₦airaland Forum

CONJOINED twins who shared a liver, intestine AND bladder have been successfully separated after a marathon surgery lasting 12 hours and involving 20 doctors

Born on September 19 last year, Love and Prince Zalte, from Mumbai, were attached from the lower part of the chest.

The surgery began at 4am on the fateful day and involved paediatric surgeons, anaesthetists and orthopaedic surgeons, among others doctors.

Seven of the hospital’s operating theatres were shut down so the team could fully focus on the surgery.

The twins are recovering in intensive care and are resting in separate beds for the first time in their lives. It is unclear when they will be home.

Their mother Sheetal Zalte, 26, who learnt about their condition 24 weeks into her pregnancy, said: ‘It is hard to express in words how happy I will be to hold my children in both my arms.’

Conjoined twins are believed to occur in just one in every 200,000 live births.
http://www.tribuneonlineng.com/free-last-conjoined-twins-separated-first-time/

More illegal arms have been imported into this country in recent time than ever. Unfortunately, after the media announcement nothing is heard about it any more..........I dont want to believe government is backing any person or group bringing arms into the country.

BetaThings:
Muslims believe in divorce
So Christians don't divorce because they fear to live in the pain?

[color=#006600][/color]
Not divorce but having to live apart

Oil and Water can never mix no matter how long they stay together likewise the two groups of people practicing these Abrahamian religions. Unfortunately a group will never advocate for separationb because they fear to live in the pain of what they believe.

This is pastors meeting.....picture showing early comers......late comers missed the picture......

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, has scored the Federal Government
led by President Mohammadu Buhari, very poor in terms of addressing
poverty in the nation.

Okorocha said 89 percent of Nigerians were not happy, noting that the
vital expect of human existence had not been addressed in the country.

Governor Okorocha disclosed this in a statement in Owerri, through his
Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, when officers of the Nigeria Air
Force led by the Air Officer Commanding Ground Training Command, AVM
Sampson Akpasa visited him, at Government House.

On the governor’s scorecard for the Federal Government, according to the
statement, Governor Rochas Okorocha had said 89 percent of Nigerians were
not happy in the real sense of the word happiness and that only four
percent could really be said to be happy to some extents, while seven
percent might claim to be happy, adding that the vital aspect of human
existence which is happiness must be addressed.

“Let me commend the Nigeria Air Force for the good job they are doing in
this country, especially their fight against insurgency and, currently,
what is happening in Numan and all the efforts they are making to restore
peace in that area. I’m particularly proud of you.

“Agitation comes up when people are not happy and the whole essence of
life is to be happy.

“For this reason, I will advise the Air Force to, just as I have done
recently, which most people didn’t understand, create a department for
Happiness and Purpose Fulfilment.

“This will help to address the need of even junior officers, who may have
some forms of dissatisfaction in the discharge of their duties. Sometimes
you may think that they are happy when they are not and this sabotages the
efforts of the Federal Government.”

http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/89-per-cent-of-nigerians-not-happy-with-buharis-govt-okorocha/

The man that gives Nigeria darkness...

NLbully:
That's why he can't spell "Production" right

[color=#006600][/color]
Alaba production......so "prodduction" is in order...

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, raised questions over a “purported” presidential approval exempting some special Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation accounts from the Treasury Single Account.

The accounts, with funds worth N50bn, are still being kept by commercial banks in breach of the TSA policy.

The policy provides that all accounts belonging to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government should be transferred to the TSA.

The TSA, a centralised Federal Government revenue account, is kept by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

A Nigerian firm, SystemSpecs, provides the Remita electronic platform for running the TSA, saving the Federal Government revenue that could ordinarily have been lost.

An ad hoc committee of the House, chaired by a member of the All Progressives Congress from Kano State, Mr. Abubakar Danburam-Nuhu, found out that the NNPC directed some commercial banks to keep the accounts outside the TSA.

The CBN confirmed to the committee that it was aware of the excluded accounts, pointing to a document tendered by the NNPC, indicating that there was a presidential approval.

The said approval was a memo written by the Chief Staff to the President, Mr. Abba Kyari, authorising the NNPC to exclude the accounts from the TSA.

Expressing surprise over the discovery, Danburam-Nuhu stated, “Banks are still holding accounts with funds up to N50bn outside the TSA.

“The banks claim that there is an approval by the President for the accounts to operate outside the TSA.

“These are NNPC accounts and the corporation must produce evidence of the presidential approval.”

A senior official of the CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, confirmed to the committee that the NNPC indeed wrote to inform the apex bank of the exemptions.

However, he specifically mentioned accounts relating to JV operations as the NNPC accounts covered by the exemptions.

“The banks are actually holding some accounts. We are aware. It’s not yet a case of 100 per cent transfer to the TSA,” he explained.

He also informed the committee that some accounts, still being kept by the banks, had legal limitations, while others were accounts owned by the judiciary and the National Assembly.

A memo by Kyari, purporting to convey President Muhammadu Buhari’s exemption directive, was analysed by members of the committee and was rejected as not convincing.

One of the members, Mr. Edward Pwajok (SAN), said the memo did not say much other than opening with the line, “I have been directed.”

Pwajok added that in the circumstances, the proper thing to do was to summon Kyari to convince the committee that Buhari indeed granted the exemptions.

“Let him come here to show us the evidence of the directive given to him by Mr. President,” he said.

Another member, Mr. Simon Arabo, noted that Kyari’s memo appeared to be an “Executive Order”, which had to be further examined by the committee.

The committee made two rulings: that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, be summoned to produce the presidential approval within 48 hours.

It also directed the CBN to submit a reconciliation report on the accounts still with commercial banks before the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, have criticised President Buhari over the exemption of the NNPC’s N50bn from the Treasury Single Account.

The groups said the allegation of N50bn NNPC accounts’ exemption from TSA was capable of destroying the Buhari administration, if found to be true.

