Chan 2014: Bafana smell death in date with Eagles

NIGERIA’S Super Eagles and South Africa’s Bafana Bafana live to fight another day as the draw pits the two teams in Group A of the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
At the draw ceremony held in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, host South Africa will contest the Group A campaign in Cape Town and will have the challenge of the Super Eagles as well as Mali and Mozambique to contend with.
However, the South Africans are already in awe of the group.
Kirsten Nematandani, President of the South Africa Football Association (SAFA), said after the draw: “The presence of Nigeria and Mali coupled with Mozambique makes it the ‘group of death.”
Bafana start the championship with a match against Mozambique on January 11 while Nigeria tackle Mali later in the day.
For both Nigeria and South Africa, the January 19 match day is a clean slate as the Eagles and Bafana have never met on this level, CHAN being a continental championship meant for players who ply their trade in domestic league.

G7 GOVS MAY DUMP ATIKU •No deal yet with Jonathan - New PDP •Hold me responsible for PDP Reps’ fracas - Tambuwal •PDP crisis, act of God - APC Reps caucus

THE talks between President Goodluck Jonathan and members of the G7 group of aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appeared to be heading for the rocks, following indications that the G7 members may dump Atiku Abubakar and are thinking of Accord Party as an option.
Accord Party is believed to have been formed by loyalists of former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, ahead of the 2007 general election, but was later taken over by former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja.
Sources in the polity, however, told the Nigerian Tribune that the aggrieved governors of the PDP were eyeing the Accord Party, to strengthen their negotiations with other parties.
Besides, it was learnt that the governors believed that President Jonathan was not ready to shift his position on any of their demands, especially the call for an end to what they called harassment from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“The governors are worried that the president will not cede anything to them, as the body language in the last meeting showed. He seemed to have made up his mind, going by the dissolution of Kano State PDP executive in the midst of the talks,” a source close to the G7 governors said.
Sources said the group was being careful in teaming up with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), as  the choice of the party’s presidential candidate would determine whether or not they could work with the merger party.
It was also gathered that loyalists of Obasanjo, who kick started the rebellion in the PDP, became uncomfortable that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was becoming the rallying point in the agitation, with Atiku reportedly positioning the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) to reap the benefits of the rebellion.
Sources told the Nigerian Tribune that the G7 team of aggrieved PDP governors had, therefore, decided on the Accord Party as a viable option to achieve many things at the same time.
A source said one of the plans on the agenda was to push the PDP to hasten the acceptance of their terms, while also open up to other parties as the beautiful bride.
A source said the decision had been taken ahead of the October 7 meeting at the Presidential Villa, so as not to get caught unawares by President Jonathan.
“The reason for the decision to move to Accord Party shortly is to prepare our minds for the worst. We are not hearing anything new from the meetings.
“The president appears not to be feeling the heat of the rebellion and the earlier we actualise our option, the faster the message will sink,” a source among the aggrieved governors said.
No deal yet with Jonathan —New PDPTHE reported cease-fire and peace deal between the warring factions of the People Democratic Party (PDP) has been disowned by the Alhaji Kawu Baraje-led faction of the party, as it denied ever endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan  for re-election in 2015.
The Baraje-led faction specifically accused the Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, of lying about the outcome of the reconciliation talks, while it urged Nigerians and supporters to ignore what it called “the concocted tales of Governor Akpabio.”
In a statement signed by the factional national publicity secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, the faction urged its supporters to “ignore the tissue of lies and propaganda from the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the party on the outcome of our meeting with President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on Sunday.”
The faction noted that “the fact of the case is that no agreement has been reached on any of the issues tabled before the president and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them.”
On whether President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential election or not, the faction noted that the PDP  had “a mechanism and system of electing its standard-bearers for any election and until the time to choose the party’s presidential standard-bearer comes, any speculation on this is just a mere academic exercise.”
The party accused Tukur and other forces around the president of lacking seriousness in the search for peace within the party, noting that “just a few hours after Sunday’s meeting , Tukur-led faction once more showed its disdain for peace by unilaterally setting up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of Kano chapter.
“This was done without recourse to either the leader of the party in Kano State, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from the state.
“This illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and was hurriedly done just to spite Governor Kwankwaso.”
While urging party supporters in  Kano to ignore the caretaker committee, the statement said the faction had set in motion, machinery to organise a proper election as stipulated by the constitution of the party.
PDP crisis, act of God —APC Reps’ caucus
LAWMAKERS on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, disclosed that the current crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was an act of God.
The APC lawmakers, at a press briefing chaired by the Minority Leader of the House, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, said “we are undoubtedly, as are most Nigerians, pleased with what is unfolding in the PDP. We are pleased not just for us, but for the vast majority of the suffering Nigerian masses. In all of these happenings, we see the hand of God.”
A mild drama, however, played out during the press briefing, when the deputy minority whip, Honourable Garba Datti, said members of the New PDP had already indicated interest to join APC and maintained that the APC caucus had met with them earlier on Wednesday, but was cut short by Honourable Gbajabiamila and other APC members in attendance.
Honourable Gbajabiamila, in his address, said “we want to invite our colleagues in the House, who found their way into the PDP through craft or deception, but who, in their hearts, are progressive in inclination and bent, to join hands with us in pursuing our agenda of change and hope of saving Nigeria.
“This is our time, this is our moment. Let us seize it. There is much work to be done, but the labourers are few. All hands must be on deck at this critical moment in our nation’s history.”
He added that “the break-up of the PDP was imminent and one need not be a rocket scientist to have seen it coming.
“It is impossible to build something on nothing or on a weak foundation where the reason for your existence in the first place was not to govern but to milk the collective patrimony of over 160 million people.
“Such a mission cannot stand, even where you conjecture and your plan or dream is to continue to pillage what God has given to a nation for the next 60 years as once claimed by an excited but hallucinating PDP leader.”
Gbajabiamila further stated that APC as a party did not have two, three, four or seven-point agenda, adding that “we only have one, an agenda to save Nigeria and usher in change as our slogan suggests.”
He said “it is under that one-item agenda that we find many agendas. The agenda that brings change to a rotten education system; the agenda that reduces, if not eliminate, the scourge of poverty; the agenda that provides stable electricity as a right of every Nigerian; the agenda that would pursue the establishment of world class hospitals; an agenda that would develop our infrastructure; that would make corruption which has become cultural under a rudderless government a thing of shame; an agenda that would make us a federal republic and not a unitary government.”
The minority leader called for a partnership and a rainbow coalition with all Nigerians, adding that “though tribe or tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.”
He tasked Nigerians that it was time they went to the polls to take issues that affected their lives seriously.
“Furthermore, we intend, on a quarterly basis, to also give our own “State of the Nation” address from the legislative monocle.
“We believe that the people who voted us into office are entitled and have a right as opposed to a privilege to be carried along in all affairs of the state,” he said.