Celebrating a ‘Brilliant Child of Africa’: Zuriel Oduwole’s Amazing Presidential Interviews [VIDEO]

Over the last 18 months, 11-year-old Zuriel Oduwole had interviewed nine African Presidents, two Prime Ministers, sports personalities and political/business leaders.

Zuriel, who recently made history as the youngest person to be interviewed for a full feature by Forbes Magazine usually ask her interviewees for a commitment in their respective countries to doing more to change the perception of girls’ education.

Her mission is simple: To rebrand Africa by showing the positive things in and about the continent, and making a case for educating the Girl Child in Africa and emerging markets.

‘I will celebrate if you leave PDP’ – Wike dares Amaechi, Amaechi Hits Back

The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, on Sunday dared the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and his supporters to leave the Peoples Democratic Party for another political party.

But Governor Amaechi said Wike should be more interested in how to get students back to the school instead of leaving Abuja every week to play dirty politics in Rivers State.

"As supervising minister for education, it should have been reasonable for Wike to bother about the fact that students roam the streets and take to heinous crimes because of a protracted strike by lecturers."

Wike said Amaechi and his supporters should join another party if they believed they are popular, promising that he (Wike) and his followers would celebrate the exit of the governor from the PDP.

Nigerian Ambassador Calls on Senator Cruz to Apologize for Comment

Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States is demanding that Senator Ted Cruz apologize for comments in which he joked that it seems like “Nigerian e-mail scammers” have been running the dysfunctional Healthcare.gov website.

“We deplore the statement, and we demand an apology, and we demand it be withdrawn,” Ambassador Ade Adefuye told Politico.

“It is unfair of any senator to essentially use citizens that are law abiding, to use Nigerians as cannon fodder,” Adefuye said. “We recognize that we have efforts on the part of Sen. Cruz to appeal to some animus in his domestic base. In the course of doing that, to allow him to ridicule a country and its citizens is completely over the top. He should not denigrate Nigerians in order to appease these domestic constituents.”

“Many people from Nigeria are making meaningful contributions to American society, and Nigerians are very law abiding and making contributions to their host community,” Adefuye added. “It was a joke that went too far, and we demand an apology.”

Bloody Clash As Bamanga Tukur-Led PDP Opens Office in Kano

A bloody clash broke out at the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP office in Kano among political thugs and party supporters who were at the office yesterday to witness the inauguration of the state committee members at the new office at Court Road, Kano.

Aminu Balami, a PDP supporter, who witnessed the happenings, gave account of how the fracas started. “As the event was about to end with closing prayers, we just saw about seven young men coming in from nowhere. Before the twinkling of an eye they just brought out machetes and began attacking everyone at the office”, he said.

Balami confirmed that together they retaliated and wounded all the attackers.

“All of them sustained injuries; they were not successful,” he maintained.

A number of young men were seen fleeing the area with various degrees of injuries, while others were seen in police vehicles with blood all over their bodies and were taken away.

Mailafiya, a policeman, said that he captured one of the attackers and successfully confiscated his machete after he had already wounded some persons.

₦255m cars scandal: Embattled Oduah storms Aso Villa, seeks private chat with Jonathan

Indications emerged Sunday night that the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, is currently fighting with both teeth and tongue in order to save her job.

It was learnt that the troubled Minister within the last days had been seeking private audience with President Goodluck Jonathan for one on one chat over the ongoing crisis in the aviation sector.

Sources said that Miss Oduah was spotted at the Presidential Villa in Abuja during the weekend looking so troubled and shattered, following the calls by Nigerians for her immediate removal over the acquisition of two BMW bulletproof cars for her official use.

A close insider, who was present during Oduah’s visit to the Villa, told Punch that she “wanted to explain herself to the President, who like every Nigerian, was embarrassed by the media reports and the evidence of the purchase of the two cars at an outrageous sum of ₦255m.”

76 Onitsha deportees sue Lagos State for ₦1 Billion

The destitute recently deported by the Lagos state government, to Onitsha, Anambra state, have dragged the Lagos government to a federal High Court, demanding ₦1 billion in compensation for the violation of their rights.

The 76 deportees are asking the court to declare that their arrest and detention in various camps within Lagos state without being charged for any offence or convicted by a court, amounted to a serious breach of rights, as provided for in the constitution.

