Ribadu Speaks on why he defected from APC to PDP

Read Mr. Nuhu Ribadu’s Full Statement Below:

My good friends, I know how difficult it may be for you to come to terms with my defection to another party. But I must assure you that it’s a carefully considered decision for which I do not wish to hurt anyone’s feeling. I’ll not embark on a needless animosity with my good friends, irrespective of political, religious, regional and ethnic affiliations. Let me quickly make it known that I did not issue a statement disparaging APC and its members, including Governors Amaechi, Kwankwaso… These were clearly fabricated, expected backlash, by mischievous characters interested in misleading the public and drawing a picture of non-existent feuds between me and my good friends. My defection shouldn’t be seen as an initiation of political antagonism with my good friends in another party. I still hold them in high esteem, and even where there are marked differences, I believe there are decorous and honorable ways of resolving them. So, kindly disregard any statement said to be by me attacking the personality of any politician since my defection. I’ll never allow myself to be drawn into such disrespectful exchange. As for my next step in this political struggle, this would be made known in due time. For now, I wish to assure you that my defection is in pursuit of a good cause, and never out of any selfish interests as portrayed by a section. Thanks for bearing with me on this decision, and for those who have been in solidarity with my struggles and still giving me the benefits of the doubt, I’m most grateful. I’ll never let you down on this new path. Thank you! Nuhu Riba - See more at: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/166977-ribadu-speaks-at-last-why-i-defected.html#sthash.IarP9bvP.dpuf

Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh has Passed on from Ebola Virus Disease

Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, the Senior Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist who was one of the doctors who attended to Patrick Sawyer at First Consultant Hospital has died from the Ebola virus which she contracted from Sawyer.

Dr. Ameyo died this afternoon Tuesday August 19th at the isolation unit of the Mainland Hospital in Lagos where she'd been quarantined. She died a hero because she was the doctor who refused to let Patrick Sawyer, the man who brought the Ebola virus to Nigeria, leave the First Consultant Hospital in Obalende, Lagos, when he attempted to leave. She saved many lives by doing this. Her death is so heartbreaking. 

She's survived by a son and her husband. MAY HER SOUL  RIP

Former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Friday confirmed his Plan to defect to the PDP

 Senator Ali Modu Sheriff

Senator Ali Modu sheriff who is believed to be the founder of Boko Haram and BoT chairman of the APC has confirmed his plan to leave the APC for PDP which according to him is for the interest of Nigeria. Find below details of the interview from

Thisday Report
• Expresses willingness to assist security agents to combat Boko Haram

Putting to rest speculations about his plan to defect to Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)) from All Progressives Congress (APC), former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Friday confirmed his Plan to defect to the ruling party.

He equally said he was ready to assist security agents in combating Boko Haram.
The former governor made the confirmation to State House correspondents shortly after  meeting with President Goodluck  Jonathan.

According to the former governor, he was joining PDP in the nation's interest.
He told journalists that his meeting with Jonathan was personal and not political.
"Yes, there is ehhhh...but that is not what brought me. Yes, there is this issue that I might join the PDP, but that was not the discussion that brought me to the President.

"You see, Nigeria is a very interesting country and people like us who the nation has done everything for, as individuals or collectively. By the Grace of God in Borno State,
I have been made governor twice which is the maximum anyone can get in terms of the limits imposed by the constitution. I was elected into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria thrice.

"This means that in every aspect of life, I am one of the stakeholders in Nigeria because if by the help of God, the people of Nigeria had placed me in that position at every time, my interest now should be on how to move the nation forward. Our interest should be on what makes that nation move forward.

"My decisions will be guided by the interest of the nation first. My thinking of moving to the PDP is also in the interest of the nation. We believe that every time, as a leader, you should advise them on the right course of action", Sheriff said.

He bemoaned the killings in Borno and other parts of the North-east.
Sheriff added that he was ready to assist security agents to combat the Boko Haram challenge.
"I am not a security man or personnel. Whatever as a civilian I can do using my position as the chief executive of the state for eight years, what I have seen during my tenure, I will contribute to the security agencies through whom I got those information. What you have to understand is that this country is a big country and Borno State is a difficult state from any other state in Nigeria.

