PDP Leadership Says Party's Convention Held

PDP Spokesman says the party convention held despite the sealing of the earlier planned venue by the Policemen. He also claimed that what they did was legal.

Planes crashes in Dubai airport.

An Emirates plane with 275 passengers was involved in an accident today Wednesday at the Dubai airport but all the passengers were evacuated safely, the government said.

There were Footage on social media which showed smoke billowing from the aircraft.

A statement on their Twitter account reads:

“An Emirates plane coming from India has been involved in an accident on landing at Dubai International,”

“All passengers were evacuated safely and no injuries have been reported so far,”

"all departures from Dubai International have been halted until further notice.”

posted from Bloggeroid

Toke Makinwa supports Pastor Adeboye's view on marriage

Pastor E. A. Adeboye, the GO of the Redeemed Christian Church of God was  all over the social media for advising men and women on the type of people they should not marry.

He said several things like men should not marry a woman that can't cook and can't pray for at least an hour and women should not get married to men who do not have jobs. 

This generated a lot of controversy on social media yesterday.

Toke Makinwa, an OAP and a media person for short took to her twitter handle to support what Pastor Adeboye said.

See her tweets below:

Ooni of Ife, Olori honored as Ambassador for Hepatitis for Advocacy

The Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II and the Olori were honoured by SHECA Foundation at a Royal Award ceremony to mark the 2016 World Hepatitis Day.

The Olori, Wuraola Otiti Ogunwusi, was honoured as the Royal Ambassador for Hepatitis Advocacy in Nigeria by the foundation.

The Ooni said in a statement that:

 “this is no ordinary award but a reminder of his commitment to progressive Nigeria and not just Hepatitis free Nigeria but a healthy and wealthy Nigeria”.

The ceremony had in attendance the Ooni of Ife and his wife, the former Head of state and Goodwill Ambassador of Hepatitis Advocacy in Nigeria, General Yakubu Gowon, the Executive Secretary SHECA Foundation, Adepeju Hameed; the Obasewa of Ife and the Chairman SHECA Foundation,  John Agboola Odeyemi; the new Acting Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Professor Anthony Elujoba and more.

Padded Budget, Padded change - Prof Okey Ndibe.

Professor Okey Ndibe, an associate Professor of English at Simon's Rock college in great barrington, has spoken concerning the situation in Nigeria. 

Read what he said: 

I have often argued that the Nigerian state is, at bottom, a criminal enterprise, organized to serve the interests of its most unconscionable criminals, often chaps who go by the pompous designation of political stakeholders. And, save for cosmetics and a higher hypocrisy quotient, there is little in today’s political environment to warrant a revision of my dour opening claim.

It is still their wont to serve themselves first, serve themselves next, and serve themselves last. They remain specialist profiteers from Nigerians’ collective misery.

On any given day, members of Nigeria’s state and national legislatures—whose chief mandate is to propose or pass laws—provide proof that their country is a lawless, ethics-free, anything-goes space.

The latest chapter of Nigeria’s absurd legislative drama is tied to what’s now known as “budget padding.” More than a week ago, Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the House of Representatives announced the removal of Abdulmumin Jibrin as the chairman of the appropriations committee. The erstwhile chairman was blamed for the illicit sneaking in of billions of naira into the 2016 budget. That shady and embarrassing affair, tagged padding, created a further fiasco in the 2016 budgetary process.

If Mr. Dogara thought he was going to have the last word, that the former appropriations man would shamble off to a corner and bow his head in a penitential act of shame, well, Mr. Jibrin either didn’t get the memo—or he was having none of it. Far from exhibiting contrition, Mr. Jibrin—like a reeling boxer bolstered by a sudden rush of adrenaline—went into a ferocious attack mode.

First, he dismissed the idea that he had been punitively removed. Instead, he had decided to step down for wholly personal reasons, he said, and after consultation with his family. And then he unleashed a flurry of counter-punches. In personal statements, tweets and releases by his law firm, he accused the speaker and three other major officers of the House of Representatives of conspiring to remove him because he had, in fact, resisted their pressure to illegally insert N40 billion into the budget for their personal benefit.

What followed was typical political flimflam. An official of the House stood by the speaker, excoriated Mr. Jibrin, and declared that fellow legislators would soon deal with him. The speaker demanded that the ex-chair of appropriations recant and retract the allegations he made, or face a lawsuit. Ever defiant, Mr. Jibrin reaffirmed his claims and told Nigerians that Mr. Dogara’s threat to hasten to court was a well-worn strategy for sweeping the scandal under the carpet. For—according to him—once the case is in court, where interminable adjournments are the rule of the game, the speaker and his cohorts could foreclose any further discussion simply by stating that the matter was sub judice.

If the late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, were around, he would have a pithy phrase for the entire odoriferous affair. Let’s just say, in the spirit of that musical genius who possessed an uncommon insight into the pathologies of Nigerian life, “yeye dey smell!”

Let’s pause for a simple test. I want you, dear reader, to name three bills passed by the National Assembly since 1999 that have uplifted Nigerians in a significant. Go ahead, take thirty minutes and think about it. Okay, exhale. Now, let’s do another test. Think of the various scandals that have shaken the National Assembly in sixteen years. Exhale again!

It is no secret any more: Nigerian legislators (it’s become a tacky cliché to call them legislooters) are some of the highest paid of their kind in the world. Yet, many “honorable” members hardly ever stand up to say “good morning” in the legislative chambers. Oh, forget about initiating or co-sponsoring a bill. In fact, many of Nigeria’s 109 senators and 360 representatives hardly bother to show up for work. Just go to youtube and watch a few videos of legislative sessions and see how scandalously sparse attendance is. Each year, Nigerians left raggedy by poverty, millions of them scrounging about on less than a dollar a day, richly reward state and federal legislators for work NOT done. We take food from the mouths of malnourished, dying infants to hand premium perks to some of this earth’s most indolent men and women.

