Monday

MATTERS ARISING: BEYOND NORTHERN LAWYERS' NEW BAR ASSOCIATION

President Muhammadu Buhari has had an Islamization agenda from his first day in office

CC™ Opinion Letter - By Rev. Fr. Francis Anekwe Oborji

For me, the on-going saga of the formation of a parallel Bar Association by lawyers from the Sharia States of Northern Nigeria could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. In fact, it may turn out to be the last straw that may lead to the redemption of the Nigerian State, as we know it. It could turn out to be the catalyst that will lead to the final solution of the age-long quest for a new political order for the Nigerian state. It is a signal which gives hope that the present political impasse and chronic state of insecurity and bloodbaths in Nigeria, is about to be challenged vigorously by those in legal profession.

This means that people of good conscience should not worry so much about this latest development, which for me is part of the unfolding drama of the present administration's Islamization and Fulanization agenda of Nigeria. The threat by the lawyers from Northern Nigeria Sharia States to discontinue their membership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and to form what they call "New Nigerian (Sharia States) Bar Association" (NNBA), should not worry anybody with sense of history. My prayer is that the Northern Muslim lawyers concerned should go ahead and make good their threats. A threat, methinks, is not unconnected with the recent dis-invitation of governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State to address the on-going 60th Annual Conference of NBA.

Since that dis-invitation letter from NBA was issued, it would appear heavens have been left loose for those who hold the Word captive in the Nigerian State. The governor himself, and his fellow Northern lawyer-sympathizers, instead of accepting in good faith, as true patriots and statesmen, the explanation given by the Chairman of NBA for the dis-invitation, have chosen the inglorious path responsible for the present disaffection, divisiveness, seeds of discord between the Northern Sharia States lawyers and the general body of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Is this type of behaviour not a confirmation of one of the intricacies and considerations that made the NBA in the first place, to disinvite the governor from speaking at the NBA 60th Annual Conference 2020? Is what is unfolding since that dis-invitation was issued not a replica of the actual situation of disaffection and mistrust we see today between the Kaduna State government and indigenous ethnic-communities of Southern Kaduna? There are well-founded grievances of the indigenous ethnic-communities of Southern Kaduna over the on-going killings and destructions of their villages and towns by the rampaging dreaded Fulani killer-herdsmen (a.k.a. bandits) and the federal and state governments' unwillingness to provide the indigenes of Southern Kaduna with adequate security of lives and property in their ancestral lands.

The government, rather than putting to stop the killings and destructions in Southern Kaduna and other prats of the country, chose instead to justify the carnage each time it occurs, calling it "herders-farmers' clash." How can one with sense of humanity in him/her be calling as farmers-herders' clash, what is clearly a terrorist invasion of indigenous ethnic-communities ancestral lands by the marauding killer-herdsmen? These are dreaded Fulani-herdsmen who roam around towns and villages of indigenous ethnic-communities, with AK47, killing people, destroying houses, farmlands, and raping women without any provocation? And which the government of the day has refused to arrest, prosecute or imprison any of the perpetrators. The government to complicate the matter all the more, tells the world that the killers are not Nigerians, but rather Fulanis from other African countries. But the government has never said a word about who invited or allowed them free entry into every nook and corner of the country? Neither, has the government categorically, told the world who their sponsors are?

The question is, 'How come it that the government and security operatives of the federal republic of Nigeria have allowed foreigners of Fulani-ethnic extraction who roam around with AK47, people from other African countries to invade the country, killing and destroying ancestral homes and farmlands of Nigeria's indigenous ethnic communities, unchallenged?' This is the one billion Naira question! Unfortunately, most commentators on this ugly situation, instead of asking these hard questions have chosen instead to toe the government one-sided deceptive narrative and lies, thus emboldening the terrorists and their sponsors.

For instance, since the recent feud between the governor of Kaduna State and NBA gained national attention, the powers, that be, have contracted some journalists, newspapers and media proprietors, most of whom are nowadays publishing articles trying to justify the government one-sided narrative of the carnage. These 'brown envelope' journalists, as they are often called, have embarked on the usual tactics of 'balancing the terror.' That is, trying to justify the government's inaction by claiming that not only indigenes of the indigenous ethnic-communities are killed, but that also Hausa-Fulani Muslims living in the area are in turn being killed in reprisal attacks by the fleeing natives of Southern Kaduna.

Everyone knows that, to hold to such a view of 'balancing the terror' is an oversimplification of the carnage that is actually taking place in Southern Kaduna today, as well as in other parts of the country, heavily under the herders' attacks and killings. Nothing can be far from the truth than such a devilish claim of authors of 'balancing the terror!'

The fact that most of the natives of Southern Kaduna have deserted their ancestral homes because of the on-going carnage, and are now refugees in the neighbouring states and towns, does not worry those propagating the doctrine of 'balancing the terror'? Again, the fact that prominent Christian traditional rulers of Southern Kaduna and other vocal politicians and intellectuals from the area have either been killed, kidnapped or sent on self-imposed exile because of the ongoing carnage there, makes no sense to agents of 'balancing the terror?'

Furthermore, the fact on the ground today, in the midst of all these, is that the state government is busy replacing the Christian traditional rules and Chiefdoms in the largely Christian Southern Kaduna with Fulani Muslim Emirates and Emirs! How these ugly development of things in Southern Kaduna under the present dispensation do not worry those hired authors of balancing the terror, is very unfortunate.

