₦airaland Forum

bumped thread, with a change of dates of course.

the beautiful mrs. baba produced a great film on the topic.


Love Game



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INUkRd83xg

look at the colonialists celebrating destruction in Mother Africa

https://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1408716783365/sites/telesur/img/news/2014/08/22/2011-09-15t174145z_868843527_gm1e79g04ta01_rtrmadp_3_libya_0.jpg_1718483346.jpg

https://www.heathwoodpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/colonial_submission.jpg



Tripoli Street in Misrata, photographed in 2007 and again in 2011. There is nothing freedom loving or humanitarian about what happened here.


https://i.imgur.com/2eTfU.jpg

the device could have been pre-planted and set off by remote control ..... too many phantom suicide stories cropping up lately.


history lesson...

Lavon Affair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair

"But due to a lack of political will from the top, only a handful were prosecuted with little result."

the reason the people spoke.

Iceland threw the money changers out of the financial temple and the country is improving.

Saturday, June 13, 2015


[img]http://1.bp..com/-PEXi4CTT2eo/VXxSQ36DUpI/AAAAAAAAouE/UAhHzdFS5Q8/s320/arrest-bankers.jpg[/img]

Iceland Recovering Fastest in Europe After Jailing Bankers Instead of Bailing them Out

By Claire Bernish

After Iceland suffered a heavy hit in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which famously resulted in convictions and jail terms for a number of top banking executives, the IMF now says the country has managed to achieve economic recovery—“without compromising its welfare model,” which includes universal healthcare and education.

In fact, Iceland is on track to become the first European country that suffered in the financial meltdown to “surpass its pre-crisis peak of economic output”—essentially proving to the U.S. that bailing out “too big to fail” banks wasn’t the way to go.

Iceland is beautifully, yet unfortunately, unique in how it chose to handle the disaster. It simply let the banks fail, which resulted in defaults totaling $85 billion—lending ample justification for the prosecution and conviction of bank executives for various fraud-related charges. The decision seemed shocking at the time, but the gamble has obviously paid off. Choosing a different route, the U.S. bailed out the banks and let executives off the hook by levying fines that ultimately ended up being paid by the corporations—meaning the executives ostensibly responsible for the mess got off scot-free.

“Why should we have a part of our society that is not being policed or without responsibility?” special prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said after Iceland’s Supreme Court upheld the convictions for three bankers—and sentenced them to between four and five and a half years each. “It is dangerous that someone is too big to investigate—it gives a sense there is a safe haven.”


Hauksson, a police officer from a small fishing village, ended up taking the role of special prosecutor after being urged to do so when the first announcement to fill the position drew no applicants. The Icelandic Parliament even aided the prosecution’s effort by loosening secrecy laws to allow investigation without the hindrance of requiring court orders.

Six of the seven convictions that ended up in Iceland’s Supreme Court have been upheld, and five cases were scheduled for the top court as of February. An additional fourteen cases appear likely to be prosecuted. By contrast, the animosity Americans felt toward their largest financial institutions after the bailout has grown bitter. After the banks pled guilty in May for manipulating global currency and interest rates, the court imposed a paltry fine of $5.7 billion—which won’t even go to the people most affected by the fraud. Iceland’s successful prosecutions and economic recovery remain the subject of envy for Americans.

Shortly, however, Iceland’s economic health will be put to the test.

Strict capital controls that were applied when banks were circling the drain six years ago will now be loosened, allowing foreign investors—whose assets have essentially been frozen since then—to take their business elsewhere. To prevent a possible repeat crisis, the finance minister announced a 39% tax for anyone choosing to do so. “The danger is capital flight and a consequent fall in the value of the krona,” explained University of Iceland economics professor, Thorolfur Matthiasson. “That would be tantamount to October 2008, bringing back bad memories for ordinary people and possibly making most businesses unsustainable due to balance-sheet problems.”

Though many are nervous, there is still cautionary optimism since Iceland has certainly weathered the storm before.

Claire Bernish writes for TheAntiMedia.org, where this article first appeared. Tune in! The Anti-Media radio show airs Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: Javier Soriano.

This article may be re-posted in full with attribution.

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/06/iceland-recovering-fastest-in-europe.html

[b]story is about the debt and its possible domino effect


"G7 HELPLESS IN THE FACE OF MATHEMATICALLY CERTAIN BANKRUPTCY"


http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/banking_and_taxation_irs_and_insurance/news.php?q=1433866544

...here's Benjamin Fulford's complete report for this week.

=====

Posted by benjamin, June 9, 2015

The leaders of the Group of Seven Industrialized Nations or G7 are holding an emergency meeting in Germany in a futile attempt to avoid their inevitable bankruptcy. The leaders talk about Greece, the Ukraine, China, the Middle East and other matters as if somehow they are still in control. The leaders need to understand that there is a thing out there called reality and, no matter how long you try to avoid it, it has a way of catching up to you. The fact is that, with the exceptions of Canada, Japan and Germany, the G7 nations and their allied Western states have been running a deficit with the rest of the world for the past 40 years. The elephant in the room that nobody talks about is the fact the biggest debtor of all is the Corporate United States.

The rest of the world has made a collective decision to stop financing these Western governments until they stop their constant war-mongering and resource stealing. Since the rest of the world controls most of the real money (i.e. money connected to physical objects) they control the underlying reality. You can eat bread but you cannot eat derivatives or dollar bills. You can trade real things like cars or oil for rice or wheat but if you lose trust, nobody will trade your IOUs for real things. The G7 countries, especially the Corporate United States (as opposed to the Republic of the United States), have managed to postpone the inevitable with fraudulent economic data, offshore slush funds, and derivatives theoretically worth astronomical amounts.

However, no amount of zeroes added to astronomical numbers inside Western banks will make any difference so long as these zeroes have no connection to the real world.

The Chinese have insisted on payment in things, like gold, that actually exist. The American corporate government has, like a once rich junky fallen on hard times, pawned family heirlooms, borrowed from friends, stolen and lied so far to get its next fix of debt. They have stolen Iraqi oil, African gold, Japanese savings and everything else they could get their hands on. However, since real US GDP has shrunk by 21.4% since 2011, it is becoming impossible for the US Corporate government to keep paying its snowballing debts. The obvious answer is to declare bankruptcy.

The problem is that very few people are alive today who remember the last time a European country went bankrupt. No Anglo Saxon country has gone bankrupt for a thousand years so the Americans are even less familiar with what bankruptcy really entails.

For those of us who witnessed firsthand such things as the collapse of the Japanese bubble and the bankruptcy of Argentina the future is easier to see.

Let us compare these two cases to what is happening to the G7 in order to predict the future.

In the case of Japan, the bubble burst in the years 1990-1992. The Japanese government knew as early as 1992 the bad debt total was 200 trillion yen (about $2 trillion). However, public announcements then put it at only 3 or 4 trillion yen. Company A would pass on its bad debt to company B who would pass it on to company C, each with a different accounting deadline. It was like an individual using their American Express card to pay their Visa bill and then using the Visa to pay for their MasterCard and then use their MasterCard to pay off American Express. This scam bought time.

