President Jonathan's 2014 Independence Day Speech

Fellow Nigerians:

Today marks the 54th anniversary of our country’s independence as a sovereign nation.  This is also the tenth month of our journey into a new century, having marked the centenary of our nation in January this year. 

The first one hundred years were marked by triumphs and tribulations, benefits and burdens, opportunities and challenges.  We made some far reaching advances in building a strong, united and prosperous nation.  We also overcame the forces of disunity that culminated in a debilitating civil war.  We have also renewed our faith in one another, and in our country. We have proven that we are truly a resilient nation.

President Jonathan 

In my address to the nation last year, I did emphasize that we were in a sober moment in our country. We are still in that mood in spite of the many accomplishments of our administration. Our sombreness has to do with the crises of nationhood occasioned by the activities of terrorist elements who have done the unimaginable to challenge our unity as a people. 

On an occasion like this, it is important that we remember all the precious souls that have been lost in the unprecedented war of terror unleashed on some parts of our country by these individuals who want to compel us to live our lives their way. They will not succeed!

Changing Dialogue With Dialogue: Confronting The Language Of Ebola

 

 

US President Barack Obama meets with ebola 

survivor,  Dr. Kent Brantly at the oval office on 

September 16, 2014 (pix Pete Souza/White House)

By Emma Fox

The African continent – which is so often unjustifiably spoken of collectively and dismissively throughout the globe as a one entity – can truly claim a unity through its diverse and eye-opening library of great literature and language.

Whether it is in the dreamlike magical realism of Ben Okri, the underlying critiques so carefully yet organically articulated by Nadine Gordimer, or the poignant and profound work of Assia Djebar, Africa’s many shapes and sounds have been delivered in a perpetual life poem which has courageously addressed various social challenges and defined the continent as a rich and creative Diaspora of contemporary literature. 

 

While these works detail issues and triumphs which are focused on a particular region, they also encompass the bigger picture – just take Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, for example – which has accumulated some truly remarkable responses to the heavy footprint of colonialism and the rest of the world’s inability to look at Africa and African countries separately through an unclouded lens. It is through language and literature where reclamation, liberation and life transform, a vital tool through which lies the potential for change, and is especially crucial in combating the recent challenges which certain parts of western Africa are facing.

Deconstructing The Weaker Gender Stereotype

Nnaemeka Oruh

Over the past century, the position of women in human affairs has received lots of attention. There has been delineation into several camps and several groups, each with different ideologies. No matter which camp one belongs, it seems that the point of convergence remains the belief that women are different. I use different here both in its pejorative and, of course, edifying form.

*Michelle Obama

While some see women as deserving of equal (or semi equal) status with men, most see the woman as an appendage of man hence she should be subservient and controlled. Whichever way one panders to, all sides in one way or the other denigrate women. For, what more is denigrating than when women ask for special treatments through hand-outs? I will not delve into this issue here as I have already given it special attention in another essay.

Smuggled $9.3million Cash: Federal Government’s Cock-And-Bull Story

By Festus Keyamo

I have just read, with some amusement, the position of the Federal Government regarding the cash totaling $9.3 million that was seized by the South African authorities as an attempt was made to smuggle it into that country. from my little understanding, the Federal Government's position can be summarised as follows: 

*Keyamo

*That it is aware of the movement of such large sum of money by cash out of the country.
*That the cash is meant for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency. 
*That the transaction was done by cash to ensure the speed of the transaction. 
*That it resorted to buy from South Africa because of procedural bottlenecks in the purchase of such items from western countries.

The above position of the Federal Government is not only ludicrous, it is laughable, untenable and a story only fit to be told to the marines. The following rhetoric posers are germane to this issue:

Jonathan Will Not Interfere With Ongoing Investigation Against Ex-Gov Sheriff - Presidency

... Former Governor Did Not Accompany The President To Chad 

Former Governor of Borno State Ali Modu Sheriff, 
President Goodluck Jonathan and President Idris 
Derby of Chad in Ndjamena (pix: State House)


By Reuben Abati 

We have noted with surprise, the unnecessary hue and cry raised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other bigoted critics of the Jonathan Administration over the claim that the President is “hobnobbing” with the former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was recently accused by the Australian, Stephen Davis, of being one of the chief sponsors of the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The totally erroneous basis for that charge was the spurious claim that Senator Sheriff accompanied President Jonathan on his recent trip to Ndjamena as a member of his entourage.

Although Senator Sheriff himself has already given the lie to that claim through his Media Adviser, the Presidency wishes to affirm, for the purpose of emphasis, that the former Borno State governor was not on President Jonathan’s delegation to Chad.

