Buhari fires 35 aides in Osinbajo's office

A day after signing Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Amendment Bill into law in London, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sack at least 35 out of over 80 aides in the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, DAILY NIGERIAN can reliably report.

The president is currently in London, United Kingdom for a two-week “private visit” and is expected back in Abuja on November 17.

DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that the affected aides, who were issued appointment letters in August included some Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants, Personal Assistants and Technical Assistants.

Credible sources who preferred anonymity said the aides may be formally issued their sack letters on Wednesday.

Preparatory to their eventual dismissal, DAILY NIGERIAN learnt the aides were posted out to some line ministries relevant to their designation last month. The move was allegedly to deny them access to the Villa and reduce the influence of the vice president.

“Although more than half of the aides are under the payroll of donor agencies, the cabal eased them out in order to whittle down the influence of the vice president,” said a source familiar with the development.

“None of them were queried or interdicted for any wrongdoing. It is not about cutting cost, because no aide was sacked in the president’s office nor office of the First Lady, where six more aides appointed less than one month ago. They were just sacked to reduce the VP’s influence.”

Both spokesmen for the president and vice president, Garba Shehu and Laolu Akande respectively, did not respond to a text message seeking their reaction to the development.

Osinbajo’s travails

There seems to be a frosty relationship between the president and his deputy since the beginning of their second term in office, with the president transferring some agencies under the Mr Osinbajo’s control to either his office or some ministries.

Insiders said the president’s powerful handlers, otherwise known as cabal, were unhappy with some critical decisions taken by the vice president in the president’s absence.

Feelers believe that top among Mr Osinbajo’s “crimes” was the sack of Lawal Daura, erstwhile director-general of the State Security Service, SSS, when Mr Osinbajo was acting president in August last year.

Another decision that drew the ire of the cabal was transmitting a letter to the Senate in February 2017, seeking confirmation of then acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Walter Samuel Onnoghen.

But the president first wielded the big stick by taking away the Special Intervention Programmes, SIPs, from the vice president’s office to the newly created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development.

The SIPs include the famous TraderMoni, the Home-grown School Feeding Programme, Government Economic Empowerment Programme, N-Power, among others.

On September 16, Mr Buhari replaced Osinbajo-led Economic Management Team with Economic Advisory Council that will directly report to his (president’s) office.

According a report by PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, even the controversial RUGA project has also been taken from Mr Osinbajo’s control after the recommendation of the president’s powerful Chief of Staff Abba Kyari.

Taking a cue from Olusegun Obasanjo?

Shortly after President Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn-in for a second term in May 2003, his relationship with his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, became sour over latter’s alleged plan to contest against him at the party’s primaries.

At the peak of estrangement, the former president fired Mr Atiku’s key aides in order to allegedly settle the political scores.

Those fired by Mr Obasanjo in July 2006 included Adeolu Akande, Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, Chris Mammah, Shina Ayati, Sam Oyovbaire, Lawal Jafaru Isa and Garba Shehu.

Kanye West's Jesus Is King just became his ninth consecutive No. 1 album, tying Eminem's record

CNN - With nine studio albums under his belt and no end in sight, it's safe to say rapper and producer Kanye West is still riding the ultralight beam.

West's gospel-inspired album "Jesus is King," released October 25, has hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, his ninth consecutive album to debut at No. 1.
West is now tied with Eminem for the most consecutive No. 1's on the Billboard 200 charts, says Billboard.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the United States' most popular albums of the week. The new chart, where "Jesus Is King" sits at No. 1, is set to be released Tuesday.
The new album breaks a personal record for West -- "Jesus is King" has given the rapper his biggest streaming week ever, at 196.9 million on-demand streams of its tracks, according to Billboard.

The album also boasts the second largest sales week of the year for an R&B/Hip-Hop album, selling more than 100,000 copies, second only to Post Malone's album "Hollywood's Bleeding."

Despite his foray into design, fashion and politics, West says he has no plans to stop producing music. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music's Beats 1, West announced that he plans to release an album titled "Jesus Is Born" on Christmas Day.

"I believe because God has given me a gift that I pray for and so many people love," West told Lowe, "that if I stop doing it, he might start to take all the things away."

Meet the youngest commissioner in Nigeria

She is the youngest Commissioner nominee in Nigeria:
Miss Joana Kolo is from Edu LGA, in Kwara State and is a 2018 graduate of Library Science from the Kwara State University (KWASU).

Said to be a grassroots mobiliser, Miss Kolo is an ardent advocate of community development.
She's Nigeria’s youngest commissioner, taking the trophy from Oyo State’s 27-year-old Oluwaseun Fakorede.
Miss Kolo has completed her National Youths Service Corps programme in Jigawa. Her place of primary of assignment was Model Boarding Junior Secondary School Guri.

