₦airaland Forum

It's 1986 and 1990 final all over again. Germany VS Argentina.

This time Yesterday Brazil was five goals down.

OLASENI BARUWA : MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE;

My mother has arthritis. In 2008/09 we spent Christmas and New year with a friend in Imo state. There, our host asked my mother to visit Lords Chosen church who were having a 'MIRACLE CRUSADE' at MGBIDI IMO STATE NIGERIA.

My mom was on her wheelchair and so were other elderly men and women who all came for healing. Some used crutches and some had no support or family members to care for them. The place was full and jamparked with all sorts of people, some holding photos of their loved ones that had one ailment or the other which they want the lord of Chosen to heal through intercessory prayers.

Everyone were in the hot sun that could give you another ailment. There were hawkers of all sorts like food, drinks, fruits, hankies and all types of religious items and memorabilia.

Armed policemen surrounded the crusade ground and I actually saw them smoke weeds (in one corner where i went to smoke my cigarette).

Some people came on stage and gave orishi rishi testimonies thanking the lord of chosen for what he has done for them. Some testified that they were blind from birth and now they can see and even identify colours, some said they were deaf from birth and now they can hear, some said they came with armputated limbs and now another limb grew out, some said they were HIV positive but now negative. In fact, the list of testimonies were endless.

I was angry with my host 'cause my mom was in the hot sun for over 3hrs, me as a young man who is healthy am feeling the hot sun, not to talk of my age mum who is not even healthy in such condition.

When I couldn't stand the hot sun, unconducive crusade ground and stress anymore I went to the backstage where some of the organizer of the crusade were seated, i told the security/ bodyguard their that I want to see the pastor for my mom to be prayed for and healed on stage.

The guard told me flatly that I need to book an appointment for a future time. I tried all my best to convince the body guard to allow me have access to Pastor Mouka, he refused me. After some hours of battle with the security guy, a young pastor came and told me am disturbing them and warned me to leave or i will be arrested and detained. I got angry and promptly got my mom into my car and left the crusade ground.

I left with my mum to the UK so she can be properly treated by a physician, now she on medication and she can walk, do her own cooking and laundry and she no longer uses a wheelchair. In fact, she's very smart and healthy than i ever expected.

No prayers were involved but only medication. This incidence vindicated me, cause I had asserted from the onset that there was no such thing as miracle in churches all are just tricks and scam and i wasn't proved wrong that day. They are all tricksters and scammers.

If I was a pastorpreneur or prayer warrior in Nigeria, I would have had new inspirations for prayer points for my customers. Something like this:

"Anyone that wants to play with your destiny, may the Lord give them a GERMAN encounter"

- "Every plan of the wicked against you begin to Brazil! Begin Brazil by fire!"

- "Every Satanic spectator in your life, may they have experience of a Brazillian gambler and supporter"

- "If you do want a Brazil situation in your life then take up a GERMAN offering and Seed and NEYMAR it at my feet"

Breaking News!!!

Nigerian goverment had banned Brazilian hair... Government approved German hair...

Send "E Don Do" to33521 To Stop Germany from Spoiling Brazil's Football name.

This semi-final match between Brazil and Germany is going to lead to a lot of suicides in Brazil between now and Sunday. If I were adviser to the president of Brazil right now, I'll advise him to draft the police and special anti-riot police ready to confront demonstrators. The Mexican referee should be looking for a way to get out of town fast. The Brazilian players too should be careful not to be lynched by angry mob. This is not only a national embarrassment this is a global disgrace. Never in the history of World Cup has a national team been humiliated in its own soil before its national audience. This is great routing and walloping. Germany turn Brazilian players into a nuisance in the field before its home crowd.

Brazillians Hair is currently on Sale! Buy 1 get 5! Ladies, hurry now while the stock last....

'Krul for the Dutch, cruel for Costa Rica.'

"LVG" is a master tactician. Bringing in Tim Crul at the die minute to come save Netherland shows how intelligent and brave he is.

C.A.F !
Can someone please call the CAF secretariat and Mr. Isa Hayatou for me and all those empty vessels that Africa sent to represent her in Brazil 2014. Watch Costa Rica putting up a good show against The Netherlands !
Costa Rica :
Population - 4,636,348
Area - 51,100 square kilometers.
FIFA should reduce the Africa slot to Two. We need to fight for the representation to make an impact.
Africans has not shown the seriousness on the big stage.

Well done, Costa Rica, so far !

Good play !!

A freak goal

Germany is the first team ever to reach record 4 successive semi-finals in the FIFA World Cup

Mats Hummels goal was the 37th headed goal by Germany at the World Cup in the last 50 years and which is the most that any country has scored with header.
Mats Hummels goal broke the 6 straight goalless first half streak of Germany at World Cup 2014.
It’s the first time that France have failed to wind up at semi-finals in their last six appearances.

Even in heaven, there are Angels and Arch angels, and the angels are content with their positions and would not want to usurp the duties of the Arch angels either. People cannot obtain different qualifications, different expertise, subserve different needs and end up earning similar pay. No. That cannot happen. Why would a non-specialist insist on being paid specialists allowance? Why would a Non-doctor terrorize the government because he wants to be paid like Doctors? Where in the world is that obtainable? Relativity is sacrosanct and must be reflected both on the basic salaries and all allowances.
Granted. Doctors are few. Very very few. The World Health Organisiation recommends that a Doctor should consult not more than seven patients in a clinic session and should pay maximum attention to their needs, but our environment see us in a situation where a Doctor consults over 40 patients in one clinic session, yet, he is underpaid compared to his colleagues even in nearby Ghana. There are less than 30,000 Doctors currently practicing in Nigeria subserving over 170 million Nigerians, and there is a dire need for more, but that will not push the Medical schools to take in everybody and churn out unqualified people as Doctors, neither will the Nigerian Doctor allow a Non-Doctor to tamper with the lives of patients.

