Nigerian dancer, singer and past winner of the Nigeria’s Got Talent TV Show, Amarachi Uyanne has a new video for her song, Get Down. As expected, the 10-year-old shows off some great dance moves in this video directed by Toyin Lawani of Tiannah Styling.
Amarachi is definitely a star to look out for in the future!
A fire incidence at the Federal Ministry of Works Building at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on Tuesday destroyed property worth millions of Naira. The fire is believed to have started from the R&A section on the ground floor of the two-storey building at about 6:30p.m when workers had closed business for the day.
According to eyewitness, the fire lasted for about one hour and affected at least three offices in the building before the fire was put out by the Fire Services Department.
The Director of Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe, while confirming the incidence, blamed the cause of the fire on power surge in an air conditioner in the office.
“Immediately we received the call, fire trucks were deployed to the scene.”
“The fire started from the R&A office and damaged property inside. The fire later spread to two other offices.
“It was the prompt effort of the fire service officials that prevented the fire from spreading to other floors in the building.”
There were no casualties recorded at the incidence.
Despite all the recent controversies which he has faced, Nigerian singer Wizkid seems focused on dishing out good songs and videos. His new video, In My Bed is still enjoying heavy rotation but the Star Boy is not resting. Aside moving around for the Hennessy Club tours, he has promised his fans that he will be dropping a new video for one of the songs off his Ayo album.
He recently announced that the video for Ojuelegba which is track number five on his latest album will be dropping really soon. His character and loyalty has been questioned lately but no one can question his work ethics
Ojuelegba Video for my real fans soon!!! Turn up! #TeamWizkid
— Wizkid Ayo Balogun (@wizkidayo) October 27, 2014
We are waiting!
The Government of Lagos state on Tuesday ordered all the chairmen and other political appointees in the 20 local government areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to quit office with immediate effect.
The order was made in a statement issued by the state commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba, stating that the three-year statutory tenure of all council chairmen and councillors in the state “expires on October 28,” which it said, made it mandatory for them to vacate their offices in line with the directive.
“Chairmen are hereby directed to co-ordinate the exercise and hand over to the Council Managers in their respective local governments who will take charge of the administration until further notice.”
According to the statement, new political officers “will resume office after the next local government elections to be scheduled and conducted by the state Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) upon completion of the continuous voters’ registration, ward re-delineation and polling booth re-distribution exercise embarked upon by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
However, investigations carried out by THISDAY revealed that the state government had concluded plan to constitute a five-man committee to take over the administration of councils in the state from the council managers next month.
A top state official said the five-man committee would comprise Executive Secretary, one Deputy Executive Secretary and three members, who he said, would run the affairs of the local council until elections “are conducted.”
He explained that of the 57 council chairmen that vacated office yesterday, only 19 of them would come back as the executive secretaries of their local governments, though subject to the ratification of the party leaders.
He added that the 19 council chairmen “will only return as executive secretaries because they just concluded their first term. On this note, they will be given concession to serve in the capacity of council executive secretaries. But their appointment would be contingent on their performance in office.
“The party leaders in the 19 local governments will vote whether the affected council chairman should be appointed. The criterion for their appointment is a function of their performance in office,” the source explained.
Former Vice President and Presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said that he has no plan to leave the All Progressives Congress.
In a statement released on Tuesday,, Atiku debunked the rumour that he plans on leaving APC if he does not win the presidential primaries of the party and asked Nigerians to disregard any publication alleging that he would leave the party for either the Labour Party or the Peoples Democratic Movement.
He said he had traced the person behind the rumour to an unnamed member of the APC from the North-East zone, who he said was working for another presidential aspirant from the opposition party.
“This information is not only egregiously false, but our investigations have traced it to a senior APC member from the North-East geo-political zone, who is working to further the presidential ambition of another aspirant within the party.
“He is also known to be working with certain elements in the Peoples Democratic Party. Sadly, the Atiku Media Office has, over the past few months, had to issue a number of rejoinders against falsehoods of such low quality published by the newspaper.
