Thursday, October 20, 2016

Buhari’s response to Aisha not the reality of his opinion of women —Prof Akin Ibidapo-Obe, Professor of African Law


While Mr President’s response to his wife’s remark on his leadership style continues to stir the polity, many have argued that it is the total sum of his view of womenfolk. However, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Professor Akin Ibidapo-Obe, an expert in African Law, feels otherwise. He spoke with Woman’s Own.  

WHAT do you  make of Mr   President’s response to his wife’s interview with BBC Hausa which is already generating so much controversy? Buhari’s response was not right because, you know, in Concept of the African Woman, we do understand that the African woman is a strong voice that must be expressed. But people have the misconception that the African woman is a voice that must be suppressed. But that is not true. But was Aisha right to have chastised him in public on international media? There is nothing right or wrong about it. It’s left for us to make our conclusion but that should not be whether it’s right or wrong. Will it be better for her to bottle everything in and then explode at the wrong time or whatever? Let her express herself and let Buhari either take a cue from that and make whatever adjustment that he needs to make.

African tradition teaches us that a man and his wife should settle differences in the bedroom; in private. But Aisha did the opposite… We’re substituting our own view for the view of the Britons. There is nothing like ‘a woman cannot express herself’ in Africa. As a matter of fact, true African culture says the woman should express herself. My wife expresses herself and her feelings. Everybody has equal right of self-expression. Why do we always expect the woman to be the one to diminish her role to suit the male perspective or the male person? In your own view, would you say the place of the African woman is still in the kitchen and should any man be saying such in the 21st century? I told you the president only said that as a form of joke. The reality of the president’s attitude to women is the fact that Aisha has gone through the educational grooming and international exposure. That is the reality of Buhari’s perspective; not when he now cracks a joke and we say “haa, this is how it goes”. Anybody can say that! That’s not a matter of perception. The reality of what Aisha has gone through in terms of educational exposure, in my opinion, is the true view of Buhari’s perception of women. If you allow your wife to have education and exposure and then you just look at her and say her place is in the kitchen, even when it’s not as if she doesn’t fulfil those roles in the home, that cannot be taken as a serious comment. In fact, it is not derogatory because whether we like it or not, she is in charge of those duties in the home. We shouldn’t over-blow what Buhari said. Beyond his words in Germany, the President has expressed his opinion and view of womanhood by his action of allowing his wife to have proper exposure educationally and internationally. But this ‘true view about women’ which you argue about is not reflected in the proportion of women compared to men in his cabinet, which is in fact one of the lowest we’ve had in recent times… It is not the sole duty of the President to choose precisely who and who should be in his cabinet. Don’t forget that this is a collective government. If there are few women, then maybe that is what the political atmosphere, party nominations and some personal nominations provided for. You know, sometimes, when a President wants to appoint a representative from a state, he has to consult the people there to nominate somebody. We cannot put the low number of women in the cabinet solely on Buhari’s table.   If they ask Imo State for example to bring a nominee and they bring a man, do you expect Buhari to change it to a woman? We’re in a democracy and people should understand that. And what’s your response to men who are already saying they would send their wives packing the next day if she did that to them? I don’t think that is the correct thing to do. If you have a wife with whom you’re in good understanding, you must understand that she is frankly expressing herself and that it is in your best interest to consider her views.

'I will keep you in suspense'- Donald Trump says he won't commit to accepting election results

Republican Party U.S presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday, during the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas said he won't commit to accepting the November 8 U.S presidential election results. Trump in the last one week has claimed that the election process was being rigged against him as even dead people's names had been brought up in the voter's register.
When asked by moderator Chris Wallace if he'll accept the election results, he said; 

“I will look at it at the time,” the Republican nominee said, referring to the election results.  When he was further pressed by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace to answer the question directly, Trump said, “I will keep you in suspense.”

But Donald Trump's position is different to that taken by his daughter Ivanka and his running mate Mike Pence. Asked on Wednesday whether her father would concede if he loses, Ivanka Trump said he would accept the outcome of the election.

Earlier this week, Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said:
“We will absolutely accept the result of the election.”
Trump on Wednesday also said Hillary Clinton should not have been allowed to run for president. 
“In that respect I say that it’s rigged,” he said. “She should never have been allowed.”
Clinton responded, calling Trump’s comments “horrifying.” 
“I, for one, am appalled someone who is nominee of one of our major parties would question the integrity of our election process,” she said.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Buhari Inaugurates Solar Power Plant in UI


President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday inaugurated the first major solar plant power plant in the country at the university of Ibadan.

