Did they seize only one of Senator Ndume's phones?

As it is likely he may have put a sim card in another phone and made the call whilst crouching in the prison cell!

SAN follows the British Queen's counsel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_Counsel

Queen's Counsel (postnominal QC), known as King's Counsel (postnominal KC) during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law. Membership exists/existed in various Commonwealth countries around the world (and sometimes replaced by the term Senior Advocate in certain[which?] jurisdictions) and it is a status, conferred by the Crown, that is recognised by courts. (In case of Senior Advocates however, the same is conferred by the Higher Courts). Members have the privilege of sitting within the Bar of court.

As members wear silk gowns of a particular design (see court dress), the award of Queen's or King's Counsel is known informally as taking silk. Appointments are made from within the legal profession on the basis of merit rather than a particular level of experience, however successful applicants tend to be solicitor advocates, barristers, or (in Scotland) advocates with 15 years or more experience

OK,  Prediction time.

Naira to be N200 to $1 and N300 to GBP£1 if the current policy continues.

Reasons: continued fiscal indiscipline,  pressure to pay minimum wage and unhindered inflation.

Sounds out of context.

The quote, in the link, appears to imply that the properties of criminals would be seized.

He shouldn't toy with landlords' properties.

If I was a bad tenant I could just decide to rubbish my landlord out of spite and use such a law to make sure my landlord never charges rent. I stop paying rent and laugh at him, saying "oya, report me and lose".

IF we must criticise GEJ 95% of the time, let's also give him credit when he does right.

GEJ is in France hustling for Naija - good.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201111240100.html

The UK Financial Times also has an 18 page report on Nigeria -

http://media.ft.com/cms/be320366-14b3-11e1-8367-00144feabdc0.pdf

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan left for France on Wednesday for a meeting to attract foreign investment into the oil-rich but corruption-ridden country, his office said.

Jonathan will also have lunch with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy during his three-day visit. He is leading a high-powered delegation of government officials and top Nigerian businessmen.

The investment meeting is to be held under the aegis of a so-called Honorary International Investor Council (HIIC), an outfit of prominent global and domestic investors that advises the Nigerian government on economic matters.

The council's goals are to influence investment decisions by major companies and countries to Africa's most populous nation.

Kashim Shettima, the governor of Borno, Nigeria's northeastern state, where a radical Islamist sect Boko Haram has carried out a myriad of deadly gun and bomb attacks in the past two years, will speak about internal security. -

Former managing director of the World Bank and now Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the country's central bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, will also address participants.

Some of the members of the HIIC expected at the meeting are top officials from the French oil giant Total, Anglo-Dutch's Shell, computer firm Hewlett Packard, Japanese car producer Mitsubishi Corporation and leading global financial services group Credit Suisse.

Nigeria is France's largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe was in Nigeria earlier this month and vowed to help the country in its war against extremism.

Nigeria 2011 special report including economy, subsidies, politics, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, banking, capital markets, gas, Delta militants, oil, local oil groups, private education, power sector, road haulage, ports, telecoms, the north, terror, youth, trade with China etc

http://media.ft.com/cms/be320366-14b3-11e1-8367-00144feabdc0.pdf

So are people fleeing the North or not?

I assume people fleeing will not check NL whilst fleeing.

But instead of people writing about how to help their brothers, verifying whether or not another genocidal campaign is on or even contacting relatives up North, discussions have descended to who's pant is smellier.

I have no relatives north of Kogi and Kwara and the relatives I have outside SW or Kwara/Kogi are in the SE and SS so I dey kampe!

I suspect the article is sensationalist but a verification will be good.

I do believe if your hosts (or violent sections within) habitually attack you for whatever reason that you should up stick and go.

The graveyards are filled with obstinate people!

What Soyinka started is not the same as what is on the ground in Nigeria.

Fraternities exist in Universities aroun the world.

Bush (snr and Jnr), Clinton, Obama and Cameron all belonged to Fraternities in Universities.

In Nigeria, modern/current Fraternities (especially the unregistered ones) are just mostly evil.

Was Pinder killed by a Predator drone? That accident report sounds funny!

What poor reporting, just sensationalist journalism.

No statistics, how many people (tens, hundreds, thousands)?

No pictures, no sense of the value of property or investments being left behind.