“We, hereby, advise the public to completely disregard any information about Atiku Abubakar on this matter.”
He said that his vow that APC is his last bus stop “still stands as he does not intend to leave the APC for the PDM or any other party.”
While saying that he believed in the ‘change’ message of the APC, he said that the opposition party believed that the party was the force that would enable Nigerians to vote the PDP out of power in 2015.
He said, “He (Atiku) believes that the APC is progress. This change and progress that Nigerians hope for will include a media which can be relied upon to provide the public with factual, unbiased information–without being swayed by the unscrupulous dictates of anyone who can afford to pay for their services.
Zambian President Michael Sata has died in London, where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, three private Zambian media outlets said on Wednesday.
The reports on the private Muzi television station and the Zambia Reports and Zambian Watchdog websites said the southern African nation’s cabinet was about to meet.
Government officials gave no immediate comment, Reuters News Agency reports.
The reports said Sata had died on Tuesday evening at London’s King Edward VII hospital. The hospital declined to comment.
Sata, 77, left Zambia for medical treatment abroad on Oct. 19 accompanied by his wife and family members, according to a brief government statement that gave no further details.
There has been no official update on his condition and acting president Edgar Lungu had to lead celebrations last week to mark the landlocked nation’s 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.
Concern over Sata’s health has been mounting in Africa’s second-largest copper producer since June, when he disappeared from the public eye without explanation and was then reported to be getting medical treatment in Israel.
He missed a scheduled speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September amid reports that he had fallen ill in his New York hotel. A few days before that, he had attended the opening of parliament in Lusaka, joking: “I am not dead.”
Sata has not been seen in public since he returned to Zambia from New York in late September.
The Senate President, David Mark, has reiterated his preparedness to lay down his life to ensure the growth, sustenance and and stability of democracy in Nigeria.
Vanguard reports that Mark also restated his commitment to ensuring the creation of Apa state for the people of Benue south senatorial district.
He spoke when he hosted Idoma stakeholders in Otukpo, after receiving the nomination and declaration of interest form bought for him by the nine local government council chairmen in the Benue south senatorial zone.
Mark said that the creation of a separate state for the Idoma people of Benue state was of utmost priority to the children, youths and the elderly of the zone who had over the years craved for a separate stated of their own.
Mark said, “I am overwhelmed by the show of love, encouragement and support you have shown me by this singular act of purchasing these forms and in unison asking me to go back to the senate.
“The enormity of the responsibility you have entrust in me entails that I must be fair, just and unwavering in my leadership and and also attain the wishes and aspirations of our people.
“I humbly accept to run in the forthcoming senatorial election in line with your wishes and aspirations, I will strife at all times to ensure that the dividends of democracy did not elude our people.
“As we continue to strive to attain set objectives, I would want to affirm that if you my people ask me to lay down my life for the growth, sustenance and and stability of democracy and for the creation of Apa state, I will willingly do that, because without you, there is no me.”
In his speech, the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, who led PDP Stakeholders and council chairmen to purchase the forms in Makurdi urged anyone with senatorial ambition from area to shelve it, noting; “because such an ambition would be contrary to the wishes of the people of Idoma land.”
Fresh off the success of his last single – Don Gorgon, Burna Boy is back with the video of his new single, Check and Balance. The video shows the Nigerian musician fleeing from the Police. The video also shows off some top-notch dance moves and sexy ladies. The video was directed by MattMax and Godfather productions.
“Does Atiku intend to make good things happen in Nigeria or make corruption happen?” Nigerians especially young intellects and professionals seriously question the former Vice President’s ability, capacity and intention to truly make good things happen in the economy.
