celebrity radar - gossips
Buhari: Our president, their patient
Buhari: Our president, their patient By Tunde Odesola
Buhari– His name outnumbers the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Arguably, the most creative hands to ever hold a chisel and a paintbrush, but unmistakably the sublime genius embodying the inventive force of the Renaissance Age.
A sculptor, painter, architect, poet and engineer, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni is the 38-letter name a little wizard was given at birth. But the world picked Michelangelo from the names and stuck it to his forehead.
A year before he died at age 88, Michelangelo, an Italian, who lived between March 6, 1475 and February 18, 1564, wrote in Italian language on a sketch he was working on, “Ancora Imparo,” meaning, “I’m still learning.”
The quote is akin to the pearl of wisdom from compatriot, fellow polymath and older rival, Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452–May 2, 1519), who had earlier said, “Learning never exhausts the mind.”
For Michelangelo, every work of art he embarks on is a challenge, a task accomplishable on the flourish of his brilliance. He defines his raison d’être in these enduring words, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
I affirm that Michelangelo’s imperishable legacy stands on four cardinal pillars: learn, discover, act and set free. These, for me, are the hallmarks of great leaders, great epochs.
Depressingly, however, these same pillars are conspicuously absent in the regime of Nigeria’s President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), which comes across as standing on the pillars of ignorance, neglect, inertia and persecution.
Whereas Michelangelo describes learning as a life-long process, President Buhari appears to see life from a short-sighted spectrum, having not learnt any economic and patriotic lessons from his over 40 years of medical tourism to the United Kingdom.
In an unlearned defence of government policy, Information and Culture minister, Lai Mohammed; and Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, severally said it was right for the President to patronise foreign medical services for over 40 years.
This is despite the fact that Made-in-Nigeria doctors, who migrated abroad as a result of the rickety state of Nigeria’s medicare, today hold vital positions in first-class hospitals worldwide, potentially including Buhari’s hospital in the UK.
Last Thursday, Mohammed, in a display of the confusion that has continuously characterised the Buhari regime in the last six years, said those criticising the President for seeking medical care abroad were making ‘inconsequential attempts to de-market him’.
In a jejune defence, Adesina also said, “President Buhari has been with the same doctors and medical team for upward of 40 years. It is advisable that he continues with those who know his medical history and that is why he comes to London to see them. He has used the same medical team for OVER 40 years. Once you can afford it, then stay with the team that has your history.”
With soaraway inflation crippling Nigerians, Adesina should know that Nigeria cannot afford the unending presidential flights to the UK and the sacks of pound sterling in medical fee for gerontocratic ailments treatable in Nigeria.
The hotness of Lai Mohammed’s sophistry and the coldness of Adesina’s remarks will win trophies in Sodom and Gomorrah.
The display of profound arrogance by both Buhari spokespersons runs against the time-tested advice for caution in a Yoruba proverb that says, “When a man is sent on an errand fit for a slave, he should display discretion.”
What would Buhari and his image-makers say about Aisha, the wife of the President, who went to Dubai last year to treat neck pain? Dubai doctors must have been treating Aisha from the womb, right?
In a move to deflect public criticism from her neck-pain trip, Aisha spun the red herring fallacy when she said her flight back to Nigeria encountered a turbulent storm, hoping to mask the wastage of public funds, which her trip symbolises, with public sympathy.
Then she pushed her luck over the precipice and rubbed insult into injury by saying, “I, therefore, call on the healthcare providers to take advantage of the Federal Government’s initiative through the Central Bank of Nigeria guidelines for the operation of N100bn credit support for the healthcare sector as was released (and) recently contained in a circular dated March 25, 2020, to commercial banks.
“This will, no doubt, help in building and expanding the capacity of the Nigerian health sector and ultimately reduce medical trips and tourism outside the country.”
What hypocrisy! Scarcely had Aisha’s flight from Dubai touched down than she started to talk about reducing medical tourism. If she knew that medical tourism was a drain on Nigeria’s economy, why did she embark on it? Nigerians, whose taxes are being used to maintain Buhari and his family’s expensive lifestyle, are grumbling, ‘like husband, like wife’.
In 2017, Aisha had lamented that there was no syringe in Aso Rock Clinic, Abuja, when she fell sick. She revealed that, “In the end I had to go to a hospital (in Nigeria) owned and operated by foreigners 100 per cent.”
Similarly, Aisha’s daughter, Zahra had, also in 2017, said there was no Paracetamol in Aso Rock Clinic despite a budget of N3bn for the provision of drugs to the hospital.
That this insane level of corruption could happen under Buhari’s nose without perpetrators fearing the consequences of their action indicates a rudderless Nigerian ship careening against the rocks of insecurity, unemployment, hopelessness and poverty, heading for doom.
