The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council, Governor Simon Lalong, on Friday, tendered an unreserved apology to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) over his ‘blasphemous’ remarks about the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
The governor of Plateau state, who admitted that it was an error on his part to have linked the Catholic Pontiff with Nigeria’s politics, begged for forgiveness and understanding from the Catholic Church through the Bishops’ conference.
Earlier, concerned members of the Church had frowned at his choice of words, even as a Papal Knight of St. Gregory and demanded his immediate suspension from the Church.
However, in a letter to the CBCN President entitled, ‘Letter of Apology’ which was dated August 12, 2022, Governor Lalong restated his commitment to the Catholic faith promised to continue upholding the banner of the Christian faith in public life.
The letter reads, “I have followed with some shock and deep regret, the reactions that have trailed my appointment as the Director-General of the Campaign Council for the Presidential Candidates of our Party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Ibrahim Shettima.
“The appointment, understandably was received with mixed reactions across the Christian community who genuinely feel aggrieved by the decision of our party to settle for a Muslim Muslim ticket.
“While many people commended me for the appointment and saw it as a way of remaining within the system to fight for our own interests, others cast aspersions on it on the grounds that our faith had been insulted and denigrated.
“In the course of this, many of my opponents turned the issue into a political weapon with some spreading rumours and questioning the integrity of my credentials as a Catholic and a Papal Knight.
“In trying to make my case, I have granted interviews to justify why I believe that the appointment did not in any way undermine my commitment to the Catholic Church.
“During the week, in the course of defending myself, I had cause to make reference to my credentials as a Catholic and a Papal Knight. In the process, I made reference to the Holy Father.
“I now realise that this was an error on my part and has caused some level of concern and even embarrassment to many, especially the Members of the family of Papal Knights to which I belong.
“I now understand that I may have overreached myself in the course of trying to defend my personal decision in accepting this appointment and thus, the reference to the holy father was not intended as an act of disrespect to his exalted and revered office.
“Your Grace, by this written letter, I wish to tender my unreserved apologies and ask for their understanding and forgiveness from my brothers in the Catholic faith and, through you, the entire members of the Bishops’ Conference, our Fathers and our Leaders.
“My commitment to the Catholic faith to which belong remains unreserved and undiluted. I will continue to uphold the banner of my faith in public life as I have done over the years.
“You may recall, Your Grace that in the last five or so years, have been at the forefront of facilitating our dialogue as politicians with you our fathers in the faith. remain committed to this and pray that you will continue to encourage us as we ascend the slippery slope of politics.”
Leicester City: The GREATEST UNDERDOG – 5 Life Lessons
In an age when success has long seemed restricted to a predetermined few; #LeicesterCityFC are the English Premier League 2015/16 champions. Not Chelsea, or Arsenal, or Manchester United or Manchester City.
Leicester’s achievement can hardly be overstated. At the start of the season, bookmakers had #Leicester at an incredible 5,000-1 to win the Premier League. And yet it didn’t seem “undo-able”
They have no “BIG” name player, nor the biggest budget, in fact many of Leicester’s players have come from #humble beginnings. but their solidarity compels #admiration.
5 Life lessons we can learn from Leicester City’s EPL title triumph
1. MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING
2. NEVER STOP BELIEVING IN YOURSELF
2. BE YOURSELF
3.TALENT WITHOUT HARD WORK IS NOTHING
5. GRAB YOUR OPPORTUNITY WHEN YOU SEE IT
Your life is still waiting to unfold, refuse to throw in the towel no matter what life throws at you. Don’t write yourself off! Keep digging deep within yourself and put your heart into whatever you do.
Coutesy: Coach Oscar Emetuei
ACTIVATE!!! ‘WANTED: AT ALL COSTS’
Hello,
I imagine a situation where society places a ‘WANTED’ notice at every point of publicity and demands that the community mounts pressure on you to ‘submit yourself to be used’…
Used?
Yes! Used.
Because, you have been laying fallow. You are wired to be a blessing via your talents/gifts but all we have experienced with you thus far are Excuses, Procrastination, Quietness and even outright Self-Denial of those Gifts…
When will you answer the clarion call?
Look at it this way: until you commit your gifts to use, you cannot understand the practical scope and demands of your life’s calling.
It takes starting to know what specifically you are called to address.. Prior to that, we only speculate.
I am in need of your calling because God has an answer for me through you.. Please be courageous.. Start.
I speak for humanity and I demand: You are WANTED: at All Costs.
m a k t u b!!!
–
ACTIVATE!!! is the official daily post of Coach samOBAFEMI (@sobafemi).
Hello,
I imagine a situation where society places a ‘WANTED’ notice at every point of publicity and demands that the community mounts pressure on you to ‘submit yourself to be used’…
Used?
Yes! Used.
Because, you have been laying fallow. You are wired to be a blessing via your talents/gifts but all we have experienced with you thus far are Excuses, Procrastination, Quietness and even outright Self-Denial of those Gifts…
When will you answer the clarion call?