Jonathan Orders Removal Of Offensive Bring Back Jonathan Signs

Press Release 

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has directed that the #Bring Back Jonathan 2015 signs and banners around Abuja which he and many Nigerians find offensive and repugnant  be brought down immediately.

President Jonathan wholly shares the widely expressed view that the signs which were put up without his knowledge or approval are a highly insensitive parody of the #Bring Back Our Girls hash tag.

The Defamation Of Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (rtd) - The Position Of Ndigbo Lagos

PRESS RELEASE 

The apparently procured, choreographed and orchestrated interview on Arise Television on Thursday August 28 in which a certain Stephen Davies an Australian of the ilk of many white mercenaries prowling the African continent, accused General Ihejirika of being a sponsor of Boko Haram is most condemnable.

*Lt. General Ihejirika
 (pix:Abiastate)

In the said interview, Mr Davies did not adduce or suggest any single evidence to support his accusation. Curiously when in the same breadth he said he has knowledge of the sponsor of the Abuja Nyanya bombing he refused to name names. Most tragic in this choreographed defamation of an illustrious General, is the interviewer's unprofessionalism in failing to demand evidence from Ihejirika's accuser, Mr. Stephen Davies. General Ihejirika has since denied this allegation. Given the lack of evidence, the nature of delivery of the allegation and the character of the accused General, Ndigbo Lagos believes Ihejirika's traducers are playing dirty politics.

How The Africa Channel Can Help Multiculturalism On British Television

By Emma Fox

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has expanded its repertoire and global reach to the point where it regularly broadcasts to an American and Arabic audience. It gives the Americans an opportunity to explore the best of what British television has or has had to offer and allows an expanding Arabic audience to feel that they are not forgotten by the Western world. Because services like this have been positively accepted, it was important that a similar service was launched for African people in the United Kingdom.

BBC America

BBC America was launched in 1998 and broadcasts popular British programming such as Doctor Who and In The Flesh. What is unique about BBC America is that, contrary to its name, it does not solely broadcast programmes from the BBC. Instead, it opts to broadcast popular programming from other British networks as well as its own. This allows the American audience to gain an understanding of British television and can also assist British television and film producers to gain recognition in an otherwise difficult environment to crack. A station such as this in the United Kingdom would inevitably do the same for African filmmakers and television producers.

Terror Sponsorship: PDP Replies APC

Full Text Of Statement Issued By the People's Democratic Party (PDP) Today 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted yet another failed image laundering stunt by the APC wherein its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun cheapened his office and person by attempting to use an unempirical statement by Australian Dr. Stephen Davis, to absolve his party of blames for promoting insurgency in the country.

*Olisa Metuh
PDP's National Publicity Secretary

Whilst we recognize the right of citizens to hold and canvass opinion in a democratic setting such as guaranteed under the PDP-led administration, we hold, and strongly too that such rights must be properly and respectably exercised.

It is therefore shocking and worrisome that the APC National Chairman, in a frenzied effort to extricate his party, could issue a statement completely lacking in validity, character and intellectual content befitting of a National Chairman of a political party.

Oyegun’s statement rather than exonerate the APC has reinforced and underscored its true identity as a party of desperate politicians supportive of violence and disunity through their utterances and body language, a fact that is already well known to all Nigerians.

Nuhu Ribadu's Transmutation

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

There is no politically discerning Nigerian who has not heard the news. Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the presidential candidate of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011, has defected to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the leading opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC), because he wants to govern Adamawa, his home state.  

Nuhu Ribadu 

 A legitimate ambition no doubt. But to titivate same in the garb of public good is arrant nonsense. But that is quintessential Ribadu. He thinks Nigerians are ever gullible.   The office became vacant after Governor Murtala Nyako was impeached on July 15 by the House of Assembly upon adoption of the report of the seven-member panel that investigated allegations of gross misconduct against him.  

Ribadu has the inalienable right to belong to any political party and to pursue whatever political aspiration that appeals to his ego.   But has no right to insult Nigerians in his pursuit. But that was exactly what he did when he claimed that his defection from the APC to the PDP was in pursuit of a good cause and not out of selfish interest.  

Tom Ikimi’s Lengthy Chronicle Of Falsehoods

By Bola Tinubu 

I ordinarily would not have responded to Tom Ikimi’s lengthy chronicle of falsehoods, cheap blackmail and abuse. My only reason for this response is that I know Tom Ikimi’s style. He subscribes to the view that no matter how unbelievable a lie may sound if you brazenly assert it and repeat it often enough you may persuade many that it is in fact true.  I have seen Ikimi perpetrate this deviousness in his years in public life. 

