Buhari Receives GLO CAF Platinum Award For Good Leadership - Politics

President Buhari was on Monday, January 11, presented with GLO CAF platinum Award for good leadership from Minister of Youth and Sport, Solomon Dalong at the State House Abuja. More photos after the cut...

Nnamdi Kanu's Wife Delivers A Bouncing Baby Boy - Politics -

The Pregnant wife of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, his wife Uchechi Okwu Kanu has finally delivered a bouncing baby boy.

Reports reaching us have it that, Kanu's wife who has been pregnant for months now, finally put to bed a baby boy, his husband Mazi Kanu is still under detention in custody of Department State Service DSS under president Buhari's order.

He was convicted of Treasonable Felony and belonging to Unlawful Society.

Congrats to his wife for delivering safely. may God be praise!

Yuletide: FG Declares Dec. 24, 25, 28 Public Holidays - Politics

The Federal Government has declared December 24, 25 and 28 as public holidays to mark Maulud Nabiy, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, respectively.

The Minister of the Interior, Retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, made the declaration on Thursday in Abuja in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Bassey Akpanyung.

“The Federal Government has declared Thursday, 24th December, 2015 as public holiday to mark Eid-El-Maulud celebration.

“Friday, 25th and Monday 28th December, 2015 have also been declared as public holidays to mark Christmas and Boxing Day celebration,” the statement said.

The minister enjoined Muslim and Christian faithful to use the unique occasion to‎ pray for the peace and unity of Nigeria.



He also advised Nigerians to cooperate and join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari in his efforts to build a peaceful, united and virile nation.

Dambazau wished Nigerians, home and abroad, happy celebrations.

Eid-Maulud is the celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammed in Islam, while Christmas is celebrated by Christians to mark the birth of Jesus Christ.

''Our Gods Will Punish Those Who Collect David Mark’s Rice Without Voting Him'' - Politics

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sunday Ogebe has warned that anyone who collects anything from former Senate President, David Mark and refuses to vote for him will not go unpunished.

Ogebe, while addressing newsmen in Kaduna on Tuesday ahead of the forthcoming rerun in the senatorial district, said it was unfortunate that people were beginning to blame Mark over the under-development in the land, bearing in mind that he was not the state governor.

The party chieftain expressed disappointment that some persons were rejoicing over the invalidation of Mark’s election, forgetting the good thing he had done for the people of Zone C, particularly the Idoma natives.


“Anyone one who says our able leader, David Mark should be voted out is an enemy of Idoma community.

“A leader like Mark is not common. It is sad that we are chasing away a man who spent 16 years of his life representing the good people of our land at the senate.”

He recalled that, “after serving the nation in the military, the love Mark has for his fatherland made him to join politics.

“It is sad. I heard some people condemning him for distributing rice and other food items to his constituents. This is a man that is out of job at the moment. Anyone who collects his gift and refuses to vote him will not escape the punishment of alekwu (gods) of our land,” he added.


On whom to blame over the failure of the creation of Apa State, Ogebe said, “is Mark the only legislator? Can only him create state? We should stop all these unnecessary blames. Wait if any state is created and Apa State is not on the list. I can assure you that this man is doing underground works but people won’t see it,” Ogebe said.

Aisha Buhari Hosts End Of The Year Gathering Of Social Media Change Agents -Pics - Politics -

Aisha Buhari Hosts end of the year gathering of Social Media Change Agents at the Aso Villa

Happening Live now at Aso Rock Villa Abuja Nigeria , The Nigerian First Lady Aisha Buhari Hosts end of the year gathering of Social Media Change Agents at the Aso Villa, Photos from the scene of the event below

Poor Performance Of APC Giving PDP Hope Of Return In 2019 – Lar - Politics

ABUJA — House of Representatives member, Hon. Beni Lar has said the unimpressive performances of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC government in the country has placed its opposition counterpart, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP on a vantage position to bounce back in the 2019 poll.
This was even as she decried the continued defection of her party members to the ruling party, saying it was necessary for party men to remain loyal to the principles and ideologies of their parties, no matter the challenges being faced.
She, however, opined that such should be expected, in a situation where a particular party stayed firmed in office for a period of 16 years, insisting that it was not unusual.

Speaking to newsmen, Wednesday, in Abuja, during the annual traditional Christmas Ball & Carol, organised by the The Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David, Lar insisted that APC has not performed as expected, saying the development had had improved the rating of the 16 years of PDP-led administration high.

Lar said it was only through politicians’ commitment and loyalty to their parties that the country’s democracy can grow even as she admitted that the PDP was at the moment passing through some challenges.

