A former Director and Coordinator, Independent National Electoral Commission’s Electoral Institute, Dr. Jimoh Agboola, has unveiled plans for a youth empowerment scheme, which will serve as a springboard for the youth to realise their dreams.

Agboola, a businessman, said this in a lecture he delivered at a dinner to celebrate his 70th birthday in Osogbo on Tuesday.

The former INEC boss said crime rate would continue to soar as long as the youth were not engaged in productive ventures, saying this was why he decided to set up the scheme in order to further contribute his quota to the development of the nation.

He added, “Youth unemployment is a problem in the country and I want to set up a scheme where youths, who want to set up any type of business, can come.

“They will be attached to already established organisations in line with their passion where they will be taught the rudiments and be mentored. We will also assist them with anything needed for the take-off.”

Agboola said many prospective entrepreneurs wrongly believed that the most important thing they needed at the point of commencement was the fund to invest in the business.

He said anybody aspiring to start any business needed a good idea and thorough knowledge of such business before injecting capital into it.

He explained that any business where capital was placed before capacity building was bound to fail.

Highlighting the importance of mentors for young entrepreneurs, Agboola said young business owners with good mentors would avoid many pitfalls and would grow faster.

Source

It has been reported that free food items donated by International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) are being stolen and sold to shop owners.. A twitter used has fueled this report after posting photo of a Cereal meant for refugee Nursing Mothers being sold at a shop in Maiduguri, Borno state...

To prevent a repeat of the delay in the passage of the 2016 budget, the presidency yesterday said it was prepared to forward next year’s budget appropriation bill to the National Assembly for ratification.

A top source in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian in Abuja that President Muhammadu Buhari was ready to sign the 2016 budget as soon as the appropriation committee completes its task of addressing the grey areas pointed out in a number of sectors.

The source who said that the president was deeply upset about the delay in the passage of the 2016 budget expressed delight that the lawmakers are working on the irregularities pointed out by the executive and the lawmakers as well.

According to the source, the current delay is not caused by the executive.

The presidency was also said to have begun extensive work on the 2017 appropriation document and would be ready to transmit it to the lawmakers so as to prevent a repeat of budget delay next year. However, the source said that the priority remained the passage of the 2016 budget before focusing on the 2017 fiscal plan.

“We are happy that the National Assembly has accepted responsibility and offered to take a look at the grey areas of the 2016 budget. Mr. President is particularly pleased with this position.

“We are not in anyway pleased that the budget has not been passed up till now. This was not our making at all. In fact, as we speak, we have begun detailed work on the 2017 appropriation document to make it ready to be forwarded to the National Assembly. But we can’t do that just yet because the 2016 budget is being awaited. Final work is currently ongoing before it is brought to the president for assent,” the presidency source said.

On the relationship between NASS and the presidency, the source said that it was cordial, noting that much of what appeared as misunderstanding between the two arms of government was escalated by the media.

“The presidency and NASS are in constant touch. We have a very cordial relationship. I believe what happened was that the press did so much speculation and got the lawmakers to be responding to media reports. We have an understanding and we are confident that the two arms of the legislature would fully harmonise and come up with the 2016 budget that the executive can defend,” the source said.

Meanwhile, a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, has cautioned both parties in the budget impasse to bring it to an urgent end in the overall national interest.

He spoke as the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, endorsed President Buhari’s stance not to sign the budget until he sees all the details of the document.

FOUR Akwa Ibom State-based legal practitioners have dragged President Muhammadu Buhari before a Federal High Court sitting in Uyo, over non-appointment of an indigene of Akwa Ibom as Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, after the sack of Bassey Dan-Abia midway into his four-year tenure.

Other respondents in the suit are the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and acting Managing Director of NDDC, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari.

The lawyers, Aniekan Akpan, Essien Obong, Akpadiaha Ebitu and Emmanuel Ukor, chairmen of Uyo, Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Oron branches of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, respectively described as unlawful, the appointment of a non-indigene of Akwa Ibom State after the termination of the appointment of immediate past Managing Director, Mr. Dan Abia on December 21, 2015.

