₦airaland Forum

Kentish-based sex workers in the United Kingdom are demanding a bailout from the government after seeing their income plummet because of the coronavirus crisis.

The prostitutes, operating under an umbrella of English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) want sex workers to access the financial support offered to other employees affected by the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping across the world.

They therefore want the government to recognise them and other thousands of sex workers across the country as employees.

The group in a statement says: “Much sex work involves personal contact – exactly what we are being warned against if the virus is to be contained.”

“The virus comes on top of a crisis of poverty, especially among women.”

-Birminghammail.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/entertainment/coronavirus-takes-toll-on-sex-workers-in-uk-demand-government-bailout/

Two New York-based hospitals in USA are treating coronavirus patients with Vitamin C, the age-old immune-system booster, an indication that sometimes the most difficult situations can be addressed by the most simple of measures.

The treatment of large doses of Vitamin C comes from the positive reports of success from Shanghai, China’s own outbreak in the global pandemic, the N.Y. Post reported.

“The patients who received Vitamin C did significantly better than those who did not get Vitamin C,” Dr. Andrew Weber told the Post of prescriptions of 1,500 milligrams of intravenous Vitamin C three or four times a day to the most seriously ill patients.

That dosage is more than 16 times the daily recommended dietary allowance as set by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

“It helps a tremendous amount, but it is not highlighted because it’s not a sexy drug,” Weber told the Post.

The dosage above is not unilateral across two Northwell Health facilities on Long Island, spokesman Jason Molinet told the Post, “as the clinician decides.”

China has also reported success with traditional Eastern medicine remedies, pushed as a “Chinese solution” to the coronavirus pandemic. China has given 85% of its coronavirus patients herbal remedies in addition to mainstream antiviral drugs, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

About 700 patients at Northwell Health are administered Vitamin C in addition to such medicines as the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the antibiotic azithromycin, and various biologics and blood thinners, Weber told the Post.

“It makes all the sense in the world to try and maintain this level of vitamin C,” he concluded.

-Newsmax

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/american-hospitals-treat-coronavirus-patients-with-vitamin-c/

As Nigeria is caught up in the coronavirus web, the hunt for masks, ventilators and other medical supplies consumed the U.S. and Europe, as more than 1.5 billion people — one-fifth of the world’s population — were urged or ordered to stay home Monday to try to blunt the spread of the coronavirus, including workers of Lagos State Nigeria.

Political paralysis stalled efforts for a quick aid package from Congress. Investor fears about the outbreak’s economic toll pushed U.S. stocks down in morning trading even after the Federal Reserve said it will buy as much government debt as necessary and lend to small and large businesses and local governments to help them cope.

At the start of what could prove a pivotal week in the U.S. and Europe, the head of the World Health Organization called on countries to take strong, coordinated action to stem the accelerating outbreak.

“We are not helpless bystanders,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, noting that it took 67 days to reach 100,000 cases worldwide but just four days to go from 200,000 to 300,000. “We can change the trajectory of this pandemic.”

The scramble to marshal both public health and political resources intensified in New York, where a statewide lockdown took effect amid worries the city of 8.4 million is becoming one of the world’s biggest hotspots. Nearly 10,000 people have tested positive in the city, and almost 100 have died.

The governor announced plans to convert a huge New York City convention center into a hospital with 1,000 beds. Meanwhile, the mayor warned that the city’s hospitals are just 10 days away from shortages in basic supplies needed to protect health care workers and patients alike.

“If we don’t get the equipment, we’re literally going to lose lives,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN.

The risk to doctors, nurses and others on the front lines has become plain: Italy has seen at least 18 doctors with coronavirus die. Spain reported that more than 3,900 health care workers have become infected, accounting for roughly 12% of the country’s total cases.

British health workers pleaded for more gear, saying they felt like “cannon fodder.” In France, doctors scrounged masks from construction workers, factory floors, an architect.

“There’s a wild race to get surgical masks,” François Blanchecott, a biologist on the front lines of testing, told France Inter radio. “We’re asking mayors’ offices, industries, any enterprises that might have a store of masks.”

Health care workers say they are being asked to reuse and ration disposable masks and gloves. A shortage of ventilators, crucial for treating serious COVID-19 cases, has also become critical, as has a lack of test kits to comply with the World Health Organization’s exhortations to test as many people as possible.

The crisis continued to ease in China. The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged late last year, said it is allowing residents limited movement as its lockdown gradually eases.

In the United States, a fierce political battle over ventilators has emerged, especially after President Donald Trump told governors that they should find their own medical equipment if they think they can get it faster than the U.S. government. Alaska is expected to run out of money imminently to pay doctors, hospitals and clinics who treat Medicaid patients.

China has been the one nation to counter this trend, sending planeloads of protective gear as well as doctors to countries across Europe, including hard-hit Italy, France and Spain.

“The U.S. is completely wasting the precious time that China has won for the world,” said Geng Shuang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, promised that medical supplies are about to start pouring in and will be “clearly directed to those hot spots that need it most.”

Meanwhile, efforts for a quick economic relief package from Congress faltered. The Senate voted against advancing the nearly $2 trillion plan that would prop up businesses and send checks to American households. Democrats argued it was tilted toward corporations rather than workers and health care providers. Another vote was expected Monday.

The delay shook investors, as has the accumulation of canceled events large and small, the soaring numbers of unemployed and a widespread pullback in spending.

Worldwide, more than 350,000 people have been infected and 15,000 have died from the virus. As cases in China ebbed, the dangers to Europe and the U.S. have grown exponentially, although Germany on Monday cautiously reported some flattening of its infection curve.

After just a few weeks, the U.S. has more than 35,000 cases and more than 400 deaths. From California to Illinois to New York, officials have now asked or ordered one-third of the U.S. population to stay home, with essential businesses closed.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate cease-fire in conflicts around the world to tackle the pandemic.

“It is time to put armed conflict on lock down and focus together on the true fight of our lives,” he said.

Former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein tested positive at the prison in New York where he is serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault, the head of the guards union said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel tested negative after putting herself in quarantine, according to a spokesman. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the former presidential candidate, disclosed that her husband has been hospitalized with the virus.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever or coughing. But for some older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Over 100,000 people have recovered, mostly in China.

Authorities kept up their push to get people to stay home, but some were clearly not listening.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock described those ignoring the government’s social distancing recommendations as “very selfish” and warned that stricter rules might be coming soon.

“If people go within 2 meters of others who they don’t live with, then they’re helping to spread the virus,” he said. “And the consequences of that costs lives.”

Other countries, though, said the restrictions were working.

After 12 days of a national lockdown in Denmark, “we have together succeeded in changing our behavior very radically,” Prime Minister Metter Fredericksen said, in extending closings until mid-April.

Italy’s infections continued to spike, hitting 59,000 cases and 5,476 deaths, and India took the extraordinary step of shutting down the nation’s rail system, which has long been the lifeblood of the country of 1.3 billion people. The arrival of the global pandemic in Syria as well as the Gaza Strip has raised concerns it could run rampant in some of the most vulnerable areas in the Mideast.

With weddings and other large gatherings banned in many places, an untold number of burials are going forward with nothing more than a minister, a funeral home staffer and one loved one to bear witness.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that postponing this year’s Summer Olympics could be unavoidable. Canada and Australia added to the pressure on Olympic organizers by suggesting they wouldn’t send athletes to Tokyo this summer. The International Olympic Committee said it would examine the situation over the next few weeks.

Trump suggested that the remedies to fight the epidemic — including worldwide financial pain — may be more harmful than the outbreak itself and vowed to reassess government restrictions after the 15-day mark of the U.S. shutdown.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” he tweeted.

-With reports from AP.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/nigeria-joins-over-1-5-billion-globally-asked-to-stay-at-home-over-coronavirus/

As part of measures to curtail the spread of Coronavirus , the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos has banned all elderly parishioners of 65 years and above, pregnant women, nursing mothers and children below 18 years of age from attending Mass {church service) for the next four weeks.

Also included in the restriction are those with serious health conditions believed to be more susceptible to infection and all those who consider themselves vulnerable, believing their health may be jeopardized by attending public fathering, including Masses.

The Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins who made this known in Lagos Friday said the restrictions were part of efforts to help protect public health, values of the Catholic faith and in cooperation with Lagos State Government.

He directed that attendance at celebration of Public Masses on Sundays should not be more than 50 persons as advised by the Lagos State Government. The Lagos State Government had on Wednesday suspended all religious gatherings above 50 persons in the state for the next four weeks.

To ensure that less than 50 persons gathered at Mass, the Archbishop advised all Parishes to make use of other spaces within the Church premises and to increase the number of Masses to be celebrated on Sundays.

He advised parishioners to observe Stations of the Cross as private devotions while also suspended public procession with palm fronds during the holy week of Palm Sunday.

To forestall any spiritual gap during this period, the Archbishop advised all Catholic faithfuls to participate in the Mass on television which would be streamed live and on Lumen Christi Television Network during the period of this emergency.

“We can make a Spiritual Communion at the appropriate time during the Mass. It is a part of our spiritual heritage that when circumstances such as the present one happens and we are not able to go to Mass, we can make a Spiritual Communion. Our faith teaches us that the Spiritual Communion is as effective as when we physically receive the sacred species, the Body and Blood of Christ. This is necessary so as to ensure that Sunday Masses are not crowded beyond the number”, he said

“Finally, my dear brothers and sisters, we want everyone to understand that these are extreme circumstances with safety of life and public health at stake. We expect all Catholics to comply with these directives. We strongly encourage all our people to intensify their prayers, both as individuals or families that the Lord will deliver us from this evil and bring an end to this Pandemic, bring healing to those affected and repose to the souls of those who have died. Be glad in hope, constant in tribulation, persevering in prayer (Romans 12:12), the Archbishop concluded.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/covid-19-catholic-church-bans-elderly-pregnant-women-children-from-mass/

Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria’s leading financial institution, has donated N100 million to the Emergency Relief Fund set up by the Lagos State Government for the victims of the Abulo-Edo explosion.

The Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu made the pledge on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, when the Management of the Bank visited the State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the State House, Marina, Lagos to condone with him and the good people of Lagos State on the unfortunate incident of March 15, 2020 which led to the loss of lives and properties at the Abule-Ado area in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking during the visit, Mr. Onyeagwu said: “For us in Zenith, we share in the concerns and the very traumatic experience that Lagos state is passing through. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, those who lost their lives and those who are still in the hospitals, recovering. We can only but pray that God will comfort the families. We are also very impressed with the fact that the response from the Lagos State Government was quick, rapid and immediate. There is nothing you can do to quantify the loss of lives. The only thing one can do is to ameliorate the sufferings, the pains and the discomfort of those who have been terribly impacted. So, we would like to let Mr. Governor know that we share with him at this moment. We are aware that you’ve also set up a relief fund account and we are willing to make an immediate contribution of N100 million”.

On his part, the Lagos State Governor expressed his sincere appreciation to the Management of the Bank for taking time out of their busy schedule to embark on the sober visit and stand with the State Government in this trying moment. While thanking the bank for the N100 million donation to the emergency relief fund set up by the State Government for victims of the explosion, he also expressed his delight at the bank’s acceptance of the offer to co-house the fund.

Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on Monday while speaking with stakeholders and journalists at the explosion site, disclosed that a N2 billion Abule Ado/Soba Emergency Relief Fund had been set up for the victims. He said the state government have donated N250 million to the fund and solicited for support from all Nigerians including the private sector.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-donates-n100-million-to-support-abule-ado-explosion-victims/

Zenith Bank Plc, on Monday, March 16, 2020 held its 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, Nigeria, during which the Bank’s shareholders unanimously approved the proposed final dividend of N2.50 per share, bringing the total dividend payment for the 2019 financial year to N2.80 per share with a total value of N87.9 billion. This followed the recent release of the Bank’s audited financial results for the 2019 financial year.

