OHANAEZE GIVES OBA OF LAGOS
48 HOURS TO WITHDRAW
THREAT TO IGBOS
By Rahman Olayinka On 7 April 2015 In News
The Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), the
youth wing of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex socio-cultural
organisation of
Ndigbo, has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to
the Oba of
Lagos, Alhaji Rilwan Akiolu, to “retract and
unconditionally
apologise to Ndigbo” over his alleged death
threat to
Ndigbo living in Lagos should they fail to
vote for the All
Progressives Congress (APC) governorship
candidate,
Akinwumi Ambode, on April 11.
Apart from positing that democracy confers
on the
electorate, the freedom of choice, OYC said it
considered
the comments credited to Akiolu as “a
despicable insult on
the Igbo nation, home and abroad, least
expected of a royal
father in the rank of Oba of Lagos.”
The group called on security agencies to
invite the Oba for
questioning because of the grave dangers his
current
posture portends while lambasted the
monarch for
employing crude arm-twisting, obtaining by
tricks tactics.
The monarch had reportedly threatened to
make life
unbearable for the Igbos in Lagos if they
sabotage efforts
being made to ensure that Ambode emerges
as the next
governor of the state.
Akiolu was said to have summoned all the
Eze-Ndigbo in
Lagos State to his palace yesterday and told
them: “On
Saturday, if anyone of you goes against
Ambode, who I
picked, that is your end. If it does not happen
within seven
days, just know that I am a bastard and it is
not my father
who gave birth to me.
“By the grace of God, I am the owner of
Lagos for the time
being. On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear
in the name of
God, goes against my wish that Ambode will
be the next
governor of Lagos State, the person is going
to die inside
this water.
“For the Igbo and others in Lagos, they
should go where the
Oba of Lagos heads to. When they were
coming to the
state, they did not come with all their houses.
But now,
they have properties in the state. So they
must do my
bidding. And that is the bidding of the
ancestors of Lagos
and God.
“I am not ready to beg you. Nobody knew
how I picked
Ambode. Jimi is my blood relation and I told
him that he
could never be governor in Lagos for now. I
am not begging
anybody, but what you people cannot do in
Onitsha, Aba or
anywhere you cannot do it here.”
Reacting to the monarch’s outburst, OYC, in a
statement
issued this afternoon in Umuahia and
endorsed by its
National President, Mazi Okechukwu
Isiguzoro, warned that
“Igbo youths will not take this insult lightly,
and unless he
apologises within 48 hours he should know
he is courting
our wrath.”
OYC further warned that should anything
happen to Ndigbo
or their business interests in Lagos in the
event of APC
losing the Lagos governorship race, the Oba
should be held
responsible.
“Inasmuch as we do not want to get involved
in Lagos
politics, we want to sound a note of warning
that no Igbo
should be vilified or persecuted for his or her
electoral
choice in Lagos or any part of Nigeria,” the
group said.
“Every Nigerian has the constitutional right to
reside in any
part of the country and participate in the
electoral process
based on one’s convictions, and electoral
choice is not a
crime,” it added.
Isiguzoro said “nobody no matter what he
thinks he is, has
the right to command Ndigbo anywhere on
who to vote for
in a democratic setting.”
He said that the unprintable comments
credited to the Oba
had only revealed his innate hatred for
Ndigbo.
The Oba, according to him, “should be
reminded that the
economy of Lagos will collapse should
Ndigbo decide to
pull their investments from the commercial
city.”
He said that “Ndigbo have remained the most
persecuted ,
hated and marginalised tribe in Nigeria , yet
the most
enterprising and highest contributors to the
growth of its
economy, peace and unity.”
OYC asserted that the Igbo race needs
commendation and
not hatred for their ingenuity, versatility and
presence in
every part of the country, adding that God has
destined
Ndigbo to prosper in any part of the world,
even in hostile
environments.
The group, therefore, encouraged Ndigbo in
Lagos and
elsewhere to vote according to their
conscience in the
forthcoming polls without fear of