No information on the deaths suffered (number of south east people killed or attacked) by "Boko Haram"

No information on the value of property destroyed in the attacks.

The silly article does not even have a helpline number or South East Associations/groups for people "trapped" up North to call.  Or even a telephone number or contacts for returnees to the South East to contact.

Just silly, irresponsible and sensationalist reporting!

Has he told his officers manning legal and illegal check points? Will he be there when policemen are beating up innocent people trying to claim their rights with too much english!

The police boss should get his men under control and the police force decentralised!

What part of Ilorin?

‘Daniel stole ₦87b from state coffers'

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5748349-146/story.csp


Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun today revealed that his predecessor, Gbenga Daniel stole the sum of ₦87 billion, as well as $4 million at the tail of his administration, part of which he used to establish his privately owned media organizations, Compass and Westerner Newspapers.

The shocking revelation came into fore in Abeokuta, at a town hall meeting held at June 12 Cultural Centre with stakeholders in preparation for the proposed 2011 budget, pointing out that everything Daniel did while in office was to steal.

"So they have been stealing our money, all of the time they steal, everyday. It is only one government that will go in one day and take cash of $4 million cash out of the Ogun State money and steal it. We saw it there and we said well, we are not for that, what we are meant for is to serve our people," Amosun revealed.

"Now I am going to tell our people today; what they stole was ₦87 billion, but the only reason why I didn't want to bring this office into disrepute is when you look at how they stole those money, I‘m an Accountant; it will bring all of them down. They are thieves, I am not'. - [Ogbeni, charge the man to court and see him jailed.]

Amosun, while further reacting to the publication in the Compass Newspaper owned by Daniel accusing him {Amosun} of alleged involvement in ₦350 million APC contract scam, said he had resolved to refrained from putting the office of the governor into repute.

"A lot of the things that I have seen, a lot of things that I met when I came there; we couldn't say it out because when you now say such things out, it brings that office into disrepute. It even brings out the faith of the people that are reading those things outside, it probably again, bring them into disrepute.

"See, the only reason why I buy and read that newspaper (Compass} is because they told me that they stole our money to establish that newspaper and that we should not allow our money to be wasted," Amosun emphasized.

"We are not thieves like them; they are thieves and I can say it again and again and again. The only thing that we restrict me from saying it again is because I don't want to bring this office of the governor into disrepute," he stated.

"Let me just give you two or three examples so that you can know the extent to which they have proven to everybody that they are indeed thieves. A lot of things that we have discovered are very stunning. Our people are no fools, they know who is a thief and they know who have come to serve them."

"Look at the water that you drink, did you get any water not to even think of drinking one? The tap doesn't even run! When we came, they were buying this their chlorine alum for years at the rate of ₦145; they were stealing our money through this medium. They were stealing our money everyday, there was nothing they didn't steal our money to buy."

"That was how they have been stealing the state money for every month. When I came, I asked them, I think we bought it for ₦70 and they were buying it for ₦145. Later they said the reason why we are buying it was because we were giving money to the supplier ahead of purchase and that was why it was like that."

"So when I got to the office I was dazed and said how could people be this callous? They didn't even fear God. Everything they did there was an opportunity for them to steal money. We are not brought up like that, we are no thieves and we will not steal Ogun State money.

"Almost every week now, we make huge savings of the money of Ogun State. I am sure this is not one of the time, one day; we will want to make our valedictory speeches. That time, we reserve it. A lot of rot we met when we came. We are not thieves like them and I know that they will be wondering wherever they are; they think everything they must do must be an avenue for them to steal the money. We are not like them and am sure our people know who is a thief and who has come to serve them."

Off-topic, but relevant to some of the comments:
I don't want to believe that the North supports Boko Haram. Most of the northerners I know are like all other Nigerians (not better or worse).

The rich and controlling politicians do not waste time on trivial matters, they're too busy causing confusion amongst the masses whilst they steal and plunder.

The Northern Zones have been sold short just like the Southern Zones. Instead of building up the industries they had and have they are labelled all sorts of names by everybody. Whilst their streets are turned to war zones ever so often. And the children of the poor are exploited with some used as foot soldiers for bigotry and political power plays.

Nigeria and Nigerians - think. Whilst we are getting poorer, who's getting richer?

