Afrobeats sensation, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, recognized professionally as Wizkid has distanced himself from Nigerian politics and any attention associated with it, in contrast to colleague, Davido.

The starboy has constrained himself and his group from the presidential elections until lately when he broke his silence, advising electorates not to vote someone due to the fact a paid movie star has encouraged them.

According to Wiz, citizens ought to now not be prompted through people who have already accrued money from politicians.

The election which is meant to keep nowadays, Saturday, sixteenth sixteenth of February has considering that been postponed to the 23rd of February 2019 by way of INEC.

New reports have discovered that Wizkid got requests with large paycheck from Naija politicians simply to trap the singer into politics but he refused because he desires to continue to be reputable.

@urfreshtv on Instagram claims the singer (Wizkid) become said to have declined mouth-watery offers from politicians because ‘ he doesn’t want to steer the people of Nigeria for his very own selfish hobby’.

A short look at the reactions at the said Instagram put up indicates that the singer himself liked the submit, which indirectly confirms the authenticity of the claim.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s first time period is progressively winding up as Nigerians troop to the polls today

Saturday, February 23,  

we are yet to decide who could be Nigeria’s subsequent president. Although there are seventy two presidential applicants slugging it out in the 2019 presidential elections, five candidates stand out a few of the rest: President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who desires to take Nigeria to “the next degree”, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who desires to “make Nigeria paintings again, and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC) who desires to “take Nigeria lower back”. Others are Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) who desires to “offer Nigeria visionary, functional, competent leadership to build our future” and Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) who wishes “to build a coalition of thoughts round a robust ideology of a New Nigeria wherein matters paintings and each person is working to make things work”. Who will Nigerians provide the mandate to end up the subsequent president amongst those candidates? Is it going to be President Buhari? Atiku? Or a new face? Legit.Ng is on floor to carry you insightful live updates as Nigerians troop out to forged their votes for his or her preferred candidates these days, Saturday, February 23, 2019. 

FOR THE RECORDS: seventy two,775,502 voters are expected to vote at 119,973 polling units across six geo-political zones.

Voting commences at 8am. 

 

Follow our stay updates here. Don’t forget to refresh your browser continually for clean updates.

On Sunday, President Buhari sent a crew to Jalingo, Taraba State, to condole with the government and those of the country over loss of lives that attended the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential rally closing week.



The team, led by means of Boss Gida Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), covered Governor of Adamawa (a neighbouring state to Taraba) Senator Mohammed Umaru Jibrilla (Bindow); Senator Ali Ndume; Mallam Mohammed Bello, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT); Dr Ali Isa Pantami, Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); and Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.



Senator Yusuf A. Yusuf, a Taraba stakeholder, became also joined the crew. At the Taraba Government House, where the team became received by using Governor Darius Ishaku. Mr Boss Mustapha  Speaking on behalf of the President, lamented the sad lack of 8 human beings during and after the rally, promising that they would not die in useless.

    "President Buhari will maintain to consciousness on public accurate and welfare of the human beings. The eight people would then now not have died in vain".

    "They constitute the coolest of our human beings and united states of america. They wanted excellent governance as symbolized by using President Buhari, so they turned out to welcome him on the rally. As we visit the polls, let's exercise the civic duty with zeal, but additionally with decency and restraint. The country is our own, and we need to preserve its oneness," the SGF stated.

Responding, Governor Ishaku expressed "honest gratitude and way to Mr President for directly sending a delegation to condole with us," including that the humans of Taraba had been grateful for the display of problem.



He prayed that the souls of the lifeless could rest in peace, stressing: "Peace is my mantra. I stand through it any day. I am grateful that Mr President, who's first of all my elder brother earlier than being my president, got here to Taraba in peace, and left in peace."



An legit letter of condolence personally signed through the President turned into supplied to the governor by means of the SGF. At the palace of the Emir of Muri, Alhaji Abbas Tafida, the leader of the delegation condoled with the monarch and the humans on behalf of the President, praying that God will give them the fortitude to undergo the loss.



In reaction, the Emir stated it changed into President Buhari that had to be condoled, since he lost his supporters, who cherished him dearly. Promising now not to forget the family members of the useless, Emir Tafida stated he could do his first-rate to cater for them. He also advised Nigerians to emulate President Buhari and duplicate his integrity and transparency.

