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President Buhari, Nigerians can’t be fooled anymore

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I felt totally embarrassed watching the disgrace called the presidential media chat. It is totally shameful that we are still staging this kind of farce as presidential media chat in Nigeria. The organisers of these so-called presidential media chats should note that it is nobody’s fault that the president cannot adequately express himself and defend his own policies. The president should have known what he was getting himself into when he decided to contest for election.
Patronising the president with nursery school questions won’t do him and the nation any good. Where did they find those so-called journalists who couldn’t ask critical questions and make the president sweat and make him openly defend all the crazy policies of his that are already causing unnecessary hardship for everyone in the country for Christ’s sake? Till date, nobody has a clue of how the president intends solving the epileptic power situation in the country and he hasn’t uttered a word on how he will revive the economy. We don’t even know if he has a plan for anything. For God’s sake, why didn’t they ask him about the two cars given to him by the office of the NSA? How come he didn’t declare them among his assets? If the presidency can’t organise a simple thing as a media chat, how can they govern the country properly?Nawa oooo!!!
They should have asked the president what type of government he operates. This surely is not democracy. He has to define this new system of government he has introduced, because his total disregard for court orders is what I was taught in school as dictatorship. Hearing him defend the disregard for the rule of law in the cases of Sambo Dasuki, Nnamdi Kanu and Patrick Akpobolokemi in his media chat was very disturbing. The president is obviously not living by his oath to protect the constitution. Where are all the pro-democracy activists that fought the government of Sanni Abacha to a halt? It is time to rise up and challenge President Buhari before things get out of hand. We must not sit back and allow this brand new dictatorship to mature and throw us in the same path with Zimbabwe. Orders from the courts must be obeyed by everyone, including the president. Whether Dasuki or Nnamdi Kanu are guilty or not is secondary. The rule of law and the constitution is paramount. That the State Security Service and DSS operatives refused to allow Dasuki go home on bail, even after the court granted him bail, is totally undemocratic and casts a shadow on this regime. Nigerians must stand firm against this impunity now before it destroys the judicial system and throw the entire nation into a state of anarchy and lawlessness.
The proposed 2016 budget is the most corrupt in the history of Nigeria  
  1. N3.7bn for the purchase of unspecified number of BMW salon cars for the Presidency’s principal officers: Every year, we keep buying new cars for these government officials. What happened to the cars purchased for the officials of Jonathan’s government a couple of weeks back? Did they take them home? I thought with President Buhari’s change mantra, the era of reckless spending and frivolities are over. But a whopping N3.7bn on cars is the worst I have heard so far.
  2. N189m to buy tyres for various vehicles being used in the Presidency: So after they have spent N3.7bn buying cars, another N189m will be spent on buying tyres for the cars? The cars wey dem wan buy no go come with tyres? Abi na tokumbo cars dem wan buy with N3.7bn, wey dem wan change the tyres? Even if dem wan change tyres sef, how much be tyres for market? Naija I hail oooo!!!
  3. N1.415bn for local and international travels, 46.7 per cent more than what Jonathan allocated for the same item in 2015: Oga president, where you dey travel to wey you wan spend N1.415bn? Even if you wan go clubbing for moon every weekend, oga dat money too much. Ahan make una so softly softly dey chop wack dis our money naa!
  4. N326m allocated for Aso Rock Wildlife Conservation, including the purchase of exotic animals as against the N24. 6m budgeted last year by Jonathan: These guys must be kidding me. Exotic animals? What kind of exotic animals? Are they planning purchasing whales and anacondas for the president as pets? I have been to the presidency and all I saw were dogs. And Jonathan spent N24.6m. Now Buhari is planning spending N326m. Even Mobutu Seseseko wey get crocodiles no spend reach dis amount of money.
  5. N89m for the acquisition of presidential canteen materials and kitchen equipment for the Presidency: What kind of kitchen equipment are they talking of here? Except they are telling us that in this canteen, you will be fed by robots. That all you have to do is open and close your mouth and swallow. Even at that, N89m is damn too much. And what happened to the kitchen equipment used in Jonathan’s time? Abegiii, this is total madness.
  6. N102.9m foodstuff and catering materials: Hahahaha, so catering materials are different from kitchen equipment? Mehn, I love naija. We have our own definition for everything. Whoever came up with this budget must be rewarded with the “Member-of-the-Order-of-Scammers” (MOS) award for his ingenuity.
  7. N104.7m on refreshments and meals for State House: Hmmmmm! No comment. Na only God know wetin dem dey chop for this state house. I sure say even Idi Amin Dada wey get human meat for him menu, no spend reach N104.7m on meals. May God help us.
  8. N16.6m for supply of foodstuff and catering services for the Vice President’s office in 2016: Hmmmm!! So Osinbanjo too sef go chop N16.6m from the budget? Haaa… I think say na only Buhari waka come ooo! This is definitely the government of the choppers, by the choppers and for the choppers.

