The Nation Newspaper

Tag: know

  • ‘What you know makes you known’

    Mrs Funmike Ige, the Chief Quantity Surveyor of Nigerian Railway Corporation and a newly inducted Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, is not happy with a majority of Nigerian youths. Why? Ige, who finished her secondary school education as the overall best student with the best behaved student award, says many students these days have abandoned their studies for pinging, phoning, chatting, texting, mailing, clubbing and dancing, blaming the revolution in the Information and Communication Technologies ( ICTs) for the current poor reading habit, resulting in academic failure and incompetency.

    In an interview with The Nation, Ige who was the head girl of Oyun Baptist High School (OBHS) Ijagbo, Kwara State in 1982 compares studying pattern in her days with what is obtainable now and says “things have really degenerated and fallen apart. It is lamentable that many children of these days are no longer reading as we used to do in those days.”

    According to her, “In our class in those days, we were really reading. We read for competition. As science students, we were fond of quoting top scientists like Newton and others just to show that we were in full grasp of the subjects being taught. This was the type of reading habit I grew up with as a student, and I am better for it. But today, students prefer watching television to reading, they love fiddling with communication gadgets more than reading very hard into the night. I am not just happy with this trend of mediocrity.”

    Looking very worried with a motherly concern, Ige remarks, “well, my position is that there is no short cut to success. The youths should know that they must follow procedure. If they don’t do what is required of them today, they will later regret their inaction. It is a question of time. Everything in life demands hard work.”

    From her teenage years up till now that she is going to be 53 next March, hard work, focus, dedication and determination to excel have been the hallmarks of her life. It is obvious that she is a prodigious mind, very brilliant and articulate. Her academic records speak eloquently of her profundity of knowledge acquired by ceaseless reading. She was always taking first position in all her classes. She has never seen her gender as a limitation. She does not believe any man should beat her to excellence. As a matter of fact, whenever she finds herself in the midst of men, she puts in extra efforts to give men a run for their money.

    Her initial ambition was to become a medical doctor, following her excellent performances in all the science subjects she offered. But her poor background undermined that lofty desire. Her words: “My ambition was to study medicine in the university because I just don’t like seeing people suffering, but it was really tough for my dad to pay our school fees. When sponsorship of my university education became practically impossible, I opted to go to the Polytechnic, because that is in phases. I believed that after my Ordinary National Diploma (OND), I would work and save money so as to go for my Higher National Diploma (HND).”

    She therefore applied to study quantity surveying at the Kaduna Polytechnic, having followed her mother’s younger sister to the northern part of Nigeria. Propelled by an innate desire to always be the best she could ever be, Ige towered above her class, beating all the guys with all their masculine bravado in an academic contest. With her sparkling academic profile, coupled with her restlessness to always be the best, this bookworm soon got a job as a quantity surveyor in a private firm, rising steadily in a male-dominated profession.

    But is she not intimidated by the presence of many men in this profession? She responds, “I have never felt intimidated for once in the midst of my male colleagues. The demand of the job is not about gender, but brain. My male colleagues have always described me as “stubborn”. Their definition of stubborn in this contest is that I never allow any male course mate to beat me. That is why I have always counselled girls that they should not allow anybody to trample on them and make them feel inferior.”

    Ige adds, “We are now in a knowledge economy. It is what you know that will make you known, therefore, study hard so as to be proficient in knowledge. It is all about brain, not brawn. At a particular meeting for instance, an architect once took me up, attempting to doubt my professional competence by asking some ridiculous questions. By the time I finished answering his questions, he knew he got more than what he bargained for. Since then, no one has the temerity to doubt my professional ability.

    That is why I keep saying that our younger ones should read very well today and shun distraction of technologies.”

    Clearly, the popular saying that readers are leaders has been eloquently expressed in the life of Ige. Her academic excellence, hinged on consistent reading, has taken her to the pinnacle of her career. She is one of the two women among the 16 newly inducted Fellows of the NIQS in Kano. Obviously, she is happy that God has taken her to the top. She feels fulfilled. In her words: “I feel on top of the world that all my efforts have not been in vain. Having gone through all I needed academically, professionally the requirements were met, I just put in my papers and I went for the interview and screening with 15 others. We are honoured with the status of Fellow. I give God all the glory.

    Ige who is married to one of her course mates, Tunde Ige, has words of admonition for women. She says “nothing can limit a woman except she limits herself. Being a woman is not a weakness. We are only complementing men; therefore it is not a disadvantage being a woman. We only need to work hard in order to achieve our full potential.”