“The party is definitely going through some challenges. But every party has a time when after it grows so big, it is bound to fall and rise up again.
“If you look at America, the Republicans stayed in power for eight years and then, the Democrats take it for another eight years and it resolves like that.
“So, there is nothing wrong or unusual about what is happening, it’s just that PDP stayed in power for 16 good years which is a good achievement. I think we should be proud of ourselves that we were able to stay that long. However, we will bounce back, there is no fear about that”, she stressed.
On whether she would defect to the APC, Lar said: “I rule it out completely. I am not joining any other party apart from the PDP. We are the founding fathers of PDP and so, we will stay there and make it work.”

She disclosed that due to poor students’ enrolment in science courses, the House of Representatives had mandated the ministries of education and science and technology to urgently develop a new curriculum to check the unimpressive enrolment of students in the field.

The lawmakers said they were deeply concerned that more people were graduating in Humanities and the Arts than the Sciences, adding that the trend must be reversed through development of a new curricular.

Lar said: “We have already discussed with the Ministry of Science and Technology on the need to encourage enrollment in sciences. The ministry would sit down with the Ministry of Education to propose a new curricular to encourage children from when they are very young to take an interest in Mathematics and Sciences, so that when they grow up, they can improve on research and development in the science field.

“This is because research and development is the key to any innovation and success in any country. We don’t have a strong research and development base in this country and we need to have that. Hopefully, we will strengthen that.”

According to her, Nigerian universities were not functioning in line which the aim for which they were established because they were not placing emphasis on research and development.

She suggested that Nigerian universities should strive to be like research institutes, where science and technology should be developed at that stage while breakthrough should also be done through these universities.

Lar said, “The global trend in the world now is the emergence of new trends in science and technology. Many countries, especially in Asia which are not endowed with any natural resource, are doing well technologically. Nigeria of course, has an abundance of natural resources-oil and gas, agriculture, good weather, climatic conditions and the rest.

“In Asia, they don’t have these but they use purely science and technology, research and development to transform the entire economy of the countries. We have seen that innovation is the way of the 21st century and because of the innovation, we have seen that for instance, Taiwan is the biggest manufacturer of computer chips in the world.
“The only way for this country to trully move forward is to embrace the emerging trend in science and technology. Nigeria is yet to appreciate this fully. I must say that in communication, we have done well; in banking, we have also done quite well. But we need to do more in agriculture, so we can be self sustaining.

“Nigeria has mass abundance of land, mass abundance of human resources of animals, poultry and crops. We have favourable climatic conditions, but we don’t produce enough food to feed this nation and 80 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line, that is unacceptable.”

Lar added: “So, we are collaborating with the various agencies, we have been having interractive sessions with stakeholders. In fact, we will finish next year, when each agency has shown us their capacity.

“We have even seen the capacity to build weapon here. So many agencies have capacity to even produce nuclear power here, but we have not utilised it. This year, I am happy to say that there would be an increase in the budget of Science and Technology, a very significant increase.”

Fashola’s Son, Demola, Called To Bar In Abuja (photos) - Politics

Like Father, like son. Ex Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola’s Son Called To Bar In Abuja (photos) When the Oba of Lagos attend your event, you know you are big. Demola, son of the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Fashola, was called to the Nigerian Bar today. Demola Fashola, the son of former Lagos state governor and the current Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Fashola, was called to the Nigerian Bar today, December 15th. The outspoken Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu and his proud parents, graced the occasion at the International conference centre, Abuja Congratulations to him!

Fayose Wears Short Knickers To Sign The Budget (Photos) - Politics

He Said ---  They said I was not properly dressed last week,I wearing short knickers to sign d budget.They should keep talking.

Presidency Reacts To Rumour That Buhari Received Money From Dasuki - Politics

The Presidential Spokesman has confirmed to Sahara reporters that President Buhari received money from Dasuki as well as the Bullet proof vehicles. Adeshina claims they were statuary entitlements of the President. This just got Real mehnnnnn

Governor Ortom And Wife Adopt Girl - Politics

Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom and his wife Eunice have adopted this beautiful baby they have since named Destiny. The little girl was among the children they met during a visit to Mama Abayol Orphanage, Makurdi recently. Continue to see more photos which was shared on the Facebook wall of the DG of FRCN, Ladan Salihu...

