Governor Sylva Says It Belonged To Late NSA Azazi – Sahara Reporters
July 5, 2013 – 16:21

Lt. Col. David Ahangba, a former special assistant to late National Security Adviser General Owoye Azazi, has been courtmartialed for illegally receiving the sum of N150million from the Bayelsa State government.  He is telling the court it belonged to his former boss, who was killed in an air crash last year.

Ahangba faces four counts of receiving the money after he suggested a project to officials of Bayelsa State Government, the money for which would be used to induce General Azazi to assist Timipriye Sylva’s second term bid as governor.  

The court martial is being presided over by Brig. Gen. EO Nze (N/7920).  Members are: Col PS Obaje (N/9383); Col. AOI Kalejaiye (N/9422); Col. GA Nosike (N/9629); and Col. MB Akilu (N/9647).  The Judge Advocate is Capt. CW Okonkwo (N/12289) while the Waiting Member is Col. CA Thomas (N/9616).

Ahangba joined General Azazi’s staff when the latter became Army Chief of Staff in 2006, at the General’s request, and was assigned to engineering services, principally construction and maintenance of Azazi’s properties in Bayelsa, Abuja, Lagos, supervision of other projects, and liaison with dignitaries.  He also liaised with the Joint Task Force headquarters to secure helicopters to fly the late General and to arrange hotel accommodation.

According to Ahangba, it was in that connection that during preparations for the wedding of General Azazi’s son in September 2011, he was instructed by his boss to act as a liaison to Governor Sylva.  In a subsequent meeting in Bayelsa, the governor spoke of his political travails and discussed his desire to meet with the General to discuss a way out.  

Following that meeting, General Azazi told Ahangba to stand by as someone would bring the sum of N150m, about which he would receive further directives.  When the funds were brought by an unknown person the following day, there were deposited in a First Bank Account of Roberta Nig. Ltd, which had been opened at the instructions of General Azazi.

Our source said, “Prior to the opening of the account, monies given to Lt. Col. Ahangba by the late General for projects or deposits were deposited in the Colonel’s salary account but due to the fact that the amounts were huge sum of money and for security purposes (to protect the Colonel from questions by operatives which could link the late General), the General directed that the company account be opened. He further directed that the Colonel open a domiciliary account. These accounts were basically operated for the purpose stated above. It is to be noted that the company account was opened without the coordination/direction of the Colonel as staff of First Bank merely collected his details and specimen of his signature and the opening was in his absence. During cross-examination, it was revealed that the Colonel had no option to the opening of the account as he acted on the instruction of the General.”

The source further disclosed that while in Lagos, the sum of N68million was received on the Lt. Colonel’s behalf.  Following General Azazi’s instructions, three further Union Bank account numbers were forwarded for the money to be lodged in.  The late General further informed him that the total sum of N83million was forwarded to him as against the N150 million because N67million was forwarded to one of his engineers for investment in his estates in Abuja. The total sum of money received by the Colonel was released from the accounts as directed by the late General.

Just three months after the money was first received, that is, in December 2011), Ahangba was discreetly informed by the General that “very serious” trouble relating to the late General’s career and personality was brewing and needed to be tactically checked, and that Ahangba was the only person who could bail him out.

The general then revealed to the Colonel that the deal with the Bayelsa governor had leaked to the presidency and the General was accused of working with the opposition and had collected money from them.  It would be recalled that Governor Sylva was locked in a battle for the governorship with President Jonathan who reportedly wanted him out.

“The late General informed the Colonel of the blue print on how to resolve the trouble, which involved the Colonel making a written statement in the house of the late General and under his directions. The statement was collected by the General and taken to Abuja to be submitted as an official report of the conduct of Lt. Col. Ahangba. He was assured that the was required to give the statement a face lift and to further buttress this point, he called officials of Bayelsa State and directed them to prepare contract papers to cover the deal,” our source revealed.

These manoeuvres were still on, with Ahangba summoned to Abuja for a provost martial interview.
In the meantime, Sylva lost his bid for a second term as governor.  General Azazi then lost his position as the National Security Adviser, and was killed in a helicopter crash last year.  

According to our source, during cross-examination at the commencement of trial, Colonel Ahangba had reneged from the blue print by declaring that the statements he made were not voluntary and of his own accord.  General Azazi however assured him again and instructed him to withdraw from the position taken to which the trial-within-trial was discontinued.

It is to be noted that he was initially requested by the Nigerian Army to return the sum of N83million to the Government of Bayelsa State through the Nigerian Army, while no allegation was made against him.

CHARGE AGAINST LT. COL. AHANGBA
COUNT 1:

Statement of Offence:
Conduct to the prejudice of service discipline contrary to and punishable under Section 103(1) AFA (Armed Forces Act) CAP A20.
Particulars of Offence

In that you, on or about October 2011, pursuant to 2011 gubernatorial elections of Bayelsa State, at Bayelsa Government House Yenagoa, suggested a project and received a sum of One Hundred and Fifty million Naira (N 150,000,000.00) from the officials of Bayelsa State Government to the effect that it would be used as an inducement and influence on the then National Security Adviser(NSA) General Patrick Owoye Azazi to assist Governor Timipriye Sylva by causing the voters in the NSA’s community to vote in support of the said governor’s second term bid as Governor of Bayelsa State.

COUNT 2:
Statement of Offence

Obtaining money by false pretence contrary to Section 419 CC (Criminal Code) CAP C38 LFN 2004 and punishable under Section 114 AFA LFN.

Particulars of Offence
In that you, on or about October 2011, at Yenagoa Bayelsa State, fraudulently obtained the sum of about One Hundred and fifty Million Naira (N150,000,000.00) from Bayelsa State Government under the false pretence that it would be used in executing community development projects at Foutorugbene, Ogbotubo, Toro-Ndoroand Amabulou communities of Bayelsa State prior to the 2011 Bayelsa State gubernatorial elections.

COUNT 3:
Statement of Offence

Disobedience to standing orders, that is Cap 24:02 of HTACOS (Officers) 2012 (revised), contrary to and punishable under Section 57(1) of the AFA (Cap A20) LFN 2004.

Particulars of Offence
In that you, on or about October 2011, at Bayelsa State, engaged in a private business by proposing a contract to Governor Timipriye Silver of Bayelsa State and receiving a sum of One hundred and Fifty  Million (N 150,000,000.00) from the officials of Bayelsa State Government as a consideration for this said contract, contrary to Chapter 24:02 of HTACOS (Officers) 2007 (revised by HTACOS 2012) which prohibits commissioned offices engaging in private business or trade.

COUNT 4:
Statement of Offence

Conduct to the prejudice of service discipline contrary to and punishable under section 103(1) AFA CAP A20.
Particulars of Offence

In that you, on or about October 2011, received a sum of about One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N 150,000,000.00) from the officials of Bayelsa State Government in the name and on behalf of the then Security Adviser (NSA), General Patrick Owoye Azazi for the benefit of his community without informing the NSA

Some people have argued against mixing religion with politics; it is usually quite an immiscible and sometimes volatile undertaking, they caution. The political leadership of many a country therefore seem to have agreed to keep matters political away from matters spiritual because while the animating passions for politics are mainly secular, human belief-systems for the divinity and all attendant spiritual enthusiasms are faith-based.

That does not mean however that some people still do not try to preach theocracy as the best form of government. Sometimes, when spiritual fervor is tapped in a political crusade, the ensuing immediate reaction will be akin to mass frenzy because the greatest moving sentiments among people that transcend those of race, ethnicity, culture and language are those of religion. Be that as it may however, this initial frenzy soon gives way to practical reality as the overriding need for the observance of religious orthodoxy is found to be incompatible with the pluralistic essence that is the hallmark of democratic governance. This has played out in many countries in the past.

Recently, more than the other dominant religions of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, Islamic fundamentalists have sought to shape the modern world along what they perceive should be in accordance with their religious doctrines. Practical experience over the years has shown that there is nothing more destructive than fanaticism, which is the driving force behind the resurgence of Muslim fundamentalism or radical Islam. It is this fanaticism that has helped to foster a defeatist or besieged mentality within some Muslim communities consequent upon the emergence of modern Western Civilization that supplanted 1000 years of previous Islamic dominance of the world. The vanquishing by western forces of the Ottoman and the Mughal Empires, previous Muslim areas of world dominance, represented a political and spiritual setback unacceptable to some of the Muslim ummah who felt compelled to explain the development in the context of Western oppression along with the spiritual imperative to invoke Jihadism where warriors would seek ‘heavenly bliss’ in its flipside of martyrdom.

