In new reports, fresh cases of fraudulent acts have been uncovered in offices of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, totaling N83m in Kano, Edo, Kogi, Gombe and Plateau states.

A report by Punch discloses that while the board was investigating a N31m misappropriated revenue in Edo and N20m in Kano, it was quizzing officials in Plateau and Gombe over N15m and N10m mismanaged in the states respectively. Also, it was learnt that the examination board was investigating the misappropriation of N7m in its office in Kogi State.

Fabian Benjamin, spokesman of JAMB, who confirmed the figures on Friday, said the board would be diligent in its investigations and would not tolerate corrupt practices from any of its officials.

“We will monitor with careful scrutiny how workers handled public funds. We are trying to block all leakages and loopholes,” he said.

The medium quoted a source as saying that all the workers of the board found to have been involved in corrupt activities being investigated had been suspended while investigations were ongoing.

“What happened was that we had a panel session in Abuja and most of the state coordinators could not account for how some monies were spent or remitted. The coordinator of Kano State could not account for N20m, while the Edo (office) could not account for N31m. In Plateau State, we are looking at N15m. For Kogi State, we have about N7m that is a source of contention while Gombe office has N10m that is also a source of contention. You can then sum it up and know how much corruption ate deep into some officials. The registrar is frank and thorough about the investigations and he has warned to transfer some of the cases to the police and to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.”

A case of N36m allegedly misappropriated by a clerk at the JAMB office in Makurdi, Benue State, Philomena Chieshe, was recently reported by the media.

It was reported that Chieshe had claimed in her statement that a mystery snake sneaked into the accounts office and swallowed the cash. Also, another JAMB worker in Nasarawa State, Labaran Tanko, was reported on Wednesday to be undergoing investigation over a suspected fraud involving N26m.

Tanko had claimed that the N26m, which was the worth of unsold Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination scratch cards, got burnt in his car during an accident while he was on his way to remit the cards at the JAMB office in Abuja. Both Chieshe and Tanko are still under investigation.

A pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after a fight broke-out when a passenger wouldn’t stop farting. The flight from Dubai to Amsterdam made an unscheduled stop in Vienna as the elderly overweight man reportedly refused to contain himself in the packed out cabin.

According to MirrorOnline, fight occurred on the flight when two Dutchman who were sitting next to the flatulent man told him to stop and complained to Transavia Airlines crew.

Yet despite repeated requests and even a direct order from the pilot the man carried on and a fight broke out.

The pilot of the Dutch low-cost airline then decided to make an emergency landing at Vienna International Airport in Austria.

Officers boarded the plane with police dogs and four suspects were escorted off the plane.

The pilot had reported “passengers on the rampage” before footage emerged of passengers being removed in a post on social media by Alfred Dekker.

A police spokesman confirmed that the incident centred around a passenger suffering from wind who was not attempting to restrain himself and that this offended two young Dutchmen -who started a fight with the man.

Two sisters sitting in the same row as the men were also escorted off the plane – but they told local media they hadn’t done anything wrong.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he wouldn’t mind to commit suicide if Nigeria loses hope even as he offered reasons why he could not chose to remain silent when he sees things going wrong in the country. He says because he is an incurable optimist in the Nigerian project, he would continue to talk and point out things going wrong because he still believes that Nigeria has great hope.

Answering questions from students of the Ijaw National Academy(INA) Kaiama at the school auditorium as part of activities lined up for his two day working visit to Bayelsa, Obasanjo said in spite of the economic and political challenges confronting the country, there is great hope for Nigeria.

While admitting that there are things that could have been done differently, he insisted that Nigerians should not give up hope as that would spell doom for the country.

“If Nigeria does not have hope I would find a rope and commit suicide immediately because then what am I living for? I am an incurable optimist in Nigeria. Nigeria has hope. There are many things we should have done as we should have done them. There is no doubt about that. But that does not mean Nigeria does not have hope. Look, hope is what drives any human being. A person without hope is like a person without life. How can I therefore say that Nigeria has no hope? Nigeria has hope and you are part of the hope of Nigeria. You asking me that question heightens my conviction that Nigeria has hope.

