that. Jonathan will take the back seat, except he wants to be like that megalomaniac interloper in Abeokuta. The front-page pictures of the newspapers will be all Buhari. The subject of discourse by columnists and TV analysts will be Buhari. If the weather is too hot, it will be Buhari's failing. If a policeman collects N20 bribe somewhere in Ode Omu, it will be Buhari's fault. That's the way we are.

On the 13 th  of April this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN circulated a notice that “with immediate effect,” the withdrawal limit from Naira debit cards abroad will be reduced to $300/day to a total of $50,000/year from where it stood at thrice that: $900/day and $150,000/year. This order by the CBN was a result of a meeting of the Bankers Committee just a week prior. I repeat that; “just a week prior.”

Muhammadu Buhari’s triumph over Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28, 2015 presidential election has unleashed a fever of hope in Nigeria. Everywhere I turn, I encounter among Nigerians the sense that our country is on the cusp of redemption, about to achieve a veritable renaissance.

Ahead of the May 29, inauguration date, President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has rejected moves by the Department of State Services (DSS), to replace his Chief Security Officer (CSO) that was assigned to him since his emergence as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a new hand.

Fellow Nigerians, this is not an easy time in our country. The period of every transition from an outgoing ruling government to an incoming opposition administration anywhere in the world is always replete with soaking tension.

I am delighted to address this assembly for the first time since my investiture as the 4th chancellor of our university. When we assembled here for that memorable event exactly one year ago, many national and international personalities were among our guests.

No sooner than Gen Muhammadu Buhari emerged President-elect of Nigeria was he also selected as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. The magazine recognizes that people’s expectations of Buhari are high in keeping with “… the historic conditions of the election”.

Boko Haram fighters have amassed in the group’s Sambisa Forest stronghold in northeast Nigeria, as a military offensive tries to flush them out, a civilian vigilante told AFP on Thursday. (The group also released new photos of the rebranded group pictured above).

Titus Terver Mamadu, a scholar in Religion and Philosophy made it clear in 2006, that Nigeria would have been the best country in Africa and one of the best in the world if not that corruption was institutionalized and most of the leaders never saw anything wrong in it. According to him, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida was the worse head of state Nigeria ever had because of so many atrocities and impunity he committed during his era of dictatorship.

Civil activists are supporting president Goodluck Jonathan in rejection of last minute constitutional changes that will among other things give immunity to senators and life long pensions. Civil activist Femi Falana yesterday rejected the constitutional amendments designed solely to safeguard the law makers’ interests.

The recent wave of xenophobic attacks in South African especially against fellow Africans is unfortunate, regrettable, and condemnable. History will no doubt remember these killings, and the perpetrators will never be forgiven. This is because, Africans especially Nigeria played a very vital role in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Nigeria has spent a lot and accommodated a lot of South Africans in the spirit of brotherhood and Africa’s liberation. Now it is South Africans that are attacking their fellow Africans, killing them and looting away their properties. It is awkward and irrational pay back gesture.

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”-Harvey Firestone Nigeria’s Legendary Writer,Publisher and Leader,Dele Momodu has in different ways impacted in the lives of millions of youths in Nigeria and beyond through his weekly edition of pendulum.

“I am a talent hunter. I put talents in office, I help them,” former Lagos State Governor and opposition alliance leader, Bola Tinubu, said, being quite open about his role as one of Nigeria’s most powerful political godfathers.

Some attribute agricultural development in Nigeria with the policies of Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the spectacle-wearing stand-out minister of Agriculture. Indeed Dr. Adesina with his a decade at the Rockefeller Foundation history, on a superficial look transformed Nigeria’s agriculture landscape, but is this the whole truth about his legacy?

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has told members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to join its party that it would not accommodate them. Advising PDP faithful to accept the “hard reality” that they have lost power, Lai Mohammed, the party’s national publicity secretary, taunted his PDP counterparts to rebuild their party to play its new role as the main opposition party.

If you have been following the debate during the just-concluded elections, then I don’t need to tell you my preferred candidate was President Goodluck Jonathan and not General Buhari. I wrote quite a number of articles warning Nigerians about the candidature of General Buhari in particular and the APC in general. Now that the elections have been won by the APC and lost by the PDP, some triumphalist APC supporters have been asking if I intend to go into exile.

So much has been said and written about the star of this article in the grapevine, in the social media, in the mainstream media, in political circles in Lagos and much of the Southwest. Most Igbos would rather have him turned into a villain while most Yorubas consider him a celebrity and a hero for some of the political battles he has won for himself and the Yorubas. The part 1 will address Tinubu’s ascendancy or rise to the leadership position in the Southwest while the part 2 will speak to what he has done to deserve the honor and recognition as a worthy successor to Awolowo despite few of his shortcomings as a human being. “Let anyone who has never sinned before throw the first stone”

A notorious top terrorists commander, Abu Mojahid was among the terrorists that died in their encounter with troops in the outskirt of Alagarno, Tuesday morning.  The terrorists had staged a daring attack on troops who were on patrol of the area.

The Peoples Democratic Party caucus in the House of Representatives said on Tuesday that its members would resist any candidates imposed on the House by a political party as the Speaker. The caucus noted that the legislature was an independent arm of government, which must be allowed to? elect a Speaker for itself as against a candidate imposed by a party.

Over a year ago, Nigeria’s former central bank, CBN governor, now Emir, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi raised an alert on alleged missing billions ($) in oil revenue.  By February, the figure was reconciled at $20 billion. We then began to ask, #WhereIsOurMoney?

As the moments when the mind of President Jonathan was been ride by blind ambition, stealing was made legitimate to all government officials, particularly every chameleon regarded “loyalist” that’s good at deceiving the President. It’s sadly unfortunate, Nigeria really suffered under the watch of these mongers.

Sir, permit me to congratulate you once more on your victory in the March 28 Presidential election. You have indeed proved that there is a reward for consistency and faith in the democratic process. The massive votes you received from the masses signify the trust of the citizens on you to take Nigeria to a greater height.

National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has blasted controversial businessman and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP senator-elect, Prince Buruji Kashamu.

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled a comprehensive plan for the Northeast – the zone hardest hit by the Boko Haram insurgency. The economy of the states, especially Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, is reeling under the effect of the killings and general insecurity.

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has sacked the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba with immediate effect. The sack was announced by the president’s spokesperson, Reuben Abati, in a statement on Tuesday.

It appears the Ndigbo is not bordered about the imminent absence of the South-East from top leadership positions in the Senate and House of Representatives; former Anambra State governor, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has said.

There was panic again in Ado Ekiti on Monday as members of the Peoples Democratic Party and supporters of Governor Ayodele Fayose laid siege   to the Ekiti State House of Assembly complex in order to halt the resumption of the 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers.

by Musa Abdullahi The soon to be ruling All Progressives congress, APC, leadership have moved against the plans by a section of the party to ensure that the Rivers State Governor and Director General of the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign organisation emerges Nigeria’s Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Nigerians to disregard the wild speculations making the rounds concerning the appointment of ministers and the zoning of offices under the incoming Buhari Administration.

Further details emerged at the weekend as to the factors that informed the decision of top bigwigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to betray President Goodluck Jonathan at the just-concluded March 28 presidential election.