300 houses affected by Kaduna tremors – NEMA

September 15, 2016Agency Report

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Thursday that over 300 houses were affected by the earth tremor that hit Kwoi in Kaduna State last week.

The agency’s Zonal Coordinator in the North West, Musa Illalah, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
Mr. Ilalah, however, said no life was lost in the incident, but that the affected houses either collapsed or got cracked.

“We have gone round and have seen the houses that were affected.
“The assessment is still ongoing; we are waiting for the geologists to tell us the root of the problem and what will be the next plan of action for the occupants of these communities,’’ Mr. Ilalah said.
He called on the residents to remain calm, saying that measures were already being taken by the Federal and State Governments to provide succour to the affected persons.

“We in NEMA will do our best; we are going to write our report and send it to the headquarters, Abuja.
“We all know that the rock is the root of the problem but only the geological services will be able to tell us the cause of the tremor,’’ he said.

Multiple earth tremors were recorded in three locations in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State over the weekend.
The remors that occurred on Sunday and early hours of Monday at Kwoi, Nok and Samban Dagi also left scores of structures with cracks or total collapse.

PDP trying to sabotage Buhari’s govt – Minister

September 15, 2016Agency Report

The Federal Government says the call by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign is “irritant and attempt to distract the government from its rescue mission’’.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who said this in a statement issued on Thursday, said that the government would not be deterred by such calls.

“We are on a rescue mission to resuscitate Nigeria after the PDP left it in a coma, and the noise from the same PDP seems designed to sabotage the rescue efforts. But we are not deterred.
“While the PDP was emasculating Nigeria on all fronts, including social, economic and political, the rapacious party was deceiving Nigerians by giving them the illusion of growth and prosperity.
“Instead of showing remorse and rebuilding itself to a strong opposition party, the PDP has continued to blame the successor Buhari administration which is left to pack their mess.
“PDP undertakers have continued to engage in a blame game, when they should be hiding from the shame they brought upon themselves and the nation,” he said.

Mr. Mohammed said the government could not stop talking about the past maladministration of the PDP because of its dire effects on the economy and the need to prevent reoccurrence.
“The candid truth is that we failed under the successive PDP administrations to save for the rainy day, and we need to constantly remind ourselves of that so that we won’t repeat the mistake,’’ he said.

The minister said the government was still trying to recover huge sums looted from the national treasury under the PDP’s watch, with 15 billion dollars stolen from the defence sector alone.
He said because of the way funds (about 322m dollar) returned from Switzerland were mishandled, the government had to accept certain conditions before the stolen fund could be remitted.

Mr. Mohammed faulted the claim by the PDP that it reduced the nation’s national debt.
“At the time that we were earning such large revenues from oil, we only managed to double our external debt from 5.6 billion dollar to 10.7 billion dollar between 2011 and 2015.

“The case of domestic debt was even worse, almost tripling from N888 billion to N2.1 trillion in the
same period.
“Even these figures mask the extent of unpaid obligations to contractors and the huge plethora of uncompleted projects on which money continued to be spent without visible results.
“Payments to contractors stopped several years ago while not a single dollar was contributed to the Joint Venture activities.

“Over N4.5 trillion was spent on fuel subsidy in just two years under the PDP,” he said.
The Minister said the government would continue to welcome constructive criticism from well meaning Nigerians.

UN to establish 2 aviation security training institutes in Nigeria

September 15, 2016Agency Report

The United Nations has decided to establish two Aviation Security Training Schools in Nigeria to help  boost safety and security in the country’s aviation sector.

The  United Nations-appointed Project Manager for the schools, Douglas Melvin,  made the disclosure when he visited the Minister of State for  Aviation, Hadi Sirika, in Abuja.

Mr. Melvin said the main objective of the project was to support the nation’s overall counter-terrorism strategy by providing a key element of a robust national aviation security policy.
A statement released by James Odaudu, Deputy Director, Press & Public Affairs, Ministry of Transportation,  quoted Mr. Melvin as saying that this would help to mitigate the threat posed to civil aviation by terrorist groups.

