Pope Francis named TIME's Person of the Year 2013

After only nine months as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been named TIME magazine Person of the Year 2013. TIME said the former Argentinian Cardinal has become the 'new voice of conscience and is the person who had the greatest impact on the world in 2013.

Powerful People having fun at Mandela's burial

Obasanjo Writes Jonathan, Accusing President Jonathan Of Lying And Promoting Corruption

Mr. Obasanjo said in the 18-page letter dated December 2, 2013. He said Mr. Jonathan has failed to deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people, stem corruption, promote national unity and strengthen national security. He said in the letter titled “Before it is too late” that rather than take steps to advance Nigeria’s interest and up the standards of living of Nigerians, Mr. Jonathan had betrayed God and the Nigerian people that brought him to power, and has been pursuing selfish personal and political interests based on advice he receives from “self-centred aides”. In the detailed letter, dripping of anger , frustration and what appears a genuine concern to rescue a nation on the brink, Mr. Obasanjo lamented that Mr. Jonathan had become terribly divisive and clannish, destroying his own party, polarizing the country along regional and religious lines and ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of nations. Without mincing words, Mr. Obasanjo blamed Mr. Jonathan for the crises tearing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, apart. He said apart from using party chairman Bamanga Tukur to cause multiple crises and divide the ranks of the party, the president’s failure to keep a promise he made not to seek a second term is also generating tension within the ruling party. “It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman (Tukur) for all that goes wrong with the party,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “The chairman is playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). But the paymaster is acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem to be the major ingredients. “Up till two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that statement you made to me judging by what is going on. I must say it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more honorable path.” The former President said Mr. Jonathan told him before the 2011 election he would not seek a second term, and made the same promise to governors, party stakeholders and Nigerians. The president’s refusal to keep that promise cast him as a man without honour, Mr. Obasanjo said. Saying it would be “fatally morally flawed” for Mr. Jonathan to contest in 2015, Mr. Obasanjo added, “As a leader, two things you must cherish and hold dear among others are trust and honour both of which are important ingredients of character. I will want to see anyone in the Office of the Presidency of Nigeria as a man or woman who can be trusted, a person of honour in his words and character.” Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of anti-party conducts – supporting opposition parties’ candidates in governorship elections in Lagos, Ondo, Edo and Anambra states at the detriment of PDP’s own candidates –, and of pitting party members against one another. Saying the President had failed to address the underlying causes of the Boko Haram menace, Mr. Obasanjo urged Mr. Jonathan to adopt a carrot and stick approach in dealing with the insurgency explaining that “conventional military actions based on standard phases of military operations alone will not permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko Haram”. Mr. Obasanjo also tackled Mr. Jonathan for allegedly being clannish. “For you to allow yourself to be “possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of Nigerians as an “Ijaw man” is a mistake that should never have been allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be Nigerian if not naturalized but the Nigerian President must be above ethnic factionalism. And those who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’ are not your friends genuinely, not friends of Nigeria nor friends of ‘Ijaw nation’ they tout about. “To allow or tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other Nigerians from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect your interest as an Ijaw man is myopic and your not openly quieting them is even more unfortunate. Two Ijaw men, ex-militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and a former federal commissioner for information, Edwin Clark, who carries himself around as the political godfather of the president, are known to talk down on people opposed to the president. Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of placing over 1000 Nigerians on political watch list and “training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha and training them where Abacha trained his killers”. He wondered why the Presidency was providing assistance for a murderer to evade justice. “Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally but particularly to the family of his victim,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as it is viwed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch.” Mr. Obasanjo did not mention the name of the murderer he accused the President of protecting but he seems to be referring to Hamza Al-Mustapha, a former security aide to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who is facing trial for allegedly masterminding the killing of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Moshood Abiola, the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election. Mr. Al-Mustapha was freed by the appeal court in July but the Lagos state government has since appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court. The former President also called on the National Assembly to rise up and take decisive action over the recent allegation in the country that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit billions of dollars in proceeds of crude oil sales to the federation account. “This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo told the President. “Please deal with this allegation transparently and let the truth be known. “The dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will one day be public knowledge. Those who know are watching if the National Assembly will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand corruption. May God grant you the grace for at least one effective corrective action against high corruption which seems to stink all around you in your government.” Mr. Obasanjo said he wrote the letter in the national interest, saying nothing, at this stage of his life, would prevent him from standing up for whatever he considers to be in the best interest of Nigeria, Africa and the world. He said he was ready for whatever backlash his letter would provoke from the presidency. “Knowing what happens around you most of which you know of and condone or deny, this letter will proke cacophony from hired and unhired attackers but I will maintain my serenity because by this letter, I have done my duty to you as I have always done, to your government, to the party, PDP, and to our country, Nigeria…,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “I have passed the stage of being flattered, intimidated, threatened, frightened, induced or bought… Death is the end of all human beings and may it come when God wills it to come.”

