247JuicyGist

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

PRESIDENTIAL MEDIA CHAT TODAY

President Goodluck Jonathan is scheduled to address selected members of the press at 7pm today February 11, 2015 in a programme tagged Presidential Media Chat.
The Presidential Media Chat seeks to foster an avenue where the president will answer questions on national issues.
Reno Omokri the President's aide on social media confirmed this on twitter, saying, "There shall be a presidential media chat 7pm tomorrow (now today), Wednesday, February 11, 2015. All stations are advised to hook up to the network service."
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PRISON INMATE BAGS A DEGREE FROM PRISON

A prison inmate, Theophilus Adenyi, has received a second class upper degree in peace studies and conflict resolution from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

Adenyi, an awaiting trial inmate and pioneer student of NOUN at its Enugu Prison study centre, was yesterday presented the certificate by the Controller-General of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), Dr Peter Ekpendu, at the first convocation of the centre.

The graduate said that he was elated to have completed his university education in spite of obvious challenges.

“I promise that I shall at all times uphold the legacies of NOUN and also be a good ambassador.

“Just few months to my final degree examination in ESUT, I was set up and roped into the matter that I am currently facing trial for, but today I thank God I am a graduate,” Adeniyi said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Adenyi, who was one of the 54 students in the centre, bagged three awards from NOUN, including N50,000 cash award as the best student.

Ekpendu commended Adenyi for making the NPS proud and promised to continue to encourage inmates to reach their potentials in whatever trade they chose.

“I heard a number of you registered for Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. We shall do our best to ensure that you are comfortable to the best of our ability,” he said.

He said the intensity of academic activities by the inmates was a clear testimony that the future of the country was bright.

In a citation, the Deputy Controller of Prisons, Enugu State Command, Mr Felix Lawrence, said that the graduand made a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.36.

Lawrence said that Adenyi was a final year political science student at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) when he was arrested and charged to court over a communal crisis.

The Coordinator of the study centre, Prof. Ladan Babankodong, extolled Adenyi’s virtuesSharing is caring

JONATHAN AND OBAMA IN DIPLOMATIC SHOWDOWN OVER APC

The frosty diplomatic relations between the US and Nigeria may be further worsened by claims that consultants to All Progressives Congress (APC) are associates of President Barack Obama.

The Jonathan administration, according to a minister who spoke with TheCable on Tuesday, is poised to protest “strongly” against White House’s “meddling” in the Nigerian elections which it believes is influenced by AKPD Media and Messages, the firm handling APC’s political strategy in the US.

