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Fantastic, a neglected giant on the rise again, 16 years of neglect! what a waste we will surely get to the heights we are supposed to reach as a nation insha Allah

Viepoint IN BRIEF: Home grown solution to postal challenges By Abiodun Komolafe Dilapidated buildings! Rickety vehicles! Out of date, out-of-tune equipment! Unmotivated staff! Disproportionate salary structures! The past in the life of NIPOST was replete with woes! But perhaps the greatest challenge to an organization that renders such immense, sensitive and very essential postal services here as in the rest of Africa as to the developed world is that it still operates under The Stamp Duties Act Cap S8 LFN 2004 of 1939. Determined to disentangle NIPOST from the conflictal contradictions of development and the accoutrements of democracy, President Muhammadu Buhari opted for a better future for the once “transmission-of-letters-and-postal- materials-only”. A new management, under the headship of Bisi Adegbuyi, was saddled with the onerous responsibility of repositioning the outfit with a view to making it compete favourably in the comity of world’s postal systems. For a fact, the lawyer-turned-Post-Master General’s immense contributions to the development of the organization’s universality as well as the creation of an efficient, effective and a technology-driven, market-led government agency have surpassed expectations. As one of the largest postal industries in Africa with over-1000 major Post Offices and close to 4,000 Postal Agencies, spread across Nigeria’s 36 states and Abuja, the Adegbuyi-led management has within a short period of 2 years transformed the state-owned government monopoly into an awards-winning outfit. For instance, while equally-challenged outfits elsewhere were lamenting their predicament, NIPOST simply chose to think out of the box. Its ‘NIPOST Vision 2002’ strategic roadmap, especially, the creation of a lean headquarters and empowered Business Units and Zones led to an unprecedented N700 million increase in revenue and a 40% reduction in expenditure in 2017. In other to meet the yearning demands of a globalized world where competitive advantage is now the order of the day, NIPOST rolled out 12 new, game-changing products and services. They are: IPS Track and Trace, E-Stamp; Address Verification System (AVS); Whats3Words; E-Money Order; and NIPOST/ Bank of Agriculture Agency Banking. Others include E-Commerce; E-Insurance; International Money Order (now an appetizer for global players like Jumia, Konga, DHL and FEDEX in the discharge of their duties); and Card Services. Last but not the least is the NIPOST Youth Engagement Scheme (N-YES), designed to discover and productively engage the ingenuity of the Nigerian youth. I am also aware of plans to unbundle NIPOST into five companies: Banking and Insurance; Property and Development; Transport; E-Commerce; and E-Government. Incontestably, this will go a long way in improving the quality of its products and services, in addition to increase in its revenue base. But one other area of innovative opportunities which Nigerians explore is partnering with professional bodies and examination boards like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and National Examinations Commission (NECO) in the area of provision of security documents for professional examinations. While the roles of NIPOST in creating an inclusive society and making greater contributions to the nation’s socio-economic development cannot be underestimated, the shared vision and determination to make a difference which has created a vision for every member of staff towards seeing that the organization moves with the time cannot be overemphasized either. Apart from the recruitment of new hands, christened ‘The Innovation Team’, to shore up its operations,NIPOST deserves a pat on the back for the Postal Proceeds Bill which was recently passed into law by the National Assembly! Give it to the organization that the Act is coming at a time Nigeria is looking for alternative means of generating funds outside of oil which is no longer sustainable as a means of keeping the nation’s economy afloat. With many countries stepping up efforts to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the postal sector in Nigeria remains an enabler of inclusive development and an essential component of the global economy. A simple example is the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NIPOST and BoA for the distribution of the Bank’s farm produce and implements to farmers through the Post Offices. At a time the Buhari administration is doing all it can to revamp Nigeria’s ailing economy and place it on a path to sustainable growth, trusting NIPOST as a highly qualified and competitive communications brand couldn’t have come at a more auspicious time. But, in a country where programme rigmarole and policy somersault have established a prima facie case against developmental strides in this part of the globe, how far it can go in taking advantages of modern science and global markets to provide home- grown solutions to Nigeria’s multifaceted postal challenges will be a matter of interest to Nigerians. •Komolafe is resident at 020, Okenisa Street, Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk) https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/06/new-nipost-possible/

