GLOOMY RHAPSODY OF REALITY PART 3: FACEBOOK PAGE SHARES UPDATE ON PASTOR CHRIS AND ANITA OYAKHILOME'S DIVORCE UPDATE

The Facebook page that initially brought to light the issues between Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and Pastor Anita has become operational again. Their stated aim is to reconcile the couple and prevent divorce, but it seems bridges can no more be mended. The message below was posted a week before the news about Pastor Anita filing for divorce emerged. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

It is very interesting that we requested the closure of this page and were informed that in 14 days, the page will shut down. But... its still here! What happened? 

The Lord needs the page open! The purpose obviously has not been achieved. There is a huge question still hanging - "Where is Rev. Anita Oyakhilome?" 

I believe the Lord allowed our silence to show us and all of you who are concerned about the ministry just how deep the problems are. It is not surprising the negative, abusive and insultive comments people have come here to make against others because they decided to stand up for truth and speak up. 

The truth is that most of these people know the truth but the devil will not give up without a fight. Some of these people were sent here by the leadership of the ministry thinking that a couple of barks will scare people away and finally shut down the page. What they do not realise is that our God is not a sentimental God and when He puts His hands on a thing, that thing becomes unstoppable. No matter what anybody says, does or thinks. 

It is important for us to realise that Rev. Anita did not just leave, this is the move of the Spirit. There is no one else He could have moved in this way to cause a shaking for change. Plus, He could use her because she has never been a part of the evil. The Lord just separated her from the start and she gave herself to worshipping the Lord in Spirit and in Truth from the start. 

When Pastor Chris moved her and the children to the UK and seemed to separate himself from his family, little did he know that the Lord was going to use his unfair thoughts and actions for the good of Rev. Anita and all His children who the ministry have smartly and are still trying to smartly lead away from God. The wisdom of man can never match the wisdom of God. 

While, Pastor Chris is not making, I repeat, not making any moves to reconcile with his wife, he still needs her name and face in his materials to keep them attracting people and selling. How deceitful is that? Her name and face still appear on some Rhapsody of Realities articles she did not write. The authors of Rhapsody of Realities remain Pastors Chris and Anita Oyakhilome, even though she is completely out of the picture. And that is what some people hang on to to debunk the fact that she is no longer in the picture. 

They initially tried to take her face and name off but realised quickly that it would be bad business for them. So, what next, keep her face and name on but her presence of course is not required. Well, not anymore! This is no longer the time of business as usual. Not at all! 

Dear Pastor Chris, God is a merciful God. You know that. We still love you and will stand with you if you make the change. There is still time to make the required changes. You know very well the changes God needs you to make. Our thinking that the marriage is what needs fixing, is misplaced. The marriage breakdown is the result of the heart turned away from God. 

Turn your heart back to your first love and the restorer will restore all. Yes, there would be unveiled dirty secrets but the merciful Lord will not allow it to be as bad as it would be if you do not make the change. When a leader makes a wrong turn, its the people that suffer most. After David numbered Israel and the people began to die as a result of his actions, David repented, but God gave him some options for his purnishment. David quickly took the option for God to deal with him by Himself. Why? He preferred for the Lord's direct purnishment and not his enemy's because as he declared, God is a merciful and kind God. That God has not changed. 

Man's love is fickle. Just a little while longer and all those who have been rally around you, praising you on that all this will not lead anywhere, will begin to plot their quiet departure when they realise the brand "Pastor Chris" is no longer working for them. It is important for us to mention here that some of the writers on the page are your or informed by your close lieutenants. 

This word is enough for now. This page is up and running!

PRESIDENT JONATHAN LEAVES FOR KENYA FOR SUMMIT ON BOKO HARAM, OTHERS

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will travel to Nairobi tomorrow to participate in a meeting of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council scheduled to hold in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday.

The Nairobi meeting, which is a follow-up to talks by President Jonathan and other African leaders in  Pretoria, South Africa in May this year on forging a joint action against terrorism, will receive and consider the report of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Africa.

Deliberations at the Nairobi Summit and the adoption of the African Chairperson’s Report by President Jonathan, President Uhuru Kenyatta and other participating Heads of State are expected to  lead to more collaborative actions by Nigeria and other African countries to rid the continent of acts of terrorism and violent extremism.

The President, who will be accompanied to the Nairobi Summit by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed, the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) as well as other advisers and aides will return to Abuja at the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday.

Several African nations are facing challenges by a host of terror organisations, some cloaking their movement with religion.

Shekau and gang in new video

Here is a rundown of the terror groups active on African soil:

 Hardline fighters threaten multiple nations across sub-Saharan Africa, from well-organised insurgent forces to loose alliances of Islamists who echo a common rhetoric of global jihad.

Here are profiles of some of the key groups.

AQIM, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb: The group has bases in northern Mali, but has carried out attacks and abductions of Westerners in the sub-Saharan Sahel zone, as well as claiming attacks in Tunisia. Led by Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdel, it stems from a group started in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, who in 2007 formally subscribed to Al-Qaeda’s ideology.

MUJAO, Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa: An offshoot of AQIM, it advocates jihad, or holy war, in west Africa. It has claimed a number of abductions in Mali and neighbouring Algeria, where it has also claimed several attacks.

BOKO HARAM: Nigeria’s extremist Islamists, accused of killing more than 10,000 people since 2009, have long voiced a desire to create a strict Islamic state within the mainly Muslim north. Leader Abubakar Shekau has declared an “Islamic caliphate” like Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria. The tactics of Boko Haram — meaning “Western education is forbidden — have seen a dramatic shift in recent months, from hit-and-run strikes to attacking and holding areas in the remote northeast. It has also struck in neighbouring Cameroon.

LRA, Lord’s Resistance Army: Ugandan-led insurgents infamous for a decades of killing are headed by Joseph Kony, who has melded Christian mysticism with an astute guerrilla mind and bloodthirsty ruthlessness. Long driven out of Uganda, LRA fighters now roam forest regions of Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ugandan army is leading a US-backed African Union force tasked with capturing LRA leaders.

