A Must Read: Nigerians have been SCAMMED Again!

Written by: Oyedokun Julius Babatunde



The show of horror by Members of the 8th National Assembly on Thursday, 25/06/15, is the furthering of another Political Acrobatics in Nigeria.
What Nigerians continue to get by way of humiliation from this legislative temple, is too decimal a repugnant disdain, having once again sponsored an army of touts and shameless hooligans to the National Upper and Lower Chambers under the disguise of change .

Lest we forget, on Thursday November 20, 2014, Nigerians woke up to the appalling sight of this change seeking members of the House of Representatives scaling the fence of the National Assembly while their colleagues waiting for thier turn to do same claps to cheer themselves up even as they get televised on national television.

Personally, I had concluded that Nigeria has come to stay since we could cross the 2015 presidential election oddles and entered into the much talked about 'Change Era' propagated by the APC; but Alas, i was wrong!

Nigerian political class have once again rebranded an old wine with a new bottle and sold to nigerians as CHANGE.
Indeed, these undiscerning multitude of about 200 million people have been lured into buying an old order for a CHANGE, without any form of addition, adjustment, advancement, break-away from the past, compression, contraction, conversion, correction, development or an iota of difference from what use to be.

What Manner of Change?

Is it not surprising that the A.P.C (with the way she is handling the current National Assembly Issue) is acting directly opposite her statement in the pre-election days that "Nigeria’s politics is broken, and that the nation urgently needs fundamental political reform and improvement in governance, more transparency and accountability"

The Buhari led APC government have displayed incompetence and lack of preparedness since the last one month of her ascension to power with the president acting as the Commander in Chief, as Ministers, Special Advisers and Personal Assistance to himself all at the same time.

Is this the Change we bought?

Can you imagine what adjectives and phrases the APC spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohamed would have invoked if this were to be a PDP government?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Nigerians are not gullible but will always give any government more than enough time to proof herself worthy of the people's mandate or not. Let the All Progressive Congress as a party desist from the impunity of dabbling into the affairs of government both at the executive and the legislative angles and allow those elected by Nigerians carry out their duties as spelt out by the law of the land.

Nigerians deserves the CHANGE they were promised.

SPORTS: Serbia beat Brazil to lift U20 World Cup

Goal from Manchester United's Andreas Pereira can't stop Serbs lifting first ever title



With a host of birdlife, as well as dolphins and seals to spot, Isle of Man is the perfect for nature lovers

Serbia have won the under-20 World Cup after beating Brazil 2-1 in the final - despite conceding a stunning goal from Manchester United's promising youngster Andreas Pereira.

A winner from Nemanja Maksimovic in extra time sealed victory for the Serbs, bringing them their first ever title as an independent country.

The game had been locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes after an opening goal from Stanisa Mandic and the wonderful Brazilian equaliser from Pereira.


But the east Europeans clinched it in the 118th minute. Serbian coach Veljko Paunovic said: "They can get to the top of the world"

"I can tell you in this generation there is a lot of good players that in the next 10 years will play in the best games in the world."

"This is the time for this generation to grow up and say farewell to youth football and this is the best way to do it.

"They have to focus on the next 10 years."

This Is What Life Looks Like Inside One Of Britain’s Indefinite Migrant Detention Centers

The London-based photographer Nana Varveropoulou documented life at the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Center over a period of two years.posted on Jun. 16, 2015, at 4:54 p.m.

These photos are from No Man’s Land, a project that shows everyday life at a detention center for asylum-seekers and migrants in the U.K.

Benjamin has been in detention for eight months. He did not want to disclose his country of origin.

Nana Varveropoulou

Xian is from China and has been in detention for six months.

Nana Varveropoulou

It’s a collaboration between Nana Varveropoulou, a London-based photographer, and some of the detainees at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, a detention center near Heathrow airport. The U.K. is the only country in the European Union where asylum seekers and undocumented migrants can be detained indefinitely,as The Guardian reported in March.

Varveropoulou taught photography workshops to male detainees at Colnbrook over two years, up until mid-2014, and the resulting project is combination of both her and their photos of the center. During her time there, the center housed mostly asylum seekers whose applications to stay were being processed or had been rejected, but also held migrants awaiting deportation after being convicted of a crime and serving a prison sentence in the U.K., she told BuzzFeed News.

The detained men told Varveropoulou they were confined to the wings — one of which is shown here — for up to 14 hours a day, she told BuzzFeed News.

Nana Varveropoulou

The photo on the left shows a bedroom for a new arrival, where a person would stay for a few days while their paperwork was processed. Fully fledged detainees would then sleep two to a room.

Joland is originally from Uganda and had been in detention for two years when this was taken. None of the men in Varveropoulou’s portraits wanted to disclose their full names.


Colnbrook has ping-pong tables, pool tables, and large TV screens within the wings.

There are other facilities, such as this prayer room, as well as a church and a mosque, that are outside the wings. Detainees had to request to use these and be escorted by a guard,

Enver, from Kosovo, had been in detention for almost two years when this photo was taken. Farzin is from Iran and had been in detention for eight months.

Here are some of the shots taken by the detainees themselves. The man who took this one said he had been detained for 18 months and had no idea if he would be kept for another day, another year, or longer.


“All you can do is wait,” the man who took the photo of the dominos said of life at Colnbrook in the caption for his picture.

M. Noor



“There is nowhere to go so we mostly just hang out in the corridor. Our ward has a small outdoor space. There is netting everywhere, even on the sky,” the same man said in his caption for this photo.


M. Noor

Serco, a private outsourcing firm, had the government contract to run Colnbrook during Varveropoulou’s time there. The contract was awarded to a company called Mitie last year — they took over in September 2014.


Serco sent the following statement to BuzzFeed News in response to the assertions that Colnbrook detainees were kept confined to their wings for up to 14 hours a day, and that they could only use some facilities on the site if they made a request and were escorted by a guard:


From 7am – 9pm those in the centre had access to a range of recreational activities on their wings and also had the opportunity to access the full range of amenities on site each day including education, shop, Internet room and Art, cultural kitchen, library, faith rooms and multi-cultural room as well as access to the exercise yards for a minimum of one hour per day.

Detainees had to make bookings for high demand rooms such as the IT suite and art, and make appointments for the barbers. Other facilities such as the mosque and chapel were freely accessible and used or were opened on request.


Some photos from No Man’s Land are currently on display at two exhibitions in London, one of which runs until June 21 and one which runs until September.

BUZZFEED

Hundreds Of Thousands Of Haitians Are Scrambling To Stay In The Dominican Republic

They face a fast approaching deadline to register with the Dominican government after being stripped of citizenship.posted on Jun. 16, 2015, at 5:51 p.m.