Doctors swore an oath to preserve lives and the NMA must see to it that the lives of Nigerians are safeguarded. If the Hippocratic Oath is to be taken serious, then the NMA must win this battle.

More often than not, we are clear on the knowledge that it is injustice to treat equal people unequally, but it fails to come to our minds that, it is graver injustice to treat unequal people equally. This is not pride, it is a statement of fact.

Doctors and Non-doctors in the Health sector are not equal and they cannot be treated as equal. There is a reason why some students work harder than others to become Doctors. Some sat for JAMB several times to achieve that, although many fail to do so and even some do fail out of medical school and end up as “other Health Professionals”. To eventually anticipate to be rewarded equally with those who triumphed where you failed is simply madness. The government must see to it that relativity is maintained. For if a Nurse or Pharmacist consults patient, not regarding quality of the consult, earns equally with a Doctor and even get a chance to head the Doctor, why then would one need to work harder to become a Doctor when he can easily become a Pharmacist? Tampering with relativity is a conscious attempt at breeding mediocrity, again at the expense of lives. If the Nurses and Pharmacists accept to be paid equally with the Lab “Scientist” and Janitors, it’s their own cup of tea, but paying Doctors and Non-doctors equally? God forbid!

On the Physiotherapists’ demand to make first contact with Patients:

According to Prof. K. E. Obidike, there are three reasons why patients go to see Doctors.

Firstly, is to ascertain the causes of their complaints and resolve them.
Secondly, is to identify any other health problems unknown to the patient, and again, resolve them timely,
And finally, to have a baseline documentation of the patient as a reference for subsequent health issues.

The second reason especially, answers the question as to why a Physiotherapist cannot make first contact with patients. Medicine is holistic, and the initial assessment of a patient takes the entire body system into account not just the presenting complaints. Therefore, Physiotherapists should remain Physiotherapists and should come into action when consulted. Simple.

On adoption of Foreign Healthcare Structure:

The fundamental idea behind the establishment of Tertiary Healthcare centers (Teaching Hospitals) in Nigeria was primarily for training of Medical Practitioners, Research, and provision of specialized healthcare at very affordable rate. It is not a business venture, and if this aims and objectives are to be met, then the hospital must be made to operate under the very Act that established it. Comparing our Healthcare practices with that of foreign nations without a review of the aim and objectives viz-a-viz that of our country is practically insane. Granted, a few hospitals in Canada are headed by Non-Doctors, and there are few Non-Doctor Consultants with well-defined jurisdictions in a few foreign countries, but that does not in any way directly improve their health indices. After all, high quality health care is still not affordable for a large proportion of Americans despite their very potent health insurance system.

Our very first interest should be to assist the government, which some members of the health sector have chosen to distract, to ensure there is affordable healthcare services to all its citizenry, seek ways of improving the training of the medical personnel and carry out Research programs that will elevate the quality of healthcare delivery in our own nation. Yes. We can go abroad and observe what obtains from there, but instead of disrupting order in the already existing system, by trying to blindly implement it over here, we can see how best to fit a few of them into our system and get the best out of it. The Government should concentrate on policies that will better the lives of the larger population of Nigerians, not those that pacify some disgruntled group of individuals fighting for position and their own other personal interests.

There are many other issues that do not only need Government attention, but also its speedy response.

Some of these areas include:

The appointment of Directors in the hospitals which distorts the chain of command in the hospitals, induces anarchy and expose patients to conflicting treatment and management directives;
The passage of the National Health Bill, and extension of Universal Health Coverage to cover 100% Nigerians and not 30% as currently prescribed by the National Health Insurance Scheme;
The appointment of the office of the Surgeon General of the Federation alongside many other pressing needs.
These are health issues of paramount importance and the Government cannot afford to be lackadaisical about them. No. Not this time.

My Recommendations:

First of all, JOHESU is an amorphous body comprising of different entities with varying agitations, concerns, qualifications, expertise, and eligibility status and should not be confronted in that front by the government. Our government has to recognize the various constituents independently and verify their individual complaints as some parts of it have no moral standee to withdraw its services because of the unmet demands of another.
For instance, The Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU) comprising of Clerks, Messengers, Record Officers, Admin staffs, Janitors, Engineers, Security etc., an association of different people with absolutely no training in any Health related courses should not dare to aspire for headship positions in the hospital let alone been prevented from doing so. We do not have to give reasons why they should not.
Therefore, the five different associations and unions under JOHESU should be made to make their specific submissions independent of one another for clarity.

Secondly, the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress should look beyond Unionism and focus on the ultimate goal of everybody in the health sector which is adequate Health care for the Nation. They should relinquish their parochial stand in the dispute between JOHESU and NMA, and as well desist from all forms of hooliganism and attempt to bully the Government and NMA on this matter.

Finally, the Government should resist all attempts to coerce it into yielding to the demands of one party in the dispute when the matter is still in court. There should be absolute regard for the Rule of Law. And all previous “concessions” should be stalled, and pending till a decisive ruling by the court.

We can go on and on to address so many other issues in the health sector that require attention but I have decided to throw light at just some parts of it before the Doctors under the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association, an association of all certified Medical Doctors practicing in Nigeria down their tools as proposed come July 1st, 2014. Before the health of the nation would be thrown into the hands of Non-Doctors in the Health sector that usually prefer the exclusive services of Doctors when they and their loved ones take ill. Before the general public begin to lash out on Doctors and blame them for lives lost as a result of the forthcoming massive industrial action. The onus lie on the general public to call out on the Government to resolve these life threatening issues before the Doctors take to this hurtful last resort of theirs.