Prior today, President Buhari suspended troubled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen and designated Justice Tanko Muahammad as the acting CJN. While swearing in Justice Muhammad, President Buhari gave explanations behind Onnoghen's suspension. He expressed this in his discourse amid the swearing-in service. Peruse the full content beneath...

A brief time back, I was presented with an Order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal issued on Wednesday 23rd January 2019, coordinating the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honorable Justice Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen from office pending last assurance of the bodies of evidence against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and a few other fora identifying with his supposed rupture of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers.

2. The country has been grasped by the lamentable substances of no less an identity than the Chief Justice of Nigeria himself turning into the denounced individual in a defilement preliminary since subtleties of the appeal to against him by a Civil Society Organization initially wound up open about a fortnight back.

3. Despite the fact that the claims in the appeal to are sufficiently deplorable in themselves, the security offices have from that point forward followed different suspicious exchanges running into a large number of dollars to the CJN's own records, all undeclared or inappropriately announced as required by law.

4. Maybe increasingly troubling is the Chief Justice of Nigeria's own composed admission to the charges that he in reality neglected to pursue the soul and letter of the law in proclaiming his benefits, refering to ''mix-up'' and ''absent mindedness'' which are absolutely obscure to our laws as guards in the conditions of his case.

5. One anticipated that with his ethical expert so injured, by these genuine allegations of defilement, all the more so by his own composed confirmation, Mr. Equity Walter Onnoghen would have acted quickly to save our Judicial Arm further unsavoriness by expelling himself from superintending over it while his preliminary kept going.

6. Shockingly, he has not done as such. Rather, the country has been blessed to receive the shameful exhibition of a legal session of minds in which the Chief Justice of Nigeria and his legitimate group have endeavored babble of the endeavors of the Code of Conduct Tribunal to hear the claim on legitimacy and finish up the preliminary as fast as conceivable considering the idea of the occasions in which we live.

7. Regardless of whether intentionally or accidentally, we have all observed the full load of the Chief Justice of Nigeria plunge on the delicate head of one of the organs of equity under his control. There is just no chance the officers of that court, from the Chairman to the bailiffs, can profess to be unaffected by the impact of the pioneer of the Judiciary.

8. The preliminary court, as well as others have been put on the spot. For all intents and purposes each other day since his preliminary initiated, the country has seen different courts conceding requests and counter-arranges for the Chief Justice of Nigeria, every one of them portrayed by an unholy energetic promptness between the season of documenting, hearing and conveyance of judgment in same.

9. The genuine impact has been a slowing down of the preliminary of Justice Onnoghen, helped along by legal advisors who demand that these requests, regardless of whether right or wrong are in fact legitimate, and should be obeyed till a redrafting Court says something else. Almost certainly that it is the best possible understanding, yet is it right air for our country?.

10. Nigeria is an established majority rules system and nobody must be, or be believed to be, exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else. Tragically, the show around the preliminary of the Chief Justice of Nigeria has tested that mainstay of equity in the impression of the conventional man in the city. For it is sure that no normal Nigerian can get the quick and uncommon treatment Justice Onnoghen has appreciated from his subordinates and privies in our Judicature.

11. Amidst all these diverting occasions, the fundamental inquiry of whether the charged CJN really has a case to answer has been lost in the quarrel about the frame and nature of his preliminary. This ought not be so.

12. On the off chance that Justice is impossible and plainly observed to be done, society itself is in danger of the most incredible confusion. As a Government, we can't remain by crying and wringing our hands defenselessly however give our full sponsorship and support to those daring components inside the Judiciary who act straightforwardly, regardless of who is included.

13. As you are for the most part mindful, the battle against defilement is one of the tripod of strategies guaranteed to Nigerians by this organization. Obviously that it is an existential Policy which must be given satisfactory consideration and responsibility by all the three arms of government. The endeavors of the Executive will add up to nothing without the collaboration of the Legislature and particularly the Judiciary.

14. Its a well known fact that this administration is disappointed with the disturbing rate in which the Supreme Court of Nigeria under the oversight of Justice Walter Onnoghen has sequentially set free, people blamed for the most desperate demonstrations of defilement, regularly on negligible details, and after a significant number of them have been indicted by the preliminary and re-appraising courts.