This is also as a Second Republic lawmaker and a northern elder statesman, Dr. Junaid Muhammed, said the National Assembly must “immediately begin impeachment procedures against the President” if the allegation of exemption was found to be true.

The CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, said, “This allegation is beyond just indicting the government; it will amount to a statement of contradictory principles. It will mean that this administration is working on ambiguous principles which fall short of the hallmark of good governance. It will amount to an abuse of office and conflict of interests. We should still believe that it cannot be true and that the President will condescend to engaging in under-the-hand dealings.”

http://punchng.com/tsa-reps-query-buharis-exemption-of-n50bn-nnpc-accounts/

Nigeria’s biggest brewer, Nigerian Breweries, has launched an exciting new brand that captures the changing face of the beer market. Stella Lager Beer was unveiled into the Nigerian market at the Grand Ballroom, Eko Hotel and Suites on the 6th of December 2017 in the presence of key stakeholders and consumers.
Present at the unveil was Maggi one of the representatives from Nigerian Breweries, Marketing Director Nigerian Breweries Franco Maria Maggi. If Stella lager captures the market, many will reconsider naming their daughters Stella


Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/12/international-premium-stella-lager-beer-launches-nigerian-market/

I saw generator and tyre. .........
Generator is very expensive now.....
Maybe he ......

The front liners Chinese technical personnel are explaining the project to are none technical people. I wonder what a graduate of literature in English will be thinking. This is just the bane of our underdevelopment. Square pet in round hole.

[quote author=estyvino post=63202180]Haba Ambode!

67.33% for recurrent expenditure, then what's left for capital expenditure

ahbeg ahbeg! take it back and readjust!!!

see that face, no try me oh[color=#006600][/color]
It is ratio of 67:33. Not 67.33%.....
It's in order

How come Cross River State budget exceeds that of Lagos State. Is this possible in the realm of reality or it's about playing with figures?

Gov.Ben Ayade of Cross River has presented a budget of N1.3 trillion for the 2018 fiscal year to the Cross River House of Assembly for deliberation and passage.
Ayade, who presented the budget two weeks ago in Calabar, said that the proposal was designed to add value to the socio-economic development and well being of the people of the state. Ayade, who tagged the budget as “Budget of Kinetic Crystallisation’’, said it was meant to crystallise what the state had achieved in the past two years of his administration. He said that the priority of the budget was to develop the state’s deep sea port and the super highway which he said were his two marked projects. The governor said that 70 per cent of the budget was for capital expenditure and 30 per cent,re-current expenditure. “The 2018 budget of N1.3trillion, tagged `Kinetic Crystallisations’, is meant to drive the economy of the state to an enviable height.

WITH a pledge to complete all ongoing projects and initiate new ones, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday presented N1.046 trillion as next year’s Appropriation Bill to the House of Assembly for consideration.
Christened: “Budget of Progress and Development”, Ambode promised to apply the budget, the state’s highest ever, in consolidating on the development recorded by his administration in the last 30 months.

According to him, the budget will give priority for mandatory capacity building for civil servants, teachers in public secondary/primary schools, health service sector officers, women and youth empowerment.

According to the governor, the 2018 Budget, which is a 28.67 per cent bigger the last year’s, has a capital to recurrent expenditure ratio of 67:33 per cent. The allocation stands at N699.082 billion and N347.039 billion for capital and recurrent expenditure respectively.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/11/gov-ayade-presents-n1-3trn-budget-2018/
http://thenationonlineng.net/budget-2018-ambode-proposes-n1-046tr-lagos/

We are waiting for tithes joor...

This is a great effort that will stifle Dangote monopoly when his refinery comes on board and Petrolex also build his proposed refinery.
However, it's good the capacity of the tank farm is confirmed. With 20 storage tanks and at 300 million litres capacity, it means each tank capacity holds 15million litres of product. These are huge tanks.
Kudos to the construction firm.

Mounir Gwarzo, the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was suspended by the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, for refusing to halt the forensic probe of Oando Plc, THISDAY has reported.

But the office of the minister has denied the allegation, maintaining that Gwarzo was suspended following allegations that he was carting away documents to undermine a petition against him.

Gwarzo has insisted on a forensic audit of Oando over allegations of irregularities, notably the increased trading in the company’s shares before its declaration of a N183 billion loss — said to be the biggest in Nigeria’s corporate history.

However, while these and other allegations were being probed, a petition was filed against Gwarzo for paying himself a severance package as a former executive commissioner of SEC, a position from where he was made DG.

He was also accused of awarding contracts to companies allegedly owned by him and his family.

In a report on Monday, THISDAY said a meeting was held on Monday, November 27, 2017, between Gwarzo and Adeosun, where she instructed him to drop the forensic probe.

Present at the meeting were the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mahmud Isa Dutse, and the director in charge of the legal department in the ministry.

The following day, Gwarzo wrote a letter to Adeosun, asking for a written instruction and he was suspended a day after, the report said.

GWARZO’S LETTER

In the letter titled “Investigation of Oando Plc”, Gwarzo said: “Pursuant to our meeting on the above subject held on Monday, November 27, 2017, I am compelled to advice you ma, on the implication of the verbal directive issued to me in which you stated that the SEC should discontinue the forensic audit on Oando Plc and hold a tripartite meeting with Legal Officers of the Commission, Oando Plc and the Federal Ministry of Finance, with the purpose of coming up with penalties which would be issued to top officials of Oando Plc in their personal capacity for payment.

“Honourable Minister, it is important to stress that an action such as that proposed above would definitely put to question the independence and integrity of the Commission, while also completely eroding the confidence of both local and international investors in the Nigerian capital market.

“Furthermore, as you may be aware, the activities around the investigation of Oando Plc are being closely monitored by the local and global investment community and they eagerly expect the outcome of the exercise.

“It is therefore not in the best interest of our recovering economy that the forensic audit is not seen to be conducted in an independent and transparent manner proposed by the Commission.

