society watch; SENATOR IYIOLA OMISORE'S TALK OF THE TOWN BIRTHDAY PARTY ABUJA

Birthday parties come and go, but the talk of the town birthday party in Abuja was the gig given by Senator Iyiola Omisore who represents Ife Central in the Senate. The party was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. I hear all the four board rooms of the Abuja Sheraton were collapsed to provide enough space for his guests to dance and wine all night long.
I was reliably informed that there were 16 buffet spots for the over 4200 guests in attendance who were fetted at N5,000 per head. Drinks and beverages cost N1,600 per head . I hear champagne was flowing like water with quality spirits and wine to cause all to be merry. My source did not reveal how much the budget for bubbling.
You can do the calculation of how much the party cost yourself. Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are very rich men.


Boo boo
Liyel Imole, the limits of pettiness

Governor Liyel Imole is a man of my generation, a new breed. He has my sympathies as he battles to run a state with little finances. He also has a very temperamental wife who takes everything so personal, sorry about that madam
Anyway Liyel Imoke handling of issues has always left me panting. In his first year in office, some guys came, I heard form Abuja, on boundary adjustment issues . Liyel was too busy to see them or take them around personally. I heard he sent the committee #50,000 for Logistics. They were thankful. When they got to Akwa Ibom, the Governor and the state exco were waiting, they had them attended to like kings with lots of goodies and took them around the disputed territories . When they got back to Abuja they made their reports and the boundaries were adjusted in favor of Akwa Ibom along with most of the oil wells that qualified Cross River as an oil producing state. That singular action made Cross River a beggarly state.

Two years ago Liyel’s wife Obioma, I hear told Donald and his wife, that there was no accommodation for them at Government house during the annual Calabar Carnival which Donald built into a world class event. They had to go rest their tired bones elsewhere. It is that bad.
Liyel and Donald are childhood friends-their parents were friends- but it seems politics and pettiness is tearing them apart.
Recently, Donald Duke knowing that there is no opening for his presidential ambition in the PDP, he moved to another party, and Liyel took it personal. He waited for him to come to Calabar to embarrass him.
Recently, Police men with a Jankara court order attempted to disrupt the launch of a children’s hospital in Calabar being put together by Donald’s wife, Onari. That’s not all. Liyel cancelled the conferment of a doctorate degree by the state owned CRUTECH on Donald further deepening the already frosty relationship between them; in throwing the baby out with the wash water, he also stopped the conferment of a doctorate degree also on Alhaji Aliko Dangote , who is the single, highest investor in the state. And made an enemy of him. Again I ask, what is with politics that turns gentlemen to monsters.


FARIDA WAZIRI FIGHTS TO KEEP HER JOB

EFCC boss, the likeable Mrs. Farida Waziri is fighting to keep her job despite all the talk about the eventual return of Ribadu as Jonathan’s special assistant on anti corruption. Nobody likes to be out of a job, and not one with a high profile as that of EFCC chairman.
Madam Farida has changed the ground rules. Everything is now by the books, no more raiding of suspects homes and offices with TV cameras; no more grand standing. Condemning suspects before they have their day in court. Come to think of it she has been doing her work slowly and steadily. Her conviction rate is rising. One thing she has to work on is the EFCC being used as a debt collection agency to harass and intimidate debtors by banks who are also thieves themselves who bloat customers with excess charges to increase the banks profit status. That is not what the EFCC is for.
She has suddenly found that the press can be her ally in this battle, she does regularly press briefings and updates. I think she deserves to be given a chance to furnish her tenure. The cowboy Ribadu can step in when she is done.

BEWARE ABOUT TAKING YOUR WIFE TO LONDON

This is a warning to randy rich Nigerian politicians who will marry a wife in Nigeria and another in London or relocate the one in Nigeria to London, run back home to divorce her and only share a few assets with her-the story does not end there anymore.
London courts are now sharing rich Nigerians who have divorced their wives in Nigeria when they apply for redress in London courts. The courts are giving as much as half the estate of the husband to the ex-wives. Be warned , yes you can take your wife to London but you will pay dearly when you decide to dump her for another Nigerian woman or yellow sisi.
OSA DIRECTOR PREPARES FOR SENATE.

Frontline no none sense journalist and lawyer Osa Director is preparing for the senate. I hear he has joined A.C which is the reigning party in Edo State to contest for the position currently held by Senator Uzamere, who we are told made the bulk of his money through Gov Alams but turned his back on him when the going was tough. They are all up for the Edo South Senatorial district which has seven local governments.
Osa’s opponet is a serial contestant Mr Mattew Urhoghide who has been in the race for various political offices albeit unsuccessfully since 1992. He contested for senate under the SDP platform in 1992, in 1999, he switched to ANPP to try his hands at the governorship. in 2007 he dumped the PDP for AC to run for senate, again he lost his deposit.
Osa is believed to be a formidable candidate though new on the turf. He is putting together a hefty war chest to finance this battle which political watchers say will be keen. Already we hear the poster war has begun in Benin City; the latest salvo from Osa Director’s camp runs thus “beware of desperate politicians and serial contestants. They are like failed motor brakes. support the defender of democracy- Osa Director.
it will be interesting. i will keep you posted.

