Our thieving politicians- Ade Bolaji!

Politicians in Nigeria are nothing but daredevil robbers. Imagine all the various allowances approved for themselves running into millions of naira every month. Crowning their dare-devilish robbery of the nation’s resources, members of the National Assembly approved for themselves what they called “Constituency project allowance.” 

Where in the world do legislators execute projects on behalf of the government with public funds? .....

We are practicing American system of democracy, do their counterparts in the US receive similar allowances? This is barefaced stealing of the nation’s resources; it must be stopped. The N100 billion must not be released. 

Enough is enough, all Nigerians are no fools.

-Ade Bolaji.

I add:

When our Politicians engage in thieving public funds due to selfishness and greed, what hope is there for the likes of the little girl in the picture below, who they are supposed to represent, to whom the resources is meant to take care of, in terms of good food, shelter, health, standard education and etc...etc?????



What agenda do you have in store for the millions of suffering and desiring Nigerian children out here, despite our abundant resources?

What future do you have in store for these one?

Court Remands Nursing Mother, 3 Others In Prison For Robbery!

An Ikeja Magistrate’s Court Lagos- Nigeria, has remanded a 35-year-old nursing mother, Asabi Ojenike, for armed robbery, alongside three other members of her gang- Samsondeen Giwa, 38, Gbenga Oyedele, 42, and a receiver of stolen property, Matthew Huyeke, 42.

Ojenike, who gave birth while in police custody, brought her new born to the court.

The charges read, “That you Samsondeen Giwa, Matthew Huyeke, Gbenga Oyedele, Asabi Ojenike and others now at large on 13th June, 2013, at about 2300hrs at Alakuko Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit: armed robbery and thereby, committed an offence contrary to Section 5(b) and punishable under Section1(2) (a) of the Robbery and Firearm (Special Provisions) Act, Cap 398, Vol. XXII, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 as amended.

“That you Samsodeen Giwa, Matthew Huyeke, Gbenga Oyedele, Asabi Ojenike on the same date, time and place in the aforementioned Magisterial District whilst armed with one locally made single barrel short gun and one locally made double barrel short gun with its thirty five cartridges and other dangerous weapons did attempt to rob on Alhaji Taofik Gani of his property and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 1(2) (a) of the Robbery and Firearm (Special Provisions) Act, Cap 398, Vol.XXII, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 as amended.”

The magistrate, Mrs. A.O Komolafe, adjourned the case to September 27th, 2013 and ordered that the accused persons be remanded in prison custody.

Russia Warned Over US Relationship- Snowden!

Washington has called for Edward Snowden to be returned to the US, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the countries' relationship outweighed "squabbles" over information leaked by the whistleblower.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the matter should not be allowed to damage connections between the US and Moscow, which he accused of providing Snowden with a "propaganda platform".

"He is not a human rights activist, he is not a dissident," Mr Carney said.

"He is accused of leaking classified information. For those reasons, he should be returned to the United States.

"We want to continue (the US-Russia) relationship unimpeded by this issue and we believe there is a way to move forward here that allows for Mr Snowden to return to the United States ... and for Russia to resolve this situation that they have been dealing with now for three weeks."

The former National Security Agency contractor has been stuck at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since fleeing there from Hong Kong on June 23.

He faces espionage charges after leaking details of a massive US surveillance programme that has strained ties with Washington's allies. He also divulged information about the activities of British eavesdropping agency GCHQ.

His lawyer said on Monday that he had applied for temporary asylum in Russia.

Mr Putin has been quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying: "Relations between states are much more important than squabbles surrounding the work of security services."

The Russian leader has described Mr Snowden as an "unwanted Christmas present".

"He arrived on our territory without an invitation. Russia was not his destination," he said.

"He was a transit passenger flying to other countries. The moment news arrived that he was in mid-air, our American partners actually blocked his further movement.

"In fact, the US itself scared other countries into denying entry to Snowden and actually trapped him on our territory. Such a present to us. Merry Christmas."

Jay-Z's Album Clocks Best Opening Week In Spotify History!

Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grailwas already guaranteed to have the best opening week sales of any album in his career, thanks to Samsung’s decision to buy 1 million copies in advance.

Now the rapper can boast another best: the most first-week streams of any album in Spotify’s history.

The numbers are in, and Magna Carta clocked 14 million full album streams in the U.S. alone, easily topping recent record-setting releases from Mumford & Sons (8 million) and Daft Punk (9.5 million).