AL-SHEBAB: Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked insurgents emerged out of 2006 battles to drive out Ethiopian soldiers from Mogadishu and at their peak in 2011, controlled large parts of the capital and swathes of the south. A 22,000-strong African Union force fighting alongside government troops have captured almost all major towns from the extremists, but the group continue to stage guerrilla attacks in the heart of the capital. The group has also threatened or carried a string of attacks in neighbouring nations with troops in the AU force, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The group is also linked across the Red Sea to Yemen-based franchise of the jihadist network, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

NOT WITHOUT OUR DAUGHTERS BY OBY EZEKWESILI

 
Today marks 136 days since April 14, when 219 daughters of Nigeria were taken captive from our midst at close to midnight while we all slept. The Presidential Facts Finding Committee on Chibok Abduction which was set up evidently to validate to those who doubted the tragedy, helped confirm that our daughters that went to acquire knowledge were forcibly taken by terrorists. In all, the report stated that 276 school girls were abducted from Government Secondary School on that fateful night and that fortunately, 57 of them courageously took the risk of self-rescue and are since reunited with their families.

After many weeks of tentativeness arising from indifference, doubt, visible irritation and buck passing a rescue effort was finally launched by the Federal Government, supported by countries that include the United States, Britain, France, China, Canada, Israel and Australia. However, after four months and with no news of

their rescue nor any slimmer of evidence of actions being taken to bring them back, the desperate reaction of all who empathize with the girls and their families has become “where is the result from the rescue effort?”

For some others, despondent and yet willing to hold on to the tiniest ray of Hope, the demand is that the Federal Government offers Nigeria the whole truth on the matter of their rescue effort. Why so? There have been too many discordant and contradictory information on the status of the rescue of the girls by our government. Those who ask for the truth, therefore do  so mindful of the need to not compromise intricacies of operational strategy while yet insisting that our government can act and convey with sincerity a series of confidence inspiring measures it is taking to resolve this massive scale of human tragedy. Like we say in life, parents and other citizens would rather be slapped with the truth than be kissed with lies.
There are after all three well known options that are possible in the rescue of abduction victims- first, military action, second, negotiation/dialogue which may be direct or indirect and third, a mix of both military action and negotiation. Anyone who has mapped and analysed all the statements ever made by our Government since we were informed by the Chief of Defence Staff on May 24 that they had located our girls; cannot but wonder what to believe. In the quest for truth it does not help that when the dots are connected drawing from diverse statements made by our government at various times, dismissing each of the options for one reason or the other; nothing tangible remains. Could it be that the evident complexity of their rescue has led to inertia or paralysis that surely portends grave danger to our #ChibokGirls …our daughters? Could this be the reason many more people now think we should be silent, move on and allow “whatever” is being done about their rescue to “quietly” continue?  If it is then there is no better response to give than “Not without our daughters”.

For, indeed, the 219 girls of Chibok are our daughters. Anyone who is a true parent and real human being would admit that it is almost impossible not to think of the fate of these girls in personal terms. It is impossible not to think how deep their agony would be should children sired in their loins or carried in their wombs experience what these innocent young women are suffering. Most of the empathetic gestures given to their cause have been framed especially by women advocates who are mothers, as simple acts of humanity because they do see the faces of their own daughters whenever they look at the picture faces of the abducted girls. They knew they had to lend a voice to the cause once they started seeing and connecting to the girls not just as pieces of news from some remote region of the country or the world, but as flesh and blood that could have been their own daughters. These are the women and men who today out of deep empathy continue to stand and to speak for our girls even after the rest of the world moved on to other issues buffeting our troubled world.

The second resonant point of convergence for those who advocate for the cause of the girls is the sadness that all things considered, these girls are merely victims of a society that failed them. Our Chibok girls are victims in every sense of the word; suffering serious injury for no fault of their own. The sad but true reason our ChibokGirls continue to languish in the den of our common enemies more than four months after their abduction is that many among us see their vicissitude as one of those tragedies similar to what others have suffered in our country.

The known fact is that in the fifty four years of our independence, too many of our citizens have been victims of our society, suffering all kinds of tragedies and situations alone. Victims abounded in events leading up to, during and after the Nigerian civil war. Did we care? No, we simply moved on. We created another set of victims during the decades of military rule. Did we care? No, we again moved on. In the last fifteen years of our nascent democracy since the 1999 transition, we have kept on creating victims. Have we cared? Not really, we have to move on.

Within the last four years that bloody insurgents have launched a most vicious  attack against our citizens, abducting, maiming and killing in thousands, have we really cared? Not really. Those it does not affect may not even give a passing thought to the victims just like it was in the past. So, are we just going to keep moving on for as long as each tragedy does not affect us, ignoring the new sets of victims of our society to “take care of their own pain?” I have seen, heard and known how our society victimizes the victim. Can a people survive and sustain this manner of distribution of suffering in which the strong at any point in time disregards the pain of the victim? No. A society where everyone carries the wound of having once been a victim that was abandoned to suffer alone can neither last nor achieve greatness.

How then can we not see that there is something about the present travail of our Chibok Girls that presents us the best opportunity to awaken our deadened souls that have since our coming together missed out on the wholesome value of empathy? How can we not see that the only and true victims in this abduction saga are our 219 daughters of Nigeria? How can we possibly move on without our daughters? We must not move on. We must give everything possible to save them. They can become the symbol of our catharsis – our purging – our cleaning from the accumulated toxin of bitterness and wound spread across our country from all manner of tragedies and injustice of the past.

By all agreeing not to move on without our daughters, we make a statement that as a people, we are determined to confront our common enemy together. By refusing to sacrifice our daughters that we can save, we send the strongest signal to our common enemies that our society will fight to defend our humane values and the right to life of our children, our women, our men, our young and our old regardless of their religion, politics, language and culture. By staying determined to stand with our endangered ChibokGirls, we as Nigerians would measure up to the standard of Ghandi’s words that “The True Measure of Any Society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”

If we all did everything possible to bring back our daughters from the clutches and den of evil erected by our common enemies within our own territory; our ChibokGirls will become a historical break from our shameful past as an uncaring society of people. It will be a statement of a united people of the kind we see every day we gather for their cause at the Unity Fountain and loudly declare that  “we are from Chibok”- regardless of our ethnic, political, religious, ideological persuasion.

