News
Ifeanyi Ubah: A global citizen’s eventful and incredible life
Published
5 months agoon

By Tony Eluemunor
The moment Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah died last July, I knew I had to write about him – the personable and uncommon businessman and politician, as distinct from the drab garb which media hype, politics, bitterness and misunderstanding had forced on him. Like Chinua Achebe’s Okonkwo, Ubah “bubbled with life like fresh palm wine”, flashing his trademark warm smile, working through punishing hours – night and day, ever the optimist who like a child would stand at the gates of midnight and yet dream of sunrise – as the Australian novelist, Morris West, put it in the The Navigator. Beyond all else, he actually bubbled with business ideas, espying money-minting opportunities where others saw only obstacles. Ifeanyi Ubah recognized neither obstacles nor impossibilities. If becoming wealthy with cash is an audacious adventure, then it suited Ifeanyi perfectly; he was most adventurous, giddily so, boldly so, tactically and tactfully so. Yes, he was kind, warm and personably but when occasion demanded, he could be an irresistible charmer or relentless in his quest and even hard-nosed in execution of his tactics. His aim; to win. Most of the time his major and winsome battle plan was his superior strategy.
Yes, many who knew nothing about him had preached, some abusively, about his character and business morals. Their justification? Oh, Nigerian politicians and businessmen and women have little honour, and because Ubah was both a politician and a businessman, painted him twice guilty. What about the lessons the youths could learn from this primary school teacher’s son, who was rightly convinced that his pathway through life laid in the market place… and so delivered on that singular promise that he became a billionaire before he hit his 25th birthday? What about the inspirations to be drawn from the life of Chief (Dr) Ifeanyi Ubah, a much-moneyed man who after coming a billionaire returned to school and passed his secondary school certificate examination, then contested elections and became a Senator of the Federal Republic? And somewhere along the line, he detoured to the Faculty of Law of an Abuja University to earn a degree. Yes, he did!
Is there nothing wholesome to be copied from the life of this man who, though rich and influential enough that he walked with kings, also remained an unchanged ordinary old time pal to his friends from long ago and from more modest circumstances and eras?
Talk about honour and Ifeanyi Ubah would tell you that the letter “h” in his version of Ubah, stood for honour. So, why the controversies? I asked him point blank during his altercation with a nationally renowned auto dealer, and he told me that he would not play dead, lie prostate on the floor for anyone to use him for a foot mat. He said he had immense respect for those who extended the hand of friendship to him along the way of life, just as he had extended same to others, but that he would not be bullied by anyone. He knew who he was and if he could not stand up for himself, who would?
Ifeanyi Ubah blazed into the Nigerian public space in 2011 when an unprecedented media splash celebrated his 40th birthday. Yet, how many of the people who tagged him narcissistic knew that Ifeanyi Ubah did not plan that media outing but his friends did – just to celebrate a friend or business associate that had touched their lives? He was not even in Nigeria then. When he returned, he was convinced to say a big thank you by throwing a party for those friends; he did throw that party, but he also threw the doors open so that anybody could attend.
Yes, that party was almost unprecedented in sumptuousness but if there was any trait that could have defined Ubah, it was the epic dimension of all he did. Would he build a house? Oh, it must stand out. Ifeanyi was innovative; he did things in new but astonishing ways.
Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah would have been 53 on September 3rd this year. Many knew him as the Capital Oil man, but Ubah had notched up huge successes in various business fields and in various countries that he was truly legendry. To put this in true perspective, bear in mind that he was born in 1971. By age 20 in 1991, he was already a topflight international businessman s as he was already flying out tires from Nigeria to Mali and Ghana and other West African countries. The real spirit of Ifeanyi Ubah, the one that made him different showed this early in his life; he would often identify ways to do things differently. While other major players in the tire sector were fighting for local turfs, Ubah identified markets overseas. By 1991, when the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was sapping life out of Nigeria, the 18-year old Ubah had a business relationship with tire manufacturers across the globe. From there he ventured into auto spare parts sales. It was after he had deeply rooted his business that he bought his first car. Yet, when he died many wrote that he was showy.
