My church is aware I’m member of Ogboni Confraternity —Ogunfuwa, 75-yr-old Remo chief

Otunba Joseph Adedayo Ogunfuwa,   the Babalaje of Remoland, celebrated his 75th birthday, penultimate Saturday. In an  interview, shortly after the birthday lecture, Ogunfuwa said he is a devoted  Christian, a member of the Anglican Communion and a strong member of   the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity. This, he claimed, his church is aware.

 What inspired your celebrating your birthday with a lecture?

I conceived   the idea of a birthday lecture 15 years ago when I clocked 60 years because I thought I would die before 60.   My late father died at 62 and, to me, when  you  clock 60 and die, it is not   a premature death. Initially, the birthday lecture was restricted to my immediate family and close friends. But when I clocked 65, people, mostly friends, advised me to extend the invitation beyond my immediate family so that it could be a legacy   that will not only benefit my immediate family but should be   passed on to generations   because of my experiences on knotty issues like world peace, religion as well as other issues that will always give people food for thought.

I also want to say that none of the fraternities that I belong to is against any religion or government. They all affirm the supremacy of God and oppose  discrimination of any kind.   The  world needs peace and not insurgency and the battle for God among different religions  must stop if the world must know peace.

So, this year, I changed the pattern of the lecture. I saw the need to invite  knowledgeable persons to deliver it. Professor Dayo Adekole  talked about  religion and fraternities and explored the notion of a conflict. Professor Rom Kalilu talked about religious intolerance –The Muslim point of view. I     spoke on religion intolerance =The Christian view point and religion and world peace. The whole essence of  this was to see how we can all bring about world peace. Without peace, nothing meaningful can be done, either as an individual or as a nation.

What exactly is your philosophy of life?

Do my best in all circumstances for everybody and without doing wrong to anybody.

 Your   dad died at 62. Did you envisage you will live this long?

Ogunfuwa

Nobody knows how long he or she   will live. People die through many causes. You cannot predict also what manner of death you will have. One can have the best of health and still die young.   When you live and abstain from what  is not necessary, you can live long. For instance, I gave up smoking over 30 years ago, and I was a bad drinker. My elder  sister kept warning me and weeping because of these habits because of the fear that I might die young. But, today, she is alive and I am also  alive. I had to stop smoking because I had medical challenge. As a child,  I was always ill. My mother died of  asthma at 32.   The doctor advised me to stop smoking, but I didn’t stop immediately.   I, however, gave up the habit when I realised that  I was pushing myself to the grave. One does not need much education to know that smoking is dangerous to health. And  it is not right, but it took me long time to be convinced that I needed to stop the habit.

 At 75, would you say you are fulfilled?

I have been a fulfilled man as far back as when I clocked   60. Death did not matter to me after that. People tend to associate  fulfillment with wealth or monetary worth. It is whatever you set out to achieve in life that makes you fulfilled. I set out to be what I am, to be kind to people, to be generous to live according to my conscience. I listen to advice but I don’t take every piece of  advice. I am not rich and I don’t have to be rich to be a fulfilled man.   I have 14 children and 23 grandchildren. I have always told my children, ‘what I have done for you, go and improve on it   yourselves’.

 Being the Babalaje of Remoland, what are the factors that shaped you to make you who you are today?

I don’t know why they conferred the title of Babalaje on me because I told them I didn’t want it. Babalaje is given to people who are rich. I am not.

 What is that thing that your parents inculcated in you while growing up that you have also passed to your children?

That is a secret. When my father was about to die, he compelled me to love all my siblings because he was a polygamist. Today, I am successful and my siblings are also successful and my children too.

 So when   you die, how do you want to be buried?

I have given my children instructions on what to do when I die. Not only that, I have consistently openly said it. Nobody should say after my death that I renounced any of the fraternities I belong to.   I am a Christian of Anglican Communion; when I die, my fraternities’ members should come in their full regalia and, if the church will not permit that, let the fraternities bury me.

Diepreye Alamieseigha is dead is dead

News Flash, former bayelsa state governor News Flash, former bayelsa state governor Diepreye Alamieseigha is dead is dead

Ministerial List: Buhari must be screened if he’s Petroleum Minister—SENATE

STRONG indications have emerged that tomorrow’s plenary session, where the Senate would unveil the ministerial list sent by President Muhammadu Buhari, may be stormy as senators are saying the President must, in line with the constitution, submit himself before the Upper Chamber for screening if he appointed himself Minister of Petroleum.

