Minister of Women Affairs, Jumai AlHassan has reacted to the abduction and
forceful marriage of 13 year old Ese Oruru by one Yinusa. Continue to see
more tweets...
Monday 29 February 2016
'Don't try to insult or bully me on social media, I will defend myself' - Caroline Danjuma
She shared this just a few minutes ago but has since taken it down...
Friday 19 February 2016
Wow! It is now N400 to $1
This is the exchange rate as of this night...This morning it is at N400 to $1. Credit: The Guardian.
Photos: Troops clear more Boko Haram enclaves, rescue 195 hostages
Press statement from the Nigerian Army
The Nigerian troops of 7 Division Garrison comprising 112 Battalion and Armed Forces Special Forces yesterday carried out a joint clearance patrol on suspected Boko Haram terrorists locations at Kwaptara, Mijigete, Garin Boka, Mosole, Ngubdori, Ma’asa, Dukje and Gulumba in Dikwa and Bama Local Government Areas of Borno State.
The troops discovered Boko Haram terrorists camp, patent medicine outfit and major market at Gulumba. Quite a number of Boko Haram terrorists were killed and several items were recovered. This includes 2 logistic trucks, 180 motorcycles, 750 bicycles and various perishable and non-perishable items such as a 100 KVA Mikano generator and grinding machine.
In addition, they also rescued 195 persons held hostage, recovered 300 cows, 200 sheep and 130 goats rustled by the insurgents. The troops also recovered military items such as camouflage uniforms as well as rifle magazines and grenades.
The unprecedented feat was achieved through the renewed cooperation and support of the public who provide timely information to the troops.
Consequently, we would like to thank all those good citizens who provide the timely information and enjoin all to see the fight against Boko Haram terrorists as a collective responsibility to enable us clear the remnants of the insurgents in the north east and other parts of the country.
Thank you for your kind cooperation.
Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman
Acting Director Army Public Relations.
Thank you for your kind cooperation.
Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman
Acting Director Army Public Relations.
Lagos light rail will be functional by December- Ambode
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday restated his administration’s commitment to ensure that the Blue Line of the Light Rail Project is up and running by December 2016.
Governor Ambode, who spoke at the 5th Lagos Corporate Assembly, a forum for public-private sector engagement held at the Banquet Hall of Lagos House, Ikeja, while responding to questions from captains of industries and members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS), debunked claims that work had stopped on the first phase of the project connecting Mile 2 to CMS, saying the allegation was totally untrue.
“The truth is, you might not see the contractors but they are actually working on the waters for now and by December this year, the project will start running. So, work is seriously ongoing,” Governor Ambode assured.
He said that government was also about concluding on the channelization of the waterways in Lagos to improve on water transportation so as to encourage investors and reduce the pressure on the road networks in the state.
He assured members of the OPS as well as would-be investors that the state is more than willing and ready to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive with the overall aim of improving on the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizens.
The Governor said as a government, he was ready to partner with existing and would-be investors for industrial growth so far such investors are bringing value to the state.
While responding to issues raised by captains of industry and members of the organized private sector at the forum tagged “A+ Meets Business”, Governor Ambode said as part of measures aimed at encouraging investment, his administration created the N25 billion Employment Trust Fund to give soft loans to entrepreneurs just at three percent, while the Office of Overseas Affairs and Investments otherwise known as Lagos Global, the Office of Civic Engagement, as well as the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment Generation were equally established, all in a bid to promote investment opportunities.
He said as part of measures to further improve on the creation of enabling environment for businesses to thrive, his administration was also in the process of establishing Lagos Micro Finance Bank, which would go a long way in providing succor for business owners.
He said:
“As we speak, we are in talks with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on this and very soon we shall come up with the Lagos Micro Finance Bank and this is another effort geared towards the economic wellbeing of our people.”
Governor Ambode said that the government was also in the process of transforming the Kuramo beach into a World Trade Convention Centre, assuring that he was very much committed to showcasing the economic potentials of the state to the rest of the world.
Speaking on the strategy to drastically reduce traffic in Apapa and make life comfortable for people and businesses in the axis, Governor Ambode recalled the security tour he recently embarked upon to Ishawo and Oke-Oko creek in the suburb of Ikorodu where he met with military personnel carrying out the “Operation Awatse”, a joint military operation of all the security agencies to tackle the menace of pipeline vandalism in the Arepo axis.
