{"id":3657,"date":"2014-12-11T09:47:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T09:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3657"},"modified":"2014-12-11T21:39:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:39:04","slug":"im-not-obasanjos-concubine-ezekwesili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3657","title":{"rendered":"Is Obasanjo in love with Ezekwesili, former World Bank Vice President?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OBJ<\/a><\/p>\n

A former Vice-President of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, on Wednesday denied having any amorous relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.<\/p>\n

Ezekwesili\u2019s denial followed the widespread circulation of a photograph showing her in a very warm embrace with Obasanjo.<\/p>\n

In the trending photo, the former President is seen holding Ezekwesili from behind and giving her a peck on the cheek.<\/p>\n

The controversial picture was taken on Tuesday during the public presentation of Obasanjo\u2019s three-part autobiography entitled, \u2018My Watch\u2019.<\/p>\n

Many online commentators expressed displeasure with Ezekwesili and Obasanjo for behaving in such a manner in public.<\/p>\n

They accused the former minister of education, who once served in Obasanjo\u2019s cabinet, of being indecorous as a married woman and passing a wrong message to young girls who look up to her as a role model.<\/p>\n

A group known as \u2018Hope for Nigeria\u2019 stated that it was taken aback by the decision of the two public figures to behave themselves that way in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Dr. Oby Ezekwesili the #BringBackOurGirls crusader with former President Obasanjo at his book launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas it that Ezekwesili forgot that she was in a public place and a married woman? She threw caution to the wind. Anyway, we saw her sticking out her finger in excitement, while the \u2018Chemistry\u2019 lasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat manner of role model will this woman be to young Nigerian girls who look up to her?\u201d the group wrote, after posting the controversial photograph on its Facebook page.<\/p>\n

But Ezekwesili has fired back at her accusers, describing those who have reacted to the photo by calling her unprintable names as \u201cgutter minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former minister stated that Obasanjo merely gave her a \u201cboisterous greeting\u201d, adding that only \u201cimpure hearts\u201d would be suspicious of the motive behind his expression of goodwill.<\/p>\n

She blamed declining \u201cfamily values\u201d for her critics\u2019 line of thought, noting that those \u201cpurveyors of the filthy conversation\u201d were merely \u201cliving for the gutter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy former boss \u2013 President Obasanjo \u2013 gave me a boisterous greeting at his event yesterday (Tuesday) and the impure in heart now turn it to lurid tales.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestoring family values will also help take us back to a descent society. It is clear that many among us have lost our pure hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us leave them to their lowliness. It is out of the abundance of the filthiness or purity of heart that the mouth speaks,\u201d Ezekwesili tweeted.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has said only 10 states of the federation were working towards \u201cbreaking the chain\u201d of corruption in the country.<\/p>\n

Arguing that corruption was a major obstacle to economic and social development of the nation, Odinkalu stated that the 10 states had enacted laws capable of stemming the tide of corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday in Nigeria, only 10 states have enacted fiscal responsibility laws. The remaining 26 states have not started working towards breaking the chain of corruption,\u201d Odinkalu wrote on his Twitter page.<\/p>\n

According to him, to understand how to make corruption a thing of the past, political leaders and the citizenry needed to know how the country got entangled in the menace from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created a country in which the church and mosque matter at the expense of country. What prayer is bigger than second stanza of national anthem?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a time when there were only three public integrity institutions: the police, judiciary, civil service. Today, we\u2019ve dozens of public institutions and the majority of them are more corrupt.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoads, buildings and monuments aren\u2019t achievements in public life. To break the chain of corruption, we must count achievement in terms of growth in values,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Also, online activist, Tunji Lardner, lamented the absence of political, institutional and public will to fight corruption in the country.<\/p>\n

In a Twitter chat titled, \u201cCorruption in Nigeria,\u201d held in commemoration of the world anti-corruption day, Lardner insisted that there was a direct link between the \u201csystemic corruption\u201d in the nation\u2019s armed forces and the security challenges being witnessed.<\/p>\n

The Federal Government, he stated, had spent over $6b on the armed forces with \u2018nothing\u2019 to show for it in terms of military capabilities<\/p>\n

\u201cCorruption is a process that corrodes, debases and destroys personal, collective, material and moral values in a society.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course stealing is the popular and pervasive front face of corruption the systemic corruption of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo reduce the rate of corruption in the country, there is a need for total reform of the judicial sector, massive civic education campaign, and holding of the elite accountable for their misdeeds,\u201d the activist said.<\/p>\n

Source:http:\/\/www.punchng.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former Vice-President of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, on Wednesday denied having any amorous relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Ezekwesili\u2019s denial followed the widespread circulation of a photograph showing her in a very warm embrace with Obasanjo. In the trending photo, the former President is seen holding Ezekwesili from behind and giving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[153,73],"class_list":["post-3657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-ezekwesili","tag-obasanjo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/oby.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-WZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3674,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657\/revisions\/3674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}