Zinedine Zidane addresses Ronaldo's exit rumours

Real Madrid Transfer News: Zinedine Zidane Talks Cristiano Ronaldo Exit RumoursReal Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has denied the possibility of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving the Bernabeu, describing him as the soul of the team. The ex France international made this clear during a chat with Spanish media outlet, AS ahead of the Blancos’s game with Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.


Asked about Ronaldo and PSG, the Frenchman noted: Cristiano is more than non-transferable. He is the soul of the team. He’s going nowhere.” AS English tweeted.

#AskOzil: Arsenal star, Mesut Ozil is answering your questions live

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Arsenal star, Mesut Ozil is answering your questions live. This is your chance to quiz him on all things football. Lemme quickly add that your queries might be unattended to understandably because of the barrage of questions being thrown at him by football fans all over the globe. Would provide updates on questions being thrown at him and his responses. Keep refreshing this page.
Go on twitter and search @MesutOzil1088 or follow the hashtag #AskOzil 
Q- Do you miss Brazil
Ozil- Brazil is a great country with wonderful people! ? I hope to come back one day ?
Q- What was the first English word you learnt
Ozil- Assist Of Course…ah, no kidding
Q- Describe Arsenal in 3 words
Ozil- Familiar, classy, traditional
Q- What are your favourite Emojis
〽?
Q- If you could choose a great moment from this season, what would it be?
Ozil; First time being top of the table ???
Q- What is your greatest wish
Ozil: World Peace ?✌
Q- Do you pray before each game?
Ozil- Yes I do for the health of all the players on the field
Q- Do you watch Arsenal on TV when you don’t play?
Ozil- No, as long as I can’t help the team on the field I’ll be cheering as a fan on the stands
Q- If you can be a superhero, which one will you be?
Ozil- Superman
Q- Can you assist with the ladies?
Ozil- sorry, my friend. Anybody around here to assist him?
Q- What do you like, if anything, most about living in England

?Ozil- Football passion, fairplay on the stands, British humour and Jamie Carragher on TV

Q- What’s the meaning this left hand pose? Mesut’s M? Can I imitate this?
Ozil- no no – it’s for my little niece “M”ira! You are free to use it whenever you want

Q- Ronaldo or Messi
Ozil- Flamini

Q- How did it feel when Germany won the world cup?
Ozil: There are no words for this moment

Q- Who will win Ballon d’Or this year?
Ozil- Is Flamini nominated?

Q- How does it feel to be absolutely adored and idolised by some many people?
Ozil: Oh, no reason to do so. Sometimes people love you, sometimes they put you down. But I really love my job

Premier League Players snubbed in UEFA Team Of The Year

Premier League players are completely absent from the UEFA Team Of The Year list unveiled today.  UEFA.com users who were given a chance to cast their votes for the best XI snubbed the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Sergio Aguero and David De Gea who have been influential for their respective teams. Dominating the list are players from Spain, Germany and Italy, with the highest number of players from Barcelona. The nominees list was unveiled November 2015

UEFA Team Of The Year 2015

Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)

Defenders: Dani Alves (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), David Alaba (Bayern Munich)
Midfielders: Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Paul Pogba (Juventus), James Rodriguez (Real Madrid)
Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Neymar (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

Luis Suarez gets 2-match ban for tunnel row

Barcelona vs Espanyol
Barcelona star, Luis Suarez has been handed 2-match ban following his row with Espanyol players after the Catalan’s 4-1 victory against the club in the Copa Del Rey on January 6. The ex Liverpool man had confronted the rivals after the game and had reportedly shouted, “I’m waiting for you, come here! You’re a waste of space,”
Barcelona confirmed the new development on its official website
“FC Barcelona received notification on Friday from the Spanish Football Federation that striker Luis Suárez was to face a two-match suspension for allegedly taking part in a scrum between players from Barça and Espanyol in the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms following Wednesday’s Copa del Rey last 16 first leg at Camp,” the club said.
“FC Barcelona will immediately proceed to appeal the ban. If the sanction holds up, Suárez would miss the return leg next Wednesday and a hypothetical first leg of the quarter-finals, should Barça qualify.
“In the appeal, FC Barcelona is expected to argue that the player, as he later stated, did not use the allegedly offensive words that were attributed to him in the referee’s official notes following the match.”