Hundreds of Haitians braved very long lines on Monday in an attempt to stay in the Dominican Republic ahead of a Wednesday deadline to file the proper paperwork or face deportation.

Ezequiel Abiu Lopez / AP

Haitian Jaquenol Martinez shows a card that proves that he has worked in the Dominican sugar cane fields since 1963, while trying to apply for a temporary resident permit, in Santo Domingo.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the small island of Hispanola in the Caribbean Sea. Former French and Spanish colonies respectively, the border between the two countries previously was relatively open, with many poorer Haitians crossing for work.

Wikimedia

The two have had a rocky relationship over the years. The wealthier Dominican Republic has long been accused of treating Haitian migrants and their descendants as second-class citizens.

And Haiti has long been plagued with ineffective governance and dwindling natural resources, further pressuring its population to try to cross the border.

Despite that, the Dominican government rushed to the aid of Haiti following the devastating earthquake that demolished the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in 2010. For a brief moment, it seemed like ties between the two were on the mend.

That all changed in 2013, when the DR’s Constitutional Court issued a ruling further tightening a 2010 citizenship law that “retroactively denies Dominican nationality to anyone born after 1929 who does not have at least one parent of Dominican blood.”

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

A fishermen cleans fish in the waters of Caracol Bay before selling it to fish vendors in Haiti.

The decision affected not only recent migrants from Haiti but the descendants of Haitians born in the Dominican Republic who considered themselves native. Withthousands now stateless, protestors demanded better treatment of Haitian immigrants.

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

Protesters march to the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Port-au-Prince

In response, the Dominican government passed a new law last year, setting up a program under which people could “register to a special scheme to obtain a residence permit which would be needed to later claim citizenship in the country.”

Ezequiel Abiu Lopez / AP

Marie Adenes Dieudonne, a Haitian immigrant in the Dominican Republic, poses for a photo to start her registration in the “regularization process” of foreigners living in the Dominican Republic

To register, non-citizens would have to provide documentation to establish their identity and prove that they arrived after October 2011. Officials estimate that the number who meet those terms may be as high as 500,000.

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

But few had qualified as of Monday. “While officials have said there will be no mass round-ups, authorities have prepared 12 buses and opened processing centers along the border with Haiti to expedite repatriations,” the AP reported.

Ezequiel Abiu Lopez / AP

Delinua Dovil Jean Francois, right, shows the supporting documents that proves that he did the paperwork for obtaining his Haitian identity card, in order to apply for a temporary resident permit in the Dominican Republic

BUZZFEED

Azerbaijan’s Oil Boom Is Ending — Now Comes The Bust

The tiny country has built an image as a modern state on revenues from the world’s third-largest oil field in the Caspian. But how long can it last?posted on Jun. 16, 2015, at 9:13 p.m.



The sun rises over the Caspian Sea overlooking oil derricks in Baku, Azerbaijan. Sergei Grits / Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Opulent and brashly ambitious, Ibrahim Ibrahimov personified the ostentatious capitalism that has defined Azerbaijan for the past oil-fueled decade. The oligarch exploited ties with the family of Ilham Aliyev, the country’s strongman president, to become one of the country’s richest men and build the Khazar Islands, a giant artificial development on the Caspian Sea soon to be home to the world’s tallest building.

Last month Ibrahimov, along with nearly a hundred other businessmen with outstanding debts to Azerbaijan’s largest state-run bank, found himself in another place that has become synonymous with Aliyev’s rule: jail.

Ibrahimov and several other businessmen were released after repaying some of the debt, but their arrests appeared to signal that the oil boom fueling Azerbaijan’s meteoric rise may be coming to an end. Declining production and prices well below the $90 per barrel that the country needs to balance its budget have left the country badly in need of new revenue. Azerbaijan’s central bank abruptly devalued its currency, the manat, by a third in February and may have to do so again before year’s end, according to Moody’s.

Lavish spending has long been a calling card for Azerbaijan, which has built an image as a modern state on revenues from the world’s third-largest oil field in the Caspian. The country has sold itself to the West as an alternative to Russian oil and gas supplies, strategic partner for NATO and Israel, and host of extravagant events like 2012’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Five years after domestic oil production hit its peak, the country still relies on energy for 70% of its income and 95% of its exports.

On Friday, the country hosted the inaugural opening ceremony for European Games, a new multi-sport event. It cost an eye-popping $100 million — more than double the price of the far larger opening to London’s 2012 summer Olympics. That reportedly included a $2 million payout to Lady Gaga, who hid in a hotel for several days before emerging to play one song. Opposition figures say they estimate the total cost of the games to be as much as $8 billion.

Azeri officials admit they will have to diversify beyond oil and gas, but five years after domestic oil production hit its peak, the country still relies on energy for 70% of its income and 95% of its exports. “Azerbaijan is not the richest country in the world,” said Ali Hasanov, a senior aide to Aliyev. “Its resources aren’t always going to bring in the expected revenue.”

The crunch has raised hopes among some that it will provide a stimulus to root out the cronyism and corruption that plague Azerbaijan. “If you could have invented laboratory conditions for making the conditions for reform, you would have designed it around a sub-$60 per barrel oil price, devaluation of the currency, difficult times in neighboring markets, and some big vanity projects that have to be financed in a hurry,” said a Western businessman in Baku, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid offending contacts in Azerbaijan’s government. “It’s kind of the perfect conditions for pushing towards reform.”

But the mass arrests of businessmen — which came in the midst of a massive crackdown on rights advocates — has not inspired much confidence that reform is the path the government will choose. In the run-up to the European Games, Aliyev’s government arrested more than 80 people to the games who now meet the criteria for political prisoners, according to the campaigning organization Sport for Rights.

Hasanov, the presidential aide, denied the arrests had anything to do with government finances. “A legal obligation is a legal obligation,” he said. “And if someone doesn’t repay a debt, then he has legal responsibility and should answer for it.”

Azerbaijan spent $350 million to build the Flame Towers, the tallest skyscrapers in Baku. Christopher Lee / Getty Images

Aliyev has staked the country’s future prosperity on the massive Shah Deniz II gas field in the Caspian. A consortium led by BP is exploiting the field, which is to provide gas to Europe through two pipelines that together cost about $45 billion. The project will not come online for several years, however, and is unlikely to produce enough to dent Russia’s stranglehold on the European gas market.

“At best, we’ll be producing 10 billion cubic meters in 2020. Hungary alone consumed 13 billion a year,” said Natiq Jafarli, an economist and founder of the REAL movement, an opposition group whose founder is one of the 80 alleged political prisoners.

The oil boom imbued Azeri officials with a sense of pride. Since the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline came online in 2005, the number of Azeris living below the poverty line went from 49% of the population to 5% today, according to Hasanov.

“We’re not Equatorial Africa,” said Asim Mollazade, who leads a small pro-business party in parliament. “There’s no need to teach us how to wash our hands.”