Nigeria (or its constituent parts) can develop. It will happen despite all our faults.

Lagos economy GDP.

Per the Reuters link: http://af.reuters.com/article/nigeriaNews/idAFWLA807620111028

Per capita = $3k per person
Population = 18m

GDP in total = 18 x 3k
Ans = $54bn.

From Lagos state website:

http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/index.php?page=subpage&spid=678&mnu=module&mnusub=ministry&mpid=25

·        25% Contribution to National GDP
·       Est. GDP of US$53.5bn (US$214bn – National GDP (2008) –WEF)
·        45% of Nigeria’s skilled labour force
·        Over 10,000 industrial & commercial concerns
·        Over 70% international air traffic (50% local)

Jonathan Decries Pull-Him-Down Syndrome

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/jonathan-decries-pull-him-down-syndrome/103299/


By Ahamefula Ogbu

President Goodluck Jonathan Sunday expressed regret over the tendency of politicians to adopt a pull-him-down approach to every issue.

He said the most worrisome aspect of the criticism was that they do so even when they know the right thing but probably because they feel the best way of getting a position was to criticise and take adversarial positions against him.

He said at a church service to mark his birthday in the Presidential Villa, Abuja that it had become normal as any leader who had made considerable contribution to the welfare of the people to be commonly vilified and pulled down.

He thanked God for keeping him alive as he had made up his mind to take what comes on the political turf since he made up his mind to contest for the position of Deputy Governor.

“I thank God for keeping me alive to discharge the responsibilities of my office. When I decided to contest for the position of Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, I prepared my mind for any eventuality, and God has been faithful to me,” he said.

Citing the case of the award of national honours where he awarded business mogul, Aliko Dangote Grand Commander of the Niger (GCON), he pointed out that it was not the first time such honour was bestowed on an individual who is not a Vice-President.

As at the last count, he said over 75 people in their individual capacities had been awarded the honour, adding that Dangote was the highest private employer of labour in the country, adding that the claim that the honour was previously reserved only for vice-presidents was erroneous.

“Before Aliko, over 75 distinguished Nigerians received the GCON”, while Chief Obafemi Awolowo received the GCFR, though he was never President of Nigeria", he said.

His wife, Dame Patience read the first lesson, while Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Olu Bolade, read the second lesson.

==================----------------------------------=====================

Oga Jonah, Nigerians will criticise you right or wrong.  But when you spend all the time complaining that people are yabbing you, you sound like a little child who's looking for his mummy.

Nigerians are cold hearted b.astards and you need to talk less and do more. Simple!

21m mouths to feed everyday. Lagos GDP is $54bn, lots of business opportunities to be had in Nigeria's smallest state (by land area).

Chai, I remember when there was no traffic in Lagos. These days from VI to Ikoyi over the Falomo bridge is a frigging headache, Before you even talk about Third Mainland bridge or Oshodi-Ikeja.

Lagos Population Now Thought To Exceed 20m People (12% Of Nigeria's Population)

http://www.punchng.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5156:lagos-population-now-over-20-million&Itemid=542

The Lagos State government has put the current population of the state at around 21 million, making it 10 per cent of Nigeria’s population, which was recently put at 167 million by the National Population Commission. - (err, actually 12%)


In an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, said even though the state had yet to conduct another census, it established that the population was 18 million in 2006.

He said, “Although, we have not conducted any census since 2006, we however counted 18 million residents. By our projection, population should now be about 20 to 21 million.”

The increase of 18 million in 2006 to 21 million in 2011, means that the state’s population rose by an average of half a million annually.

Ibirogba attributed the rise in population to the fact that Lagos is the social and commercial hub of the country.

In response to grim predictions of overpopulation and environmental disasters in Lagos, the commissioner said the state government was aware of the projections and was consciously investing in transportation, security, housing, health care and the environment to mitigate the possible effects of overpopulation.

He said “From the 1960s, Lagos has always been the centre of attraction. Lagos always had large population. Out of every 10 Nigerians, nine want to come to Lagos. Many people think it is classy to live and own a house in Lagos. About 60 per cent of school leavers want to get a job in Lagos. Our state is cosmopolitan in nature with people of diverse backgrounds. It has always been like this, so there is nothing to suggest a population explosion. Nothing is getting out of hand.”