According to the Chairman of the Board, Mr Jim Ovia (CON), the AGM was an opportunity for the bank to engage shareholders on its 2019 financial year performance. In his statement, Mr Jim Ovia said “Zenith Bank is committed to consistently deliver superior returns to our highly esteemed shareholders by ensuring that a good chunk of our profit is set aside for you. In a clear demonstration of this, we had declared and paid you an interim dividend of 30kobo per share in the course of the 2019 financial year. We hereby propose a final dividend of N2.50kobo per share. If approved, this will bring the total dividend for the year ended December 31, 2019, to N2.80kobo per share”.

Zenith Bank reaffirmed its leading position in the Nigerian banking industry posting an impressive Profit Before Tax (PBT) of N243bn, representing a 5 per cent increase over the N231.6bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2018. Profit after Tax (PAT) stood at N208.8bn over N193bn, an increase of 8 per cent, thus making Zenith Bank the first Nigerian bank to cross the 200billion Naira mark.

The bank’s result showed an increase in gross earnings from N662bn to N630bn, indicating dominance in market share, while its assets grew by 5 per cent from the N5.9 trillion to N6.3 trillion, a growth driven by the 29% increase in non-interest income from N179.9 billion in 2018 to N231.1 billion in 2019. The Bank’s fees on electronic products continue to grow significantly with a 108% Year-on-Year (YoY) from N20.4 billion in 2018 to N42.5 billion in 2019.

The drive for cheaper retail deposits coupled with the low-interest yield environment helped reduce the cost of funding from 3.1% to 3.0%. However, this also affected net interest margin, which reduced from 8.9% to 8.2% in the current year due to re-pricing of interest-bearing assets. Although returns on equity and assets held steady YoY at 23.8% and 3.4% respectively, the Group still delivered an improved Earnings per Share (EPS) which grew 8% from N6.15 to N6.65 in the current year.

The Group created new viable risk assets as gross loans grew by 22% from N2.016 trillion to N2.462 trillion. This was executed prudently at a low cost of risk of 1.1% and a significant reduction in the non-performing loan ratio from 4.98% to 4.30%. Prudential ratios such as liquidity and capital adequacy ratios also remained above regulatory thresholds at 57.3% and 22.0% respectively.

Financial analysts noted this unprecedented feat by a Nigerian Bank as remarkable, and an indication of strong financial leadership and resilience.

As a testament to this superlative performance, the bank emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria, for the third consecutive year, in the recently released Banker Magazine “Top 500 Banking Brands 2020”, the Best Bank in Nigeria 2020 in the Global Finance World’s Best Banks Awards 2020 and the Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the Thisday Awards 2020. In addition, the Bank was also voted as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto & Co.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-rolls-out-dividend-of-n87-9bn-for-shareholders/

Oil fell below $30 a barrel on Tuesday, trading close to its lowest in more than four years, as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand and Saudi Arabia raised output to a record as it battles with Russia for market share.

Countries including the United States and Canada, along with nations in Europe and Asia, are taking unprecedented steps to contain the virus, curbing demand for crude and products such as gasoline and jet fuel.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Monday that the United States may be heading into recession as economic activity across the globe slowed and stock markets tumbled.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell as much as 1.5% on Tuesday to $29.60 a barrel but was up 0.3% at $30.13 by 1053 GMT, having earlier touched $31.25. On Monday it sank to $29.45, the lowest since January 2016.

“Oil has made new lows,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. “There is simply nothing, neither a fundamental nor technical development, that implies that the rot we are experiencing will come to a halt any time soon.”

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 reversed most of an earlier 4.7% gain to stand at $29.12.

The United States has said it will take advantage of low oil prices to fill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Other countries and companies are planning similar measures to fill storage tanks.

Attention will focus later on U.S. inventory reports that are expected to show crude inventories rising for an eighth straight week.

The American Petroleum Institute releases its supply report at 2030 GMT and government inventory data is due to be published on Wednesday.

Despite the loss of oil demand because of the global spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia and Russia are embroiled in a price war instigated after failing to agree to extend supply curbs to support the market.

Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) has said it is likely to carry over its planned higher oil output for April into May and that it is “very comfortable” with an oil price of $30 a barrel.

“There is still every sign of a price war on the oil market,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.

“If the announced production increases are actually implemented, the price risks plunging further towards the $20 mark.”

-Reuters.
http://www.mediaissuesng.com/oil-gas-power/oil-crashes-to-30-as-demand-plunges-further/

Ghana has closed its borders to travelers from countries with more than 200 cases of the coronavirus as the West African nation seeks to prevent contagion within its borders.

The government is asking airlines to prevent affected travelers from boarding flights, while citizens and resident-permit holders will be required to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival, Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told reporters Sunday in the capital, Accra.

“All travel to Ghana is strongly discouraged,” he said. Confirmed cases have increased to six after four more people, all of whom who traveled abroad, tested positive.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/ghana-shuts-borders-against-travelers-from-coronavirus-hit-countries/

Devaluation of the Nigerian Naira is imminent as the Nigerian central bank will be unable to maintain the naira’s value for much longer as a slump in oil prices drains foreign reserves, according to a Bloomberg survey of investors and analysts.

Seven of 16 respondents expect the currency to be devalued in the third quarter, while four forecast a downward adjustment as early as the second quarter. Another three foresee a devaluation in the fourth quarter and two next year.

Oil prices collapsed this week after the world’s biggest exporters failed to agree on how to respond to a drop in demand as global economic growth slows because of the spreading coronavirus. Nigeria is Africa’s top crude producer.

Since the virus first appeared in China late last year, the naira has weakened 1.3% on the spot market to 366.63 per U.S. dollar. The currency’s decline picked up pace in February, when reserves fell more than 4.5% to $36.1 billion.

Nigerian central bank spokesman Isaac Okorafor declined to comment on the survey. Nigerian presidency spokesmen Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment and neither answered calls to their mobile phones.

Nigeria’s foreign reserves have dwindled as oil prices plunge

Although the naira is at its weakest since August 2017, when it was last devalued, it has traded in a narrow range in that period under the management of the central bank.

“If the base and bear case scenarios play out, it’s difficult to imagine the Central Bank of Nigeria being able to hold the currency at these levels,” analysts at FirstRand Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank wrote in a research note. They estimate the naira is 17% overvalued.

The central bank will likely opt for a devaluation of between 10% and 15%, according to 10 of the survey participants. Four expect a devaluation of between 5% and 10% and the rest foresee an adjustment of at least 20%. A previous survey conducted in February forecast the naira wouldn’t be devalued until 2021.

Concerns of a devaluation have also weighed on Nigerian stocks. The benchmark index in Lagos fell 1.8% on Thursday, taking its decline in the past five days to more than 12% and dragging the gauge to levels last seen in early 2016.

Reserves Burned

To keep the naira stable, central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele has burned through a quarter of the nation’s reserves since June. He’s also restricted importers’ access to hard currency and stepped up the sale of high-yielding government debt known as OMO bills.

The bank could opt for more capital controls to sustain the naira. A stable currency is critical to President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to revive local industries and wean the economy off oil.

Emefiele has vowed to keep the naira steady, saying in late November that the slide in reserves wasn’t a cause for concern.

“We will not hesitate to deploy additional measures to shield the Nigerian economy from headwinds,” he said at a conference in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday.

Participants in the survey, conducted March 9-10, included money managers, analysts and economists based in Nigeria and abroad. Most asked for their submissions to remain anonymous.

Oil futures fell more than 30% in New York and London on Monday, the biggest drop since the Gulf War in 1991, before recovering some ground. Crude sales account for about half of Nigerian government revenue and 90% of the nation’s exports.

– Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/naira-devaluation-coming-as-oil-price-piles-pressure-on-currency/

While we don’t see much depiction of senior sex on TV or in movies, the fact is many seniors are happily and healthfully enjoying intimate relations even into their 80s.

A 2011 study of 27,000 women found that 45 percent in their 60s and 28 percent in their 70s were sexually active, according to Senior Planet. Unfortunately, that leaves a good percentage celibate, something gerontologists say is not good for the body, mind, and soul.

According to AARP, there are six proven health benefits of “making whoopy” in our twilight years:

You sleep better – Sex is related to more and better quality of sleep, say experts, especially when you may be struggling with insomnia — something that affects many seniors. Sexual intercourse releases oxytocin, the hormone that helps us relax, while decreasing the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Its an anti-aging tool – According to psychologist David Weeks of Scotland’s Royal Edinburgh Hospital, couples who have sex three times a week look a decade younger. It may be because involved couples try to take better care of themselves, he reasons. “Lovemaking also releases endorphins or ‘feel good’ hormones that act as a natural painkiller and reduces anxiety,” he says. “It also releases more of the human growth hormone which makes the skin look more elastic.”

You strengthen your relationship – Even married couples who have spent decades together report higher levels of marital satisfaction if they are sexually active, according to a 2014 study conducted at the University of Chicago. The study also revealed that cuddling, hugging, and kissing counted when assessing marital bliss.

You experience fewer headaches – A 2013 study reported that sex may relieve migraines. Headache specialists at the University of Munster in Germany surveyed migraine sufferers who had sex during their headaches and a whopping 60 percent reported that it reduced or stopped the pain altogether.

Happiness increases – The more sex people have, the happier they report feeling overall, according to a 2013 Social Indicators Research report. Couples having sex two to three times a week were 33 percent happier than those who had no sex in the previous year, according to a study conducted at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

You boost cardiovascular fitness – You can gain strength and flexibility through the act of lovemaking. As with any form of exercise, it gets the blood flowing and the heart pumping, which is good for circulation. It may even improve brain function, say experts.

-Newsmax

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/health-benefits-of-sex-after-60-years-of-age/

Two British Airways baggage handlers at London’s Heathrow Airport have tested positive for the killer coronavirus as the number of patients diagnosed in the UK today dramatically jumped to 163.

It came as a man in his 80s suffering with underlying health conditions was feared to have become Britain’s second coronavirus death. A woman in her 70s, who also had long-term health troubles, died yesterday.

The number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK has now tripled in the space of three days, with just 51 cases confirmed on Tuesday. Forty-seven cases were announced today – the UK’s largest daily toll.

Fears may now be raised that the BA baggage handlers could have passed the virus onto passengers’ luggage, as the virus is known to survive on plastic surfaces for up to three days.

The fact that the handlers work at Heathrow – the busiest airport in Europe and one of the busiest in the world – raises the prospect that fliers from around the world have picked up the bug on some of the thousands of journeys which pass through the airport every day.

The UK’s chief scientific adviser today confirmed that the virus is spreading uncontrollably between people inside Britain. Sir Patrick Vallance admitted: ‘This is the start of an outbreak clearly… we can expect more cases.’

Anxious Britons have resorted to wearing gas masks and blankets on public transport in desperate attempts to protect themselves as the coronavirus continues its rampant spread across the UK, while supermarkets up and down the country have again been left bare amid rushes to stockpile household goods such as hand soap, nappies and dried foods like pasta and rice.

Facebook has closed its London offices for the weekend because an employee from Singapore was diagnosed with the coronavirus after visiting the English headquarters between February 24 and 26.

Furious doctors have warned the lack of spare beds in the NHS ‘will end in death’ and an ex-government worker claimed a coronavirus crisis in the UK ‘would be quite useful’ in killing off NHS bed blockers.

And Prime Minister Boris Johnson today pledged an extra £46million to rush through a coronavirus vaccine, after the scientific adviser, Sir Patrick, said a jab will not be ready during this outbreak – researchers hope one could be ready to use by the end of the year.

Mr Johnson even said it looks like the UK will face a ‘substantial period of disruption’ from the new coronavirus outbreak and the government plans to put aid for affected businesses in the national budget.

-Mailonline

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/coronavirus-hits-british-airways/

Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria’s leading financial institution, has again emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in the recently released Banker Magazine Top 500 Banking Brands 2020.