"Borno has the biggest land mass bordering Niger, Chad and Cameron. It is an open border. Borno is not like the Republic of Benin with only one entrance into Nigeria. In Borno, you can enter from 20 different points to the country.

"Therefore, you need a perfect understanding of the terrain. You need every knowledge that any politician has particularly any politician that operated in Borno State. That is all we can contribute for now" he stressed.

On his mission to villa, he said "the president of Nigeria is president for everybody. He is the President for the over 170 million Nigerians and he is the father of everybody. So, every Nigerian has the right if he or she has the permit to see him, on matters that are either of private concern or anything that affects the nation. So, my coming to visit the President was purely on a personnel ground".

Ebola: US FDA Warns over Use of Experimental Nano-silver Drug

Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, Health Minister

Following the Introduction of the Experimental Drug Nano-Silver  the US has warned Nigeria that Nano-Silver is a pesticide. If the drug can cure Ebola they should forget it and mind their business before the drug wipe out the whole of Africa. please read the full details below.

Thisday Repport:

•     FG: We’re following standard medical procedure   
•    51 out of 198 on watch list certified negative
•     Health workers treating patients in Lagos threaten to quit

The excitement that greeted the arrival in Nigeria of Nano-silver, an experimental drug for the treatment of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease was yesterday blighted with the alarm raised by the United States Food and Drug Administration questioning the claims of the drug.

In a swift reaction, the Co-Chairman of the Treatment Research Group Committee on EVD, Professor Karniyus Gamaniel said the FDA’s comment was not helpful and that Nigeria was following laid down procedures for administering experimental drugs

Also yesterday, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State revealed that 51 of the 198 people placed on the EVD watch list had been certified negative and had been freed.
Though, the FDA did not specify any products in its warning, it was obvious that it was referring to Nano silver.

This is because FDA’s alarm about “products being sold online that fraudulently claim to prevent or treat Ebola,” came on the heels of the statement by Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu on Thursday that eight Ebola patients in Lagos would receive the experimental Nano-silver.
The US FDA said it had received consumer complaints about the Ebola claims: “Individuals promoting these unapproved and fraudulent products must take immediate action to correct or remove these claims or face potential FDA action," the agency said.

Erica Jefferson, a spokeswoman for the FDA
tactically said she could not provide any information about the product referenced by the Nigerians.

Silver has been used as an anti-bacterial for centuries. Tiny silver particles known as Nano-silver have controversially been incorporated into a variety of consumer products such as socks and bedding to help block odors caused by bacteria and mold.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers Nano-silver a pesticide. Manufacturers of products that contain it must register them with the agency.

Nano-silver is also sometimes sold online as a dietary supplement even though Danish researchers found in a recent study that Nano-silver can penetrate and damage cells.
The FDA regulates dietary supplements and said in its statement that by law, dietary supplements cannot claim to prevent or cure disease.

Nigeria replies US FDA…
In a swift reaction to the warning by the US FDA, the Co-Chairman of the Treatment Research Group Committee on EVD, Professor Gamaniel said Nigeria was following laid down procedures for administering experimental drugs.

Gamaniel told THISDAY on telephone: "There are procedures and processes for administering trial drugs and for testing their efficacy and we are ready to follow all these processes. People must participate in the trials of any experimental drugs before the drug is approved for use.”
Gamaniel who also doubled as the Director General of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) said: “Efforts are on to make sure that things are not done wrongly. It is not an issue of us against them or them against us."

He further stated that though Nigeria welcomes the caution from FDA regarding any kind of drugs, "we are also looking forward to assistance in terms of the US helping us with more scientists and experts, including standard drugs that can assist us in providing treatment for the Ebola patients."

Gamaniel contended that Ebola is a very difficult disease to manage: "A virus like Ebola is complex. Ebola can threaten America too."

Co-Chairman of the research group and Director General of the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Prof. Innocent Ujah also told THISDAY that the group would appraise all claims to the cure, but the final decision will be taken by the Federal Ministry of Health.

