Some South Africans have given thanks in Sunday prayers for the improvement in the health of Nelson Mandela, the former president who was discharged from a hospital after treatment for pneumonia.

Members of an outdoor congregation in Johannesburg say 94-year-old Mandela was in their thoughts often during his most recent hospitalization. The anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted to a hospital in the South African capital of Pretoria on the night of March 27 and was discharged on Saturday.

Knowledge Modisa, a South African advertising manager, says she and other worshippers have been putting Mandela “first” in their prayers.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison during the period of white racist rule that ended with his election to the presidency in a democratic vote in 1994.

The campaign organisation of Prince Dayo Adeyeye, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye Movement (PAAM) has described as uncharitable and criminal, claim by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed that the arrest of the Chairman of Ekiti State chapter of the party, Chief Jide Awe, over his alleged involvement in the murder of an indigene of his hometown, Erijiyan Ekiti, Ayo Murphy Jeje was an act of intimidation against the ACN.

PAAM Director General, Hon. Bisi Kolawole, said in a statement issued today that it was appalling that Lai Mohammed could sit in Edo-State Government House in Benin-City and be making reckless comments on the murder of a member of his party, who was killed just because he was tired of the lies in ACN and was to decamp to the PDP less than 12 hours before he was murdered.

Kolawole asked; “Is it Lai Mohammed, who is in Benin that should know who killed Ayo Jeje and injured Mrs Juliana Adewunmi, Gbenga Adewunmi and others or Segun Adewunmi, son of the injured Mrs Adewunmi, who said it on Channels Television today that he saw Jide Awe leading the thugs that invaded Erijiyan-Ekiti on Saturday, March 30, 2013?”

Speaking further, the PAAM Director General said; “Those who survived the ACN thugs gunshots are insisting that they saw Jide Awe and others. Segun Adewunmi, ACN House of Assembly aspirant, who led the decampees to the PDP and was among the people that escaped death by stroke of luck even said this much on Channels Television today. He was categorical about it that it was Jide Awe that led the attackers.

“Yet, this shameless Lai Mohammed could be talking rubbish from faraway Benin-City instead of joining other well meaning Nigerians to call for a thorough investigation of the incident.”

While urging the police to do everything within its powers to bring the masterminds and perpetrators of the Erijiyan-Ekiti killing to justice, Kolawole said; “This one cannot be added to the list of unresolved murders in Ekiti because there are people, who survived the attack and can testify as to who and who attacked them.

“Many of them are in agreement that the ACN chairman, Jide Awe was among the perpetrators of the dastardly act. Therefore, what is required now is for him and others to be made to face the law. To do otherwise is for the police to say that crime is right when it is committed by the ACN people but wrong when committed by members of other parties.

“Also, questions should be asked as to who killed Chief Adeleye Awolumate, PDP Chairman, Osun Ward in Moba Local Government on November 18, 2010 and who killed Teslim Abiola, a 400 level Accounting student of Ekiti State University on September 26, 2012?

“Furthermore, the police must tell Nigerians, who aided the activities of Charles Ovie Ojo, who was arrested in connection with kidnap and death of the Attah of Aiyede-Ekiti, Oba Adeleye Orisagbemi and former Acting Provost of the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Dr Gabriel Olowoyo?

“Nigerians deserve to know whether or not Charles Ovie confessed, according to the Police Report signed by Mr Sabo Ringim (who was the Police Commissioner in Ekiti State then) that he (Charles) was taken to Ghana by Dr. Kayode Fayemi.”

Newly sworn-in local government chairmen in Bayelsa state have been warned against turning the monthly allocation and other funds accruing to the Council to ‘pocket money’.

Stressing the need for the council chiefs to be financially discipline, the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson at the inauguration ceremony held inside the Banquet Hall of Government House, Yenagoa said the government would not tolerate any act of indiscipline.

“As we are (the state government), we are neither deducting nor authorizing any form of deductions from your council funds, we will also ensure that you the chairmen, particularly do not use council funds as your own personal pocket money.

The present administration in Bayelsa State will not allow council chairmen to treat the resources coming to the councils to service godfathers, godmothers and god Sisters.

The resources that are coming into this state as you have clearly seen at the state level are being deployed fully to the development of our state”.

The Governor added that his administration has put in place a machinery to monitor and give monthly reports on their activities to ensure that funds accruing to the third tier of government are utilized solely for development.

He also said government would hold regular interaction with the chairmen to ensure that development projects and security efforts were properly harmonized, stressing that henceforth, government will only set up counterpart funding with the local government councils for purposes of development.

In fulfillment of the 35 percent affirmative action, Governor Dickson disclosed that over 60 percent of women are holding elective positions at the local government level.

“Our party (PDP) has set the pace in women empowerment in this country beginning with Bayelsa. You have over 40 percent of women representation as far as councilors are concerned. And you have all seen that over 70 percent of the Vice Chairmen are also women.