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…as 2-day SeedConnect Conference Africa 2018
kicks off
By Gabriel Ewepu
ABUJA- THE Federal Government, Tuesday,
disclosed that the Jonathan-led administration
initiated agricultural programme, Growth
Enhancement Scheme, GES, will soon be replaced
with Agricultural Inputs and Mechanisation
Services, AIMS, for effective service delivery of
farm inputs to farmers across the country.
Ogbeh
This was made known by the Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu
Ogbeh, in his speech at the opening ceremony of
a 2-day SeedConnect Conference Africa 2018 in
Abuja.
The conference with theme, ‘The Nigerian Seed
Industry: Evaluating the Seed Sector and
Developing a Sustainable Framework to Bolster
the Growth of the Seed Industry’ has over 300
participants from Ghana, Niger Republic, Cote
D’Ivoire, Switzerland, and others, with over 26
companies showcasing their seeds.
Ogbeh said the essence of AIMS was to cut huge
cost involved in GES, which the Jonathan
administration left a debt of N67 billion owed
agro-dealers, and it has been a huge burden on
the shoulders of the present government,
although agro-dealers under GES are being paid
their money.
According to him while explaining about AIMS,
said will at the beginning have three trained
distributors of farm inputs in each of the 774 local
government areas, where farmers would access
farm inputs including fertilizers, hybrid seeds and
mechanization service.
He added that with AIMS fake seeds dealers
could be traced and dealt with according to law.
However, he acknowledged that the negative
effects of fake seeds have frustrated many
investors in the sector.
He said: “We are going to create a programme
called Agricultural Inputs and Mechanisation
Services, AIMS, we will name distributors in the
local government areas.
“The good seed companies we know will use
those distributors to sell those seeds to farmers
depending on the crops they are growing, if it is
rice, maize, sorghum or millet including soya
beans or beans.
“If the seeds fail on the farm the farmer will come
back to the distributor and also complain to us
then the Ministry will take the distributor up on
the matter. By that way we will know who is what
and who is doing what. The farmer does not lose
money.
“Lots of young people women, professionals are
going into agric and we don’t want people to go
spend and lose their money and go away
regretting, and that is the problem we have with
agric now, and I have had that bitter experience
after planting seed nothing grows. We hope that
Nigerians will cooperate.
“The distributors will be trained, they will have the
phone numbers of those producing the seeds,
addresses, and we too will know who they are
and what they are distributing and where so that
and there will be no question of buying stuff and
running away.”
According to the Minister adverts will be placed
on newspapers and people will apply as
distributors, and directors of agriculture at the
states, even local government chairmen will
know who is where, and there will be no question
of running away. He said they will be supported
by the Bank of Agriculture to enable them lend,
hire machines out, give seeds and give general
support, then government will train extension
workers to teach farmers on how to plant their
seeds.
In his remarks the Governor of Kebbi State,
Abubakar Bagudu, said the government should do
more to protect local seed companies with
favourable trade policies, and also task local seed
companies to partner with bigger and foreign
seed companies for a win-win situation.
“Seed companies should partner with bigger and
foreign seed companies for a win-win situation”,
Bagudu stated.
While speaking on the essence of the conference
the Director General, National Agricultural Seed
Council, NASC, Dr Philip Ojo, said the council has
done well and has been the leader in Africa and
pointed out that with Nigeria supplying 70 per cent
of hybrid seeds in Africa, a lot needs to be done to
boost it up.
Ojo said the seed industry in Nigeria has a lot of
challenges, therefore needs more attention which
include combating fake seed dealers, fund
constraints, capacity building, improved
infrastructure, quality control, inadequate
logistics, low quality seeds from some research
institutes, poor handling of breeder seeds,
inadequate personnel, inadequate seed testing
facilities, poor feedback from stakeholders,
inadequate training of seed producers, and
others. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/06/fg-to-replace-ges-with-aims-for-effective-farm-inputs-delivery/

