Iyabo Obasanjo's Letter Was Written In The Villa?!

As Nigerians still search for the reasons behind the Iyabo Obasanjo's letter to her father, ex President Olusegun Obasanjo which was made exclusively available to Vanguard Newspaper, an impeccable source reportedly told ‘TRANSPARENCY FOR NIGERIA'  the whole truth about how the letter letter came to be.

In the letter, Ms. Obasanjo described her father as a liar, manipulator, megalomaniac, narcissistic, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president. She also ruled out further communication with her father till death.

According to our source, a leading member of Mr. Jonathan media team who was once a respected journalist with a Lagos based media house is the brain behind the letter.

Our source told us that Iyabo Obasanjo and the media aide who is from the same state as her had been friends and she had always confided in him her bitterness towards her father.

According to our source, long before the former president wrote the 'famous' 18 -page letter to Mr. Jonathan, Iyabo had  been planning to write an explosive open letter to her father, but had been stopped from doing so all these while by the same aide who told her not to try it so as it could deepen the family crisis and would only amount to washing their dirty linens in the public, an advice which Iyabo reportedly accepted.

it was gathered that following the acerbic letter to his boss by the former president titled ‘Before It’s not too late,' the aide had to put pen to paper all that Iyabo had told him in the course of their conversations, and sent it across via mail to her for her perusal which she did and consented to.

The letter was then sent by Ms. Obasanjo to Vanguard editor, who was shocked at the content. Before going to press with the publication, a call we gathered was put across to her, where she agreed that the content of the letter be made public.

The media aide, we gathered was among the first to get the Vanguard publication of the letter and hurriedly took it to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mails sent to the aid by 'Transparency For Nigeria' to confirm this story was not replied as at the time of going to press........

EXPANDED TERMINAL OPENS AT MMIA - LAGOS!

Written by Yakubu Dati, Coordinating Spokesman,Aviation Parastatals.

Passengers flying through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to other parts of the world were giving a pleasant Xmas surprise with the opening of the new departure/screening points of the terminal at about 6.00 am on Saturday, December 21, 2013.

The extended Departure Hall feature 5 nos state –of-the-art screening machines and 2 nos Body Scanner at each of the wings in addition 30 nos new immigration counters. A distinguishing feature of the new screening machines is the ability to detect explosive materials and potential threat items real time with the lowest rate of false alarm.

The introduction of 30 nos new immigration counters as against the previous 9 nos has taken passenger facilitation to another level.The extended Departure consists of 14 check-in counters, seven hand-luggage X-ray machines and eight walk-through body scanners at the E finger.

 

The facility is equipped with 11 toilet facilities for both male and female passengers, as well as disabled persons.

The new extension comes with commercial offerings. These duty free shops will afford passengers the opportunity for last minute shopping,  refreshments and other conveniences in line with global standards and  recommended practices.The improvements in physical extension of the passenger handling area is by one and a-half times or 150 per cent more than its previous size. Three new hi-tech conveyor systems have also been installed in this new section since early this year.

Already, this has been easing the experience of passengers who now enjoy faster processing of their luggage and personal effects. The new conveyor systems can process the luggage of a 1,000 passengers per hour.

Passenger processing is now faster and the congestion has been eradicated in line with the Aviation Road map initiated by the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah.

The ongoing remodeling has led to an expansion of about 25% as against the former operational area, in expectation of the expected passenger growth.The new facility is part of the strategy by the President Jonathan Goodluck to make Murtala Mohammed International Airport,  the preferred regional hub in the West African sub- region.

The Managing Director of FAAN, Mr George Uriesi, who personally supervised the operation expressed appreciation to Immigration, Customs  and other security organisations for their support.

Khloe Kardashian dismisses rumors about a new romance!.

This is obviously not the best of times for Khloe Kardashian going by her recent twitts.

"This, in and of itself, is heart breaking and torture to my soul," Khloe Kardashian posted this afternoon. "Please, I don't need the extra rumors and BS right now."

The "rumors" of which she writes refer to whispers that she's swiftly moved on from Lamar Odom to baseball star Matt Kemp.

Kardashian filed for divorce from her husband of four years last Friday. On Monday, she let her sweatshirt do the talking. The reality star was photographed wearing one emblazoned, "Nothing was the same."

Baby Nori's eyebrows...Kim responds critics!

After proud mom Kim Kardashian shared a shot of six-month-old baby Nori on Instagram, captioning it simply "SMILE," comments began rolling in, especially on her facebook page.

Many of them were complimentary, pointing out that the child is "gorgeous" and "her eyes r beautiful."

