₦airaland Forum

At least four people have been killed in a Tuesday
attack by Boko Haram insurgents in a community
near Nigeria's Chibok town where over 200
schoolgirls were abducted two years ago, local
security personnel have said.
A group of Boko Haram encircled Kautuva village,
south of Maiduguri, Borno's provincial capital and
center of the nearly six-year insurgency, Samaila
Musa, a security volunteer in Chibok told Anadolu
Agency.
"Boko Haram surrounded Kautava shortly after
the Muslim early morning prayers. They set fire to
people's houses and started shooting the villagers
as they were fleeing. Four residents were shot
dead by Boko Haram and thereafter [they
kidnapped] three women," he said by phone.
He said survivors who fled to neighboring towns
raised the alarm.
There was no immediate reaction from the
military. Army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman,
did not respond to requests by Anadolu Agency
for confirmation.
Nigeria’s military has claimed a recent
clampdown on the insurgents' main stronghold
has weakened the activities of Boko Haram but
this latest alleged attack appears to cast doubts
on the claims.

In a move to demonstrate that they are still a
potent force, Boko Haram jihadists have attacked
a village near Chibok, killed at least four villagers
and kidnapped three women.
The attack was staged at dawn on Tuesday.
Chibok was where the group snatched more than
200 girls two years ago, residents and survivors
said.
Boko Haram fighters attacked the Kautuva village
at dawn, set houses ablaze and fired on residents,
according to villagers and a member of a vigilante
group working with the army.
“Some of us were lucky to survive and ran to
Chibok,” said a man who gave his name as Ali
Pagu. Another resident said the jihadists had
kidnapped three women.
Kautuva lies near Chibok, a town from where Boko
Haram seized 276 girls from a school in April
2014, part of a seven-year-old insurgency to set
up an Islamic state in the north. It has left some
15,000 people dead and more than 2 million
displaced.
In May, authorities said a first of the missing
Chibok girls had been found, and President
Muhammadu Buhari vowed to rescue the rest of
them.
Dozens of the girls escaped in the initial melee in
2014 but more than 200 remained missing.
Parents accused former president Goodluck
Jonathan, Nigeria’s leader at the time of the
kidnappings, of not doing enough to track down
the girls and bring them home.
Boko Haram, which last year pledged loyalty to
the radical group Islamic State, has kidnapped
hundreds of men, women and children in their
campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate.
Under Buhari’s command and aided by Nigeria’s
neighbors, the army has recaptured most
territory once lost to Boko Haram, but the group
still regularly stages suicide bombings.

Former Head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has joined the league of Nigerians that have called on the federal government to enter into dialogue with all aggrieved groups in the country, particularly the Niger Delta Avengers and the pro-Biafra groups. He also said that the talks between the federal government and representatives of the radical Muslim group, Boko Haram, should be reopened. Abdulsalami made the call in Minna on Tuesday when he received in audience the speaker of the Niger state House of Assembly and other legislators that called to congratulate him on his 74th birthday. The former Nigerian military ruler turned 74 on Monday June 13. According to him, ‘Lasting peace can return to the country with round table discussions and dialogue by government with various insurgency groups including the Niger Delta Avengers militants.’
MORE DETAILS LATER

TippyTop:
Kudos to Anikio Briggs for setting the records straight.
I've been to NDA website to read their mission statement, I agree with every word.
The tactics of NDA may be unconventional, but we don’t live in a conventional country.

“I hereby direct the suspension of the on-going
retrenchment pending the outcome of the
conciliatory meetings in the industry.”

“We will go a step further if they continue. We
know what to do. After all, the banks have the
licences given by the government. We know what
to do. They need to comply.”