This defeatist and besieged mentality, helped to reinforce in the minds of impressionable people, a negative psychology that was exploited by the emergence in the first half of the twentieth century, of certain Muslim leaders who expounded their own political interpretation of Islam as a complete system of State and affirmed that Muslims had been appointed by Allah to fulfill the mission of establishing this Islamic State throughout the world. After listening to the fiery sermons of such Islamists as Sayyid Qutb, Dr. Aynan al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden, Ayatullah Khomeini, Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and others, a political view of Islam, grounded in self-righteous resort to Jihadism and propelled by a hypnotically hate-inspired ideology, came to be the basis of radical Islam as we know it. People became wary of their ideology, suspicious of their goals and intolerant of their doctrinaire rigidity.

This was why the Algerian authorities, fearing the election of an Islamist government after the Front Islamique du Salut dominated the first of two legislative elections in 1991, cancelled the national elections. The inability of the Hamas government of the Gaza portion of the Palestinian territory to win western recognition and attendant international respect are mainly because of its umbilical ties to the Islamist fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and its non-abhorrence of the use of force to further its goals. 

It is against this background of a groundswell of suspicion of any theocratic government that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt emerged winner in the country’s first democratically conducted election after president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in the aftermath of the country’s uprisings in January 2011. Founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna a charismatic school teacher and preacher, the Muslim Brotherhood started as a popular grassroots political, social and religious movement that attracted a huge following because of its logo of “Islam is the solution” and its populist bent of social services provision. After it was banned in 1948 for having undergone intense and extreme radicalization by taking up arms in an attempt to realize the goal of creating an Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence in 1970 and vowed thereafter, to participate in the Egyptian political process.

It did not occasion any surprise therefore when Freedom & Justice Party, the political platform of the Brotherhood initially fielded candidates in the parliamentary elections and later, in complete opposition to its earlier stand, ran for the plum presidential seat. Because of its superior organizational structure and its credential as a stalwart opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood took the largest number of seats in the new parliament (43.4%) and eventually, in a presidential run-off, won the presidency by 51.7%!

Despite the fact that the other secular candidates who ran against Muhammed Mursy of the Muslim Brotherhood polled more than 55% of the total votes, the new President behaved arrogantly by pushing through a controversial constitution with little consensus; by enacting a highly divisive edict putting the president’s action above judicial review; by appointing 17 provincial governors that are all affiliated or allied with the Brotherhood and, by a most insensitive appointment from Gamaa Islamiyya, the organization responsible for the devastating 1997 massacre of 58 tourists in Luxor.

Of course, the secular opposition never accepted the legitimacy of the Mursy government because they were and still are, against political Islam. Mursy did not help matters by refusing to form a government of national unity that would have been embracive of most political tendencies. Apart from the political handling of the people which was authoritarian, Mursy’s understanding of the nation’s economy was suspect as he shied away from taking badly needed decisions that could ameliorate the people’s condition even in the short while.

These were the events that set the stage for the unprecedented number of people that came out to protest against the continuation of the Mursy regime and which eventually led to his ouster on Wednesday the 3^rd of July 2013, by the nation’s military. Understandably, the Brotherhood which helped to put Mursy in power has denounced the military’s move as a coup against democracy and demands that he be reinstated. Since Mursy’s removal, several of the Brotherhood’s top figures have been detained and the group’s TV station and newspaper have also been shut.

Nevertheless, it is a reassuring move that the National Salvation Front, an umbrella association of opposition parties, has advocated for all tendencies, including the Brotherhood, to come for the on-going reconciliation talks being supervised by a senior judge of the country’s Supreme Court who is also dubbing as the county’s interim president.

The crux of the matter now is whether the replacement of the Islamist-drafted constitution of the Mursy era with the new military-supervised constitution will not offend the religious sensibilities of the Muslim Brotherhood. Will extremist Islamists not conclude that violence is the only way they can achieve their goal of an Islamic State? Will Egyptians vote ultimately for secular prosperity or political Islam? Time will tell.

MONDAY, JULY 8, 2013.  7:32 p.m. [GMT]

http://www.naijaintel.com/index.php/2012/08/03/how-to-preserve-africas-languages-by-kofoworola-belo-osagie/#comment-1529

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TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013.  7:26:52 p.m. [GMT]

Culled from Sahara Reporters

Posted: July 10, 2013 – 14:33

Nobel Prize winner, Professor Wole Soyinka, has invited the press and democracy, civic and human rights organizations to a civic exchange on “A PRESIDENTIAL EMERGENCY: A PEOPLE UNDER SIEGE!”.

The event is scheduled for FREEDOM PARK, Broad Street, Lagos, tomorrow, July 11, at 12.30 pm.

“Wole Soyinka cordially invites you to a Civic Exchange on the above subject,” the terse notice said.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013.  8:01 p.m. [GMT]

Finally, something that may, rather should, jolt the Nigerian government about the recklessness that rules its oil and gas sector, but then, nothing ever has and this may pose no jolt.  Thanks to To, the reader who sent this – TOLA.

The Motley Fool – fool.com

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/26/nigeria-an-unintended-casualty-of-the-us-shale-rev.aspx

FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2013, 10:17:54 p.m. [GMT]

A non-expert like this blogger would believe he might already have departed from Moscow or will do it without the hoopla of a commercial or private jet! – TOLA.

Analysis: Experts advise Snowden: fly commercial – Timothy Heritage

MOSCOW (Reuters)

When an Aeroflot plane from Moscow took an unusually southerly course to Havana on Thursday, it quickly triggered speculation that American fugitive Edward Snowden could be on board.

But the plane was probably just avoiding turbulence, like other aircraft that crossed the Atlantic yesterday. There was no sign of Snowden on arrival – he remained at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, where he was to meet human rights groups on Friday.

Still, aviation experts said such speculation is not without merit. Due to protections offered by international aviation rules, a commercial flight may be Snowden’s best bet for a ticket to asylum, trumping private jets or government planes.

Commercial carriers have the freedom to use airspace of other countries, known as the First Freedom of the air, the centerpiece of a complex but well-established system that keeps global air transportation running smoothly.

“One of the principles of the Chicago Convention system is that commercial carriers have the right of overflight, or the right to do things like stop for fuel, without seeking permission from the country over which they are flying,” said aviation lawyer Simon Phippard of UK-based law firm Bird & Bird.

Government aircraft, on the other hand, technically need permission before they can legally enter a foreign country’s airspace. Any doubts that U.S. allies would bar Snowden’s way ended last week when several European countries barred Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane from entering their airspace when he was travelling home from Moscow.

Snowden, a former spy agency contractor, is wanted by Washington for leaking top-secret U.S. surveillance programs. Morales said he was refused entry because of suspicions that Snowden was on board, though aviation lawyers said a country does not need any reason other than exerting its sovereignty to deny another government’s plane.

“Every state on the basis of state sovereignty has the right to deny overflight to state aircraft,” said John Mulligan, a research fellow at the International Aviation Law Institute at DePaul University in Chicago.

The legal grounds for preventing a private charter plane, such as a business jet, from entering a country’s airspace are more complex and open to a patchwork of different rules and interpretations, but legal experts agree it would be harder to stop a commercial flight than a state or private plane.

SNOWDEN’S CONUNDRUM

Russia has grown impatient about Snowden’s stay in transit at Sheremetyevo airport, and likely wants him gone before Moscow hosts a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations next week.

But any flight that takes Snowden through U.S. skies, or those of an ally, is fraught with risk, no matter what the international aviation rules say.

Although President Barack Obama said in June said he is “not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” U.S. officials say Washington has warned countries that there would be “consequences” if they let Snowden land or pass through without turning him over to U.S. authorities.

There are no direct commercial flights from Moscow to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the three Latin American countries that have offered Snowden asylum. The most obvious route is through Havana but Cuba has not said whether it would allow him to pass through.

Snowden had planned to take a flight to Havana with Aeroflot on June 24, less than 24 hours after his arrival in Moscow, sparking a frenzy of international media demand for tickets on the flight. But airport sources said he pulled out at the last minute, probably because the lane usually flies over the United States.

Assisted by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, Snowden could be looking for flights that hop from one country that is ideologically opposed to the United States to another.

Most long-haul commercial flights heading west from Moscow go over at least one European country. A potential option is a commercial flight to Tehran. He could then try to reach an African country such as Sudan or Angola, which might be ready to risk U.S. wrath. But there are no direct flights from Iran to either country.

Snowden could look at flights east to Shanghai, Beijing, Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, but they involve flying over countries that might object, and China has shown no interest in harboring him.

A private charter with a specially tailored route could take him north over the Arctic and then south over the Atlantic, avoiding U.S. and its allies’ airspace. A former CIA analyst quoted by Foreign Policy magazine referred to this as the “scenic route” and estimated the journey at 11,000 km.

But where would the plane refuel, who would foot the potentially huge bill and where would Snowden get such a plane? There are no obvious answers.

The longest-range business jet in the world, according to its manufacturers, is the Gulfstream G550, made by a unit of General Dynamics. Its brochure boasts a range of 6,750 nautical miles but that could be shortened by the need to leave spare fuel for emergencies, especially when travelling over long stretches of ocean.

