How 3 Kids Found Colonel Samaila Inusa’s Dead Body

Three children went to pluck cashew from a bush opposite Ajyaita Village in Kakau District of Chikun LGA of Kaduna State on Tuesday, but ran into a very unlikely sight-a corpse, which was later identified as that of the abducted military officer.

Ajyaita village is about 10 kilometres from Kaduna city centre, and lies along the Eastern By-pass which links the Abuja-Kaduna express way to the southern part of the state.

The children had set out for the forest opposite the village on Tuesday morning and met the decomposing body by a narrow footpath leading to the forest.

Some elders told Daily Trust that the children then ran back home to reveal the unpleasant information to a farmer who they earlier met on their way to the forest.

The man was planting yam seedlings at a farm. After hearing the children’s story, he rushed to the spot to confirm it, and he in turn, ran to inform the village head.

The village head informed the police authorities who deployed some policemen to accompany him to the spot.

The police then called the army authorities who came to inspect the corpse. Therein came the painful confirmation-it was the body of Colonel Samaila Inusa, who was kidnapped a few days earlier.

“The military came with photographs and confirmed that he was the one. There was no identity card found on him, but the military identified him as the missing colonel. The place he was found is a bush path that is accessible by a car. The bush is also close to a village called Kefinary,” an elder said.

Residents of Ajyaita refused to take our correspondents to the place, saying the place had been cordoned off by soldiers who asked people to stay away for now.
Daily Trust noticed some heavily armed policemen patrolling the area while villagers were busy with their work without any noticeable tension.

The colonel was buried yesterday at the Ribadu Cantonment, Old Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) site in Kaduna according to Islamic rites.

Draped in the national colours of green-white-green, the body arrived the old NDA cemetery around11.45am from the 44 Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna and was interred at noon after prayers at the NDA Juma’at mosque.

Relations, colleagues and friends couldn’t hold back tears, while some cried loudly.

The Chief Administrative Officer of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ado Abubakar, who represented the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, said it was a great loss to the Nigerian Army.

He described late colonel as a very committed officer who never joked with his responsibilities and announced that the army would do everything possible to get those behind the killing.

“Col. Inusa was a great soldier. We all feel the pains. Though death is inevitable and nobody can run away from it. I came in to represent my boss, the Chief of Army Staff because the Nigerian Army is mourning one of us that had really served this country greatly and we are not really happy the way he died, but whatever happened, we will see to the end of it all,” he said.

The Commander, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Major General Kasim Abdulkarim, said the late Samaila who served under his command was a loyal, committed and hardworking officer who would be fondly missed by his colleagues.

Gen. Abdulkarim urged officers and men of the Nigerian military to take precautionary measures for their personal safety.

The colonel’s younger brother, Mustapha Inusa, described him as generous, saying, he was good to everyone, both within and outside his family.

“He was our family’s breadwinner and we will miss his dearly. Samaila is dead and he was buried in the presence of his parents, you know what it feels like for parents to bury their children, it is not a good feeling, his parents will really feel his absence because he was the one who used to cater for them,” he said.
Colonel Inusa, who was the Commander, 81 Battalion in Bulabulin, Damboa LGA of Borno State before he became Chief Instructor at the Nigerian Army
School of Infantry Jaji, Kaduna State, was honoured with a three- gun salute by officers.

A close friend of the deceased and former Minority Leader of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Muhammad Ali, described him as a humble and calm person who was loved by all.

Another close family friend who simply gave her name as Mama Hauwa described the late Samaila as a perfect gentle man. She prayed that his soul rest in peace while calling on the military authorities not to relent in their resolve to get the killers.

Born in 1972 in Nasarawa LGA of Kano State, Col. Inusa attended Ramat Special Primary School from 1979 to1985 and proceeded to the Ahmadiyya Secondary School, Kano where he obtained his West African School Certificate in 1991.

He gained admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1992 as a member of the 44th Regular Course and graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science.

He was the aide-de-camp to Sierra-Leonean Vice- President and was promoted to the rank of Colonel last year. His last appointment was as Chief Instructor at the Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji.

Bang Radio UK becomes The Beat London 103.6FM

London’s First urban community radio station BANG Radio, has changed its name to The Beat London 103.6 FM on Easter Monday, 28th March 2016.

The Beat London will continue to fly the flag high for British youth culture and music as the award-winning BANG Radio has done for over 10 years.

Nurturing DJs and presenters with their ears close to the ground, and championing the best in UK music, The Beat London team will be led by Ivor Etienne, a broadcast executive and presenter with over 30 years experience, working in radio alongside the finest broadcasters and producers, who is recognized for having catapulted Britain’s first ‘Black music radio station,’ Choice FM into the mainstream arena.

Ivor Etienne confirms; “we are incredibly proud of what BANG Radio and Life FM (previously known as) has achieved, but we are excited to introduce a new era for the station; The Beat London 103.6FM – representing and providing a voice for young Black urban London to the world.
 

Music will remain at the core of our programming, and we look forward to becoming recognized as a space for the talents, opinions, views and ideas of the under-25s community. We are very proud to team up with The Beat 99.9FM in Nigeria as they play an important role in closing the gap between the media industries across Africa and the world. We look forward to future collaborations, adding a global element to our work and joining the dots between the UK and Africa!”

Chris Ubosi, CEO of THE BEAT 99.9FM Nigeria says,

“We are excited to expand THE BEAT FM’s passion to develop music talents and the energy of young people from Africa to the World, beginning with the UK. This is a great opportunity to further demonstrate the potential that music and media have to unite youths across the world”

The new station will continue to work synonymously with youth charity BANG Edutainment.

The Beat London 103.6FM will provide the freshest in urban sounds, broadcasting live from its North-West London home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via 103.6FM in the London area, across the globe on www.theBeat1036.com and via its app TheBeat1036 (available on iTunes and Android) and TuneIn App.

You can also interact with the station via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat through its handle @thebeat1036

Amnesty International records no deaths in Qatar 2022 World Cup sites

 *Indicts some construction companies for abuse of labour

Before now there were serious reports, in certain quarters, of deaths of construction workers in Qatar World Cup sites as the country is preparing to host the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar battled to deny such reports and maintained that the reports on construction workers were exaggerated especially by organisations which were against their World Cup hosting rights.

Amnesty International has just released the report of their last investigations in the country.

Qatar may heave a sigh of relief that no deaths of construction workers were recorded, corroborating the position of 2022 World Cup Supreme Committee Secretary General Hassan Al-Thawadi who has consistently said that “no worker has died due to industrial accident in any World Cup construction site.”

But Qatar need to address issues raised by the report which indicted construction companies who usually engage the services of labour supply companies.

These labour supply companies, also known as manpower companies, bring migrant workers into Qatar solely for the purpose of sub-contracting out labour to other companies. There are hundreds of such companies in Qatar. These companies, according to Amnesty International, have dragged their feet in complying to acceptable standards. And the companies that use them have been indicted for their failure to enforce due diligence on them.

According to the report there were still abuses of migrant workers on construction sites by International construction companies although they reported an improved condition between 2015 and this year.

The human rights body said that they based their reports on 132 interviews of migrant construction workers rebuilding the Khalifa Stadium which will host World Cup matches including one of the semifinal matches in 2022. The report indicated that the number of construction workers could rise to 36,000 in the next two to three years as 2022 approaches.

Amnesty International Secretary General, Salil Shetty said this in the report:

“The abuse of migrant workers is a stain on the conscience of world football. For players and fans, a World Cup stadium is a place of dreams. For some of the workers who spoke to us, it can feel like a living nightmare.”

He said that construction workers who spoke with them complained of one abuse or another including poor camp conditions. There were cases of remuneration falling below what was promised, delayed payment of salaries and even confiscation of passports of workers which led to forced labour.

Amnesty International indicated that beaming searchlight on Qatar was yielding results as camp conditions this year were better than what they were in 2015 when they made their findings.

