Is GEJ A Comedian Now? My Name Has Brought Goodluck To The Country - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday said despite the security challenges in parts of the country, his first name had brought some good luck to Nigeria.

Jonathan said this while granting an interview to a 10-year-old Nigerian girl based in California, Miss Zuriel Oduwole, on the sideline of the ongoing 21st ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Africa Union holding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Oduwole who was said to have earlier interviewed some other African leaders is working on a documentary on the union's 50 years of existence.

Power cut interrupts Jonathan’s Easter message in Lagos

President Goodluck Jonathan had a good dose of the epileptic state of the nation’s power supply as his Easter message during a service at Our Saviour’s Church (Anglican Communion), Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, was punctuated by an outage on Sunday.

 Power supply to the church auditorium went off about six minutes into the President’s speech and lasted till he ended the message.

The President used battery-powered microphone to continue his speech which lasted for nine minutes, 40 seconds.

The service which ex-Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, also attended had earlier been interrupted by an outage for few minutes before the President mounted the podium to deliver his message.

Jonathan, however, made a joke of the situation, saying the power was deliberately put out in order to remind him of the urgent need to tackle the problem in the country.

Patience Jonathan flown abroad for treatment — Report

There are indications that the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has been flown abroad for medical treatment in an undisclosed German hospital.

Unconfirmed reports had it that the First Lady’s health might have relapsed, thereby necessitating her going abroad to receive fresh medical attention.

Mrs. Jonathan was conspicuously absent at a Good Friday service held at the Aso Villa Chapel on Friday although her husband attended with his mother, Eunice.

The President is currently in Lagos for the Easter break without his wife.

Her last public appearance was in France where she received a Global Women Leader for Peace Award 2013.

No Oil Without Alams - FG

The Presidency, desperate, to justify the pardon it granted, Mr. Diepriye Alamieseigha, the convicted former Governor of Bayelsa State, said, yesterday that Alamieseigha is crucial to Nigeria’s economy and credited him for the  increase in the barrels of oil Nigeria now sells on the international market.

Doyin Okupe, senior special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs at a press briefing in Abuja praised Alamieseigha whom he described as “repentant”

A visibly angry reporter at the briefing said “I thought he (Okupe) was going to say the man has refunded millions of dollars he stole when he was in office.”

Not deterred, Okupe, said that  “In truth, Alamieseigha since he left prison has been working strenuously and silently to assist the President stabilize the amnesty in the Niger Delta region.

“Alamieseigha is a foremost leader of the Ijaw Nation, and his political and stabilizing influence in that region has impacted positively on the overall economy of the nation, bringing crude oil exports from the abysmally low level of 700,000bpd to over 2.4million bpd.”

According to him, Alamieseigha, who is still wanted by British authorities, can be credited with ensuring that the blood running through Nigeria's economic artery is not cut off.

Keshi, players get national honours, cash, plots of land

President  Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday announced a cash gift of N5m to each member of the victorious Super Eagles and the team’s three assistant coaches that clinched the gold medal in the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

While the Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, was given N10m, members of the technical crew were also given N2m each.

The cash gifts also came with a plot of land and national honours for each member the team.

Keshi bagged the national honour of the Commander of the Order of Niger while his three assistants and the team captain, Joseph Yobo, were conferred with Officer of the Order of Niger.

The remaining players were conferred with Member of the Order of Niger.

PDP BoT Chairmanship Update: Tukur Must Go - Governors

THE internal strife within the Peoples Democratic Party deepened on Thursday with President Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention failing to pacify the PDP governors who are adamant in their resolve to remove their party’s National Chairman, Bamangar Tukur.

Jonathan’s three-hour meeting with the governors at the Villa on Thursday, sources confirmed to The PUNCH, failed to extract a commitment from the states’ chief executives to sheathe their swords in the battle against Tukur.

Myriads of assurances from party chieftains to the contrary notwithstanding, the governors were said to be bent on removing Tukur over his alleged meddling in the Adamawa PDP politics and unilateral dissolution of the executive council in the state chapter of the party.

Dialogue With Boko Haram - OBJ to GEJ, You're A Hypocrite - Abati to OBJ

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration had not been reaching out enough to the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, and canvassed what he described as a “carrot-and-stick” strategy to address the sect’s menace.

Obasanjo told the CNN in an interview that Jonathan had been applying less of dialogue and more of force in solving the Boko Haram issue.

“To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them. When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick,” the ex-President said.

He said Jonathan was “just using the stick.”

“He’s doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten,” he added.

But the Presidency, in a reaction to the ex-President’s submission, said Obasanjo’s position on the Boko Haram issue had been contradictory.

Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, told The PUNCH that it was surprising that the same Obasanjo who said recently that his presidency applied force when he was confronted with similar situation in Odi, Rives State, has now turned round to accuse Jonathan of applying only the stick against Boko Haram.

