Cute family: Paul Okoye with his fiancee and son
I GUESS THEY BARE DEFINITELY GETTING MARRIED NEXT YEAR.
11 Dec 2013
Read President Obama's electrifying speech at the memorial of Nelson Mandela..Read
As he's known to do, President Barack Obama gave an electrifying speech at the memorial of the late Nelson Mandela and here's the transcript:
To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests - it is a singular honour to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other. To the people of South Africa – people of every race and walk of life – the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.
It is hard to eulogise any man – to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person – their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone's soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.
Born during world war one, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe – Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement – a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would – like Lincoln – hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. Like America's founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations – a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.
Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. "I'm not a saint," he said, "unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."
It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection – because he could be so full of good humour, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried – that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood – a son and husband, a father and a friend. That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what's possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.
Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, "a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness" from his father. Certainly he shared with millions of black and coloured South Africans the anger born of, "a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments … a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people".
But like other early giants of the ANC – the Sisulus and Tambos – Madiba disciplined his anger; and channelled his desire to fight into organisation, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand-up for their dignity. Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price. "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination," he said at his 1964 trial. "I've cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don't. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper's bullet. He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depended upon his.
Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; no matter how right, they must be chiselled into laws and institutions. He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of conditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that, "prisoners cannot enter into contracts". But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. And because he was not only a leader of a movement, but a skilful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy; true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.
Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa – Ubuntu – that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us. We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small - introducing his jailors as honoured guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family's heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS – that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.
For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe – Madiba's passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate his heroic life. But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or circumstance, we must ask: how well have I applied his lessons in my own life?
It is a question I ask myself – as a man and as a president. We know that like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. As was true here, it took the sacrifice of countless people - known and unknown - to see the dawn of a new day. Michelle and I are the beneficiaries of that struggle. But in America and South Africa, and countries around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not done. The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality and universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.
We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba's legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba's struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.
The questions we face today – how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war – do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu. Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows us that is true. South Africa shows us we can change. We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.
We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. But let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world - you can make his life's work your own. Over thirty years ago, while still a student, I learned of Mandela and the struggles in this land. It stirred something in me. It woke me up to my responsibilities - to others, and to myself - and set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. And while I will always fall short of Madiba's example, he makes me want to be better. He speaks to what is best inside us. After this great liberator is laid to rest; when we have returned to our cities and villages, and rejoined our daily routines, let us search then for his strength - for his largeness of spirit - somewhere inside ourselves. And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, or our best laid plans seem beyond our reach - think of Madiba, and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of a cell:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
What a great soul it was. We will miss him deeply. May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. May God bless the people of South Africa.
PHOTO: Maheeda is back! -- Shares a new photo of her private part,...See HERE - See more at: http://www.gossipboyz.com/2013/12/photo-maheeda-is-back-shares-new-photo.html#sthash.OCudGaJf.dpuf
Everyone thought she's finally taking a chill pill but alas! She's back with a bang! Now this isn't a thing to be upbeat about but there's definitely something wrong with Maheeda
How I raped a 12yr old kid -- 34 yr old man narrates....
In an interview with Crime Alert, the suspect confessed that he actually lured the innocent victim to his house and raped her to death.
“I forced her. I tried to use her through her private part but my own thing could not enter. I now turned her and she started shouting. I now held her well, well. I don’t want anybody to hear her voice. I now started using her through her anus. In the process of using her through the anus, she now shouted and I now held her back again, using her. In the process of using her, she now gave up.
I now asked myself how will I manage to hide the corpse of this girl. I now rock my brain and rock my brain and the shovel that I have there cannot dig the ground. This ground sef na stone ground. I cannot dig it alone. I now searched around my place here and I saw that pit there (pointing to the location of the pit) and I now say let me come and put her inside that pit, so that the place will be enough to hide it. Nobody will know. I now rolled her with some cloths. After12 to one o’clockin the midnight, I now brought her to this place and now throw her inside the pit.”The CP Kastina said
“His arrest and subsequent interrogation encouraged detectives to move to this place where this very horrendous spectacle was again discovered. It is a clear case of sunset at dawn. She may have gone but her soul is seriously crying for justice and this is what I will surely do,investigations also revealed that “this very suspect is a serial killer, serial rapist and is responsible for the missing and death of many of our young girls, not only in Imo State but in some parts of the country. I am hoping that pathologists will equally ascertain the real cause of the death of the innocent girl.”