For the third consecutive year, Zenith Bank has been ranked as the number one banking brand in Nigeria with a brand value of $287 million and market capitalisation of $1.62 billion, ranking 392 in the 2020 global ranking of banks.

The ranking was published in the February 2020 edition of The Banker magazine of the Financial Times Group in conjunction with London-based Brand Finance.

According to the publication, brand value is the licensing rate that a third-party would need to pay to use the bank’s brand. All brand values in the report are for the year ending December 31, 2019.

Zenith Bank has clearly distinguished itself in the Nigerian financial services industry through superior service quality, unique customer experience and sound financial indices. The bank, with a knack for setting the pace and raising benchmarks, is a clear leader in the digital space with several firsts in the deployment of innovative products, solutions and an assortment of alternative channels that ensure convenience, speed and safety of transactions.

In an apparent show of its resilience and market leadership, Zenith Bank recently announced an impressive result for the year ended December 31, 2019, with profit after tax (PAT) of N208.8 billion, achieving the feat as the first Nigerian Bank to cross the N200 billion mark.

Consistent with this excellent performance and in recognition of its track record of exceptional performance, Zenith Bank was voted as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto & Co. The bank was also recognised as Bank of the Year and Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards. Most recently, the bank emerged as the Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the Thisday Awards 2020.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-emerges-most-valuable-banking-brand-in-nigeria/

By Emeka Nze

Federal Government has stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus after the country confirmed its first case.

Health Minister, Osagie Enahire, who made this known to journalists on Monday in Abuja, called on citizens to avoid panicking or spreading unverified information about the disease.

He said measures being taken include increased screening at border entry points and a public awareness campaign on improved hygiene, “Nigeria is doing everything to contain the virus,” he said.

“We have already started working to identify all the contacts of the patient since he entered Nigeria; we have continued to beef our own security and the level of preparedness continues to improve every day.”

Nigerian authorities last week identified an Italian man who traveled from Milan, Italy as sub-Saharan Africa’s first case of novel coronavirus. He’s been hospitalized in Lagos, the commercial capital, and the government is working on locating people who traveled with the patient, Enahire said. The man, who has since been isolated at a hospital in Yaba, is “clinically stable” and has not developed serious symptoms, according to health officials.

So far, 38 of 156 people who traveled with the man on a Turkish Airlines flight on Feb. 25 have been identified and advised to place themselves in isolation, Enahire added.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has also supported the activation of emergency operation centres to serve as coordination platforms, while its Coronavirus Preparedness Group meets daily to review the situation and manage the response efforts.

The agency has meanwhile issued a public health advisory to inform Nigerians about symptoms and preventive measures, and has provided a toll-free number for guidance.

Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s first country to register a case of the virus, which has killed some 2,900 people and infected more than 86,000 worldwide, the vast majority in China where it originated late last year.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/nigeria-doubles-efforts-to-contain-spread-of-coronavirus/

By Chris A. Quilpa

Lenten season has already begun for Christian communities around the world. It started on Ash Wednesday, a day in which we go to church to receive ashes on the forehead to signify “we are dust and to dust we return.”

The practice of receiving ashes dates back to the fifth century and became a universal Christian practice by the 11th century.

As an important religious observance in the Christian world, Lent is the season to observe and commemorate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God, our Savior and Redeemer.

It is an opportune time to reflect on what it means to be a follower of Christ. Likewise, it’s an opportunity to repent for our misdeeds and misgivings and to increase the intensity of our prayer, fasting, almsgiving, practice of our faith and welcoming others as our brothers and sisters in our faith community.

Moreover, Lent is a time to grow in and strengthen our faith, which binds us together and makes all things possible because of our love and devotion to Jesus.

What does it mean to be a Christian? As sinners, we have the ability and capability to be holy only if we allow Christ into our lives.

If we follow his teachings, we become responsible, law-abiding citizens and peace-loving people. We become selfless, mindful of others, who benefit from our good deeds, kindness, charity and generosity. We become more aware of and concerned about others, especially the underrepresented, underserved, marginalized, disabled, elderly, helpless and hopeless in our midst.

Practicing our faith, we are able to see Christ in them. We try our best to love and care for them the way we want to be loved and cared for.

And let’s not underestimate the power of prayer in our lives. Prayer is the greatest thing we’ve got to save us from a lot of troubles.

As our personal conversation with our God, who knows what’s inside of us, prayer is a powerful tool to create a miracle, to make things right or better in our lives. In the end, prayer leads us to a life of holiness towards God.

I believe in the power of prayer, because I have witnessed its fruits. There have been instances where I saw the results of my praying for others — like when they get better after a surgery or disease or a tragedy — that no rocket science or scientist can explain.

Call it a miracle, if you will, but I believe that, when we pray together, when we pray for others who need our prayers, things and people change for the better. We become interconnected, and we get closer to God.

Followers of Christ also practice almsgiving and fasting. We give of ourselves and of our time, talents and treasures. We love to share what we have, because we believe that giving is caring.

We give up something or deprive ourselves of something so that others can have it. That’s a sacrifice for others, for God. We just let others have it, instead of ourselves. That’s giving; that’s fasting, caring and loving. That’s an act of love for others and for God because we see Christ in them.

We believe in giving, because it is in giving that we receive more blessings and graces from our Almighty God. To share is to give, and to give is to love, and to let others experience our faith.

Doing these things can help us grow in faith, especially this Lenten season.

Chris A. Quilpa, a retired U.S. Navy veteran, lives in Suffolk. Email him at chris.a.quilpa@gmail.com.

-Suffolknewsherald

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/uncategorized/the-significance-of-lent-to-christians/

Coronavirus fears have forced schools to infection as Coronavirus spreads shut down after pupils returning from ski trips in northern Italy experienced flu-like symptoms.

Cransley School in Northwich, Cheshire, has closed for the week and will undergo a deep clean while pupils and staff have been told to self-isolate. Brine Leas Academy in Nantwich has also shut down its sixth form.

Meanwhile in Teeside Trinity Catholic College was shut down following a similar ski trip in the north of the European country.

It came as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the virus was “literally knocking at the door” of countries around the globe, and urged governments to bolster their defences against the disease and suggested some may choose to activate pre-prepared “pandemic plans”.

Meanwhile, Iran‘s deputy health minister has reportedly tested positive, and South Korea is planning mass testing of 200,000 churchgoers. Hong Kong has extended the closure of its schools until 20 April and investment banks Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Nomura Holdings have reportedly curbed employees’ trips to Italy for fear the disease will spread. Seven people have died of the illness in Italy.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/uk-schools-closed-over-coronavirus/

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for 30 years until he was ousted in a popular uprising against corruption and autocracy, died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

A partner of the West in fighting Islamists, Mubarak presided over an era of stagnation and repression at home and was an early victim of the “Arab Spring” revolutions that swept the region.

He died in intensive care a few weeks after undergoing surgery. Egypt’s presidency and armed forces mourned him as a hero for his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the former air force officer will be given a military funeral.

Three days of public mourning were declared and state television played clips of Mubarak with a black ribbon at the corner of the screen.

Mubarak, who was arrested two months after being forced out by the protesters who crammed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011, spent several years in jail and military hospitals.

He was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt, but was freed in 2017 after being cleared of the charges.

He was however convicted in 2015 along with his two sons of diverting public funds to upgrade family properties. They were sentenced to three years in jail.

Egyptians, who often complained about corruption, oppression and unemployment under Mubarak, had mixed feelings about their former leader as news of his death spread.

“We had good and bad memories,” said Sherin Saad, a woman in her 30s, who criticized graft and the privatization of public firms, which his critics say enriched the elite.

There was no immediate reaction from Western capitals, which had valued Mubarak for preserving a peace treaty with Israel signed by his predecessor Anwar al-Sadat.

“On behalf of Israel’s citizens and government, I wish to express my deepest sorrow over the passing of President Hosni Mubarak,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “President Mubarak, a personal friend of mine, was a leader who led his nation to peace and security.”

The United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter that the Arab world had lost a statesman who took significant national and historic positions.

CRONY CAPITALISM

Mubarak did not leave the country after his overthrow, unlike Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled with his family to Saudi Arabia after being ousted in the first Arab Spring protests.

In contrast, the Mubarak family has stayed in Egypt since 2011 but kept a low profile. Mubarak had always maintained his innocence and said history would judge him a patriot who served his country selflessly, but for many Egyptians his time in power was a period of autocracy and crony capitalism.

His successor, Mohamed Mursi, lasted only a year in office, however, after mass protests in 2013 led to his overthrow by then defense chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president.

Mubarak-era figures, meanwhile, are gradually being cleared of charges, and laws limiting political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the old regime is back.

Many Egyptians have credited Sisi for restoring stability, but activists say his relentless crackdown on dissent is worse than anything under Mubarak.

Announcing Mubarak’s death, Egyptian TV criticized him for economic mismanagement. New cities he had created in the desert lacked a “comprehensive vision” while he had spent billions on new roads which the government later had to repair.

-Reuters.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/former-egypts-president-hosni-mubarak-is-dead/

Nigeria will build the second-largest hydroelectric plant in Africa after the government settled a legal dispute that was delaying the project, Power Minister Sale Mamman said.

“We have now overcome the major problem stopping this project and it is nearly over,” Mamman said in an interview in Abuja, the capital. He said Attorney General Abubakar Malami is finalizing the terms of the settlement, which are undisclosed.

Only 60% of residents of Africa’s most populous country have access to electricity and even those who do are plagued by regular outages. President Muhammadu Buhari has made tackling the energy deficit a priority, pledging to rehabilitate dilapidated power infrastructure and build new ones, including the Mambilla facility in the eastern Taraba state.

First conceived in the 1970s, the complex of dams on the Donga River will produce 3,050 megawatts, equivalent to a quarter of Nigeria’s current installed capacity. International arbitration in Paris initiated by Sunrise Power and Transmission Co., a company that once held the construction contract, was recently resolved, clearing the main obstacle to the plant’s construction, according to Mamman.

The only bigger hydro power facility in Africa is Ethiopia’s 6,000-megawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which was started in 2011 and is now more than five years behind schedule. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government also has a dam, which is still under construction. It will be capable of producing as much as 11,000 megawatts.

Arbitration Award

A consortium including China Energy Engineering Corp. and Sinohydro Corp. Ltd will build the Mambilla facility, which is forecast to cost $4.8 billion, about $1 billion less than earlier estimates, Mamman said. The minister said he expects the Chinese firms to start construction this year, an ambition listed by Buhari in his New Year’s speech to the nation.

Sunrise accused the Nigerian government of breaching its 2003 agreement when it granted a separate contract to Chinese companies four years later and was seeking an arbitration award of $2.3 billion, risk advisory group Songhai Advisory LLP said in a note in January. The legal wrangle caused the Export-Import Bank of China to pause its interest in financing the Mambilla plant, it said.

Nigeria has 13,000 megawatts of installed electricity-production capacity, about 80% of which comes from gas-fired plants. Only 7,500 megawatts of that is available and about 4,000 megawatts is dispatched to the grid each day. Distribution companies are sometimes unable to take up generated power, citing dilapidated transmission infrastructure.

Mamman criticized Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies, which were transferred to private control in 2013, for their failure to utilize all available power or pay for the energy they purchase. The minister said he’s submitted a proposal to the cabinet to review their performance.

“From the look of things, I do not think they are capable because they cannot meet what they are required to do,” Mamman said.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/oil-gas-power/nigeria-to-build-africas-second-biggest-hydro-plant/

In a clear show of its resilience and market leadership, Zenith Bank has announced an impressive result for the year ended December 31, 2019, with profit after tax (PAT) of N208.8 billion, achieving the feat as the first Nigerian Bank to cross the N200 billion mark.

