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The National Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Shehu Gabam, says the political will to effectively tackle the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-eastern part of the country is lacking.

While appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Gabam warned that if the terrorists are not well decimated, it might end up consuming the nation.

“The Boko Haram thing is because there is a lack of political will to deal with it decisively. There is no decisive decision from the Executive to deal with the issue,” he stated.

He recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo provided the right leadership by efficiently addressing the nation’s security challenges at the time.

Gabam regretted that the terrorist attacks escalated when the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua left the country for his medical trip abroad.

“When the late President was going for his medical trip, he left an order that hunts them where they are and deal with them decisively. That wasn’t follow up, that led to the escalation of Boko Haram.

“The Executive began to deal with the issue and interpret it along ethnic and religious lines. There are some of these people organising this act of crime and criminality because they didn’t like President Jonathan,” he added.

When asked to react to the military’s claim of some groups and foreign interests determined to cause mischief and exacerbate the nation’s security, Gabam wondered why such persons have not been dealt with in accordance with the Constitution.

He challenged the military to present their facts to Nigerians, adding that the citizens have been supporting them over time.

“In a nation where you have functional laws where decisive actions are being taken, that intelligence they have gathered around those individuals, are those individuals above the law? They are not above the law. They are within the parameters of our territory governed by our laws

“And this country has sufficient laws to deal with such individuals. Why haven’t they acted? Why shouldn’t they pick those individuals? What are they afraid of? Why shouldn’t they present their facts to Nigerians?” he asked.

The Nigerian Army has banned the use of motorcycles in the north-western states of the country, due to the increased rate of kidnapping and banditry.

Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, made the announcement in a statement on Sunday.

He said the affected states are Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Niger.

While giving the reason for the ban, Musa noted that “armed bandits, criminals and kidnappers hibernate and all around where troops are conducting operations alongside other security agencies.”

The Army spokesman warned that “anyone caught using motorcycles within the named areas will be taken for an armed bandit, criminal and kidnapper with dire consequences.”

While appealing for the cooperation of the general public, Musa said the directive will stop the dastardly activities of these bandits from operating across the affected region.

He also reiterated the military’s commitment in securing lives and properties of the citizenry, calling on the “respective State Governments are enjoined to please disseminate the ban on the use of motorcycles in the named areas and enforce the ban in conjunction with the security agencies.”

The development follows ongoing military operations in the affected states codenamed Exercise Harbin Kunama aimed at combating security challenges in the area.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says that five suspects arrested for engaging in examination malpractices during the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have been jailed for periods between three months and two years.

Prof Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB registrar/FileThe examination body disclosed this in its bulletin released on Sunday, adding that 123 other suspects were standing trial across the country.
The 2019 UTME took place between April 11 and April 18 in 698 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide contained in NationOnlineNews reports.
In our newsletter on Sunday, the board said, “Five persons who were involved in one form of exam malpractice in the just concluded 2019 UTME have been convicted. 
As of Sunday, three suspects from Zamfara State and two from Kebbi have been convicted for periods of three months to two years.
“No fewer than 123 suspects are standing trial in various courts on one form of infraction or the other. With the conviction of the five suspects, the board urges the judiciary to continue on this path and to ensure that all suspects arraigned with sufficient facts are convicted.”

Hon. SIJI OLAMIJU AKOL has called on Muslims to pray for the peace, progress and prosperity of Nigeria.

In a statement “Islam is a religion of peace that upholds the values of tolerance and mutual coexistence without a place for hatred and violence.”

Hon. SIJI OLAMIJU AKOL also called for religious harmony in the country, stressing the need for Muslims to use the fasting period to build a relationship of friendship with fellow citizens of other faith.

He also prayed for the continued peace, progress, and the wellbeing of the country.

It was celebration all the way at the Jamia Tul Mubashreen Ahmadiyya Nigeria, Ilaro, Ogun State as a total of nineteen (19) students bagged degree in Missionary Training and Islamic Theology.

The students combined from three African countries which include eleven from Nigeria, seven from Republic of Benin, and one Cameroon are Aminu Bara; Ijaz Ahmad; Houmenou Fatih; Ibrahim Sossougadjou; Sonou Muhammad; Tossou Zikrullah; Adetona Abd Wadud; Jubril Muzaffar; Tasleem Sulayman; Abd Roheem Abd Malik.