  • 15 things you need to know about TSA

    I have been worried. No, it is not about the weather. It is not about the fortunes of my team, Arsenal. It is about TSA. It is about what this acronym portends to so many brands in the country. I do not care about the name your call your brand.

    The present dispensation will affect your brand for good or bad. Do you want to know why? If the economy melts, it melts everything that is dependent on it, particularly the manufacturing and service areas. However, I digress.

    Before now, we have been living on good luck. Everybody just got lucky. Tompolo got lucky at NIMASA. Diezani got lucky with petrol-dollar. Aunty Ngozi got lucky coordinating the economy. Well, not any more. The drumbeat has changed. My mother had warned me not to depend on good luck but to work hard and earn my “pay.”

    With the advent of PMB, the concept of good luck is dead. PMB has cleaned the slate. He came to the party not with champagne and caviar, but with carrot, stick and a short acronym, TSA. Suddenly, everybody is talking at once. Some brands have even sponsored researchers to unveil the concept of TSA.

    What is TSA? Why are the banks afraid of TSA? Who is pushing it? Is it Buhari-nomics? Unfortunately, you will not get answers to these questions here. What you will get are 15 things you need to know about the Treasury Single Account or TSA. If you are not satisfied, refer to the manufacturer.

     

    Here we go:

    • TSA will promote transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
    • With TSA, all receipts due to government or its agencies will be paid into TSA resident in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
    • Since TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts, it enables consolidation and optimal utilisation of government’s cash resources.
    • TSA provides a consolidated view of government’s cash position always.
    • The CBN, SEC, CAC and NPA, NCC as well as FAAN and NCAA, NIMASA, NDIC, NSC, NNPC, FIRS, NCS, MMSD, DPR and other government agencies will implement TSA.
    • When linked to TSA, the accounting system will be configured to allow the agencies access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions.
    • The implementation of TSA brings transparency, efficiently and accountability.
    • TSA is part of the public financial management reforms under pillar three of the National Strategy for Public Service Reforms towards vision 20:2020.
    • TSA addresses impediments to effective and efficient cash management.
    • TSA ends problems of fragmented banking, which affected government’s ability to undertake efficient cash planning and management as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
    • Wth TSA, government can track its expenditure in a timely manner.
    • TSA makes it possible for flexible operations, contrary to past regime where officers must get to their desks before effecting transactions.
    • SA enables online real time transactions, meaning payment can be made from any point in the world.
    • TSA instills fiscal discipline and prudence as over 1,000 dormant or idle accounts will remain shut.
    • With TSA, the average monthly overdrafts with the CBN fell from the overdrawn amount of N102 billion in December 2011 to N4.461 billion credit in September 2012 with 93 MDAs out of over 400.

  • 15 things you need to know about TSA

    I have been worried. No, it is not about the weather. It is not about the fortunes of my team, Arsenal. It is about TSA. It is about what this acronym portends to so many brands in the country. I do not care about the name your call your brand.

    The present dispensation will affect your brand for good or bad. Do you want to know why? If the economy melts, it melts everything that is dependent on it, particularly the manufacturing and service areas. However, I digress.

    Before now, we have been living on good luck. Everybody just got lucky. Tompolo got lucky at NIMASA. Diezani got lucky with petrol-dollar. Aunty Ngozi got lucky coordinating the economy. Well, not any more. The drumbeat has changed. My mother had warned me not to depend on good luck but to work hard and earn my “pay.”

    With the advent of PMB, the concept of good luck is dead. PMB has cleaned the slate. He came to the party not with champagne and caviar, but with carrot, stick and a short acronym, TSA. Suddenly, everybody is talking at once. Some brands have even sponsored researchers to unveil the concept of TSA.

     What is TSA? Why are the banks afraid of TSA? Who is pushing it? Is it Buhari-nomics? Unfortunately, you will not get answers to these questions here. What you will get are 15 things you need to know about the Treasury Single Account or TSA. If you are not satisfied, refer to the manufacturer.

