Jerry Douglas' Blog

General Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said he may change his mind to run for president in 2015 if his party decides to field him as a candidate. Buhari had said in the run up to the 2011 elections that that was the last time he would be participating in the presidential race. Since he lost the election, loyalists and other supporters have been nudging the former head of state to change his mind. Speaking in Abuja yesterday at the inauguration of the Congress for Progressive Change merger committee, Buhari said he is likely to buckle under the pressure on him to contest in 2015. “I have been saying it and it is on record before the last general election that I will not present myself again for election. But after that I explained it so many times that members of my party said I don’t belong to myself, I belong to them and they belong to me,” he said. “For that reason I told them (to) go and organise a party and if you approach me I may consider it. This is the stage we are (at).” Th...

At least 65 planes abandoned at airports across Nigeria will be dismantled to help improve air safety, an official has said.   Some planes were abandoned eight years ago Airport operations Director Henry Omeogu said the planes had been left to rot by insolvent companies. Workers at the international airport in Lagos are currently dismantling planes abandoned in an area called the "graveyard". Disused planes range from small jets to a Boeing 747, Mr Omeogu said. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) ordered the destruction after companies repeatedly ignored appeals to remove the planes, he said. Henry Omeogu Airport operations director said, "None of them is serviceable because most of their owners have closed shop. Unfortunately, such owners don't want to evacuate them for reasons best known to them." The Terminal Manager at Lagos's Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Olutayo Oginnie, said some of the abandoned plane...

The Director General of Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Dr Joseph Odumodu, has said that importers of second hand tyres into the country don’t usually buy them but are paid to help dispose them by the foreign countries. Odumodu said yesterday in Abuja while addressing newsmen that every country, including Nigeria, is faced with the challenge of disposing tyres after their expiry dates. He said: “What we have found out is that in Europe and America, their tyres have four to five years life span and ours is four. After those years, an average European or American will remove them even if it has not cover 10,000 kilometres for their own safety. “So our people go to those sites where they keep tyres and I am told that they pay them to help them dispose the tyres and where do they dispose the tyres? In Nigeria, so they bring them to us.” He said that in the last two years, they have seized over five million tyres across the country, adding that their biggest challenge is h...

The 33-year-old's contract was due to expire this summer but the Reds have reached an agreement with him over the remaining five months on his deal so he can return to his homeland. Doni has not figured for the Reds since the final day of last season at Swansea City. He made just four first-team appearances for the club after moving to Anfield for around £1.3million from AS Roma in July 2011. Botafogo club president Gustavo Assed told Globo Esporte: "We made an offer for him, as the player himself asked. We understand Liverpool have accepted the offer, so we are planning to officially unveil him this Friday. "Doni wants to finish his career at Botafogo, he is a top quality national team level goalkeeper. Most importantly, he is a Botafogo fan and we wanted him"

A Nigerian rapper, Don Saint, has come out with a new book titled Emancipation From self service. The Hip Hop Artiste is a former Events Manager at Silverbird’s Rhythm FM Awka Station, before he went back to school for his Master’s Degree. Now the C.E.O of So-Plain Entertainment /Naija Music Movement, Don Saint said his passion to help the youths overcome self service kept him awake, conducting researches on the issue. According to him, “80 % of the youths from age bracket of 10- 45 do self service and this they see as normal. But when I did my research I found out that self service is very dangerous to our health, especially to boys as they grow into men. So I took up the cause to let the people know about the harmful effects of self service and how one can be free from the addiction.” The artiste also added: “Once you finish reading the book, you will never go back to the act again, unless you want to destroy your life and future. The book analyses the term self service, th...

The Federal Capital Territory has proposed to spend N5 billion this year to rehabilitate prostitutes and destitutes who loiter the streets of Abuja. The FCTA as part of moves to remove prostitutes and destitute from the streets of the Federal Capital City, FCC, has set up two training centres in Bwari Area Council and Lugbe in Anuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC. The Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, will be in charge of removing the prostitutes and destitutes from the streets while their rehabilitation will be handled by Social Development Secretariat. According to a source from the FCTA, the prostitutes when arrested, will be taken to Lugbe where they will be engaged in vocational training in hairdressing, making of yoghurt, computer training, among others for a minimum period of three months. The programme which commenced last year has already graduated over 1,000 of such persons. In his lead debate yesterday, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma- Egba who presented ...

The House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Federal Government to initiate the process of conducting a referendum for the “Bakassi people, who are Nigerians.” A motion by a member representing Bakassi in the House, Mr. Ekpenyong Ayi, urged support for the rights of his people to self determination. RELATED:   Bakassi Returnees Demand New Home In Dayspring Island Ayi cited Article I of the 1966 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and Article 15 (2) of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to buttress the demand. He noted that the UN declaration provided thus, “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of nationality or denied the right to change his nationality.” According to Ayi, the referendum had become necessary, following the ceding of Bakassi to the Republic of Cameroun. He stated that the Nigerians in Bakassi had a right to decide whether to live there or leave. “This guarantees Nigerian nationals living in Baka...