I mean, the government directing banks not to
sack? Threatening to revoke their licenses? Are we
not supposed to be a democratic country? The
banks are downsizing because the economy is
tanking. The way I see it, the only way the
Federal Government can ‘direct’ private firms not
to downsize is by fixing the economy!
Those of us who have long memories will
remember Mr. Ngige as a mild mannered once-
upon-a-time political godson of Chris Uba, once a
political titan in Anambra state. Mr. Ngige is
famously remembered for sheepishly going to
Okija shrine with his Bible at the behest of Uba to
declare allegiance to his godfather.
We remember him as the anodyne governor of
Anambra who (per his own admission) was locked
up in a toilet because he was considered a
naughty boy by his benefactor and would have
remained there were it not for the intervention of
Nigeria’s then Vice President who ordered the
then Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, to
rescue the kidnapped governor from his forced
potty training!
Now, a man who allowed himself to be consigned
to a toilet is now brave enough to threaten others
because his new godfather does the same.
At this juncture, permit me to give a crash course
in history for those who do not know the genesis
of the current crisis in the banking sector.
The previous administration, led by Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan, had come up with the idea of a
Treasury Single Account (TSA). The idea was to
have a single account for the government (with a
few exceptions) as a way of minimising the
possibilities for fraud and to have a real time view
of how much the government has in its kitty.
Because of the delicate nature of the banking
sector (any banking sector, not just the Nigerian
banking sector), it was planned that the policy
would be implemented in phases so that the
sector does not experience a shock.
But while it was still implementing the policy, that
administration’s mandate ended and was not
renewed and the succeeding administration led
by President Muhammadu Buhari, in its own
wisdom, decided to pull out ₦3 trillion (about $18
billion) from the Nigerian commercial banking
sector in less than a year.
The sudden loss of such huge funds threw the
Nigerian financial sector (not just the banking
industry) into a tailspin and the industry has not
yet recovered and it is doubtful if it will recover
anytime soon.
Even in humans, it is not wise to suddenly
withdraw a drug addict from his dependent drug
in a ‘cold turkey’ manner. Such an act is inimical
and could hurt the addict much more than it
helps him and would cause withdrawal
syndromes that may even lead to death, which is
why drug rehabilitation centres recommend
gradual withdrawal if the rehabilitation process is
to be successful.
What the Nigerian banking sector is going
through is similar to sudden drug withdrawal and
it needed to have been rehabilitated, not
threatened.
If you doubt me, Google the most common signs
of drug withdrawal. The first sign Google will likely
bring up for you is ‘shakiness’. Another sign is
‘depression’. A third sign is ‘fatigue’.
Each of these three signs apply to Nigeria’s
banking sector. It is very ‘shaky’ at the moment.
Banking stocks are ‘depressed’ and there is a lot
of ‘fatigue’ in the industry because funds are not
as available as they used to be and shareholders
are breathing down the neck of management to
cut waste.
The Federal Government cannot pull out ₦3 trillion
from commercial banks to the Central Bank of
Nigeria in the name of TSA, then get the CBN to
employ the children of the party faithful and start
shedding crocodile tears because banks are
downsizing. What did they expect?
And the thing is that the Buhari administration’s
response to this incidence is upside down and
bereft of any well thought out logic.
Mr. Ngige does not want banks to sack employees
and so he threatens to revoke their licenses
should they do so. What is the most likely
consequence if that happens? Wouldn’t that
action lead to even more mass sacking?
Now suppose you have a bank with a staff
strength of 20,000 people and supposing that
because of the down turn of the economy it
decides to downsize by about 200 staff in order to
remain profitable, now again, suppose that in
response the Federal Government revokes its
license. What would then be the fate of the
19,800 staff who are still in the bank’s employ?
Can they have a job if the bank’s license is
withdrawn?
So in order to save 200 jobs, the government’s
response is to threaten 19,800 jobs. How smart!
The funny thing is that in the same week that Mr.
Ngige issued his threats, it was revealed that the
same Federal Government in whose name he is
‘directing’ banks not to sack staff is itself
planning to downsize by disengaging officers and
men of the immigration and prisons services. Is
this not hypocrisy?
Why doesn’t Mr. Ngige ‘direct’ President Buhari
not to fire immigration/prison staff or face
withdrawal of his license?
President Buhari and his team would do well to
recognise that governance is not only about
demonstrating power and issuing threats as a
strongman. An axe can cut a tree but it cannot
shave your hair!
Everyday, 18,000 new babies are born in Nigeria.
This figure is much more than the number that is
born in the whole of Western Europe in the same
period. We need to start thinking intelligently on
how to fix the economy so that our army of young
people can start businesses and employ
themselves.
That should be the priority of this administration.
If the Buhari led Federal Government does not fix
Nigeria’s economy, it will not matter how much
they threaten banks. Economies respond to
sound policy not to threats!
Where have nations that have threatened their
workforce gone? We only need to look at
Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Command and control
works only in a barrack not in boardrooms!
You cannot lock up ₦3 trillion in the vaults of the
Central Bank of Nigeria in the name of TSA and
wonder why your banking sector is collapsing.
Money was not designed to sit in bank vaults. It
should be invested!
The present Nigerian Federal Government and the
wicked servant in Jesus’ parable of the talents
have one thing in common: Both of them hid
their money in vaults instead of investing it!
Nigeria has NO Labour laws that could lead to the
license of any bank being revoked if they choose
to downsize their staff strength in response to
economic realities.
The employment contract between a bank and its
staff are governed by labour laws and where
there is a dispute they take such disputes to the
Industrial court. There are no provision in our laws
for the Ministry of Labour to intervene in a labour
dispute between a bank and its employee by
revocation of its license. By law, banks are
licensed or delicensed by the Central Bank of
Nigeria.
In this present case, the minister of Labour is
overreaching himself and it is the duty of the
opposition to call him out, especially when there
is an obvious failure to supervise on the part of his
boss.
His threat is WRONG. This is a purely economic
issue. The banks can no longer afford the same
workforce as they had when the economy was
booming. They are in business to make money.
They are not in business to be nice. Nice banks
finish last!
As long as they follow the terms of the letter of
employment contract they entered into with their
staff, the minister has no locus to intervene in a
contractual relationship between an employer
and employee.
If the government can order private firms not to
sack their workers, what is next? Will they also
order men not to divorce their wives? Where does
it end?
This game of shifting blame must end. The
minister’s comments are not in isolation. The
ruling All Progressive Congress has itself described
the mass sacking in the banking sector as a
conspiracy cooked up by the enemies of the
Buhari administration in order to discredit the
government!
I kid you not. This statement was made to the
media by the National Auditor of the party, Chief
George Moghalu!
Yes, it is a conspiracy. The enemies of the
government are the very government itself that
could not foresee the reasonable consequences of
its own actions. I guess it is also a conspiracy that
foreign airlines are leaving Nigeria. And oh, you
know the continuous decline in the fortunes of
the naira in the parallel and official markets? Well
that is also a conspiracy.
Perhaps the loss of the Peoples Democratic Party
in the 2015 election was also a conspiracy to
saddle the APC with an economy that is beyond
its capacity to manage. You never know!
The sooner this administration realises that it
must deal with things as they are and not as it
wishes they are, the better for Nigeria.
As I had previously said, 18,000 babies are born
everyday in Nigeria. This is coming at a time our
economy is contracting (by 0.36% last quarter).
Our government cannot afford another quarter of
negative growth. We must do everything in our
power to spur our economy.
One of the things we need to do is attract foreign
investors. And to do that we need to demonstrate
a consistent behaviour that proves to the world
that our government and its agencies will not
impede on the free market economy that the
private sector needs to thrive.
Dr. Ngige’s behaviour does not send this message
and though his official title is minister of Labour
and Productivity, his words are leading and are
likely to lead to more un-productivity for Nigeria’s
labour force. Seeing as our own government is
not helping the situation, we are left to say, may
God help us!