But they maintained that there were still areas that should be addressed. Said the report:

“The workers, mostly from Bangladesh, India and Nepal, spoke to Amnesty International in Qatar between February and May 2015. When Amnesty International researchers returned to Qatar in February 2016, some of the workers had been moved to better accommodation and their passports returned by companies responding to Amnesty International findings, but other abuses had not been addressed.”

Salil Shetty said that “the lot of migrant workers contrasts sharply to that of the top-flight footballers who will play in the stadium. All workers want are their rights: to be paid on time, leave the country if need be and be treated with dignity and respect,” said Salil Shetty.

While Qatar may may see no basis for  his seeming comparison between top-flight footballers and construction workers as no where in the world do construction workers earn anything close to the wages of top footballers or are exposed to the affluence of footballers, it will pay the country to address the said harsh work conditions raised by Amnesty International.

2022 World Cup organisers published a report in February 2016 that they have sanctioned some companies for non-compliance. The report highlighted a number of rectification actions taken over the past eight months, including the SC’s rigorous tendering enforcement mechanism having disqualified 18 firms for non-compliance with the Supreme Committee’s WW Standards. In addition Eversendai, a sub-contractor of Midmac / SixCo (MSJV) joint venture leading on the refurbishment of Khalifa International Stadium, relocated all of its employees in Qatar to WW Standards-compliant accommodation at Barwa Al Baraha. Nakheel Landscapes also relocated all of its employees in Qatar to WW Standards-compliant accommodation at Barwa Al Baraha. Nakheel Landscapes also relocated the vast majority of its workforce to Barwa Al Baraha, with over 1,100 workers transferred since October 2015.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL VISIT TO NEW WORLD CUP WORKER

ACCOMMODATION

Since Amnesty International’s visits to these camps in the first half of 2015, most, but not all, of the migrant workers who had been working on Khalifa Stadium and the Aspire Zone green spaces have been moved to new and better accommodation at two sites: Labour City and Barwa. Amnesty International visited both sites in February 2016. The visit was facilitated by the Supreme Committee.

LABOUR CITY

Labour City is a new complex, commissioned by the State of Qatar’s Private Engineering Office. The site is large, encompassing 55 residences, with a potential capacity to house up to 100,000 mostly male workers. The facilities at Labour City are significantly better than the camps at which Amnesty International first interviewed workers. Living spaces are larger and meet the space requirements set by law. The site has Internet access, green outdoor spaces, places for worship and exercise facilities. Each residence is divided into ‘blocks’, which are rented by companies to house their workers. A small hospital facility has been included within Labour City. According to managers on the site who spoke to Amnesty International the hospital is expected to open sometime in 2016.

Labour City is a significant improvement in terms of the conditions and facilities available for migrant workers. However, Amnesty International researchers observed a high degree of surveillance at the site. This included CCTV cameras operating in all of the external and internal public spaces that Amnesty International visited. The delegation was shown a surveillance room manned around the clock by a Qatar Security Services guard who could view the corridors in each block.

BARWA AL BARAHA

Barwa Al Baraha is a private enterprise managed by Waseef, a property management business that is a subsidiary of the partially-state owned company Barwa Real Estate.63 It has a total capacity of 53,000 but currently hosts 10,000 migrant workers. The conditions at Barwa Al Baraha observed by Amnesty International during a visit in February 2016 are a significant improvement on the camps at Al Wakrah, the Industrial Area and Al Khor at which Amnesty International met many of the men interviewed for this report. However, many workers’ bedroom windows were blacked out from the outside, so that natural light could not easily penetrate.64 When the Amnesty International delegation expressed concern regarding workers’ access to natural light in their rooms, Supreme Committee representatives said that the windows required protection from the sun during the hottest months. But they acknowledged the need to improve access to natural light and said that they had requested Barwa Al Baraha management to install retractable curtains in all workers’ bedrooms. ) Page 20

Amnesty International has recognized that there is commitment from the World cup organisers to improve working conditions of migrant workers as highlighted in the amnesty report ‘ The Supreme Committee has demonstrated a consistent commitment to ensuring the rights of workers on World Cup sites are respected and protected. In addition to developing the Workers’ Welfare Standards, the Supreme Committee has met with Amnesty International andother human rights groups and sought input on the Standards and their application, and has reviewed progress and published data regularly. The Committee has also consistently responded to reports of abuse.

However, there are some fundamental problems with the Supreme Committee’s approach to monitoring and enforcing the Workers’ Welfare Standards, as demonstrated by the abuses discovered on the Khalifa Stadium project. First, although the Standards are supposed to apply to all companiesand workers on World Cup projects, the Supreme Committee has focused on compliance by the main contractors. This approach ignores the evidence that migrant workers’ rights are generally at greater risk when they are working for small sub-contractors and labour supply companies. Some of the most egregious abuses that Amnesty International documented on Khalifa Stadium were perpetrated by labour supply companies that the Supreme Committee said they did not even know were involved with the project.”

NFF may drag CAF to CAS

THE Nigeria Foot-ball Federation officials are yet to come to terms with Nigeria’s ouster from the Gabon Nations Cup but are considering options of dragging African Football Confederation to the Court of Arbitration in Sports.

The sudden withdrawal of Chad made it impossible for Nigeria to nurse any hope of picking a ticket as one of the best losers.

‘’It is rather unfortunate that Chad, one of the teams in the qualification group, suddenly pulled out of the race, leaving only three teams left in the group, and only the winner of the the group guaranteed qualification.

This appeared to have taken away our worst–case scenario of qualification.

However, our legal unit is looking at the propriety of changing the rules midstream’’, Demola Olajire, who is the Assistant Director of Communications of the NFF, said.

APC crisis deepens, as party asks Minister to resign

The crisis of confidence in the All Progressives Congress, APC, is far from being over as the party has said it was no longer comfortable with the presence of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, in the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

The party alleged that Mr. Lokpobiri bought the ministerial slot meant for Bayelsa State from the former governor of the state and APC chieftain, Chief Timipre Sylva.

Chairman of APC in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipa Orunimighe, who stated this at a parley with journalists in Abuja, yesterday, also alleged that Sylva had also compiled and submitted names of some other non-APC members and submitted same to Secretary to Government of Federation, SGF, without input from the state executive of the party.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja at the APC national Secretariat, yesterday, the state chairman, who led other state excos, called on the Minister of State for Agriculture to honourably resign from office.

He said:  “We also want to call on the Minister representing Bayelsa, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, the junior minister to resign his appointment.

“Reason being that he also paid for the slot of his ministerial position and I also believe and those of us standing here know very well that he is not a member of the party.

“Why we are standing here before you today is because of the appointments that we feel were supposed to be given to those of us of the APC in Bayelsa. Its a pity to say that for somebody like Timipre Sylva who was supposed to be the leader of the party, today turned against the party and sold our party slots.

The Bayelsa APC leaders, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and national leaders of the party to intervene in the matter.

Meanwhile, in a swift reaction, Mr. Sylva dismissed allegations that he collected money from the minister to get nomination into the federal cabinet, saying he only did what he felt was right and equitable.

He said:  “They felt that they are the ones that started the party and, therefore, we should not deal with anybody, who is coming late into the party.

PDP’ll produce Saraki’s successor if he’s removed —Nwaoboshi

 CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, PDP, Delta North, said yesterday that if President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, was removed from his present position by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, the opposition political party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would produce his successor.
 

Nwaoboshi, who noted that Saraki had been obeying the court, said until he was proven guilty, no amount of blackmail would make senators elected on the platform of PDP shift ground and support for him.

“In any case, my party, the PDP, has resolved in our meeting to support him. So, there is no basis for him to resign,” he said.

Nwaobashi, former Delta State chairman of PDP, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, yesterday, described the present trial of Saraki as purely political.