Eventually though, a few of the worst companies were no longer able to hide their bankruptcy. I remember interviewing Kichinosuke Sasaki, president of the Togensha, one of those companies, in the late 1990’s. He was then the poorest man in the world with a net worth of minus 9 trillion yen (roughly minus $90 billion). He was wearing a silk suit that must have cost him tens of thousands of dollars when he originally bought it but it was pretty threadbare and shabby when I interviewed him. He told me he the bankers were keeping him half-alive on a miserable allowance. The bankers would not let him declare bankruptcy because that would have triggered a domino effect that would inevitably lead to the biggest Japanese banks.

In the case of Europe, Greece is playing the role of Togensha. If Greece is allowed to go bankrupt then big European banks will have to declare their Greek debt in default and thus be forced to admit they are also in default. No wonder the top managers of outfits like Deutschebank keep resigning. Nobody wants to be the captain of a sinking ship.

However, the Japanese experience with the bubble makes it very clear that postponing the inevitable just increases the total pain. The Greeks already know this because they are being forced to play the role of Mr. Sasaki, and be squeezed of everything they have so their bankers can pretend all is well. Average Greek income has fallen 40% in the past five years so that bankers can pretend they are solvent. It will only get worse until Greece declares bankruptcy.

It is much better to declare bankruptcy than to stay chained to an unpayable debt burden.

Bankruptcy need not be a bad thing. The first thing people need to understand is that finance is spiritual or psychological. If Greece goes bankrupt, people, buildings, factories, farms, beaches, houses etc. will not disappear. The only thing that will change is how people decide what to do in the future with these real world assets.

In the case of Argentina, as well as in the case of Iceland, declaring bankruptcy was a short sharp shock followed by a rapid rise in standards of living. The people were also freed from the clutches of parasitical bankers.

Of course, if Greece goes bankrupt eventually so will the rest of countries using the Euro.

Angela Merkel recently went to China and Japan to ask for money but returned empty handed.

Since there is no other source of money big enough to bail out the German backed Euro, the German financial system is thus also likely to become insolvent sooner rather than later.

The end result will be a return to the Deutschemark, the Drachma and other currencies tied to historical cultures.

Now here is something to ponder. The European Union Parliament building was deliberately built to resemble the tower of babel. You can see this visually at this link:

http://deadlinelive.info/2012/11/26/fascism-rising-eus-new-tower-of-babel/

The story of the Tower of Babel was that it eventually collapsed and all the different peoples went their separate ways. The new tower of babel was completed in 1999. The question is, where there planners who knew way back then the EU project was destined to go the way of the tower of babel?

[source]

http://benjaminfulford.net/

https://kauilapele./2015/06/11/full-article-benjamin-fulford-6-9-15-g7-helpless-in-the-face-of-mathematically-certain-bankruptcy/ [/b]

more.....


Increasing power supply pumping a lifeblood into the industry sector : EEP
Details
Published Date
Written by DESTA GEBRE-HIWOT
Category: News


Misikir Negash



The Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) said that as adequate electricity supply highly contributes to the crystallization of the sought-for leap that puts industrialization at the driver's seat and spur sustainable economic growth, the government over the lats two decades, has been making significant strides in bringing into play mega power generation projects to meet the pressing demand for electricity.

In an exclusive interview with the Ethiopian Press Agency, Ethiopian Electric Power External Public Relation Director Misikir Negash said that the country's consecutive economic growth has built the nation's capacity and confidence in carrying out mega power generation projects by its own. The country has been undertaking the translation of mega projects into action earmarking a huge amount of money to scale up the supply of electricity much needed for the growing industry sector.

The growing industry and ongoing economic development put much demand on electric power. To meet the demand, the country has launched 8 power generation projects during the last decades, Misikir added.

According to the Director the country is striving to further boost its power supply by five folds as per of GTP II. The construction of hydro-power dams and power distribution station projects has proceeded apace. Works in Gibe III are being undertaken round-the-clock to herald power generation by the end of this year. The construction work is almost 90.28 per cent through. The construction phase of Genale Dawa III project has hit the 71.83 per cent mark. The dam will have the capacity of 254 MW.

The Adama II Wind Farm Project is due to reach the 93 per cent mark with the previously installed turbines currently generating up to 45 MW per minute each. The construction of the GERD has also reached 42.54 per cent. When the envisaged dams see completion, the country will have adequate power supply for the industry sector.

Besides, the government is trying to ensure fair and equitable power distribution through its rural electrification programmes. Around 5300 urban and rural kebelles are now connected to the grid. The country has also manged to produce and supply 80 per cent of construction materials need for the mega projects avoiding importing costs. The coverage of electricity has also reached 55 per cent.

Through the power development projects, an average of 50,000 job opportunities have been created so far.

Having identified the source of power disruption in some areas, the government is making extensive efforts through different mechanism to address the disruptions.

Hailing the contribution of the public in realizing the mega projects, the Director called up on the people to press ahead backing up the construction of mega dams including GERD.

www.ethpress.gov.et/herald/index.php/herald/news/10668-increasing-power-supply-pumping-a-lifeblood-into-the-industry-sector-eep

con't ...


Ethiopia Rides Manufacturing Boom

https://allafrica.com/download/pic/main/main/csiid/00231672:e422d150d06b7d0da85f0b138f36e386:arc614x376:w285:us1.png
Photo: Addis Fortune


press release

The government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has ushered in a manufacturing boom that is set to make the country a major regional player across several lines of products.

The widespread eagerness to invest is made that much more due to a large domestic market and an increasing number of skilled workers.

It is no wonder that some have dubbed Ethiopia as the 'Bangladesh of Africa' and with good reason. There has been tangible success already, with Chinese, Turkish and European garment manufacturers seeking to expand their operations.

However there are plenty of other areas worthy of attention.

The major manufacturing activities are in the production of food, beverages, tobacco, textiles and garments.

There are also opportunities in leather goods, paper, metallic and non-metallic mineral products, cement and chemicals.

Under the Growth and Transformation Plan (2010/11-2014/15), production of textile and garments, leather products, cement industry, metal and engineering, chemical, pharmaceuticals and agro-processing are priority areas for investment.

Thus there are ample manufacturing opportunities for prospective investors in the following areas:

- Textiles and clothing. Spinning, weaving and finishing of textiles from the beginning and the production of garments; manufacture of knitted and crocheted fabrics, carpets and sportswear and so on. The choice is yours.

- Food and beverage products; processing of meat and meat products, fish and fish products and fruits and vegetables. Investors can also delve into integrated production and processing of dairy products; manufacture of starch and starch products; processing of animal feed and processing and bottling of mineral water.

Other products to manufacture include sugar, brewing and wine-making, processing of pulses, oil seeds or cereals, manufacture of macaroni/pasta products.

- Tannery and leather products. You may decide to venture in the tanning of hides and skins up to finished level; manufacturing of luggage items; handbags, saddle and harness items. There is also footwear. Ethiopia's footwear industry and leather sector in general enjoy significant international comparative advantages owing to the country's abundant and available raw materials, highly disciplined workforce and cheap prices. Ethiopia boasts the largest livestock production in Africa, and the 10th largest in the world. Ethiopia annually produces 2.7 million hides, 8.1 million sheepskins and 7.5 million goat skins. This comparative advantage is further underlined by the fact that the costs of raw hides and skins constitute on average 55-60% of the production of semi-processed leather.

Ethiopia's leather and leather product sector produce a range of products from semi-processed leather in various forms to processed leathers including shoe uppers, leather garments, stitched upholstery, backpacks, purses, industrial gloves and finished leather.