God bless Nigeria.

By,
Basil, C. B. – M.B.B.S (Nigeria),
Department of Clinical Chemistry and Metabolic Medicine,
Benue State University Teaching Hospital

For a longtime now I have come across so many articles and reports in the national dailies and in online social media on the rife in the health sector which centers mainly on the row between doctors and non-doctors working in the healthcare system. Most of these reports and articles, mostly lopsided, have one common denominator, presenting the Doctor as an enemy of the people and the manner of their submissions is such as to draw undue sympathy from the unsuspecting public. But for the neutral members of the society who have had cause to have sufficient contact with the hospital environment, I’m not talking of some quasi journalists, they need not be told, if there are, who the Angels and Demons are.
This article is not aimed at indicting or exonerating any of the two combatant parties as both have had a fair share of the blame, and honestly, the deplorable state of our healthcare system is not as a result of the performance of the health workers, but it is a component of an overall failed system called Nigeria which the current government is still trying to salvage amongst other difficult challenges. Considering the lines along which the divide has been made, I shall delve into an inquest of some of the key issues at stake, mostly those that affect the general public, and this I will do by placing the Nigerian Doctor on one side to be reviewed alongside a few of the numerous “health professionals” working in the healthcare system with due consideration to the most important person in the system, the Patient. I shall concentrate mostly on the tertiary healthcare institutions where the bulk of the rivalry is most felt.

The Patient and the Hospital:

Let us begin from the beginning. A healthy person falls sick and needs to regain his health and function properly. He says to himself, “I don’t feel well enough, I need to see a Doctor. May be I should go to the hospital tomorrow”. He sets out of his house with this principal aim. On getting to the hospital, he first gets to the reception, obtains a card at the Out Patient Department and then proceeds to see a Doctor (usually a Medical Officer) who attends to him and treats him. However,if his condition is one that necessitates a Specialists attention, he is then Referred to another Doctor, the Specialist (Consultant) for further treatment. On getting to the point of referral, the Record staffs assist him in opening a folder containing case notes, and in the process of this, a Doctor (Consultant) is assigned to him. The entire processes of obtaining a card and folder have no direct effect on the patient’s condition but helps ensure proper documentation and recording within the hospital. He is then directed to the designated Specialist or Consultant Clinic where he is received by a Nurse who does further documentation and records his vital signs which may or may not be repeated by the Doctor. Then the patient enters the clinic to see the Doctor, his primary aim for coming to the hospital ab initio.

The Patient, the Doctor and Other Health Workers:

The Doctor begins by taking a complete history of the patient which includes his current complaints, previous health challenges, living condition, social habits, family history, drug history, financial capacity, religious and cultural beliefs, and then proceeds to do a complete physical examination of his entire body system, at the end of which the Doctor would have verified the patients complaints and identify any other problems unknown to the patient, before arriving at a Provisional Diagnosis. He then counsels the patient, draws up a treatment plan, which is to be strictly adhered to provided the patient is within the hospital environment, and automatically takes full responsibility for any problems encountered along the line. He finally schedules him for a follow-up visit to ascertain his response to treatment. This process of history taking creates a personal relationship between the Patient and the Doctor and this is where the confidence of a patient on the Healthcare system of a Nation is built; the Doctor-Patient Relationship.

The treatment plan of the Patient, drawn by the Doctor, may or may not include; the investigations (or tests) both laboratory or radiological to be carried out, the drugs to be dispensed and the appropriate prescription, the additional care to be rendered outside the basic nursing care and the treatment orders to be followed, some of which he does himself (or via his subordinate Doctors) and others by the Nurses. There is no stereotyped outline of what must be done for every patient; investigations to be carried out, treatment to be administered or drugs to be prescribed lies solely at the discretion of the Patient and his Doctor.

Apart from the Nurses, all other “Health Professionals” come into patient care when the Doctor’s plan involves them. Clearly, a patient has no business with the Radiographer if the Doctor’s plan does not involve radiography, neither does he have any business with the Pharmacist if the patient does not require any drugs, of course, not every patients require drugs. Therefore, it is safe to assert that if Patient Care is the sole interest of everybody in the Health sector, then the Doctor takes the Central stage in this service to Patients and must carry the Nurses along at every point in time, and together they look out for any other “Health Professional” that should be roped into patient care. Why then should the Doctor take the Central stage? Very simple. He has been trained thoroughly to do so. Invariably, the Doctor is naturally the undisputed leader of the Health team and only two classes of people can challenge this standing; the criminal minded ones pursing their selfish interests and the dim-wits incapable of any logical reasoning.

On the Headship of the Hospital:

Over time, the functional head of the tertiary hospital setting has been the office of the Chief Medical Director, CMD, and part of the Act establishing the hospitals specified that this position be held by a Medical Doctor. However, there has recently been a loud cry from other “Health Professionals” under the auspices of the Joint Health Workers Union (JOHESU) for the chance to also partake in the “enjoyment” of this office, as if to say it is a political office, a “National Cake” which should be shared equally to everyone in the scene, whereas, it is the most sensitive of all positions in the hospital setting, one with huge implications on the health of patients. The Medical Doctors on the other hand, insist that the office of the Chief Medical Director and the headship in general, of the Hospitals is their exclusive reserve.

