World Cup: Lagerback rules out automatic places

NEW Super Eagles coach, Lars Lagerback, has promised to pick the best players for the World Cup in South Africa in June, ruling out automatic place for any player in the squad

Speaking after he was unveiled in Abuja on Wednesday, the former Sweden manager said he would give his best to ensure that the Eagles post a fine performance at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

“I will give 100 per cent to my new job to ensure that we perform well at the World Cup. My job is to pick the best players for the team, not minding where they play their club football,” Lagerback said.

The Swede, who beat compatriot Sven-Goran Eriksson, Bruno Metsu, Ratomir Djukovic and Glenn Hoddle to the job, however admitted that the time was short for him to prepare the team adequately for the World Cup.

”Time is a big problem for me but you can‘t get everything always. I am overwhelmed by the reception I have received even when I am yet to start work,” he said.

The Director-General National Sports Commission Dr. Patrick Ekeji, who performed the unveiling ceremony, disclosed how Lagerback ended up being picked for the job.

“Before we interviewed Lagerback, Hoddle was picked as the best among the four coaches we had interviewed. But Lagerback swept everybody off their feet with his knowledge of Nigerian football. The selection process for the job will be made public very soon,” the former Green Eagles defender said.

The turnout at the unveiling ceremony was impressive with both the Nigerian Ambassador to Sweden and his Swedish counterpart in attendance. Also on the occasion were board members of the Nigeria Football Federation, Eagles captain Nwankwo Kanu and Bolton defender Danny Shittu.

Lagerback managed the Swedish national team from 1998 till 2009, leading Sweden to five consecutive championships, the first time in Swedish history. He resigned as manager in 2009 after Sweden‘s failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Punch

Lagerback wants Beijing Olympic players in Eagles

New Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser, Lars Lagerback, has demanded for the dossier of the Nigerian Under-23 team that reached the final of the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. The Swede, who would be unveiled to Nigerians tomorrow (Wednesday), told the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)’s bigwigs that he would want the entire members of the Olympic team to start his re-building process of the Super Eagles.

According to an NFF source, the former Sweden coach was of the view that a squad that played and lost 1–0 to Argentina in the final of the Olympic Games, must be very good players and should graduate to the senior team.

Lagerback expressed surprise that the Nigerian team is still struggling after reaching the final of the Olympic Games two years earlier, adding that with those players that held the world spell-bound, the Eagles should be among the best in the world.

Our source stated that Lagerback said he would want a compile the dossier of all the players and find out why some of them were dropped from the Super Eagles, stating that he would give preference to the Olympic team players first. Speaking further, our source disclosed that Lagerback is also expected to pick local players from the domestic league and camp them occasionally before picking those who would join the main team for the world cup camping.

Sun News

We’ll cripple Nigeria —Militants

Push could come to shove with regards to the raging power tussle in the Presidency, if feelers emerging from the Niger Delta are anything to go by.

Sunday Sun learnt that groups are being mobilized by concerned leaders in the region to respond to the “dangerous ethnic trend” that had been introduced into the Aso Rock power game.
Some key former militant leaders are also said to have been contacted as part of a strategic plan to compel the cabal to stop undermining the Acting President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

One of the former warlords who confirmed this, but spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had watched the developments in the Presidency as it affected Jonathan and decided that it is time to act.
“Enough is enough. Since they (the cabal) have decided that Jonathan cannot occupy the office of the President because he is from the Niger Delta, we have also resolved that our oil is not for Nigeria. In fact, we are ready to dismember Nigeria. If they do not want us in Nigeria, they should not want our oil too.

“The issue is not about Jonathan, but our region. They have only used Jonathan to tell us to our faces that we are not equal in this country. So, when we start, we will ensure that there is no oil to depend on anymore. Let them use groundnut, hide and skin to run Nigeria. Since force is the language they understand, we will cripple the economy,” our source said, warning that the attacks would not be restricted to the Niger Delta.

The source insisted that the amnesty programme under which militants in the region surrendered various sophisticated arms and ammunition in October 2009 was not a hindrance as new weapons could be easily acquired within the country.

“We can start another war if we want because getting weapons is not a problem. They are everywhere in the country. You can see that the amnesty has failed, but we have restrained ourselves from going back to the creeks so that we would not be accused of being unpatriotic. But how long are we going to endure the conditions that made us take up arms in the first place?”

