SEPP BLATTER WON THE FIFA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FOR THE FIFTH TIME.

Sepp Blatter won FIFA presidential re-election for an unprecedented fifth term as challenger, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, conceded after failing to win by a two-third majority in the first round of voting on Friday.

At FIFA’s 65th Congress in Zurich, the 209 member nations cast their votes and the 79-year-old Blatter garnered 133 votes to Prince Ali’s 73 of the 206 valid votes cast, but failed to win the two-third majority on the initial vote (more than 139 out of 209).

At that point, Prince Ali addressed the voting members and conceded.

THE CHANGE GAME BEGINS!!!!!! #DemocracyDay

Since the telephone call you made, you have changed the course of Nigeria’s political history and for that you have earned yourself a place in our history, for stabilising multi-party democratic system and you have earned the respect of not only Nigerians but world leaders”.

These words from the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to out-going President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, summed up the mood at the council chambers of the Presidential Villa as President Jonathan presented hand-over notes to his successor, Buhari, who will be sworn in today.Buhari-tasks

Speaking at the Presidential Villa after receiving the hand-over notes as well as the report of the National Conference from President Jonathan, Buhari said by the singular phone call that Jonathan made to him conceding defeat, he has changed the course of the nation’s political history.

THE FARMER'S SON WHO BECAME AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK CHIEF - AKINWUMI ADESHINA.

Nigeria’s outgoing agriculture minister Akinwumi Adesina has risen from humble origins to become the head of the African Development Bank at a time of economic transformation on the continent.

The son of a poor farmer earning 10 US cents per day in Ogun state, southwest Nigeria, 55-year-old Adesina gradually climbed the social ladder, according to friends.

He earned a first-class honours degree in agricultural economics from the southwestern University of Ife and a doctorate in the same subject at Purdue in the US midwest in 1988.

ISSUES THAT WILL MAKE OR MAR BUHARI'S ADMINISTRATION.

With his largely poor score, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is retiring to his village, Otuoke, in Bayelsa State. Now is time for President Muhammadu Buhari to do what his predecessors, especially Jonathan could not do to re-engineer the country. CHARLES ABAH looks at the key areas that will shape the tenure of the soldier-turned politician

Fuel subsidy

After the recent strike by oil marketers that almost crippled economic activities in many parts of the country, it is clear that the incoming government must do something urgent to prevent a recurrence of the event in the future. Investigations show that many Nigerians, still smarting from the effects of the strike, are willing to back any move by the new government to remove the contentious fuel subsidy once. Yet, outright removal of the subsidy will amount to robbing Nigerians of what looks like the only thing they now enjoy from the government. Besides, millions of Nigerians are already burdened by poverty.

HOW BUHARI CAN REVAMP NIGERIA'S ECONOMY.

President Muhammadu Buhari took the oath of office as the fourth democratically elected President of Nigeria after the country’s return to democratic rule in 1999.  Finance analysts, who spoke to IFEANYI ONUBA, were of the view that he must within 90 days come up with pragmatic policies to reposition the nation’s economy

To say that Muhammadu Buhari will be taking over the realms of affairs of the country at a time when both the global and domestic economies are in dire need of help is stating the obvious.

The world is currently experiencing weaker-than-expected growth in major economies.

ABUJA COMES ALIVE FOR THE INAUGURATION OF BUHARI. #DemocracyDay

Global attention shifts to the world’s most populous black nation on the planet, Nigeria, where the country’s fifth democratically elected president, Muhammadu Buhari, will be inaugurated on Friday (today).

Contrary to speculations, indications emerged on Thursday that the outgoing President, Goodluck Jonathan, will attend the historic occasion which would mark the first time a sitting president would hand over power to a victorious challenger.

The event expected to be witnessed by many world leaders will take place at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the nation’s hilly capital city.

OKONJO IWEALA MISMANAGED NIGERIA'S ECONOMY - ADAMS OSHIOMOLE.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has accused the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of gross mismanagement of the nation’s economy in the last four years and feeding Nigerians with half-truths.