Private charters from Moscow to Caracas are advertised for about 100,000 euros without counting the extra mileage needed to thread his way between unfriendly airspace.

BOAT OR TRAIN?

Snowden might yet opt for a less obvious means of transport, perhaps heading northwest from Moscow by boat or taking the Trans-Siberian Express train across Russia towards Asia. There is virtually no trade between Russia and Venezuela, so hopping on a merchant ship is hardly likely to be an option, though.

Such trips would be slow, leaving him vulnerable, and involve leaving the precincts of the transit zone and formally stepping on Russian soil, something Moscow has made clear it wants to avoid.

Some Russian sources have suggested a foreign embassy car would not be considered Russian territory, opening up the possibility of a road trip across Russia. Where he might go is unclear but Belarus is in striking distance and has antagonistic relations with the United States.

Both Snowden and Russian authorities will want to avoid repeating the fate of Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who spent about 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. His experience inspired the Tom Hanks film “The Terminal,” which was shown on Russian satellite television this week.

(Additional reporting by Jane Wardell in Sydney, Tim Hepher in Paris, Alwyn Scott in New York, David Ingram in Washington and Marc Frank in Havana; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Ralph Boulton)

FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2013.  3:17:58 p.m. [GMT]

http://news.yahoo.com/video/learn-tricks-trade-worlds-greatest-083913686.html

SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013. 7:20:45 a.m.

WS and daughter, Moremi, 1963 [Photo from Nairaland]

Looks like the 60s Kongi!

And with like minds & fellow garlanded …

With fellow literary greats:  Nadine Gordimer, Derek Walcott & Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureates, all

Photo credits for the 60s picture & above: grioo.com

shally ashimi Says:
July 11, 2013 at 7:58 am e

That sounds like an interesting way to celebrate his birthday.

emotan77 Says:
July 12, 2013 at 9:44 am e

Hello, Shally,

Very correct. That would be an early and proper birthday present!

Regards,
TOLA.

 Shallyashimi Says:
July 11, 2013 at 8:00 am e

That sounds interesting. Would love to be there. The topic reflects the realities of our time.

Reply

emotan77 Says:
July 12, 2013 at 9:47 am e

Dear Shally,

Hope you were able to make it. It’s a topic that needs urgent attention. As I once wrote in one of several essays on Nigeria’s brand of “First Ladyism” – a coinage of the Nobel Laureate, no less, it was “a volcano waiting to erupt”, and now it finally has.

Sincere regards,
TOLA.

 From my tolaadenle@emotanafricana.com mail box:

Aunty,

I would have loved to attend the Freedom Park event to pay homage to the veteran freedom fighter who is an inspiration to millions of youths. But I’m in Abuja and would only arrive Ibadan by flight tomorrow, Thursday, 11 July, about 4.30pm if there is no flight delay. I already booked and paid for my flight. Pls, if possible, let him know that millions of people share his ideals and love him even though they may not have the opportunity to be at the event physically. Thanks.

Femi Aborisade.

Thanks, Femi.

Don’t worry that you are not going to be there. I’m sure the Nobel Laureate knows most Nigerians are with him in spirit if not physically. And we are all anxious to see the problems of the country get more airing.

Sincere regards,
TOLA.

From my tolaadenle@emotanafricana.com mail box:

“… Hun, thank God for people like Wole Soyinka, o; I very much hope and pray the Police or any other government zombie will not even dare to think of preventing the peaceful convocation of genuine patriots; only the mentally lazy or the incredibly corrupt who are fleecing the nation to death will not support Soyinka’s courageous and patriotic zeal.

We wait and see; meanwhile let’s pray all goes well and those who should, nay must listen, will do so and react appropriately.

BISI.

Sis,

Thanks for this.

I believe the police dare not; they – the authorities, as the saying goes – are also under self-inflicted siege brought about by profligacy, crushing poverty which is a direct result of looting and far too many unmet promises!

Warmest regards,
TOLA.

From my tolaadenle@emotanafricana.com mail box:

Thanks for sharing this heartbreaking invitation, dear Sister Tola. How I wish our Soyinkas lived in a world where they could use their energies and bright minds for the betterment of the masses rather than fighting endless battles on an utterly dysfunctional ground!

REMI.

Remi, my dear Sister,

I know; utterly disheartening and makes one feel very wretched! And the worst part may not be that The Man is being forced by circumstances to still keep doing this at 79 but that MOST of those he’s fighting for do not realize they are under siege. An “eminent” church head once wondered aloud why “Soyinka never sees anything good in the government” during Obasanjo era, and he is not one of the “prosperity pastors”. He’s in retirement now living in a mansion!

… Who knows; he may come across these things and such shd give him a measure of satisfaction – he gets that by simply DOING what he does, I’m sure – that there are many out there who are with him all the way.

Fond regards,
TOLA

From my tolaadenle@emotanafricana.com mail box:

Bully to W.S.

If the EXCHANGE lives up to a good rating, the walls of the former Lagos Prison could come down, truly freeing the place not only of the ghosts of former inmates but also of the Lagos lumpen now currently barred by the two hundred Naira entrance fee charged for regular access to its facilities …mainly eateries.

For tomorrow, the right noises,but as I say often in other fora, unlike Arabs, Asiatics or Europeans we are never inflamed or rashed by matters of FREEDOM OR BAD GOVERNANCE, leaving political activism to bush trekkers, cavalier activists, aggressive opportunists,climbers and agitators like W.S.

The EXCHANGE I hazard a guess, will attract any number of the above, maybe a crowd of five hundred … from a Lagos population of twelve million. The high table of course will overfill and could include the one who made “SUCCESSFUL” mistakes and who’s clever by half illogic also claimed he is Nigerian but not Yoruba…..OBASANJO, the “detribalized” one, of course.

Bully for W.S, but the problems of Nigeria won’t be solved at birthday gigs unless and until W.S. can mass a million to surround Aso Rock or take a million signatures to NASS demanding the rescinding of Adamasingba’s Ill-gotten Presidential pardon or impeachment.

That would be a more fitting birthday party as it might trigger a mudslide to wash off the roots and branches, I dare say, of corruption in Nigeria.

Happy 79th, W.S.

Tao

Thanks, Tao.

The man does realize the problems won’t be solved at such places but if unified loud voices cry out saying enough is enough to the embarrassing low level of governance, the looting, something is bound to give.

I understand what you mean because I too often wonder – esp. with the benefit of seeing that others and I write here – what will jolt our people to action. It seems to me, though, that we may be nearing that breaking point.

Regards,
TOLA.

Hope WS had a lively but THINKFUL 79th at the FP.

TAO remains a very quiet player but if and when WS is ready to march lead a million on Abuja to surround and take the surrender of Aso Rock for the people of Nigeria,TAO will be on the road with him,a quiet marcher. If WS is organizing a million signatures for a Social Campaign to Rescind Alamesiaghas Presidential Pardon (SCRAPP), he is assured of TAO,s signature,on the quiet.

Understand that NAP President Tunji Braithwaite’s thanksgiving for his 80th birthday included a well publicized visit and offer of repairs to Ikoyi Prison. I didn’t advise Egbon making his money, but I am tempted to suggest that the country is reeking from the stench out of the estate of our poverty and it’s debilitating effects. Why would Braithwaite put his hard earned money to the support of an estate(Ikoyi Prison) owned by a Republic that earns over three hundred million US dollars a day…

All said it’s ACTION TIME and we are waiting to be invited into real trenches. Happy birthday…ye July folks.

tao

Thanks, Tao. I’m sure he must have.

I’m also sure that if WS or younger activists like Falana and others decide on such any day, it should not be difficult getting more than a million but the Siege Makers would mass all the forces at their evil grip to await all at Lokoja. THAT would be where they will make their VERY LAST stand and where, hopefully, the birth of a nation would be.

Sincere regards,
TOLA.

It’s not too late to say a Happy Birthday to Prof. from these commentators and all

who continue to appreciate his years of dedicated service and sacrifice to Nigeria.

May you live long to see a Nigeria that finally lives up to its capabilities.

SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013.  6:49 p.m. [GMT]

Adekunle Fajuyi’s wife, Eunice, dies at 84
Written by Sam Nwaoko – Ado-Ekiti Saturday, 13 July 2013

Wife of Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the late former military governor of the defunct Western State, Eunice Ayodele, has died at the age of 84.

She was said to have died in her sleep in the early hours of Friday at their family house in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.

Donald Olufemi, who is her only surviving son, said his mother who would have turned 85 on July 27, died peacefully in her sleep at about 6.45 a.m.

Among the early callers at the family house were the Deputy Governor of the state, Professor Modupe Adelabu, and the wife of Governor Kayode Fayemi, Bisi.

Donald Olufemi said: “There was no premonition that she would die. Only yesterday (Thursday), she played with her grandchildren and started mentioning their names one after the other till about 10.00 p.m when she was advised to go and sleep and rest.