When we do so, it is not because we are unaware of past and other present victims. It is that our daughters are in a special category of being alive and can be saved. It is a protest against the idea that the suffering of other people does not matter and can therefore be denied, ignored and even mocked. It is a kick against the lack of empathy that reflects in the poor choices over several decades that have stagnated and kept us as a tottering country that has never fully evolved into a nation. History teaches and research validates that when a country of diverse people evolves into a nation, the probability of achieving development that benefits the largest number is significantly higher.

The combination of these two factors- daughters and victims – should imprint on the mind of everyone, that we could all be the biological parents of children who due to no fault of their own became victims of deadly danger. As one very involved with the formation and leadership of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy that is championing the citizens advocacy for the rescue of our Daughters, the two factors steadfastly give me perspective regardless of what other people may think or say.

Personally, I have advocated for our ChibokGirls since the 15th April when news of their abduction broke. On the 23rd April a demand one made to have everyone at the UNESCO event inaugurating Port Harcourt as the 2014 World Book Capital, stand in solidarity and demand for their rescue, resulted in our social media hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. The march for them on the 30th April inspired by Hadiza Bala Usman and the daily “sit-out” in Abuja by incredibly sacrificial Nigerians who are there even today for the 120th of  such gathering is a testament to the irony of the divine quality of our suffering Chibok Daughter.

These days, when members of our movement are taunted with questions like “when will you realise the futility of your advocacy and stop?” Like the typical Nigerian, we have learnt to answer questions of this sort with some simple questions of our own. Interestingly, one question to which not even the irredeemably heartless has ever been able to answer without shame is “Did 219 girls also willingly offer themselves to be denied their freedom and their lives?” If they did not, why then should we make victims out of children who already are victims? “Would you  want us to stop if any of them were your daughter?”

We cannot afford to move on without our daughters. Everyone who can raise a voice to compel action for them should really do so without feeling embarrassed. Everyone who has the power to act decisively and quickly to rescue them must not consider them a secondary priority. The three possible options of rescue are narrowed and clear to all. Until our Federal Government demonstrates that our ChibokGirls are not being abandoned – by showing that it is taking any of the three options- and that we shall no longer move on and forsake victims of our society as we have previously done in the last fifty four years -there will always be voices; if even just one, demanding that our daughters must be rescued from our enemies. So, when next time you hear or read that chant #BringBackOurGirls and ever go on to ask “when will you stop?” there are two answers you can be sure of “#UntilOurGirlsAreBackAndAlive and the better of the two, #NotWithoutOurDaughters!

EBOLA BECOMING HARDER TO TREAT- US EXPERTS

As countries across the world battle to contain the spreads of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), the killer ailment appears to be devising means of circumventing efforts to stop it, researchers have said.

Experts claim that the virus is “rapidly and continually mutating, making it harder to diagnose and treat.”

This is just as former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared, on Saturday, that the index case, Patrick Sawyer, in a “devilish” connivance with some Liberian authorities, intentionally brought the disease to Nigeria.

He also noted that the disease, which he said had become a global problem, had been taking a toll on Nigeria’s economy, charging the Federal Government to partner the World Health Organisation (WHO), European Union (EU) and government of America in containing the virus.Sunday Tribune’s finding showed that result of a research by a team of American scientists indicates that the initial patients diagnosed with the virus in Sierra Leone revealed almost 400 genetic modifications, concluding that this could render current treatment ineffective and put vaccines that are being worked on for its cure in danger.

According to reports, the team of researchers, under the Broad Institute in Massachusetts and Harvard University, analysed more than 99 Ebola virus genomes which were collected from 78 patients diagnosed with the disease in Sierra Leona in the first 24 days of the current outbreak.

Dr Pardis Sabeti, a senior associate member at the Broad Institute and an associate professor at Harvard University, who was among leaders of the research, said “by making the data immediately available to the community, we hope to accelerate response efforts.

“Upon releasing our first batch of Ebola sequences in June, some of the world’s leading epidemic specialists contacted us, and many of them are now also actively working on the data. We were honored and encouraged. A spirit of international and multidisciplinary collaboration is needed to quickly shed light on the ongoing outbreak.”

According to Daily Mail, the researchers’ findings, “reported in the journal, Science, could have important implications for rapid field diagnostic tests.

“The team found more than 300 genetic changes that make the 2014 Ebola virus genomes distinct from the viral genomes tied to previous Ebola outbreaks.

“They also found variations in the genome sequence indicating that, from the samples analysed, the outbreak started from a single introduction into humans, subsequently spreading from person to person over many months.

“To accelerate response efforts, the research team released the full-length sequences on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)’s DNA sequence database, in advance of publication. This means the data is available to the global scientific community.”

Sawyer intentionally infected Nigeria —OBJ
Former President Obasanjo, who accused the late Patrick Sawyer of conniving with some “devilish” Liberian authorities to import the deadly disease into the country, said this while answering questions at a programme tagged; “An Afternoon with Obasanjo,” organised by Inside Watch Africa magazine, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He advised Nigerians to brace up by tackling the economic effects of the disease in the country’ urging them to be aggressive with precautionary measures against the disease, since there was no cure yet.

Obasanjo said that some Liberian authorities knew of the contagious and deadly illness in Sawyer and allowed him to visit Nigeria.

“Ebola is taking economic toll. How do we handle people that are economically affected; not those that are dead or ill? The economic effect has started. How do we reduce, recoup the economic cost of Ebola on communities, nations and the West African region?

“When HIV came, they said don›t talk about it. Now, it is Ebola and Ebola is even talking about HIV. We should be doing whatever we can and that is being aggressive in taking precautionary measures to prevent it.

“So, it is devilish enough that Patrick Sawyer, in connivance with some authorities from his country, allowed the visit because they know he had it; and he came to Nigeria,” he said.

Appeal for world support
He added that he had met with presidents of Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone over the Ebola issue, urging the entire world not to see virus as a burden of the West African countries, but something that should be treated as an “international burden.”