“It would interest you to note ma, that the Commission has in the last three years embarked on firm enforcement actions against some so called ‘top capital market stakeholders’ in the Nigerian capital market.

“Remarkably, these actions have sent strong signals to the entire capital market community and have led to an 87 per cent reduction of infractions in the market within the period.

“One major infraction alleged against Oando Plc is financial mismanagement. Honourable Minister, given that the consequent effect of such allegation is being borne by the over 274,000 shareholders of Oando, it is only proper that a process which would reveal the status of this allegation to ascertain its veracity or otherwise be embarked upon in a transparent manner.

“This in my opinion would put to rest the question of how the shareholders’ funds of the company have been managed by the persons appointed to do so for the shareholders

“The Commission therefore as the apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market, has the responsibility to ensure that a thorough, independent and transparent process is put in place to unravel the true financial status of the company.

“Honourable Minister ma, may I restate that it is in the best interest of the Nigerian capital market and our recovering economy for the forensic audit of Oando Plc to be carried out, as reneging on same at this time would result in the following:

Ridicule the regulators and project it to the global investment community as inefficient and lacking of integrity.
Completely erode investors’ confidence in the market
Send the wrong signal to all market participants both locally and globally.
Discourage foreign investors from investing in our jurisdiction, and
Portray the absence of independence of the regulators.

“The Commission in Section 13 (cc) of the Investments and Securities Act 2007, is mandated to advise the Honourable Minister of Finance on all matters relating to the securities industry.

“Thus, this advice proffered is as a result of our obligation to properly guide you on the best approach to take on capital market issues and it is strongly our recommendation that it should be adopted.

“Honourable Minister, my request to seek for a written directive is not in any way meant to disrespect your person, but stems from the basis that every decision or directive of the Board to the management of the Commission are always documented to enable ease of implementing such directive.

“Given your current capacity as the Board of the Commission. It is only proper that you be guided on the necessary procedure to adopt.”

HUNTER HUNTED

THISDAY reported that after Gwarzo asked the minister to put her instruction in writing, “things turned nasty”.

The newspaper quoted a source thus: “The minister then without mincing words reminded him that there were petitions bordering on financial impropriety and that he should have been suspended a long time ago.

“She also insisted that a committee be set up comprising the legal officers of the ministry, SEC and Oando to agree on the penalties to imposed on the officials of the company.

“Gwarzo, however, refused, telling her that there were implications of doing so and that the commission does not take decisions based on recommendations of committees but is guided by its Investment and Securities Act (ISA) and capital market regulations formulated by SEC.

“He also reminded her that the reason the forensic audit had to go ahead stemmed from the fact that the court had vacated the interim injunction stopping the audit and ordering SEC and the NSE to lift the technical suspension placed on Oando’s shares.”
https://www.thecable.ng/report-adeosun-suspended-gwarzo-for-refusing-to-play-ball-over-oando-probe

Don't worry Dangote is going to solve this problem for us.
He did it to cement.

Atiku lied! Buhari was never banned from US, says Femi Adesina
Femi Adesina, spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, has described as “fictive concoction” the claim of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar that Buhari was banned from entering the US for 15 years.

Abubakar said this in an interview with The Boss newspaper published by Dele Momodu.

He said the Nigerian leader could not enter the US “on account of religious considerations”.

“For about 15 years, Buhari could not enter America on account of religious considerations,” Abubakar had said in the interview.

But Adesina debunked the allegation, saying the former number two citizen should know better.

“This fictive concoction being passed off as truth is mind-boggling, coming from a former number two man of Nigeria, who should know the truth. At no time was President Buhari, as a private person, ever forbidden from entering any country in the world,” Adesina said in a statement.

“Rather, the rest of the world has always held Muhammadu Buhari as a man of sterling qualities, strong on integrity, transparency and accountability. The same testimony is still borne of the Nigerian President by many world leaders today.

“It is curious that former VP Abubakar had been asked why he had not visited America for over a decade, something that had been a stubborn fact dogging his footsteps. Instead of answering directly, he begged the question, saying Buhari also had been disallowed from entering the same country for 15 years, before becoming president.

“We hereby make it resoundingly clear that what the former vice-president said only exists in the realm of his imagination. If he has issues to settle with American authorities, he should do so, rather than clutch at a straw.”
https://www.thecable.ng/atiku-lied-buhari-never-banned-us-says-femi-adesina

Tourist site or emerging idol worshipping...

THE Controller of Prisons, Lagos State Command, Tunde Ladipo, says education in prison facilities is getting better by the day, with an inmate in the Maximum Prison undergoing a PhD programme.

Ladipo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that things were looking up, especially with the commitment of officials and performance of inmates.

The controller spoke to NAN on the sideline of the 2017 Ikoyi Prisons Education Award held in Lagos on Thursday.

He said that aside from the inmate taking a PhD programme at the maximum prison, which is in Kirikiri, several others, both at the facility and the Ikoyi Prisons, were also undergoing Master’s degree programmes in various fields.

The controller said that despite being in incarceration, many prisoners had shown zeal to acquire education, even at the highest level.

Ladipo said the state of education facilities in prisons across the country was receiving a boost following the directive of the Controller-General of the Nigerian Prisons, Alhaji Ja’afaru Ahmed, that all their schools must be functional.

“He is very much interested in the reformation of the inmates, especially as it concerns their welfare and has instructed that the education of inmates must be taken seriously.

“He has directed that all the schools within the walls of the prisons must be equipped and functional.

“The controller-general also directed that we ensure too that our inmates are reformed spiritually and ensure that their welfare is always on the front burner.

“He has gone a step ahead by providing drugs that will serve for not less than two years for inmates in prisons nationwide.

“This is coupled with the acquisition and distribution of operational vehicles, such as the Green Maria, ambulances, escort and sewage vehicles as all as official cars,’’ Ladipo said.