Mr. Melvin said the initiative would also enhance the capacity within the UN system to help interested member states  implement the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in an integrated manner.
Mr. Melvin said the choice of Nigeria out of 25 countries considered was in appreciation of its clear roadmap in developing the aviation sector, with particular emphasis on safety and security.
“The country stands to reap more benefits than the training of its aviation security personnel by the best available security experts,” Mr. Melvin was quoted as saying.

He said other benefits include the provision of, and exposure to hi-tech Aviation Security equipment and the generation of revenue from training of aviation security personnel from other countries.

The UN representative also informed the minister that the forthcoming UN General Assembly was billed to make a proclamation on aviation security with specific reference to Nigeria.
He said the step underscored the importance attached to the project as a flagship and high profile one which the country was privileged to be a beneficiary.

Responding, Mr. Sirika commended the UN for recognising and identifying with the government’s vision and efforts to establish and nurture a safe and secure world class aviation industry.
He assured him of the government’s readiness to provide all that was needed for the effective take-off and operation of the two institutes to be located in Abuja and Lagos.
He also described the choice of Nigeria for the institutes as a massive boost to the nation’s desire to become a regional aviation hub.

“The project is to be fully funded by the UN and delivered by the UK Department of Transportation.
“Nigeria is expected to participate in the provision of training premises and supply of low-cost aviation training equipment, among others,’’ he said.

Don’t concession Nigeria’s major airports, Aviation workers tell government

September 16, 2016Agency Report

The National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, has urged the Federal Government to immediately halt its plan to concession the four major airports in the country.
The union made this known in an eight-point communiqué issued at its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting held in Ilorin, Kwara.

A copy of the communiqué, which was signed by NUATE’s General Secretary, Olayinka Abioye, was made available to journalists in Lagos on Thursday.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had on September 6, told journalists that there was no going back on the concession of the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt Airports.
Mr. Sirika had argued that the move would ensure that the airports were properly managed, while the government would still retain their ownership.

Mr. Abioye’s communiqué faulted the plan to concession the four airports which it described as the cash-cow out of the 22 airports owned by the Federal Government.
“The NEC in-session therefore calls for immediate stoppage of the concession of Nigerian airports to avoid industrial crisis that may arise as the government has failed to carry along stakeholders on this germane matter,” he said.

He urged the aviation agencies, including the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), to improve the welfare of their workers.

Mr. Abioye also advised government to appoint a substantive managing director for NAMA and restructure its directorates in consonance with the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
On the state of the economy, the communiqué advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to take more concrete steps toward alleviating poverty across the nation.

“The NEC in-session sympathises with the government over the continued slide to recession of the nation’s economy but encourages it to remain focused in its quest for nation building.
“This can be achieved by engaging more in social dialogue with critical stakeholders in the country and setting the machinery in motion to deploy experts into freeing our economy from the jaws of economic recession,” he added.

Court strikes out suit challenging Buhari’s appointment of Hameed Ali as Customs boss

Comptoller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Hamid Ali, addressing the agency's personnel

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has struck out a suit a challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Hameed Ali as the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service.
Justice Sale Hassan said the court lacked jurisdiction on the matter.

The case was filed, in November 2015, by a human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa. Mr. Adegoruwa challenged the appointment of Mr. Ali, a retired Colonel, as Customs chief saying Nigerian laws were violated in the process.
Details later….