Others are Munirudeen Raji; Abd Malik Sanusi; Abdul Azeez Abdul Jeleel ; Issa Nutinme; Thalith Muhammed Thalith; Abd Lateef Yusuf; Abd Basit Olayiwola; Tonou Hafiz Daud ; Faremi Idrees.

The Principal, Maulvi Abdul Azeem Ahmad, who congratulated the graduating students for their outstanding performances during their time in the institution also highlighted some of the achievements of the institution in the past one year under his administration.

“Today I don’t know how my heart is beating. It’s singing songs of praise of Almighty Allah because I see you completing your education in Jamia and simultaneously it is sad that you are leaving me today. I will miss you, my staff, fellow students will miss you, the hostel, classrooms, library, the playing ground will all miss you, in short all the four corners of Jamia will miss you.

“We started 2018-2019 Academic Session on 1 September 2018. There were two semesters of the session. The Jamia activities are not limited to the curricular activities.

Ahmad explained that there are lots of Competitions that the institution use to test the intellectual activities of the students such as: Qur’an competition, there are Hufaz and non Hufaz categories. The Hufaz category partake in the five parts of the Holy Quran followed by the Qaseedah, Quiz, Azan competitions, English and Arabic, English impromptu speeches and jokes competition.

In his goodwill message, Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V, congratulated the students and also enjoined them to be good ambassadors of the Nigeria Jamia.

“As Missionaries, you are the representatives of Khalifatul Masih and so it is your duty to convey the voice of the Khalifa to all parts of the world. The only way you can successfully relay his message is if you yourself listen attentively to what he says and implement his guidance in your own lives. Only then will you be ready to act as true ambassadors of Khilafat.

In his closing remark, Amir Sahib (National President) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Nigeria, Dr. Masshu’ud Aderenle Fashola, advised the students to remember what they had enrolled for, “Allah appoint his Prophets and Messengers but Allah did not appoint you, but you have offered yourselves as Missionaries, you want to preach the words of God to all corners of the world, Fashola stated.

He continue by telling the students to offer themselves for self reformation of Mankind.

The Missionary-in-Charge, Maulvi Afzal Rauf Sahib, in his words of advice said its important for the students to know the essence of what they had learned in the institution.

One of the student, Tasleem Sulayman, said a journey of a thousands miles begins with a single step and for every beginning there is surely an ending, “Our journey of four years has ended today by grace of God. When we entered, we were 27 students but today only 19 of us are graduating, this is not by our power or strength, but by the grace of Allah.” Sulaiman noted.

He therefore thank management and staff of the institution, “we are grateful to those who have in one way or the other contributed to this success. First and foremost, our beloved Huzoor who follow us in our pains, prayed for us and solved many of our problems through prayers.

Dignitaries at the event include Obaladi of Afon, HRM Adetona Adelere Busari; Sadr Majlis Ansarullah Nigeria (Elders Group), Engr. Abdul Waheed Adeoye; representative of Ilaro Divisional Police Officer, SP Ooni Abdul-Waheed; Ogun State House of Assembly member-elect, Mrs Lateefat Bolanle Ajayi.

Manchester City have overtaken Manchester United as the Premier League’s most valuable club, with higher wages and lower profits hurting the Old Trafford powerhouse, according to a football finance survey published Friday.

Premier League champions City are valued at £2.364 billion ($3.07 billion) in 2017/18, up £385 million, according to the study by the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Sports Business, while United are valued at £2.087 billion, down £376 million.

The report said United still had the highest revenue of any club in the Premier League but increased costs meant they relinquished top spot in the valuation table.

The pair are the only two Premier League clubs valued at more than £2 billion.

“Manchester City’s value increased in 2018 due to a combination of higher revenue and lower wages,” the Liverpool University report said.

“The ownership model of Sheikh Mansour which effectively means that the club is debt-free means that there are no loan interest costs and no dividends are paid to shareholders either.

“Critics of Manchester City will point out that it is part of a multi-club ownership model and that there are commercial deals with related parties which might not apply should the club be sold and therefore a prospective owner might not be willing to pay this value.”