Ethiopian leather products have been exported to markets in Europe (especially Italy and the UK), America, Canada, China, Japan and other far eastern countries and the Middle East. Leather is also exported to African countries including Nigeria and Uganda.

- Glass and ceramics. This area includes tableware and sanitary ware, sheet glass and containers.

- Chemicals and chemical products. In this category is the manufacture of basic chemicals (including ethanol) using local raw materials which are plentiful. Other products that can be made in Ethiopia are fertilizer and nitrogen, soda ash, rubber, PVC granules from ethyl alcohol and caustic soda. We can add chlorine-based chemicals, carbon and activated carbon, precipitated calcium carbonate and ballpoint ink to the items already mentioned. Varnishes, soaps and detergents are other products easily manufactured in Ethiopia. There is a host of by-products from the chemical industry not forgetting pesticides and fungicides.

- Drugs and pharmaceuticals. This includes the manufacture of pharmaceutical medicinal, chemical and botanical products. These can come in the form of tablets, capsules, syrups and injectables

- Paper and paper products. Pulp from indigenous raw materials is readily available.

- Plastic products. Investors may choose to go into high pressure pipes or pipe fittings, shower hoods, wash basins, insulating fittings, light fittings, office and school supplies. The list is long.

- Building materials. There is room to invest in the making of lime, gypsum, marble, granite, limestone, ceramics, tubes, pipes and fittings. Amidst a building boom, you cannot go wrong going into this sector.

Less you have questions; the Ethiopian Investment Commission can guide you every step of the way. The services include;

- Promoting the country's investment opportunities and conditions to foreign and domestic investors;

- Issuing investment permits, business licenses and construction permits;

- Notarizing memorandum and articles of association and amendments;

- Issuing commercial registration certificates as well as renewals, amendments, replacements or cancellations;

- Effecting registration of trade or firm name and amendment, as well as replacements or cancellations;

- Issuing work permits, including renewals, replacements, suspensions or cancellations;

- Grading first grade construction contractors;

- Registering technology transfer agreements and export-oriented non-equity-based foreign enterprise collaborations with domestic investors;

- Negotiating and, upon government approval, signing bilateral investment promotion and protection treaties with other countries

- Advising the government on policy measures needed to create an attractive investment climate for investors

- Ethiopian Embassy in Uganda

East African Business Week (Kampala)
22 March 2015

I've been reading good reports about Ethiopia


Ethiopia’s stellar growth: Lessons for Kenya – and perhaps South Africa

Over the last decade, Ethiopia has emerged as one of the fastest-growing – perhaps THE fastest-growing – economies in Africa. Even though “double-digit” growth has become something of an official mantra, independent appraisals still put it at over 10 percent from 2003-13, double the sub-Saharan average. Growth is driven by a determined government policy of creating the conditions for development, notably through a massive level of infrastructural investment.

At first glance you know that the head-office of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia on Addis Ababa’s Churchill Road must have been built in the 1960s. The tatty concrete rotunda has no redeeming features – save, as it turns out, its staff.

Inside the tellers are organised in a giant circle, the commercial signs advertising a plethora of money transfer agencies.

“You want to buy a bond for the Grand Renaissance Dam?” exclaimed the startled assistant. “Come with me,” she smiled, showing the way to her colleagues working the inner ring behind the tellers. Such old-world naiveté is unlikely in most places, where security takes precedence over service. “Sit down,” she said, while organising a conversion from dollars into birr.

Construction of the controversial Grand Renaissance Dam, known as the GERD, on the Blue Nile near to the Sudanese border began in 2011. When completed in 2017 it will produce 6,000 MW, making it the largest hydro-electric plant in Africa. With the turbines and other electrical equipment to be funded by Chinese banks to the tune of $1.8 billion, the remainder of the $4.8 billion bill is to be met with the Ethiopian government, financed in part through the bond, targeting diaspora and local Ethiopians.

A group of three Chinese men scuttled past as the bond forms were completed, pushing a trolley on which rested three bulky black holdalls.

Available in amounts from 25 to 1 million birr, and with a dollar denominated option, not many individual foreigners have so far taken up the offer. “You are the second,” said Eyob, the bank manager, “we had an Italian in here some time back”. An Italian construction firm is building the dam, memories of darker days of Abyssinian invasions forgiven. Indeed, Ethiopians exhibit a remarkable pragmatism about their history, intent mostly on looking forward, not back. As one official publication notes about the “Italian colonialists”, they “made enormous efforts to modernise the country with the construction of the first proper road network and numerous public buildings”.

“You want interest?” Eyob asks, frowning, before filling out the colourful bond certificate. A little surprised at that request, he was more perplexed by the stipulated date of repayment. “Why 2025?” he laughed. “Most Ethiopians give just five years”.

Without much in the way of natural resources and, since the independence of Eritrea in May 1991, landlocked, and with its population rising fast towards the hundred million mark, Ethiopia’s development options seem limited.

Yet, so far the absence of natural resource driven growth has proven an advantage.

Over the last decade, Ethiopia has emerged as one of the fastest-growing – perhaps the fastest-growing – economies in Africa. Even though ‘double-digit’ growth has become something of an official mantra, independent appraisals still put it at over ten percent from 2003-13, double the sub-Saharan average.

Growth is driven, rather, by a determined government policy of creating the conditions for development, notably through a massive level of infrastructural investment.

Ambitious plans are afoot for a massive expansion of the rail network, hitherto confined to the ancient railway from the port at Djibouti to Addis Ababa, which has now been upgraded from narrow to standard gauge, which should be in operation by 2016. The 700-km line is being built at a cost of $4-billion by Chinese companies. Ethiopia is seeking to have 5,000 km of new rail lines working across the country by 2020. A national fibre optic cable system is being laid to help rectify one of the major weaknesses, in telecoms. In addition to the GERD, there are a number of smaller but still significant hydro-electric projects underway elsewhere, notably on the Gibe River in the south of the country.

Funding for infrastructure has come from a mix of sources: improvements in tax revenue collection (businesses routinely complain what a pest the tax authorities have become), some concessional financing (mainly from China) and other donors who provide around $3 billion annually from grants and loans, and domestic borrowing. Local banks are required by government to convert up to 27 percent of their holdings into government bonds to finance infrastructure, including the grand dam, this pressure-point one of the reasons why Ethiopia has so far not permitted foreign banks to open operations. What effectively amounts to a forced loan to the state has created something of a local banking liquidity crisis.

Now the key question is whether Ethiopia can create or attract the level of private sector productive enterprise needed to turn this infrastructure into the basis for a functioning modern economy.

Private sector development and growth has rhetorically, at least, become a government refrain. As the state minister of finance Ahmed Shide puts it, “success to our plans will now be determined by the response of the private sector. Investment is key in this. This process can’t just be led by the state which can’t itself generate wealth; it can only facilitate it.”

In this, amidst the debate about whether “Africa can be the next China” as manufacturing input (especially labour) costs rise in Asia, Ethiopia “wants”, he says, to be the light manufacturing hub of Africa. Ethiopian workers cost one-tenth the price of those in China for example. This view is a refreshing departure from South Africa-speak about not “struggling to work in sweat shops”.

The establishment of “Shoe City” by the Huajian Group in the eastern industrial zone, now employing 3,200 workers making 180,000 pairs a month, came about as a result of a personal invitation to the company’s founder to open a plant by Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during a 2011 trip to China.