How much will that net Jay-Z? It’s hard to say without knowing his precise royalty rate and the breakdown of listeners on Spotify. For the music service’s paid tier, per-stream royalties are typically somewhere in the neighborhood of half a cent.

If all of Magna Carta‘s listeners came from that group, Jay-Z would have made about $1 million on Spotify spins this week. Given that the bulk were probably from the unpaid tier, his total is more likely in the low six figures.

That’s not much by his standards, but it could certainly translate into a bigger payday if even a sliver of that audience buys tickets to his stadium tour with Justin Timberlake.

Not that he needs the money, anyway–by FORBES’ latest estimate, Jay-Z’s net worth stands at $475 million.

Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘Americanah’ wins American Prize!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s third novel AMERICANAH has been awarded the 2013 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for fiction.

The Heartland Prize is a literary prize created in 1988 by the Chicago Tribune Newspaper.
According to Elizabeth Taylor, the literary editor of the Chicago Tribune, the prize is awarded yearly in two categories, fiction and non-fiction, to books that are concerned with American issues, causes and concerns.

“We loved AMERICANAH. It’s a powerful, resonant novel and we would be delighted to celebrate it and try to share it with a wider audience,” Taylor wrote.
Reacting, Adichie expressed delight at the honour.

“I’m very pleased. You never know what will happen when you write a novel. And for me, a Nigerian, to have written this book which is partly about America, and to receive this quintessentially American prize means that I have said something about America as seen through Nigerian eyes that Americans find interesting.

“I take that as a wonderful compliment. It reminds me of the ability of literature to make us become briefly alive in bodies not our own.”

Past fiction winners of the Heartland Prize include Jonathan France for his novel FREEDOM and Marilyn ne Robinson for her novel GILEAD
The prize will be awarded on November 3, 2013 at an audience-attended event hosted in partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival in Chicago

Nigerian soldiers in Mali get allowances, better food!

After months of hardship caused by inadequate provision of basic essentials and non-payment of allowances, the horrible condition of Nigerian troops serving as part of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali, AFISMA, is beginning to give way for improved welfare, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

According to defence sources, the troops have been paid two months arrears out of the three months arrears they were previously owed. Their nutrition has also improved as our source said they are now adequately fed. This is a departure from the days when they resorted to soliciting for food from their host community and having to make to do with eating plain boiled spaghetti.

The military blamed the initial hiccup experienced in delivering the provisions on time on bureaucratic bottleneck.

“I’m not in the mission but I know that the condition for feeding and everything have been a victim of the bureaucracy I told you about,” said Chris Olukolade, Director for Defence Information.

While denying that a percentage of the troops allowances has been unscrupulously deducted, Mr. Olukolade said it is the practice of the military to save part of the allowances of soldiers on international assignment and that this would eventually be paid to them at the end of their tour.

“It not a case of anyone trying to deny them their allowances, they are aware that some part of their allowances is being kept for them in savings. It is a norm that they are aware of, it is their property, which nobody will deny them at the end of the mission; it is in their name. Nobody can steal one kobo of that from them,” he said.

Homecoming not in sight

Mr. Olukolade, however, said that no date has been fixed for the troops to return home despite completing the initial six months period of the mission. He said that the decision is subject to an on-going discussion between politicians and international organisations.

Many of the Nigerian soldiers have complained of being left in Mali for more than the six months they were promised, saying their families were suffering back home.

“There is a lot going on in the diplomatic circus now which I may not be in the position to comment on right now until this is settled at the realm of political leadership and international organizations involved in the mission,”Mr. Olukolade stated.

Meanwhile, some officers of the Nigerian Army have called to thank PREMIUM TIMES for its consistent reporting on the suffering of Nigerian soldiers in Army.

“Thanks for your efforts so far,” a military source in Abuja said in a message to this newspaper. “It has been very helpful. Our troops would have continued to go through hell if not for your publications.”   

This paper had in a series of articles reported how troops were poorly fed, and owed allowances. In one particularly embarrassing case, we reported how the situation of the troops got so dire that they resorted to soliciting food from their host community.

Last February, the Prefect of Tuban in the Banamga region of Mali gave them 50 bags of rice and a cow. The army said it did not solicit for the food item. It claimed it was merely a gift from an appreciative host.

In June, we reported that the troops were owed up to three months unpaid allowances. Immediately after our report, the defence headquarters summoned the the contingent’s financial officer, Captain R.M. Okenwa to Abuja. He returned to Bamako on June 3o with two-month allowances for the soldiers as well as several bags of rice  and garri.

