What My Husband Told Me Before His Death – Turai Yar’Adua

Hajiya Turai Umaru Musa Yar’adua has revealed how her husband, former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua once told her that his relatives would quarrel with her after his death as they would think he had left so much money.

The former first lady who spoke at a memorial lecture in honour of the late president in Katsina at the weekend, also said “the late Yar’adua was not a materialist leader who believed in accumulating wealth. In fact, he shunned material things as his slogan was service to humanity.
“There was a time he said to me that ‘Turai, I pity you because when I die you will have quarrels with my relatives because they will think I have so much money in my possession”, she said.
She said the situation in Nigeria would have been better had the late president survived his ailment because he was a “focused, committed and determined leader”.
“Although my husband was sick for a long time he did his very best for Nigeria. Also as governor of Katsina State, he did his best for the state; he is an honest man who believed in service”, she said.
Extolling his virtues as a leader, Turai said the late President would not give out contract without having the money to pay for it.
“There was a time I approached him that people are complaining that the government was slow. But he said to me people can say whatever they like but I will not give out contract if I have no money to pay.
“The late Umaru was a kind of leader that would go out and monitor projects. I could recall when I used to join him to supervise the projects at Umaru Musa ‘Yar’adua University, Turai ‘Yar’adua Hospital and the roads,” she said.

This Is Why Oprah Winfrey Never Had Children

While Oprah Winfrey undoubtedly has a killer career, the media mogul has made many sacrifices in her personal life, one of those being motherhood.
During a sit-down interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 59-year-old star, opened up about her decision to forego having children while admitting she doesn’t regret her choice.
“If I had kids, my kids would hate me.
“They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something in my life would have had to suffer and it would’ve probably been them,” she said.
Winfrey also admitted she’s never found the idea of parenthood particularly appealing even when she was a little girl and always had different dreams than her peers.
“Gayle King, Winfrey’s best friend and now a mother of two was the kind of kid who, in seventh grade Home Ec class, was writing down her name and the names of her children,” she recalled.
“While she was having those kind of daydreams, I was having daydreams about how I could be Martin Luther King.”
While Winfrey may not have children of her own, the former talk show host dedicates a great deal of time to the students attending the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, the school which she opened in 2007 and to which she has contributed more than $100 million.

Letter To Jonathan: Show Proof That I’m Being Used To Run Killer Squad Or Keep Quiet, Al-Mustapha To Obasanjo

Former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha on Thursday challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to provide evidence on his claims that President Goodluck Jonathan influenced the Appeal Court judgment which discharged and acquitted him of the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.

Al-Mustapha, who is currently overseas, also denied the former president’s allegation that he was being used by President Jonathan to run a killer squad the same way he allegedly operated the famous X-Squad during the late military dictator’s regime to eliminate political opponents.
Information Nigeria reports that in his December 2 letter to the President titled ‘Before it is too late’, Mr. Obasanjo had alleged that Mr. Jonathan interfered with the court process to set an unnamed murderer free, and organised a presidential reception for him.
Apparently, the former president was referring to Al-Mustapha, who was freed by the Court of Appeal in July over the murder of the late Kudirat Abiola.
But Al-Mustapha, who spoke through his counsel Barrister Olalekan Ojo yesterday, dared Mr. Obasanjo to produce evidence to back up his weighty allegations in the said letter.
Obasanjo had written: “Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally but particularly to the family of his victim.
“Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as it is viewed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch”, he wrote in an 18-page letter that has now gone viral.
In his reaction, Ojo told Daily Trust: “To the best of my knowledge, President Jonathan never organised or sponsored any welcome rally to Al-Mustapha after his release”.
Al-Mustapha had been incarcerated for 14 years before he was acquitted by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, after being sentenced to death by a Lagos High Court.
Ojo said, “The impression (of Obasanjo’s letter) is that the Court of Appeal caved into pressure from President Jonathan, to that extent, the comment is disturbing, worrisome and unwarranted.
“The judiciary should be left alone and not be dragged into politics. The Justices of the Court of Appeal in Lagos that sat over the case are jurists of impeccable character and it is not fair for anybody, no matter how well-placed, to attack the integrity of these judges. We challenge Obasanjo to produce evidence of such interference to make it available to the public”.
He added: “My client was discharged and acquitted on the merit of his appeal. Majority of those who commented on the judgment expressed satisfaction. It is most unfortunate that a person like OBJ could accuse the President of using his exalted office for such a sinister and morally reprehensible thing. It must be stated that if OBJ has any issue to settle with the President, he should not drag Al Mustapha into it”.
Speaking specifically on the allegation that Al-Mustapha is being used by Jonathan to run a hit squad, Ojo said that the accusation was a pointer to the enormous hatred Obasanjo had for Al-Mustapha.
“At no time has he been involved in any such thing. It is totally false. Al-Mustapha is earnestly committed to the promotion of peace and harmony in Nigeria. It is most unfair that such an allegation should be made against him. It is an attempt to give a dog a bad name to hang him. When Al-Mustapha returns (from abroad) he will make a fuller response”, Ojo said.