Now, the drop in the oil price is having a visible impact. Many storefronts in downtown Baku’s most prized areas are up for rent — an unheard-of prospect during the boom years. Remittances home from the millions of Azeris living abroad have dropped sharply after the economic slowdown in Russia, where most of them work.

Azerbaijan is trying to use its oil revenues to develop the country’s non-oil sector in response, a move even government supporters admit will be challenging. “Azerbaijan for the better part of 200 years has been an oil country; it’s part of our history, it’s part of our culture, you can’t eradicate it overnight,” said Fariz Ismailizde, deputy director of ADA University, a new institution with a lush Palo Alto-style campus funded by Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry.

A case in point is tourism, a sector the government has sought to develop by backing hotel construction and large events like the European Games. With visa requirements for Westerners still in place, however, the flow of tourists has yet to materialize. This week, a TV station owned by Aliyev’s cousin showed an interview with an obviously Azeri man who said that he was a tourist from London named “James Bond” and praised Baku in broken English.

Facebook

Western diplomats and local opposition activists say the European Games have already had an impact on ordinary Azeris’ pocketbooks. Some public sector workers have complained at receiving reduced salaries through an unacknowledged, government-imposed “Olympic tax.” Small businessmen are increasingly complaining of shakedowns from the tax police, according to several people with ties to the business community. Traffic police even started collecting fines for driving in European Games-only lanes without announcing it, allowing them to collect $40 fines from thousands of unsuspecting drivers.

Activists say the crackdown on dissent is partly an attempt to stave off popular anger at corruption, which is endemic in Azerbaijan. Many of the reporters and activists behind bars claim that it stems from the top. A recent report based on work by the Radio Free Europe journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who has been in jail since December, alleges Aliyev’s family owns a $25 million house in west London. After visiting Aliyev’s opulent villa outside Baku in 2009, a U.S. diplomat wrote that it was “unclear whether Aliyev understands or is concerned with the sharp contrast between his life and that of average Azerbaijani citizens” in a cable later published by Wikileaks.

“The clearest model” after the Soviet Union collapsed “was this grotesque form of capitalism, and that’s what they’ve tried to copy,” the Western businessman said. “And with the wave of wealth that’s hit the country, that’s the sort of capitalism that they’ve built for themselves — grabby, nasty, blingy.”

Aliyev will have to decide between sustaining Azerbaijan’s economic model to secure his own power, or rooting out corruption and inequality to keep people happy, said Jafarli, the opposition economist.

“If he were like Lee Kwan Yew [Singaporean leader who died in March], we would be happy,” Jafarli said. “But it’s like someone told him about what Milton Friedman wrote — that more economic freedom will lead to more political freedom — and he took it the wrong way.”

BUZZFEED

A Red Devil Caught His Team-Mate Mid-Air When His Parachute Didn’t Open

One team member had a “lucky escape” when his parachute failed to open at the Whitehaven Air Show in Cumbria.posted on Jun. 20, 2015, at 10:22 a.m.

A Red Devil parachutist had a lucky escape at the Whitehaven Air Show in Cumbria on Friday when his team-mate caught him mid-air, after his parachute failed to open.

Twitter / Via Twitter: @PARA_Band

Witnesses watching the air show spoke of the panic when the Red Devil’s parachute did not open mid-air.

One spectator, Lucy Milne, said: “It seemed to go on for ages and it’s just seeing the panic of everyone around you and seeing it on the parachute guys as well - the panic.

“And then all of a sudden he just started to go really quick and everyone was holding their breath and then all of a sudden they were in the water,” reported the BBC.

Both parachutists landed safely in the Queen’s Dock of the Whitehaven Marina.

Twitter / Via Twitter: @itvnews

Watching from the crowd, local, Liam Benson, captured the moment that the parachutist is saved and brought to the ground safely.

In a statement on their Facebook page, the organisers of Whitehaven Air Show confirmed that team members were safe, and thanked everyone involved for handling the situation quickly.

Facebook: whitehavenairshow2015

The army is investigating why the parachute failed to open, reported ITV.

Conservative Minister Tells Teenagers To Go Out And Get A Saturday Job

As fewer teenagers take up weekend work, employment minister Priti Patel tells BuzzFeed News that part-time jobs are crucial for future careers.posted on Jun. 20, 2015, at 2:57 p.m.


James Linsell-Clark / SWNS for BuzzFeed

Teenagers should go out and get a Saturday job, the employment minister has said. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Priti Patel said working at weekends or evenings was absolutely crucial in impressing future employers.

Just 18% of students aged 16 and 17 have a part-time job – down from 42% in 1997, according to a report out last week from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES). The study found that “young people are increasingly choosing to simply focus on their studies”.

Patel, 43, said this was short-sighted. She said Saturday jobs give teenagers a “foot in the door” with future employers. The Conservative minister insisted pressure with exams had “always been there” and urged students to make time for practical work if they want to get a job in the future.

The MP for Witham, Essex, was appointed employment minister last month when her predecessor Esther McVey lost her seat in the general election. Long seen as being on the right of the Tory party, Patel contributed to a book in 2012 which claimed that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world”.

But she told BuzzFeed News how she had started work at an early age, stacking shelves and bundling up newspapers at the chain of newsagents run by her parents in south east England. “I work, I’ve always worked and not working was something that just would never enter my mind,” she said.


“I think if you have, as youngsters, the ability to get a real taster of work – whether it’s after-school work or weekend jobs – not only are you earning some dough but you pick up those vital, vital employability skills. And that is great to put on your CV. I think it gives you a foot in the door with future employers so they can see that actually you are a responsible young person.”


Patel told BuzzFeed News that too many teenagers were lacking basic skills like turning up on time. “Employers are taking on youngsters and still having to educate them about what work is like,” she said. “That you do turn up at 9am and it is a full working day and you do get a lunch break but you have to be back at the end of that, and you can’t be doing personal things during a working day. That’s all about employability skills.”

Some 55% of young people say their main reason for not having a part-time job is because they want to focus on their studies, according to the UKCES report. But Patel said it was important to find a balance between earning and learning.

“I think that pressure has always been there,” she said. “Quite rightly, our education system is challenging, we want our young people to leave with great qualifications, that’s how you get on in life. But there’s no harm in supplementing that with some practical experience. And I think that’s really where we need to get to.”

BUZZFEED

Unforgiving U.S. Risks Lost Generation of Black Men, Obama Says

The president tries to help those growing up in an environment much less forgiving than his upbringing in Hawaii.

President Barack Obama, who has spent the past year addressing the issue of race on an almost weekly basis, said an “entire generation” of young minority men may have been lost while growing up in an environment much less forgiving than his upbringing in Hawaii.

