President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to leave Abuja for London, tomorrow Monday on an official visit during which time he will hold discussions on Nigeria – British relations with Prime Minister Mrs. Theresa May, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meetings scheduled to hold between April 18 and 20.
A statement today, by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said that Buhari will also meet the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Plc, Mr. Ben van Beurden in connection with Shell and other partners’ plan to invest $15 billion in Nigeria’s oil industry.
The statement said that these investment ventures will lay the foundation for the next 20 years production and domestic gas supply, bringing with it all the attendant benefits both to the economy and the wider society.
It said that President Buhari will also renew discussions with the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Justin Welby, “a good friend of the President on inter-religious harmony in Nigeria and World-wide.”
It said that further meetings have also been scheduled for the President to see some prominent British and Nigerians residing in Britain. [myad]
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has raised the alarm over a plot by the Federal Government and her agents to frame him up by planting illegal items on him in any of his trips outside the shores of Nigeria, and have him quizzed and embarrassed by foreign security agencies.
A statement by the Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, said that investigations by the Rivers State Governor revealed the Federal Government is using her security agencies to plan the set up anytime the governor travels abroad. The governor said: “My investigation reveals that the Federal government using her security agencies is planning to set me up anytime I am travelling outside the country. They plan to organise security to storm the hotel I am staying and say they found xyz cash in my possession; after which they would say I was arrested for currency trafficking or whatever offences outside the country.
“They will then precipitate crisis in my state and other parts of Nigeria. They will plan demonstrations to demonize me and claim I have gone outside to embarrass the country. The public odium is meant to smear me before my people and other Nigerians. It is unfortunate, wicked and unfair. What they plan is similar to what was once done to the late Chief DSP Alamieseigha.
“They are planning what they call the ‘Alams treatment’ for me. But, by the grace of Almighty God, they will fail.”
Governor Wike said, though he was neither scared nor disturbed over the plot, he felt the need to alert the nation and the world to the evil and dangerous dimension politics had degenerated in the country.
“I am using this opportunity to alert the world of the sinister plot. I am a law-abiding citizen of this country and countries I visit in the course of my work or holidays. I have never dabbled into anything illegal. So, any attempt to frame me up on trumped up charges or alleged offences is bound to fail.
“What they are doing is just cheap politics. They want to intimidate the opposition into silence as they are already doing with their so-called ‘looters’ list. It won’t work. We can’t all be intimidated. What we expect government at the centre to do is to showcase to the people their lists of achievements; why they should get a second chance. But they have nothing to show; so they are embarking on intimidation and arm-twisting tactics of the opposition.” Governor Wike said he was sure of resounding victory at the polls in 2019, because he has been serving the people diligently and efficiently.
“My works will speak for me. My projects will speak for me. The People of Rivers State will speak for me by voting me back. No shaking.” [myad]
Soldiers on the umbrella of Operation Lafiya Dole have announced the rescue of 54 women and 95 children held hostage by escaping members of Boko Haram from Sambisa forest in Borno State.
A statement by the Deputy Director Public Relations of the Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, said that soldiers smoked them from their hideout in Yerimari Kura.
He said that in the encounter, troops killed three Boko Haram insurgents and captured five, adding that the rescued hostages are currently receiving medical attention at the 21 Brigade Medical Center and will be profiled after the medical screening session.
Colonel Onyema said that the troops also intercepted and neutralised two suicide bombers, who attempted infiltrating Mandanari Community in Konduga, Borno State.
He said that the two suicide bombers strapped with suicide vests were sneaking into the community at about 8.00 pm, when they were sighted by vigilant troops, who challenged them from a safe distance.
According to him, the patrol team engaged them as they refused halting and ran towards the community, detonating their suicide vests.
He said that it was only the suicide bombers that died in the incident, while three persons who sustained minor injuries have received medical attention. [myad]
A 35-year-old man was reported to have drowned and died inside the swimming pool of a hotel in Ishashi area of Lagos State, even as his girlfriend who accompanied him to the hotel had fled the scene.