People of good conscience, not driven by politics, religious and ethnic clannishness, or monetary inducement, would consider these lies being propagated against the traumatized indigenous ethnic-communities of Southern Kaduna by authors of 'balancing the terror', as sufficient reasons to justify the dis-invitation of the governor by the NBA. Only a Bar Association that lacks sense of humanity and respect for sacredness of human life, would fold its arms, and watch a people of a particular region or regions of the country it serves, subjected to a systematic threat of extermination as the indigenous ethnic-communities of Southern Kaduna are facing today, without taking an action of disapproval?

The fact that the government in power both at the federal and state levels, are not doing anything tangible to stop the carnage in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country, should be a major source of worry to any right thinking person or group of persons like the NBA. Again, the fact that the government in power appears disinterested, not seen to be on the side of the victims of the Fulani killer-herdsmen attacks and killings in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country, should worry any right-thinking person!

That this scenario of bloodbaths and destructions in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country took a dramatic shape, and has lasted for over five years now, since the present regime came to power 2015, is the most worrisome aspect of the whole thing. Again, the present feud, setting up Northern Fulani Muslim lawyers against the NBA because of the dis-invitation of the governor, follows exactly, the same tactics used in setting up Fulani Muslims against the indigenous ethnic-communities in Southern Kaduna.

What we are dealing with here is the insensitivity of the so-called rulers and political gladiators with their inborn 'divisive spirit', conquest ideology and agenda of religious and cultural domination of indigenous populations of Nigeria. Put them anywhere, they must set-up one group against the other, using the parameter of primitive divisive elements of religion and ethnicity. When in power, they use government machinery to achieve their sinister agenda of conquest and domination.

The question is, 'why has this government not gotten the courage to express at least, a sincere outrage over the ongoing bloodbaths perpetrated by the marauding killer-herdsmen? Why has this government refused to declare these killer-herdsmen and their Miyetti-Alla sponsors, a terrorist group? Why? If not that the government itself, is implicitly, behind the carnage being perpetrated by these terrorists, as some have, rightly or wrongly, alleged?

Suffice it to mention the massacre of over 1000 Shia Muslims in Kaduna by the Nigerian military, and the continued ethnic-cleansings of Christians and indigenous ethnic-communities in Southern Kaduna, all happening under the watch of the present regime. Yet the regime does not want the people to feel outraged? Again, the worse thing is that till date none of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity in Southern Kaduna or elsewhere in the Middle Belt and Southern states, has been arrested, prosecuted or imprisoned by the present regime, both at the federal and state levels?

Another disturbing thing is that the government itself has never for once, sincerely and truly, commiserated with the victims. Rather, what the government does is to embolden and provide state and military protection for the terrorists, killer-herdsmen and bandits doing these killings and destructions in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country. And to go after any individual or group that dares speak against the heinous crimes and killings of innocent citizens going on in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country? Government spokespersons, both at the federal and state levels, would each time these carnages happen, try to justify them by blaming those who express outcry against the ugly situation. The recent government harassment of Dr Obadiah Mailafia, former deputy governor of CBN, since he granted an interview to a Lagos-based FM radio station, in which he decried the killings of his people of Southern Kaduna, is a case in point.

The Rationale behind the Northern Lawyers' "New Bar Association"

There is no doubt that the same rationale propelling the harassment of Dr Obadiah Mailafia by the Nigerian security operatives, for decrying the Southern Kaduna carnage, is also behind the present threat by lawyers from the Northern Sharia states to discontinue with their membership of the NBA. As lawyers, which they claim to be, one would have expected the Northern Sharia States lawyers to come up with a position paper condemning the killings of Christians and indigenous ethnic-communities in Northern Nigeria. But this never happened. Rather, the Northern Sharia States lawyers are quick to point an accusing finger to their colleagues from other parts of the country who want to vent their disapproval for the ineptitude manner the state government is handling the genocide against Christians and indigenous ethnic-communities in Southern Kaduna.

In other words, for the Northern Sharia states lawyers, the lives of people of Southern Kaduna, being slaughtered on daily basis by the killer-herdsmen, do not count! What counts to these Sharia states lawyers from Northern Nigeria, is the interest of the present administration, at both state and federal government levels, which is the protection of the killer-herdsmen, and not the lives of indigenous ethnic-communities of Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country, being slaughtered on daily basis by the killer-herdsmen! Quo vadis?

This is why many people of good conscience think that the Northern lawyers' threat to form their own Bar Association with ethnic agenda to serve the Muslim Fulani North, may be a blessing in disguise. It may be the beginning forever of redefining a new path for Nigeria's rebirth. After all, who should bother so much, if people with that type of mind-set, decide to leave the global body of NBA to form their own clannish Sharia States Lawyers' Bar Association? Because their presence in the global Nigerian Bar Association breeds violence, hatred, injustice, lopsided leadership, insecurity, nepotism, and bloodbaths to the generality of the country.

Moreover, why should one worry about their leaving the NBA? After all, the Northern Sharia States have long left the country since the year 2001, when they adopted Sharia legal and political systems for their zones. The only worry now, is that today, they have taken over the complete control of the federal government and have embarked on a vigorous mission of total Islamization and Fulanization of the whole country. They have transformed the whole federal government machinery and leadership structure into Islamic and Fulani hegemony. The Nigerian judiciary, legislature and the executive arms of the Federal government under Buhari administration are already Northernized, Islamized, and Fulanized.

