NIGERIA'S DEBT RISES TO AN ASTONISHING 12TN.

The debt owed by both the Federal Government and the 36 states of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory has now hit N12.06tn, investigation has shown.

Statistics obtained from the Debt Management Office showed that the country’s public debt rose from N10.16tn as of March 31, 2014 to N12.06tn as of March 31, 2015.

This shows that the country’s indebtedness rose by N1.9tn within a 12-month period, with the public debt rising by 18.7 per cent.

WE ARE LEAVING STRONG ECONOMIC POLICIES. - OKONJO IWEALA.

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said yesterday that despite the economic challenges the country is facing, the Jonathan administration is leaving some solid economic legacies for the incoming Buhari government.

Insisting that “the allegations that the economy is in ruins are absolutely untrue,” the minister warned those she claimed were running the economy down for political gains, saying there could be unintended consequences of loss of investor confidence in the Nigerian economy.

According to her, “we cannot take away the fact that the Jonathan administration, in spite of the challenges caused by 50 per cent decline in the price of oil, has made a clear and measurable difference in many important areas and anyone who says nothing has been done and nothing is being left behind is being very unfair to facts and to history.

MY FRIENDS HAVE ALL DESERTED ME - PRESIDENT JONATHAN.

The reality of life has dawned on out-going President Goodluck Jonathan as he lamented, yesterday, that his so-called friends have deserted him having lost the last presidential election to the opposition All progressives CongressAPC, candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking at a thanksgiving and farewell service in his honour at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Life Camp, Gwarinpa, Abuja, President Jonathan said, however that he expected more of his friends to leave him. The president declared that he was ready to pay the price for his refusal to interfere with the electoral process which he ensured was carried out to its logical conclusion.

He also said his decision to concede defeat at the election did not go down well with some of his ministers and aides and jokingly expressed the hope that his wife, Patience will not follow the example of the wife of former South African Apartheid leader, F W De Klerk, who divorced her husband for his decision to end the minority rule in the Republic of South Africa (RSA).

BLAC CHYNA'S MUM COMES FOR THE KARDASHIANS.

Seems like everyone is dissing the Kardashians these days. The mother of Blac Chyna (Tyga's Baby Mama) ensured she wasn't left out of the drama.

The the post after the cut.

EMMINENT NIGERIANS WEPT AT JONATHAN'S THANKSGIVING SERVICE - DOYIN OKUPE.

 

Thanksgiving service was held in honour of President Jonathan and his wife. It was a lovely event though quite an emotional one too. I saw eminent men and women dabbed their eyes. I struggled with mine.

This is part of the disengaging ceremonies. In a few days President Jonathan will bow out of office gracefully and graciously.

President Jonathan has done well and served his country well. He exits office as a great President. Perhaps Nigeria's greatest President for all time. Greater than the best before him. He excelled in achievement, in humility, tranquility and simplicity.

INSIDE THE PDP (@PDPNIGERIA) TOWER OF BABEL.

It was a meeting hurriedly convened but virtually all the critical stakeholders expected were in attendance at the new banquet hall of the presidential villa at about 6pm on Tuesday, 30th March 2015. That was four days after the presidential election. The results of the election were still being collated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but with strong indications that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), was set to win.

Aside President Goodluck Jonathan who chaired the meeting, other people in attendance were: Vice President Namadi Sambo; Senate President David Mark; his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees chairman, Chief Tony Anenih; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim; Governor of Cross River State, Mr Liyel Imoke; and former Anambra State Governor, Mr Peter Obi. At the meeting also were all the members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) led by its chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu.

BUHARI - TO PROBE OR NOT TO PROBE.

I admire Gen. Muhammadu Buhari but, I'm sorry, I don't envy him. Expectations are just too high. Nigerians have suffered too much all their lives: they are therefore entitled to lofty expectations from a new president. Refineries must work now. Hospitals must be top-quality now. The schools must be excellent now. Roads must be tarred now. Electricity must be uninterrupted now. As I have argued over the years, no one president is going to change or transform Nigeria in four or eight years. It took time to destroy Nigeria and it will take time to rebuild it. The most important thing is to be sure we are making steady progress and travelling in the right direction.