This country in spite of our difficulties, we have hope. I just came back from Rome and while there I asked the Ambassador what are his major problems and he told me that there are 1600 Nigerians in Italian prisons, that is a problem but we shouldn’t because of that say that there is no hope for Nigeria. No, I won’t say that. I would say that we have a problem that we have to address and if we don’t address that problem we are postponing the evil day. That doesn’t mean that Nigeria has no hope. Never lose hope. If you lose hope you lose everything. Great hope because of you and great hope because I would not keep my mouth shut when I see things or anything wrong in Nigeria”

Obasanjo who insisted that he has no single regret as military Head of State and civilian President said he did everything humanly possible with the resources, facilities and knowledge at his disposal at that material time.

“Is there anything I would have wanted to do with the resources that I had, with the knowledge that I had when I was in government, with facilities that I had that I did not do? I would say no. Now If I had more resources there are things I would have done differently. But with what I had at the time that I had at my disposal and some of the people who worked with me are here, I did all the things I believe are humanly possible for me to do. Now mind you, I did not say that I was perfect, I would never say that, only God is perfect. I did not have any regret when I was in government”

When asked to compare and contrast his challenge as a military Head of State and an elected President, he explained that the Dimka coup and subsequent assassination of Muritala Mohammed was a major challenge which he had to deal with.

As an elected President, he said he had to come to grips with the fact that he was dealing with democratic institutions with its own peculiarities.

“Dealing with democracy is far different from military government. That was what I had to understand. As military Head of State I did not have a party to contend with, I did not have a National Assembly to contend with, I did not have the opposition to contend with; Labour Union, ASUU etc. These are things that you had to contend with and manage them.”

A 6th grader has reportedly been apprehended for writing a note that contained a threat to commit a school shooting – the pupil is from Davie, Florida which is close to Parkland, Florida.

Adding to the tragedy and fear surrounding the Florida community, and the country as a whole, the news comes only a day after the tragic school shooting by a 19-year-old male killing 17 people.

The girl claims another student forced her to place the note under the office door to the assistant principal and according to the police report, the 11-year-old can be seen on a surveillance video placing the handwritten under the door.

The student has produced a written confession after being confronted by authorities who say the girl was visually upset and crying as she was being questioned.

In the confession, the student claims that another girl threatened to have another friend fight her. Under physical threat, the writer of the threat was pressured by the girl to place it under the assistant principal’s door.

The student was taken into custody by Davie police and put in the Broward Juvenile Assesment Center. Her identity is being withheld because of her age as she is still a minor.

A Kenyan Witchdoctor, Ali Maalim Bakari a.k.a Mganga wa Nyuki has said that women who sleep Unclad are in high risk of becoming barren in Life.

The witchdoctor disclosed to Nairobian that he has involved in the business for the past 10 years.

“Many people don’t know that sleeping Unclad especially for women is not safe. That is how ghosts show up at night and have sex with some ladies making them barren. These women lack sex appetite. I always advise women to wear something, even a panty alone,“ he said.

“For instance, when a client complains of poor performance in bed, I urge them to spice up their bedroom game and also check on diet. Further, women should not throw their pads aimlessly, since that is what people use to block their uterus,” he said.

He also disclosed he inherited his powers from his late dad and made a secret oath that requested the slaughter of two cocks.

“I inherited this gift from my late father. It is a normal thing to pass this gift to your kids. In our case, we are three sons in our family, but my brother refused and I took over. Our ancestors were not happy with him and they made him lose one eye,” the 32-year-old man born and bred in Kwale said.

The witchdoctor also claimed politicians do storm his place seeking powers during rallies.

“They usually come for charms to attract crowds in rallies and beat their competitors. To help them, I smear special oil on their underwear and clothes that they must wear when going to meet rivals or crowd,” he said.

A Young Nigerian man who works as a production Manager and Camera assistant with Square Wing Movie, Asaba, has died after drowning in a swimming pool on Valentine’s Day.

The man, Identified as Izuchukwu ugwoke, who hailed from Ibagwa-Ani, Nsukka, Enugu State was preparing for the burial of his mother on February 23.

Details surround the incident are not clear, however, according to his friends, who have been thrown into mourning, Izuchukwu reportedly dived into the swimming pool on Wednesday night, and didn’t surface.

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Bizarre confession of having sexual intercourse with eighteen men within one month by a housewife, has set Asaba and its environs in Delta state on fire.

