Five Can Never Be Greater Than Eleven, By Gani Bako

January 13, 2016

One of the unfortunate falsehoods in the ongoing Taraba narratives is that Aisha Alhassan actually won the governorship election. The impression is created that she is a popular female politician with a cult folowership. The assumption is that she is the Hilary Clinton of Nigeria who is being persecuted by a male dominated society such as Taraba. For the unsuspecting, Aisha has played an insidious mind game showcasing her as the one with the highest cast votes in the last election.

Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. APC is the master of propaganda, voodoo and illusions. If one is not careful, they would sell one a dummy and make one pay for one’s funeral. They know how to decorate lies and sustain mirages. Here then are the incontrovertible hard facts: Alhassan won only five local governments out of sixteen LGAs in the state. Those LGAs she won are basically the ones opposition parties always and naturally win during polls. They are the strong hold of the opposition and no one can dispute the fact that the APC clinched those five local governments.

Having conceded that, it is also a fact that the ruling PDP in Taraba with its very popular candidate, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku, garnered the majority votes having convincingly won in eleven local governments. Even when are run was ordered in one of the LGAs, the PDP still swept the polls. Gov Darius, an urbane professional architect, is seen by many as the voice of reason and experience. He has been a minister in three different ministries. When he was in the power ministry, Darius easily endeared himself to the electorate and thus didn’t find it difficult to get their support. His platform too i.e, the PDP is the preferred one in Taraba.

Today, sadly the APC is creating the scenario as if it actually polled more votes. But the stark reality is there for all to see. Even the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) knows this for a fact. APC is alien to our people and it has no natural roots. In declaring the PDP candidate, Arc. Darius Ishaku the winner, INEC therefore was merely voicing the opinion of the majority of our voters.

This thus brings us to the crux of the matter. If democracy is the game of number, the PDP has that number. If it is a game of majority, then the majority of Taraba electorate have spoken. And if the electoral system stipulates that anyone with a simple majority wins this contest, then Governor Darius Ishaku is in order in the eyes of the law and common sense.

That is why any attempt to smuggle the governor’s mandate through the back door would always be resisted by the teeming masses of Taraba. Five can never be greater than eleven. Any attempt to make it so is not only anti democratic, it is basically demonic.

To give Taraba governorship to the opposition APC would therefore amount to not only standing justice on its head but also giving a new meaning to profligacy. It would be a perfidy of the highest order and recourse to dictatorship.

What is more, it would be a miscarriage of true democracy and an insult on decency. It would showcase the current Buhari administration as one that enthrones wickedness and lawlessness. That is why we are praying that the right thing be done in Taraba state so that the law abiding citizens can continue to be guided by the rule of law.

There is no telling what may happen to Taraba should the APC try to force itself and take the state at the court as the tribunal wanted to do. It is a dangerously unadvisable mission. It won’t auger well for Tarabans and certainly for the entire country. This is because injury to one is an injury to all. Right now there is peace and calm basically because the court of appeal did the right thing to avert pandemonium. Electorates are now more informed than before. Stealing their mandate is thus no longer a safe enterprise. Therefore any decision about Taraba has to take these facts into considerations:

Taraba is historically and traditionally a PDP state
2. The PDP swept almost all the legislative posts both at the state and national level in the last election as a demonstration of this dominance in Taraba.
3. Gov Darius won with a very wide margin having garnered the highest number of votes from eleven local governments of the state.
4. The APC won just five local governments which are seemingly strong holds of opposition tendency in the state.
5. Five is not greater than eleven. It is a mathematical aberration and also a satanic equation.

The highest chamber of justice would never accept the devil’s calculus that five is now greater than eleven.