From Ghana Ubah moved to DR Congo n 1991, became the President of the Nigerian Community there, same year, a post he held for over ten years. I met Ubah in Kinshasa, DR Congo capital city by year 2000. Prof Sylvester Monye and I, travelled with late Ambassador Raph Uwechue, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Minister for Conflict Resolution in Africa, who was on a peace mission there, and a solicitous Ubah remained close to meet our needs. He spoke French fluently.
At 21, Ubah had built his first house at Nnewi, got married same year, and was doing business across Europe and USA. In 1993, he attended the Las Vegas (USA) Auto Show at Las Vegas Convention Centre to learn a few things about the car industry – as he had a big dream for the Nigerian auto industry. But Innoson Motors beat him to it. He frequented the biggest Auto Mechanical fair in Frankfurt, Germany, the globe’s biggest in the automotive sector to arm himself for his entry into the auto-manufacturing business. That dream died with him.
From 1993, Ubah invested in South Africa, partnering with the Anglo America Corporation and acquired his first house there at the age of 24 or 25. That same time, he had opened a Dubai office. From Congo the restless Ubah made business forays into Angola, was buying fish from Windhoek, Namibia, can beer from South Africa Brewery and freighted them by chartered flight to Congo and from Congo to Angola’s twin cities of Lunda and Luanda. He played same game in Dare Salaam, Tanzania, crossing from Lubumbashi in Congo, to Tanzania. Ubah had Mining concessions in diamond and gold rich Kisangani province of Congo.
He returned to Nigeria in 2001 after his close friend, Congo’s President Laurent Kabilla, was assassinated and dreamt up the Capital Oil idea. By 2015 Capital Oil was relevant enough to unilaterally break an embargo on petrol sales the Independent Oil Marketers had ordered against President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. Barr Afam Iluno and I drafted that proposal to Ifeanyi; to break the protests if he had the means. He had the seventh biggest petrol storage tank farm in Nigeria – in Lagos, Kano, Suleija, near Abuja (he once gave me a tour of the Lagos tank farm, built on reclaimed marshy land) and perhaps in Nnewi and about 500 hundred petrol tankers. Instead of the 30, 000 litres-tankers that Ifeanyi met, his tankers carried 60,000 litres of petrol. Ubah was an innovator. He used novel and creative means to do things differently. He had studied the oil industry for six months before he stepped into it. He was fully prepared and new the holes to plug; he even said that he knew the number of petrol stations from Benin City to Abakaliki before he registered Capital Oil as a business.
Thank you, Mr. Daniel Elombah for strengthening the bond between Ubah and I. Elombah had recommended me to head Ubah’s media team in his failed 2014 Anambra state governorship election bid. I turned it down because I was (and still remain) Chief James Onanefe Ibori’s spokesman – but I aided his efforts from the sidelines. Through Barr Afam Iluno (now US-based) Ubah offered me the Managing Director post of his newspaper, The Authority; I turned it down for same reason. So, Ubah engaged the team I had supplied him (of Madu Onuoha, late Joe Nwankwo and Chuks Akwuna), through Iluno again, to remain close to for political relevance, after his failed governorship bid – to manage the newspaper – Onuorah served as MD. When Ubah was birthing his NGO, Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAM) I sat through all the meetings with the likes of his lawyer, Mazi Afam Osigwe, now the Nigerian Bar Association President, Iluno who had been an Anambra state PDP Publicity Secretary and Barr Ben Chuks Nwosu, former Speaker, Anambra state House of Assembly. When I attempted to avoid the final meeting, Ubah postponed it that Sunday from 2pm to 8pm just so that I would attend.
When the DSS detained him, Ubah sent a message; that I should use the things he sent me to write and sensitize the world that he was being persecuted unjustly. I did but refused to sign it because I couldn’t be Media Assistants to him and Ibori at the same time or the speculation could spread that I had abandoned Ibori – and Ibori was in London by then.