Witnesses were stunned last weekend when a 42-year-old beautiful house wife (name withheld) reportedly burst into tears with mind blowing confession in UmuaguAsaba shrine, that she had had sexual intercourse with 18 men under one month, and in her matrimonial home.

Her sudden outburst, which attracted a crowd to the scene, stunned the elders of the Asaba community into a state of shock, especially as the woman had been well known within the area as a hardworking and unsuspecting petty trader.

It was gathered that the housewife, a native of theAshama community in Aniocha North local government area of Delta state, had been married for the past six years and has two children.

Sources said the woman’s husband had, for longbeen cautioning her against some male customers who hide behind patronising her shop for some dubious intents. He also threatened to expose any illicit affairs she might indulge in using fetish charms.

Investigation revealed that, rather than heed her husband’s caution, the woman called his bluff to the extent of even, as alleged, inviting her sexual patrons to her matrimonial bed whenever her husband went to work at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Asaba.

Those in the know said that one of her patrons,now late, was the son of a prominent newspaper distributor. He was also said to be a retired banker andwell-known elder of Umuagu community.

The young man, who was buried recently in a dawn ceremony, was said to have allegedly enticed the housewife with huge sums of money. He was noted as a regular visitor to the woman for patronage of sorts before the bubble burst.

The husband, now fed up with the antics of his wife and her customers, gave teeth to his earlier numerous threats and took her to the shrine. At the shrine, she, in an open confession, said: “I have sex with 18 men in Asaba, and they gave me N1.5 million altogether, I got so much in love with them because they hit me very hard sexually; please forgive me; my husband does not last in bedand I needed it most for my upkeep hence I gave in to the men”.

Meanwhile, the husband, in a swift reaction, said: “I promised to kill all the 18 men because I warned my wife to stay away from the act.When I got wind of it, I consulted a charm specialist who will kill all of them if they refused to own up”.

An elder in the area, Ogbueshi Anthony Molokwu, said the three persons who died of swollen joystick refused to confess their sins, adding that anyone who commits a taboo will pay dearly for it.

Further investigation revealed that the latest victims allegedly vowed to hide their heads in shame and not to confess their sins.They would rather die hence the curious circumstances of their death –abnormally swollen joystick followed by death.

As at the time of this report, elders of the community has banished the 15 other culprits until they confessed their action while palpable fear of the unknown pervades the community.

A Kenyan Clergyman – Rev. Vincent Mulwa of Christ Pilgrim Restoration Centre, Kenya, has come out to challenge the Christian doctrine that men should only marry one wife.

In an interview with Kenya’s The Daily Nation, Rev. Mulwa said Africans bought the world views of European missionaries who brought Christianity into Africa and abandoned polygamy, a practice that was rife even among the people who lived during biblical times.

Rev Mulwa said he wants Christian leaders to review teachings on monogamous marriages, claiming there is no verse in the Bible supporting it.

He says this is necessary to “save a generation of women who are ageing in church without husbands”.

Rev Mulwa added;

“I have been in the ministry for 38 years, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ but now I have realised that we ministers of the gospel have lost our believers,”

“I have never seen anywhere in the Bible where prophets and preachers prayed for single ladies to get married. The Bible people were polygamous and everyone had a husband,” he says, adding that widows were allowed to become concubines.

He says polygamy was commonly practised by many African traditional communities and the Jewish culture was also polygamous, adding that it only began to fade with the introduction of Christianity.

“As far as the Bible is concerned, the number of wives or concubines that one has does not matter and is not a standard of holiness. I have come out to tell Christians that we must preach the true gospel and allow our men in the church to marry as many wives as they want. Polygamy is not about men needing many wives but it’s about women needing husbands.”

According to the cleric, the Bible has only come out strongly to condemn adultery, which is taking another man’s wife.

The reverend argues that the fact that the missionaries, who mostly came from Rome, began to preach monogamy does not mean that this is what the Bible teaches.

“It is unfortunate for the Church that today, when our dear brothers and sisters attend theological schools, they are fed with so much gentile-tilted theology that upon graduation, they are well equipped to vigorously convince the world to buy into the Roman immigration of Christianity,”

He says Christianity is not an American or European culture. Rather, it is God’s way of reaching and dealing with humankind.

Rev Mulwa, who says he is officially married to one wife, says he was preaching in a church he started 20 years ago but had to leave the church because his wife and members disagreed with his polygamy teaching.

