15 THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN

1-She is older than President Goodluck Jonathan. Okay, calm down, not what you are thinking. She was born in Port Harcourt on the 25th October 1957 while the don himself was born on 20th November, 1957. Ok, just like a month.

2. She holds a National Certificate of Education (NCE) in Mathematics & Biology from the Rivers State College of Education and later bagged a degree from University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) in Biology & Psychology. She passed WASSCE in 1980, long before many of her haters were born. Ok, no lele. Let’s ride on.

3. Although she started out as a teacher at Stella Maris College in Port Harcourt (HajMari, where are you o?), she later veered briefly into the banking sector, establishing Akpo Community Bank in 1997, the first of its kind in Port Harcourt, and later served as the Marketing Manager of Imieto Community Bank.

4. According to Baridah Job Karabah, a former houseboy, her nickname back in the days was ‘Mama Ice Cream’ (and that of the President was simply ‘Oga Joe’ ). Ice cream ke? Yes, and that was because she used to cool (abi na freeze…lol) ice cream in her large deep freezers. The ice cream is then later distributed for sale. He says business was ‘booming’ for her then. President Jonathan was at that time, a senior lecturer at the Rivers State College of Education. And yes, she had a poultry too at the same time. Quite industrious I’d say.

5. In September 2012, she was awarded a honorary degree by the Delta State University, Abraka despite the fact that she was not in the country at that time. She was said to have gone to Germany but she denied going there for any treatment. Worefa.

6. She hails from Oba-Ama Community in Okrika, a port town in Rivers State. It is known as a base for the sale of second-hand clothes, and the name Okrika for those of us very familiar with ‘Bend Down Select’ and ‘Tokunbo’ clothes is an attestation to that. Omo, I can never forget the delightful smell of Okrika clothes…lol! The belief then, and even maybe now is that they are even better than ‘original’ and brand new clothes. Next!
7. Her maiden name is OBA. As in, she was once Miss Patience Oba.

8. Miss Oba later met her lecturer while she was a student at the Rivers State College of Education (now Rivers State University of Education, Rumuolumeni). Her lecturer then was with the Department of Biological Sciences (he taught her biology, oh, I love that course die! Don’t ask me why!), and one thing led to the other, they both fell in love. Today, the rest is history and that Mr. Lecturer of yesterday now rules the most populous black nation on earth. You still don’t know him? Go get yourself a black fedora hat! Hear her:

”We first met at the Rivers State College of Education, Port Harcourt where I was a student. He was my Biology lecturer.Later; he left for university of Port Harcourt to pursue his PhD.

We met again at the University of Port Harcourt when I went for undergraduate degree. That was where our relationship began. He took interest in me because I was a brilliant and smart student.

It was love at first sight on his part. But it never crossed my mind that it would lead to a serious relationship. My first impression of him was ‘this tall, dark, hansome young man”.

Further interaction with him also revealed that he came from a good Christian home just like I did. His humble and gentle disposition caught my attention and most importantly, his intelligence.”

9. She says she still cooks for her husband and even goes to Utako Market (Abuja people, wey una dey?) to buy ingredients for soup. O ga ju!

10. Her hobbies? You bet! Reading, writing, travelling and oh yeah, swimming!

11. She holds many traditional titles, some of which are:
-Odadigba of Otuoke Kingdom, meaning the Ladder of Success.
-Unume Wheshi Ekpeye 1 of Ekpeye Kingdom in Rivers State.
-Yeye Obateru of Owu Kingdom, Ogun State, means the Wife of He Who Shares the King’s Burden.
-Yeye Ohun Orun of the Source of Ife Kingdom, Osun State, meaning the Wife of the Voice of the Heavens.
-Ada Di Oha Mma of Ukpo Kingdom (Daughter of the People of Ukpo). Okay, I think that is enough for now. Nigerians and titles sha.

12. She bears the title ‘Dame’ as she was honoured with the Knighthood of the Anglican Church.

13. Her marriage with the President is blessed with two children: a cheeky boy, Ariwera Adolphus Jonathan and a beautiful girl, Aruabi Jonathan. Click the link below to see all pictures.

14. Like others before her, she also has a non-governmental organization, named the A. Aruera Reachout Foundation and is said to focus on the needy, the poor and the destitute, with particular emphasis on women and children. According to the Foundation, it has trained over 2,000 women in the last eight years. Some of the things her Foundation also did was to foot the N1.8 million naira bill for an operation in India for a girl with a hole in the heart (septal defect) and Jubril Mohammed Hussein, a 9-year-old boy who was also flown out for treatment for his heart disease. Zainab Musa Garba, a twin, was diagnosed with a heart condition and needed N3 million naira for treatment, the Dame also footed her bills. Zainab’s mother teaches at the Federal Government College, Maiduguri while the dad is a retired civil servant. That’s a good one or what do you think? Same goes for Tobi Peters, an 11-year-old boy, three-month-old Peculiar Owodu and others (now over 30 kids). You can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ADN7iGqzb6s
Well, I had to point that out because Nigerians seem to be carried away by her speeches as if we are all professors of English ourselves. By the way, I am assuming that her Foundation derived its name from her two kids: ARU-abi and Ariw-ERA. At any rate, it’s an assumption.