They are also set to reject an incomplete list, saying the constitution provides for a nominee from each state of the federation and that any list that did not cover the 36 states would suffer serious opposition on the floor of the Senate.

The senators have also vowed that they would not be cowed by the trial of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, just as they promised to adopt stringent measures in line with the provisions of the Constitution during the screening of ministerial nominees.

They added that the tradition of take-a-bow for senators coming for screening as ministers would be jettisoned, adding that they were prepared to send names of nominees to the sender of such a list.

Senate President, Dr. Saraki, is currently facing trial at CCT, following a 13-count charge levelled against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, bordering on alleged corruption and false declaration of assets in 2003 and summoned him to appear before it, which he did.

Details later..

Chief Ralph Uwazuruike have urged the UN to allow Biafra to separate fron Nigeria

ONITSHA—Leader of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, yesterday, gave what he termed as genuine reasons the United Nations should allow Biafra to be separated from Nigeria.

One of the reasons, he stated, was that the population of the former Eastern state, now South East and part of South South that make up Biafra land can currently boast of over 10 million people, adding that the Biafran people naturally do not share similar culture and tradition with Hausa-Fulani of the North and Yoruba of the South West as to continue to remain together under one country called Nigeria. 

According to Uwazuruike, another reason was that MASSOB, as a separatist group, had all it takes to run a sovereign state of Biafra, having had enough instruments, structures, flag, currency, coat of arms and defence to assume a status of an existing government. Uwazuruike, who spoke to newsmen, yesterday in Onitsha, Anambra State, through MASSOB’s Deputy National Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha, ahead of the on-going UN General Assembly, renewed his call on the world body to accord a recognition to Biafra as a sovereign state, just as it did to South Sudan which had been accorded a sovereign status since July 9, 2011. He recalled that US had classified Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan as failed states which needed to be divided between 2011 and 2015, adding that it was only from Sudan that South Sudan was carved out on July 9, 2011, remaining Nigeria, Ethiopia and Somalia. He cited examples of carving out of East- Timor with only a population of about 821,000 from Indonesia on May 22, 2002; carving out of Serbia with a population of about 10 million from Montenegro on July 2006; carving out of South Ossertia from Georgia and carving out of Kosovo from Serbia on February 17, 2008. 

He, therefore, urged UN to grant the sovereignty of Biafra to save the people from further annihilation in Nigeria since there was no basis whatsoever for Biafra people’s continued stay with Nigeria, adding, “Nigeria cannot make any appreciable economic progress until Biafra is allowed to go, particularly now that Lord Fredrick Luggard’s amalgamation of 1914 has since January 1, 2014, expired after 100 years of the amalgamation.” He wondered why the UN had not been proactive in tackling the knotty problems of the oppressed in Nigeria and asked rhetorically: “is UN waiting till things degenerate into full blown war again or to continue as genocide before they will act?”

List of Senators that followed Saraki to Tribunal

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was docked at the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Tuesday.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu led 28 other senators to the CCT in solidarity with the Senate President.

Senators at the CCT are:
1. Amori Ighoyota (Delta Central)
2. Bassey Albert Akpan (Akwa North East)
3. Abdulrahman Abubakar (Kogi East)
4. Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo Central)
5. Kabiru Gaya (Kano Central)

SENATE PRESIDENT BUKOLA SARAKI (M) AND OTHER LEGISLATORS AT THE CODE OF CONDUCT TRIBUNAL HE WENT TO TAKE HIS PLEA IN THE 13-COUNT CHARGE SLAMMED ON HIM OVER ALLEGED FALSE DECLARATION OF HIS ASSETS, IN ABUJA ON TUESDAY (22/9/15)

6. Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta North)
7. Aliyu Wamako (Sokoto North)
8. Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara North)
9. Theodore Orji (Abia Central)
Others are Senators
10. Ben Murray-Bruce (Bayelsa East)
11. Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa Central)
12. Ogola Foster (Bayelsa West)
13. Mao Ohuabunwa (Abia North)
14. Gilbert Nnaji (Enugu East)
15. Rose Oko (Cross River North)
16. Sam Egwu (Ebonyi North)
17. Olaka Nwogu (Rivers South East)
18. Samuel Anyanwu (Imo East)
19. Sunny Ogbuoji (Ebonyi South)
20. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger East)
21. Isa Hamma Missau (Bauchi Central)
22. Obinna Ogba (Ebonyi Central)
23. Kaura Tijjani (Famfara North)
24. Clifford Ordia ( Edo Central)
25. Mohammed Ohiare (Kogi Central)
26. Rafui Ibrahim (Kwara South)
27. Gershom Henry Bassey (Cross River South) and
28. Ibrahim Dambaba (Sokoto South).