This means that if Northern lawyers and their kith and kin want to leave Nigeria to form their own political and legal state, they should be encouraged to do so. Let them go and form their own version of Bar Association that will serve the interest of their own people or rather their "new government" to emerge, which perhaps, sooner, or later, will be localized to their own part of the world? When that happens, know that the liberation of the indigenous ethnic-nationalities in this British contraption Nigeria is near at hand, so to speak. Because it will pave way for the total liberation of the rest of the people of the country from many years of servitude and ineptitude leadership by people with that type of mentality and mind-set.

The Nigerian Armed Forces - Army, Air Force, Navy, Police, as well as the Customs, Immigration, Road-safety, and all the Paramilitaries, etc., are already under the full control of Northern Fulani Muslims. So are all the important organs and parastatals of the present Federal government. The entire security operatives, governmental structure and machinery of the Nigerian State are today under the complete control of Fulani Muslims from the North. It is as if Christians and indigenous populations of the country no longer exist. So, the earlier Fulani Muslims of Northern Nigeria decide on their own to form their own associations and leave the rest of Nigerians in peace, the better for us all.

Presently, the regime at the federal level is in a desperate effort to install as governors in all the Southern and Middle Belt states, those politicians from these states that agreed to be used as 'willing-tools' by the regime for the Islamization and Fulanization of the predominantly Christian states of Southern and Middle Belt regions of the country. Where they found a strong resistance as happened in Imo State during the 2019 governorship elections, they will use the federal might, the Sharia Judge Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, to install their stooge. The on-going political wrangling in Edo and Ondo States for this September governorship elections in those states, will not be different. They want to install states governors of their choice that could be used as "willing-tools" for their Islamization and Fulanization agenda of Nigeria. And there is nobody on the ground in the country today, capable of stopping them from installing those stooges in office as governors in Edo and Ondo States.

Moreover, unless a miracle happens and Nigeria survives the present turmoil as an entity, by 2023 elections, the same forces derailing the progress and development of Nigerian state, will make sure that they install their stooges as governors across all the states in Southern and Middle Belt regions of the country. Make no mistake about it: The present-ruling party, APC, is a political party contracted by the OIC, Saudi Arabia and Muslim Brotherhood International, and which is being used in the on-going process of total Islamization and Fulanization of Nigeria.

During the Babaginda ill-conceived transition to civilian rule, the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) was the party the same forces had wanted to use to convert Nigeria into a full Muslim state. During Obasanjo and later Jonathan administrations, they kept these two former presidents of Nigeria under constant tension, using Buhari's political opposition parties and of course, the Islamists' terrorist groups, Boko Haram and Killer-herdsmen. But since Buhari became President in 2015, the regime has been doing the bidding of these agents of Islamization and Fulanization of Nigeria. The ruling party APC is the smokescreen they use today in that project. The party is 100% agent of Islamization and Fulanization of Nigeria! Don't mind, the 'willing-tools', who claim to be Christians, they often recruit from the Southern and Middle Belt regions. It is all meant to confuse the gullible. The fact remains that APC is an Islamic political party in power in Nigeria today!

The Implications of Northern Lawyers' 'New Bar Association'

In the midst of all these, 'what are the implications of all the fuss about the formation of a separate Bar Association by the Northern Fulani Muslim lawyers?' For me, there is nothing new in what the Northern lawyers have chosen to do. After all, that has been the political game Northern ruling class and elites often play and use to get whatever they want in the Nigerian state, each time there is something of this kind.

Was it not how their forbears delayed the independence of Nigeria from Great Britain in 1957 on the pretence that they were not yet ready? And when they claim to be ready for it in 1960, it was to them that Britain handed over the political power of the nascent independent Nigerian State. In addition, the colonial masters gave them an age over other regions of the country through the pre-independence massively rigged population census of 1953, and the colonial regional frontiers' landmass arbitrary boundary adjustments carried out by the British before they left the country in 1960. Thus, repositioning the North for permanent political control of the country.

In this way, the North was technically, positioned 'forever' by Britain to have preponderance in population and number of legislators in the National Assembly, over other regions in Southern Nigeria. Ab initio, Nigeria was an 'unbalanced union.' Nigeria was never created by Britain to succeed as a nation state, but rather to continue to serve British neo-colonial imperialism in Africa. This was how the seed of political instability, ethnic-hate and religious bigotry we see today in Nigeria, sixty years after political independence from Britain, was sown. It meant, in principle that political control of the entire country will always be at the hands of the Northern ruling class and the Caliphate. That is, as long as there was no strong resistance from the people of the Southern regions and the Middle Belt.

Therefore, the Northern lawyers by forming their own new Bar Association, separating from the global NBA, are just playing the usual traditional politics of the Northern ruling class and elites in the Nigerian State. But this time around, it will be a great mistake to allow them have their way. This is because many people have died in Nigeria as a result of all these historical facts. The North must be made to understand this.

On this basis, one cannot but appreciate the courage and sense of humanity demonstrated by the NBA leadership by dis-inviting the Kaduna governor. A government or political system which folds its arms, on the basis of ethnic or religious considerations, and watches hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens in his domain, massacred in their ancestral homeland by terrorists, is not worth its salt. Any political system or government that is incapable of providing security of lives and property for its citizens, should be disbanded and replaced with a new political order and administration. Human life is sacred and sacrosanct. Protection of human life comes first in the order of priority of any government and in the fashioning of any political system, worth its name.