He said that in a bid to achieve accelerated growth and national transformation, every Nigerian must be given equal education opportunity, irrespective of where they may find themselves.

Ladipo said that the prison, as a reformation centre, must not be an exclusion, as those in there, are equally entitled to their rights to be educated.

“That is why we are putting every resource available at our disposal in ensuring that we make life conducive for the inmates by also bringing all levels of education to them within the facility.

“The essence of bringing these persons to the prisons is to change their lives and empower them for the better in the future,’’ he said.

Ladipo recalled that in 2015, the Maximum Security Prison School had produced a Master’s degree holder while still serving a jail term.

He, however, said the feat was not single-handedly achieved, but with the collaboration of some religious and non-governmental organisations.

“We appreciate their contributions, and like Oliver Twist, we are asking for more interventions from members of the public,’’ Ladipo said.

The prison boss assured that management would speak with the authorities on the need to provide a standard CBT centre for the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by JAMB for the inmates.

He also appealed for more volunteer teachers to assist in the teaching of various subjects in the schools, especially as more inmates were yearning for education by the day.
http://www.tribuneonlineng.com/prison-inmate-undergoing-phd-programme-%E2%80%95controller/

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno and his other critics as never liking him based on some “parochial and paternalistic sentiments.”

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, on Friday, the ex-president said Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State’s claims that his administration was dogged by poor choices and bad governance were “parochial and jaundiced,” saying his achievements in government are yet to be matched by his successor.

The former president was responding to Mr. Shettima’s statement at the book launch of Bolaji Abdullahi, the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja on Thursday.

Jonathan challenged the governor to come clean over the roles he played in the kidnap of the Chibok school girls, stressing that it goes beyond the dismissive claim that ‘Jonathan thought I kidnapped Chibok girls.’

“The governor is now denying that he had no hand in the kidnap of the Chibok girls even before anybody accused him of culpability. However, we share the view of those who insist that the governor had other things up his sleeve when he promised the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that he would secure the girls, and ended up doing the very opposite, by deliberately abandoning them to their fate, without any security presence in their school.

“It is instructive that while other governors in the zone heeded the security advice, Shettima remained the only one that flagrantly flouted it. Should we also fail to point out that his decision to reward the principal of Chibok Secondary School, who was uncharacteristically absent on the night terrorists stormed the school, with the post of a commissioner, did throw up more questions than answers?

The statement further described Mr. Abdullahi’s book titled ‘On a Platter of Gold- How Jonathan won and lost Nigeria” as sour grapes and full of lies and gossip written by someone who was still aggrieved at his removal as minister during the Jonathan administration.

Below is the full text of the statement:

Our attention has been drawn to the claims made by the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima on Thursday at a book launch to the effect that former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan wasted the goodwill he commanded because of bad governance and poor choices in office. He was also said to have accused Jonathan of believing that he was behind the kidnap of the Chibok girls.

As a man who had never seen anything good in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan on account of party and other differences, it has remained our considered view that in a democracy, Governor Kashim Shettima and others like him are entitled to their opinion, no matter how jaundiced.

However, it is a sad commentary on the character of some of our politicians that they go to any length to make spurious statements, in pursuit of the sad narrative to remain politically correct. We cannot be deceived by his crocodile tears and patronizing claim that “Jonathan is essentially a decent man”, which is a ploy he deployed to justify his false allegation of a lost glory.

The man who today speaks of squandered goodwill should be able to tell Nigerians what percentage of the votes Jonathan got in 2011 from Borno State at the height of that his envisaged glory according to Shettima, and what it became in subsequent elections. What was obvious yesterday and has remained so today is that Governor Shettima and those who think like him never liked Jonathan based on some parochial and paternalistic sentiments.

We didn’t expect anything less from Governor Shettima, knowing the ignoble roles he played in frustrating the war waged by the past administration against Boko Haram, even in his own Borno State.

He should be able to tell us if it was Jonathan’s poor choices that led the Governor to expose students of Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok to avoidable danger, in total disregard of a Federal

Government directive to the Governors in the three states most affected by Boko Haram to relocate their students writing the West African School Certificate Examinations to safe zones.

The governor is now denying that he had no hand in the kidnap of the Chibok girls even before anybody accused him of culpability. However, we share the view of those who insist that the governor had other things up his sleeve when he promised the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that he would secure the girls, and ended up doing the very opposite, by deliberately abandoning them to their fate, without any security presence in their school.

It is instructive that while other governors in the zone heeded the security advice, Shettima remained the only one that flagrantly flouted it. Should we also fail to point out that his decision to reward the principal of Chibok Secondary School, who was uncharacteristically absent on the night terrorists stormed the school, with the post of a commissioner, did throw up more questions than answers?

Talking about accountability, perhaps, Shettima should also do well to explain to the good people of Borno State and Nigerians what he did with the over N60 billion Local Governments fund, left by his predecessor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

We understand Governor Shettima and those who spoke like him accused Jonathan of bad governance and poor choices, and we would like to know if it was bad governance that led Jonathan to assemble a-yet-to be matched crop of dynamic cabinet and economic management team made up of tested technocrats like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Finance ministry, Shamsuddeen Usman in Planning, Olusegun Aganga in Trade and Investments as well as Akinwumi Adesina leading the charge in Agriculture. The efforts of the Jonathan administration in repositioning Nigeria’s economy remain self-evident and it must have in deed been poor choices at their best for Jonathan and his team to have recorded the following key achievements:

