₦airaland Forum

In the last three days, ace comedian, Julius Agwu, was the subject of a raging controversy on the Internet. While some reports published online claimed that he had decided to withdraw from the forthcoming Governorship election in Rivers State, others said he was still in the race.

One report actually insinuated that Agwu would go ahead with his plan to contest in the election in 2015. It said the comedian boasted that nothing would stop him from fulfilling his ambition.

But Agwu confirmed his decision to quit, in a telephone interview with our correspondent. Admitting that he would no longer run for an elective office in 2015 due to pressure from his kith and kin in Rivers State, he said, “My people have asked me to drop my ambition because of a zoning arrangement within the PDP to produce the next governor of Rivers State from the riverine tribes.”

The standup comedian, who returned from a trip to the United States a few days ago, said he had no choice other than to listen to wise counsel of his people.

Although Agwu’s kinsmen and fellow party men have given him the option of contesting for a seat in the State House of Assembly, he said he might not accept the offer.

“The reason is that I really want to concentrate on my career. I think I am going to forget about politics for now and focus on my career,” he said.

It appears that, in making such a decision, Agwu may have disappointed his numerous fans, well wishers, friends and associates who had earlier pledged to support his ambition financially.

While the popular comedian’s withdrawal from the 2015 general election continued to ignite reactions from many Nigerians, other entertainers have gone on to indicate their interest to contest. One of them is music star, Gift Uwame, aka Muma Gee.

Apart from declaring her intention to represent the Abua/Odua and Ahoada East Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, Muma Gee has since picked a nomination form from the party’s office in Port Harcourt and printed campaign posters.


http://www.punchng.com/entertainment/e-punch/why-julius-agwu-withdrew-from-2015-race/

A pest control firm exterminated 4,400 rats over two days at a state-run hospital in India with thousands still on the premises, its chief executive said on Thursday.

According to Sanjay Karmakar, Head of Laxmi Fumigation and Pest Control Service Ltd., said that Maharaja Yeshwantrao in Indore, south of Delhi, was still home to over 10,000 rodents.

However, the complex consists of seven buildings across about 10 acres.

Karmakar said, “We have only tackled a part of the grounds so far they are riddled with rodent burrows, at least 1,000 of them.

“Each would have four to eight rodents, we have not started on the buildings yet, the pest control firm is baiting the rodents with different food each day.

“One day, it is peanuts and clarified butter, another day its roasted chickpeas, potato cakes and so on.

“If one of a family dies after eating something, the other rats will not touch the same food, so we have to keep changing the menu.”

Operation Kayakalp (transformation) began on Oct. 28 and is scheduled to run until Dec. 4.

Karmakar’s company ran a similar operation at the hospital in 1994 soon after an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the neighbouring state of Gujarat.

“We cremated 12,000 rodents at the local electric crematorium in the presence of government officials after Kayakalp I in 1994,’’ Karmakar said.

However, there was no follow up by the hospital authorities and the rodents multiplied again.

Report says the 950-bed hospital is one of the biggest government-run healthcare facilities in Madhya Pradesh state.

It includes a medical college and is visited by over 1,100 outpatients daily.

Officials said that poor refuse disposal was the main reason for the rat infestation.



http://www.punchng.com/news/more-than-4000-rats-killed-at-indian-hospital/

Residents of Itire-Ikate/Ijesha in Itire-Ikate Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have been told by the Business Manager, Mushin Business District, of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. D.O Adewunmi, that they would have no electricity supply because they abused him.

Residents of the community, comprising over 20 streets, had mobilised to the Marina, Lagos Island head office of the company to protest alleged insensitivity of the Mushin Business District to their plight.

They lamented that members of staff of the business district were in the habit of extorting money from them before rendering any form of assistance. They also complained of poor services, estimated billings and general poor attitude of the company staff to their customers.

Wielding placards bearing various inscriptions such as “We don’t want darkness” and “crazy billing is evil”, the protesters blocked the road in front of the office, chanting solidarity songs. The Public Relations Officer of the company, Godwin Idemudia, asked the protesters, who were in their hundreds, to select representatives to meet with the management inside the company.

At the meeting, the leader of the delegation, Baba Owe, presented the group’s position to the management of the EKEDC. He said, “We are here to register our grievances because all our entreaties to the Mushin Business District have yielded no results.

“Your employees are in the habit of maltreating their customers because they enjoy monopoly. We pay for virtually everything – wire, metres, maintenance, repairs and many more. This is apart from the normal bills which are not only outrageous, but wicked. Nobody comes to read our metres, yet we get crazy bills every month.

“Just last Thursday, your men came before dawn to disconnect our community from the Johnson feeder, disabling over 60 transformers and keeping over 20 streets in darkness.”

Addressing the representatives, the Deputy Managing Director of the company, Mr. Ramesh, explained that the company had concluded plans to begin the distribution of prepaid metres to all its customers.

“We have sent a proposal and once it is approved by the regulators, we will begin implementation, which will be in phases within a period of three to four years. We would have distributed standard prepaid meters to our over 600,000 customers,” he said.

On the issue of poor services, he explained that the nation as a whole, with a population of over 170 million people, generates only about 4, 000 megawatts of electricity, out of which only about 300 megawatts gets to Lagos which is barely enough, but promised that services would improve with time.

The protesters then asked what the EKEDC would do to ensure that their electricity supply was restored. The Vice President (legal) of Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Wola Ojoye, asked why they were disconnected but the residents said they did not know.

Ojoye subsequently called the business manager, Adewunmi, on the telephone and put the conversation on speaker.

The protesters were stunned when Adewunmi, said that his reason for disconnecting the community’s electricity supply for four days was because the people were ‘abusing and threatening’ him.

“They were abusing and threatening me, sending threat messages to me and members of my team. So I disconnected them,” he said.

Ojoye subsequently instructed Adewunmi to re-connect the community.


http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/power-firm-disconnects-electricity-consumers-for-insulting-manager/

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, continued to import a large volume of jet fuel as it had the highest volume draw from the United States in August, according to the latest data from the U.S Energy Information Administration.

The country imported 1.51 million barrels of US jet fuel in the month, surpassing Canada’s import of 1.23 million barrels.

Nigeria had in November 2013 imported 1.74 million barrels of the fuel, the country’s largest draw so far.

With 5.7 million barrels of the fuel imported from January to August, Nigeria remains the second-largest importer of US jet fuel after Canada. The country had imported 864,000 barrels of US jet fuel in February, rising from 292 barrels in January.

Also, the country imported a total of 809,000 barrels of kerosene from January to August. It brought in its largest kerosene cargo of 292,000 barrels in February.

Industry analysts and stakeholders have continued to stress the need to deregulate the downstream sector of the industry to attract private investment in order to ramp up the country’s refining capacity.

“Not very many persons will want to invest in the real downstream assets in this kind of environment. The environment is heavily regulated. It is not like deregulation will solve all our problems, but it is very critical. The regulatory environment will stifle any investment and so I don’t see anybody investing to build refineries until we address those fundamental issues,” the Chairman, Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), House of Representatives, Mr. Dakuku Peterside, said at a recent conference in Lagos.

Nigeria continues to create a lucrative market for refineries particularly in Europe and the US as it imports more than 80 per cent of its refined petroleum products as a result of inadequate domestic refining capacity.

Meanwhile, other oil exporting countries are increasingly shifting towards meeting their domestic demand for petroleum products and exports of refined products by increasing their refining capacity.

In what is the latest case, Saudi Arabia has built two new refineries that will give it 800,000 barrels per day in refining capacity online in 2015, part of an ambitious downstream drive which will see its refining capacity rise to 8 million bpd in a decade.

In mid-2014, a 400,000-bpd refinery, known as SATORP, in Jubail, reached full capacity and another 400,000 bpd plant, the Yasref refinery in Yanbu, started trial runs in September with the first gasoil export cargo seen in December.

Early 2015, an expansion of the Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company’s (Takreer) existing facility in Ruwais, United Arab Emirates, is expected to be fully operational. This will put on-stream another 417,000 bpd of distillation capacity.


http://www.punchng.com/business/energy/nigeria-emerges-largest-importer-of-us-jet-fuel/

A former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, and the Deputy Governor, Segun Adesegun, have defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Social Democratic Party.

A reliable source, who made this known on Wednesday, also said that the three APC senators from the state and six members of House of Representatives had joined the SDP train.

The Senators are Adegbenga Kaka, Gbenga Obadara and Akin Odunsi, who represent Ogun East, Ogun Central and Ogun West respectively.

The members of the House of Representatives are Kunle Adeyemi, Babatunde Olabode, Olumide Osoba, Abiodun Abudu, Odeleye Kehinde and Bukunola Buraimo.

News of their defection coincided with the resignation of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s Senior Special Assistant on Environment, Abayomi Odunowo.

Adesegun had on October 24 sent a stinker to Amosun, accusing him of starving his office of funds, and allocating old vehicles to him.

In the letter personally signed by him and published exclusively on October 29, by The PUNCH the deputy governor advised Amosun to fear God and warned that he might not win the next governorship poll in the state.

A part of the letter read, “Your Excellency, while writing this letter, my thoughts race to my university days in Ile-Ife, Osun State where I joined a group of bikers travelling around the country out of youthful exuberance.

“During this period, one of my pastimes was reading inscriptions on cars and buses to amuse myself. In 1978, I witnessed a fatal accident near a big tree at Alakia Junction in Ibadan on the way to Ile-Ife involving a white Peugeot 504 station wagon. Nearly everybody in the car died; shockingly there were several amulets hung over the car that had the word “I shall return” boldly inscribed on both sides. Unfortunately, it did not return. I therefore conclude that we all must fear God.”

Kaka and Obadara confirmed the defection of the politicians during separate telephone chats with our correspondents.

One of our correspondents had asked the Senator if the Osoba group had left the APC, he replied “Something like that.”

When asked to be specific on Osoba and Adesegun, he said, “All of us; we will soon have a formal unveiling.”

Kaka also disclosed that Osoba and the National Assembly members loyal to him had started consultations and sensitisation visits to the Local Government Areas in the state.

He said, “What we are doing currently is that we are going about to the local governments to sensitise the people of the need to register and get their permanent voter cards.

“But we have not formally defected. You know that if someone wants to defect to another party, it must be done formally, so we need to do that.”

On his part, Obadara said, “Yes, I am in the SDP. But it has not been made formal; we are in the process of making it formal. In fact, all the senators and members of the House of Representatives are also in the SDP.

“We are out to rescue Ogun State from recklessness and provide good governance. We are not going to run a government of my friends, my school mates and my family.”

When contacted , Adesegun said he would always be in a party where his leader(Osoba) belonged.

He said, “Osoba is our leader, I am talking about politics in Yorubaland. Nobody can create leaders for us in Ogun State.”

Efforts to speak with Osoba did not yield any result, as he neither picked a call made to his telephone line nor responded to the text message sent to him on the matter.

When contacted, the state commissioner for Information and Strategy, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said, “It is purely a party affair.”

But the national leadership of the APC expressed shock over the defection, saying the party would restrategise to cushion the effect of the defection of the politicians.

It said through its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, that it was inching towards reconciling the factions in its Ogun State chapter.

“We read it only in the newspapers like you read it. We thought we were making a breakthrough in our reconciliation talks. So, it was a shock to us,” the APC added.

It admitted that the defection might affect its chances of retaining the state in 2015, but said it “will go back to the drawing board and redouble our efforts.”

On what would happen to the deputy governor of the state, the APC said, “The party in Ogun State will decide what to do with the deputy governor. Right now, our own is to face the new challenge.”

Just as news of the defection of Osoba and others gained ground, the SSA on Environment to Amosun told The PUNCH that he had resigned. His resignation came barely two months after the Special Adviser to the governor on Environment, Abimbola Lanre-Balogun, quit.

Odunowo, in his resignation letter dated October 31, 2014 and addressed to the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, said he wanted to pursue a new opportunity, which has ‘‘presented itself.’’

Part of the letter read, “This is to inform you that an opportunity has presented itself that will enable me to work in the area of my stated preference.

“I believe the reasons leading to this decision are known to you and I will therefore leave them unsaid at this time.

“I am therefore tendering my resignation letter and wish to inform you that 5th November, 2014, will be my last day in employment.”

