NEWS/ Jennifer Aniston Writes Her Own Tabloid Headline: "When I'm Pregnant and Married, I Will Let You Know"

Jennifer Aniston is taking control of her life—the
life she reportedly leads, anyway.
The Cake actress has been a tabloid target since
her marriage to Brad Pitt ended in 2005. "I realize
they need to sell magazines, but it's really getting
old," Aniston, 46, says in InStyle 's February issue.
"What kills me is when friends send me pictures
they've taken at a newsstand. One magazine
says, 'Desperate and alone,' and the other one
says, 'She's eloped!' I mean, at least consult.
Don't make yourself look like an idiot. I'm going
to be 50 and they're still gonna be saying, 'She's
pregnant!'" Though Aniston got engaged to Justin
Theroux in August 2012, the tabloids haven't left
the Golden Globe nominee alone.
If she could write her own tabloid headline, what
would it read? "Oh, that's a tough one. That
should be a Justin question. Wait a sec. How's
this? 'When I'm pregnant and married, I will let
you know.' Not a tabloid publication. Not Bulls--t
Times or Crapass Bulls--t Times Weekly . They will
not be telling you," Aniston vows. "And by the
way, stop stealing my thunder! Let me have the
fun of telling that story."
Speaking of Theroux, have he and Aniston set a
wedding date?
"There's a big discussion in our house right now:
Do you just do it and say screw it? Or do you try
desperately to get away with [a secret ceremony]
where you don't have any fun because you're
hiding in a cave somewhere?" says the actress,
whose lavish wedding to Pitt in 2000 cost a
reported $1 million. "If we could do it without all
the buzzing and the noise...It can be done. Where
there's a will there's a way."
NEWS: Jennifer Aniston says tabloids are like a
"soap opera on paper"
Suffice to say, Aniston is in her prime.
"It may be harder to shed those extra pounds, but
all of this stuff," she says while circling her head
with her fingers, "is fabulous. Just thinking about
the girl I was at 20-something or even 30-
something—there were so many questions, so
many worries, so much wasted brain space on
things that really don't matter." Turning 40, the
Horrible Bosses 2 star says, was a turning point.
"I'm a late bloomer. I mean, it's no secret: I've
had some challenging companionship," Aniston
says, laughing. "I think hitting a wall with that
really kind of [helped me grow]. I found a great
therapist. Not to sound too 'woo woo,' but I think
the self-love piece was really important. And
spending a lot of time alone. Having time to ask
myself why there was such toxicity in my
immediate space at times. Why would I attract
that instead of light?"
NEWS: Was Jennifer Aniston too "career-driven" to
become a mother?
Aniston met her future husband in 2008 after
being introduced through Robert Downey Jr. . "I
was on vacation in Kauai with [ David Arquette]
and [ Courteney Cox ] and my friend [ Mandy
Ingber], who's also my yoga teacher. Robert was
on the island shooting Tropic Thunder. One night
he came over for dinner and brought his friend
Justin Theroux. He was the screenwriter on
Tropic Thunder . I had never heard of him...I
remember thinking, 'Isn't he hot?' But he was
very hidden. As he says, for him, 'Itt's winter
from the waist down no matter what season it is,'
so he was wearing black jeans, combat boots,
glasses, and a fedora." At that point in time,
Aniston recalls, she was " soooo single. But it was
never [a romantic thing]. I just thought, 'What a
lovely guy.' He was funny. But he was actually
really quiet. I later came to find out that he was
just exhausted because he had been writing
nonstop, like a little hamster on a wheel. This was
his one night off, and he had no personality, but
he was very sweet and very overdressed. I was
like, 'You must be really shvitzing up a storm in
those jeans and combat boots.'"
VIDEO: Jennifer Aniston talks about her tough role
in Cake
Aniston and Theroux reconnected in 2011 when
they co-starred in the comedy Wanderlust . "We
just became very good friends, as did everyone
on that set," the actress recalls. "We didn't start
dating until the following summer, after he went
through a breakup. All of a sudden it was just
like, 'Well, you're one of my closest friends and...'
Somehow I just saw him in a different light once
he was available." Theroux, from the beginning,
was different than Aniston's past loves. She
jokes, "If I haven't gotten wiser about
relationships, then I should be kicked out of life
school because I've had some really good
training."
The actress describes a typical Saturday night
with her fiancé, shares her thoughts on getting
Botox, recalls taking an interest in transcendental
meditation and more in the February 2015 issue
of InStyle
source ;Eonline

