Saturday, 7 February 2015

It's A Disgrace For Neighbours To Join Boko Haram Fight - Buhari





Presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is appalled that neighbouring Chad and Cameroun are turning out to be more successful at the battle front against Boko Haram than Nigeria.



Nigeria’s poor performance,he says,is a disgrace.



“It’s a big disgrace for Nigeria. It is now Cameroon and Chad fighting the insurgency more than Nigeria. We will build the capacity and Nigeria should be able to secure its territorial integrity,” Buhari told Reuters.



Troops from neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, all much smaller and poorer than Nigeria, have been battling the terrorists who have seized territory in Borno State.



Niger Republic said yesterday its troops killed 109 Boko Haram fighters in an attempted attack on Bosso close to the border with Nigeria.



The attack was repelled.



Buhari said that he was committed to using the courts if there are irregularities in the voting, and would not call his followers into the streets.



“I’m optimistic that I won’t lose. But we signed an undertaking that it will be violence free,” Buhari said. “We are attempting to stabilise a multi party democratic system.”



Buhari’s party,APC, insists that this month’s elections should proceed as scheduled ,saying the only reason the pro-Jonathan camp is pushing for a delay is that it knows he will lose if voting goes ahead now.



“There will be no delay. But if INEC is compromised then it will be too bad,” said Buhari.



Buhari said his administration also intends to tackle corruption within the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) and plans to reopen an investigation into missing crude revenues of around $20 billion.



He would also tackle the theft of crude tapped from pipelines in the Niger River delta.



“Our main objective is to secure the country. We will not tolerate insurgency, sabotage of the economy by the blowing up of installations, by stealing crude and so on…. All these things will be things of the past.”



http://ift.tt/1zHrZpD



-------- not in original post -------



General Muhammadu Buhari: 2. "Having known how the Boko Haram developed, what I would have personally done differently would be to get the Presidents of Cameroun, Chad and Niger together to say, ‘look our borders are porous and that we are not able to effectively protect them and monitor movements of people in and out of our territory, but please make sure that you do not provide training facilities or allow people to be coming into the county.’ "



General Muhammadu Buhari: 7. "If you do not cultivate a good relationship with your neighbours, it will cost you so much in terms of security and the economy. So you have to cultivate a friendship with your neighbours and then it goes on to ECOWAS, Africa and the rest of the world. I think this is a viable policy option."



General Muhammadu Buhari: 9. "Then you discuss with your neighbours to make sure that weapons are not crossing the borders and that there are [no] training facilities for terrorists."



Source: http://ift.tt/1AMLICb


Kano, Kaduna, Lagos Top PVC Collection List –INEC

The Independent National Electoral

Commission has listed Kano, Kaduna and

Lagos as the states leading in the

collection of Permanent Voter Cards.

The electoral body said it was committed

to its earlier position that the Temporary

Voter Cards would not be allowed for

voting during the next general elections.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega,

in his submission to the Council of State

meeting presided over by President

Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday, said the

commission would not reverse its

decision to use PVCs for the elections in

order to enhance the credibility of the

polls.

A copy of the submission titled:

“Preparations for the 2015 general

elections: Progress report,” presented to

the Council of State meeting by Jega

stated that a total of 45,098,876 PVCs

had been collected across the country as

of Wednesday.

A document tagged “Attachment 2”

attached to Jega’s presentation claimed

that the figure represents 65.81 per cent

of the 68,833,476 total number of

registered voters nationwide.

The document indicated that 3,190,417

voters had collected their PVCs out of the

4,975,701 registered voters in Kano State

representing 64.11 per cent of the

registered voters.

In Kaduna State, 2,976,628 voters,

representing 87.36 per cent, have

collected their cards out of 3,407,222

registered voters.

In Lagos State, 2,267,039 voters,

representing 38.39 per cent, have

collected their PVCs out of 5,905,852

registered voters.

In Katsina State, 2,245,303 voters (79.40

per cent) have collected their cards out

of 2,827,943 registered voters.

Bayelsa State has the least number of

voters with PVCs. In that state, 386,125

voters (63.26 per cent) have collected

their cards out of 610,373 registered

voters.

In Abuja, 464,769 voters (52.73 per cent)

have collected their cards out of 881,472

registered voters.

In Ekiti State, 496,536 voters (67.83 per

cent) have collected their PVCs out of

732,021 registered voters.

Jega, however, said the commission

would not conduct elections with TVCs

because they (the TVCs) had no chips

and could therefore not be

authenticated by card readers.

He added that if TVCs were allowed,

millions of people who were involved in

multiple registration and whose names

had been removed from voters register

for the next elections would approach

polling units on election days, whereas

their names would not be in the register.

The INEC chairman said, “The nation has

invested a lot in the Card Readers and

Permanent Voters Cards technology and

the commission believes that using them

in the 2015 general elections would

confer remarkable transparency and

credibility to the electoral process.

“There have been demands that the

commission should revert to the use of

TVCs issued during the 2011 registration

and the subsequent Continuous Voters

Registration.

“The TVCs have no chips and therefore

cannot be verified or authenticated by

the card readers. Also, there are more

than four million cases of multiple

registration; people with TVCs, who have

been removed from the certified register

of voters for the 2015 elections.

“Once the use of TVCs is allowed, many

of these people would inundate polling

units on election day; their names will

not be in the register, and they would

start agitation that they have been

‘disenfranchised’ as was the case during

the Anambra State governorship

elections in November 2013.

“In any case, people who collected PVCs

no longer have TVCs because they used

them to exchange for PVCs.

“Additionally, a high percentage of voters

had to use the attestation forms

provided to collect their PVCs due to loss

of TVCs on account of floods, insurgency,

etc.”

Meanwhile, Jega regretted that due to

funding constraints, the commission

could not do enough hands-on training

for its Presiding Officers and Assistant

Presiding Officers on the technology of

the PVCs and card readers.



http://ift.tt/16s6Wge


Friday, 6 February 2015

51-Year-Old Nigerian Bought as a Toy By a Rich White Kid





The Toy, a popular 80s movie, was about a spoiled rich white kid who buys a black man (played by Richard Pryor). Now there is a real life story: Wallace Turnquist purchased Ezekiel Akpu-nku from Nigeria as a playmate and servant for this 13-year-old son, Skyler.



“Last year I took Sky on a hunting safari to Africa and he was delighted by the African people,” Wallace Turnquist told WSB-TV. “How funny they were, how they were always smiling and so eager to please. At first he just wanted to take one, but I told him kidnapping was illegal. So instead, I bought him one.”







Since slavery and human trafficking are illegal, Turnquist gave Ezekiel a five year employment contract that pays $1,000 per year plus room/board, one day off per month and unlimited snacks. Ezekiel’s contract states that he must do whatever Skyler tells him to do so long as it is not illegal.



“This one time I made him stand on one foot for the entire day ,” Skyler Turnquist said. “I also made him eat a spider. He does whatever I say. He’s the best toy ever .”



“I’m very happy to be Skyler’s toy , ” Akpu-nku said. “In Africa I was starving, here, in the land of opportunity, my belly never goes hungry.”



Turnquist said Skyler already wants another “African toy” but his father has said no this time.

“I don’t want Sky getting spoiled. If I buy him another African, he’ll just want more. I think owning one African is enough