EDWIN CLARK'S LETTER TO OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

 


My Dear Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,

LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

This indeed is a season of open letters, the session of which you heralded with a contemptuous one to His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Your eldest daughter and a former Senator. Dr. lyabo Obasanjo, feeling uncomfortable with your antics quickly fired a response to your now infamous letter that has gone viral and continue to generate negative national discourse.

President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR, an amiable gentle man to whom you routed your vicious open letter would not tolerate Presidential aides writing nor commenting on your letter, and so ordered a stay of action. He in his characteristic manner of respect and decorum said he would personally reply. I am quite certain that the President did not want to join issues with a benefactor and former President. He would have wanted the charged atmosphere your open letter orchestrated to ride itself out until normalcy and calm return to the polity, as witnessed in other incitive comments by well placed Individuals in the recent past.

However, as you well intended the echoes of your vicious letter continue to reverberate negatively. The President had no option left but to reply you through the same medium of an open letter. With a deep sense of responsibility the President touched all the damaging allegations you heaped on his administration and today Nigerians are better informed.

In the light of the forgoing, it has become incumbent upon me at this point in our national life to refute some of the issues highlighted in your letter especially about the Ijaws so that Nigerians must know that you are not the saint you claim to be, but a mischief maker, an ego maniac who always wants to play to the gallery. As rightfully put by your daughter lyabo “Nigeria does not belong to Obasanjo”. In addition, I want to buttress the assertion that all Nigerians are equal no matter where they come from, that is, no one is a second class citizen of this nation. You have no right to plunge Nigerians into crisis as your past actions and recent open letter to the President connotes. The generality of Nigerians think your letter is treasonable.

MAN SETS SELF ABLAZE

It was a case of double tragedy on Sunday evening in Ise-Ekiti area of Ekiti State when a young man simply identified as Austin was set ablaze by angry youths after he had allegedly shot to death his landlord's daughter.

The shooting incident was said to have caused tension in the community as the angry youths apprehended Austin and set him ablaze at a motor park.

Also, it was gathered that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ise Police station was hit on the head by the angry youths for attempting to rescue Austin just before he was lynched.

Austin said to be in his late 30s and a trader reportedly shot the girl in front of her father's house at Iro Oraye area of the town.

Before he was set ablaze, it was learnt that some sympathisers had taken him to the palace of the monarch of Ise Ekiti, Oba Adetunji Ajayi possibly to prevent him from being mobbed, before the irate  youths later  overpowered the palace guards and  took him to the town's main motor park where he was burnt.
The remains of the slain girl and that of her killer, which had already been burnt beyond recognition, have been deposited at a mortuary in the town by the police.
Meanwhile, all youths in the community have fled for fear of possible arrest by the police. Both incidents crippled the social and commercial activities in the community.

Efforts to get more information from Oba Ajayi yielded no fruitful result, as he was not ready to speak on the matter.

Also, attempts to extract a comment from the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Victor Babayemi, proved abortive, as he promised to call back, but failed to do so.

Angela Merkel fractures pelvis in ski fall

Chancellor Merkel went skiing with bodyguards during a Christmas break in St Moritz

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has fractured a bone in her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident in Switzerland, her spokesman says.

She will have to remain lying down as much as possible in the next three weeks and several visits will be cancelled, Steffen Seibert said.
She also suffered heavy bruising in the accident, in the alpine Engadine region of eastern Switzerland.
Ms Merkel was not skiing fast at the time, the spokesman added.
He called the injury "severe bruising linked with a partial fracture on the left, rear part of the pelvis".
Immediately after the accident, during the Christmas holiday in December, Ms Merkel was not aware that part of her pelvis had been fractured, the spokesman said. It was a visit to her doctor on Friday that revealed the exact injury.
He did not give details about how it happened. She was skiing near the resort of St Moritz.

Why I gave OJB my kidney - Ist wife

When asked by Punch why she gave OJB,her husband of 20 years her kidney, his first wife Mabel said..