Malpractices In Kogi, Bayelsa Elections Unfortunate, Says Buhari - Politics

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday lamented that despite government’s efforts aimed at ensuring the conduct of credible elections, some malpractices were witnessed in the recent governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states. He called on Nigerians to support all necessary measures aimed at ensuring free, fair and credible elections in the country, including the use of card readers and permanent voter cards. A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, quoted the President as saying this while receiving the new members of the Inter-Party Advisory Council Executive Committee at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. “Referring to recent elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, President Buhari said it was unfortunate that there were still reports of unhelpful electoral attitudes,” the statement read. Buhari said more work needed to be done to perfect the conduct of elections in the country. The President told members of IPAC that it was regrettable that the electorate in some parts of the country were deprived of the use of card readers and permanent voter cards during the last general elections despite the enthusiasm that followed their introduction to the Nigerian electoral system. He also used the occasion of the visit of the IPAC leaders to thank them for their strong support for his candidacy in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election. He congratulated the new Chairman of IPAC, Malam Bashir Yusuf, who is also the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Movement. In his remarks, Yusuf pledged the group’s support for Buhari’s fight against insurgency and corruption in the country. He also reaffirmed IPAC’s belief in the unity, progress and indivisibility of Nigeria. But in Yenagoa, hundreds of women and youths from the Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State took to the streets on Tuesday, calling for the cancellation of the governorship poll in the area as a result of alleged irregularities during the election and the inconsistencies in the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission. They alleged that the series of official complaints by genuine voters and the All Progressives Congress in the Yenagoa metropolis were ignored by officials of INEC. They also lamented that the bias of the commission showed in the inconsistencies of the figures announced by the Collation Officer for the council. The State Youth Leader of the APC, Edison Sorgwe, and a chieftain of the party, Alaowei Opukeme-Jonah, who spoke on behalf of the aggrieved voters, said the result announced by the INEC’s collation officers for the PDP, APC and other political parties were inconsistent with the number of rejected votes and cancelled votes. The protesters submitted that the election in Yenagoa LGA should be cancelled like that of Southern Ijaw, saying it was also characterised by cases of ballot snatching, irregularities and widespread violence. They said the election in the LGA recorded skirmishes resulting in more than eight members of the party sustaining injuries. The protesters said they were also preparing a petition against identified security personnel and staff of INEC involved in corruption during the poll. Meanwhile, INEC has said it has yet to decide on when it will conduct a supplementary election to determine the winner of the inconclusive Bayelsa State governorship poll. The commission said a meeting of its officers and political parties would be called to decide when the election would hold. INEC on Monday cancelled the election in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state, declaring the governorship poll inconclusive. While results of elections in the remaining seven local government areas had been announced, the commission cancelled the exercise in the Southern Ijaw LGA due to widespread violence and irregularities. Director of Voters Education and Publicity of INEC, Mr. Oluwole Osaze, told our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday that the commission had yet to fix a date for the supplementary election. Osaze said, “No, we have not decided on when the election in the affected local government will hold. “We need to have a meeting in the commission and also meet with political parties in the state and other stakeholders before deciding on that.”

Why President Buhari Is Always Traveling Abroad

I have been amused, reading a number of jokes concerning the frequency of the President, Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign trips.



Questions have been raised about why so many visits, and what are the benefits Nigeria is getting?

I will make it clear from the beginning that the critic is entitled to his and her opinion and nothing said here is intended to silence him or her.

Criticism goes with the territory and as it is often said in a wisecrack, if you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.

President Muhammadu Buhari came into office under the mantra of change. While Nigerians are yearning for change, you need someone who will set up the infrastructure, both at home and abroad for it. President Buhari is busy doing that.

The change is manifest in where he visits and what he does.

In the delegations accompanying him abroad, President Buhari has slashed the numbers, bringing them down to a tolerable or the bearable minimum.

He went to the United Nations General Assembly in September with an unbelievable 32 officials in his delegation. These included his cook, his doctor and luggage officer.

His predecessor in office went to the same meeting with 150 officials and family members the year before.
Wherever they are given government accommodation and feeding, members of President Buhari’s entourage receive reduced allowances, thereby saving the government some money.

In public diplomacy, experts say that it is better conducted through face-to-face interaction than through third parties. This is even moreso at the level of heads of state. To do by it by proxy is to miss the effect of fostering strong interpersonal relations between leaders, by which nations benefit.

President Buhari has so far visited Germany, South Africa, USA, Niger, Tchad, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, South Africa, India, Iran and Malta, where we are presently for the Commonwealth Summit. Mostly, these were due to either the United Nations, EU, African Union or energy and security-related summits. They were mostly undertaken to attend specific meetings, not State Visits. Looking at these assignments, the trips are inescapable for the President. What would Nigerians say of their leader when see the array of world leaders assemble, as they would shortly be doing discussing climate change in Paris on Monday and their own President is missing from the table?

Those of us who were around under Abacha read all the taunts about him being a sit-at-home leader. Abacha was despised for not representing his country abroad.