*Tinubu

1. Regarding Ikimi’s bid for the Chairmanship of the Party. It was clear to practically everyone who had the interest of the party at heart that we simply could not have a man of Tom Ikimi’s antecedents as Chair of the party. As chairman of the NRC, one of the only two political parties in the country under the military transition programme, Tom Ikimi not only connived with the then military regime to annul the elections, terminate the democratic process and sell off his party. 

He became Abacha’s foreign minister, convincing the world that heinous state murders like the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa were just acts! If Ikimi were the Chair of APC the party would have to sleep with both eyes open lest its chairman sell off the party before day break. No matter what anyone may say about me it is unlikely that I can be accused of supporting incompetent or morally light-weight individuals for important political positions. 

Disease-Ravaged Africa- The Nigerian Scenario

By Moses Obroko

November 2030: 

Africa is facing a biological warfare from nature in the year 2030. The dreaded ebola virus has yet again surfaced; only this time in West Africa. It was in 1976 that it was first identified and named after a river in the country that used to be called Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. Of course no one had really given any serious thought to developing a cure/vaccine for it in Africa as it usually breaks out at intervals every other few years. 54 years later, the virus having mutated into a stronger strain, has reared up its head once more; only this time with fatalistic global consequences.

The death toll from the virus is rising in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Many countries along the West African coastline are already overrun by it with Benin Republic beginning to count its own fatalities.

And then it happened! Nigeria which had hitherto had been grappling with every other socio-economic and leadership issues known to mankind, got the virus. And the world noticed!

Nigeria has nearly 190,000,000 people who had been bedeviled by corrupt, inefficient leadership, having a rippling effect on their economic wellbeing. The people of Nigeria had always borne their poor socio-economic situation with the equanimity of the subjugated. One military dictator after another had instilled the fear of the ruling class in the masses. Robbed of any will power to challenge any government of the day, Nigerians always hoped and prayed to God to help them solve problems they already have the solutions to, but lacked the will power to do so. Nigerians can tolerate poverty, bad leadership and deprivations from the callousness of a wicked few.  This is because they can see and feel the problem. For instance, it is because there is no electricity, or the roads are bad or doctors are on strike and the hospitals are not well equipped; indeed the reasons are varied and countless for which Nigerians perfectly understand-and can stomach.

All Progressives Congress APC – My Reflections

By Tom Ikimi

"...I must now search to really ascertain where indeed my true political friends exist. I need to be, at this time of my life where I have friends who share a common vision with me and where my freedom, respect, honour and dignity would be guaranteed. Notwithstanding my enormous contributions over the past 12 years or so to building the alternative platform, after very deep thought and the widest consultations I have made the decision to withdraw my membership from the All Progressives Congress (APC) from today, Wednesday 27th August 2014."

*Tom Ikimi

Following my widely publicized statement made in the aftermath of the 13th June 2014 All Progressives Congress APC National Convention I took time off to reflect on the state of the party, the emerging re-configuration of the general political Structure in the country, and the visionary effects on the state of our Nation.

I have spent almost 13 of the past 15 years faithfully dug in, in the trenches of the evolving democratic dispensations in our country, steadfastly pursuing my conviction that for true democracy to take firm root in Nigeria we should fall in line with the model practiced in successful democracies in the world, of a party in office and a scrutinizing alternative party holding the Government to account. We all have watched with admiration how in those other countries through a process of hitch-free General Elections, the baton of leadership changes hands from time to time from one Party to the other to provide alternative policies for their people. Therefore I have never considered my location outside the ruling party, as being in an “opposition”, rather as supporting an alternative platform. All that was necessary for me was the association with individuals committed to build and uphold that platform. In this regard, my experiences during the era of the NRC and SDP in 1990 -1993 are invaluable reference data bank in my quest to work to reincarnate the reality of two dominant political platforms in our country.

I Am Thrilled To Be Alive, Says Kent Brantly, American Ebola Survivor

Dr. Kent Brantly Speaking At A Press Conference

 After Being Discharged From Hospital 

Below is the full text and video of the remark by Dr. Kent Brantly at a Press Conference to announce his release from Emory University Hospital, 

Atlanta. Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol  had been infected with the

 Ebola virus while working as medical missionaries in

 Liberia. They were flown to Emory where they were treated with the new

 experimental drug ZMapp. Mrs. Writebol had earlier been discharged  having also fully recovered. First to speak in the video is Dr. Bruce Ribner, Medical Director of  the Infectious Diseases Unit of Emory University Hospital...  