 

Mabel:

I did not even think twice about it, I had it and I gave it to him. He is my husband, the father of our children and I love him. This is somebody I have been with all my life. I did not tell anybody before I decided to, not even my parents because I had foreseen their reaction. There was no reason to inform them.  When I married him, I told God I wanted the both of us to grow old together and live to see many generations. I am sure God knew this situationbefore he brought us together because not only am I a match for him, we are the same blood group and we are both stubborn.

OJB replies below

 

OJB:

A major illness can break a home. Sometimes, instead of one partner seeing the other through the period of sickness, they would rather walk away. It could be draining them psychologically, financially or both. When you talk more as a couple, you create that atmosphere where you can actually share what you feel about the situation. I did not want anybody to donate an organ for me and I was very stubborn about it. I thought I was going to come out of the situationwithout a transplant. I was ready to go through any other route to make it happen. Above every other thing, I have always believed in the God factor and that is what has kept us going because Nigerians are very sceptical

What are your pet names for each other?

 

OJB:

I call her Mama J and she calls me Jigga my Nigga.

But Wait Oh! You call her mama J, she calls you jigga ma nigga still yet you married 2 other women after her and have 8kids to show? I hope this changes you and you treat this woman like a queen!

2014:Year of the Locusts

     
“If the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria insists he wants something and you say you will not allow him to have it, what do you think will happen?”

The above was the  question asked by a   former state governor  in Nigeria’s South-west. He answered the question himself:  “War”

Now, for war to be just, there is required a just cause. That is according to Thomas Aquinas.  A scholastic appreciation of Aquinas’ position, without prejudice to the pacifism that Christianity preaches, posits that it is sometimes necessary to “preserve or restore peace in the face of aggression; and there must be conditions precedent”.  Aquinas called these conditions jus ad bellum (right to war) which were different from the jus in bello (the rules of just conduct in war). For a just war to be hinged on a just cause, it must have rightful intention, authority of the sovereign and the raison d’etre.

In simple, plain language, all these relate  to the need to preserve or restore a status quo that has peace or the well-being of the state and sovereign as it’s central objective.
Now, Nigeria’s 2014 will witness some war – in a manner of speaking.
It would be a war of many sides; a war possibly of ideas, of intentions (seen and unseen), and of ego.
But it would also be a war of stupidity in which all sides would attempt to outdo one another in a show of shame.

But at the front of this war would be some actors: President Goodluck Jonathan, Bola Tinubu, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Bamangar Tukur, Senate President David Mark, Speaker Aminu Waziri  Tambuwal, Pa E K Clark, Chief Tony Anenih, PDP and APC governors and legislators, INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega. The list is endless.
It would be a war of the locusts.

For the average Nigerian who is not directly involved in this war, he could as well go to hell. Whereas the warring parties make unbridled pretense to fighting for the masses, daylight is easily brought into the pretense as the masses are almost always left for dead.

Beyond the mantra of non-performance that the opposition continues to chant is the real issue of loss of political power and control by a section of the country. This has been further accentuated by the role fate played in the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in May 2010, paving the way for President Jonathan’s emergence. Worse still for them, Jonathan contested and won a supposed four-year tenure meant for the North and is now in the process of seeking a constitutionally guaranteed second term of office.And that is where the war starts and ends.

EFCC moves to prosecute seven corrupt Judges

The Supreme Court is set to meet on the cases of the 23 judges, who are being investigated over large scale corruption. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/01/efcc-moves-prosecute-seven-corrupt-judges/#sthash.bk4Rfsmx.dpuf

The Supreme Court is set to meet on the cases of the 23 judges, who are being investigated over large scale corruption. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/01/efcc-moves-prosecute-seven-corrupt-judges/#sthash.bk4Rfsmx.dpuf

 The Supreme Court is set to meet on the cases of the 23 judges, who are being investigated over large scale corruption.
This is just as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, moves in to take over the matter from where the council stops.