BURUNDI PRESIDENT DEFIES PROTEST & DEATHS, REGISTERS TO RUN FOR 3RD TERM.

Burundi's President "Pierre Nkurunziza" has registered to run for a third term, defying protesters who've taken to the streets over his bid to stay in office.

Deadly protests have hit the nation since last month as President Pierre Nkurunziza seeks to extend his 10-year rule.

The President has a two-term limit as part of an agreement that helped end Burundi's ethnic civil war. Critics say his planned run violates the constitution.

NYESOM WIKE IS A GONER - EVIDENCE SHOWS ONLY 292,878 WERE ACCREDITED VIA CARD READER WHILE HE POLLED 1,228,614 VOTES.

Except the five governorship candidates challenging the credibility of the April 11 governorship election in Rivers withdraw their cases from the election petition tribunal or fail to present material evidence like the one exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, who was returned winner of the election is as good as gone.

Mr. Wike may need a miracle to come out of the election petition tribunal victorious.

The evidence against the legitimacy of the election that returned him winner is too damning and overwhelming.

MY TORTUOUS ELECTION JOURNEY - MUHAMMADU BUHARI

Today, the man who was “rejected” by both the ruling class and the courts has been elected president by the common man. Read the account of many election journeys of Nigeria’s president-elect, General Mohammadu   Buhari, as he told the story in his own words.

It is a story of perseverance and conviction.

The story evoked empathy as he told it. Though it wasn’t the first time he was telling the story, the content always draws emotions from the listener each time it is told. On January 20, 2015, at a public forum in Abuja where he later signed a peace deal with President Goodluck Jonathan, he stood, almost with tears in his eyes, telling the story. That was, perhaps, the first time he was publicly sharing the ugly experience which though personal,  satirizes the Nigerian society in such a pitiable way.

BUHARI REJECTS MINISTERIAL LIST SUBMITTED BY APC GOVERNORS.

President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari appeared to have dashed the hopes of the governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) when he rejected their plans to submit a ministerial list to him.

The APC governors, led by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, had, last Tuesday, visited Buhari in Abuja to pledge loyalty and make some demands.

At the meeting, some requests were placed on the table openly, while the request to drop the list of possible ministers came up for discussion behind the closed door.

LIBERIA DECLARED EBOLA FREE AFTER LOSING MORE THAN 4,000 PEOPLE TO THE DREADED DISEASE.

After losing more than 4,000 people to Ebola, Liberia has now been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be free of the disease.

I wish I were there to hug the wonderful people I met when I visited at the height of the epidemic in September, when any contact, even shaking hands, was forbidden.

It was a horrible time. Ebola patients stood in line to get into hospitals that didn't have a bed to spare. Thousands of children in West Africa were orphaned. Burial teams roamed the streets carrying victims to crematoriums.

14 YR OLD GIRL RAPED & REVIVED 6 TIMES BY WICKED NEIGHBOUR WHO HAD BEEN RAPING HER FOR 4 YRS. #SAYNOTORAPE.

JANE & EMMANUEL

 Fourteen-year-old Jane (not real name) stared at her feet as she recounted her four-year ordeal in the hands of a neighbour, Felix Emmanuel, an Edo State indigene, who took advantage of her innocence.

At 14, she explained that if she knew that the threats that had kept her quiet from disclosing what she was going through were mere lies, she would have told her mother about what was happening to her before it went on for too long.

Fair-complexioned with sadness clearly showing in her eyes, there was no doubt that Jane had suffered, in silence, as her single mother was none the wiser about the regular sexual abuse her daughter was being subjected to.

RESIGN HONORABLY - GOV AYO FAYOSE ADVICES PDP CHAIRMAN ADAMU MUAZU (@MUAZUAA).

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has described the resignation of British Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, and that of Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, as a vindication of his call for the resignation of the Peoples Democratic Party National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.

The duo resigned after their parties’ woeful performance in Thursday’s British general elections.

Fayose, who said in a press statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, that he had no personal scores to settle with the PDP National Chairman, added that it was morally wrong for Mu’azu to remain in office after leading the party into its first national electoral loss.