“Make good things happen? This was the political slogan of former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar during his 2011 Presidential campaign on the platform of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) when he was endorsed by a section of northern elders as the so-called Northern Consensus candidate. Today Atiku is still vying for the nation’s top job on the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Atiku is yet to adopt an official campaign slogan for next year’s Presidential elections but as Nigerians especially the youth whom Atiku has promised to create jobs for and revamp the nation’s economy troop to Obasanjo’s Presidential Library, Abeokuta on Monday the 27th of October, 2014 the question on their lips and minds should include practical illustrations on how Atiku intends to create these jobs and make good things happen. Atiku has strongly hinged his Presidential campaign on his ability to create jobs due to his proven credentials in the private industry. He prides himself on experience and his sagacity to turn around the economy of Nigeria towards progress and all routes to El Dorado seemingly lead to Atiku, at least according to him.
Although the former Vice President is busy on the campaign train to secure his party’s endorsement to fly its Presidential flag, a cross section of Nigerians strongly see Atiku as a dirty chip from the old block that has absolutely nothing to offer Nigerians than continue in his hungry quest for power. Speaking recently, Atiku had claimed that President Jonathan lacked the experienced to lead Nigeria and that he rather has the experience and capacity to make Nigeria move forward than Jonathan. The Adamawa State born politician in a recent interview with French news agency, AFP on 19th September 2014 was quoted as blaming the current spate of insurgency and violence in parts of the North East of the country on President Jonathan. He said “this insurgency shouldn’t have lasted even six months. Within weeks, we (Obasanjo and I) crushed it because we did not neglect military training and, of course, we did not lack the leadership or capacity to take decisions”. He continued in the interview saying “of course, I’m more experienced than he is. I believe my capacity cannot be compared with his, in all respect” he said. Well if political analysts vested in the workings of the Presidential system of government are correct then it shouldn’t be hard writing off Atiku’s claim as self-serving as the administration he is referring to and also taking credit for the decisions taken or would have been taken as at then was an Obasanjo’s Presidency. Even a primary school pupil of basic Social Studies knows perfectly well that a Vice President is a spare tire in a boot that will remain there for the entire lap of the journey unless call upon due to a tire bust. So therefore, how Atiku who has never ruled or managed Nigerian economy for even a single night happens to be more experienced in ruling a country than President Jonathan who has ruled and managed Nigeria for over four years and still counting beats the mind and imaginations of most political scientists and logicians. To further pour cold water on Atiku’s claim is the fact that the administration which he draws his experience from cannot even endorse him to take over the decision making chair. Now who is fooling who?
Another place which scratches Atiku’s claim to better manage Nigeria’s economy can be found in his autobiography titled “My Life”. Reading through the book, one can easily spot how he intends to make these good things happen in Nigeria through his voodoo business strategies. For all intents and purposes, Atiku labored in vain to explain how he came about his stupendous wealth. Quoting from his book in Chapter 6 which he titled “Making money”, he wrote “I recognized very early in life that I have a good nose for business. In 1974 I applied for and obtained a Federal Staff Housing Loan. The loan, which amounted to 31,000 Naira, was the equivalent of my salary for five years. I was granted a plot of land by the Gongola State Government at Yola Government Reserved Area (GRA). I hired a foreman and began building my first home. With close personal supervision, the bungalow was completed on time and to my taste. I rented it out immediately. The rent I collected in advance on the plot was substantial enough for me to purchase a second plot. I built my second house there and rented it out. I continued to plow back the rent into the building of new houses and within a few years I had built eight houses in choice areas of Yola”…..
A man who’s only visible source of income before coming into political office had been as a Customs officer now claiming he legitimately built an empire worth in excess of billions of naira spanning oil and gas, maritime, agriculture, private university education institution, banking etc. is fit for the Guinness Book of world record and his strategy is unprecedented in history and beats the business acumens minds of Harvard trained business professionals and top business executives, and Nigerian youths should please as a matter of necessity organize a business seminar where Atiku should be invited as the guest speaker so he can pass on his entrepreneurial strategies and experience to young Nigerians. But one can bet Atiku with all certainty that his business voodoo miracle to wealth beats all sensible business reasons and is completely dubious. It is even more heart wrenching to hear Atiku repeatedly speak in public fora that someone with experience of managing business like him should be elected not GEJ. I wonder if his dubious business style which most will hurriedly conclude as corruption is what he intends to bequeath on Nigerians and our future generations. Atiku’s sudden route to fame can only point to one direction which is corruption and this is the reason Atiku is still fighting to occupy exalted public offices.