The value of Premier League clubs decreased by 1.6 percent overall to £14.7 billion, with the ‘Big Six’ of United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs making up £10.9 billion — 74 percent of the total.

The gap between the bottom club in the Big Six and the next highest valuation is now nearly £1 billion.

Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs show major increases, and Arsenal and Leicester show large falls due to non-participation in the Champions League.

The report’s model takes into consideration revenue, profits, non-recurring costs, average profits on player sales over a three-year period, net assets, wage control and proportion of seats sold.

United came third behind Real Madrid and Barcelona in Deloitte’s list of the world’s richest clubs published in January, which ranks clubs according to how much revenue they earn.

The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on Saturday said he defeated and retired four political godfathers in Kaduna State, saying the feat could be replicated anywhere, including Lagos State.

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor kaduna stateEl-Rufai, who argued that godfathers existed only on paper or in the minds of the people, said the key to defeating them was in going directly to the people.
He, however, admitted that defeating godfathers required time and hard work.
The Kaduna State Governor spoke in Ikoyi, Lagos, at an event organised by the Bridge Club tagged, “An evening with His Excellency Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State.”
In his main speech, El-Rufai had encouraged the club members, who are businessmen, not to shy away from politics, saying it was more important than making money as bad politics could mess up their businesses.
El-Rufai said Nigeria had permanently remained a country of potential because good and competent people had distanced themselves from politics.
However, during the question and answer session, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and three-time commissioner in Lagos State, Dr Muiz Banire, noted that godfathership was one of the drawbacks for professionals and businessmen who might want to go into politics.
Banire then asked El-Rufai how godfathership could be dealt with.
Responding, El-Rufai said, “Godfatherism. This is Lagos. Let me tell you something sir; you know, Kaduna State used to be like that. There were three or four politicians in Kaduna that you could not become anything unless you had them on your side. Those were the godfathers of Kaduna politics and you had to carry them along and you know, the three words, ‘carry them along’ mean paying them regularly.
“But we chose a different path and the long and short of it now is that after this election in 2019, we have retired all of them; we had to.”
El-Rufai added that the fact that only one million out of the six million registered voters in Lagos voted in the last general elections was an opportunity to end godfathership in the state.
He said, “Here in Lagos, you have over six million registered voters, only about a million voted (in 2019 general elections); five million did not vote. If I want to run for governor of Lagos, I will start now. I will commission a study to know why those five million registered voters did not vote; where do they go on election day? Then I will start visiting them for the next four years. I will try and get just two million of them to come and vote for me; I will defeat any godfather. The key is to go to the people. The card reader and the biometric register have given us the tools to connect directly with the people. I assure you if you do that for the next four years, connecting with the people; the tin godfather, you will retire him or her permanently. But it is hard work; it requires three to four years of hard work. So, if you want to run in 2023, you should start now.”
On the question of money, El-Rufai said it would require about N2bn to do the job, which he said the businessmen could provide.
“With about N2bn; if you start, you see these guys with black ties, they will give you the N2bn. Many of the godfathers are either on paper or in the mind of people in politics. They are defeatable. We retired four of them in Kaduna State within a four-year time and they are gone. One of them boasted that he put me in the government house and he would take me out.”
Earlier in his lecture, El-Rufai said the difference between Nigeria and progressive nations of the world was because incompetent people were in charge in Nigeria.
He said, “In most of the developed worlds, the best and the brightest are in politics and public service. I urge you to google the profiles of the captains of the USA, UK, Japan, China and Singapore over the last 10 years and compare their educational and experience profile with ours, you will understand why we are where we are.
“The UK has been run by graduates of Oxford most of the time; the US has been run by graduates of Harvard and Yale most of the time in the last 100 years. You go to China, Singapore, similar profiles. In Nigeria, we have people that never went to school in our National Assembly. We have people with questionable qualifications as state governors. We will go nowhere as long as our best and brightest, people that sit in rooms like this are not in politics or public service.”
The President of Bridge Club, Mr A.U. Mustapha (SAN), who is El-Rufai’s private lawyer, described the governor as an upright and an intelligent person.
Mustapha said El-Rufai was invited so that he could tell the club members about himself, as opposed to the image being given him by the press.
Among the dignitaries at the event were the President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick; the Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Waheed Olagunju; and MD, First City Monument Bank, Adam Nuru.