How true is this claim by the Doctors? Again, it is very simple. Healthcare is all about patient care, and in rendering care to the patient who is the main focus of everyone, the Doctor is the arrow head. He brings together the activities of all in the health care delivery system to bear fruit in the health of the patient. He has a broad-based and yet in-depth medical knowledge that enables him to function as a leader in patient management and take responsibility for the outcome. It is then indeed a funny ideology to expect the Doctor to maintain leadership of Patient Management and then cede the leadership of the Hospital Management to a Non-Doctor. Right thinking people would agree that whoever takes the blame should take the lead.

Leadership is about responsibility, and Doctors embrace such responsibility mainly as it involves lives which they have sworn an oath to protect.

Furthermore, JOHESU, a body comprising of other “health professionals”, support staffs and in fact all in the Hospital setting except Doctors, claim to be equal and allied to Medicine. But my question is, how is the clerical staff allied to Medicine? How can a support staff head the core members of the organization? Also, why should a “profession” that is “allied” to Medicine surmount Medicine?

Can a Non-Lawyer become the Attorney General of the Federation? Why isn’t the office of the Vice-Chancellor made open to every staff in the University system since ASUU and NASUU both consist of “professionals”? How would ceding hospital leadership to JOHESU improve the health indices of our country? These are people that do not deal directly with patients, people that do not really understand the agony of patients which Doctors do. The saddest part is the extent they can go to press home their irrational demands. We have a documented occurrence of how they turned off power supply to the Intensive Care Unit during a JOHESU orchestrated strike action in a southeastern Teaching Hospital leading to death of patients on life support. This was an attempt to frustrate the Doctors’ effort to keep hospital services running while they were “striking”. How can people who have displayed this level of irresponsibility be allowed to head the Health sector? Again, God forbid!

It is a common saying that Doctors are “proud”, and I insist, they have very just reasons to be, and when it comes to arrogance, the patients can tell who amongst Doctors and Nurses are more approachable. Doctors are a selected class of elites and comprise the best brains of the society. Yes, the entry requirements into the profession and the medical training ensure that only the bests emerge as Doctors. As such, the government has to understand that any arrangement that sees a Non-Doctor in a sensitive position to head Doctors in any Health related issue would be met with fierce resistance and the never ending tussle it will ensue will have detrimental effects on our nation’s healthcare delivery. In the interest of peace and decorum, the Federal Government have to dig in and ensure that the status quo is been maintained. The ear that will hear needs not be the size of a raffia palm.

On conferment of Consultancy on other “Health Professionals”:

A Consultant (Medical) is the title for a senior hospital-based physician or surgeon who has completed all of his/her specialist (Residency) training and has been placed on the specialist register (Fellow) in their chosen specialty. This level of Doctor joins the Civil service as a Consultant and automatically leads a team of Doctors comprising Residents, Medical Officers and House Officers who train under him.
Currently, there has been an outcry by JOHESU to also be awarded Honorary Consultancy based on the fact that Doctors are been appointed as Consultants, why not they too. The concession of the government to this particular demand has led to the entire hospital going berserk in some centers. This was done against the warning of the Nigerian Medical Association that the introduction of such “alien” practices would be detrimental to the lives of patients and the results are showing.

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospitals, it is been said that a “Consultant Pharmacist” invaded the wards with his team, cancelling patients prescriptions and also demanded that a Consultant Cardiologist remove a key drug in an inpatient prescription, on grounds that the drug has some known adverse effects. Another report have it that in Abuja University Teaching Hospital, the Ante-Natal Clinic was invaded by Nurses who decided to consult patients and make prescriptions, of which the Doctors left the clinic and the Patients were confused. Patients who sought to see their Doctors were told that there was a “Consultant Nurse” who does whatever a Consultant does. Also, in University College Hospital, Ibadan, stories had it that a Consultant Plastic Surgeon was barred from reviewing the surgical wound he created post-operatively because a “Consultant Nurse” had reviewed the wound earlier and was satisfied with her findings.

Let us address one of these occurrences. It is grave ignorance for a Pharmacist to tamper with a drug prescription simply because he has looked through his drug formulary and have identified a known adverse effect of the drug when he/she has no knowledge of the processes involved in the making of diagnosis and prescriptions. Patient management is highly individualized. To make a prescription, the Doctors put many things into consideration viz; patient’s history and examination, financial cost of the drug, benefits against the risk of using the drug, other drugs to be administered etc. Sometimes the side effect of a drug is the desired effect needed in one patient but would remain a serious adverse effect in another patient. But no, the Pharmacist didn’t think in that line before cancelling prescriptions. I am not saying every doctor’s prescription is infallible. No. But if a pharmacist wishes to express concern over a patient’s prescription, he should discuss with the Doctor to sort out their concerns.
This whole consultancy for non-doctors arose as a result of their quest to have better remuneration. I am not opposed to better remuneration for other health workers, but looking for cheap means to it at the expense of the lives of patients is grossly unacceptable. Why would you want to be a Specialist (Consultant) when you have no specialty, or you have a specialty in an area whose service is not needed?

Even if a non-doctor must be a consultant that does not automatically make him/her a Doctor. We all know how to become a Doctor and age is no barrier.
If non-doctors must immutably be made consultants, their duties and jurisdictions must be clearly spelt out and understood by all involved. A Consultant Nurse should be confined to Nursing Practice and she will be expected to enhance it, not to invade Medical Practice. She must ensure that the management plan of a Doctor is properly carried out, even if he is a House Officer. Unfortunately, the idea of non-doctor consultant emanates from the desire of these other “health Professionals” for position and better pay than the desire to meet any specific needs. For instance, a ward Nurse that does her duties properly becomes a Consultant, what extra services and improvement does that bring to nursing care? The fact that there exist non-doctor consultants in a few foreign countries does not explain why the government should channel huge sums of money into the payment of honorarium to consultants that add nothing to the existing system but chaos.