Short Story: Pristine | By : Morountodun (Vol 6)

Photo Credit: Wikihow

Read Parts 1,2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Pristine series herehere  Here Here and here

Her mum was upset, as expected.
She had yelled over the phone when Dara called to tell her about the posting,
and the yelling continued even after she got back home for the after-camp
break. Her dad was calmer, as usual. His only grouse was why she hadn’t said
anything about not wanting to redeploy in the first place.

“Maybe because I knew mum was
going to react this way?”
Dara finally had the nerve to answer, on her third
night at home, when they still wouldn’t stop asking why she had done what she
did.
“How am I reacting?” her mum
retorted. “What sane mother would want her child in a dangerous place like
that?!”

“Mum, do you know that before I
left for camp, I had never spent a whole day out of this house? I even went to
school from home everyday because you didn’t think the campus was such a great
idea. I don’t want to be this overprotected girl without any exposure. This is
an opportunity for me.”

The older woman tried to explain,
“This isn’t about you living home, it’s about where you chose to stay—“
“Accidents happen everywhere.
Sickness kills too. Boko Haram isn’t the leading cause of death in Nigeria. And
they aren’t even striking in Gombe, I’ve told you that several times,”
Dara
said, exasperated. “I stayed at the Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship
family house the two days I spent outside camp, I met several other corpers in
different batches that had been there before me and all they had to share were
testimonies. It seems like a good place, really.”

“Well, you’ve obviously made up
your mind to stay so it’s too late to argue,”
her dad pointed out with a glance
at the two of them.
Her mum shook her head. “I know
it’s too late to argue, but I’m thinking of asking one of the pastors in church
to intervene. Dara is obviously out of hand. She needs to be reminded of the
consequences of disobeying one’s parents!”

Dara smiled. “Really, mum? And you
don’t even believe that God is our protection wherever we find ourselves?”

Later that night, Gideon went to
her room and told her, “You know mum just wants the best for all of us, right?”

“I know.”

“And you can always still apply
for relocation. People do, even after six months into the service.”

“Yeah, but that would be if I
hated it there. Let’s wait and see.”

“So…any other camp gist you
haven’t given me yet?”
he asked, smiling mischievously.
“Well, there was this guy—“

“I knew it.”

“And no, he isn’t my reason for
wanting to stay, you know I decided to before I even went to camp,”
she
reminded him. “He relocated anyway.”

“What happened with him?”

Dara shrugged. “I liked him. He
was my friend. He wanted to be more than friends, but the feeling wasn’t
mutual.”

Gideon sighed. “What on earth do
girls mean when they say stuff like that? This girl at my office told me the
very same thing. Is friend-zoning the good guys like a rule you all follow
these days?”

“You know, now that I think about
it, you and David actually share some qualities.”

“Like?”
“You’re both really sweet and
nice, the type girls love to talk to because you’re such great listeners.”
He looked puzzled. “Isn’t that
what women want?”

“Well, I can only speak for
myself. And I imagine it must get boring. What I’d really like is someone who
makes me laugh, someone I can be spontaneous and have fun with, not just talk
and listen all the time. He must also be able to make me mad sometimes, and
turn it all around almost instantly too. I want a guy who keeps me on my toes.”

Gideon nodded. “Interesting.” Then
he added, shaking his head, “Girls are just plain crazy and insatiable.”
                                                                      
**************
December seemed to pass by too
quickly, and Dara found herself staring into a Nigerian map in one of Dan’s
Geography textbooks on Christmas day when she should have been helping her mum
out in the kitchen.
“What have I done?” she groaned,
slamming the book shut.
Dan tried to console her. “At
least you’ve been there before. Now you’re abit familiar with the place. You’ll
be fine.”

“My ass hurts just thinking of the
trip already,”
she said, wincing.
He grinned. “Yeah, you could use
more flesh in that area.”
When she didn’t laugh like she often did when teased
about her derriere size, he added reassuringly, “Don’t worry, sis. You’ll come
home on holidays, right? Easter isn’t so far away.”

Dara shook her head, dejected. “I
can’t travel that distance for a two-day break, it’s not worth it. And I
already know my punishment’s no money for flight ticket from mum and dad. I’ll
be packing for the whole year when I leave nextweek.”

Dan sighed. “But you know, you
might get a rich Nomad with plenty cows and never even want to leave Gombe
again.”

She did laugh at that. The
possibility of finding love with a cattle-rearer was much more attractive than
the deliverance team she imagined her mum would consult if she ever considered
permanent residence in the North.