“The idea is that when we open up the area and construct the Ishawo-Oke-Oko creek road to connect the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from there, we would have greatly reduced the traffic gridlock on the expressway and then finally put a stop to the activities of pipeline vandals so that we can begin to directly pump petroleum products from Atlas Cove in Apapa to Mosimi, and then the tankers will have no business to come to Lagos to lift product,” Governor Ambode said.
The Governor, who spoke on several issues affecting businesses in the state, assured that he would work on perfecting a methodology for collection of rates, and that he would soon come up with a grand plan to permanently tackle the menace of touts.
On power, Governor Ambode said between now and 2017, he had an agenda to create clusters of Independent Power Projects (IPPs) across the state to improve on power generation and ensure 24hours power supply in Lagos.
Earlier, Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye, said the forum was a vehicle for government and private sector to interact and discuss issues that are germane to the industrial growth of the state.
He assured the private sector that the Ambode-led government was poised to assist the industrial sector to maximize its potentials for greater contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state.
In her presentation, President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Mrs. Nike Akande commended Governor Ambode for programmes aimed at securing lives and property and encouraging economic growth, but urged the Governor to expedite action on the issuance of land titles, and also prevail on the Federal Government to fix the rail system in Apapa and relocate Tank Farms in the axis.
Also, Chairman of Apapa Branch of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Folaranmi Odunayo commended Governor Ambode on the Light Up Lagos initiative, and sought the inclusion of industrial areas in the project.
He also advocated collaboration between the Federal Government, Lagos and Ogun States in addressing the traffic gridlock and establishment of Building Code to control erection of structures especially along the expressway.
There were also presentations from the National Association of Small Scale Industries, DFID, representatives of Dangote Refineries, Nigeria-America Chamber of Commerce, Franco-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, African Women Entrepreneurship Programme, among others.
SIGNED
HABIB ARUNA
CHIEF PRESS SECRETARY
SIGNED
HABIB ARUNA
CHIEF PRESS SECRETARY
The Made in Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati
Championed by Senator Ben Murray Bruce, and supported by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar and a large crowd of online campaigners, so much ink, saliva, and emotions have been invested in this old, and perhaps boring story.
Senator Bruce, who goes by the moniker “the Commonsense Senator” even introduced a hashtag #BuyNaijaToGrowtheNaira. He hasn’t quite explained the connection, but with the exchange rate melting down and the Naira yo-yoing, everyone including our neighbourhood electrician, and his friend, the battery charger, have both become experts on the fortunes of the national currency.
Senator Saraki has promised that the Public Procurement Act will be amended by the 8th National Assembly to make it mandatory for the government to patronize locally made goods. Minister Aisha Abubakar has proposed a “Patronise Naija Products Campaign.”
It all sounds so familiar but what has triggered this latest effusion of patriotism was a Made in Aba Trade Fair in Abuja, where locally made products including shoes were displayed and purchased by the snobby class now acting as great promoters of Nigerian identity and entrepreneurship. Senator Bruce and the National Assembly have also purchased made in Nigeria vehicles from Innoson
Motors, a local vehicle manufacturing company. The interest that this has generated is good publicity for Innoson Motors, and it will probably provide good justification for the National assembly purchasing more vehicles. It is also an excellent advertisement for local entrepreneurship. There was a time in this country when the phrase Aba-made was meant to be denigrating, but today, corporate suits and other items made in Aba have made it to the status of a Trade Fair.
We must be reminded nonetheless, that this buy Nigeria campaign, or proudly Nigerian, as it was once called, has been promoted in one form or the other for more than 30 years. At a time, Federal Ministers chose to wear Ankara fabrics, which is supposed to be locally made, and at another time, the Federal Government only patronized Peugeot Motors, which then had a thriving car manufacturing company in Kaduna. Virtually every government has tried to promote Nigerian goods.
And there is certainly no doubt that there is a lot of entrepreneurial talent out there in Nigeria, a gift for innovation and a capacity to aspire.
Given the right, enabling environment, Nigerians are willing to help government promote the objectives of diversification, backward integration, and non-oil exports which are at the root of all this talk about made in Nigeria. The YouWin exhibitions held between 2014 and 2015, showed great potential, especially in the agriculture and food sector, and the need for government to encourage entrepreneurship and manufacturing. But lessons were also learnt, and it is the same lessons that should guide the current patriotic excitement over locally made goods.
In the end, Senator Bruce, patriotism is not enough, lest it turns us all as someone warned into “scoundrels”, seeking economic restoration without the right strategy and attitude.