“Where I might have gotten a second or a third chance, they had no margin for error,” Obama said in a documentary about his My Brother’s Keeper initiative, posted on the Discovery Channel’s Facebook page on Friday. “I always see myself in them. I do know what it means to come of age uncertain about your place and not clear about what it means to become a man.”

Obama’s participation in the documentary, titled “Rise: The Promise of My Brother’s Keeper,” is part of his promotion for the year-old initiative for young men, and another chance for him to speak bluntly about race after largely avoiding the topic early in his presidency.

President Obama

"I do know what it means to come of age uncertain about your place."

During Obama’s second term racial issues -- from inequality to criminal justice to policing in minority communities -- have moved to the forefront of the national debate. In the past year, the U.S. has seen mass protests and unrest in New York, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after the deaths of unarmed black men in encounters with police.

Race again occupied the president’s agenda on Thursday, after a white gunman killed nine people at a predominantly black Charleston, South Carolina, church in what officials have labeled a hate crime.
Dark Chapter

“The fact that this took place in a black church obviously also raises questions about a dark part of our history,” Obama said Thursday at the White House.

Obama created My Brother’s Keeper in February 2014 in response to a series of highly publicized deaths of black men, often in encounters with police officers. The goal of the initiative, which Obama has increasingly referenced in public speeches, is to increase opportunity for young black, Hispanic and Native America males.

The president has called for changes to the criminal justice system and more funding for early childhood education programs to help combat high rates of incarceration and unemployment in minority communities.

Last month, Obama unveiled My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a non-profit organization that works with private companies and foundations with similar goals. The organization is intended to extend the work of Obama’s initiative after he leaves office.

In the documentary, which will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, which is Fathers’ Day in the U.S., Obama said he started the initiative to combat negative images of young men who are often seen as a threat.

“Part of the purpose, I think, of My Brother’s Keeper is to allow people to interact with these young people, and to see themselves in these young people because so often these young men are seen only through the filter of stereotypes,” he said.

Michelle Obama's European Trip in Photos

The first lady embarks on a jaunt through the U.K. and Italy.

First lady Michelle Obama arrived in London on Monday with daughters Sasha and Malia and her mother, Marian Robinson. On her weeklong trip through the U.K. and Italy, she was set to promote initiatives dealing with girls' education, children's health, and military families. On Tuesday in the U.K., she met with Prince Harry and Prime Minister David Cameron. On Wednesday, the group arrived in Milan, Italy, where the first lady cooked with American students and talked healthy eating at the James Beard American Restaurant, a pop-up at Milan's food-themed Expo Milano. She also met with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Here's a look at the trip so far.

Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Touching down across the pond
First lady Michelle Obama arrives with daughters Malia, center, and Sasha, along with her mother, Marian Robinson (behind her), at Stanstead airport in London on June 15.

Photographer: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
Tight squeeze
The first lady greets students at the Mulberry School for Girls on June 16 in London, where she discussed how the U.S. and the U.K. can collaborate to further girls' education around the world.

Photographer: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
Song and dance
A student performs a dance routine for the first lady at the Mulberry School for Girls.

Photographer: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
School days
The first lady participates in a “Let Girls Learn” panel at the Mulberry School for Girls.

Photographer: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
For the kids
The first lady speaks to students at The Mulberry School for Girls.

Photographer: Amanda Lucidon/The White House
Tea with the prince
The first lady meets with Prince Harry for tea to discuss the “Let Girls Learn” initiative and veteran support at Kensington Palace in London on June 16.

Photographer: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Meeting the minister
The first lady meets with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron at his residence, 10 Downing Street, in London on June 16.

Photographer: Amanda Lucidon/The White House
More tea
The first lady sits down with the prime minister and his wife, Samantha Cameron, in London on June 16.

Photographer: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
Bring the kids
Sasha and Malia Obama also came along for the visit to 10 Downing Street.

Photographer: Jacopo Raule/Getty Images
Made it to Milan
The group lands at Milan's Malpensa Airport on June 17.

Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP
The first supper
The first lady visits the James Beard American Restaurant to talk healthy eating and cook with students from the American School of Milan on June 17.

Photographer: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images
Time to eat
After cooking with the students, the first lady sits down to eat on June 17.

Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images
A Da Vinci afternoon
The group meets with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini, for a visit to Leonardo da Vinci's “The Last Supper” on June 17.

Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Talking food
The first lady, alongside celebrity chef Mario Batali, addresses journalists in the U.S. pavilion at Expo Milano on July 17.

Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
A day at the Expo
The first lady sits with children and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's wife, Agnese Landini, at the Italian pavilion at Expo Milano on June 17.

READ: Do You Think Donald Trump Is Rich?

Just How Rich Is Donald Trump, Exactly?

He'd be the only presidential contender to collect rent from Gucci.

Donald Trump, who announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidency Tuesday, is rich. Exactly how rich has been the subject of decades of debate and even a lawsuit.

“The real number is $10 billion,” Trump told Bloomberg at a June 3 meeting in his Fifth Avenue office, leaning over his paper-strewn desk. Or is it $8.7 billion, as stated in a documentTrump published in conjunction with his announcement? Even at the lower figure, that would make him the 54th richest person in the U.S., according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

A billion here; a billion there. The fact that estimates of Trump's fortune can vary that widely underscores how hard it is to determine just how much he's worth. His own assessment for the Trump brand name, which is stamped on hotels, neckwear, cologne and bottled water and allows him to collect licensing fees, is in the billions. Trump is bullish on Trump futures.

“Now that’s a brand.”
Donald Trump

“Ninety-nine million views,” he said, knocking over an employee’s computer monitor as he pointed to a YouTube video of rapper Mac Miller’s platinum-certified track, “Donald Trump,” playing on it. “Now that’s a brand.”

Unlike some other candidates, Trump has never filled out the personal financial disclosure form before. It could be fall before he files, if he applies for routinely granted deadline extensions.

As a celebrity property developer and promoter, Trump has no peers. He tends to describe all of his assets in superlatives: the greatest building, the finest golf course, the best locations. He also doesn’t publicly delineate between what he owns outright and properties he manages, making components of his fortune hard to pin down.
Photographer: Rob Loud/Getty Images


Donald Trump joins Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini, Gucci CEO Mark Lee, and Gucci President Daniella Vitale for the new flagship store ribbon cutting at Trump Tower on Feb. 8, 2008, in New York City.
Gucci Store

Most of his signature property, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, is comprised of condominium units and common elements—hallways, elevators—that have been sold and no longer hold value for Trump.

He owns the rights to the building’s commercial spaces, including twelve floors of offices and a three-story Gucci store at the building’s base. Those spaces are valued at about $400 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg using estimates of revenue, profit and capitalization rates.