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Posted by kenics and team

15 Secrets to Keeping Your New Year's Resolution (Or Any Goal)

It's that time of the year. The eggnog is
flowing, the party hats have been purchased,
and you're thinking about who you're going
to be kissing at midnight. Yes, it's just about
time for New Year's, 2015, and that means
one more thing: New Year's Resolutions.
New Year's resolutions are the goals you set
aggressively for yourself, only to fall off by
mid-January. I'm going to lose weight. I'm
going to exercise more. I'm going to network
more. I'm going to start that business. We've
all been there. The first, perhaps more
important step to actually achieving a goal is
to make it a SMART, metrics-driven goal. as I
wrote about last year at time time . But even
once you have a SMART, metrics-driven goal,
it's not easy to keep at it, day after day, and
week after week. In order to find out how
people do it, I asked successful members of
the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) , an
invite-only organization comprised of the
world’s most promising young entrepreneurs.
These are the 15 secrets they shared to
accomplishing your New Year's Resolution, or
any goal:
1. Make a Bet
It's easy to say
things you
"want to do,"
but when a bet
is placed on
your head for
following through, this outside motivation can
help you actually stick to the goals you set
for yourself. For a workout challenge I had
with my wife, my consequence for failing was
to rollerblade in a pink thong in South
Beach...Yes, a pink thong. I didn't fail.
– Chris Brisson , Co-Founder, Call Loop
2. Become
Accountable
It can be hard
to stick to a
resolution if
you go it alone,
whether it's a
business-focused goal or "hit the gym three
times a week." So get your significant other
or a friend to check in with you regularly.
That way you'll combine your own motivation
with not wanting to let someone else down,
and will hopefully stick to that resolution
throughout the year.
– Grant Gordon, President and CEO, Solomon
Consulting Group
3. Put It On
Your Calendar
I keep my New
Year's
resolutions by
thinking of
them a little
differently. Instead of a single yearly event, I
decide to make consistent changes and put
them on my calendar. For example, my 2006
New Year's resolution was to go to the gym
at least four times per week. I put it on my
calendar and I've been going to the gym for
the past eight years. In fact, now I'm up to
six times per week on average.
– Vladimir Gendelman, Founder and CEO,
Company Folders, Inc
4. Use the "Way of Life" App
I use the app
Way of Life to
keep track of
all of my daily
and weekly
goals. It's a
simple, intuitive
app that lets you track whether or not you've
met any given goal on any given day. The
only choices are green (success), red (failure)
or gray (skip). Over time, you can see graphs
and trends for each resolution or goal. It
adds accountability and a gamification
component to help keep you on track.
– Brittany Hodak , Co-founder, ZinePak
5. Put It In
Writing and
Post it Where
You will See It
I find the best
way to keep on
track with a
goal is to put it in writing and put it
somewhere you will see it. By having it right
in front of you, on a post it or on your smart
phone, you can easily keep yourself
accountable.
– Phil Laboon , President, Eyeflow Internet
Marketing
6. Assign it an Adjective
I love to make
my New Years
goals and
assign three to
four adjectives
that describe/
encompass the
way I want the year to look. So when it's
tough to remember each of the goals
specifically on a daily basis, it's easy to think
about these descriptors and how your life
would look/feel if those were true today. I
find this motivating to keep moving forward
in a positive direction.
– Darrah Brustein, Founder, Network Under
40 / Finance Whiz Kids
7. Go Public
Decide on what
you want to
change and tell
everyone. Tell
your friends,
family,
strangers and people you meet at the store.
The more you talk about it, the more others
are involved and know your goal, the easier it
will be to change.
– Bhavin Parikh, CEO and Co-founder ,
Magoosh Inc
8. Make
Commitments
Instead
I read a great
article about
commitments
by Chris
Freyteg. My favorite line was, “A resolution
may be the act of resolving or deciding on a
course of action, but a commitment can be
far stronger, because it’s a specific pledge,
promise or obligation.” The bottom line: Keep
it simple and you’ll actually be able to add it
your busy daily life.
– Nicole Smartt , Co-Owner/Vice President,
Star Staffing
9. Make It Easier Than Your Current Habit
People usually
pick the easiest
alternatives in
their day, so to
make your
resolution work,
make your new
task easier than an existing one. Want to eat
healthier? Throw away all the junk food in
your house and replace it with healthy snacks
and ban junk food in the house altogether.
Want to start running? Put your running
clothing by your bed each night so it is the
closest to you each morning.
– Charlie Graham , Founder & CEO , Shop It
To Me, Inc.
10. Have an
Incentive
I set myself
targets and
goals, and I
splurge/reward
myself after I
achieve them. That incentive motivates me to
not break my resolutions. On the other hand,
if I do break them I set punishments for
myself by taking something away. Make sure
that you're incentivized to keep on increasing
the positive feedback and canceling the
negative feedback.
– Ridaa Murad, Managing Partner, Christina
Ventures
11. Use the Streaks App
Streaks is an
app that helps
you create
habits. For
each of your
resolutions, you
can create a
calendar that allows you to "check" each day
that you do what you say you're going to do.
The goal is to maintain a streak. For
example, if you want to wake up by 6 a.m.
you would check each day that you achieve
that goal. The longer your streak, the more
likely you are to maintain that resolution.
– Natalie MacNeil, CEO, She Takes on the
World
12. Change
Your Internal
Vocabulary
I have a
strange diet
that is 90
percent meat
and vegetables (extremely low carb, low
fruit). The initial change was tough until I
changed my internal vocabulary from "I
shouldn't eat that pasta," to "I don't eat that"
or "that's not food for me." To me, they
aren't even food anymore and therefore
aren't tempting. This trick works with all
changes. "I don't sleep late," rather than "I
should get up now."
– Brennan White , Founder and CEO, Cortex
13. Get Down to Business
Treat your
resolution the
way you treat
your work.
Make plans, set
deadlines and
adhere to a
schedule. If you don’t meet your goals,
evaluate what went wrong and how you can
recover.
– Simon Casuto , Founder, eLearning Mind
14. Set Mini Goals
It's easy to set
a goal of to
lose weight or
stop smoking.
The problem is
our failure to
plan a linear
path on how to achieve that goal. Doing
something cold-turkey never works and sets
us on the path to failure. However, by
creating a linear path with small goals in
between, we can more easily keep our
internal drive going so we can achieve our
end result.
– Cody McLain, CEO, WireFuseMedia LLC
15. Have Calendar Alerts
Set calendar
alerts now to
remind you to
stay on track.
For some, that
may mean
scheduling your
workouts for 2015 now. For me, it means
setting alerts reminding me to send thank
you notes every week to people who have
gone above and beyond to support my
business.
– Alexis Wolfer, CEO, The Beauty Bean