The NMA have identified these unhealthy health policies and should do all it can to prevent it from killing Nigerians.

On relativity of Wages:

Another very important object of discord is the demand by JOHESU for a unified salary scheme for everyone in the health sector and that will see a close approximation of the eventual earnings of all in the sector. What else can be sillier? Need I remind us that in every organization there is usually an established strata.

TO BE CONTINUED

A freak goal.

mikeansy: Time for fresh start

Let Sunday Oliseh take over

Analysis on Supersport onDSTV is not a credible antecedent.I know the guy has a UEFA coaching license.He also emerged as the best in his class but no verifiable and practical experience.

THANK GOD FOR FOOTBALL
If not 4 football Ronaldo will be a barber
if not 4 football messi will still be serving coffee in a caféterie
if not 4 football muntari will be a shoe cobbler
if not 4 football Mikel will be selling electronics
if not 4 football Demba ba will be a thrift collector
if not 4 football Musa will be busy rearing cattles
if not 4 football Balotelli will be importing & exporting weeds
if not 4 football di maria will be acting 'goblin' in mythical films
if not 4 football suarez will be______________??

OdionOdion: if you keep calling GEJ daft,what best english or local word will one describe your dad who sold his conscious for a plate of amala

Is it your bitterness that led to this conscious spelling error?CONSCIENCE is it.

IT was a joyful day for indigenes of Odeomu, a predominantly Muslim town in Osun State, as one of their sons, the Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), Pastor Matthew Abiodun Ashimolowo and his wife, Yemisi, on Saturday, January 4, 2014 celebrated the New Year with the widows and members of the community and its environs by sharing gifts worth over N10 million.

The event, which took place at the proposed Kings’ University, established by the pastor at his hometown Odeomu, brought together over 12 sitting Obas, representatives of different church leaders with other dignitaries and saw him distribute laces, ankaras and cash to over 3,000 widows and gave scholarship to 20 indigent undergraduates while also feeding over 4,000 people present at the event.

The colourful event also brought notable gospel artistes who performed scintillating Gospel songs among whom was the award-winning Evangelist Tope Alabi.

Speaking at the event, Ashimolowo said the programme, which began eight years ago, was his personal initiative borne out of a directive by God to minister to the widows in his father’s home town.

According to him, “This is the eighth year that we started giving out gifts, clothes, food and money to widows. God laid it on my heart to minister to the widows in my father’s home town of Odeomu and as far as widows are concerned, they are the most neglected people in the society and the Bible is very specific that we should take care of the fatherless and the widows and in doing this, I feel that we are the hand and leg of Jesus Christ making it happen. So eight years ago, we started with 308 widows; the next year, it jumped to 850, the third year, it became over 1000 and since then, it kept going up and up and this year, we ministered to over 3000 widows. We have 900 widows from the town of Modakeke near Ile-Ife and over 2000 from Odeomu and a couple of others from nearby towns.

“Today, we are giving out five yards of lace and ankara each to over 3000 widows, N500 to each of them, cooked for everyone who came and gave 20 university scholarships to indigenes of Odeomu who are currently in the university and needs the scholarship. The most interesting thing in this project is that 60 percent of the recipients are Muslims but we don’t differentiate.”

Ashimolowo said that his primary focus was to bless people in the city because it is a town that his father set out from as a teenager to try to make sense of life from where he later joined the Nigerian Army.

He said further that his love for Nigeria made him to come from United Kingdom where he lives to set up projects, chiefly among it being the proposed Kings’ University, which he has built in the town but still waiting for licence from the National University Commission (NUC) to get it started.

He also revealed that though the project might have cost a lot of money that it is more than the financial cost but also the emotional involvement.

Ashimolowo then called on the leaders in the country to redefine their commitments to the people, create a middle class system through the introduction and encouragement of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and decentralize the economy of the country to other states stating that such will create employments and alleviate poverty.

He said: “there seems to be an attitude which makes people in this country feel like once they sit in an ivory tower and they are comfortable, they think everybody is. It is a very dangerous omen to have over 60million unemployed and under employed youths. Nigeria needs to introduce a middle class system whereby it’s not just those who are very high up and those who are at the bottom. Nothing in the policy that I have seen recently encourages SMEs and creation of technical schools. We used to have trade centres and that will create another level of jobs because we all don’t have to go to universities in order to make a living or add to the economy. I think we also need to decentralize many things in this country so as not to kill the rural areas. If this is done, you will see that you will create so many Nigeria and not only Lagos and Abuja.”

He finally called on other churches to start responding to the material needs of the needy in the nation.

According to him, “we cannot be so heavenly minded that we are not of earthly use. We need to realize that the greatest thing you can do to a man is to touch him; it is not enough for us to scream fasting, praying, casting out demons, prophetic ministries; it is important to begin to give water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, hope to the hopeless and give life and meaning to those who have not found meaning to their lives.”

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php/news/metro-news/142962-ashimolowo-fetes-widows-offers-scholarships-to-indigent-students

Make I go chop night food.

YAYA TOURE AGAIN-BACK TO BACK

Sometime early in November last year, I saw a copy of a letter said to have been written by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to President Goodluck Jonathan. In the letter dated September 25, 2013, which I was handed only to read, the CBN Governor alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit a whooping sum of $49.8 billion to the Federation Account within a period of 19 months between January 2012 and July 2013.