Gani Bako is PRO of TMG. [myad]

GTBank Set To Reward Mobile Banking Customers With N100,000

Greenbarge Reporters

January 13, 2016

Guaranty Trust Bank has launched the #GTBankMobileWin100k competition to reward its mobile banking customers by availing them a chance to win N100,000 weekly in the mBank January rewards.
The competition will run throughout the month of January 2016 and 10 lucky customers will win N100,000 weekly during the period.
To participate in the competition, customers are required to perform two banking transactions weekly on the GTBank Mobile App.
Such transactions include funds transfers, airtime purchases, bills payments and purchases on the SME MarketHub.
Multiple entries are allowed and winners will be notified by telephone or email.
The GTBank Mobile App is a versatile mobile application that merges the bank’s internet banking and mobile money service offerings to allow customers enjoy 24/7 flexibility in carrying out banking transactions without having to visit the Bank’s offices.
Using the mobile app, customers can confirm transactions, transfer funds, pay bills and check balances from the comfort of their mobile devices.
The app also host other amazing features such as the SME MarketHub, an online e-commerce platform that allows businesses owners create online stores to sell and promote their offerings to millions of buyers online.
Commenting on the launch, Segun Agbaje, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of GTBank, said: “Understanding that customers are always on the go; mobile banking puts us in the palm of our customers and provides a unique opportunity to offer quick and more efficient ways of providing banking services. As a Bank, we remain firm on our objective to deliver value adding services that are tailored to meet the diverse needs of our ever-growing customer base by leveraging technology to make banking more convenient for all our customers.” [myad]

Court Orders Nigerian Government Not To Freez MTN Account

Greenbarge Reporters

January 13, 2016

Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Nigerian government to stop freezing the MTN Nigeria Communications Limited in its 21 commercial banks in Nigeria.

The court ruled in favour of the MTN over its refusal to the N1.04 trillion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for its failure to deactivate its unregistered subscribers.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who filed the application yesterday, had expressed the fear that MTN could move all its funds out of the country before the N1.04 trillion fine could be enforced.

He had sought an order directing all the 21 banks to open a special interest-yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court and move N1.04 trillion out of whatever funds that was standing to MTN’s credit in their possession.

The counsel for the AGF, Mr. Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), in a 14-paragraph affidavit deposed to by his junior, Steve Nwabueze, had argued that MTN was in the habit of regularly repatriating its funds out of Nigeria.

He noted that between October 2007 and May 2009, a period of 19 months, MTN moved over $7.7bn of the money made in Nigeria to a foreign account.

He further drew the court’s attention to an instance when in one day, specifically on February 8, 2008, MTN transferred over $936m out of Nigeria to accounts in Mauritius, Cayman Island and British Virgin Island.

“Unless this honourable court urgently entertains this application, the plaintiff/respondent would move its funds out of Nigeria, being the jurisdiction of this honourable court, and thereby frustrate the enforcement of the fine in the likely event that this honourable court sanctions the imposition of the fine,” the AGF’s counsel added.

Okpeseyi maintained that MTN was under an obligation to pay the N1.04tn fine, because it was NCC’s administrative decision, which remained final unless it was reviewed by the commission or nullified by the court.

He said though NCC had earlier given MTN a concession on the fine and reduced it to N780bn, but since MTN had neglected or failed to pay on or before December 31, 2015, the fine remained N1.04tn.

He alleged that instead of taking advantage of the concession MTN resorted to filing a suit in order to buy time, with the hope that it could move all its funds out of Nigeria before the case would be decided.

Okpeseyi urged the court to grant the application in the interest of justice to prevent the court’s decision from being rendered nugatory if it went in the favour of NCC and AGF.

But Justice Idris Mohammed turned down the application as he said the AGF had not shown enough facts to prove that MTN was about to empty its bank accounts and move its funds out of the country.
Idris, who noted that the case was sensitive and of public interest, said he would rather urgently hear the case filed by MTN to challenge the fine and give a judgment within a short time.

He, however, made an order for the parties to maintain status quo ante bellum pending the determination of the suit and adjourned till January 22, 2016 for hearing.
MTN had assembled seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, to challenge the N1.04tn fine imposed on it by NCC.

The company contended that NCC could not act pursuant to Section 70 of its establishment Act to impose the fine on it.