Odunowo thanked the governor for the opportunity given him to serve, describing it as a ‘‘truly outstanding experience.’’

Odunowo told our correspondent that he resigned to pursue his senatorial ambition, stressing that he wanted to effect a change for the people of Ogun East.


http://www.punchng.com/news/osoba-ogun-deputy-gov-others-dump-apc/

A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has blamed his successors for the rot in the power sector.

The former President said that the country needed to generate 2,000 megawatts every year for the citizens to enjoy stable electricity.

Obasanjo, after his second coming as a civilian president, handed over to the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 while President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office after the death of Yar’Adua in May, 2010.

The former President, spoke at a programme tagged ‘First Green Legacy Moment with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Leadership and Human Security in Africa’, which held in Abeokuta.

He said subsequent administrations after his reign as military ruler between 1976 and 1979 did nothing on power generation until he returned in 1999.

According to him, leaders in the country lack the political will to confront national challenges.

He said, “Part of our problems is lack of political will on the part of the leaders. What does a leader understands about development? Any leader worth his salt should know that power is very important. It is the driver of all developments, be it social, economic, and even political.

“When I was military head of state, I developed the Jebba Dam, I developed Shiroro, I started Egbin. (Ex-President Shehu)Shagari came and completed Egbin and commissioned Jebba and Shiroro.

“Between Shagari in 1983, until I came back in 1999, there was no single dime invested in power generation. If anything, the ones that were there were allowed to go down.”

Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) came into power on December 31, 1983 after Shagari was overthrown in a military coup. Buhari himself was shoved out in 1985 by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who stepped aside in 1993 following the tension that greeted his annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by Bashorun Moshood Abiola.

Ernest Shonekan, head of the Interim National Government, and late dictator Sani Abacha followed while power was transferred to Gen. Abdulsalami Abubaka on the death of Abacha in 1998. It was Abdusalami that handed over again to Obasanjo as a civilian president in 1999.

Obasanjo said, “A country like Nigeria must be adding not less than 2,000 megawatts every year if we are to be moving on the path of development.

“If you will remember, when I came back in 1999, my first Minister of Power was late Bola Ige. I won’t say Bola didn’t know what he was doing and he said publicly that he would fix the power problems in six months.

“After one year, Bola with his capacity couldn’t fathom what was wrong with power. It was riddled with corruption. Then we had no money. People have forgotten that in 1999/2000, the price of crude oil was US $9 per barrel. So, I wanted the oil companies, Mobil, Total and they wouldn’t go.

“When we started having money, we started the National Integrated Power Plant. When we said the money we had should be invested in power, my successor didn’t understand; he stopped it. If for almost 20 years we did not achieve anything in power generation, then we may not be able to get it again.”

Obasanjo, who cited South Africa as an example, said with its population of 55 million people, SA generated 45,000 megawatts, while Nigeria with about 180 million people could not generate 4, 000 megawatts.

He said, “For us to say that we are industrialising country, we must be generating much more than what South Africa is generating, say 100,000 megawatts.

“What year will Nigeria get there if we are adding 2,000 megawatts each year? For us to get to 100,000 mega watts, I leave the mathematics to you. It sounds very discouraging but that is the reality.”



http://www.punchng.com/news/obasanjo-blames-jonathan-others-for-power-sector-decay/

Six military commanders, including an injured Lieutenant Colonel, have been arrested by the military for withdrawing from Mararaba, Michika, Madagali, Mubi and later Vimtim when Boko Haram insurgents attacked the communities last week.

It was learnt that an unspecified number of soldiers were also in detention for allegedly abandoning the communities, thereby making easy for the insurgents to have an upper hand.

A reliable military source, who made this known in Abuja on Sunday said the movement of five of the commanders had been restricted to the officers mess in a military formation.

The source, who did not name the military formation, because of security reason, added that “one of them, a Leutenant Colonel is receiving treatment at the MRS in Yola for serious injuries he sustained when the car in which he was escaping with somersaulted several times.”

He said the injured officer would join his colleagues in the officers mess on recovery.

Our source said, “Today (Sunday), the military authorities arrested five commanders around the Mubi axis of Adamawa State. The sixth is a Lt. Col.

“Some of those arrested were at Mararaba, Madagali, Michika and other locations. I think the military leaders are saying that the soldiers did not resist the Boko Haram when they invaded the place.”

Our source explained that the Defence authorities had already commenced investigations into the activities of all its personnel in relation with the capture of Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa State and other supposedly “fortified locations,” including Vimtim, the home town of the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh.

The insurgents had reportedly burnt Badeh’s residence, a clinic and a civic centre in the community on Thursday.

The source explained that the military authorities were determined to find out why the Boko Haram’s advance in the state was not resisted by the troops.

He said the military chiefs were of the opinion that the “tactical withdrawal” of the soldiers from their positions was nothing but a “display of indiscipline and cowardice which would not be tolerated.”

Our correspondents gathered that it was the military authority’s conviction that enough weapons and men were deployed in Mubi and other locations to frustrate the any attack by the insurgents.

On Thursday, the Minister of Defence, Lt.Gen. Aliyu Gusau; the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Kenneth Minimah, declined to speak with journalists on issues relating to the capture of Mubi and the other communities by the insurgents.

When contacted on the issue, the Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen Chris Olukolade, said, “Anyone found to have undermined the ongoing operation will face appropriate sanctions and this is well known to all military personnel.”

Another source, who confided in one of our correspondents, said soldiers had a grueling encounter on Sunday with insurgents at Bladeba about one and half kilometers from Mubi.

He said the soldiers were able to take over some of the checkpoints captured by the insurgents.

It was also learnt that some of the insurgents in control of Mubi were moving towards Hildi to avoid aerial bombardments.



http://www.punchng.com/news/mubi-battle-army-arrests-six-senior-officers-for-fleeing/

Dangote Cement Plc has announced a 41 per cent reduction in the prices of cement, with the different grades of the essential commodity now selling for between N1,000 and N1,150, exclusive of Value Added Tax.

In the new price regime announced on Sunday by the Group Managing Director, Dangote Cement, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, a 50kg bag of the 32.5 cement grade will now sell for N1,000, while the higher 42.5 grade is to sell for N1,150 per bag instead of the current N1,700 that both grades were going for.

Edwin said in a statement that the move was in line with the company’s commitment to the nation, especially the need for the development of infrastructure and boost ongoing efforts to reduce the near 20 million housing deficit in Africa’s largest economy.

“We recognise the need for a dramatic increase in the response to the huge infrastructure and housing deficit in the country, and one of the ways of addressing the issue is bringing the price of building materials down to much more affordable levels, especially cement, which is within our own control as part of our contribution to the transformation agenda of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration and the attainment of key milestones in the Millennium Development Goals,” he was quoted as saying.

Since the commencement of the implementation of the backward integration policy for cement in the country over 12 years ago, the local production capacity of the product had risen from less than two million metric tonnes per annum to about 38 million metric tonnes per annum currently.

During the period, over $20bn has been directly and indirectly injected into the Nigerian cement industry with Dangote Cement Plc accounting for 60 per cent of that expenditure.

Edwin also said that Dangote Cement would continue to ensure the alignment of its corporate social responsibility with its strategic business initiatives, and would continue to evaluate its pricing regime in the country’s best interest.

According to the statement, stakeholders have commended the price reduction and say the cement market is entering the high demand phase as the dry season, which provides the opportunity for increased construction and building activities, is setting in.

In compliance with the directive of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria on the various grades of cement and their prescribed uses, Dangote Cement recently inaugurated its brand of the premium 32.5 grade, which has been restricted to plastering use only.

The largest cement producer in Nigeria noted that the move was to develop a full bouquet of cement types to meet the varying needs of consumers for the different purposes.

The company produces the 42.5 grade for column casting, block making, decking and other general purpose construction works that require high strength, while the 32.5 grade is for rendering or plastering.

The company also produces on demand the 52.5 grade for specialised construction of high strength structures such as bridges, flyovers and sky scrapers, among others.

Dangote Cement said in compliance with the SON standard for cement quality and packaging, the lower 32.5 grade would be clearly labelled in order to minimise the incidence of building collapse arising from the misapplication of the different grades of cement.

http://www.punchng.com/business/homes-property/dangote-reduces-cement-price-to-n1000/

Swiss fourth-tier player Ricardo Ferreira has a history of kicking off at football matches after previously serving a 45-match ban for similar offences.

An angry footballer in Switzerland has felt the full force of his local game's governing body after he booted a ball into a referee's face... and then sprayed him with water.

Ricardo Ferreira of Portugal Dutebol Clube in the Swiss fourth-tier was an unused substitute in his side's 1-0 defeat to SC Worb, but he let his frustration out at the end of the local Bern league fixture.

Disgruntled with decisions made in the match, the bench warmer kicked the football at the referee's face, before launching into a tirade of abuse as he walked down the tunnel, according to Swiss newspaper Blick.

He then squirted water at the official, earning him an indefinite ban from the game, programmed at 50 years in the computer systems.

Ferreira, 28, understood that he was going to get a hefty fine, but insists that the ban is life-changing for him.

“I had expected one or two years maximum. But 50 years? Football’s my life,” he said

It is not the first time that Ferreira has landed himself in bother for abusing an official.

He has already served a bumper 45-game suspension after being found guilty of assaulting opposition players and abusing officials.

“We do not want such a player in our league,” said Robert Breiter, a lawyer for the Swiss amateur league. “Unfortunately we encounter such cases about once a year.”

Ferreira's ban is officially indefinite, but due to computer programming reasons, the governing body had to set an end date to the ban, which was set for 5th June, 2064 - when the player is 78-years-old.



http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/footballer-banned-50-years-kicking-4548400

“I ceased using kerosene a long time ago because I found a good cooking succour in gas,” said a food vendor operating within the Ojodu Local Council Development Area of Lagos State.

The plump, fair-skinned woman said the difficulty she experienced in buying kerosene made her to dump it for gas. The woman, who identified herself as Mrs. Beatrice Kelvin, stated that she bought kerosene for N50 per litre at a filling station close to her house many years ago.

Kelvin said, ‘‘The last time I bought kerosene, it was as if the commodity was going to be sold for the last time in Nigeria that day. Every space in the filling station was occupied by intending buyers. It was indeed a sight. Many people buy kerosene at a rate higher than N50 and I know that it is not also available’’

On whether or not she was aware of subsidy on the commodity, Kelvin said she heard of a daily subsidy on kerosene but did not know the exact amount of the subsidy.

‘‘It is hard to understand why the product is scarce and expensive when it is subsidised. With the way things are concerning kerosene, I will advise its users to switch to gas. It is fast, available and affordable,’’ she said.

Though she enjoys cooking with the Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Kelvin, who intermittently exchanged pleasantries with her customers as they arrived, noted that she would prefer to combine using kerosene with gas if the former was cheap and obtainable.

For Mrs. Mulikat Tijani, a housewife, it was as if our correspondent was from another planet when she was asked if she had ever bought kerosene above N50 per litre at any filling station.

She cautiously looked at this writer as she stirred some yam flour on a kerosene stove and said, ‘‘I do not think you are a Nigerian. Which filling station sells kerosene for N50 per litre? The least one can pay per litre is between N120 and N145. Some even pay more elsewhere.’’

Tijani, who said she had since stopped going to filling stations to buy the commodity because it was usually not available there, added that she bought from some retailers around her house.

She said, ‘‘Since filling stations do not have the commodity, one often wonders where the retailers get it. Nigeria is a very funny country. If filling stations sell kerosene at a high rate per litre when one is lucky to see it, one can imagine the rate retailers will sell it per litre. Kerosene is what I use for cookings and I pay more than necessary on a litre every day. It is really disturbing’’

The woman, who said the masses suffer untold hardship in Nigeria, expressed surprise upon hearing about subsidy on kerosene which she said was a costly and scarce commodity.

According to the Federal Government, daily subsidy payment on the product is N700m.

The Managing Director, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, Mr. Haruna Momoh, said the figures of kerosene supplied in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 were 2.5 trillion metric tonnes, 1.9 trillion metric tonnes, 2.6 trillion metric tonnes and 2.6 trillion metric tonnes respectively.