UNBELIEVABLE: prof Hafiz ‘Saka’ Oyetoro Turns Down President Jonathan’s Appointment Offer

prof Hafiz Oyetoro also known as Simply Saka has turned down the appointment given to him by his excellence, President Goodluck Jonathan as one of his ministers

Saka is said not to be happy with Mr President because he has not improved the lives of many Nigerians who really needed the help, but rather than helping the needs, Nigerian government is adding to those who are absolutely living better.
Though, this act is very rare in this nation. According to Saka’s tweet on his twitter account last September 14th
“Please ignore any rumour of me being made a minister. Yes, president GEJ called me and I declined for personal reasons”.
This tweet was retweeted by a Lagos based stand up comedian, Omobaba that same day.

Obasanjo’s ‘satanic’ letter

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s damning letter to President Goodluck Jonathan must rank as the most narcissistic (and the narcissism of our rulers is legendary) action of any Nigerian ruler in recent times.

In the 18-page diatribe, Obasanjo took President Jonathan to task for his handling of corruption, insecurity, and the crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party among other issues.

Like most Nigerians, the former president expressed deep concern about the tragic consequences of the current crisis. Unlike most Nigerians, however, Obasanjo has had two glorious opportunities to help turn around the fortune of Nigeria and he squandered both. Of course, it is easy to say we should focus on the message rather than the messenger. But this is one instance in which the messenger can’t be divorced from the message.

Obasanjo’s letter dated December 2, 2013, and titled, “Before it is too late” had all the telltale signs of a deeply troubled man. Rather than writing this particular letter, Obasanjo should have atoned for his many crimes against Nigeria and Nigerians.

It was bad enough that his eight years as president were a tragedy; to have imposed Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan on the nation as a farewell gift is unpardonable. Perhaps, it was payback for the trenchant opposition to his third term agenda.

In his warped thinking, Obasanjo must have reasoned that his only option was to foist on Nigerians the very worst amongst us; people so inept and incapable that after a while we’ll be hankering after him. Looking back now, that theory has worked well as Nigerians now look with nostalgia at the Obasanjo era.

All the things Obasanjo said about President Jonathan and his administration may be true. But we can say the same and even more about the two Obasanjo’s administrations, 1976-1979 and 1999-2007. Obasanjo seems to have forgotten too soon his squabble with his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, that made a nonsense of governance, the political assassinations (including that of Bola Ige, his Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of justice) during his macabre rule, the massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam. The less said about corruption (who could forget the wholesale pillage of our patrimony in the name of privatisation) the better. Obasanjo laid the foundations on which President Jonathan is building and consolidating. He is acting out the Peoples Democratic Party’s playbook.

Obasanjo’s latest intervention is no doubt anchored on the politics of 2015. In his messianic posturing, he feels he has a divine right to determine or at least have a say on who emerges as president in the 2015 election, an election that may sound the death knell of Nigeria if we go by the postulations of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, Junaid Mohammed and Farouk Adamu Aliyu for whom the election is a “do-or-die” affair, à la Obasanjo.