But Malami, who took sides with the NCC and justified the imposed fine, said it was his duty, as the chief law enforcement officer in the country, to ensure that all the laws made by the National Assembly are obeyed. [myad]

Budget Missing? Which Budget? Stupid! By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

It was very annoying seeing adults; educated adults speaking, writing and believing in what even a kindergarten child would simply dismiss with a wave of hand.
Whose idea it was anyway that the Nigerian budget, presented to the joint session of the National Assembly last month was missing? Missing from where? For what purpose?
As a matter of fact, I had started writing this piece when the Senate leader, Senator Muhammed Ndume came up with the true position of thing: that the budget cannot disappear.
Of course, before Senator Ndume clarified the issue, it really made no professional sense for anybody to allow such trash as the budget is missing to be featured on his platform.
It is as if they don’t know that copies of the budget are usually distributed to relevant committees immediately after it is presented by the President or his representative. That even the two chambers of the National Assembly are necessarily handed the copies of the budget right after the presentation. Which of the copies some media practitioners were deceived to publish as missing?
More importantly too is the realization that not quite a week after it was presented to the National Assembly, the copy was available not only in the google search engine, but also in other social media platforms.
What then made the purported missing of the 2016 budget such a big issue on which media fell over one another to publish?
When I first read it earlier in the day, I comforted myself to believe that it was not real: that the media operators were actually not doing what they were doing. But it gained ground so much that even newspaper editors had to ask their reporters to find out from the Presidency if actually it withdrew the document.
Have the operators of the publishing outfits gone so low that they cannot even do a very simple calculation or judgment? How would the nation budget have disappeared and there were no other way of getting the same document? They should have contacted me for a copy, which I have in my file, on my laptop.
Habba! [myad]

Fura-De-Nono For Vice President Osinbajo In Kaduna

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

A beautiful Fulani girl presents a calabash containing Fura-De-Nono, special Fulani delicacy to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo today, when he arrived in Kaduna Airport for the Ground-Breaking Ceremony of 2000 Affordable Housing Scheme initiated and executed by Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasiru El Rufai. The governor was there to cheer up the giver and the receiver. [myad]

Budget Cannot Disappear, Senate Leader Says

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

The Senate Leader, Senator Muhammed Ndume, has educated some media operators who came up earlier in the day with a story that the 2016 budget proposal submitted by President Muhammud Buhari was missing that there is no way budget can be missing.

Ndume explained that apart from the ceremonial copy laid by President Buhari, each chamber will also have its own copy of the budget proposal, adding that once the budget is laid, it has become the property of the National Assembly.
He said while clarifying the issue that the lawmakers have the responsibility to scrutinize it and that once it is passed and signed by the President, it becomes a law.
Ndume said: “Budget cannot be missing. One copy can be laid. It is a symbolic copy.
“The budget will be in custody of both chambers. It cannot be stolen. It cannot be missing.
“Once the budget is laid in the National Assembly, it has become the property of National Assembly.
“Saraki’s visit to Vila is for Senate to know the President’s priority. We want to see how we can fast track the passage of the budget before the end of February. What is before the Senate is a proposal.
“Once the President signs it, it cannot be amended. We can turn the budget upside down. It cannot be missing.” [myad]

We’ll Not Listen To Any Excuses From Those Who Plundered Nigeria, Osinbajo Vows

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has sent a strong message to those who plundered the nation’s financial resources that there is no hiding place for them.
”We are serious about prosecuting those who believed that our resources, the resources of the nation can be plundered at will and they give all kinds of excuses.”
Osinbajo spoke today in Kaduna at the ground-breaking of construction projects spearheaded by the state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
The Vice President insisted that change which the Muhammadu Buhari government is pursuing is possible and that his government would meet the needs of the people.
Professor Osinbajo said that one of the reasons why people voted him and Buhari was because the people believed that they would be able to provide the leadership that would bring about positive change.
“I want to emphasize that when we talk of change, what we are really saying is that it is possible for government to meet the needs of the people; that government is not just about going around in motorcades and looking important, but it is serving the people.”
The Vice President made it clear that Nigeria can be great if the government manages its resources well, adding: “Nigeria can be great if we stop corruption. I am sure that many of you have seen that this government is serious about ending corruption.”
Osinbajo restated the vision of the administration of President Buhari to transform the lives of the people, saying: “President Buhari has said repeatedly he is committed to good governance and the fight against corruption.
“The country has resources for all of us to live decently and well. That is what we are trying to do.”
He commended the government of Mallam El Rufai for embarking on such ambitious projects, adding that the governor represents the change that is being talked about and that under the governor, Kaduna state will truly be great again.
Earlier during the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a Galaxy Mall and Galleria located near the Government House in Kaduna, Mallam El- Rufai said that the project was conceived to generate 2, 000 direct and indirect jobs, create linkage opportunities for small businesses to grow as well as to improve the shopping experience of the people in the State.
Governor Rufai said that his administration and the State Assembly have decided to invest the N10 billion secured loan offered each state through the National Economic Council under the chairmanship of the Vice President for the provision of a befitting rail system for Kaduna metropolis.
Governor El Rufai commended President Buhari and the Vice President for their integrity and partnership, recalling with praise the help packaged last year by the presidency to help states get out of their economic challenges.
Vice President Osinbajo officially carried out the ground breaking ceremonies of a 2,000-unit affordable housing scheme for low income earners and that of the construction of the Galaxy Mall and Galleria.
The first phase of the housing project will produce over 700 housing units.
The Mall is a Public Private Partnership between the state government and the UAC Property Development Company. [myad]

