NIgeria Super Eagles being sabatoged - Keshi

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi claims his side's 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign has fallen victim to sabotage following a winless run so far.

Read: Ex-SAFA vice-president to fight back

The Super Eagles look set to miss out on the chance to defend the title they won in 2013 after Sudan handed them a 1-0 defeat as they sit rock bottom of Group A after managing just one point from their opening three qualifiers.

And Keshi, who has come under intense criticism since Nigeria's failed 2014 World Cup campaign, says there are internal factors at work which have led to the side's downfall.

“There is a sabotage by some people, who I won’t mention their names but who know themselves. They want to run this team down," Keshi told African Football.

“Some people are ready to sell this country for a dime. They want to sabotage the Super Eagles.”

“It’s a shame. They don’t want this team to get to the AFCON, they want this team to lose outright. But they are not God."

“And this is not Keshi’s team. This is a national team. Keshi is a professional coach and after this (assignment), he will get another job elsewhere.”

Standings: (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points)

South Africa 3 2 1 0 5 0 7

Congo 3 2 0 1 5 4 6

Sudan 3 1 0 2 1 5 3

Nigeria 3 0 1 2 2 4 1

Group A Fixtures: October 15, Wednesday

Nigeria v Sudan, 18:00 (SA time)

South Africa v Congo, 20:00

Sports 24

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Okonjo-Iweala is Africa's finance minister of the year

The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Friday bagged the African Finance Minister of the year award for her outstanding performance as a finance minister.

The award was presented to her by the African Investor Magazine on the sideline of the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC.
She thanked the organisers for the award and described it as an absolute honour and auspicious.
She called on all investors in Africa to join the fight against the deadly Ebola virus disease that is ravaging some countries in West Africa.

“What is happening in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra-Leone and the success we had in Nigeria and Senegal in containing this virus should not be allowed to set Africa back.

“You as private sector and friends of Africa need to send the message that we should not be so afraid of Ebola that we stigmatise the whole continent.

“I think that it is only with your own leadership, as African investors, that the rest of the world can see which way they should pass. So, I am really urging you to be ambassadors to the continent,” she said. Okonjo-Iweala said that in spite of the challenges facing the continent, African leaders should sustain the successes recorded in the past.

These challenges, she said, include infrastructure, governance, poor education system, employment, corruption, among others. “We are not shying away from these challenges but the turning point now is that we are in the continent where we have the political will and confidence to tackle these challenges.

“I think that we as Africans must always take the lead because if we don’t solve our problems, nobody can do it for us.”

Okonjo-Iweala called for continuous partnership with the private sector, donor agencies and non-governmental organisations.




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Why U.S. blocked arms supply to Nigeria

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, has explained that the dismal human rights record is responsible for limiting the scope of the country’s assistance to Nigeria in its fight against Boko Haram.

The ambassador made the disclosure at the American University of Nigeria in an interaction with journalists shortly after delivering a lecture at the institution as part of activities lined up by the university to mark its 10th year anniversary.

He also had a brief meeting with the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who is the founder of the university on the campus.

Entwistle noted that it would be wrong of the US to extend help to the Nigerian military in the face of gross human rights abuses.

He was responding to the question that the US was not forthcoming in its support of Nigeria in the war against Boko Haram.

There had been reports that the US was stifling acquisition of high tech military hardware in the country’s quest to contain the activities of the dreaded sect.

He said one of the ground norms for the US assistance on procurement of sophisticated military hardware was for the US to look at the human rights record of that country.

The ambassador said that for Nigeria, there had been instances of human rights abuses across its borders, especially in the North-East, stressing that it would be wrong for the US to extend help to the Nigerian military in the face of gross human rights abuses.

Entwistle, however, explained that much as the US would have loved to assist Nigeria, it realised that “if you don’t take care of the soldiers on the ground, even if you buy hi-tech equipment, it doesn’t help the situation because it won’t work”.

He said it was this concerns which made it difficult for the US to be a little circumspect in Nigeria’s acquisition of military hitech military hardware.

The ambassador, however, stressed that the notion that the US was not sharing equipment with Nigeria was not true because so far the US and Nigeria had enjoyed “fantastic relationship which include the sharing of military intelligence and equipment support from the US to their Nigerian military counter-parts”.

Entwistle said that the best was yet to come for Nigeria, noting that even though there were challenges being faced by the Nigerian state, he saw hope in the ability of the country to surmount this challenges to lead Africa.

He added that “even so every country at one time or the other has faced one challenges or the other” and pledged the support of the American people.

“Our commitment to help your country in these struggles has not changed it is growing every day.”

The ambassador explained that the US military left Nigeria when it became clear that the government did not require the US military specialty in the government’s quest to release the Chibok girls from their Boko Haram captors.

He added that nonetheless the US support for the Nigerian government in its effort to secure the release of the girls still remained.

National Mirror

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President Goodluck Jonathan threatens to sue website for listing him as 6th richest African President

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan threatened legal action Thursday against a website that listed him as Africa's sixth richest head of state with a net worth of about $100 million (78 million euros).
The article on richestlifestyle.com provided little evidence to substantiate its list of Africa's eight richest presidents.

But the claims about Jonathan, who has led Africa's top oil producer since 2010, made front page news in several Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.Jonathan's inclusion in the article was "baseless and libellous," his office said in a statement. "President Jonathan has never been a businessman or entrepreneur," it added.

"The clear and unacceptable imputation of the claim that President Jonathan is now worth about $100 million is that the president has corruptly enriched himself while in office which is certainly not the case," it said. Jonathan's office demanded "a retraction and an unreserved apology from Richest Lifestyle.com and all those who have reproduced the offensive article," and threatened action "in courts of law within and outside Nigeria."

While there was no retraction or apology on the site, the item concerning Jonathan has been removed.
Emails to the contact address for richestlifestyle.com were not delivering on Thursday and the site's managers were not available to comment on either the research supporting the article or why the Jonathan item had been removed. The presidency's swift response to the previously obscure website's claims highlights the sensitivity of corruption as a political issue in Nigeria.

The country's vast oil wealth has for decades been squandered by the ruling elite and Jonathan has sought to portray his administration as a departure from the corrupt regimes of the past, even if many experts say graft has hit record high levels.

Jonathan is in the coming weeks expected to announce his re-election bid for February polls and Nigeria's main opposition has already signalled that it intends to make corruption a key issue in the campaign.

AFP