Goldie Harvey's Burial Pictures

Chief Mourner, Andrew Harvey, Husband

Burial Pictures.

Fresh Even At Death, Adieu Harvey

Pallbearer of Goldie Harvey

Emotive Cry of The Presidential Candidate, Dele Momodu.

Late Godie Harvey .

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Men Fantasize About My Lovely Body —Cossy Orjiakor

 

Since her entrance into the movie industry about a decade ago, Cossy Orjiakor has sparked off more controversies especially with her frequent pictures on twitter. She is one of the most talked about in Nigeria. She spoke on her life in this interview.

You are barely established in the movie industry, why jump into music?
I have always loved music. My mum had a B.Sc. in music from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State when I was younger. She used to sing and dress up in cute attires and hand gloves and all. I kind of liked it. So, she made me love music.
Why do you seem not to be doing a lot of movies these days?
I have been doing lots of stuff that have nothing to do with movies. I’ve been very busy, but now, I’m very free. That’s why I’m getting back to music. I did a movie last year and it’s about to come out soon. I’m also working on producing a movie in April this year.
So, how far have you gone with the plans for the movie?
The script writer has delivered and I’m okay with the story line. I’m just waiting for Emmanuel Ehumadu to finish up the movie he is doing now. Once he is through, he will help me out with the casting, and then shooting will start in April.
How well have your fans received your album, ‘Naughty Queen?’
My marketer has been out for a while now. He just got back, so the distribution of the hard copy will commence soon. So far, my fans love the album.
You are one artiste that doesn’t seem to care about what people say about you, how do you get the boldness to do so?
I do actually care about what people say about me, but I don’t care about what biased people say about me.
Do you think you are always being misunderstood in the media?
No, not really. I’m very down to earth, I don’t pretend. I’m as real as they come.
How do you feel when you read or hear false stories about you?
I take them as one of those things. Then if the person peddling the false story is worth it, I reply and clarify things. If the person is not worth it, I ignore it.
How was growing up for you?
Good and fun. I have the best parents and good siblings.
What were your parents’ reactions when you told them you were going into entertainment?
While growing up, my dad actually bought a grand piano for my mum, so we all played around with it. He has always encouraged me to be true to myself.
How would you describe your style?
My mood or the event determines that. Also, the time of the event matters. During day time, I’m well-dressed and decent. If it’s a night party and I want to get naughty, I wear hot stuff.
Do you have a favourite fashion accessory?
I don’t have a favourite accessory though, I can’t do without my perfumes.
I’m sure you must have a lot of men running after you?
I don’t really notice. Maybe, maybe not.
Has it occurred to you that a lot of men out there fantasies’ about your body?
Yeah. They fantasize about me because I have lovely body features, the type dreams are made of.
Is that why you flaunt it a lot?
Maybe.
You seem to be confident with your body, do you think it makes people judge you or think lowly of you?
I don’t know.
What’s the craziest thing you ever heard about yourself?
When they link me with men I have never met before, like the coach or the footballer that was said to have bought me my SUV. I wish he could buy me a race car too (laughs).
So, how do you relax when you need to?
I love messages.
How would you describe yourself?    
I really can’t describe myself, but I’m deep.

Shocker! Buhari Will Make Better President Than Jonathan - OBJ

Feared Jonathan won’t be competent president

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el- Rufai, has alleged a plot by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from winning the 2011 election.

The alleged plot, according to El-Rufai in his memoirs The Accidental Public Servant, was based on the ex-President’s perception of Jonathan as a weak leader.

El-Rufai calls the scheme an “interesting move” to stop Jonathan.

Obasanjo’s preference, he says, was a joint ticket of General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Okonjo-Iweala also served in the Obasanjo government in the same capacity.

The book, which is due for public presentation this week in Abuja, has become a hot cake.

But for security reasons, its pre-launch circulation has been restricted to a select few.

The ex-Minister, who enjoyed the confidence of the former President and was one of his trusted aides, said of the alleged plot: “The period between 15th January and the deadline for submission of nominations by political parties to INEC had its own version of intrigues. Pastor Bakare had not immediately accepted the offer to be running mate, but the media was awash with speculations that Buhari had chosen him.

“On 25th January, I was summoned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to his hotel room at the Hilton for reasons he said were both urgent and important. On arrival, I exchanged pleasantries with Steven Oronsaye and Akin Osuntokun in the living room and we went straight into his bedroom.