Look at it this way: until you commit your gifts to use, you cannot understand the practical scope and demands of your life’s calling.
It takes starting to know what specifically you are called to address.. Prior to that, we only speculate.
I am in need of your calling because God has an answer for me through you.. Please be courageous.. Start.
I speak for humanity and I demand: You are WANTED: at All Costs.
m a k t u b!!!
–
ACTIVATE!!! is the official daily post of Coach samOBAFEMI (@sobafemi).
– See more at: http://bhousegroup.com/bh/activate-wanted-at-all-costs/#!prettyPhoto
Business Man – D’banj’s Release ”Koko Garri”
There is no slowing down for D’banj as the music star is set to release his Koko Garri Brand to local supermarket soon.
The koko master took to his Instagram page to share his new product which is the first from his Koko Holdings Company. “Finally here after 5 yrs. I can proudly say #KokoGarri is the first product of Koko Holdings, thanks to God.” he captioned the image.
SEASON OF LETTERS
The General is at it again! When he is not openly criticising the man he facilitated his ascendancy to Aso Rock with his utterances, he is hobnobbing with state governors eyeing President Goodluck Jonathan’s seat and opposed to his second term aspiration.
But his latest offering in the form of a narcissistic missive is a desperate attempt from his moral grandeur to salvage whatever is left of the wreckage of a crashed landed flight piloted by his stooge.
The purpose of the mixed grill of a letter must be to rubbish the present administration and Obasanjo has succeeded, in turning himself to a hero, once again. Unfortunately, Nigerians have fallen cheaply for his uncanny ability to draw negative messianic attention to himself with his manipulatively tendencies.
Little wonder, the reactions that have trailed his controversial letter are legion and everyone, wittingly or unwittingly, has been drawn to join in what is now widely regarded as the ‘shegedance’.
The former president’s epistle actually overshadowed the attention another leaked complaint letter would have gotten. Dated 25 September to President Goodluck Jonathan from Mallam Sanusi Lamido, his revelation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Nigeria’s cesspit of corruption – has failed to remit $49.8 billion, being proceeds from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013 to the Federation Account elicited widespread outrage.
But appearing before the Senate committee on finance, Mr. Sanusi, said an ongoing review of relevant accounts between the CBN, the NNPC and the ministry of finance showed that only $12 billion (N1.9 trillion) was missing as of yet.
Without the patience to pen many pages of letter which will likely go unreplied and trashed at the State House, the number three citizen of the country, Speaker AminuTambuwal, on Monday, 9 December, at an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association to mark the 2013 International Anti-Corruption Day, came down hard on President Goodluck Jonathan whom he accused of encouraging corruption with his body language.
He cited examples with the recent Oduahgate that the presidency swept under the carpet while lamenting that anti-corruption agencies have gone to sleep.
The media was still awash with Obasanjo’s letter ‘bomb’ to President Jonathan, as a response was still awaited when the eldest daughter of the Mr Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, joined the fray with an open epistle of her own to her father, not a response or “support to President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person,” she remarked.
In the purported letter, she ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president.
Iyabo exposed how Obasanjo got away with many of his atrocities because “Nigerians were his enablers and people ultimately get leaders that reflect them.”
Not forgetting the letter to Obasanjo (Daily Trust 15/12/2013) by a former chairman of the PDP, Audu Ogbeh.
In his narrative, he challenged Obasanjo over the role he played as then president, when he watched with glee from his seat of power in Aso Rock as rampaging thugs unleashed mayhem and made Anambra state ungovernable, kidnapping former Governor , Chris Ngige, and eventually swearing in his deputy, to cut a long story short.
In the spirit of the season, a former Chief Justice of the Federation, Dahiru Musdapher, on December 20, weighed in with his own open letter to President Jonathan. He recalled how Jonathan brushed aside recommendations from the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to sack former Appeal Court president, Ayo Salami, ignoring firm arguments by the two authorities that Mr. Salami was innocent of allegations against him. Punishing Mr. Salami, they advised, would terribly dent an already integrity-deficient judiciary. But all these fell on deaf ears.
Back to Obasanjo’s missive, the most weighty of all the letters since it is coming from a past civilian president to the incumbent. My brief here is not to dismiss the message with the wave of the hand because the messenger is guilty of more grievous offences. This will be akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. There’s no way the message can be separated from the messenger, especially when the messenger is far worse than the recipient. However, it makes sense to review the substance of the message.
Describe the former president’s letter with any negative adjective like these: hypocritical, satanic, demonic, messianic, self-serving, mischievous, deceitful and instantly, you paint a picture of a controversial epistle from a depraved man persistently tortured by the heinous crime he perpetuated in his eight years (mis) rule as a democratically elected president, culminating in a sham election that threw up a terminally ill Umaru Yar’dua and a docile Goodluck Jonathan.