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Diana-Abasi Alphonsus Udoh
Public commentator and analyst
Twitter: dian4real
Disclaimer
It is the policy of NewswireNGR not to endorse or oppose any opinion expressed by a User or Content provided by a User, Contributor, or other independent party. Opinion pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of NewsWireNGR.
Premier league leaders, Chelsea faced a stern test last night when they squared up away against League two side, Shrewsbury town in a Capital one cup fourth round tie. The Blues endured a difficult start to the game as their hosts put up a disciplined display and looked very dangerous from set-pieces especially corner-kicks.
The first half ended goalless but Chelsea legend, Didier Drogba scored early in the second half with a sublime finish when a Mohammed Salah flick fell his way. Shrewsbury equalized with ten minutes remaining in the game when substitute, Andy Mangan scored from a corner.
With scores leveled, Jose Mourinho made a double substitution as Willian and Matic came on for Salah and Mikel respectively. That change put Chelsea ahead few minutes later as Willian showed some great skills on the left flank before sending in a cross which resulted in an own goal from Shrewsbury’s Jermaine Grandison who was under pressure from Chelsea’s Ivorian striker.
Following calls by the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP asking defected Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to do the needful and resign his position as speaker. The party he defected to, the All Progressives Congress hailed his decision to cross carpet, insisting that Tambuwal remained the speaker. The opposition party stressed that both the constitution and a political precedent supported Tambuwal’s continued leadership in the House.
The major beneficiary of his defection, rose to Tambuwal’s defence as it welcomed the development, arguing that it would give the opposition the opportunity to enthrone checks and balances in governance.
APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the speaker’s defection to the APC had opened an opportunity for the party to aim for greater heights ahead of the 2015 general election.
“I must say that this historic development means that our democracy is growing by the day and it is dynamic. On a more serious note, we welcome the defection of Tambuwal to APC. With this defection, APC has now taken the leadership of one arm of the national legislature.
“We think that having the head of the legislature from the opposition party makes for a balanced setting in government and it’s good for democracy,” he said.
“When the accord concordia broke down, the then Speaker, Chief Edwin Umezoke, did not relinquish his position. Those who are saying this has not happened before and that Tambuwal should step aside as speaker, do not have the backing of history and the constitution,” Lai recalled.
“Right Honourable Waziri Tambuwal has been a speaker for all the members of the House and all the political parties and for all Nigerians. I’m sure keen observers of activities on the floor and people who follow the House of Representatives would bear witness to the fact that Honourable Tambuwal has been a bridge-builder, he has cut across party lines and he has always put national interest in the fore front of all his decisions and his activities on the floor of the House.
“I believe and we trust that even with this switch to the All Progressives Congress, he would continue to do that and keep faith with that principle.
“As a caucus, we pledge our continued support to the current leadership of the House of Representatives. We will not do anything to destabilise the institution of the House of Representatives so that it would continue to deliver on the mandate given to its members by Nigerians.
Tambuwal finally defected to the APC on the floor of the House yesterday, shortly after which the House adjourned sitting till December 3 to forestall any attempts by the federal government and PDP to remove him from office.
The eventual defection forced the ruling PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) to call an emergency meeting to review the development.
The Party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh, asked Tambuwal to do the needful, as the PDP holds the majority in the House of Representatives.
The party said: “After a thorough consideration of the matter, the NWC came to the conclusion that the Honourable Speaker, as a responsible elected officer, knows full well what is needful and honourable of him since his new party is in the minority.