15. Since there is nothing the Executive Arm can do after the pinnacle court of the land has spoken on any issue, a few of these people walk free among us today, getting a charge out of what are plainly the returns of the defilement which for such a long time has crushed the endeavors of this country to create and flourish.

16. It is against this foundation that I have gotten the Order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal guiding me to suspend the Chief Justice pending last assurance of the arguments against him. It additionally clarifies why I am going along promptly, as well as with some level of alleviation for the battered sensibilities of common Nigerians whose tolerance more likely than not turn out to be extremely over-burdened by these oddities.

17. In accordance with this current organization's admitted regard for the Rule of Law, I have wholeheartedly complied with the Order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal dated 23rd January 2019.

18. As needs be, I thusly suspend the Honorable Mr. Equity Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen, GCON as the Chief Justice of Nigeria pending last assurance of the body of evidence against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

19. In further consistence with a similar Order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, I thusly welcome Honorable Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed JSC, being the following most Senior Justice in the Supreme Court, to approach to accept the Judicial Oath as Chief Justice of Nigeria in an Acting Capacity.

20. Individual Nigerians, we can just stand an opportunity to win the battle against Corruption, and position our dear country for quickened improvement when we stand together to fight against it.

Much obliged to you and may God favor our nation.

Adoye is another great hit which speaks into the word of God for us to keep him in heart and believe he is our only maker.
This song has recorded a lot of testimonies Download and listen.

In a new article titled ''President Buhari As a Public Relations Nightmare'' publisher Dele Momodu, chronicle the many mistakes President Buhari has made since assuming office and how it has distanced him from Nigerian youths who were so eager to have him come into office in 2015.



According to Momodu, the Nigerian youths who said they would vote President Buhari in 2015 even if all he had as an academic credential was a NEPA bill, are so disappointed in him now that it will take a miracle and magic to get that kind of reconnection.

Momodu went on to say that President Buhari has a lot of media practitioners around him but lacks a public relations expert that would handle any gaffe he creates professionally. Read his piece below...

Fellow Nigerians, these are not the best of times for our dear President, Muhammadu Buhari. And it must be much worse for his media handlers. Let me state matter-of-factly, from the onset, that President Buhari gets into regular trouble, indeed, too frequently, because he has invested heavily in a media team but lacks a public relations team. In Nigeria, most leaders fail to realise that being a good journalist, Editor, Publisher, Broadcaster, and what have you, does not make you a good or excellent public relations guru. The other problem is I’m not sure the President is surrounded by those bold or brave enough to look him straight in the eye to tell him the honest truth. His earlier persona as a military ruler has also not helped matters in this respect. The fear of a military dictator is the beginning of wisdom, according to the view of an average Nigerian.

I must confess that I have been a latter-day convert and ardent fan of President Buhari. I signed up only after he decided to contest the 2015 elections for a record fourth time. I took the view that he was the best man for the job particularly because the Jonathan administration was fumbling and not prone to correction. I played my part in articulating the President’s attraction for me and those like me who felt that he was what Nigeria required at the time, a stop-gap in the mould of Mandela option. Without being immodest I can say that I successfully played my own part in the eventual victory of APC and the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket.

I first had a significant interaction with Buhari in 2011, when he asked Dr Lanre Tejuoso to bring me to his house in Abuja and we got on quite well. The camaraderie was palpable. And he disarmed me with his candour and passion. Prior to the 2015 election, I met Buhari in London at a flat in Mayfair, the day he spoke at Chatham House. He sprang to his feet as soon as I walked in and appeared happy to see me. We chatted briefly and took several pictures with Rotimi Amaechi, Hadi Sirika, Festus Keyamo, Hadiza Bala Usman and others. He was as effervescent and excited as everyone else at the prospect of becoming Nigeria’s new leader. His optimism for the country was infectious and I believed I had made a wise decision in deciding to follow and publicly support him.

Following the release of 2018 UTME results by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, another candidate has emerged with the highest score so far.

He is Esan Ibukunoluwa Caleb of Shepherd International College, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.