The Army is testing and prototyping self-generating
“Ironman-like” soldier exoskeletons, designed to
massively change combat missions by supporting
soldier movement, generating electricity, powering
weapons systems and substantially lowering the
weight burden of what troops carry in war.
Energy-harvesting technology can extend mission
life for small units or dismounted soldiers on-patrol.
The emerging concept, described by Army
developers as a technical breakthrough is
engineered, not so much for the near-term, but 10
to 20 years down the road.
“The design is for an energy-harvesting
exoskeleton to address the needs of dismounted
soldiers. The system can derive energy from the
motion of the soldier as they are moving around,”
Dr. Nathan Sharps, mechanical engineer, Army
Communications-Electronics Research,
Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) told
Warrior Maven in an interview.
The implications of this kind of technology are
significant. While exoskeletons have been in
development for several years now, the technology
consistently confronts the challenge of finding ways
to sustain mobile power sources to support and
sustain its functionality.
Furthermore, current use of batteries brings
significant combat challenges due to difficulty
recharging and the massive amount of weight
involved in hauling them through combat.
For instance, should a soldier carry a portable 35-
pound generator, water, ammunition, weapons and
communications equipment, mission duration and
soldier effectiveness is greatly impacted. The Army
has been pursuing various efforts to “lighten the
load” for soldiers for many years now.
“The technologies we are developing can produce
electricity, which can be stored and used to power
batteries. This increases the longevity of a mission,
decreases the need for resupply and reduces the
logistics trail,” Sharps explained.
Sharps further elaborated that during intense
combat engagement, casualties often occur during
logistics resupply missions.
An added advantage is that, while the technology
harvests energy from the motion of soldiers, it also
simultaneously eases the strain on their joints and
muscles due to its apparatus.
“This decreases the chance of muscular-skeletal
injury. We look at the soldier as an individual
ecosystem. We’re not just looking at what they
cannot do right now, but also at what challenges
they are going to face 20 years from now,” Sharps
said.
The emerging system, currently in the early phases
of exploration, calls upon a collaborative effort
between CERDEC, the Army Research Laboratory
and the Army’s Natick Soldier Center.
The scientists explain that added electrical energy
decreases the number of calories a soldier has to
burn.
“When you move, you bounce up and down, and the
gait motion is an inverted pendulum. If you lift every
step thousands of times, it is a whole lot of energy
you are expending,” said Juliane Douglas,
mechanical engineer, CERDEC, told Warrior Maven.
The Army is currently exploring various
configurations for the exoskeleton, some of which
include a suspended backpack, which can slide up
and down on a spring, having little or no weight
impact on the soldier.
“In mechanical engineering terms, if you have
masses moving together, there is a kinetic energy
difference between the two. We have mechanisms
which can convert that linear motion into
electricity,” explained Douglas.
This technical advantage will impact a wide array of
emerging systems now being built into
exoskeletons. Not surprisingly, many of these rely
upon mobile power to operate.
For example, helmets with high-resolution thermal
sensors, wearable computers, various kinds of
conformal body armor and even many weapons
systems are now being built into a range of
Ironman-like exoskeletons.
U.S. Special Operations Command’s current TALOS
effort is working with a wide sphere of industry,
military and academic experts on plans to build
initial exoskeleton prototypes within the next year or
two. This longer-term CERDEC effort is the kind of
thing which could easily merge with, or integrate
into, some of these exoskeletons now being built.
The project, formally called Tactical Light Operator
Suit, or TALOS, is aimed at providing special
operators, such as Navy SEALs and Special Forces,
with enhanced mobility and protection technologies,
a Special Operations Command, or SOCOM,
statement said.
The technologies currently being developed include
body suit-type exoskeletons, strength and power-
increasing systems and additional protection. A
SOCOM statement said some of the potential
technologies planned for TALOS research and
development include advanced armor, command
and control computers, power generators, and
enhanced mobility exoskeletons. -- To Read Warrior
Maven's TALOS story CLICK HERE ---
Also, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology are developing a next-generation kind
of armor called “liquid body armor.”
It “transforms from liquid to solid in milliseconds
when a magnetic field or electrical current is
applied,” the Army's website said.
TALOS will have a physiological subsystem that lies
against the skin that is embedded with sensors to
monitor core body temperature, skin temperature,
heart rate, body position and hydration levels, an
Army statement also said.
Army evaluators have also been assessing a
Lockheed-built FORTIS knee-stress-release-
device exoskeleton with soldiers at Fort A.P. Hill as
part of a focus on fielding new performance
enhancing soldier technologies.
Using independent actuators, motors and
lightweight conformal structures, lithium ion battery
powered FORTIS allows soldiers to carry 180
pounds up five flights of stairs while expending less
energy.
FORTIS is built with a conformal upper structure
that works on a belt attached to the waist. The belt
connects with flexible hip sensors throughout the
systems. These sensors tell the computer where
the soldier is in space along with the speed and
velocity of the movements.
CERDEC developers say their effort is observing
and working closely with many of these efforts
looking to find exoskeleton technologies able to
better protect and enable soldiers in combat.
“What we are doing is designing the conversion
technologies to make many of these technologies
more effective by storing the energy. We are testing
prototypes, and we are able to leverage current
exoskeleton work and use it as a platform for our
systems,” Douglas said.
This story originally appeared on Warrior Maven . http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/06/06/army-prototypes-new-self-powering-iron-man-soldier-suits.html

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NIGERIAN MEN IN USA, KILLING THEIR IMPORTED WIVES FROM NIGERIA.

Not every man can take the disappointing and humiliation from NIgeria wives imported to America. Wives killers on rampage in the US
An Epidemic: Nigerian Men Killing Their Nurse Wives In America "Yes, I have killed the woman that messed up my life; the woman that has destroyed me. I am at Shalom West. My name is David and I am all yours.” Those were David Ochola’s words during his 911 (U.S. Emergency Number) call to authorities after shooting dead, his 28 years old wife, Priscilla Ochola, in Hennepin, Minnesota.

The 50-years old, husband was tired of being “disrespected” by his wife, a Registered Nurse (RN) whom he had brought from Nigeria and sponsored through nursing school only to have her make much more than him in salary - a situation which led to Mrs. Ochola “coming and going as she chose without regard for her husband.”
The couple had two children – four years old boy and a three year old girl.