“After greetings, Obasanjo asked if I was still in touch with Buhari. I replied that I was not directly but could reach him anytime I wished. He then asked that I resumed my role of emissary between the two of them and wished to know quickly if I could reach Buhari with a message. I responded that I could do so pretty quickly.

“Obasanjo then said that he concurred with my earlier belief that Jonathan would not make a competent President and that the best presidential candidate of the whole lot was Buhari.

“He expressed willingness to support Buhari and go public with it if CPC and Buhari are willing to consider his suggestions and implement them.

“Obasanjo suggested that I should convince Buhari to pick Ngozi as his running mate, enter immediately into an alliance with the ACN and ANPP, and then offer the Senate President’s position to the South-West to secure Tinubu’s support.”

The former Minister said Obasanjo offered to source for four wealthy Nigerians who could finance Buhari and CPC’s campaign.

El-Rufai added: “If Buhari agreed to these proposals, Obasanjo undertook to get three or four unnamed wealthy people to help with funding the CPC campaign, and Obasanjo would try bringing Labour Party to endorse the Buhari-Ngozi ticket.

“Obasanjo promised to resign from the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of the PDP and announce his support for the ticket if it would be helpful. I took notes on the hotel notepaper and left, promising to report back the next day.

“It was fortuitous that both Buhari and Pastor Bakare were in Abuja, so along with Pastor Bakare we met Buhari and delivered Obasanjo’s message.

“Bakare, who until then was a reluctant running mate, saw the Obasanjo offer as good for CPC and Buhari and hoped it would free him from the burden that Buhari had imposed on him.

“He added that since Buhari had not yet officially announced his name as running mate, he would be happy to step aside for Ngozi. I was simply an emissary so I was silent, hoping that Buhari would accept so I would be free of my commitment to be at Bakare’s side!

“Buhari smiled and asked for my opinion as someone that knew Obasanjo pretty well. I told both of them that I thought Obasanjo was being honest in his recommendations as I would urge Buhari to take similar steps of merger with other parties and so on

“I doubted if Obasanjo would deliver on the monies promised and the resignation from the PDP Board of Trustees and did not even think the latter would help the CPC and GMB in anyway.

“I also added that Obasanjo’s faction of Ogun PDP had just lost all their tickets to contest the next elections and should this situation change, Obasanjo would renege on everything he had committed to. Obasanjo may also be making another strategic move of removing Bakare’s name from the ticket, in addition to responding to Jonathan’s failure to ensure that his faction got the ticket by hook or crook- something Jonathan simply refused to do, preferring to support the state governor, Gbenga Daniel and his faction.

“Buhari restated that he thought long and hard before deciding on Bakare and would not change his mind. However, we all agreed to continue to engage Obasanjo and encourage contacts with Ngozi while pushing to see real movement towards the financial and other political commitments made.

“The same evening I returned to Obasanjo to brief him. He was excited and promised to contact Ngozi, Labour Party, the ANPP leadership and a few wealthy benefactors.”

The ex-Minister also revealed how Obasanjo made a U-turn on Jonathan and threw his weight behind him regardless of his ‘weaknesses’.

He said: “Some days later on 1st February, I got a call from Prof. Julius Ihonvbere requesting a meeting to follow up on my discussions with Obasanjo and Buhari. We met in the 3G offices on 2nd February with Julius and Festus Odimegwu on the same subject.

“We exchanged information and updates on the political situation and ended with the question posed by Obasanjo to me and then to Julius and Festus- “How do we stop Jonathan from getting elected, and thereby saving the country from state failure?

“We discussed various steps but unanimously recognised that Obasanjo would abandon the plan as soon as his temporary disagreement with the Jonathan administration was resolved. Since we believed in what we were doing, we agreed to soldier on under whatever scenario.

“On 7th February, we all travelled to Abeokuta to meet with Obasanjo. Odimegwu and Julius had developed a clear roadmap about remedying the weaknesses in Buhari’s organization and campaign for Obasanjo to play his lead role in the anti-Jonathan effort.

“By then, a weird Federal High Court ruling had restored the tickets of Iyabo Obasanjo and other members of their faction in Ogun State. So true to form, Obasanjo simply back-tracked, rejected the roadmap he had asked us to prepare, and said we should now explore ways of “remedying Jonathan’s weaknesses” and supporting his candidature.

