Joshua King's Free Press

Not long ago, a young boy in Otueke in southern Nigeria went to school without shoes. He also read his books on a kerosene lantern and sometimes from a candle's illumination. However, his fortunes changed for he has become Nigeria's president. What a tale of transformation. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan at his campaign spoke long and hard about his travails of going bare-foot to school and believed his tale was inspiring to young Nigerians. Young Nigerians today are however disappointed in their employee, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan's refusal to show them how many shoes he now has in his shoe rack has become a reason many of them have vowed to go bare foot to the next occupy Nigeria movement. The president argued in his media chat with the nation's most conservative news station the NTA, that it was against his ‘personal beliefs and principle’ to disclose to his employers how many shoes he currently possesses.  We would like to know how many shoes are in the president's...

The quarter finals of the ongoing Euros in Poland and Ukraine have been settled. This editor got all the predictions right with minor precision. A one nil victory for Portugal from a set piece was the prediction for Portugal versus Czech. It ended one nil but Ronaldo’s goal was not from a set piece as predicted. The Germans truly got a victory over the Greeks. A match that was watched by Angela Merkel to ensure her hard line measures for the Greeks were understood back home. Spain did not need any Spanish-Fly to erect a penetration past a French side that offered very little resistance. The pick of the quarterfinals had to be undoubtedly Italy against England. England favoured by the media back home after Roy Hodgson had convinced them, he had built a team that was hard to beat were subjected to a night of Italian dominance. Italy got the win predicted by yours truly from a shootout.   Ahead of the semi-final fixtures between Iberian neighbours Spain and Portugal, there...

Surely it was not long ago when a certain attorney general had declared: The president can run the country from anywhere. At the time of his declaration, the president of the republic late Yar Adua, was in a clinic somewhere in Saudi Arabia and had not been fit to discharge his duties. Somehow, the attorney general could publicly make such a pronouncement and insisted that the president who was away for 50 days and counting could run the country from a sick bed. That same pronouncement was made by the president's spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati. He defended the president's trip to Brazil to attend a United Nations Earth summit insisting that those who are criticizing the president today for taking the trip will be the same ones who will criticize him if he failed to make it. He also chastised the opposition for trying very hard to cash in on the crisis in Kaduna and Yobe states to score political points. Dr. Abati further stressed that the president had before his trip held ...

All the talk of racism was over at least momentarily when the opener between Poland and Greece got underway. Poland took the lead through Lawandowski and looked certain to win when the Greeks got down to 10 men. Someway it was not to be as the Greeks equalised and managed to miss what might have been the winner when Karagounis sent his spot kick into the goal keeper’s arm. Later the same day, Russians eased past Czech Republic convincingly. In the end however, it is the Greeks and Czech Republic that qualify from group A of the 2012 European Championship.   Group A results Poland 1: 1 Greece                          Greece 1: 2 Czech                            Greece 1:0 Russia Russia 4: 1 Czech        ...

There appears to be no immediate calm returning to Kaduna after Boko Haram struck three churches there. Reprisal attacks had seen a curfew imposed and later relaxed. However, this morning, a resurgence of the violence has returned. With irate youths on either side of the communities taking up clubs or machetes and turning on each other, there is hardly anyone who can do business today in the northern city. Already the governor has reinstated the curfew while military presence is being deployed to quell the escalating tension.  A press statement from the government reads: "RE-IMPOSITION OF 24 HOURS CURFEW IN KADUNA STATE" In view of certain new security challenges that came up today, and based on the need for the state government to continue with its responsibility of safeguarding the lives and properties of its citizens, the state government is hereby re-imposing the 24 hours curfew in all parts of Kaduna State. This curfew covers all the 23 local governments of ...

Terror sect Boko Haram have claimed responsibility for the coordinated bomb attacks that rocked churches in Zaria and Kaduna yesterday. The sect spokesperson  Abu Qaqa said the current massacre of christians was done to avenge the past killings of Muslims and desecration of Mosques in Zonkwa, Yelwan Shendam, Tafawa Balewa, where they said Mosques were turned into brothels and drinking joints, while Christians continue to carry on with impunity and government support. The statement also claims that Christians must all convert to Islam in order to have peace. The sect stated in a press release sent to select media via its spokesperson Abul Qaqa earlier today. Abu Qaqa started the statement by saying, “Today Almighty Allah has given us victory against Christian Churches in Kaduna and Zaria which led to the deaths of many Christians and security operatives.” Nigeria has never had a more worrying source of concern in recent times than the terror group. Several studies claim ...

When a team takes the lead in a football match, there is a nervous state for the fans of the team in the lead; one goal lead is not enough. There must be sustained effort at defending that lead or perhaps scoring another till the end. Farouk Lawan scored and took the lead when he submitted his report and earned huge cheers from the people. The match was not over though for soon, he conceded an own goal when partook in the production of a movie Farouk Also Likes Dollars. The 4th time house of rep member was held for questioning late into the night yesterday on his role in the bribery allegation scandal brought by Chief Otedola of Zenon Oil. Chief Otedola in an interview with selected newspapers revealed how the ad-hoc committee chairman on the subsidy fraud had approached and pestered him for bribes to which he acceded and offered to pay $3million with $620,000 being advance payment which sum has since been collected by Farouk Lawan and his secretary Boniface Emenalo. Farouk had f...