ASUU signs MOU with FG -- May Call of strike within a week...
Striking university teachers across Nigeria today moved closer to resolving the five months old industrial dispute that had led to the closure of Nigerian universities by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with officials of the federal government of Nigeria.
ASUU president Dr. Nasir Fagge told Saharareporters over the phone that the MOU signing took place at the Ministry of Education in Abuja. The Permanent Secretary at the ministry signed on behalf of the federal government while the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Abdul Omar witnessed the event.
The ASUU president said the Nigerian government agreed to fulfill most of the obligations agreed upon during meetings with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja a few weeks ago, this he said, includes a non-victimization clause.
Accordingly, ASUU will call a meeting of its National Executive Council to take a look at the MOU and decide on the next line of action within the next week.
On its part, the Nigerian government will set up a committee to fully implement the agreement with ASUU.
The MOU signing followed a disclosure by Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe yesterday that the Federal government had deposited N200 billion with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as part of the promise made to ASUU during its last negotiation with President Jonathan.
Is that real or an illusion?
PHOTOS: President Obama's appeared to snub Michelle Obama all through at Mandela's memorial...See HERE
US President Barack Obama was an electrifying presence at the memorial of Africa's man Nelson Mandela and he gave one of his most inspiring speeches. However, his selfie photos he took with British prime minister, David Cameron and Denmark's prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt had social media buzzing.
Presiden Obama appeared to spend more time with Helle than he did with wife, Michelle Obama who looked pissed off all through..this many have said is especially because he kept smiling with the Denmark's prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Many are of the opinion she was angry at his behavior and how he was acting all playful with the Denmark Prime Minister.
President Goodluck Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala and Allison-Madueke in alleged ₦8 trillion fraud scandal
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and two of his top ministers may be attempting a cover-up on what clearly competes as Nigeria’s biggest fraud ever, involving the illegal diversion, or theft, of over N8trillion crude oil sales proceeds. In a frantic and unusual memo to the president on September 25, 2013, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi detailed how government-owned oil firm, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had systematically diverted N8trillion, being sales proceeds between January 2012 and July 2013. CBN governor revealed that for all crude oil sales within the period, NNPC paid only 24 percent proceeds into the federation account, and diverted or stole the remaining 76 percent-totalling N8 trillion. As the CBN calculated, the NNPC sold at least 594 million barrels of oil within the period, and should have paid N10.3 trillion (USD65.3 billion) into the federation account. But the corporation paid only N2.5 trillion (USD15.5 billion), Mr. Sanusi said, citing documentation from pre-shipment inspectors. Unbelievable: The whereabouts of the huge balance is unknown... The weight of the differential is clearer if evaluated against the fact that the tiny percentage remitted by the NNPC managed to finance the nation in that period, raising the question of how much the total would then have achieved for a country unable to pay its university lecturers who have been on strike for five months. Put simply, for each barrel of oil sold, say at an average of USD100, the NNPC illegally cornered $74 into an unknown account and gave Nigeria only $26. Mr. Sanusi said he was “constrained” to hint the president after observing the huge shortfalls for years. He accused the NNPC of breaching two key federal laws, and urged the president to act expeditiously by ordering sweeping investigation and prosecution of those found culpable. Two months on, the president has refused to act on the damning memo delivered to him personally by the CBN governor. In fact, after receiving the letter, the president, presidency sources say, questioned Mr. Sanusi on why such letter should be prepared in the first place and sent to him. PREMIUM TIMES can also confirm that finance minister and former World Bank chief, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is also aware of the CBN’s information and has done nothing about it; while petroleum minister, Alison Diezani-Madueke, implicated in several corruption probes in the past, is said to be fully in the know about the massive plunder of crude oil money by the NNPC. President challenged on corruption Details of the president’s failure to act on such a massive scale of misappropriation came amid an increasing criticism of Mr. Jonathan’s response to corruption, as several senior officials of his government, accused of stealing or wasting public funds, have been spared of indictment and prosecution. The weightiest of such concerns came on Monday from the speaker of the House of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who publicly accused the president of consistently displaying a “body language” that encourages corruption. Citing past scandals, the most recent being the N255 million armoured car fraud involving aviation minister, Stella Oduah, Mr. Tambuwal said the president’s penchant for duplicating committees to investigate corruption cases, rather than directing law enforcement agencies to probe them, showed Mr. Jonathan was less committed to curbing fraud. “By the action of setting up different committees for straightforward cases, the president’s body language doesn’t tend to support the fight against corruption,” the speaker said at an event in Abuja. Between 2011 and 2013, the House of Representatives has investigated the NNPC multiple times, and has in many cases found officials of the corporation wanting. But no one has been sanctioned by government. In 2012, top management of the NNPC and the petroleum minister, Mrs. Madueke, who directly