15. She is currently engaged in a tussle with the former First Lady, Turai Yar’adua over a plot of land in the Federal Capital Territory. That’s what I call the vanity of power and inanity of authority. By the way, I promise to tell you the meaning of her middle name ‘Faka’ once I get it. I’ve been trying to, but nothing yet.

Thanks for your time.

In Pictures: Ben Ali's material legacy - In Pictures - Al Jazeera English

In Pictures: Ben Ali's material legacy - In Pictures - Al Jazeera English

Yakowa’s body arrives in Kaduna amid tears

The remains of the Late Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa, and that of his aide and friend, Dauda Tsoho, arrived in Kaduna airport aboard a Nigerian Air Force cargo plane at 2.45pm on Tuesday.

The bodies were received by hundreds of  wailing sympathisers who thronged the airport.

Bodies of the late governor as well as those of other four, out of the six victims of Saturday’s naval helicopter crash in Okorobo, Bayelsa State, had been airlifted from Yenagoa aboard a Nigerian Air Force Super Puma Helicopter marked NAF 567 at 11.45am.

The other bodies that left Yenagoa alongside that of Yakowa and Tsoho were those of an ex-National Security Adviser Gen. Owoye Azazi’s bodyguard, Warrant Officer Mohammed Kamal; and the two naval pilots, Commander Murtala Mohammed Daba, and Lt. Adeyemi Sowole.

 It was learnt that the NAF aircraft stopped at the Port Harcourt airport in Rivers State where the bodies were flown to different destinations in different aircrafts.

Yakowa and the four, as well as Azazi, were victims of the crashed Augusta 109 Naval Helicopter in Okoroba, Bayelsa State, on Saturday.

They met their death while returning from the burial of the father of President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide, Oronto Douglas. Douglas is Jonathan’s Adviser on Research, Documentation and Strategy.

The remains of Azazi, an indigene of Bayelsa, were however left in the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, for burial on a date yet to be announced by the government.

While the bodies of Yakowa and Tsoho were airlifted from Port Harcourt to Kaduna, those of Daba  and Sowole were taken to their respective home states in Kano and Lagos.

Two black caskets with silver handles bore Yakowa’s and Tsoho’s remains while three brown caskets with golden handles contained the bodies of three others.

The caskets which were covered with the Nigerian flags were accompanied by Bayelsa State Governor  Seriake Dickson; his wife, Rachel; Deputy Governor John Douglas; a former governor of the state, Diepreye Alameiseigha; commissioners and other members of the state executive council.

At the special valedictory session in honour of Yakowa at the Executive Chambers of the Government House before the late governor’s remains departed the state, were also the Flag Officer Commanding, Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Johnson Olutoyin; commanders of the Air Force Mobility Command, the Joint Task Force, and the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kingsley Omire, among others.

Dickson poured encomiums on the late Yakowa, describing him as a bridge builder and humble governor.

Some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, including the aides of the late Yakowa, attended the ceremony.

Dickson, who said Yakowa died in active service, added that his death should encourage people to live in peace and harmony.

In Kaduna, children, women as well as men wailed as the delegation from Bayelsa State, led by Alamieseigha, formally handed over the corpses of Yakowa and his aide to top Kaduna State government functionaries.

At the Kaduna airport to receive the corpses were the new Governor of the state, Mukhtar Yero; Yakowa’s widow, Amina; Senator Danjuma Goje; Senator Bola Saraki; and top state functionaries.

The Catholic Archbishop of Kaduna Diocese, Archbishop Matthew Man Oso Ndagoso; and the Catholic Bishop of Zaria, Rev George Jonathan Dodo, took turns to pray for the remains of the late governor and his aide before the caskets were transferred into an Hilux ambulance.

From the airport, the two golden caskets were driven in a motorcade through the Nnamdi Azikiwe Western Bypass to the Saint Gerard Catholic Hospital where the corpses were deposited in the mortuary.

The Senate President, David Mark, in company with his wife, Helen, was at the St. Gerard Hospital. He later proceeded to the Government House to pay condolence to Yakowa’s family.

The late governor is expected to be buried on Thursday in his home town, Fadan Kagoma in Jema’a Local Government Area of the state.

Meanwhile, one of the soldiers that moved the bodies of  Yakowa and the others from the morgue into the helicopter slumped shortly after the assignment, thus causing panic and anxiety among those at the venue.