     

    Here we go:

    • TSA will promote transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
    • With TSA, all receipts due to government or its agencies will be paid into TSA resident in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
    • Since TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts, it enables consolidation and optimal utilisation of government’s cash resources.
    • TSA provides a consolidated view of government’s cash position always.
    • The CBN, SEC, CAC and NPA, NCC as well as FAAN and NCAA, NIMASA, NDIC, NSC, NNPC, FIRS, NCS, MMSD, DPR and other government agencies will implement TSA.
    • When linked to TSA, the accounting system will be configured to allow the agencies access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions.
    • The implementation of TSA brings transparency, efficiently and accountability.
    • TSA is part of the public financial management reforms under pillar three of the National Strategy for Public Service Reforms towards vision 20:2020.
    • TSA addresses impediments to effective and efficient cash management.
    • TSA ends problems of fragmented banking, which affected government’s ability to undertake efficient cash planning and management as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
    • Wth TSA, government can track its expenditure in a timely manner.
    • TSA makes it possible for flexible operations, contrary to past regime where officers must get to their desks before effecting transactions.
    • SA enables online real time transactions, meaning payment can be made from any point in the world.
    • TSA instills fiscal discipline and prudence as over 1,000 dormant or idle accounts will remain shut.
    • With TSA, the average monthly overdrafts with the CBN fell from the overdrawn amount of N102 billion in December 2011 to N4.461 billion credit in September 2012 with 93 MDAs out of over 400.
  • What the people know

    What the people know

    We all looked forward to it. To some it came with trepidation, and to others with joy. To most, however, March 28 was the date of curiosity.

    The thrill of the voter, as I witnessed, was in being part of a common sense. Commonsense does not always factor in the common sense, but that is the beauty of democracy. The people have the right to be right or wrong, and that right to err and fall into folly is as sovereign as their country’s right of being.

    That was what I witnessed on March 28 as I cast my vote. It was a day to hope again that, unlike in 2011, I would not have to see another mandate of mistake.

    I did lament that Jonathan won the election in 2011, but I congratulated him all the same. In the piece, I prophesied that Nigeria had made a big mistake and his would be a regime of loose wallets, impunity and division along ethnic and religious lines.

    When I voted, I thought not about myself. I looked at the nation and its wreck in the past four years, and how the Nigerian people had a great capacity for endurance. But March 28, they had the opportunity to decide again if they loved the path they had taken, or if they desired an undiscovered country, full of possibilities.

    By the time of writing, I had information about trends in the polling, and I looked at the swing region: the southwest.

    Whatever anyone thought about the polls and who they favoured, the people already know something. Knowledge is a good thing and a dangerous thing. Once the people know something, how do you tell them something else? That is the meaning of accountability. One of the greatest assets of democracy in this age is the Internet, and the fact that messages travel at breakneck speed from one place to another. As the Bible says in the book of Daniels, “people shall go to and fro and knowledge shall increase.”

    This election season is the time people know a lot. It is the time they do not want to be cheated out of their patrimony. For instance, how does a person vote, in say, Mushin, and he and others in that district know who won, and in the final analysis, they hear that something else happened?

    Would they be dreaming their way out of the truth, or would they ask questions? Some philosophers have said the story of the Garden of Eden is about the inviolability of knowledge. What you know, you know. Even if you lie to yourself, you also know.

    True, Nigeria has had the capacity to lie to itself and live in false bliss. That is the reason we are not like Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, whose country leapt at about the time we gained independence from Third World to First World.  His country had no resources except a natural harbour, and we had all the resources. But the difference between Nigeria and Lee’s Singapore is that we lived a lie.

    We stole our resources. We lied against each other on ethnic grounds and said one man’s God should punish the other man’s. While we were busy lying, Singapore fattened on the five Cs of capitalism: cash, cars, credit cards, condos and country clubs. Granted they did not have a flourishing democracy, but they were monolithic in thought at that time until they zipped into the free air of pluralism after Lee’s era.

    So we are still grappling with first principles. We still lie about all. We said we wanted PVC, and some said no. They were not only Luddites, but antediluvian. They lost that debate. Then they said we should not come near the card reader. They feared the machine, and did everything within their powers to unseat automaton. They failed again. The election took place, and in spite of hitches here and there, who would say it did not work? Where I voted, the machine read my identity like clockwork. Technology wants patience, and no technology ever devised ever worked with perfection. It is a human invention, and it can bear some of our imperfections. But its results best any human efforts. Hence they wanted it against the vultures of electoral fraud.

    Now, man would always invent things to subvert the process. ‘God made man upright,” says the good book, “but he has sought out many inventions.” We are seeing it now in the Rivers State deadlock. The APC says they could not vote without results sheets. What happened to those sheets? Those are the questions that we must answer. It is said that the way out of the genius of the card reader is to buy the result sheets from INEC officials, get high-tech people to compute the numbers so that the allotment of votes to the parties does not exceed the registered voter count, and thus ensure landslide victory for their party.