Ufranklin92:
Ikpeazu na real he goat

Ufranklin92:
Ikpeazu na real he goat

ABIA State government has kicked off a free primary schools lunch programme aimed at giving the pupils free meal daily in all public primary schools. The programme, according to the government, would help “meet the basic nutritional needs of children and expand the opportunity to reach their full potential and significantly enhance the academic performance of the children.” The programme is to feed a total number of 136, 258 pupils, who will consume 408, 774 fresh eggs, 51, 09, 670 grammes of ofada rice and 68, 120, 000 grammes of beans, weekly. Flagging off the first phase of the programme at Ntigha primary school in Isiala Ngwa North council, weekend, Governor Ikpeazu said the initiative was borne out of a genuine desire to invest in children who are the future leaders. He said that he understood what it meant to go to school on an empty stomach as well as the pains some parents went through to provide meals for their children, saying that under the scheme, every pupil in Abia was sure of at least one meal a day. Ikpeazu lamented tons of food that end up in the dust bin on daily basis by the affluent while some children go hungry due to lack and stressed the need to bridge the gap. He pledged to sustain the programme.

menstrualpad:
Keep opening monikers like doveda

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Monday in Uyo, said contractors had resumed work in not less than five major Federal Government road projects nationwide.
The minister disclosed this at the South-South region town hall meeting hosted by his ministry to give account of stewardship of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to the people.
Mohammed specifically said Julius Berger and RCC had returned to the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, while the CGC had started work on the Bode Sadu-Jebba Road and the Abuja-Lokoja Road.
He said China Company, CCECC, had also been mobilised to the Kano-Maiduguri Road, while RCC again had resumed work at the Loko and Oweto Bridge linking Nasarawa and Benue States.
The minister added that the second Niger Bridge was in the 2016 budget and work on the project would start soon.
He noted that with the resumption of work at the sites, government had started putting Nigerians back to work, in fulfillment of its promise to create jobs.
“As contractors are mobilised back to various road construction projects across the country, building and ancillary workers are returning to work in droves. Let me list some of the road construction works that have now resumed.
“As more and more road construction works resume in the days ahead, thousands of Nigerians will also be returning to work,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the minister as saying at the town hall meeting.
Mohammed said government had also commenced the process of recruiting and training 500,000 teachers, specifically targeting unemployed university graduates.
He said the online recruitment, through the portal ‘npower.gov.ng’, came on stream at the weekend.
He stated that an agreement had been signed to reposition the River Basin Development Authorities within the next 18-24 months.

menstrualpad:
Tell mynd44 to stop jubilating

Scholes007:
You talk like a child, a country is accused of killing people, putting them in 3 trucks and burying them in massive grave and you talk sh¡t. The same country is accused of killing and burying 300 of it's citizens in kaduna and you are taking like a kid.