Yet, one day, Ubah addressed over 20 journalists in the Authority Newspaper Board Room, saying, “I want to be very clear. I never met any of you before, except Tony Eluemunor – who is a member of my family”. He accepted my stand and respected the boundaries of our friendship.
Please, forget his two private jets, his ten or more crude oil freighter ships, humongous fleet of petrol tankers, a jetty capable of berthing four shuttle vessels simultaneously, 32-arm loading gantry capable of discharging up to 55 million litres of petroleum products, his stately mansions, his Rolls Royce, Maserati and other exotic cars and the razzle-dazzle glitziness that comes with wealth of the stupendous kind. When Ubah died, Nigeria lost an incredible son, a sports enthusiast, a man of vision, a workaholic of boundless energy (who knew neither day nor night but would place his head on a table or a seat’s arm-rest when tired and simply dose off for 10 or 20 minutes while holding meetings in his office and then wake up, shake his head and continue the meeting), an inspired innovator. Ubah’s death robbed the Nigerian sports and Nollywood community of a pillar of support, the common people lost a listening ear and helping hand (his house was always thickly parked with common folks like Nkwo Nnewi (Nnewi’s major market), yes, Ubah loved to be with the people, often just sitting and discussing with his drivers, photographers, tailors, about past experiences, eating with his recent acquaintances and old friends. Ex-sports stars ran to him when they hit rough seas and he never let them down. Often, you would find him playing table-tennis with ordinary folks. Let a wrist watch or phone seller come in when Ubah was hosting friends and associates and everyone present would receive a gift. But against powerful enemies, he was a formidable adversary.
I had still not found the right moment to write about Ubah when within the week, a former governor and South-South leader, sent me a link to an internet discussion thread; it was about Peter Obi and the Obidients. That was when I saw the light; the late Senator Ifenayi Patrick Ubah actually blazed the trail for grassroots political movement of a different kind in Nigeria with TAN. That was the spark I needed…to write about the Ubah I knew.
TAN, Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria was conceived in the heart of one man; Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah. TAN embraced strategic media marketing and political advocacy like nothing before it in Nigeria, re-writing the rules of engagement and furthering the limits of what was thought feasible. In the electronic media, it aired over 170 television jingles over 123,000 times. Over 68 Radio jingles (including in Igbo, Yoruba, Pidgin and Hausa).
TAN went into a working relationship with key Television houses in the country: NTA, AIT, Channels and Silverbird, as well as signing an MOU with National Orientation Agency (NOA). It had about 75 critical interventions in the print media in terms of interviews, feature pieces and opinion editorial pieces. TAN attracted over 5,000 news stories- ranging from sports to other critical national issues.
Yet, where TAN stood out is in the pro-Jonathan rallies it organized in the six geo-political zones, with a grande finale in Abuja. The defining outcome of each rally was the presentation of signatures of real flesh and blood Nigerian citizens calling on President Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential poll. In the end, it garnered some 12 million signatures of real Nigerians, backed by real addresses, who were urging President Jonathan to make himself available as a presidential candidate in 2015.
That was where TAN helped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the most. Unlike the other 800 pro-Jonathan groups which mushroomed across the country, waiting to be husbanded into action by the PDP, TAN actually showed the PDP the way to follow – to come right behind TAN, which like a bull elephant, beat out a path in the woods and thereby left a trail for the PDP to follow. What TAN did was as audacious as it was novel. The Obidients and other political support groups have a lot to learn from Ubah’s TAN. So, too, do Nigerians.