Several investigations have revealed that the payment of subsidy on kerosene is a cash cow for some major oil marketers alongside buddies of government who massively benefit from the scheme. The scam in the subsidy payments on the commodity has been robust, forcing the lower legislative chamber to institute a probe with a view to cleaning the Augean stables.

It, however, seems that the fraud surrounding kerosene subsidy has grown into an ogre defying being tamed. At several times on the floor of the House of Representatives, key officials of relevant agencies had given conflicting claims regarding the actual subsidy payments.

Through the subsidy, government reimburses oil marketers for the difference in price between Expected Open Market Price and the regulated price. The commodity is pegged at N50 per litre but it is neither available nor sold at the approved pump price to consumers. A litre is sold for between N100 and N150 at filling stations.

The Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Mr. Dakuku Peterside, had said in October last year that the Federal Government spent N110bn on kerosene subsidy in 2010, N324bn in 2011 and N200bn in 2012, totalling N634bn within the three years.

He said, “In the year 2010, we spent N110, 068,533,988 to subsidise kerosene. This is not the cost of kerosene but the cost of subsidising the product alone. In 2011, it got worse and the government spent N324, 089,961,319 on kerosene subsidy. Although we have yet to reconcile this, we spent N200bn in subsidising kerosene in 2012. So, in three years, we have spent N634bn subsidising kerosene. This is one-third of what we spend in a year on capital budget.”

The lawmaker described the payments as a network of corruption.

Subsidy scam

When the past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, raised the alarm earlier in the year that $20bn of the $67bn from crude oil sales payable to the Federation Account was yet to be accounted for, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said it expended about 80 per cent or $8.76bn (N1.366tn) of it on kerosene subsidy, and on petrol subsidy including fixing of broken pipelines.

The Centre for Public Policy Alternatives and the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Global Subsidies Initiative in their 2012 report noted that the subsidy for kerosene in Nigeria had fluctuated over the years. The report indicated that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s reported figures showed that in 2006, 2.4bn litres of kerosene were imported with a subsidy of N89bn.

Also, the report illustrated further that in 2007, the government imported 2bn litres, paying N90.8bn as subsidy while 2008 recorded the importation of 2.5bn of litres which gulped N90.4bn representing subsidy payment from January to July of that year.

It added, “In 2009, 2010 and 2011, 1.9bn, 0.74bn, and 3.3bn litres of fuel were respectively imported with N310bn ($1.9bn) paid as subsidies from August 2009 to December 2011.’’ The price per litre for the years was N50.

After the revelation that two memos dated June 9, and October 19, 2009, from the then President Umaru Yar’Adua ordered the removal of subsidy on kerosene for 2009, 2010 and 2011, the NNPC denied receiving any presidential order to stop the payment of subsidy on the commodity during the administration of the late Yar’Adua.

The then acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, who is now the Group General Manager, OPEC Matters, told this newspaper that the corporation should not be blamed for not implementing the directive because the NNPC did not get any instruction to end subsidy payments on the commodity.

The PPA report, which quoted the pricing template on the PPPRA website in 2012, added that the EOMP for kerosene was then N158.27 ($0.98) per litre while the pump price stood at N50 ($0.30) with N108.27 ($0.67) paid as subsidy per litre.

According to the report, subsidy payment per litre fluctuated in January, February and March 2012 from N113.13 ($0.70), N118.69 ($0.73) to N122.35 ($0.76) respectively. Besides, it explained that from April to August of same year, the subsidy payment per litre ranged from N119.43 ($0.74), N109. 67 ($ 0.68), N94. 75 ($0.59), N101.79 ($0.63) to N108.27 ($0.67) respectively which PPPRA blamed on fluctuations in global oil market.

Many stakeholders and industry watchers are however not convinced about the many claims relating to subsidy payments on kerosene.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Magnus Abe, termed the N700m being spent daily on kerosene subsidy as a waste.

Abe, in an interview with The PUNCH, said, “From the figures that are flying around now, I gather that we are spending close to N700m daily subsidising kerosene. We all know that this kerosene subsidy is not getting to anybody. Nobody buys kerosene for N50. This is simply another question of who is fooling who. So, as far as I am concerned there is no subsidy on kerosene and the money spent on it is a waste.’’

Also, a professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan and President, Nigerian Association for Energy Economics, Adeola Adenikinju, said the country should learn from the success stories of other countries regarding payment of subsidy on petroleum products.

He added that there should be appropriate sanctions against those found culpable of mismanaging public funds.

Adenikinju stated, “We need to impose sanctions on those caught sabotaging the system. We may need to involve community associations/representatives in the distribution system and we must have a good monitoring system. Otherwise, the so-called subsidy will continue to go into the pockets of the rich.’’

He lamented that politics and nepotism were getting in the way of the programme without anybody fighting for the masses who use the bulk of the commodity for cooking purposes.

“Unfortunately nobody fights for the poor. The Nigeria Labour Congress and other professional associations will shout to high heavens and go on strike, if the government touches the price of petrol or gasoline, which is the fuel of the elite, but have all been very quiet with the rascality going on in the kerosene market,” the don said.

A source in the oil sector, who refused to be named, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the impunity regarding subsidy on kerosene would thrive for as long as the perpetrators enjoy government’s support.

The source explained that the level of sleaze was unimaginable and could only be checked through a decisive economic action. “It is clear that the subsidy profiteers are in cahoots with the government. We all know why it is difficult to remove the subsidy on kerosene. Many highly-placed persons are benefitting from the largesse. Why waste so much on something that is not benefitting those it is meant for?’’

The source further said the only way to check the scam was to implement the Presidential directive in 2009 ordering the stoppage of payment of subsidy on kerosene.

The Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, who said it was unfortunate that fraud of such scale was being witnessed in the oil sector of a nation famed the world’s sixth biggest crude exporter, added that he would not support the removal of kerosene subsidy because there was no such thing in the first instance.

Describing the subsidy on kerosene as a scam, Adeniran stated, “Asking that subsidy should be removed means that the poor will pay more for a commodity that they do not even get when the government supposedly pays billions to subsidise it. The best thing to do is to renovate the refineries to refine petroleum products rather than importing kerosene and paying subsidy on it which benefits a corrupt few.’’

Nigeria has four refineries. They are located in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt. However, for a long time now, these refineries have not been working well and when they are working at all; they have not been producing at their optimum capacity.

The refineries according to oil and gas industry watchers are producing far less than the average need of Nigerians, a situation they argue, is responsible for the importation of petroleum products including kerosene.

Various stakeholders, including the Petroleum and Gas Workers Senior Staff Association, have called for turn-around maintenance of the existing refineries and the establishment of at least six others.

Kerosene’s unstable prices

Following the commencement of the liberalisation of the downstream sector of the oil industry in 2002, kerosene was fixed for N24 per litre.

Also, after the suspension of an eight-day nationwide strike by the NLC in 2003, the leadership of the PPPRA pegged the pump price of the product at N32 per litre.

A check on the PPPRA’s website showed that the ex-depot price of kerosene is N34.51 while the landing cost plus margin is N146.26 per litre.

Our correspondent who was at Ejigbo, Lagos depot of the NNPC on Wednesday discovered that the marketers there load only Premium Motor Spirit (petrol). Some of them who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on condition of anonymity said the depot had been distributing only petrol for long.

Those who spoke stated that anyone who needs the commodity among them buys it from the Apapa depot. One of them said, “I have not bought kerosene at this depot before. It is not available in this depot but we go to Atlas Cove Depot if we want it. I am aware that that the commodity is scarce but its scarcity is traceable to market forces. Some top marketers buy it and hoard it before reselling while others inflate the price having bought it at a price higher than expected.”

Another marketer, who gave his name as Ibrahim, stated that the NNPC often sold the commodity to depot owners instead of owners of filling stations, a situation, which he said, had led to arbitrary price increase. “This is a commonplace in the industry. The regulation specifies how petroleum products should be distributed but the reverse is the case. There are so many abnormalities going on in the sector especially regarding kerosene. The NNPC should not be the sole importer, distributor and retailer of kerosene,’’ Ibrahim said.

Adenikinju, who is also the Director, Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, UI, said subsidising a petroleum product like kerosene primarily consumed by the poor was a good policy, especially for an energy poor and developing country like Nigeria.

He added, “It is a common practice in many countries. It has environmental, health and socio-economic benefits on the poor and our hardworking but suffering women, especially those living in the rural areas. However, in many of those countries the poor actually get the product and the intended effects are largely realised. In fact, such subsidy may not necessarily affect the budget, since it is financed through cross subsidy obtained by taxing the fuel consumed by the rich.’’

According to him, the current challenges in Nigeria mean that there should be a need to re-evaluate the strategy of achieving the objectives to assist the poor. The expert on energy matters also said even though the poor were not getting the product at the current official price of N50, he would still support the retention of some forms of subsidy on kerosene.

“However, we need to redesign the system that will cut off the middlemen and the politically-connected people that are currently benefitting from the present system. In most parts of the country now, the market price of kerosene is above N120 litre,” Adenikinju stated.

Efforts to speak with the Head, Corporate Services, PPPRA, Mr. Lanre Oladele, on the matter were rebuffed as he refused to answer his calls and respond to text messages sent to his phone.

When contacted, the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, directed our correspondent’s enquiries to the Manager, Corporate Services, PPMC, Mr. Nasir Imodagbe.

Reacting, Imodagbe said Ejigbo depot of the NNPC stocks kerosene.

He stated that it was untrue that the depot had not stocked the commodity for many years, noting that the PPMC; a subsidiary of the NNPC, ensures distribution of petroleum products to all the NNPC depots across the country.

He stated, “It is not true. We supply kerosene to Ejigbo depot. They may not get supply through the pipelines because of the notoriety of pipeline vandalism in that area, but we supply to the depot. The NNPC supplies petroleum products based on the quantum recommended by PPPRA. We also do not connive with any marketer or depot owner to divert kerosene.’’

Imodagbe added that there was no time NNPC sold kerosene to some selected major oil marketers or diverted the commodity to private depot owners.

The PPMC disclosed last year that between 2011 and 2012, the country lost N190bn to pipeline vandals.

However, the kerosene report, bordering on the extent of irregularities in the kerosene subsidy scheme, expected to be submitted to members of the House of Representatives by the Dakuku Peterside-led committee last week had been be put on hold following the adjournment of sitting till December 3 by the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal.

Whatever the report would unravel may not be new as Nigerians keep searching for kerosene that is dear and rare.



http://www.punchng.com/feature/kerosene-subsidy-the-hidden-mega-scam/

Chinese Authorities have found 200 million Yuan ($33m) in the home of an energy official, news reports said on Saturday.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Chief, Xu Jinhui told newsmen.

According to the bureau, it is the country’s largest-ever cash seizure.

The money was unearthed at the home of coal bureau Deputy Chief, Wei Pengyuan, in a probe first revealed in May.

“If denominated in 100-yuan notes, it would pile 200 metres high and weigh more than three tonnes.

“There are some hidden rules among these people that do things after receiving money. They do not even need to speak about it; they accept bribery together in a chain over the long term,’’ Xu said.

He said four of the 16 cash-counting machines brought in to tally the notes broke down under the task.

“Wei is one of 11 National Energy Administration employees under investigation for alleged corruption. Six may have each received over tens of millions of Yuan in bribes,” Xu said.

China has initiated a high-profile campaign against corruption, considered endemic among the country’s many levels of officialdom.


http://www.punchng.com/news/33m-cash-uncovered-in-chinese-officials-house/

YOU have been in the music for close to two decades, how would you describe the journey so far?

Wow! It has been revolutionary, full of innovation, paradigm shifting, aligning yourself with new developments, upgrading my style, upgrading my delivery of songs, upgrading, adapting the music and getting to work with younger producers and getting to understand and using the language of young people. So it has been very revolutionary. It is been like a 360-degree complete circle change for me every time. To God be the glory that I am still relevant in music because it is not everybody that started the same time with me that can still do today’s music. So it has been a roller coaster journey. It has been full of ups, full of downs, full of revelations, full of innovation, rebranding, repositioning and so on. There are too many words to describe how the journey has been for me because I have not just been an artiste, I have also been discovering artistes.