    That is man’s circuitous victory over technology. That brings me back to the people and what they know. If they know that they voted differently, no tech whiz kid can con the people into lying to themselves. It is particularly so in the southwest. Jefferson said his objection to democracy is election, and the only day it works is when the people go to the polls. After that, they are impotent until the next vote.

    If the people know they voted for a person and some political desperadoes change it, they will face the people.

    That was the story of June 12. German philosopher Nietzsche wrote about the notion of eternal return. He said some things keep recurring in history and they haunt civilization forever. We can avoid such returns when we take precautions. When the people know something and they do something about it, no one can stop them. It prompted Shakespeare to say, “we know what we know, but know not what we may be.” What the people may be is a consequence of being denied what they know. It is high time we stopped lying to ourselves. That way, the people will own their country.

    Vigilance is the key word, and as Wendell Philips noted, it is the price of liberty. But we cannot be free unless we are meticulous.

    The best example is from Delta State, where the women of Madangho town acted as the heroines of democracy. After they had cast their votes last Saturday, some soldiers drove into town and wanted whisk the ballot papers to a neighboring village called Ajudaiboh for collation. A PDP chieftain was waiting there. The women resisted. When the soldiers insisted, the women stripped naked and harassed the armed men out of town. They were vigilant, and they knew what they knew. The soldiers made them what they became: warriors of democracy. The women may not have heard of Maxim Gorky, Russian writer and revolutionary. They were kindred spirits. The Russian bard wrote, the only people who deserve freedom are those who are ready to fight for it everyday.

  • Washing machines: All you need to know

    Washing machines: All you need to know

    Since the first story we published on this page on Washing machine titled ‘Washing machine, a must-have for every home’, we have surprisingly received many telephone text messages, emails, and phone calls from our readers asking different questions regarding washing machines.

    We were really a bit taken aback by the many reactions that the story generated. It shows that many Nigerian homes are more disposed towards washing machines. They have come to the realisation that washing machine is no longer the exclusive reserve of the rich as many had erroneously believed.

    More so, unlike in the past, when house helps were the norm of the day, procuring them is not easy and the attendant stories to some of them is far from encouraging.

    For those our readers, who have kept waiting for answers, accept our unreserved apology. Though issues requiring immediate attention kept creeping up, we, however, wanted to make sure we do not lead you astray with the wrong response, so we took more time researching and interviewing professionals in the industry for the right answers.

    The most commonly asked question is, ‘What brand of washing machine should I buy?’ In this write up, we are not going to advertise any brand but sincerely tell you what we have found out from the concerned professionals and market research.

    At the time of going to press, we found out that there are over ten brands of washing machines in the market; for example, Hot Point, Beko, Samsung, Whirlpool, Ignis, Qlink, LG, Tashio, Thermocool, A-Z, etcetera. While Hot Point, Whirlpool, Ignis are known and tried names they have no service centres here and they are not assembled here. They are quite popular in the UK, US. Buy a product that you can easily source the parts if need be; a product that if you have a challenge using it, you will be able to easily walk into their office and demand for your rights.

    There are brands in Nigeria that have service centres, go for such brands. Instead of using road side repairers, you have the opportunity of being attended to by the company’s engineers.

    In seeking for brands, again, consider the brands that offer special features. Each washing machine manufacturer has its own special features designed to improve wash quality and save money. For example, Samsung’s Ecobubble technology dissolves detergent using water and air to create bubbles that penetrate and clean clothes more efficiently.

    Go for brands that have the ‘Indicators and Ease of use’ clearly displayed on the machine. As washing machines get more complicated, it’s important to have a model that is easy to understand. It can also be handy to have a washing machine with a clear display that shows its current setting and how long is left on the current wash cycle.

    Mr. Foluso Adebayo from Ibadan, Mr. Femi Olusola, Osun State and Mrs. Irene Okafor from Enugu State, you called asking for the type of washing machine to buy.

    The type to buy depends on many factors which include money available to you, size of the family, availability of water, size of the space for the installation, among others.

    Washing machine comes in different prices. Some cost as high as one million naira and some as low as N15,000. The amount of money you want to spend on it depends on you. Now there are different sizes of the machines also and different types. An average family will need a machine with about 5-7kg drum size.

    However, a larger drum can make a lot of sense as not only can you wash more clothes in one go, but you can wash larger items such as duvets. A larger drum will be more efficient per kg of washing, requiring less water and power to wash the same amount of clothes as a machine with smaller drum.