He also called on the world’s pharmaceutical giants to intensify research efforts towards providing either vaccine or curative drugs for the virus.






Source: SUNDAY TRIBUNE

HOW AMATEUR PEACEMAKER, STEPHEN DAVIES RESCUED KIDNAPPED GIRLS FROM BOKO HARAM

Stephen Davis last year with members of the terror group JAS, a forerunner to Boko Haram.

Earlier this month, Australian counter terrorism officials conducted separate interviews with Stephen Davis and his wife. They wanted to know what Dr Davis had been doing in Nigeria for the past four months.

Dr Davis, a self-described "amateur peacemaker" from Perth, had embarked on a solo mission to rescue some of the more than 200 schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram militants in April. 

"I was very confident when I left because I had spoken with some of the commanders and organised the release and handover of some of the girls," he said. "Otherwise I wouldn't have gone."

Stephen Davis in 2004 with Niger Delta rebels, on the eve of a peace deal with the government.

If the Australian investigators asked Dr Davis to name his occupation, he may have struggled. 

The 63-year-old, who has a doctorate in political geography, was a mining consultant to global resources company WMC and to petroleum giant Shell.

It was at Shell in the mid 2000s that he began peace negotiations with rebels in the Niger Delta. He then served as an advisor to two Nigerian presidents, developing links with terror cells as he negotiated on behalf of the government.

A devout Christian, he moved to Britain to work as a canon in the Ministry of Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, alongside future Archbishop of Canterbury John Welby.

But when Dr Davis heard of the schoolgirl kidnapping in the village of Chibok, he decided to act. 

He began remote negotiations with elements of Boko Haram. In Nigeria, he then travelled with a former Boko Haram guide in a beat-up car across the country's north, setting up a hand-over of girls that would contribute to a peace deal with the government. 

But each of the three attempted transfers were thwarted by powerful political forces looking to undermine the ruling party, Dr Davis said in a telephone interview. 

"They were sabotaged each one of them in the end but we had commanders willing to do it."

The only success in his mission came after he received a phone call from a man who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram. They began orchestrating an escape for a small number of girls, with four eventually managing to cross from a camp on the Cameroon side of the border to a safe place in Nigeria.

"They're pretty heroic these young girls, pretty amazing," he said. "What they went through is staggering."

The changing face of Nigerian terrorism

Dr Davis said Boko Haram had become more hardline since a peace deal with the government collapsed last year

He accused members of Nigeria's political opposition of sponsoring the more extreme elements of the group in order to weaken the ruling party.

"Some of the guys are uncontrolled in that they are just beheading people before they even know who the person is," he said. 

"Or they go into a village and they'll disembowel a pregnant woman and take the live foetus for a ritual."

Dr Davis said the situation in Nigeria was deteriorating faster than at any time in the past 12 years. 

"When Boko Haram links up with ISIL - and there is interaction between the two - and with [terrorist group] al-Shabbab, that triangle is going to be the new home of terrorism like the world has not seen," he said.

"The guys before - there was no kidnapping, no rape. They wouldn't kidnap women or children, because that was contrary to the Koran. Now these guys will do anything, they are a totally different breed."

Dr Davis stressed the importance of negotiating with terrorists, no matter their crimes.

"You've got to find common ground, you simply have to," he said.

"There is so much ground you can shift, if you've got time, and you can sit down again and again and again."

But he doubted another deal involving the release of kidnapped girls could be negotiated at the moment, "because things have tightened up so much".

"If it leaked out that they were willing to negotiate the releases of the girls or to talk of a peace deal, then other commanders would execute them," he said. 

Via The Sydney Morning Herald

COMEDY UNLIMITED: OBASANJO CREATES DRAMA AT LADOJA’S HOUSE IN IBADAN!

Last Friday, Former President Olusegun Obasanjo paid a condolence visit to former Oyo State governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, at his Ondo Street residence in Bodija, Ibadan, over the death of his mother, Alhaja Alimatu Ladoja, who was buried on Thursday.

The visit of Obasanjo was not without the usual drama for which he is known.

It was learnt that Obasanjo had already arrived (he got to the house at about 7:40 a.m.) and was in a discussion with Ladoja and the immediate past Secretary to the Government of Oyo State, Chief Olayiwola Olakojo.

On sighting the reporter, Ladoja asked how he got to know Obasanjo was around in his house, with a reply from the reporter that journalists had their news antenna all over the country and were always on the trail of newsmakers.

As soon as Obasanjo realised it was a journalist that Ladoja was talking to, he said softly: “What are you looking for here? Get out!” Ladoja intervened and pleaded with Obasanjo to allow Saturday Tribune take a photograph of the trio.

Responding, Obasanjo burst into jocular remarks and said: “You have missed a lot. If you had been here earlier, you would have seen me when I was weeping. I wept profusely and I even raised songs in honour of the deceased. So, take your photograph and we will call on you when we are done with our discussion.”

The encounter with Obasanjo went thus:
Reporter: What can you say about the deceased?
Obasanjo: (feigned weeping)….Don’t you see I am crying?
What can you say about Mama’s life?
Mama, Mama, Mama….she was a good mother. Rashidi (Ladoja) is now motherless.
Ladoja (cuts in): I don’t have a father too, except you (embraced Obasanjo)
Obasanjo: Rashidi has now joined the club (of complete orphans).

We thank God that Mama left a worthy legacy, good children. She left what those of us who are her children can glory in. May the Almighty grant the deceased eternal rest and continue to keep the children. Mama, who left behind a good son as Rashidi Ladoja, truly has left behind a great legacy. But this great son that Mama left behind can be naughty at times. But when I scold him, he listens to me and corrects himself.

Ladoja, others laughed…

From his comment on Ladoja’s mother’s death, Obasanjo was asked if all was now well between him and his political godson, President Goodluck Jonathan.

Obasanjo’s reply was: “Ara e o ya-” (You are not well.)

This response drew laughter from around, while the former president hopped into his Jeep from where he told Ladoja he would not be available for the eight day prayer for his late mother because he would be out of the country then!

It should be recalled that Ladoja had fallen out with Obasanjo after the latter was fingered in Ladoja’s impeachment as the governor of Oyo State, but with the exchange above and Obasanjo’s second visit to Ladoja, the duo have apparently moved on, and have resumed their father-son relationship again.