“His commitments to Buhari vanished that day, just as we all predicted on 25th January. It was a very depressing drive late at night to Lagos for the five of us-Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, Festus Odimegwu, and Prof. George Obiozor with Otunba Akingboye driving.

“We lamented Obasanjo’s consistency in putting his personal interest before that of the nation and agreed that never again will he get another opportunity to waste our time the way he just did.”

Revelation: Tinubu's Coy Alpha Beta Sinks Teeth Into Lagos State Finances!

  

As it is, Lagos’ medium term future is in doubt, not least because its future taxes cannot be raised from the millions of illiterate and un-skilled youths who will rather likely press violently for free social services to further tie up the State’s finances already hobbled by over $500 million debts.

Overlaying all of this is Bola Tinubu’s absolute personal control of Lagos state government.

For never in history has any Parliament adjourned its official proceedings and marched to the private residence of a politician not holding public office to pledge the Parliament’s un-conditional allegiance to that politician. But that’s exactly what happened in June 2007 – immediately after the Lagos State Assembly was inaugurated by the new Governor; Raji Fashola - when 99% of the State Parliamentarians rushed to Bola Tinubu’s private residence to pledge the Lagos’ Parliament’s allegiance to Bola Tinubu in his then private capacity, with the incumbent Governor Raji Fashola merely looking on, having been pawned to remain in hock.

Till now, Bola Tinubu’s private ownership of Lagos State government continues without as much as a whimper by any wing of Nigeria’s Civil Rights Movements. “Civil Rights Groups in Nigeria have no intellectual direction”, said Global Witness; a highly respected anti-fraud organisation based in America.

In truth, not all Lagosians have been sitting on their hands.  One candidate at the 2011 Governorship elections; Mr. J.K Randle; an experienced accountant, had groaned on national teevee during a debate with Bola Tinubu’s hand-picked successor – Raji Fashola - that he (Randle) has never been able to make sense of Lagos State finances and he’s been asking for the account details but was continuously denied it.

Step back and spare a thought for Mr. Randle who was by then at the end of his tethers.

Beginning 1999, Lagos State government has yearly announced and published its budget at much fanfared events, but a budget is a mere proposal - not an accounting statement, and so, Mr. Randle’s jeremiad is right that there’s no publicly known account of Lagos State -  for as long as Lagos State refuses to publish its post-budget expenditure and income.

To close that gaping hole for continuing financial fraud in Lagos, a group known as Citizens Assistance Centre sued on October 25, 2011 for an order of mandamus – in terms asking the Ikeja High Court to compel that Lagos State Assembly discloses the State’s post-budget expenditure.

But the High Court Judge assigned the case ( Yetunde Idowu)  struck it out on 14th March, 2012, on a tenuous ground that the case should have been filed within thirty days from “when the Lagos Assembly ignored the group’s letter dated July 14, 2011, asking for details of accounts”.  Whereas, Judge Yetunde Idowu herself made no finding of the exact date that the ignoring of the petition dated 14th March ceased or stopped - being a continuing fact – to enable her court feasibly apply the short statute of limitation to reckon the thirty (30) days required to bring a lawsuit.

Nigerian court judgments, of course, typically follow this pattern of begging the question.

Regardless of that squelching court order, Lagos state finances continue to nag curious Lagos residents, especially after a federal Senate investigation in 2011 returned a verdict of Lagos’ indebtedness of $460 million – equivalent to half as much again of the state’s yearly financial revenue, excluding other gross liabilities on the back of the over-expansion of the size of Lagos government with huge future consequences on the state’s pension bills.

Taking a cue, and sensing a cover-up, a Lagos resident (Dr. Ademola Dominic) petitioned the Lagos State government directly on the 24th of October 2012, asking for a disclosure of public accounts as pertain the tax consultancy fee the Lagos State government pays out monthly to a private company named Alpha Beta Consulting Limited.