It was  learnt that that already the commission’s operatives had established enough evidence of corruption against seven of the affected judges and was ready to charge them to court any moment from now.

The Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, is reported to have visited the Chief Justice of Nigeria and given the assurance that the judges would be charged as soon as the NJC concluded its findings on them. CJN had however asked the panels probing the judges to give them ‘fair hearing’ in the discharge of their assignment.
It was gathered that the directive by the CJN to the panels to ensure that each of the suspects were heard out, was responsible for the delay in the meeting of the NJC to ratify the verdict of the panels.

Former Manchester United goal machine-Ole Gunnar Solskjaer named Cardiff City Coach

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been appointed as Cardiff City manager, just six days after the sacking of Malky Mackay.

The former Manchester United striker and Molde manager completed talks on Thursday morning, having been identified by Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman as his first choice from the outset.

He said: "I feel lucky to be back in the Premier League. I had to have a talk about it with the family obviously but it is a great opportunity."

Solskjaer has joined on a "rolling contract", but it has been suggested earlier in the week that he had reservations about taking the job due to the difficult relationship Mackay had with controversial owner Vincent Tan.

There were also reports his former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson had told him to turn Cardiff down, but the 40-year-old insisted the Scot had done no such thing, and had been in touch to wish him the best in his new role.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s New Year message

Dear Compatriots,

I greet and felicitate with you all as we enter the year 2014 which promises to be a momentous one for our country for several reasons, including the fact that it is also the year of our great nation’s centenary celebrations. I join you all in giving thanks to God Almighty for guiding us and our beloved nation safely through all the challenges of the outgoing year to the beginning of 2014.

Exactly 100 years ago today, on January 1, 1914, the British Colonial authorities amalgamated what was then the separate Protectorates of Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria, giving birth to the single geopolitical entity known as Nigeria. For us therefore, today is not just the beginning of a new year, but the end of a century of national existence and the beginning of another. It is a moment for sober reflection and for pride in all that is great about Nigeria.

Whatever challenges we may have faced, whatever storms we may have confronted and survived, Nigeria remains a truly blessed country, a country of gifted men and women who continue to distinguish themselves in all spheres of life, a country whose diversity remains a source of strength. We pay tribute today, as always to our founding fathers and mothers, and all the heroes and heroines whose toil and sweat over the century made this country what it is today.

As I noted, a few days ago, the amalgamation of 1914 was certainly not a mistake but a blessing. As we celebrate 100 years of nationhood, we must resolve to continue to work together as one, united people, to make our country even greater.

I assure you that our administration remains fully committed to the progressive development of our country and the consolidation of peace, unity and democratic governance in our fatherland. Despite several continuing domestic and global challenges, for us in Nigeria, the year 2013 witnessed many positive developments which we will strive to build upon in 2014.

We have diligently carried forward the purposeful and focused implementation of our agenda for national transformation in priority areas such as power, the rehabilitation and expansion of national infrastructure, agricultural development, education and employment generation.

China man in balloon bound for disputed islands crashes

 

A Chinese man flying a hot air balloon to a group of disputed islands had to be rescued after his balloon crashed, Japan's Coast Guard has said.

The man, who said he was a cook, was heading to an East China Sea island chain controlled by Japan, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
The man had been handed to a Chinese patrol ship, the coast guard said.
The islands are close to potential oil and gas reserves, and are a source of tension between the two countries.
The Japanese Coast Guard said they received a request to search for a missing person on Wednesday afternoon.
They found the man and the hot air balloon around 20km (12 miles) from the islands. The man was not hurt, reports said.
The 35-year-old launched the hot air balloon from Fujian province in an attempt to land on one of the disputed islands, officials said.
They said the man was in Japanese territorial waters, but decided against pursuing charges as they could not determine the exact place he had landed, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

The islands are close to shipping lanes and potential oil and gas reserves

The islands have been a source of tension between China and Japan for decades.
In 2012, the Japanese government bought three of the islands from their Japanese owner, sparking mass protests in Chinese cities.
Since then, Chinese ships have repeatedly sailed in and out of what Japan says are its territorial waters.
In August 2012, Japanese police arrested 14 pro-China activists who sailed from Hong Kong to the islands, with some setting foot on one of the islands.
Sino-Japanese tensions have also been strained by China's newly-declared air-defence identification zone - which covers an area of the East China Sea, including the islands - and by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit in December to a shrine that honours war dead including convicted war criminals.

