Month: March 2011

Senate President doles out N100 million to students
David Mark

Senate president

A total of 2,439 students have been awarded scholarship by the President of the Senate, David Mark for the 2010/2011 academic session.

Majority of the students are from his constituency, Benue South Senatorial District as well as Benue North-east and Benue North-West.

The beneficiaries included; 2,180 regular students in tertiary Institutions, 15 gifted girl-child, Seven special cases at both the under-graduate and post graduate levels, 244 indigent children in the primary and secondary school levels.

Distributing the over N100 Million to the students at Otukpo under his pet project; David Mark Scholarship Scheme (DMSS) for the 2010/2011 academic session, Mark noted that education is the bedrock and indeed the foundation of any development which governments and responsible organisations cannot ignore.

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Battle for senate presidency begins before election
Inside the senate Nigeria

Senate President presidening a plenary

The April 2nd legislative arm election is still two weeks away. Only few of the contestants are certain of victory. Fewer of the re-contesting senators are certain of returning to the senateand no one is sure of the composition the final list of senators that will constitute seventh senate, yet, intense lobby for who becomes the senate president is splitting the senate.

Over the past four weeks, there have been deep underhand consultations within and outside the national assembly by aspiring senate presidents from th

e ranks of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and their sponsors – godfathers. The lobbyists and aspirants have been contacting prospective senators and party leader

ship, including the busy President Goodluck Jonathan seeking for support.

There are four major contenders for the seat; three from the current sitting senators, all bandying different criteria favouring them for the job and all hoping for support from President Jonathan. The contestants are not deterred by the first huddle of winning the April 2nd election neither are they held back by the possibility of the seventh senate not being dominated by PDP lawmakers.

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Pre-election violence continues unabated in Benue south

On Thursday lastweek, some armed thugs attacked the campaign train of the President of the Senate, David Mark on his way to Igumale, the headquarters of Ado local government Benue State.

According to the Director of Publicity of David Mark Campaign Organisation, thugs ambushed the train at the outskirts of Igumale forced the convoy of the senate president Mark to detour to another local government.

The following day, a man identified to be the driver Lawrence Onoja, the Action congress of Nigeria’s (ACN) senatorial candidate, was beaten to death in Ibadan Street, Otukpo, by men suspected to be supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) over accusations of tearing off the party’s posters.

Earlier in the month, Mr. Onoja was attacked and escaped with bullet wounds in his arm. Accusation fingers were quickly pointed at the senate president but he denied any involvement in a statement by his special adviser on media, Kola ologbodiyan.

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Amnesty International warns Nigeria over rise in pre-election violence

Amnesty International has urged the Nigerian authorities to act to stem a rising tide of political, ethnic and religious violence that is threatening the stability of April elections.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Amnesty International said that so far, more than 50 people have also been killed since July 2010 in violence directly related to elections.

According to the statement, Human rights defenders, who will play a key role in monitoring the April election, are facing increased threats and violence with no adequate protection from the security forces.

Amnesty International urged political parties and candidates to put justice, security and human rights at the heart of the election campaign, in order to break Nigeria’s nationwide cycle of violence.

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2011 Elections: Why we must pick the president of our time in Nigeria
Nuhu Ribadu

Vote Nuhu Ribadu

In countries with proper democracy, presidents are voted in for specific reasons. They are brought in to fix a problem in hand, based on the leaders unique qualities, character and known abilities.

Benjamin Nentanyahu got the job when Israel had financial problems because he is an economic genius and he fixed the country on one hand, while trying to negotiate peace on the other. When Israel had to protect her borders more tightly, they turned to a man who had been a soldier since he was 12; Ariel Sharon. He did the job. Now, in the run up to the 1992 elections, America needed the world to love them after the Gulf World, so they ushered in fine-boy Bill Clinton. He was a charmer, and even found time to fix the economy while sweet-talking the rest of us, promoting world peace and sleeping with White House staff. Americans didn’t care; he was doing his job well. When research showed that oil was depleting, they brought in George Bush Jr. His job was to go wrestle the arabs for more oil control, so Saddam had to fall. Now, to appease the world and get out of trouble, they turned to an internet-savvy, inspirational and not-afarid-to-change-the-world-order leader; Barack Obama. He was the right man for the right job at the right TIME. His job is to plug the waste, end the threat of nuclear warfare, mend the economy and inspire the world with hope. That is his mission.

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