The deceased identified simply as Shakiru was said to have checked into Regional Hotel and Suites and went to the swimming pool, in the company of his girlfriend with an undisclosed identity.
Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Chike Oti, confirmed the incident and said:”One Achikode Christopher , 34, a manager attached to Regional Hotel and Suites at Ishashi, reported at the state that one of his customers, simply identified as Sikiru, whose address is still unknown, was found dead inside the hotel swimming pool upon diving into the water.
“On receipt of this information, policemen went to the scene of crime and recovered the remains of the said man. No traces of injuries were found and no identification or phone was recovered from him.
“The girl friend that he came with disappeared immediately, with all links of identification of the deceased, possibly for fear of arrest. The corpse has since been recovered and deposited at Badagry General Hospital while investigation continues.” [myad]
“Just few days ago, there was the issue of providing funding for the purchase of security equipments. In a good environment, such an issue needed to have been discussed with lawmakers.
”Already, some senators are angry. They said they were not consulted by the executive before such a decision was taken. These are the issues we are talking about.”
The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, spoke today, Saturday, at a retreat on “Strengthening Executive -Legislature Relations” organized by the Senate Press Corps held in Jos, Plateau state.
Senator Saraki, who expressed regret over the delayed passage of the 2018 budget, said that there must be collaboration and engagement between the Executive and the Legislature.
”So long as the process for the passage of the budget is not based on participation, engagement and collaboration, much will not be realized.
“The Executive and the legislature are partners. We need each other: the constitution does not allow one arm to work alone that is why there is checks and balance. There is no security architecture of this country that can work without a strong synergy between the executive and the legislature.
“When you see certain agencies, which by their actions and utterances frustrate the relationship between the two arms, you begin to wonder.
“What do we need to do? Do the police need more funding or more powers? Do they need new legislations to strengthen them? These are the issues where the executive and the legislature must work together.
“I needed to be here to speak on these issues. It is not just about today. Posterity will be here to judge us that what I am saying is true. If we do not change the way we behave, we will remain like this for many years to come.”
The Senate President said that for democracy to be strengthened, the priority of everybody should be to strengthen the legislature.
“If you do not defend the legislature, there is no way that our democracy will be strengthened because government is not built on individuals. It is built on institutions.
“That is why in developed countries, governments can change, but it does not affect the stability of their democracy because their institutions are strong.
“We decided to run a presidential system of government. By its nature of checks and balances, there are bound to be frictions. The question now is how healthy is that friction.”
Former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa
Former Sokoto State governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, has advised members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to intensify prayers to seek forgiveness from God.
“It is the sins that the PDP members committed that God is punishing them for. Almighty Allah does not make mistakes and that was the reason why when the PDP offended Him, He snatched the power and handed it to APC.”
Speaking at the PDP Northwest zonal rally today, Saturday in Katsina, accused PDP of arrant corruption, saying: “corruption is an evil deed that retards the progress of any nation.”
Also, Governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo, charged Nigerians to shun all forms of corrupt practices and rise up and challenge corruption in the country even as former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema backed calls for the restructuring of the country, saying it would result in rapid development of the nation.
Former Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shehu Shema has revealed that he left the state with N14 billion in the treasury, contrary to allegation by his successor, Aminu Bello Masari led administration that he left an empty treasury and mountain of debts.
Ex-Gov Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State Shema who spoke today, Saturday, at the Northwest Zonal rally and reception to receive people who decamped from APC, PDM and APGA to the PDP in the state, said he left a buoyant treasury.
He said that he had left the government to God over the allegations, witch-hunting and humiliation against his personality.
Shema also debunked allegations by the Masari administration that he left the state with debts from loans while challenging them to publish a statement showing where it solicit for loans from foreign and local sources. In his words:
“We left N14.5 billion in the coffers of the state. We challenge them to publish a report that we solicit for loans from foreign and local sources throughout our tenure in office.
“We gave your children free education, paid for their WAEC and NECO fees. We built government house and stadium of world standard and they were challenging and faulting us. Are all these waste?
“Whoever says he is going to continue to witch hunt us, we leave them with God. To fight corruption is necessary in Nigeria but must be fought with clear objective, fairness and equity.