But some of them questioned Nori's "too perfect" eyebrows and suggested that Kim must have waxed the baby's "unibrow."

The debate is in full swing, as the eyebrow brought out outraged Kim defenders, who urged: "STOP HATING ON A BABY!"

UPDATE: Kim responded with a good-natured tweet, writing: "Do people really think I would wax my daughters eyebrows so young? Come on, I'd wait until she's at least 2 1/2!"

She added, "I'm kidding!!! It's pretty sick for people to insinuate that I would wax my daughter's eyebrows. They are thick, natural, and amazing!"

You Are A Bloody Idiot, Iyabo Will Finish You In Court- Obasanjo To Vanguard!

It’s an era of ‘open letter’ in Nigeria especially in Nigeria’s political scenes. Firstly, it was Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Nigeria’s former President who had written to incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan accusing him of underdeveloping Nigeria, ineptitude,  corruption and destroying their political party The People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The letter from the former president received a lot of replies from Nigerians cutting across different groups and communities,  while some were praising the former President for his tenacity and patriotism, some many others said incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is his student and he’s just doing more than what he learned from former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Recently, Iyabo Obasanjo the  first daughter of the former President is alleged to have written a letter calling her father a liar, manipulator and hypocrite.

Iyabo Obasanjo

But the letter has been said to be fake while the newspaper that published the paper has been under serious scrutiny,  but this morning the newspaper insists the daughter of the former President wrote the letter as she refute denying she wrote the letter.

VANGUARD Reports:

With echoes of the open letter to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from his daughter, Iyabo, reverberating nationwide, the daughter yesterday gave reasons she gave up on her father ever changing.

Senator Iyabo Obasanjo spoke against the background of mixed reactions from Yoruba elders and politicians on the import of the letter which she said was the last communication with her father.

The former president himself was furious when approached by Vanguard, yesterday, as he hurled invectives at the newspaper.

The exchange between Vanguard and the former president ran thus:

Vanguard: Sir, we tried reaching you all through yesterday, to no avail, over the letter written by your daughter, Iyabo, to you.

Chief Obasanjo: You are a bloody idiot, you have published the paper and you are now looking for me, you are an idiot, don’t call me again. When Iyabo finishes you in court…. (hangs up).

Senator Obasanjo nevertheless flayed the orchestrated attempt in the social media by a network of associates of her father to separate her from the letter.

Aremo Olusegun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State, who was cited in the letter, confirmed the meeting between him and Iyabo in Massachusetts, United States but distanced himself from the plot allegedly cited by her father to empower her with the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC for the next round of elections.

Besides, Aremo Osoba, several prominent Yoruba elders spoke on the development among whom were Afenifere leader, Chief Rueben Fasoranti, Afenifere bigwig, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Chief Ebenezer Babatope and Hon. Femi Kehinde, a former member of the House of Representatives.

Senator Iyabo Obasanjo had written an open letter to her father accusing him of being a liar, manipulator, wife-basher and hypocrite who was desperate for a third term despite his denials to the contrary.

Following the hoopla over her letter,Iyabo spoke severally to Vanguard, yesterday. Asked to respond to claims that she had denied the authorship of the letter written to her father, Iyabo, who holds a doctorate in epidemology and now resident in the United States,

“No, no, no, that is not true. How can you live by social media?

That is part of the problem with Nigeria, people want to be flying rumours. I have not told anybody o! It is early morning here and I just woke up and if I were you I would just ignore them,” Senator Obasanjo said.

“People are calling me and telling me that they called Baba but if I say I am not talking to someone (her father), how can you say you called the person and the person will tell you what is on my mind?” she asked

Sanusi defends writing Jonathan, says N1.9 trillion now unaccounted for!

The Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, said he did nothing wrong alerting President Goodluck Jonathan of an alleged missing N8 trillion oil money, because part of his duties expects him to hint the president whenever he suspects public funds were being diverted.

Appearing before the Senate finance committee on Wednesday, Mr. Sanusi said while he did not conclude the money was missing, he informed the president to order an investigation.

“The numbers were about $65billion exported by NNPC and about $15billion repatriated to Federation Account out of that. Now, in view with our duty as the banker of the government, we had the responsibility of alerting the President and request a thorough investigation of this matter,” Mr. Sanusi said.

“I repeat Mr. Chairman that we did not see the letter as a conclusion of our investigation but an invitation to investigate. So, the conclusion that $49.8billion was missing was wrong even though we had the allegation that it wasn’t remitted.”