Therefore, in the present dispensation, the gladiators behind the newly formed Northern lawyers' Bar Association should be made to understand, that Nigeria has come of age. No more tolerance of nonsense from any person or group of persons. The Northern ruling class and elites, with all respects, have played this their game for a long time. It is now time to tell them that enough is enough!

This is what they have been doing in all aspects of the political life of the country all these years. The only difference now, is that they have gotten a complete control of the federal government machinery under the present lopsided federal government. A federal government, whose primary objective is the total Islamization and Fulanization of Nigeria. The present federal government is yet to convince majority of the citizens that it cares about the security of lives and property of the indigenous ethnic-communities in the Middle Belt and Southern States of Nigeria.

The Way Out of the Conundrum

Today, as we speak, the entire governance structure of Nigerian State is controlled by one clan, an ethno-religious group from the North, Fulani Muslims. They control the executive, legislative, and judiciary arms of the federal government. In the midst of such lopsided government and political system, of what use is the present structure of NBA? This means that time has come to call a spade a spade and know that Nigerian judiciary, just like the other two arms of the Federal government, the executive and legislature, have been grossly compromised.

The only solution, therefore, is to look for a new paradigm shift, away from what is on board presently in the country. Nigeria Bar Association, as a matter of urgency, needs a new paradigm shift, which must be based on respecting the value systems of each federating units in this British contraption called Nigeria. The present practice whereby only the value systems of a particular ethno-religious group, that is not indigenous to the country, is the philosophy driving the Nigerian legal and political systems is unacceptable.

Thus, as things are today, it is expected that members of Nigerian Bar Association will be in the better position to do the needful, help change the current trend of events in the country before it becomes too late. Nigeria is not a homogenous nation state, and there is no way the type of lopsided federal government structure - the executive, legislature and judiciary arms of government in place today in the country, will ever work. There is no meeting-point between Sharia legal system and the Common Law upon which the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, is claimed to have been based!

It is time therefore for conscientious lawyers, and judges from the Southern and Middle Belt states of Nigeria to begin to think for an alternative way, "return to their people and base, and know that the problem is nothing else, but NIGERIA itself as presently structured." The country needs to return to its founding story as a nation state. The question is, 'Is this NIGERIA, in the name of which we are witnessing state-sponsored genocides, pogroms and ethnic-cleansings on daily basis, since the creation of the country by Britain in 1914, … really, the type of country our forbears had envisaged for their children, born and unborn?' If not, why can't we tell ourselves the naked truth and resolve to do the needful before it is too late?

Since 2001, the core North 12 states and Northern part of Kaduna State have been practising Sharia legal system instead of the Common Law as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria! It means that Nigeria as it is today is a country practising two parallels, irreconcilable laws and political systems. While the Sharia States of Northern Nigeria follow Islamic law - legal and political systems, the rest of the people in the Southern and Middle Belt regions follow a Constitution of "Common Law", which was given to them by no less a person than a military junta headed by a Northern Fulani Muslim, Gen. Abubakar Abudulsalami.

This means, in principle, that even the 1999 Constitution is a camouflaged "Islamic Law." This is why the words 'Sharia and Islam' appeared many times in the 1999 Constitution, and there is no mention of even a word of "Christian" in the Constitution. Yet nobody seems to be asking questions about all these aberrations in the 1999 Constitution?

Nigeria is already under total control of Northern Fulani Muslims. The President, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Senate President, and Speaker of House of Representatives, etc., are all Muslims. Even the Nigerian Law School and all the others, are all headed by Fulani Muslims from the North. In other words, the present Federal government is Northern Fulani Muslim-controlled government. In fact, today, before someone from the Southern States or Middle Belt regions is given any federal appointment, the individual is often forced, first, to make a pledge to the Caliphate and the ruling class from the North. Without that, no Christian or Non-Fulani would be appointed to any important position at the federal level. This is how Christians and other citizens of indigenous ethnic-communities survive in the present-day Nigeria.

The painful thing is that all the state governors, other prominent government officials, ruling class and elites are aware of all these. Yet nobody seems to be contesting it. In fact, it seemed all have been subdued by the present regime!

Conclusion

Taking into consideration all these, methinks that the decision of the Northern lawyers to separate from the NBA and form their own regional Bar Association to serve their selfish ends, should be seen by the rest of the country, especially, those from the Southern and Middle Belt, as an opportunity for a political renegotiation of the "failed Nigerian State." It is needless for any right-thinking person to contest whether Nigeria is a failed state or not. We all know that! In fact, no matter how much you hope that things will get better tomorrow in the country as presently structured, the more disillusioned you will become.

Moreover, since Northern ruling class have demonstrated time and time again, that they cannot live together as equal citizens with the rest of the citizens from the Middle Belt and Southern regions, that unless they lord it over others, nothing will ever move forward in the country, I think it is time to tell them that enough is enough!

Let what is happening today in the country, the general state of insecurity and perennial political instability, be an opportunity to initiate a concrete effort by the ruling class and elites from all the federating ethnic-nationalities, for a new political solution to emerge. This is a call for political renegotiation of Nigerian State, a new political order, so that security of lives and property of indigenous populations and Christians will begin to count in the scheme of things of whoever is in power.

Fr. Francis Anekwe Oborji is a Roman Catholic Priest, is Professor Ordinarius of contextual theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome.

Wednesday

Trump pardons convicted bank robber in midst of RNC convention


CC™ Politico

U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned a convicted bank robber, Jon Ponder, who is now running a post-prison assistance programme.