-----------------------

'Today is a miraculous day. I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position. When my family and I moved to Liberia last October to begin a two-year term working with Samaritan's Purse, Ebola was not on the radar. We moved to Liberia because God called us to serve the people of Liberia.

'In March, when we got word that Ebola was in Guinea and had spread to Liberia, we began preparing for the worst. We didn't receive our first Ebola patient until June, but when she arrived, we were ready. During the course of June and July, the number of Ebola patients increased steadily, and our amazing crew at ELWA Hospital took care of each patient with great care and compassion. We also took every precaution to protect ourselves from this dreaded disease by following MSF and WHO guidelines for safety.

Nuhu Ribadu: Why I Left APC

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.

Achebe Family Mourns Nadine Gordimer

*Nadine Gordimer 
(pix:southafrica.usembassy)

The family of late literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe, has joined the rest of the world to mourn Nadine Godimer, a leading South African writer and Nobel Laureate, who passed away in Johannesburg on July 13, 2014, at the age of  90. In a statement issued on July 20 and signed by Professor Christie Chinwe Achebe for the Chinua Achebe Family and Estate, the Achebe family  said it was joining "the world in mourning the passing of Nadine Gordimer" whom it described as a "precious friend, great supporter of African arts and letters [and] an elegant soul..." 

President Jonathan To Buhari: You Have No Moral Right To Be So Carelessly Sanctimonious

“General Buhari talks about anarchy. He needs to be reminded that President Jonathan from his humble beginnings as a Deputy Governor in Bayelsa state to date, has never in his acts, or utterances, recommended or promoted violence as a tool of political negotiation… Also, President Jonathan has never at any time ordered that any Nigerian should be kidnapped or that anyone should be crated and forcefully transported in violation of decent norms of governance. We therefore urge General Buhari to tarry a while, ponder over his own antecedents and do a reality check as to whether he has the moral right to be so carelessly sanctimonious.”   - President Jonathan

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

Don't Blame Me For Your Party's Self-Inflicted Woes 

- President Jonathan Tells Buhari

We have noted with much surprise and regret, the statement issued by General Muhammadu Buhari today in which he made some wild and totally unsustainable allegations against President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

President Jonathan 

Although he tries very hard to deny it in the statement titled “Pull Nigeria Back From the Brink”, there can be no doubt that General Buhari has sadly moved away from the patriotic and statesmanlike position he recently adopted on national security, which President Jonathan publicly commended, and has now reverted to unbridled political partisanship.

There can be no other explanation or justification for the completely unwarranted and very uncharitable assault on the conduct and integrity of President Jonathan which the statement he issued today represents.

British Expert On Terrorist Group Boko Haram To Open 2014 Achebe Colloquium

Chinua Achebe

The 2014 Achebe Colloquium on Africa] — African Literature as Restoration: Chinua Achebe as Teacher will be held at Brown University, from May 1-3, 2014. 

An International gathering of scholars, artists, musicians, writers, and officials will gather at Brown University May 1-3, 2014, to discuss and celebrate the cultural contributions of Chinua Achebe, the late Nigerian novelist and the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown, who died in March 2013 at the age of 82. Achebe started the colloquium in 2009 to bring attention to issues affecting Africa.

On Thursday May 1, 2014, Elizabeth Donnelly, Assistant Head and Research Fellow, Africa Program, Chatham House, - The Royal Institute of International Affairs - London, Great Britain; will deliver the opening address at the Colloquium. Her talk will “focus on Boko Haram -what is known, what is not known, and the implications and what can be done.”  The event begins at 5:30 p.m. 

Chinua Achebe Colloquium To Explore African Literature

The 2014 Achebe Colloquium on Africa will bring together an international group of academics, activists, African government officials, and writers to examine the impact of the late Chinua Achebe’s writings on modern African literature. The colloquium will be held at Brown University Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 3, 2014.

*Achebe 

The 2014 Achebe Colloquium on Africa will be held at Brown University Thrusday, May 1, through Saturday, May 3, 2014, in List Art Center auditorium, 64 College St.

The Achebe Colloquium on Africa brings together an international group of academics, activists, African government officials, and writers for three days of intense examination of the impact of the late Chinua Achebe’s writings on modern African literature. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited and registration is required.

This year’s colloquium, titled “African Literature as Restoration: Chinua Achebe as Teacher,” will center around the life and legacy of the late novelist. Achebe, the acclaimed Nigerian novelist and the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown,died in March 2013 at the age of 82. Achebe started the colloquium in 2009 to bring attention to issues affecting Africa.