The plant has the capacity to supply 10 megawatts of renewable electricity to the university community and its environs when completed.

The multi-million dollar project is a product of negotiation and financing between the Federal Government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, the German government and UI.

I am very, very scared of her: Tyra banks still blames Naomi Campbell for causing some of the lowest times of her life

Tyra Banks who is worth an estimated $90million has disclosed how she carried on a running feud with fellow supermodel, Naomi Campbell. Tyra said Naomi was jealous because she was no longer going to be the undisputed top supermodel of colour. Speaking to a Norwegian TV show she said:
"I got to Paris and it was very difficult. I did very well, very fast. But then the industry was saying, "Look out Naomi Campbell, here comes Tyra Banks. Naomi Campbell sit your butt down, this younger one is coming to take your place.'"
 'It was really unfair to her because the other models that weren't black, like Kate Moss came up, we were the same generation, they weren't saying, 'Look out Christy Turlington, this cheek bone girl has cheekbones higher than yours! Get back!' You know, so they weren't saying that. 
'So, you know, it wasn't fair to Naomi, but her response to this day was... I'm very scared of her. I don't want to go too deep into the past, but it was very difficult, very, very. Some of the lowest times of my life I'm dealing with that. I don't condone her actions and her response, but I understand where it comes from, because the world is saying "you're not gonna have your spot, we're gonna take your money, we're gonna take your fame, go sit down, there's somebody else." 
'You know, so that's pretty serious. She reacted strongly, but I kind of understand where that was coming from inside of her."
The two queens of the catwalk  however put the past behind them when Naomi appeared on Tyra's defunct chat show and offered an apology. Speaking about the touching moment Tyra said: 'She kept saying it never happened and then there was a commercial break and then she came back and said, you know, "I'm sorry."
'And, oh my God, I just cried like a baby. To hear that after so many years of pain and dealing with it publicly... me having to leave agencies because of her... to hear that apology meant the world to me. She has no idea what that did for me.'
The super successful model also spoke about how her career almost grind to a halt when top designers stopped picking her because she put on weight.
She said:
'My agents in Italy gave (my mum) a list of designers that did not want to hire me anymore because my body was getting thicker.
'And she showed me this list of designers and I just started crying and said, 'Oh my gosh, Mommy, what do I do? Am I supposed to like starve myself? OK, maybe I won’t eat any bread anymore. Just salads with no dressing, salads for breakfast, lunch and dinner.'"

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Pacquiao will be the first Senator to win a World’s title if he defeats Jessie Vargas on Nov 5

Filipino boxing champ, Manny Pacquiao, who is currently serving as Senator in the Philippines will be the first ever Senator to win a World title if he wins when he takes on America’s Jessie Vargas, on Saturday, November 5, 2016 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao is generally considered to be one of the greatest boxers of all time as he is the first and only eight-division world champion in which he has won ten world titles, as well as being the first to win the lineal championship at five different weight classes.

Edo Assembly hails Buhari over release of 21 Chibok girls

Edo State House of Assembly, yesterday, commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the recent release of the 21 Chibok girls held by the Boko Haram sect, urging Nigerians to be patient with the current administration as it was capable of finding solutions to the problems confronting the nation

Released E-mails show Clinton foundation received $1m pledge from Qatar while serving as Sec. of State

Hacked emails have revealed Bill and Hillary Clinton received $1m from Qatar for the Clinton Foundation while she was still in office as Secretary of State despite Hillary publicly promising the U.S. government that while she served as Secretary of state, the foundation would not accept new funding from foreign governments without seeking clearance from the State Department's ethics office.

The hacked email is among thousands published over the last week by the pro-transparency group Wikileaks from the account of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and in the email from 2012, a senior official from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation informed colleagues that a planned donation by Qatar's government to mark Bill Clinton's birthday came up in a meeting he had with Qatar's ambassador in Washington.

In the email, the ambassador said that he asked "to see WJC 'for five minutes' in NYC, to present $1 million check that Qatar promised for WJC's birthday in 2011," Amitabh Desai, the foundation official, writes in his email, using the former U.S. president's initials.

But the email doesn't show if the money was sent as a birthday gift to Bill Clinton or the family's foundation although the family's foundation's website lists the State of Qatar as having given that figure. 