Nigeria’s Gross domestic Product rose to $503 billion in 2013 and became Africa’s largest economy and 26th in the world; from 3rd and 4th respectively.
Nigeria became the number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa under former President Jonathan, with the numbers rising from $24.9 million as at 2007 to over $35 billion in 2014.
Jonathan Government delivered over 25,000 kilometres of motor able federal roads from just a quarter of that number in 2011.
The Jonathan Administration resuscitated the railways in the country after about 30-years of hiatus
Jonathan’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda ended fertilizer racketeering, encouraged more young Nigerians to take to farming, boosted local food production and took the country closer to self-sufficiency in food production by recording more than 50% reduction in food imports. It was as a result of this that the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, for the first time, voted Nigeria the largest producer of Cassava in the world.
Power generation under Jonathan was boosted to about 5,000 megawatts in 2014 up from 2,000 megawatts in 2011.
Prices of food and other household items remained stable and inflationary pressure was down to a single digit.
Under Jonathan, Nigeria controlled clinically Ebola outbreak to the admiration of the whole world, became Guinea-worm-free and also eradicated polio, with United States billionaire and renowned philanthropist Bill Gates, praising Nigeria’s successes against polio as one of the great world achievements of 2014. Sadly polio has returned to the country with the likes of Shettima in charge of the endemic states.
Under Jonathan Life expectancy in Nigeria rose from 47 years in 2010 to 54 years in 2015.
Just before Jonathan left office, CNN Money projected that Nigeria’s economy in 2015 would become the third fastest growing economy in the world at 7 per cent behind China at 7.3 per cent and Qatar at 7.1 per cent.

Was it bad governance and poor choices that reformed the political and electoral processes to the extent that the United Nations is now pleading with the government of the day to strive to maintain the standards established by Jonathan?

Fortunately, Nigerians know where they stand with all of their leaders. All those who are calling Jonathan names today, and accusing him of having become quite unpopular, should simply take a walk on the streets of any Nigerian city as real leaders do. That way, they will accurately gauge their own approval and test their popularity with the Nigerian people.

On the book entitled “On a Platter of Gold- How Jonathan won and lost Nigeria” written by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, we have watched for some time as some outrageous fabrications are extracted from its pages day after day by the media. When the publication of the book, with an ominous title was first mooted, we knew it will be full of bile and sour grapes. We didn’t expect truth, sincerity and accuracy of narration, given that the author who was sacked from his ministerial position by the subject of the book, is now the spokesman for the ruling APC.

We will therefore like to dissociate former President Jonathan from the book’s salacious contents, with all the obvious distortions, lies and exaggerations. Its pages are populated with gossip, politically influenced newspaper articles, uncoordinated raw data and unproven claims. Sadly, the author did not help matters, as there was no rigour or in-depth investigations towards establishing the veracity of the allegations the book contained. For instance, it is ridiculous for the author to have claimed that the President was forced to sack a certain minister by another cabinet member when the obvious truth known to all key members of the administration was that the President acted based on the recommendation of an internal committee that investigated the matter. This, unfortunately, is the kind of baseless claims and narrative that run through the entire book, and it would be pointless devoting our time towards making a case by case response to all its ridiculous allegations.

We will like to remind Nigerians of what former President Jonathan said earlier in the year when a similar book was published, that only the key actors in his government and in the 2015 presidential elections could give an exact account of what transpired, not speculations and conjectures by third party spectators. That time will come someday.

https://independent.ng/dislike-parochial-sentiments-jonathan-replies-critics/

Abuja – Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd), Comptroller-General (CG) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), said 91 percent of importers in the country are smugglers.

Ali, who made the disclosure on Thursday, in Abuja, at the public presentation of a book, ‘Appraisal of the Crime of Smuggling In Nigeria’, authored by an Assistant Comptroller of the Service, Musa Omale, said the 91 percent of importers did not comply with the stipulated rules governing goods importation.

He directed all Customs Area Commands to apply more stringent measures to track down the smugglers and paralyse their activities permanently.

The CG, who urged Customs personnel to carry out this mandate to the letter, advised that it was the statutory duty of the NCS to search and confiscate all smuggled items into the country, to save the economy.

He noted that smuggling had remained a major challenge to Customs since he assumed the leadership of the organisation.

According to him, the organisation had lost five officers in only this year in the process of carrying out its mandate of stopping smuggling.

The Customs boss said Section 147 of the constitution gave officers the right to follow suspected smugglers even into their homes in the course of carrying out their mandate.

He said the activities of smugglers had become very worrisome, and that the service could not fold its arms and watch helplessly while smugglers operated to the detriment of the Nigerian people.

Ali warned that Nigeria would never make progress under the mindset that the laws of the land were meant to be circumvented without considering the harm being done to the economy.

The CG said he would continue to provide protective measures to personnel and equip them with relevant weapons to clamp down on the economic saboteurs.

The Customs boss also disclosed plans to flag off the Customs Command and Staff College where mostly retired officers would be invited to come on a regular basis to give back knowledge to the younger ones.

He described the book as apt and timely, noting that it addressed, to a large extent, the dangers of smuggling.

“This book is apt because it is timely; it is timely in the sense that it has captured everything about smuggling, the ills of smuggling, the laws governing our own mandate and the laws governing smuggling.

“So, it is a must-read for the members of the public and it is going to help us in enlightening the general public to understand really the implication of smuggling.

“We have come to understand that Nigerians, especially those living in the border community, do not even understand that smuggling is a crime.

“And this book brought out those facts and put them on the table. So it is my belief that this book is a bestseller.

“I enjoin people to read it because that will give them the perspective of what smuggling is, and the ills of smuggling, and need to stop smuggling,” he said.

In his remark, Omale Musa, the author of the book, noted that the book, among other things, presented in the simplest form the basic provisions in the Customs Establishment Act in order to encourage smugglers to desist from the act.

He said he was motivated by the level of damage smuggling had done to the economy and the country at large having been a Customs officer for 26 years.

“So, I decided to take a course of study, a PhD programme in the university, and my thesis was the legal framework for combating smuggling.

“After my course, I felt I should not throw that effort to the dustbin; I can improve upon it as a Customs officer in view of the dangers involved in smuggling.”

“So I decided to work on my thesis and develop it into an appraisal of the crime of smuggling.

“So that was the basic motivation why I decided to put this book together,” he said.