He also owns the building’s 30,000 square-foot penthouse apartment. While the home could fetch a premium for its size and location, a buyer would probably want to renovate the gilded space.

Trump took out a $100 million mortgage on the tower in 2012, according to New York City property records.
Murky Exercise

Developers in locales as far flung as South Korea, Turkey, Panama and Hawaii have paid Trump fees to put his name on buildings he neither constructed nor owns, with an aim to sell condos and hotel rooms for higher prices. The income supplements Trump’s other operations to fund new acquisitions and pay down debt. It’s unclear what sum, if any, these licensing rights could capture on the open market.

Another complication in this murky net worth exercise: Trump holds the leaseholds, but not the deeds, for at least two New York City properties. He purchased a 100-year leasehold in 1979 for 6 East 57th Street, which houses a Niketown store, according to property records. The agreement also granted him the air rights above the store, which he used to build Trump Tower, located right around the corner.

He paid an annual rent of $125,000 for the building through 2008. The following year, it jumped to six percent of the property’s fair market value, leaving room for Trump to negotiate his rent, said Charles McDowell, owner of London-based Charles McDowell Property Consultants. A 100-year-leasehold would sell for at least a 10 percent discount to its value, McDowell said.

“Rents have skyrocketed on the street, and this old lease is most likely less than $500 per square foot right now, even given renewals,” Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail brokerage at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, said. The leasehold has a value of at least $450 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
40 Wall Street

Trump also has a leasehold agreement at 40 Wall Street, a 1.3 million-square-foot office tower in New York’s financial district. He purchased the lease, which expires in 2059, for $10 million in 1995, property records show. He could extend the lease through 2194.

Office space in the building rents for an average of about $45 per square foot, according to listings on its website. The leasehold is worth about $500 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. He secured a $160 million mortgage on the property in 2010, records show.

Photographer: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

Donald Trump attends opening of Red Tiger Golf Course at Trump National Doral on Jan. 12, 2015, in Doral, Florida.
Greens Fees

Trump’s resorts and 20 golf courses in the U.S., Scotland, and Puerto Rico are also difficult to value. Golf courses have a variety of revenue models, said Larry Hirsh, president of Golf Property Analysts, an appraisal and consulting firm. Some are designed to help sell nearby real estate and may operate at a loss.

They derive revenue from a mixture of greens fees, memberships and food and drink, each with different profit margins. Based on data compiled by Bloomberg, Trump's courses could be worth more than $450 million.

“The Trump name has come to mean something in golf,” Hirsh said. “He’s done a lot for the sport.”

There’s more: Trump owns 30 percent of two buildings majority-owned by Vornado Realty Trust—at 555 California Street in San Francisco and 1290 Sixth Avenue in New York—that are worth a combined $640 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Clinton, Bush

Other big projects are probably worth less. He’s retained the rights to the commercial spaces at Trump Tower in Chicago, and opted in 2014 to expand its hotel lobby into what were originally meant to be revenue-generating retail spaces. And New York condominium buildings—Palace, Parc, Place and Plaza—hold little to no value after their units were sold.

Trump has 30 days after an announcement to file a listing of his assets—and liabilities—with the Federal Election Commission. He can seek two 45-day extensions, and those are granted routinely. That means it will be mid-October before Trump reaches the put-up or shut-up moment on giving the public a peek at his personal finances.

If he runs, Trump will be among the few candidates who have never disclosed their finances. Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Perry have all either been federal office holders or candidates before. Others, including Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Scott Walker, have released some financial information voluntarily or under state laws.

Even if Trump does complete a federal personal financial disclosure form, he won’t have to disclose everything about his finances: None of his homes, cars, boats and other personal property must be listed, unless they produce income. He also won’t have to show his tax returns or any assets that are held by his adult children.

But who’s counting?

—David M. Levitt in New York and Richard Rubin in Washington contributed to this article.

BLOOMBERG

APC: The Crisis Within

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

Their collective effort massively won them the general elections, but now they are in disarray. This is the story of a ruling political party in search of peace after the elections of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives of the 8th National Assembly respectively.

It is a baptism of fire. It is happening early. No one anticipated it. They tried to cover it but it leaked out. They also tried to manage it, but it is escalating. And now, there is palpable aggression and deep seated animosity within.

The development has divided APC leaders. And the blame game continues. Was it really a marriage of convenience that bought the APC leaders together in the first place? These are questions popping up now amid the crisis rocking the APC.

Make no mistakes about it, all is not well for the APC. Not at the moment. The reason is simple. The party lost the National Assembly leadership elections. Did I say the party? It is not really the party but some powerful persons in the party? How did this happen?

Soon after the party emerged victorious at the last general elections, the clamour on who become the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives began. Names started dropping and horse trading became intense. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, from Bauchi State, who is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives; his closest rival in the election, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, from Lagos; Hon. Mohammed Monguno, from Borno State; Abudulmuni Jubril; Pally Iraise, from Edo State and Yusuf Lasun, from Osun, were among the early seekers of the office of the House Speaker.

Similarly, at the Senate, the names of Senator Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State, who later got lucky and was voted the Senate President; George Akume, from Benue; Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe, among others, came up for the presidency of the Senate.

With the various interests, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the APC met twice to streamline the interests, but the meetings were stalemated. This led to the party’s leadership meeting at the Rivers State Governorship Lodge in Abuja, held on April 22.

FILE PHOTO: APC Joint Leadership Meeting: From left, APC National Leader Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu discussing with. Muhammadu Buhari and National Chairman of APC Chief John Oyegun during APC Joint Leadership Meeting held in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Everyone that mattered in the APC, including President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, were at the meeting.

There, the party subtly ceded the Senate presidency to the North Central zone and Speakership to North East. Members had no qualms with the North Central having the presidency of the Senate. But tempers flared when South-West suddenly showed interest in the Speakership of the House after North East had been penciled down for the office.

Consequent upon the shouting match, a two-man committee was set up. The two men were Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun. Their mandate was to think out the best way to accommodate the interests.

But there were doubts that the committee ever met to harmonize the interests. To lend credence to this, Buhari repeatedly sounded a caution when his name was dropped that he was backing a candidate for the top National Assembly position. He washed his hands off the allegation and later advocated free hand in the elections of the parliament leaders.

Now, when it became obvious that Akume’s candidacy would not fly for the Senate presidency in the emerging force of Saraki, a powerful man in the party opted for Lawan from the North East in a calculated attempt to dislodge Dogara who was waxing stronger from the zone.

In Dogara’s stead, Gbajabimila was prepared for the House speakership. Contenders tried to woo lawmakers from the APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Election day upstage

On June 9, day of the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, APC, having tried unsuccessfully to stop the participation of Saraki and Dogara in the contest after producing Lawan and Gbajabiamila as their consensus candidates in a straw poll on June 6 in Abuja, scheduled a meeting with all their National Assembly members-elect. But that was their greatest undoing.