The FDA statement is coming amid discontent with US officials over the refusal to offer ZMapp Experimental Drug to Nigeria, which was administered to the two Americans infected by EDV.
Nigerian health experts also expressed anger over US decision to give the ZMapp to the Spanish government after a Spanish Catholic priest contracted the virus in Liberia but refused to issue the drugs to Nigeria.

It was after global outcry and condemnation that the US sent ZMapp to Liberia but failed to include countries like Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa has claimed 1,069 lives so far. Most have been in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Nigeria has confirmed 10 cases and four deaths.
Health workers treating EVD patients threaten to quit…

While the federal government is battling the warning from the US FDA, the Lagos State Government yesterday disclosed that health workers currently treating EVD patients have threatened to quit, citing unfair media reports.

The state government also denied reports that its medical team was not adequately taking care of the victims of the deadly virus, noting that the patients “are properly being treated.”

The state’s Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris expressed concerns about the reports at separate press briefings in Lagos yesterday.

Giving updates on the dreaded virus, the governor lamented that the report reaching the state government about two hours ago was that some of the health workers at the isolation centre felt unappreciated.

He disclosed that the health workers decided “to stop work because of the media report that they were not working effectively to save the lives of the victims. We do not need that at the moment.”

Fashola continued: “While we sympatise with the Ebola victims, the health workers are apparently doing their best to care for the victims. My appeal to the people is that more health workers should sign up.

“From what I was told by experts, even if one is the best physician in the world, the person cannot enter the isolation ward. He or she has to be trained in how to kit up and how to get out of the centre.

“The training takes between five and seven days to achieve. Even if we have the full complement of the doctors signing up today, it is risky to put them inside the isolation centre without adequate training. People must understand the process required.

“When it appears to the people that nothing was being done, it was because we are still building up capacity at the facility. We are better off today than 10 days ago. We know some complaint comes out of empathy, but it is complaint that does not focus on the reality of what is going.”

Fashola disclosed that 51 people have been certified negative and have been freed out of the 198 people placed on the EVD watch list. “This is a virus that will run a maximum of 21 days. What we must do when people show some signs is to come in very early,” the governor said.

2015: Over 3000 Pro-Jonathan Crusaders Storm Abuja

President Goodluck Jonathan
 

As 2015 general election approaches a lot of political gladiators are drumming support for the re-election of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, recently no few than 3000 supporters of his supporters storm Abuja to ask him to declare his intention to seek re-election. read the full details below

From Thisday Newspaper
       
No fewer than 3000 supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan weekend stormed the streets of Abuja, demanding the he declare his intention to seek another tenure in office. 

The rally which was organised by former deputy governors of Nigeria, under the auspices of Mass Movement for Goodluck 2015 (MMG) followed the inauguration of the group and investiture of its Board of Trustees (BoT) members.  

National Coordinator of the movement, Kenneth Ibe-kalu in his remarks said President Jonathan performed very well and deserved to be re-elected in 2015.

Ibe-kalu said Jonathan had demonstrated that the present administration was committed to transforming the electoral system ahead of the 2015 polls.

“What makes MMG number one support group for Jonathan 2015 is that we are not just looking at the 2015 general elections. We are looking beyond 2015. What we stand for is good governance and that is why after President Jonathan must have been re-elected next year and finish his four year term in 2019, the forum will continue. We are mobilising in order to instil values into Nigerians,” he stated.

Also speaking, a former deputy governor of Osun State, Erelu Olusola Obada who was  in the company of former Ogun state deputy Salmat Badru and her Plateau state counterpart Pauline Tallen, vowed to mobilise for the President’s electoral success.

Obada said that the Osun State chapter of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), would deliver victory for the party's presidential candidate, despite losing the August 9 gubernatorial election in the state.

“We had a very good show despite the fact that the present governor is an incumbent, a level playing ground was created and Osun people came out en mass to vote,” she said.

She explained that lots of efforts were made to reconcile aggrieved persons in the state chapter of PDP and bring them back to the party but it proved abortive.