“We are not unmindful of the fact that Hon. Tambuwal became speaker on the platform of the PDP as the political party with the majority of seats in the House of Representatives and that this incontrovertible fact has not changed.”
Also, joining the call for his resignation, the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, asked Tambuwal to resign as the honourable man that he is.
“He should do the needful, as there is no crisis in the PDP. Right from time, Tambuwal has only been a member of PDP only by mouth. He has been associating with the opposition.
“The PDP is in the majority in the House and the constitution says that the speaker of the House of Representatives should come from the majority party. “There is no crisis in PDP as a political party,” Akpabio stressed.
He admonished all those who were expecting Tambuwal to quit his position as speaker to go down history lane to understand the workings of the legislature.
The reported resignation last week of Patience Jonathan, wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, from her contentious position as permanent secretary in the Bayelsa State public service, has raised once more the public debate that erupted soon after her appointment was announced in July 2012. At the time of her appointment, many Nigerians wondered justifiably how a permanent secretary in the government of Bayelsa State could be domiciled in Abuja and still perform her official duties in Yenagoa.
That appointment also brought up other questions. How, for instance, was Mrs Jonathan expected to perform her public service role in Bayelsa State to the best of her abilities when her responsibilities as the wife of the president would hardly grant her the time to serve another state in a senior capacity. Some other people have wondered why she accepted the appointment in the first place when she knew it would be impossible for her to shuttle between Abuja and Yenagoa on a daily or even weekly basis.
At the time of Mrs Jonathan’s appointment in July 2012, the Bayelsa State government mounted meaningless arguments in the public sphere to persuade everyone that the appointment was irrefutable, sound, justified and well deserved. In defence of Mrs Jonathan’s appointment, the Bayelsa State government said on 14 July 2012 that the appointment was made in recognition of Mrs Jonathan’s valuable services to the state and the nation. The government also said public agitation over the appointment was unnecessary as the president’s wife was already a directorate level officer in its public service.
The statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Public Affairs) to Bayelsa State Governor, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said: “Unknown to a number of people, the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, joined the Rivers State Civil Service in the 90s, and upon the election of her husband as Deputy Governor in 1999, transferred her service to the civil service of Bayelsa State. She rose through the ranks of the public service of Bayelsa State and was last appointed into the directorate cadre as a Level 15 officer in 2005.”
The specious statement was clearly designed to justify the appointment of Mrs Jonathan. The statement carried little if any unassailable line of reasoning. The senior special assistant said: “… the Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson, is convinced… that wives of governors, vice presidents, Presidents and all other spouses whose positions are not recognized by the laws of the country and are not funded by the government should be encouraged and supported to pursue and maintain their independent careers… His Excellency believes that wives of such public officers should not suffer prejudices or deprivation merely as a result of the positions occupied by their husbands.”
I am not sure the senior special assistant understood the meaning of the word “deprivation”. If he did, he would not have used it loosely in his statement and certainly not in the context he implied. For clarity, people who suffer “deprivation” are disadvantaged or poor people who lack many basic things to survive the hardships of life. The president’s wife and indeed the wives of state governors cannot in any way be described as less privileged women. They are not dispossessed of, or denied access to, material and financial resources. If anything, they have an abundance of these resources, courtesy of the political positions their husbands hold.
The weakest point in the Bayelsa State government’s argument was the notion that Mrs Jonathan had worked as a career public servant since 1999. She certainly wasn’t working as a career public servant when her husband was Deputy Governor in 1999, or when Jonathan was Governor, Vice-President, Acting President and President. How did she combine both roles to rise swiftly in the public service? In any case, how could the combined total of Mrs Jonathan’s services in the Rivers and Bayelsa states’ public service had elevated her to the position of a permanent secretary? This is mind boggling but it is the kind of crass argument with which gullible Nigerians are easily fooled.