Myself and my team in Kennis Music always have been involved in discovering, developing young talents and grooming them to become global brands. It has been rewarding, developmental and a success, especially now that the Nigerian government could say that in 2014, the revenue of the country’s GDP rose to become the best in Africa partly because of the contribution of the entertainment industry.

Your family has been a force to reckon with in the entertainment industry in the country. How did it begin?

It began with me when in 1997/98, my journey into music professionally actually began. The first Kennis Music concert we had was in April 1998. Then we had another one in December of the same year. But all the attempt then was to project a new Nigerian thing because as at then, there was no industry. There were no marketing companies for the kind of music that I was going to be doing. There were few radio and television stations then. We only had Raypower, Radio Nigeria and Rhythm as radio stations and NTA and AIT as the only television stations. In the beginning, the concentration of the energy was to project me.

We weren’t looking at the industry, it was just that we needed to market a product and this product, my brothers then were only doing promotion. They were promoting a lot of artistes; they were the ones that pushed Femi Kuti out there when he released his first album. They did the same to the likes of Lagbaja and several others because of the Grammy awards they were going for. Keke and D1 had the opportunity to mingle with the entertainment industry outside Nigeria. It was the fun, while it was also the job until I came on the scene and they started promoting me. They went round to see who could market me but they couldn’t see because the companies were winding up and the ones that were there were only selling indigenous songs and sounds and the sound that I was bringing was different.

That was how we decided to float our record company. I told my brothers that I could do it and we floated it and it started with me. The hype I was enjoying could have made 10 people superstars; so I had to reach out to my friends who are into gospel music like Kingley Ike and Kunle Ajayi of the Redeemed Christian Church of God so that they could come and be part of the hype and that was how it started and people started keying into it. It was like an experiment that eventually became a successful one.

We later started including the secular artistes because we were starting a revolution in the entertainment industry. After that, we began the Easter Fiesta to promote me and because my brothers couldn’t be doing the MC, they started including comedians and as the music industry was growing, the comedy industry was also growing.

What were you doing before you ventured into music?

I was living in the UK and I had just finished my Master’s degree from the University of Benin when I went to the UK. While I was working, the Lord called me to work for Him. Then it wasn’t a music ministry, it was a prayer ministry. That took me on a mission to the UK. When I was done with that, I felt like I needed a job and God said He had a job which He needed somebody to do and I said whichever job He wanted me to do, I would do it since He called me. It was like going into partnership and I knew that He would sort me out because He doesn’t owe anyone. It was an adventure for me working for somebody was supreme and I was ready to go to any direction He wanted me to go. When He sent me to the UK, it was the day of the Holy Ghost Festival in London. Pastor Adeboye and other ministers were going to minister there.

I didn’t have the pull to go to the UK then but when He asked me to go, I went. When I got there, the Spirit of God ministered to me to write my name and drop it in the offering basket with the assurance that the organisers would reach me. I wrote on the note that I was on a mission and that God said I should do this and I am just obeying. This is my number, call me. Truly, the pastor in charge called me and that was how I started working with that ministry. I told them that God sent the missionaries to Africa and I am a product of what the missionaries had done and He was exporting me to also now be a missionary in the UK. When I got to the UK, I l found out that Christianity had gone down. Most of the churches that were booming there are Nigerian churches.

I was one of the people that were sent to go and wet the ground for the revival of the upsurge of Pentecostal moment in the UK. When I finished my work, the Lord said well done good girl but before you go, I will give you a gift of music and that was how He gave me the gift. I didn’t realise it until each time I was in His presence observing quiet time. He told me to always write down all that was coming to my mind but I thought they were poems until He asked me to go and check my diary and gave me the composition. I called Baba Keke immediately telling him that I was coming back home to start music. He was highly elated and asked me to do him a favour by doing two recorded songs in the UK.

I didn’t have money but I got a niece and went into the studio to do the recording and came back to Nigeria thereafter. When I came, he checked it and saw that I could actually sing but he told me that what I recorded was not for the Nigerian market and we started again. It was when we finished the recording that we were looking for who would market it. To our chagrin, an end had come to Sony Music, Premier Music was closing down and we said, what do we do? I told him I could start a record company because God told me that I was coming to back to Nigeria to export music. I didn’t’ know that I was in the picture, that I was coming to start a company that would be developing young people.

You are a youth pastor in your church but your critics have always said that your trendy look is worldly. What is your take on this?

I will say all of us are worldly because we are still in the world; we are only not of the world. We are all living in a secular life. Even when you are in the presence of God, you are not the Spirit, it is the Spirit of God that mingles with the spirit within you and the word of God that you bring to bear that you use as your tools. I am just trendy and each time I don’t appear trendy, God frowns at me saying the kind of people I am sending you to, this look you have cannot pull them into the kingdom. He told me that ‘If I want to pull in people that do not wear ear rings, people that will not wear trousers, people that will not look trendy, I already have people doing that work, but you, your field, your harvest, they are trendy; they are stylish, they are up and mobile people; they are in the entertainment industry; they are on the street, they are even sex workers. So you have to appeal to them.

‘They have to look at you and say, I see you in me. This would make them to release themselves for your counselling because they will feel that if this one serves God, they will also want to serve God’. To some, their sacrifice in the service of God requires that they should not wear ear rings, trousers and all that but you don’t know what I am laying down as a sacrifice. What He is demanding me to lay down as a sacrifice may not be what He is demanding you to lay down as a sacrifice. For you, it might be that by 5am, you have to carry megaphone, go to the bus stop and preach.

And if He says look trendy, be in your best suit but if you now decide not to be in your best suit, then you are doing the job half way and that is disobedience. I am for young people and God loves young people, He does not want young people to perish. He does not want them to say because of doctrine, they do not deserve the blessings of God. It is evil for people to just look and then judge. Of course, they do judge me but it does not do anything to me.

At what point of your life did you decide to go into politics?

If being in politics is a call to service, then I will say I have been in politics long ago going by all that I have been telling you since. Being in politics is a bad way to look at being in public service or being a public servant. But because people look at the corruption and the embezzlement and how people play one another, they call it politics. But for me, it is to render service to humanity for their development, for their upgrade, for the goodness that God has made available for them and all we need to do is to share and disburse them.

Mentally and spiritually, I have been in politics for long. All along in private practice, I have been rendering services in the area of discovering, grooming and developing young people. Now, this has outgrown me. It has grown bigger and asking for a bigger platform for me to continue to perform. Private practice has made us to make the entertainment industry robust. Now, because the large number of talents that the country is churning out because of the success of the entertainment industry, we cannot use our personal money anymore. It has made us to see that there is a wide gap between the government and the people, the young ones in particular. I feel that I can bridge the gap.

I have been working with the Lagos State government and somehow, I have a relationship with people at both the state and the local government levels. If God told me several years ago to come back to Nigeria because I will be exporting talents, you will see that there is a link in all that I am doing and it is God that sent me. Even this political ambition is from God. It is time for us to get the government to connect with the youths. The ambition matured last year but before then, I had worked with Mrs Oluremi Tinubu when she was the first lady of Lagos State. I have also been working with Mrs Abimbola Fashola since the inception of her office as the first lady.

I have also been working to some extent with the deputy governor on issues that pertain to women. I also worked with the chairman of Onigbongbo local government, which is my immediate constituency when he was trying to bridge the gap between the private and the public schools. It was me that they used for fund raising and as the face of the exercise. When I told the people in power that I want to come into the mainstream of politics, they were happy and they embraced me. Honourable Abike Dabiri was the first to say, Kenny, I am glad that you have come into the scene. I worked with ACN but officially, I became a card carrying member of the APC this year but, I will say that I started last year.

Apart from you, so many others in the entertainment industry are also delving into politics. Is it a bandwagon thing or is it a as a result of not making sufficient money from the industry and the urgent need to augment the little that is coming in?

It would be unfair to say that. We have leadership qualities that we have been offering the public through the entertainment industry. There is more to what we can do. Personally, I think it is not true. For me, it is a calling to youth development, it is a calling for me as a woman who has excelled in the entertainment industry to move to the position of leadership to pull others to foster more development in our industry. I am sick and tired of hearing that we have the leaders that we deserve. You just cannot sit down and be complaining, it is democracy and we don’t need to go to military school to go and learn how to carry gun to be in government. It is open to all. It is another calling entirely for some of us who have been there. Look at RMD, he has done well in Delta State. Also watch out for Fibresima, the Actors Guild president, she is doing well and will go places. It is that desire to serve mankind that pulls you to aspire for a bigger platform to serve the people.

We have so many things we want to do in the industry but because of financial challenges, we could not do it. The government has the money to make this dream come through and that is why we have to be with them in order to convince them to release the money and because they trust that we know our industry better, they would be able to release the money for us to make the industry better.

Involvement in politics is quite demanding. What will you not sacrifice to be relevant in politics?

What I will not sacrifice is my body, my faith and I will not go fetish. Those are the things that I will not do. I will not compromise my personality. I believe in hard work. I believe that if God has not put you there, don’t force yourself there. For the purpose of promoting youth development, promoting the entertainment industry and making more women to be in politics and key places to help young women, I will be very willing to give my best. I will always not keep quiet in matters that require the leaders to be accountable and responsive to the needs of the people.

You have been expressing so much concern about the growing number of commercial sex workers in your recent interviews, but the belief out there is that the world of showbiz makes their activities to thrive. Simply put, they go hand in hand. What is your position about this?

Ah! (laughter). That is fallacy and blackmail on the entertainment industry. It breaks my heart to call them prostitutes. You can blame the shaking of buttocks and indecent dressing on the industry because the industry is over sexualised and we need to purge it and separate the real content from selling bad behaviour. That is part of the work I intend to do when I become a parliamentarian. That brings us back to the neglect of the youth in Nigeria.

My brother, the youth ministry in Nigeria at all levels does not stand on its own. At the federal level, it is attached to sports. At the state level, it is either attached to women ministry or to sports again. You will find out that 75 percent of the activities that happen in those ministries are about sporting activities. The problem is that Nigeria of today has a very large percentage of the population as youths, unfortunately this huge part of the population does not have a ministry or a parastatal attending to the needs of the youth to know their challenges and their aspirations. How do you now blame the spread of prostitution on the entertainment industry that is growing the GDP? It is the sheer neglect of the youths by the government that is responsible for this and that is responsible for my pull to come and serve.

We can create an agency for these ladies and make them useful. When we have the youth ministry, you will see what we can do with our youths because the budget will be able to meet their demands. China invested in their youths and that is why they are the toast of the whole world today. The government has not invested in the Nigerian youths, that is why they see us as militants, insurgents, kidnappers and prostitutes. I am not making excuses for them but if we don’t do something now, it will be very bad in the future. One day, you will be driving down and will want to carry somebody only to find that your niece who told you good night is on the street as a sex worker! May it not happen. I think Ikeja has the highest number of commercial sex workers at night and on a weekly basis, they have over 2,500 girls on the street of Ikeja every night and it is growing.

You are a beautiful woman and men hardly take their eyes off beautiful people like you. Now that you are going into politics, they will be breathing down your neck…

(Cuts) whose neck? I don’t have the neck (laughter). I take what you said to be a compliment. When some people see me, they will say you are more beautiful than you appear in video. I spend money on this body, therefore if you don’t give me that compliment, it means my money is not working and that will mean sacking my beautician (laughter).

Thank you very much but do you know what actually attracts people to me? When I speak, you will get raptured. You experience me when I talk, the words I speak linger in your memory and you get nurtured by them. When this happens you get endeared to me but not to the point of touching me. People like to be around me just because of wisdom sake. I am not a typical woman out there and I give God the glory that my tongue is laced with grace. I make everybody that has an encounter with me to feel good and loved. Even though they are endeared to my personal charm, they just love me and hug me and say, KSB, you are a blessing and so they don’t want to defile me. They don’t breathe over my neck, they love me and appreciate me.

They even want to invest in me because they believe that there is more to me than being just here. They feel I should be up there touching lives. Even when I open a bit of my skin, you don’t see y skin, it is another person who is even more beautiful that you will see and you will just want to stay close in touch with me. Since I began my political journey, not even a single man has said to me KSB how far?


http://thenationonlineng.net/new/god-frowns-at-me-whenever-im-not-trendy-gospel-star-kenny-st-best/

While many believe that men have an unrivalled reputation for being unfaithful and for representing whatever infidelity stands for when it comes to relationship and marriage a new study has revealed that women are bigger cheats than men. The study also shows is a narrowing gap between men and women when it comes to infidelity. The study claims women are catching up fast in the game of cheating, adding that they are more likely to lie about it and a lot less likely to get caught. Simply put, it seems women are better at having extra-marital affairs than men.