Dr. Dominic, as Petitor, invoked the Freedom of Information Act and demanded as follows:-

·         “I wish to know how the taxes, revenue, finances of the State accrue, are managed, and disbursed in Lagos State and do hereby apply, to you, by yourselves, agents, servants etc. to access and request to be made available to me by you, all information, CTC’s of Files, records, Contract Agreements/Documents, in respect of the said Contract/Agreement entered into between the Government of Lagos State and, the Company, Alpha Beta Consulting Limited, mandating the Company to assess and collect on behalf of the Government all Taxes and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) due, payable and paid by the Government and its agencies and all the commissions due, payable and paid by the government to the Company and received by the Company since the announcement of the Contract/Agreement for my perusal and scrutiny pursuant to Section 2, 3(3)m, o, 5, 6, 7, 9, & 10 of the Provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2011 (F.O.I) as Replicated/Domesticated in Lagos State of Nigeria. My request is basically to let me know the monthly returns of the taxes and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) generated, accrued, collected and paid to the Government and commissions received from Government or its agencies by the Company since inception of the contract”.

According to Dr. Dominic’s petition for account, “the Government of Lagos State boasts of internally generated revenue of about N40 billion every month; translating into a commission of N6 Billion being paid to Alpha Beta Consulting Ltd, also every month, which sum i consider unfavourable and outrageous to me as a tax payer and Citizen of Lagos State”.

In public eyes, the offending company - Alpha Beta (Consulting) Limited – is putatively owned by Alhaji Bola Tinubu - the past Lagos Governor – who’d handpicked Raji Fashola in 2007 as the Action Congress governorship candidate in Lagos by riding roughshod over the party’s constitution's requirement for a sensible primary election.

In his proxy reply to Dr. Dominic, dated November 5th, 2012, Raji Fashola treated Dr. Dominic’s petition as the occasion to return the personal compliments for his sly preferment by Bola Tinubu.

Here is how. In a reply cutting close to the bone, the Lagos State government tersely told Dr. Dominic that his petition for accounts would not be answered and no Alpha Beta Limited invoices or payment vouchers will be disclosed. It was so dismissively written by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice and signed by Olanrewaju Akinsola - a Special Senior Assistant on Justice Sector Reforms in the Office of the Attorney-General.

In terms, that November 5th reply letter conveyed Lagos State’s stance to treat Lagos finances as personal funds rather than as usufructuary asset that it is.

To back its refusal, Raji Fashola’s government declared in its reply letter to Dr. Dominic’s petition that Nigeria’s Freedom of Information Act does not apply to Raji Fashola’s government in Lagos because the right to public information is a law made by the National Assembly in Abuja, without any effect in Lagos State, since the Lagos House of Assembly did not enact it.

Shorn of all intellectual pretence to “true federalism” that Raji Fashola queerly but defensively invoked, the long and the short of it is that Lagos State residents are pointed told they have no right to know the revenue and expenditure accounts of their government under Raji Fashola’s government.

In effect, and for the first time in Nigerian history, an elected government declares non-accountability as its governing principle by readying to brazen out the direr consequences.

Now, however it is cut or diced, the gauntlet of true federalism Raji Fashola thereby threw down is pretensive nonsense, for the most part, and, in the specific context of Dr. Dominic’s civic request for accountability from an elected government; a no-brainer.

By commonsense alone, anyone who’s contributed financially as a member of a co-operative society or social club knows that the right to collect levies or taxes from the people carries with it the correlative duty to subsequently render accounts to the people levied or taxed.
With or without any law, the duty to render account to a levied or taxed person exists in ethics as a compelling habit of honesty and continues as a legitimate expectation in all civilized human relations.

Raji Fashola does not need any law to do the needful by routinely issuing public records of Lagos state revenue and expenditure without waiting to be asked. For that is the heart of the social contract between the government and the governed. To now require to be forced to do this ordinary duty, sounding in ethics, reflects badly on Raji Fashola’s governing reputation by figuring it out as lacking an abiding sense of responsibility.

For if Raji Fashola were otherwise not in hock; or un-prepossessed without skeletons to hide, he would grasp the fact at once that the Speaker of the Lagos Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, had early on tested this same “true federalism theory”  - which is now badly twisted to leach it of its originally good meaning by the current Action Congress (ACN) party apparatchiks to trench close to meaning non-accountability.

When the Lagos Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji raised his own true federalism theory as a preliminary objection in the High court; in questioning the jurisdiction of a federal court over his self-declared official capacity act of (alleged) money-laundering of ₦530 million at state level, the Federal High Court promptly dismissed the true federalism theory as nonsense, mirroring the scuppering fate awaiting Raji Fashola’s resurrected version of this same bogus defense.