Meanwhile, the U.S State Department in a statement said it cannot cite any instances of its ethics officials reviewing or approving new donations from foreign governments to the foundation while Clinton served as the country's top diplomat from 2009 until 2013.

"You would need to ask the Foundation whether there were additional matters that it should have submitted for State Department review," the department said in a statement..

Bill Clinton announced in August that, if Hillary won the presidency, the foundation would cease to accept money from foreign or corporate bodies and Bill would resign from the board. Hillary Clinton has not served on the board since April 2015.

Source: CNN / Fox News

RRS nabs man over visa racketeering, swindles victims off 2m

28 year old man, Emu-Larry Chidebere, has been apprehended by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command, for allegedly involved in Obtain By Trick (OBT) with a United Arab Emirate's visa racketeering in Ajah area of Lagos State. 

The suspect, who hailed from Ika North Local Government Area of Delta State, swindled one Abraham Jude and four other persons of N2,000,000.00  under the pretence of helping them to procure a Dubai Visa.

According to Abraham, one of the victims,
“when I was laid off where I was working in Abuja. I had intention of moving out of the country to start a new life. Then, I met his uncle, Samuel Obed, who told me his nephew was working with one company at the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and that he could help me to secure the country’s visa…. We started to communicate via telephone, and he assured me that he could secure Dubai Visa for me at a reasonable price. He requested for N400, 000. 00, which I told him I can’t afford such huge amount of money at that particular point in time.
''Later, he called me again that his work place in Dubai was recruiting and he had already submitted my name for employment…. Afterwards, he started to persuade me by telling me the benefits that are attached to the employment. As a result of this, I began to source for the money by all means, and at the end of the day, I got the N400, 000:00 and sent to him in Dubai through his Access Bank account number: 0029521100," he added.

Abraham noted that, the suspect, after receiving the money developed hostile attitude towards him, and eventually stopped picking his calls whenever he put calls across to him.
“After two days he got the money, he stopped picking up my calls. Even if he managed to pick the call, he will just tell me I shouldn’t bother myself anymore that my money has gone down the drain. It was at this point, I came to RRS to report the case. And the Policemen told me anytime he is in Nigeria I should let them know,” he said.

RRS operatives were on his trail for four months monitoring his movement between Nigeria and Dubai.
“After four months, I got a hint that he had arrived the country but had changed his telephone line. As fate would have it, I got his new line and handed it over to the RRS officers, they took up the surveillance from that end, which eventually led to his arrest,” he added.

In his confessional statement, he said
“I can’t deny the fact that I collected the N400, 00.00 from him. I tried to secure the visa for him but all my efforts to do so were in vain. And I started to spend the money gradually till I finished it all.”

Investigators revealed that Emu-Larry has under the guise of helping four other victims from obtaining Dubai visa collected a total of N1.6 million from them, and that some of them only came forward when they learnt that he has been arrested.

While confirming the arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer of Lagos State, Superintendent of Police, SP Dolapo Badmus, said that Police will not rest on its oars in protecting rights of any individual in the country. The suspect has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation.

Forex crisis: Emirates Airline to suspend flight operations to Abuja, threaten to leave Nigeria entirely

Emirates Airline has said it is cutting flight operations to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja effective October 22nd as part of its restructuring and loss saving effort.

Emirates has formally written the Minister of State, Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika over its intention to stop flight operations into Abuja following the airline's inability to buy forex and remit its sales..

The airline said it will also suspend Lagos operations indefinitely if things don't change.

Confirming the report, Premium Times said that the President of the airline Tim Clark announced that it could reduce the frequency of its flights to African cities or cut routes completely if current economic and financial challenges continued.
"In certain African countries, the currencies have really gone down, so we 're reflecting on a matter of these to look at where it's just not worth us to travel," Clark said at an International Transport Association event held in Dubai on Tuesday.
"Emirates has huge money in naira at the banks. It cannot repatriate its sales because it cannot buy dollars. This is having negative effect on their operations.

Senate confirms Pres. Buhari's nominees as Supreme Court justices

The senate presided over by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, this morning confirmed the appointment of two Supreme Court Justices, Hon Justice Ejembi Eko JCA and Hon. Justice Amina A. Augie JCA. Both justices were nominated by President Buhari last week. They are to replace the Chief Justice of Nigeria Mahmud Mohammed and Justice Galadima from North Central, both of whom turn 70 years old this year.

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