FG budgets N779m insurance cover for students

The Federal Government is planning to spend N779m on insurance and warm clothing on 557 postgraduate students on foreign scholarships in 2015, according to the Ministry of Education budget proposal.

The ministry proposed a total of N492bn comprising N472bn for recurrent and N20bn total capital for the 2015 fiscal year.

A breakdown of the budget indicates that each of the 557 students would get $450 for insurance and clothing, while 123 others would get $1,000 allowance for passages.

The allocation, described as ongoing, is for the Bilateral Educational Agreement scholars in Russia, China, Cuba, Romania, Turkey and others.

In addition, N200m was budgeted for allowances, medicals, airfares, visa fees, reciprocal awards to BEA scholars, conduct of selection interviews in the 36 states and the FCT, adverts, production of question papers and answer sheets.

This came as the government also proposed to pay N520m insurance premium for buildings, fixtures and equipment at the nation’s 104 Unity Colleges against fire outbreaks.

The premium was fixed at N5m per school, according to the budget proposal.

Another lump sum of N30m was also proposed to ascertain the real economic value of the physical infrastructure of the schools.

This, according to the budget proposal, “is in line with the new insurance policy against fire and peril incidence in each school at N180.723 per officer.”

This is against the backdrop of the insurance cover for pupils of the unity colleges estimated at N625m, which parents and guardians have kicked against.

The ministry also plans to expend another N700m on capacity building for teachers and monitoring activities in the unity colleges as part of an ongoing project.

The sum of N500m would also be expended on the implementation of International Public Sector Account Standard in the schools.

The ministry also budgeted N55m for hosting the annual World Teachers Day (ongoing) and N100m for special scholarship award programme for sustainability of girl-child education in Nigeria.

The conduct of impact assessment survey of the Millennium Development Goals in the education sector (2006-2014), including production of document analysis and distribution is to gulp N17m in 2015.

In order to ascertain the number of unity school students, the FME plans to spend N5m on a head count of the student population, as part of the MDGs project.

For guidelines for the establishment of private secondary schools in North-Central, South-West and South-East, the ministry allocated N13 million while N15m was proposed for data verification exercise in unity schools.