CONCERNING THE BP OIL SPILL ; WARRI BOYS CAN HELP

I wonder what all this fuss is about the inability of BP to combat the oil spill that has polluted the Atlantic ocean and caused the world powers to panic. I saw the photographs on Yahoo that they could not block the leaking pipes. What a shame. I can recommend boys from Warri who are experts in tapping into pipelines and repairing same when they are done. These are boys with basic welding skills who have mastered the art of stealing oil from secure pipelines and selling same to bunkerers in the Niger Delta.
I can assure you that these boys will stop that spill in no time. And they will not charge much. A visa to America to start a new life with cash or not will be enough. I know them.

HARP’S LACK OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

CRS is a term coined by multinational corporations to show the world they have the interest of communities where they do business at heart. Call it professional do going. But I believe the brand managers of the HAPR factory in Ogba do not have in it their lexicon. Driving through the road in front of the factory is a night mare. It is full of pot holes and what have you. These are caused principally by the lack of drainage on both sides of the road and the heavy duty trailers that file in and out of the factory daily ferrying raw material and finished products.
The road is less than 200 meters long and I know it wont cost a bomb for Guiness to show a little CRS by paying for the redesign and reconstruction of that road. I am sure Gov Fashola will be happy to attend the commissioning and of course the press will be there tell the world how jolly , the HARP guys are. Its something to sleep over.

CADBURY NIGERIA PLC GETS NEW PAINT JOB.

Cadbury’ plc’s Agidingbi factory has received a new paint job. The whole factory is looking spanking new. After the spate of bad press and financial scandals that rock the industrial giant and the attendant fall in share prices. I pray the new splash of paint will usher in a new lease of life for Cadbury.
Stakeholders of the company I spoke to are hopeful the arrival of the accomplished banker and technocrat, Mr. Atedo Peterside as chairman of the board will do the magic…I hope so too.

THE INSPIRING , HEART TOUCHING STORY OF RONKE BAMAKE, G.M OPERATIONS, FIRST BANK PLC.

Her story, if you get close enough to her to hear it first hand is the stuff of which best selling christain books are made.
Ronke joined GT Bank two days after her wedding and remained there for 19 years. In that time she rose to become Deputy General Manager, IT and later Managing director of GT BANK LONDON. She spent 18 months in London setting up the branch, but according to those that were close to her , though Ronke Bammake was jovial, very pleasant, cheerful and straight forward, deep down , she hurt- her marriage was child less. . she did the un thinkable. She dedcided one glorious morning after putting in 19 years of her life into GT BANK to call it quits. That same year she got pregnant and was delivered of triplets, all boys. In a London hospital. You would think she has had her day with banking. Big lie. She has refused at First Banl plc as General Manager, Operations, at the head quarters. Should you hop over there on business any time soon and her a pretty, pleasant lady humming some glorious tunes, it just might be Ronke Bammake , if you know her, do join in the singing…You never know….


REV. JOHN KOME- PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF GNLD ALL OVER THE WORLD.

I remember Rev Dr. john Kome from a long way back in the late 90’s when he came to pioneer the Ikeja branch of the Christain Pentecostal Mission ,CPM. The fellowship started in my uncles house somewhere off Toyin street. He was a lanky, dark fired brand evangelist. All fired up for the gospel. The church was just getting off the ground and he did a good job of building up the congregation, young as he was then .
The last I heard Dr kome has left the CPM family to set up his own church, but that’s not where I am going too. He has become a ten million naira a month salary earner . the source of his wealth is not from the church. He is a five star diamond director of GNLD, the multi level marketing company that sells food supplements and all kinds of natural drugs .
Dr Kome , I hear now travels all over the world on the speaking circuit preaching the benefits of selling to men and women all over the world.. it might seem like replacing one gospel for another, what to me ia paramount is that he is preaching freedom from poverty, an opportunity our youth need today.

WHAT MANNER OF MICRO FINANCE BANKING AT ROYAL EXCHANGE MICRO FINANCE BANK

Some people might get mad when I come down hard on them for doing bad things, but I don’t really care as long as they change. My sledge hammer falls this week on ROYAL EXCHANGE MICRO FINANCE BANK, run by Mrs Lizzy Elogche.
From reports I have heard these guys have turned the book concerning micro finance banking upside down and need to go take some tutorials on the subject to get them back on track. I have had complaints concerning their modus operandi. I am told that normally, when some one applies for a loan from a micro finance bank, the bank gives you approval and there after requests that you put that down your equity participation fee which ranges between 10% to 30 % and a management fee.
At ROYAL EXCHANGE MICROFINANCE BANK, their system is the reverse. They ask you to pay the equity and management fee up from, before the long is approved, to I believe make their books look healthy. Most often that not, they do not approve the amount you apply for, but they still expect the applicants to pay the processing fee for the original amount applied for and to retrieve your collateral becomes a tug of war.

These banks, I appreciate are trying to be careful about the safety of their funds. But they should equally bear I mind that they were set up to bring succor to small time business and not load them with stress.