According to the governor, in an article reviewing the nation’s economy in the last four years, he alleged Okonjo-Iweala ran the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as if she was running a one-man show, saying her recent outcry that oil marketers were falsifying subsidy claims might have been done out of fear of the incoming administration led by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.

In the article, the governor said: “As the country transits from one democratic dispensation to another, there is no gainsaying that the state of the nation’s economy is the focal point, especially with the unending fuel scarcity which is gradually grinding the nation to a halt.

WHY FUEL SUBSIDY MUST BE REMOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As the world awaits the inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari as the President of Nigeria, controversy over the contentious fuel subsidy claims has taken a centre stage following the fuel scarcity that almost brought the country to its knees.

This is coming as the Federal Government is said to have spent more than N6 trillion from 2006 to 2014 on fuel subsidies. Vanguard can now reveal the amount spent on subsidy since 2006. The table below shows the amount spent on subsidy from 2006:

A WORD FOR MUHAMMADU BUHARI - OLUSEGUN ADENIYI.

As the Coaster bus tried to meander through the surging crowd and the sea of human heads, chanting “Sai Baba”, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari tapped his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, by the shoulder, pointed in the direction of the vehicle’s window and asked: “Look at that man; what can you see from his face?”

Osinbajo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who was then apparently just adjusting to life as a politician, replied: “I can see real excitement on his face. Like many others here, the man is obviously very happy to see us.”

Evidently not satisfied with the response he got, Buhari asked Osinbajo to look at the man again. When the former Attorney General of Lagos State returned the same answer, Buhari decided to lecture him: “That man you are looking at believes that if we win this coming election, all his problems will be solved within 24 hours after we take over.”

IF YOU PROBE ME THEN YOU MUST PROBE OBASANJO, ABDULSALAMI, SHONEKAN & BABANGIDA - JONATHAN SAYS TO BUHARI.

President Goodluck Jonathan has advised the incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari, not to single his administration out for probe.

He said if Mr. Buhari must investigate him and his administration, he should do the same for the past governments.

A probe centred only on the Jonathan administration will amount to a “witch hunt”, the president said Wednesday at a valedictory cabinet meeting attended by ministers ahead of his handing over to Mr. Buhari on Friday.

NDLEA ACCEPTS COURT ORDER TO QUIT BURUJI KASHAMU'S HOME.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has said that it will obey the decision of the court of “competent jurisdiction” on the ongoing case involving Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu.

In a statement by Mitchell Ofoyeju, its Spokesperson, Wednesday, the NDLEA said that as a government agency and a law enforcement institution, it has respect for the rule of law.

A Federal High Court in Lagos had on Tuesday ordered NDLEA operatives, who had laid a siege around Mr. Kashamu’s home since Saturday, to vacate the Senator-elect’s house.

SUPREME COURT DISMISSES OMISORE'S SUIT AGAINST AREGBESOLA'S RE-ELECTION.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Iyiola Omisore, challenging the Court of Appeal’s judgment, which affirmed Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s election victory in Osun.

Mr. Omisore, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election held on August 9, 2014, had challenged Mr. Aregbesola’s victory at the Election Petition Tribunal, and lost.

He appealed against the tribunal’s judgement at the Appeal Court but lost again as the court upheld the tribunal verdict.

Not satisfied, Mr. Omisore approached the Supreme Court to set aside the Appeal Court’s judgement, claiming that there was miscarriage of justice in the process.

SIX FIFA OFFICIALS ARRESTED OVER $100M CORRUPTION SCANDAL. #FIFA

Six Fifa officials, including vice-president Jeffrey Webb, have been arrested on suspicion of corruption in dawn raids at a Zurich hotel ahead of Friday's presidential election.

The members of the world governing body were held by Swiss police at the US Department of Justice's request. They are suspected of having received bribes totalling millions of US dollars, the Swiss authorities said. 

The FBI and US Department of Justice will hold a news conference later.

I DARE YOU TO PROBE ME. AMAECHI TELLS WIKE.

