Independent message from Senate President

54th Independence Message: Nigeria is destined for greatness – Mark
President of the Senate, Senator David Mark has for the umpteenth time urged Nigerians to have faith and remain steadfast in promoting peace and unity no matter the challenges.
Senator Mark in a goodwill message to Nigerians to mark this year’s Independence anniversary said the indivisibility of our nation is not negotiable because there is no better place than Nigeria.
Senator Mark recalled the nation’s chequered political history since 1960, during which Nigeria went through 30 months old fratricidal civil war, various ethno-religious conflicts and assured that our crisis are surmountable.
The President of the Senate dismissed as untrue the insinuation in some quarters that Nigeria has not made progress, since independence saying “let us cast our minds back a little and see the number of road networks, schools, universities, health institutions, telecommunications and a host of others.
“We may not have been where we want to be but we have made appreciable progress and we can do more. All we need to do is to strengthen our unity as one people with one mission and purpose. The stable democracy has offered us opportunity to harness our abundant resources for good.
“Nigeria has passed through many challenges in the past and we came out of it. The security challenges; this Boko Haram can be defeated if we unit to fight them.
“I believe the Boko Haram, terrorism or insurgency is alien to us as a people. We have the capacity to defeat them and confined them to the dustbin of history.
He promised that genuine complaints and agitations among Nigerians arising from the structure of our polity can be addressed by government but was quick to point out that “we cannot correct perceived imbalances by taking up arms against our brothers, sisters and nation.
“We must therefore continue to shun individuals or groups that encourage, preach and practice division among our people. We must shun every harbinger of hate and bound together as a people of common interest and destiny.
“As legislators we will continue to do our part to wit; provide the needed legislative framework for the Executive Arm of Government to continue to deliver of the dividends of democracy to our people.
“Let me use this occasion to remind our fellow country men and women that as 2015 elections approaches, we must not lose sight of the fact that election should not be seen as war. We must play the game according to the rules.
To Politicians, Senator Mark advised “As Stakeholders, we must therefore restrain ourselves from inflammatory and treasonable statements or actions. Our collective or individual ambitions are subordinate to the national interest. We must therefore, always consider the primacy of our national interest. Afterall, it is a trite fact that for us to even actualize our various political visions, our nation must first exist.”
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
Special Adviser on Media & Publications to the President of the Senate.

Chelsea Clinton: It’s a baby Girl!!!

Chelsea Clinton speaks during the 8th Annual Clinton Global Citizen Awards at Sheraton Times Square, Sept. 21, 2014 in New York.

Jemal Countess/Getty Images

Chelsea Clinton has given birth to a baby girl, according to a tweet she sent out early Saturday morning.
Her name is Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.
A Clinton spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the child’s birth date is Sept. 26, 2014.
The former first daughter announced that she was pregnant in mid-April.
President Obama even got in on the due-date jockeying, joking while at the Clinton family’s foundation event in New York that she might have to commandeer his motorcade.
“I was just discussing with President Clinton that if Chelsea begins delivery while I’m speaking, she has my motorcade and will be able to navigate traffic,” Obama said with a smirk.
The former first daughter didn’t let her impending due date slow her down as she appeared at an event for her family’s foundation this past week.
Clinton, 34, and her husband Marc Mezvinsky reportedly chose not to learn the sex of their baby before the birth.
She resigned from her role at NBC News on Aug. 29. She said she and her husband “look forward to welcoming our first child,” she wrote in a note she shared on social media at the time.

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

PHOTO: Vice chair of the Clinton Foundation Chelsea Clinton is seen, Sept. 23, 2014, in New York.

Her parents, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have regularly mentioned their joy at earning a new title — grandparents. The former president spoke of his high hopes for the newest member of the family while speaking with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos at the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting.
“I want them to get up every day and look at the world with wonder and reverence. I want them to respect everyone they meet, whatever their background. I want them to be aware of all the people that make their world and not just the people that they are introduced to,” Clinton said.
“I want them to really love being alive. It’s my first and whatever other grandchildren I have — that’s what I want. And when they grow up, I want them to believe they have certain obligations to people who don’t have all the opportunities they’ll have and to the larger society,” he said.