He said:  “We only need three and we have it. The calculation is very clear to me. The calculation is very clear for PDP. We know what it will take us. When I told them that Saraki was going to win, I did a lot of mathematical calculations based on the facts on the ground and it is even clearer to me now that the PDP will win it.

“We will win it. If anybody is thinking that a PDP man is going to vote against a PDP candidate, he is telling you a lie. We have people and we know how to get the people from APC.

“We will win and that will be very interesting. What is happening in America is going to happen in Nigeria. America has a Republican Senate but the executive is led by Democrats. So, it’s happening in different parts of the world. I can tell you with what’s on the ground that we will produce the next Senate President.”

No amount of blackmail’ll make us shift ground

On whether Saraki should resign as Senate President, Nwaoboshi said:   “I’m a lawyer, 27 years in the bar. He is not guilty. He has not been proven guilty. Let us first of all get to the point that he has been found guilty.

“The man has taken a plea of not guilty and the law is very clear. He’s deemed not to be guilty until it is proven. It’s a matter before the court. The prosecutor has the duty to prove his case before the onus will shift to him to defend.

“If the prosecutor doesn’t have a case, then what is he defending? Take the example of Ndudi Elumelu; that was how they removed him as Chairman of Power Committee because he was taken to court. In the end, he was cleared.

“Look at the former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, he went to court. People were saying he is in court, that he should be removed. He resigned as a result of pressure from the public. He went to court and won.

“The other woman in the House of Representatives, former speaker, Patricia Etteh; in fact, the House changed its own position. But they had achieved what they wanted to achieve. There are so many examples like that.

“The man (Saraki) is going to court and he is obeying the court order. Until it is proven that he is guilty, no amount of blackmail will make us shift our ground and our support for him. In any case, my party, the PDP, we’ve resolved in our meeting to support him. So, there is no basis for him to resign.”

Asked whether Saraki should look at the soft landing option which looks like an olive branch, he said:  “What is soft landing? There is no soft landing. The case is on. Are they going to withdraw the case? Let him go through the distance and let us see who is right.”

Saraki’s trial political

Senator Nwaoboshi, who noted that Senator Saraki’s trial was purely political, said:  “You have seen it now. What is the intendment of an Act? Before he became a governor, he was supposed to make a declaration.’’

I’m a British citizen, ask Buhari to release me; Nnamdi Kanu tells UK

The detained  leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, has urged the British Government  to intervene in his case by asking President Muhammadu Buhari to release him from prison.

Kanu who is facing treason charge alongside  two other pro-Biafra agitators, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, approached the British government through his lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor.

Kanu, in a letter dated March 24 and addressed to the British High Commissioner in Abuja, described himself as a victim of travesty of justice and gross human rights violation.

He insisted that the President Buhari-led administration  has violently abused his fundamental human rights through his prolonged detention in prison custody.

Even though Kanu said he was ready to answer to the charge  against him, he however expressed doubt  in the ability of the Nigerian government to accord him fair trial, saying he has so far been subjected to immense persecution.

British citizen

Stressing that he is a British citizen, Kanu told the UK government that he was wrongly arrested and put in detention.

“It is repeating the obvious to state that our client is a full British citizen, by virtue of which position he is entitled to all Rights, Privileges and Protection, guaranteed under the British Laws and conventions.

 

We are therefore constrained in the circumstance, to formally notify the British Government via this medium, of our well informed reservations, and apprehension, that our client is undergoing persecution in the charge above referred, and deliberate design by the persecutors to frustrate every effort of the Defense team aimed at giving our client a fair trial”.

Kanu, through his lawyer, contended that his detention from October 14, 2015 till January 20, 2016, without any lawful order of court, was not only unlawful, but was in flagrant disobedience of orders of courts of competent jurisdiction which he said directed his unconditional release and discharge.

Dual citizenship

“It is the position of our Law, that dual citizenship is a constitutional right of the citizens of Nigeria, clearly provided for under section 28 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in 2011. Dual citizenship is not a crime under our Law.

Reservations on President’s comment

“Our reservations on the President’s comment was underpinned by the findings made in the ruling delivered on  February 29, 2016, by Hon. Justice John Tsoho, wherein our client and the two other defendants were denied bail.

“Recalled that on December   29, 2015, during the Presidential Media Chat, the President told the whole world that Nnamdi Kanu cannot be granted bail, alleging that he came into the country without a valid travelling passport.

“This pronouncement was roundly condemned by both local and international commentators. His pronouncement was viewed as a clear usurpation of the functions and powers of the judiciary.

“Though very regrettable and extremely unfortunate, Nnamdi Kanu was refused bail on January 29, 2016. In refusing him and other defendants bail, the court also cited the facts of his possession of dual passports as a flight risk, and as such held that he cannot be granted bail.”

Kanu maintained that Justice Tsoho denied him bail “in line with the pronouncement of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in his media chat telecasted live on December 29, 2015.”

Nigeria records 3,500 cyber attacks in last one year

ABUJA— Nigeria has experienced 3,500 cyber attacks within the last one year, with over 70 per cent success rate and a loss of $450 million, Acting Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, has said.
 

Olatunji said this during a capability and capacity building training workshop organized by NITDA in partnership with its Malaysian counterpart, Malaysia Cyber Security Agency, in Abuja, yesterday.

Similarly, an IT consultant, Abdul-Hakeem Ajibola, said 0.80 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, equivalent to the cement sector, was lost to cybercrime.

According to th NITD boss, the country’s GDP lost $568.51 billion in 2014, which amounts to annual loss of $450 million, an equivalent of N89.55 billion annual direct loss to the Nigerian economy, at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, exchange rate of N199 to $1.

With the increasing penetration of technology into the economy and continuous loss to cybercriminals, he advised that measures must be put in place to mitigate the capacity of cybercriminals from taking advantage of the environment.

The NITDA boss, who lamented the outrageous rate of attacks in Nigeria, said the Federal Government had a lot of work to do to checkmate further attacks of public and private facilities.

He said: “We are preparing people to prepare against cybercrime, private and public sectors, within the last one year. So, there is a lot of work to do.

“The high rate of attacks in Nigeria shows that we need to work harder to ward off these attackers to ensure that we prevent such attacks and even where they take place, we ensure they are countered.”

He stated that Nigeria, like any other country, was facing many challenges from network design, security prevention as well as cyber-attack to cybercrimes, saying the need for effective security measures to create trust and confidence in the various platforms could not be over-emphasised.

Olatunji further explained that the workshop was in fulfilment of NITDA’s mandate, particularly in the area of fostering the development and growth of information technology for sustainable socio-economic development in Nigeria.

He said the commitment of the Federal Government to effective ICT development in various sectors of the economy had led to the creation of requisite enabling environment for stakeholders to contribute to the level of ICT development in the country.

ICPC signs mou with NIDO on tracing, repatriation of stolen funds

ABUJA — The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, ICPC, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO), Germany branch on whistle-blowing on money laundering activities, recovery of proceeds of corruption, assets tracing and monitoring, technical assistance, anti-corruption ICT solutions, communication and research.

Chairman of the ICPC, Mr Ekpo Nta, who signed on behalf of the commission, called on members of the community to cooperate with the Federal Government in the fight against corruption.

A statement by the commission’s head of communications, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, quoted the chairman, who performed the ceremony in Germany, as saying the commission was committed to creating strong institutions that would deter corrupt practices.

He said ICPC would continue to treat all petitions from NIDO members expeditiously through continuous investigation, prosecution and conduct of corruption risk assessments in relation to any person or public institution that creates corruption bottlenecks for their investments, especially in the areas of property acquisition and business partnerships.

The commission chairman noted that given the government’s zero-tolerance for corruption, this was the best time for members of NIDO to complement the Federal Government’s job creation effort by investing in cottage industries in their home communities.

He reiterated the position by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun that even  if we successfully prosecute and jail every looter, ghost worker and other economic saboteur, there is every risk that those caught will only be replaced by persons who are just as bad, or worse – unless we radically strengthen our systems and institutions.