There are six such industrial zones now in Ethiopia, offering low or zero tariffs on imported manufactured goods, and tax holidays of up to seven years. Another 20 Chinese firms have joined Huajian in the eastern zone, 37kms from Addis.

Kenya, bordering on Ethiopia to the south, has similarly ambitious infrastructure aims. A new $25-billion port complex is planned for Lamu. A $3.5-billion standard-gauge railway is currently under construction from Mombasa to Nairobi and, possibly, beyond.

There are other parallels. Both have young populations, Kenya’s median age at 19 versus 17 in Ethiopia. Both are highly dependent on agriculture (comprising half of GDP and absorbing 85 percent of the workforce in Ethiopia's case, 30 percent and 75 percent in Kenya’s). They run similar budget deficits, levels of public debt are equally high above 50 percent of GDP, and poverty in both remains around 40 percent of the population.

There are differences, of course. While Ethiopia is landlocked, Kenya is the gateway to South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Congo in eastern Africa. Kenya’s nominal per capita GDP is, at $1,250, more than twice that of Ethiopia (US$ 570 estimated for 2014). Nudging 100 million, Ethiopia has more than double Kenya’s population, and twice the land area.

But most notably, the dissimilarity centres around security and governance, key factors affecting respective development trajectory, whatever Kenya’s comparative advantages of geography and arithmetic.

Perhaps the most important reason for Ethiopia’s stellar growth performance is its political stability. It has, for a start, a state that works – in striking contrast to many other African countries such as, most obviously, Kenya or Nigeria. The oldest state in Africa, and the only one to retain its independence through the colonial era, it rests on engrained habits of command and obedience. This creates its own problems, but it does mean that the government has a capacity, shared by few African states, to make and effectively implement policies.

Especially over the last decade, since a political crisis in 2005 that raised serious questions about its survival, the government in Addis Ababa that seized power from the Derg military junta in May 1991 has devoted itself single-mindedly to creating a ‘developmental state’ based on east Asian models. This is most visible in the dramatic expansion in the scale and quality of the road network, and urban development not only in Addis Ababa – now a megalopolis of some seven million people – but in cities throughout the country. Further education has likewise boomed, with over thirty universities geared especially to turning out graduates in engineering and natural sciences, though their quality is certainly questionable.

Read the rest: http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic.../#.VT6VoSFVhBc

urchmanx:
Please can someone send a link were one can download the full copy of the bill. I have looked at the National Assembly website but can't see it. Thanks in advance.

courtesy of @all4naija

For those who can visit the page, the file below is part of what the sexual offenses bill entails.

NB: This is not originally from the national congress website.

https://www.nairaland.com/2357862/senate-makes-11-years-legal/7


www.nairaland.com/attachments/2480672_20150604200337_pnged2f5d669ebe2544dbd2e67c51b67a15


and ....

https://www.nairaland.com/2357862/senate-makes-11-years-legal/6

Re: Senate Makes 11 Years The Legal Age To Have Sex In Nigeria by bushdoc9919(m): 7:58pm On Jun 04
For those of you too lazy to look for the actual law...here it is (2013 DRAFT)...

1) A person who commits an act which causes
Defilement
penetration with a child is guilty of an offence called
of children
defilement.

(2) A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child aged eleven years or less shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for life. (3)

A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child between the age of twelve and fifteen years is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for life. (4)

A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child between the age of sixteen and eighteen years old is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for life


Full Law here at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/267639198/Nigeria-Sexual-Offences-Bill-2013#scribd

I hope this clarifies a lot of issues.

Mods....please change the title.

more info on the global situation ...

http://tooyoungtowed.org/

Child, Bride, Mother


By Stephanie Sinclair

https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-1LPA/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-1LPA-jumbo.jpg

Sandra, 14, was married three years ago and now has a 5-month-old son, Alexander. Her husband, 26, met her in the neighborhood.

In Guatemala, the legal age of marriage is 14 with parental consent, but in Petén, in the northern part of the country, the law seems to be more of a suggestion. Underage brides are everywhere. They parade endlessly through Petén’s hospital in San Benito, seeking medical care. Most have traveled from the villages along the mud-soaked roads that flow out in all directions.

I visited almost a dozen of these villages to meet some of the child brides of Petén for the latest Too Young to Wed transmedia project, this one a partnership with the United Nations Population Fund. Guatemala was the 10th country I had worked in documenting the issue of child marriage since 2003, after a chance encounter with several young brides in Afghanistan.

Child marriage is pervasive in more than 50 countries, with girls in rural areas of developing nations especially vulnerable. In the villages of Guatemala, around 53 percent of women age 20 to 24 were married before age 18, and 13 percent before age 15, according to the Population Council. Many of these girls faced harsh consequences, similar to those of child brides in other developing nations. They had withdrawn from their educations, some as early as elementary school; were subject to physical and sexual violence; risked dangerous pregnancies and went without crucial medical care. Many aspects of their lives were controlled by older men who considered the girls little more than sexual and domestic servants.

Furthermore, the physically immature and psychologically unready young mothers were prone to complications during childbirth, which often took place at home. For girls in Petén villages, the journey to competent care could take hours and the consequences dire. According to the International Health Alliance, Petén has the highest rate of maternal mortality in Guatemala at 172 deaths for every 100,000 births. The infant mortality is also high at 40 deaths for every 1,000 births.

When I visited the hospital, there were no fewer than four babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, all born premature to 14-year-old mothers.

“We call these children ‘little miracles,’ because it is a miracle that he is alive,” said Dr. Daniel Álvarez, a pediatrician with San Benito National Hospital, pointing out an infant who weighed only one and a half pounds at birth. “We don’t have the adequate equipment to treat a child that’s so little.”

Other times, the girls’ problems began only after making it home with their babies, where they were frequently abandoned by their husbands. Aracely was four months pregnant when her husband left, declaring the child wasn’t his. Now 15, Aracely is resigned to the burdens of being a single mother.

“During the time I was pregnant, he didn’t give me any money. He hasn’t even come to see the boy now that he’s a year old,” she said. Aracely is not alone in her experience. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that in 2015 more than 550,000 Guatemalan girls will marry before they are 18. That’s 1,500 girls married every day in just one country.

https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-ATB2/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-ATB2-jumbo.jpg

Aracely was 11 when she married her husband, who was 34. Now 15, she is raising her son on her own.

I thought I’d have a better life. But at the end, it didn’t turn out that way. — Aracely, 15
https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-ZN1M/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-ZN1M-master495.jpg
https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-9J49/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-9J49-master495.jpg


Carmen, left, 14, is three months pregnant. She lives at her in-laws’ house, right, with her husband, who is 23.

I was in school until fifth grade, when I got married. I have been raising my chickens to kill them when the baby is born. I was sad because I didn’t want to be pregnant. I was just sad, I don’t know why. — Carmen, 14

https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-Z9TN/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-Z9TN-jumbo.jpg

Sulmi, 14, who is 9 months pregnant, at her home.

My family was a little sad when I got married. They said I was really little and it’s a lot of responsibility to take care of someone. I was a little sad to be married so young. I am the youngest in my family to be in a union. Getting married is a lot better and prettier because you get to wear a big white dress. — Sulmi, 14

https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-VTGJ/exposures-guatemala-bride-slide-VTGJ-jumbo.jpg
Rosario, 14, looked at her baby in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in San Benito.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/exposures-child-bride-mother-stephanie-sinclair.html

again, the bill concerns rape and abuse but since the subject keep coming back to child brides lets indulge.