“We had planned to celebrate her 85th birthday with a three-day event from July 27 to 29. This would have given us the opportunity of marking the 47th anniversary of her husband’s death which is on July 29. We had planned to hold a rally, dinner night and award ceremony and we have paid for the venue. All these will now be put on hold. She showed no sign of sickness except for the normal complaints by old people,” he said.

Meanwhile Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has expressed regrets on her death. In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Olayinka Oyebode, he said although losing Mama Fajuyi at this time was painful, he was consoled that the deceased lived a fulfilled life.

The Governor described Mama Fajuyi as religious, God-fearing, compassionate, generous, tolerant and selfless.

SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2013. 7:20 p.m. [GMT]

Story by Ogala Emmanuel and Mohammed Lere

Premium Times, July 13, 2013

He’s a Nigerian, alright, but who the hell is this guy, and what in the world is wrong with him?

Personally, I’ve found music to be a de-stresser (!), a fact long stressed – ah, that word again – by experts.  And of all Church, pardon me, traditional Church rituals, the hymns get me and get to me the most.  While I’m one of those who sing beyond bathrooms believing I can sing like my fellow travelers-in-singing whether tone-deaf or not, I did not know that the joy derived from singing with others in a group has that much scientific reason. 

As I read this story, I was reminded of what my late mother told the Priest who used to visit her at home for Holy Communion in her days before translation.  On her complaints of missing church attendance, the Priest responded that she had him to celebrate the Holy Eucharist to which Mama had reportedly responded, “awon orin nko” – what of the Hymns?  Even though she was hale and hearty enough to sing by herself, the effect of missing the group was apparently sorely missed.  Or, another old relation gone to rest who, despite much loss of memory, was able to sing along with others old Hymns, many of which she could remember the words and tunes and the singing of which used to bring light to her eyes and joy to her face.

Now, Science, Neuro-Science is shedding light on “many hearts beating as one” when voices are raised in unison.

Whatever faith you profess – or none – this is a write-up that illuminates.

[NPR is the U.S. National Public Radio.]

TOLA.

The Mormon Choir/George Frey/Getty Images

We open our hymnals to Hymn 379, and we begin to sing. “God is Love, let heav’n adore him / God is Love, let earth rejoice …”

Lifting voices together in praise can be a transcendent experience, unifying a congregation in a way that is somehow both fervent and soothing. But is there actually a physical basis for those feelings?

To find this out, researchers of the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden studied the heart rates of high school choir members as they joined their voices. Their , published this week in Frontiers in Neuroscience, confirm that choir music has calming effects on the heart — especially when sung in unison.

Using pulse monitors attached to the singers’ ears, the researchers measured the changes in the choir members’ heart rates as they navigated the intricate harmonies of a Swedish hymn. When the choir began to sing, their heart rates slowed down.

“When you sing the phrases, it is a form of guided breathing,” says musicologist of the Sahlgrenska Academy who led the project. “You exhale on the phrases and breathe in between the phrases. When you exhale, the heart slows down.”

But what really struck him was that it took almost no time at all for the singers’ heart rates to become synchronized. The readout from the pulse monitors starts as a jumble of jagged lines, but quickly becomes a series of uniform peaks. The heart rates fall into a shared rhythm guided by the song’s tempo.

“The members of the choir are synchronizing externally with the melody and the rhythm, and now we see it has an internal counterpart,” Vickhoff says.

This is just one little study, and these findings might not apply to other singers. But all religions and cultures have some ritual of song, and it’s tempting to ask what this could mean about shared musical experience and communal spirituality.

“It’s a beautiful way to feel. You are not alone but with others who feel the same way,” Vickhoff says.

He plans to continue exploring the physical and neurological responses of our body to music on a long-term project he calls Body Score. As an instructor, he wonders how this knowledge might be used to create more cohesive group dynamic in a classroom setting or in the workplace.

A Swedish researcher explains how heart rates become synchronized when people sing together.  For video -

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/09/200390454/when-choirs-sing-many-hearts-beat-as-one?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20130714&utm_source=mostemailed

MONDAY, JULY 15, 2013.  7:14:54 a.m. [GMT]

It may seem counterintuitive, but there’s a body of evidence to suggest that the millions of Americans with a diet soda habit may not be doing their waistlines — or their blood sugar — any favors.

As the consumption of diet drinks made with artificial sweeteners , researchers are beginning to make some uncomfortable associations with weight gain and other diseases.

For instance, as researcher writes in a new opinion piece published in the journal , “accumulating evidence suggests that frequent consumers of these sugar substitutes (such as aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin) may also be at increased risk of … metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

If you listen to my conversation on Here & Now, you’ll hear that there are two schools of thought here. Not everyone is convinced that diet soda is so bad.

For instance, a I reported on last year by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital found that overweight teens did well when they switched from sugar-laden drinks to zero-calorie options such as diet soda.

But it’s also hard to ignore the gathering body of evidence that points to potentially bad outcomes associated with a diet soda habit.

One example: the findings of the , which pointed to a strong link between diet soda consumption and weight gain over time.

“On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years” said Sharon Fowler, in a release announcing the findings several years back.

Another bit of evidence: A multi-ethnic , which included some 5,000 men and women, found that diet soda consumption was linked to a significantly increased risk of both type-2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

So, what gives? How could consuming less sugar set the stage for more weight gain and an increased risk of disease?

Well, since being overweight is a major contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes, it’s possible that some diet-soda drinkers suffer from a mindset problem: They justify eating lots of high-calorie foods because their drinks are calorie-free.

It’s the “hey, I’ll go ahead and have those fries and a cheeseburger, since I’m having a Diet Coke” mentality.

It’s also possible that something much more complicated and nuanced is happening in the bodies and brains of diet soda drinkers.

As Swithers points out, “Frequent consumption of high-intensity [artificial] sweeteners may have the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements.”

Say what? Metabolic derangements?

One theory is that diet soda may throw off the metabolism by blunting the body’s responses to sugar.

You see, from the moment sugar touches our lips, our bodies start to release hormones to begin processing the sugar. It’s part of a feedback loop that helps the body predict what’s coming.

But if we develop a habit of consuming artificial sugar, our bodies may get confused. And it might not respond the same when we consume real sugar. “We may no longer release the hormones” needed to process sugar — or at least, not as much of them as before, Swithers told me during an interview.

And researchers think this change in hormone levels could contribute to increases in how much we eat, says Swithers, “as well as to bigger spikes in our blood sugar, which may be related to things like diabetes.”

Now, Swithers says much more research is needed to nail down what’s happening when people consume artificial sweeteners.

What is clear is that diet soda consumption continues to rise. Women tend to lead the way, and increasingly, are popping open the calorie-free sodas that mom and dad are drinking.

Update: After we published our post, we received this statement from the American Beverage Association:

“Low-calorie sweeteners are some of the most studied and reviewed ingredients in the food supply today. They are safe and an effective tool in weight loss and weight management, according to decades of scientific research and regulatory agencies around the globe.”

Related Story:  http://emotanafricana.com/2013/07/05/sugar-in-food-a-surprising-amount-in-everything-dave-hunter/

MONDAY, JULY 15, 2013.  7:29:25 a.m. [GMT]

Cover, University of Nevada-Las Vegas Magazine, Spring 2003

Photo Credit:  Geri Kodey

Caveat emptor! 

Two of bloggers kids graduated from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas – that’s how I have access to the Alumni mag – while a third had part of her college years there before continuing in the East – of the U.S, that is.  A niece and a nephew also had a graduate degree and a bachelors from the college.  And one Summer evening, we listened to the Nobel Laureate’s Barrick Lecture delivered on a July 13, his birthday.  These were all in the late 1980s to the 90s.  TOLA.

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2013. 10:30:05 a.m. [GMT]

“PLEASE STOP THIS EMBARRASSMENT …” – Joe Igbokwe, Sahara Reporters

http://saharareporters.com/press-release/please-stop-embarrassment-called-mrs-patience-jonathan-joe-igbokwe#comment-598782

Women have always spoken out against these excesses, Mr. Igbokwe

Women have spoken out; I know two, incl. me who have written a series on “Nigeria’s ‘First Ladyism’ …” since THE NATION. Series included Mrs. Obasanjo, Turai Yar Adua … & even Yemisi Suswan, Benue.  “A volcano waiting to erupt” was on Alhaja Yar Adua in THE NATION 23/9/2008. In Nig,we do not notice problems until they have festered and gotten out of hand. Sabella Obogbode is also a woman & she wrote on same on this blog. On 13/7/2012, “Nigeria’s ‘first ladyism’ (8): the volcano has finally erupted” was by me when Mrs. Jonathan was “promoted” to Permanent Secretary. They are all on my blog.Men too shd write. Nig belongs to us all. Pls let us keep out uncouth language so that we do not throw out the proverbial baby with bathing water. The woman represents us even if she and/or the prez behave as if not. Things are bad enough; let’s not allow them to sink deeper into the gully.