The first lesson is that we need to truly encourage the transformation of Nigeria into a primary, productive market, and not a secondary market for the dumping of goods. We may be celebrating the fact that some Nigerians are making the effort to produce goods locally, but really how much of that local production is local? I can bet that the leather that is used for the shoes we are being encouraged to buy is not produced in Nigeria. Our local entrepreneurs import leather, manage to produce something labeled Nigerian, when in fact the entire value chain could have been truly local? Innoson Motors is well known in government circles, but have we measured how much of those Innoson vehicles is actually local? 30%?
Before Innoson, we had Omatek and Zinnox computers, advertised as made in Nigeria goods. But where in this country do we have young technicians producing computer chips and other components? We need to take a second look at the concept: made in Nigeria, and be sure that we are actually talking about the same thing. What is the answer? I think government must in the long run insist that those who seek to sell in the Nigerian market, must set up their factories here, and produce for the Nigerian market inside Nigeria. We have all the raw materials that may be needed, and we have the market, the biggest in Africa.
People come here, take our raw materials to other factories in other parts of the world, send back the products and then make profit iat our expense. We end up creating jobs in other parts of the world, and receive finish products that could have been produced here. No. If Toyota and Nissan want to sell cars in Nigeria, then they must produce the cars inside Nigeria and source their materials and labour majorly from here, and brand the vehicles Made in Nigeria and export them to other parts of the world. In recent years, there was such discussion with Hyundai and Volkswagen. Minister Aisha Abubakar should look at the records. Innoson can then compete with Toyota Nigeria, Nissan Nigeria, Hyundai Nigeria and Volkswagen Nigeria. The same argument goes for every other product in need of direct investment. The point is not about being local; it is about developing the capacity to turn Nigeria into a world-class production and economic centre.
The second lesson has to do with quality and standards. The recent debate has been about indigenous patronage as a test of patriotism. I don’t think that is the right focus. People like quality. In a capitalist system, they will make their own decisions and choices with the capital at their disposal. And we shouldn’t be talking as if Nigerians should produce made in Nigeria goods to be consumed only by Nigerians, whether good or bad. The vision, consistent with the ambition of the authors of the country’s various development plans, is to produce world-class products inside Nigeria. What we have seen is that locally made goods often fall short of international standards. They lack the competitive edge.
It is good to buy Aba-made, but our ladies who are used to Hermes and Louis Vuitton are not likely to trade their designer bags for Nnamdi bags, except the latter can compete and become a global brand. It has been reported that many Nigerian goods sent for export are often rejected overseas, for such simple reasons as packaging or basic standards. No amount of patriotism can by-pass that. We have a Standards Organisation of Nigeria and an Export Promotion Council: what is the synergy between them and the various SMEs striving to break into the export market?
The third lesson is that government must just make up its mind about this whole thing about the diversification of the Nigerian economy. It is not the responsibility of one government or administration; it is a process that should move Nigeria from being a democracy observing electoral commission rituals, into a developmental state. We were almost there under the military quite ironically, but then the military also lost it due to bad attitudes.
Once upon a time in this country, there was regular electricity, manufacturing companies, both local and foreign thrived, salaries and pensions were paid as at when due, potable water was available, the leaders sounded as if the Nigerian people and their welfare were important and there was a suffocating vision of Nigeria being the “giant of Africa”.
When students graduated from universities, teacher training colleges, and nursing schools, they were sure of immediate employment, which brought them life-long fulfilment. Brilliant students got special scholarships; every student got a bursary, our schools attracted students and teachers from every part of the world. And now, here we are wondering why? What happened? This collapse of the Nigerian standard is the worst thing to have ever happened. Younger ones may not even believe that indeed Chinua Achebe was right when he wrote that “there was once a country.”
The challenge can start with re-discovering that lost country and moving forward from that point. I mentioned services in addition to goods earlier. And I ask: how many Nigerians are satisfied with Nigerian services? Many families won’t even employ a Nigerian nanny or driver. They would rather look for people from Asia and West Africa. Builders won’t recruit Nigerian masons: they ‘d rather use artisans from Ghana or Togo. When foreign companies set up businesses in Nigeria, they bring staff from their own country, and violate the expatriate quota in collusion with our own people; they even import cement and other equipment from elsewhere and our officials look the other way. We don’t even respect ourselves as a nation. But we love slogans.