According to the bank’s audited financial results for the 2019 financial year released in Lagos on Friday, profit after tax rose by 8% to N208.8 billion from the N193 billion recorded in the previous year.

The Group also recorded a growth in gross earnings of 5% rising to N662.3 billion from N630.3 billion reported in the previous year. This growth was driven by the 29% increase in non-interest income from N179.9 billion in 2018 to N231.1 billion in 2019. Fees on electronic products continues to grow significantly with a 108% Year on Year (YoY) growth from N20.4 billion in 2018 to N42.5 billion in the current year. This is a validation of the bank’s retail transformation strategy which continues to deliver impressive results.

Profit before tax also increased by 5% growing from N232 billion to N243 billion in the current year, arising from topline growth and continued focus on cost optimisation strategies. Cost-to-income ratio moderated from 49.3% to 48.8%.

The drive for cheaper retail deposits coupled with the low interest yield environment helped reduce the cost of funding from 3.1% to 3.0%. However this also affected net interest margin which reduced from 8.9% to 8.2% in the current year due to re-pricing of interest bearing assets. Although returns on equity and assets held steady YoY at 23.8% and 3.4% respectively, the Group still delivered an improved Earnings per Share (EPS) which grew 8% from N6.15 to N6.65 in the current year.

The Group increased its share of the market as it secured increased customer deposits across the corporate and retail space as deposits grew by 15% to close at N4.26 trillion. Total assets also increased by 7% from N5.96 trillion to N6.35 trillion. The Group created new viable risk assets as gross loans grew by 22% from N2.016 trillion to N2.462 trillion. This was executed prudently at a low cost of risk of 1.1% and a significant reduction in the non-performing loan ratio from 4.98% to 4.30%. Prudential ratios such as liquidity and capital adequacy ratios also remained above regulatory thresholds at 57.3% and 22.0% respectively.

In demonstration of its commitment to its shareholders, the bank has announced a proposed final dividend pay-out of N2.50 per share, bringing the total dividend to N2.80 per share.

In 2020, the Group remains strategically positioned to capture the opportunities in the corporate and retail segments, while efficiently managing costs and expanding further its retail franchise employing digital assets and innovation.

Consistent with this superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of excellent performance, Zenith Bank was voted as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria 2019 by The Banker. The Bank was also recognized as Bank of the Year and Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards, and was ranked as the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto & Co. Most recently, the Bank emerged as the Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the Thisday Awards 2020.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-declares-n200-billion-profit-after-tax/

HSBC has said it will axe around 35,000 jobs as it announced profits for 2019 fell by about a third. That has spurred the bank to target $4.5bn (£3.5bn) of cost cuts by 2022 as part of a major restructuring.

The bank’s interim chief executive, Noel Quinn, said HSBC would scale back its headcount from 235,000 to about 200,000 over the next three years. HSBC, which makes the bulk of its revenue in Asia, reported annual profit before tax of $13.35bn (£10.3bn).

It said the fall in profits was mainly due to $7.3bn in write-offs related to its investment and commercial banking operations in Europe.

The 35,000 job losses are deeper than expected, and represent about 15% of the workforce. Analysts had expected about 10,000 jobs to be cut.

The bank currently operates in more than 50 countries across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It employs more than 40,000 people in the UK, where it has its headquarters.

About 10,000 of those are based at its head office in Canary Wharf in London, and another 2,000 work at its new UK head office in Birmingham.

HSBC has said some of the cutbacks will be in its European and US investment banking businesses, although it has not been specific about where the job cuts will fall.

At present the bank is not detailing exactly where the cuts will come, but the interim boss, Noel Quinn, says reducing the workforce from the current 235,000 to “nearer 200,000” would be consistent with the £3bn or so he wants to save by 2022.

There are four key areas that are likely to be affected: the UK investment bank, the group’s central operations, the US retail banking outfit and – as in many businesses – those areas where jobs are being replaced by technology.

With one in seven jobs set to go globally, employees may face an anxious time – but with HSBC seeing a turnover of 25,000 staff per year, the compulsory cuts may not be quite as brutal as they sound.

Coronavirus impact

Peter Hahn, banking expert and former dean of the London Institute of Banking & Finance, told the BBC’s Today programme: “I think they were too optimistic about their chances of their success in investment banking.

“The reality is that the biggest investment market in the world is the US, and if you’re not big in the US in investment banking it’s pretty tough to succeed in that business – and they’re not.”

The strategy overhaul comes as economic growth is slowing in HSBC’s major markets. Asia now accounts for about half of HSBC’s revenue and 90% of profits.

The bank is also facing the impact of the coronavirus, the UK’s protracted withdrawal from the European Union and historically low interest rates around the world. It will be the UK-based bank’s third overhaul in a decade as it attempts to lift its profits.

Mr Quinn told Reuters that the restructuring would mean “that our headcount is likely to go from 235,000 to closer to 200,000 over the next three years”.

The 57-year-old HSBC veteran was appointed interim chief executive in August last year following the ousting of John Flint. HSBC reiterated that it expects to make a permanent appointment within the next six to 12 months.

Addressing the impact of coronavirus, HSBC said the full effect had not been fully accounted for in its latest earnings, raising the possibility that it could increase the amount it expects the outbreak to cost the bank.

HSBC will also reduce the assets it owns by more than $100bn by the end of 2022 as part of sweeping reforms.

-BBC

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/hsbc-profits-plunge-cuts-35000-jobs/

In the middle of a phone call with a customer, an important visitor knocks on Michael Xiong’s door: his 3-year-old son.

Xiong, a salesman in Chibi, a city near the center of a virus outbreak, is one of millions of people in China who are obeying government orders to work from home as part of the most sweeping anti-disease measures ever imposed.

After breakfast, Xiong leaves the 3-year-old and his 10-month-old brother with their grandparents. The salesman for IQAir, a Swiss maker of household air purifiers that are popular in China’s smog-choked cities, goes into a bedroom to talk to customers and try to find new ones by phone and email.

His son “comes to knock on the door when I am in a meeting, asking for hugs,” Xiong said. “I put myself on mute, open the door and tell him I will be with him later, and he is fine with that.”

Most access to Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where Xiong usually works, was cut off Jan. 23 and some other cities have imposed travel restrictions. Controls imposed on business to try to stem the spread of infection extend nationwide, affecting tens of thousands of companies and hundreds of millions of employees.

The government extended the Lunar New Year holiday to keep factories and offices closed. Cinemas, temples and other tourist sites were shut down to prevent crowds from forming. Group tours were canceled and businesspeople told to put off travel.

China’s vast manufacturing industries cannot function without workers in factories. But as some businesses reopen, Beijing has told anyone who still can work from home to stay there.

That is forcing employees, from solo entrepreneurs to automaker Volkswagen AG’s 3,500-member headquarters staff in Beijing, to stay in touch with customers and business partners and keep companies functioning by phone and email.

Millions of Chinese entrepreneurs operate house-cleaning, small trading and other businesses out of their homes. Many have suffered the same impact as bigger businesses from restrictions on movement and orders to families to stay indoors.

Maggie Zhang, co-founder of SheTalks, a company in Beijing that organizes events for women, is working out of her parents’ apartment in the northwestern city of Zhangye in Gansu province. She went for the Lunar New Year and said she might stay through March.

Zhang temporarily stopped organizing talks and other public events and is gathering material for her company’s social media account to attract users.

In the morning, “I will do some interviews over the phone or online with women working at the front in fighting the epidemic and sometimes foreign businesswomen working in China,” said Zhang. “When I am working, my parents always try to keep quiet and not disturb me.”

Zhang said she uses the sunny living room to write and moves to a bedroom to do interviews or talk to colleagues. She works out on an elliptical machine during those calls “because my mind works faster when I exercise.”

Numbers of new virus cases reported daily have declined, but economists warn against assuming the disease and its impact on the world’s second-largest economy might soon be under control.

Quarantines in the central province of Hubei, which surrounds Wuhan, and some neighboring areas still are in place. Many large companies have told employees to stay home.

“A return to normal isn’t yet in sight,” said Roger Diwan of IHS Markit in a report.

Many employees already were equipped to work from home due to China’s almost universal adoption of smartphones, the internet and messaging and video call services, including the popular WeChat operated by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

China is “probably one of the best countries to do this,” said Michael Mayer, who is in charge of marketing for the Volkswagen auto brand in China. A 27-year veteran of VW, he came to China from India three years ago.

“This would be hard to do in Europe. People here are much more open to using digital tools,” said Mayer. “As sad as it sounds, this is the best place for us to try this experiment.”

After breakfast with his three teenagers, Mayer moves into a back room of their Beijing apartment to talk with coworkers by phone and video call while his children study in their bedrooms. They meet again for lunch.

“Now everybody’s at home,” said Mayer. “Not too bad. Actually quite interesting and quite pleasant.”

Volkswagen plans to reopen its Beijing offices on Monday but is waiting for updates from health authorities, said Mayer.

Xiong of IQAir expressed frustration at not being able to make his sales pitch to potential clients face to face but said the quarantine gives him more time with his son.

Xiong and his wife are among millions of parents who also looking after children who are cooped up at home because schools have been closed indefinitely. Xiong said he helps his son with lessons sent over WeChat by the kindergarten.

“Usually, when I get home from work, it is almost time for his bath and bed,” said Xiong. “Now that we spend time together every day, I think I know my child more and he relies on me more. Our connection is stronger, and so is the whole family.”

Many have barely set foot outdoors for almost three weeks.

Cities including Hangzhou, an industrial metropolis of 10 million people southwest of Shanghai that is home to e-commerce giant Alibaba, are allowing only one household member out each day to buy food.

Apartment complexes in Beijing and other cities have been ordered to check visitors for fever. Many allow only residents to enter.

Zhang said she has left her parents’ complex only once to go shopping. She was nearly barred by security guards from returning.

“There are almost no people or cars on the street,” she said.

Ray Cheng, a Macau-born entrepreneur in the southern city of Guangzhou, said he starts the day by making a plan for his 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son — “what they need to do, then lunch, then what to do” — and then gets on the phone with his employees and customers.

“When I work, I arrange for them to do something they like. They are very focused and won’t bother me,” Cheng told a reporter. “Right now they are watching ‘Lion King’ so I can talk to you.”

IQAir’s China sales manager, Mike Bearden, said he usually spends 50% of his time on the road but has been at home in Beijing for three weeks talking by phone with potential customers. He said sales might get a boost from the virus because families and hospitals are thinking more about clean air.

“It’s probably the longest stretch I’ve stayed in Beijing in the last 10 years,” said Bearden, a Canadian-American who grew up in Seattle. “My exercise is basically pacing my apartment while having phone conversations.”

-AP
http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/millions-work-from-home-in-china-as-virus-crackdown-continues/

Emeka Nze

Chevron Nigeria Limited has phased out staff buses and newspaper supplies in the organization as part of cost optimization strategy embarked upon to drive down operational and capital expenses.

The company has about 70 staff buses which conveyed staff to and from work in designed routes. Most of the routes include Epe, Ikorodu, Agbara, Okokomaiko, Ikeja, Surulere, Abule-Egba, Alimosho, Idimu, Satellite, FESTAC and Ajah.

Also, the company has stopped all forms of newspaper supplies in the organization, except to Policy, Government and Public Affairs Department (PGPAD). PGPAD is responsible for review of daily newspapers, including magazines which it circulates to management and other category of employees. Before now, all managers, including the managing director were supplied newspapers as part of their entitlements.

The company is believed to be saving over N250 million per annum from this exercise, having stopped all expenses relating to motor vehicle maintenance and newspaper procurement, particularly cost of spare parts, routine maintenance and labour.

According to a source in Chevron who disclosed this to Media Issues, not many regular employees use the buses. Most of the regular users of the buses were mainly contract staff who were not direct employees of Chevron, and were not entitled to use of the staff buses as they were paid transport allowances by their direct companies.