At the time of this report, tension was said to be high in the region with meetings being held in various areas in the creeks. Sunday Sun gathered that hostilities could resume this weekend.
A group under the aegis of the South-South Elders and Leaders Forum had, on Thursday, warned that the region would secede if the cabal continues to treat Jonathan with disdain.
Sources in the Presidency confirmed to Sunday Sun that the Acting President had not seen or met with ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua since the latter was brought into the country in an air ambulance in the early hours of last Wednesday.

Yar’Adua was for three months hospitalized in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for acute pericarditis.
His return to the country was shrouded in secrecy just the way the Saudi authorities ensured he was shielded from Nigerian government officials that visited Jeddah during his hospitalization.
Curiously, Yar’Adua’s wife, Turai that was to brief Jonathan on the health condition of her husband on Thursday reportedly shunned the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has asked Yar’Adua to apologize to Nigerians for plunging the country into crisis.

In an exclusive interview with Sunday Sun, the IYC president, Dr Chris Ekiyor, said a crisis of monumental proportion was imminent because of the prolonged regime of secrecy surrounding Yar’Adua’s health condition and had been fuelled by his secret return into the country.
“If it is true that the President has returned to Nigeria, it is good. But let him go ahead and address the nation and even apologise to Nigerians for throwing us into this crisis. Then let him resume office and give us a direction.

“There was never a time Dr Jonathan, the Ijaw or even the Niger Delta people prayed that Yar’Adua should not return. We had always prayed for his recovery and return because we believe in the unity of this country. Our worry, however, is that why is he being hidden from the Acting President and the rest of Nigerians?”
Ekiyor, who spoke to Sunday Sun at the venue of Niger Delta Peace Consolidation Conference at The Hague in Netherlands, cautioned Nigerians to be wary of the whims of those he described as manipulators in the Presidency.

“I don’t believe it is Turai Yar’Adua that is doing the manipulating. Instead, I think some people are using Turai as a front. After all, there is no constitutional provision for the office of the First Lady. Such ceremonial position cannot supersede an elective office. For instance, in France, the wife of the President quit her marriage because she said she wanted a home and not the Presidency. But here, our President’s wife is desperate to hold on to power,” he said.
The Ijaw youth leader urged Jonathan to assert himself, saying he must continue to act as president until Yar’Adua is ready to resume office.

Stand-off imminent
Jonathan may have decided to stand up against the shenanigans of the cabal by asserting his empowerment as Acting President by the National Assembly.
A Presidency source informed Sunday Sun at the weekend that he has decided to resist any move by Yar’Adua’s loyalists to reverse the February 9 resolution of the National Assembly as long as the ailing President remains incommunicado and refuses to indicate a readiness to resume office. He is said to have tightened security measures around his office and official residence.

“From now, the Acting President will assert his authority. There is a limit to what a man can endure. His loyalty and humility has been taken for granted,” the source said.
But Jonathan could confront an alleged move by the dyed-in-the-wool Yar’Adua loyalists to reverse some of the decisions taken by the Executive Council of the Federation under his watch, including the redeployment of the former Justice Minister, Michael Aondoakaa, to the Special Duties Ministry.


Sun News

They want to kill Jonathan – S/South elders

The people of South-South region yesterday took strong exception to the sidelining of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan in running the affairs of the country and threatened to break away before issues which bind the country together are subverted by a cabal.

Specifically, the South –South Elders and Leaders Forum at the end of an emergency meeting in Abuja said they were aware of attempts being made on the life of Jonathan “as part of the sinister and heinous agenda of the cabal.”

President Umaru Yar’Adua was flown back to the country from Saudi Arabia Wednesday morning, after spending 93 days to attend to his failing health, with the Acting President shut out of the arrangement to bring him back.

Addressing the press at the end of the meeting attended by 26 leaders from the zone, Dr. Mike Oberabor said the people of the South-South believed in the unity of the country, but would not accept being treated as second class citizens.
“We believe in the oneness and unity of Nigeria. We have fought for it and we trust in it. The Nigerian Constitution is what binds all of us together. If it is subverted, then there is no basis of our continued mutual existence.

“Therefore, the people of the South-South will have no other option than to break away from Nigeria. We cannot remain in a country where we are regarded as second class citizens,” the group warned. At the meeting, presided over by Chief Edwin Clark, according to a statement read by Dr Oberabor, were Admiral Mike Okhai-Akhigbe, Professor Lawrence Ekpebu, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, Olorogun Felix Ibru, Chief Ephraim Faloughi-Spiff, Hon. Bolere Ketebu, Mrs Helen Esuene and Chief Jackson Sunny Udoh.