He knew the former could not survive one term let alone two. He was not oblivious that Jonathan was incompetent and nondescript, yet he craftily foisted him on us. Obasanjo advertised them both as the only pair capable of turning the country’s fortune around.
The former president is the personification of everything wrong with Nigeria. He epitomizes corruption, irresponsible leadership, dishonesty, double standard. Our collective amnesia is the only reason anyone will heap praises on the Ota farmer for that letter.
That said his message is apt for the season and should be taken seriously. The issues raised, though germane are common knowledge save for the part where he talked about 1000 people placed on political watch list and training of a presidential hit squad of snipers to take out perceived and real enemies of this administration
Obasanjo’s 18 page diatribe will likely go the way of his four previous letters to Jonathan – The trash can. This letter is a reaction from the General’s bruised ego of his previous epistles that were ignored. Maybe Obasanjo should have paused to ponder why his previous letters were shredded considering it would have taken nothing to respond with Jonathan’s horde of frothing aides. Did he not think that Mr. President might have deemed it appropriate to convey in subtle manner the old aphorism: “silence is the best answer for a fool”?
His missive dripped of charlatanism and unrepentant impunity that reminds us of a freed prisoner who falsely arrogates to himself the title of a ‘Statesman’. Here is a man who hunted his political foes with state instruments, he imposed his stooges in various political offices, undermined democracy with massive electoral fraud just as he flagrantly disobeyed court orders.
There was fiscal unaccountability of astronomical proportions during his administration. He usurped the petroleum ministry, he is accused of human rights abuse by way of massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam. How can we forget Mr, Obasanjo’s futile attempt to change the Nigerian constitution with billions of naira to grant himself perpetual tenancy, or is it the $16 billion dollar he splashed out to his cronies in government to generate darkness?
By accusing Jonathan of giving opposition parties support in gubernatorial elections was he trying to insinuate and admonish Jonathan to tamper with the electoral process and impose PDP candidates on the electorate against their wish?
Obasanjo will easily beat anyone to be inducted in the country’s hall of shame for his recklessness and manipulative tendencies but that should not make us disregard his warnings particularly now that he realises that the man he installed as president is well on course to smash every infamous and dishonest record he set.
Obasanjo should receive his torture in silence if he is now disenchanted with the ‘anointed one’ he installed as president. His moral grandeur is the height of his self-delusion. He should leave the rest of his life in silence and give opportunity to people with integrity to talk.
Beyond the messenger, the propriety of the letter and the way it was thrown in the public, there are serious treasonable allegations that in the national interest. From the political watch list to the presidential secret hit squad in covert training; abuse of office; mismanagement of national resources; incompetence; deliberately strengthening the fault lines of clannishness religion and region; factionalisation and weakening of the PDP are just a highlight of the weighty allegations Nigerians are demanding for answers.
President Jonathan’s electoral promise to fight corruption headlong has since been forgotten as recent allegations from Obasanjo, Sanusi and Speaker Tambuwal that the President is participating in, and facilitating the rapid growth of corruption has blurred any impression Jonathan has made in his effort to fight the scourge. .
As we match towards 2015, we watch on as the drama of unending political battle of wits between a godfather and his godson unfold. Culled from TheNation new
EFCC arrests Kano Speaker, 10 other lawmakers
The EFCC Monday swooped on the Kano State House of Assembly and detained the Speaker of the House, Alh. Gambo Sallau, alongside principal officers in what the state government has described as a political assault on the state government following the mass defection of the State Governor, Engr. Rabiu Kwakwanso alongside several other key politicians in government positions to the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Arrested alongside the Speaker are the Deputy Speaker, Isyaku Ali Danja, the Chief Whip, the Deputy Chief Whip, Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Chairman House Committee on Finance and Clerk of the House. A statement by the Government of Kano State said it noted with utter disappointment and surprise, the arrest of the officials. The statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations to the state governor, Halilu Ibrahim Dantiye, stated that the public officials were apparently arrested in connection with the budget amendment of 2013 of the State Government, which has already been signed into law by the state governor, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso. The statement added that the Speaker and his colleagues have only exercised their constitutional responsibilities of ensuring that budgets are properly articulated, to ensure probity and accountability in public expenditure, so that in the end, the citizens enjoy dividends of democracy. “It is Chrystal clear that the above mentioned public officials were arrested by the EFCC on the orders from the above, because of the legislators’ defection to APC, in support of Governor Kwankwaso,” the government said, adding that “This action is obviously to intimidate and cow them into submission for choosing to move to the progressive fold. This action is not only despicable and absurd but also capable of igniting crisis in the polity, thereby breaching the relative peace that is being enjoyed in Kano state. It is regrettable that the EFCC is allowing itself to be a tool of witch-hunt in the hands of powers that be.” – See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/aftermath-of-defection-to-apc-efcc-detains-kano-speaker-principal-officers/#sthash.jnk6RrfU.dpuf
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ADVANTAGES OF DONATING BLOOD & 6 Most Common EXCUSES For Not Donating Blood
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