Nigeria’s President Buhari in fresh plagiarism scandal of Obama’s speech

President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘Change Begins with Me’ campaign suffered a setback Friday following a newspaper report that the president allegedly plagiarised President Barack Obama in the speech he delivered while launching the project. The government says the campaign will help curb “widespread act of immorality” by Nigerians. The report, which detailed how Mr. Buhari allegedly lifted quotes from a 2008 speech by Mr. Obama, came on the heels of another damaging allegation that the ‘Change Begins With Me’ campaign contained elements belonging to another anti-corruption effort, ‘Not in My Country’. Mr. Buhari on September 8 launched the ‘reorientation’ campaign in Abuja as part of his government’s strategy to make Nigerians eschew “dishonesty, indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity” and embrace daily introspection over their “immoral” conducts. He also used the occasion to sue for national consensus amongst Nigerians on issues ranging from spirit of service to patriotism. “We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice, Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another. “What the current problem has taught us is that we cannot have a thriving army of rent seekers and vested interests, while the majority suffers,” Mr. Buhari said. But facts have emerged indicating Mr. Buhari did not author those quotes. Adeola Akinremi, a columnist with Lagos-based THISDAY Newspaper, was the first to spot possible instances of plagiarism between Mr. Buhari’s speech and a speech delivered by Mr. Obama when he was first elected in 2008. In a speech delivered after his victory on November 4, 2008, Mr. Obama said to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters: “Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. “So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other. “Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.” After highlighting the seeming plagiarism, Mr. Akinremi said the act was “unethical” and lampooned Mr. Buhari for allegedly indulging in it. “It is immoral to plagiarize other people’s work, but even worse to use dishonesty to launch a campaign about honesty. “When you use another person’s work without acknowledgement, you have plagiarized. You simply pretend as if it is your own. It is unethical. It makes a mess of the campaign from the start. That is what Buhari has done, nobody will believe in the ‘change begins with me’ campaign, because it was built on lies,” Mr. Akinremi said. When contacted Friday morning, presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said he was just becoming aware of the allegation and that the presidency would investigate. Mr. Akinremi’s column was published a week after associates of Akin Fadeyi, creator of ‘Not In My Country’ accused the Buhari administration of stealing his concept to launch ‘Change Begins with Me.’ The associates said Mr. Fadeyi, a creative artist and former head of communications at Airtel Nigeria, met with the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in December 2015 to intimate him of ‘Not In My Country,’ an episodic narrative that deploys humour to underscore societal ills and appeal to Nigerians to shun sharp practices. They said Mr. Mohammed declined interest in the concept, only to turn around to adapt it for ‘Change Begins with Me’ campaign. But Mr. Mohammed denied the allegations, saying he started ‘Change Begins with Me’ before he was appointed minister. “We started working on ‘Change Begins with Me’ before the honourable minister was nominated and we’ve been working with the agency that produced the campaign,” Mr. Mohammed’s associate said. The ‘Change Begins with Me’ campaign had earned Mr. Buhari widespread criticism, with many Nigerians accusing him of shifting blames to them and wondering why they gave him their mandate if he would ultimately saddle them with the duty of effecting the change he promised. But the government said the campaign became necessary to rally all Nigerians in the effort to cleanse the country of corruption and other malaise plaguing it.

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2 Boko Haram bombers in failed mission

File: a Boko Haram bomber

Two teenage girls wearing explosives died on Monday in Northern Cameroon after being stopped at a checkpoint, an official said.

The girls, aged 13 and 15, were headed for crowded areas in Mora when they refused to allow themselves to be controlled at a checkpoint, according to regional governor Midjiyawa Bakary.

Vigilance groups manning the checkpoint shot the 13-year old dead, while the 15-year old blew herself up.
The girls, who had crossed into Cameroon from Nigeria, were believed to have been sent as suicide bombers by the Boko Haram.

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Sultan gives NYSC members free lunch

Sultan Abubakar

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Monday hosted 1, 604 National Youths Service Corps ( NYSC) members to a `royal’ lunch, to welcome them to Sokoto State.

The event, which was held at the palace of the Sultan, was graced by all members of the Sultanate Council.
The Sultan told the Batch ” A” corps members currently in camp in Sokoto, that they must utilise their stay in the state to broaden their knowledge of Nigeria and its people.

He said that the scheme would continue to remain a veritable tool of national unity and cohesion.
Abubakar advised the 1, 604 corps members to utilise the opportunity to develop life-long relationships and leave a legacy of hard work, selfless service and sacrifice during their stay.

The monarch, who described the NYSC scheme as “indispensable and crucial” to Nigeria’s unity, ordered District Heads in the state to take good care of corps members posted to their areas.
The Sultan assured the corps members that his Palace would remain open to them at all times.
”Sokoto state remains the most peaceful in the country.