The book reviewer, Prof Allwell Muzan, carefully dissected the book, chapter by chapter, and concluded that smuggling was a promoter of all forms of social vices, including money laundering, armed robbery, among others.

https://independent.ng/91-nigerian-importers-smugglers-customs

Ben Ayade, Cross River governor, has presented a budget of N1.3 trillion for the 2018 fiscal year to the state house of assembly.

The budget is the largest for a single state in Nigeria’s history.

Lagos state held the record with its N812 billion budget for 2017, although the state has indicated its 2018 budget may also hit N1 trillion.

Presenting the proposed budget to the house on Thursday, Ayade said it was designed to add value to the socio-economic development and well being of the people of the state.

He also said the budget was meant to ‘crystallise’ what the state has achieved in the past two years of his administration.

The governor said 70 per cent of the budget was for capital expenditure and 30 per cent, recurrent expenditure.

“The 2018 budget of N1.3 trillion, tagged `Kinetic Crystallisations’, is meant to drive the economy of the state to an enviable height,” he said.

“The sum of N126 billion was budgeted for the Ministry of Infrastructure. This is to help us develop critical assets in the state.

“N7 billion was also budgeted for the state job centre with a view to helping us train our unemployed youths with marketable job skills.

“Also, we have budgeted N2 billion for our school feeding programme. In addition to that, we also budgeted N52 billion for social welfare to care for the aged.

“My administration is human friendly and my desire is to ensure that every family has what to eat before going to bed.”

NAN reports that the 2018 budget is far higher than the 2017 budget of N301 billion.

Responding, John Gaul-Lebo, speaker of the assembly, commended the governor for commencing work on the deep sea port and the super highway.

Gaul-Lebo said the two projects, when completed, would attract more investors to the state and improve its revenue profile.

He also assured the governor of the assembly’s continued support for the economic and political growth of the state.
https://www.thecable.ng/ayade-presents-record-n1

Innoson Vehicles Releases Luxury IVM G80 and G40 SUV.

The long awaited luxurious Innoson IVM G80 and G40 has been released by Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Co Ltd, Nigeria’s first indigenous Vehicle Manufacturing Company. It should be recalled that last year, The Chairman of Innoson Vehicles, Chief Dr Innocent Chukwuma OFR promised Nigerians that he would manufacture a Made in Nigeria luxurious SUV that will be added to its range of vehicles to accommodate the high cadre of Nigerians who wishes to drive a Made-in-Nigeria vehicle. The date for the official Vehicle Launch will be announced soon.

Also released is G20, a 7 seater sedan and INNOSON IVM GRANITE (5 SEATER DOUBLE CABIN PICK-UP) 2018 MODEL. The IVM Granite comes in 3 variance which includes; 2WD, 2.7 Petrol; 4WD 2.7 Petrol; 4WD 2.4 Diesel. - Hope For Nigeria

Abuja – The National Judicial Council (NJC) on Tuesday said judges from 12 states in the country will not be appointed to the Court of Appeal in the ongoing process of elevation of 14 judges to its bench.

This is coming against the backdrop of an earlier report on Monday that the NJC already has a list of 27 (13 on the priority category and 14 on the reserve category) from which the 14 judges are to be nominated; but none of which hails from any of the South East states.

It was reported that the judges nominated on the priority category lists are: Justice P.A Mahmoud from Benue State; Justice F. Ojo from Kwara State; Justice I.G Abundaga from Nassarawa State; Justice M.B Idris from Niger State; and Justice A. M. Talba from Adamawa State.

Others are Justices Kadi M. M. Alkali from Adamawa State; A. I. Adenyangtso from Taraba; A. S. Umar and O. Z. Senchi, both from Kebbi; A. M. Lamido from Sokoto; B. B. Aliyu from Zamfara; Ebowei Tobi, from Delta State; and G.O. Kolawole from Osun State.

However while confirming that the process of appointing the 14 judges is still ongoing, the NJC said the objective is to bring the total number of judges at the appellate court to 90 as stipulated by law.

The 12 states that would be excluded, according to the council, already have their fair representation of judges at the appellate court.

“In considering appointment for the 14 vacancies, and to ensure that each zone is adequately represented, all states that have three serving Justices were not considered unless under special circumstances,” NJC’ s Director of Information, Soji Oye, declared.

“The states not considered are: Anambra, Bauchi, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kogi, Kwara and Oyo.

“States like Adamawa, Kebbi and Sokoto have zero representation, which informed the need to include them in the current exercise.”

Arguing that the recommended appointments were not lopsided as suggested, the NJC spokesman said, “The attention of the National Judicial Council has been drawn to an online publication and some newspapers alleging the National Judicial Council of recommending 14 Judges for appointment to the Court of Appeal, and that none of the candidates shortlisted was from the South East.

“The exercise is ongoing and no candidate has been recommended so far.

“To put the records straight, appointment of judicial officers to the Court of Appeal is done on merit and geographical spread.

“Section 2 of Court of Appeal (Amendment) Act, 2013, governing the appointment of Justices of Court of Appeal provides that the total number of Justices to be appointed should not be more than 90 plus the president. The court, however, currently has 76 Justices leaving vacancy for additional 14 Justices.

“Of the 76 Justices of the court, the North Central with 6 states and FCT has 12 Justices; North-East with 6 states has 12 Justices plus the president; North-West with 7 states has 9 Justices; South-East with 5 states has 13 Justices; South South with 6 states has 14 Justices and South West with 6 states has 15 Justices.”

He clarified the basis of appointment to the appellate court, saying, “Appointments are made to the court based on the elevation of Appeal Court Justices to the Supreme Court, retirement at the age of 70 years, or death. Such vacancies are filled with judicial officers from the zone of the judge who died, retired or elevated.

“It is therefore unfair for the online media to claim that the National Judicial Council recommended no candidate from the South East which currently has 13 Justices at the Court of Appeal.”