Via Saturday Tribune

REVEALED: BOKO HARAM IS FUNDED THROUGH CBN, SENIOR CBN OFFICIAL INVOLVED (DETAILS)

Stephen Davies

A large chunk of the finances of Boko Haram may be passing through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), an Australian with close links to the militant group has told TheCable. Dr Stephen Davis, who was in Nigeria for four months trying to negotiate with Boko Haram to release the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, said Boko Haram commanders told him a senior CBN official, who cannot be named by TheCable for legal reasons, was fully involved in the funding of the insurgency. Davis, who spoke with TheCable on phone from Australia in his first interview with a Nigerian journalist, said Western countries could not trace the majority of the source of funding to Boko Haram because “it is done through a legal channel, through the gatekeeper, the CBN, and that makes it very easy to cover up”. He said Boko Haram commanders told him a senior CBN official, who currently works in the bank’s currency operations division, was the one handling the transactions. “One of the biggest of suppliers of arms and military uniforms to the JAS (Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, better known as Boko Haram) currently lives in Cairo, Egypt. He is the recipient of money sent by political sponsors from Nigeria. The funds go through the CBN’s financial system and appear to be a legal transaction. “Meanwhile, the CBN official who handles the funding is an uncle to three of those arrested in connection with the Nyanya bombings. The three boys lived with him. They were arrested by the SSS (Department of State Security) after the bombings but they do not seem to have been interrogated about their uncle in CBN. Or if they have given up information about their uncle then the SSS has not moved against him.” “Also, a senior official of CBN, who recently left the bank, was very close to Sodiq Aminu Ogwuche, the mastermind of the Nyanya bombings who also schooled in Sudan. Boko haram commanders said Ogwuche’s wife used to visit this top official in his office at the headquarters of the bank in Abuja before the Nyanya bombings. They were very close,” Davis said. The former Canon Emeritus at Coventry Cathedral, UK, said he decided to come out to speak now because the Nigerian authorities were not acting fast and he was heart-broken by the evils being done to the kidnapped Chibok girls and the many other girls and boys being kidnapped. “I have three daughters. I just cannot stand the thought of what those girls are passing through. I have spoken to an escapee who described how she was being raped for 40 days by militants. I can’t stand it. It is heart-breaking. Nigerian authorities must act decisively now,” he said, revealing that he spent “days and weeks” with commanders of Boko Haram in the north-east during his time in Nigeria. Davis, 63, holds a PhD in political geography from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Below are excerpts from the exclusive interview with TheCable.