“It is surprising. That means the former President contradicted himself. Were you not in this country recently when he said that when he was confronted with a similar issue in Odi, he applied force? Where exactly does he stand on this matter?” Abati said.

GEJ Confirms Arrest Of UN Building, Police HQ And Madalla Church Bombers...

President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday said his administration had been making progress in the war against terror as evident in the arrest of some Boko Haram members suspected of involvement in the deadly attacks on some prime targets.

Jonathan, in a speech during a service at All Saints Church (Anglican Communion) in Abuja, where he worshipped for the New Year, told the worshippers that many of the suspected terrorists were now in custody as a result of the diligence and steadfastness of law enforcement agents and security operatives nationwide.

According to him, among the suspected bombers arrested were those who attacked the police force headquarters in Abuja, the United Nations building, also in Abuja, and the Saint Theresa's Church in Madalla, near Abuja.

The president pledged that security agencies would be strengthened this year, just as he called for prayers from Nigerians for government to surmount the security challenges.

He said: “The church's prayers have been helping us to stabilise the country at the time of challenges. There was a time the country was drifting and everyone thought the country would not endure but the prayers rescued us.

“We shall overcome terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery with more prayers from the church.

“Most of the terror suspects have been arrested. Most people will not know what the security agencies have been doing. The people who bombed the police headquarters, UN House and St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Madalla have been arrested. We will continue to improve the nation’s security architecture.”

Cleric Unsettles GEJ, Others With Sermon At Azazi Funeral

Bishop of Bomadi Catholic Diocese, Vicarage Hyacinth Egbebor, in his homily on Saturday, blamed the helicopter crash that killed the former National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi; former Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, and four others, on corruption.

At the state funeral of Azazi in Peace Park, Yenagoa, attended by President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, Egbebor insisted that leaders in the country were so corrupt that they had compromised the safety of the airspace.

The cleric wondered why within one year, Nigeria had recorded three air mishaps including the December 15 tragedy at Okoroba in Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.

Slowly and gently, the priest, who intermittently drew applause from those at the solemn occasion, highlighted the failings of the government, saying the air was no longer safe for people to fly.

Comparing the country’s airspace and aviation management to America and Europe, the cleric said Nigeria had become a joke.

“We might not need a plane to fly because we are not certain that our aeroplane is worthy enough. This crash is probably three in less than 12 months. Let us not pretend that we can fly as if we are in Europe. Human lives are so precious; please spare our lives,” he said.

Turning to the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Ibrahim, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Dele Ezeoba; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh; the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika; and other top military officials, the priest said it was unfortunate that corruption had crept into the military.

“Corruption is the only underlying evil that is responsible for the air mishaps. If the military cannot guarantee the safety and security of their own, who else can they protect?

“If there is anywhere one looks for excellent performance, it is the military. Now we have compromised excellence for money. Money has taken over,” he said.

Focusing on the President, the cleric demanded the completion of work on the East-West Road.

He also appealed to the governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to provide a road to the late Azazi’s community – Peretongbere – and other communities in the state.

“It is my appeal to you the President, the potholes on our roads are bad. People have died. Please, fix them,” he said.

The cleric, who is a member of the Post-Flood Committee appointed by Dickson, recalled the vision of Azazi who was before his death the chairman of the committee.

“He cherished honesty, justice, transparency, accountability and other things. He wanted us to be sure that all the funds in our disposal were judiciously expended to those who were really affected by the flood,” he said.

But Jonathan, who was obviously surprised at the tone of the funeral message, disagreed with the cleric on his submissions. He called for a change of attitude by Nigerians instead.

He said, “It is true that most cases, we talk about corruption as if corruption is the cause of most of our problems. No. Yes we have corruption in this country, no doubt about that. The government is also fighting corruption.

“From 2007 that I moved to Abuja with the late President (Umaru Yar’Adua) till now, we have had three chairmen of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and acting heads of the ICPC. Probably Nigeria has more institutions that fight corruption than most other countries.

“We have the conventional police that deal with stealing. We have EFCC that handles corruption bordering on economic issues and we have ICPC that handles pure corruption matters.

“But most of these things we talk about corruption are not even corruption. I remember the last meeting we had with the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria when I tried to build the three arms of government to see how we can collectively suppress corruption.”

'i was played out' - Dr. Peter Odili reveals power play in new book...

He kept sealed lips for more than five years over what  actually transpired in those dying days in 2006, at the height of the race towards the 2007 presidential election.

Former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Otunuya Odili, has now revealed the intrigues and power-plays that led to the emergence of the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate.

Odili also explained how he was nominated as Yar’Adua’s running mate only to be dropped dramatically at the Convention venue in Abuja through a complex power game between then President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Nuhu Ribadu.