NIGERIA TO GREATNESS Season 1- Joshua Nicholas
 The Call of a Nigerian Graduate

Nigerian graduate I school, you school; we all school. The journey just begun but tough anyway. We left our comfort homes to new horizons for the fear of the future. We lit up the candles as boys and girls for the glorious women and men to emerge. Lecturers played hide and seek with us, university staff controlled our selling point and even navigated us to the tempest when there was a safe shore. Assignments stole our sleep, puzzled with our lifeline and sometimes even shifted the positions of our pockets and pulse. We studied harder to get the grades as new semester approaches, old logarithm fades as we head on for new logistics.
At sunrise, morning lecture calls with stomach filled with nothing and sustains the day with streneous non-activities with offices of lecturers becoming home-sweet-home. What of when the sponsor unsponsors and garri becomes a well treated campus salad. Sometimes a lift with the two legs to classes becomes preferable than shuttle in order to see you through.
Gradually we are coming to our final year and we have to learn the equation that is of no “tion” in our profession at our high theory institution. After the final exams, we get ready for graduation. Luckily, the long awaited day comes. Our eyes filled with shock and our minds ready to absorb it. The caps start rolling in the air as graduates throw up their pen and some materials; family and friends rejoices as the journey of life begins.
Arise o compatriots serving the nation becomes inevitable as NYSC turns higher Bsc. Then the world receives another group of young intellectuals who are ready to uncover, hijacking the labour market(to be cont’d) from NationOnlineNews. 
NIGERIAN FACTSThe first foreigners to explore the area that will be called Nigeria were the Portuguese in 1472. joshuannicholass@gmail.com08108767289

The crisis rocking the Ondo state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC may come to an end soon as Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu may have finally reconcilled with the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Left- OLUWAROTIMI AKEREDOLU SAN GOVERNOR OF ONDO STATE, ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU APC NATIONAL LEADER AND PIUS AKINYELURE FORMER APC NATIONAL VICE CHAIRMAN SOUTH WESTAkeredolu and Tinubu fell out in 2016 over the latter’s endorsement of Olusegun Abraham in the September 3, 2016 APC governorship primary in Ondo state. Akeredolu eventually won the primary and was subsequently elected governor of Ondo state without Tinubu’s backing.Though Tinubu later made a surprise appearance at Akeredolu’s inuaguration, the two men have not really been friends. 
The move to reconcile Tinubu and the Ondo helmsman was initiated by a former APC national vice chairman southwest, Chief Pius Akinyelure who had made several attempts to bring the duo together but had suffered setbacks until late last week when Akeredolu flew to Abuja to honor Akinyelure’s invitation to meet with the former Lagos governor.
PresentTimesng gathered that the two men met, expressed their grievances and resolved to work together in the overall interest of the party. 
At the end of the meeting, NationOnlineNews confirmed that Tinubu assured Akeredolu that “the war was over” and tasked him on the need to reconcile all different tendencies in the Ondo APC.
On his part, Akeredolu thanked Asiwaju Tinubu and promised to work for the unity of the party. PresentTimes. 

A Chieftain of the State of Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) at Ifelodun, Boripe and Odo-Otin Federal Constituency has felicitated with the Muslim community on the sighting of the crescent which heralds the commencement of the holy month of Ramadan (1440 After Higrah).

I join the Muslim community to thank the Almighty Allah for another opportunity to witness the new month of Ramadan. I pray Allah gives us the patience and strength to not only observe the fast but to reap manifold rewards.

Bello Adegboyegba Basheer urge the Muslim faithful and the people of Ifelodun, Boripe and Odo-Otin Federal Constituency to use this holy month to reflect on and commit ourselves to the themes of piety, personal discipline, compassion, good brotherliness, and selfless service to humanity which Ramadan embodies and calls to.

He further implore non-Muslim brethren at Ifelodun, Boripe and Odo-Otin Federal Constituency, to please be thoughtful & helpful as Muslims go through this spiritual experience.

He further Pray that Allah accept our worship, grant us tranquility and prosper our dear State, guide Governor Gboyega Oyetola and his Deputy Mr Benedict Alabi and our Country at Large.

Ramadan Kareem!