meanwhile in Nigeria: EFCC head sacked!

Almost two years after firing the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Farida Waziri, from her post, President Goodluck Jonathan has given reason for wielding the big stick against the former police commissioner. Farida Waziri, former Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commisssion.

Farida Waziri, former Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commisssion.

Jonathan explained that he had to sack Waziri from the headship of the anti-graft agency because she no longer enjoyed the confidence of Nigerians as chairman of EFCC.

The President's comments are contained in a publication by EFCC entitled Zero Tolerance, to mark its first decade of existence.

Jonathan said in the publication, which was made available to Vanguard, yesterday, that contrary to claims that he was interfering with the work of the commission, he had no interest in doing so and would not stop any agency from exercising their duties.
Farida Waziri, former Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commisssion.

The President said: "When I give you a job, I will give you time to do it. Assuming somebody, who is heading an agency that is supposed to handle corruption, is not doing that and says it is because of the President's body language, that person is not competent.

"I am one Nigerian that has the privilege of holding this office that gives these people the latitude to do their work.

Confidence in Lamorde

"I am happy that Nigerians have confidence in EFCC and in its chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde and I also have confidence in him.

"I have no personal relationship with Lamorde. He even investigated me while I was the governor of Bayelsa State. But I have confidence in him, given his track record.

"Of course, there was a lady who was there. There were lots of complaints. Some may be right, some may be wrong, but perception matters so much when handling matters like corruption.

"The confidence of the people must be there. I had to remove her and that does not mean that she is guilty of the allegations, but because I saw that Nigerians no longer had confidence in her."

Ribadu

Meanwhile, the former chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, has said that there are many other criminals in Nigeria still walking the streets free because of their smartness or connection to certain influential persons.

According to him, EFCC, which had worked assiduously to stamp out corruption within the first five years, was deliberately weakened by corrupt persons in high places, who handed over the agency to those who were brought to justice by it.

Ribadu said: "Those that were brought to justice by EFCC were the same people that EFCC was handed over to, and they did what they liked with it.

"It was the group that was worst in our country that was given back EFCC. A lot of them are in prison in Nigeria and outside the country.

"Those that even attempted to kill me are still there. Maybe if I meet one former governor today, I will hug him and shake his hands like so many others that I am doing daily now. It was never personal.

Conspiracy theory

"The attempt to destroy and mess up EFCC was a conspiracy of so many people, including those that pretend to be honest or good people now; including those that made money from EFCC, and they are so many.

"They turned EFCC into a money-making outfit, while destroying the work itself, because they are so afraid of what EFCC could do.

"They would rather have a weak or a completely compromised organisation. So if we narrow it down to that former governor alone, then we are actually underestimating the way corruption fought back."

Obasanjo lied, says Atiku

Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, noting that his former boss lied in an interview he granted a magazine published by EFCC.

Obasanjo reportedly claimed that Atiku risked jail if he travels to the United States of America, USA.

A statement issued, yesterday, by Atiku's Media Adviser, Garba Shehu, said: "The former President is wrong. It is widely known that Atiku didn't enter government broke.

"He declared his assets at the commencement of his tenure as Vice President and did so at the end of his term as required by the constitution, which is a sacred document to Atiku."

He noted that when the former Vice President left office shortly before late Musa Yar'Adua was inaugurated as President, Atiku spent three months in the US, adding that if they (US authorities) wanted him for anything, they would have met him.

first posted on: http://9janewss.blogspot.com

Why Obama Doesn't Give Speeches From the Oval Office

Photograph by U.S. National Archives

Dwight D. Eisenhower gives a special broadcast from the Oval Office on the Little Rock crisis on Sept. 24, 1957

Barack Obama sure does like that walk down the red carpet. To get to the East Room in the White House, where the president gave his speech last night, you can duck left after walking through the North entrance, or you can step out of the Diplomatic Reception Room and walk down the Cross Hall, framed by columns, gilt chairs, and that carpet (here’s a map). A president sitting at his desk in the Oval Office is watching for the light on the camera to flash red, indicating that you are watching. He has been waiting for you. A president who walks down the Cross Hall chooses his entrance and makes you watch it. You are waiting on him.

Before the Diplomatic Reception Room had its present purpose, the room was where FDR gave his radio addresses. He had done something similar as governor of New York, but before his second such speech from the White House, a journalist at the Columbia Broadcasting System’s D.C. bureau introduced it as a “fireside chat.”Roosevelt did not dispute the name. Even for a president, the medium is the message. An “address” would have just been words from a wooden cabinet in the parlor.