While the party leaders and other incoming lawmakers were at the International Conference Centre, ICC, venue of the meeting, the Senate conducted its election and voted Saraki as president. That was not all. The red chamber went ahead and elected opposition senator PDP Ike Ekwerenmadu as the Deputy Senate President.

Also, at the House, with the participation of APC’s favorite candidates, Dogara was voted as the Speaker. Then the party began to boil. First, it declared the outcome of the elections unacceptable and disowned Saraki and Lawan as Senator and House Speaker. Second, it threatened to impose sanctions on them. But then, Saraki and Dogara had already acquired new designation, apparently irreversible now.

Anger

The duos elections later dovetailed into controversy. Of course, the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who largely supported Lawan and Gbajabimila, became sad, extremely sad. His sadness was further fueled by Saraki’s visit to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, another chieftain of the party, immediately after his election. Those in Tinubu’s camp felt that there was a “coup” against their principal’s interest in the APC. To make matters worse, Buhari and Atiku issued separate statements congratulating the new National Assembly leaders and pledged their readiness to work with them. But then, Tinubu’s anger continued to grow.

Oyegun, Mohammed torn between camps

Obviously, the crisis has sprawled to offices of the APC National Chairman, Oyegun, and the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. At the moment, both men are battling to save their jobs. Why? The bottled anger of many APC national leaders had exploded against them.

To many of the leaders, the mock election, which cost the party the Deputy Senate President, is chiefly Oyegun’s sin. He was also accused of not being man enough to resist overtures by powerful forces to conduct the mock election against the wish of the majority.

Mohammed is also not left out in the the bashing. He is accused of belittling Buhari and his office by saying that the President is not the leader of the party.

To everyone’s surprise, this claim emanated from no other person than Mohammad’s deputy, Comrade Timi Frank, who also called for Oyegun’s resignation.

Frank’s words: “If my party could not keep to the promise of change, then we must correct them to keep to that. I have no fear or favour than to say that the current leadership of the party has practically failed.

“With this incident alone, the Chairman should resign from his position after taking a position against the people and the people’s position has finally come to stay. In the Western world, by today, the party’s National Chairman would have resigned honourably.

“Not just the National Chairman but also the entire leadership that took this decision of conducting mock election against the outcry of the larger members of the party. Against the bigger picture of Nigerians, a handful of the party leadership came to take a decision, and, by today, the people have shown that the voice of the people is the voice of God.

“You could see the way the party, including the National Chairman, was speaking before the NASS leadership elections. It showed clearly that the Chairman had totally taken sides which wasn’t meant to be. I understand, he took some of those decisions based on pressure. In this century, APC, as a party, does not need a Chairman that will be under pressure. “ And the party’s National Chairman caused it because times without number, some of leaders told him to come up with a zoning formula from the beginning. He was as ked to take a decision and let people follow, but he didn’t do that.”

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary went on: “They were playing hide and seek with the issue until the last minute when they saw the danger, and they wanted to play hanky-panky, which led us to lose one position at the Senate.

“Let’s go back and ask Lai Mohammed who the leader of the party is if he does not recognize the President as the leader. In my own view, If Lai Mohammed that is my direct boss could come up to tell Nigerians that the President is only a product of the party and not the national leader of the party, then he should have been able to tell us who the leader of the party is.

“We have seen that even in, the then PDP. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was the leader of the party. If in our own case the President cannot be the leader of the party, he should tell us who the leader is then.

“Those that are calling for the Deputy Senate President to resign are anti-people, and I will campaign against it. I will continue to support Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu and every progressive Nigerian should support this mission as it will take Nigeria to the next phase because failure to do this will disrupt democracy”.

Scapegoats

But speaking to Sunday Vanguard on Frank’s call for his resignation, Oyegun said: “It is neither here nor there. That’s his opinion. And I suppose he’s entitled to it. But I read the statement. He’s not a member of the National Working Committee (NWC). He’s a member of NEC alright. But not of the National Working Committee. So, it is neither here not there.

“When things happen, people look for scapegoats and it is a pity that he told the press instead of coming to say, `look, Chairman, what happened? How did things go the way they did?’ He might have just benefited from the education.

“I was not under any pressure in the sense that he’s taking it, but a party Chairman is constantly under pressure, especially when the time comes for dividing the spoils of office between people of different interests. It is for the National Chairman to moderate all these interests. And usually not everybody will be pleased. One way or the other, whatever decision you take, somebody is bound to be unhappy. That’s the way things run.”

Lai Mohammed also reacted this way: “Just ignore him. I said it in the context that Buhari is the leader of the whole of Nigeria, not just of my party. That is why I said I don’t want to react to Timi Frank. I don’t even want to answer him at all”.

Disappearance of Tinubu’s banners

Anyone who had visited the national secretariat of the APC since the party’s polls victory would attest to the fact that Tinubu’s banners, alongside those of Buhari and Vice President Osibanjo, littered the place. Tinubu’s were conspicuously displayed but, surprisingly, the banners had all gone as at Thursday. Who removed them and why? These are questions only the authorities could answer.

The escape route

At the moment, Oyegun and Mohammed are in a fix. They are torn between the camps of the majority party members controlled apparently by Atiku and the President Buhari, unsure of which camp to join.

For instance, Sunday Vanguard learnt that Oyegun, last weekend, had a meeting with Atiku where he pleaded that Gbajabimila should be made the Majority Leader of the House. But that request was a bitter pill to swallow by many northern elements in the APC who argued that the South West has got the Vice President and the Deputy Speaker.

Also, Oyegun presided over the meeting of the NWC on Thursday and Friday. The meeting had semblance of peaceful resolution of the crisis in the party.

A statement issued by the party Chairman after the meeting on Friday said that peace was underway in the APC, even as he defended Mohammed’s actions in the crisis.

He said: “The party has reached out to all interested parties, and when the National Assembly resumes next week, Nigerians will see one harmonious, happy APC family.

“We owe it to our party, our teeming members and supporters and indeed all Nigerians who reposed so much confidence in us by voting us into office to quickly put the unfortunate incidents of the recent past behind us and forge ahead.

“The party is aware that its National Publicity Secretary has been grossly misunderstood by virtually everyone, especially in his state, just because he carried out his duty by signing the said statement by the party.

“At a personal risk and putting the party’s interest above his own, he issued that statement which reflected the position of the party at that particular time. The party is solidly behind him, and it will be wrong for anyone to interpret the statement as representing his personal opinion”.