A 2010 survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago, United States, found that the percentage of wives admitting to extramarital affairs rose by almost 40 per cent over the last two decades, even though women behave differently from men when they cheat.

Beyond the revelation by the NORC’s data, some researchers had 918 men and women fill out an online questionnaire on whether or not they have cheated on their partners and why they did it. The result revealed that 19 per cent of women admitted to straying outside their relationships. It was further revealed that while men still outpace women, seeing the numbers on the rise for both sexes was alarming for the researchers.

Some of the women noted that it was not just attractive men that lure them from their relationships, but rather, they were led astray because of their discontent with their relationships. The study stressed that the most common reasons for infidelity include feeling lonely and disconnected from one’s partner, lack of communication, love and attention deficit, boredom, sexual disconnect or lack of intimacy.

The study, published in the journal Hormones and Behaviour, found that women who experienced any of these coupled with their high-fertility period were significantly more likely to find fault with their partners, therefore looking for comfort elsewhere.

In a separate study by Dr. David Holmes, a psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University in England, he found that women are having more affairs than ever, even as much as they may be lagging in equal pay with men or less dominant in politics like men. The study revealed that women are more psychologically sophisticated, which helps them to be better liars and cheat their spouses with lesser stress.

Holmes said, “Women are also better at mental multi-tasking. You can keep all the different strands of a lie in your mind, remember them and make them convincing. Men lie, too, but they are much more likely to forget something, or make a mistake and get caught. Emotionally, women make plans and have strategies, while men are more impulsive.

“When men have affairs, they tend to be bigger risk-takers and naïve about how obvious their cheating is to an emotionally astute partner. They will also be bursting to tell someone about it. Men have more ‘trophy affairs’ than women. They will often want to brag about it, or be so taken up by the sexual thrill of the affair that their behaviour is a giveaway. Women, on the other hand, are much more cool and rational, even when they are in the grip of passion.”

This probably explains why men who have extra marital affairs are eager to tell friends about their escapades, pushing their exploits too far until they leave a clue or get caught by their wives or anyone else who should not have been in the know. On the other hand, it seems, biologically, women are programmed to be more careful about revealing an infidelity than men who would rather brag about it until they are caught.

Holmes noted further that women often keep the secret because they’re much more conscious of how much there is to lose, and to protect the other people involved, hence, they compartmentalise their emotional lives and don’t let the affair bleed into the rest of their lives.

“Whenever we question men about fidelity,” says Dr. Holmes, “they will very often admit to their affairs. But if you then ask the same men if they think their wives or girlfriends have had affairs, too, they will be shocked at the very thought, or laugh and call it ridiculous.”

In other words, men want to think their women don’t cheat, and women want men to think they don’t cheat. No wonder women are better at secret affairs.

“The biggest difference is that women are much better at keeping their affairs secret. If you look at the studies into paternity, even conservative figures show that between eight and 15 per cent of children haven’t been fathered by the man who thinks he’s the biological parent,” he added.

In the words of Dr. Hokemeyer, a family and addictions therapist, there are three main factors driving more and more wives to cheat; women have become more financially independent, social stigmas have been lifted and attitudes about women engaging in sex have changed.

Hokemeyer explained that it is easier for women to cheat because they keep a lot of secrets, making sure that no one else knows, while bearing in mind the 11th commandment, ‘don’t get caught.’

Interestingly, when studies about sexual partners or fidelity use a mixture of face-to-face interviews and anonymous computer questionnaires, men will give the same answers to both, but women will report much higher numbers when the answers are anonymous.

An enquiry by these researchers from the women who affirmed that they once cheated revealed that lying about their external affairs may be a good way to cover their acts.

“Why do women lie? Because we must, and because we can. In spite of apparent equality and a more sexually open society, we are still more harshly judged for our sex lives than men.

“In fact, we lie so much and for so many reasons that often we don’t even think of it as lying at all, but as ‘relationship management,’” they said.

Another survey of 3000 people found that women are more likely to cheat than men. The poll, taken by British dating firm, Coffee & Company, showed that while nine per cent of men were certain they’d be unfaithful if they fell for somebody else, a whopping 25 per cent of female respondents said they would definitely have an affair if an outsider pleased their interest.

The survey said many look for love elsewhere out of feelings of neglect or when emotionally undervalued, and if sex becomes boring and predictable, women may wander away to find someone else who can spice things up. Humans have a natural proclivity to move toward what feels good.

Needless to say that a number of men place a higher value on the fidelity of their wives which seems to produce a strange kind of emotional blindness in many men once they have selected a partner to settle down with, no wonder women with intention to cheat do so unsuspected.

According to Winifred Reilly, a marriage and family therapist, there are many reasons for infidelity such as revenge, boredom, the thrill of sexual novelty, sexual addiction, but that most of the time, motivations for such differ by gender, with men searching for more sex or care and attention and women looking to fill an emotional void, say attention and affection.

“I don’t think women are doing it because they want to have more sex. But I don’t think they mind if they get it. It is not really about sex per se as much as the experience of being with somebody,” Reilly said.

Reacting to the study, a psychologist, Dr. (Mrs.) Bonke Omoteso, said she would agree with the findings of the study because it appears acceptable for men to cheat and have many girlfriends which women would dare not do, hence, if they have to do it, it would be done discreetly.

She said, “We have even heard stories that there are children born into some households and the husband won’t be the real father, which is a result of cheating on the part of women. So, it is likely for women but they do it secretly such that their husbands would not get to know.”

However, Omoteso said apart from women who have psychological problem, the reason why women would cheat varies, ranging from revenge, economic purpose to psychological mania.

“The wife may want to do it because the man is also doing it. She could do it to raise money if the husband is not taking proper care of her and probably the children and if women feel too lonely as a result of neglect by the husband, they may look for a way out for themselves.

“However, we have some women who have psychological problems, in which case they can’t be okay with one man, so they have to cheat on their husbands.”

http://www.punchng.com/entertainment/saturday-breeze/shocking-married-women-better-cheats-than-men-studies/

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has stated that he is ready to tackle any Nigerian who takes delight in disparaging his principal, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The presidential aide said he was tired of tolerating “misguided jokers” who continue to bring their President, government and its institutions down.

In a series of messages posted on his Twitter page, he stated that there were many good things about Jonathan and his government that Nigerians should be proud of and showcase for the world to see.

Boasting that he would deal with those who say “rubbish, insult my principal or disparage my country,” he added that he “can’t stand lack of patriotism or respect for an elected President.”

He accused Jonathan’s critics of failing to see beyond their nose, adding that the majority of them are “obviously handicapped” on issues relating to nationhood.

Claiming that Americans do not abuse President Barack Obama like Nigerians allegedly do their President, Okupe described Jonathan’s critics as “shameless, unpatriotic and ignorant.”

According to him, fifth columnists who believe that there is nothing good to say about Nigeria “can go jump into the bar beach.”

“Some are shameless, unpatriotic and ignorant jokers. What I say is based on the facts that I have. If you feel that there is nothing good to say about your country you can go jump into the bar beach. If bar beach is too open for them, they can try Lekki beach or Kuramo waters. Nigeria will definitely not miss you.

“Nigeria conquered Ebola. But for foreign commendations, many would have reacted in denial. They say we are the largest economy in Africa, yet many still bellyache. Some people should bury their heads in the sand like ostrich, Nigeria will move forward without you.

“If you talk out of pure hate for your government and out of cerebral emptiness, we have a duty to help you. US citizens do not abuse, or disparage their nation. What is intellectual in ridiculing your nation from an ill-informed point of view?

“Why is it that many people don’t talk like stakeholders in this nation? Do you think it is trendy to ridicule your state? Shame on you. Many words are necessary for the foolish,” Okupe added.

He literally caused Jonathan’s critics, saying, “The more you destroy your country with your foul mouth the gloomier your future.”

Insisting that he was up to the task of tackling his principal’s critics, Okupe reeled out what he called his achievements, stating that his brilliance saw him graduate from medical school in record time at 24.

Besides, the presidential assistant noted that he would put to bear his experience as spokesman for former President Olusegun Obasanjo and image maker for two different political parties in countering the activities of Jonathan’s detractors.

“Different strokes for different folks. I don’t speak on behalf of those who put their President, government and its institutions down. I love and enjoy what I do.

“I thank God for modest achievements. I love achievers. I can never stand morons or nitwits. I am the only Nigerian who has been spokesman for two political parties and for two Presidents,” Okupe explained.

But an online commentator, Oluwatumininu Olowe, carpeted Okupe for his online vituperations, saying his actions were unbecoming of a presidential spokesman.

Olowe observed that it was not surprising why Okupe is often labelled as an “attack dog” by many public affairs analyst.

“By their name -attack dog – we shall know them. But this action of Okupe is unbecoming of a President’s spokesman,” Olowe added.

Also taking a swipe at Okupe, a Lagos-based online activist, Segun Bamidele, expressed concerns that his comments were embarrassing.

According to Bamidele, it is “disgraceful to Nigeria” to have someone like Okupe in the services of the Presidency.

“If being the presidential spokesman means you must refrain from saying the truth like Okupe does on a daily basis to defend the government, then good luck to you,” he added.


http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/ill-no-longer-tolerate-those-insulting-jonathan-okupe/

Just a few months after disclosures about a $1.5 million dollar image laundering contract awarded by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, to an American PR firm, stirred controversy, the International Centre for investigative reporting, ICIR, has discovered that the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC has also awarded two similar frivolous contracts worth over N100 million ($700, 000) in less than a year to another United States-based company to do ostensibly what its staff are paid to do.

According to documents obtained by www.icirnigeria.org, between July 2013 and May 2014, the embassy awarded two contracts to Mercury Public Affairs LLC worth $300, 000 (over N50 million) and $400, 000 (over N60 million) respectively for jobs that have been described as basic diplomatic functions that could easily be handled by the embassy staff.

The first of the contracts showed that in four months, between July 22 and November 22, 2013, the Nigerian Embassy paid $300, 000 for Mercury to: “Provide government affairs counsel and arrange meetings with key Executive and Legislative branch officials and staff on issues of importance to Nigeria; arrange meetings between US and Nigerian officials to further deepen business, economic and security ties, and; facilitate and arrange US visits for key Nigerian officials.”

The contract document was signed on July 22 on behalf of the Nigerian Embassy by Ade Adefuye, the Nigerian Ambassador to the US and Morris Reid, managing director of the PR firm.

Our investigation further revealed that in addition to the $300, 000 contract fee, there was room for additional money to be charged without limit, as the contract provides for “Miscellaneous expenses, such as travel” to be “billed in addition to the retainer.”

The second contract, which lasted five months, from December 2013 to May 2014, cost $400, 000 and saw Mercury engaged for “strategy development; liaised with US officials and relevant organizations to enhance the US/Nigerian relationship” — responsibilities that were again not beyond the capacity of the embassy staff.

While ICIR could not ascertain how much was billed by Mercury to the Embassy as miscellaneous expenses in the first contract, our investigation revealed that the PR firm billed the Nigeria Embassy an additional expenditure of more than N10 million ($67, 383), in the second contract.

This expenditure, it was discovered, was accumulated mainly from numerous travels that came with feeding and accommodation, including participation by agents of the PR firm at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Abuja earlier in the year.

Also, significantly, both contracts could have been awarded as one as they cover a period of about 12 months; but they were split, probably, to meet the approval limit of the ambassador.

In the filings by Mercury to the US Justice Department, a requirement under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA, the company details the activities it conducted for the embassy to be mainly organising meetings and sending emails. Such meetings were principally between US government officials, including legislators, and Nigerian officials, principally Mr. Adefuye and the minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonko – Iweala.

Speaking on the contract, Seember Nyager, chief executive officer of Public and Private Development Centre, PPDC, which wrote a joint Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, request with the ICIR to the Embassy for details of the contract, including the bidding process, said that not only was the sum excessive, the contract itself was needless.