The MoU was signed on behalf of NIDO Germany by her President, Kenneth Gbandi, who had also served as the African Representative on the Hamburg Senate Integration Advisory Council from 2011 to 2015.

The ICPC chairman later inducted all participants at the NIDO convention in Germany as members of the National Anti-corruption Volunteers Corps (NAVC) of ICPC and decorated them with special arm bands.

Obasanjo calls for good governance in Africa

Former  President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has appealed to African leaders to focus on good governance, equity and other variables that would bring about growth on the continent.

Obasanjo made this known at the recently concluded Commonwealth Day Service and The Commonwealth Africa Summit event in commemoration of the Commonwealth Week in London, organised by the Commonwealth Africa Initiative and GLEEHD Foundation.

The former President said: “If Globalisation means I open my door and you take things out but you close your own door to me, then to hell with globalisation.”

“Africa is not an unmitigated failure, there are good things in Africa. Africa remains the cradle of humanity. We need to put our pad on our head as Africans and stand by our load and be ready to carry, then they will help us”, he said.

He added that “our greatest asset is our people. Let us train and educate our people. People will say, too many people, the truth is that the so called youth budge can be an asset and a responsibility. Let us educate them and give them skills”.

“60% of arable land in the world is in Africa, what are we doing with it. Let us stop regarding agriculture as a development project; it’s a business, Agriculture business”, he said.

Obasanjo, who is also the Chairman of Commonwealth African Initiative said that Leadership can do and undo.

“What I have seen in Africa is that I think on incremental basis, our leadership qualities are improving, but our leaders need to be educated. They need to understand the world and know that by themselves alone we can’t go farther”.

Declare Fulani herdsmen invasion as insurgency, Benue elders tell Buhari

Elders from Benue state have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare Fulani herdsmen invasion of the state and gruesome massacre of the people by the armed herders as act of insurgency and the perpetrators labelled as terrorists to be routed out by the military.

“We observed that these invading Fulani Herdsmen have been allowed to bear sophisticated assault weapons unchallenged which is against all our extant laws. The perpetrators and sponsors of such heinous crimes against humanity must be brought to justice”. the elders said.
 

This was made known in a communiqué issued at the end of a unity meeting held in Makurdi and attended by the leaders of Tiv, Idoma and Igede. The elders noted that the meeting became necessary following ‘the armed invasion and occupation of their land by Fulani herdsmen and the wanton killing of their people, destruction of homes and farmlands, raping of their wives and daughters in 15 Local Government Areas out of 23 namely, Agatu, Gwer East, Gwer West, Makurdi, Guma, Tarka, Buruku, Katsina Ala, Logo, Ukum, Kwande, Oju, Obi and Konshisha’.

Leaders and elders of Mdzough U Tiv (MUT), Idoma National Forum (INF) and Omi Ny’Igede, also rejected the proposed Town Hall Meeting by the Federal Government, insisting that only an inclusive Judicial Commission of Enquiry can unravel the root cause(s) of the invasion of Benue by Fulani herdsmen and the gruesome massacre of the people by the armed herders.

“The delay in setting up the Presidential Investigation Panel promised by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is becoming worrisome”.

“The proposed Town Hall Meeting by the Federal Government is not only diversionary, but a deliberate ploy to downplay the degree of attention and seriousness that should be accorded the invasion of our land. We wonder why the same Government that promised to set up an investigation committee is now resorting to a mere ruse called ‘Town Hall Meeting’.

“We observed that the Town Hall meeting held on the 24th day of March, 2016 in Abuja by 1 Idoma Initiative with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) during which some major decisions were taken as detailed in a communiqué did not have the mandate of major stakeholders in the crisis”.

The forum berated the inability of both the federal and state government in addressing the menaces of the herders. It noted that the Fulani Herdsmen and Farmers conflict in Benue State, which started over two decades ago, has escalated from mere conflict to an invasion and occupation agenda amounting to terrorism. They also complained that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps are poorly managed, and the IDPs are living in very deplorable conditions, with inadequate security arrangement and acute shortage of relief materials, urging that a Victims Support Fund should be established for rebuilding destroyed communities with adequate compensations to families of victims.

“The inability of the President, the nation’s Army and Police Chiefs, and the Governor of Benue State to visit the worst affected communities of Agatu and the other aforementioned where recent mass murder attacks were carried out for on the spot assessment of the level of devastation indicates lack of seriousness deserving of the crisis. This assertion is supported by the careless utterances of Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nassarawa State that the attacks were mere “skirmishes” that could not be tagged genocide. This is also demonstrated by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase who, with neither evidence nor a visit to any affected area, claimed that the reported casualty figure of 300 dead people in the Agatu attack was exaggerated,”

The forum urged the FG to tighten security and put in place measures to protect the country porous borders to prevent further continuous and uncontrolled entrance of international criminal elements, herdsmen and arms.

They urged the National Assembly to commence a public hearing on the Fulani herdsmen threat to national security without delay while the state lawmakers should enact laws to criminalize open grazing as it directly conflicts with the livelihood of Benue people which is crop farming.

“Our people are predominantly farmers with fixed land and growing population, we therefore, reject the idea of having open grazing lands and cattle routes on our land to avoid any conflict as we do not have sufficient land for that purpose. Government should encourage those engaged in cattle rearing business to establish priv

Breaking : Gunmen kill one in Rivers

eatened by some persons within the week, an issue he and many others dismissed as vain threat.

A resident  of the commumity who spoke under condition of anonymity said nobody imagined that anybody could contemplate snuffing life out of the late Godknows,

The late Godknows was described as a business man with entrepreneurial spirit. He operated a thriving  store in the community where they sold drinks  and other consumables.

Vanguard gathered that they found his corpse yesterday morning riddled with bullet wounds.

Ojerinde’s victory over JAMB’s most dreaded monster

The craze for higher education in Nigeria is almost assuming the character and temperament of the accustomed weird politicking in the country.

Yearly, eligible Nigerians in millions across the country desperately enrol for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) to seek for placements in Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

Even though with Nigeria’s more than 100 universities, a dozen polytechnics, with numerous colleges of education, accommodating the millions of candidates, qualified for admission in the few available spaces has been an uphill task.

Therefore, desperate candidates over the years have deployed all manner of tricks to come out tops in the exams or at least, cross the minimum benchmark of scores pegged for admission.

This mentality has amplified and reinvented that art of cheating during UTME, as all forms of exam fraud are arrayed by candidates to be in reckoning for JAMB’s admission placements.

From last -minute leakage of exam questions, hiring of exam mercenaries (expert writers) to concealment of unauthorized materials into exam halls. The monster of exam fraud has festered in the country for years.

The complexity of the problem is further aggravated by the perceived active support some parents with the connivance of dubious JAMB staff avail candidates to cheat over their future.

It eroded the credibility of JAMB organized exams considerably, to the extent lamentations across the country became too trenchant to be ignored.

Manifestly, Nigerians who openly complained about fallen standards in education often cited instances of some students, who could hardly defend the distinctive marks secured in UTME when they eventually secure admission into higher institutions of learning.

The credibility crisis it spurred compelled universities to adopt another initiative- the post-UTME aptitude test. It is contrived to verify UTME scores and academic competencies of prospective undergraduates based on results from JAMB.

But it came with its own burden of additional costs to parents and sponsors of candidates. The exercise has been sustained for nearly 10 years now, regardless of its tacit indictment of JAMB exams.

No gainsaying, the plaque of exam fraud, especially in UTME reached epidemic dimensions and haunted the country’s educational system for years. It was street gists, education administrators marvelled at its magnitude, much as newspaper headlines screamed about the ingenuity of some exam cheats, after every session of UTME. This was the burden, Dibu Ojerinde, Nigeria’s first professor of Tests and Measurement and cerebral educational administrator inherited when appointed the Registrar of JAMB in 2007 , a position he held till date, having being accorded the rare opportunity of a reappointment in 2012.