Shehu Sa-narrates-how-president-jonathan-frustrated-peace-talks-with-boko-haram/

Human rights activist and President of Civil Rights Congress, CRC, Mr. Shehu Sani, yesterday, alleged that it was President Goodluck Jonathan that scuttled an initial effort to constructively engage key members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect with a view to convincing them to end the blood-letting insurgency in the northern part of the country. Sani, who spoke at a seminar for judges and journalists, organised by Konrad-Adenaver-Stitung, KAS, a German non-governmental organisation, gave an account of some underground moves that were made by some elder statesmen, including former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Sani, who presented a paper on The Difficulties of Political Cases in Justice Delivery, recalled how he persuaded Obasanjo to visit the family of the slain leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, in Maiduguri on a peace mission. It will be recalled that the representative of Mohammed Yusufs’ family, Babakura Fugu, who hosted Obasanjo in Maiduguri, was killed shortly after the meeting. However, Sani said he opted out of the presidential committee because he was convinced that it would not achieve anything given his earlier experience with the Presidency on the matter. Obasanjo intervenes He said: “I independently reached out to leaders of Boko Haram and offered myself to mediate on behalf of the Federal Government. “When they were ready to talk, and because I do not have the telephone numbers of President Goodluck Jonathan, I decided to reach out to Obasanjo. “I narrated my encounter with members of Boko Haram to Obasanjo and he said ‘are you really sure of this?’ I said yes and invited him to Maiduguri. “Thereafter, I told the leaders of the sect that I was coming with former President, Obasanjo. They agreed and gave us conditions that the meeting should take place in Maiduguri with no security men and journalists involved. “At the meeting, they came out with photographs and some documents and presented them to Obasanjo, who assured them that he was going to take their grievances to the Federal Government after appealing to them to stop the killings. “Obasanjo took those documents to the Villa. Since then nothing was done. But Obasanjo told me that he has done his best. Delay at the Villa “I made a second attempt by involving Dr. Dati Ahmed, who was a teacher to the founder of Boko Haram, late Mohammed Yusuf. We brought him to Abuja to mediate with the Federal Government on behalf of the sect. “We went to see the then National Security Adviser, NSA, to the President, late General Owoye Azazi. He kept us waiting in his office for over three hours only to tell us that after consulting with security chiefs, he was told that the Boko Haram members have run out of weapons. “Therefore, the sect can be overrun by the Federal Government and so there was no need to meet with them. At the end of the day, Dr. Ahmed was frustrated and we all left Abuja. … opting out of amnesty c’ttee “We have done this twice and was frustrated, only for me to wake up one day to hear that my name was among the 26-member Presidential Committee on Amnesty for Boko Haram members. “So when I turned it down, some people called me names and said many things about me, including the fact that I am not a patriotic Nigerian. “I cannot think of any patriotism other than the efforts I have made. It took me three months to make contact with leaders of Boko Haram. “It is not an easy thing because you are dealing with a killer group that even goes after their members. “When you give a committee two weeks, it is not going to work. I have done my best and I know the committee will not achieve anythin Read more http://newswirengr.com/2013/12/12/shehu-sani-narrates-how-president-jonathan-frustrated-peace-talks-with-boko-haram/

Nigerian Man Found Dead Inside Boston Apartment, Making Him Third Person To Die Under Similar Circumstances

A 57-year-old Nigerian, Mr. Benjamin Chibuogwu was found dead in his apartment on Saturday in Lowell, Massachusetts. A native of Awka in Anambra state, Mr. Chibuogwu recently attended the Awka Convention in New Jersey over the Thanksgiving weekend. Mr. Chibuogwu body was found three days after he died. The gruesome discovery was made when his brother who lives in Seattle, Washington, could not reach him over the phone for three days, he then alerted a friend who went to Mr. Chibuogwu’s house with the landlord and found his body. Mr. Chibuogwu, who is divorced and lived alone, is survived by five kids - three girls and two boys. Chibuogwu popularly known as "Benny Chuks" briefly played professional soccer with Vasco Da Gama Football Club of Enugu before coming to the United States. The Boston community is having a wake for him on Saturday, December 13, 2013 at St. John’s Evangelist Parish in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, after which his body would be taken back to Nigeria for burial. Earlier this year, Elias Onyechi, a ther 60-year-old Nigerian man based in Lowell, was also found dead in his apartment. Elias Onyechi, from Ogidi in Anambra state, was also divorced with five children. He was buried in Lowell. This summer too another Nigerian, 54-year-old Sonny Asoa, formerly resident of Lowell, died in Revere, Massachusetts. He, too, was living alone after divorcing his wife

And there you have it... Your FIFA 2014 teams

Hundreds of people have gathered outside the Houghton home of the late former president Nelson Mandela

Some wrapped in thick blankets and coats to ward off the cold, others with the African National Congress (ANC) flag draped around their shoulders, mourners sang struggle songs and began to toyi-toyi in honour of the fallen icon. Mourners laid flowers, cards and candles near the gate as sombre police officers looked on. A military helicopter also hovered above. Among those gathered were young children who were accompanying their parents. “Mandela has freed our generation. If it wasn’t for him we would be living in a country where people are separated, just like our parents did,” said Lacy Gibbet (14). Annah Ngoasheng (13) accompanied her parents to Mandela’s house after hearing about his death. “My parents have told me about what Mandela has done for our country and I had to be here to pay my respects to him,” she said. Members of the Mandela family, ANC leaders including President Jacob Zuma and General Secretary Gwede Mantashe, were seen entering the home earlier. Shortly before 3am, a convoy of dozens of cars and an ambulance exited. As it drove off, the convoy was joined by cars which had been parked in the street. Defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula got into the back of one of the departing cars. CNN is reporting that the body is being transferred to a military hospital in Pretoria where it will be embalmed. The only family members confirmed absent at this time are daughters Zindzi and Zenani Mandela, who were attending the UK premier of Mandela: Long walk to freedom at the Odeon Leicester Square in London last night. According to reports, Zindzi and Zenani were informed of Mandela’s death while they were still at their hotel before the start of the screening, but insisted the event should continue. Zuma made the announcement shortly before 12am. “He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20.50pm on December 5,” he said. “He is now resting, he is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son.”