The applicants equally asked the court to perpetually bar the Lagos government, their agents, privies, subordinates, workers and officers, howsoever called, from further deporting, or refusing them free entry into Lagos and free exit, as well.

Check out Ex-Gov Orji Uzor Kalu's homes, privates jets and cars {PHOTOS}

Two private jets, homes in Lagos, Abia, Maryland USA and fleets of cars...and we say there is no money in Nigeria.

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Tweet of the Day: “Fire Stella Oduah now!” – Femi Fani-Kayode

Aregbesola cautioned over schools’ classification •Merging of schools regressive - Omisore

Following the reactions trailing the recent classification of schools in Osun State by the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the Old Students’ Association of Baptist High School (BHS), Iwo, has asked the governor to thread softly so as to avoid unnecessary imbroglio.

The association maintained that any sustainable policy should not engender acrimony as the current education policy in the state has generated and insisted that the governor should have a rethink since it has now shown that lack of public debate before the policy was finally made had made it unpopular.

National President of the association and an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Ibadan, Oyesoji Aremu, expressed this view with newsmen in his Ibadan office at the weekend.

Controversy Over New Varsity: I Owe Niger Delta Nothing, Says Asari Dokubo

An ex-militant and leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Alhaji Dokubo Asari has reacted to criticisms trailing his establishment of a university in Benin Republic, saying he doesn’t owe much to the South South geo-political zone.

In a post he made to an online blog, cknnigeria late Saturday night while reacting to criticisms that greeted the news, Asari who maintained that he lived above board in all his dealings wondered why the move to establish the school has continued to generate reactions.

“I don’t owe anybody.I have nothing to put back anywhere. I worked hard and made my fortune mainly from outside the Niger Delta and Nigeria.I do what I am doing - impacting on the lives of people around me because I owe that to myself,”  he wrote.

11 Governors float Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF)

Still struggling to effect a change in the Nigerian polity, 11 governors on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, have floated a separate forum known as Progressive Governors’ Forum, PGF.

The governors have also set up a functional secretariat to coordinate their activities just like the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF and the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum.

The PGF’s secretariat is located on No. 79 Nelson Mandela Street, a stone throw from both the NGF and the Akwa Ibom Governor’s Lodge, which serves as the meeting point for the PDP-GF.

Already, the PGF has named Salihu Mohammed Lukman as its Director General and given him the mandate to coordinate the day-to-day administration of the office.

Vanguard investigation showed that the PGF, which is still fully involved in the NGF, wants to chart a new path on good governance and create a new image for the progressive states.

Opposition to Jonathan: Questions the North must answer – Uduaghan

Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State is in the second and final term of office as governor of Delta State. The Governor was last Thursday honoured with the Fellowship of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria in Lagos, the highest award given by the institution. Uduaghan, who is a medical doctor by training on the eve of the award, spoke to a selection of newsmen on issues in the polity including calls by a faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala should resign as Minister of Finance, calls for a national conference and his plans to hand over Delta to a credible successor.

Excerpts:

What’s your reaction to the calls for the resignation of Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister by the NGF?

I was very careful in listening to and reading the communiqué and I think the communiqué talked about an Appropriation Act that is based on ‘projections’.

Oyo State Governor, Ajimobi sacks SSG, Chief of staff, all commissioners

Political appointees in Oyo state woke up to a rude shock on Monday as the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, terminated their appointments during an executive council meeting held with them in his office in the morning.

According to reports, none of the governor’s aides had any inkling of the fate that awaited them until their boss made the announcement.

Governor Ajimobi, in a statement signed by the Director of Cabinet in the state’s civil service, Dotun Omokemi, confirmed the sack.

It was a total purge as all members of the state cabinet, including the secretary to the state government, Akin Olajide; Chief of Staff, Adeolu Akande; all the commissioners as well as special advisers were affected, leaving only the governor and his deputy, Moses Alake Adeyemo, behind.

Osun State Set to Demolish Public School for New Shop Rite Complex

Alumni, parents and other education stakeholders in Osun State have begun to remove items they donated to Fakunle Comprehensive High School in Oshogbo, following allegations Governor Rauf Aregbesola plans to demolish the school and replace it with a “Shop Rite” mall.