SOURCE: www.bbc.com

Beloved Catholic priest found slain in California church rectory

A beloved Roman Catholic priest was found dead Wednesday in his church's rectory, spurring police to launch a murder investigation and those he touched to try to make sense of his sudden passing.

Eureka, California, Police Chief Andy Mills said officers -- responding to a call from staff at St. Bernard Church -- first came across the victim around 9 a.m. Wednesday. He did not elaborate on how the death occurred, adding Wednesday night that there were no suspects.

Mayor Frank Jager identified the victim as the Rev. Eric Freed, whom he called a personal friend and a "tremendous person in this community" since his arrival three years ago. The St. Bernard Parish website featured a cross and the words, "Rest in Peace," above Freed's name.

"He was a really, genuinely warm individual," said professor Stephen Cunha, the chairman of Humboldt University's religious studies department where Freed taught for more than 10 years. "... Kind is the word that comes to mind, sensitive."

Noting that students at the state university loved Freed -- who was also deeply involved in that school's Catholic student group, the Newman Center -- Cunha added: "This was not some stuffy clergyman. He was very much someone that you could sit down and speak with...

"He connected with everybody."

2014 and The Lazarus at Our Gate

  I spent Christmas day last week in my village in Kwara State and as I encountered some of our more elderly men who came home from Lagos I could not but remember some of the letters I helped their mothers to write them more than three decades ago as a primary school pupil. The contents of those letters were as diverse as the characters of the mothers and the children to whom they were communicating. Aside a negligible few that were prayers from mothers to sons, most of the other letters were expressions of bitterness and those mothers (most of them now late) would always insist that I conveyed their discontent in a graphic manner. “Tell him not to provoke me into using these breasts (usually exposed for me to see) with which I fed him for three years to curse him. Now read what I said to me again.”

I am by the way not the only letter writer in those days as practically all members of my age-group were. Incidentally, the idea of letter as an expression of anger is a universal concept for village mothers as Pius Adesanmi who drove all the way from Accra to spend Christmas with his grandmother in Ilorin, told me when we got together. He also wrote letters for some mothers in the Okun nation of what is now Kogi State and knowing Pius, I bet the receivers would not have slept easy in those days.

It is noteworthy that while each of such letters may have been written by a mother to a son, the idea of calling any young boy who could put some words together made them nothing but open testimonials. And since most of them were mere expressions of negativity, it is safe to conclude that they could not have enriched the lives of the recipients. And the evidence is all there to see in how some of those children have turned out.

With intemperate letters between president and president, daughter and father and governor and president flying around in our nation today and all containing nothing but recriminations, insinuations, self-justifications, accusations and counter-accusations, I am now reminded of those days of innocence in my village. Even when conventional wisdom teaches that those who live in glass houses should ordinarily not walk naked, that lesson seems lost on those who have ruled our country before, those who rule today and those still aspiring to rule tomorrow. Whatever the short-time political advantage it may confer on some people, exchanging angry letters is a sign of the collapse of the mores that hold a society together.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me state that I have decided not to write this week as I take time out to reflect on so many things. However, because this page must be filled, I leave readers with an abridged version of a paper I presented three weeks ago at an annual dinner of “The Excellent Men”, a group of some young professionals within the Abuja Area 3 Province of the Redeemed Christian Church of God led by Eng. Elviz Agbonifo-Obaseki. It may just bless someone as we begin a new year.