BUHARI'S MINISTERS, SENATORS & HOUSE OF REPS MEMBERS TO GET N9BN FURNITURE & HOUSING ALLOWANCE.

Senators and members of the House of Representatives that will constitute the 8th National Assembly and ministers to be appointed by President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), will on assumption of office receive welcome perks amounting to N9bn.

The perks of office include the housing allowance which each of the incoming office holder is entitled to receive once a year, the furniture allowance which they are entitled to once in four years and motor vehicle loan which they are entitled to once in their tenure.

The perks are some of the non-regular allowances that the political office holders are entitled to as prescribed by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

APC'S MARSHALL PLAN - A MUST READ ARTICLE.

As Outlined by Dr Kayode Fayemi, Director of Policies for APC.

Marshall Plan:

1. The cardinal agenda of the APC government and over-arching themes will be SECURITY, CORRUPTION and UN-EMPLOYMENT; APC believes that corruption has a very strong negative link to both security and unemployment.

2. There will be no 'real action' until around October 2015, partly because the 2015 budget is GEJ’s; the new APC government will seek to align the electoral and fiscal calendars to avoid this type of problem in future.

3. A corrupt-free cabinet will be announced very quickly, WITHIN ONE WEEK of inauguration on 29/5/15; anyone with A WHIFF OF CORRUPTION or other tainting or pending corrupt charges will NOT be appointed into APC's cabinet; GMB’s body language will reflect ZERO TOLERANCE for corruption from Day-one. STEALING WILL BE DEEMED AS CORRUPTION.

MATHS TEACHER JAILED FOR 5 YRS FOR HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH A 15 YR OLD STUDENT.

In the UK, a married Maths teacher at Max Clifford's former school has been jailed for five years for groping a 15-year-old pupil in his car.

'Rising star' Paul Shorter, 32, blamed his actions on the pressures of an upcoming Ofsted inspection, during sentencing at Guildford Crown Court.

He had been working night and day to turn around his troubled department when he began grooming the schoolgirl because he 'could not cope' with the stress of his job, a judge was told.

I WENT TOO FAR WITH THE KANYE RANT - AMBER ROSE ADMITS.

Amber Rose has previously said more than a few cruel comments about the Kardashian brood. But this time the 31-year-old mother-of-one might be ready to admit she went too far when she bashed ex Kanye West during a recent nightclub appearance at Supper Club in Los Angeles. The bombshell criticized the 37-year-old rapper for not writing his own lyrics and music.

On Friday, after much thinking, the estranged wife of Wiz Khalifa expressed her regret and tried to take back her words by posting a photo on her Instagram account that read: 'My face when someone tells me what I did while I was drunk.' 

In a YouTube video dated May 2, Amber can be seen and heard taking over the nightclub's microphone to address the DJ and the packed crowd.

'Stop playing n****s I used to f***,' she shouted referring to the Kanye songs played earlier.

'Why don't we play the n**** who writes the songs for the other n****?' she continued before yelling the name of famed collaborator Travi$ Scott.

HORRIFIC DETAILS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE BY ISIS - RAPE VICTIMS ARE TRADED. #SAYNOTOTRAPE.

 

An Islamic State terrorist group forced a sex slave to marry 20 fighters and even made her undergo surgery each time to restore her virginity, a United Nations official said.

The group paraded and traded Syrian and Iraqi girls in 'slave bazaars' before the victims were shipped to other provinces, it was claimed.

Zainab Bangura, special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, travelled to five countries and interviewed dozens of women and young girls who had survived brutal sexual abuse.

ONE CONFIRMED DEAD & SEVEN INJURED IN YOBE SCHOOL SUICIDE ATTACK.

A suicide bomber suspected to be a member of dreaded Boko Haram sect armed with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and AK47 rifle on Friday launched an attack on the College of Administrative and Business Studies (CABS) Potiskum in Yobe state.

Potiskum is North west and about 100km drive from Damaturu, the Yobe state capital.

The Information Department of the institution said that the bomber stormed the school around 8:00am and started shooting sporadically at the gate before entering the school shooting at students and teachers alike aimlessly.