“There is no better demonstration of the fact that our party is the most women-friendly party in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He also urged them to establish the local government security councils with first class traditional rulers as well as competent ex-service men among others as members to check “armed banditry, illegal crude oil refining” and other criminal activities.

Congratulating the new local government helmsmen , Hon Dickson urged the political class to join hands with government to bring development closer to the people at the grassroots, adding that this is not the time for politicking.

The Local Government Chairmen are Andy Obed for Brass, Tobiyei Billy (Ekeremor) Gbaranbiri Eselemo (Kolokuma/Opokuma) and Eminah Bioghoemi Benneth (Nembe).

Others are Mr. Enaye Richard Abah (Ogbia), Willy Oyadougha Jerry (Sagbama), Chief Remember Ogbe (Southern Ijaw) and Hon. Chubby Ben Walson (Yenagoa).

There are fears in the North that hardliners in the Boko Haram Islamic sect may be influenced by al-Qaeda to frustrate the planned Federal Government amnesty, just as anxiety is mounting over whether the amnesty will also cover the Ansaru Islam insurgents who operate across Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger Republic.

Northern leaders have in the past 48 hours been making contacts on how to ensure that the rampaging sect does not disgrace them by refusing to cease hostilities even after the amnesty.

Chats by Saturday Tribune with some key leaders from the North on Friday confirmed that the region is anxious for the insurgents to accept the offer, when it is eventually made, as refusing it may further weaken the zone and give the president further political capital in the run-up to the 2015 election.

A leader from Kano, who spoke in confidence, noted: “We are eager and very optimistic that the militants will accept. We are on trial with this amnesty, and our (hope) is that the sect will listen to us and not their alleged affiliates in al-Qaeda.”

According to him, many leaders who met with President Goodluck Jonathan are now worried about the international dimension to the crisis, adding, “we are afraid of a possibility of the sect listening to their allies outside the country.”

He said further: “We pray they will see the bloodletting and save our region. We are also concerned that if Ansaru Islam continues attacks on security forces, the situation in the North won’t be any better even if the amnesty is implemented.”

While speaking with Saturday Tribune, another Young Turk from Katsina State but based in Kaduna, noted: “There are two sides to it. The sect must listen to our elders and rescue our region. Secondly, and this is the view of many of us with intellectual bent, failure to accept amnesty may put some northern big wigs in trouble.

He confirmed the general anxiety in the North over the amnesty, saying that many are currently praying that the amnesty offer will become a reality.

However, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has alleged that the Presidency is merely tricking the North with the offer of amnesty, saying that “the political Boko Haram, which is the most virulent, is linked with the ruling party.”

Speaking with the Saturday Tribune, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, said: “The prayer in the North today is that these killings stop. But we pray that political Boko Haram will stop once this amnesty is on stream.”

Meanwhile, The Presidency has declared that no package has been adopted yet by the Federal Government for the amnesty, contrary to reports being peddled in the social media.

Presidential spokesman, Rueben Abati, said on the African Independent Television yesterday that the Amnesty Committee would work out all operational details and submit report to the president.

Source: Tribune

We have watched with bated breadths, the strident clamor by a group of Nigerian political elite to grant terrorists amnesty.

Intense political pressure has been mounted on the Nigerian government resulting into widespread news today that the federal government of Nigeria is now considering granting amnesty to terrorists who have clearly spurned and disdained the idea in the first place.

This is shaping up to a certain manifestation of the theatre of the absurd!

Not that Nigeria is not used to such perfidious propositions, it is the total despising of the murdered, traumatized and maimed victims of the terrorists that make this situation a pervasion.

When the federal government agreed to set up a committee to consider the demand to grant amnesty to terrorists, it completed its treachery against the wives, children and relatives of the victims of Boko Haram terrorists!

Has the same government considered setting up anything to help those victims? Does the federal government even have a count of the victims? What has the Nigerian government done to assuage the sufferings resulting from the killing of thousands of the Nigerian people by Boko Haram?

We have made it clear before now that most of the victims of Boko Haram terrorism are Christians, whose only offense is their choice of worship. Together last month, our association and CAN in Nigeria gave voice to the victims at a press conference in Abuja. We also announced a widow’s mite of $50,000 to the victims. What has the Nigerian government done for this victims apart from abandoning them at their hardest moment of need?

And now the government is pandering to the same political interests who have refused to expose the known backers and supporters of Boko Haram. What a travesty!

We are not outrightly against a political solution, side by side with the enforcement of law and order; which is government’s primary assignment anywhere.

But political approach has to involve both parties to a conflict. So far as we and all Nigerians know, the leaders of Boko Haram have rejected the idea of negotiations and the amnesty itself. They have even killed certain leaders who have been perceived to be leading the charge for a political solution.

So who will the government be negotiating with? Can a man clap with one hand?

We also ask:

Why is it that the leaders from the region widely affected by the insurgency, who are now clamoring for amnesty, are not equally concerned about the fate of the victims?

Why is the demand for amnesty louder than the demand for the backers and leaders of Boko Haram to openly articulate their views regarding their demands?