President Buhari’s foreign visits have been marked by punishing schedules. They are always business-like and results-oriented.

All trips have been marked by tight schedules. Meeting after meeting, happening back-to-back morning, afternoon and evening. The President has had to travel overnight for some of these meetings.

The visit by any president to another country is the highest act in international relations.

It sends out a message that that county is important to the visitor.

It is not like your usual vacation abroad. Official discussions involving political leaders, the military, the diplomats and at times, business people are held at multi- track levels. In foreign policy you stand on a quick sand of events and you slip up if take a rest or lose focus. Governments also know that their achievements at home will be meaningless if they cannot project them abroad. Who or where are the foreign investors,whose hand you are seeking if you can’t travel meet them? Will they come if they don’t know about the country? President Buhari demonstrated a keen understanding of these when in the first week of his taking the office, he brought together foreign policy and all three cardinal objectives of his administration-security,economy and war on corruption- by embarking on visits to neighboring countries.

In our recent history, much of the West had ignored Nigeria under the corrupt PDP administration for many years, which warranted the country’s tilt towards some Asian countries.

As a consequence, this country has suffered past isolation of various types, including the denial of access to the arms-purchase market.

As a member of the then Standing Committee of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, I remember being in a delegation that visited the Aso Rock Villa, to beg the government at that time not the execute the writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa.

At the meeting with the Number Two man in that government, Major-General Oladipo Diya, he announced to everyone’s shock and disbelief that Ken had been executed. “Honestly,” he muted, “I think he has been executed about two days ago.”

What followed that pronouncement was a global outrage.

The then Foreign Affairs Minister, Arch. Tom Ikimi representing Nigeria at the Commonwealth meeting in New Zealand, shattered the feelings of the leaders of those countries when he announced to them that he had not been briefed about the executions and begged for time to talk to the leaders back in Nigeria.

Nigeria faced an imminent expulsion from the group and would have been so sacked but for the intervention of the then President of South Africa, late Nelson Mandela.

In place of this extreme form of sanction, a suspension and and a barrage of sanctions followed and remained in place until an appreciable remorse was was shown and progress made towards the return to democracy by Nigeria.

Throughout that period of time, it was difficult being a Nigerian in the international space.

As council members of the UN Human Rights Commission, Africans would caucus in Geneva without us Nigerians. Like lepers, we were shunned wherever we showed up.

I mentioned this short narrative to illustrate two things: one, for a country to do the right things all the time and two, you don’t know the joy being a part of international gatherings until you suffer the pain of exclusion from them.

Short of begging the world, there was nothing that the Abacha government didn’t do to be taken back into the Commonwealth.

And it is against this background that I felt the need to pen this opinion in the hope of bringing better understanding to fellow countrymen and women on the current subject matter.

There is no reason to be angry with anyone criticizing President Buhari for traveling abroad. In politics, even if President Buhari were to bring with him a suitcase full of cash and a pot gold each time he returned from a trip, someone will criticize him, saying that the journey is wasteful.

The PDP will kick, knowing that they got 16 years and did nothing with it. Those who didn’t do much during their term of governance will find it instructive to fault whatever the President is doing.

If President Buhari is successful as a leader, the PDP will be history.

My own point here is that he is doing a great job and the fruits are here, and many more will soon come. He is working to strengthen diplomatic relations, trade and the security of our nation. He holds serious meetings with serious investors and has fetched us investments in the range of billions of US Dollars.

Now, countries such as France, UK, The U.S are supporting Nigeria with intelligence, weapons and training for our military against Boko Haram and the economic saboteurs in the Delta region.

President Buhari will definitely make Nigeria great,what the PDP fooled us for 16 years.

All heads of countries around the world now take Nigeria seriously. His foreign trips are for business, security of the country and bilateral contacts- contacts that get actualized by follow-ups and the love and support a leader enjoys at home and abroad.

Today the world is in a warm embrace of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigerians should be proud of the attention, love and admiration, importance, respect and investment he is bringing to Nigeria. These trips are not for enjoyment.

Lastly, to answer those who ask all the time, what is he bringing back home?

We are not a country of beggars. It is good if something is in the bag as the leader comes home from a trip.
Culturally, we never return home from a trip without a souvenir for everyone left at home. Yes it is good he declares something upon his return.

But the most important task for the President at this time is to reset the image of Nigeria abroad, given the damage it sustained over many years in the past.

So far, in fairness, the President has projected a large image of Nigeria and of himself which should be a matter of pride for all our citizens. Marketing of Brand Nigeria can never be more important than currently it is.

The President is doing a great job for the nation. He needs to be supported.

Written by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President, SSAP (Media and Publicity)