The source who would not want his name mentioned, said, “It was not economically prudent for the buses to be plying all over Lagos when in actual fact, the regular employees who use the buses in each route were sometimes one or two. Right now, the affected employees are being compensated with additional transport allowance.”

The source also added that series of voluntary exit programmes embarked upon by the management of the company which allows employees to willingly exit the company under an enhanced pay package has led to huge reduction of staff in the organization.

“That is why in some routes, there are no regular staff, except contract staff which are not entitled to join the buses, and this is why the management has decided to phase out the use of staff buses in the company. It does not make economic sense driving long distances with one or no regular employee on board.”

According to our source, the justification adduced for the stoppage of newspapers procurement in the organization was because of internet accessibility by managers, which enables them view the newspapers online. “These managers enjoy unlimited monthly data fully paid by the company,” he added.

All efforts to reach the General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Esimaje Brikinn for confirmation, were unsuccessful.

Declining oil prices at the international oil markets have pushed oil companies across the globe to reappraise their modes of resource management system aimed at cost reduction and efficiency optimisation.

It is envisaged more of such cost-reduction measures are being worked out by oil companies as dwindling oil prices are yet to show sign of recovery soon.
http://www.mediaissuesng.com/exclusive/chevron-phases-out-staff-buses-newspapers/

Nigeria’s leading financial institution, Zenith Bank Plc has introduced a new product, Z-Woman, which is focused on empowering female business owners.

Z-Woman account holders stand a chance to enjoy loans of up to N10 million at a single-digit interest rate, free digital skills training, and free exhibition stands at Zenith Bank events and many other benefits which will help them grow their businesses and increase sales.

According to the Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive of Zenith Bank, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, Z-Woman offers women the opportunity to enjoy a partnership with the Zenith Bank brand as the name Z-woman implies. The Z-Woman account is designed to address the unique needs of women-owned businesses and offer them unmatched services that empower them to achieve more.

Zenith Bank Plc is recognized as one of the most innovative financial institutions in Nigeria and was voted the most customer-focused bank in Nigeria for the Retail and SME segments in the 2018 KPMG Annual Banking Industry Customer Satisfaction Survey (BICSS). Most recently, the bank won the Best Bank in Retail Banking and the Bank of the Year at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards and was ranked as the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto & Co.

The bank’s commitment to world-class service standards has led to several product innovations over the last couple of months including the “Zenith Timeless Account”, which allows Nigerians aged 55 years and above bank for free, the “Zenith Save4me”, a high-interest target savings account and “Dubai Visa Service” on the Zenith Internet Banking Platform, which offers convenient application and payment for visas to Dubai.

To learn more about Z-Woman, please visit www.zenithbank.com/zwoman

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-promotes-women-empowerment-with-z-woman/

By Bayo Ogumupe

This is an invaluable book on issues, options and solutions to the Nigerian political crisis. Nigeria on the Precipice (Universe, Bloomington, 2017; Indiana, U.S.) contains lessons for emerging multi-ethnic and democratic societies. Written by Michael Owhoko, the book tells the story of how the British created Nigeria in 1914 without regard to the cultural differences and the incompatibility of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria. This was why Nigeria has been wracked by problems ever since. According to Owhoko, two groups have laid claim to the control and domination of Nigeria since independence that culminated in a military coup on January 15, 1966.

That action was followed by a counter-coup, led by the second group six months later. The Nigerian Civil War, fought between 1967 and 1970, was part of the violence that has crippled the nation. With the persistent call for a change from unitary to true federalism, it is certain that Nigerians are not satisfied with the current system of government. Nigeria on the Precipice is a slim volume with loaded information and analysis.

The first two chapters deal with the historical development of Nigeria and her contractual federal system of government. So far, the author argues, leaders have not responded to the seething discontent pervading the country, advising that they should hold a referendum to decide which system of government to adopt.


However, it is contentious to argue that Britain was mischievous in amalgamating Nigeria’s two protectorates in 1914, with the knowledge that it would not work due to the heterogeneous nature of the country. It can, however, be safely argued that Nigeria is failing due to the unwarranted ambitions of the Fulani and the Igbo to control and dominate Nigeria, which was why unitary government was foisted on Nigeria by General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi. The consequence has been the alienation of the natural resources from their rightful owners. Now that it is apparent that neither the Fulani nor the Igbo have the capacity to dominate Nigeria, the need to restructure to true federalism and a restoration of the revenue allocation system of the First Republic has become inevitable.

Without doubt, the federal system of government has been accepted as a viable system of social contract in Nigeria. It is also known that every federation varies slightly in structure and operation based on history and peculiar needs. For a federation to be viable, the federating units must be autonomous. Neither the state nor the centre is inferior to the other, but autonomous and interdependent. The federal system practised in Nigeria during the first republic fitted perfectly into the country’s diverse ethnic and cultural composition.

Back then, the regions were autonomous, with both the regions and the centre deriving their powers from the Constitution. The powers, duties and responsibilities of each tier were clearly spelt out under the exclusive, concurrent and residual lists in the Basic Law. Were it not for the 1966 coup, which truncated the system, Nigeria would have been transformed and grown into an enviable power in the comity of nations. Another feature of federalism of the first republic was the composition of the regions.

They were based on linguistic groupings that provided a huge advantage due to the assemblage of people with similar attitudes, social values and political beliefs. This made it easier for them to live together under an inclusive government. The federating units also had constitutions, regional police and coats of arms. They also practised fiscal federalism, which was acceptable to both tiers without any observable agitations.

Then, fiscal federalism was as follows: There were revenues collected and retained by the centre. There were those collected by the centre, but credited to the regions, according to derivation or consumption. Also, there were revenues collected at the centre, but allocated to a distributable pool account and shared between the regions in the percentages of 42 to the north, 30 to the East, 20 to the West and eight to the Midwest. There were revenues collected and retained by the regions.

Of particular interest was revenue distributed to the regions on the basis of derivation, which was 50 percent of proceeds generated from rents and royalties of mineral resources. Regions where these resources were found were paid and enjoyed 50 percent. The remaining 50 percent was retained by the centre for national development. Until Providence raised oil and gas from the Niger Delta, the minorities of the Niger Delta earned zero income from derivation.

But instead of continuing with 50 percent derivation, it was abandoned. However, pressure from the Niger Delta forced President Shehu Shagari to increase derivation to 1.5 percent. This was raised to three percent by President Ibrahim Babangida. However, the 1999 Constitution gave the region 13 percent. Reversion to 50 percent was refused till today. Lack of sincerity and courage to revert to the old order is part of the problems of Nigeria, the author posits. There is obvious conspiracy of silence from the big tribes to deprive the Niger Delta people from enjoying 50 percent derivation proceeds from oil and gas: resources that were deposited in their land by God.

The violent overthrow of the government of Tafawa Balewa in 1966 brought in the unitary system of government. Through Decree 34 of 1966, the new leader, General Aguiyi Ironsi, replaced federalism with the unitary system of government. The pattern of killings in the coup justifiably called into question the sincerity of the plotters. In executing his new system, Ironsi provoked fears of Igbo domination of Nigeria. These fears first led to the pogrom against the Igbo in Northern Nigeria.

Fears of Igbo domination were already evident in the economy, bureaucracy and commerce. Ironsi never initiated any policy to allay the fears of the other ethnic groups. In reaction to the loss of power, a counter-coup was hatched in which Ironsi and Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi were killed and Colonel Yakubu Gowon was thrust into power. These coups abrogated derivation and introduced ethnic consciousness into the country.


“So far, we have related the origin and reasons for agitation for reconstruction in Nigeria. If Gowon had reverted to federalism and 50 percent derivation, our story as a nation would have been different. But the legacy of injustice from Ironsi, Gowon and their successors fuelled instability in Nigeria,” Owhoko writes. “Apparently, the current system isn’t working and cannot deliver on the aspirations of Nigerians. Therefore, what are the rescue measures needed for Nigeria’s renewal?”

For Owhoko, conducting a referendum is the solution. Through a referendum the book avows, the people can decide which system of government to adopt. Thus, the way out of the imbroglio is that a referendum be activated to resolve Nigeria’s contending political logjam. Indecision by the government is pushing Nigeria beyond the cliff, where it currently stands. With a referendum, the government would not only make headway on overcoming the problems, it would also regain the trust of the people.

The author, Owhoko is a media and public relations practitioner. He had mostly worked in the banking, oil and gas and media industries. He earned degrees in political science, mass communication and is the publisher of Media Issues, an online newspaper. He is also the author of The Language of Oil and Gas and Career Frustration in the Workplace. Nigeria on the Precipice is essential reading for journalists, legislators, politicians and anyone seeking to rescue Nigeria from the brink she seems inevitably headed.

https://guardian.ng/features/referendum-as-stepping-stone-for-rescuing-nigeria-from-the-precipice/

Last year Rose Kalemba wrote a blog post explaining how hard it had been – when she was raped as a 14-year-old girl – to get a video of the attack removed from a popular porn website. Dozens of people then contacted her to say that they were facing the same problem today.

The nurse stopped at the doorway leading out of Rose’s hospital room and turned to face her. “I’m sorry this happened to you,” she said, her voice shaking. “My daughter was raped too.” Rose looked at the nurse. She couldn’t be older than 40, Rose thought, her daughter must be young, like me.

She thought back to the morning after the assault, to the conversations with the emotionless policeman and the clinical doctor. Everyone had used the phrase “alleged” when referring to the violent, hours-long overnight attack that Rose had described to them. With the exception of her father and grandmother, most of her relatives hadn’t believed her either.

With the nurse it was different. “She believed me,” Rose says. It was a small crack of hope – someone recognising and acknowledging what had happened to her. A wave of relief washed over her, which felt like it could be the start of her recovery.

But soon hundreds of thousands of people would see the rape for themselves and from those viewers she received no sympathy.

A decade later, Rose Kalemba brushes her thick thigh-length black hair at the bathroom mirror, twirling the ends with her fingers to form natural ringlets. This wouldn’t have been the case in the months after her attack – all the mirrors in her home had to be covered with blankets, as she couldn’t bear to catch her reflection.

She is now 25 and she has organised routines of self-care into her daily life.

Taking care of her hair is one. Combing it takes time and effort, it’s almost an act of meditation. She knows she has beautiful hair, people comment on it all the time. Every morning she also makes herself a cup of cacao, a pure, raw form of chocolate that she believes has healing qualities, and writes down her goals in a diary.

She deliberately puts them in the present tense. “I’m an excellent driver,” is one goal. “I’m happily married to Robert,” is another. “I’m a great mother.” Sitting down to talk, Rose pulls her hair over her shoulders – it covers most of her body, her own armour.

Growing up in a small town in Ohio, it wasn’t unusual for Rose to go for a walk alone before bedtime. It cleared her head, she enjoyed the fresh air and peace. So that evening in summer 2009 started like most for 14-year-old Rose.

But then a man appeared from the shadows. At knifepoint he forced her into a car. Sitting in the passenger seat was a second man, aged about 19 – she’d seen him around town. They drove her to a house on the other side of town and raped her over a period of 12 hours, while a third man filmed parts of the assault.

Rose was in shock – she could hardly breathe. She was badly beaten and stabbed on her left leg, her clothes bloody. She fell in and out of consciousness.

At some point, one of the men got out a laptop and showed Rose videos of attacks on other women. “I am of first nations ethnicity,” she says. “The attackers were white and the power structure was clear. Some of the victims were white but many were women of colour.”

Later, the men threatened to kill her. Forcing herself to collect her senses, Rose began to talk to them. If they released her, she wouldn’t reveal their identities, she said. Nothing would ever happen to them, no-one would know.

Taking her back in the car, men dumped her in a street about half an hour’s walk from her home.

Walking through the door, she caught sight of her reflection in the hall mirror. A gash in her head was oozing blood.

Her father, Ron, and some extended family were in the living room about to have lunch. Still bleeding from her stab wound, she explained what had happened to her.