Others were Senator Fred Brume, Air. Commodore Idongesit Nkangha, Senator Tari Sekibo, Chief Ewa Ita Henshaw, Chief Francis Doukpolagha, Dr B.K Adasen and Dr M.P Okonny.
Others were Chief P.Y Biakpara, Lady Anne Yougha, Dame Ambrose Akpanika, Rev. Grace Ekanem, Hon Denyanbofa Dimro, Hon Chibudom Nwuche, Lady Ime Udom and Chief Ayakeme Whisky.

The South-South leaders said that they watched in utter dismay and disbelief, the purported and stage-managed arrival of Alhaji Yar’Adua, which was allegedly orchestrated to cause destabilisation in the country.

“The secrecy surrounding the way and manner in which Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua arrived the counry is suspect. The Acting President was not briefed before and after the arrival of Yar’Adua. Ordinarily, the Acting President should receive the President on his arrival from an overseas trip.
“The Press was not allowed to cover the arrival. The coincidental power outage at the time the aircraft arrived is suspicious. The evacuation of President Yar’Adua from an aircraft into an ambulance in the dark is questionable.

“The Acting President and members of the Executive Council of the Federation and indeed the Nigerian public have not seen Alhaji Yar’Adua since his purported arrival,” the group queried.
What angered the South-South leaders more was the deployment of soldiers in the airport ahead of Yar’Adua’s arrival without the knowledge of the Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

To the South –South Elders, this was an aberration and tantamount to treason, which must be probed. The group also alleged that there was massive movement of troops from various military formations and an attempt to transfer power to the military.

“This is grossly unconstitutional. We are also aware that attempts are being made on the life of the Acting President as part of the sinister and heinous agenda of the cabal,” it was alleged.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan was warned never to take order from Turai, wife of the president, as he remained the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

“Nigeria is a democratic republic and not a monarch and an allusion that the Acting President is taking brief from Turai Yar’Adua is insulting to the Acting President and indeed, to the Nigerian people,” the elders declared.

The group also warned the Special Assistant on Communication to the President, Segun Adeniyi to stop referring to the Acting President as Vice-President, until the National Assembly rescinded its earlier decision on power equation in the country.

Sun News

Yar’Adua arrives amid heavy security

President Umaru Yar’Adua returned to the country this morning, 91 days after his departure to Saudi Arabia to attend to his failing health.
He left Abuja on November 23, 2009. Mr. President is suffering from acute pericarditis.

Indications that the president would return today emerged last night as security was beefed up at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja. Reporters who had swarmed the place were restricted while only top government functionaries were allowed entry into the presidential wing of the airport.

Two companies of soldiers were deployed to the airport hours to the arrival. They were armed to the teeth and never allowed any one within shouting distance to the aircraft.

First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, arrived in one of the aircraft.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Adamu Aliero, arrived at the airport in a jeep at 12.40 a.m. without the usual siren. A lot of Mr. President’s political associates were on hand to receive him.

At about 1.42a.m., an aircraft believed to be carrying the president arrived. Almost immediately, an ambulance drove in and parked beside it ostensibly to shield him from the prying eyes of reporters who had been waiting for his arrival.

The ambulance drove straight to another part of the tarmac to join a long convoy of other vehicles that had by now turned off their headlamps.

At 1.55a.m., the second aircraft believed to be conveying ministers arrived. Earlier, a report monitored on Al-Jazeera television said two planes had left the Jeddah Airport.
Security men cordoned off both the departure/arrival halls of the airport. Saudi doctors had arrived the country earlier.

Contrary to claims by Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdullahi Aminchi that he saw the president on Saturday and that he was recuperating fast, Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal that the information may afterall be a ruse, as findings revealed that the President’s health has taken a nosedive.
However, plans to ‘package’ him back to Aso Rock, observer said, was in a desperate bid by elements close to the president to supplant Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and ensure he does not function as acting president.

Another source told Daily Sun Yar’Adua was actually given a quit notice by the Saudi Arabia based on the fact that he has been on life machine for so long.

However, this is even as a source insisted tha the President’s health condition started deteriorating in the early hours of Saturday, which prompted the medical team to re-introduce some drugs that had earlier been discontinued.