You can’t mess with Saraki, senators tell Buhari

You can’t mess with Saraki, senators tell Buhari

Senators from across the political divide on Sunday night resolved to defend the Senate under the leadership of Saraki from incursion from what they call “a cabal” in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

To demonstrate their resolve to “ride the tide, rise and fall with Saraki,” no fewer than 50 Senators met in a location in Jahi District in the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja in a marathon meeting which started on Saturday and ended on Sunday evening.

The meeting, which alleg­edly involved conference calls from other Senators out of the country in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America vowed “to protect the institu­tion of the Senate from a gang of cabals.”

Daily Sun gathered that the meeting, which was presided over by a member of the Sen­ate leadership, saw angry Sen­ators point accusing fingers in the direction of “some cabals in the APC with no regard for due process.

“We met on Saturday and at the meeting, we discov­ered that the legal war against Saraki was not done with re­spect for the rule of law. There was no due process in the charges leveled against him at the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

“We decided that everything must be done to deal deci­sively with the cabal. I had cause to explain to them that President Buhari had no hand in the war against the Senate President.

“They wanted to embarrass the Senate but we will let them know that we will sink or swim with Saraki…He will be our president, even in jail. There will be no leadership change; if that is what they are expecting…”

The meeting ended yester­day night with moves to pass a confidence vote on Saraki when the Senate resumes in plenary, it was gathered.

Regardless, it also emerged yesterday some Senators met last Wednesday, immediately the perjury charges levelled against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) be­came public.

“Initially, some of the PDP Senators said they should re­spond by convening an emer­gency session where a mo­tion would be sponsored by a member from the opposition to alert Nigerians to the fact that the charges against Saraki was a witch hunt. But, wise counsel prevailed because some thought the move could boomerang on the Senate.”

Besides, some ranking Sen­ators may have decided not to wade into the matter officially because “some of us have anti-corruption cases in court. This is not the best time to be seen shouting about Saraki’s travails.” Another set of Sena­tors reiterated that they are “businessmen and any noise now may jeopardise such business interests. “You don’t fight government and win,” another member from the South said.

In a related development, some Senators are expected to prevail on Saraki to discard “the winner-takes-all attitude” and implement the composi­tion of Senate leadership let­ter sent to him by the party.

“We know the mood of the party; they want some Sena­tors in the leadership…It’s time to allow party supremacy in some areas,” a Senator dis­closed.

A meeting to that effect, it was learnt, held at a house in the Jahi District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) last week. A source said Senators mulled another confidence vote “to show that Senators are with Saraki…We will not allow anyone or cabal think they can rubbish the Senate as an institution and get away with it.”

In a related development, Saraki, it was gathered, is reportedly looking to the Ju­diciary as the last resort to evade arrest and prosecution today.

Daily Sun gathered that last Friday, soon after the CCT Chairman, Danladi Umar, issued a bench warrant for his arrest, a flustered Senate President immediately left his office in the new Senate wing of the National Assembly.

A ranking Senator, how­ever, disclosed on Sunday evening that “Saraki may not even show up in the CCT today. I got to know that the appeal against his arrest may have been served on the CCT chairman same day (on Friday); even though Daudu promised to personally show up with him at the tribunal today…” More revelations, however, indicate that Sara­ki’s legal counsels, M. A. Mahmud and Joseph Daudu, former President of the Ni­geria Bar Association (NBA) were prepared for “any even­tuality” during the hearing at the CCT last Friday. A source privy to the arrangement dis­closed that,”on Friday, when they were in court, both counsels to the Senate Presi­dent, “having read the body language of the CCT chair­man, immediately went into action. They approached the Appeal Court and got an ap­peal against his arrest ready… in fact, between 2:30pm and 3:00pm on Friday, the ap­peal was ready, filed imme­diately and the Chief Regis­trar signed and took it to the Court of Appeal where it was stamped and possession was taken of the Certified True Copy (CTC). “That was why it was difficult to carry out the bench warrant issued on him by the CCT chairman.”