Yes, Ifeanyi Ubah was an activist, a courageous one. I will never forget Sunday 24th May 2015 – a few days before Mohammadu Buhari’s presidency incepted. Independent oil marketers had on Saturday 16th May, announced that all depots should suspend petrol loading from Monday 18th May 2015 because of unpaid funds owed to transporters by oil marketers who in turn were owed by the Federal Government. Barr. Afam Iluno and I deliberated all afternoon how Ubah should intervene to save Nigeria from the embarrassment of having a nation-wide shutdown during a presidential inauguration and under intense global focus. We tinkered with statements whereby Ubah would announce he was opting out of the strike on humanitarian grounds over the torture it had caused Nigerians and he would call for the strike to end. Ubah took the statement, a cheeky smile lit up his face and he said, Capital Oil had in storage over 79 million litres of petrol, though its tank farm facility had a combined storage capacity of 190 million litres of petrol with the capacity to load over 13 million litres, approximately 400 trucks of product per day. Ubah said that he would instruct all Capital Oil facilities to break the strike for the sake of the ordinary Nigerians, especially as the nation was preparing to have a new government. He started making the needed phone calls to his managers immediately, disdaining our advice to wait till Monday for the statement to get into the news media. The reworked statement said: “This is a period that requires patriotism and service to fatherland. Let’s join hands to help our fellow citizens and save Nigeria. We also call on striking bodies to call off the strike action. Let us work together for the betterment of our people.” All night, Ubah was the news. The oil marketers called off the strike the following day.
As the Jews say, “man proposes, God laughs”. A month before his death, Ubah said about his coming Anambra state governorship election bid as an APC candidate; “anyi enwetagoya” (Igbo for we have received it). Would he have won? What sort of innovative governor would he have been? Such answers will ever remain among the useless ifs of history. A total and permanent eclipse abridged Ubah’s life on 27 July 2024.
Ubah was the global citizen; at home in Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Luanda, Bamako, Issale Eko or Ajegunle (Lagos), Las Vegas, London, Frankfurt or his beloved Nnewi.
With Ifeanyi Ubah’s death I lost a friend. Nnewi lost a great son whose petrol stations, often times, sold petrol at Nnewi at reduced price as Ubah’s palliative to his beloved home town. Nigeria lost a sports enthusiast who owned a Football Club, a Games Village and a stadium, a Pan-Africanist, an uncommon innovator with the Midas touch whose business interests spanned from oil and gas (he controlled Nigeria’s kerosene market) the mass media as he owned a newspaper and radio station, hotels overseas to other numerous areas. Unfortunately, Nigerians are not about to learn uplifting lessons from the life of this self-made man who triumphed dazzlingly despite all odds. That is sad.
Ubah was a meteor; ever on the move, ever on the rise, ever aglow until the total and permanent eclipse of this determination and courageous global citizen; at home in Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Luanda, Bamako, Issale Eko or Ajegunle (Lagos), Las Vegas, London, Frankfurt as in his beloved Nnewi or Abuja. He not only lived, he taught us how to live – poor learners that we are.

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News
On Tinubu, you’re on your own, ACF tells Ganduje *We’re wiser now
Published
8 hours agoon
February 13, 2025
It does not lie in the mouth of Abdullahi Ganduje, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or any othe party’s big-wigs from the North to corral the people into voting for President Bola Tinubu in 2027, as the people were now wiser and more prudent to make crucial decisions.
This much was delivered by Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), a pro-North socio-political organisation, as a clapback to the assurance of Ganduje, former Governor of Kano State to the effect that the people would have no choice but to allow the President do two terms in office as was allowed Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor.
The PUNCH, in a report, quoted ACF and other northern leaders as declaring that no individual could claim to be the mouthpiece of the North and, as such, it was wrong for the ACF boss to ask the North to wait till 2031 before vying for the Presidency.
Ganduje who spoke on Tuesday, urging politicians nursing presidential ambition in 2027 to bury the idea, as Tinubu would complete two terms in office, told a delegation of the Tinubu Media Centre and Tinubu Northern Youth Forum at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja that it would be unfair to deny Tinubu the chance of being re-elected after a fellow northerner was allowed to finish his tenure of eight years.
His words: “When a leader from the northern part of this country was in office for eight years, we advocated that the next president in our party should come from the south. Luckily enough, we worked very hard with the cooperation of Nigerians. Our president has come from the south and is going, Insha Allah, for a second term come 2027. And after that, it will be the turn of the northern part of this country.”
The PUNCH, however quoted Tukur Muhammad-Baba,National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, as saying that the comment credited to the former governor was a reflection of the cult-like nature of the presidency, where allegiance to the president is paramount.