Are those to be considered for amnesty including the members of the violent sect who are already in detention?

Have they owned up to their criminal responsibilities?

What is the guarantee that their amnesty would lead them to a change of heart?

What are we to make of the leaders of Boko Haram including Shekau, who have insisted on no negotiations whatsoever?

Has government or the political leaders from the North made contact with Shekau? If they have the nation must be told!

This insurgency of the Boko Haram terrorists in some Northern states of Nigeria has since become an international issue and we here in the United States will continue to insist that the US government and the international community pay a very close attention to what is going on, and intervene as appropriate under international law.

We want to remind the federal government that the International Criminal Court, ICC, is already considering opening a criminal investigation into Boko Haram killings in Nigeria. The ICC has already concluded that indeed crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in this matter.

Source: Daily Post

National Association of Nigerian Students has condemned the planned scrapping of the National Examination Council and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by the Federal Government.

The students’ body, in a statement signed by its President, Prince Miaphen, and made available to Saturday PUNCH in Jos, said such actions were inimical to the development of education in the country.

The statement read, “The attention of the national leadership of NANS has been drawn to a recent pronouncement by the government to cancel JAMB and NECO.

“We condemn in totality any attempt to scrap NECO, as it is the only indigenous examination body for ordinary level pupils in the country.

“NECO should rather be reformed and empowered to carry out its obligation as the only indigenous examination body in the country rather than being scrapped.

“It should be noted that other countries have up to five different examination bodies; it is not too much for Nigeria to have at least two of such bodies for O’ level.”

The students accused the West African Examination Council of not representing the interest of Nigerian students enough at that level because its curriculum does not reflect the Nigerian system and this usually leads to mass failure of Nigerian students in WAEC-conducted examinations.

They also want to know what the Federal Government will do with the staff of both organisations.

NANS also wants UTME to be restructured and strengthened to be the sole regulatory body for entrance examinations into higher institutions in the country.

“The post-UME examination should be scrapped because it is more or less a duplication of responsibility.

“Many Nigerian youths have been facing a lot of setbacks because after passing UTME, they fail post-UME after spending so much money,” the students said.

Most Africans in the diaspora would concur with me that when they first immigrated to the United States they wanted to speak, look and swagger like Americans. This writer was not an exception. Understandably, America is the current world power and an American identity gives some sense of pride – false or real. It is not different from the days of the Roman Empire where everyone wanted to be identified as a Roman.

While attempting to prosodic and modulate intonation to mimic American accent, some Africans accent become ridiculously and preposterously difficult to understand. A situation where Americans cannot understand them and Africans cannot understand them either!

From my experience, it takes some couple of years living in America for most African immigrants to realize and understand the uniqueness of their African Accent. After years of biting my tongue and speaking jargons, my evolutionary journey back to authentic African Accent began to emerge especially after Amadou Diallo – the 23-year-old African immigrant from Guinea that was shot dead by NYPD plain cloth officers because they thought he had a gun – case had catapulted police racial profiling on to America national consciousness. It was not uncommon then (sadly even now) to see young black males stopped and frisked like animals by police officers.

I had to figure out very quickly what to use to reduce the likelihood of being “Dialloed” on the streets of New York just in case something goes down.

As a college student, I worked at night. The location of my job required me to walk past some public housing to get to my job site. Police presence was always very strong in the area. Like a crime scene, they stand on every block around the neighborhood. On several occasions at night, while walking to or from my job, I would notice marked cop cars slow down to look at me. Sometimes, under-cover cop cars will do the same. When there is an incident of gun shot or drug bust, the neighborhood would erupt into a “war zone” as tens of police cars with sirens blazing would envelop the area stopping, frisking and questioning every living creature!

One winter night, the cops stopped and asked me if I lived in the neighborhood. Needless to say, I was wearing a hoodie. I took off the hoodie immediately to display my petrifying “African face” and said “I come for work for here” with a concentrated and cavernous African Accent. “What?” one of the cop retorted. “I said I am going to work for there” I replied again pronouncing every syllable in each word in a typical African enunciation. “Have a good night sir”, they said rather frustratingly as they drove away.

Obviously, it appears they were looking for someone and do not want to be bothered with my African face and Accent. I am not sure what would have happened had I used my American Accent that I tried so hard to develop over the years! Or maybe they think folks with my Accent do not fit the profile of who they were looking for? Your guess is as good as mine.

Long before the absurd and senseless death of Travone Martin, I have adopted two survival strategies on the streets of New York to protect myself as a young black male in America: No hoodie at night and the almighty African Accent. The African Accent works more like magic. So the next time you find yourself in a dilemma on the street of New York and you want to survive, please use your authentic African Accent or speak African pidgin English as best as you can. You will be left alone and will be glad you read this piece.

But for all those Africans out there that are still biting their tongues in an attempt to phonetic like Americans, I wish you all the best in your evolutionary journey back to authentic African Accent. I will see you on the other side. God bless Africa and all her children in the diaspora.