EFCC Boss Throws Hat Into The Ring: It Is Either Corruption Kill Me Or I Kill It

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

“I am ready to fight this fight to finish. If I am opportune to drive this thing and in the process I happen to go (die), so be it.”
These were the words of the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu when he met with the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Channels Television, John Momoh in Lagos.
The EFCC strong man made it clear to Nigerians that there is ‘no giving up’ in the fight against corruption, stressing the readiness of the agency to go tough on corrupt persons no matter how much attack it gets.
“There are too many talks about the issue of ‘corruption fighting back.’ Of course, corruption will fight back but we are resolved and determined to win this fight.
“From over 170 million Nigerians, if I am opportune to drive this thing and in the process I happen to go (die), so be it. We are ready to fight this fight to finish.”
Ibrahim Magu cited some cases that the EFCC is handling, saying that there were “serious allegations for instance, in the case of NIMASA.
“There was two billion Naira initially when we took him to court but later we realized that he siphoned out of the public fund, about 34 billion Naira. “There are reasons for doing what he did. If you come to the office we will show you everything. There is no problem.”
The anti-graft agency’s boss made it clear that the agency usually carries out a background investigation before inviting the individual to its office for questioning.
“We carry out our background investigation very thoroughly. We may have been on you and you will not know.”
The EFCC boss thanked the medium for joining in the fight through its balanced news reportage and called for more support.
The anti-graft agency’s boss said the EFCC could not assume the monopoly of knowledge in ridding the country of corruption. [myad]

How Scammers Deceived Jonathan To Part With Billions Of Dollars To Free Chibok Girls

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

Facts have emerged of how the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was swindled of billions of dollars in the process of negotiating for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls.
Over 200 female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Born state were abducted by members of the dreaded sect, Boko Haram, in April 2014.
It was gathered that in the process of negotiating for the release of the girls, some people turned it into a business, promising to negotiate for the release of the girls even when they knew they could not.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina confirmed this position in a radion programme.
Adesina, who featured on Radio Continental, 102.3 FM, with the transcript made available late yesterday, said some people turned the negotiation for the Chibok girls into a franchise, thus milking the government of billions of dollars.
In answer to a question as to whether there is any ongoing negotiation for the release of the Chibok girls, Adesina said: “We need to know a little bit of what happened behind the scenes, between the last government and some people masquerading as the leadership of Boko Haram who wanted to get the Chibok girls released.
“They actually turned it into a franchise. It became a commercial thing and they got money, possibly in millions of dollars, only for government to discover it had been swindled.
“They kept saying they could get the girls released, they could interface with Boko Haram and they went smiling to the bank with all that money and nothing happened.
“So you should understand why this government is being careful and the President has said the genuineness of the leadership of Boko Haram must be determined before any negotiation takes place.” [myad]

Presidency Washes Hands Off The Alleged Missing Budget

Greenbarge Reporters

January 12, 2016

Nigeria Presidency has washed its hands off the alleged disappearance of the copy of the 2016 federal budget from the National Assembly.
Report was all over the place early in the day that the 2016 budget, which President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the joint session of the National Assembly last month had disappeared, as a result of which insinuation was made that it was the Presidency that withdrew it.
Reacting, senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Garba Shehu admitted that nobody except the President that has the power to withdraw the budget.
“As far as we know, he hasn’t done that. The copies in their hundreds have been delivered to both chambers of the National Assembly.
“By tradition, once the budget is submitted, it ceases to be our property. Enquiries as to where it is should be directed to the appropriate quarters.” [myad]

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