A pre-recorded video of Trump signing an executive order for the pardon, with Ponder standing beside him, aired on Tuesday night.

Coming amid the Republican National Convention, the president’s move is seen by some as an attempt to draw attention to criminal justice.

Criminal justice reform and the need to give repentant criminals a second chance are ideas promoted by Trump and his party.

According to reports, Ponder pleaded guilty to bank robbery in 2005, and was released from prison in 2009.

In 2010, he founded “Hope for Prisoners”, a non-governmental organisation assisting released prisoners to reintegrate into the society.

The president reportedly met him when he was invited to a National Day of Prayer event at the White House in 2018.

Trump praised Ponder’s commitment to Christianity and his friendship with Richard Beasley, a retired FBI agent who arrested him, and who accompanied him to the event.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Beasley was also with Ponder at the signing of the pardon at the White House on Tuesday.

Speaking before the signing order, Trump said he believed that every one was created by God for a purpose.

“I will continue to give all Americans, including former inmates, the best chance to build a new life and achieve their own American dream, and a great American dream it is.

“My hope for America is that formerly incarcerated people will be afforded the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that we live in a nation of second chances,” he said.

AGENCY

Tuesday

Barca icon Lionel Messi opts to leave Catalan giants after being told by Koeman that his 'privileges were over'


CC™ Breaking News

Lionel Messi finally decided to leave Barcelona after the club's new coach, Ronald Koeman, told him his "privileges in the squad are over."

Messi and Koeman met shortly after the Dutchman's appointment last week amid rumors the Argentine wanted to leave the club following its 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. 

During the meeting, Messi is understood to have told Koeman that he "does not see his future at Barcelona clearly" and that he was leaning towards leaving rather than staying.

Argentine news outlet Diario Ole now reports that Koeman told Messi: "Your privileges in the squad are over, you have to do everything for the team. I'm going to be inflexible, you have to think about the team."

It is not known exactly what the "privileges" Messi previously received are, although he has previously had a significant amount of influence on the club.

The exchange is believed to be what convinced Messi his time at Barcelona is up, with the Argentine notifying the club of his intention to leave on Tuesday.

The Association Press says Barcelona has confirmed that it received documentation from the 33-year-old saying that he intends to quit.

The move, a shock for the footballing world, is likely to incite a legal battle between Messi's representatives and the club, with Messi's camp believing a clause in his contract will allow him to leave the club for free.

Barcelona, however, believe that the clause expired in June, meaning interested parties would be forced to pay closer to his buy-out clause of $825 million.

Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City are believed to be the frontrunners for Messi's signature.

INSIDER

Sunday

Trump's sister Maryanne Trump Barry calls him cruel and a liar in leaked tapes

CC™ News

In leaked recordings, Donald Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry has painted an unflattering image of U.S. President, describing him as a liar and cruel.

She said Trump lacks principles and could not be trusted.

She is the second family member to give a character portrait of the man who is seeking re-election in November.

Maryanne Trump slammed her brother over his immigration policy that saw children separated from their parents at the border and sent to detention centres.

"All he wants to do is appeal to his base," she said in recordings obtained by the Washington Post. "He has no principles. None.

"His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God."

The recordings were secretly made by the president's niece Mary Trump, who published last month a bombshell memoir of the "toxic family" that produced him.

The president's younger brother Robert, who died last week, went to court to try to block its publication, arguing that Mary was violating a non-disclosure agreement signed in 2001 after the settlement of her grandfather's estate, but to no avail.

Some 950,000 copies were sold the day of the memoir's release, with the White House branding the memoir as a "book of falsehoods".

At one point in the recordings, Barry said to her niece: "It's the phoniness of it all. It's the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel."

The recordings also shed light on the source of an embarrassing claim in the memoir that the president paid someone to take a college entrance exam for him.

"He got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams," Barry said, adding she even remembered the man's name.

The president or the White House did not immediately comment on the recordings.

Saturday

Vested Interest: Bill Gates' backed CureVac jumps 18% on report it's in advanced talks with the EU for 225 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine (CVAC)

CC™ Business Venture - By Carmen Reinicke

Shares of CureVac, a German biotech firm backed by Bill Gates, surged as much as 18% in premarket trading Thursday after the company said it is in talks with the European Commission to supply doses of its potential coronavirus vaccine. 

The potential contract with the European Commission intends to provide European Union member states with up to 225 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, once it has been proven safe and effective against COVID-19, the company said in a press release.

The contract would also give the European Commission the option to purchase an additional 180 million doses, bringing the total to 405 million doses of the potential vaccine. 

If an agreement is reached, it would mark the company's first bilateral supply deal, according to Reuters.

CureVac's mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate is currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial at different sites in Germany and Belgium, aiming to determine safety and efficacy of the drug in humans, the company said. It expects to have results from the trial early in the fourth quarter of 2020, and move to the next phase soon after. 

CureVac has gained more than 255% since its recent public trading debut through Wednesday's close.

This article was originally published in Markets Insider (Business Insider).

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Sunday

An open letter to Jagaban Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

CC™ Opinion Letter - By Femi Fani-Kayode

“Even the obstacles on my way, I predict them before those that will bring them will start to think about them. I plan for betrayal, I plan for backstabbing, I also plan for reunion & forgiveness long before they happen. I expect nothing, I expect anything, I expect everything” — Jagaban Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

My dearest Jagaban,

You know very well that I have always liked and respected you. You will also recall that a few years ago I warned you that everything that is being done to you today would eventually be done to you given the choices you made at the time.