Odili’s revelations are contained in his new biography titled “Conscience and History: My Story,” a copy of which was made available to THISDAY at the weekend.

Beef is real!!! Power Brokers shun GEJ's brother's funeral to attend VP's Children's Wedding!!!

There was heavy security presence in Kaduna yesterday as about 16 governors from across the country stormed the city to witness the wedding ceremony of two of Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo’s children.  All these on the day the President's brother Meni Jonathan who died recently of cardiac arrest was been buried

The wedding ceremony which saw former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim badamosi Babangida representing the Vice President’s family took place at the Sultan Bello Mosque and was presided over by the chief Imam, Shielk Abdulhamid Balele Wali.

Vehicular movements along the Ali Akilu road were diverted to other routes while many visitors found it difficult gaining access into the venue of the wedding which began at about 11.15am.

Huwaila Muhammed Sambo was given away in marriage to Muktar Ruma after the payment of a dowry sum of N50, 000 while Aysha Muhammed Sambo was wedded to Auwal Abdulrahman after the payment of a dowry of N250, 000 and eight cows.

Governors at the event include those of Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Imo, Nassarawa,Taraba, Cross River, Gombe, Katsina, Abia, Anambra, Kogi, Kwara, Bauchi, Oyo and Kaduna States.

Others were the Secretary to the Federal Government Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, Senator Ahmed Muhammed Makarfi, the DG NEMA, DG NSCDC, former Chief Justice of the Federal Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, Galadima Kano Alhaji Tijjani Hashim, former Presidential Aspirant Alhaji Lema Jibrin, Miniter of National Planning Alhaji Shamsudeen Usman, and a host of other top government functionaries.

OBJ/GEJ beef worsens...The OGD connection

The frosty relationship between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have worsened as the latter has refused to openly sympathise with the former over the death of his younger brother, Meni Jonathan.

Meni’s remains are being interred at Otuoke in Bayelsa State on Saturday (today).

Obasanjo is currently in Ghana, where he is monitoring the ongoing  presidential election in the West African country. 

Read here

GEJ can have Ex-Convicts as friends - Doyin Okupe

THE Presidency on Thursday said President Goodluck Jonathan’s closeness to some corrupt ex-convicts did not contradict any law of the land nor the administration’s anti-corruption war.

“There is no law in Nigeria that says that a politician that has been jailed should not be going to the Villa and the Peoples Democratic Party does not have it in its constitution that he (the ex-convict) cannot come back to his party.

“Maybe if they review the constitution and put it there, it will be wrong. But for now, it is not wrong,” Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, stated this at a press briefing in Abuja.

Okupe organised the briefing to speak on the President’s commitment to the war against corruption, barely 24 hours after the global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, in its 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index put Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt nation in the world.

Okupe was asked if the President’s closeness to those who had been convicted for corruption was not an indication that the President was not serious about fighting the scourge.

He was asked to defend the frequent visits to the Presidential Villa by the likes of a former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieseigha; a former governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion; and a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George. All had served jailed terms for corruption charges.

Network failure disrupts Obama's attempt to return Goodluck's phone call

culled from HuHuonline

President of United States (U.S.), Barack Obama’s efforts to thank President Goodluck Jonathan for supporting his victory at the U.S. presidential poll was thwarted by the failure of two calls from the White House to Aso Rock to connect.

According to sources close to Huhuonline.com, Obama was personally willing to speak with Jonathan, as the Nigerian president was among the first world leaders to congratulate him after his reelection as American president three weeks ago.

Responding to the glut of congratulatory messages, Obama, it was reported, began calling world leaders who congratulated him from the Thursday of the election week, to return their letters and words of felicitation.

Three White House press statements by Press Secretary, Jay Carney, since Obama’s reelection, have listed names of leaders that the U.S. president has spoken with, with Jonathan’s missing.

However, U.S. sources say Obama was “personally keen” to speak with Jonathan. Specifically, on Monday, 12th November, White House officials, after liaising with the US Embassy in Nigeria and the Nigerian Embassy in the US, got a number to call Aso Rock on, but on two occasions on that day, the calls were not picked up.

One of those who have confirmed Obama’s willingness to speak with Jonathan is Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S., Prof Adebowale Adefuye, who has insited that said the actualisation of the failed conversation is still on the cards.

He explained that the U.S. president is very keen on his country’s strategic relationship with Nigeria, and also his growing personal relationship with Jonathan. He added that the new U.S. strategy for Africa in Obama’s second term, which he had seen, ranks Nigeria very high on its priority in the next four years.

He disclosed that the U.S. government has, in fact, agreed, in principle, to a presidential trip to Nigeria during Obama’s second term, which begins in January 2013, based on its happiness with Nigeria’s role in resolving the crisis in Mali by approving the release of 600 soldiers.