Earlier, Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Awassam Bassey, explained that the criteria for selection of judges follow a quota system, based on the zone for which a vacant position exists.

He said, “I’m not holding brief for the NJC or the interview panels, neither am I confirming the authenticity or otherwise of the list circulating online, but it is pertinent to clarify that appointment to the Court of Appeal is by quota.

“Vacancies exist when Justices die, retire or are promoted to the Supreme Court. In such situations, applications are called from the zone of the previous occupant to replace him or her.

“Recently, there have been series of Justices in the Supreme Court who retired from the North, including the two previous Chief Justices of Nigeria, Hon Justice Aloma Mukhtar GCON and Hon Justice Mahmud Mohammed GCON.

“Also one of the Justices from Sokoto State and another from Kaduna State died at the stampede that occurred during pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia a couple of years back.

“To fill those vacancies in the Supreme Court, the equivalent numbers of Justices were elevated from the Court of Appeal, including Hon Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Ejembi Eko, Paul Adamu Galinje, and Sidi Dauda Bage, among others.

“Following these departures, vacancies were advertised and, in tandem with the quota system, it is expected that appointment to the vacant positions would come from the zones of their previous occupants.”

“The Court of Appeal currently has 76 serving Justices from the original 85 appointed in the 16 Divisions of the Court spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country.”

https://independent.ng/judges-12-states-wont-make-appeal-court-njc/

Abuja – Reports by international bodies made available to Nigeria’s security agencies now suggest that top Nigerian politicians and diplomats have been major players in the illicit businesses of human trafficking and organ sales.

The businesses involve Nigerian victims and others from the West African sub-region, going by INDEPENDENT findings.
The reports – mainly from Italian, French, and International Police (Interpol) – detail how diplomatic channels are used to integrate illegal immigrants into countries like Italy, France, and Spain.

INDEPENDENT investigations revealed a highly cohesive network where politically exposed persons (PEPs) are involved in ambassadorial/diplomatic appointments solely with a view to promoting the criminal cross-border trade.

Informers have also disclosed that the uncanny practice involving human organ trafficking – with emphasis on warehousing needed human parts – may have berthed in Nigeria. The intelligence, in addition to the gorier details concerning the sale of human organs, fingered well-connected politicians and diplomats.

As gathered, the operation begins with ambassadorial appointments/lobbying. This, according to presidency sources, explains President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of ambassadorial nominees. There had been misgivings over the ages of some Nigerian ambassadors, with some being over 80 years old. In the Senate, too, lawmakers have decided in favour of career diplomats ahead of politically exposed persons.
“The effort is meant to stem these clandestine and illegal cross-border operations,” a presidency source explained.

An Italian secret police source from Rome hinted that reports detailing Nigerians’ involvement in this criminal enterprise have been made available to Nigeria’s security agencies and government in several instances.

“We have made our findings open to them after much interrogation of some Nigerian suspects in the operations upon request from your country, as I am aware of, and there was also a joint security report by my country, Spain, and France at some point, too,” the foreign source said.

The source said the matter is difficult to handle because it involved highly powerful PEPs not only in Nigeria but also in the countries of destination of these trades.

“Powerful people are involved on all sides and, honestly speaking, the trade sustains some sectors of the economies in these countries,” the source added.

Currently, there is a global outrage after the death of twenty-six Italy bound Nigerian women, believed to be illegal immigrants on the high seas, recently.

The matter almost sparked a diplomatic row after Italy buried the women without duly notifying Nigeria and properly identifying the corpses.

Even more, the United Nations reacted recently to reports and horrifying footages from Libya of slave trading of blacks by Arabs believed to be Libyans.

Intelligence reports suggest that most of these victims are targets of organ theft or sex trade.

Some of the victims are sold outright as slaves to out of the way labour camps.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, called on all stakeholders in the global community to act fast on the matter, describing the trend as “horrifying” and “a heinous crime against humanity”. But the bigger worries stem from the more sinister harvesting and trafficking of human organs across borders.

Only recently, too, Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health, warned Nigerians who were in the habit of travelling abroad for health tourism to be careful of organ harvesters. What the minister, however, failed to explain was that the operation was highly organised and involved the casing/profiling of would-be victims right from the Nigerian shores.

As learnt, personal and health details filed at mission houses were somehow obtained and sent ahead to their accomplices in foreign countries.

“Some organs are stolen right in the hospitals where the victims are being treated while they are under sedation,” explained a medical doctor based in Abuja.

According to the physician, one of these victims who returned from one of the big Asian countries reported to his hospital a few days later after arrival, complaining of health complications. Upon examination, it was discovered that one of his kidneys was missing. There are fears, too, that the menace may have started proliferating in the country.

As learnt, a French police report indicting Nigerian diplomats and politicians show that the syndicates may have devised new ways of luring unsuspecting victims to countries where their organs are harvested. “It is a very lucrative trade that involves not only kidneys,” explained an intelligence officer in the country who was rivy to the report. According to him, a single human lung sells for as much as $10,000 to $20,000.

Human organs remain viable for between four and eight hours, depending on the conditions in which they are kept.
But with technological breakthrough designed to ‘deceive’ the organs into believing it is still encased in a human body, organs like kidney, lungs, heart, reportedly can now be warehoused for more than forty-eight hours.

“What this simply means is that you can have organ warehouse in countries with poor regulations and supervision,” explained the Abuja based physician INDEPENDENT. The European Union (EU) figures further buttresses that Nigerians are the biggest traffickers in persons and the biggest victims of the trade. There are suggestions, too, that not a few Nigerians are victims of organ-harvesting.

