P-Square acquires private jet

3:08 PM Entertainment No Comments

Nigeria’s multiple award winning hip-hop sensation, Peter and Paul Okoye popularly known as P- Square have added another feather to their cap as they are now proud owners of a private jet.

According to our source, the twins recently coughed out several millions of dollars to pick the private airbus from one of the Arabian countries. And with their latest acquisition, Peter and Paul are now the biggest boys in the Nigerian music industry.

*Jet interior with one of the twins Peter

One of their tweets on Thursday evening gave the duo out about their new acquisition.

“Jetting privately….thanks to God and the fans. You all made it possible. God has settled us…Just included on our list…that very list……shhhhhh.” Peter tweeted Thursday night.

Showtime gathered that as at the time Peter tweeted about their new ‘baby’, the duo were on a trip to South Africa.

With landed properties in Jos, Port Harcourt and their newly built Lagos mansion worth N400 million, it’s no doubt that the dynamic duo are in the millionaires club.

Among their automobile acquisitions are two Sequioa Sports Utility Vans (SUVs), one hummer SUV, truck bus and a Toyota Altima.

By OPEOLUWANI AKINTAYO & IYABO AINA

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Is democracy for ordinary Nigerians?

3:16 AM News No Comments

Those who invented democracy described it as government of the people for the people and by the people. While this may well be true in civilised countries, the fact is that democracy is a big fraud in Nigeria.

In this part of the world, democracy is arguably not about the ordinary people. On the contrary, it is about members of the ruling class, who at the expense of the people, use the powers conferred on them to enrich themselves.

Ironically, while democracy has made life brutish, nasty, short and impoverished the people, the country’s leaders are smiling to the banks and securing a future for their children’s children.

The average Nigerian daily faces insurmountable challenges. He finds it difficult to live from hand to mouth, unlike those in positions of authority whose opulent lifestyles are maintained by taxpayers’ money.

In spite of the privileges that they enjoy at the expense of the poor, Nigerian leaders are paid fat salaries and allowances from the common purse. In addition, they steal huge sums of money from the nation’s treasury.

While they ignore the deteriorating infrastructure in the country, the roads leading to their luxury mansions are well maintained.

Before democracy, some of those in government today were mere taxi drivers and perpetually on the credit list of the food vendors in their neighbourhood. They could not even afford their children’s school fees.

But, like Noah’s Ark, democracy became a haven of sorts where they sought to hide from the impending doom that stared them in the face. They were able to escape the clutches of poverty by grabbing its offers of free funds and political patronage.

This people’s children no longer attend cheap schools, which hitherto charged paltry fees and allowed them to pay by istalments because of their pitiable circumstances. Today, they have enough resources to send their children to expensive schools abroad.

While ordinary Nigerians daily battle with insecurity, a strong wall of Jericho protects nation’s corrupt leaders, their families, and their ill-gotten wealth.

Having emasculated tertiary institutions in the country and rendered them completely prostrate because of inadequate funding and policy somersaults, they set up private universities with the money stolen from the people.

Just as the academic environment, which they created, cannot guarantee good education for anyone, the funds meant for the development of education have been appropriated for their comfort and extreme indulgence.

Suffice it to add, there is nothing in the country that members of the ruling class have not appropriated to themselves in the name of democracy. Even government contracts have become their exclusive preserve.

With senators, ministers and most of the big time politicians jostling for contracts, it means that everything good belongs, in the name of democracy, to them and their ilk.

Before democracy berthed on this side of the globe, we all jeered and booed military dictators together and forced them to quit meddling in the affairs of state for good. We fantasised together that with democracy all would be well.

When democracy eventually came, they cajoled us to embrace it with a promise to transform our lives. Although there was, indeed, a radical transformation, they did not democratise it. Instead, they profited from it.

They preached deregulation, but failed to deregulate the transformation. Only in their camp did we see the evidence of the radical transformation.

Now, they have made themselves inaccessible to the people on whose backs they rode to riches. The same people, for whom they say democracy exists, have become ‘peculiar mess’ and irritants in their eyes.

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