A few Related stories:

http://emotanafricana.com/2012/07/27/nigerias-first-ladyism-8-greed-driven-public-service-of-nigerias-political-wives/

http://emotanafricana.com/2013/06/06/nigerias-first-ladyism-12-senate-decision-on-mrs-jonathans-n4-billion-african-1st-ladies-mission-house-still-may-not-be-final/

http://emotanafricana.com/2012/06/28/nigerias-first-ladyism-7-one-dolapo-adetunji-takes-on-the-fight-to-give-constitutional-backing-to-first-ladyism/

http://emotanafricana.com/2012/07/13/nigerias-first-ladyism-8-the-volcano-has-finally-erupted-tola-adenle/

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2013.  8:58 p.m. [GMT]

76-year-old man to stand trial in shooting death of 13-year-old boy

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News

WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2013.  6:38 p.m. [GMT]

Wednesday, July 17 was another flood day in my adopted hometown, Ibadan, a city noted for its many streams and rivulets.

The first time I got caught in an Ibadan flood was in the mid-1970s when many lives were lost and homes, roads and other infrastructure were washed away.  Those were relatively safe days in Nigeria when you could stay out late and we were out with friends at the Lagos Bye-Pass end of Ososami Road when our host noticed that their bath was filling with muddy water from the not-heavy rain that had just started.  Within minutes, the bath was full and started to spill to the bathroom floor by which time we decided to head home.  Just at the highest point of the Ring Road around the High Court junction, another driver who was facing the direction we were coming from waved to us to turn round.  Although the rain still remained light, we did as the man suggested.  The man saved our lives, and the future of two kids who were both under ten.  By the following day, we would learn that another Ibadan flood – perhaps the worst Ibadan had ever seen – had taken lives, including at the Ring Road Wash just under 100 meters from where we had turned round the previous night.

Yesterday’s rain was no less dramatic at the point where I encountered it although I was also – sort of – on the periphery.

I was coming from Akure and at New Gbagi area, we encountered a back-up which is not unusual for the area, especially as what we met was mere drizzle but the soil showed signs of heavy earlier rainfall.  Then, far away, the usual indications of clogged-up Iwo Road area/Lagos “Express” Road interchange was apparent; we veered left to avoid it, and drove towards Loyola College area, and as we inched along the road, the usual devil that seems to possess Nigerian drivers when such are encountered took over with several lanes suddenly, perfectly formed left and right of those of us on the single lane on our side of the road.  No traffic approached from the other side which, to anybody familiar with Nigerian traffic, is the usual sign of doomsday-type gridlock ahead.  And as also often happens in Nigeria, a motorcade of several government vehicles, anchored by an ambulance and a police vehicle announced its approach with ear-piercing noise through the wound-up vehicle windows.

No, dear non-Nigerian readers, this does not spell r-e-l-i-e-f – as in an American antacid commercial but more chaos as these motorcades must find their ways out with no regard to other road users who had been suffering from the same problem they just arrived at.

An hour or so later when we finally moved through the underpass of the overhead bridge – about 100 meter on the same Lagos “Express” Road and about 500 meters west of where we had first tried to avoid using a long tortuous detour – we came upon IT but I wouldn’t get a good view of the catastrophe until we had completely extricated ourselves from the gridlock and veered towards Lagos – south of my real destination as there was no other way to join two long rows of vehicles!  We parked and I got out of the vehicle to behold what was always a little Wash by the side of Gari - cassava – makers but had become a mini lagoon which had cut off movement on a vital and major Ibadan arterial road.  On either side of the mini lagoon was a huge crowd of onlookers, and inside the mini lagoon was – at least – a big truck whose visible parts were just the top.  Looking on were onlookers with conflicting stories of who and what were inside the mini lagoon: some women trying to remove their gari had drowned; two cars were below the flood; a boy who jumped in to save someone had been washed away, etcetera.

The man who drove me on my day trip to Akure finally left around 6.15 p.m. but did not get home at Ring Road Area – about ten miles from my place – till after 9.00 p.m. because of the traffic.  We had arrived Ibadan outskirts at the National Brewery, about 5 miles from my place at 4.10 p.m.!

Before deciding to turn reporter, I had spoken to two other people – actually, one called me to report her experience – and also checked three “national” newspapers, including a wide-circulating Ibadan-based newspaper.  It struck me as worse-than-strange that such happening that caused such huge losses would go unreported in a city where almost all so-called “national” newspapers, including one that is acknowledged as the market leader in the sector, have offices.

It’s a shame that I could not bring out my phone to take photographs of either the AK-47-wielding SS – “secret service” – man in suit with his gun slung across his body (for my own safety) or the crowd at the mini-lagoon AND  what I saw inside the mini-lagoon because of the many miscreants around (for my phone’s safety!).  After the SS guy saw to the extrication of the Southwestern Nigerian state government vehicle he was riding in, he entered the car and it drove off to catch up with the motorcade.

Wouldn’t it be nice if these motorcades would stop to help use the law-enforcement agents that accompany them to put order into these chaos?  I once wondered aloud in a NATION on Sunday essay how a former Oyo State governor who used to have outriders force motorists off the road on the very short distance between the State House and the State Secretariat would survive when his governorship days would be over!

And it’s more than a big shame that the flood went unrecorded by NEWSpapers unless the photographs are being kept to use at a future date; that won’t be news, guys.

This blog is not a news-site as I’ve often repeated but this is an eyewitness report of the sad event of yesterday and I’m sure there must be some in this city of millions who belong in the trade of NEWS-gathering and reporting who must have heard or witnessed an event that was already on by 6.00 p.m. and should make NEWSpapers.  It could have made tv evening news but since I get my local news from newspapers, I really wouldn’t know about those.

Related Essay

http://emotanafricana.com/2013/04/03/nigerias-so-called-national-newspapers-do-not-measure-up-tola-adenle/

First published in The Nation on Sunday,on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008

THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2013. 1:42:56 p.m. [GMT]

After a great enormity such as was committed against Nigerians during the military regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha, yet of frightful memory, is visited on any part of humanity, the collective psyche of the people will need to go through a sanitizing re-orientation from a bestial assault on the sensibilities of the survivors to that of a civilized and humane engagement between government and the governed. It is for more towards this effort of assuaging brutalized psyches than the need for retributive justice and punishment that even old-time war crimes committed against the Geneva Convention, are still being investigated for prosecution up till today by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

In the bid to exorcise the ghost of an iniquitous past and forge ways for forgiveness and reconciliation, governments have been known to empanel Truth and Reconciliation Committees (as in South Africa after the apartheid regime) as palliatives to sooth hidden pains and normalize much of emotional baggage. The central idea behind this is the criticality of knowing the truth as a precursor to forgiveness and reconciliation.

It does not bear repeating here that some Nigerians underwent a harrowing denial of fundamental human rights and were subjected to a most fiendish treatment under the rule of General Abacha. The ‘June-12’ democratic exercise was criminalized: Abiola, the winner of the presidential election was detained until he died in incarceration in highly suspicious circumstances; the call for the revalidation of the Abiola mandate was made tantamount to a murder offence; Chief Abraham Adesanya and others were arrested and detained; Kudirat Abiola, the frontline agitator for the ‘June 12’ actualization and wife of the presumed winner, was gunned down in broad daylight; sympathizers to the cause of the morally and politically correct move to reclaim Abiola’s mandate, such as the advocacy group, the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, were hounded and Chief Alfred Rewane, the influential major financier of the group, was killed in a hail of bullets in his house! Indeed, it was a terrible past with a lot of suspected state-sponsored assassinations and government-orchestrated coups designed to rope in major opposition elements from the military and civil populace.

In all of these, the name that loomed large in the intelligence circle even much more than that of dreaded Col. Frank Omenka, and kept recurring in the consciousness of most Nigerians was that of Major Hamza al-Mustapha, the Chief Security Officer (CSO)to the taciturn and dark-goggled military ruler, Sani Abacha. Either because of the omnibus nature of his security brief or, the tremendous influence he had come to wield, hardly anything in the military government of Gen. Abacha could happen without the knowledge, approval or recommendation of Major Hamza al-Mustapha. It was logical then, at the expiry of the Pontifex Maximus himself during what seemed to be a harvest of deaths from mysterious circumstance in 1998, to expect al-Mustapha to tell the nation what he knew about the seeming breakdown of security in Nigeria since his knowledge of the State seemed to be all-encompassing. Revelations from the succeeding military junta headed by Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd) indicated that the brash C.S.O indeed, had several questions to answer in addition to knowing too much.