On the massive presence of security during the election, Obada said "There is nothing like militarisation of election, during the 2011 election, many PDP members were matcheted, some were chased away, the heavy security presence during the just concluded governorship election created a level playing field for people to come out to vote and it helped us to avert the violence that we witnessed in 2011 in the state."

Osun: Will APC Now Apologise to Nigerians, INEC, and Security Agencies?

John Oyegun

FROM THISDAY.

In the countdown to Osun State governorship  election held last week, the  All Progressive Congress, APC, (maybe its name should have been the All Propaganda Congress,) unleashed a tirade of attacks, blackmail, indefensible falsehood, mindless propaganda against virtually all state institutions that had any role to play in the election.

Only the undiscerning could not have seen this as a tactic deployed to whip  up sympathy for itself and lay the ground work to castigate and denigrate  the election, should the result of the poll  not go its way.
The attacks were so strident, so frightening and so disingenuous, that no one who has followed the party’s history and tactics that  will not realise that its tactics were  working to an answer. All sorts of falsehoods were conjured by the party’s leadership and strategists and pushed out with such audacious effrontery that one was left in complete dismay by the brazen insensitivity of the action, unmindful of  the reputational damage of its actions to our national institutions. The desperation and sheer destructive tactics of this party are now well on record and will only serve to alienate more people from it.   
INEC, the Military, Police and all other security operatives that participated in ensuring the security of the process were subjected to all manner of attacks and ridicule in the media. The propaganda against them was so vicious that even Hitler’s propagandists  would have been green with envy.

The election has come and gone and by the final tally of results, APC won. Will this party have the modesty to apologise to Nigerians, INEC, and security agencies for all the falsehood dished out against them? Will APC have the honesty for once, to admit that its campaign was premised on propaganda rather than substance? Will it admit that most of the things it dished out were utter falsehood? No one expects them to do so anyway. I certainly don’t expect them to see anything wrong with the manner of politics and campaign going by the haughtiness of its cardinals. In fact I expect APC to raise its black power clenched fist in victory dance. And it is already doing that.     

Watching them dancing in celebration the day after  the election was striking. The faces of hypocrites were in celebratory feast. Reason? They won the results of the election.   The election was “militarised” and yet they won. Is militarisation a reason for their victory as it was for APC’s loss in Ekiti? Unlike Ekiti, we did not hear that the election was rigged, APC won in a credible, free and fair election secured by security operatives that it did everything to undermine.
APC lost in Ekiti but refused to accept defeat.  What kind of party is this? Elections are only credible when it favours the cardinals and merchants of imposition. The Judiciary is the saviour of democracy when it annuls another party’s victory and gives it to APC. Court rulings and judgments are only credible when it favours APC. Judiciary is praised to high heavens as the last hope of the common man when it favours APC,  but when it dares to rule against APC’s interest, it is subjected to ridicule and denigrated in the media. Its rulings and judgment suddenly become black market rulings given by “pliant  Judges”. What kind of party does that to state institutions?
INEC suffers the most in the hands of APC, the police; the military and everybody suddenly become PDP members when APC is losing. Creating unnecessary tension by portraying itself as a victim when in fact it is the aggressor. It is a shameful tactics that has sustained the party. Blackmail is its strategy and the end, justifies the means. It was through media blackmail that it got registered as party in the first place. It is not surprising that it has continued on this inglorious path.
Now that it has won in Osun, does it not undermine the very basis of its petition in Ekiti, which is militarization of the state before and during the election?
Before the Osun election, in its usual strategy of crying wolf, all manner of plots to rig were being uncovered. A poor man’s forgery of what it called ‘‘PDP Manual For Rigging in Osun’’ was even published as advertorials in newspapers. Commissioner of Police in Osun State was accused of bribing officers, INEC was  serially accused of colluding to rig the election for PDP, the Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner was not spared, he was accused of being a PDP stooge.

Only recently, in the countdown to the Ekiti election, the US in a statement entitled, ‘Countering the crisis of credibility’ by its Consul General, Jeff Hawkins, wondered why politicians keep making elections incredible in Nigeria.
The diplomat argued that, “The sponsorship of violence and intimidation, and the rhetorical threat thereof, are utterly unacceptable in a democratic society, and need to be expunged once and for all from the Nigerian polity and discourse. The US has been deeply troubled by some of the rhetoric that has been thrown around in recent weeks and months as these elections have drawn closer. It is perfectly acceptable, and even praiseworthy, to seek to defend your vote and that of your fellow citizens who share your support for a particular candidate.