Citing relevant sections of the NDDC Act, the plaintiffs in the suit are, therefore, seeking a declaration “that the premature termination of Dan Abia’s appointment as MD of NDDC by the President before the end of the four-year tenure allocated to Akwa Ibom State is unlawful and a gross violation of the people’s right.

They are also asking the court to declare that “Semenetari’s appointment is illegal and a gross violation of the right of Akwa Ibom people, particularly lawyers of Akwa Ibom origin, and equally a violation of the principles of proportional sharing of bureaucratic offices as enshrined in the Federal Character Commission Act Cap F7 Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The plaintiffs, who recalled that Dan Abia was appointed on December 3, 2013, urged the court to declare that Akwa Ibom is the legitimate state statutorily entitled to produce an “Acting” or ‘substantive’ Managing Director of NDDC presently to continue and complete the four years tenure of office allocated to the state by the rotation arrangement as enshrined in Sections 3 and 12(1)(d) of the NDDC Act.

They are praying the court to compel the President to terminate Semenitari’s appointment.

They are also seeking an order of the court compelling the President to “Immediately appoint any Akwa Ibom State indigene as “Acting” Managing Director or alternatively, the Managing Director of NDDC and present him to the National Assembly for confirmation to complete the four years tenure of office allocated to the state.

The man, a wealthy businessman – and husband of six – died after allegedly being forced into a marathon s*x session with his ‘jealous’ wives.

According to Adom Online, Uroko Onoja was having s*x with the youngest of his spouses when the remaining five are reported to have set upon him with knives and sticks – and demanded that he have s*x with each of them too.

Mr Onoja went on to have intercourse with four of his wives in succession, but ‘stopped breathing’ as the fifth was making her way to the bed.

Two women have been arrested following the incident which occurred in Konko, a Ghanaian village.

Mr Onoja is understood to have returned from a bar in the small community of Ugbugbu, at around 3am on Tuesday, and headed for the bedroom of his youngest wife.

His five other wives – who were said to have held a meeting to discuss their intentions before their husband arrived home – are then alleged to have burst into the bedroom armed with knives and sticks to insist that they too be granted their conjugal rights.

The businessman, who has been described as a philanthropist who ‘contributed positively’ to the growth of his local community, is thought to have resisted the demands of his wives’ before being overpowered.

Mr Onoja reportedly stopped breathing and could not be resuscitated after having s*x with four of his wives in a row.

His youngest spouse is quoted as saying her five fellow wives ran into the forest when they realised their husband was dead.

The head of his village, Okpe Odoh, revealed that the matter had been reported to police.

The federal government has planned to empower 1,000 Nigerian youth in Information and Communication technology (ICT).

The media assistant to presidential aide on youth and student affairs, Gidado Shuaib in statement said the Nigerian government has developed a partnership with a leading global ICT form to initiate a social development programme for youth.

Shuaib said the ICT programme by Huawei Technologies would empower 1,000 Nigeria youth as part of government’s effort to addressing unemployment in the country.

The initiative, Shuaib said would be overseen by Nasir Adhama, special assistant to president Muhammadu Buhari on youth and student affairs.

Beneficiaries would be picked from all geopolitical zones in Nigeria while date for the commencement of the programme would be announced soon.

“Out of the 1,000 youth that would be trained by Huawei Africa, 200 would be sent to China for more training on ICT,” Adhama said. “There are many programmes and activities that would get our youths engaged and involved, especially our brothers and sisters in Niger Delta and North East who will also benefit from the Huawei partnership programme,” he added.

He also called for all Nigerian youth to cooperate with the federal government towards ensuring Nigeria’s development.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) during its campaign had promised to pay all unemployed Nigerian a N5,000 stipend. But since assumption of office, President Muhammadu Buhari led APC is yet to fulfill his promise.

However, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that unemployment in Nigeria has risen to 1.5 million since May 29, 2015 when President Buhari assumed office.

The Osun Government has denied allegations of diversion of N34.99 billion bailout fund it received from the Federal Government to pay workers’ salaries.

The information is contained in a statement issued by Mr Semiu Okanlawon, the Media aide to Gov. Rauf Aregbesola, in Osogbo on Sunday.

The government said the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) did not indict it over the disbursement of the fund.

It said the fact that ICPC was investigating claims that workers in the state received their last salaries in July 2015 was enough for those monitoring developments in the state to conclude that the allegation could not have been true.