“My dad called the police, he immediately comforted me, but the others said I had asked for it by walking out late at night,” Rose says. At the hospital, Rose was greeted by a male doctor and male police officer. “They both dealt with me in an extremely matter-of-fact manner,” she adds, “There was no kindness, no warmth.”

The male police officer asked her if this had started as consensual. Was it a night gone wild, he wondered. Rose was stunned. “Here I was beaten beyond recognition. Stabbed and bleeding…”

Rose told them no, it had not been consensual. And still reeling from what she had been through, she said she didn’t know who had attacked her. The police had no leads to go on.

When Rose was released the next day, she attempted suicide, unable to imagine how she could possibly live a normal life now. Her brother found her in time.

A few months later, Rose was browsing MySpace when she found several people from her school sharing a link. She was tagged. Clicking on it, Rose was directed to the pornography-sharing site, Pornhub. She felt a wave of nausea as she saw several videos of the attack on her.

“The titles of the videos were ‘teen crying and getting slapped around’, ‘teen getting destroyed’, ‘passed out teen’. One had over 400,000 views,” Rose recounts.

“The worst videos were the ones where I was passed out. Seeing myself being attacked where I wasn’t even conscious was the worst.”

She made an instant decision to not tell her family about the videos – most of them had not been supportive anyway. Telling them would achieve nothing. Within days it was evident that most of her peers at school had seen the videos.

“I was bullied,” she says, “People would say that I asked for it. That I led men on. That I was a slut.” Some boys said their parents had told them to stay away from her, in case she seduced them and then accused them of rape. “People have an easier time blaming the victim,” she says.

Rose says she emailed Pornhub several times over a period of six months in 2009 to ask for the videos to be taken down. “I sent Pornhub begging emails. I pleaded with them. I wrote, ‘Please, I’m a minor, this was assault, please take it down.'” She received no reply and the videos remained live.

“The year that followed I withdrew into myself. I disassociated,” she recalls, “I felt nothing. Numb. I kept to myself.” She would wonder, with every stranger who made eye contact with her, if they had seen the videos. “Had they got off to it? Had they gratified themselves to my rape?”

She couldn’t bear to look at herself. That’s why she covered the mirrors with blankets. She would brush her teeth and wash in the dark, thinking all the time about who could be watching the videos.

Then she had an idea. She set up a new email address posing as a lawyer, and sent Pornhub an email threatening legal action. “Within 48 hours the videos disappeared.”

Months later Rose began to receive counselling, finally revealing the identity of her attackers to the psychologist, who was duty bound to report them to the police. But she didn’t tell her family or the police about the videos.

The police collected victim impact statements from Rose and her family. The attackers’ lawyers argued that Rose had consented to sex, and the men were charged not with rape but “contributions towards the delinquency of a minor” – a misdemeanour – and received a suspended sentence.

Rose and her family did not have the energy, or the resources, to fight for a tougher sentence. It’s clear that Ron Kalemba thinks a lot about what happened to his daughter all those years ago. What could he have done differently, if he’d known more, he wonders. His daughter changed after the assault. She went from being a straight-A student to missing classes, rarely handing in her homework.

We’re sitting in a park near his home that Ron visits often. He and Rose sometimes read from passages of the Bible from a picnic bench together. They don’t talk much about the past.

“It feels like the whole world let her down,” he says. “Her abuse, it was like it was a big joke to everyone. It changed her life completely, and people let her down every step of the way.”

Ron only heard about the Pornhub videos in 2019, when a blog that Rose shared about her abuse went viral on social media. He had no idea that his daughter’s rape had been seen by so many people, nor that people in her school had mocked her for it.

“I knew a girl in eighth grade when I was in school,” Ron recalls. “People would pick on her, and she would get beaten up. And none of us would say anything, we just watched it happen.”

“I ran into her years later and she thought that I was a bully too, because I had just stood by and watched it happen. In reality it had only been a couple of people who actually hurt her but she thought we were all against her because we watched it and said nothing. That’s what the silence felt like to her.”

Is this what he thinks happened to Rose? “Yes but it was worse for her. She had a digital crowd of bullies too. Some silent and some abusive. Hers is a different world.” Over the next few years Rose would often disappear into the digital world.

She threw herself into writing, expressing herself on blogs and social media, sometimes using aliases, sometimes her real name. One day in 2019, as she was scrolling through her social media feed she saw a number of posts about Pornhub. People were praising it for donating to bee conservation charities, adding caption facilities for deaf viewers, donating to aid domestic violence charities and providing $25,000 scholarships for women who want to enter the tech industry.

According to Pornhub, there were 42 billion visits to its website in 2019 – an increase of 8.5 billion from the year before, with a daily average of around 115 million. And 1,200 searches per second.

“It’s impossible to miss Pornhub if you use social media,” says Rose. “They’ve done a great job at positioning themselves as a ‘woke’ mission, almost transcending porn, but videos titled like mine are still on the site. There’s no way of knowing if there are rapes on there and the victims don’t know it.”

In the viral blog post, Rose shared a detailed account of her rape, and called out Pornhub for turning a blind eye until she pretended to be a lawyer. Dozens of women and some men responded to her post, saying that videos showing them being sexually abused had also appeared on the site.

In a statement to the BBC, Pornhub said: “These horrific allegations date back to 2009, several years prior to Pornhub being acquired by its current owners, so we do not have information on how it was handled at that time. Since the change in ownership, Pornhub has continuously put in place the industry’s most stringent safeguards and policies when it comes to combating unauthorised and illegal content, as part of our commitment to combating child sex abuse material. The company employs Vobile, a state-of-the-art third party fingerprinting software, which scans any new uploads for potential matches to unauthorised material and makes sure the original video doesn’t go back up on the platform.”

When asked why videos with titles similar to those uploaded featuring Rose’s rape, such as “teen abused while sleeping” “drunk teen abuse sleeping” “extreme teen abuse” are still active on Pornhub, the company said: “We allow all forms of sexual expression that follow our Terms of Use, and while some people may find these fantasies inappropriate, they do appeal to many people around the world and are protected by various freedom of speech laws.”

Pornhub introduced a flagging tab for inappropriate content in 2015, but stories about videos of abuse on the website continue to surface.

In October last year a 30-year-old Florida man, Christopher Johnson, faced charges for sexually abusing a 15-year-old and posting videos of the attack on Pornhub.

In a statement to the BBC regarding this case, Pornhub said its policy is to “remove unauthorised content as soon as we are made aware of it, which is exactly what we did in this case”.

In 2019 Pornhub also removed a channel called Girls Do Porn, when 22 women sued it for forcing them to take part in videos, and the channel’s owners were charged with sex trafficking. “People may say that what happened to me a decade ago isn’t a reality of today, but that is simply not the case,” says Rose.

“Women have told me that it is still happening, after they saw my blog. And these are Western women with access to social media. “I don’t doubt that videos in other parts of the world, in places we know porn is consumed in large bulks like the Middle East and Asia are places where the victim might not even be aware that their abuse is being shared.”

The BBC also spoke to one woman who emailed Rose. A video showing her being abused remained for years on a smaller site, even though she sent several emails to the company, and left a post in the comments section under the video. The woman, from California, says that the video has also been downloaded and shared on other porn sites. Lawyers for the website told the BBC that their clients had “no knowledge of any such situation”. The BBC then provided a link to the video, as well as screenshots of comments by the woman requesting for it to be removed. It was finally removed in the following days.

“What happened Rose in 2009 is still happening today on several free streaming porn sites – and not just Pornhub,” says Kate Isaacs from Not Your Porn, a group that investigates porn sites. “There’s nothing we can do about rogue, smaller porn sites set up by individuals but large commercial sites like Pornhub need to be held accountable and they are not right now. No laws apply to them.”

So-called revenge pornography, which is a type of image-based sexual abuse, has been a criminal offence in England and Wales since 2015. The law defines it as “the sharing of private, sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person, without their consent and with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress”. It is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. However platforms that share this content have not been held accountable so far.

“Porn sites are aware that there is disturbing and non-consensual content on their platforms,” says Isaacs. “They know that there is no way we can differentiate fantasy role-play acting, or faked production scenarios, or real abuse.”

She set up Not Your Porn when a sex video featuring a friend of hers (who was under 16 at the time) was uploaded on to Pornhub. Kate says more than 50 women in the UK have come to her in the past six months to say that sexual videos have been posted without their consent on pornography sites. Thirty of them were uploaded to Pornhub.

She also points out that Pornhub and other websites enable viewers to download videos on to their own computer – so even if the video is taken down from one website it’s easy for any of these users to share it or upload it again to another.

Not Your Porn are campaigning for laws in that UK that would make the sharing of non-consensual pornographic videos a criminal offence.

Rose has hope for the future. In her early 20s she met her boyfriend, Robert, who she says has helped her discuss and come to terms with her abuse. She hopes they’ll get married and have a daughter. And her dog Bella, a pitbull is a source of strength.

“I’ve grown up around pitbulls. They may have a reputation of being aggressive but they’re so sweet,” she says. “They’re aggressive only if abused by humans,” she adds pointedly. “In many ways, I have a life sentence,” Rose say. “Even now I could be at the grocery store and I wonder if a stranger has seen my video.”

But she no longer wants to be silent, she says. “The most powerful weapon of a rapist is our silence.”

-BBC
http://www.mediaissuesng.com/entertainment/i-was-raped-at-14-and-the-video-ended-up-on-a-porn-site/

By Bayo Ogunmupe


The Future of Nigeria is a historical analysis of the nation called the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The book is written by Michael Owhoko, a middle-aged Nigerian, who witnessed the military’s truncation of Nigeria’s dream to be a prosperous and united nation state.

Ever since Britain created Nigeria, in 1914, from communities with differing backgrounds, the nation has been wracked by problems. The Nigerian Civil War, fought from 1967 to 1970, is just an example of the violence that has bedeviled the nation. With the Nigerian people issuing a sustained call for change; it is clear that the people are not satisfied with the current system of government.

As the country’s Attorney General’s opposition to Operation Amotekun indicates, Nigerian leaders have not responded to the discontent in the land. They have not seen the need for holding a referendum to decide the fate of the country, an outcome that would have served them better.

Author Owhoko maintains that a referendum must be conducted if Nigeria is going to have any chance of stepping away from the precipice of disintegration.

According to Owhoko, with a referendum, the government will not only make headway on overcoming the challenges, but it will regain the trust and confidence of the people.

The Future of Nigeria is in paperback; it has 112 pages and published in 2018 by Book Venture Company LLC, Ishpeming, United States. The book was first published with the title: Nigeria on the Precipice: Issues, Options and Solutions. It had to be rebranded into the new title because of additional information. It has nine chapters, a preface, an introduction, a conclusion and endnotes of four pages. Indeed, the future of Nigeria is predicated on various factors among which are: history, culture, belief systems, and the system of government, sincerity of purpose, judicial system and political ideology.

How these factors are administered within the context of equity and justice will determine the future of the country. As a multiethnic and diverse cultural society; this heterogeneous nature of the nation makes Nigeria eminently qualified for true federalism like in Germany, Canada and the United States.

I am splitting this nine-chapter book into three. In reviewing the first three chapters as section one; we’re concerned with the historical development of Nigeria, the federal system as an acceptable contractual system of government and the introduction of the present unitary system as the origin of Nigeria’s problems.

As noted earlier, the complexity of the entity called Nigeria is a product of incompatible behavioral patterns induced by powerful cultural elements. Of these elements, ethnicity and religion constitute the clog in the country’s progress. Those elements shape and influence opinion and impact negatively on the decision making process at all levels in Nigeria till today. Consequently, as the various ethnic groups struggle to live harmoniously with one another, the more it becomes clearer that the cultural and religious differences constitute challenges to national harmony and peaceful coexistence in the country.