The FME also budgeted N160m for servicing 547 of the 851 awards made in 2012 by the Federal Government to 407 university students at 11 per state at the rate of N150,000 per scholar.

Similarly, it proposed 185 polytechnic students (five per state) at N100,000 per scholar, 185 colleges of education students (five per state) at N100,000 per scholar and 74 post-graduate students (two per state) at N180,000 per scholar.

In addition, another sum of N60m was also budgeted for scholarship awards, administration and processing of 441 scholarships for polytechnic students at five per state at N100,000 per scholar, 185 Colleges of Education students (five per state) at N100,000 per scholar and 74 postgraduate students (two per state) at N180,000 per scholar.

The (ongoing) coordination, monitoring and tracking of MDGs projects and programmes by the MDG secretariat was billed to gulp N60m while student population monitoring in unity schools by budget officers for the generation of database for meal subsidy budget purposes was estimated at N12m.

Furthermore, (ongoing) inspection of account books of the unity schools by the department of finance and accounts is to take N60m.

A whopping N240m was allocated for contribution to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

Ekiti poly workers protest, demand sacking of rector

Unions in the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, on Monday shut the institution, demanding the sacking of the Rector, Dr. Theresa Akande, for an alleged financial fraud.

But the rector has accused the workers of nursing a hidden agenda, asking them to wait for the report of an independent panel set up to investigate the allegation.

The unions, comprising members the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnic and Non-Academic Staff Union, on Monday blocked the main entrance of the institution to disrupt academic activities.

They accused the rector of not remitting about N350m cooperatives funds as well as engaging in illegal pension deductions from contract staff.

The unions led by their chairmen, Tunji Owoye, Dr. Oluwole Ayeni and Prince Adekunle Adeniyi for ASUP, SSANIP and NASU in that order, also accused the rector of favouritism and nepotism in staff promotions.

Owoeye called on the Minister of Education, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, to direct Akande to step aside, pending the completion of investigations by anti-graft agencies.

Adeniyi accused the rector of placing workers of the same cadre on different grade levels based on their relationship with her.

But the rector, who dismissed the allegation through the Deputy Registrar, Information and Protocol, Mr. Adeyemi Adejolu, accused the workers of having a hidden agenda.

According to her, the workers would have waited for the outcome of the probe they jointly called for before resorting to protest.

Akande said, “Why can’t they wait for the outcome of Federal Government’s intervention in this matter? They had petitioned the EFCC and ICPC and the anti-graft bodies are intervening. I expect that they await the outcome if they are not pursuing selfish agenda.”

The rector, who said her administration had been transparent in all its financial dealings, accused the workers of not following due process before embarking on the protest.

She urged them to embrace dialogue rather than confrontation that could affect the peace and co-existence in the institution.

Fayemi not truthful - The Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose

The Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has said that his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, is telling lies about the actual cost of the new Government House in Ado Ekiti.

The governor said the total contract sum for the Oke Ayoba Government House was N3.38bn and not N2.1bn as claimed by Fayemi.

Fayose, in a release by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, on Monday, said the contract was initially awarded to Kouris Construction Nig. Ltd on July 27, 2012 for N2, 054,573,822.00 while additional contract of N730, 186,636.87 was awarded on October 10, 2014, six days before the expiration of Fayemi’s administration.

He said, “Apart from the additional contract of N730m, another contract worth N604,961,645.72 for the furnishing of the Government House was awarded to Kitwood Nigeria Limited on June 18, 2014, three days to the governorship election that he (Fayemi) lost.

“If Fayemi and his men lack knowledge of simple arithmetic, we will help by telling them that the addition of N2,054,573,822.00, N730,186,636.87 and N604,961,645.72 will be N3,389,722,104.59 (N3.38bn).

“Now, we ask, is Fayemi saying that as the governor then, he lost control such that he was not aware that the two additional contracts were awarded on June 18 and October 10, 2014?

“If Fayemi did not authorise the two contracts, shouldn’t he simply ask his Chief of Staff, Yemi Adaramodu, in whose office the contractors signed the contract agreements?

“In saner climes, Fayemi won’t have the effrontery to defend his use of borrowed fund to build Government House, pavilion and civic centre, when a life-touching project like the Oba Adejugbe General Hospital was left uncompleted.”

Obasanjo meets women leaders, blasts Jonathan

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo   has said the country is currently facing economic problems due to the failure of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to plan for a rainy day.