“Just as I am admonishing you to respect the cultures and religion of your host communities, I am also urging you to imbibe the habit of self reliance, so as to be employers of labour instead of relying in white collar jobs.”

The State NYSC Coordinator, Mr Thomas Yamma appreciated the Sultan’s gesture, saying it was worthy of emulation by all.
He told the Sultan that eighty per cent of the corps members will be posted to schools, to support the state government’s efforts to reposition the education sector.(

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Joshua Dariye jumps bail, wanted in UK

Dariye: fugitive in United Kingdom

Like James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, Joshua Dariye, former governor of Plateau state faces a spell of years in United Kingdom  jail over money laundering charges, if he ever steps into the country.
Like Ibori, his accomplice, a woman had been jailed three and half years.Britain is waiting for him to get his own share of the sanctions.

Peter Clark, a retired detective constable with the UK Metropolitan Police, on May 9, 2016, told a Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, sitting in Gudu, Abuja, that Dariye, is still wanted in the United Kingdom for money laundering.

Dariye, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 23-count charge bordering on money laundering and diversion of funds before Justice Adebukola Banjoko, is alleged to have siphoned the state’s ecological fund to the tune of N1.162 billion.
Clark gave a blow-by-blow account of how £11,560 cash found on Christopher Mekwunye, an aide of Dariye, who is allegedly involved in a credit card fraud, was traced to the former governor, making him a suspect of money laundering.

Led in evidence by prosecuting witness, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), Clark told the court that Mekwunye had under interrogation confessed that the money was given to him to deposit on behalf of Dariye into his Barclays Bank account.

He said: “In 2004, officers of the Met Police involved in investigating a large credit card fraud had, during search of a number of houses, found the cash on Christopher Mekwunye at 127 Chilton House, Portland Street, SW London.

“I asked him about Dariye and he told me that he was a politician and governor of Plateau State in Nigeria. I then left him with the other officers working on the credit card fraud and made several inquiries with the Barclays Bank, where they informed me that Dariye was a customer with the bank with an account that was operated in a suspicious way.”

Clark , who retired on March 9, 2015 after 28 years in service, thereafter, obtained a court order to enable him obtain more information about the said account.

He added: “After I got the court order, I was able to gain access to the accounts operated by Dariye. I received the bank statement, the personal customer profile, which is the information provided to the bank, while the account was operated by Dariye.
“He first operated the account in 1995 and he told the bank that he was employed as a manager for Benue Cement Company, and that he was on a £500,000 yearly salary.

“There were nine bank accounts operated by him. Some of them were dormant, but some were high interest- bearing accounts, which showed a £816,000 balance. Closer examination of the account showed that money was being transferred into the account from a company called Ebenezer Retnan Ventures (ERV) with about £440,000, and the bank sending in the money was All States Trust Bank in Nigeria.

“There were a number of other electronic transfers directly made by Joshua Dariye himself; and from memory, I remember Lion Bank. Mr. Dariye also operated a credit card and all the accounts were registered at one address: Flat 28, Regent Plaza Apartments, 8 Greville Road.”
He further told the court that investigations showed that one Joyce Oyebanjo was also paying into the account, issuing cheques from her bank account at National Westminster Bank.

According to him, “I discovered from the account that in October 2003, she received more than £1 million through electronic transfers from Nigerian companies. She was also responsible for paying money into Dean Close School in the UK for three of Dariye’s children.”
Clark further told the court that he thereafter requested for the assistance of the EFCC to help in unravelling evidence linked to ERV.

While giving further testimony, he said: “In July 2004, Joyce Oyebanjo was arrested; and in a prepared statement, she stated that all the monies that were sent to her from Nigeria came from Mr. Dariye and were being sent to her for the upkeep of his children and the maintenance of his property in the UK.
“In September, 2004, I received information that Dariye was  at Marriott Hotel, George Street and on the 2nd of September, around 8.20am, I went to Rm 1208 ,which was occupied by Dariye.

“I introduced myself and told him I’d been investigating his bank accounts and had suspicion that the money he had received in the account was stolen. As a result, I arrested and cautioned him on suspicion of money laundering. He made no reply to the caution.”