Femi Otedola of Zenon Petroleum Limited was questioned by the police yesterday in Abuja for over an hour by a task force in the office of the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar. It is not immediately known what answers Chief Otedola had given the Police. From his previously granted interviews to selected newspapers, he had said earlier that Farouk Lawan solicited and pestered him for bribe. He also said, he acted with law enforcement agencies to have the bribery session recorded.  The revelation by Chief Otedola had thrown the nation into a state of despair as to the fate of the report released by House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on the Subsidy Regime. Farouk Lawan the chairman had denied the allegation of bribe at first but then repented and claimed he received the money to expose Chief Otedola whom he claimed offered him the money at his own will.  Chief Otedola is a close associate of the president and a prominent financier of the Peoples Democratic...

I will keep on till I reach my dream My engine will not run out of steam I shall not be deterred by rivers and mountains Neither shall I be halted by stabs and pains Unto lofty heights I march No place better than whence I march I see nothing else save the dream That alone I hold in high esteem All that oppose, my resolve defies Till it hath wings, takes off and flies A stormy cloud cannot break my stride Neither shall violent winds push me aside 11 defenders may stand between me and goal Forty tackles or not I will score yet another goal Nothing shall be impossible with me Nothing shall be able to withstand me My dream drives me to greatness And compels me to move with boldness When my strength is gone and my body drained His joy comes, lifting me to heights ordained I’m not hindered by angels or demons His grace carries me and I slay dragons My soul is thankful and jubilant I reached my dream strong and triumphant You should kee...

Hon. Farouk Lawan, chairman House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on the subsidy regime admitted yesterday to have received a bribe from Zenon Oil chairman, Mike Otedola but insisted the bribe was at the insistence of the oil magnate. The nation had become embroiled in a tale of bribery, denial and admission of such corrupt act by well respected citizens on a matter for which millions of Nigerians protested and some indeed lost their lives. Such is the level of decay or rot in our society today. Otedola claims his actions were in connivance with the EFCC in a sting operation to entrap the lawmaker. Farouk Lawan earlier denied but has now claimed he received money but reported it to the Inspector General of Police. According to Premium Times, however, it was the State Security Services that got Chief Otedola to cooperate into setting up the lawmaker. Who is telling the truth? Beyond the claims of Chief Otedola, the denial by Hon. Lawan and his later admission, there is without...

Allegations have emerged that Farouk Lawan, chairman House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on the subsidy probe solicited and indeed took bribes from Femi Otedola of Zenon Oil. Chief Otedola has granted an interview to Thisday revealing how he paid sums in dollars amounting to $600,000 as part payment to Farouk Lawan to keep Zenon Oil out of the report a few days before the report was released. According to the Zenon chairman, Farouk Lawan had put him under immense pressure to pay $3m as other marketers were doing and that had prompted him to involve the EFCC and SSS in a sting operation. Mr. Otedola insists he had the whole episode videotaped and that his call log has also been forwarded to the anti-corruption agency the EFCC.                  Farouk Lawan on his own part has come out to deny the allegations, describing them as mudslinging. He equally cited on his committee’s raised alarm in the p...

The president, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has sent a bill to the National Assembly seeking to rename three federal universities. They are the Federal University of Technology, Umudike, which is to be changed to Michael Okpara University, Umudike, and the Federal University of Technology, Yola, to be changed to Modibbo Adama University, Yola and the University of Lagos changed to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos. The Senate President, David Mark read the bill himself at a plenary session on the floor of the senate today. You will recall that the president had in his Democracy Day address unilaterally renamed the University of Lagos after Chief Moshood Abiola the winner of the annulled June 12 Presidential Election. That decision has since drawn widespread reaction from various quarters. The Abiola family hailed it as a long overdue recognition of their patriarch whom they see as a martyr not recognised by the beneficiaries of his sacrifice. The alumni and students of the univer...

Somehow, a plane left the sky and chose to land not at the airport but in a residential area. 153 persons dead and the number of wounded residents growing. But why had the Dana flight been kept airborne despite repeated signs of failure? Why had the management of the company insisted that profits were paramount to passenger safety and survival? Why is Nigeria the only country where safety regulations can be flouted without repercussions? The weekend had begun with a little excitement for some people in Lagos. Many had gone about their usual business and none was to expect the fatality of the event that was to occur right in their neighbourhood in the afternoon. Air travel has always been the fastest way to travel and for the ill fated flight 992, it had gone to Calabar from Lagos, and then to Abuja before landing into a block of flats in Ishaga, Lagos. A staff of Dana whose payoff is the smart way to fly has spoken to news station Channels Television on the condition of anony...