Images of Ebiraland

To God be the glory as another record was made sequel to the successful hosting of another Pre-carnival picnic. The attendance was overwhelming as acknowledged by the people of Okeneba and Uruvoba whose community was agog with arrival of hundreds of guests from near and far. The impact will not be forgotten in a hurry. The Pre-Carnival Picnic was, as usual, organised by Ebira Youth Explorers in conjunction with Ebira Rebirth Group (Organizers of Ebira Carnival) to usher the 2014 edition of the annual Ebira carnival and coordinated by Ismail M. Kabir with the cooperation of the committed colleagues of Ebira Youth Explorers whose energy and ideas made the picnic a huge success . The location, Uruvoba is the ancestral home of the Samari family of Ebira land with a history of over 200 years. Ebira Youth Explorers organizes the annual picnic in appreciation of the values, history and the rich heritage of Ebira ethnic group of Nigeria. Ebira sons and daughters across Nigeria and in the

Mr Musa Sada, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, made this known at Ministerial Platform 2014 in Abuja. He said being an integrated steel company; it required a lot of logistics to transport raw materials to the plant. Mr Sada said that the concept of Ajaokuta was to produce 1.3 million tonnes of steel annually in the first, 2.6 in the second, and 5.2 in the third phases respectively. He said that “Now let us look at the first phase of 1.3 million tonnes. For you to produce 1.3 million tonnes of steel, you need to transport materials six times that volume. So, you can imagine the amount of materials you have to move up and down. But unfortunately these infrastructure like the railways and the rail limbs have not been developed.” He added that this had become a big problem in the development of the steel sector. Mr Sada, however, said the present administration had made efforts to address the challenges. According to him, a lot of units like the power plant, the rolling m

As the nation matches towards the 2015 general elections, political actors across the country have been busy jostling to get the nod of their respective parties to stand as the standard bearers at the various elections. The race to secure the tickets has no doubt come with unique intrigues and exposed the political class as grossly selfish, self centred and overtly only concerned about their personal ambitions and not the good of the people they supposedly want to represent in governance. The media is daily inundated with news of defections, crisis and law suits arising from the failure of aspirants to secure tickets of their political parties to contest at the general election. This has no doubt reduced the way Nigerians and indeed the world see our politicians and their motive for engaging in political contest. If nothing has come to the fore in the mad rush for party tickets, the desperation of self serving political office seekers has become much more glaring without exception,

Pictoral highlight of the 2014 edition of Ebira General Assembly oganized by Ebira People's Association (EPA). Hon. Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Zainab Okino delivering her address Cross section of guests at the event Guests Guests EPA president and Prof. Adam Abere Kogi State Hon. Commissioner of information and Asema of Ezuka, HRH M.Sanni Mrs. Lami Ahmed of LiftUp Care Foundation (left), EPA president and Hon. Zainab Okino EPA President and Dr. Ogirima of Proudly Anebira with Ismail Kabir of EbiraView behind Prof. Adam Abere and Dr. (Mrs.) Halima Salihu of Tao FM

Being a text of speech delivered by the National President of Ebira People’s Association (EPA), Dr. Adeiza M. Abdulrahman at the Ebira General Assembly 2014 held at the Dabras Hotel, Okene on the 20 th December, 2014. Protocol. From left: Ohi of Adavi, HRH, Dr. Bello Asuku Ibrahim, EPA National president, Dr. Abdulrahman Adeiza and Ohi of Okengwe, HRH Alh. Yakubu Yusuf at the event   It is with measured joy that I welcome all of you to this general assembly of today. My joy is underlined by your being here in good health and the convivial spirit that exude from your faces as we are set to discuss once more, the future of our land. Behind the facade of my happiness lies the bitterness of my worries. Worries about our trajectories as a nation tribe, worries about our contradictions as a people. This contradiction is best demonstrated by the way we traded off our opportune franchise to elect the best flag bearers for various positions in the last party primary electi