He told Iyalodes and eminent women leaders   from the South-West, who visited him at his   Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State, that the nation’s reserves which as of 2007 stood at $67bn had been depleted by the Federal Government.

The former President was responding to a call by the delegation led by the Iyalode of Yorubaland, Chief Alaba Lawson, and the Iyaloja General of Nigeria, Chief Folashade Tinubu-Ojo,   to   lend his voice to the socio-economic crisis rocking the country.

Stressing that the country did not deserve the situation it currently finds itself, Obasanjo vowed that he would not keep quiet until the right things were done.

He said, “When I was leaving office about eight years ago, I left a very huge reserve after we had paid all our debts.

“Almost $25bn we kept in what they called Excess Crude Account, it was the excess from the budget we were saving as reserve for a rainy day.

“When we left in May 2007, the reserve was said to have risen to $35bn. But today, that reserve has been depleted.

“After paying our debts which was about $40bn,   including debt forgiveness, the   remaining (debt) was not more than $3bn.

“Our reserves after we had paid off these debts amounted to about $45bn. As I said, they continued to rise till the end of 2007. I heard that the reserves increased to almost $67bn before the end of the year.

“Our reserves now, I learnt, stand at only $30bn.”

Although he noted that the slump in oil price would naturally have a negative impact on a monolithic economy like Nigeria, Obasanjo said that “ anyone who is wise enough should know that since we depend on just one mineral resource and since we have no control over its pricing, we should be planning for this type of situation we currently find ourselves   and the way out of it.”

The former President lamented that “our inability to have healthy reserves had brought us to “this economic quagmire.”

He added, “A leader must be forward-looking and plan ahead. At the beginning of last year, the budget was based on $78 per barrel. That year, the Federal Government spent more on recurrent expenditure and a little on capital expenditure.”

Obasanjo   also pointed out that the devaluation of the naira had unleashed other consequences on the economy.

He said, “That (devaluation) is why the naira has been falling against the dollar. What would now happen? I learnt if you want to buy a dollar now, it’s about N192 or N195. What it means is this, what you had been buying for N150 to a dollar, now you need N192 or N195 to buy it.

“That is the real situation. Is there any remedy? There is but it does not come overnight because it means we have to give up all the bad things we had been doing.”

The Ogun State-born former Head of State also     berated   the leadership for robbing Nigeria of its God-ordained greatness.

He said,”God made Nigeria a great nation. Is it that those living here have no brain? Is it that the leaders are not thinking? Or that we don’t have the resources?

“When I was in the army, our slogan was, ‘There are no bad soldiers but bad officers.’ Wherever soldiers are not doing well, blame the officers. The same thing obtains in the family, communities, towns and the nation.

The former President, who also denied quarrelling with Jonathan, told the Iyalodes and eminent women leaders   that he was surprised to have read in a newspaper on Monday that some people in government were jittery on learning of their visit.

“Is (it) that Jonathan and I are not in good terms?, he asked and immediately provided an answer himself. He said, “There is nothing as such. I have no grudges against Jonathan and I think Jonathan equally has no grudges against me. I’m not quarrelling with Jonathan but all I know is that whatever is good for Nigeria, that I’m ready to die for.

“I emphasise that whatever is good for Nigeria, is what I’m ready to defend with my life. Whoever, I emphasise, whoever says he would not do anything good for Nigeria, even if he says he’s ready to go ‘koko bellow,’ I’m ready to square it up with such a person.

“I say again, whoever that person may be, I want you to get that correctly. If this country is going to change for the better, it must start from the top and if it’s going to be otherwise, it must start from the top too.

“I have had some little experience about this country. I was a Head of State and   a President; so what is left? If I talk, I know what I’m talking about. Whoever wants, should listen to me and whoever feels otherwise, may turn a deaf ear. But when I’m talking, I’m talking with my understanding and intellect.

“I’m drawing from my experience and from what I’ve learnt with others and from other countries and fellow eminent citizens of the world that I relate with.”

Obasanjo   frowned on the alleged impunity being perpetuated under the current administration, warning   leaders of the consequences of such actions.

He said,   “God   put you in a position for a purpose and if you fail, you will give account to God. It was Prophet Samuel that God sent to anoint Saul to be a king. When he misbehaved, it was the same God that sent Prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint another king.

“But when Samuel got to Jesse’s house, he was attracted by the physical and outward appearance of Eliab. But God told him, he was looking at outward appearance whereas He was looking at the heart. We must not keep quiet concerning this nation.”