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Morountodun is a writer and a microbiology ‎ graduate of University of Ilorin.
Twitter: @Morountosweet
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Are you a writer? Interested in sharing ‎your short stories on this
platform? Be‎ our guest on our Short Story Fridays segment. Email: [email protected] or ololade.olatunji@yahoo/ gmail.com

For Soyinka, a moral question | By: Austin Tam-George

Prof. Wole Soyinka’s reaction to the scandal of the 82 Million Naira dinner held in his honour by the Rotimi Amaechi government in Rivers State is at once disappointing and depressing.

Soyinka has said he didn’t know about the cost of a party held in his name, in a State where 90 per cent of the people live in insufferable poverty. But now that official documents show the cost of his three-hour dinner, where is his moral outrage? Why does his statement not include a condemnation of such unconscionable misuse of public funds in his name?

In a country full of villainy, Soyinka is often held up as a moral titan. The Nobel Laureate cements this perception by conducting himself in the manner of someone who suffers from a god complex, someone who does no wrong. But Soyinka’s unbridled support for Rotimi Amaechi invites close moral scrutiny.

Rivers State is reeling from the catastrophic legacy of the Amaechi years. Despite receiving over 3 trillion naira in revenue in 8 years, Amaechi left the most abandoned projects in the history of Rivers State, since 1967. Thousands of workers went without their salaries for 4 months, aged pensioners faced starvation without their pensions for 8 months, and the salaries of thousands of teachers were not paid for nearly 12 months.
Everywhere you looked in Amaechi’s Rivers State; there was this stark, almost synonymic connection between poor governance, corruption and fiction.

A physical tour of the Greater Port Harcourt City in Rivers State on which Amaechi had spent over one hundred billion Naira, revealed only a putrid landscape of corruption, broken dreams and wasted resources. How could Wole Soyinka be indifferent to such atrocious legacy? During her 80th birthday in 2011, the American Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison had a hearty laugh over coffee with friends at her home in Ohio. No State dinner was held in her honour at tax payers’ expense by the State of Ohio.

Can Soyinka reasonably claim to be indifferent to the exemplary moral contrast provided by Toni Morrison? The 82 million Naira dinner for Soyinka is a financial crime against the people of Rivers State. Did the Nobel Laureate receive cash gifts during that bibulous night?
Will Soyinka condemn this pornography of waste and excess by Rotimi Amaechi?

That is the moral question.

FIFA Presidency: Michel Platini withdraws bid.

Suspended UEFA boss, Michel Platini has given up his bid to become the next FIFA President.
“I will not present myself for the presidency of FIFA. I am withdrawing my candidature. I no longer have the time nor the means to go to the voters, to meet people, to fight against the other candidates. In withdrawing, I am dedicating myself to my defence”  He told the Association Press yesterday
Platini and Sepp Blatter were suspended from all football-related activities following an ethics committee investigation. They were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) “disloyal payment” made to Platini in 2011.
The 60-year-old added that his ban has made it impossible for him to campaign for votes.
“It is a question of the calendar, but not only that. How can you win an election when you are prevented from campaigning?”
The remaining contenders are Asian football head Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain, South African politician and tycoon Tokyo Sexwale, former FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan, UEFA general-secretary Gianni Infantino and Jerome Champagne , a former FIFA assistant general secretary from France. The new FIFA president will be revealed on February 26. 

Glo-CAF Awards 2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang crowned African Footballer of the Year.



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Borussia Dortmund player, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has emerged the 2015 Glo-CAF African Footballer of the Year. He is also the first ever Gabonese to scoop the prize. He was honoured in the 2015 edition of the Glo CAF Awards which held on 7th January in Abuja.

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The 26 year-old who scored 27 goals in all competitions this season had 143 points. Ivory Coast international, Yaya Toure who won the award 4 consecutive times came second with 136 points while Swansea city player, Andre Ayew garnered 112 points.


Full list of Winners

Club of the Year – TP Mazembe 
Fair Play Award – Allez Casa (Senegal Supporters group) 
Women’s National Team Of The Year – Cameroon 
Men’s National Team Of The Year – Cote D’Ivoire 
Youth Player Of The Year– Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen 
Most Promising Talent – Nigeria’s Oghenekaro Etebo 
Coach of The Year – Havre Renard 
Women’s National Team Of The Year – Cameroon 
Woman player of the year – Gabrielle Enganamouit 
Referee Of The Year – Ameshinda Bakari Wa Gambia Papa Gassama 
African Player Of The Year based in Africa – Mbwana Samatta 
Football Leader Of The Year – Abdiqani Said Arab Of Somalia 
African Player Of The Year – Pierre Emerick Aubameyang
Open chat