When the charges, for the 1996 offence of snuffing the life out of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola were preferred in October, 1999, against al-Mustapha and Lateef Shofolahan, a former aide to the late business mogul and presumed winner of the June 12 election, Chief M.K.O Abiola, at a Lagos State Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Ikeja, the prosecution produced star-witnesses including Sgt Barnabas Jabila, who encircled the aforementioned duo, in chillingly graphic details, in the design and execution of the gruesome murder. After a period of almost thirteen years during which time the case had undergone many twists and turns and with the self-confessed shooter of Kudirat Abiola, Sgt Jabila, recanting his earlier confessional statements, a Lagos High Court sitting at Igbosere on January 30, 2012, convicted Major Hamza al-Mustapha over the murder and was sentenced to die by hanging.

However, in an appellate judgment delivered on July 13, 2013 by the court of appeal panel presided over by Justice Amina Augie and read by Justice Rita N. Pemu, the earlier sentence by the lower court was reversed and the informing logic of the sentencing was faulted because according to the presiding judge of the appeal panel, the lower court was “stroked to secure a conviction by all means”. Therefore, al-Mustapha was set free.

Even though the discipline of law is not an exact academic specialism and therefore, is subject to and admissible of the evolutionary changes in society’s guidind set of rules and norms, yet the jarring dissonance in the dispensation of justice, the wild variations and inconsistencies manifesting in judgments on same cases at the different tiers of the Nigerian judiciary, have become really worrisome. In the case of the al-Mustapha trial, the appellate judgment highlights the shoddy prosecution of the case, the unreliability of prosecution witnesses, and the lack of evidentiary materials, such as the so-called special bullet that was extracted from the head of the victim and never tendered, and other careless preparations by the prosecution.

What kind of justice is this, after all, one may ask?

For Major Hamza al-Mustapha, this could not have been good justice because according to our judiciary, the former CSO had been unjustly incarcerated for a crime he did not commit for fourteen long years! For the children of Kudirat Abiola, the machinery of justice has failed them because despite the glaring wickedness of rendering them without a father and a mother, the pursuit of justice has been compromised by the State’s strange ways of handling the case and again, by the lack of diligent investigation on the part of the police officers. For the public, this is yet another reaffirmation that the country’s law enforcement apparatus can never successfully prosecute political murders.  As for the culpability of Major al-Mustapha in the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, chances are, according to Justice Amina Augie, that the wrong guy was arraigned for the crime because al-Mustapha is as innocent as a new born baby! In fact, in the eyes of the law, this columnist, though never accused nor suspected of the crime, however not yet given a certificate of clearance by our courts on the murder of Alhaja Abiola, may be deemed to be more complicit in the murder plot than the rambunctious CSO!

The opportunity of the successful and timely prosecution of this case to get justice and to act as catharsis for the brutalized psyche of Nigerians during the terrible rule of Gen Sani Abacha is again lost as the state’s prosecution of the murder case is faulted by a judicial system relieved to consign it to a cul-de-sac and unafraid of any political undertones.

When society gets these kinds of judgments that are blasphemous to the true meaning of justice; when the pursuit of truth is sacrificed at the altar of legal technicality and political expediency; and when the court of law dispenses judgments that are at wild variance with those of the court of public opinion, the ends of law, which are to serve and further the happiness and security of man through the entrenchment of equity and fairness, are promptly circumscribed.

Finally, al-Mustapha’s joy should not be too expansive; it should be moderated by the knowledge of the fact that in the general perception of many in certain quarters of the country, he will forever labour under a heavy guilt-baggage arising from  the discharge of his official duties which he carried out with satanic relish. Lucky him though, the guy got over this time!

THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2013.  6:38:27 p.m. [GMT]

From left, Pascal, Summar and Sapphire Ruelle. Photo: Jonathan House.

An Oregon family in which both mom and daughter have been struggling with cancer diagnoses was given a brief respite recently with a trip to Disney World, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“It was just wonderful. We were just so far away from everything that we knew,” mom Summar Ruelle told Yahoo! Shine about the trip earlier this month. “This was something that we all looked forward to, because it’s been so difficult for us, with months and months of just going to doctors appointments and having several hospitalizations.”

The overwhelming journey for the Ruelle family, of Beaverton, began last September, when Summar, just 35 at the time, was diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer after finding a lump in her breast. Doctors told her it had already spread to her bones and lymph nodes. Amazingly, she kept her spirits and energy high and even ran the annual Race for the Cure in Portland just over a week later, with a 100-degree fever.

More on Yahoo!: Most Childhood Cancer Survivors Have Health Problems in Adulthood

But then, just 11 days later, after noticing deep and worrisome bruises on her 3-year-old daughter arms and legs, Summar and husband Pascal were told that Sapphire had leukemia.

Since receiving that double blow, the Ruelles—which also includes son Jayden, 6— have had to adjust to a new and trying reality that’s included chemotherapy, surgeries, pill regimens, body scans, financial struggle, and a never-ending series of difficult conversations.

“Her and I have a very unique mother and daughter bond because of our cancer,” Summar told KGW Portland this week. “We talk about cancer all the time. We’re ‘superhero cancer-fighter girls.’” Sometimes, she added in an interview with the Beaverton Valley Times last month, “We take each other’s Band Aids off and take each other’s medication. We’re insomniacs, so we comfort each other to go to sleep. She comforts me and says, ‘Mom, it’s gonna be OK. It’s going to take some time.’”

Sapphire at Disney World. Photo courtesy of Ruelle family.Sapphire’s prognosis is “excellent,” according to her doctor, Jason Glover, of Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland. But Summar, who has been given only a temporary clean bill of health following a recent surgery, has been cherishing each moment with her family since being forced to leave her job as an IT business analyst at Columbia Sportswear last year.

“We live scan by scan,” Summar told Shine. “Being stage four, I’m going to be taking medication for the rest of my life. I’m going to be done when I die.”

Luckily, supportive friends and family members have surrounded the Ruelles, helping with everything from emotional comfort to childcare and fund-raisers that have included parties, concerts, and the creation of a $90 “Strength” heart necklace in gold or silver, and $5 pink-and-white bracelets, proceeds of which go directly to the family.

But Pascal, who left his own job as a marketer of motorcycle parts, has been the family’s main caretaker. “There’s been days when I just wish I could take both their sicknesses and put them in me to deal with them myself,” he told KGW. “That would be easier.”

Summar has been dealing with the overwhelming illnesses by relying on both traditional and alternative treatments, focusing on her children, and by sharing the family’s ongoing story on her blog and Caring Bridge journal, which is “therapeutic” for her, and through which readers can make donations.

“For me, a lot of it is bringing awareness,” she said about going so public. “People don’t have an understanding of how cancer affects families, and not only immediate family.” Sapphire’s two sets of grandparents, for example, are “absolutely heartbroken,” Summar said, adding that there’s also an abysmal lack of funding for research and treatment of metastatic breast cancer, as well as a lack of public awareness when it comes to the amount of care that’s involved with a cancer patient.

“For example, it was horrid figuring out how to get these medications in Sapphire,” she said, explaining that, for her daughter’s daily oral chemo dose (which comes on top of steroids, antibiotics, IV chemo and lumbar punctures at the hospital), she and Pascal grind up the pills and give them to her in Hershey’s chocolate syrup. “It’s not an option. It’s a life or death situation.”

But the biggest family support recently was that trip to Disney World. “Sapphire’s big thing she wanted to do was meet the princesses, and she got to meet all of them,” Summar said. “That was just—I can’t tell you—it was a teary moment for me. [Belle] told her she’s even braver than her hero, the Beast. It made her feel important and it reinforced how strong and brave she is. I get choked up just thinking of it.”

THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2013.  7:31:02 p.m. [GMT]

Dame Patience, Our President’s Darling Wife – An Opinion By Reuben Abati In 2010

DEMOCRACY is readily associated with freedom: the freedom to be free in many respects and increasingly in Nigeria, many of our compatriots, particularly persons in positions of privilege and authority confuse this with the right to be disagreeable. The sober truth is that democracy is about rights and responsibilities, a democratic dispensation therefore cannot be a licence for disagreeable conduct as a norm; just as the possession of power in any form does not guarantee the right to be reckless or to ignore the etiquette required of office holders. Anyone in the corridors of power, either by chance or right, or appointment, is expected to behave decorously.

Dame Patience Jonathan, as she is now referred to, our President’s wife, failed the test this week in Okrika, Rivers State. It is trite knowledge that there is a critical difference between Yenagoa and Abuja, and a world of difference between being the wife of a Deputy Governor/Governor/Vice president and being the wife of Nigeria’s No 1 citizen. When people suddenly find themselves in such latter position, prepared or unprepared, anywhere in the world,  they are taken through a crash programme in finishing and poise and made to realize that being the wife of an important man comes with serious responsibilities lest they sabotage the same person that they should be supporting.