Africa
Forced to Marry Before Puberty, African Girls Pay Lasting Price

By SHARON LAFRANIERENOV. 27, 2005


CHIKUTU, Malawi - Mapendo Simbeye's problems began early last year when the barren hills along Malawi's northern border with Tanzania rejected his attempts to grow even cassava, the hardiest crop of all. So to feed his wife and five children, he said, he went to his neighbor, Anderson Kalabo, and asked for a loan. Mr. Kalabo gave him 2,000 kwacha, about $16. The family was fed.

But that created another problem: how could Mr. Simbeye, a penniless farmer, repay Mr. Kalabo?

The answer would shock most outsiders, but in sub-Saharan Africa's rural patriarchies, it is deeply ingrained custom. Mr. Simbeye sent his 11-year-old daughter, Mwaka, a shy first grader, down one mangy hillside and up the next to Mr. Kalabo's hut. There she became a servant to his first wife, and, she said, Mr. Kalabo's new bed partner.

Now 12, Mwaka said her parents never told her she was meant to be the second wife of a man roughly three decades her senior. "They said I had to chase birds from the rice garden," she said, studying the ground outside her mud-brick house. "I didn't know anything about marriage."

Mwaka ran away, and her parents took her back after six months. But a week's journey through Malawi's dry and mountainous north suggests that her escape is the exception. In remote lands like this, where boys are valued far more than girls, older men prize young wives, fathers covet dowries and mothers are powerless to intervene, many African girls like Mwaka must leap straight from childhood to marriage at a word from their fathers.

Sometimes that word comes years before they reach puberty.

The consequences of these forced marriages are staggering: adolescence and schooling cut short; early pregnancies and hazardous births; adulthood often condemned to subservience. The list has grown to include exposure to H.I.V. at an age when girls do not grasp the risks of AIDS.

Increasingly educators, health officials and even legislators discourage or even forbid these marriages. In Ethiopia, for example, where studies show that in a third of the states girls marry under the age of 15, one state took action in April. Officials said they had annulled as underage the marriages of 56 girls ages 12 to 15, and filed charges against parents of half the girls for forcing them into the unions.

Yet child marriages remain entrenched in rural pockets throughout sub-Saharan Africa, from Ghana to Kenya to Zambia, according to Unicef. Studies show that the average age of marriage in this region remains among the world's lowest, and the percentage of adolescent mothers the world's highest.

Many rural African communities, steeped in centuries of belief that girls occupy society's lower rungs, are inured to disapproval by the outside world.

"There is a lot of talk, but the value of the girl child is still low," said Seodi White, Malawi's coordinator for the Women in Law in Southern Africa Research Trust. "Society still clings to the education of the boy, and sees the girl as a trading tool. In the north, girls as early as 10 are being traded off for the family to gain. After that, the women become owned and powerless in their husbands' villages."

In villages throughout northern Malawi, girls are often married at or before puberty to whomever their fathers choose, sometimes to husbands as much as half a century older. Many of those same girls later choose lifelong misery over divorce because custom decrees that children in patriarchal tribes belong to the father.

In interviews, fathers and daughters here unapologetically explained the rationales for forced, intergenerational unions.

Uness Nyambi, of the village of Wiliro, said she was betrothed as a child so her parents could finance her brother's choice of a bride. Now about 17, she has two children, the oldest nearly 5, and a husband who guesses he is 70. "Just because of these two children, I can not leave him," she said.

Beatrice Kitamula, 19, was forced to marry her wealthy neighbor, now 63, five years ago because her father owed another man a cow. "I was the sacrifice," Ms. Kitamula said, holding back tears. She likened her husband's comfortable compound of red brick houses in Ngana village to a penitentiary. "When you are in prison," she said, "you have no rights."

In tiny Sele, Lyson Morenga, a widower, financed his re-marriage two years ago by giving his daughter Rachel, then 12, to a 50-year-old acquaintance in exchange for a black bull, according to his new in-laws. Mr. Morenga delivered the bull to his new wife's family as a partial payment, said his wife's uncle, Stewart Simkonda. Mr. SImkonda said Mr. Morenga had promised to deliver a larger payment after the impending marriage of Rachel's younger sister.

Malawi government officials say they try hard to protect girls like Rachel. Legislation before Parliament would raise the minimum age for marriage to 18, the legal age in most countries. Currently, marriages of Malawian girls from 15 to 18 are legal with the parents' consent. Women's rights advocates say they welcome the proposal, even though its effect would be limited because many marriages here, like much of the sub-Saharan region, take place under traditional customs, not civil law.

The government trained about 230 volunteers last year in ways to protect children, especially girls. Volunteers for Malawi's Human Rights Commission, Roman Catholic Church workers and police victim-protection units also try to intervene. In Iponga village, for example, Mbohesha Mbisa averted a forced marriage to her uncle at age 13 last year by walking a half-mile to the local police station, where officers persuaded her father to drop his plans to use her to replace her deceased aunt as a wife and mother.

"I was really scared, but I wanted to protect myself," said Mbohesha, now in the sixth grade.

Still, Malawi officials say that this region's growing poverty, worsened by AIDS and recent crop-killing drought, has put even more young girls at risk of forced marriage.

"This practice has been there for a long time, but it is getting worse now because there is desperation," said Penston Kilembe, Malawi's director of social welfare services. "It is particularly prevalent in communities that have been hard hit by famine. Households that can no longer fend for themselves opt to sell off their children to wealthier households."

"The gains which were made in addressing early marriages are being lost," said Andrina Mchiela, principal secretary for the Ministry of Gender.

Women's rights advocates want to abolish marriage payments, or lobolo, saying they create a financial incentive for parents to marry off their daughters. But even the advocates describe the tradition as politically untouchable.

In its most benign form, lobolo is a token of appreciation from the groom's family to the bride's. At its most egregious, it turns girls into the human equivalent of cattle. In much of northern Malawi, lobolo negotiations are typically all-male discussions of down payments, installments, settlements and the occasional refund for a wife who runs off.

Jimmy Mwanyongo, a 45-year-old village headman in Karonga, explained the marriage of his daughter Edah much as he might any commercial transaction. Several years ago, he said, sitting on a straw mat in his six-room house, he promised to care for his neighbor's two cows.

Instead, he sold the cows to educate his adopted son. When the neighbor, Ridein Simfukwe, lost his wife a year later in 2002, Mr. Mwanyongo said he felt obliged to offer his daughter as a replacement. "Because I had sold the two cows, I had no choice," he said.

Edah was 17, doe-eyed and voluptuous. Even with an illegitimate son, her neighbors and relatives say, she had her pick of suitors. Mr. Simfukwe was 63, with nine grown children and a flock of grandchildren.

Mr. Simfukwe said he considered Edah a bit young for him. But "her father decided that although I am old, I am the right person."

"I think it was a tribute to my character," he said. "Edah was willing. I didn't tie ropes around her neck and drag her."

Edah said her father did everything but that. For nine months, she said, she held out until "I thought I would die of sorrow."

"My father refused to allow me to eat," she said. "He chased me from the house. He said, 'Go find somewhere where you can sleep!' He said, 'Go to your husband! If you don't want to go there, I will whip you to death!' "

Her mother, Tabu Harawa, sided with her daughter, to no avail. "I told him, 'It is like you are killing her,' " she said. "It was shameful."