For instance, Nigerians accounted for an estimated 8,700 out of 283,532 irregular migrants entering the EU borders, many of whom risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean in 2014. In the first half of 2015, Nigerians ranked 9th of all persons granted international protection in EUs 28-member states. EU further states that Nigerian nationals are the most numerous among non-European victims of trafficking in humans, and they are also the most numerous traffickers.
https://independent.ng/french-italian-police-finger-nigerian-diplomats-organ-sales

While Queen Victoria sat on the throne, Empress to a quarter of the world’s population, a woman named Mattie Turnipseed gave birth to a ‘mulatto’ — the ugly, official term to describe those of mixed race — baby girl in a corner of America’s Deep South.

In that moment, a remarkable chain of events was triggered. Half the population of Georgia state, named after Victoria’s ancestor George II, were black. Almost all of them had been slaves or were descendants of slaves, bought, sold, and passed on to lives of servitude and brutality.
It’s almost impossible to picture the colossal gulf separating the most powerful woman in the world from a young, uneducated ‘coloured’ woman without a vote — without much more, in fact, than the clothes on her back.

Yet this week, with the engagement of Prince Harry to actress Meghan Markle, a descendant of each of these women pledged themselves to the other.
Building on the work of U.S. experts Elizabeth Banas and Doug Nicol, genealogist Angela Aldam has worked with the Mail to create a comprehensive family tree to illustrate Meghan’s fascinating family history, from her African-American slave ancestry, to those on her father’s side who emigrated from England and Ireland.

Mattie Turnipseed, Meghan’s great-great-great-grandmother, grew up in or around Jonesboro, Georgia, after the American Civil War of 1861-65, which had laid waste to the area.

That war centred around the determination of the Confederate states to cling on to their slaves because the cotton fields needed them, and the wealth of the South depended on cotton.
They were opposed by the ‘Union’, the northern states which, under President Abraham Lincoln, sought to abolish slavery.
The North triumphed and, in June 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation — freeing America’s slaves — was enforced throughout the South.

It would, however, take many decades for that proclamation to become a reality, and life for the black population continued to be one of poverty and barbaric discrimination under ‘Jim Crow Laws’ that enforced racial segregation.
Lynchings of ‘negroes’ — for the most minor of misdemeanours or for no reason at all, other than their colour — was to remain commonplace for many years.

But there was a chance to escape — and Mattie Turnipseed’s daughter Claudie Ritchie, who was born in 1885, grabbed it. Her first move was to marry Jeremiah Ragland, son of a black father and white mother who were probably share-croppers (renting small parcels of land to cultivate).
He, too, was ambitious for a better life, and they left rural Georgia, moving 130 miles to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to work in the city.

Jeremiah became a tailor and established his own business, while Claudie was a lady’s maid who later worked in the Miller Bros department store.
It was in the next generation that remarkable social progress was made, and education was the driver. Two of Jeremiah and Claudie’s five surviving children, sisters Dora and Lillie — Meghan’s great-aunts — went on from their segregated schools to attend college.

By 1930, Dora was a teacher and Lillie would go on to study at the University of California, Los Angeles, as a mature student. She became director of an estate agency and was included in the Who’s Who Among African Americans.Their brother, Steve Ragland, did not rise so high, pressing clothes in a cleaner’s shop in Chattanooga. He married a ‘negro’ (as the official records insisted on describing her) called Lois Russell, the daughter of a hotel porter.

Steve and Lois moved to Los Angeles, where, in 1930, their son Alvin — Meghan’s grandfather — was born. Alvin went to work for his Aunt Lillie before moving into the antiques business, where he carved out a successful career.

He married twice and with his first wife — her identity has yet to be confirmed — had a daughter, Doria, born in 1956. When she was 23, Doria — then a make-up artist — married a TV lighting director named Thomas Markle.Another intriguing member of Meghan’s family tree on the maternal side is her great-great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Betts. The evidence is circumstantial, but it seems likely he was the same Joseph Betts who served with the 40th U.S. Colored Infantry in the Civil War.

Slaves who volunteered could be granted freedom. Before the Civil War there was no record of Betts, possibly because the census did not include slaves. After the war, he appeared in a government count as a farmer. He too, it would seem, had made his triumphant escape from slavery. Determination and aspiration were no less a characteristic on her father’s side. One of Thomas Markle’s ancestors was George Sanders, who was born in Essex, England, in 1841.

The Sanders family could boast an impressive aristocratic line back to the Bruce and Stewart kings of Scotland, although George had no great wealth. At 18, he emigrated to America and married a New Hampshire girl who bore him five children.More intriguing is the story of Mary Bird (nee Smith), who came from Ireland. This week, it was announced Meghan and Harry will marry at Windsor Castle next May, and according to Markle family legend Meghan’s great-great-great-grandmother is thought to have worked at the Castle as a teenager, probably in the kitchens or as a housemaid.

Certainly, there is an entry in the Windsor Castle Weekly Disbursement Book of 1856 for an ‘M. Bird’. Mary married an English soldier and emigrated first to Canada, then possibly to the U.S.

Meghan’s father’s side of the family also has Civil War links. Father and son Daniel and Thomas Mangle fought in Lincoln’s army in the 1860s.
Thomas — Meghan’s great-great-great-grandfather — was possibly present when southern leader General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant on April 9, 1865.

In recent weeks, as speculation about an engagement mounted, genealogists went further in their analysis to establish that Harry and Meghan are actually distant cousins. Go back 15 generations and we find an English landowner called Ralph Bowes (1480-1516), whose home was Streatlam Castle in County Durham. Bowes’s son, George, is the ancestor of Harry through the Queen Mother’s family, the Bowes-Lyons, while his daughter, Bridget, provides the bloodline down to Meghan.

By any measure it is a rich and interesting mix, quite as compelling in a different way from the marriage, remarriage and intermarriage of royal princes and princesses which has dominated the British Royal Family tree for 1,000 years. Ms Markle — possibly the future Duchess of Sussex — need have no worries about living up to the ancient blueblood line of the Windsor
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5130473/Meghan-Markles-upwardly-mobile-family.html

Cleavages....
Contours......
Seduction....

Black skin
Black brain
Black mind
Black magic
Curse race