Dele Momodu writes a desperate letter to Pres. Buhari...he sounds a little disappointed in the new govt

Ovation publisher and staunch Buhari supporter, Dele Momodu, yesterday wrote a desperate open letter to the president where he expressed a little disappointment over the government of APC in the last four weeks. (I think there are are more desperate and ruthless politicians in this new government, it's definitely a Change from what we had previously). Anyway, read Momodu's memo 1st published on Thisday below..

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Presidency dismisses rumours on Buhari’s delayed relocation to Aso Villa

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to president Buhari, Shehu Garba released a statement yesterday describing as false, reports being circulated online that the reason Nigeria's new president hasn't relocated to Aso Villa was because he was advised by a Senegalese spiritualist not to do so for now. In the statement, Shehu said the report was embarrassing to say the least. He said the president is a Muslim who believes his fate belongs to God.

"The so-called spiritual cleansing of the Aso Rock Villa by Senegalese marabouts before President Buhari moves into the villa is the figment of the imagination of rumour mongers." He said

Shehu said renovation works at the villa was mostly the reason pres. Buhari hasn't moved to the Villa.

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Buhari in Germany with Nigeria’s ‘Wish List’

President Muhammadu Buhari on his arrival for the G7 meeting

•   To meet Obama, Merkel, Cameron, others

Jaiyeola Andrews in Abuja   
In line with the request of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised countries, President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Munich, Germany, sunday armed with a “wish list” for Nigeria

The G7 had before his inauguration asked Buhari to prepare a shopping list and come with it for its consideration, in what was seen as a goodwill gesture towards the new leader and the country.

Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement from Munich said topmost on the list of requests that Buhari will tender before the G7 leaders was security.

“We have a problem which they know,” Buhari was quoted as stating.

The president said he had used every opportunity at his disposal ahead of the G7 meeting to discuss the country’s needs with specific reference to terrorism and development needs at person-to-person meetings and phone conversations with some of the group’s leaders.

“These development issues, many and varied as they are, touch on the economy, combating corruption, increased foreign direct investment (FDI), power and energy, infrastructure, environment, enhanced transparency in elections and good governance,” the president said.

According to him, the leaders of the industrialised nations had shown a preparedness to work with Nigeria to help the country out of her problems.

Buhari will hold meetings on the sidelines of the summit with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, UK Prime Minister, David Cameron; Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper; Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe; and the World Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim.

During the two-day visit, he will participate in the G-7 outreach programme for invited heads of government and global institutions.
Buhari was received on arrival by the Vice Minister-President of Bavaria, Mrs. Inge Aigner.

Shehu, in the statement, said Buhari was accompanied on the trip by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State; former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola; Gen. A. Dambazau (rtd.); and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Paul B. Lolo.

Other invited heads of state and international institutions who will join the president at the working session with G-7 leaders monday at Elmau Castle, include President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia, and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi of Iraq, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr. Angel Gurria, Managing Director of the IMF, Mrs. Christine Lagarde, President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, Director-General of the International Labour Organistion (ILO), Mr. Guy Rider, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mrs. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, and the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, are also scheduled to participate in the outreach session with G-7 leaders.

The head of the Bavarian regional government hosted a dinner in honour of Buhari and other leaders invited to the G-7 outreach programme last night.

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Pics: Anambra governor pays congratulatory visit to Buhari, solicits appointment for Igbos

Anambra governor pays congratulatory visit to Buhari

Anambra state governor Willie Obiano who is an APGA party member paid a congratulatory visit to President elect, General Buhari in Abuja yesterday April 24th. According to Governor Obiano, he came to congratulate Buhari on his victory at the polls as well as ask him not to sideline the Igbos in the constitution of his cabinet. Governor Obiano denied speculations that his visit was a move for him to defect to the APC.

“It is not correct. I will remain with APGA and work very closely with Mr president. I came to congratulate His Excellencey the President -elect on his victory and I am also here to reassure him that Anambra and the south East would support him.