Goodluck Jonathan'Wait patiently for election results,’ President urges Nigerians

President Jonathan made the call due to the current tension in the country following the early release of results from some states.

play Current Nigerian president and presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan
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Buhari is ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan by a wide margin in the state and even defeated the incumbent in the wards of some Peoples Democratic Party stalwarts.

play President-Goodluck-Jonathan-Vs-Gen.-Muhammadu-Buhari
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Nigeria Elections 2015Results trickle in as Nigeria decides [PHOTOS]

Voting for the Presidential and National Assembly elections continues today, March 29, in areas which experienced difficulties.

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  Election officials counting votes by torchlight on a street in Abuja  BBC 

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First Lady mistakenly endorses Buhari

UNTHINKABLE!!!!!!

Nigeria's First Lady Patience Jonathan waves as she leaves a plane upon arrival to Abuja. ~ WOLE EMMANUEL

Akure - First lady Patience Jonathan has mistakenly endorsed her husband's main challenger in the March 28 presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), reports Naij.
Patience Jonathan during a rally on Tuesday said voting for Buhari, will only see Nigeria ‘move from bad to better’.
Also read: Patience Jonathan labels APC members "bus conductors"
The First Lady stated this during at a rally organized by the women wing of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akure, Ondo State.
The First Lady had lately during PDP campaigns stepped up her attack on Buhari and the APC.

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Abuja -With the national elections taking place in a day, here are some facts about Nigeria that you might not have known.
ECONOMY: Nigeria overtook South Africa as Africa's largest economy in 2014, after a rebasing calculation almost doubled its GDP to more than $500 billion, and growth of around 6 percent has made it one of the world's fastest growing economies.
-- Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of foreign revenues and about three quarters of government revenues. The decline of crude prices in recent months has hurt the country's finances, causing the naira to fall about 20 percent since June, despite the central bank spending billions of dollars to prop it up.
The government has also had to repeatedly slash capital spending in the 2015 budget at a time when spending on the elections is surging.
-- Farming and manufacturing have been neglected in the 55 years since oil was found. Successive governments have done little to diversify the economy, though Jonathan's agricultural policies, including removing corrupt middle men from fertiliser handouts, are seen as a step in the right direction.
-- The banking sector is growing rapidly and capital markets are deepening, attracting foreign investment, although the currency falls linked to the elections and the declining oil revenues have led many foreign investors to sit it out for now.
-- Inflation is now in single digits, despite the country's dependence on imports, including everything from toothpicks to refined fuel, but the cost of doing business is exorbitant.
OIL: Nigeria produced just under 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2014, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. Much of it used to be exported to the U.S. but, since that country's shale boom, the biggest buyers are in Asia and Europe.
-- Its sweet, light crude is sought-after because it is easy to refine into high-yield end products such as gasoline.
-- It has four refineries with a combined capacity of 385,000 bpd but they have never reached full production because of sabotage and poor maintenance, causing the country to rely on expensive imported fuel for 80 percent of its energy needs.
-- It also has the world's seventh largest gas reserves and has ambitious plans to increase supply to 13 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) by 2015, roughly double current levels. Despite being Africa's top gas producer, it only generates 3-4 hours of electricity a day.
SECURITY: Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram has killed thousands over the last six years and kidnapped hundreds in its attempt to create an Islamic emirate in the northeast, occupying territory around the size of Belgium by the start of this year.
-- An offensive against the militants in the last six weeks by the army - alongside troops from Chad, Cameroon and Niger - pushed the group out of most of the areas it had controlled.
-- Thousands have been killed in localised violence since the end of military rule in 1999, mostly in sectarian clashes in the central "Middle Belt" that often flare up around election time.
-- Violence by militants in the Niger Delta in the south, one of the world's largest wetlands and home to the continent's biggest energy industry, has eased since an amnesty in 2009.
POPULATION: With around 170 million people, Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, home to more people than Russia. One in five sub-Saharan Africans are Nigerian.
-- It is one of the world's major oil and gas exporters but well over half of its people live on less than $2 a day. Life expectancy at birth is just 48.4 years, on a par with much poorer West African nations such as Sierra Leone and Chad.
RELIGION: Roughly divided into a Muslim north and Christian south, with sizeable minorities in both. The Muslim community, accounting for approximately half the population, is the largest in sub-Saharan Africa. Traditional beliefs are widespread and many combine them with Islam or Christianity.
-- Home to more than 250 ethnic groups, the three biggest being the Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo. English is the official language but in many rural areas only local languages - of which there are around 520 - are used.