“I told my wife that as much as she doesn’t want to agree with me, I will continue preaching the gospel of polygamy until the whole world hears of it because that is the true gospel,” he says.

When asked if he has secret wives he responded:

“The number of wives I have is not an issue. If I have one wife or more, I will not be holier than the other. That’s why I am saying Christian men should be allowed to marry many wives.”

His interpretation of the Bible is that it has not condemned polygamy. Rather, it was practised widely by men of God in the Bible.

“Polygamy is an acceptable practice. No lady should stay without a husband. Christianity remains the most holy faith, but when preached from the perspective of the European and American gentiles, then it is definitely the filthiest religion on earth.”

He gives the example of some of the men in the Bible like Abraham and David who married more than one wife and had concubines with whom they got children.

“The holiness was in how these men dealt with their many wives and concubines and God had no problem with them,” he says.

The reverend says it is wrong to imagine that God would have created two wives for Adam as “God created them so that they may fill the world”

He noted that in the Bible, some women seemed to have been in a complex situation such that remarrying was out of thought. They ended up being concubines.

But even for concubines, there was discipline, he says, and a man found with another man’s concubine was to be beaten.

“This was a lesser punishment compared to when you were found with someone’s wife where the sentence was death by stoning,” he adds.

Source: nation.co.ke

Your Excellency,

I am sincerely sorry for attempting to get across to you through such an informal medium. Please sir accept my apologies, it is just that it is the only modest medium I could think up to get your ever busy attention from the demanding affairs of the state.

Your Excellency, I seriously doubt the timing of my letter especially now that the dust of the letters written to you on the state of the nation by ex-presidents are yet to settle. However, unlike His Excellency, Olusegun Obasanjo, I will not dare tell you not to contest for the next presidential election, I will rather remind you sir that by the virtue of being a sitting president, you are still the most privileged Nigerian alive that can fix our dear country Nigeria.

Mr. President, the word fix connotes that there is something wrong. No doubt, any sane mind in our present day Nigeria will not deny this fact irrespective of his or her political, religious or tribal disposition. To many, they believe the problem with Nigeria is political. Those who belong to this school of thought simply underline the problem as a leadership problem. The other school of thought believe that our country’s problem is either structural or spiritual. Those who belong to this school of thoughts believe that Nigeria is cursed and thus, was Prometheus bound to fail from the onset while those in the former group strongly think that until the structure of this country is disbanded to free the disparate blocs that make up Nigeria, the country will remain in political quagmire.

Your Excellency, at the risk of sounding arrogant I must say that these school of thoughts are wrong. Sir, I repeat, the problem with Nigeria is not political, spiritual or structural. This does not in any way erase the fact that Nigeria is deeply besieged and immersed in political, spiritual or structural problems. These problems are conspicuously evident, however, they are symptomatic. Those who are bandying these problems as the reason for our country’s lacklustre performance are missing the forest for the trees. The real problem that our country is suffering from is educational. This is the root problem. Till this problem is fixed, Nigeria will remain in political topsy-turvy. Thus, even if we divide her up or vote in an Eleanor Roosevelt, this problem will persist till we tackle and solve this fundamental problem.

Mr. President, education is simply a process of saying let there be light and common sense teaches us that nobody gropes around when there is light except such person is naturally blind. The good news is that Nigeria is not naturally blind, the mass blindness and groping around in Nigeria is as a result of miseducation or no education at all in most cases. Sir, any democratic nation that toys with consciously educating rightly the majority of her populace to be enlightened, productive and disciplined is playing with fire without knowing, and this is exactly what we have been doing since 1960 yet hoping against hope that Nigeria will work.

Your Excellency at this juncture, please, permit me to share with you the yardsticks to measure if one is truly educated. These yardsticks will help you to understand what have been missing in the Nigerian education system and what your administration and future administrations should target to achieve in order to ensure a viable future for Nigeria. The yardsticks to gauge if one is truly educated are: quiet life(discipline), minding your business(focus) and earning your own living(vocation). Mr. President, any man that does not know how to embrace a quiet life, any man that cannot focus daily on his calling, any man that cannot work honestly with his hands or GOD given brain to put food on his table is not educated and such is a threat to the nation. However, any man that can do the trio without passing the four walls of any academic citadel is a good and worthy citizen and can never be a problem to the society.