I also pleaded with him on some pressing problem that are of importance to the south east like the second Niger bridge and some of the federal roads. We also pleaded in the area of appointment for the people of Anambra and of course for people from the south East be it ministerial, ambassadorial and what have you. So basically it is to congratulate the president elect on his well deserved victory.” he said

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Pay attention to indigenous products — Uwaje

For transparent leadership and governance, the immediate President of Institute of Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, Chris Uwaje who has been preaching local content said that the incoming government must pay attention to locally developed solution to free the country from digital slavery of the western powers.

Buhari

“I am concerned, just like other IT Professionals that while technology is at the center of the electoral processes, this is the time to pay attention to IT as the bedrock of national development. “General Muhammadu Buhari may not deliver the dividend of democracy, unless IT and IT professionals are at the centre of his leadership program” the Oracle of the Nigerian IT industry who championed the IT policy blueprint in 2001 said.
For a digital Nigeria, Uwaje noted that the present administration should set up one hundred billion (N100 billion)   startup transformation budget for ICT ecosystem. He said that this can yield three to five times of the amount in three years . Nothing short of that amount will work, if will want to see the big picture and engage great national transformation with Technology.
To resolve the national IT challenge, Uwaje who many industry watchers see as the next President of the Nigerian Computer Society, (NCS) said that the new government must do the following: *Establishment of the Office of the Chief Information Technology Officer of the Federation. *Refocus national IT Development Agenda on Digital Knowledge Capacity building and National Software Development.
* Establish a Presidential ICT Advisory council chaired by the President *Make the patronage of Indigenous Software and Hardware mandatory and priority for both he Public and Private Sector. *Encourage the establishment of ICT-enabled Outsourcing Centres *Establishment of at lease 12 Digital Knowledge/IT Parks within the next 24 months
*Upgrade the Computer Science Department in Nigerian Universities into a Faculty of Computer Science to spur and accelerate Innovation and creativity. *Encourage the contractual recruitment and engagement of at lease, 2,000 Foreign Computer Science & IT Lectures to collaborate with Nigerian lecturers in Computer Science re-engineer computer Science education for the next 4 years.
To actualize this, according to the Presidential aspirant of NCS, government   should establish a N100 billion Litmus Package to invigorate Innovation in the ICT Domain and also establish a special platform for National Competition on Digital Knowledge Hackathon and IT Innovation. This should be named: DEMO Nigeria
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/pay-attention-to-indigenous-products-uwaje/?#sthash.urJ2xd5v.dpuf

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Nigerian Civil Society launch “Buharimeter” to track Buhari’s campaign vows delivery

A civic group has launched an online application to track the delivery of pre-election promises made by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari.
The web-app, announced on Monday, holds data on all promises made by both the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and Mr. Buhari while campaigning for the 2015 general elections.
It is part of the digital governance revolution in Nigeria, helping the use of online tools to deepen the country’s democracy and make government accountable and transparent, its creators said.
The app was built by the Centre for Democracy and Development with support from Open Society Foundation West Africa and a leading budget data analytics, Budgit.
Buharimeter measures the implementation of Mr. Buhari’s campaign promises and displays a visual report. It documents promises made by the current government in different sectors for easy tracking.
The performance of the government will be measured using three related methods.
First, it will crowdsource Nigerians’ contributions to discussions, comments on policy pronouncements of the government in achieving its set targets and surveys.
Second, it will carry out policy and media monitoring exercise.
“Policy statements will be acquired, analysed and used as basis for gauging the performance of the government,” Idaya Hassan, director of the centre said.
The third approach is physical checks on projects.
At its launch on Monday, three days after the president was sworn in, the website showed that no project had been achieved, and none declared “not achieved” either.
Its “On-going” bar had a slight fill of green, attributed to the president’s secret declaration of his assets. The president had promised to declare his assets publicly.
He is yet to do so.

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