Last line

From all indications, it is obvious that personal aggrandizements were responsible for the crisis in APC. But now that the party leaders have realized their mistakes, it is only necessary to allow peace reign for the party to deliver on its campaign promises to Nigerians. But would they? The answer lies in the passage of time.

www.vanguardngr.com

The beginning of the end of the Bola Tinubu dynasty

By Femi Aribisala

KING Nebuchadnezzar gloried in his kingdom and declared: “Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?” (Daniel 4:30). While the words were still in his mouth, a voice came from heaven to inform him that the kingdom he was boasting about had been taken away from him.

Similarly, Bola Tinubu, “the Ashiwaju of Yorubaland,” surveyed his kingdom and decided to make a boastful proclamation. Speaking of himself in the third person, Tinubu declared: “Nobody, no one under the sun, under the United Nations Human Rights Charter, can stop Bola Tinubu’s ambition.” Famous last words! The voice of the electorate in the South-West has answered Tinubu. His personal ambition is certainly not in the interest of the people.

De-mystification of Tinubu

Tinubu’s claim to fame lies in the strength of his ACN party in the South-West. The only resistance was Ondo State, which was controlled by Olusegun Mimiko’s Labour party. But the assumption was that it was only a matter of time before Ondo too would succumb to the Tinubu juggernaut. However, in the 2012 gubernatorial election in Ondo, Mimiko not only prevailed once again, the ACN candidate did not even come second. He was beaten to a distant third by the PDP.

This indicated that the Yorubas were already getting fed up with Tinubu; determined that they will not be sold into his slavery. In a letter to Mimiko congratulating him on his victory, Reuben Fasoranti, the leader of the Yoruba group, Afenifere, said: “This victory, amongst other things, is victory over god-fatherism, a rejection of political imposition and slavery from outside the state.” “We entered into electoral cooperation with you (Mimiko) in the election to counter an emerging group under the leadership of few disrespectful, snobbish, arrogant, ravaging and power-thirsty politicians.”

ACN leader, Bola Tinubu and some ACN governors

The obvious reference here was to Bola Tinubu and his ACN colleagues. In many respects, Tinubu has become the most hated politician in the South-West. Association with him is increasingly as politically contagious as leprosy. The emerging consensus in the South-West is that Tinubu has overreached himself with his heavy-handedness. It is past time to cut him back to size. Thus, Fasoranti added to Mimiko: “There is a need for the exhibition of fair play and justice to all and carry the banner of progressive politics into national politics now that the eclipse of the ACN is unavoidable.”

Ekiti Waterloo

This prognosis has proved to be prophetic. The defeat of Tinubu’s party in Ondo has now been followed by its trouncing in the just-concluded gubernatorial election in Ekiti. Ekiti was presumed to be one of Tinubu’s South-West strongholds. The incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi, is one of the darlings of Tinubu’s new-fangled APC. Indeed, some have been touting Fayemi as a possible APC vice-presidential candidate. However, rather than confirm that Ekiti is firmly in Tinubu’s camp, the people of Ekiti decided to send a loud and clear message to Tinubu. They no longer want to have anything to do with him and with his party.

Tinubu’s Fayemi did not only lose the Ekiti election, he lost it by a landslide. He obtained 120,000 votes to Ayo Fayose’s 203,000. Fayemi lost in every local government area of the state. Coming on the heels of its defeat in Ondo, the APC rout in Ekiti is conclusive proof that Tinubu’s fabled stranglehold on South-West politics has ended. Indeed, Tinubu is now a political liability in the South-West. Rather than bring votes to the APC in the region, he is now more than likely to lose them.

This accounts for the confused reaction of the APC to the election. Local and international observers declared it free and fair. The losing local candidates readily accepted defeat, including Fayemi, the APC candidate. But Tinubu and his APC cohorts from outside the state are challenging the defeat in a pathetic attempt to make excuses for such disgraceful trouncing in putative APC territory. Only the gullible will believe this face-saving charade.

On the contrary, a prescient observer of the APC debacle in Ekiti made this observation: “Tinubu is no Awolowo and that illusion is being put to test. He doesn’t have the gravitas of Papa Awo and in fact, many of these South-West state governors will soon discover that they are more electable without Tinubu’s name. Tinubu cost Fayemi the election and if he knows what is good he should stay in the background if Osun State (whose election is due two months hence) is not to fall in a domino.”

“Useless” Yoruba Obas

It was a long time coming, but Yorubas in general are now fed up with Bola Tinubu’s arrogance and with his determination to rule the South-West as his fiefdom. A politician is supposed to be subject to his people. However, Tinubu believes the Yorubas are subject to him. The over-bearing influence of Tinubu in Ekiti politics was one of the major issues of the campaign. The message of the electorate is that this would no longer be tolerated. This message was superbly championed by Fayose who presented himself as a man of the people, determined to stop the hemorrhage whereby Ekiti money was routinely shipped to Lagos.

A smart politician does not broadcast his contempt for his people. However, with the arrogance of power, Tinubu derided Yoruba Obas as “useless.” He declared “ex cathedra:” “The good Obas in Yorubaland who are forthright, firm and stand by the truth are not up to five, they are just three.” With these words, Tinubu drove a nail firmly into his own political coffin. While he derided Yoruba Obas as “useless,” he went up North to Kwankwaso to engineer the installation of a “useful” Emir of Kano. Therefore, the Ekiti people decided to tell Tinubu that they have no use for him and that their Obas are not useless.

The success of Fashola in transforming the face of Lagos was sold as the ACN/APC template in the South-West, and this had some traction for a while. Fayemi too presented himself as a “performing governor” with major projects right across the state. But when asked why he did not build low-cost housing in Lagos, Fashola replied contemptuously that he could not find any low-cost cement to buy. But as its defeat in Ekiti now demonstrates; the elitist high-cost APC needs low-cost voters in order to win elections. What the PDP did mischievously in Ekiti was to capitalise on the electorate’s cynical preference for pounded-yam over tarred roads.

Lessons from Obasanjo

The rejection of Bola Tinubu today in the South-West also lies in the very betrayal of his earlier success. Tinubu championed South-West resistance to Obasanjo’s determination to sacrifice Yoruba interests on the altar of a contrived alliance with the North. While that alliance clearly served Obasanjo’s interests, independent-minded South-West voters saw nothing in it for them. Foolishly, Tinubu is now presenting himself as yet another architect of the same rejected alliance with the Northern caliphate, for the sake of his own personal political ambitions.

Following the crisis that ensued after the annulment of M.K.O. Abiola’s victory in the 1993 presidential election, there emerged a general consensus that the 1999 election should be zoned to South-West Yorubas in the interest of national reconciliation. However, Northerners decided they would determine who the Yoruba candidate should be. Obasanjo was fished out of prison and anointed as PDP presidential candidate.

This Yoruba choice by Northerners was rejected by the Yorubas. Although Obasanjo went ahead to win the election nationwide, he lost woefully in the South-West. Thereafter, he was derided as a president without coattails in his own backyard. Obasanjo’s response as president was to make a play for PDP victory in the South-West in 2003 by hook or crook. Every trick in the book was employed to bring South-West states under PDP control.