In Texas, Babajide Okeowo had been separated from his wife, Funke Okeowo, with whom he resided at their Dallas home. Upon the divorce, the husband lost the house to his wife, along with most of the contents therein, as is usually the tradition in the U.S. Divorces where the couple still has underage children.
Mr. Okeowo, 48, divorced his wife because not long after she became an RN and made more money than him, she “took control” of the family finances and “controlled” her husband’s expenditure and movement.
The husband could no longer make any meaningful contribution to his family back in Nigeria unless the wife “approved” it. He could not go out without her permission. Frustrated that his formerly malleable wife had suddenly become such a “terror” to him to the point of asking for in court and getting virtually everything for which he had worked since coming to the US thirty years prior, the husband got in his vehicle and drove a few hundred miles to Dallas to settle the scores.

He found her in her SUV, adorned in full Nigerian attire on her way to the birthday bash organized in her honor. She had turned 46 on that day. Mr. Okeowo fired several rounds into his wife’s torso while she sat at the steering wheel, mercilessly killing her in broad daylight.

Also in Dallas (they sure need anger management classes in Dallas), Moses Egharevba, 45, did not even bother to get a gun. The husband of Grace Egharevba, 35, bludgeoned her to death with a sledge hammer while their seven year old daughter watched and screamed for peace.
Mrs. Egharevba’s “sin” was that she became an RN and started to make more money than her husband. This led to her “financial liberation” from a supposedly tight-fisted husband who had not only brought her from Nigeria, but had also funded her nursing school education.

Like Moses Egharevba, Christopher Ndubuisi of Garland, Texas, (these Texas people!) also did not bother to get a gun. He crept into the bedroom where his wife, Christiana, was sleeping and, with several blows of the sledge hammer, crushed her head.
Two years before Christiana was killed, her mother, who had been visiting from Nigeria, was found dead in the bathtub under circumstances believed to be suspicious.

Of course, Christiana was a RN whose income dwarfed that of her husband as soon as she graduated from nursing school. The husband believed that his role as a husband and head of the household had been usurped by his wife.
Mr. Ndubuisi’s several entreaties to his wife’s family to intercede and bring Christiana back under his control had all failed.

If the circumstances surrounding the death of Christiana’s mother were suspicious, those surrounding the death of a Tennessee woman’s mother were not. Agnes Nwodo, an RN, lived in squalor before her husband, Godfrey Nwodo, rescued her and brought her to the US. He enrolled her in nursing school right away. Upon qualifying as a RN, Mrs. Nwodo assumed “full control” of the household. She brought her mother to live with them against her husband’s wishes. Mrs. Nwodo quickly familiarized herself with US Family Laws and took full advantage of them.
Each time the couple argued, the police forced the husband to leave the house whether he had a place to sleep or not. On many occasions, Mr. Nwodo spent days in police cells. Upon divorcing his wife, Mr. Nwodo lost to his wife, the house he had owned for almost 20 years before he married her.
He also lost custody of their three children to her, with the court awarding him only periodic visitation rights. Even seeing the children during visitation was always a hassle as the wife would “arrive late at the neutral meeting place and leave early with impunity.”

Mr. Nwodo endured so many embarrassing moments from his wife and her mother until he could take it no more. One day, he bought himself a shotgun and killed both his wife and her mother.

Caleb Onwudike’s wife, Chinyere Onwudike, 36, became a RN and no longer saw the need to be controlled by her husband. Mr. Onwudike, 41, worked two jobs to send his wife to her dream school upon bringing her to the US from Nigeria. After four years, she qualified as an RN. Once she started to make more money than her husband, she began to “call the shots” at home. She “overruled” her husband on the size and cost of the house they purchased in Burtonsville, Maryland. She began to build a house solely in her name in their native Umuahia town of Abia State, Nigeria, without her husband’s input whatsoever.

Mrs. Onwudike came and went “as she liked,” within the US and outside the US. In fact, she once travelled to Nigeria for three weeks “without her husband’s permission” to lavishly bury her father, despite her husband’s protestations that they had better things to do with the money.
Mrs. Onwudike let her husband know that this was mostly her money and she would spend it however she wanted. Through her hard work, she had risen to a managerial position at the medical center where she worked.
Upon her return from burying her father, her husband got one of her kitchen knives and carved her up like a Thanksgiving turkey inside their home on New Year’s Day.

Death is death, no matter how it comes. But the goriest of these maniacal killings is probably the one that happened here in Los Angeles, California.
Joseph Mbu, 50, was tired of his RN wife’s “serial disrespect” of him. The disrespect began as soon as she became a RN. Gloria Mbu, 40, had once told her husband he must be “smoking crack cocaine” if he thought he could tell her what to do with her money now that she made more money than him.

Before she became a RN, Mr. Mbu had been very strict with family finances and was borderline dictatorial in his dealings with Mrs. Mbu. However, Mrs. Mbu learned the American system and would no longer allow any man to “put her down.” When Joseph Mbu could not take it anymore, he subdued his wife one day, tied her to his vehicle and dragged her on paved roads all around Los Angeles until her head split in many pieces.
#Copied.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/horror-nigerian-men-go-rampage-us-kill-wives-divorce-alimony/

PMB RE-ELECTION UPDATE: WHY I ACCEPTED TO SERVE - BY FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb (UK),

Just yesterday, my appointment as the Director, Strategic Communications of President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation was made public. In that capacity, I would be the Official Spokesperson of the President’s campaigns for the 2019 Presidential Election.

