saying what?? I will now pay N50 to Buhari every time i receive money in my account.

The Federal Government has imposed a stamp duty of N50 on bank customers for money received into their accounts. This implies that every bank customer will henceforth pay N50 stamp duty for money received into their accounts through electronic transfer, cash and cheques.

This directive was contained in a circular to all Deposit Money Banks and Other Financial institutions titled, "Collection and Remittance of statutory charges on receipts of Nigeria Postal Service under the Stamp Duties Act”.

The circular in part reads

“As part of efforts to boost its revenue base, the federal government of Nigeria is exploring revenue opportunities in the non-oil sectors especially taxes and rates. It is in recognition of this fact that banks and other financial institutions are enjoined to support government’s revenue drive through compliance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act, LFN 2004 as reinforced by the court judgement in Suit No FHC/L/CS/1710/2013. 

In this regard, the CBN pursuant to the provisions of its enabling laws, hereby issues this circular to all DMBs other financial institutions: With immediate effect, all DMBs and other financial institutions shall commence the charging of N50 per eligible transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act and Federal Government Financial Regulations 2009, that is, all receipts given by any bank or other financial institution in acknowledgment of services rendered in respect of electronic transfer and teller deposits from N1, 000 and above; For all avoidance of doubt the following receipts are however exempted from imposition of stamp duties: payments of deposits or transfer by self to self whether inter or intra bank; and any form of withdrawals/transfers from saving accounts; It should be noted that these charges are only payable by receiving accounts; Each DMB shall open an account designated as NIPOST Stamp Duties Account into which all charges collected shall be paid. The balances in such accounts shall be transferred monthly by the DMBs to CBN NIPOST Stamp Duty Collection Account No. 3000047517; Other financial institutions shall remit their Stamp Duty collections to any DMB of their choice”.

Menh... this is not what i voted for ooh.

Just take your time on this photo tour. Obama's photo album

January first marks not only a new year, but the last of Barack Obama's presidency. So perhaps that's the reason White House photographer Pete Souza found it so hard to come up with his yearly 'best photos' list. Souza, who has been photographing the president throughout his entire administration, released his annual 'Year in Photographs' list. See more photos below:

While visiting the Whitney Museum in New York City, the President hugged his daughter Malia as they looked at the art work

 'He was just excited to see you,’ one of the salmon fisherwoman exclaimed after a salmon spawned on the President’s feet at Kanakanak Beach in Bristol Bay, Alaska

The President exchanges a wave with Alya Dorelien Bitar, one-year-old daughter of Maher Bitar, the outgoing National Security Council Director for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, and his wife, Astrid Dorelien

President Obama's legs dangle as he sat on top of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office while talking with two aides

The President and First Lady react to a child in a Pope costume during Halloween

 

 

 Obama with French President François Hollande

Full list of 2015 Headies Award winners

Below is the full list of winners of the very interesting Headies awards which held last night in Lagos.

 

Best Street-Hop Artiste

Olamide (‘Bobo’)

Best Pop Single

‘Godwin’ by Korede Bello

Best Male Performance

Timi Dakolo (‘Wish me well’)

Best R&B single

‘Wish me well’ by Timi Dakolo

Best rap single

‘King kong’ by Vector

 

Best Vocal Performance (female)

Aramide (‘Iwo Nikan)

Best Ragga/dancehall single

‘German juice’ by Cynthia Morgan

Best Music Video

‘Katapot’ (by Reekado Banks, video shot by Unlimited L.A)

Best Collaboration

‘Local Rappers’ – Reminisce ft Olamide, Phyno & StormRex

Best Rap Album

“Chairman” by M.I

Best Music Producer

Legendary Beatz (‘Ojuelegba’)

Lyricist On The Roll

Vector

Next Rated

Reekado Banks

Revelation of The Year

Yemi Alade

Recording of the year

‘Wish me well’ – Timi Dakolo

Best Alternative Song

‘Sade’ – Adekunle Gold

Special Recognition Award

Don Jazzy

Best Pop/R&B Album

AYO – Wizkid

Artiste of The Year

Olamide

Song of The Year

‘Ojuelegba’ – Wizkid

Rookie of The Year

YCee

Headies Hall of Fame

2Face Idibia

North Korea's Kim Jong Un says he's ready for war if provoked

On New year's day, yesterday, many North Koreans braved the cold and snowy January weather to make their way to Mansu Hill in central Pyongyang to lay flowers at the feet of the giant statues of Kim Jong II and his father Kim II Sung, the founder of this ultra-authoritarian state.

Later, Kim Jong Un, the grandson of the founding father and leader of the communist country, appeared on giant TV screens to deliver his annual New Year speech, which is the highpoint of New Year’s Day in North Korea.

This was Kim's fourth Jan. 1 speech since becoming leader. Standing behind a huge gold-colored podium, he told the country in his normal bellicose style that he was ready for war if provoked but steered away from threats he has made in the past to use North Korea’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

“If invasive outsiders and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not be forgiving in the least and sternly with a merciless holy war of justice," Kim said.

As in previous years, much of Kim’s speech was devoted to criticizing South Korea and its alliance with the U.S.

"South Korea has made a unilateral case for unification and increased mistrust and conflict between us," he said. Kim did note that he was open to talks with anyone truly interested in “reconciliation and peace” in the Korean Peninsula and was ready to “aggressively” work to improve ties with the South, a more conciliatory tone from his prior speeches.

After a tense military stand-off in the summer, when two South Korean soldiers were injured by land mines, high level talks were resumed in December but broke off with no concrete proposals.