supervises the NNPC, were recommended for prosecution by the House in a shocking fuel subsidy probe. They accused officials have remained at their posts. The CBN’s allegation is the most scathing yet for a corporation notorious for secrecy and corruption. The diverted or stolen amount-N8 trillion between January 2012 and July 2013- is the nearly the equivalent of the total federal budgets for two years. Put together, the sum can run the entire country for the period, build several new roads and railways, pay wages of millions of workers, cater for the nation’s teeming unemployed, build thousands of hospitals and schools, complete ongoing power projects, and on an urgent note, clear multiple times, all government financial obligations to university lecturers, whose ongoing strike has kept the universities shut for more than five months now. More losses and the ECA Even so, when compared with prevailing data from different government agencies, the figure admitted by the CBN is still lesser than what Nigeria should earn from oil sales. While the bank said its computation, based on pre-shipment details, showed that Nigeria sold N10.3 trillion worth of oil in 19 months, PREMIUM TIMES’ analysis shows the government should rather realize N10.6 trillion in the first 10 months of 2013-Janaury to October-alone. PREMIUM TIMES’s estimates is based on the government’s data of daily production average of 2.11 million barrels of crude, sold at an average price of $105.84 per barrel. If multiplied and converted to naira, the government should have realized N10. 6 trillion in 10 months alone. But in that period, total oil receipts data provided by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, claimed between January and October, the government made N5.8 trillion. Also, our estimates show that the government has not only lied or misled Nigerians about its total receipts from oil sales, but is also deceitful about its earnings in the contentious Excess Crude Account. The ECA holds the difference between the real market price for oil and the government’s projection in the national budget yearly. For 2013, the government approved rate is $79 per barrel (called benchmark for oil price), meaning any raise in price at the international marker, will go into the ECA. For most of the year, oil sold as much as $112 and $114 per barrel. At a conservative rate of $105 per barrel, the government should have realized $26 as difference per barrel for the Excess Crude Account. Calculated at 2.11 million barrels per day, that should amount to $17.3 billion (about N2.695trillion) earned as excess crude revenue from crude oil exports as of October 2013. But the government claims it generated only N986.6 billion in the Excess Crude Account. No explanation No government official could explain the huge gaps for the 2013 figures. The ministry of finance did not comment when contacted multiple times. Paul Nwabuiku, a spokesperson for the finance minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, promised a response but refused to give one several days after. A spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria, reacting to our findings (not Mr. Sanusi’s letter) said as the government’s banker, it could not provide the requested information, as it was unlawful for a banker to divulge details about its customer to a third party. “We maintain a customer/banker relationship with the government in the execution of our mandate. We do not divulge such information to third parties,” Mr. Ugochukwu said on Thursday via a text message. Controversy over Excess Crude Account PREMIUM TIMES’s own evaluation of government oil earnings began well ahead of obtaining Mr. Sanusi’s letter to President Jonathan. The review was prompted by the lingering controversy over the ECA between the finance minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala and the Rivers state governor, Chibuike Amaechi. Mr. Amaechi had accused the government of depleting the account, usually shared between the federal, states and local governments. The governor said $5 billion had gone missing from the account under Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s watch. Defending the administration, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala accused the governor of “playing politics” on the matter, and said the outstanding $5 billion had been shared to states as monthly allocation and local governments, with Rivers State being one of the major beneficiaries. The frustration of CBN governor But in his letter, Mr. Sanusi said he had long been frustrated by the NNPC’s secrecy with oil sales, and that he raised concerns twice to the president as far back as 2010 about his observation that a huge chunk of sales proceeds were not remitted to government treasury. He said the shortfall in revenue as a result of oil theft and vandalism in the Niger Delta was insignificant compared to the scale of money unaccounted for by the NNPC. “Your excellency, you will recall that as far back as late 2010, I had verbally expressed deep concern about what appeared to be huge shortfalls in remittances to the federation account in spite of the strong recovery in oil prices,” the CBN governor wrote, indicating the losses extending years back far surpasses the N8 trillion of between 2012 and 2013. There is no evidence the president acted on those concerns. By 2012, he said the situation had gone worse that the government made more money from tax paid by oil companies than from actual sales of crude. “This means, Your Excellency, that in this first seven months of the year, taxes accounted for 76 % of the total inflow from this sector, while NNPC crude oil proceeds accounted for 24%,” he said. The CBN governor called for a thorough audit of all domiciliary accounts held by the NNPC outside of the CBN, and a probe of companies involved in oil lifting and oil swap. “As banker to the federal government and Economic Adviser to the President,” he said, “I am obliged to draw the president’s attention to these serious issues of which you have most probably never been aware in this detail,” he said. The Special Adviser to the President on Public Communications, Reuben Abati, was not available for comments. He did not answer several calls made to his telephone. He is believed to be traveling in South Africa with the president, who is attending the funeral of late South African President, Nelson Mandela.