According to Sahara Reporters, there has been a long battle between parents, alumnus, students and the Aregbesola administration over the plan, saying that the governor is serving the interests of his political god-father, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to provide prime space for him to extend Shop Rite, a business he is said to own, to Oshogbo.

The State Government through the ministry of education sent out transfer letters to teachers of the school and released a list by which it distributed the students of Fakunle High School to other schools. By the new list, some of the students now have to cover more distances to learn.

President Jonathan Appoints Onyeka Onwenu as Director of NCWD

President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed Onyeka Onwenu as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Abuja. The appointment, which takes immediate effect, was contained in a letter signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Senator Ayim Pius Ayim. Congratulations to her.

Onyeka was previously the chairperson of the Imo State Council for Arts and a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

James Ibori Gave me $15million Bribe In 2007 – Nuhu Ribadu

Desperate to halt a probe into his finances, Nigerian governor James Ibori tried to bribe former anti-corruption boss Nuhu Ribadu in 2007 with $15 million in cash in a bag so heavy one man alone could not lift it, Ribadu told a London court on Thursday.

Ribadu said he pretended to take the bribe because he wanted the cash as evidence to use against Ibori in a prosecution, but rather than keep the money for himself he had it taken straight to the Central Bank of Nigeria to be kept safe in a vault.

Ribadu told the court that about $1 billion flowed from federal government accounts into Delta State coffers during Ibori’s eight years in power, and he estimated Ibori had stolen or wasted more than half of that amount.

First Lady denies involvement in sale of Enugu Distribution Company

First Lady, Patience Jonathan, has denied any interest in the sale of Enugu Distribution Company.

A statement issued on Sunday night by Mrs. Ayo Adesugba, her Director of Information, said there was no truth in the online article published on Sahara Reporters, titled “Nigeria’s First Lady, Vice President behind the Enugu Disco Sale Fiasco.”

“Normally, the hearsay and conjectures in the article should have been ignored due to the fact that it is speculative journalism at its worst, she said.

“Additionally, the article as it pertains to the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, is devoid of any concrete evidence or supporting documents. However, since the First Lady’s name has been mentioned in the article we are duty bound to respond so that the public will not be unwittingly misled.”

Presidency, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Blast El-Rufai

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has given Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, former minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) seven days’ ultimatum to tell Nigerians the person that gave CAN President Ayo Oritsejafor a private jet or risk having his dirty character exposed to the public.

Simultaneously, President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday urged Nigerians to beware of former FCT minister who he described as “a double-minded and unstable man in all his ways.”

In a statement in Abuja by Reno Omokri, his Special Assistant (News Media), the President urged the public not to be misled by the machinations of el-Rufai, “a man who is in dire need of prayers and perhaps psychological assistance.”

Ondo State former Governor Agagu Dies Suddenly

Thisday: Former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu, is dead. He was 65. Eddy Olafeso, former Ondo State Commissioner for Information, said Agagu slumped and died yesterday evening during a meeting at his residence in Lagos.

Another source said the former governor had been sick for sometime now, and had just returned to the country after a medical trip abroad. The source said further that when the traditional ruler of the ex-governor (Orofun 1 of Ijodo, Oba J.T Timola) died about three weeks ago, he could not come for the burial, but only sent condolence message from abroad, even though the late king was his family member.

Farida Waziri fires back at Obasanjo; asks him to respect his age

In her reaction to former President Obasanjo’s criticism of her leadership at the EFCC, Farida Waziri has warned Mr. Obasanjo to respect his age and watch his comments else she would be forced to open up on him. (Read Obasanjo’s comment here)

Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Dr (Mrs) Farida Waziri, OFR, in a statement on Wednesday reminded former President Olusegun Obasanjo that ability to be used to witch hunt political enemies in the rabid pursuit of a third term agenda has never been part of the qualifications for appointment as chairman of the anti-graft agency

Mrs. Waziri denied meeting Mr. Ibori ahead of her appointment to the EFCC, a claim she made earlier in a separate interview with the same EFCC publication. Mr. Ibori is serving a jail term in United Kingdom for stealing state funds.

The former EFCC boss said she was fully qualified to have headed to the agency given the stipulations of the law.