Clark revealed further that on searching his room, £43,000 cash was found and seized. Various denominations, including Euros, sterling, dollars and Scottish bank notes were found in the room and confiscated. Also a Mont Blanc pen worth £7,000 and Louis Vuitton branded shoes worth £700 a pair, were among properties found in his room.
Oyebanjo, according to Clark, already served a three-and-a-half jail term in the UK for involvement in the money laundering offence.

The photograph of the seized bank notes were presented in court and accepted as exhibits against Dariye.
Enquiry at the hotel counter, according to Clark, revealed that contrary to Dariye’s claim that he only booked one room, he actually booked another, which was occupied by one Chrystabel Bentu.
He said: “I asked him if he had travelled to London on his own, which he informed me that he had. However, I had information from the hotel that he booked two rooms. The other was Rm 1220 occupied by Chyrstabel Bentu, who claimed to be Dariye’s Personal Assistant.”
Clark told the court that when her room was searched, £50,000 cash was found in her safe, including Dariye’s international passport and flight ticket.

Bentu, according to him, was subsequently arrested on suspicion of money laundering.
Dariye, according to Clark, was served with a notice which he signed , warning him not to move any money again as part of the money laundering offences already committed.
The notice, which stated that Dariye must return to the UK by December 14, 2004, was signed, dated and agreed to by Dariye.

The documents were presented in court as exhibits.
Clark, however, told the court that if he had got wind of the revelations of money laundering unearthed before September 2004 by the EFCC, he would not have granted him bail, but would have “charged him with criminal offences”.

He said: “On September 22, 2004, my colleagues searched Flat 28, a property bought by Dariye, and found £11,995 in his pocket, which was seized. There were also three Barclays Bank cheques of £57,000 each.
“Immediately after he failed to answer his bail, I made an application for a warrant of his arrest; that warrant for his arrest was granted and is still valid today; he was circulated as wanted on our computer system and he remains wanted in London as of today.”
Justice Banjoko has adjourned till June 6, 2016 for continuation of trial.

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Accumulated cases: India has 52,000 shortage of judges

Modi

Indian judiciary has expressed a serious concern over the poor judge-population ratio in the country. Chief Justice T. S. Thakur, Chief Justice of India, said on Monday at a legal function in the eastern state of Odisha’s Cuttack town (India) that India needed more than 70,000 judges to clear the pending legal cases.

He noted that while the Law Commission of India in 1987 had suggested for having 44,000 judges to effectively tackle the then number of pending cases, NAN reported that the country today had only 18,000 judges. In other words, the country will need about 52,000 more.

Thakur said 30 years down the line judges had been working with depleted strength.
“If you go by the number of people that have been added to the population, we may now require more than 70,000 judges to clear the pending cases.

The chief justice stressed that access to justice was a fundamental right, and shortage of judges is one of the formidable challenges the judiciary was facing now.

“The government cannot afford to deny the people their fundamental right. In fact, this is not the first time that the chief justice has raised the issue of low strength of judges in the country and pleaded before the government for the appointment of more judges to clear the legal cases pending for years,” he said.
 
A report noted that at a function in the national capital last month where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present, he got emotional and broke down while speaking about the shortage of judges in the country.
He said the judiciary was stuck as nearly 4 million cases remained unattended to.

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16 cases of Zika virus in Switzerland

File; Maria Camila Davila, a pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus, is attended at the Erasmo Meoz University Hospital in Cucuta, Colombia. AFP

Switzerland has recorded 16 cases of infection by the mosquito-borne Zika virus since March this year, local newspaper Tribune de Geneve reported on Monday.

Tests had revealed the presence of the virus transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito in each of the known cases, the report said, citing the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)’s pandemic preparation unit head Patrick Mathys.

All of them had previously travelled to areas affected by the virus which has reached pandemic proportions in regions including but not limited to South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Tribune de Geneve  said two  of the infected had travelled to Brazil and Colombia, one each  to Bolivia, Guadeloupe and Ecuador.