I bear you no malice or ill-will but in view of what is happening in your political party and given the fact that your good friend, co-conspirator and collaborator, President Muhammadu Buhari, has finally thrown you under the bus and dumped you, I am constrained to write the following.

The bitter truth is that you predicted NOTHING and you saw NOTHING. The only thing you saw were your own vain delusions and insatiable greed and the only thing you felt and that moved you was your blind ambition.

You sold your body, spirit and soul to the enemy and betrayed your people even though we warned you over and over again that those you were dining with were far smarter and far more astute than you.

Yet even though all the signs were there you dismissed our concerns, vilified us, treated us with contempt, demonized us and sought to destroy us.

Jagaban Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Now the chickens have come home to roost and the writing is on the wall. The signs are there for all to see. You betrayed and sold Lagos. You betrayed and sold the South West. You betrayed and sold the South East. You betrayed and sold the South South. You betrayed and sold the Middle Belt. You betrayed and sold the North East. You betrayed and sold the North West. You betrayed and sold the Muslims and you betrayed and sold the Christians.

Simply put you betrayed and sold EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in Nigeria just to feed and satisfy your psychotic obsession and compulsive ambition.

Like Icarus the Greek, you flew too high and too close to the sun with your wax wings, puffed up and fuelled by your hubris and pride and now you shall meet your nemesis. The spiritual wound that has been inflicted on you is irreversible and terminal and there is no going back.

The dark clouds that lie ahead of you are thick, ugly, frightful, violent and impassable: you cannot make it through them safely or survive them. Your enemies have dug a pit for you and you have already fallen into it.

They have finally stripped you naked, grabbed you by your balls and taken everything from you.

You have lost your mystique, honor, glory, self-respect, following, clout, pride, reputation and so much more.

You have also lost control of the political party that you conceived, formed, nurtured and built. The APC was your baby and now they have taken it from you and are set to kill it.

They fooled you, used you, dumped you and humiliated you and now they are going to expose you, rubbish you, malign you, break you, crucify you, investigate you and utterly crush you.

You dreamed of being Vice President in 2015 and you failed. You are dreaming of being President in 2023 and you will fail.

In all your plans what you failed to appreciate is that God alone rules in the affairs of men. You refused to acknowledge or accept the fact that the Presidency of Nigeria can only be given by God and He gives it to whom He deems fit by prophecy and divine decree.

It is not about money and power and if it were Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, who had neither of the two before being respectively elected as President, would never had made it.

It is about God and God alone. It is for Him alone to give. It is about His purpose, His will, His counsel, His plan and His glory.

He OWNS the Presidency and the minute any man or woman attempts to usurp His role and think that he or she can buy it or manoeuvre his or her way into it by the usage of political intrigues, guile, sagacity, wisdom, power, knowledge, money or anything else, the Lord disqualifies and rejects him.

Such a person will fail woefully and may even end up losing everything he or she values and cherishes in his futile quest.

God will never share His glory with anyone and He will never support a man or woman that is prepared to mislead, betray and sell his own people down the river just to satisfy his vaulting and insatiable ambition of becoming President.

Yet the signs were there but you refused to acknowledge or accept them.

They refused to give you a formal position in the National Executive. They ensured that some of your key loyalists in the South West turned against you and opposed you.

They refused to accept even ONE of your Ministerial nominees both in 2015 and 2019. They humiliated your protegee who you nominated as Vice President and turned him into a pliant and pathetic little errand boy with no testicular fortitude or shame.

They drove your nominee at FIRS out of office unceremoniously and have placed him under criminal investigation.

They have divided the ranks of your loyalists and turned even your hitherto most trusted lieutenants against you.

They insulted, undermined, marginalised you openly and worse of all they made it clear to you privately that they would NEVER give you power.

All this meant nothing to you and you shamelessly continued to support their evil ways and toe their satanic and murderous line.

Yet if you did not care about what they subjected you to you ought to have at least cared about what they did to Nigeria.

For the last five years our nation and people have suffered because of the calamitious choices that you made and the inexplicable and unconscionable alliances that you forged.

You propped up and supported a ruthless, heartless, corrupt, bloodthirsty and cruel regime and tyrant and a President that is clearly beside himself and whose mental and physical faculties reside in another realm and in another world.

Consequently our nation has been utterly and completely destroyed, our economy ruined and our people decimated.

They have been slaughtered, butchered, pauperised, emasculated, humiliated, marginalised, insulted and impoverished.

Hundreds of thousands of them have been murdered in cold blood in their homes, towns, villages and farms and millions have been displaced.

Millions more have been ruined and economically destroyed whilst our country remains weak, divided and the butt of cruel jokes all over the world.

Because of your choices Nigerians are being subjected to persecution, physically attacked, enslaved, humiliated, lynched, scorned, maimed, killed, disgraced, evicted and declared persona non grata both at home and in distant foreign lands whilst our foreign Embassies are being demolished by miscreants and local criminals even in supposedly friendly countries.

I sincerely hope that one day you will reflect on all this and consider the damage you have done to your kinsmen and compatriots.

Whether you do or not is left to you but one thing that is clear: for the choices you have made, for all you have done and for the sheer wickedness and greed that resides in your insensitive and dark heart you will pay a heavy price both in this world and in the world to come and the Lord will hand you over to your political enemies.