Let me put it on record that I was indeed consulted before the announcement. Upon the offer, I wholeheartedly and proudly accepted the challenge to do this for the good of my country and for posterity. For in President Buhari I have found an approximation of the lofty values I cherish and have fought for all my life.

I know millions of Nigerians have never seen me in the mould of partisan politics. This is because for the past two and half decades, I have been under intense public scrutiny while engaging successive governments (military and civilian) in the most critical way possible. The public has also watched me grow steadily all the way from that young, restless lawyer to the exalted position of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). In the process of my restless and relentless engagements of the authorities, I have been hounded, arrested, detained, paraded like a criminal, charged and discharged from courts severally, but remain unbowed. Hence, some of us have been branded as “radicals” and seen as completely apolitical.

However, the ultimate aim of every struggle is not really to enthrone a perfect, flawless system. Only the starry-eyed, younger ones think such is possible. That is Utopia. Rather, the ultimate aim of the struggle is to enthrone a government (yes, even with the normal human flaws) that is focused, determined and fiercely opposed to the unscrupulous wheeler-dealers in the society, committed to protecting the interests of the down-trodden, the weak and vulnerable.

One of the obvious ways to do this is to ensure that what belongs to all is not cornered by a few; and if they do so, to ensure that they are made to account and brought to justice. I can boldly say that no Government in the history of Nigeria has recovered so much looted funds as that of President Muhammadu Buhari. The fact that this Government has clearly chosen this path in protecting the masses of our country (as unpleasant as it has been to some) is one of the many reasons why I am so proud and bold about my support for the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In doing this, I take a cue from my revered late boss, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN who mentored me. Throughout his career, he also consistently and fiercely engaged every government in Nigeria and suffered as a result. Guess what? THE ONLY GOVERNMENT HE FULLY SUPPORTED THROUGHOUT HIS LIFETIME was that led by General Muhammdu Buhari in 1984 – 1985; and that was to the chagrin of some of his professional colleagues and fellow “radicals”. However, he saw what they did not see at that time, because when that government was overthrown by General Babangida, what followed was the worst era in our history in terms of institutionalizing corruption and political chicanery in Nigeria. In the 2007 Presidential election, my late boss again endorsed General Buhari in the following words: “When we talk of anti-corruption war, there is no way you will exclude General Buhari. I don’t want to hear what a political party is going to do, whether ANPP or PDP or NDP or which other political organization. Tell me who is leading the party, tell me who is leading the government, that’s my concern. It’s a matter of leadership. This is a serious election, very serious one”.

Some of those same forces and interests that saw the back of General Buhari in 1985 are still very much around with us. You can hear their voices getting louder of late, preaching hate and toiling hard to incite the people against the President. They want us to go back to our old ways, disguised as if they genuinely care for the masses of this country. When you look at the profile and ignoble antecedents of these characters - the emergency heroes, some of us have no option but to undertake this role we have been called upon to assume just to ensure that they do not succeed in their selfish enterprise.

For all I have said above, my convictions about this job are deep and well thought-out. Given my background, it is clear that I cannot be a sycophantic rabble-rouser, looking for some personal gains. Having reached the top echelon of my career, some of us can conveniently stay away from all these, and continue to earn a good living from our thriving law practice. However, the call of duty beckons because we are at a critical crossroads in our history where one wrong turn may take us back to the sorry state from which we are emerging. We are here to convince and appeal to the masses not to allow us take that wrong turn.

Now, it is important I elaborate a bit on this “sorry state” from which we are coming. Some people always attempt to befuddle the issues by continually reminding us of certain statistics that existed before 2015 and after 2015. However, our situation before 2015 is comparable to that of a car on a high speed, seemingly doing well on the road, but with the temperature gauge already rising. That car is in trouble. But to the uninformed, the car would be seen as doing well.

However, the callous driver, fully aware of the rising temperature in the engine, continues to speed on. After some time, it is inevitable that the engine of the car would overheat and crash. In that state, the callous driver hands over the car to the new driver. The new driver, seeing the condition of the vehicle, decides to fix the radiator first which is responsible for the overheating in order to protect the engine, before setting out on the road again. Yet, the callous driver mischievously calls everyone to come and see how the new driver has parked the car to fix the engine before setting out once again. The callous driver tells everyone that the new driver is clueless; that that is why the car was parked briefly.

The above anecdote is a graphic reflection of the situation we find ourselves. With the crash in oil prices just before 2015, the previous government resorted to borrowing to pay salaries and recklessly drew down on our foreign reserves, just to give the impression that all was well. So much unearned money was also circulating in the country amongst a few, giving the false impression that we were in a buoyant economy. However, the economy was headed for a crash. All the indices show that the slip into recession started shortly before this government took over, like the car which engine was already over-heating.