While drawing attention to some concerns earlier raised about what appeared to be shortfalls in remittances to the Federation Account, the CBN Governor noted that the failure of the NNPC to repatriate the said monies constitutes not only a violation of constitutional provisions but also of both Nigeria’s foreign exchange and pre-shipment inspection of exports laws. To address the issue, he recommended that the president should compel the NNPC to provide evidence for the disposal of all proceeds of crude sales diverted from the CBN and Federation Account; investigate crude oil lifting and swap contracts; and authorize the prosecution of suspects in money-laundering transactions.

After reading the letter, I came to certain conclusions. One, if indeed Sanusi authored the letter, it could mean that his relationship with the president had broken down to such an extent that he no longer had access to discuss critical issues in private. Two, given my little knowledge of our oil and gas industry, the amount quoted in the letter as unaccounted for was too huge to be accurate. Three, since the person from whom I saw the private letter was not our President, it stood to reason that it would eventually be in the public domain and could become a political weapon in the hands of the president’s opponents. Four, the issues raised in the said letter were similar to the revelations by a Switzerland-based advocacy group, the Berne Declaration, which accused the NNPC of conniving with some Swiss oil dealers to rip Nigeria of nearly $7 billion through the sale of crude oil below the market value.

As it would happen, about a month later, the story of Sanusi’s letter broke in the media. Unfortunately, at a time one expected a strong and robust defence from the NNPC, a statement personally signed by its Group Managing Director, Eng. Andrew Yakubu dismissed the CBN Governor’s letter as “political” before adding that it “is borne out of lack of understanding of how revenues from crude oil sales are remitted into the Federation Account.”

That Yakubu would impute political motive to a demand for his corporation to render account speaks to how petty politics trumps professionalism within the system today while there is only one of two conclusions to draw from his claim that Sanusi is ignorant of how the NNPC accounts work. It’s either that the man in charge of our Central Bank is the worst ignoramus in the country or the NNPC accounting process is so complex that it would take only some geniuses from Mars to understand the numbers.

Given Sanusi’s pedigree in the banking sector and his unquestionable intellect, even his worst enemies must come to no conclusion other than that he is anything but a dunce. We are then left with the option that the workings of the NNPC account would require some special education to understand. That is more plausible to believe and my own personal experience bears eloquent testimony to that fact though I will come back to this later.

The core mandates of the CBN include ensuring monetary and price stability; maintaining foreign reserves to safeguard the international value of the national currency while providing economic and financial advice to the Federal Government. If in the course of performing those functions, the CBN Governor notices that funds that should statutorily hit the Federation Account do not, it would be criminal for him not to bring the attention of the Number One citizen to such issues. To that extent, it is difficult to fault what Sanusi did but there are questions about his approach. That Sanusi got his figures wrong is neither here nor there, what I query in his letter is the assumption that the monies not captured by the CBN could only have been missing (or stolen) although to be fair to him, he did not expressly state that.

It is therefore unfortunate that the whole issue has been marred by politics. But to the extent that the letter has forced some reconciliation meetings between critical stakeholders, the intervention has added value to our system. And the suggestion that we should dismiss the whole issue because “only” $12 billion or $10.8 billion is yet to be “reconciled” as against the figure of $49.8 billion quoted by Sanusi is most unfortunate. If just one dollar of public money cannot be accounted for, it is an issue, or at least should be an issue, for any serious society.

What is galling really is the institutional arrogance of the NNPC that has always held on to the notion that it is not accountable to any authority except perhaps the presidency even when the revenues it earns belong to the three tiers of government. The corporation has never really felt it has anything to do with the federal ministry of finance, it treats the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission with contempt and, as it is now evident, it merely tolerates the CBN. The situation is not helped by the fact that the federal government and its agencies appropriate the Federation Account almost as sole owner. That then explains why the FAAC monthly meetings most often end up in acrimony.

However, I need to stress that within the NNPC today are not only respected and seasoned professionals who can hold their own against their colleagues from anywhere else in the world but also honest and patriotic Nigerians. The real challenge is the way the corporation has always been run almost as a slush fund by the federal government to undertake all manner of assignments. This much can be glimpsed from the latest NNPC clarification, this time to the allegation that the yet-to-be-“reconciled” amount of $12bn or $10.8bn out of the alleged unremitted $49.8bn is “missing”. The NNPC spokesman, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, said the monies “can be located in the expenses on some of the responsibilities which the Corporation carries out on behalf of the Federal Government with respect to the domestic crude oil utilization.”


Yet the truth of the matter is that the NNPC has been doing more than the repairs of broken pipelines or paying for controversial kerosene subsidies, as enumerated by Dr Ibrahim. If there is crisis in any state of the federation and there is need to mobilize resources for security agencies, the next thing you hear from whoever is the president of Nigeria is “call me the GMD”. If a leader of one of the ECOWAS countries visited and was genuflecting before our president about how rough things were for his country (and may be later behind closed doors, for himself), the instant instruction would be, “call me the GMD”. And I am aware that for several years (may be even now), the activities of the military Joint Task Force (JTF) were solely funded by the NNPC. Given such a situation, how would the Federation Account that is essentially dependent on oil revenues but is jointly owned by the federal government, states and local governments balance?

What the foregoing means in effect is that the problem of the NNPC predates President Jonathan though most critical observers believe that things have in recent time gone haywire. It is within that context that one can understand Sanusi’s letter. And we should thank him for it because for the first time, the NNPC has been forced to come out to render some account, even though in a manner that also shows very clearly that the corporation can still not get it. The figure we are talking about here (that is yet to be “reconciled”) is almost two trillion Naira and some NNPC fat cats believe they can just dismiss such a whooping amount that ordinarily belongs to the three tiers of government as no more than their operational cost without any rational explanation. But as I stated earlier, this is an issue that has engaged my attention for some years now though it may be necessary to explain and I crave the indulgence of readers for the digression.
On February 19, 2004, President Olusegun Obasanjo launched the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) as the Nigerian subset of a global initiative aimed at following due process and achieving transparency in payments by oil companies. He also appointed the membership of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) made up of 28 individuals from Civil Society (2); Media (1); Government (14); Indigenous and Multi- National companies (3); the Organised Private Sector (4); National Assembly (2) and State’s (Regional) Houses of Assembly (2).


While Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesilli was appointed the Chairperson, President Olusegun Obasanjo, in a rare act of magnanimity also appointed me to represent the Nigerian media in the NSWG at a time I was very critical of him and his government. Other members were Engr. Funsho Kupolokun, then GMD of NNPC; Engr. Phil Chukwu who then headed NAPIMS; Mrs. A. Lawan-Ali who was at that time the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Dr. Bright Okogu, the current DG, Budget who was at that period Head, Oil & Gas Accounting Unit at the Federal Ministry of Finance. There were also Mrs. Gwen Nwachukwu, then Director of Revenue, Federal Ministry of Finance; Dr. Aboki Zhawa, then Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals and Mrs Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, then Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) boss.

Other members of the founding NSWG were Mr. Chris Haynes, then Managing Director of NLNG; Mr. B.O.N. Okafor, then Desk Officer, Oil Accounts Research Department at the CBN; Mr. Hassan Tukur, then Director, Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority (JDA); Mr. Joseph Ajiboye, then Auditor-General of the Federation; Senator Maeba Lee, then Chairman, Senate Petroleum Committee; Hon. Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, then Chairman, House of Representatives Petroleum Committee; Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the current Rivers’ Governor who was at that period speaker of the state House of Assembly and Hon. Kawu Peto Dukku Speaker, Gombe State House of Assembly.

There were also Mr. J.R. Pryor, then Managing Director of Chevron-Texaco; Mr. Basil Omiyi, then Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC); Dr. Imo Itsueli Chairman, Dubri Oil Co. Ltd.; Dr. H. Assisi Asobie, then President, Transparency in Nigeria (TIN); Dr. Louis Brown Ogbeifun, then President of PENGASSAN; Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, representing the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) as well as Mr. Gbite Adeniji, Mr. Trevor Akindele and Engr. (Mrs) J. Maduka.

While our assignment lasted, we met at least once in a month as a whole body and we also had different committee sessions. But at our very first workshop attended by President Obasanjo, a member of the civil society (can’t remember who now) said our assignment was akin to attempting to instill transparency into a secret society. That summation turned out to be very apt because but for the tenacity of Ezekwesili and the strong backing Obasanjo gave us, NEITI would have been dead on arrival. The two Multinational chief executives in the committee told us bluntly at one of our early meetings that there was nothing NEITI could do differently because as one put it, “we cannot re-invent the wheel.” But perhaps what I found rather interesting was that the NNPC people, including those we usually invite for our meetings, were equally as cynical of our assignment, while their positions on industry issues were never different from that of the multinational oil companies.

It is noteworthy that despite serious challenges (and due principally to the efforts of Ezekwesili who had Obasanjo’s strong support), we succeeded in drafting the NEITI bill which we saw through passage in the National Assembly and we conducted the first physical, process and financial audits of payments in the upstream sectors. Those audit reports, and the interactions we had with critical stakeholders in the course of our sessions, were most revealing of the challenge of our oil and gas sector.

For instance, according to the financial audit report for the years 1999 to 2004, “there are remarkable differences in the monthly payments of domestic crude made by NNPC Treasury and the actual amount received into the Federation Account”, while on the Cash Call, the reports states that “the percentage share of the Approved Budget Performance (ABP) sometimes do not agree arithmetically on a linear calculation in the case of NNPC.”


The physical audit which “materially verified the volumes of crude exported by NNPC”, was as revealing: “These volumes lifted by NNPC, which have been derived from the physical reconciliation of flows, are however, slightly different from sales volumes recorded by COMD (crude oil marketing department). Volumes used by the companies for Royalty and PPT show significant differences between the reconciled hydrocarbon flows and the taxation and royalty returns… DPR was not able to provide us with procedures and guidelines to be used in measuring crude and liquid flows throughout the system, with the exception of a ‘Manual of Procedure Guides for the Petroleum Inspectorate’, which is not comprehensive in this respect. There seems to be no process for keeping procedures up to date and in line with international best practice. The metering infrastructure and the records do not allow the hydrocarbon balance to address the question of unaccounted oil…”

What the foregoing suggests is that with our oil and gas sector, it has always been a case of the more you look, the less you see but because the then GMD of NNPC was a member of our committee, the corporation commenced a remediation process. While some efforts were made as a result of pressure from President Obasanjo, it is very clear now that those lessons have been lost. And we are only talking of the upstream sector where there is even a semblance of accountability because the transactions are basically international. The downstream sector with all the subsidy payments is another story altogether.

Interestingly, my NEITI engagement ended at about the time I would join government in 2007 and that gave me further insights into the management of our oil and gas sector from a rather vantage position. That then explains my conviction that until we have the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in place and there is genuine commitment to repositioning the sector, there can never be real transparency and accountability in the management of our oil and gas assets. And it will continue to be difficult to follow the money, even by the CBN.

However angry the president may be about the leakage of Sanusi’s private letter to him, I believe he should look at the bigger picture. Except of course he is certain there was bad faith on the part of Sanusi (and here he should be wary of mischief makers who tell tales they cannot substantiate), it would be unfair to take the issue personal. Bringing fears about possible financial leakages to the president’s notice, even if via a letter, is within Sanusi’s remit as CBN Governor and to foreclose such interventions would be to expose our system to serious danger.