Permit me to conclude by quoting the instructive words of a tweet that I posted just yesterday after I heard about the latest developments in your party. I wrote,

“First Oshiomole is kicked out by the Court of Appeal. Then his preferred replacement, Ajimobi, falls into a coma. Then his arch rival, Giadom, is recognised by Buhari as National Chairman.

Conclusion: it is over for Tinubu. He has been thrown under the bus and retired from politics!”

I stand by those words. Happy retirement my dearest Jagaban: may you live long to see the glory of our country restored and the damage that you have done to our people repaired. Shalom.

Saturday

Guardiola again falters in Champions League knock-out stages without Messi.....

 CC™ Sportswire

Again, Pep Guardiola, much like he did at Bayern Munich, has failed to advance past the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League with Manchester City. There are those who will continue to say that he can't win without Leo Messi and they just might be right. Manchester City have spent close to $1 billion since Guardiola was hired but have nothing but a pair of 'tin cups', other than two Premier League titles, to show for it. That is not a viable return on investment as he was primarily hired to win the UEFA Champions League trophy.

Thursday

Oblivious to the death of almost 200,000 Americans from COVID-19, Trump forces changes to showerhead rules for the sake of his hair

CC™ National News 

The U.S. government has proposed changing the definition of a showerhead to allow increased water flow, following complaints from President Donald Trump about his hair routine.

Under a 1992 law, showerheads in the U.S. are not allowed to produce more than 2.5 gallons (9.5 litres) of water per minute.

The Trump administration wants this limit to apply to each nozzle, rather than the overall fixture.

Consumer and conservation groups argue that it is wasteful and unnecessary.

The changes were proposed by the Department of Energy on Wednesday following complaints by Mr Trump at the White House last month.

"So showerheads - you take a shower, the water doesn't come out. You want to wash your hands, the water doesn't come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair - I don't know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect," he said. 

Andrew deLaski, executive director of the energy conservation group Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said the proposal was "silly".

With four or five or more nozzles, "you could have 10, 15 gallons per minute powering out of the showerhead, literally probably washing you out of the bathroom," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"If the president needs help finding a good shower, we can point him to some great consumer websites that help you identify a good showerhead that provides a dense soak and a good shower," he added.

David Friedman, vice president of advocacy at the organisation Consumer Reports, said showerheads in the U.S. already "achieve high levels of customer satisfaction", while saving people money.

The proposal could face court battles if it advances, Reuters news agency reports.

REUTERS

Tuesday

Leadership: New Zealand has now gone 100 days with no new local COVID-19 cases and absent of a lockdown since June

(L-R) New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with former U.S. President Barack Obama
CC™ Global News - By Aaron Holmes

New Zealand just marked 100 days with no new domestic COVID-19 cases. 

The country of 5 million people implemented strict lockdown measures in April. All restrictions on New Zealand businesses were lifted by June, but its borders remain closed to outside visitors.

Now, bars, restaurants, and sporting events are open for business across New Zealand — but health officials say they're staying vigilant for another possible outbreak.

New Zealand has made it 100 days without a single new local case of COVID-19, the country's Ministry of Health announced Sunday.

The public health milestone comes as coronavirus cases are spiking in other countries, including nearby Australia. The total number of cases in the US surpassed 5 million Sunday — by contrast, New Zealand has only reported 1,219 cases of the virus, most in April and May, and 23 of those cases remain active.

"It has been 100 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source," the health ministry said in a statement Sunday. "No additional cases are reported as having recovered, so there are still 23 active cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation facilities."

New Zealand took an early, aggressive approach to stop the spread of the virus. The country of 5 million people entered a hard lockdown in April that closed schools and nearly all businesses, including food delivery. By June, most restrictions were lifted in the country, but New Zealand's borders remain closed to foreigners and incoming New Zealanders are required self-quarantine for two weeks after arriving.

Now, life has returned to normal for most New Zealanders, with bars, restaurants, and sporting events open for business — but public health officials said they're staying vigilant for the possibility of another outbreak.

"Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone," Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said in a statement on Sunday. "However, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Monday

Huge crowd defies COVID-19 protocols as erstwhile Senator and fugitive Buruji Kashamu is buried

CC™ News

Sympathisers and supporters defied COVID-19 protocols to pay their last respects as the remains of the late former senator, Buruju Kashamu was laid to rest on Sunday.

Kashamu, who represented Ogun East Senatorial District in the 8th National Assembly was buried at about 12:55 pm at his Ijebu-Igbo home.

Kashamu died at the First Cardiology Consultants, in Lagos on Saturday after he was struck by the deadly COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

However, a huge crowd of sympathisers and loyalists who were at the event could be seen to have defied the recommended COVID-19 protocols amid the burial rites.

Kashamu, born on 19 May, 1958 served as a Senator representing Ogun East in the 8th National Assembly.

He was a chieftain of the People's Democratic Party, PDP in Ogun State. He was appointed as the chairman, Organization and Mobilization Committee of the PDP in the South West zone of Nigeria.

In 2018, he was expelled from the People's Democratic Party, a decision later voided by an Abuja High Court in October 2018.

He was the 2019 Ogun State gubernatorial election candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Kashamu started his education at Ansarudeen Primary School, Ijebu Igbo and left in 1972 to complete his primary school education at St. John Modern School, Lagos. He then attended evening classes at Igbobi College while working as a licensing agent.

He later went to London where he took courses in Business Management at Pitman College, London. He was awarded a Honorary PhD by the unaccredited, diploma-mill Cambridge Graduate University, located in Massachusetts, at a privately organised ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria.