TheCable: Can you share with us your experience with Boko Haram leaders?
Davis: Let me take you back a bit. I specialise in negotiation. It may interest you to know that I have been involved in peace negotiations in Nigeria since 2004 when President Olusegun Obasanjo invited me to intervene in the Niger Delta crisis. With a local Nigerian colleague, I spoke with Asari Dokubo and took him to Obasanjo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Because Asari is a Muslim, the Muslim boys in the north heard about me and warmed up to me. I did a report in 2005 on the threat of extremism among young northern Muslims. Obasanjo’s security chiefs dismissed the report with a wave of the hand. They said no such thing existed. In 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who desired to end the militancy in the Niger Delta, invited me and made me presidential envoy. I toured all the northern states. I went to the country’s borders. I came back with a report that there were some budding sects in the north. The national security adviser (NSA) at the time, Gen. Sarki Mukhtar, dismissed the report. He said they didn’t exist. A succession of NSAs dismissed all these reports and allowed the groups to flourish. By the time President Goodluck Jonathan came to power in 2011, these groups had spread all over the north. They had cells and commanders in 16 out of the 19 northern states. President Jonathan called me and sought my opinion on the best way to tackle the militancy and bring it to an end. I knew many of the leaders. I spoke with them. They trusted me. They initially wanted to kill me. They thought I was an American but I told them I was not. They also thought I was British but I said I was not. I told them I was an Australian. They relaxed. I don’t know why but they became more accommodating. They became friendly and, gradually, we built the trust. They started feeling free with me. I don’t call them Boko Haram. I call them JAS. People call them Boko Haram. They don’t call themselves Boko Haram. TheCable: What deal were you seeking under Jonathan’s mandate? Davis: The president wanted peace. He asked me to discuss with them so that we could arrive at the terms of peace. They came up with some terms that were acceptable and others that were not acceptable. TheCable: What were those terms? Davis: They wanted training for the widows of their deceased fighters. They asked the government to give these women cottage training. They, ironically, wanted education for the children of their deceased members. That is why I don’t call them Boko Haram (“Western education is a taboo”). They asked that the children be sent to school. They also wanted the government to rebuild villages that were destroyed by the security agencies. They asked for amnesty as well. TheCable: What terms were unacceptable? Davis: The president said he would not grant amnesty in the sense that they meant it. He said those who surrendered their arms would not be prosecuted, but those who continued to commit more crimes would face the law and would be charged with treason. They also wanted women and children who were being held in custody to be released. Their leaders that I spoke with were ready to accept the conditions. But the NSA then, Gen. Owoye Azazi, went vehemently against it. He said there should be no negotiation with terrorists. He completely turned the military against the peace deal I was working on, even though we were very close to bringing an end to the insurgency the same way we did it in the Niger Delta. The military then refused to back the deal. They succeeded in convincing the president not to accept it. I could understand where they were coming from: the security budget was like $6 billion and any peace deal would seriously reduce their budget. TheCable: How did you become involved in the negotiation for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls? Davis: Because I had built trust among the militants, I made calls to them when I heard about the abductions. They confirmed to me that the girls were with them. I came to Nigeria in late April (the girls were abducted on April 14). I told the president I would try to intervene and help get the girls out. He said he would give me the needed support if I wanted. However, what I discovered was that thrice we tried to get the girls released, and thrice my efforts were sabotaged. That was when I now realised that some politicians were also involved in the insurgency. There were the remnants of those involved in the former peace deal as well as a political arm and what I call the ritual arm which specialises in butchering human beings. While I was making efforts to get the girls released, the political backers of the group threatened that if I got 30 or 40 girls out, the militants would kidnap another 60 to replace them. I became very frustrated. They threatened that any commander of the group who agreed to participate in any dialogue would be slaughtered by other commanders. The political sponsors are very powerful because they supply the finances and the arms. Until they are cut off from the group, those girls will not be released. We are talking about 200 Chibok schoolgirls, but there are over 300 other girls that have been kidnapped. There are many young men that they also kidnapped and turned them against their families. They asked them to go and slaughter their family members and they are doing it. Nobody is talking about those ones. They are the new child soldiers. TheCable: How can we get these girls released? Davis: The first thing is to stop the bagman who supplies weapons and military uniforms. We know his name, location and associates. If the man is stopped, the slaughterers, the ritual arm of the group, would be demobilised. The girls can be released afterwards. This man controls these ritualists. TheCable: Was there really any deal to release the girls? Davis: Yes, there was. Some commanders of the group told me that they would first release 100 of the girls and that would be the first step towards dialogue. They needed a guarantee from President Jonathan that they would not be arrested or prosecuted if they showed up for dialogue. They agreed with me that if they did that and no one was arrested, then they would return to the camps to release the rest of the girls. TheCable: In all your discussions, did they name their sponsors? Davis: They named the man who lives in Cairo. He is of the Kanuri tribe. He passes arms, ammunition and uniforms to them. The CBN official who handles the funding (name withheld by TheCable for legal reasons) is an uncle to three of those arrested in connection with the Nyanya bombings. The three boys lived with him. They were arrested by the SSS (Department of State Security) after the bombings but they are yet to be interrogated about their uncle. The official still works with the CBN. He is still there. He works in currency operations. He knows how to handle the transaction in a way that it can never be traced. Western countries are frustrated that they cannot trace the funding. How can they when it is passed on legally, through the gatekeeper, through the CBN? Also, a senior official of CBN, who recently left the bank, was very close to Sodiq Aminu Ogwuche, the mastermind of the Nyanya bombings who also schooled in Sudan. Ogwuche’s wife used to visit this official in his office at the headquarters in Abuja before the bombings. They were very close. Don’t forget that the CBN official who handles the transactions also used to report to his superior, the official who recently left the bank. Also, there is a politician who was supplying operational vehicles for the suicide bombers. He gave them Hilux vans. He is a prominent politician. If the president goes after these guys, they will say it is political. That is part of the problem. Everybody will say the president is going after his political opponents, especially as there is a general election next year. The militants also named the former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff. In 2003 and 2007, Sheriff was very close to them. He used them for his elections. They worked for him. However, in 2007, the leader of the group, Muhammed Yusuf, collected money from Sheriff in return for support. Yusuf’s mentor, Ja’afar Mahmud Adam, exposed and criticised him for collecting money from Sheriff, and Yusuf ordered his killing in April 2007. But eventually, Yusuf and Sheriff fell out. However, it is acknowledged that Sheriff was and is a major financier of the group. He pays for young men to go for lesser hajj. From there they are recruited into the group. They interact freely with the Al-Shabbab militants from Somalia. They are trained by Al-Shabbab. Some of them go to Mali for training. These guys are in touch with the ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which now simply calls itself Islamic State and controls parts of Iraq). They are deadly. They share the same philosophy. The militant commanders I spoke with also named a former army chief as one of their sponsors. You have senior military officers who are benefiting from the insurgency because of the security budget. It pays them to keep the insurgency going so that they can continue to make money. I asked them several times who the army chief was and they told me it is… (name withheld by TheCable for legal reasons). Editor’s Note: In the second part of this interview, Dr. Stephen Davis opens up on why the Nigerian military is unlikely to win the war against Boko Haram and why it is particularly difficult to tackle the militants in the deserts of north-eastern Nigeria.

SCANDALOUS: OUTRAGE IN NIGERIA AS GOVERNMENT BRANDS NATIONAL ID CARD WITH MASTERCARD'S LOGO

The new Nigerian National Identity Cards launched Thursday by President Goodluck Jonathan, with branded logo of the American firm, MasterCard, have sparked outrage across the country amid fears of serious security and economic breach, with many Nigerians calling for an immediate stoppage of the deal.
Nigerians expressed shock and fury Thursday at how the Nigerian Government, through the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, would surrender a symbol of national sovereignty and pride to a foreign commercial

organisation by not only sharing the biometrics of 170 million Nigerian to the firm but by also allowing the firm to boldly engrave its insignia on the IDs.
Many Nigerians raised the alarm over the implications of the agreement in an age that has seen intense data surveillance by the National Security Agency of the United States of America, Mastercard’s home country.
One commentator said allowing MasterCard’s emblem on the Nigerian National ID Card could only compare to the trans-Atlantic slave trade abolished in the nineteenth century.
“The new ID card with a MasterCard logo does not represent an identity of a Nigerian. It simply represents a stamped ownership of a Nigerian by an American company,” said Shehu Sani of the Civil Rights Congress. “It is reminiscent of the logo pasted on the bodies of African salves transported across the Atlantic.”
At the launching Thursday, the Nigerian Identity Management Commission said the cards, designed to also allow handlers effect payments and other financial transactions, will be issued to 13 million Nigerians.
At the completion of the pilot phase of the program, 100 million cards would have been issued, the commission said, describing the move as the “broadest financial inclusion program in Africa”.
The cards will be issued to Nigerians, 16 years and older, and are expected to serve as voting cards in the 2019 elections.
President Jonathan, who flagged off the rollout, praised the outcome of a partnership between NIMC, MasterCard and Access Bank.
“The card is not only a means of certifying your identity, but also a personal database repository and payment card, all in your pocket,” Mr. Jonathan said.
Under the partnership, the NIMC is the project leader, MasterCard provides payments technology, while Unified Payment Services Limited is payments processor. Cryptovision is the Public Key Infrastructure and Trust Services Provider, and the pilot issuing bank is Access Bank Plc.
The Identity Management Commission said it was working with other government agencies to harmonize all identity databases including the Driver’s License, Voter Registration, Health Insurance, Tax, SIM and the National Pension Commission into a single, shared services platform.
For a National ID card project jinxed for decades due to corruption and mismanagement, Nigerians welcomed what seemed like a breakthrough this time, several years after the first attempt at a national Identity Card project ended in fiasco.
But the optimism waned after it became clear Thursday the new ID cards, a key instrument recognised by the federal constitution, will not only bear the Coat of Arms and the Nigerian colours of green white green, but also the logo of MasterCard, a profit-driven private entity.
“Nigeria’s colours and coast of arms is what should be there. It is not an opportunity for advert for promoting companies,” said Eze Onyekpere, Lead Director Centre for Social Justice. “As far as we are concerned it cannot stand. It is not worth it if that’s what they have done.”
Beyond national pride, many Nigerians spoke of the dire economic and security implications for Nigeria.
“Clearly, there are National Security implication,” said Nasir El-Rufai, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. “All these data go to the American payment platform.”
Mr. El-Rufai recalled that Malaysia was the first country to implement a general multipurpose ID card and that the country did so with its own resources and technology to protect its citizens.
Economically, analysts say, the deal also hands over all adult Nigerians as direct and compulsory customers of MasterCard.
The US-based firm appeared so elated at the outcome of the contract that by Thursday, it hired a media consultant, African Media Agency, to publicise the landmark deal all over the world.
MasterCard could not be reached immediately for comments.