If Dame Patience went through such re-orientation, the course was incomplete. This week, we got a feedback drawn from her visit to Rivers state to launch her NGO  – the Women for Change Initiative, when she ended up in Okrika, her home town. This homecoming became an egoistic show-off as she openly contradicted the state Governor, offering him unsolicited lessons on how to develop the Okrika water front and school system, in addition to pointed comments on the use of the English language. The Governor had reportedly insisted that his administration must demolish some houses which adjoin the schools in Okrika in order to create a proper learning environment. Dame Patience disagreed.

She then gave an unsolicited lecture on the land tenure system telling the Governor: “I want you to get me clear. I am from here. I know the problems of my people so I know what I am talking…”   The Governor tried to explain his administration’s policy and the larger public interest. The Dame reportedly cut him short: “But what I am telling you is that you always say you must demolish; that word must you use is not good. It is by pleading. You appeal to the owners of the compound because they will not go into exile. Land is a serious issue.” Wao! “that word must..is not good.” We must all commit that to memory as we re-learn Practical English according to Patience Jonathan!

If it is in the place of the President’s wife to teach a state Governor how to run his state, it is definitely not in her place to veto a state policy (the reason the governor used the word “must”), not even her husband has such powers. It seemed as if Dame Patience Jonathan was determined to impress her kith and kin. She told them she had directed the governor not to demolish their houses. Then, she left straight for the airport  obviously having overstayed her welcome and having behaved like a bad guest.  She was scheduled to visit the prisons to grant amnesty to some inmates (is that really her duty or something that should be in her itinerary? ); she was also meant to commission some projects. The face-off between her and the governor put paid to all that.

On the eve of her arrival, a group which calls itself “the Okrika Political Stakeholders Forum” and “the people of Kirikese” had actually placed an advert in the papers welcoming “our amiable daughter and sister…to Rivers state and your home town Okrika.” They also brought up the issue of “the land reclamation and shore protection project at Oba Ama, Okrika being undertaken by the Rivers state government.” (Daily Sun, August 23, 2010, p. 2).  Either on the strength of this advertorial or private consultations, Dame Patience must have felt compelled to be a partisan stakeholder and intercessor. She needed to put Rotimi Amaechi, the state Governor in his place and that was what did. She recommended “pleading,” – that advice is actually meant for her. A state Governor is a duly elected official; and in a Federal system, he is not answerable to the President, and nowhere is the president granted the powers of a Headmaster over state governors. In Okrika, Dame Patience behaved so impatiently and spoke to Governor Amaechi as if he is on the staff of the Presidency. It may not be  her fault though. Amaechi caused it all by bringing himself to such level by undertaking to debrief Dame Patience about his administration’s programmes and activities in the misguided hope of getting cheap political endorsement.  He should have asked his wife to attend to her. On the issue of land, Dame Patience should be reminded that the Land Use Act, Section 1 thereof, says the state Governor holds the land in trust for the people. Land matters in the state are beyond the ken of the wife of the President!

The wife of the President of Nigeria, or a state Governor, or a local council chairman, is not a state official. The same applies to husbands if the gender is reversed. He or she is unknown to the constitution or the governance structure.  Recent history has however made it a convention to have the spouses of persons in such positions under the guise of providing support, play some ceremonial roles. This has been routinely abused. Under the Jonathan presidency, Dame Patience Jonathan even got a special allocation in the original budget for the 2010 Golden jubilee anniversary whereas she has no official, financial reporting responsibilities! The international standard is that spouses in these circumstances must not only appear but be seen to be above board like Caesar’s wife. They must not misbehave like Marie Antoinette.

When Cherie Blair, wife of former British PM, Tony Blair started buying up houses, apartments and antique furniture, the public raised questions. It didn’t matter that she was a professional in her own right, a Queen’s Counsel with a traceable source of income. There were also questions about the scope of Hillary Clinton’s influence during her husband’s Presidency: Americans wanted to be sure that it was the man they elected that was in charge, not his wife. A couple of weeks ago, the American public was up in arms against Michelle Obama and her poll rating dropped drastically after a visit to Spain where she and her daughter reportedly stayed in a $7, 000 a night hotel.

Much earlier, Nancy Reagan was also the butt of public criticism, with people asking: who is she? And this is not a female thing. In Britain, Prince Phillip, the Queen’s husband, is constantly criticized for putting his foot in his mouth. He once said for example that “British women can’t cook.”  He told a visiting Nigerian President, all dressed up in babariga (name withheld): “you look like you’re ready for bed.” During a state visit to China, he told British students: “if you stay much longer, you’all be slitty-eyed.” Prince Phillip’s supporters insist that he is honest, but the majority ask: how is the Queen coping with such a man who is perpetually saying something offensive? There may be persons who defend Dame Patience’s aggressive style, but some of us ask: how is the President coping?

Since Dr Jonathan assumed office, he and his wife have been practically on the road. The Dame has travelled from one state to the other, under the auspices of the Women for Change Initiative. In every state she tells the women to vote and “make sure your vote counts if you like my husband.” Is she now a partisan politician? The Jonathans must be told that Nigeria does not have a co-Presidency. We have only one president and his name is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. And by the way, what does Dame Patience Jonathan do for a living? She obviously does not have to deal with the challenges of rotation and zoning in her home, unlike the three wives of the Adamawa Governor, Murtala Nyako for whom zoning and rotation have become topical subjects or the wives of South African President Jacob Zuma – that is why she can afford to be so meddlesome!

When she misbehaves as she did in Okrika, she creates the impression that her husband is not in control of his own home. First ladies are prominent figures but their conduct is an eternal subject of public interest. In Nigeria, there was Victoria Gowon, there was also Ajoke Muhammed: dignified and restrained.  There was Maryam Babangida – she was influential but no one could accuse her of verbal recklessness;  Mrs Abdusalami  Abubakar was a court judge, totally self-effacing, No major social party was complete without Mrs Stella Obasanjo, yet she controlled her tongue. Mrs Turai Yar’Adua was described as the power behind the throne and she proved that during the period of her husband’s illness but she was carefully reticent. At the state level, there was Remi Tinubu in Lagos state and Onari Duke in Cross River state who have both conducted themselves responsibly in and out of office. The new First Lady likes to travel, party, and talk outside the script. People are beginning to learn to read her lips in order to understand her husband. Dame Patience must not push her Goodluck.

[All emphases mine.]

-This piece was written by Dr. Reuben Abati in The Guardian of Thursday, 27th Aug 2010

FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013.  8:38 a.m.  [GMT]

There are two books that make up “The Singapore Story”, and I believe they are best understood/appreciated if read as one.  I’ve come away with something close to being in the city-state and taking a comprehensive course in Maker of Singapore’s Civilization – and that’s not meant in any derogatory way. 

I plan to get this review in two installments though not of each book separately.  In fact, my write-up will just touch a few highlights because I am an untrained and unlettered reviewer who has always handled reviews fairly differently from what I read in the great literary supplements of good newspapers.  My non-style becomes more handy as I cannot do justice to the idea of reviewing two books of over 3 pages total.  It will merely TOUCH what I believe anyone who reads the books would gain and those unable to lay their hands on the books should also know a bit about the city state and the man who is truly Father of Modern Singapore that made it all possible.

Before starting my idea of a review, however, I must first get the following comments about Lee Kuan Yew (LKW) out of the way.

The books were written at the beginning of this century – 2000 – and having been head of a state that he successfully and admirably fashioned to move with the rest of the world – AND the times , especially the so-called “civilized world”, LKW shows a high degree of insensitivity when writing about various peoples of the world.  While his venom  or, at least, disdain seems reserved for Africans and people of African descent, he often lapses into forgetfulness – or maybe it’s deliberate – even when writing about other ethnic groups, including whites  on whose good side he worked understandably assiduously to be; he sees only Chinese everywhere as the perfect race, the perfect people.  For a very sensitive person that LKW appears to be when matters concern him or his Chinese ancestry group – forget that he could never really stand Mainland China because of communism, of necessity Malays with whom Singapore was once junior partner in a union, always received the velvet touch.  He, in his words, always “wanted to avoid unintentionally hurting Malay sensitivities …”.  

LKW’s inability to move away from old prejudices even at 77 years of age  when he wrote the books is unconscionable and objectionable.

Now, before quoting LKW’s words that is a blight on his character, here’s a brief narration of my first experience of English people during my first trip to England in December 1971.  At a friend’s place, there was a wash-hand basin on the landing of the mid-rise building which surprised me until she explained it was where they – and those in the units on the floor – performed their morning rituals  My Significant Other and I were informed they had to go to a public bath when they needed to bathe!  I could not believe it but it brought home to me the reason for the pungent odor/smell in the subway coaches which were, of course, mostly filled with white people as it is their country. 

We could hardly wait to travel up to Oxford where a sibling was attending the university. Even though the bathroom of his nice little flat had no heat, at least we could dash in and out for a wash every morning.

I’ve never narrated the incredible experience to anyone, and my spouse and I seemed too stunned beyond words to ever bring it up beyond that day!