Kashamu's legal case, Criminal Action No. 94 CR 172-15. (United States of America, v. Buruji KASHAMU) remains on file at the United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Sunday

Saturday

Tinubu, Kashamu's brethren in corruption, berates Obasanjo over his 'disparaging' remarks on Kashamu's death

Buruji Kashamu was wanted for drug trafficking in the United States
CC™ Global News

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress Leader may have sent an unmistakable reaction to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s condolence message on the death of Senator Buruji Kashamu.

In Tinubu’s condolence message, he underscored the need to show kindness to the dead, a quality missing in Obasanjo’s own.

Tinubu said Kashamu’s death demonstrated the “transience of human life and rekindles the fact that death is inevitable for every mortal.”

Without addressing Obasanjo directly, Tinubu dropped a line of moral lesson to the former president:

“It behoves on us to be kind to the dead”.

On Saturday, Obasanjo had issued a controversial condolence message to Ogun governor, Dapo Abiodun, by dredging out the past of the senator.

“The life and history of the departed have lessons for those of all us on this side of the veil. Senator Esho Jinadu (Buruji Kashamu) in his lifetime used the maneuver of law and politics to escape from facing justice on alleged criminal offence in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

“But no legal, political, cultural, social or even medical maneuver could stop the cold hand of death when the Creator of all of us decides that the time is up”, Obasanjo wrote.

His message triggered debate, as to whether he had not broken the cultural norm, by speaking ill of the dead.

The jury is still out to decide whether he was right or wrong.

Tinubu in his own message, expressed deep shock and sadness about Buruji’s death.

According to him, Buruji’s death has lengthened the grotesque list of important personalities that have been lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Friday

Texas man jailed for spending COVID-19 loans on Lamborghini, strip clubs

CC™ Newsreel

Instead of speeding off in a $200,000 Lamborghini Urus, a Texas man, Lee Price III got a slower ride to jail this week. 

This was after U.S. authorities arrested him for using $1.6 million in government pandemic aid to go on a spending spree.

Lee Price III, 29, was charged with fraud after he secured two government loans under the Paycheck Protection Program to pay employees he did not have, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Instead he spent the funds on lavish goods like a sports car and a Rolex watch, as well as real estate, an F-350 pickup truck, and thousands of dollars at Houston strip clubs, the statement said.

Price secured two loans: Price Enterprises Holdings allegedly received more than $900,000, while 713 Construction was approved for over $700,000.

Neither firms has employees and "the individual listed as CEO on the 713 Construction loan application died in April 2020, a month before the application was submitted," according to the complaint.

Congress approved the PPP program in late March to help small businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic, granting loans that could be forgiven if they were used to pay wages, rent and utilities.

Thursday

U.S. election 2020: Trump says opponent Biden will 'hurt God'

CC™ News 

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Joe Biden is "against God", ramping up attacks on his Democratic rival and foreshadowing an ugly election battle.

The remarks, during a trip to Ohio, came as Mr Trump tries to make up ground in the crucial Midwestern states that were his path to victory in 2016.

"He's against God. He's against guns," said the president, a Republican.

Mr Biden, an avowed Catholic, will take on Mr Trump in November. Opinion polls suggest the Democrat currently leads.

The former U.S. vice-president has spoken frequently about how his faith helped him cope with the deaths of his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident.

His campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement on Thursday: "Joe Biden's faith is at the core of who he is; he's lived it with dignity his entire life, and it's been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship."

The president said of Mr Biden earlier in the day in Cleveland, Ohio: "He's following the radical left agenda.

"Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God.

"He's against God, he's against guns, he's against energy, our kind of energy."

Mr Trump has been accused of using the platform of the presidency for political gain by injecting campaign-style rhetoric into taxpayer-funded official engagements intended to communicate U.S. government policy.

At a washing machine factory later on Thursday, the president kept up the onslaught on his challenger.

"I wouldn't say he's at the top of his game," the president said.

Both the Trump and Biden campaigns have traded accusations that their candidate has dementia. Mr Trump is 74 and Mr Biden 77.

In an advertisement released by the Trump campaign this week, the Democrat was depicted as "hiding" alone in his basement, using an image that had been edited to remove several other people.

Religion has previously come up in this campaign. Mr Biden accused the president of cynically using a Bible for a photo op outside a church in early June after protesters - who were described by journalists at the scene as peaceful - had been forcibly dispersed by law enforcement outside the White House.

Throughout his tenure, Mr Trump has enjoyed a mostly strong backing from evangelical Christians.

In his list of "six promises" for a second term unveiled in Ohio on Thursday, Mr Trump focused heavily on economic recovery, vowing to turn the U.S. into a premier medical manufacturer, launch "millions" of manufacturing jobs and bring back American jobs and factories from abroad.

The pledges echo many of those from his 2016 campaign, a platform of economic populism often credited with his wins in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

But the president's message of prosperity has been thwarted this time around by the coronavirus outbreak. The U.S. economy shrank at a 32.9% annual rate between April and June as the country faced lockdowns and spending cuts during the pandemic, marking the steepest decline since the government began keeping records in 1947.

Now, polls show Mr Biden with leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - three industrial states his Republican rival won by margins of less than 1% to claim victory in 2016. And in Iowa, Ohio and Texas, where Mr Trump won last time by 8-10%, he is currently neck-and-neck with Mr Biden.

Source: BBC News