 The state medical team however revived the soldier, whose name could not be ascertained, several minutes after.

The collapsed soldier was among the two groups of soldiers who took turns to lift the caskets bearing the bodies of the victims into the Air Force helicopter.

Each group, under the command of a parade commander, was made up of six soldiers.

The collapsed soldier who apparently was exhausted after the assignment slumped and was immediately rushed into an ambulance belonging to the Nigerian Air Force Mobility Command at 10.40am.

The ambulance consequently rushed the soldier to the Government House Medical Centre, where a medical team  battled to revive him.

 Culled from the Punch Newspaper

President Jonathan’s Effort to Purchase Another Hawker 4000 Jet Tied Up In New York Bankruptcy Court

In addition to the two new luxury helicopters ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan from the Anglo-Italian AgustaWestland at a cost of $40 million, as SaharaReporters reported earlier today, we have learned that the government made a deposit of another $9 million for a Hawker 4000 jet.

In 2012 budget an additional $12 million was budgeted to complete the purchase of the jet.

But that money is now tied up in court, as our investigation has revealed that the manufacturer, Hawker Beechraft, entered into bankruptcy proceedings in the US District Court of Southern New York last May.

Curiously, the purchase notice was initiated by one Group Captain Ma Yakubu, who gave away the $9 million using the address of “Nigerian Presidential Wing, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Presidential Air Fleet Abuja, Nigeria.”  His phone number and email addresses were listed as follows:  +234 8052088048 and Maminuyana@Yahoo.Com.

Our sources say this is highly unusual, as the purchase order would normally have emanated not from an airport, but from within the presidency, the Ministry of Aviation or the Nigerian Air Force.

Yesterday’s crash of a Nigeria navy executive Agusta 109E helicopter, which killed Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former NSA Andrew Owoye Azazi and four others, while doing private errands for presidential aide Oronto Douglas, demonstrates how public property is routinely converted to private benefit especially in a corrupt administration.  

The presidency currently has at its disposal about 11 jets, many of them running errands on a daily basis for privileged officials and their relatives.  When those are not enough, they call for similar equipment that belong to the armed forces, the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, and similar offices.

“Yesterday, the naval helicopter was abused throughout the day, like a free taxi cab, until it simply fell out of the sky,” an analyst told SaharaReporters.

The two helicopters on order by Mr. Jonathan will cost Nigeria $40 million, but it is unclear how many similar equipment may be on order around the world, or have already been bought or delivered, because government officials often account to nobody.  The tracking of most contracts is non-existent after they have been awarded.

SaharaReporters has written to Group Captain Yakubu in an effort to obtain further information about the aborted purchase of the Hawker 4000 jet.

The US District court has approved Hawker Beechcraft’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy as a slimmer corporation, also last week the court authorized the company to sell off its entire inventory of Hawker 4000 jets at $20 million each.

Culled from Sahara Repoters

GEN. AZAZI'S FINAL MOMENT BY ROSS ALABO-GEORGE

It was just a few minutes to 13.00hours and the service of songs was in session when our chartered Caverton helicopter landed in ancient breezy coastal community of Okoroba, hometown of Mr. Oronto Douglas, a senior aide to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. I had flown with my Uncle, Engr. Mayne David-West, Principal Consultant of Pearl Consultants, and George Kerley, Coordinator of The Jonathan Project and an unrepentant crusader of the president.

We proceeded directly to the venue of the Service of Songs. It was a ten minutes walk from the school field where the helicopter had landed, and it offered an opportunity to see the sprawling ancient community and the new developments taking place. The people were very happy. They were seeing new faces – ministers; governors; commissioners; corporate executives and citizens they only read about and saw in the news walk on the new rigid pavements of their community. I think above all, they wowed at the Nollywood stars who dazzled the natives to disbelief.Ramsey Noah, Rita Dominic, Segun Arinze et al, then the big masquerade – Kanu Nwankwo was right there. I said to myself, the children of Okoroba Town would be inspired by the time the body of Pa Douglas is finally laid to rest.

In this flourish and fanfare, he sat quiet, listening to the incisive message delivered by the Reverend Ayo Oritsejafor. He seemed consumed by the pastor’s deep rhetoric about how ephemeral life was, and how wealth and money were necessary vanity but how a life well spent is eternal in value. Still, I interrupted his intense engrossment. He was excited to see me. We exchanged pleasantries and he asked that I stay around for a chat after the pastor’s message. I did.

The General is a towering man. Dressed in a grey striped French suite and black shoes, I watched him walk in his usual calculated steps as he left the tent to the other tent where the reception for visitors was to be held. He looked fresh, like he had rested well after his surprising removal as National Security Adviser. His warmth was charming and his humility ever evident. He was led to a roundtable on the first row and he took his seat by his friend Engr. Mayne David-West whom he hadn’t seen in months. They chatted warmly while they poured themselves a little champagne. He was served soup and he ate light. In about forty-five minutes he was done. Just about then, he receives a signal that the ill-fated helicopter was on its way.