Out-going Rivers State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has challenged the state governor-elect, Mr Nyesom Wike, that he (Amaechi) was not afraid of his administration being probed.

Speaking at his 50th birthday public lecture in Port Harcourt, Amaechi said “Listening to the governor-elect, Wike, I am trying not to respond to him because he has been accusing me of corruption, forgetting that he was the Chief of Staff to this government and knows well how this government is being run. So, how can he turn back and accuse me of corruption? Then he must be part of the corruption himself.”

Meanwhile, Amaechi at Government House during the inauguration of the 22 local government chairmen, elected at Saturday’s council elections, said that Wike cannot dissolve the 22 councils elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as such power only lies with the court.

REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week, the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, told the nation in an interview with a national newspaper that he gets confused when Nigerians talk about subsidy.

He said: “One of the problems I have, other than the military, is the petroleum industry where I served for three and a half years under General Olusegun Obasanjo. When people start talking about subsidy I honestly get confused. I will tell you this, and I hope it will answer what you want to know. 

Back then we had a refinery in Port Harcourt, which was refining 30,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude.

“Later, it was upgraded to refine 100,000 barrels a day. Another refinery was built in Port Harcourt to refine 150,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude. So, Port Harcourt alone had the capacity to refine 250,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude.

BOKO HARAM MURDERS 43 PEOPLE IN A FIVE HOUR ASSAULT IN GUBIO, BORNO STATE

Boko Haram militants have killed at least 43 people in a five-hour assault on the town of Gubio in Borno State, witnesses told Reuters on Tuesday.

Thousands of people have been killed and several millions displaced in a six-year Boko Haram insurgency that once saw the group control an area the size of Belgium. But the Islamist insurgents have since lost most of their gains to military counter-offensives.

The latest attack, which a military source said involved a convoy of around 50 Boko Haram members storming Gubio, lasted for around five hours on Saturday afternoon and ended about 9.30 p.m., local resident Mallam Yusuf Mohammed said.

HOW JONATHAN LOST POWER IN THE END.

First impressions, they say, are everything. Not the same for anyone who is president of a country like Nigeria. With Nigerians, last impressions are just as important as first impressions. Goodluck Jonathan’s last week as President has seen Nigeria shut down due to power cuts and fuel scarcity. Lives have been lost, airlines cancelled flights, media houses and banks closing early, telecom companies declaring their services would be hampered by the scarcity of diesel. One could argue, despite the turmoil that characterised his tenure, that this has been Jonathan’s worst week as President. In the midst of what has looked increasingly like a national security issue, the government has offered nothing in terms of explanations or an attempt to offer the way forward.

FEMALE CORPS MEMBER FOUND DEAD ON THE STREET IN ILORIN. #NYSC

The death of a female corps member has been reported in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state.

According to Vanguard, tragedy struck in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, on Sunday night as a member of National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, serving in the state, Miss Yetunde Shukurat Idowu, was found on the street, dead.

It was reliably gathered that her last visit before she was found dead was to the popular shopping mall, Shoprite, located along Fate Road.

WE WILL NOT LEAVE THE PREMISES OF BURUJI KASHAMU - NDLEA.

NDLEA insist that its officials will not leave the premises of Buruji Kashamu who is wanted in the USA for drug offences.

It said this in reaction to an order from a Federal High Court in Lagos today directing officials of the agency to vacate the premises of Kashamu. 

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, NDLEA said it has not received the reported court injunction and that the siege is within the law. 

Read the statement after the cut...

ASISAT OSHOALA NAMED BBC WOMEN'S FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR.

Nigeria and Liverpool forward Asisat Oshoala has been named as the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year.

The 20-year-old forward is the first player to win the new award from the BBC World Service, voted for by football fans around the world.

She beat Spain's Veronica Boquete, German Nadine Kessler, Scot Kim Little and Brazilian Marta to the honour.

"I would like to say thank you to the BBC, to my fans around the world and to everyone who voted," she said. The award is the first of its kind hosted by a global broadcaster.