His words: “Given the nature of the Presidency, it has become something like a cult; a personality cult and allegiance to the president because it looks like the president wants total allegiance and nothing else.
“We are in the season of politics and you should expect that those who are near the corridors of power should express those things. But it’s not constitutional.
“There’s nothing new in what Ganduje said. So many people have said so before. Not too long ago, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume said the same thing that northerners should forget about it until 2031.
“He or she or party members cannot influence voters by force. So, what he said was an opinion and his personal opinion and it’s up to the voters to endorse, reject or modify what he said. I think voters are becoming wise as to where the president comes from. In 2015, we were sold a dummy of anti-corruption.
“We were sold a dummy of many things and people have realised that it wasn’t true. Then, of course, the Renewed Hope came in 2023 and the hope is turning into a nightmare. What will sell President Bola Tinubu, I think and I hope, is not whether he will contest or not, it will be his policies and their impact on the people. If they buy it, fine.”
Mallam Salihu Lukman, former APC National Vice Chairman (North-West), who echoed the same sentiment, was also quoted as saying: “El-Rufai is not saying anything different from what I have been saying all thise while. The only difference is that he is talking for the North while I talk for the whole country.”
Also, Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has declared once again that he remains the right candidate for President in the 2027 general elections.
Reacting to Ganduje’s admonition for the North to wait till 2031 for Tinubu to finish his second term before aspiring for the Presidency, Mohammed, who spoke through his Commissioner for Natural Resources Development, Maiwada Bello, described Ganduje’s comment as silly.
Bello urged the youths to rally around Governor Mohammed, saying that he had set a national precedent by appointing more youths into key positions in government than any other governor in Nigeria.
The commissioner said the Bauchi governor’s bold move underscores his administration’s commitment to youth empowerment and inclusive governance, adding that he deserves the collective support of the Nigerian populace to propel him to the country’s highest political office in 2027.
He said, “We are committed to building a government that reflects the energy and innovation of the youth. No other administration in the country has given young people as many opportunities to serve in high-level positions as my administration.”
In an interview, a former ally-turned-foe of the President Tinubu, Babachir Lawal, affirmed that the North can never forgive Tinubu over the manner he allegedly brought suffering to the region through his nail-biting reforms.
The former SGF reiterated El-Rufai’s warning that the North is massively mobilising its people ahead of the 2027 polls.
He stated, “The North is seriously mobilising with a consensus that Bola Tinubu must give way in the 2027 election. This is no doubt about the consensus. There’s no argument about that. I may not have been supporting El-Rufai’s position. But on this one, I will join him to see how we can stop Bola Tinubu from winning the 2027 election. Because if he does win, you know there will be one large refugee camp.’
“So, there’s that consensus. Everybody understands that if we are to continue with these policies for another four years, northern Nigeria will become one large refugee camp. So, there’s a consensus that for self-preservation alone, we must look for another candidate.”
Babachir said the state of origin of the candidate doesn’t matter, noting that the important thing is for the candidate to understand the need for one Nigeria.
He added, “Now, that is where quite a number of people think that it is only right to find someone who is patriotic and sees Nigeria as one, even if it’s from the South or the North. Some want it to come from the South while others are saying we cannot take the risk of bringing a southerner for self-preservation alone. So, that is where the divergence is.
“But we all agree that we must look for a substitute for Bola Tinubu. Unfortunately, quite a lot of people like Ganduje and other northerners benefiting directly from this government are just irritants. They are people who are talking to justify their positions in this rogue government. So they are justifying their place in it not caring what the other parts of northern Nigeria are going through.
“So, if we can get a good southerner that can rule with equity, we are okay. It’s not actually about the elite consensus. It’s about the masses and what they are saying at the bottom. Even if some elite pretend to be supporting Bola, they will not vote for him because they are the ones at the receiving end of this thing. They are also the ones directing us, political elites of northern origin, to make sure this man doesn’t have a second chance.”
Commenting on the development, a Peoples Democratic Party chieftain and lawmaker representing Benue South Senatorial District, Abba Moro, also observed that what is playing out is an alignment of forces ahead of the electoral contest.