Dwight Eisenhower gave the first televised speech from the Oval Office in 1957. It’s worth watching the first two minutes of a video of the speech to see how unfamiliar the format was at the time. Before he could talk about sending troops to Little Rock to enforce school desegregation, he had to explain that he was in his office. He had been staying in Rhode Island but felt that “in speaking from the house of Lincoln, of Jackson, of Wilson, my words would better convey both the sadness I feel today in the actions I feel compelled to make, and the firmness with which I intend to pursue this course.”

STORY: Obama Fails to Make the Sale on Syria

That style remained the standard for grave news; such a speech became known within the White House as an “Oval Office.” In a 2010 article for Congress & the Presidency, Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, who teaches political science at the University of North Texas, argued that presidents give these speeches when there’s bad news that they have some control over. That is, a president is not likely to give an Oval Office to say “the economy stinks” but rather, “the economy stinks, and I have asked Congress to unstink it.” A speech from the White House says, “I know you’re freaked out. But here I am in my office, doing something about it.”

George W. Bush liked set pieces—on an aircraft carrier, in Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans—but to announce the troop surge in Iraq at the end of 2005, he returned to the same stage Eisenhower had used. As with other presidents, he was flanked by pictures of his family on a credenza behind him—it’s kind of hard to tell, but there on the right, it looks like Jenna’s graduation from the University of Texas. The pictures are not facing him; they are facing you. My office is just like yours, they say. Also, I have the Marines.

Where Bush had two pictures, Barack Obama has kept five. Obama gave his first Oval Office address in June of 2010, after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Here I am in my office, doing something about it, the stagecraft signaled. To my left, note the black and white portrait from my wedding to Michelle. Obama broadcast from the Oval Office again in 2010, to announce a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

VIDEO: President Obama Sends Mixed Messages on Syria

But since then, he has preferred the East Room. Well, not the East Room, exactly, but the door to the East Room, framed by the hall. This is how he announced the death of Osama bin Laden, and then a reduction of troop levels in Afghanistan. And again last night on Syria. The East Room doorway setup looks like a press conference, and it has been used for that purpose in the past. The president is mic’d not at his chest, but at the podium; you get room tone, the echo of the hall. It looks and sounds like an open forum, a public appearance. Only there is no public.

Each time, the format is the same. Walk down the hall. Speak, centered at the vanishing point of the hall, drawing the viewer toward the center of the frame. Turn around, walk away. I am the president. You wait for me. I have said all I have to say, and now I am walking away. This is not my work. My work is back there. And I gotta get back to work.

Obama likely prefers the door to the East Room because he likes to stand. And because he likes to gesture, a choreography that’s difficult to pull off behind the battleship desk of the Oval Office. But it’s also possible that the Oval Office, which was set on fire this summer in two major studio movies, no longer summons for us the House of Lincoln. It is just as much the House of Sorkin now.

first appeared on bloomberg.com

Reducing Your Risk in Real Estate Deals

You've undoubtedly heard about reducing your "risk" in real estate, but have you ever really thought about what that means?

The risks are significant, and even though they are clearly identifiable, few home buyers do anything to understand and reduce their risk.

Here's some guidance based on the example of two different people buying a used car and how their experiences relate to real estate.

Buying a Used Car

Risky Robert, a dice rolling Las Vegan, decides it's time to buy a car. He drives to the nearest dealership, where he meets a very nice used-car salesperson. The salesperson shows Robert several cars on the lot, tells him about the great quality of each car and how the car he proposes for Robert was only driven by a grandma to church. Robert likes that tidbit about grandma and test-drives the car and likes it. The sales guy quotes the fair price, they haggle a little, Robert takes the dealership financing and he's got a new used car.

And that's risky behavior!

There Is a Better Way

Due Diligence Diane, a sensible Seattleite, starts her shopping online. She looks at Kelley Blue Book and Consumer Reports for the best value deals, car reliability information and pricing. She decides which car she wants and how much she'd like to pay before even leaving her home. She's not going to get talked into a car model she knows nothing about, and worse, from a salesperson who gets the biggest commission if he can get her to buy the dud that's been sitting on the lot for 180 days.

Diane also checks the Better Business Bureau website to find a used-car dealership with a good rating. Also, she looks at car financing options and rates from local lenders, so she can compare those to what the dealership is offering. She still hasn't left her house, but she is now armed with a bevy of valuable information that will help her make a smart and safer purchase.