A few months ago, rather than participating in activities marking Democracy Day (May 29) that he and his military collaborators foisted on us, Obasanjo was in Jigawa State as guest of Governor Sule Lamido. He literally made a case for Lamido as the next president of Nigeria, the same Lamido whose two sons have been accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of laundering billions of Jigawa State funds through companies allegedly owned by the governor.

That is the problem with Nigeria: the Feeling of entitlement which the likes of Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida survive on. Obasanjo should realise that his “ethnic balancing” theory is not the solution to “strengthening the unity and stability of Nigeria.”

In the postscript to his letter, Obasanjo referenced Generals  Ibrahim  Babangida  and  Abdulsalami  Abubakar as those “who on  a  number  of  occasions  in  recent  times,  have  shared  with  me  their agonising  thoughts,  concerns  and  expressions  on  most  of  the  issues  I  have raised  in  this  letter  concerning  the  situation  and  future  of  our  country.” This simply, and amply too, shows that Nigeria and we (the 99 per cent who ought to decide the future of the country) are in a big trouble. It’s like asking cats to help improve the conditions of rats.

Suddenly, President Jonathan has become the alibi of a ruling class fearful of its imminent implosion. Earlier in the week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who superintends over a house that reeks of corruption accused President Jonathan of paying lip service to the fight against corruption.

Many Nigerians know the problems of the country, and if the likes of Obasanjo and Babangida will allow, perhaps they can seriously begin the long and arduous task of fixing the mess created by these rulers.

Obasanjo has outlived his usefulness, if ever anyone found him useful. Now that he has confirmed that the man he imposed on the country is not fit to rule, we shouldn’t grant him the opportunity to decide the person to replace him. It is time we the people rose in unison to decide that.

Let no one be in doubt where I stand on the PDP, the Jonathan administration and our so-called democracy: To reecho Karl Maiaer, “This house has fallen.” There is no amount of letter writing or patchwork that can fix it.

Obasanjo should know that the train has left the station; that the problem he and his cohorts caused can’t be solved by letter writing but by a complete restructuring of the country.

Obasanjo, Babangida and company have lost all moral right to dictate how to define the new Nigeria we envisage.

Defection: PDP asks court to sack Amaechi, others

 Rebel govs
The Peoples Democratic Party has asked an Abuja Federal High Court to sack  its  five governors who  recently defected to the All Progressives Congress.

 The governors are Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano) and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara).

The Independent National Electoral Commission was  also listed as a defendant in the suit filed on behalf of the PDP by Alex Izinyon (SAN).

In the suit, the ruling party  argued that the governors should be sacked   on the grounds that by  their defection, they had  forfeited their offices.

In the event that the governors are sacked from office, PDP wants the court to order the deputy governors or speakers of their  state Houses of Assembly     to assume their  positions.

The PDP   asked the court for several reliefs, among which,  is a declaration that by the combined provisions of sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, the   governors  could not  continue to enjoy the mandate given to it (PDP) by the people/electorate  as they  (governors) had  defected to another political party.

 The court  was also requested by the PDP    to make a declaration that in the absence of any division in the PDP, the governors had  vacated or forfeited their seats upon their defection to the APC.

 Also, the FHC  was asked to make a declaration that, by the combined provisions of sections 87 of the Electoral Act 2011 (as amended), and sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, the offices of the governors had  reverted to the PDP.

 It also wants the court to make a declaration that, by the combined provisions of sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, upon the defection of the governors, the mandates revert to the deputy governors or  the speakers of   Houses of Assembly of the respective states or any  other officers next in rank who are  still   members of the PDP.

 The PDP  demanded  a declaration that by the combined  provisions of sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, the act of defection by the governors from the party, on whose platform they were elected, amounted to gross  misconduct.

The party, in the same vein, asked the court to make an order mandating/directing the Houses of Assembly of Adamawa, Rivers, Sokoto, Kano and Kwara states to commence impeachment proceedings against the governors.