Sir, if you truly desire to put Nigeria on the path of greatness and curb corruption, then your administration should target to adopt an educational policy for young and impressionable citizens that will grow up to fend for themselves mentally, spiritually and physically without depending on their neighbour or any other body. It is no rocket science to decipher that a hungry, idle and ignorant citizen is a great threat to the society. Such dependant will be easily recruited by any Machiavellian religious, political and intellectual renegade.

Since such citizen is idle, hungry and ignorant, he can wreck an immeasurable havoc for his paymaster all you need do is feed him, think for him and pretend to have his interest at heart. This has been the lot of our nation since its existence. A great number of our populace who cannot think for themselves and feed themselves have always been used to thwart the little achievements of those who can politically, religiously and economically. These dependants do not understand how their daily act of intellectual laziness, economic cum spiritual idleness and character deficiency is collectively destabilizing our wheel of progress as co-travellers in this political spaceship called Nigeria. Mr. President, till a man learns how to think for himself, feed himself and focus daily on improving ways he can think and feed himself, he will remain a burden to those who can.

Your Excellency, I know it is not fitting to ask you questions, please forgive me, but the teacher in me cannot but help ask you the following questions to ponder on. Sir, how many Nigerians do you think can presently boast of having a mind of their own? How many Nigerians do you think can boast of honestly feeding themselves through the sweat of an honest labour? How many Nigerians do you think can boast of thinking of ways of improving their craft thereby contributing towards our national development?

Mr. President, the answers to these questions is our real problem. Once the numbers of those who cannot perform the above functions efficiently greatly outweigh those who can, then the future is bleak for such nation. Unfortunately that is the case with our dear nation. A more disheartening ugly truth is that these numbers are increasing exponentially with the dawning of every new day. Your Excellency, any nation, business or individual that truly wants to succeed must be built on the foundation of discipline, integrity, honest labour and the ability to creatively reinvent itself periodically. Your Excellency, our educational system both formal and informal does not intrinsically wire “majority of Nigerians” to practise all of the above virtues.

Mr. President you may take care to notice that I made reference to formal and informal education. Sir, please permit me to clarify on that. The formal face of educational institutions is the certificate awarding schools. This formalised process of education from crèche to universities and other certificate awarding professional institutes make up the formal sector. The informal sector starts from the family, cuts through the church, mosque, market place, social media, mass media and the society via social interactions. It is evident, that any government that prides itself to be democratic by respecting basic fundamental human rights have little or no control over the informal sector of education, but fortunately most forms of government have good control of the formal sector of education. If this is the case, a foresighted national government has to ensure that she creates a healthy and proactive educational culture for the majority of her citizen, if possible all her citizens, through the formal sector to enable them live a worthy life.

Your Excellency, any national government that fails to consciously and formally train her citizens to learn and live the culture of honest individual labour, tolerance and mental freedom will become either a Welfarist state or a politically volatile nation. Mr. President our nation has failed in this regard and this is why we are both a Welfarist and politically volatile nation. Sir if your administration truly wants to solve our national malaise then it has to change tactics and stop towing the line of other past administrations that were inventing and reinventing political quick fixes to a deep rooted educational problem.

Mr. President, no doubt this is a long term project and regrettably you have limited term in office. However, this does not in any way make it a mission impossible for you and your team. Sir, one of the beauties of life that makes one eager to wake up in the morning is having a vision that is bigger than oneself. This is one of such visions, it is bigger than your term in office but the good news is that it is not bigger than your political party. I believe this is where your political party comes into play.

As the leader of the party in power I believe the onus lies on you to sell this vision to your political party. If they can adopt this long term mission of educationally revolutionalizing Nigeria immediately, then your party have found a noble and authentic reason to hang on to power. Sir, 2019 is around the corner, the temptation to resort to short term palliatives to woo voters will be stronger than ever.

I will not advice you not to resort to such political painkiller, however, if you have no genuine plans to get to the root of our problem as a nation and yet try to contest 2019 election you may win but your name will be lost and forgotten immediately you exit the office just as we have forgotten the names of most of our past leaders.

The ball is still in your court Mr. President!

Remain creatively inspired Mr. President
Your humble servant
Tobe Osigwe.

(Tobe is a volunteer teacher at New Era Model Secondary School Nnewi. He teaches Government and Civic Education).