The 17-year-old student pulled a total score of 351

Breakdown shows that he sat for English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and scored 78, 91, 97 and 85 respectively.

A terse statement by the school on Saturday shows that his JAMB number is 85346758FD.

Esan’s examination centre was Ekiti State University ICT centre.

ABUJA—THE Senate has started debate on a Bill for an act to establish City University of Technology, Auchi, sponsored by the Deputy Senate Whip, Senator Francis Alimikhena (APC, Edo North).

Senate Chamber

The bill which scaled second reading yesterday without any objection at the Senate seeks to convert Federal Polytechnic, Auchi to City University of Technology.

Speaking on the bill before it was put to vote, Deputy President Ike Ekweremadu who presided over plenary drew the attention of the Senate to the current strike by university workers and the impact on the educational system.

The Senate also asked the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND to as a matter of urgency, look into the dispute with a view to getting the workers back to work, just as it urged the committee to look into fair distribution of share of federal institutions across states and senatorial districts.

Nigeria has been tasked to invest in the development of its youth in order to propel the country towards economic growth.

This advice was given at the Expanded National Economic Council on Investment in Human Capital held at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.

The meeting which was chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, had in attendance, international philanthropist and Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates; Chairman, Dangote foundation, Aliko Dangote, ministers, state governors, and development partners working in Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, the World Bank Country Director, Rachid Benmessaoud, said Nigeria has everything it takes to compete with higher economies if it invests in the education and health of its people.

Mr. Benmessaoud said Nigeria’s greatest asset is not the oil but its population.

He said for Nigeria to grow its economy, it must capitalise on its youth and build human capital to propel the country out of poverty.

The spokesperson for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has reacted to a THISDAY newspaper report that narrated how anti-graft operatives allegedly recovered $9 million dollar after a search at the home of Paul Boroh, the recently sacked head of Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“I am not aware of such discoveries,” Wilson Uwujaren told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Wednesday morning.

The newspaper said in its Wednesday edition that detectives from the EFCC and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) raided the home of the former head of Presidential Amnesty Programme on Tuesday morning in Abuja.

It said Mr. Boroh, a retired brigadier-general, was arrested on Monday and investigators took him to his residence in Gwarimpa Estate around 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday to comb his apartment for items that could aid their investigation.

A week earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari sacked Mr. Boroh from office over corruption allegations and other malfeasance, marking an inglorious end to his three-year reign at a department created to address Niger-Delta grievances but which has been dogged by mismanagement since inception.

The president named Charles Dokubo, a foreign policy expert, as Mr. Boroh’s replacement with immediate effect.

THISDAY said detectives also sifted through the property of Mr. Boroh’s wife, Ibinye, during the search, adding that the $9 million recovered had been handed over to ONSA.

But the EFCC spokesperson said he could only confirm that a raid was carried out, but had no details of how much was recovered.

Similarly, Mrs. Boroh and Olusola Oke, the family’s lawyer, denied the allegations at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday afternoon.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has given insight into why it is withholding the results of 111,981 candidates who participated in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

The spokesperson for the Board, Fabian Benjamin, told PREMIUM TIMES the results of the affected candidates were earmarked for further screening over suspicion they engaged in examination malpractices.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday,  20 March, 2018, arraigned Leeroy Egebe,  (alias Amedeo Dante William, Alhassan Davide)  before Justice E. A. Obile of the Federal High Court, sitting in Warri, Delta State on an 8-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of $18,023.96 (Eighteen Thousand, Twenty- Three Hundred Dollars, Ninety- Six Cent).

Egebe's  troubles began when one Vivian Varotto-Guigoz, a citizen of Switzerland, petitoned the EFCC alleging  that,  she met one Amedeo William Dante (the defendant) who claimed  to be an Italian living in the United Kingdom on a social dating site called “Badoo”. They became lovers, exchanging emotional messages and later cash.

She  alleged that,  on several occasions,  between 12 May and 14 October, 2015,  she wired a total sum of CHF 196,701,44 and EUR 15, 957.43 to different individuals in the United Kingdom, Canada and Nigeria at the request of Dante,  for sundry reasons which she later discovered to be fraudulent.
The payments were allegedly made in five instalments: two into British accounts belonging to  Amedeo William Dante and Dittimi Tamara-Finide while three  were made into Nigerian accounts belonging to  Alhassan Davide and Edin Obaro. The petitioner also  alleged that the defendant was reaching  her through some English,  Canadian and Nigerian  telephone numbers.