    Washing machine uses much water, so if you are not connected to a water borehole, well, or steady source of water, do not buy the machine that the plumber will have to fix the drainage and water inlet hose directly to the water pipe. You are better off buying the manual machine where you have to be pouring in water manually.

    Any time, any day, it is better to buy a washing machine that washes, rinses and spins. After the spinning, if the weather is warm enough it takes less than an hour for the washing to dry on the line dryer. Those in Africa and other countries with warm climate do not necessarily need a washing machine with dryer as nature has provided us with enough sun and wind for drying.

    Space in the house also determines the type of washing machine to purchase. As it is not really an industrial machine you are going for, you can always create space to accommodate the machine. But still consider where you intend to install the machine before you make a choice.

    Barrister Chuks Nwangwu, Ikeja, Mr. Humphry Owpele, Bayelsa State and Mrs. Emi Ekelemu, Port Harcourt; you want to know whether to go for a top loader or front loading washing machine.

    Front loading washing machine has greater advantages than the top loading ones. Generally, the front loaders are more expensive but the higher initial cost can be recovered in just a few years through water, drying time and soap usage savings.

    When you are using a front loading machine, you save a lot of wear and tear on your laundry because the machine agitates less. The top loader agitates more, which is bad for your clothes.

    But the good news is that you can use virtually any type of laundry detergent in the top loader. Besides, top loader is the ideal machine for people with knee problem. You will need to kneel or bend to put your laundry in the front loader and kneel again to bring the wet clothes out.

    Other questions generally asked are: What quantity of laundry should I put in my washing machine? How can I get rid of residual soap suds at the end of a cycle and why do some clothing dealers suggest washing clothes inside out?.

    For the top loader, a general rule is to lay clothes loosely inside the washer until they reach the top of the agitator. For a front loader, fill it until it is full, with minimal compression of the clothes.

    When you notice soap sud residual at the end of your wash, it indicates you are using too much detergent for the clothes you are washing. Try reducing the amount of detergent.

    For the third question, you should understand that in the washer, the clothes often turn inside out during the agitation cycle. Turning clothes inside out limits abrasion on the good side of the fabric, reducing pilling and extending the life of some fabrics such as corduroy. Also, embroidery, decals, etcetera are preserved.

    The benefits of a washing machine cannot be over emphasised. Any money invested in buying one, is money invested wisely. When you buy a new one, you can use it for years without ever repairing it. It does not call for regular servicing except maybe once in a year or even once in two years.

  • Doing what they know how to do best

    Doing what they know how to do best

    At the end of a visit the other day with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Ota, Ogun State, in continuation of meetings with leaders of the party across Nigeria to resolve a raft of internal issues, the chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, debunked suggestions that the PDP could lose the next general elections.

    ‘When the time comes,” he declared, “I will assure you we will do what we know how to do best.”

    The elections are not due until 2015, but the biggest vote-harvesting machine in Africa showed this past week that, despite the conflicts rocking it, doing what it knows how to do best, namely, turning winners into losers and losers into winners, is still its standard operational procedure, its trademark.

    And the fingerprints of the Arch Fixer himself, Tony Anenih, are stamped all over the deed.

    I am referring to last week’s election for the chair of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), an extra-constitutional body that has grown influential to the point of making President Goodluck Jonathan panicky and insecure, despite the awesome powers of his office. As a consequence, he has had to invest his prestige, as well as enormous public resources, to ensure that the incumbent chair, Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi, would not win reelection.

    Since it was bruited several months ago that Amaechi would serve as running mate to Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido in the 2015 presidential race, with Obasanjo’s blessing, it was clear that Amaechi’s days as chair of the NGF were numbered, and that his relationship with President Jonathan, who has given every indication of entering the race except formally declaring, as well as his political future, were in grave jeopardy.

    Amaechi has been a marked man since then.

    The NGF election planned for February was rescheduled for May, apparently in the hope that, by then, the assets needed to defenestrate Amaechi would have been fully deployed. The contrived kerfuffle over his official plane, operations permit and all that, was part of the grand strategy.

    Meanwhile, the alleged waywardness of the NGF under Amaechi’s leadership, it has been said, was more than sufficient to make Aso Rock engineer the creation of a complaisant faction, the PDP Governors Forum, with Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom as chair.