BY OBAKA ABEL INABO I am using this medium to make a passionate appeal to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR to kind­ly muster the political will and complete the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL). Be­fore I state the potentials of the steel plant, let me put it on record that the Ajaokuta Steel Plant is not obsolete as erroneously put across to the public by some people who are largely ignorant of steel technology. Let me quote from the recent technical au­dit conducted by the Ukrainians on the plant: “…the situation of the steel plant’s equipment and facilities are satisfactory. Me­chanically, the steel plant equip­ment and facilities are generally in good condition.” I made reference to the quota­tion above because we need to inform the good people of Nige­ria that the Blast Furnace Tech­nology of Steel Making adopted in ASCL is still the best method through which large volumes of steel are produced in the World today. In year 2011, for instance, the World Steel Statistic

By Ismail M. Kabir Following a hitch-free exercise in the just concluded House of Representative primary election held today in Lokoja to determine the PDP candidate for the Adavi/Okehi Federal constituency, former chairman of Okehi Local Government Council, Abubakar Adagu (a.k.a Danguruma) emerged the winner. 16 statutory delegates (8 each from Adavi and Okehi LGAs) cast their vote to select the candidate for the house of representative elections come 2015. Below is the result of the exercise: - Abubakar Adagu (Danguruma) 9 votes - Abdulmalik Okino 4 Votes - Jolly 2 Votes - Engr. Wahab 1 Vote - Obaro 1 vote. Having overwhelmingly defeated other aspirants in the peacefully conducted exercise, Adagu was declared winner and the elected PDP candidate for the 2015 elections into the National Assembly. Meanwhile, incumbent member of house of representatives, Hon. Ahmed Tijani Yusuf won the Okene/Ogori-Magongo ticket to contest for a second term while Aloysious Okino, the incumbent

PRESS RELEASE Kogi Central PDP primaries result not yet announced – Abatemi-Usman’s aide The Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Mr. Michael Jegede, has said that the result of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries for Kogi Central held on December 7, 2014 has not been formally announced. Abatemi-Usman’s aide stated this in a statement issued to debunk a publication in a national newspaper, where the one of the aspirants, was listed as the candidate for Kogi Central. The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a publication in a national newspaper where the name of one of the seven aspirants for Kogi Central PDP senatorial primaries, was written against Kogi Central in a list of candidates who won party primaries to the National Assembly. We wish to state categorically that the result of the Kogi Central PDP primaries for Senate is yet to be announced after the exercis

Dekina/Bassa - Haruna Paul Gowon (IJN) Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu - Tajudeen Yusuf Yagba - Sunday Karim Okene/Ogori-Magongo - Hon. Tijani Damisa Idah/Ofu/Ibaji/Igalamela-Odolu - Emmanuel Egwu Ajaokuta - Aloysius Okino Ankpa/Omala/Olamaboro - Postponed till Monday Okehi/Adavi -Inconclusive. Lokoja/Kogi - Court injunction

By Yusuf Ozi-Usman Yusuf Ozi-Usman Faced with economic crisis, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) appears to be leading Nigeria down the economic precipice, with it’s strange devaluation of Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, against the US Dollar. CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who spoke to newsmen after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee on Tuesday, announced that Naira has been devalued by N13. He said that the Naira devaluation is part of efforts to strengthen the nation’s economy, adding that under the new arrangement, the Naira would now exchange for N168 instead of the old official rate of N155 to one US dollar. While the end users of the economy like me were thrown off balance and the financial experts are putting their thoughts together on how to handle the situation, the deputy governor of the same CBN, Dr. Joseph Nnanna countered that CBN did not devalued naira but merely announced a new exchange rate in compliance with market forces. “The CBN,” N

The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman has expressed confidence that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will this time around sign into law the disability bill which has been passed by the two arms of the seventh National Assembly. Abatemi-Usman gave the assurance in a statement issued in Abuja by Michael Jegede, his Special Assistant on media and publicity, to salute the courage of persons living with disabilities all over the world on this special day (December 3), set aside to celebrate them and seek support for their rights, dignity and welfare. The Senator who sponsored the Senate version of the disability bill, said President Jonathan has shown much concern about the wellbeing of the disabled people, noting that he is optimistic he (Jonathan) would have no option other than to give his assent to the bill, for what it holds for the over 22 million Nigerians living with one form of disability or the other. He observed that it ha