2015 PRESIDENCY: ANENIH, PDP AND JONATHAN’S ENDORSEMENT

When, early last year, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, mooted the idea that the PDP should consider granting automatic ticket to President Goodluck Jonathan as the Party’s candidate in the 2015 presidential election and gave expression to the idea at two important meetings of PDP stakeholders, first in Asaba and second in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, some members among them former Political Adviser to the President, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, had declared that Anenih was on his own.
Only Gulak knew and still knows what was propelling him at the time, but here is a quick recap of what Anenih said at the meeting of selected leaders of the Party at the Presidential Villa on Thursday, May 30, 2013: ‘I would like to repeat what I said in Asaba about our party primaries. I did say that, over the years, our primaries have been the most serious sources of rancour and disunity in our ranks, and, that we usually invest so much resources and energy fighting ourselves in the primaries that should have gone into the larger battle against our political rivals.
‘I had admonished that we could not continue this tradition of internal warfare and hope that we would have enough energy left to win elections. Consequently, I proposed that we must evolve a new system of selecting our flag-bearers at the presidential and governorship levels that would preserve our unity and reserve our energy and resources for the greater battle for political power. Soon after my address, I read in the media the positive reception and reactions to my proposition by some of our members who believed that one of the ways to do that should be the granting of automatic tickets to sitting presidents and governors who are seeking their second term.
‘I concur with them, provided that the sitting presidents and governors must have performed creditably with tangible results. The same may apply to performing members of the National Assembly although they enjoy indefinite number of terms. The proposed arrangement would, I believe, help to forestall frictions and acrimony in the nomination process, in the overall interest of our party and the nation.
‘Party leaders, brothers and sisters, listening to reports of Ministers of various sectors at the Democracy Day celebration held at the International Conference Centre yesterday, the 29th of May, 2013, I felt proud that Nigerians have not been disappointed by this administration. Fulfilled by his own achievements, President Jonathan confidently asked Nigerians to develop their own criteria in judging his performance during the last two years.
‘I do not see anything wrong, if the PDP considers automatic tickets for the President and its Governors who have performed well and are seeking for a second term. It is my view that with the outstanding performance of President Jonathan in the areas of Power, Rail and Water Transportation, Road Construction, Aviation Reforms, Education, Agriculture, Job Creation, etc., the party should not find it difficult in granting him the opportunity to serve a second term, if he so desires.’
With the emphatic endorsement of Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate by the various decision-making organs of the Party at their meetings in Abuja some few days back, it became clear that Anenih, a very experienced senior member and leader of the Party, was just playing the role of a perceptive forerunner, preparing the ground for the inevitable process of consultation and decision that would eventually culminate in the coronation of Jonathan as the Party’s sole candidate for the 2015 presidential election.
The shape and texture of the sole candidacy deal had already been fine-tuned by the man who is reputed to have the peculiar gift to make impregnable political prognoses about presidential power politics in Nigeria; and the ratification of the deal by the National Executive Committee (NEC) was the crown capping of the process which has delighted all stakeholders, most especially the beneficiary of the endorsement-President Jonathan. Anenih must be very excited about this development as it has further reinforced his August 5, 2014 declaration in Calabar that President Jonathan would contest the 2015 presidential election.
In Calabar, the Oracle of Uromi and acclaimed Nigeria’s political Nostradamus, who has built a formidable consciousness for himself in the politics of Nigeria, had moved a step ahead of other PDP stakeholders, who were still dancing round the issue of Jonathan’s second term bid, to make a categorical statement, something more of a fait accompli, to the effect that Jonathan would contest the presidential election. The occasion was strategic: the maiden zonal tour of the South-south by the new National Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu; and the terse message was clear: ‘I want the new PDP chairman to go home with a word from the father (of the President) that come 2015, he (Jonathan) will run for a second term.’
The import of the declaration was not lost on people who know how close Jonathan and Anenih are to each other: the father-son relationship, the mutual respect and trust, which perhaps underpinned the support Jonathan gave to Anenih to become Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees after he (Jonathan) had appointed him to chair the very important Board of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). To those who do not know Anenih as being flippant, Jonathan was already in the race.
The larger picture has now emerged. Jonathan is the PDP sole candidate. There is no need for electioneering within the Party for the ticket. Jigawa Governor, Sule Lamido, who had given an inkling of his interest in seeking the ticket of the Party, appeared to have sunk his plan. Whether there are opponents or not within the Party, Jonathan’s candidature is already sure-footed. Significantly, he is saved the distraction of electioneering. He can sufficiently and wholeheartedly still focus on governance issues until the electioneering for the 2015 poll that he and his Party are expected to pursue with a single-minded purpose, which finds anchorage on the basis and rationale elucidated in Anenih’s proposal for automatic ticket for Jonathan, as captured in the introductory quotes in this article.