Count one of the charge read: ‘’that you Leeroy Egede (a. k. a) Amedeo Dante William, Alhassan Davide, one Tamara-Finide and Edin Obaro (now at large) sometime in May, 2015, at Udu, Warri, Delta State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: obtaining money by false pretence, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006”.


Another count read:  ‘’that you Leeroy Egede (a. k. a) Amedeo Dante William, Alhassan Davide, on or about the 20th day of April, 2015, at Udu, Warri, Delta State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of ($3, 564.66) Three Thousand , Five Hundred and Sixty Four dollars,  Sixty - Six cent under false pretence from one Viviane Varotto-Guigos, a Swiss Nationale, which said sum was transferred to your Account domiciled at Diamond Bank Plc by one Tamara-Fiide Dittimi, a pretence you knew to be false, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges  when they were  read to him. 

Former Nigeria vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, has praised the decision of the Police Force, to withdraw its officers from guarding private individuals and organisations in the country.

The Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim, on Monday announced the withdrawal of the officers said to number about 150,000.



Atiku, in a statement signed by his media aide, Paul Ibe, said it was obvious that Nigeria had security emergency.

“Our security forces are overstretched. We do not have enough military and paramilitary forces to provide security for the peace-loving people of Nigeria which is why the recent Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State kidnapping occurred. Their school was left unguarded’

“Asked by THISDAY on Saturday what he would do different to prevent abduction like Dapchi, the Waziri Adamawa had responded thus: ‘Recently, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Mike Okiro, revealed that 150,000 policemen are guarding various elites and those we know as ‘big men’. If I had my way, I would have recalled all of those 150,000 policemen who are not performing core police duties and send them to provide security for every school in the North-East region.

“That to me would be a better use of their time and services. We already know that Boko Haram has an agenda to cripple Western education in Nigeria. So how could we have left those schools unguarded? Why should the police be guarding VIPs who can afford personal guards and leave vulnerable girls unguarded? We are spending billions of Naira trying to encourage girls to go to school only to allow them be abducted by terrorists,” the statement read.



Atiku also said he “welcomes the reported new policy of reassigning these 150,000 policemen from guarding VIPs to regular police duties especially as it relates to the much-needed protection of schools in the Northeast and other troubled zones.”

“As Kenneth Blanchard said, none of us is as smart as all of us. The Waziri Adamawa continues to call on the Buhari government to be open to solutions from well-meaning Nigerians and friends of Nigeria so we can navigate this nation away from the precipice,” the statement concluded.

Gunmen on Tuesday evening, attacked Kampanin Doka village in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna state killing 12 soldiers.

According to Daily Trust, the soldiers are among a special detachment of troops sent to the village to ensure security for expatriates and others working on a new road linking Zamfara State with Kaduna through Dansadau-Dangulbi and Birnin Gwari.

A source close to the emirate council who pleaded anonymity said the bandits attacked the soldier’s camp between 8pm and 9pm on Tuesday killing three soldiers in a hole and nine others in the camp.

Zambia’s parliament suspended a cabinet minister on Tuesday from its proceedings for one month for slapping a fellow lawmaker within parliament grounds.

Verbal abuse is common among members of parliament in Zambia but physical assault is rare.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has injected another sum of $210m into the inter-bank foreign exchange market.

The lender said the forex sale was aimed at sustaining liquidity in the forex market, and making forex available for customers’ needs in various segments of the market.

According to the figures obtained from the CBN on Monday, the bank offered $100m to authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, while the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises segment received the sum of $55m.

Customers requiring forex for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance, among others, were also allocated the sum of $55m.

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, while confirming the figures, reassured the public that the bank would continue to intervene in the interbank forex market in line with its desire to sustain liquidity in the market and maintain stability.

He said that the steps taken so far by the CBN in the management of forex was paying off, as reflected by reduction in the country’s import bills and accretion to its foreign exchange reserves.


Meanwhile, the naira continued its stability in the forex market, exchanging at an average of N362/$1 in the Bureau de Change segment of the market on Monday.