Meanwhile, Shema is currently being challenged over the alleged misappropriation of public funds under his administration at the State High Court.
“Paint my picture truly like me,” Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) told the artist about to paint his portrait, “pimples, warts, and everything as you see me.”
David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, retired brigadier general, former senate president and longest serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, presents avant-garde views or perspectives to writers who indulge in the enterprise of questioning and contextualizing the essence or quintessence of grandees.
In such an enterprise, the subject matter becomes a captive in the fertile imagination of the writer who is at liberty to either build or dismantle primordial prejudices; or deconstruct or even reconstruct the persona of the subject on the writ large platform of conscionable journalistic interrogation.
Perceptions and perspectives assume free reins. That is the tragedy, so to speak, of heroes. They are subjected to the vagaries of characterisations that most times encapsulate both the sublime and the ridiculous; the garish and the outlandish; the profound and the jejune; the profane and the celestial.
Inevitably, Mark, who is now 70 (April 8, 2018), is one of the latest captives of this obligatory ritual which many crave and many others loathe. There is always the existential fear about the double-edged nature of good and bad that media hype breeds. The fear of the occasional collateral damage, yes, of the unintended consequences, is real and grisly.
Yet, it could be salutary, somewhat, to introspective self-assessment of how well one has fared whether rightly or wrongly in the domain of public perception, especially for those in public offices, who must be taken through the critical appraisal index. It is in this context that the essential David Mark cannot escape essential consideration.
Mark, without a doubt, means different things to different people. To some, he remains a gentleman officer even in retirement; to others, he is an astute politician and strategist with rare legerdemain; some more see him as a philanthropist with capacity for cornucopian eleemosynary while some perceive him as a passionate golfer.
These are not all to the variegated perspectives: some see him as a budding religious aficionado of the catholic hue while others see him as traditional for his receptiveness of the traditional title of Okpokpowulu K’Idoma (the leader of war or the bulldozer of Idoma) from his Royal Majesty, Agabaidu Elias Ikoyi Obekpa, the Och’Idoma IV of Idomaland, in 2009 or thereabout in recognition of his numerous contributions to the development of Idoma land.
But my preoccupation herein is to illuminate the philosophical underpinning of the activities, the life and times of a man whose entirety evokes, at once, multiple perspectives by admirers and traducers alike. I could have adapted the one-liner summation of the French philosopher, Rene Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum” meaning “I think therefore I am” when he was asked who a man is, to answer the question as to who David Mark is.
Who is David Mark? And what are his essences? I could settle for one of the perspectives supra in a quick riposte and go ahead to adumbrate his essences within the narrow confine of just a perspective. But on the unique occasion of his 70th birthday, I cannot be unfair to him with a one-dimensional or one-liner appreciation.
Therefore, Mark is a fitting summation of all the perspectives and for a man to deserve this kind of approximation makes him a phenomenon. I take the opportunity of his 70thbirthday to celebrate a friend and mentor who chose, at a critical intersection in my coverage of the Senate as THISDAY politics editor in Abuja, to let me into his life by force of appreciation of my intellectual capital.
My reportage of the politicking of the race for the senate presidency in 2007 had been misconstrued as opposition to Mark’s senate presidency and that disposition had preponderated reportorial interactions until 2009 when Mark turned 61. The Deputy Editor of THISDAY on Sunday, Mr. Collins Edomaruse, asked me to do a tribute on him (Mark) about the close of production, which I did under 40 minutes.
I did not even read through the piece for errors. I pressed the send key on my computer. It was after the piece titled: “Pomp, as Mark Turns 61 in the Saddle” was published in The Gavel-to-Gavel page that I read through and felt I had done a pretty good job. I later realised I had done a masterpiece on Mark when the then deputy minority leader, Senator Mohammed Mana from Adamawa state, called to commend me for what he called “a beautiful and brilliant piece”.
I had to go back to read through myself. By Thursday of that week, I got a message through an AIT cameraman that the senate president said he would like to see me. I went to see him in the office in company with his Chief of Staff and Special Adviser Media, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan. Mark said to me that he read through my piece and decided to call to commend me for it.