As a seasoned educationist, who begun his teaching career as a secondary school teacher in 1965 and now, a university don, who has bestrode virtually all strata of educational administration in Nigeria, Ojerinde was no stranger to the nuances of exam malpractices in all segments of the educational system in Nigeria.

Having recognized it not only as a major challenge, but a hydro-headed monster, peculiar to all segments of exams in Nigeria, the Registrar vowed to confront the problem in JAMB so as to restore dignity to the board and credibility in its exams.

After thorough brainstorming with members of his management team, Ojerinde concluded that adopting the e-testing mode of UTME would substantially reduce the incidents of exam fraud organized by the body, “kill” the anxiety of students waiting for months to obtain JAMB results for admission.

He was further convinced hence e-testing was the best practice, around the globe as other countries had adopted the same approach.

In tinkering with the idea, the Registrar, years back, approached the headship of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to solicit assistance of the agency in curbing the malaise of exam frauds as it affects JAMB and to explore the possibility of a synergy in tackling the monster.

Ojerinde was apparently worried that despite JAMB’s lawful mandate to conduct credible and valid examinations devoid of any impropriety of sharp practices, candidates have overwhelmed and stained the sanctity of the outcomes.

The response was positive and he set out to work. He loudly proclaimed that “We realized that we in JAMB don’t have this special Eagle Eye to detect some of these things. We have come to solicit for your assistance on how we can work together to exterminate this problem.”

The Registrar extracted EFCC’s promise to offer the necessary assistance to sanitize the conduct of the board’s exams, handle cases referred to it as well as intervene during exam sessions as well as intensify spying on JAMB staff to detect sources of exam leakages to students.

By 2013, when Ojerinde decided to take the first step in experimenting with the idea of e-testing for UTME, a resounding success was recorded. It was optional for candidates and those who preferred the method had a smooth exam and quick release of results.

Basically, the e-testing or CBT initiative is focused on affording candidates facilities to write their exams electronically on computer and await automatic marking of the scripts by the computer, with results instantly delivered to the candidates within hours, a marked improvement as obtained under the subsisting Paper and Pencil Test (PPT) or other manual methods.

Ojerinde kick-started the e-testing experiment by launching at least one e-testing centre in each state of the federation for the 2013 UTME.

By 2014, JAMB expanded the scope, by building 10 Computer-based Testing (CBT) centres, each with a minimum capacity of 250 candidates, with back-up computers in the event of the failure or malfunctioning of a system.

He sustained the tempo in 2015, with more expansions and acceptability of the method by candidates. And for the four years, the CBT has been tested, incidents of exam frauds have been suppressed remarkably.

Ojerinde’s JAMB is presently fine-tuning modalities to fully adopt the CBT approach for all candidates for the board’s exams to effectively eradicate issues of result black-outs and other forms of malpractices in any exam organized by it for students both in Nigeria and about seven foreign countries including London.

The widespread acceptance of the CBT is evident in the March 2016 UTME, as with just about 153 centers across Nigeria, over 616,000 (Six hundred and sixteen thousand) candidates willingly subscribed to it, from a total of slightly above 1.5 million candidates that registered for the exam.

With minimized or zero level of exam fraud recorded during conduct of the previous CBT, it behooves on Nigerians to encourage a system and an administrator that would perfect the university pre-entry exams.

As peculiar to every method on trial, the CBT has its expected hiccups, leading to protests from a small fraction of candidates who sat for the last exams in Lagos.

But Ojerinde has risen to the occasion, by explaining reasons for the mix-ups and also offered candidates who genuinely missed out another chance to write the exams. It is a prompt response, worthy of appreciation.

But the protest from the candidates has brought to the front burner the need for the Federal Government to fully support JAMB to conduct credible exams using the CBT approach.

These protests were instigated mainly by failure of some computer operators contracted for the over 500 designated CBT centers to deliver on the task at the most crucial time, because of system failures.

It means JAMB needs more funding to establish its own independent computer centers for the CBT exams, as against the current practice of engaging private operators, prone to disappointments as witnessed in the March 2016 UTME.

It is in this this light that the calls by the House of Representatives for the suspension of the CBT exams, in favour of the PPT is misplaced.

This would imply relapsing to the analogue style and riding against the tide, when the entire globe is going digital.

Candidates have embraced it, the board is perfecting it and what remains is adequate funding to overcome the obstacles. And like Professor Ojerinde himself asserted, such a move would amount to taking a step forward and two steps backwards. It would certainly be against the spirit of sanity in Nigeria, which President Muhammedu Buhari’s transformative government is sermonizing.

Orinya writes from the Federal University Wukari, Taraba State.

Buhari To Reaffirm Nigeria’s Right To Use Nuclear Energy For Development

President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Abuja for Washington DC on Wednesday, to reaffirm Nigeria’s right to use nuclear energy for development.



The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Commander-in-Chief would join President Barack Obama and about 60 other world leaders and heads of international organisations at the 4th Nuclear Security Summit which opens at the United States’ capital on Thursday.

At plenary sessions of the summit which is dedicated to reinforcing international commitment to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, President Buhari would insist that while Nigeria continues to sustain that commitment, world powers must respect the right of other countries to the peaceful use of nuclear energy for development purposes.

The President would also reaffirm Nigeria’s stance that international efforts to ensure greater security of nuclear materials should maintain a balance between nuclear non-proliferation obligations and the indisputable right of Nigeria and other countries to harness nuclear energy and technology for socio-economic development.

“It will be recalled that at a meeting with him in Abuja earlier this month, President Buhari told the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr Yukiya Amano, that the Federal Government will welcome greater support from the agency for Nigeria’s aspiration to begin the generation of electricity with nuclear energy.

“While in Washington DC for the Nuclear Security Summit, the President and his delegation which includes Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, the National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno (Rtd.) and the Director-General of Nigeria’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Professor Lawrence Anikwe Dim, will also hold bilateral meetings with other participating Heads of Government and high-ranking United States Government officials,” the statement read.

President Buhari would depart Washington DC for Abuja on Sunday.

Kidnapped Army Colonel Found Dead

The kidnapped Army officer serving at the Nigerian Army School of Infantry Jaji in Kaduna State, Colonel Samaila Inusa, has been found dead.



A statement by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, said “the Nigerian Army wishes to regrettably inform the public that Colonel Samaila Inusa who was kidnapped on Sunday 27th March 2016, was found dead today (Tuesday) at about 6.00pm.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that most likely the senior officer was killed same day he was kidnapped by his abductors because the body was found already decomposing around Ajyaita village off Eastern Bypass Kaduna, Kaduna State.

“Arrangements are in progress to move the body to 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna.

The statement added that “whoever is behind his abduction and murder would be fished out to face the full wrath of the law”.

The Army Colonel was abducted from his car around Kamazo area, near Refinery Junction in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Sunday, March 27.

The abductors intercepted the officer’s personal car, and later dropped off his wife before leaving with him as they travelled along the Abuja-Kaduna road.

Buhari to Nigerians: More actions underway

Aware of the present harsh economic realities, President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said that his government is taking pragmatic steps to cushion the effects on Nigerians, assuring that there were better days ahead.

The president who chaired the 8th Annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium held at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja spoke on the theme of the Colloquium: ‘Agriculture: Action, work, revolution’
   

 

Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state and national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC clocked 64 years and held the event to mark his birthday.

Eulogizing him, president Buhari said the former governor had shown commitment and zealousness to Nigeria’s growth.

He stated that the government would continue to invest in human capital development.

“There are very few patriots alive today that can match the commitment, zealous, creativity that Bola Tinubu has demonstrated in his contribution to national growth.

“In the coming months, Nigerians will see much more actions. Government will continue to invest substantially in human capital development and this is just the beginning.

“We are going to hold ourselves accountable. We will measure results. There will always be some scepticism, some have even become disorientated and impatient enough to think that barriers are insurmountable. Any one who claims great change is impossible can only look as an ordinary success”, he said.