These difference more than other considerations are responsible for the retardation of development in the country despite the enormous financial resources available to the nation. This makes Nigeria a country where citizens, including the political class, work at cross purposes- even where it is glaringly evident that their positions are inimical to the general good of the country.

In the Nigerian reality what keeps manifesting in every sphere of life is insincerity both in the practice of religion and politics. Even the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps designed and introduced by the Federal Government to engender national integration among Nigerians, hasn’t been able to achieve its objective. Paradoxically, rather than foster unity, the programme has become an albatross, creating awareness of the deep animosity and incompatibility of the various ethnic nationalities owing to the cultural differences in the polity.

Manifestations of these untoward behaviors emerge during interactions at various geographical areas of deployment and assignments where ‘youth corpers’, as participants are fondly called, have first hand experience of segregation going on in the country. With the exposure of this well educated class of Nigerian youth to this distrustful process, the country risks a bleak future.

This situation is particularly intractable when attempts to reengineer a restructured federation, aimed at removing threats to unity. Fail due to sabotage from entrenched interests benefiting the status quo. As things stand in Nigeria now, the federation isn’t working. Making it impossible for the country to attain her full potential. Unless we act with courage and discuss frankly the basis for our continuous existence as a nation state, we may as well prepare for the dismemberment of the Nigerian federation.

The Federal system of government bequeathed to us by the British and which we operated in the first republic fitted perfectly into Nigeria’s diverse cultural and ethnic composition.

“There was a considerable level of autonomy amongst the regions, with both the regions and centre deriving their powers from the constitution. The powers, duties and responsibilities were clearly spelt out under the exclusive, concurrent and residual lists in the constitution. This is the essence of federalism, where there is a clear sphere of constitutional scope of operations for each of the federating units and the centre.

“Were it not for the coup of 1966, when the military struck and altered that system of government, Nigeria would have transformed and grown into an enviable polity amongst its peers on the African continent and in the world. The federal constitutional arrangement at the time tacitly encouraged each region to develop at its own capacity.”

The second section is as interesting as the first, if not more. Led by the challenge of petroleum resources, the prospects from solid minerals and the rise of agitation over the neglect of the oil producing areas. Paradoxically, the Niger Delta region from which oil is produced and which plays host to various oil companies, isn’t accorded the required attention commensurate to its contribution to the economy. And this is all the more important due to environment degradation caused by oil exploration. Thus, the neglect of the oil producing environment caused the inhabitants of these areas to press special funds for the oil spillage bedeviling these communities.

Thus, militancy emerged as a result of frustration in the Niger Delta. The demands and suggestions from the Niger Delta people that are at variance with the ruling majority group are usually viewed as unpatriotic, selfish and subversive. They don’t see anything wrong in using the resources from the Niger Delta to develop the rest of the country, despite the subsisting precedent where 50 percent derivation was applied to natural resources found in territories occupied by the majority ethnic groups.

The Future of Nigeria is so interesting that space isn’t enough to make a total review without leaving new facts to discover yourself. Owhoko, the author, is an authority on Nigerian politics and society in the postcolonial era. He is from the oil producing Delta State. A media and public relations practitioner, Owhoko has worked in banking, oil and gas and in the media. He earned his degrees in political science and mass communication and is the publisher of an online newspaper. He is the author of four other books on politics, oil and gas and feminism.

https://guardian.ng/news/a-peep-into-owhokos-the-future-of-nigeria/

By Chukwuma Ajakah

The concept of feminism as a discourse along with its attendant controversies has gained traction in academic, religious, and sociopolitical circles with the argument often tilted in favour of women, but Michael Owhoko presents the other side of the coin in his book titled, Feminism: The Agony of Men which portrays men as the real victims. The plot of Feminism: The Agony of Men revolves around God’s idea of marriage as an institution where both men and women have clearly defined roles. The author argues that marriages today are fraught with heated agitations for equality due to the pervasive representation of the divinely ordained roles by proponents of the feministic movement. There is a reversal of roles in many marriages as the men have either lost or are at the brinks of losing their divinely ordained leadership position to aggressive feminists whose audacious campaigns for equality threaten the serenity that once reigned in such homes. The author observes that “This feminist philosophy has left man groaning in pains as his spouse believes they are partners in the marriage…until the philosophy behind feminism is curbed, men will continue to experience pains under cold relationships that will eventually lead to the collapse of their marriages.” Michael calls for restraint and implores the agitators to allow the natural order to prevail. He asserts that “The role of the woman was biblically put into proper perspective to avoid crisis… In a relationship where there are two masters overseeing one responsibility, there is bound to be a rift”. He avers that “A woman is supposed to be submissive and keep the home in line with the vision of the man, without plotting to undermine the man’s authority under the illusion of equality.” The author reveals that women’s attempt to redefine their traditional roles violates the natural order of things and makes them vulnerable to unhealthy rivalry with the men. Consequently, he poses the question, “What does the woman want?” He observes that the agitation for equal recognition is a common phenomenon among women in both urban and rural areas, irrespective of their social status except that the urbane women are more disposed to open confrontation due to their exposure to industrialization. READ ALSO: Author dispels notion of internet as a scam Michael aptly captures the contemporary man’s pathetic disposition thus, “The situation has pushed men to the extreme. They have become completely inured to shock as they struggle to adjust to realities just to ensure there is peace in the home, particularly men with a dwindling income stream, prompting them to absorb all excesses of their wives.” He adds that “In some homes, men have been compelled to become economically prostrate because of either a loss of job or business, to take on roles at the domestic front. In homes where this is the situation, men do the cooking, babysit, do school runs, and general domestic work”. Although such role reversals ought to be temporary, the author discloses that many women seize such opportunity to wreck the man psychologically by portraying him as an excess financial burden. He posits that the tendency to usurp the man’s position is a common trait with women globally. This observation prompts him to wonder whether the female chromosomes are intertwined as “They bear a resemblance to one another, notwithstanding their complexion, size, status, and background…They have the same template when it comes to the management of their homes”. The author stresses that the book “attempts to highlight the pain the man goes through in his lonely world when his empire crumbles, coupled with the fact that his wife, who is supposed to demonstrate support for him, is the first to demonize him and in extreme cases, abandon him to his fate”. Conversely, he debunks the notion that women are the oppressed lot, describing it as a fallacy painted to look real by feminists. The book consists seven chapters with subtitles such as “Marriage”, “Pillars of Marriage”, “Feminism, Natural Responsibilities and the New Role Order”, “Feminism, Women’s Right Organizations, and Gender Crises”, “Feminism, Divorce and the Law of Alimony”, “The Woman as an Enigma-Take Your Place-Drop Your Maiden Name” and “Man Heal Your Pain and Save Yourself, , 95 pages and a conclusion that pleads for action against a potential threat to the marriage institution “Humankind must be rescued from feminism. Its philosophy promotes not peace and harmony in marriage, but discontent…Let the world move to save the marriage institution from the raging scourge of feminism.” Vanguard

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/02/men-as-victims-in-owhokos-feminism-the-agony-of-men/

By Gbenga Adedayo

Nigeria’s oldest bank, First Bank PLC over the weekend sacked over 800 regular employees of the bank in response to dwindling fortunes exacerbated by huge non-performing loans. The affected workers were handed over their sack letters on Friday, January 31, 2020.

A source who confirmed the development to Media Issues, said over 800 regular employees were affected in the exercise which cut across all cadres of employees in almost all the bank’s departments nationwide.

According to the source, most of the employees had no prior information that such a massive layoff was in the works until they were called by their respective bosses to sign for letters formally disengaging them from the system.

“We first heard it as a rumour, but nobody believed since the bank had dismissed over 1,000 contract employees in December 2019, and as such, did not know it will be extended to regular employees”, the source said.

Media Issues gathered that the exercise was aimed at reducing the overhead of the bank which the balance sheet of the bank could no longer support.

A sign that First Bank was swimming in trouble waters owing to competition and harsh operating environment was when it recalled its $300m Eurobond late last year as panic measure to forestall likely devaluation of Naira this year.

This was however denied by the bank’s spokesperson, Ismail Omamegbe who said “The decision to call the subordinated Eurobond was the result of our stable capital position, strong USD liquidity and market access as well as market practice”.

But the sack of over 800 regular workers contradicts the bank’s position that it currently enjoys stable capital position.

Text messages sent to the bank’s Global Head Marketing & Corporate Communications, Folake Ani-Mumuney and Head, Media, External Relations and Communications, Ismail Omamegbe for confirmation received no response.

However, in an earlier response that the non-performing loans were exerting undue pressure the bank’s balance sheet, resulting in capital deficit and stunted growth, Omamegbe denied it.

In his response, he said: “We wish to clarify that First Bank does not have the sum of non-performing loans as you claimed. Our balance sheet is certainly not experiencing any pressure due to loans. On the contrary, on-going loan recovery efforts are yielding appreciable results.”

Besides, he said further, “It is pertinent to state that allegations of non-performing loans in our books linked to or influenced by the Bank’s directors are untrue and unfounded and we dare say designed to achieve sensationalism.”

The contradiction in the bank’s official response confirms widely held view that First Bank may be groaning under excruciating financial discomfort.

Since the last three years, First Bank has written off bad loans amounting to about N1 trillion with significant subsisting exposure to bad debt. Media Issues gathered that the exposures to these bad loans were mainly from the oil and gas, telecommunications and the manufacturing sectors.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/first-bank-groans-under-bad-debts-sacks-800-regular-employees-nationwide/

China’s death toll from a new virus rose to 259 as at Saturday and a World Health Organization official said other governments need to prepare for“domestic outbreak control” if the disease spreads in their countries.

Beijing criticized Washington’s order barring entry to most foreigners who visited China in the past two weeks.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced similar measures Saturday, following Japan and Singapore.

South Korea and India flew hundreds of their citizens out of Wuhan, the city at the center of an area where some 50 million people are prevented from leaving in a sweeping anti-virus effort. The evacuees went into a two-week quarantine. Indonesia also sent a plane.

The number of confirmed cases in China rose to 11,791, surpassing the number in the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The virus’ rapid spread in two months prompted the World Health Organization on Thursday to declare it a global emergency.

That declaration “flipped the switch” from a cautious attitude to recommending governments prepare for the possibility the virus might spread, said the WHO representative in Beijing, Gauden Galea. Most cases reported so far have been people who visited China or their family members.

The agency acted out of concern for poorer countries that might not be equipped to respond, said Galea. Such a declaration calls for a coordinated international response and can bring more money and resources.

WHO said it was especially concerned that some cases abroad involved human-to-human transmission.

“Countries need to get ready for possible importation in order to identify cases as early as possible and in order to be ready for a domestic outbreak control, if that happens,” Galea told The Associated Press.

The United States has declared a public health emergency and President Donald Trump signed an order barring entry to foreign nationals who visited China within the last 14 days, which scientists say is the virus’ longest incubation period. The restrictions don’t apply to immediate family of American citizens and permanent residents.

China criticized the U.S. controls and “unfriendly comments” that Beijing was failing to cooperate.

“Just as the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, the U.S. rushed to go in the opposite way. Certainly not a gesture of goodwill,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that despite the emergency declaration, there is “no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.”

Meanwhile, the ruling Communist Party postponed the end of the Lunar New Year holiday in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, for an unspecified “appropriate extent” and appealed to people there to stay home.

Another locked-down city in Hubei, Huanggang, on Saturday banned almost all residents from leaving their homes in the most stringent controls imposed yet. The government said only one person from each household would be allowed out to shop for food once every two days.

“Others are not allowed to go out except for medical treatment, to do epidemic prevention and control work or to work in supermarkets and pharmacies,” it said in an announcement.



China’s anti-disease controls started with the Jan. 23 suspension of plane, bus and train links to Wuhan, an industrial center of 11 million people. The lockdown has spread to surrounding cities.