She said, "If it happens again, I will divorce him."

Now 20, Edah has an 11-month-old girl and is racked by fears for her future. "My husband is old," she said, sitting on the porch of her tiny thatched hut. "He may die soon. Most likely he leave me with more children. So where will I go?"

Her life, she suggested, is about as free as that of the two prized oxen her father now hooks up to his wooden cart for springtime plowing. "I am like a slave," she said.

Some of Edah's neighbors pity her. Others joke that she has married her own grandfather. Their reaction is one hint that even the most traditional Africans are starting to frown on marriages of young women to old men, as Edah's mother said, "for the sake of cows."

Mwaka Simbeye has her fellow villagers in Chikutu to thank for her return to her parents' home after her sojourn in her neighbor's hut. Now back in the second grade, she is still young enough to be charmed by a simple game of toss. Her body remains that of a child's.

At Mr. Kalabo's, she said in a barely audible whisper, "I had to do all the household chores. Washing the plates, cleaning the house, fetching water, collecting firewood, cooking when the first wife wasn't around."

Her father, Mapendo Simbeye, who repaid his $16 debt with Mwaka, said he took her back after hearing that the police could arrest him. In a clearing that serves as the village social center, he said he underestimated her, adding, "My daughter is worth more than 2,000 kwacha."

"I did it out of ignorance," he said. "I had five kids, no money and no food. Then Mr. Kalabo wanted the money back so I thought of selling the daughter. I didn't know I was abusing her."

Mwaka's mother, Tighezge Simkonda, looks like an older version of her daughter and is no less shy. "I did object," she said softly, glancing nervously at her husband chatting nearby. "I said, 'My daughter is very young.' "

"But the control is with the man," she said. "The daughters belong to the man."




Study Tracks Millions of Child Brides

By RICK GLADSTONEJULY 21, 2014

More than 700 million women alive today were married as children, and about 250 million of them — more than one in three — were wed before they reached 15, Unicef said in a study released Monday, on the eve of an international meeting in London, the Girl Summit, sponsored by Unicef and the British government. It aims to mobilize efforts to end female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriages. The study said child marriage remains widespread in parts of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia is home to almost half of all child brides worldwide, the study found. While an adolescent girl today is about a third less likely to be subjected to genital mutilation compared with 30 years ago because of activism, legislation and changing attitudes, Unicef said that in countries where it is still practiced, parents “continue to compel their daughters to undergo the procedure because of strong social pressure.”

sounds more like a thinly veiled north/south tribalism division hit piece rather than trying to get a true understanding of the bill which focuses on rape and other offenses. under age marriage is another topic for the national assembly to address in the future.


Nigerian Senate Approves Life Imprisonment For Child Rapists
By Morgan Winsor

Nigeria’s Senate passed a bill Wednesday that approved life imprisonment for rapists and those who have sex with children under 11 years old, a Nigerian newspaper reported. The legislation could help build a stronger law against sexual crimes in the West African country where scores of women and children are subject to rape and sexual violence.

The bill included various sentences and fines for other sexual offenses such as incest, child pornography, sexual tourism, gang rape, sexual harassment, prostitution of mentally disabled persons, lacing drinks with drugs with intent to sexually abuse, and deliberately infecting someone with HIV and other diseases. The bill also mandated storing names of sex offenders in a database, Premium Times reported.

“Culprits would never be employed in any institution where they may pose a risk to unsuspecting persons. You can see that the penalties are weighty,” Sen. Chris Anyanwu, the bill’s sponsor, told the Nigerian newspaper Wednesday.

The bill also provides a witness protection program to safeguard victims and witnesses in trials for sexual crimes. The bill’s passage followed a report by Nigeria’s Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, which called for stricter penalties for sexual offenders, the Premium Times reported.

Rape and underage sex is widespread across Nigeria, and the country has long lacked strict legislation to provide legal backing for prosecuting sexual offenders. In one case, a pastor in Edo state was sentenced to just five years in prison for raping and impregnating a 12-year-old in 2013. The western state recorded 96 rape cases between January 2012 and August 2014, but only nine convictions were secured, according to an investigation by Premium Times.

“As the law stands now, there are lots of loopholes for offenders to escape convictions,” Henry Idahagbon, the attorney general and commissioner for justice in Edo, told the newspaper last year.

The new Sex Offences Bill could change that. The bill is expected to pass in Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Wednesday and then will need President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature to become effective. However, similar legislation fell short after passing in the Senate last year, under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch.

http://www.ibtimes.com/nigerian-senate-approves-life-imprisonment-child-rapists-1953232



Nigeria: Sexual Offences Bill and Life Sentence for Rapists

By Joseph Onyekwere

http://allafrica.com/stories/201411040256.html

me lazy, somebody post up some holy scripture on fornication ...

the most important section of the article ....



"In his presentation, Ribadu offered measures African countries can take to tackle illicit financial flow and repatriate money already illegally taken out of the African countries.

He said that what Africa needs is honest and committed leaders who will set examples with themselves by eschewing corruption and close avenues of illicit financial flow.

According to him, it is the seriousness and commitment showed by the political leadership that will convince other foreign countries to work with them towards recovering looted monies stashed abroad.

Ribadu also emphasised the need for concerted effort among countries and a synergy between law enforcement agencies so that looters could be caught."

[b]please merge if already posted ...

Military top brass meet in Nigeria on Boko Haram

https://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2013-08-26/d19448d6-6aaa-4359-a768-eadacf5fbca9_afp-gif_new.gif

Abuja (AFP) - Military top brass from Nigeria and surrounding countries met on Tuesday to thrash out plans to take on Boko Haram, as new Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari takes early steps aiming to defeat the militants.

Chiefs of defence staff from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin were holding talks in Abuja to determine strategies for a new, African Union-backed regional force against the rebels.

The long-awaited Multi-National Joint Task Force, which was due to have been operational in November, has its headquarters in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, under a senior Nigerian officer.

In the meantime, troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon have been fighting Boko Haram insurgents in northeast Nigeria for several months and have claimed a series of successes.

The Nigerian military announced on Monday evening that the chiefs of defence staff meeting was being held in preparation for talks between heads of state and government of all five countries.

Buhari, a former army general, has been Nigeria's president since May 29 and has made ending the six-year insurgency the top priority for his administration.

He immediately announced the transfer of the military command centre from Abuja to the strategic city of Maiduguri, in the northeastern rebel stronghold, and visited Niger and Chad to push for continued cooperation.

On Sunday, he travelled to the G7 summit of leading industrialised nations to garner further support from world powers on the security threat, including intelligence and training.

Buhari's nascent presidency has however seen an increase in suspected Boko Haram attacks, with 11 recorded since he took the oath of office and at least 93 deaths.[/b]

from ft.com


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d637902-0c3b-11e5-b712-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3cLVxPLBQ

Cameron to call for action on corruption at G7

Press Association


MUNICH, GERMANY - JUNE 05: Activists have installed balloons decorated with the portraits of (L-R) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama during a protest activity against the G7 summit on June 5, 2015 in Munich, Germany. Germany will host the G7 summit at Elmau Castle near Garmisch Partenkirchen, southern Germany, on June 7 and June 8, 2015.