“This is because after the payment of seven months backlog of salaries last year, the government had proceeded to pay salaries on the agreed terms with workers.

“And this is why Osun has been able to pay its workers till January this year.

“There is no case of diversion of bailout loan as far as Osun is concerned.

” The state was able to accommodate pensioners in the bailout loans application when in actual fact pensioners were not part of the bailout scheme.

” But this was agreed upon by both government and workers.

“ The bailout was to take care of salaries backlog up till June last year. The report that Osun paid salaries last in July 2015 is laughable.

“If anything, the Osun government had demonstrated enough transparency by ensuring that the bailout loan was disbursed with adequate supervision of a committee of labour and government.

“We have insisted that Gov. Aregbesola cannot be found wanting because whether in bailout funds or other funds of Osun he has been very creative in the management of the scarce resources to lift the state beyond the limit of the available resources.

While speaking with Friends of Africa Coalition at the Mayor’s office in New Jersey in United States of America, former President, Goodluck Jonathan replied his critics who accused him of handing over a nation at the verge of collapse to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Bayelsa-born former lecturer recounted the achievements of his government to include, handing over a country that produced the richest man in Africa.

Jonathan said, “I am proud to say that while I took over a Nigeria that was the second largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $270.5 billion in 2009, I handed over a Nigeria that had grown to become the largest economy in Africa and the 24th largest economy in the World with a GDP of $574 billion.

“I inherited a Nigeria in which the trains were not working, and handed over a Nigeria in which citizens can safely travel by trains again. I inherited a Nigeria that was a net importer of cement, and handed over a Nigeria that is a net exporter of cement. In 2009 the richest Nigerian was the 5th richest man in Africa, but I handed over a Nigeria that produced the richest man in Africa.”

The former President stated that democracy will continue to grow in the African continent if leaders value the process of elections more than the product of the process, adding that his reasons for handing over to his successor after losing the 2015 Presidential election, stressing that he respected the will of the people.

“Even in the 2015 general elections in my country, Nigeria, there was potential for major crisis if I was not a President duly elected by the will of the people.

“The campaigns leading to the elections almost polarized the country into Christian v Muslims and North v South divide. Most World leaders were worried that our elections will result into major crisis. Some pundits even from here in the United States said that those elections would spell the end of Nigeria and that we would cease to exist as a nation because of the polls.

“That is where the leadership question comes into play. As a leader that was duly elected by the people, I considered the people’s interest first. How do I manage my people to avoid killings and destruction of properties? With the interest of the people propelling all the decisions I took, we were able to sail through.

“Indeed, we sail through because I refused to interfere with the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, having appointed a man I had never met in my life to run it. My philosophy was simple. For elections to be credible, I as a leader, must value the process more than the product of the process. And the citizens must have confidence in the electoral body.

“These are but a few of the parameters that illustrate some of the economic transformations we engineered during my term in office. This was made possible by the fact that there was a stable political leadership in Nigeria that did not have to pander to any other constituency except the electorate who brought me to power. And these actions have a contagious effect.”

Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state, has lauded the effectiveness of the controversial National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Modu Sheriff.

Lamido, who spoke to Weekly Trust on Saturday, April 23, said the people calling for the removal of Sheriff as PDP chairman do not understand the intricacies of politics.

He also said Sheriff is the right person to reposition the former ruling party.

“Modu Sheriff has a long standing political history. All those making noise are product of political invention. Sheriff has been in politics and defeating PDP at the poll since 1999.”

“He was in the ANPP and worked for the alliance that brought together incompatibles. I mean, how do you put (Alhaji Abubakar) Atiku, (President Muhammadu) Buhari and (Chief Ahmed Bola) Tinubu in one political pot? How do you cook them? No, tell me. You can’t cook Buhari and these two in one political pot.”

“When they were forging alliance with ANPP, Sheriff was the arrowhead. They were celebrating him when he was in APC, working for APC. He was a very wonderful person. But, when he joined the PDP, he became a Boko Haram member. Who is saying so, of course, the APC members because they are scared of him? He knows them damn too well.”