“It is not, however, productive or reasonable to threaten violence, even when you perceive others have been guilty of misconduct. We were deeply troubled by the threat of “rig and roast” issued multiple times by a major political figure in recent weeks. Who benefits from that type of violent rhetoric, we wondered? And why would any ordinary Nigerian accept such provocative language, especially considering the history of post-election violence in Nigeria, and the truly horrific carnage that this country has been suffering at the hands of Boko Haram?
“If a candidate believes an election is threatened, then that candidate should be doing everything possible to see that the rules of the game are enforced properly – by having party agents in the numerous locations where they are permitted, for example, to bear witness to what happens – or doesn't happen. That is part of the painstaking work of participating in, and building, a democracy. Drawing on or threatening violence is an attempt to short-circuit that process for the benefit of a few, but to the detriment of many.”
The blackmail and propaganda were so intense that it created needless tension in the land. Even in victory, the party’s arrogant haughtiness  is as tall as Mount Everest.

Strangely, APC  thinks it won Osun because of the propaganda it unleashed in the airwaves. It didn’t. Rather it won because it had some time to recover after Ekiti exposed its clay feet. The emergency billions of naira rushed into the State from Lagos went a way in helping to clear arrears of unpaid salaries, pension, etc. The sudden good behaviour it tried to put up, the panicky reversal of anti-people policiesit embarked on also helped.
But the result doesn’t look too good for APC despite the fact it won. If PDP’s Omisore could secure 292,000 compared to Aregbesola’s 394,000 votes in APC’s supposed stronghold, then there is trouble in Paradise for APC. The result, more than anything, confirms that APC is more in the newspapers than on ground.

2014 WAEC: Our students’ failure is our nation’s failure —Atiku -

Please find below what former VP Atiku Abubakar thinks is responsible for the mass failure in 2014 in WAEC.

From Vanguard

 Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, attributed mass failure recorded by Nigerian students in the May/June 2014 West African Examinations Council to the non-nonchalant attitude of government to education from primary to university level.

He described failure of the students as the nation’s failure.
According to him, the failure of the students is no surprise to anyone, in view of the series of strikes suffered by the school system in the country.

LECTURE: From left; Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Chief Timipre Sylva at the 50th birthday lecture in honour of the former Bayelsa State Governor at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja yesterday.

Atiku in a statement personally signed and made available to journalists in Abuja, said:   “The West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, has just released the results of the May/June 2014 Senior School Certificate Examination.  As was the case last year, mass failure was recorded by Nigerian students.

“Only 31.28 per cent of the students who sat for the 2014 exam obtained credits in five subjects and above, including Mathematics and English Language.
“No one who has been observing the ongoing attitude towards education in Nigeria will be surprised by this. In the past year alone, industrial action by teachers have dominated the news headlines.   Primary school teachers in Benue State, for example, embarked on an eight-month strike to demand better conditions and allowances.

“Teachers all over Nigeria remain poorly paid, with several jokes being peddled about how parents are reluctant to allow their daughters marry teachers.
“In addition to poor welfare, teachers in the Northeast of Nigeria face a peculiar challenge not common to their colleagues in other parts of the country.
The National Union of Teachers, NUT, reports that the organisation has so far lost about 173 of their members to Boko Haram terrorist attacks.

“Sadly, with the Nigerian government not yet able to adequately protect citizens from these random attacks, that number could easily increase.
“There is also the issue of competence of Nigerian teachers.   Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State recently lost his seat in a re-election bid with poll results that sent shock waves across the nation, notwithstanding his well-publicised record of high performance.

“One of the reasons political analysts have given for his rejection by Ekiti people was his attempt to improve the quality of teachers in the state by putting them through competency tests.   “Teachers in Kwara and Edo states also resisted similar tests.”

Please what do you think is responsible for the Mass failure in this years WAEC?

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