Apparently gauging the enormity of work to be done to better the lots of Nigerians, President Buhari urged all hands to be on deck.

“We can achieve more with partnership that link up and scale up our respective efforts.

“I am declaring that we need a new approach that challenges more states and local governments, more organisation, companies and non governmental organisations and individuals, some of the younger people who are here to step up and play a role because government can not and should not do it alone. All hands should be on deck,” he said.

The president who commended the organisers of the Bola Tinubu Colloquium for the choice of the theme of the event on agriculture stated that the intention of the government was to create enabling environment that would bring viability on the economic potentials of the private sector.

The President said: “We intend to organize an efficient market infrastructure that will make agriculture viable for investors. We are providing an enabling environment so as to ensure certainty and predictability for the private sector.

“We intend to also ensure that the market is fair and worth to transform small holder farmers from beggars to businessmen.

“Further more, we are going to keep focusing on improved nutrition for children. We know the effects of hunger and poor nutrition can last a life time. Children are thrown out of school to earn a living”.

The event attracted the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and his wife, Dolapo, wife of the celebrant, Senator Remi Tinubu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, state governors of Zamfara – Abdulaziz Yari Osun – Rauf Aregbesola, Ogun – Ibikunle Amosun, Kebbi – Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Adamawa- Bindow, Cross River – Ben Ayade, Bauchi – Muhammed Abubakar, Lagos – Ambode Akinwunmi, Kaduna – Nasir el-Rufai, Oyo – Abiola Ajimobi.

The national chairman of APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, Senator Smart Adeyemi, some ministers and other top government officials also graced the occasion.

Polo Avenue in move to re-defining Nigeria’s luxury industry

Polo Avenue, Nigeria’s foremost connoisseur in luxury goods has reiterated its commitment to re-defining Nigeria’s luxury industry by positively representing and promoting the efforts of remarkable female talents across all spheres of the economy and in particular that of Nigerian women in luxury fashion.

Speaking at the unveiling of its ‘Urban Movement’ ready-to-wear collection, in collaboration with Omowunmi Label, Jennifer Obayuwana, Executive Director Polo Luxury Group, said the commitments represent their core values as a company.
The Polo Avenue platform will continue to celebrate the myriad of women entrepreneurs, business owners and executives by positively promoting their hard work, successes and industry achievements in showcasing their talents as an inspiration to women everywhere.”

While celebrating the Director of Omowunmi Labels, Omowunmi Akinnifesi, Obayuwana said her creativity and laudable accomplishments in putting together an exceptionally stylish collection was astonishing.

Omowunmi Akinnifesi described her collection as one designed for the metropolitan woman who is actively on-the-go. “Boasting finely cut lines, bold colours and uniquely structural pieces, the unveiled collection targets women who daily require exclusively stylish and functional pieces.”

Polo Avenue, according to her, exists to exclusively attract confident and discerning shoppers who are seeking unique and elegant additions to their personal style collection.

Stocked with a luxurious fragrance bar and an exclusive collection of leather handbags, shoes and accessories from renowned international luxury brands Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Balenciaga, amongst many others,

The unveiling was a night of elegant affairs as stylishly attired guests were treated to an evening of top fashion crafted with the utmost creativity.

Saraki Urges Closer Collaboration Between Nigeria, Colombia

The President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday called for a closer collaboration between Nigeria and Colombia in order to improve diplomatic ties and enhance democratic governance in both countries.

Senator Saraki, according to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Sanni Onogu, in Abuja, spoke when he received a Parliamentary delegation from Colombia, led by Senator Edinson Delgado in his office.

He also said that the National Assembly is open to relationships with other advanced parliaments across the globe to broaden its legislative experience and knowledge of its lawmakers.

He noted that Nigeria and Colombia have a long standing relationship that need to be oiled and improved upon for mutual benefits just as he canvassed for strong investment in the Nigeria economy by Colombian investors.

He said; “We are happy that you are here. I believe your visit will further strengthen the relationship between Nigeria and Colombia.

“For many years, lots of opportunities have not been harnessed by both countries in spite of the fact that Nigeria and Colombia have a lot of things in common. Here in Nigeria, we have two chambers just like you have in Colombia.

“We are very identical, we must build this relationship and that is why I am encouraging this visit particularly at this period of diversification of our economy,” Saraki said.

The Senate President extended invitation to the parliament of Colombia for cooperation and exchange of programmes that would improve the quality of law making in both countries.

Earlier, the leader of the Colombian parliamentary delegation, Senator Edinson Delgado called for mutual cooperation between his country and Nigeria for mutual diplomatic and economic benefits.

Delgado said the team which comprised of Colombian businessmen and investors was in Nigeria on a three city tour of Lagos, Yola and Port Harcourt to foster partnerships and explore opportunities with a focus on commerce, industry and agriculture between both countries.

He promised to work hard to improve the economic and parliamentary relationship between Colombia and Nigeria.

“We are keen to strengthen our diplomatic relationship and establish basic opportunities between our two countries.” Delgado said.

Super Eagles job: Egypt match won’t determine Siasia’s fate – NFF

THE vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Shehu Dikko has said that coach Samson Siasia is not, in any way, under examination as  regards his chances of becoming the substantive coach of the Super Eagles. Dikko spoke about Siasia’s future with the Eagles ahead of  the Egypt clash Tuesday. He revealed that their decision regarding Siasia’s future with the national team wouldn’t depend solely on the result of the encounter in Alexandria.
 

 His present position is not like an exam for him as we all know his quality and indeed shortcomings as no human is perfect and we can manage that anyway, thus the results of the two games he has been given won’t be the only yardstick to determine the next steps we will take regarding his possible future as the substantive Super Eagles head coach,” Dikko told Egyptian website, KingFut.

“Rather, the biggest determinant would be his readiness to situate his project for the Super Eagles within the NFF overall objectives of returning the Super Eagles to their enviable position as the best in Africa and indeed the world by building a team that will be feared by all and be winning trophies sustainably and playing the entertaining football we are all known for,” he explained.

The NFF vice president also praised Siasia, who led the U-23 side to qualify for the Rio Olympics, saying the 48-year-old coach has an eye for spotting talent.

“He has qualified for the Olympics with a lot of exciting players discovered including the goal scorer against Egypt in Kaduna and in fact his team just defeated Brazil U-23 in a friendly game with several new players involved,” he said.

Dikko also discussed the possibility of hiring a foreign coach to take over the Nigerian team, while explaining the NFF’s plan to turn the fans’ focus to the domestic game instead of the foreign football.

“It’s certainly not a priority and indeed the new national orientation campaign in Nigeria is to look inwards and use made in Nigeria on everything except where it’s extremely necessary then we look foreign. This is the only way to rebuild the country and indeed football cannot be an exception.

“In our Nigeria football industry now the campaign is hugely focusing on getting the fans and corporate bodies to turn their hearts and pockets towards supporting the domestic game instead of foreign football which has gradually taken over the football space in Nigeria to the detriment of the domestic game,” Dikko explained.

The NFF vice president refused to reveal any information regarding applicants or candidates for the head coach position. He also stressed their satisfaction with Siasia’s performance so far.

“Nigeria is a great footballing nations with huge potentials thus it always attracts interest globally and once we have any opening for national team coach we do always receive unsolicited interest from top coaches globally.

“We will take decision after evaluating all the factors but for now we have coach Samson Siasia and we are very much happy with what we have seen so far and we are giving him all the backing he requires to succeed,” he added.

Elneny beats Iwobi to Arsenal goal of the month award

NIGERIA international Alex Iwobi came fifth in the Arsenal Goal of the Month poll for March.
     

 The 19-year-old was among eight players in the first – team in the running for the award but lost out to Pharaohs midfielder Elneny when the result of the voting was announced by the official website of the Gunners yesterday.