When Buhari, who has completely lost the fear factor, doesn’t care about the corruption perpetrated with the precincts of his residence, how would he care about the slaying of farmers by Fulani herdsmen in Igboho or the killings by unknown gunmen in Owerri? How would he care about the kidnapping of schoolchildren in the North or the bloodletting in the Middle Belt? Or care about the worse-than-pigsty hostels in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka?
If Buhari had done something about the anomaly in Aso Rock Clinic since 2017, Aisha wouldn’t have embarked on a neck-pain trip to Dubai in 2020.
When you minus 40 years from Buhari’s 78 years, you have 38 years. For someone who joined the military in 1962 at the age of 19, this means that Buhari had received medical treatment in Nigeria for 19 years, that is, up till 1981 when he was a colonel who had been Military Secretary at the Army Headquarters, a member of the Supreme Military Council, and had been GOC of the 4th Infantry Division, 2nd Mechanised Division, and the 3rd Armoured Division.
I ask, why did Buhari stop receiving treatment in the good, old Nigeria where doctors had his medical records for 19 years?
And if Buhari says he’s been receiving medical treatment abroad in the last 40 years, that suggests that he was receiving medical treatment in the UK between 1983 and 1985 when he headed a military junta that toppled the democratically elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983 over allegations that the civilian government was ostentatious and corrupt.
This act of hypocrisy runs contrary to the War Against Indiscipline mantra upon which Buhari and his deputy, Brigadier General Tunde Idiagbaon, rode to power.
In Buhari’s lip-service War Against Indiscipline, public officers were forbidden to own foreign accounts, own houses abroad, send their children to foreign schools, send their underage children on pilgrimage, among other prohibitions.
But when Nigeria’s bloodiest military head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida, torpedoed the Buhari-Idiagbon fascism on August 27, 1985, Idiagbon had gone on holy pilgrimage to Mecca with his underaged son, Adekunle, showcasing another classical hypocrisy of Buhari’s leadership.
Nothing demarkets Nigeria more than Buhari’s over 40 years of medical tourism.
Then British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in May 2016, during a conversation with Queen Elizabeth II, described Nigeria and Afghanistan as ‘fantastically corrupt’.
Cameron is right.
Email:
Tunde Odesola.com
tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @tunde odesola
Twitter: @tunde_odesola
celebrity radar - gossips
Call EFCC to order, Nigeria is not a lawless country – Yahaya Bello Media Office
Call EFCC to order, Nigeria is not a lawless country – Yahaya Bello Media Office
About 9:30 am today, the 17th day of April 2024, persons who described themselves as officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrived the Wuse Zone 4 Residence of His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to effect his arrest.
This is despite a subsisting Order of injunction granted on 9th February 2024 by the High Court of Justice, Lokoja Division in Suit No. HCL/68M/2024 between Alhaji Yahaya Bello v. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, restraining the Commission either by itself or its agents from harassing, arresting, detaining or prosecuting Alhaji Yahaya Bello, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive fundamental rights enforcement action.
The EFCC was duly served with that Order on 12th February 2024 and on 26th February 2024; the EFCC filed an Appeal (Appeal No.: CA/ABJ/CV/175/2024: Economic and Financial Crimes Commission v. Alhaji Yahaya Bello) against the said Order to the Court of Appeal Abuja division. The Appeal was accompanied by a Motion for Stay of Execution of the Order of the High Court which the Court of Appeal adjourned for hearing till the 22nd day of April 2024.
Furthermore, Judgment in the substantive case between Alhaji Yahaya Bello and the EFCC is to be delivered at 12 Noon today in Lokoja.
Contrary to all of the above, the EFCC has now laid siege to the home of H.E Yahaya Bello seeking to arrest him in contravention of the extant orders!
It is a surprise that an agency led by a lawyer could flagrantly disobey a subsisting court order by taking actions contrary to the reliefs granted.
We are aware of the total commitment of the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the rule of law and can say categorically that the leadership of the EFCC might have offered the agency on a platter of gold to desperate politicians to convert to their score settling tool without minding the effect on its integrity and the image of Nigeria as regards the rule of law.
A situation where law enforcers disregard the rule of law is a definite recipe for anarchy, which will adversely affect every aspect of the nation’s economy.
Nigerians have perceived the desperation of the anti-graft agency to embarrass and harass the former Governor by all means through spurious allegations, especially the latest one dating back to September 2015, way before he assumed office.
We are aware that there are clandestine moves to correct the error, but with even more questionable allegations, which would embarrass the Commission and Nigeria more than the initial one.
It is unfortunate that an agency that is supposed to enforce the law is now the first culprit with respect to disobedience of court orders.
This is a big dent on the fight against corruption. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.
We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call the EFCC to order in the interest of legal sanity.
MEDIA OFFICE
HE YAHAYA BELLO
celebrity radar - gossips
Sen Moallayidi: The untold story of Adamawa born politician who introduced Facility Management course in ABU By Dr Salihu Mohammed Lawal
Sen Moallayidi: The untold story of Adamawa born politician who introduced Facility Management course in ABU
By
Dr Salihu Mohammed Lawal
In the different spheres of life there exist quintessential Nigerians who have silently achieved fame and glory without making noise about such feat; rather preferring to remain silent while still creating waves and continuing to bestrode the landscape with ingenuity that breaks new grounds.