On Wednesday, Septem­ber 16, the Federal Govern­ment, through the CCB, filed a 13-count charge against Saraki, accusing him of false declaration of assets includ­ing failure to declare some properties in the highbrow Maitama district of Abuja and Ikoyi, Lagos.

Mrs Aisha Buhari behind close of chapel

Mrs Aisha Buhari

As controversy over the closure of the children’s wing of the Villa Chapel located inside Nigeria’s presidential quarters rages on, DAILY POST has uncovered fresh facts on the matter.

On Sunday, our correspondent was given an insight into the power play that has been going on inside the villa for weeks by Borno-based Pastor, Kallamu Musa Dikwa.

Dikwa, it could be recalled, made the allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan gave the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) the sum of N7billion to support his re-election bid.

The Pastor, who is also Executive Director, Voice of Northern Christian Movement, made the disclosure following an earlier allegation by Rivers State ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi that CAN received N6billion.

In a chat with DAILY POST on the Villa Chapel saga, he expressed dismay that President Muhammadu Buhari was yet to act on the fate of the children’s church despite the nationwide outcry.

Earlier in the month, presidential adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina denied the closure of the church by tweeting photos from service held on Sunday, September 6, 2015.

A tweet via his handle, @FemAdesina said: “President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) orders Aso Villa Chapel shut? There is no such thing. It’s only a rumour spawned by fecund imagination gone into overdrive. PMB respects freedom of worship.”

However, speaking, Musa Dikwa challenged the presidency to also release most recent photos of the children’s church.

“Let them not deceive Nigerians. I can confirm to you that that section of the church has been converted to a storage room by Mrs. Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“I don’t want to think that the President authorized her action, Nevertheless, he should have done something by now because it is a serious matter.”

Asked to state what items were being kept at the building, he responded: “I really don’t know, but I was reliably informed that she brought some items to the villa and could not get a place to keep them.

“To our dismay, she directed some staff to move the items inside the children’s church and then ordered it locked. The security operatives that initially blocked its entrance did so with her knowledge and I dare her to publicly deny.

“What my source told me is that Mrs Buhari said the children’s church is a safer place to keep the items. This is not right. Why would she insist on that particular building in a place as big as the villa? Is she saying there is no other safe place apart from a place of worship?”

The media had reported that due to the shut, the kids now use the office of the Chaplain, Pastor Joseph Sheyi Malomo, for their normal service.

But Musa Dikwa, called on Buhari to take action immediately to forestall disunity among Christian and Muslim communities in Nigeria.

“He promised to unite Nigeria; he promised not to marginalize any religion but what is going on inside Aso Rock is different.

“People like me that were security risks for throwing our weight behind President Buhari are now at risk again because of this action of his wife.

“I have lost count of the number of calls I have received since the news concerning the children’s church broke out. While some are threatening me, some are mocking me that I and others endorsed Buhari who seemed to have turned blind eye to this act.

“They are saying ‘see the man you said will bring change, are you seeing what is happening now. We hope you are satisfied. After all, we warned you but you didn’t heed our advise.'”

Continuing, the cleric recalled how he told the world that President Jonathan gave CAN N7billion.

“It is because we were tired of the corruption going on; we believed in the change mantra. So you can guess what I am going through in the hands of those who alleged that Buhari had a hidden Islamic agenda”, he added.

Musa Dikwa said he, however, believes Buhari will call his wife to order to avoid further damage.

He urged the president to remember the vow he made to Christian leaders he met before the presidential election in March.

The cleric further cautioned Buhari against punishing Christians for the refusal of CAN to grant him audience after he made the request in the build-up to the general polls.

“CAN is a body of Christian leaders, but it doesn’t even form 0.1 percent of the entire Christian community in the country.

“Besides, I have the document containing his own statement. He gave clear assurances and we will hold him by his words because no religion is greater than the other,” Musa Dikwa declared.

Mr. Adesina did not take the call by our correspondent, even as he was yet to respond to a text message to confirm the true state of the children’s church as at the time of filing this report.