    As if to put Amaechi on notice that his number was well and truly up, Anenih, reportedly echoing the “oga” at the very top, complained at a meeting of state governors, federal legislators and state chairpersons of the PDP in Asaba, Delta State, that the NGF had become “a formidable group of power wielders seeking to control governments at all levels.”

    Translation: The NGF had become a subversive organisation.

    The body, he said, had been “hijacked by “opposition” Governors and was no longer promoting the interests of the PDP.”

    Just why governors elected on five different party platforms expressly for “providing a common platform for synergy, collaboration among interests” and serving as a lobby group to foster, promote and sustain democratic ethos, good governance in Nigeria, Africa and beyond” should promote the interests of the PDP, Anenih did not deign to explain.

    But thus was the stage set for last week’s NGF showdown election to put Amaechi in his place.

    In that dubious quest, Dr Jonathan and Anenih seem to have been worsted.

    Of the 35 governors present and voting, Amaechi won the backing of 19, according to the returning officer for the election and director-general of the NGF, Ashishana Okauru, who described the poll as fair and transparent.

    Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, who had been dragooned into the race at the last minute when neither Jonathan’s favoured candidate, Katsina Governor Ibrahim Shema nor Bauchi Governor Isa Yuguda who also had his eye on the job would step down for the other, garnered 16 votes.

    In the normal run of things, that should have settled it. But nobody has ever accused the PDP of subscribing to normality. And so, no sooner had Amaechi finished delivering his acceptance speech than the PDP launched its desperate bid to turn Amaechi’s victory into defeat and Jang’s defeat onto victory.

    The election, they claimed, was “rigged.” An election with just 35 candidates rigged? Consider what could happen in 2015, when the stakes would be much higher. Shifting gears, they claimed that the ballot papers had not been unnumbered serially. But why didn’t they point this out before voting began? Amaechi should have stepped down so that a neutral person could conduct the poll. Again. Why was no objection raised at the outset?

    Were they severally and jointly anaesthetised?

    Leaving nothing to chance, a conclave of 18 governors hastily organised another poll and proclaimed Jang the winner and new chair of the NGF. There is nothing curious here: this in-your-face brazenness is the modus operandi of Africa’s biggest vote-snatching machine. They don’t do subtlety at Wadata Plaza.

    Even by Nigeria’s standard in matters political, Jang’s speech at a special service ahead of “Democracy Day” at the Faith-way Chapel Church in Jos, the Plateau State capital, seems rather exorbitant.

    His “emergence” as chairman of the NGF, he asserted without fear and without irony, was “the will of God” because he had gone to Abuja merely an as an elector, only to be chosen by his colleagues to lead the organisation.

    As if anticipating those who might question why the divine should be insinuated into a project that bears all the marks of the profane, he declaimed: “God is a democrat, does not support rigging but if you rig and succeed, that means God approves of it.”

    So, there you have it.

    Even with his “suspension” from the PDP for allegedly defying the “directive” of the Rivers State Executive Council – of which he is chairman, by the way – to reinstate the executive council of a local government he had dissolved, and with his declaration of unswerving loyalty to President Jonathan and the party and all its grandees, Amaechi must entertain no illusions that his travails are ended.

    Soon, they will charge him with engaging in “anti-party activities” and expel him.

    But in whatever guise or disguise it functions henceforth, the NGF will be yet another symbol, and a constant reminder, of all that is wrong with the formation that calls itself the biggest political party in Africa.

    I verily believe with his spokespersons that President Jonathan had absolutely nothing to do with these developments.

    After all, he was away in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, availing a sub-Committee of the Africa Union of his globally recognised expertise on infrastructure, a subject so dear to his heart, and in the development of which he has achieved such transformative results at home, that he passed up his turn to address the full Summit.

     

     

     

     

     

  • BIG BOSS CRIES OUT: I don’t know Ethiopia

    BIG BOSS CRIES OUT: I don’t know Ethiopia

    Super Eagles handler, Stephen Keshi, has confessed that among the teams in Nigeria’s Group C which included Zambia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, it’s only Ethiopia that he does not really know their strength at all.

    “Like I have said severally all the teams that qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa really worth their onions. I know a little bit of Zambia and Burkina Faso because when I was handling Mali national team I had two or three games with them but now they have changed their coaches.

    “But Ethiopia I don’t know them. But they must be a very good team to found their way into the finals of the Nations Cup holding next year in South Africa. So we have to handle the Ethiopians as well as other teams in the group with care.

    “There is no minnow team for us, there is no looking down on any team in our group or any other group. We have to be on top of our game and be professional about it,” Keshi disclosed.