The holiday, China’s busiest annual travel season, ends Sunday in the rest of the country following a three-day extension to postpone the return to factories and offices by hundreds of millions of workers. The official Xinhua News Agency said people in Hubei who work outside the province also were given an extended holiday.

The party decision “highlighted the importance of prevention and control of the epidemic among travelers,” Xinhua said.

Americans returning from China will be allowed into the country, but will face screening. Those returning from Hubei province will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.

Beginning Sunday, the United States will direct flights from China to seven major airports where passengers can be screened.

Delta Air Lines said Saturday that it was accelerating plans to suspend fights between the United States and China. Delta’s last flight from China will leave Sunday, the airline said. It had planned to end flights on Thursday.

Other carriers including American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific also have canceled or cut back service to mainland China. Vietnam suspended all flights to China.

The U.S. order followed a travel advisory for Americans to consider leaving China. Japan and Germany also advised against nonessential travel to China. Britain did as well, except for Hong Kong and Macao.

A plane carrying Indians from Wuhan landed Saturday in New Delhi. The government said they would be quarantined in nearby Manesar. Sri Lanka also pulled out 33 more of its citizens and promised to bring back the remaining 204 students.



A special flight brought 312 Bangladeshis back from Wuhan, including eight who were hospitalized with high temperatures. The government says about 5,000 Bangladeshis study in China.

A Turkish military transport carrying 42 people left Wuhan for Ankara. They reportedly showed no signs of infection.

The Kremlin said Russia would use its air force planes to evacuate Russians from areas of China most seriously affected by the virus.

Germany’s defense minister said a plane taking 102 citizens back to Germany was refused permission to land and refuel in Moscow due to what the Russians said was lack of capacity and had to divert to Helsinki.

An EU evacuation flight from Wuhan was scheduled for Saturday.

South Korea’s second evacuation flight landed in Seoul with 330 people from Wuhan. They were to be screened for fever before being taken to two quarantine centers.

South Korea also reported its 12th virus case, which appeared to be a human-to-human transmission.

At least 24 countries have reported cases since China informed WHO about the new virus in late December.

The death rate in China is falling, but the number of confirmed cases will keep growing because thousands of specimens from suspected cases have yet to be tested, WHO’s Galea said.

“The case fatality ratio is settling out at a much lower level than we were reporting three, now four, weeks ago,” he said.



Both the new virus and SARS are from the coronavirus family, which also includes those that cause the common cold.

Although scientists expect to see limited transmission of the virus between people with family or other close contact, they are concerned about cases of infection spreading to people who might have less exposure.

In Japan, a tour guide and bus driver became infected after escorting two groups from Wuhan. The country reported four new cases, including a woman in her 20s who worked on the same tour bus, and another person who was asymptomatic, for a total of 20.

In Germany, five employees of an auto parts supplier became ill after a Chinese colleague visited, including two who had no direct contact with the woman. She showed no symptoms until her flight back to China. On Friday, Germany confirmed a sixth case, a child of one of the people already infected.

The United Arab Emirates confirmed its fifth infection, Vietnam its sixth and Australia its ninth.

Spain reported its first case, a German man who had close contact with an infected person in Germany and then traveled to the Canary Islands with friends. Four friends who were hospitalized with him have not shown symptoms.

In the United States, health officials issued a two-week quarantine order for 195 Americans evacuated this week from Wuhan.

It was the first time a federal quarantine has been ordered since the 1960s, when one was enacted over concern about smallpox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

None of the Americans being housed at a Southern California military base has shown signs of illness.

-AP
http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/china-virus-who-advises-countries-to-prepare-as-death-toll-rises/

By Martin Okorowu, The Nigerian Voice, Owerri 0

Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited has been slammed with a N10 billion suit for allegedly causing the death of three brothers in Oguta LGA, Imo State. The Durugo brothers – Azubuike, Chigozie and Ebuka – suffered a gruesome death in Addax Petroleum’s Izombe Waste Pit in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State on July 6 and 7, 2018.

After waiting in vain for remedies for a year and six months, the bereaved family of Mr. Peter Nnamdi-Durugo, indigenes of Umuduruagha Kindred of Amaudara Village, Obeabo-Izombe, have headed to court to seek damages.

On December 11, 2019, in a 3 - page Writ of Summons issued from Nnaji Dike Chambers and signed personally by Prof. F.C. Dike, SAN (leading a team of Joint Solicitors) which was filed at Oguta High Court, Imo State on behalf of the family of Mr. Peter Nnamdi-Durugo, indigenes of Umuduruagha Kindred of Amaudara Village, Obeabo - Izombe in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State against Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited (“APDNL”), the plaintiffs accuse the defendant (Addax Petroleum) of negligence and violation of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR's) Environmental Guideline and Standards (EGAS) in relation to the 2018 Izombe Waste Pit Tragedy that claimed the lives of their sons (three brothers from the same parents) who died in Addax's crude oil waste pit on July 6th and 7th, 2018.

The disaster, which shook the entire Oguta Local Government Area to its foundation by its very severity, has been described by indigenes and mourners alike as a catastrophe of limitless proportions akin to a coordinated campaign of "gene-pool erosion". The tragedy ripped through the hearts of the parents, survivors, under-aged children and family members of the deceased, breaking them into a thousand tiny pieces, just as Addax' deadly stockpile of toxic chemicals ripped out and splintered the flesh and internal organs of the deceased Durugo brothers - Azubuike, Chigozie and Ebuka - while visiting them with the most brutal and gruesome death imaginable, inside a chemical pit that recreates hell on earth. The waste pit is owned, operated and solely controlled by Addax Petroleum in its Izombe Flow Station.

“The Addax Waste Pit tragedy is only the latest in a long run of devastating mishaps caused by poorly managed oil mining facilities and land based units owned, operated, and improperly maintained by MNOCs in Izombe in particular, and in the Imo State oil producing areas, as a whole,” states Chief Enyinna Onuegbu, KSC, Principal Partner at Ebekuodike Chambers, one of the Joint Solicitors who filed the suit.

“Mr. Peter Nnamdi-Durugo's family was all but wiped out,” said Arinze Duru, Esq., the Attorney who sued on behalf of the plaintiffs. “Addax Petroleum repeatedly failed to properly assess the risks posed to the host communities, the local population, their livelihood and their environment by its decrepit facilities, and failed to safely maintain and manage those facilities. A tragedy occasioned by a poorly run crude oil waste pit is not a ‘natural disaster,’ it’s an "improper maintenance tragedy", a disaster occasioned by naked impunity. The unanticipated emotional duress and torture that the plaintiffs continue to suffer is a direct result of the Waste Pit tragedy.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the aged parents, widows and sole surviving brother of the three deceased brothers who have suffered devastation and have had their lives turned upside down by the waste pit tragedy.. As noted in the Statement of Claim (Complaint), the brothers were practically boiled alive by the toxic chemicals, their intestines and other internal organs grotesquely eviscerated, and their sexual organs viciously burnt and exposed to public scorn and opprobrium.

The Complaint avers that Addax Petroleum had failed or refused to proactively secure or properly operate its crude oil waste pit located in its Izombe Flow Station, Addax also admitted in a letter to the Law Offices of Prof. F.C. Dike that its facility was poorly secured. Despite this knowledge and these sub-optimal operating conditions, the MNOC failed to take the appropriate remedial action in order to protect the lives and property of the members of its host community..

As the Complaint concludes, Addax Petroleum, and no one else, caused this devastation and tragic loss of life, unique in terms of its sheer size and scale, which has made the effect impossible to bear, and left 9 infants, aged between 15 months to 13 years without paternal care or guidance and resulted in its becoming the worst tragedy to occur in Izombe in a quarter of a century.

“’Wanton violations by International Oil Companies, IOCs, have caused mass deaths and injuries in Izombe in the past, and Addax Petroleum in particular has been sanctioned on a number of occasions for these kinds of violations before the latest waste pit tragedy occurred,” states Omeoga Chukwu, Esq., Principal Partner at Omeoga Chukwu and Co., another member of the Joint Solicitors representing the plaintiffs. “Addax knowingly and habitually underestimated the potential hazards and risks posed to the Izombe population by its malfunctioning systems and general misfeasance. Had Addax acted promptly and responsibly, the Durugo tragedy could have been prevented.”

“It is devastating to attempt the practical closure of an entire lineage in this manner, and to have a lifetime of memories destroyed,” noted plaintiffs' attorney, Arinze Duru. “That it could have been prevented makes it even more heartbreaking. It is for this reason that we seek the order of Court to punish this egregiously insidious conduct of Defendant."

The lawsuit states multiple causes of action including negligence, public nuisance, premises liability, as well as violations of the law, extant codes, rules and regulations governing oil and gas prospecting, mining and production operations in Nigeria, especially the Department of Petroleum Resources' (DPR) Environmental Guidelines and Standards (EGAS), and seeks N10 billion in punitive and exemplary damages from Addax for its gross negligence occasioning the wrongful death of the deceased, and psychological devastation to the plaintiffs and their families, as well as an order compelling Addax Petroleum to undertake soil and site remedial action and conform itself to global standards in its operations in Izombe and elsewhere in Nigeria.

The Writ of Summons was served on the Defendant at their Izombe Flow station address, in Oguta Local Government Area, Imo State.

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/284790/addax-to-pay-billions-of-naira-for-death-losses-damages-a.html

By Gbenga Adedayo

Effiong Okon, Executive Director, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc was originally the man set aside to succeed Austin Avuru as Managing Director/CEO but this arrangement was reversed by what a source in Seplat who disclosed to Media Issues described as “boardroom politics.” Austin Avuru will retire in July 2020.

Effiong Okon was replaced by the Board with the Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Roger Brown; an expatriate whom the Board believes has more skillful capacity in its quest for future growth and pursuit of viable assets beyond the shores of Nigeria.

Okon who is mostly referred to as “Effy” by close associates had resigned his job at Shell to take up appointment as Executive Director at Seplat in January 2018 having been promised he would succeed Austin Avuru. As part of the plans to groom him for the new job of MD/CEO, he was sent to the Harvard Business School in the United States of America for further human capacity development.

In announcing his appointment in 2018, Seplat had said Okon who graduated from the University of Benin with a B.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering in 1991 was joining Seplat with his over 26 years of experience in the upstream and integrated oil and gas operations across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Nigeria.

Besides, the company said that Okon, a Petroleum Reservoir Engineer with experience across all aspects of exploration and production, including petroleum engineering, exploration, front end development studies, project execution, and production and asset management was a General Manager, Deepwater Production prior to joining Seplat.

In a statement in December 2019, the Company Secretary, Edith Onwuchekwa, had said the board had selected the Chief Finance Officer, Roger Brown, as Avuru’s successor to lead the company’s latest aspirations.

“Looking forward, Seplat plans to position itself for a next phase growth ambition which would see the expansion of its footprint in terms of energy business activities, a plan to pursue offshore assets as well as opportunity driven entry into different geographies,” the company said in its statement.

“The Company believes that such a corporate transition would require a different kind of organizational structure, people skills set and mentality to compete well in the expanded space. In view of this, Seplat will be reviewing its current organizational and systems structure,” the statement added.

This exercise, she said will be led by Roger Brown, the CEO designate during the transition period which begins immediately.

“Since joining the company, the statement said Brown, a Briton, played significant roles in the successful dual listing of the Company in 2014 and in various asset acquisitions by the Company. Brown who was an advisor to the company since 2010, as Managing Director and head of EMEA Oil and Gas at Standard Bank Group, the statement continued, “has strong financial, commercial and M&A experience as well as proven people skills which will be an asset as the Company embarks on the next phase of its growth plan.”

“While at the bank, he was instrumental in providing advice and deploying capital across the African continent in the oil and gas, power and infrastructure and the renewable energy sectors”, the company said.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/exclusive/seplat-why-effiong-okon-ed-lost-out-as-successor-to-austin-avuru/