“It just looks extremely vague to me because, honestly, that is exactly what the contract says, and of course, there is no liability,” Ms Nyager said. “So, anything they do will be meeting the term. And I don’t see why the embassy cannot just write directly to the government officials they would like to meet in the US because that is what diplomatic bodies do.”

“I do not know that diplomatic bodies need to hire PR firms or similar firms to arrange these kinds of meetings by virtue of the fact that those are the core functions of diplomatic outfits, not something that ought to be outsourced and certainly not for $300, 000.”

Ms. Nyager said Embassy staff should have no problem executing the job which Mercury was hired to do.

“It is a key function of diplomacy, I think, to be able to arrange those kinds of meetings and I doubt that if you write a letter saying you would like to arrange a meeting with this and this person, you would be turned down abruptly. It is very unlikely that they would not respond to you. Even ordinary citizens, when they write letters they get responses. So I see no reason why a diplomatic outfit would get no response (since) they already have ties with the foreign governments that host them.”

The open-ended nature of the miscellaneous expenses further makes the contract a sheer waste of public funds, according to Nyager. “It is not supposed to be and that is what makes the contract extremely vague because anything you do can be seen to be acceptable.”

“I believe public institutions, of which an embassy is a part of, have budgets and they can only work with their budget. So if you are entering into a contract, you can’t enter into a vague contract that does not state a limit at all for utilisation of resources. Miscellaneous is too wide and too vague (and) I think it contravenes every form of due process and every form of public resource management in Nigeria.”

Seember Nyager said Nigerians are partly responsible for such misuse of public funds by government agencies because, “By being passive, we encourage it and contribute to the system of unaccountability.” According to her, however, a stop can be put if Nigerians take advantage of the Freedom of Information Law.

“There is ample provision now for all of us to demand that we know how our public resources are being spent and when we see that somebody has done it (uncovered misappropriation) I think people should be angry enough to agitate against any of such kinds of practice because it is wrong.

“We need to see that punitive measures are taken so that people are discouraged from doing these kinds of things and know it is an open system and we cannot be exploited or taken advantage of,” she concluded.

The award of PR contracts to US firms has become a trend by Nigerian government ministries and agencies in the last few years. The first outcry against such a contract was a $1 million PR contract awarded by Ojo maduekwe, then minister of Foreign Affairs to Patton Boggs, one of America’s most priced public relations companies. That contract was awarded in January 2010.

Recently, there was also outrage over a contract awarded by the News Agency of Nigeria, the nation’s official wire service, in June this year to Levick Strategic Communications, a Washington – based public relations for an amount in excess of $1.5 million.

According to the contract document, part of Levick’s brief was to provide “government affairs and communication counsel” to shape international and local media perception about the Nigeria government’s efforts to rescue the more than 200 girls from Chibok, Borno State, kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents in April.

When civil society groups asked NAN for details of the contract, the agency dodged, referring them to the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, which it claimed had the information.

All attempts to get the Embassy to respond to several queries on the contract such as whether due process was followed, what specific services Mercury has delivered and costs proved abortive as neither the Ambassador nor other embassy staff responded to our email sent over two weeks ago.

Also, the FOIA request jointly written by PPDC and ICIR, which was hand delivered to the embassy’s offices in Washington DC has not elicited any response.

Similarly, Mercury did not respond to our email as at the time of filing this report. When our reporter phoned the PR firm’s Washington DC offices, he was told by the lady who answered the call that questions relating to contracts could not be handled on the phone.

She, however, availed our reporter the personal email of the managing director. However, another email requesting information sent to Reid’s email address last week has also not been replied until the time of going to press.



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/170292-investigation-nigerian-embassy-in-u-s-wastes-n100-million-on-frivolous-pr-contracts.html

The Senate President, David Mark, has reiterated his preparedness to lay down his life to ensure the growth, sustenance and and stability of democracy in Nigeria.

Mark also restated his commitment to ensuring the creation of Apa state for the people of Benue south senatorial district.

He spoke when he hosted Idoma stakeholders in Otukpo, after receiving the nomination and declaration of interest form bought for him by the nine local government council chairmen in the Benue south senatorial zone.

Mark said that the creation of a separate state for the Idoma people of Benue state was of utmost priority to the children, youths and the elderly of the zone who had over the years craved for a separate stated of their own.

Mark said, “I am overwhelmed by the show of love, encouragement and support you have shown me by this singular act of purchasing these forms and in unison asking me to go back to the senate.

“The enormity of the responsibility you have entrust in me entails that I must be fair, just and unwavering in my leadership and and also attain the wishes and aspirations of our people.

“I humbly accept to run in the forthcoming senatorial election in line with your wishes and aspirations, I will strife at all times to ensure that the dividends of democracy did not elude our people.

“As we continue to strive to attain set objectives, I would want to affirm that if you my people ask me to lay down my life for the growth, sustenance and and stability of democracy and for the creation of Apa state, I will willingly do that, because without you, there is no me.”

In his speech, the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, who led PDP Stakeholders and council chairmen to purchase the forms in Makurdi urged anyone with senatorial ambition from area to shelve it, noting; “because such an ambition would be contrary to the wishes of the people of Idoma land."

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/can-die-stability-nigerias-democracy-mark/

Nigeria and other African countries will continue to be net importers of petroleum products despite the availability of functional and quasi-functional refineries, and plans to build more refineries on the continent, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said.

According to her, plans to build more refineries in Angola, Uganda, Mozambique and Nigeria cannot change the situation.

Alison-Madueke spoke at the eight edition of the Oil, Trading and Logistics (African Downstream) Expo held in Lagos on Tuesday.

“Notwithstanding the possibility of building new refineries in Africa, including new projects in Angola (Sonaref refinery); Uganda (Uganda oil refinery); Mozambique (Nacala refinery); and Nigeria, among others, Africa will remain a net importer of petroleum products for at least 20 years to come,” she said.

The minister, however, pointed out that Nigeria was already on the path to adding more capacity by 2020 through the proposed private refineries by the Dangote Group and Orient, and Bayelsa, Kogi, and Lagos states, among others.

Alison-Madueke, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Gas, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Oliver Okparaojiakor, said sub-Saharan Africa was the least sophisticated refining centre in the world.

She said, “In fact, there are only 24fuels refineries within the region, with a total refining capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day for a population that is close to a billion. Population growth means more energy consumption.

“However, the uncompetitive and inefficient nature of many of these refineries, combined with the difficulty in funding major upgrades, or new capacity, seem likely to keep the average utilisation at a low level in the short term.

“The implication of population growth for Africa is that demand for petroleum products will continue to be on the rise without commensurate refining capacity addition. There is an urgent need to encourage investors to partner with national oil companies or privately to build more refineries, and for us to be less dependent on imports.”

On petroleum products subsidies, the minister said the stunted growth of the downstream sector was attributable to the distortion introduced to the market as a direct result of the regulated regime in some sub-Saharan African countries, adding, “There is a need to eliminate this convoluted price subsidy and stimulate competition across the value chain.”

The issue of subsidy, she explained, could not be over flogged, as according to the World Bank, subsidy on petroleum products in Nigeria and other oil-producing African countries would be unsustainable in the medium term.

Alison-Madueke said heavy subsidy was an unsustainable expenditure even on the long term, as it generally promoted energy inefficiency and imprudent consumption.

Over the last 10 years, she said Nigeria had taken important steps towards a more deregulated downstream, adding that to provide a competitive market environment and sustain supply, the downstream sector should be fully deregulated.

Similarly, the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, said activities in the downstream sector had facilitated a net inflow of investment in excess of N60bn.

The Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Mr. Dakoko Peterside, who represented the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, stated, “We are working on the Petroleum Industry Bill and we are conscious of the fact that it is very critical to the economy of Nigeria; and so, we are not taking it lightly. I want to reassure you again that we are taking the PIB very seriously and I’m very optimistic that the bill will be passed before 2015.”


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/nigeria-to-import-petroleum-products-for-20-years/

The rice sector has attracted N256bn ($1.6bn) worth of investments in the last three years, the Federal Government has said.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bank of Industry to build rice and cassava mills across the country.

He said, “Within a three-year period, we have been able to attract $1.6bn of investment into the rice sector. The largest one being Aliko Dangote that has put up in over N165bn, which is $1bn into commercial rice production and also commercial rice milling.

“I have no doubt that within three years, Nigeria will be exporting rice just like Thailand and India, and that is exactly the way it should be. However, we notice that as we have been producing a lot of rice, we don’t have enough mills to process the rice.”

Adesina said the country lacked integrated rice mills to process the locally produced rice to global standards.

He said it was important for Nigeria to close the milling gap, and to achieve this, the country had to build integrated rice mills.

He noted that the MoU was to facilitate the building of 10 rice mills and six cassava processing mills.

The minister said, “The 10 integrated rice mills will each have the capacity of 36,000 metric tonnes, which means they all will be a total of 360,000 metric tonnes. So, this is a huge investment. The rice mills are going to be located in Kebbi, Zamara, Kaduna, Kano, Benue, Kogi, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Ogun and Anambra states.

“Government has no part in this venture. The role of the government is to facilitate access to finance for private sector investors to invest in these mills and run them as private sector-driven operation.”

The Managing Director/Chief Executive, BoI, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said, “We are now at the critical stage where there is a need for effective processing of the agricultural produce. The MoU will address the modalities to ensure that these 16 companies materialise in the next few months.

“It is hoped that by the time the companies are operational, the amount of rice being imported will be significantly reduced if not completely eliminated.”

He stated that the MoU would allow for the release of loans to investors and noted that the credit would come with an interest of five per cent.

Olaoluwa said the repayment period would be 10 years with three years moratorium.

In another development, the Federal Government signed another MoU with Nigeria Breweries Plc for the development and commercialisation of hybrid sorghum as part of its sustainability programme.

The government said that despite Nigeria being the largest producer of food sorghum in the world, the country had yet to reap the benefits of using it for the production of high energy food as it was done in other countries.

Adesina said his ministry reached out to 96,000 sorghum farmers in 2013 with improved inputs, seeds and fertilizers in order to enhance the development of the value chain.

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/rice-sector-attracts-n256bn-investments-fg/

A former vice president and presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar, may be setting a precedent as he plans to earn a token N1 as salary per annum, if he is elected president in the February 2015 election.

This indication emerged on Saturday ahead of the Policy Retreat Review at the Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, which begins Monday.

The retreat is part of the campaign strategies of the former vice president, who on September 24, formally declared his intention to seek the APC ticket, come December.

The Nigerian president currently earns a basic salary of N3.5 million annually while the vice president takes N3.03 million.

However, the president is entitled to other benefits/allowances. These are regular allowances such as hardship allowance of N1.7 million; Constituency allowance, N8.7 million; leave allowance of N351,470.50: severance gratuity N10.5 million; and motor vehicle loan N14.1 million.

The other allowances are for accommodation, furniture, utility, vehicle maintenance, entertainment, medical, security allowance, newspaper/periodicals and domestic staff. The costs are not provided by the Commission Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, the body which fixes the emoluments of Nigeria’s political, public and judicial office holders.

Mr. Abubakar, who served for eight years as vice president in the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2003, had earned an annual basic salary of N1,938,000, the same as the Senate President and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, before it was reviewed upwards in 2009 by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC.

At the time, Mr. Obasanjo earned N2,586,000 per annum.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr. Abubakar’s decision to take a flat rate of N1as salary if elected president, was premised on his desire to give back to the country for all it has done for him. He had reiterated this promise when he made his formal declaration last month.

The presidential hopeful, who is believed to be one of the richest Nigerians, it was further learnt, would deploy the balance of his salary to service charity homes of his choice.

According to a source close to Mr. Abubakar, “I believe that Turaki may be considering taking a token salary of N1 not because he is endowed like so many others but to underscore his preparedness to make personal sacrifices in the quest to rebuild and reinvent our dear country and by so doing engender a culture of sacrifice in his envisaged administration.”

The Coordinator of Atiku Media Office, Garba Shehu, said he was not aware of the plan by his principal to earn N1 as salary and that it could be discussed at the the policy retreat.‎



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/170071-nigeria2015-atiku-to-earn-n1-as-salary-if-elected-president.html

The use of motorcycles as commercial means of transport in Nigeria, popularly known as ‘Okada’ or ‘Achaba’ may soon be banned throughout the country.

