We’ll Rebuild Niger Delta – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari assured yesterday that the present administration would rebuild the country, especially the Niger Delta region.
Speaking at an audience with a delegation of Niger Delta Dialogue and Contact Group led by the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, at the State House in Abuja, the President said under his watch, the country would witness judicious utilisation of resources.

“We intend to rebuild this country; so that our children and grand-children will have a good place they can call their own. A lot of damage has been done, so I want you to tell the people to be patient.
“When you get together with other leaders, please pacify the people. We will utilise the resources of Nigeria with integrity and rebuild the country,” he said.
He said whatever that has not been fulfilled would be addressed by the present administration.
“I want to get as much intelligence as possible on the situation in the Niger Delta,” he said.
In his remarks, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, said the group was made of peace builders, dedicated to peace and stability in the region.

Source: blueprint.ng

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Nigeria-China Roadshow: NNPC Gets $50bn Oil/Gas Deal

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that its strategy to fund capital intensive projects in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry has begun yielding fruits with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some Chinese companies worth $50 billion for infrastructure development.

The corporation said in a statement in Abuja that the deal was part of recent landmark strides by its management to bridge the infrastructure funding gaps in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
The companies involved in the deal include China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO Group), China Cinda Asset Management Company Limited (CINDA), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation/Addax petroleum (SINOPEC/ADDAX), International Chamber of Commerce/ China’s National Development and Reform Commission (ICC-NDRC), among others.

The corporation said the MoU was coming as a fall out from its on-going road show in China, would provide funding for investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream sector.
The ICC-NDRC is expected to develop the master plan for the deal that would include detailed feasibility study of current status of existing infrastructure in the Nigerian oil and gas sector industry and a road map on its development.
“ICC-NDRC will also develop bankable projects that will attract Chinese investors on this government-to-government platform. This initiative will move us to a much more profitable and efficient state,” The NNPC said.

“The master plan will form the basis of massive inflow of further investment from Chinese companies into the sector.”
On the road show, the corporation said it featured over 300 Chinese and Nigerian businessmen to attract investors from China and the Asian sub-region to invest in the country’s oil and gas sector.
The Nigerian delegation on the roadshow, which included a team of top management officials of the Corporation in the sector, was led by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe kachikwu.
The road-show was a follow-up to the earlier working visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to China in April.
The corporation commended the support of the companies that participated in the road-show and assured them of Federal Government’s transparency in ensuring growth in the sector.

Source: blueprint.ng

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Egypt's Sisi celebrates Morsi's ouster

Sisi declares the ouster of Egypt's first democratically-elected president a national holiday with lavish celebrations.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has celebrated the 2013 overthrow of the country's first democratically-elected president by ordering a lavish military display in the capital and celebrations across the country.

Warplanes roared over Cairo early on Thursday as Sisi addressed the nation in a pre-recorded address while his supporters were instructed to amass in the streets later in the evening after the breaking of the Ramadan fast.

"On this glorious day, I would like to assure you that we are working hard to realise the hopes of the Egyptian people for the better future they deserve," Sisi said in his early-morning televised speech.

Thursday's holiday, which the government refers to as the "June 30 Revolution" was also marked with musical performances and free entry to museums.

"The June 30 Revolution reasserts the impossibility of imposing a status quo on the Egyptian people. Anyone who imagines that he can successfully do that is deluding himself," Sisi said, alluding to Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

Morsi, who was Egypt's first freely elected leader, was toppled by the military in July 2013 following days of mass street protests by Egyptians demanding that he be removed.

Sisi was the military chief at the time who led the takeover of power and ran for president two years later, winning the vote in a landslide.

Sisi has launched a persistent and extensive crackdown on Islamic activists and has declared the Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist organisation".

Thousands of Brotherhood members have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, while others are standing trial or being held without formal charges.

Sisi spoke of "terrorism" in his speech and warned against anyone attempting to break Egyptians and their "hopes and dreams".

Security was stepped up across the country - where protests are effectively banned - but the day was punctured by violence in the Sinai Peninsula where a Christian priest was shot dead and two members of the country's security forces were killed in separate attacks.