He added, “Because of the need to maintain the facilities on ground as we build new ones, government has given everybody the task of protecting available facilities.

“We are investing in every sector of our society. Recently we delivered 429 housing units to Lagosians and we are working on facilities in our hospitals and schools. We are also increasing efforts to ensure that traffic is flowing freely.

“We are telling people if you don’t have anything doing on the road, stay at home and do your business on the phone. We have also built jetties in different places to boost water transportation and our light rail project is on. So generally, if you look at all these, you will know that we are managing our population well, so there cannot be population explosion in Lagos.”

Ibirogba also debunked rumours that the state government had given transport fares to indigent, jobless residents, sending them back to their hometowns.

RIP Alex Ibru.

THIS HAPPENED IN GHANA AND NOT NIGERIA!!



http://www.talkafrique.com/issues/college-students-sexually-strip-naked-a-suspected-woman-thief-molested

Uchek:

If Britain thought Nigerians rulers everything they are doing today, how come it did not destroy their economy? How come they have good infrastructures and prudent management of public wealth? How come they still have British Airways while our own Nigerian Airways is no more?

What a tragedy? British left us to our destiny 51 years ago and we are apportioning blame to them?

The first rule of transformation: Accept that you are the cause of your own failure!

Correct!

We have contributed more than Jonathan has.

Many schools in Nigeria today would not exist were it not for my family. So save the GEJ bottom licking and acting as if only the people in power today have ever contributed anything.

People fought for independence and for the education of all Nigerians only for politicians and their bottom licking fans to forget history.

GEJ, may your days be long and your tenure short and limited to the four years you just secured in April 2011

May Nigerians not suffer long under your continued idiocy;
May you in your stupor stumble into wisdom;
May your wicked self-interest align with Nigerians so you atleast do one thing right;
May you reign be the last time PDP wins any elections anywhere;
May you in your anger to fight your enemies destroy the powers of old in whichever political party they reside (PDP, ACN, CPC etc);
May you see the end of Boko Haram and MEND;and upon your departure;
May Nigerians never vote anyone at or below your IQ and ethical values level.

A broken clock is correct twice a day.

GEJ, GEJ, GEJ - DO YOUR PHOCKING JOB. TIME IS PHOCKING RUNNING OUT, CONTINUED FAILURE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!

Cont:

The politics of the North was dominated by the Northern Peoples’ Congress Party (NPC). Britain was aware that the NPC would be unable to rule an independent Nigeria by itself and would need the support of a major party in the East or West.

This is why, explains Smith, he had been ordered to help the party of Dr Azikiwe (Zik), in the East, the NCNC. He explained: “They had to fix Zik of course, there was stuff they have got him for that could send him to prison … [they] forced him to do a deal with the North.”

Smith is adamant the orders to help the NCNC came from the top, the governor general Sir James Robertson. Smith described Robertson as “a thug and he had a terrible reputation….We loved Africans, but these people who came to do this job were a different breed, these were the ex-SOE [British Secret Service outfit set up during the Second World War] and MI6.”

According to Smith his colleagues reluctantly went along with the orders to aid the election campaign. Smith refused and asked to see Robertson.

He describes his meeting with Robertson. Robertson said, “I want you to know that everything you have alleged about the elections is correct…. You know too much and I want you to know how much trouble you are in. The Colonial Service is just like the army, you know what happens if you disobey orders on active service and that is what is going to happen to you.”

Smith added that Robertson was so angry he half expected him to produce a pistol and shoot him.

Smith showed Mike Thomson the copies of correspondence he has sent to the “great and the good” over the years in his campaign to highlight his allegations. Thomson remarked that without recordings of the conversations Harold Smith claims took place and no copies of the orders it is difficult for him to prove his case.

However, Thomson was able to quote from some documents that give a hint of what happened. One document is a letter written by Sir Peter Smethers who was a private parliamentary secretary at the British Colonial Office throughout most of the decolonization period and had been present at most of the independence negotiations, including that of Nigeria.

Writing of the Northern political class he says, “The attraction of the Kanu rulers was that they had a long and successful experience of government … offered the obvious choice to head the new experiment. It was difficult to see an alternative to the early stages of independence.”