The proposal for the ban was made by the National Council on Transport after its annual conference in Enugu State and endorsed by the Minister of Transport, Sen. Idris Umar.

A statement from the Federal Ministry of Transport on Saturday evening stated that the ban of commercial motorcycle was one of the measures proposed towards adequate provision of safety and secure transportation in Nigeria.

It said the recommendation was contained in a statement of the week long meeting which had in attendance all the state commissioners of transport, permanent secretaries, directors and officials in the federal and state ministries of transport across the country.

The council advised all states in the federation to henceforth discourage the use of commercial motorcycles as a means of public transportation.

“All states and the Federal Capital Territory have therefore been advised to establish a public transport system that ensure strict regulation of the operation of public passenger transportation system through a well-articulated management system for enhanced safety, security, effective and efficient service delivery,” the statement said.

It added, “The states are to also develop master plans for the development of intelligent transport system to facilitate the development and management of their transport operations in line with emerging trends and global best practices.”

The statement noted that the council also agreed that all commercial vehicles should be properly registered in each state while their enumeration should be carried out periodically to enhance safety and security.



http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-to-ban-commercial-motorcycles-nationwide/

Residents of Massachusetts, US, now have another avenue of income, even though a strange one. An independent non-profit stool bank called OpenBiome is willing to pay volunteers $40 per deposit of their poo.

According to boston.com, the stool samples will be used for fecal transplants, to fight the deadly superbug C.difficile, which affects more than 500,000 and kills 14,000 Americans per year.

Stool transplants are being praised by many doctors as a miracle cure for C.difficile, a bacterial infection that most commonly affects hospital patients. It causes fever, painful cramps, severe diarrhoea, and in some cases, life-threatening complications such as severe swelling of the bowel. Patients with recurring episodes are ill for several months, and only have a 75 per cent chance of survival.

However, stool transplants from healthy donors have worked wonders – especially when all other treatments, even antibiotics, have failed. It helps restore the balance of good bacteria in the gut, which are highly effective in fighting infections. If the treatment is successful, the patient starts to feel better almost immediately.

In order to be a donor, you need to be between 18 and 50 years of age, have regular bowel movements and be willing to make 30-minute trips every day to the OpenBiome laboratory in Medford, Massachusetts. At least four donations a week are mandatory, if you choose to register as a donor. If you come in five days a week, you could receive an extra $50.

Prospective donors also receive $40 for getting tested – these tests include filling out a detailed medical questionnaire, having your stool tested for infections, and your blood tested for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Once you are chosen as a donor, there are several other incentives to look forward to – including clever nicknames like ‘super pooper’, ‘Vladimir Pootin’, or ‘Winnie the Poo’. OpenBiome also encourages its donors to stay healthy by eating plenty of fibre.


http://www.punchng.com/feature/weird-planet/stool-bank-offers-40-a-day-for-peoples-poo/

Now single drummer girl, Ara, has said she is ready to give marriage another shot now that she and her once Iceland-based hubby have divorced.

In an exclusive chat with Saturday Beats recently, Ara said she wouldn’t even mind going for a younger guy if he comes around her.

“When I meet the right person and fall in love, I will consider marriage. I really want to fall in love again. I don’t believe in marriage just for its sake. If a younger guy comes up to me, I don’t mind dating the person. I don’t mind marrying somebody who I am older than. I have spoken to a couple of people and they don’t see anything wrong with it. If the person has a mature mind and is committed, then it is not a big deal.”

When asked if she is not looking for somebody who she can control and manipulate, the singer said she is not the overbearing type and she never exhibited such trait in her former marriage.

“I am not that kind of person. I am the most submissive wife. I am ‘mumu’ for love. You can ask my ex, he can tell you. There was never a day I didn’t ask him what I should cook even though I was the breadwinner. I would always ask him what he wanted. And whatever he said, if we didn’t have it, I would jump on an okada and enter the market to go and buy the stuff. I am a hopeless lover,” she said.

Ara revealed that she and her ex are still “good friends” because, “we have a child together. My boy is six years already. He has remarried. I am not envious that he got married again. God forbid! When he calls me, I always ask him if his wife isn’t around. I would also ask him if his wife knows that I am not interested in him. I don’t know her and I don’t know her name. I wouldn’t want her to feel I want to take her husband again. So I tell him I hope the wife knows that I am not interested and that his calling me is just to find out about his son. I wouldn’t want to make any woman unhappy.


http://www.punchng.com/news/i-dont-mind-dating-a-younger-man-now-ara/

The South African Ambassador to Nigeria, Lulu Mnguni, said in a news conference on Friday that the $15m earlier seized from some Nigerians by the South African Government had been released to Nigeria.

The South African Government had, on September 5, 2014, seized $9.3m cash belonging to Nigeria and a month later seized another $5.7m, claiming that both funds were to be used for illegal purchase of arms, www.thecable.ng reported.

However, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, said the transactions were legal, urging the South African Government to stop actions that could degenerate to a diplomatic showdown.

The South African Government on October 14, 2014 said it would return the money to Nigeria.

Mnguni also spoke on the collapsed building in the Synagogue church in Lagos State and its effect on the relationship between the two countries.

He said that the two countries had come a long way and that the development would only make them remain stronger.

“South Africa’s relations with Nigeria has come a long way, so now this actually will make us much closer, to see how we can close some of these gaps that result in such accidents,” he said.

The South African ambassador added that the seizure of the funds was in no way related to the Synagogue collapse.

“South Africa’s relation with Nigeria is priceless; it cannot be sold for $15m,” he said.


http://www.punchng.com/news/south-africa-returns-seized-15m-to-nigeria/

United African Company (UAC) has mentioned that Mr. Biggs’ outlets nationwide with poorly maintained premises and those that their services do not comply with the laid down standards would be shut down.

As part of improving the services of the outlets improved services and menus would be introduced nationwide at the end of October.

Eustesia Ogunsusi, the Acting Marketing Manager, UAC restaurants said this while reacting to questions about the poor outlook and service in some Mr. Biggs outlets in Lagos. She said this was usually the trend of big franchises but she promised that UAC would make that change as plans to shut down outlets not properly running had been put in place.

Ogunsusi said, “Although we had gone full franchise since 2012 and the connection UAC has with Mr. Biggs is in the ownership of the brand name, we have a strong relationship with the operators of the restaurants and we regularly monitor their progress. We have a compliant team who visit them and we organise regular trainings for them, all in an effort to ensure that they are relevant in the environment and they meet the standards specified by UAC. We are working on a lot of improvements for the outlets. From the end of this month, a new set of menus will be launched and the outlets will start wearing a new look. A lot of outlets will be shut down if we find out that they are not complying with the quality and standard of service stipulated by the UAC”.

She said the UAC team had implemented corporate social responsibility programmes in secondary schools around Lagos so as to connect with more customers.


http://aitonline.tv/post-uac_to_shut_down_erring_mr__biggs__restuarants

The potential of Nigeria’s electricity metering market is currently worth N150bn, but the rising cases of electricity theft among consumers in the corporate and household levels is undermining this prospect.

Local meter manufacturers and distributors, power distribution companies, among others, have continued to raise the alarm over this menace, as the same has so far resulted in huge revenue loss. This, therefore, implies that a large quantum of power consumed is not paid for.

Also, the huge metering deficit which has characterised the nation’s electricity market may not provide the expected market opportunities as some people have resorted to electricity theft, which can defeat the adoption of the meters, especially prepaid ones.

Theft of electricity is the criminal practice of stealing electric power. It is a crime punishable by heavy fines and, in some cases, incarceration.

The most basic method of stealing electricity is a direct wire-connection to a main power route passing by a house or shop so that electricity can flow to the consumer without crossing the electric meter installed by a government agency that is responsible for providing electrical services to customers.

Other methods may include opening the meter itself, without damaging its seals and reversing the dials, a complicated procedure that requires expert skill.

To this end, Sir Collins Onyeama, the Managing Director, Techno Gas and Power, manufacturers of prepaid meters in Nigeria, told our correspondent that electricity theft remained a major challenge for meter manufacturers in the country, the power distribution companies and the power sector as a whole.

According to him, the menace results in a huge loss for operators in the sector, as operators end up not getting value for services rendered.

He stressed that people benefitting from such practices can never appreciate the importance of prepaid meters.

“The Nigerian meter market is worth over N150bn, and rising cases of power theft will only undermine this,” he added.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Abiodun Ajifowobaje, also admitted the huge challenges posed by this unfortunate practice by some Nigerians.

He said that about 136,000 customers within the company had been installed with prepaid meters to date, while about 36,000 were found to have been by-passing meter which posed a serious challenge to the company.

The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company recently raised the alarm over the rate at which some customers under its network illegally used electricity and failed to pay for the utility afterwards.

The company also admitted that there were now increasing cases of consumers who were bypassing approved cable route to “steal” electricity.

The IBEDC Managing Director, Mr. Fortunato Leynes, also said meters were also being tampered with, coupled with diversion of wires from the meters and running of the same through the ceilings, thereby bypassing electric meters.

“These acts are offences and are punishable by law. We also know that there are several rampant direct connections, which make people to enjoy electricity without paying a single kobo,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said it will not allow the importation of electricity meters into the country as long as local manufacturers have the capacity to meet demand.



http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/rising-electricity-theft-cases-threaten-n150bn-meter-market/

The Nigerian government has approved that henceforth National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members will receive N500 as daily feeding allowance.

Director General of the NYSC, Johnson Bamidele Olawumi, disclosed this yesterday at a House of Representatives Committee hearing on the N4, 000 online registration fee mandated for corps members, Leadership reports.

A civil society group launched a ‘Say No Campaign’ to protest the registration fee. It was during the hearing that Olawumi made the announcement about the new feeding allowance. He disclosed that the federal government approved N500 as feeding allowance for each corp member per day.

He also disclosed that over N800 million was required to setup the computer registration system the NYSC is presently using for its online registration.

While noting that the N4,000 for the online registration is voluntary, he said rather than request for money to install the infrastructure, he would prefer to canvass for increment of the current N19,800 allowance being to prospective Corp member.

In his presentation, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu of ‘Say No Campaign’ called for the “reversal of the proposed N4,000 fee payment and where payment has been made, a refund to the prospective Corp members.”

Nwagwu stressed the need to “re-examine the laws establishing the NYSC that seems to have made the Director General of the Corp an exclusive preserve of serving military officers.”


http://aitonline.tv/post-fg_approves_n500_daily_feeding_allowance_for_corp_members

The Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, has said that not even the shutting down of his fuel station by the state government will make him abandon his political party, the All Progressives Party, APC.

The state government had announced the closure of some filling stations in the state on Tuesday for allegedly constituting environmental hazard to the society.

Speaker reacts

Omirin who reacted to the closure through a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Wole Olujobi, in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, said he had fulfilled all the necessary environmental laws before locating his filling station and got necessary approval, wondering why the governor is starting early in the day victimizing those who do not share his political leaning.

Omirin pointed out that intimidation and coercion will not force him to betray the people that voted him into office

“Hon. Joseph Olugbemi had told me two days after the governor’s inauguration that he (the governor) had made up his mind to close my filling station over refusal to join PDP. Olugbemi defected to PDP on the day Governor Fayose was inaugurated.

“I had earlier told the governor that in the interest of Ekiti people, the House of Assembly would work with him to deliver dividends of democracy to the good people of Ekiti State.

Calling the governor

“I called the governor to confirm what the honourable member told me about the plan to close my filling station.

He denied having such plans, swearing that he would not engage in victimization of his opponents.

‘’But only yesterday the governor ordered the closure of the filling station, citing environmental reasons,” the Speaker explained.

The Speaker said he had a background of political fidelity anchored on progressive democratic practice, adding that he would not abandon the principle in pursuit of selfish agenda diametrically opposed to the ethos of his political belief.

He said the present atmosphere in the state does not call for high-handedness and persecution against perceived opponents, but a collective pursuit of common goals to deliver good governance to Ekiti people, stressing that attacks on the opponents, particularly the lawmakers, will only create conditions inimical to a cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature necessary for smooth running of government.