Nigerian senators officially and flatteringly address themselves as Distinguished Senator This and That. Yet, many of them are incapable of asking a single serious question when screening ministerial nominees. It’s as if these senators are either nose-deprived or (as the Nigerian expression goes) can’t “hear” a smell, even one that’s rubbed against their noses. How many stinky nominees did these lawmakers look at and, asking nary a question, use that most facile phrase, “Take a bow and go!”

Often, Nigerian legislators, those at the National Assembly as well as their “junior” counterparts at the state level, are most vociferous in matters concerning money. And I mean money in their pockets. Some of the fiercest fights between governors and state assemblies have had cash at their core. And in the reckless pursuit of lucre, some legislatures have had no qualms invoking the threat of impeachment against an obstinate, tightfisted governor.

The brouhaha over budget padding has given Nigerians one more evidence of the raw deal they get from the misshapen bunch in Abuja and thirty-six state capitals who presume to run the country—but are specialists in serving their guts alone, ruining others’ lives in the process. In a telling interview, a member of the House, Lawal Gumau, disclosed that budget padding was a longstanding crime. Mr. Gumau said he arrived at the National Assembly in 2011 and has been fighting the blight of budget padding since 2012.

Here, then, is a memo to those who persist in the fiction that “change” touched down in Nigeria when the All Progressives Congress came to power in 2015: both Speaker Dogara and Representative Jibrin are APC members. At the very least, one of them is guilty of transporting a PDP-made malady into the APC dispensation. That’s why I long argued that both parties struck me as Siamese twins.

As I write, President Muhammadu Buhari has not deemed fit to voice one word of moral revulsion on the budget padding matter. Nor has Nigeria’s attorney general, Abubakar Malami, announced that his office had launched an investigation into the crime. It’s as if the matter of a grave crime, the unconscionable wastage of billions of naira of public funds in a country where millions are unemployed and hundreds of thousands of the employed are being owned salaries—it’s as if this grave crime is being treated as side entertainment.

So I ask: what has changed with change?

The whole scandal is an opportunity to rethink the structure and size of Nigeria’s machinery of governance. I’ve said before, and restate here: There’s no financial or political sense in having full-time legislators in Nigeria. In many states in the US, lawmakers are part-time, and merely receive sitting allowances if and when they meet to do the people’s business.

Nigerian labor unionists, students, peasants and professionals (who actually earn their keep) should insist that, a., the size of the House be significantly cut (I’d suggest, by half), and, b., that those who wish to make laws for us accept to do so on a part-time basis. Not only would we save ourselves a ton of money, we’re likely to attract savvier lawmakers—those who truly wish to do public service, rather than engage in primitive stuffing of outsized bellies.

Bridge collapse in India, kills 22 people.

22 people are feared dead in India as a bridge reportedly collapse early this morning.

Two buses fell into the flooded river after the bri

Rescuers had not found the buses or any survivors hours after the single-lane bridge on the Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed about midnight Tuesday, said Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra state's chief minister.

The two Maharashtra state-run buses were carrying a total of 18 passengers, two drivers and two conductors, according to Fadnavis.

He said the bridge, constructed in the 1940s, likely collapsed because it was buffeted by strong currents from the Savitri River, which was flooded by monsoon rains.

Source: ABC news

Buhari sacks JAMB Registrar

In a statement released on Monday night, the Federal Government has announced that he is sacking 17 top ranking officials in the Ministry of Education. The said announcement was in a statement issued by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations in the Education Ministry, Ben Bem Goong.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, Prof Dibu Ojerinde was relieved of his appointments alongside 16 others.

Prof Ishaq Oloyede has been named Registrar/Chief Executive of JAMB, while the National Institute of Nigerian Languages has Prof Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche as its CEO.

Ojerinde got into trouble because of the way he handled the ongoing 2016 admission into universities and other tertiary institutions. On Sunday, he withdrew the list of recommended candidates for admission earlier sent to universities and other tertiary institutions.

The announcement was contained in a statement by the spokesperson for JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin.

According to him, the decision was to ensure that universities perform their statutory responsibility of selecting candidates and referring them to JAMB for confirmation.

This, JAMB stated, should be done in consonance with the admission criteria of merit, catchment area and educationally disadvantaged states as directed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, during the policy committee meeting.

Benjamin said the earlier list was sent to help fast-track the process of admission so as to allow other tiers of tertiary institutions conduct their admission for the 2016/2017 academic session. He further said that “Candidates should not panic because this is part of the process of the 2016 admission exercise. JAMB regrets any inconvenience this decision would have caused the tertiary institutions,”.

The new appointees are expected to report at the office of the Education Minister on Tuesday, August 02, 2016 by 12:00 noon for inauguration.

Source: Punchng

Tonto Dikeh is back, stunning as ever.

Wife and mother, Tonto Dikeh is back and ready to work.

Actress, Tonto Dikeh has been off set for sometime now and fans have really missed her.

 She took this lovely pictures and shared it and YES, we are glad to have her back.

NBA elects new President.

Mr. Mahmoud Abubakar (SAN) has been elected as the new President of The Nigerian Bar Association. He takes over from the present President of the NBA, Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN), whose two-year tenure ends this month.

Mahmoud, was the former Kano State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice. 

He defeated his opponent, Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama with 671 votes. The election which was conducted online had 5,439 voters and Mr Mahmoud won 3,055 votes while his opponent has 2,384 votes.

He is to be sworn in this month as 28th President of the NBA to steer the association’s ship for the next two years