Specifically, it was gathered that the medical team had equally brought in a higher version of a life support machine different from the one that had been used prior to yesterday, a clear indication that the President’s health was not in anyway improving.

The source added that currently, the President can neither talk nor eat.
Information available to Daily Sun indicated that the President is currently weighing less than 40 kilograms with no assurance that he can garner more weight in the next couple of weeks due to fatigue.
Daily Sun equally learnt that the President’s medical team is in a fix as regards the next line of action, since all efforts to make his health condition improve have proved abortive.

In this regard, the medical team, according to the source, was considering the option of bringing in some medical experts from the UK, US and Israel to help in finding a lasting solution to Yar’Adua’s health crises.
The source explained that the team has been in constant touch with the foreign medical team for some time and they have also been around on two occasions but had to leave when there were signs that he was responding to treatment.

The idea to bring back the medical team heightened yesterday when the first lady began to feel very uncomfortable about her husband’s health condition, even though there were assurances from the medical team that he would get better.

But a competent source at the Presidency disclosed yesterday that President Yar’Adua has been placed on rechargeable chips to keep some organs functioning.
“What we hear from Saudi is worrisome, the report is shocking. Right now, the president’s life is now on rechargeable chips. The chips are programmed, any day the chips packed up, that is the end,” the source said.

The source, who was in constant touch with one of the groups of Consultant Cardiologists who first treated President Yar’Adua when he arrived Saudi Arabia confirmed that the only way the president could be moved was to hire a Boeing 777 Air ambulance fully equipped as a hospital.
According to him, the immediate family of the president in Saudi Arabia is aware of his precarious situation and that they have intensified prayers for his recovery.

However, Saudi monarch, King Fahd Abdulaziz has ordered the removal of the ailing President from the Royal Fahd Military Hospital to an undisclosed guest house where chartered cardiologists are dotting over him.

Daily Sun had exclusively reported last week that Yar’Adua had been moved to a guarded military hospital on the order of King Fahd.
The movement was one of the reasons no delegation from Nigeria was able to see him since he left Nigeria on November 23, 2009.

Among the delegations that had visited Saudi Arabia without seeing the president are the team from the Governors’ Forum, the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a delegation from the House of Representatives.

Sunnews

Saudi trip: Tura’i bars ministers •••Sorry, you can’t see Yar’Adua

Strong indications emerged at the weekend that the visit of the six ministers mandated by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to visit ailing President Musa Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia may end up as a infutility.

A source in the Presidency who is also close to the first family, but pleaded anonymity, said the First Lady, Hajia Tura’i Yar’Adua, had given stern instructions to officials at the hospital where the president was admitted in Jeddah not to allow the visiting ministers access to the president.

Members of the government’s team include, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ahmed Yayale, Agriculture and Water Resources Minster, Sayyadi Abba-Ruma, Health Minister, Babatunde Osotimehin, Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Adetokunbo Kayode and Petroleum Minster, Rilwanu Lukman.
Information available to Daily Sun as at press time on the movement of the ministers to Saudi Arabia were sketchy as it could not be confirmed whether they had left or not. But the arrangement by the FEC was for the ministers to leave on Sunday and return by Tuesday and then brief the council on the outcome of the trip on Wednesday.

Ahead of the visit, the Federal Government has formally written to the Saudi Monarch, King Fahd Abdulaziz, seeking permission for the delegate to ascertain the health status of President Yar’Adua.
The decision of the government to write ahead of the visit was to ensure access to the president who was reported to have been moved to a restricted military facility in the Saudi kingdom.
It was not clear whether the letter forwarded to the Saudi king would facilitate access to Yar’Adua, but the Daily Sun source said Hajia Turai was also contemplating leaving the city of Jeddah for the period that would be spent by the ministers, to avoid being persuaded by them, which could in turn make her change her earlier decision.

Daily Sun equally learnt that, the first lady was strategizing on ways to frustrate the efforts of the visiting ministers. Her actions, according to the source, was to thwart any move by the FEC to declare Yar’Adua unfit to rule after the ministers would have retuned from Saudi Arabia and made their observations known.
“You know if the ministers are unable to see the president, it may be extremely difficult for FEC to declare Yar’Adua unfit to rule,” the source said.

President Yar’Adua has been on admission for acute pericarditis in Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2009.
Also, it was learnt that, the Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, was reluctant to go for the trip because his appointment as a minister was fast-tracked by the first lady, who was said to have a hand in his nomination for the post.