Also on Thursday, six members of Egypt's security forces were killed in clashes with smugglers on the country's western border.

The smugglers were trying to infiltrate Egypt from Libya, the military said in a statement, adding that several smugglers were killed.

On Wednesday, Sisi had appealed to security forces and agencies to stop anyone from "spoiling" the occasion. He did not elaborate, but he appeared to be referring to possible protests by Morsi supporters or potential attacks.

In recent months, a growing number of Egyptians have begun losing patience with Sisi over corruption, poverty, and unemployment, the same issues that led to Mubarak's downfall, while Sisi has appeared increasingly defiant in his speeches.

In April, thousands of people marched Cairo in the biggest anti-government demonstrations since Sisi took office in 2014, shouting slogans such as "Down with the regime" and "Leave", both of which were used during the 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Source: aljazeera.com

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Nigerian Masses And Barmecide Feast

In the Arabian Nights, a story is told of a stupendously rich man named Barmecide who invited his friend to dine with him. Dishes were served in due order but there were no victuals in them. However, Barmecide pretended to eat and his guest had the politeness to imitate him. It was from this account that the phrase “Barmecide Feast” was coined. It simply means a banquet where there is nothing to eat. (Nevertheless, at the end of the phantom dinner, Barmecide called for dishes with meals and the guest was well fed in appreciation of his sense of humour).

Nigeria perfectly fits into this account. Since 1999 when the current democratic dispensation was foisted on this country, successive leaderships have been treating us (their friends) to the Barmecide Feast. Nigeria is stupendously rich like Barmecide but the masses have been wallowing in abject poverty… no food to eat. Forget about the current economic downturn. From Obasanjo to Yar’Adua and Jonathan… they were all afflicted by Barmecidal syndrome.
It was perhaps in a bid to end the syndrome that President Muhammadu Buhari was voted to replace the most Barmecidal of them all – Jonathan. It was during Jonathan’s occupation that the masses were treated to the famed feast. But unlike the Arabian Barmecide who later compensated his guest for his sense of humour, the masses that mimicked Jonathan were left to “eat” from the empty dishes.
Nevertheless, a handful of powerful individuals managed to get Jonathan to appreciate their sense of humour and were later served with sumptuous dishes that would not only last them for life but also their offspring until thy kingdom come!

The powerful and influential individuals that were later treated to the dinner are now being dragged all over the place by the hounds of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and also standing trial for all manner of corruption cases in the law courts. Never in the history of this country have we been treated to this kind of monumental spectacle. During the Shagari regime which was toppled by the duo of Buhari/Idiagbon on December 31, 1983, the most corrupt politician could only boast of N1bn.
But in his second coming (without his soul mate, Tunde), it is difficult to pinpoint the richest among the multi-billionaires that the Jonathan regime has churned out. And the producer of these rich individuals that cornered our collective wealth for themselves and their families was recently at his boastful best when he said that his administration has produced more billionaires than any other regime before it.

And I am sure there will be none after him to break the record!
Under the watch of the multi-billionaire producer, the anti-graft agencies like the EFCC and its conjoined twin, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), could only clap as the organised stealing of our patrimony (not corruption) was being carried out for close to more than five years. This country is well endowed. No other country under the sun could have remained standing after five years of relentless looting. I tell you!
Curiously, unlike in the Second Republic and lately during the Obasanjo era, no military chiefs had their hands filled with filthy lucre. But under the Jonathan regime, military brass and thieving politicians struggled for supremacy in the race to loot the nation’s till. Until lately, I couldn’t believe that such huge quantum of money, both in local and hard currencies, could be so light as to develop wings and fly out of the shores of this country.We are talking about billions of dollars here.
Politicians were not alone.