PHOTOS: US Rapper The Game, gets a tattoo of Nelson Mandela on his body
Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known by his stage name The Game shared a photo of his new tattoo of Nelson Mandela with the caption: “The finished “Nelson Mandela” lookin out of the prison bars by @NikkoHurtado done on my side. 7 hour sitting…. Few more hours to tie in the tats around it & we solid. #NelsonMandela #RIP #Legend #Leader #Freedom #Peace #Equality #Tattoos #SouthAfrica”.
Peep another photo of him getting his tatts 
President Goodluck Jonathan snubbed at Nelson Mandela's Memorial
President Goodluck Jonathan was reportedly snubbed at the funeral of late South African leader, Nelson Mandela, by the South African authorities at the State Memorial Service of the anti-apartheid leader despite leaving Nigeria early.
PremiumTimesng reports that an official release of programmes during the memorial service shows that the Nigerian president was missing on the list of world leaders billed to give tributes.
The world leaders who will be giving tributes are:
- United State President, Barack Obama;
- President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil;
- Vice-President Li Yuanchao of China;
- President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia;
- President Pranab Mukherjee of India;
- and President Raúl Castro Ruz of Cuba.
Though Mr. Jonathan is not the only head of state that would not give tribute - there are about 90 heads of state attending the funeral, the apparent snub handed Mr. Jonathan also appears to rubbish the enormous effort played by Nigeria to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.
This was at a time when Western governments were pussyfooting to pressure the apartheid government to renounce its policy of segregation and its brutal abuses against the black majority.
Some Western governments including the U.S. had even designated the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) as a terrorist organisation, and Mandela a terrorist.
This point was also highlighted by the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday in a chat with journalists.
There are more questions to answer. When you look at the part of the world where ovation is now the loudest, it was the part of the world the pain was the most vicious. In a very cruel irony, history is being revised.
The people, who collaborated with the government that enthroned apartheid at that time, are the people that are paying the biggest tributes now. But I ask myself: is this not the time for deep reflection? I doubt if any African country expended as much time, as much money and as much commitment as the Nigerian Government.
I was a teenager then in 1976 when anti-apartheid campaign really gained resurgence in every home in this country. Nigeria paid a huge price for what South Africa has become today. I remember the anti-apartheid campaign was at the core of Nigerian foreign policy.
Apart from scholarship given to South Africans, I remember President Yar’Adua met Thabo Mbeki in South Africa and he was telling me about their relationship, which he said was dated to when Mbeki used to come to Zaria for student exchange programme. I remember we did not go for Commonwealth Games because of South Africa. I remember we took drastic measures against the foreign collaborators of apartheid regime and nationalised assets.”
Uruguay set to become first country to legalize marijuana trade
If this bill, which has the support of majority of the House and the president of the country, is passed, Uruguay will be the first country to legalize a trade that is illegal everywhere else in the world.
After the trade is made legal, Uruguay will then draft regulations imposing state control over the cultivation and distribution of marijuana. Anyone who wants to go into the business would have to be licensed and registered, with government monitors keeping tabs to enforce limits, such as the 40 grams a month that any adult will be able to buy at pharmacies for any reason.