The attempt by a few to deceive the people that all was well with us before this government took over, is one of the reasons some of us have decided to come out of our shells to put a hole in that false narrative. It is simply a big lie. I am persuaded that the Buhari Government took the right measures to halt a bigger disaster awaiting our economy had it been otherwise. Those who are persuaded otherwise are within their legitimate right to do so. We are all patriots, trying to find the right answers to our problems as a nation. However, if you are persuaded otherwise, kindly state in details what exactly should have been done to run the economy better, given the crash in oil prices and production that dropped to around 700,000 barrels per day. Surely, discerning Nigerians would no longer buy the fable of “Buhari destroyed our economy”.

If I voted Buhari in 2015 and I am to vote for him again in 2019, then why can’t I campaign vigorously for him? I see no reason. It is a fallacy to say you are neutral in politics, yet you step forward to cast your vote at elections. If you are persuaded enough to vote for a candidate of your choice, then you must also be persuaded enough to campaign for that candidate, because your vote would be lost if you do not convince others to also adopt your position.

That is why I have made my choice for 2019 and I will publicly stand by it. That choice is President Muhammadu Buhari. For those who are persuaded otherwise, I challenge them to also name their choices because you cannot criticise my choice of a candidate without naming your own choice. After all, the President would not be running against ghosts or against a vacuum. Therefore, this is not a time to hide behind a blanket criticism of any candidate. Each candidate should be assessed in comparative terms with other candidates.

There has also been much attempt to de-market the President using his age and health as pummeling tools, and as such raising the decibel in the clarion call for a young or younger President. Firstly, on the issues of age and health, it would be ungodly and outrageous for a mere mortal to assume the status of God Almighty to speculate on the longevity or strength of any human being. Even doctors have been proven wrong on so many occasions. It is a matter entirely in the hands of God. Our past Presidents that died in office (Abacha and Yar’Adua) were in their prime. In fact, Abacha did not even show any sign of a failing health before he slumped and died. In Zimbabwe, the main opposition candidate for years, Morgan Tsvangirai used the issue of age and health to campaign against President Mugabe, urging him to go and retire and rest. Yet, just a few weeks ago, Morgan Tsvangirai died at the age of 65 and Mugabe is still alive and kicking at the age of 94. Those are the mysterious ways of God Almighty. No human being should even use that as a campaign gimmick. That person would be courting the wrath of God Almighty.

In addition, no one can argue that age has anything to do with the required integrity to be the President of a country. I also firmly believe that our value systems in politics and the society have been so damaged pre-2015, that a firm and experienced hand is needed to reset our collective psyche before we can set sail again. The notion that public office is just available to share money which was the norm pre-2015 is gradually being changed.

Spending a few more years to sustain that kind of re-orientation will do us a world of good. President Buhari is one of the very last of the upright Mohicans in Nigeria available to help reclaim public integrity before he takes his bow in 2023, if the Nigerian people so wish. We must take advantage of his still being around to deepen the nation’s moral fabric.

The choices before us have never been so CLEAR in the history of our country. On the one hand are those who are already in the mud and seeking to drag others into the mud. These are the ones who keep saying “We are all corrupt together”, and who keep confessing and apologising like people coming out of a trance. They say they should be forgiven because they have been “honest” enough to confess and apologise. Fellow Nigerians, there is nothing like an honest thief. It is a disgusting oxymoron. A thief is a thief. This is especially so if the thief did not willingly come out to admit he was a thief until his hands were caught right inside the cookie jar.

The other choice before us is a President who has been accused of everything that is false but even his most ardent critics, and detractors locally and internationally have not accused him of having a penchant for wealth accumulation. I am persuaded to campaign for him by his austere lifestyle, his Spartan taste and frugal nature. I am not looking for a god or an angel to vote for. They are not around here on earth. I am only looking for someone with these minimum personal qualities I have enumerated above. The President’s other human flaws may be there, but I am waiting for the candidates of our opponents to show me their credentials from heaven.

People can easily point to those with questionable past in the ruling party, the APC. With my antecedents and in my true conscience, I cannot defend them and cannot make excuses for them. However, in joining the President’s party, they are subjecting themselves to the disciplined leadership of the President. Like Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN said above, it is the leadership that matters. Like I always ask: should we all stop going to church because some known sinners also throng to churches every Sunday? The obvious answer is in the negative. On the other hand, the other party whose key leaders were all part of those who pilfered our commonwealth are about to present us with one amongst themselves as a Presidential candidate in 2019. Of course, reasonable Nigerians are waiting to dismiss that before it happens.

However, for some of my friends, colleagues and associates who are still persuaded by the other way of running our country, and who belong to different political platforms, all I can do is to wish them well, but also state that this is a time for us to agree to disagree. It is all for the good of our country. It will bring out the best in us in canvassing our persuasions. However, I will be putting my heart and soul to this assignment and if anyone is offended by my commitment to the cause, I offer no apology. You can also do likewise to advance your cause. Nigerians would decide at the end of the day.