Details of the partnership between the NIMC and MasterCard were unclear as of Friday.
A former senior government official, well briefed about the process, said the Nigerian government may have adopted the Public Private Partnership model for the project, with MasterCard underwriting part of the cost of the deal.
Still, the former official, who asked not to be named, said it was unbelievable that Nigeria could not insist on fully funding such a project at any cost, considering its strategic importance to its sovereignty.
“It’s so scandalous that there are countries you present this to and they will be confused,” the official said. “I have never seen this done anywhere in the world.”
The Nigerian Identity Management Commission, NIMC, refused to comment on the concerns.






Source: Premium Times

ADAMAWA GUBER ELECTION: PDP DISQUALIFIES ACTING GOVERNOR FINTIRI

Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri

The screening committee setup by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to screen candidates vying for the party primaries in Adamawa state has disqualified the acting governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
Although, the official reasons given for Fintiri’s disqualification could not be confirmed, a PDP source said it was because he decamped from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) party and hence did not qualify to be re-admitted into the party until certain conditions are met.
The screening committee, however, gave the green light to former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as well as others to run in the primaries.

HOW I SURVIVED EBOLA -LATE NURSE JUSTINA EJELONU FIANCÉ, DENNIS AKAGHA RECOUNTS ORDEAL

He and his wife-to-be had lofty dreams of living fulfilled lives and raising wonderful children together. The fiance was two months pregnant and their traditional marriage had been fixed for October.

His fiancee, a graduate nurse, had just secured a job at First Consultant Hospital, Lagos. He too also just got a marketing job with an oil and gas company. She was reluctant to go to work on the first day she was expected to resume on account of ‘morning sickness’ (pregnancy symptoms) and he encouraged her.

She did! Lo and behold, her first duty and first patient to nurse on her first day at work was the late Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American, who brought the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) to Nigeria. And that decision put a full stop to the lofty dreams of a promising family. Welcome to the world of Mr. Dennis Akagha, the husband-to-be of late Miss Justina Ejelonu, the nurse, who

contacted and died of the Ebola disease from Mr. Sawyer.

In an exclusive, explosive and passionate interview, Akagha, who contracted the disease from Miss Justina, was quarantined, treated, cured and discharged last week, spoke on how and why his fiancee died, how he contacted and survived the disease, how he was stigmatized and abandoned by co-workers and neighbours, and why victims must be given adequate care. He said perhaps, Justina would have survived with better care. Read on:

His thoughts on Ebola and late Justina

The truth is that Justina and I were not legally married, we were planning for our traditional marriage in October and she just got this job. She was a qualified graduate nurse and got the job at the First Consultant Hospital in Lagos. She resumed duty at the hospital on the 21st of July, while Patrick Sawyer was admitted at the hospital on the 20th.

He was her first patient. She was one of the nurses that nursed him. She was pregnant and so her immune system was weak, which made it easy for her to contract the disease. On that first day which was a Monday, she was having some pregnancy symptoms, but I just encouraged her to go because it was her first day at work. Sawyer was her first patient.

The next day, Tuesday, she didn’t work on Sawyer. Wednesday and Thursday, she was off. Then on Friday, Patrick Sawyer died. They didn’t know he had Ebola, it was three days later that they realized it was Ebola.


Dennis Akagha and Late Justina Ejelonu
When did you know that she had contacted the Ebola virus?

It was after Sawyer died that she told me she nursed him but that she was on gloves. She even thanked God that she didn’t have direct contact with him. The fever continued and we thought it was just pregnancy symptoms and even when she went to her hospital, they confirmed the same thing. She took drugs and ran tests, yet it persisted. At night, she was usually cold and feverish and her body temperature was usually very high. At a point, I began to suspect that she had contacted the virus. I did some research on the disease and realised that she was having similar symptoms.

On the 14th of August, it became serious, she started stooling and vomiting. I had to clean up everything. All of a sudden, she started bleeding and she started crying that she had lost the pregnancy. I had to call her relatives and other people. The bleeding persisted and I had to clean up everything.



While you were attending to her did you wear gloves?

Initially I was not wearing gloves because I felt I had already been exposed to the virus. But later I cautioned myself and started wearing nylon on my hands. But I couldn’t stay away from her. I kept consoling her. Even when I took her to the hospital, she wanted to hold me and I told her to also consider my safety. She managed to hold herself and was able to find her way out in a pool of her blood. We chartered a taxi to the hospital, but first, I took her to First Consultant Hospital because I felt they should know more. When we got there, I was directed to IGH, Yaba. I told the taxi driver to take us there. The driver wasn’t even aware of what was going on as he took us to Yaba.