He walked around to the other tables, shook hands and made his way out. He was headed for the helicopter, but he was obviously not in a hurry. He strolled with Governor Patrick Yakowa, a governor whose humility endeared me to him. Governor Yakowa spoke softly, greeted warmly and smiled like he knew it was a final moment to be enjoyed. We walked ahead of the Governor and the General, and in a few minutes we were all at the Okoroba Primary School field.

There were a few chartered helicopters arriving and taking off. The choppy drone of rotor blades slicing through the air ruffled us a bit. The primary school was sufficiently solicitous of intervention. The classroom had neither doors nor windows, in fact it looked abandoned. While we stood inside I asked why a primary school in Mr. Douglas’s home would be this wrecked. I called a young man, and in intense curiosity I began to question him. My findings were that a new primary school was being developed and new community library built and well equipped. I was satisfied, I would have been disappointed.

General Azazi watched these happen. Now it was time to take him on. I had not seen him since his removal as NSA. He was a deep man, and I was eager to hear him say something. I knew him to be blunt in a very smart way. He would not say a thing if he had not thought it through intensely. I probed into his period as NSA and asked what his take was on the Jonathan presidency. He had lost no love for the President. He said ...”Ross, the president is very intelligent and smarter than most people know”. He talked about the Boko Haram issue with plenty caution, but was optimistic that the president would check them.

Now, we were joined by the IYC president, Mr. Miabiye Kuromiema, and I surprised the General when I fired: “Sir, it is about time the president threw Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke under the bus”. I maintained that the Jonathan presidency was haemorrhaging severely because of her continued stay as minister. I expected him to say something, his face expressionless, he remained quiet. George Kerley, a known defender of the honourable minister, quipped with a straight face: “Ross, you are right. It is time the president is told the truth... He is taking too much bullets for some of these ministers”. The General shook his head, not in approval or disapproval; he was just enjoying the chat. He brought up a few issues and we all talked with surplus warmth. We hadn’t pressed him enough when the Navy helicopter appeared within sight in the sky.

He offered us the two spare seats in the helicopter, but we declined as our chopper was at that moment already landing. He pulled George Kerley aside for a two-aside. They talked for about two minutes, and he joined Governor Yakowa again, as they strolled on the rigid pavement into the boisterous windy path of the chopper. The pilots dismounted the chopper to greet their VIP passengers; they looked smart in their military uniform. It was the governor’s and the general’s final handshake.

Mr. Darego Williams, a seasoned pilot turned business man was joining our chopper back to Port Harcourt. He cringed at the manner the chopper had taken off and didn’t stop starring at the effects of the rotor blades. I noticed he was a little uncomfortable, but then he had been off the cockpit for over two decades, so he contained thoughts.

Less than ten minutes later, we were ready to go. The captain welcomes us on board and soon after we were in the air. We had just done about 10 nautical miles when the pilot suddenly did a 180 degree turn. Mr. Darego Williams was curious and called on the captain. The captain apologized to all on board and announced to us that a helicopter had just ‘gone down’. He actually meant ‘crashed’. We were the first search party.

Less than a minute ahead, smoke plumed from the thick swampy forest. It was a clear sign of danger. We did about four low fly passes to capture the coordinates of incident site. Our helicopter had ingested the smoke and smell of burning metals, wires and flesh. We could see the helicopter and the appendage bearing the ‘NAVY’ inscription had severed from the main body. The moment was intense, we doubted the very facts we knew. We all believed some miracle could have happened; the worst case was not an option. It just could not be true.

Abu Dhabi Floods The World With Free GIS Data

The Envrionment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) yesterday launched its Enviro-Portal. It was made known by the EAD during the ESRI Middle East and Africa User Conference (MEAUC) on GIS Technology solutions at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition (ADNEC).

This portal offers access to the most up to date environmental data and information on the geolocation of flora, fauna, marine habitats and protected zones within Abu Dhabi.

Based on cutting edge GIS technology, EAD make downloadable spatial environmental data and information that have been collected since the early 1990s.  The data and information available, in various raster and feature formats, are useful to professionals, researchers and students in both the Arabic language and the English language.

The portal is user friendly, you will be able to download different sets of environmental layers for your areas of interest.

Follow this link to access the portal: http://enviroportal.ead.ae

GOV. SULLIVAN CHIME: DEAD OR ALIVE?

There is rumour making round that the Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime might have died in India.
The governor has been  hospitalized since September.
If this happens to be true, it means that Nigeria lost  two governors in one day.
What a tragedy!!!