Men of God(?) were not left out. Billions of naira were allocated to some pastors under the umbrella of CAN or Christian Association of Nigeria to canvass for votes from the Christendom. A high profile bishop, pumped with filthy lucre, was even said to have threatened to fling open the Gate of Hell to torment us if Nigeria failed to return Jonathan to Aso Rock Villa. Possibly, he made good his promise. It cannot be worse than this… living in Hellgeria! Elsewhere, the cleric would have been held accountable for the hell of a place this country has become. In fact, they would have forced him to ask the tormentor-in-chief he invited from Gehenna to leave us alone because this is democracy, and not theocracy (from hell?), where majority is expected to have both the say and the way.

It is a year into the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Armed to the hilt with “Change mantra”, he was expected to understand the suffering of the downtrodden friends of Barmecide and serve them with dishes filled with victuals. But so far, nothing seems to have changed despite the quantum of loots recovered. After all, the President had told us shortly upon assuming office on May 29, last year, that we should brace up for at least three more months of Barmicide experience. It is one year now and nothing has CHANGED. Except that the high profile friends of Barmecide have been very visible lately at the Aso Rock Villa dinning with him, while the rest of us are condemned to watch and imitate them.
Pray, when will it be our turn to partake in the real victuals?

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Turkey: Dozens killed in explosions at Ataturk Airport

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim
says ISIL believed to be behind
suicide attacks at Ataturk
Airport.

At least 36 people have been killed
and nearly 150 others injured
following explosions at Istanbul's
main international airport, Turkish
officials say.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali
Yildirim said three suicide bombers
were involved in the attack at Ataturk
Airport late on Tuesday evening.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility, but Yildirim said there
was indication that the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group
carried out the bombings.
He said efforts to identify the
attackers, who arrived to the airport
in a taxi, were continuing.
The attackers opened fire at airport
guards at the terminal entrance and
a shootout erupted before they blew
themselves up one by one at around
10pm, authorities said.
Security camera footage circulated on
social media appeared to capture two
of the blasts. In one clip a huge ball of
flame erupts at an entrance to the
terminal building, scattering terrified
passengers.

Another video shows a black-clad
attacker running inside the building
before collapsing to the ground -
apparently felled by a police bullet -
and blowing himself up.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan called for a 'joint fight'
against terror after the attack [EPA]
Most of the casualties were Turkish
citizens, a senior government official
said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
called for a "joint fight" against terror
after the attack.
"If states, as all humanity, fail to join
forces and wage a joint fight against
terrorist organisations, all the
possibilities that we dread in our
minds will come true one by one," he
said in a statement.
"It is clear that this attack is not
aimed at achieving any result but
only to create propaganda material
against our country using simply the
blood and pain of innocent people."
One of the attackers "randomly
opened fire" as he walked through the
terminal building, shortly before
three explosions, a witness told
Reuters.
"We came right to international
departures and saw the man
randomly shooting. He was just firing
at anyone coming in front of him. He
was wearing all black. His face was
not masked. I was 50 metres away
from him," said Paul Roos, 77, a South
African tourist on his way back to
Cape Town with his wife.
"We ducked behind a counter but I
stood up and watched him. Two
explosions went off shortly after one
another. By that time he had stopped
shooting," Roos said.
"He turned around and started
coming towards us. He was holding
his gun inside his jacket. He looked
around anxiously to see if anyone
was going to stop him and then went
down the escalator ... We heard some
more gunfire and then another
explosion, and then it was over."
Ataturk Airport is one of the busiest
ports in the world, serving more than
60 million passengers in 2015.
There has been a string of bombings
around Turkey over the past year,
some of them blamed on ISIL, others
claimed by Kurdish groups.
Earlier in June, at least 11 people
were killed in central Istanbul
following a bombing attack targeting
a police vehicle. The armed group
Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, also
known by its Kurdish-language
acronym TAK, claimed responsibility
for that attack.

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$18m mansion, jewelry: Diezani reacts, attacks Al Jazeera

– Diezani Alison-Madueke has faulted Al Jazeera over a report on corruption that cast aspersion on her person

– Earlier, Al Jazeera released a video report, claiming the EFCC seized a house worth $18million and allegedly owned by Diezani

– The former minister said the report represented ‘everything ridiculous and despicable about professional media practice and global best practices in the war against corruption’

– She wondered if it was a crime to own a property or jewelry in Nigeria

Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former minister of petroleum resources has reacted to a report by Al Jazeera which claimed a property in Abuja worth $18 million had been seized from her.