So, the matter is not as simple as just buying Nigerian goods. It is not about trending hashtags, slogans or propaganda, but a decision to move this country beyond the on-going knee-jerk, desperate elite war of position within the political spectrum, and see what can work for the people’s benefit. We want to buy made in Nigeria goods, and yet every start up business in this country is facing serious challenges; the more established manufacturing outfits are groaning. Every election season, the private sector pretends to support the political process, but once its chieftains are not allowed access, control or influence, they become closet saboteurs. I consider that to be a subject in the heart of the future.
What needs to be done is before our very eyes, but its starting point must include the education system. Very few parents these days still buy the services provided by Nigerian schools, the private ones that receive better patronage train the children to end up in foreign schools including schools in Ghana and Benin Republic. Nobody is training quality artisans either, because all the Government Technical Colleges of old have been shut down and many of our young men are more interested in kidnapping and riding okada. So, where are the critical young men and women and institutions to drive the renewal we seek? The matter is so complex; it is the reason I don’t envy anyone who is President of Nigeria.
Zimbabwe politicians argue over crocodiles, underwear theft
Crocodiles, Lacoste shirts, DNA tests and accusations of stealing underwear and radios.
Sniping around these topics highlights the intensifying battles in Zimbabwe's faction-ridden ruling party over who will succeed President Robert Mugabe, in power for 36 years.
Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state, recently warned officials of his ZANU-PF party to stop insulting each other.
A lot of the bitter quarrels, which come ahead of Mugabe's 92nd birthday on Feb. 21, happen on Twitter and other social media platforms, providing Zimbabweans with a stream of nasty, colorful and sometimes entertaining quips that would have been unthinkable not long ago.
None of Mugabe's current close allies has challenged his rule, which began with independence from white rule in 1980 and has been marked by economic hardship and contentious relations with the West. The disputes within the ruling party are the result of Mugabe's failure to groom an obvious successor, said Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer and chairman of the South Africa-based Zimbabwe Exiles Forum.
"It has become so heated because Mugabe has deliberately kept the lid on the discussion," Shumba said.
On Thursday, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of military veterans who were demonstrating in Harare, the capital. The veterans were upset with what they described as criticism by Grace Mugabe, Mugabe's wife and a prominent member of a political faction.
In a new challenge to Mugabe, his former vice president, Joice Mujuru, this month registered a rival political party and plans to run for president in elections scheduled for 2018.
Mujuru was fired from her position in December 2014 after 10 years as Mugabe's deputy for allegedly plotting to unseat the veteran ruler, accusations she denied. The 60-year-old then formed her own movement called Zimbabwe People First.
A key figure in succession talk is Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also justice minister and a veteran associate of Mugabe dating to the guerrilla war against minority rule in what was then Rhodesia. He is widely known in Zimbabwe as "the Crocodile" because he was a member of a guerrilla group with that name. His supporters have begun identifying themselves as Team Lacoste, because the French designer label has a crocodile logo.
Then there is "G40," short for Generation 40, a group that is associated with Grace Mugabe, who has raised her political profile. Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo coined the "G40" term, which refers to young ruling party members vying for leadership opportunities.
Grace Mugabe tore into Mnangagwa's faction last week.
"I don't lose sleep over being labelled G40," said the first lady in the local Shona language at a rural rally on Friday. She criticized party youths wearing Lacoste labels and said political rivals were out to kill her family.
A recent back-and-forth string of thieving allegations between Moyo and Chris Mutsvangwa, the minister of war veterans who is close to Mnangagwa, has grabbed the attention of many Zimbabweans.
Moyo accused Mutsvangwa of stealing female combatants' underwear for resale from the drying lines at training camps in neighboring Mozambique during the 1970s war against white rule. On Twitter, Moyo has described Mutsvangwa as "a petticoat thief" and "a male thief of female undies now playing Rambo in newspapers about the liberation struggle."
Mutsvangwa denied the allegations and fought back by accusing Moyo of stealing radios from a benefactor during the war and of eventually deserting the 1970s struggle because of a factional dispute. Mutsvangwa also described Moyo as a "Rasputin" figure — an apparent reference to his links to Grace Mugabe — and has said Moyo should take a DNA test to prove he does not come from a bloodline hostile to Mugabe.
Grigori Rasputin was a faith healer alleged to have been close to Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Russian Czar Nicholas II. He was loathed by some of that period's Russian officials.
Buhari Appoints Ooni as UNN Chancellor
President Buhari has appointed the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja ll, as the Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The Ooni's appointment was announced by the Director of Media, Ooni’s Palace, Moses Olafare, yesterday February 18th. “This appointment would develop further and enable the monarch to build more bridges of friendship most especially across the Niger,” the statement read The Ooni would assume office as the institution's Chancellor on February 20th.