Protest against the G7 summit on June 5 in Munich

Bribery allegations at Fifa should act as a spur for the international community to target the "cancer" of corruption in organisations, businesses and governments around the globe, David Cameron is to tell world leaders at a major summit.

The Prime Minister will use the G7 summit in Germany to call for an international effort to root out corruption, arguing that it is holding back economic growth and human development in countries all over the world.

He will condemn an international "taboo" on pointing the finger at corrupt institutions, and will say that the Fifa scandal has shown how shining a spotlight on an organisation can provide the trigger for cleaning up its operations.

Mr Cameron will join US president Barack Obama, French president Francois Hollande, Italian PM Matteo Renzi, Canadian PM Stephen Harper and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe for the two-day gathering, hosted at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps by Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mrs Merkel has put climate change and sustainable development at the top of the agenda for the annual summit of the world's leading industrialised economies beginning on Sunday, which will also focus on growth, security and the threat from terrorism and disease epidemics.

But Mr Cameron will argue that the issue of corruption - which he put at the heart of the UK's agenda for its presidency of the body in 2013 - has a bearing on all these areas and must be discussed openly as part of the debate.

He will cite World Bank estimates that corruption adds 10 per cent to business costs worldwide, with one trillion US dollars (£650 billion) paid in bribes every year.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) believes corruption costs around five per cent of global GDP annually, while in developing countries it can add 25 per cent to the cost of procurement, Mr Cameron will say.

Seven of the 10 most corrupt countries in sub-Saharan Africa are also in the bottom 10 on the human development index and infant mortality is twice as high in countries with the most corruption as in those with the least.

Mr Cameron will say that there is an onus on world leaders to do what they can to tackle the issue, and will call for action in the coming months to focus the efforts of the various international organisations tasked with combating corruption and ensure that they are working effectively with one another.

Anti-corruption measures should be at the heart of the new United Nations development goals for the coming 15 years due to be agreed in September, he will say.

British officials said the PM would speak of a "cancer of corruption that poisons and stifles" the progress which the G7 hopes to make on development and growth, and will say that the kind of scrutiny being applied to Fifa should not be restricted to the footballing body, but applied more widely. He is not, however, expected to name organisations and businesses which he would like to see put under the spotlight.

key topics of the meeting ....

The 41st G7 summit

Key topics for the summit

The G7 Summit 2015 in Schloss Elmau will focus on the global economy as well as on key issues regarding foreign, security and development policy. Additionally the UN conferences to be held in 2015 as well as the post-2015 agenda will be discussed.

Other key issues they will be addressing include

Protection of the marine environment, marine governance and resource efficiency,
Antibiotic resistance, neglected and poverty-related diseases, and Ebola,
Retail and supply chain standards, and
Empowering self-employed women and women in vocational training.

The leaders of the G7 countries will also discuss energy security, including as part of the Rome G7 Energy Initiative. The G7 Energy Initiative for Energy Security was launched at a meeting of the energy ministers of the G7 countries held in Rome in May 2014, at which agreement was reached on more joint measures to boost energy security. The leaders of the G7 countries then approved the principles of and measures under the Rome G7 Energy Initiative at their summit in June 2014.

In addition, they will continue the ongoing G7 process in regard to development policy.



Foreign and security policy

The G7's commitment to pursue a common foreign and security policy is extremely important given the numerous political crises the world over. In March 2014 the G7 declared that a meaningful discussion was currently not possible with Russia in the context of the G8. Since then meetings have continued within the G7 process.

On 15 April 2015, the Foreign Ministers included in their final communiqué a considerable amount of international crises and common challenges the international community is currently facing.[4] Special attention was also paid to the issue of Climate and Security. The Ministers welcomed the external study "An New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks",[5] which "analyses the compound risks of climate change on fragile states and regions, identifies critical pathways through which climate change is likely to have significant interactions with the stability and fragility of states and societies, and recommends that G7 governments should align their efforts toward the common goal of increasing resilience and reducing fragility in the face of global climate change.
Sustainable economic growth and free trade

The G7 countries are key actors in international economic relations, and as such they carry great responsibility for creating reliable, sustainable and viable global economic conditions. Dynamic and sustainable growth in industrialised, newly industrialising and developing countries is easier to achieve if those countries are agreed on basic issues around economic development, cross-border trade and an effective, prudent financial market architecture. That is why the G7 will continue to work towards establishing an enabling environment that is stable in the long term in order to promote dynamic, sustainable economic growth. Sound finances, open global markets and a well-functioning labour market have a key role to play in that. The G7 states will together continue to promote international trade.

daily show on Ramadan starting on the 16th of this month.

host will be Dr Zakir Naik

24/7 stream

http://www.peacetv.in/live_peacetv.html

sharp sharp good readers ....


"The official, who preferred anonymity,"

all4naija:
Please, the OP should change the title of the thread and the body of the post because it is misleading. The mod should, please, amend the thread for better understanding of the bill.

The link to the bill is below(if actually is what it entails.):

http://www.scribd.com/doc/267639198/Nigeria-Sexual-Offences-Bill-2013#scribd

the op may have done it on purpose to ensnare the mumu readers and incite bigotry.
grand scale mischief making!

thread title tricked the readers, the new law punishes offenders with life imprisonment for abusing children 11 and under. It doesn't mention the statute and punishment for going near girls 11 to 18 yrs of age or whatever the age of legal consent is in the federal republic. can a NL lawyer find the page of the law?


Senate Makes 11 Years The Legal Age To Have Sex In Nigeria

already posted on NL

https://www.nairaland.com/2356821/breaking-first-terror-attack-ghana



'75 dead in Goil Filling Station fire'

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=360811


https://cdn.ghanaweb.com/imagelib/pics/92593902.295.jpg

from gw

'75 dead in Goil Filling Station fire'

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=360811

https://cdn.ghanaweb.com/imagelib/pics/92593902.295.jpg

Over seventy-five dead bodies have been retrieved at the Goil Filling Station at the Nkrumah Circle in Accra that caught fire during Wednesday’s torrential rains.

The Ghana National Fire Service has confirmed that officially 75 people are dead and fears the number could rise as the salvage operation continues.

It is, however, unclear what sparked the inferno at the Service Station behind the GCB Towers and opposite the Vienna City night club.

Meanwhile, people helping the security services in the rescue operation are telling Starr News that about 96 charred bodies have been found.

Starr News’ Asabea Akornor who is at the scene reports that the police are still counting and bringing out the victims from their respective homes around the scene of the outbreak.

The inferno followed hours of heavy downpour in the capital that led to power outages in several communities.

Accra is flooded following torrential rains that continued for several hours.

Hundreds of workers in the capital have been left stranded at their work places as the heavy downpour submerges the city.

Most of the principal streets in Accra are flooded and unmotorable as commercial and private vehicles are trapped in the deluge which is above knee level.

Most of the drivers have parked their vehicles on the inner and outer pavements to prevent their vehicles from being carried away by the flood.

Tables, chairs and broken stalls of sellers could be seen floating on the submerged streets, especially on the Ring Road and Nkrumah Circle.

Reports reaching Starrfmonline.com indicate that walls have collapsed at flood-prone areas like Awoshie, Santa Maria, Kwashiebu and Tabora and their surrounding areas and residents are struggling to evacuate their homes for safety.

comments

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=360811&comment=0#com

"President Buhari was said to have told Fashola and Amaechi to their faces in one of the All Progressives Congress"

"We however gathered from a reliable source,"


stories are coming out every from unnamed so-called reliable sources.

was she shoplifting? and who is she?