Kim, speaking for 30 minutes, promised to improve North Korea’s struggling economy and improve the country’s desperate living standards. Pyongyang resident Choe Myong Jin reflected on the speech.

“This New Year’s Day is significant for me and I will do my best to carry out the tasks mentioned in the New Year’s address," he said.

North Koreans, however, have little choice but to praise and follow their dictator leader

China sends warning to Taiwan as it prepares to elect first woman president

As a British-educated admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Tsai Ing-wen, who studied in London, is the woman set to become leader of China’s fierce rival Taiwan was always likely to be regarded with suspicion by Beijing’s Communist Party apparatus.

The fact that she is head of a party dedicated to promoting the island’s independence from the Chinese mainland only makes matters worse.

Beijing duly met expectations yesterday by firing a warning shot across the bows of Tsai Ing-wen, favourite to become first woman leader of Taiwan - the first woman leader, in fact, in the modern Chinese world.

Zhang Zhijun, China's minister responsible for Taiwan affairs, warned it would be “unswerving and firm as a rock” in the face of threats to its sovereignty over the island.

"Let's not regret the value of peace and development after we've lost it," he said, in a New Year’s message.

Ms Tsai, an academic by background, is an unusual arrival in the conservative and male-dominated world of Far East Asian politics. But polls put her Democratic Progressive Party well in the lead for the presidential election due to take place in two weeks’ time.

Her sex may not officially be as important to Beijing as her politics - the DPP, unlike the ruling Kuomintang, believes Taiwan would be better off declaring the island to be an independent country rather than maintaining the international community’s polite fiction that it is an integral part of China.
But the fact that Taiwan will become the second of China’s close and democratic neighbours to be ruled by a woman - the other being President Park Geun-Hye of South Korea - will be a constant reminder of the political revolutions China prefers to resist. China’s ruling inner circle - the Politburo Standing Committee - has never had a woman member.


Source: The Telegraph

Nicki Minaj bleaching the hell out-of her skin(pics)

She's looking unusually light skinned in new photos she shared on instagram. May be it's the camera lighting? See more photos after the cut...

Chief Iwuanyawu's new wife puts to bed

Billionaire businessman Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu's young wife, Frances, has been delivered of a bouncing baby boy. The baby was born yesterday morning at Greater Baltimore Medical centre.

The 74 year old billionaire married 28 year old Frances in 2013. Congrats to the couple

Ohakim's Daughter and Husband have welcomed a baby boy

Daughter of former Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim, Adanma and her husband Amaha Okorafor have welcomed their first child together, a baby boy, born yesterday. Congrats to the couple

Say what now! EFCC church?

Lol..nothing somebody will not see! This was spotted in Benin...

Cyril Stober of NTA retires, And Nigerians took to twitter to celebrate him

NTA Newscaster Cyril Stober today December 10th announced his retirement from the government  owned TV station after 30 years of meritorious service. Nigerians took to twitter to celebrate and bid the Niger state born veteran broadcaster farewell. See some tweets after the cut ...

 

Okonjo Iweala must be brought to justice- Oshiomole insist

Edo state governor Adams Oshiomole yesterday called for the inclusion of Okonjo-Iweala in the ongoing probe on missing $2.1billion arms deal. Oshiomole said this while speaking to state house correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari at the state house yesterday December 9th.

“The NSA is supposed to be an advisory officer. He is not supposed to be a procurement agent for government. I am happy the figures are coming out and I know that this is a tip of the iceberg and I read some reports, the numbers are in billions, Dasuki is just one bleeding point; there are several bleeding points in the system.
You look at the total number of expenditure on subsidy which the World Bank has just released figures; about how many trillions of Naira over the past four to five years. I am shocked. I have been talking about it, I just said to a couple of persons, the government has to go the whole hog, because I know as a governor that no money gets out of the treasury even after I have approved as the governor without the approval of the Commissioner for Finance; so the probe should go into whether all these monies are appropriated all of it; when the money got out of the treasury, through who? The Minister of Finance under the rules must endorse before money gets out of the treasury, before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approves. So for the Ministers of Finance, including Okonjo – Iweala, I don’t care what people say because you cannot be coordinating a corruption-ridden economy and you pretend to be an angel, you cannot selectively deal with issues; you must deal with all involved in the conspiracy. In criminal law when two to three people are involved in a act of criminality, all of them are charged with conspiracy. Now if you lay your hands on the various appropriation bills passed by the National Assembly and see how much the National Assembly appropriated for subsidy for all those periods, you will find out they are not even up to half of what was spent. This means that money not appropriated for was spent. If people are involved in those acts, they must be brought to justice,” he said

My head too big I concur,LOL! Soyinka calls for caution on Biafra agitation

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has called on the Nigerian government to be cautious in dealing with the recent Pro-Biafrans agitations. Soyinka made the call during a recent interview with Channels TV

"I wrote an article during the war that Biafra cannot be defeated. People misunderstood what I was saying. Once an idea has taken hold, you cannot destroy that idea. You may destroy the people, the carriers of that idea on the battle field but ultimately it’s not the end of the story.
Let’s not take this position of ‘don’t even talk about it’, ‘under my watch this will never happen’, don’t say things like that. Go into that environment and ask ‘what is it that we can do to make you happy and feel part of this entity?’ Listen to some other Biafrans and ask them why they want to stay (and say) ‘this is what we are ready to push as the overall authority in this area’. Don’t go around saying ‘the sovereignty of the country is indivisible, it’s non-negotiable’ all that kind of language will only make matters worse,” he said.