Moro also noted that El-Rufai and Ganduje’s remarks smacked of political alignment
He said, “There are several fireworks that are going on in the political firmament at the moment. These are attempts at alignment and realignment. Ambitions are on display and people are expressing sentiments in line with their ambitions.
“My take is that with time, the picture will become clearer as to the direction of things takes shape. Nigerians will make up their minds as to where to go. Don’t forget that this present government is barely a year and a few months old.”
However, taking a different position on the matter, a former Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, submitted that El-Rufai and Ganduje do not speak for the North.
He said, “There is nothing controversial about the statements of the two. This is because none of the two people you have mentioned speaks for the North in so far as partisan politics is concerned. This is because the North can be united politically on issues of real concern to northerners but when it comes to partisan politics, the North does not act in unison.”
He recalled that in the Second Republic, “Shehu Shagari contested against Nnamdi Azikiwe of the Nigeria People’s Party while Obafemi Awolowo of Unity Party of Nigeria from the South and with Mallam Aminu Kano of Peoples Redemption Party from Kano and Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim of famous ‘politics without bitterness’ from the North joined forces together.
“During the third and the current Fourth Republics, the North voted for Moshood Abiola against their son, Bashir Tofa, and voted for Bola Tinubu in 2023 from the South against the son of the soil, Atiku Abubakar. This should also inform political pundits that the North can use contingency in its approach to politics depending on the situation on the ground,” he elaborated.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, Malam Falalu Bello, expressed disappointment that El-Rufai and Ganduje were playing ethnic or religious politics.
Bello said though the constitution of the country gives Tinubu the privilege of running for re-election, the PRP would field a sellable candidate in 2027.
He said, “The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not allow for an eight-year term for the President of the Federal Republic but a four-year term which for President Ahmed Bola Tinubu comes to an end in 2027 at the end of which he must face the Nigerian electorate to seek for another mandate.
“The PRP had a candidate in the presidential elections of 2023 who came 8th out of the 19 presidential candidates and would, Insha Allah, field its presidential candidate in the 2027 election to face President Tinubu or whoever APC decides as its candidate and our choice will be any Nigerian to bring good governance to Nigerians.”
The Immediate past Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Benue State, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, warned El-Rufai to stop heating the polity with his posturing as the mouthpiece of the north.
The PDP chieftain said playing the south against the North in the name of promoting the interest of the region is an ill wind that will bring no good.
He said, “So I asked again, who are the northerners? Are they Almajiris who are the real face of poverty or El-Rufai, whose children are part of the bourgeois? I think one of his sons is in the House of Reps, right? You have his children in the upper echelons of life. He wants you to understand that he and his children and those Talakawa and the downtrodden are all North.
“He should basically be trying to pacify certain areas where he has caused so much strife within the polity of that state. El-Rufai had placed himself in a larger perspective in the eyes of Nigerians as an ethnic and religious extremist. He’s not the sort of person that should be talking about the north and the south dichotomy. As far as I’m concerned, he’s only leading a crusade in the wrong direction.”
The National Secretary of the APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru, described the claim that Tinubu brought poverty to the North as laughable.
He said, “First and foremost, El-Rufai and others cannot speak for the North. Lukman, on the other hand, is a hireling of El-Rufai. So, whatever he says is from the same person and the way they going about it is laughable. I don’t know when El-Rufai turned himself to the mouthpiece of the north.
“He should, first of all, go and make peace with the Kaduna chapter of the APC before talking about national leadership. Then two, this idea of trying to represent the North is for his personal and egoistic interest because when you look at the structure of government we have in place now, you cannot be saying anybody is anti-north.
“The Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, the national chairman of the party, the Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, deputy senate president, and key other ones from the North. So, we don’t know what they meant meant. This is not even a military government. It’s a democratic one.
“The structure and setup of the Nigerian Constitution does not even facilitate or allow marginalisation of any part of the country. There’s no northern state that does not have members in the Federal Executive Council. So, where did El-Rufai and others come up with their theory of Tinubu being anti-North? Even as we speak, the North now North-West, North-East and North Central Development Commissions. All of them have been activated?”