- Reuters

Nigeria wraps up presidential election campaign

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, and opposition candidate General Muhammadu Buhari, after signing a renewal of their pledge to hold peaceful "free, fair, and credible" elections. (Ben Curtis, AP)

Abuja - Campaigning wound to a close in the presidential elections on Thursday, with the two leading candidates delivering their final messages to supporters before the crunch vote.
Land and sea borders were shut at midnight on Wednesday (23:00 GMT) as part of stringent security measures that also include an eight-hour restriction on movement when polling stations are open.
Jonathan and Buhari signed a pledge of non-violence in January and on Thursday repeated their commitment to peaceful elections, with the campaign due to formally end at midnight.
"Now that the campaigns have come to an end, we meet to renew our pledge for peaceful elections," read a document signed by the two men at a hotel in Abuja and made available to reporters.
"We therefore call on all fellow citizens of our dear country and our party supporters to refrain from violence or any acts that may in any way jeopardise our collective vision of a free, fair and credible election."
Acceptance of the result is seen as key to preventing violence and the Independent National Electoral Commission said it had been working with the parties to tone down often violent rhetoric.
"All this will add up when the elections are through and the results are announced and we see that they conduct themselves in accordance with the pledges and promises that have been made," INEC spokesperson Kayode Idowu told AFP.
Final messages
Jonathan published a "thank you" message to Nigerians on the front page of many national newspapers, with a 40-page colour pull-out detailing his claimed achievements.
But the president recognised the challenge from Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) which could see his ruling party defeated for the first time since the end of military rule in 1999.
"Right now there are only a few more hours to the election. I cannot recall an election more important than this in the history of our nation and I need your support," the 57-year-old wrote.
Also read: Police warn voters against electoral violence
"I need you to vote for me in this election, not just because of me, but so that we consolidate on the progress we have made."
Jonathan is campaigning for continuity and has vowed to complete the work he has started in his first four years in office.
Buhari, 72, who headed a military government in the 1980s and describes himself as a "converted democrat", has for his part pushed an agenda of "change".
He criticised "insecurity, broken infrastructure and growing inequality", vowing action against Boko Haram and corruption, which he said had made Nigeria "a laughing stock of the world".
"Rebuilding the army and other security agencies will... be a top priority of my government. I will ensure that never again will terrorists find a safe haven in Nigeria," he added.
He said he would also reunite the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the group in April last year with their families.
INEC on track
The electoral commission charged with organising the election meanwhile said it was on track for a smooth operation.
Some 68.8 million voters out of a total population of some 173 million are registered to vote in Nigeria, which is also Africa's leading economy and top oil producer.
Ballot papers and election materials, including for the first time handheld readers to scan biometric voter identity cards, had been sent to the country's 36 states and capital territory.
"Everything is in place," said INEC's Idowu.
INEC has come under scrutiny for its preparedness, even after the initial 14 February vote was postponed because of military operations against Boko Haram in the northeast.
Jonathan's PDP voiced concern about the distribution of voter cards and the card-reading technology.
But Idowu said the election "will be as flawless as humanly possible" and that results would be announced within 48 hours of polls closing on Saturday.