Here is a permanent secretary who was appointed to superintend the implementation of government policy relating to a ministry even when she was residing so far from her ministry. How would she keep up to date with developments in her ministry? How would she manage the day-to-day affairs of her ministry? Did Mrs Jonathan work by delegating responsibilities to her subordinates while she stayed in Abuja to earn her salary for a job she did not do? The argument didn’t make sense and never will.
One question that has been asked about the mystifying aspect of Mrs Jonathan’s appointment concerns discipline. Who will sanction Mrs Jonathan if she committed any act contrary to the civil service code of conduct? Neither the governor who appointed her nor the head of the civil service would dare to query Mrs Jonathan for infringing on the civil service rules. A permanent secretary should not be above the law but Mrs Jonathan was and still is more than a super permanent secretary. She was and still is above the law because no one could sanction her if she contravened the law. Mrs Jonathan not only sees herself as above the law, those who serve her also believe she is the law. That’s why Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi continues to accuse her of threatening him and his government. Perhaps that is true. Perhaps it is not.
I have heard Mrs Jonathan’s defenders say that nothing in the Nigerian law precluded her from accepting her appointment in Bayelsa State. Her supporters also add rather sheepishly that, in the electronic age driven by technological transformations, it is possible for Mrs Jonathan to do her job for Bayelsa State from anywhere around the world. After all, the argument went, many people are already telecommuting on a daily basis.
I am not in any way persuaded by the flimsiness of the arguments put forward by the defenders of Mrs Jonathan. In Nigeria, it is common to see obsequious presidential servants or palace attendants say things that not only embarrass those they are defending but they also say things that expose their lack of capacity to engage in informed debate. These are people who have developed a track record for their fawning adulation of the president and his wife, as well as other senior government officials. In their eagerness to demonstrate their reverence for their bosses, they turn reason inversely even when the logic is wobbly and unsound.
My position has always been and remains that, by accepting that appointment, by arguing that she did nothing wrong by accepting it, and by insisting that she did not ask for that appointment as it was bestowed on her as a mark of Bayelsa State government’s appreciation of her contributions to the state’s public service, Mrs Jonathan showed she was excessively ambitious. That ambition may have cost her a lot of goodwill and respect from the public. People who held her in high regard prior to her appointment as permanent secretary have also renounced their support for her.
Now that Mrs Jonathan has resigned her job as permanent secretary, it is perhaps time to ask Bayelsa State citizens to identify the remarkable achievements for which the First Lady should be remembered as permanent secretary? In what ways did she ennoble the ministry or indeed the citizens of the state? When Bayelsa State citizens look back at the period Mrs Jonathan served as permanent secretary, they will see empty space filled with hot air. There is nothing tangible to point to.
Public service appointments should never be politicised. Jonathan angered the public the more when he kept mum and refused to comment on the appropriateness or impropriety of the Bayelsa State government appointing his wife as a permanent secretary. Many people believed that if Jonathan had expressed his objection to that appointment and therefore called a halt to that move, the Bayelsa State government would never have proceeded to make the appointment. And if it did, it could have found another face saving excuse to withdraw it. The president’s opinion mattered the most in this case.
Whether we like it or not, Jonathan is the symbol of leadership in Nigeria. Unfortunately, his silence over his wife’s appointment as permanent secretary has disappointed too many people. Worst still, the public took it as axiomatic that the president’s silence suggested his approval of his wife’s appointment as permanent secretary. Whatever happens, Jonathan’s silence over the appointment of his wife as a permanent secretary in 2012 did not help to uplift his wife’s profile in the public domain.
Surely, Jonathan could have stopped the appointment even before it became public. The Bayelsa State government could not have appointed the president’s wife as a permanent secretary without seeking the consent of the president. Jonathan’s posturing over his wife’s appointment simply opened the space for the press and the people to deride his wife’s appointment as a permanent secretary.
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Article written by Levi Obijiofor
Disclaimer
It is the policy of NewswireNGR not to endorse or oppose any opinion expressed by a User or Content provided by a User, Contributor, or other independent party. Opinion pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of NewsWireNGR.