President Jonathan says he is running a transformational administration. It’s a nice catchphrase. Now, there are opportunities for him to deliver some significant lasting legacies in the oil and gas sector. Sanusi has exposed a glaring weakness with regards to its opacity which has been further confirmed by the responses from the NNPC. If the president can deliver on a PIB that will reposition the sector and make it more transparent and accountable, he will be making positive history.

The foremost aspiration in the energy sector should be to transform NNPC into a national oil company (NOC). This strategy has in other countries introduced value chain, including power generation, refining for export and ownership of LNG vessels for the export of their specialized cargo. In those countries, the NOCs sell their shares, they access financial markets at home and abroad to raise funds to finance their investment activities and they don't over indulge cash-calls. They pay taxes, royalties, lease rentals and dividends to their national governments. They patronize own country businesses in rigs construction and servicing, and even ship building. The day the NNPC becomes a national oil company with equities floated both at home and in leading world exchanges, then it would begin to operate as a business rather than a pot of cheap cash for a succession of political leaders. If President Jonathan can lead us in that direction, I have no doubt in my mind that he would leave indelible marks in the sector.

However, we should also not divorce the current brouhaha over Sanusi’s letter from the politics of succession at the CBN and that is why Aso Rock needs to be circumspect. What is important in the days ahead is for the President to get a competent person who also comes with a measure of integrity, probably announce and send his name to the Senate by late March or early April, and allow for a proper transition period until the end of Sanusi’s tenure in the first week of June this year.

The strategic import of Sanusi’s letter is in what it indicates about the dysfunction in our oil accounting system. It is not about lack of expertise on the part of either the CBN or the NNPC. What is at issue is the extant role of the CBN as the nation’s treasurer of last resort and the urgent need for the NNPC to be more transparent in its dealings. To impute political motive into Sanusi’s letter is to miss the whole point. Any attempt to force the CBN Governor out of office before the expiration of his term through the subterfuge of an unsolicited “terminal leave” would not only be illegal but indeed damaging for the administration.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/sanusi-s-letter-jonathan-s-burden-/168368/

Is it that the players no longer know how to play football, the coach no longer knows how to coach or that the referee support is no longer available.
This free fall is not ordinary abeg!
Cry cry babies. If you like cry from now till tomorrow Howard Webb don decamp to Chelsea!!!

LOSER

This is how 'Facebook Home Page' Used to Look Like Initially at inception in 2004.

Facebook, the popular social network with over a billion users world wide, has just been hit with a class-action lawsuit. The allegations, revealed in the FT, are that Facebook systematically scans the content of private messages so it can sell the data to third parties such as advertisers.

Facebook’s entire business model is based on the fact that it monitors what users write, like and up-load in order to sell this information on to others. I have covered some of the concerns about this in my articles ‘How Facebook Exploits Your Private Information’ and ‘How Facebook Likes Reveal Your Intimate Secrets’. In principle, there is nothing wrong with Facebook using our data to make commercial gains. In the end, the service is free and Facebook has to make money somehow. However, my biggest concern is that the data mining activities are not as transparent as they should be.

Facebook has been criticized for this lack of transparency on many occasions, but two Facebook users now believe Facebook has gone too far. Users Matthew Campbell from Arkansas and Michael Hurley from Oregon have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the over 166m Facebook users in the US. The accusation is that Facebook is violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by scanning and exploiting the content of private messages sent via the Facebook platform without prior consent by users.

The issue here is that ‘private’ messages are seen by most users as exactly that: private! The accusation is that Facebook identifies website links (URLs) contained in private messages and then searches these websites in order to profile users. In their accusation Campbell and Hurley argue: "Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is 'private' creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook, because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored."

A Facebook spokesperson told Bloomberg that the allegations are without merit and that Facebook will defend itself vigorously. Of course they would say that. The trouble for Facebook is to strike the right balance between offering a customer service in form of a free social networking platform and shareholder returns, especially profits from selling data and advertising.

To answer my own question from the headline: No, I don’t think that this lawsuit will be the end of Facebook. However, I do feel very strongly about the need for better transparency about how our data is used and believe it can lead to a loss of trust that could seriously threaten companies like Facebook. To me, it feels like Facebook (as well as many other companies including Google, Yahoo! etc.) are trying to hide the data mining and analytics activities in their very long Terms and Conditions, to which most people sign up but rarely fully read or understand. Maybe a simple opt out with an alternative “paid for” service would be a good option.

What do you think? What is your view on Facebook exploiting your private data? Would you consider a “paid for” service if your privacy was guaranteed? Please share your views.

http://www.simonateba.com/2014/01/facebook-hit-with-lawsuit-could.html?spref=fb

UP AND DOWN

VARIOUS MARKETING STRATEGIES YOU NEED TO FAMILIARIZE YOURSELVES WITH 2014.

‪#‎Effective‬ Marketing Indicators

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1. You see a Gorgeous Girl at a party.You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” - That’s Direct Marketing.

2. You are at a party with a bunch of friends and see a Gorgeous Girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: “He’s very rich.Marry him!” – That’s Advertising.

3. You are at a party and see a Gorgeous Girl. She walks up to you and says: “You are very rich! Can I marry you?”
- That’s Brand Recognition.

4. You see a Gorgeous Girl at a party. You go to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. - That’s Customer Feedback.

5. You see a Gorgeous Girl at a party. You go to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” And she introduces you to her husband.- That’s Demand and Supply Gap

6. You see a Gorgeous Girl at a party. You go to her and before you say: “I m rich, Marry me!”, your wife arrives. – That’s Restriction for Entering New Markets.

Have a wonderful day.