The political consulting firm was co-founded by David Axelrod, an Obama confidant. He was a chief campaign adviser to Obama during the campaign for the presidency in 2008 and was later appointed as senior advisor to the president. In 2011, Axelrod left government and became the senior strategist for Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.
The minister told TheCable that the Jonathan administration will raise concerns with the Obama administration over its “hostile” attitude to the Nigerian president and its obvious endorsement of the APC candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. Axelrod John Kerry, the US secretary of state, had issued a strong-worded statement on Sunday condemning the postponement of the general election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and warning against further delays. Unconfirmed reports say Kerry, on a recent visit to Nigeria, had asked Jonathan why he did not fire Sambo Dasuki, a retired colonel and national security adviser, for suggesting in London on January 22 that the 2015 elections should be postponed because of the fiasco over 30 million uncollected biometric voter cards. In a report in the Washington Free Beacon, an online newspaper, AKPD was accused of lying that it had stopped working for the APC. AKPD once said it stopped working for the APC since March 2014, but that its email exchanges with senior party members and advisers since then “show that contrary to the firm’s claims, AKPD has quietly continued to perform political work on Buhari’s behalf as he fights to unseat current President Goodluck Jonathan”, the newspaper said. Isaac Baker, AKPD spokesman, had told the Washington Times last year that the firm worked with the APC from December 2013 to March 2014 “to form a new political opposition party and create a platform in advance of their first national convention. We were no longer working with the APC when the Boko Haram kidnapping of the young girls took place”. However, he was said to have admitted on Monday that the firm worked again with the APC in December 2014. “AKPD worked with APC from December 2013 to March 2014, at which point our contract ended. Nine months later, in December 2014, the APC re-hired AKPD for a 3-week engagement to help the party in organizing announcement events,” Baker told the Free Beacon in an email. “That was our only involvement with the party since we completed work in March. That project is now complete and we have no ongoing relationship with them,” he said. But Free Beacon says the internal emails sent between APC advisers over the past several months and obtained by the newspaper confirm that the work with AKPD continued after March 2014. Kerry met with Jonathan where he reportedly warned against poll shift In a series of messages between senior APC officials and advisers from September 2014 to late January 2015, AKPD polling and other work are repeatedly discussed, the newspaper reported. “The meeting went well and the report well received. [Gov. Rotimi Amaechi] will meet with the AKPD team tomorrow to discuss the facilitation of the event but no dates fixed yet,” APC member Olubunmi Adetunmbi is reported to have written in one September 23 email to Kayode Fayemi, former governor of Ekiti state. AKPD’s work is again mentioned in a separate chain of emails sent between Buhari’s running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, and adviser Fayemi. “I also think the AKPD surveys also clearly showed that the South West is the battle ground for this election,” Osinbajo writes in a discussion about boosting election turnouts for the APC. A third email chain from Jan. 21 shows APC leader Nasir El-Rufai discussing an “October 2014 AKPD poll” that he hoped to disseminate to “the team”, the newspaper reported. Lai Mohammed, APC’s spokesman, told TheCable on Tuesday that the fact that AKPD is APC’s consultant “is in the public domain”.

Another US firm Levick, led by former US President Bill Clinton’s confidant Lanny Davis, currently works for the Jonathan administration after signing a consultancy deal with the News Agency of Nigeria in 2014.

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OBASANJO ENDORSES BUHARI - "...why shoudn't he support him"

“The circumstances [Buhari] will be working under if he wins the election are different from the one he worked under before, where he was both the executive and the legislature – he knows that,” he said.

“It’s a question of leadership – political and military. “He’s smart enough. He’s educated enough. He’s experienced enough. Why shouldn’t I support him?”

It is the first time that the ex-president has publicly spoken of his support for Buhari. He recently said that he would only speak out on his leaning after the election has been conducted. On the postponement of the election he said: “The signs are not auspicious. I don’t know whether a script is being played.” He criticised the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of wasting the country’s resources. “You need to ask [Jonathan] how has he let [the army] go to this extent,” he said “Many things went wrong: recruitment went wrong; training went wrong; morale went down; motivation not there; corruption was deeply ingrained; welfare was bad.” When asked if he was still nursing further political ambition, he said: “I am an old man and I’m enjoying what I’m doing now… And then you forget I am a farmer; I have to manage my farm.”

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NO TERMINAL LEAVE FOR ME - JEGA

Mr. Kayode Idowu,the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman denied that his boss was going on terminal leave even though this happened to Prof. Maurice Iwu.

He said, “Jega is busy preparing for the elections and you are asking about terminal leave. Does anyone planning to conduct elections go on terminal leave? There is nothing like that.”

Idowu had in an interview on a TV programme monitored in Lagos, on Tuesday, said Jega’s appointment was not guided by civil service rules and would serve until the end of his tenure on June 30.

He said the postponement of the elections would make INEC better prepared for the elections scheduled for March 28 and April 11.

Idowu also denied the report that Jega had resigned his appointment due to pressure from the Presidency.

Idowu said, “No, that’s (resignation) is not true, he has not resigned. He didn’t resign. It is a mere rumour.”

However,even though by norm, political appointees had at several times in the past been ordered to go on terminal leave even though they were not civil servants.

The provisions of Public Service Rules 100238 states that officers are required to give three months notice of their retirement from service terminating on the effective date of their retirement. This means Jega might be forced to proceed on terminal leave before the elections.

For instance, the tenure of Jega’s predecessor, Prof Maurice Iwu, was due to expire on June 13, 2010 but on April 28, 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan, ordered Iwu to proceed on terminal leave.Sharing is caring