Alex Iwobi’s strike against Everton on March 19 earned four percent of the votes in the official Club poll.

Aaron Ramsey finished second for his strike against Tottenham Hotspur, while Joel Campbell and Welbeck also made it to the top four.

SolidStar features Davido in new song ‘Wait’

Achievas Entertainment star artiste Joshua Iniyezo popularly referred to as Solidstar has released an amazing feel-good music titled WAIT; and this time he features Sony Recording artiste, DAVIDO.

This is coming after the earlier leak of song, which had created hysteria and anticipation among fans who couldn’t wait to listen to the song put together by two of Nigeria’s top music stars.
Solidstar has been on a run of musical form lately, releasing massive tracks such as Baby Jollof, which featured Mavin’s first lady, Tiwa Savage, Good Woman and another hot track, My Body featuring Timaya. This new song with Davido is a dancehall funk that is sure to get music fans grooving from start to finish.

According to the artiste team, the song is about the readiness of a man to wait patiently for his woman until she is ready to take the plunge with him.

The video to the song was directed by Avalon Okpe, and it has also been released. The picture quality of the video further adds value to the song, as well as a nice message from Solidstar to everyone at the end of the video, which says “No Sex Before Marriage, Wait Without Regrets”.

Police have invaded Ekiti to arrest PDP chieftains, 11 lawmakers, alleges EKSG

The Ekiti State Government has alleged that armed policemen from Abuja have now invaded the state to begin indiscriminate arrest of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, top government officials and 11 members of the State House of Assembly under funny allegation of stockpiling arms during the June 21, 2014 governorship election.

The government alleged that the policemen were led by one CSP Mohammed Abubakar of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Abuja.
 

Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, who made this known in a statement on Tuesday, said the new plot was an aftermath of the failure of the Department of State Services (DSS) to achieve the plot of coercing the House of Assembly members to impeach the Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose.

The government said the indiscriminate arrest was to begin this (Tuesday) night and that the policemen arrived Ado Ekiti, the State capital with Mr. TKO Aluko and APC Chairman, Jide Awe today.

“We are aware of the arrival of policemen from Abuja to Ekiti State with the intention of arresting 11 members of the House of Assembly,

two PDP leaders per local government and some other top officials of the government.

“Ridiculously, the offense for which the policemen are to embark on this indiscriminate arrest is owing to TKO Aluko malicious outburst

that those listed for arrest stockpiled arms during the governorship election conducted in Ekiti close to two years ago.

“This plot is in furtherance of the APC plot to destabilize the government of Ekiti State just because of Governor Fayose’s hard stance on President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC government policies.

“The question is, what was the arms they claimed were stockpiled used for? Was anyone killed or attacked during the election?

“And why is the Police not arresting the APC Chairman, Jide Awe who is wanted for alleged murder and TKO Aluko, who was declared wanted by the court for perjury, and instead providing security cover for them?

“We therefore wish to alert Nigerians on this new plot and state that Ekiti people will resist any attempt to use the Police to harass

innocent citizens of the State.

“Democratically, we are entitled to our views on any issue in Nigeria and we won’t succumb to intimidation and harassment from any agency of the Federal government.”

Mikel: Mourinho didn't believe in me anymore

The Chelsea midfielder, currently on international duty with Nigeria, is enjoying life at Stamford Bridge once more under Guus Hiddink after falling out with the Portuguese coach
John Obi Mikel has once again hit out at Jose Mourinho’s management style and says the axed Chelsea boss never placed his faith in the midfielder.

The new Nigeria captain made just five Premier League appearances under the Portuguese coach this season, but has become a mainstay in the side under Guus Hiddink.

And Mikel believes he is benefitting from having a manager who trusts him again, suggesting Mourinho overlooked him regardless of how well he performed in training.

“I think confidence is everything, if a manager doesn’t believe in you, trust me there’s no way you can succeed,” the 28-year-old exclusively told Goal while on international duty with the Super Eagles.
Even if you do things right he would always make sure he finds fault.”

He continued: “People change in any walk of life, maybe he decided he wanted to do better in a different way and he didn’t need me anymore.

“He didn’t have the belief that he had in me before, which is fine because every manager has the player that they have trust in.

“It is a tough business, football, so when a manager comes in he wants to have people he believes in. If he doesn’t believe in you he doesn’t play you. And I think it’s all about a manager giving a player confidence.”
Chelsea technical director Michael Emenolo described a “palpable discord” between the manager and the players prior to Mourinho’s departure, when the side languished in 16th place – just one point above the drop zone.

Mikel has previously credited new boss Hiddink with reinstalling a sense of togetherness at Stamford Bridge, and praised the impact the Dutchman has made in such a short space of time.

“Hiddink came in, he spoke to me, he gave me the confidence and now I have played 20 games and we’re in the best position - where we haven’t been all season.”

This is not the first time Mikel has aimed a jibe at his former boss, with the Nigeria international claiming in January that there was a total lack of communication between himself and Mourinho, something Hiddink has changed dramatically.

How we’re re-engineering Delta — Gov Okowa

GOVERNOR of Delta State, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa in two interview sessions in Abuja and Asaba speaks on how he has been steering the affairs of the state in the past 10 months,  how he and others broke the myth of Delta Northerner becoming the governor of the state and lots more. Excerpts:

By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South, Festus Ahon, and Levinus Nwabughiogu

ONE of the issues discussed  at the National Economic Council retreat was the reduction of the cost of governance. How are you applying that in Delta State?
 I think that when political aides are appointed they are appointed to do specific jobs and people don’t understand that. I will give you an example. In my state, you have what they call the water ways and land security committee. People may just feel ‘oh it is just for the boys’. But it is not. If you don’t do that you will just find crises in every part of the state and all kinds of things are going on even in their presence.

Beyond that they are able to have an influence on their peers to get away from committing crime otherwise most of the southern states where you have trouble you will find out that if you do not use some of them to be part of the process to achieve peace and gather intelligence, you will just be lost because within the creeks, all kinds of things go on and the government agencies themselves won’t be able to get such information with the kind of information that comes out.

But I do know that some of them may have their excesses but I know that they play a lot of role especially with issues concerning vandalism, bunkering and issues concerning even kidnapping. They play a lot of roles. Sometimes the situation demands they appoint these aides because they actually have roles to play but in the totality of it, the amount that you use to pay in terms of salaries and allowance for these aides doesn’t actually add up a lot to the cost of governance. The current situation is that in many states, truly, you find a situation where you have what I call an over bloated work force. That is because in the past years, we ran clearly an oil economy.

Over bloated work force

The question is: do we actually need all of them? Even if we don’t need all of them, can you actually retrench people at this moment? It is not political.

It is not the best at the moment to consider. If you put all this together, I believe that the various governments will employ the number of aides that will actually be needed for the course of the duty. Some directly and some are actually needed indirectly to play other roles that are beyond the administration.

So, in figures can we know how you reduced the cost of governance in the state?

Well, we are still in the process of reducing the cost of governance; it is ongoing. When talking about the cost of governance generally, we are looking at the overhead cost, salaries and remuneration to staff. These two put together is what we call recurrent expenditure. What we have tried to do is to reduce to a reasonable level the cost of running the ministries.

That has come down by about 50 per cent; I may not be able to give you the exact figures now. However, we have been able to get top civil servants to buy into the current situation, which is that it is better for us to have a reduced cost than to have irregularities in the releases of funds.    You may never get the funds if you stick to the old figures I guess that the MDAs are operating under very tight conditions, but they have been able to run their ministries effectively.

We have also gone ahead to discuss with security operatives to rework the funding that is necessary for the processes of securing the peace of the state and that is still ongoing. There are seven places government deployed them in the past and those places are no longer in crisis, so we have to go down on those levels of expenditure for which I have their cooperation.

Largely, there had been a lot of spending in the past about what they called non-regular expenditure.