My message to all those teeming supporters who did it in 2015 for our President is that you do not abandon a ship with which you set sail midway. Our race is not a 100-meter dash. It is a marathon race to rescue our country. We are almost there. When we turn the corner in 2019, you will see the tape at the finishing line. We must not run out of breaths. We believed in 2015. We must keep that belief alive. The hallmark of true supporters is to stand firm in times of storm and in times of calm. The storm is almost over. The President has battled to take control of the steering wheel of the nation and we are on course.

Do not let the naysayers bully you whether in real life or in cyberspaces. When they run out of arguments, they resort to abuses. If they abuse you, see them as patriots, but misguided ones; if they attack you, see them as patriots, but misguided ones; if they call you unprintable names, see them as passionate patriots, but misguided ones. Do not retaliate. With time, especially when majority of votes wipe out their minority opinions in 2019, they will come round to you and acknowledge your vision. So, hold your own and keep your heads up.

For us, this race is never a do-or-die affair. We shall present the facts as we see them and let Nigerians decide. We do not have to hire Cambridge Analytica to scare the electorate. They are already sufficiently scared by the humongous corruption that took place under the watch of the last government; the electorate are already sufficiently scared by those who are apologizing just to sneak their way back to power; the electorate are also sufficiently scared by the tons of cash buried in graveyards, farm houses, luxury flats in Ikoyi, in Yachts in the High Seas and those used to buy real estate strewn all over the world.

Nigerians know from where their problems came. They know it is not President Buhari. They know it came from some of those battling tooth and nail to displace him. Those who are persuaded by us should not remain aloof, please. Kindly join us in this journey.

Thank you.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/04/accepted-serve-festus-keyamo/

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can you confirm if the contractors of these projects are entirely Nigerian

this governor has no Idea, what is the traffic problem that this bridges are solving, on the scale of preference is this needed now, all the funds sunk into all the bridges would have been better building roads in the hinterland and building schools and hospitals

The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), says its investment in promoting local farming is yielding results as production of made-in-Nigeria fertiliser has presently hit 2.22 million metric tonnes. fertlizers The Managing Director of NSIA, Mr Uche Orji in an interview on Monday in Abuja, said NSIA’s investment was to make fertiliser affordable all year round to farmers. “Prior to Dec. 2016, Nigeria’s stock of blended Fertiliser was shipped into the country as fully finished products, even though Urea and Limestone, which constitute roughly two-thirds of the component of each bag are available locally. “Knowing this, President Muhammadu Buhari approved a Presidential Fertiliser Initiative for the local production of blended NPK 20:20:10 Fertiliser. “The objective of the project is to deliver commercially significant quantities of affordable and consistently high-quality fertiliser at the right price and in time to Nigeria’s over 500,000 farmers across the country. “The target retail price regime at the time was between 50 per cent and 65 per cent of the prevailing market price,’’ he said. Orji said that after one year of running the programme, NSIA noted that import of finished fertiliser had reduced drastically. “For the 2017 wet season, it is estimated that about N60 billion from the 2017 budgetary provisions for fertiliser was saved, while another saving of 150million dollars was conserved from foreign exchange window. “To date, the programme has contributed to the resuscitation of 14 moribund blending plants, which represents 55 per cent of total installed capacity in Nigeria. “Also, more than six million bags of 50kg NPK 20:10:10 fertiliser has been produced locally, which have been distributed to farmers. “The success of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative is evidence enough that Nigeria can sustainably produce fertilisers locally at a reasonable price without subsidy. With the right model, any constraint can be addressed,’’ he said. Orji said that as a result of its investment in fertiliser production, several thousand jobs had been created and the nation had saved a significant amount in foreign exchange and subsidy payments. He reiterated that the NSIA had about 2.2 billion dollars in assets as at Dec. 31, 2017. The Presidential Fertiliser Initiative is an initiative of President Muhammadu Buhari borne out of desire to end fertiliser importation and the attendant impact on the country’s foreign exchange reserves. It was designed to stimulate significant economic activities across the agriculture value chain and catalyse growth by meeting the fertiliser demand of farmers during the wet farming season. Ahead of the 2017 farming season, Buhari inaugurated a special committee to look into and bridge the gaps in the production and distribution of fertilizer in Nigeria. The committee comprised of the Governor of Jigawa State as Chairman, while the Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Company and the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development as members. Other members include the Chief of Staff to the President, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and President of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN). The NSIA was invited to provide technical support, as well as serve as managers of the initiative subsequent to the committee’s inauguration. NSIA has invested more than 286.4 million dollars in the fertilizer blending project in partnership with FEPSAN. (NAN)