Smethers died last year at the age of 92.

The other document was from the memoirs of Robertson, who died in 1983. He explained that in the elections that took place in 1959 to choose the government that would rule after independence, before the result was known there were rumours that the NCNC in the East and the so-called Action Group in the West were considering a coalition and would be able to form a majority in the House of Representatives.

He explained how he thought this might result in the North leaving the federation. Part of his role was to appoint as prime minister whoever he thought best able to command a majority in the House of Representatives. He invited Abukakr Tafawa Balewa, the Northern leader, to form a government even before the result of the election was known. He did so without consulting the secretary of state in the British government.

Thomson also explains how the British carried out a census in Nigeria in the years leading to independence and were accused of overestimating the numbers in the North to give them a higher representation in the parliament. Professor Anderson agrees it was certainly in the interests of Britain to have done that.

Both Professor Anderson and Mike Thomson applied under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the two files but have been refused.

Anderson told the programme:

“Clearly someone in the British government, when those files were classified, did not want us historians to learn something about what they contain and that raises my suspicions that those files might contain information about whatever deals were brokered between the British government and the NCNC. Because it is certainly the case that the NCNC would not have won the election it did without British support. Nor could it have formed a coalition with the NPC at independence without British support. So I would love to see what’s in those two files about Sir James Robertson and Dr Azikiwe.”

Britain rigged election before Nigerian independence

http://haroldsmithmemorial./2011/01/05/britain-rigged-election-before-nigerian-independence/

BBC documentary
By Barry Mason 9 August 2007

A BBC radio documentary on the events leading up to the independence of Nigeria, Britain’s former colony, charged the British government with interference in the election to ensure the result was in line with its interests (see “Rigging Nigeria”).

The programme cited two files held in the British National archives covering the period leading up to independence in 1960 that to this day remain closed to the public and will remain closed for another 50 years.

One file contains material relating to the governor general at the time of independence, Sir James Robertson, and the other material on Dr Azikiwe, known as Zik, who was leader of the nationalist pro-independence political party, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC).

Mike Thomson, the investigator on the programme, spoke to Harold Smith who had gone out to work as a British Colonial Officer in the 1950s after graduating from Oxford University. Smith was based in the then capital, Lagos, working in the ministry of Labour, then headed by Festus Okotie-Eboh, a flamboyant politician who was treasurer of the NCNC. The NCNC was based in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Under colonial rule the country was divided up into three regions, North, East and West.

One day Smith was given a secret file containing a minute that ordered him to get involved in regional elections taking place in the late 1950s in the run up to independence. He was to make vehicles, staff and other resources available to the NCNC colleagues of Okotie-Eboh who was standing in the elections. Smith was shocked at the request. He explained that the election had to be fixed because the plan was that the Northern region would hold power on independence.

Thomson asks, “Could an allegation of British government involvement to rig an election or at the least to favour a particular party be substantiated?”

He interviewed Professor David Anderson, Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. Asked if such manipulation of an election result could have happened Professor Anderson replied: “In almost every single colony the British attempted to manipulate the result to their advantage…. I would be surprised if they had not done so.”

Nigeria’s Northern region constituted three quarters of the land mass of the country and had roughly half the population. Professor Anderson explained that the North, with its Islamist culture, was very conservative and had enjoyed a close relationship with its British colonial rulers. The British had ruled through the emirs.

The British government was concerned that the result of independence might lead to partition. They regarded the Northern region as a bulwark against opposition. Professor Anderson explained that British analysts at the time thought that West Africa as a whole with its high levels of poverty was highly vulnerable to communism.

Is there a list of Nigeria's 4,000 recipients?

That way we know who or where to go when kata kata bursts and some people need to answer for their crimes.

TY Danjuma.

Umaru Dikko (Shagari's right hand man):

"We in government would go to all length to make sure that no Nigerian would eat from the dustbin"!

The article is very unclear.

My understanding of the article is that people were cheering and clapping as they watched a football match on television, unaware that Boko Haram was attacking the security forces.

BBC needs to be more responsible and make their articles clearer.

I doubt people will see Boko Haram attack and they will sit down and clap instead of running for their lives.

GEJ's viral adverts should be there.

Love them or hate them, they did their job ruthlessly.