It involved all manner of money spent on the general running of governance, requiring non regular releases; not monthly releases,    but releases that are normally given to ministries to undertake one thing or the other, either foreign trips and various forms of workshops. We had to streamline all these because you need to be sure of what you are doing.

No foreign trip for now

Now, we are not allowing any foreign trip except it is going to be necessary. Even on my part as the governor, I have only had to move out once because I had to go and address the UN on the African Industrialization Bill.

Recurrent expenditure

I had that window of opportunity, which is something that you get occasionally and it is the only foreign trip by me since I came into government.

We are also trying to streamline so many things and as I said, it is ongoing. We have been able to do a lot of cost reduction. It may not have come down too much because within our recurrent expenditure, we also bring in the issue of consolidated revenue funds.

Anyway, we have spent quite a huge sum of money in servicing the debts that we    met and even then,    we have also put processes in place to also streamline and restructure those debts to certain level that we can say the servicing is manageable.    We are spending about N2.7 billion monthly to service debts now as against between N4.7billion to N5.2billion spent on servicing debts on a monthly basis when we came in.

About 10 months in the saddle, what do you have to show Deltans and where exactly are you leading the state?

In the first instance, at the state level, we have stabilized governance. The stability in governance is that we have been able to manage the finances. At least up to February, we have been able to pay salaries and that in itself is all-important.

We have also had to talk with the staff; I had a meeting with the Permanent Secretaries and all Directors on my assumption to ensure that they understand where we are now. The reason is that if you do not give them the opportunity to buy in, they will live in the past as if the state is buoyant.

You know people have this mentality that ‘Delta State is an oil rich state,’ therefore, everybody wants to live big and large. Therefore, we essentially made them to understand that we are in austerity time and we expect that everybody should run government the way government should be and not to be extravagant in what they do. I guess that they have essentially bought into that and we now have stability in government and that is quite important. Then we have also kept faith with our programme but we would have loved to expand beyond what we are doing now.

Educational revolution: Going outside that, we also realized that there is a need to re-jig our educational curriculum. We held an impressive Education Summit, which was very widely attended; a two-day summit where we charted a direction for ourselves. Essentially, we agreed that we need to have a concentration on Technical Education where our children are able to acquire skills. Unfortunately, we had abandoned most of our technical schools; we did not pay special attention to them.

Comprehensive rehabilitation

In this short while, we have been able to have a comprehensive rehabilitation and equipping of three of them; in Agbor, at Ofagbe and the one in Sapele. We tried to build up hostels so that it will be better than what we had in the past with workshops, improving on the level of the teaching staff and providing equipment. We are also trying to create linkages with other persons who can actually come in because it is not just a question of the theory, we need people to acquire genuine skills that will keep them going in life; that we are doing.

The other three Technical schools, this year,  we are trying to put them into proper shape, these include the one at Iselle-Uku, Ozagogo and the one at Ogor, Ughelli North and these are areas we are looking into while trying to create proper linkage between them and our Polytechnics.

Health Insurance policy: In the health sector, we have also the Delta Contributory Health Commission Law. It is actually going to be a partnership between the citizenry and the government. World over, we are talking about universal health coverage. That has not been the case in Nigeria, the National Health Insurance Scheme since 2004 has only managed to capture federal workers and most states have not bought in.

Health insurance cover federal workers and few organizations but here in Delta, we have decided to extend it beyond workers; we are bringing in the informal sector, we are bringing in the organized private sector, and the law actually makes it compulsory for any organized private sector to insure its workers.

We have already appointed the Chairman and the Director General of the Commission; we are working with the National Health Insurance Scheme.  Among the informal workers, what we do is to encourage them to participate in the health insurance scheme.

The money is not going to be burdensome on the families because    rather than    somebody getting sick at a time you may not have money and the person dies or you going to the moneylender, with the little premium that you pay, you will actually find out that you can get good healthcare services in any of our hospitals.

When did it dawn on you that you could be the governor of Delta State?

Well, I cannot say because I already had the ambition before the Ogwashi-Uku primaries. In June 2006, the ambition came into me; just about six months to that primaries and I tried to make many consultations. By October,    I did decide to run for the elections, we thank God for whatever happened, but I did well, I thank God, I came out a strong second and being a party man, I actually supported the party, I supported the immediate past governor and I also became the director- general of his campaign.

Accountability and justice

We ran our effective campaign and at the end of it, I became Secretary to the State Government. Having participated and done well and because I have worked in Delta State, I believe I have a clear understanding of what Delta State should be and how we should relate to our people. With a very strong desire, we realized that we need to unite our people in Delta State and that we must work strongly to create trust between government and the people.

This kept on resonating in my mind and right from that day, even when I lost, I believe that after the governor’s eight years, I was also going to make an attempt. Because for us to create unity, we need equity, you must understand the sensitivities of the people, you need a reasonable level of accountability, and you must be somebody that is able to build relationship, rather than play the politics of power.

It is a very common thing to play the politics of power, when in power, you want to do things in a manner that people fear you, but I believe in uniting people. You will find that where we are today, most of them that contested with me in the primaries are in my government and we are working strongly, even in key positions.

Warm representation for Delta State

People will advise you oh, that is not the best to do, but I do not believe in that, I believe in what you can offer. That is why if you watch quickly now, I have a Commissioner for Finance, he was in the contest, my Senior Policy Adviser was in the contest. These things are quite important and they hold key positions, because I believe that they have things to offer,    that is why they were in the race and,    therefore,    we can work together to deliver with everybody bringing his idea to bear.

So, right from 2006, I had a focus. Of course, I knew there was going to be a break for eight years because I needed to support the governor, who was on seat, and I kept faith with it. By God’s grace, I went to the Senate and throughout the time I was in the Senate, my focus was strongly on Delta. I thank God I had a warm representation for Delta State in the Senate; I am sure that you can attest that I was not a bench warmer in the Senate.

I was a strong voice for Delta in the Senate and I thank God that the people appreciated it and when it came to the issue of election in Delta, to the glory of God, many people did not    think I will survive it,    but to God be the glory,    I am Governor today.

Until date, it is still a mystery how Senator Ifeanyichukwu Okowa, aka, Ekwueme, broke the jinx of Delta Northerner emerging Governor of Delta State, can we know how you and others did it?

I think it is essentially God. God guided us aright and from the beginning I did not preach Delta North, thank God my SSG and Chief of Staff were all there with me in the field. Right from day one in 2006, I have preached that there was the need for us to have someone, who has a good understanding of the state and that our government will run based on equity, accountability and justice.

Because if I did go in the line of Delta North, I would have gotten it wrong, I will turn out to be a sectional governor. I ran for the Senate and became a Senator for Delta North.

Yes, I represented the people well, though I was a voice for Delta, but in running for governorship, you must have a clear vision and it must be about Delta State and not about Delta North. So I think the people understood the message that I was preaching the unity of Delta and,    therefore,    the progress of Delta,    rather than try processes that will lead me to become an ethnic warlord, an ethnic governor, I did not want it to be so. They understood that and I think God actually blessed that.

Contract processes

However, all through my time in government, from 1999 until date, I have seen myself as a Deltan and I keep friends across. I will start from when I was in Water Resources and Agriculture as commissioner; I could sit down and relate with people across the state and the dividends of democracy that came through my office to people.

Not necessarily money, but through contract processes, people who you really knew were competent. I did not care whether you are from Delta North, Central, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri. I related with everybody equally and when I was doing that, I did it just because I had that feeling.

I never thought then and it never crossed my mind that I could ever become governor.    We were still quite young, but I found out at last, when we were doing our campaign that it helped us a lot, because there were many places I went to consult with our leaders, they would remind me about what I did for them in 1999, 2001, off course,    I had forgotten. Even in the remote places, they put in remembrance of some of these things that I did and I said thank God I did well because if I had also done wrong to them, they would also have recounted them during the visits.

So we thank God, its God’s grace, the powers were strong, but once He decides, no man can fault Him.