The report also claimed that jewelry worth $2 million was recovered from the building by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Diezani said as a Nigerian she has a right to own property and jewelry

In a statement made available to Signal.ng, the former minister said as a Nigerian, she has a right to own property and jewelry.

She said no court has convicted her of corruption and the report was an attempt to tarnish her name.

The statement read: “My attention has been drawn to a report by Al Jazeera, which was released on Monday as a testament to the effectiveness of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in its war against corruption.

“In the video report, which has been widely circulated in the social media, there are claims about me owning a property in Abuja allegedly worth $18 million. The report, which represents everything ridiculous and despicable about professional media practice and global best practices in the war against corruption, is the latest attempt to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Clips of jewelry allegedly worth over $2 million were also copiously displayed as if to feed the cravings of an audience gratified with the notion that every wealthy Nigeria is corrupt.”

According to her, this was not the first time and attempt has been made to damage her reputation. She said they have always gotten away with it because of her characteristic approach of silence.

She said: “The latest in the string of propaganda attacks launched against my person since I left government as Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister is this Al Jazeera report, which without any court conviction anywhere in world attempts to dress Diezani Alison Madueke in the garb of a common criminal. This, to say the least, is the height of journalistic brigandage and a sheer mockery of Nigeria’s anti-corruption war before the eyes of the world who are watching and asking if the war against corruption is a circus show where suspects are prosecuted and sentenced on the pages of newspapers and video blogs without anything as remotely in the semblance of a trial in the courts of law?

“When did it become a crime to own a property in Nigeria? When did it become a crime for a woman of my status to have in her possession, jewelry women all across the world, including the woman selling tomatoes in Bodija market has in abundance in her closet? In which court of law, anywhere in the world was I prosecuted by the EFCC and found guilty of corruption?

“With all sense of modesty, I have strived within my means and the blessings of God to live a decent and accomplished life. I studied architecture in England and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Howard University, United States of America in 1992. When I returned to Nigeria that same year, I joined Shell Petroleum Development Corporation. In 2002, I obtained an MBA at Cambridge University, United Kingdom. In April 2006, I was appointed by Shell as the company’s first female Executive Director in Nigeria. In July 2007, I was appointed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as Minister of Transport. The next year in December 2008 I became Minister of Mines and Steel Development. In April 2010, I was appointed as Minister for Petroleum Resources and served in that capacity till May 2015. During this period as Petroleum Minister, I had the honour of serving Nigeria and representing her in the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) where I was elected first female President. All through my career, I have strived to maintain a record of hard work, integrity and excellence, giving my best to society, because my parents raised me in the consciousness that a man or woman’s greatness is defined not by the amount of wealth they have acquired but the impact of their service to God and humanity.”

The former minister said the report was coming at a critical time in her life when she was battling cancer.

She said only those who are battling cancer or have lost their loved ones to cancer understand what she’s going through.

“This is what makes me ponder at the cold-heartedness of those who will go any length to defame and destroy in the name of propaganda. What happened to our shared humanity?

“I have absolute regard for the law and believe that people who have breached the laws that govern societies should be made to face the wrath of the law. But in a civilized society, a responsible government owes its citizens absolute commitment to the principles of rule of law, equity, fairness and justice. I have been wrongfully and maliciously maligned and those behind this reckless action know it,” she added.

Diezani said she would leave her detractors to posterity, their conscience and the Almighty God who is the final judge of all.

The former minister is under investigation in the UK over the missing $20billion oil cash, phoney crude oil lifting contracts, $115million poll bribery money, the $1.092b Malabu oil deal and the N5.2billion ($25m) oil

cash paid by an Indian oil firm for an oil block.

She and four others were arrested in London on October 2, 2015 by the National Crime Agency( NCA) but were released on “conditional MO bail, pending further investigation both in the UK and overseas”.

A week ago, some investigators from the United Kingdom reportedly came to Nigeria to gather more evidence against her.

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