Mr. Sanusi also said an ongoing review of relevant accounts between the CBN, the NNPC and the Ministry of Finance showed that only $12 billion (N1.9 trillion) was missing as of yet.

The Finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who oversees the NNPC, were at the meeting.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala interjected Mr. Sanusi’s claim of $12 billion, and told the lawmakers the outstanding figure was $10.8 billion. Even so, she said the sum was not missing and would be accounted for as the meetings are ongoing.

The CBN governor’s claim in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan stirred outrage and prompted calls for immediate investigation. In the letter, Mr. Sanusi said the NNPC had failed to remit 76 per cent of oil sales revenue for several months.

The NNPC denied the claim. The CBN, NNPC and the finance ministry have met for days to examine the figures.

For the first time since his letter to President Goodluck was published, Mr. Sanusi on Wednesday categorically confirmed the letter originated from him.

The CBN governor said while he did not conclude $48.9 billion was missing, it was his duty to notify the president if he suspected any part of government revenues were not accounted for.

He said it was “unfortunate” the letter was leaked to the media.

“I found it very unfortunate it (letter) was leaked to the press and the answer is ‘Yes’, the CBN Governor did send that letter with those contents,” he said. “By way of those contents, the Central Bank and Finance Ministry and the government were very much concerned over the years at the very low rate of accrual to the reserves in spite of very high level of oil prices and in particular, depletion of excess crude account in spite of what seems to be very high level of oil sales.”

Mr. Sanusi said since alerting the president, the Minister of Finance, Minister of Petroleum Resources, CBN, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and the Department of Petroleum , DPR, set up technical team and began a review of the outstanding monies.

“The major progress has been the provision of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by MPC documents to show that even though they did ship that amount in question which is a little more than $67billion, about $24billion was actually not their crude but crude shipped on behalf of third parties like oil companies, tax in crude and also for third party financing and so that already addresses half of the amount,” he said.

He said the shortfall was now with domestic crude lifting of $28billion, from which the CBN believes $12 billion was still unaccounted for.

“Now, we still are in the process of trying to reconcile that number and we have not even started talking of the sales, the export sales tax, which is about $2billion, which will come after the sales and the Finance Ministry has told us that even before now, there is ongoing negotiation and discretion with NNPC ad-hoc committee and these number have always been discussed at the level of Commissions of Finance,” he said.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said the figure is $10.8 billion.

The Senate committee on finance approved Mr. Sanusi’s request they be allowed more time to conclude all reconciliation of accounts.

Privatising of Refineries: Oil And Gas Workers To Strike In January 2014!

Just when the Academic Union decides to end their over 5 month's strike leaving the ordinary Nigerian students at home all the while, her sister organization takes over the baton. 

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), declared on Tuesday December 17th 2013 that they would commence a total and indefinite strike as from the first week of January, 2014.

The two trade unions in the oil and gas sector of the economy were protesting the declaration by the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke and the decision by the Federal Government to sell the refineries by the first quarter of next year.

The workers who staged a peaceful protest at the headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Abuja said the strike will hold if the Federal Government fails to reverse its plan to privatise the country’s four refineries.

The leader of the protest, president of PENGASSAN, Babatunde Ogun, said,

“We are giving them (government) from now till December 24 to rescind their plan of privatising the refineries. We will allow travellers to be able to move from one destination to the other till the end of the year.

Failure to retract the statement on planned privatisation will lead to a nationwide strike beginning from the first week of January 2014. We hope they reverse the plan as failure will result to complete grounding of activities in the sector.”

He said the decision had already been taken in respect of the strike and emphasised that there would be no need for further discussion or engagement with the government because all what the government had been doing were clearly against their resolutions and decisions taken after their previous meetings, especially on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Roving Informant asks: why target January for these strikes when it's obvious that majority of the masses who traveled to their various towns and villages to spend the holidays with their loved ones, would immensely bear the brunt?

This situation often leaves the masses at the mercy of gullible transport companies who usually takes advantage of the situation to sky-rocket fares.

stranded commuters during past strikes

Abeg make una dey think before una act.

unending queue on gas stations

Every one is affected as we all depend on diesel or fuel operated generators to generate power for our electricity suppies

Black market persists:

Food prices hype because farmers and traders cant get their crops across  to the market, due to logistic challenges caused by fuel scarcity:

We assure you, no government official will be adversely affected by this action, but the POOR MASSES.......,NUPENG and PENGASSAN WHO ARE YOU REALLY FIGHTING?

A corrupt system 



or the masses???

Cant these issues be resolved in a more considerate ways?.....