“I think, today, Sheriff is the best thing to have happened to PDP. It is a huge good will, he has a huge followership. He is somebody who is courageous, inspirational and he can say: look, APC go to hell. APC is thoroughly scared because they know him and what he is capable of doing. He will come to Jigawa sometime next week.”

“We will come out en masse to welcome him and assemble the biggest crowd ever in Nigerian politics. We want to force them (APC) out in 2019 because they have no agenda and manifesto to govern.”

Explaining why the PDP recorded low votes in the North during the 2015 general elections, Lamido said that the former ruling party was branded as a christian party in those areas.

“In the build-up to the last general election, PDP was vilified, intimidated with religion, falsehoods and propaganda through Facebook postings. Rwandan genocide pictures were posted as Boko Haram victims. PDP was blackmailed into silence.”

“When you queued to vote in the north, people viewed you as an infidel. You were all there and these things happened in a country where freedom should be the operating word. APC man can vote APC but if Lamido votes PDP, he is a Christian, he is a pastor.”

The Nigerian Army on Saturday prevented another suicide bomb attack on Ummarari in Borno after intercepting a suspected bomber on his way to the community.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, in Maiduguri.

“Troops of 7 Division Garrison, Forward Operation Base (FOB), on Saturday averted yet another suicide bombing catastrophe on Ummarari community by suspected Boko Haram terrorist at about 7 a.m.

“The suicide bomber was intercepted by the vigilant troops and the Civilian JTF while attempting to enter the village to detonate his dangerous cargo on innocent persons in the community,” the statement said.

It said that the suspect was forced to detonate his explosives after he was halted by security agents and members of the Civilian JTF.

“The suicide bomber detonated the strapped Improvised Explosive Device (IED) vest on his body, thus killing himself instantly when he was forced to halt, based on suspicion that he was carrying suicide bombing material.

“Thankfully, there was no any other casualty other than the suspected suicide bomber.

“Troops and the Civilian JTF at the village, are now combing the surrounding area to forestall further attacks and clear the environment of likely remnants of Boko Haram terrorists hibernating,” it said.

Speaking at the Maritime Technical Summit organised in Lagos on Thursday by the Associa­tion of Marine Engineers and Sur­veyors (AMES), ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Fed­eral Government’s town-hall meeting in Lagos on Mon­day, the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, has urged cit­izens to exercise patience and give the President Muhammadu Buha­ri-led administration more time.

Amaechi who was the special guest of honour at the event, acknowledged the masses’ grow­ing disenchantment with the pre­sent government following the yet-to-be fulfilled promises and even the alleged denied ones.

However, against such high expectations, he said that as the Director-General of the APC Pres­idential Campaign Organisation, he has “watched the video from beginning to the end and there was nowhere we promised Nige­rians that we are miracle workers.

“In fact, towards the end of the campaign, because expecta­tions were very high, if you lis­tened to us, we began to lower ex­pectations by telling you no, no, no, the challenges are going to be extremely difficult, but if we get your mandate, we will confront those challenges.”

Reclining on the party’s now ready defence, he said the “prob­lems that were caused in the course of 15 years of PDP (Peo­ples Democratic Party) certainly cannot be solved in eight months.”

The minister, who said he was not holding brief for others, insisted that the Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Manag­ing Director of the Nigerian Na­tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, was doing his best in the given circum­stances.

“Take the oil subsidy regime (for instance). Now, there is a huge argument on how to balance the interest of the poor by not re­moving oil subsidy and the inter­est of the nation by ensuring that the rich do not have access to the so-called subsidy, and letting the oil subsidy go to enable investors come into the construction of re­fineries.

“It was a huge challenge to us because if you just leave the poor, they will die of poverty; the rich men will just exploit the chanc­es, so the need to balance it, and it is affecting the supply of fuel. The Minister of State for Petroleum is quite smart, but we need time and patience.

“Don’t forget that we met queues. The fact that it was re­solved quickly was not what you think. Until we find a permanent solution, we’re going to have those queues. We want understanding.”

According to him, there is nowhere in the world that change is not painful, and by the speech­es the party delivered during its electioneering campaigns, which he said were clear and carefully made, “we said we would confront corruption and we are confronting corruption. You may say they are cosmetic changes; the changes you are expecting are changes that af­fect your purse.''