Justina was on the floor for 30 minutes before she was attended to. She was screaming that she was going to die. She was seriously bleeding, she had to come out of the taxi and lay on the floor. I ran around, trying to get doctors to attend to her. After everything, they took her in, took her blood samples and the following day, the result came out that it was Ebola. They washed the taxi with chlorine and also bathed the taxi driver and I with chlorine spray.

At that point, the taxi driver knew what was going on, he couldn’t even take me home because he was so scared. I had to look for somewhere to pass the night in the hospital. Early the next morning, I left the Hospital. The taxi driver is alive today, nothing happened to him. We have been checking on him and the last time we spoke he told me, he was fine.

So what happened after you got exposed to the virus?


•Akagha with Dr. Terry
14 days after I was exposed to Ebola, my temperature rose from the usual 35.2 degrees centigrade to 37.2. The Lagos State government gave me a thermometer the day I dropped Justina off at the centre. It took them two straight weeks to visit my home and to disinfect it. Before they came, I had already done the much I could do. I used bleach and detergent to clean the whole house, furniture and clothes inclusive.

After that, what happened?

We should be reminded and educated that a healthy person with Ebola virus cannot get anybody infected, except if the person is sick and totally down with the virus like what happened to Sawyer and to my late wife-to-be, Justina. I contacted the virus because Justina was very sick and I was taking care of her without any appropriate protection. When we knew what we were dealing with it was almost too late for me as I had already contacted the virus.

Since you had already visited the centre what else was done for you by the state?

The Lagos State government sent health professionals to check on me regularly to know how l was doing or if l had the signs of the virus manifesting. So they used to come around to check on me. At some point they created scenes with their visits. I was embarrassed and I was stigmatized. I complained severely to them that I didn’t like what they were doing. Then, one Saturday they visited again, I complained about the pains I was beginning to experience; excruciating pains around my waist. I started praying and asking people to pray for me.

Before this time, I believed in the Holy Communion, so I usually take it daily and do feet washing. I was going to the hospital daily to see late Justina. Initially, I was seeing her through the window and she would say I should take her out of the hospital. She complained of lack of care.

Perhaps, Justina would have survived the virus, if not for the state she was in. Her immune system was down because she was pregnant. Along the line, she had a miscarriage and lost the baby due to the Ebola virus disease.

The doctors, who were supposed to do an evacuation on her couldn’t do it because they claimed that an evacuation was too risky as she was heavily infected and may pass on the virus to another person.

Since nothing was done even after the bleeding had stopped, it led to more complications for her because the already dead foetus somehow got rotten in the womb and started a damaging process which led to further complication. Meanwhile, she was still stooling and vomiting and since nobody could dare to touch her, she was left on top of her excretions even when she couldn’t do much for herself due to her weak state. She was given her incisions and other drugs. I believe if some people survived Justina should have been one of them. At a point, I wished I was a doctor myself; I would have taken the risk of doing the evacuation because it really affected her.

When was the last day you saw Justina?


The Lagos State Ebola quarantine centre and Late Nurse Obi Justina Ejelonu
The last day I saw her, I had to go inside the ward because she was so unkempt as nobody attended to her. At that time, the quarantined patients were in the former facility where there was no water and she had messed up herself again. I had to look for water to clean her up, change her pampers and arrange her bedding. Since I was aware of what I was dealing with, I got myself protected while cleaning up the place. I made sure she looked better than when I saw her. Justina was shivering the last day I saw her, one side of her stomach was already swollen, and her legs were also swollen. I prayed for her. At a point, she needed oxygen and the hospital couldn’t provide it. Her friends had to provide it. That was the last day I saw her.

On Sunday Morning, I called her line like I usually did before visiting her, but she didn’t pick her calls. When I got to the hospital, I was told that she was dead.

Was she taking your calls while she was at the facility?

Yes, in fact she called me that last day and I knew she was going to give up, because she was saying some funny things. She said I should tell my people to go and meet her father so as to finalize our marriage plans, that she’s leaving that place.

From what you have said, were you not scared that you may die as well from the disease?

I personally don’t believe in taking medications. I had the mentality that I wasn’t sick. I told the government what I was experiencing. On the day they came to pick me up for treatment, all of a sudden, my temperature went back to normal. The shivering and pains were all gone. So they decided that they would be checking on me. But it got to a point people stopped selling things to me. It was as if the government got a report that I shouldn’t be around. So, they came and said I should go with them that they wanted to take my blood sample. I went with them and they took my blood sample, I was kept in a ward known as the ‘suspected ward.’

The result came out and it was positive. I was then taken to a confined ward. One of the doctors from UNICEF, a white lady told me that they were having issues with the results and that they would have to re-run the tests. They did the tests again and it was still positive. I told them that it wasn’t my result and that I was healthy. I was even doing my usual exercises (press-ups) every morning. I kept telling them that I wasn’t sick. They took my blood sample the third time. That night, they told me that I tested negative in the last result and that I don’t have any reason to remain there. That was how I was discharged.

While you were going through all these at the facility what happened to your job?

I was a marketer in an oil and gas company. I worked on commission basis, but at a point, I realized that people were not calling me and when I called they won’t pick my calls. Even the person that I report directly refused to pick my calls and also refused to associate with me. Justina and I just got our jobs, she got hers at First Consultant Hospital and I got mine as a marketer with the oil and gas company.

Do you think that the government or First Consultant Hospital

should compensate Justina’s family?

Although, no amount of money they give to the family will bring her back I think the government owes Justina’s family a lot because she died trying to save a situation. Justina died in active service as her death wasn’t natural.

So how did your status change from positive to negative?

I was reading a book on healing and taking of the Holy Communion. So I learnt to take Holy Communion morning, afternoon and night. I also engaged myself in feet-washing every day before going to bed. The Almighty God saved me; the Holy Spirit healed me. It wasn’t as though l didn’t fall sick as l had direct contact with Justina but the Almighty God healed me. When I was discharged, I got to my house on Saturday evening and spent two hours the next day, Sunday, thanking God on my own. I didn’t go to church or anywhere because of the already established stigma but today I can confidently attend church activities because I guess they all know I’m free now. I know my faith and belief healed me. God also worked for me apart from the fact that my immune system is also working. I believe I got healed also because friends prayed for me.







Source: Saturday Vanguard