"a source who pleaded anonymity"

stopped reading after dat

beautiful eyes and lips.... me wanna kiss this babe


https://www.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Beverly.jpg

The toast of E. Africa.


Walmart lines up for slice of Kenyan retail

Katrina Manson in Nairobi

[img]http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/4aff037d-14f3-4e13-b9cb-d491802af438.img[/img]



Value store: Game’s newly opened Garden City shopping mall took 8,990 till sales on its first trading day

Even as Walmart raced to open its first store in Kenya, there were snags. The retailer was forced to import the trademark bright magenta ink that adorns its brash price offers and doorway décor because nobody in the country could produce it.

It was one of several obstacles the world’s largest retailer has run into in Kenya. The US retail giant has spent the past few years trying — and failing — to crack the east African hub, whose growth is fuelled by aspirational consumption.



Walmart’s move into Kenya highlights the sea change in the continent, as a nascent consumer class expands and draws in foreign investors who had previously overlooked the African middle class — estimated at a total 350m people by some metrics. Accelerating growth in the continent, forecast at 4.5 per cent this year and 5 per cent next, outstrips that of all global regions bar developing Asia.

“We should have been here a while ago but we just couldn’t get the deal right — unfortunately it’s taken us too long,” says Mark Turner, marketing director at Massmart, the South African group in which Walmart bought a controlling stake in 2011.

Massmart’s chain Game already has 172 other outlets in 11 African countries, but Kenya has long been the prize beyond its reach. It is also a potential pathway for expanding Walmart’s existing presence in east Africa, a region of 240m people.

At $53bn, Kenya’s economy is far smaller than Nigeria’s $509bn economy — Africa’s largest — where Game already has stores. But it holds the retail crown for the continent. While only 5 per cent of Nigeria’s retail sector consists of formal shopping, rather than open-air markets and small kiosks, in Kenya the proportion is 30 per cent.

“The middle class in Kenya is really growing. It’s more appealing, it’s more sophisticated and it’s ready for formal retail,” says Mr Turner. Massmart considered branding its Kenyan store as Africa’s first 2Walmart,” but in the end decided against because it is too hard to manage two brands at once, he adds.
Walmart 2

When Game ultimately opened its Kenyan doors last week, they revealed something more akin to a wholesalers’ warehouse than a flashy modern supermarket. Wide aisles, entire banks of kettles, toilet rolls, fridges and televisions make the offering clear — no frills, and no-frills prices to boot. The store launched with a host of heavily discounted deals and promises to refund the difference plus an extra 10 per cent if they failed to undercut fierce competition.
“They have really good bargains for the price, especially on duvets,” says Mumbi, a 34-year-old mother of two who rushed into the store before work.
[img]http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/f96ace94-0871-11e5-b38c-00144feabdc0.img[/img]


Her two overladen trolleys at the checkout were filled with $190 worth of goods, including duvets, toys and a cafetière. Mumbi, who did not want to give her surname, says she was only disappointed there were not more international brands on offer in the store, half of whose wares are sourced locally. The most expensive television, from Samsung, is $4,300.

Although Kenya is richly coveted by retailers and the foreign investors who back them, entry into the sector is notoriously difficult, thanks to a series of tightly held family-owned supermarket chains and a dearth of affordable space.
Walmart 1 replace

Walmart spent years trying to buy Naivas, the country’s fourth-biggest chain, before shareholder wrangling saw family members sue each other and finally put a stop to Walmart’s efforts last year. In 2007, Game also failed to secure a space in Westgate, which was the country’s flagship shopping mall until a 2013 terrorist attack, because it could not agree terms.

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“If we can’t run the right cost model we can’t give the consumer what they need,” says Mr Turner. “It’s about finding the right property deal with the right partner in the right location.”

Walmart favours greenfield retail space, and believes the answer to its Kenya woes comes in the form of Garden City, a sleek new shopping mall designed by the same team who created west London’s Westfield shopping centre. It is part of a $250m development from UK private equity house Actis, which has a 60 per cent equity stake, along with CDC, the UK government’s development finance institution, with 31 per cent, and the World Bank’s IFC.

Unlike more gloomy dens in Nairobi, the centre is light and breezy: overlapping freestanding leaves comprise the roof. On the first day of trading, as hard-hatted labourers still hammered at building work with only 30 of 120 stores open and several stairwells still closed to the public, the region’s biggest shopping mall drew 15,000 shoppers.

“We think we will get triple the basket spend and double the dwell time of the nearest shopping mall,” says Mike Kingshott, development director at Garden City, who says a forthcoming cinema will also attract an evening crowd.

However, Game, which says it is targeting sales of $1.12m a month from 35,000 shoppers, faces considerable competition. Nakumatt, the region’s biggest chain with 39 stores in Kenya alone, has also opened a store in Garden City. It was deluged by so many shoppers on opening they bumped into one another.
"We should have been here a while ago but we just couldn’t get the deal right — unfortunately it’s taken us too long"

- Mark Turner, marketing director at Massmart

However, Game rang up more than twice the number of till sales as Nakumatt on the first day of trading, at 8,990 versus 4,000.

“Game can’t just have one store — to be any threat to Nakumatt they have to have five, seven, 10,” says Mr Kingshott.

Game says it wants to open at least four stores and is actively looking at two new sites.

Nakumatt managing director Atul Shah, counting customers on his newest shopfloor, believes he can give Game a run for its money. And if Walmart tried the acquisition route again in the region, his company would be ready. “If they come with a price [for Nakumatt] . . . everything is for sale,” he says.
Developers rush to build new malls despite Westgate attack

Competition for a slice of Kenyan retail is so fierce that Walmart is already locked out of Nairobi’s next two big mall developments. These are the Hub, a shopping centre in the leafy Karen suburb, and Two Rivers Lifestyle Centre, a 40-acre development near several upmarket suburbs that will dwarf Garden City when it opens later this year. Two Rivers will be the biggest mall in the sub-continent outside South Africa.

In both the new malls, France’s Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer, will be the anchor tenant as it makes its first foray into sub-Saharan Africa. Exclusivity clauses deem Walmart’s Game to be too close a competitor, in part because of its fresh food offering. Walmart was also nearly pipped to the post at Garden City — Carrefour tried to secure a place but was unable to do so once Game had signed.

Westgate, the country’s flagship shopping mall, was devastated by a 2013 terrorist massacre that killed 67 people. Despite the attack, developers are rushing to put up new malls as the growing middle class expands its geographic and financial reach and Kenya improves its infrastructure.

The 32-acre Garden City site just outside the capital upped its security plans in the wake of Westgate, and now has undercover armed agents. The development combines shopping with apartments and offices in what a few years ago would have been ludicrously far off the beaten track.

When Actis first eyed the plot of land in 2007, it was for a light manufacturing zone. But a $360m 12-lane superhighway launched in 2012 changed everything. It overhauled what was previously a two-lane log-jammed road regularly deluged by flooding, and turned an industrial prospect into a retail one.

Garden City forecasts that the number of people within its catchment area, at 1.15m today, will grow 11 per cent by 2017.

“When you put in a transformative piece of infrastructure the middle class moves,” says Koome Gikunda at Actis, adding that prohibitive land prices in more established neighbourhoods have also sent middle-income families searching for cheaper environs.

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