The APC scribe emphasised that El-Rufai was free to exit the APC if he so wished without levelling any false claim.
Basiru also advised that the former governor should have been engaging in penance over the manner he managed Kaduna State amid the turbulence, killings and rife state of insecurity that rocked the state under his watch.
“We all know he is working together with Atiku. He should not divert from the implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President. He has also been going about alleging that they want to arrest him and put him in a dungeon. Who does that in a democratic society? The president is a detribalised Nigeria.
“That was why the Federal Government also gave out N150bn support to Kaduna State. But El-Rufai turned around and claimed it was a bribe to Governor Uba Sani. We are talking about funds that will benefit farmers and the agricultural structure in the state. Rather than commending the federal government and seeing it as charitable, he is labelling it as a bribe to his governor.’’
News
Natasha unveils 150 free JAMB forms, five scholarships after Tuface’s engagement
Published
12 hours agoon
February 13, 2025
Even while currently in the heat of the public storm over her current blistering love affair Natasha Osawaru, Deputy Majority Leader of the Edo State House of Assembly, has moved to endear herself with her constituency with the announcement of the purchase of 150 free JAMB registration forms on a first-come, first-served basis to students of the state.
Osarawu, whose love affair with Innocent Idibia, Nigeria’s iconic and award-winning singer, popularly known as Tuface, is on top of social discussions in the country, at the moment, made the announcement in a video, which surfaced on Thursday, the same day she received an engagement from the popular artist.
She said in the video that she would also award scholarships to the top five students with the highest JAMB scores, covering their university education, a rare outing from the legislature in Nigeria, very low on public-spirited gestures in recent years.
She said: “The time has come again to push education into another level. With my fronts as a politician, I will be offering 150 JAMB registration forms for Edo State. It will be first come first serve. The 5 most intelligent students with the best score, I will sponsor their education.”
It is not known whether the gesture is purely a measure of philanthropy, political or appreciation for finally attaining the status of a wife-to-be to the singer, who announced recently that he was divorcing Annie Idibia, nee Macaulay, his childhood love.
News
Canada hits Nigerian military! *Denies CDS, others visa *They can go to hell – Ribadu
Published
12 hours agoon
February 13, 2025
What appears to indicate the new rating of Nigeria on the global stage came to the fore on Thursday with report that Canada denied the topmost echelon of the country’s military, including Christopher Musa, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), to visit the country.
But in a swift riposte, Nigeria has clapped back through the Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, who brushed off the obvious snub, with an equally disparaging message to the North-American country – go to hell!
Musa, the head of the Nigerian military, had briefed the NSA, himself a retired top police officer, about the snub during the maiden annual lecture of the National Association of the Institute for Security Studies (AANISS), held at the Shehu Yar’adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday, leading to his angry retort.
Ribadu, pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in expressing his strong disapproval over the incident, maintained that such a treatment would not affect Nigeria’s march to greatness.
Musa, who though did not give reasons for the rejection of the visa application, explained that the delegation of the top military echelon was going to honour of an invitation for war veterans in Canada, adding that while half of the delegation, including himself, was denied visas, others were allowed into the country.
Describing the incident as disappointing, but served as a reminder for Nigeria to stand strong as a nation and not be taken for granted, Musa had told the NSA: “Every disappointment is a blessing. Yesterday, I was meant to be in Canada. There’s an event to honour our veterans, those who were injured during battles, and we were meant to be there. We were invited with our team. Half has gone and half has been denied. It’s very disappointing.”
Replying Ribadu, commended the CDS for speaking out about the incident, saying: “Thank you for the courage to say Canada denied you visas. They can go to hell.”
Restating that despite the disappointment, Nigeria remained “peaceful and strong” and must work hard to overcome such challenges, Ribadu also praised the CDS for providing “purposeful leadership” in the war against terrorism, banditry, and other security threats in the country.
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February 14, 2025 5:01 am



February 14, 2025 5:01 am

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