It was a particularly fulfilling encounter for me. The kind words were like a balm. If I remember vividly, he said: “You are a brilliant writer. You are not like some journalists who mix up their tenses. I read you always in THISDAY and I agree with many of the issues you have interrogated except for one or two which we will discuss later.”
That was how we struck a relationship that has endured so far. When I was redeployed by THISDAY from Senate to assume a new position as State House Bureau Chief, I had the privilege of being hosted to a dinner at the Apo Mansion, the official quarters of the senate president. Since then, he has not broken the line of communication between us.
That, to me, is the essence of the intercourse between greatness and humility. Mark is a great man. He is a humble man, regardless of his visage and poise, contoured by his disciplined military background, which tend to be misconstrued for meanness and arrogance.
Last year, when I jointly wrote a tribute in commemoration of his 69th birthday, some salient issues were woven around his politics and convictions. The motivation that drove the reinforcement of those issues is still as compelling as it was last year. The argument is unassailable that Mark remains one of the most influential politicians around.
Therefore, it would be a good political contemplation to throw his hat in the ring of the 2019 presidency; after all, he is a northerner of the middle belt extraction. But unfortunately, narrow-mindedness of the tyrannical majority tribes is stifling a culture of political liberalism that would have shattered the barrier of minority impotence and limited access to the presidency.
It would be recalled that the Goodluck Jonathan presidency happened through an act of God. But beyond the minority question is the question of competence. Mark’s wealth of experience is not in doubt. His competence is also not in question. He remains a repository of experience that can be tapped in ideal situations to strengthen institutions. The stability of a nation is dependent on and strengthened by the potpourri of the wise counsels by experienced men and women at its beck and call.
As I wish him many happy returns in long life and good health, I sincerely believe that he must engage in obligatory introspection and decide how forcefully defining he intends to bequeath a body of legacies to future generations within the context of the larger national political constructions.
Is it going to be through some intervention in presidential politics or setting up of what I consider to be a much-needed David Mark’s Leadership and Policy Centre with the main thrust of stimulating and promoting constructive conversations aimed at ensuring national stability through peace and development?
The ball is the court of the birthday boy. Play it to your satisfaction, Sir! Congratulations on this milestone. To God is the glory.
A 12 year-old pupil of the Indian Language School in Lagos, Rishe Gnanasekaran, has emerged South West winner of the 15th Annual National Mathematics Competition.
The competition was organized by Nigerian Tulip International Colleges in conjunction with National Mathematics Centre, Abuja for primary five and six pupils of schools nationwide. About 39,000 pupils across the region participated in the competition, while the best 12 pupils, their teachers and schools won prizes.
All the winners would be given scholarships covering tuition and accommodation. The overall winner got a cash prize of N300, 000 while the teacher got N150, 000 and the school got a photocopy machine.
The second prize winner got N200,000, the teacher N100, 000 and the school a desk top computer while the third prize winner went away with N100,000 and the teacher got N75, 000. The prize for the school is a printer.
Winners from the fourth place, up to the 12th and their teachers also got various cash prizes.
The Principal NTIC, Ercan Yilmaz, said that the competition, organized by the college for the past 15 years, was aimed at developing greater capacity and promoting effective teaching and learning of mathematics at the primary levels.
Yilmaz said that there is nothing more important for the future of our countries and our citizens than high quality education for all.
“The Annual National Mathematics Competition (ANMC) has been ongoing for the past 15 years for all states in the country and we here in Lagos are in charge of 9 states namely: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Delta and Edo States.
“We had 39, 600 pupils from 36 states across Nigeria who participated in this year`s competition and seated among us here are champions.
“As we celebrate the 15th edition winners of 2018 ANMC, various scholarships will be given today to these future changers; schools will be encouraged and so many Math teachers here will go home motivated and elated,” he said.
The Director-General in the Office of Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mrs. Ronke Soyobo, said that the prize giving ceremony was a reward for hard work and a preparation for future challenges and leadership role of young leaders.