In one instance, the military resorted to threat to quieten our reportage of the troops austere situation. A certain Major General Ugor called this reporter and threatened to arrest him if he refused to disclose his sources.

Tonto Dikeh May Be Suffering from Identity Crisis-Segun Adekoye!

I am writing about Tonto Dikeh because she is someone I am genuinely concerned about. You won’t understand my concern. I love Tonto Dikeh. I have watched several of her movies and I sincerely believe she is made for acting (and for music in the afterlife). I wanted to talk about Tonto Dikeh and Rihanna but I believe Tonto’s crisis may be more serious than Rihanna’s.

While we may define success as the number of records and movies sold, awards won, number of fans, amount of money in the bank and so on, some artistes may not feel that way about themselves. Tonto has always been a controversial actress wanting to be in the news for several odd reasons. She begins a modest Nollywood career and begins to hit the high notes (in people’s subconscious) when she starts to take really daring (body-baring) scenes. She becomes a major source of concern after she finds a new career in music. Then, her kind of music and how she tries to pass her lyrics across is another reason to be concerned about the pretty actress. You find yourself reflexively tapping your colleague and asking if all is well with Tonto.

In my opinion, Tonto Dikeh wants to be a music superstar but she doesn’t know what genre to fit it. While she may want to try R&B and Soul, she is afraid that she doesn’t have the voice to sustain it. She also doesn’t have much faith in her rapping skills. Hence, the need to stick somewhere, anywhere that keeps her voice in the safe-zone. She wants to be like Rihanna. She wants to be able to do pop and electronic music. Ask her if she wants to win a Grammy, she’ll probably tell you she’s never considered it. And then ask her why she’s doing the music and she might shrug and say that she wants to make her fans happy.

How do you know Tonto is suffering from Identity Crisis?

Thank you for asking. I won’t go over the definition of Identity Crisis or what causes it. My friend Fola Daniel makes a good note of it here. I’ll just take an excerpt from his write-up:

I call it a process because most of the words associated with identity crisis reveal that they are not things that can come on you just in one night. They are things that happen gradually. You can’t wake one morning and start feeling intimidated by the people around you if nothing had been absent in you to allow for that intimidation. You don’t just see people and envy them right away. Envy is a feeling and a form of emotion that develops usually as a result of another process seen in other people. it is very obvious that most of the people experiencing identity crisis have something missing in them

1. Wants the Illuminatic attention

When Tonto released the video of her song “Hi”, it had similar sound and visual effects with Rihanna’s ” We found love” video. Symbolism and all those things attributed to Illuminati were present in the video. Even if Illuminati wasn’t a propaganda, she too small na. She never reach that level yet. She go need shine her torchlight well well.

2. Endless Twitter Rants & Wars

Tonto will be the first to start trouble on Twitter by indirectly dissing her colleagues. Like she is the Nigerian version Keri Hilson. So Tonto is trying to be like Rihanna and Keri Hilson at the same time. Na serious ish be that o. Tonto is also quick to insult fans that insult her. Like she has too much time on her hands.

3. Getting Drunk before a UK performance and falling on stage

There is no harm in taking a sip before you ride the stage for your performance before an international audience. The only harm is getting so stoned that you just rant like a car without breaks, you scream like a danfo bus conductor “London!”. Then you fall on stage. Who is Tonto trying to become? If she lacked the confidence to hit the stage alone because it was UK, she should have taken a backup or had someone support her.

4. Posting Drugs on Instagram

This is the most annoying part of it all. Tonto posted a marijuana wrap that almost got her in trouble with the NDLEA some weeks ago. This week, she posts the photo of a wrap and some powdery substance beside it. Whether it is drugs or not she has successfully passed her message across. What is Tonto Dikeh trying to call herself? A druggie? Another symptom of Identity Crisis.

5. Telling the world you’re okay when you’re depressed

But we all know Tonto isn’t exactly as happy as she claims and the criticisms aren’t getting to her. The fact that she even writes about it means they are getting to her. Here is what she posted on her Instagram page less than 24 hours ago.

How do you cure Tonto’s identity crisis?

Just say a prayer for Tonto because she won’t see a therapist or a psychologist. And she won’t agree with this write-up. I’d conclude using Fola Daniel’s words:

Don’t let your past failures frustrate you away from what you are doing if you know that is the right thing to do. Keep doing what you are good at, focus on it and take your eyes away from the previous setbacks you have had.

-Segun Adekoye!