Fayose dismisses allegation

But Fayose, who dismissed Omirin’s allegation through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, said: “What Omirin said is totally false, there is no iota of truth in it. The essence of closing down those petrol stations is to ensure sanity and safety in the state capital.

“While some petrol stations were sited on public properties or residential areas, everybody knows the danger it can cause if there is fire outbreak which had happened in some towns before, leading to loss of lives and property.

“ Even in Lagos State, you cannot just site petrol station anyhow.

”Omirin should have nothing to fear, because the Governor has nothing against him.”



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/fayose-shuts-speaker-others-fuel-stations/

A legal bid by a former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, to recover N3.3 billion he lost to Venezuelan fraudsters in a weird oil deal, has been quashed by a United States District Court.

The 2006 transaction, facilitated by former Venezuelan Ambassador, Enrique Arrundell, was enmeshed in a pile of intrigues so deep that the court ruled that the deal might not even have happened in the first place.

According to the court, beyond evidence of money transfers to New York and Swiss bank accounts, very little about the deal can be “established with any certainty.”

Part of the messy details surrounding the deal was the less-than-wholesome involvement of Nigerian oil and gas heavyweight, MRS Oil and Gas Limited, at a time when it had not even commenced business.

MRS is owned by Sayyu Dantata, cousin of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, who is also believed to own up to 20 percent of the company.

In 2006, through his now defunct company, Skanga Energy and Marine Limited, Mr. Igbinedion, while still a sitting governor, tried to make a killing from the lucrative but fraud-tainted oil importation business. Mr. Igbinedion instructed his old secondary school friend and front, Chris Imoukhuede, to approach Mr. Arrundell to help pave way for the company to procure diesel and PMS from Venezuela.

Mr. Imoukhuede was the chief executive officer of Skanga at the time.

Mr. Arrundell on his part introduced Mr. Imoukhuede to a suspected Venezuelan conman, Francisco Gonzalez, who claimed that his fraudulent company, Arevenca, was a registered agent for Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos De Venezuela S.A (PDVSA).

After several months of scheming that involved exchange of emails in broken English, dodgy shipping documents, and trips to Caracas, Mr. Igbinedion thought he was getting a deal made in heaven.

In fact, during one of such trips to Caracas in January 2007, the mustachios politician was ostensibly handed the key to the city of Caracas and announced as the “Alcaldía de Libertador”, the honorary Mayor of the central Caracas borough of Libertador in an elaborate event garnished with lavish dinner and expensive wine and attended by powerful Venezuelans.

The breakdown of the deal looked as glamorous: Averenca would initially send 35,000 metric tons of AGO to Skanga and later up it to three cargoes monthly. All that was required was for Skanga to pay for the freight and make partial payment for the consignment. It was only required to make full payment after three months of taking delivery of the full shipment.

Mr. Igbinedion authorised the transfer of about $22 million to Averenca’s Swiss and New York accounts. The consignments were supposed to be delivered in two ships – Digniti and Ventur. The shipments never arrived. The Nigerian Port Authority said it does not have any record of “Digniti” or “Ventur” entering Nigerian waters at the time it was billed to arrive.

PREMIUM TIMES investigation also revealed that there are no vessels named “Dignitii” or “Ventur”. Searches on Lloyds directories and other ship directories showed that the ships never existed anywhere in the world.

After it dawned on him that he had been duped, Mr. Igbinedion instituted a $600 million lawsuit against PDVSA arguing that Arevenca was its agent and thus PDVSA was liable for the actions of its agent.

Strangely, for a company that was duped such a huge amount of money, Skanga approached the suit in a near comical manner. Its lawyers put forward mediocre arguments. At one point, it even provided evidence that indicated that it might have forged its audit report.

Two reputable American law firms it initially contacted to handle the case left after being owed retainer. One of them, Robert Dunne LLC, quit because of the inability of Mr. Igbinedion’s Skanga to pay fees as low as $3,800.00 (N627, 000).

David Burger, a lawyer with the law firm of Robinson Brog, which was Skanga’s original law firm in the suit, said in a an affidavit before ditching the case that his firm had to withdraw following “the continued inability of my firm to have any adequate direct communication with Skanga, with delayed and inadequate communications only relayed through a two lawyer firm Located in Mississippi”.

Strangely, despite Skanga’s tenacious legal action against PDVSA, for some reasons only Mr. Igbinedion and Mr. Imoukuede can answer, it did not serve Arevenca or Mr. Gonzalez notice of the lawsuit, despite listing them as defendants.

Mr. Imoukuede told PREMIUM TIMES to contact the company’s lawyer for comment.

Neither Mr. Igbinedion nor his counsels, Olufemi Salu, a personal injury and car accident expert of a two lawyer firm Salu and Salu based in Mississippi-Tennessee, responded to phone calls, emails and text messages asking for their side of the story.

Oral Agreement
Denise Cote, the US District Court Judge, dismissed the lawsuit primarily because Skanga could not present any document that it actually entered a deal with Arevenca.

In fact, the freight documents Skanga claimed it received from Arevenca were so amateurishly forged that it would beat the most gullible mind why Skanga didn’t become suspicious when it was presented to it.

Mr. Imoukuede told the court that the multi-million dollar deal was not documented but sealed orally after a meeting with Mr. Arrundell and Mr. Gonzalez in his Caracas hotel room.

The wieldy oil deal may not be a complete charade, as it seems. In fact, Skanga displayed strong intentions that it really wanted to buy petroleum products from PDVSA legitimately from the onset.

Court documents revealed that Mr. Imoukhuede approached the corporation and indeed held a meeting with PDVSA’s and Venezuelan Ministry of Energy and Mines officials on October 30, 2006 at PDVSA headquarters in Venezuela.

Mr Imoukhuede told Virginia Montilla of the Ministry of Energy and Mines and an analyst from PDVSA, Beatriz Dam, who were at the meeting with him that his “mission” for the trip was “to solicit petroleum products from PDVSA.”

Mr. Imoukuede was advised at the meeting to write a letter to the supply and commerce director of PDVSA if he wanted to do business with the corporation.

Neither fraudsters, Mr Gonzalez nor the diplomat, Mr. Arrundell, attended this meeting.

The next day. Mr. Imoukuede sent a letter to Asdrubal Chavez, an official of the corporation stating Skanga’s desire to “purchase Petroleum products from Venezuela to Lagos, Nigeria.”

PDVSA did not respond to the letter. The Judge observed that Mr. Imoukuede did not make reference to either Mr Gonzalez or Mr. Arrundell in the application.

Apparently unnerved by the lack of feedback from PDVSA, Mr. Imoukhuede arranged a quick meeting with Mr. Arrundell and Mr. Gonzalez in a Venezuelan hotel where Mr. Arrundell repeated his claim that for Skanga to do business with PDVSA, it has to do it through an agent and Arevenca was an approved PDVSA agent.

It was at this meeting that a multi-million dollar oil deal was sealed by words of mouth.

Not our agent
Ms. Cote ruled that as a holding company, PDVSA does not directly engage in the sale of Petroleum products. This function is handled by its subsidiaries, which deals with clients directly and not through an agent like Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Arrundell told Mr Igbinedion and Mr. Imoukhuede.

In fact, PDVSA lawyers provided a screenshot of the corporation’s website of 2006 and 2007, the years the deal was struck, which reads: “Product sales take effect between the provider and the client directly, with no intermediaries (third parties, representatives, etc.).”

“A PDVSA official states in his affidavit that PDVSA neither had nor currently has any business relationship or relationship of any other kind with any legal entity called Arevenca S.A., Arevenca, or Arenera Venezolana C.A. all names of Mr Gonzalez’s spurious companies.

The official also asserted that PDVSA does not directly carry out commercial activities related to the purchase and sale or petroleum or refined hydrocarbons, and that such sales and purchases are performed by other subsidiaries authorised to do so, with the primary marketer being PDVSA Petróleo, S.A. The official further stated that “at no time since [he] began working at PDVSA has it or its subsidiaries marketed products through independent commercial agents.” He also added that ‘Venezuelan diplomats [are not] empowered in any way to speak on behalf of PDVSA or its affiliates.’

The judge said Skanga did not contest any of these claims.

A shell company and a curious “loan”
The judge also ruled that as at the time the deal was supposedly made, Skanga was basically a shell company with no history of transacting in any business.

“Imoukhuede became Chief Executive in ‘June or July’ of 2006. Prior to Imoukhuede’s arrival as Chief Executive, Skanga’s ‘business hadn’t started,’ and the company was ‘inactive.’ Skanga made annual filings with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria for the years 2006, 2007, and 2008, i.e., the years in which the alleged transactions occurred and the year in which Skanga instigated this lawsuit in New York Supreme Court. Each of those filings contains a statement from Skanga’s ‘Chartered Accountants’ ‘Dynamic Premier & Co.’ that Skanga ‘has not done any business, and as a result no profit or loss account has been annexed thereto’,” part of the judgment reads.

“Imoukhuede admits that Skanga had not engaged in any commercial transactions with any entity before the alleged transactions that led to this litigation.”

PREMIUM TIMES investigation also revealed that at different times between 2006 and 2007, Skanga used three different addresses all around the Ajose Adeogun axis of highbrow Victoria Island, Lagos.

One of the addresses, 206B, Muri Okunola Street, is abandoned with a takeover notice from the Lagos State government pasted on its gate. The other two are occupied by a hotel and a bank. A security guard, who claimed to have been working in one of the addresses for “years” told this reporter that he has never heard of the name Skanga Energy and Marine before.

When it seemed one had heard it all, the intrigues surrounding the deal spiralled into utter absurdity with the involvement of Mr. Dantata’s company, MRS Oil and Gas Limited.

During trial, Mr. Imoukhuede testified that Skanga couldn’t raise some of the money it needed to pay for the freight charges as agreed with Arevenca, so in December 2006 he took a “loan” of $2.8 million from MRS Oil and Gas Limited to make the payment.

However, annual corporate fillings of MRS in 2006 and 2007 presented by PDVSA’s counsels revealed that MRS had not even commenced business during the period and had total assets worth less than $12,000.

Ms. Cote wondered how a company with an asset of $12,000 could lend $2.8 million to another company.

Despite several attempts, including a visit to its Apapa headquarters and numerous telephone calls to its external affair department, MRS declined to comment. An employee of the company who identified herself as Chinwe, promised this reporter over the phone that the company would come out with a response the next day. That was two weeks ago and nothing has been heard from the company



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/169899-igbinedion-loses-lawsuit-to-reclaim-n3-3-billion-lost-to-venezuelan-fraudsters.html

If you're having a bad week, consider that Warren Buffett has lost $2 billion and it's only Wednesday.

Buffett is known for shunning the quick buck and focusing on the long-term performance of his investments. He'd best not change that this week.

His Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) investment house holds big pieces of Coke and IBM, both of which have taken a drubbing in the past two days.

He took a $1 billion hit on Coke (KO), which fizzled 6% on Tuesday after the company reported earnings that didn't live up to expectations. Even worse, Coke said it doesn't expect a much better 2015.

Coke is one of Buffett's largest investments. He holds 400 million shares and his son Howard sits on the beverage company's board. And he likes the products too. Buffett is often seen enjoying Cherry Coke.

The pain started on Monday for Buffett. IBM (IBM, Tech30), another top holding, lost $1.3 billion as the stock plunged. The company is looking for a reboot after reportingdisappointing earnings and shedding its chip unit at a major loss.

The stock dropped 7% on Monday after then news was announced and slid again on Tuesday. It is off nearly 13% so far this year, and Buffett's company holds over 70 million shares.

Buffett has made a lot of headlines this year for his misses. His investment in British grocery chain Tesco (TSCDY) has also spoiled, dropping nearly 47% this year.

But it's not all bad news for Berkshire.

Investors are sticking with their icon. Berkshire stock climbed slightly on Monday and Tuesday, and is up more than 17% this year -- far outpacing the broader market.

IBM and Coke may be struggling, but Buffett's largest position, Wells Fargo, has climbed 11% this year.

And despite the recent market dip, Buffett has been buying. He said in an interview earlier this month that he was shopping, adding, "the more stocks go down, the more I like to buy."


http://www.aitonline.tv/post-world_s_third_richest_man__warren_buffett_loses__2billion_in_two_days