Soyobo commended the participants for putting on a spirit of sportsmanship. She urged the winners not to rest on their oars because there are future hurdles to still cross in their academic pursuit and leadership role.
“Put on the jacket of academic sportsmanship, imbibe good moral, as your schools continue to transform, reposition and take you to the Zenith of your chosen career.”
She lauded NTIC for its commitment and dedication to the development of education, growth of its school and concern for the progress of students and the community.
The Nigerian Tulip International College was formerly known as Nigeria Turkish International Colleges, an educational institution operating 16 schools in five states in Nigeria.
NTIC is aimed at producing academically excellent, morally upright and socially responsible citizens for Nigeria and the world.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus has said that Nigeria cannot survive another four years of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Prince Secondus told a crowd of PDP members and supporters in Katsina, capital of Katsina state today, Saturday that Nigerians can no longer endure the suffering brought about by the APC administration.
A statement by the Spokesman of Secondus, Ike Abonyi, quoted his boss as saying that they should be ready to vote out APC and keep hunger out of their lives.
Secondus was quoted as saying that Nigeria unity is seriously under threat because of APC style that has made Nigerians enemoes to themselves.
He told the rally which was organized by the North West zone of the party to formally welcome decamping members to the party that the APC has nothing to offer Nigerians.
“In katsina state, APC has nothing to show outside what late Umaru Yar Adua and Ibrahim Shema did for you.
“PDP is the only party that has the interest of the people at heart, it’s the only party that will guarantee national unity.”
Four PDP state governors, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state, Darius Ishaku of Taraba, Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom and Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe were top PDP leaders that graced the occasion.
All members of the National Working Committee NWC of the PDP, the BOT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, former Senate President Adolphus Wabara and other members of the National Executives Committee NEC attended the rally.
National Chairman of the party later received thousands of decamping members led by a former Senator and gubernatorial aspirant, Senator Mohammed Lado.
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A 12 year-old pupil of the Indian Language School in Lagos, Rishe Gnanasekaran, has emerged South West winner of the 15th Annual National Mathematics Competition.
The Essential David Mark At 70, By Sufuyan Ojeifo
“Paint my picture truly like me,” Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) told the artist about to paint his portrait, “pimples, warts, and everything as you see me.”
David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, retired brigadier general, former senate president and longest serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, presents avant-garde views or perspectives to writers who indulge in the enterprise of questioning and contextualizing the essence or quintessence of grandees.
In such an enterprise, the subject matter becomes a captive in the fertile imagination of the writer who is at liberty to either build or dismantle primordial prejudices; or deconstruct or even reconstruct the persona of the subject on the writ large platform of conscionable journalistic interrogation.
Perceptions and perspectives assume free reins. That is the tragedy, so to speak, of heroes. They are subjected to the vagaries of characterisations that most times encapsulate both the sublime and the ridiculous; the garish and the outlandish; the profound and the jejune; the profane and the celestial.
Inevitably, Mark, who is now 70 (April 8, 2018), is one of the latest captives of this obligatory ritual which many crave and many others loathe. There is always the existential fear about the double-edged nature of good and bad that media hype breeds. The fear of the occasional collateral damage, yes, of the unintended consequences, is real and grisly.
Yet, it could be salutary, somewhat, to introspective self-assessment of how well one has fared whether rightly or wrongly in the domain of public perception, especially for those in public offices, who must be taken through the critical appraisal index. It is in this context that the essential David Mark cannot escape essential consideration.
Mark, without a doubt, means different things to different people. To some, he remains a gentleman officer even in retirement; to others, he is an astute politician and strategist with rare legerdemain; some more see him as a philanthropist with capacity for cornucopian eleemosynary while some perceive him as a passionate golfer.
These are not all to the variegated perspectives: some see him as a budding religious aficionado of the catholic hue while others see him as traditional for his receptiveness of the traditional title of Okpokpowulu K’Idoma (the leader of war or the bulldozer of Idoma) from his Royal Majesty, Agabaidu Elias Ikoyi Obekpa, the Och’Idoma IV of Idomaland, in 2009 or thereabout in recognition of his numerous contributions to the development of Idoma land.