Then Diane goes to one of the BBB-accredited dealerships and test-drives one of the cars that she already knows is reliable. This salesperson too says the car was only driven to church by a grandma, so Diane demands a vehicle history report that will prove or disprove that claim. Diane also takes the car to her trusted personal mechanic for a quick look, requires that the dealer make it a certified used automobile and requests to see the prior owner's maintenance records. She haggles on price a little and laughs and then rejects the dealership's financing offer; instead taking a lower interest rate loan from the local credit union. She then buys the right car for her.

Now Robert and Diane both bought cars today, but one of them significantly reduced risk, probably bought a much better car, at a better price, with better financing and from a reputable dealership.

The Real Estate Connection

Most real estate buyers, probably 95 percent, are doppelgangers who follow Risky Robert's behavior when purchasing property. Many times this occurs because people simply do not buy real estate often, so they "don't know what they don't know." They look for houses, have a home inspection done, maybe breeze through the contract, accept the only loan financing offer they've received and don't even look at the title policy, escrow or homeowners' association documents before closing on their purchase.

That's risk — being the Risky Robert in the room and not taking every single prudent precaution that you can to mitigate the chances of something going wrong.

Leonard Baron, MBA, is America's Real Estate Professor His unbiased, neutral and inexpensive "Real Estate Ownership, Investment and Due Diligence 101" textbook teaches real estate owners how to make smart and safe purchase decisions. He is a past lecturer at San Diego State University and teaches continuing education to California real estate agents at The Career Compass.

first appeared on bloomberg.com

Official says CIA-funded weapons have begun to reach Syrian rebels; rebels deny receipt

CIA admits to arming Syrian rebels

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Rebel groups say they have yet to receive weapons
Official: "That is something we are not going to dispute"
The weapons are not American-made but are funded and organized by the CIA
They started to reach rebels about two weeks ago, the official says

Washington (CNN) -- CIA-funded weapons have begun flowing to Syrian rebels, a U.S. official told CNN. But opposition groups say they have yet to receive any.

The official confirmed details first reported by the Washington Postbut would not speak publicly.

"That is something we are not going to dispute, but we are not going to publicly speak to it," the official said.

The weapons are not American-made, but are funded and organized by the CIA. They started to reach rebels about two weeks ago, the official said.

Syrian rebels' view of a U.S. strike

Russia's view on Syria

McCaul: 50% of Syria rebels 'bad actors'

Is America too war weary?

The artillery was described as light weapons, some anti-tank weapons and ammunition.

The Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army deny they have received weapons from the United States.

"We have some promises from the U.S. administration of shipment of weapons in a short period of time, but until now we have not received any," said Free Syrian Army Political and Media Coordinator Louay al-Mokdad.

"We have logistical help, but we didn't get weapons until now. We hope that in the next short period of time we will start receiving weapons, because we have promises from EU countries and the U.S. that they will help us and support us."

The supply is in addition to the non-lethal aid that the United States has been providing the rebels since April, when the Obama administration first altered the nature of the aid to include items such as body armor, night vision goggles and other military equipment.

The official insisted the effort has been in the works for some time, and did not start as an effort to appease those calling for more rebel aid during the new diplomatic initiative with Russia.

Kerry hints at transfer

Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday during a Google+ Hangout discussion that "many of the items that people complained were not getting to them are now getting to them." He did not elaborate on specifics.

A spokeswoman for the National Security Council declined comment.

"We aren't able to inventory or provide timelines for every type of assistance we provide to the Syrian opposition," spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.

CNN could not reach members of the rebel forces early Thursday morning.

Congress approved supply

The supply of weapons was approved by Congress after the Obama administration asserted the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons on a small scale. But no progress toward physically supplying the rebels had been reported since then.

"Some things have not been getting to the opposition as rapidly as one would have hoped," Kerry said Tuesday.

CNN first reported on the plan to arm Syrian rebels with small arms and ammunition in June, but officials refused to lay out a time line on delivery.

Obama's national security team and members of Congress have repeatedly urged the president to increase direct aid for the rebels.

They argue such a step would strengthen the hand of moderate members of the Syrian opposition, and make them less reliant on well-armed extremist elements within their ranks.

Other developments

The latest developments come on the eve of new diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Russia, which begin Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.

Secretary Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for two days to discuss a Moscow proposal to avert a U.S.-led strike in Syria by having the Syrian government put its chemical weapons stockpile under international control.

But as Russia continues to supply Bashar Al-Assad's regime with weapons while the U.S. supplies the rebels, and Putin writes a piece in the New York Times questioning the authority of Obama's call for military strikes, the baggage being brought to the negotiation table continues to pile up before talks have even begun.

first appeared on edition.cnn.com

Top News NG

Pages