Sen. Ahmad Abubakar MoAllahyidi is one of such great Nigerians, who represented Adamawa southern Senatorial District in the Senate between 2015-2019 comes readily to mind. A fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, a Certified Public Private Partnership Professional (IP3,Washington DC) also holds a Facility Management Professional (FMP) of (IFMA,USA). Moallayidi is a 1980 graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honours in Quantity Surveying and an Masters Degree in Construction Management.
This amiable gentleman in the year 2010, pioneered the designed and institutionalization of a facility management course in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU). He single handedly served as the sole lecturer for it (Post graduate studies in Facility Management ABU). His pioneering efforts were the basis for having facility management courses in Nigerian Universities.
The None serving Senator is an accomplished professional in managing facilities, resources and humanity is leading the private company called Integrated Facility Management Services Ltd among other endeavors that handled some of the most complex facility management services in Nigeria. These facilities include; Management and improvement of the Abuja International Conference Center (ICC) Management of Eagle Square Abuja Kaduna International Trade & Investment Centre, Kaduna (1997-2010). Murtala Mohammed Square Kaduna,and Nigerian Export and Import Bank, Abuja. He also managed Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) Headquarters & Residential Quarters in Abuja, Presidential Complexes in Lagos (Dodan Barracks and State House, (Marina) and Nigerian Army Strategic Bulk Storage Facility in Enugu.
The Rehabilitation and start-up operations of Health and Medical Industries Jos, a company specializes in the manufacture of cotton wool, bandages and gauge.
MOALLAYIDI AS A MEMBER OF VARIOUS PROFESSIONAL BODIES AND ASSOCIATIONS
Senator Moallayidi is an acumen of managing facilities was the pioneer President of International Facility Management Association in Nigeria (Abuja City-based Chapter) IFMA and is a Fellow Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, a Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Management Consultants (NIMC) and a Fellow Association of Facility Management Practitioners of Nigeria (AFMPN).
He participated in the Technical Committee on Commercialization and Privatization T.C.P.C. that commercialized government companies for improved performance.
This is the highly revered personality that is leading the management of the Abuja International Conference Center as the Managing Director of integrated Facility Management Services Ltd for which he has set an unprecedented record of upgrading the ICC to global standard in the management and improvement contract after the noticeable failure over the years before the coming of IFMSL.
MOALLAYIDI AS A POLITICIAN
The political journey of this personality of unique humble character, Senator MoAllahyidi is a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Legacy Party. He contested and won the Senatorial election and represented Adamawa South Senatorial District and sworn-in as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015. MoAllayidi while in the Senate, he distinguished himself as a vocal Senator in the red chambers and served as a Vice Chairman/Member of various standing and Ad-hoc committees.
Some of the communities is belonged to were; Vice Chairman Committee on Oil & Gas, Vice Chairman Culture and Tourism, Member Banking and Other Financial Institutions, Member Education (Basic & Secondary), Member Legislative Compliance and Member Federal Character and Inter Governmental affairs.
Other committees he belonged to were Member Committee on Bureaus of Public Procurement (BPP), Member ECOWAS Parliament and also held strategic positions where he played critical leadership roles for the APC such as: 2015 Senatorial Candidate (APC), Adamawa Southern Zone, 2014 Secretary APC Reconciliation Committee North Eastern Zone, 2014 Member of APC Congress Committee, Yobe State
(2014).
MoAllayi Joined APC as a result of the merger of CPC, ACN and ANPP (Legacy party) in 2011 Joined CPC and Contested for Adamawa South Senatorial Seat, 2007 he was the Director of Logistics of ANPP Presidential Campaign. While in 2003 the Man MoAllayi was the Director of Logistics ANPP Presidential Campaign.
His political might grew mightier for having a stronger voice for a common Man. in June (2022) the Senator convened the setting up of Arewa New Agenda (ANA) a Pan Northern socio-political organization with the aim and objectives as follows :
Setting up an agenda for the continuing relevance of the North in Nigerian Governance. It is to harmonize and project Northern positions on critical national issues. And to protect Northern interest in the Nigerian Political discourse and evolution.
ANA is an umbrella organization comprising of over 126 network affiliate groups across the 19 Northern States and FCT which Moallayidi became its extended leader as its Patron of Fulbe United for Peace and Development. It’s
the association of over 33,360 Ardos (The Fulbe Umbrella group) leaders across Nigeria.
The distinguished Senator was honored with the respected commander of Nigerian Students (CNS), an award by National Association of Nigerian Student NANS
Dr. Salisu Mohammed Lawal
Writes from Zangon Kataf, Kaduna State
And be reached through this means; emeles20o1@yahoo.com
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