The number of infections could be much higher however as data reveals that only around one in four infected individuals develop symptoms which include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis.
Though rarely fatal, Zika presents a risk for pregnant women and their unborn babies as the causal relationship between microcephaly and other severe foetal brain defects has been confirmed.

First isolated in 1947 from a monkey in Uganda, the Zika virus was limited for decades to a narrow equatorial belt stretching across Africa and Asia, rarely affecting humans.
In 2007, the virus breached its geographical range as the first documented outbreak was recorded in the Pacific Islands.

The situation since has drastically changed. In 2015, the mosquito-borne virus was detected in the Americas with Brazil reporting its first case in May last year.
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) latest situation report indicates that 57 countries and territories report continuing mosquito-borne transmission.

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Ecuador quake causes great damage, 41 dead

Part of the destruction in Quito

Ecuador’s strongest earthquake in decades, a 7.8 magnitude tremor, struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday, killing at least 41 people and causing damage near the epicentre as well as in the largest city of Guayaquil.
President Rafael Correa declared a national emergency and urged the Andean nation’s 16 million people to stay calm.

“Our infinite love to the families of the dead,” he said on Twitter, while cutting short a trip to Italy to return home.

Authorities urged people to evacuate coastal areas for fear of rising tides. Alarmed residents streamed into the streets of the highland capital Quito, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away, and other towns across the nation.

The government said the death toll would likely rise and damages were “serious”, especially in the western coastal areas nearest the quake and in Guayaquil.
“Unfortunately, up to the moment there are 41 citizens who have lost their lives,” said Vice President Jorge Glas, noting that it was the strongest quake to hit Ecuador since 1979.

Hotel building destroyed by the earthquake

The quake struck early evening at a depth of 20 km (12.4 miles), and was felt all around the country.
Guayaquil Mayor Jaime Nebot, who was travelling in Spain, said on his Facebook page he would coordinate recovery operations from where he was.

Official details on the damage to Guayaquil, a frequent departure point for foreign tourists visiting the Galapagos islands made famous by Charles Darwin, were slow to emerge.
Social media pictures showed a collapsed bridge in the city and minor damage to the lobby of a hotel, as well as images of a collapsed control tower at an airport in the city of Manta.
“I was in my house watching a movie and everything started to shake. I ran out into the street and now I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Lorena Cazares, 36, a telecommunications worker in Quito.
REFINERY CLOSED

Parts of the capital were without power or telephone service, with many communicating only via WhatsApp. Photos on social media showed cracks in the walls of shopping centres.
The capital’s municipal government later said power had been restored and there were no reports of casualties in the city.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to 1 metre (one to three feet) above tide level were possible for some coastal areas of Ecuador.
State officials said the OPEC nation’s oil production was not affected by the quake but that the principal refinery of Esmeraldas, located near the epicentre, had been halted as a precaution.

A fallen house

“At first it was light, but it lasted a long time and got stronger,” said Maria Jaramillo, 36, a resident of Guayaquil, describing windows breaking and pieces falling off roofs.
“I was on the seventh floor and the light went off in the whole sector, and we evacuated. People were very anxious in the street … We left barefoot.”

Across the Pacific in Japan, a 7.3 magnitude tremor struck Kumamoto province early Saturday, killing at least 32 people, injuring about a thousand and causing widespread damage, in the second major quake to hit the island of Kyushu in just over 24 hours. The first, late on Thursday, killed nine.

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President Buhari as Nigeria’s chief diplomat

Buhari in Shanghai

I read an interesting article recently in which the author, objecting to President Muhammadu Buhari’s frequent travels abroad pointed out that Presidential spokespersons since 1999, including this writer, have always justified such trips using essentially the same arguments. The fellow quoted copiously and derisively from my State House press statements and an article by me titled “The Gains of Jonathan’s Diplomacy”.
Those who object to Presidential travels abroad do so for a number of reasons: (a) the cost on the grounds of frequency and size of estacode-collecting delegation,

with multiple officers performing the same function tagging along on every trip,  (b) the need to make better use of diplomats in foreign missions and Foreign Ministry officials who can act in delegated capacity; (c) the failure to see the immediate and long-term gains of Presidential junket, thus creating the impression of a jamboree or mindless tourism, and (d) the conviction that the President needs to stay at home to address urgent domestic challenges, rather than live out of a suitcase, in the air. While these reasons may seem understandable, arising as they are from anxieties about reducing wastage and increasing governmental efficiency for the people’s benefit,