Failure of success

The PDP rigged the 2003 elections masterfully and wrested back power from every ACN-controlled South-West state except Lagos. Even in Lagos, the INEC went ahead to proclaim a fictitious PDP victory on its website, before this was belatedly withdrawn with ignominy. The brilliant South-West answer to this PDP treachery was Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu drew a line in the sand, held on to Lagos, and struck back from this stronghold to win back all the lost South-West states in 2007. He won because the people of the South-West refused to mortgage their future to the political interests of Obasanjo and his allies in the North. It is therefore surprising that, with the arrogance of power, Tinubu is now following the same failed footsteps of Obasanjo.

Instead of learning from Obasanjo’s blunder, Tinubu too has now decided to unite his ethnic ACN party with the Northern caliphate. With the contempt for the people that has come with years of monarchical control over the ACN, Tinubu presumes South-West people will follow him sheepishly into this alliance with the North, just because his burning ambition to become the vice-president of Nigeria now demands it. But what this has achieved is to show that Tinubu’s ambitions are anathema to South-West interests.

Anybody who thinks Tinubu’s APC will succeed in the South-West does not understand South-West politics. The Yorubas are too proud and fiercely independent to agree to play second-fiddle to anyone because of a man called Tinubu. S.L. Akintola tried the same gambit in the 1960s, and the South-West rejected him. The same rejection has befallen Bola Tinubu.

Lagosians are disgusted that Tinubu has privatised their politics. His wife, daughter and even son-in-law have been steam-rolled into vantage political positions. The state’s finances are tied to Alpha Beta. Tinubu has even gone ahead to anoint Akinwunmi Ambode as the next governor of the state without the benefit of any election. This is asking for trouble. If Tinubu is not careful, a big implosion is likely in APC Lagos State over the issue of the choice of the next governor.

Every which way in the South-West, the message is crystal clear: “Tinubu’s imperious dynasty is over: long live the sovereignty of the people.”

www.vanguardngr.com

Nigeria’s naked Lawmakers

By Tonnie Iredia

In July 2010, renowned law Professor, Itse Sagay, raised an alarm that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the globe. Sagay found that a Nigerian Senator earns N240 million ($1.7 million) in salaries and allowances while his counterpart in the House of Representatives earns about N204 million ($1.45 million) per annum. Realizing that an American senator earns $174, 000 while a UK parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum, Sagay condemned the Nigerian situation as “a breach of public trust”.

No one in authority took on the legal guru to reveal his source or defend his allegation. At about the same time, an organization-the Global Coordinators Champions for Nigerian Organizations-published all the allowances of a Nigerian legislator inclusive of ‘recess allowance’ which explains why our legislators are always on recess. Public outcry over the subject lingered for another three months until the then celebrated Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido, now Emir of Kano publicly ignited the fire the more with his assertion that 25% of our budget was being consumed by the National Assembly. Lamido who spoke on the topic ‘Growth Prospects for the Nigerian Economy’ at the convocation of the Igbinedion University Okada frowned at the exploitation of the wealth of the nation by a few people and called on Nigerians “to stop complaining about these people and do something about them”. But nothing was done.

Ben Bruce

Rather than deal with the issue in the interest of the nation, Lamido was angrily summoned by the Senate to explain his audacity. The Senators who had expected an apology from the former CBN boss backed down when he reiterated his point and dared them to remove him from office. Not much was done thereafter until one year later, when the federal government invited Mr. Richard Dowden- an expert on African development issues and Executive Director of the Royal African Society in London to deliver the 2011 Independence Lecture. In his speech titled “Nigeria in Transformation”, Dowden pointedly identified our political leaders, as the highest paid salary earners in the world and begged them to among other things reduce the wide gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria. Interestingly, what he said was in no way different from what Sagay and Lamido had articulated. Again nothing was done. The infamous subject soon died down and our legislators were left in peace to enjoy their fortune. It was perhaps the idea that public opinion on the subject had been vanquished that made the management of the National Assembly to forget to properly guard the subject thereby leading to fresh condemnation of the legislators. This time the annoyance is specifically directed at one of the items in the pay packet of lawmakers-”wardrobe allowance”.

Only last week, the media reported that the newly inaugurated members of the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives are expected upon resumption to receive their allowances including wardrobe, housing, furniture and vehicle to enable them settle down for legislative business. The report stated that to ensure that our legislators are always wee dressed, each Senator will receive N21.5 million as wardrobe allowance while each member of the House of Representatives will get N17.5 million to clothe them for the next 4 years. Although the story is no doubt provocative, it seems wiser to evolve strategies for resolving the situation in this era of ‘change’. Luckily, the first step has been taken by the new Senate President, Senator Saraki who has been kind enough to give the exact figures involved. According to Saraki, the wardrobe allowance is N506, 600 only and not the huge sum previously published. The Second positive step taken so far is that of Senator Ben Murray Bruce who is set to donate 50% of his allowances to meet part of the unpaid salaries of Osun State workers. The argument of the state Government that Bruce was only being spiteful of its workers is neither here nor there, more so as Governor Rauf Aregbesola hitherto known by all as a strategic leader had surprisingly confessed earlier that he was helpless on the matter.

For whatever it is worth, the offer by Murray Bruce is useful in several respects. First, the few Osun workers that will benefit from his donation will prefer Bruce to their governor who is busy delivering lectures on the subject. Second, it could encourage other Senators to do same to the benefit of the dying workers. Third, Bruce has shown that senators do not really need the huge wardrobe allowance being provided for them. We only hope that all legislators will in earnest recognize that what a nation should give to its citizens is what such citizens lack and desire. In this regard, it is wrong to give legislators wardrobe allowance because they do not belong to the category of naked Nigerians. Considering that no legislator was shabbily dressed during the electioneering period when they were canvassing for votes, it would be immoral for them to use our votes as a license for re-equipping their gorgeous wardrobes.

All eyes should now be on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission which has the constitutional duty to fix the salaries and allowances of all political office holders. If the body was timid in the past and scared of the legislators, the public outcry against their remuneration and the pro-people posture of Bruce and other legislators of like minds should help the commission to have a re-think. It should also note that many of the legislators are big boys especially in the senate which now has several former governors. If the commission fails in its duty to do the needful this time around, the change agents of the All Progressive Congress (APC) should swing into action and let Nigerians see the immediate dividends of “change”. If however the chorus of change was just a vote catching device for the recently concluded elections, then the Peoples Democratic Party have another chance to pull the carpet off the feet of the ruling party if its legislators formally reject the wardrobe allowance which makes it look like if not for the legislature, they would have been naked.

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