Again, the source added that, Osotimehin was also reluctant because being a medical doctor himself, the responsibility of writing the report based on his observations on the state of health of the president would definitely fall on him. And that, the source said, was capable of pitching him against the first lady, who could feel the ministers was disloyal.
Daily Sun’s gathered that only three people have access to the president in the Saudi hospital; the chief security officer to the president, his aide-de-camp and the first lady.
Since the president’s admission in the hospital in November last year, several top people in government have made unsuccessful efforts to see the him.

On the list was a delegation of the Governors’ Forum led by its Chairman, Dr. Bukola Saraki and comprising Gabriel Suswan of Benue State; Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State; Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, who is also an in-law to the president and the president’s Economic Adviser, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu. They traveled to Jeddah on November 29 last year, but were not allowed to see the president.
Again, on December 26, 2009, the president’s Principal Secretary, Mr. David Edevbie, also traveled to Saudi Arabia but was not allowed to see his boss.

A delegation of the House of Representatives, led by Shehu Agaie (Niger State) and comprising Ali Ndume (Borno), Patrick Ikhariale (Edo State), Moruf Fatai (Lagos State) and Jibril Adamu (Kaduna State) also went to Saudi Arabia on February 9 but after waiting for five days without seeing Yar’Adua, they returned to Nigeria.
And just last week, a delegation of the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, led by the party’s National Chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, also traveled to Jeddah but was reportedly barred from seeing the president.

Sunnews

INCREDIBLE! This man excretes once in 7 wks

He eats, drinks and moves about like a normal human being. But his alimentary canal is patently tainted with abnormal behaviour. He does not empty his bowels within the time frame expected of a normal person even after eating with a ravenous appetite.

Tall, lanky, active and friendly Sanusi Ibrahim, 46, is telling anybody who cares to listen with pride that he does not excrete as they do. That he is at home with any kind of consumable food he chooses to ingest at anytime of the day. Sanusi says he could demolish double the ratio his contemporaries devour: “I don’t tolerate hunger for one moment. That’s why I ensure that there’s always something edible by my side even when I am not at home.”

But there is another oddity peculiar to Sanusi. The smelly, gaseous air content he discharges in quick succession everyday leaves him as a man whose rate of flatulence is unequalled: “Instead of going to toilet, I just find solace in passing out very, very loud and offensive gas, one round after another for some moments in order to get a relief. I do this at my convenient time and location without causing discomfort to people around me.

That’s why if I am together with you and you see me moving away, don’t complain because it’s in your own interest. I do that, else you regret being near me.
“I pass excreta once in seven weeks or thereabout and this is not causing me to fall ill at all. And after all this long time when the shit comes, it is as short as my index finger, only that it is very fat and as hard as a stone. That is the cause of my predicament, because it pains me while passing through my anus. The symptom of its arrival is also a very painful feeling at my two upper ribs. Whenever it is two days for me to start feeling like going to the toilet, my two ribs will begin to pain me. It is as painful as labour of a pregnant woman because within the period, I will almost lose my senses.

“That is why sometime, in spite of the pain I go through in my ribs, I defer going to toilet for as long as two days until it goes beyond my control. And in most cases, even my family members do not witness when I go to toilet. I have it as a habit to go to a distant place away from the city to excrete so that I can see what exactly comes out of my stomach. But nothing seems to be different all these years.

“My problem started since my secondary school days when I was about 17 years of age during the middle years of my schooling. It started with the same symptom I pass through and the same type of excreta I discharge. Since then, I have never suffered from any ailment, although some people are insinuating that it is a problem from some evil spirit (jinn).

“As for the treatment, I have gone to the hospital several times. I have seen various medical doctors, Mallams and traditional healers, all to no avail. As a matter of fact, I am only bothered with this problem because of the pains I go through whenever I go to the toilet. It is not because I don’t go to toilet like other people do.”

Asked if his peculiar problem has not affected his sexual prowess. Sanusi exclaimed: “What? That is where you don’t know my hidden wonders. In fact, my financial constraint is the only reason why I am not having four wives. But naturally I am too much for one.”
Doctors contacted by Daily Sun, however, expressed reservations as to the normalcy of the alimentary system of Sanusi. They believe that something unhealthy must be associated with his constipation-laden colon, or else his body chemistry must be extra-ordinary.

Sunnews