She was screened and confirmed for the cabinet seat last week Thursday at the floor of Kwara State House of Assembly. This is coming after she has rounded off her NYSC service in Jigawa State.

McDonald's boss, Steve Easterbrook fired after after dating an employee

McDonald's has fired its chief executive Steve Easterbrook after he had a relationship with an employee.

The US fast food giant said the relationship was consensual, but Mr Easterbrook had "violated company policy" and shown "poor judgement".

In an email to staff, the British businessman acknowledged the relationship and said it was a mistake.

"Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on," he said.

Mr Easterbrook, 52, who is divorced, first worked for McDonald's in 1993 as a manager in London before working his way up the company.

He left in 2011 to become boss of Pizza Express and then Asian food chain Wagamama, before returning to McDonald's in 2013, eventually becoming its head in the UK and northern Europe.

He was appointed chief executive of McDonald's in 2015.

Mr Easterbrook is widely credited with revitalising the firm's menus and restaurants, by remodelling stores and using better ingredients. The value of its shares more than doubled during his tenure in the US.

Under his leadership, McDonald's also expanded its delivery and mobile payment options to emphasise convenience.

The fast food giant's board voted on Watford-born Mr Easterbrook's departure on Friday after a review.

He has also stepped down as McDonald's president and member of the board.

The company's rules for managers prohibit them from becoming romantically involved with a subordinate.

It will release details of Mr Easterbrook's severance package on Monday, details of which will be closely watched.

The company has been criticised over the amount it pays shop staff, and Mr Easterbrook faced scrutiny for his $15.9m (£12.3m) pay packet in 2018. It was 2,124 times the median employee salary of $7,473.

He will be replaced by Chris Kempczinski, most recently president of McDonald's USA, with immediate effect.

In a statement, Mr Kempczinski thanked Mr Easterbrook for his contributions, adding: "Steve brought me into McDonald's and he was a patient and helpful mentor."

Last year Intel boss Brian Krzanich stepped down for having a consensual relationship with an Intel employee, which was against company rules.

He had been in the post since May 2013

Sex for grade: Uniport bans huging between lecturers and students

The University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, has launched its policy against sexual harassment where amorous hugging between lecturers and female students is now an offence.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Ndowa E. S. Lale said the University decided to raise the bar on sexual harassment to ensure that the young men and women put in the charge of lecturers are protected, especially from antics of sexual predators who use their privileged positions to blackmail or railroad their unwilling students or subordinate staff into granting them sexual favours.

He said the management of the University in the policy document defined the rules of engagement in terms of the acceptable of engagement between lecturers, administrators and students, including visitors to the university. Prof Ndowa vowed that sanctions would be meted to erring members of staff but added that there was a robust in built checks and balances to protect those who are innocently accused.

He also warned that any person so accused would be presumed guilty until he or she could prove otherwise under the established rules of fair hearing. Prof Ndowa also warned that henceforth, lectures and administrators who did not remember to tell their tailors to sew zippers in front of their trousers should be ready to bear the consequences of their amorous liaison with female students.

He warned that the same applied to students who harassed lecturers to award them undeserved grades, saying they should equally be ready to face the music if and when caught in the act of self advertisement to their lecturers.

Nicki Minaj's husband reportedly spent $1.1 million wedding ring

Nicki Minaj‘s new husband, Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, went to great lengths to get his lady the wedding ring she deserved.

According to TMZ, Petty meticulously oversaw all the details on the design of the ring and spent an exorbitant amount of cash to get the ring to his liking.

Nicki showed off the huge rock on her social media on Wednesday, and the jeweler who made it, Rafaello and Co., told TMZ that Petty handled the design, delivery, and paid for the ring, valued at $1.1 million all on his own.

Petty commissioned the jeweler to make their wedding rings, and they worked collectively on the design for several months.

The jewelers flew from New York City to Los Angeles a few days before the wedding to deliver the rings that came in a customized box that played a photo slideshow of the happy couple with Nicki’s song “Come See About Me” playing.   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Nicki’s ring features a 17 carat center with VVS2-clarity diamonds, while Petty’s band was customized with the words “Ken & Barbie” engraved on the inside of the band.

Petty wanted a traditional wedding ring for his wife with the simple specification of “nice diamonds and nothing too gaudy.”

Evil brother strikes

The couple shown above were living in the US. They came home expecting to come to their new house that the husband's younger brother helped them 'built'.

Having collected so much money from them, the brother didnt build any house. As soon as the couple arrived Nigeria, the brother put them in a house and told them he would take them to the new house the following day. Before the morning, the couple died in their sleep in what was eventually found to be poison. Upon interrogation the couple's death was traced to the younger brother.