Corporate Affairs and Information
WATER AND GAS FACILITIES RECEIVE ATTENTION
The Water and Gas Facility Division is the Company’s
outfit designed to provide the Company with such
utility services as Industrial Water, Industrial Gases,
Natural Gases, Compressed Air, Fuel Oil, and Steam for
sundry uses in the Plant. The Division also covers the
maintenance of Ventilation and Air Conditioning
systems, removal and disposing of domestic and
Industrial wastes, and the distribution of drinking water
within the Steel Plant.
The Division is charged with the responsibility of
operating and maintaining all equipment and facilities
that are involved in the lifting of raw water from the
River Niger, Treatment of water to Industrial Standard
and the distribution of the treated water to consumers
through network of pipelines and pump houses.
It also treats and disposes off sludge and sanitary
effluence of various producing shops.
Water supplied by the Division is mainly used for the
cooling of Furnaces of the Mills, TPP/TBS (Power
Plant), Coke Oven-Product Plant, all Primary Plant. It
is also used for the transportation of process wastes,
firefighting and other purposes. Potable water from the
Geregu treatment Plant is received and distributed to
appropriate points of consumption at the Steel Plant.
All facilities are designed to ensure re-circulation of
process water through an array of re-circulating pump
houses.
Raw water is received from River Niger. The water is to
be subjected to treatment. As a result of the none
treating of the of water for many years, the 2Nos
3000M3 reservoirs have been filled up to 70% by mud
thereby leaving only 30% effective capacity. This level
of availability will not ensure adequate supply of water
to the Thermal Power Plant which is currently being
reactivated, the Engineering Works Complex and other
parts of the steel plant.
As part of the ongoing reactivation exercise in the steel
plant, the two reservoirs have been restored through the
evacuation of the large volume of mud. In the absence
of some desired equipment, the Engineers and workers
designed other ways and successfully carried out the
assignment.
TECHNICAL AUDIT OF AJAOKUTA STEEL PLANT (ASP)
IN FULL SWING BY ASCL ENGINEERS In 2018-03-13TECHNICAL AUDIT OF AJAOKUTA STEEL PLANT (ASP)
IN FULL SWING BY ASCL ENGINEERS
In a bid to ascertain the technical status of the
Ajaokuta Steel Plant (ASP) facilities, the Federal
Government of Nigeria has ordered a technical audit of
the Steel Plant facilities. This exercise is intended to
provide the government the basis for deciding further
on its desire to get the Steel Project completed,
commissioned and put in sustainable operations. The
exercise commenced on the 28th of February, 2018.
The audit is being wholly undertaken by Nigerian
Engineers, Technologists and Technicians involving
serving and retired staff of Ajaokuta Steel Company
Limited. It is hoped that using these category of
persons will reveal the correct status of the various
aspects of the Plant and provide raw data for future
reference which previous exercises did not do.
For the purpose of the exercise, forty (40) Technical
Work Teams have been created under the supervision of
a Management Coordination Committee and a Technical
Implementation Committee which drives the daily
activities of the Work Team. The Management of
Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited has also engaged
Consultants on Metallurgical Technology, and
Metallurgical Business to provide advice to the Work
Teams. The Management is also consulting with the
Nigerian Society of Engineers for Technical Advice.
The Technical Audit exercise has since gone into full
swing. All Pre-Technical Audit activities such as site
clearing, fumigation of basements & tunnels,
illumination of shops, creating accessibility to sealed
doors and provision of Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE) have been concluded.
The detailed inspection of the shops has since
commenced and is progressing steadily. Eight weeks
target for detailed inspection has been set, after which
report writing including costing of works and materials
required for reactivation will commence.http://www.ajaokutasteel.com/site/news.php?ID=39
http://www.ajaokutasteel.com/site/news.php?ID=18

Corporate Affairs and Information REACTIVATION OF ASCL 110MW POWER PLANT IN PROGRESS. The Thermal Power Plant (TPP) of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited is undergoing a massive reactivation in order that the purpose for which it is set up will be accomplished maximally. The Power supply needs for Ajaokuta Steel Plant is designed to be met from two different Power supply sources - from the Public Power Supply (National Grid) and the Captive Power Plant. The TPP is meant to supply un-interrupted Power to certain critical equipment of the Steel Plant which cannot withstand any power failure without causing tremendous damages both to equipment and Human life. The Thermal Power facilities include; The Thermal Power Plant and Turbo Blower Station, Air Compressor Plant, Waste Heat Utilizers, Refrigeration and Cold Water system. The Plant which was commissioned in 1987 (TG1) and 1988 (TG2) was ran until it was due for Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) and had to be short down. The Plant was restarted on a few occasions but could not be sustained due to technical hitches. The current Management of the Company has begun a high level reactivation of the Power Plant. Already the Reactivation works have recorded steady progress in many areas. The cooling water supply system to the Plant has been re-established. This includes among other works, the evacuation of mud from ten (10Nos.) cooling tower basins and the re- commissioning of same. Work is in progress on Boiler No.1 which has been under cold preservation for over fifteen months (15months). The hydraulic test of the Boiler has been successfully carried out. The demineralizing water production Plant has been reactivated and put into operations while the reactivation of Boiler number three is about to commence. http://www.ajaokutasteel.com/site/news.php?ID=38

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