End of Aside, and below is the very offensive part of  Memoir which makes me wonder how LKW was able to travel those subway lines and the trains to Oxford and beyond during those four years without dying of the pungent and “strange body odours” that filled the coaches and trains.

[I found myself in the company of some 20 African and Caribbean students.  It was another shock.  I had never seen Africans before in real life, only in photographs.  I was unprepared tor their strange body odours, unlike those of the racial groups we had in Singapore.  I did not sleep well that night.

 THE SINGAPORE Story:  Memories of Lee Kuan Yew - Chapter: My Cambridge Days]

Now that we’ve gotten that little nasty business out of the way, please come with me for a brief insight into two very enjoyable and informative books that was a great pleasure to read.

VOLUME I:          The Singapore Story:  Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew

Publishers:           Singapore Press Holdings (Times Edition)

          Price:           U.S. $37.00

VOLUME II:        From Third World to First:  Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom by Lee Kuan Yew

  Publishers:         HarperCollins Books

            Price:         US $18.00

My interest in Singapore and LKW – actually, it’s the other way round as can be seen from the not-that objective title – dates from 1982 when TIME magazine, to which I had a subscription to the Atlantic Edition, had him on the cover, a copy I keep to this day because it  also contains a gripping human-angle story on another man that cannot and should never be forgotten:  the man who perished while gifting others with life after the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 on the 14th Street Bridge in Rosslyn, Virginia on Washington, D.C. outskirts to whom TIME devoted its weekly essay of January 25, 1982 – “The Man in the Water.”

“… Each time the ring was lowered, he grabbed it and passed it along to a comrade; when the helicopter finally returned to pick him up, he had disappeared beneath the ice.”  [Time Essay, Jan. 25, 1982.] SEE BELOW.

When I edited my collection of magazines in 2002 so that I could throw out some, it happened to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the heroic action of “The Man in the Water”, and I wrote an essay, “The Man in the Water and the Man with the ladder” for The Comet on Sunday to contrast selflessness against selfishness. the “man with the ladder” who had purportedly removed a ladder he fashioned in an obstacle race after scaling a high wall on the way to prosperity so that others might not use it!

I decided then in ’02 that I should not part with the copy, yet, and here it is!

This is a review of books on LKW but I’ve already warned that my idea of a review is that of an untrained person, just as a lover of books.

Now, even if you are not interested in geo-politics, geo-graphy, nation building, or the politics of a man and place far removed from your life, frequenting this blog or happening on it for the first time implies some love of reading, pardon my being the one blowing the horn of essays here; they are not all written by me, anyway!

LKW may have warned that From Third World to First … – Third to First – is not a how-to guide book, I believe it not only meets that standard for building a successful country and merging the motley group of people at its birth to form a nation in which the interest is one and pursuing this common interest becomes a common goal but it would be a good guide book to accompany a Dictionary, a Thesaurus, etcetera for students of English at secondary and tertiary levels, and I’m not kidding!  In essay-writing in Nigeria of the 60s, teachers always stressed the formation of sentences that contained good descriptions so that “readers could almost visualize persons, places or things” as a nun who taught me English Language and English Literature put it.  We’ll get to that later.

Lee is very quotable and while wishing I could quote many, here are just a few:

In line with how Singapore will become what it is today, he warned workers not long after Malaya ASKED an island state “without a hinterland” to leave the Federation:  “The world does not owe us a living.  We cannot live by the begging bowl”;  in the Preface to Third to First, he announced to the world, “Our climb from a per capita GDP of US$400 in 1959 (when I took office as Prime Minister) to more than US12,200 in 1990 (when I stepped down) and US$22,000 in 1999 …   In material terms, we have left behind our Third World problems of poverty.

When former US VP Mondale asked of Phillipine’s Ferdinand Marc of, “You know Marcos.  Was he a hero or a crook …”? he writes:  “… I answered that he might have started as a hero but ended up as a crook.”  And of Suharto he told Mondale: “… His heroes were not Washington or Jefferson or Madison, but the sultans of Solo in central Java.  Suharto’s wife had been a minor princess … As the president of Indonesia, he was a megasultan … believed his children were entitled to be as privileged as the princes and princesses … did not feel any embarrassment at giving them these privileges, because it was his right as a megasultan.  He saw himself as a patriot.  I would not classify Suharto as a crook”

Big Indonesia would later go cap in hand to beg tiny Singapore for financial assistance to stabilize its economy took a nose-dive and the IMF went calling.  I do not know how Suharto must have felt when LKW included among his suggestions for a revitalized economy the removal of concessions that saw his kids and cronies skimming off the system.

[All emphases mine.]

LKW’s descriptions could almost put the persons, places and things right before you, and as a one-time teacher, my copies of the 2-volume are already so marked that none would ever perhaps want to borrow them; I wouldn’t if they belong to somebody else!  If I land at Singapore’s Changi airport, I believe I could almost take a rental car and drive into the city!

Here is a description that a teacher of English would love:  “… The approach to the city from the east coast runs along a new 20 kilometer … expressway built on land reclaimed from the sea … beautiful glimpses of the sea on one side, and vistas of HDB estates … on the other.  The airport and the pleasant 20-minute drive into the city made an excellent introduction to Singapore, the best S1.5 billion investment we ever made …”

[A country like Nigeria where the heads of states and governors are always roaming the world "for investors" I've often written need so such wastage of scarce resources because, as in the movie - Field of Dreams - which is a take on a saying, "if you build it, they will come".]

How about a new Malaysia Prime Minister LKW described thus:  “Razak … did not have the Tunku’s warm personality or his large and commanding presence.  By comparison he appeared less decisive … He was the son of a Pahang chieftain.  In their hierarchical society, he was much respected by the Malay students  … Of medium build, with a fair, round face and hair slicked down, he looked a quiet, studious man … bright and hardworking … a good hockey player but ill at ease with people unless he knew them well …”

You have a feeling LKW gave due regards to this new prime minister of neighboring Malaysia but he did not have much use for “hierarchical society” nor think much for this old classmate whose demeanor way back at school was perhaps on the haughty side, and the descriptions tell you/make you wonder how a sportsman could be aloof; AND leaves you to reach your own conclusion about the feudal Prime Minister Razak!

Here are some very simple but effective ones:

“… He was frail but spoke with great firmness and determination.

“… the butler at the Strand Hotel – an Indian in his late fifties, with greying hair and beard …”  who served LKW breakfast, British style … was leaving.  “He was right about my breakfast.  The next day, the tray was not as neat nor the toast as crisp.”

Three more and we’ll be done with LKW’s ability to study people – great and small – and describe them just perfectly.

Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus:  “He wore silken robes with a tall black hat … Once on board, he removed his robes and hat and looked a totally different person, a smallish bald man with a moustache and a mass of beard.  … sat across from me, so I had a good view … watched, fascinated, as he dressed and tidied up when the plane taxied to the terminal … He diligently and carefully combed his white moustache and beard.  He stood up to put his black robes over his white clothes, then his gold chain with a big medallion, and then carefully placed his hat on his head.  An aide brushed him down to re move any white flecks from his flowing black robes and handed him his archbishop’s staff, only then was His Beatitude Archbishop … ready to descend the steps in proper style for the waiting cameras …

OKAY, a place:  “We were greeted … then whisked into Lagos.  It looked like a city under siege … the Federal Palace Hotel … barbed wire and troops surrounded it.  No leader left the hotel throughout the two-day conference.”

[Lagos, and most of the big Nigerian cities always seem as if under siege, Mr. Lee!]

Chief Festus [Okotieboh]

“… Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa … gave us a banquet … Raja and I ere seated opposite a hefty Nigerian, Chief Festus, their finance minister.  The conversation is still fresh in my mind.  He was going to retire soon … he had done enough for his country and now had to look after his business, a shoe factor.  As finance minister, he ad imposed a tax on imported shoes so that Nigeria could make shoes.  Raja (his deputy) and I were incredulous.  Chief Festus had a good appetite that showed in his rotund figure, elegantly camouflaged in colorful Nigerian robes with gold ornamentation and a splendid cap.  I went to bed that night convinced that they were a different people playing to a different set of rules”

[A very accurate reading of what has always obtained in Nigeria as "public service."]

“Prime Minister Abubakar … was a tall, lean, and dignified figure with a slow, measured delivery … looked every inch a chief, a figure of quiet authority, in the flowing robes of the Hausas from Northern Nigeria.”

Also VERY correct reading of Balewa.

Next Friday, July 26, we’ll get the highlights from these books by this remarkable statesman of the 20th Century who met and grew close to many of the major actors of the last century, gaining insights into how they fashion their systems and borrowing AND improving on such to create Singapore as a first world country from a Third World country in half a century.

FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013. 11:52: 20 a.m. [GMT]

http://emotanafricana.com/2013/07/19/the-man-in-the-water-the-man-with-a-ladder-two-stories-as-a-metaphor-for-two-peoples/