On the general elections, Obasanjo said he had no apprehension, stressing that the country would survive just as it did   during crises such as   Operation wetie, the 1966 coup and the civil war.

He said, “The 1964 election led to Operation Wetie. I saw people being slaughtered . There were also the 1966 coup,   the 1966 progrom and the civil war. We survived them. Then, there was (Sani) Abacha period. We also we survived it.”

Operation wetie was the political crises that erupted in the defunct Western Region after the 1965 regional elections. It was characterised by the wetting of political opponents and their followers with petrol and setting them ablaze.

Obasanjo recalled that when he was about to contest the presidential election in 1999, he was told that it would end up like the botched polls by the Ibrahim Babangida and Abacha juntas.

“They said that Abubakar Abdulsalami was also out to deceive us. Some people said after me, there would be no Nigeria again; But, after me, there have been two presidents .The God we serve is God of Nigeria.”

On the solution to   unemployment in the country, he advised the government to turn to agriculture instead of laying emphasis on oil and gas.

He advised, “If we are going to solve unemployment problem, it is through agric business and not through oil and gas. We have no alternative.

“Agriculture is renewable because the land can be used over and over again, but, once you lift a barrel of oil, it is gone forever.’’

Obasanjo also advised the women and other Nigerians to vote for   candidates with good track records and not those making empty promises.

“Good governance starts with the selection and voting of good leaders. Don’t lose your votes. Ask questions. What are their track records? Pay less attention to what they are saying, look out for what they had done.”

On his membership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Obasanjo said, “I am still in the PDP , though not active. With the kind of people and behaviours I see in the party, I don’t think I can stand before God and defend them.”

Obasanjo had in an 18-page open letter to Jonathan in December 2013, accused   Jonathan of promoting deceit, corruption and mutual distrust ahead of national interest.

He said in the letter titled “Before it is too late” that in spite of his previous letters which were neither acknowledged nor responded to, he was again constrained to warn the President that dangers were lurking in the corner should he fail to heed his advice.

At the public presentation of a book by a former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other–Related Offences Commission, Justice Mustapha Akanbi(retd.) in Novemeber 2014,   Obasanjo again   accused Jonathan and the National Assembly of promoting corruption and poor governance in the country.

He also upbraided the President by describing him as an incompetent leader during the public presentation of his three-part autobiography My Watch on December 9, 2014.

He rated the Jonathan administration as colossal failure, grounded by ineptitude

STRIKE: Judicial workers shut down courts nationwide. see reasons here

LAGOS — Judicial workers, under the aegis of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, yesterday, shut down courts across the country as they commenced an industrial action.
In Abuja, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, and other Justices of the Supreme Court were locked out of their respective offices by protesting judiciary workers, while all the courts were barricaded by the strikers who used heavy chains and padlocks to block entrance and exit gates to all courts.
In Lagos, the Federal High Court and National Industrial Court as well as Lagos State High Court in all its divisions in Ikeja, Igbosere, Ikorodu and Badagry were also shut.
At the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, the entrances were padlocked. Also, the Appeal Court in Lagos had its gates padlocked. The magistrate’s court in Igbosere, Lagos, was also under lock and key.
The Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, was also under lock and key, including the National Industrial Court in Ikoyi.
Courts in Lagos were initially scheduled to resume yesterday after the Christmas vacation, but JUSUN had directed all its members to embark on the strike from January 2.
The strike is based on the failure of state governments to implement the orders of an Abuja Federal High Court, which granted financial autonomy for state judiciaries.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola had on January 14, 2014, following a suit by JUSUN, restrained the Federal Government and the 36 state governors from holding on to funds meant for the judiciary.
Ademola held that funds meant for the judiciary should instead be disbursed directly to the heads of court and not to the executive arm of government.
In Abuja, yesterday, all the Justices of the Supreme Court, who intended to access their offices, including the CJN, were forced to turn back as the workers, through their National President, Mr. Adamu Marwa, maintained that they would not bow down until the Federal Government complied and implemented the Federal High Court judgment that declared financial autonomy for the judiciary.
Addressing journalists yesterday, JUSUN President, Marwa, said the office of the Accountant General of the Federation was to be blamed for the failure of the Federal   Government to implement the court judgment.
He lamented that the union had held meetings with representatives of the various governments 20 times since the verdict was delivered as well as signed seven Memoranda of Understanding, MoU.
He said: “There is no going back until they respect the court judgment. This strike is indefinite.”