The examination body, JAMB, said it has released the results of 1.5 million (1,502,978) candidates who sat for the examination last week.

In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by its spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said the results of 112,331 candidates were yet to be released. Of this numbers, the results of 111,981 candidates were still being reviewed.

Read the full JAMB statement below.

After viewing all CCTV footage during the conduct of the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and considering reports from our supervisors, monitors and other independent Nigerians who took interest in promoting the quality of public examination in Nigeria, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the results of (1,502,978) One Million, Five Hundred and Two thousand, Nine Hundred and Seventy-Eight candidates who sat for the 2018 UTME.

A total of (1,652,825) One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five candidate had indicated interest in the examination by registering for the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

(112,331) One Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Three Hundred and Thirty-One candidates results are yet to be released out of which (350) Three Hundred and Fifty are the results of the blind candidates which would be released soon and (111,981) One Hundred and Eleven Thousand, Nine Hundred and Eighty-One results withheld for further screening.

The figure above excludes foreign candidates whose examination would be conducted in April.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo; the immediate past Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and some political parties have been meeting as part of moves to strategise for the 2019 elections, The PUNCH has learnt.

In one of such meetings, which held at Protea Hotel, located at 42/44 Isaac John Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, Obasanjo was said to have met with 35 political parties under the aegis of the Coalition for New Nigeria.

Others at the meeting included the Co-Chairmen of the Nigerian Intervention Movement, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), and Dr. Jhalil Tafawa-Balewa, one of the children of Nigeria’s post-independence first Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa.

A former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke; a former Governor Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and a former Special Adviser to Obasanjo, who is the spokesman for the CNM, Mr. Akin Osuntokun, also attended the strategic meeting.


Some of the political parties represented at the meeting included the Social Democratic Party, Labour Party, Alliance for Democracy, Democratic People’s Congress, Action Alliance, Progressives People’s Alliance, Democratic Alternative and National Conscience Party.

Others, who attended the Lagos meeting, were Mr. Kenneth Udete, who represented Action Alliance Party; and Mr. Okey Chukwuendu, who represented the All Grand Alliance Party.

A source, who attended the meeting, told our correspondent that Obasanjo emphasised the need to work together ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The source, who is close to Obasanjo, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the coming together of the various interest groups and individuals had become necessary as that was seen as the only way to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2019 elections.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said, “The meeting was summoned by Obasanjo. He noted that both the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party have failed Nigeria and there is a need to come together. He said his association, Coalition for Nigeria Movement, and the NIM should form a merger.”


When asked why Kwankwaso was invited to the meeting despite being a member of the ruling APC, the source noted that Kwankwaso had always been an Obasanjo loyalist.

“Have you forgotten that Kwankwaso was appointed the Minister of Defence by President Obasanjo in 2003? The former governor was not invited because of his ties with the APC but because he also has a huge movement known as the Kwankwasiya in Kano and its environs. Kano is a very strategic state,” the source, a top member of one of the groups, stated.


“The meeting is not just a political one but an attempt to come up with a unified ideology and strategy for 2019.”

The source explained that Obasanjo stressed the need for the parties present to prove to Nigerians that they were different from the APC and the PDP, saying Nigerians were tired of the two parties.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged its 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates to patiently await the results of the just concluded examinations.

The Head of Media of the Board, Fabian Benjamin, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja.

He said the board was working diligently to ensure that the results are processed and posted on the board’s website soonest.

Mr. Benjamin said modalities were being put in place to ensure all the results are transparent and accurate.

He reiterated that the board was delaying some of the results because each has to undergo total scrutiny before being posted on its website to avoid cancellations later.

According to him, some of the results would be ready by Monday, March 19.

He also assured that all technical difficulties encountered in accessing the website were being addressed.

NAN reports that a number of candidates, who sat for the examinations earlier, were yet to receive their results.

While some said that they received the reply of “your results are not ready yet”, others complained that the site says “you did not register for this examinations.’’

NAN also reports that the examination, which was scheduled to end on Saturday, March 17, ended on Friday, March 16.

Disclamer! This is not a human being

This is an art work , painted by a Nigerian Orusegu olumide who drew it, it will beat painting of monalisa.