2015: Benue South Has Endorsed Mark – Suswam

…Says Senatorial Position Not Vacant
SAN FRANCISCO, September 23, (THEWILL) – Benue State governor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, declared on Tuesday that there is no vacancy for the Benue South Senatorial seat presently occupied by the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, saying “Our decision to return him to the Senate in 2015 is irrevocable.”
Foreclosing the hopes of likely aspirants to the seat, Governor Suswam said ” we in Benue state have endorsed the candidature of Mark to return to the Senate. The position of Senator Mark is not contestable. We want him back and there is no question or argument about it”.
Addressing a crowded audience of Nigerians majority of whom were Benue indigenes at a book presentation “Suswam, Politics and Governance in Benue State ” in Abuja ,, Suswam maintained that “Mark’s Senatorial seat is not contestable. Mark remains our choice. There is no vacancy.”
The governor noted that as the state is united behind president Goodluck Jonathan for 2015, so also “we are solidly behind Mark for the 2015 senatorial seat,” warning those who may have interest in the seat to think otherwise because “there is no vacancy”.
According to the governor, “the Senate President has performed creditably and it is only logical that we give him the needed support and encouragement to continue the good works in the upper legislative Chamber.”
In his remarks at the occasion, President Jonathan who spoke through the Vice President Namadi Sambo praised Governor Suswam’s giant strides in the state which he said transformed the state from once rural setting to entrepreneurial environment.
Jonathan noted that Benue State remains the agricultural hub of Nigeria and one of the most peaceful states in the country making progress.
Also speaking at the occasion, Senate President Mark said that beyond infrastructural development of the state under Suswam, one of his greatest achievements is the peace and unity between and among the various ethnic groups in the state.
He noted that the governor is a man of honour who stands for the truth , justice and fairness as captured in the book.

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Check ou t Tiwa Savage's Skin-tight Catsuit At The African Unplugged Concert!

Multiple award winning singer-songwriter, recording artist, performer, and actress, Tiwatope Savage-Balogun, known by her stage name as Tiwa Savage stunned onlookers yesterday when she performed in a skin double outfit.

The beautiful 34 year old entertainer headlined the African Unplugged concert which held yesterday Sunday September 14th at the O2 Brixton Academy in London alongside Davido.

The recently married performer was spotted in Lagos on Saturday night at Mo Abudu’s 50th birthday party which boasts of various high and mighty in Nigeria and abroad. She was said to have flown out of the country immediately she finished performing at the Mo’ Abudu’s party so as to make it in time for this show in London on Sunday night.
What do u think?

Serena Williams flaunts her hot sexy body in a green and black bikini. See photos!

Serena Williams and her wicked curves hit Miami Beach yesterday Sept. 13th to soak in some sun. She was in company of actress Eva Longoria and her new man, Jose. See more photos after the cut…