But my preoccupation herein is to illuminate the philosophical underpinning of the activities, the life and times of a man whose entirety evokes, at once, multiple perspectives by admirers and traducers alike. I could have adapted the one-liner summation of the French philosopher, Rene Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum” meaning “I think therefore I am” when he was asked who a man is, to answer the question as to who David Mark is.
Who is David Mark? And what are his essences? I could settle for one of the perspectives supra in a quick riposte and go ahead to adumbrate his essences within the narrow confine of just a perspective. But on the unique occasion of his 70th birthday, I cannot be unfair to him with a one-dimensional or one-liner appreciation.
Therefore, Mark is a fitting summation of all the perspectives and for a man to deserve this kind of approximation makes him a phenomenon. I take the opportunity of his 70thbirthday to celebrate a friend and mentor who chose, at a critical intersection in my coverage of the Senate as THISDAY politics editor in Abuja, to let me into his life by force of appreciation of my intellectual capital.
My reportage of the politicking of the race for the senate presidency in 2007 had been misconstrued as opposition to Mark’s senate presidency and that disposition had preponderated reportorial interactions until 2009 when Mark turned 61. The Deputy Editor of THISDAY on Sunday, Mr. Collins Edomaruse, asked me to do a tribute on him (Mark) about the close of production, which I did under 40 minutes.
I did not even read through the piece for errors. I pressed the send key on my computer. It was after the piece titled: “Pomp, as Mark Turns 61 in the Saddle” was published in The Gavel-to-Gavel page that I read through and felt I had done a pretty good job. I later realised I had done a masterpiece on Mark when the then deputy minority leader, Senator Mohammed Mana from Adamawa state, called to commend me for what he called “a beautiful and brilliant piece”.
I had to go back to read through myself. By Thursday of that week, I got a message through an AIT cameraman that the senate president said he would like to see me. I went to see him in the office in company with his Chief of Staff and Special Adviser Media, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan. Mark said to me that he read through my piece and decided to call to commend me for it.
It was a particularly fulfilling encounter for me. The kind words were like a balm. If I remember vividly, he said: “You are a brilliant writer. You are not like some journalists who mix up their tenses. I read you always in THISDAY and I agree with many of the issues you have interrogated except for one or two which we will discuss later.”
That was how we struck a relationship that has endured so far. When I was redeployed by THISDAY from Senate to assume a new position as State House Bureau Chief, I had the privilege of being hosted to a dinner at the Apo Mansion, the official quarters of the senate president. Since then, he has not broken the line of communication between us.
That, to me, is the essence of the intercourse between greatness and humility. Mark is a great man. He is a humble man, regardless of his visage and poise, contoured by his disciplined military background, which tend to be misconstrued for meanness and arrogance.
Last year, when I jointly wrote a tribute in commemoration of his 69th birthday, some salient issues were woven around his politics and convictions. The motivation that drove the reinforcement of those issues is still as compelling as it was last year. The argument is unassailable that Mark remains one of the most influential politicians around.
Therefore, it would be a good political contemplation to throw his hat in the ring of the 2019 presidency; after all, he is a northerner of the middle belt extraction. But
It would be recalled that the Goodluck Jonathan presidency happened through an act of God. But beyond the minority question is the question of competence. Mark’s wealth of experience is not in doubt. His competence is also not in question. He remains a repository of experience that can be tapped in ideal situations to strengthen institutions. The stability of a nation is dependent on and strengthened by the potpourri of the wise counsels by experienced men and women at its beck and call.
As I wish him many happy returns in long life and good health, I sincerely believe that he must engage in obligatory introspection and decide how forcefully defining he intends to bequeath a body of legacies to future generations within the context of the larger national political constructions.
Is it going to be through some intervention in presidential politics or setting up of what I consider to be a much-needed David Mark’s Leadership and Policy Centre with the main thrust of stimulating and promoting constructive conversations aimed at ensuring national stability through peace and development?
The ball is the court of the birthday boy. Play it to your satisfaction, Sir! Congratulations on this milestone. To God is the glory.