From Recession to Recovery, Growth and Consolidation

My good people of Osun,

It is with much joy and great expectation that I welcome you to the New Year, 2017. The old year, 2016, was a year of huge trials, travails and tests but it was also a year of great victory and accomplishments.

It was a year we were hardest hit financially, arising from falling oil price and dwindling production. It was also a year we lost a few eminent personalities. This began with the transition of the honourable member of the House of Assembly representing Ife Central State Constituency, Oladejo Samson Makinde. In November we had the passage of the great Yoruba leader, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi. This was followed by the legendary Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Then in December, death took away from our midst a legal luminary and personal friend, Barrister Deji Sasegbon. They have directly or indirectly touched our lives and world. May their gentle souls rest in peace.

Fidel Castro, Leader of the Cuban Revolution rest in peace

Fidel Castro, the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and setting Cuban people free from Neo-colonial and imperial dominion of the Amenrican power, died Friday. He was 90.

His death was announced by Cuban state television.

Can anyone explain how Corbyn's praise of Castro is different from Thatcher's praise of Pinochet? Thought not.https://t.co/VGR7Q4BpoS

— Nick Cohen (@NickCohen4) November 26, 2016

I will die soon, Fidel Castro bids farewell to Cuba's Congress

Fidel Castro has made what is likely to be his final speech to Cuba's Congress, telling the assembled politicians that he would die soon but that the revolution's ideals would live on.

The 89-year-old spoke after his brother Raul, 84, was re-elected as head of the Communist party - a position the younger Castro has said he will hold until retiring in 2018.

And Fidel Castro said the time was approaching for a younger generation to take over. His declaration appeared to be less of an announcement that he was dying - he has been suffering from intestinal problems since the early 2000s - than a statement of obvious fact.

"I'll be 90 years old soon," he said. "Soon I'll be like all the others."

Vladimir Putin meets Fidel Castro in Cuba

Vladimir Putin, Russian president, meets Fidel Castro, the retired Communist leader, in Cuba

Russian President Vladimir Putin began a six-day Latin American tour aimed at boosting trade and ties in the region with a stop Friday in Cuba, a key Soviet ally during the Cold War that has backed Moscow in its dispute with the West over Ukraine.

Cuban state media carried photos of Putin's meeting with retired leader Fidel Castro. Putin and Raúl Castro, the president, also participated in a ceremony at Havana's Memorial to the Soviet Internationalist Soldier.

The two countries signed about a dozen accords in areas such as energy, industry, health and disaster prevention. Russian companies will participate in petroleum projects around Boca de Jaruco on the island's north coast, and that cooperation will extend to offshore oil deposits, Cuban government website Cubadebate said.

CHIBOK!!! You Need To Understand That Jonathan Can't Go There

Poor Ebele Jonathan! All his demoralized people can see is the fact that he tucked his tail between his legs, did 440 away from Chibok, and ran into the comforting arms of Papa Francois Hollande in Paris. Now the people are saying that even the second arm of our conjugal diarchy, President Mrs Patience Jonathan, seems to be displaying a more robust testicular fortitude than our man who thought discretion was the better part of valour.