 I still insist that Presidential trips are important, and that by travelling abroad, the President is performing a perfectly normal function.
We may however, complain about abuses and the reduction of an important function to tourism for after all, in eight years, President Bill Clinton of the United States travelled only 54 times – only by Nigerian standards, but we must also admit that the President is the country’s chief diplomat. In our constitutional democracy, he is the main articulator and implementer of the country’s foreign policy. He appoints ambassadors who function in their various posts as his representatives. He also receives other country’s ambassadors. Emissaries from other countries or multilateral organizations consider their visits incomplete without an audience with the President, and it is his message that they take back home.

He visits other Presidents and he also gets visited by other world leaders; an interaction that provides him an opportunity to give effect to Section 19 of the 1999 Constitution which defines the objectives of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy. In doing this, he is expected to strengthen relationships with other countries, at government to government and people to people levels in the national interest.

The President is also the country’s chief spokesperson, and that is why what he says, or what he does when he is negotiating within the international arena on Nigeria’s behalf is of great consequence, and this is particularly why on at least two occasions recently, Nigerians were inconsolably upset when their President chose a foreign stage to put down his own country, and people. This clarification of the role of the President as the country’s chief diplomat may sound didactic, and I apologise if it comes across as pedantic, but this is necessary for the benefit of those who may be tempted to assume that the job of a President is to sit in one place at home and act as a mechanic and ambulance chaser. The concerns that have been expressed however point to something far more complex, and I seek to now problematize aspects of it.

One of the concerns often expressed is that the trips that have been made by our Presidents since 1999 look too much alike. It is as if every President that shows up, embarks on exactly the same junket to the same locations, for the same reasons: foreign direct investment, agriculture, security, co-operation etc. etc. accompanied by a large retinue that includes many of the same officials who travelled with the former President and had prepared the same MOUs that will be signed again, with the new spokespersons telling us the same story all over again.

Nigerians are therefore not impressed with the seeming conversion of the country’s foreign policy process into a money-guzzling ritual. This, I think, is the crux of the matter. Whereas our foreign policy objective talks about national interest, what constitutes that national interest has been blurry and chameleonic in the last 55 years and more so since the return to civilian rule in 1999.  National interest has been replaced majorly by personal interest and it is the worst tragedy that can befall a country’s foreign policy process. We run a begin-again foreign relations framework because every new President wants to make his own mark. The second point is that he is compelled to do so because in any case, we do not have a strong institution to follow up on existing agreements. The international community knows this quite well, and more serious nations being more strategic and determined in the pursuit of their own interests will bombard a new Nigerian President with invitations to visit. They also know that a new President in Nigeria is likely to cancel or suspend existing agreements or contracts being executed by their nationals. The uncertainty that prevails in Nigeria is so well known, such that the gains recorded by one administration are not necessarily institutionalized.

We may have thus reduced foreign policy to individual heroism, which is sad, but institutions and human capital within this arena are critical. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, once a glorious institution is a shadow of its old self. The politicization of that Ministry has done great damage. When a President visits a country, and enters into agreements that result in Memoranda of Understanding, it is expected that there will be follow up action to be taken by officials either through Bilateral Commissions (where they exist between Nigeria and the respective country) or the issuance of instruments of ratification, leading to due implementation. Nigeria signs all kinds of documents but so many details and agreements are left unattended to. There is too much politics in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and too much rivalry between career foreign affairs personnel and the politicians who do not allow them to function as professionals. This has to stop, otherwise every new President has to start again and embark on trips that should have been taken care of at the level of bilateral commissions or the ministry.

Career foreign affairs personnel are critical to the shaping of foreign policy. They are the agents through which states communicate with each other, negotiate, and sustain relationships. The only thing they complain about in that Ministry is lack of money. It is the same with the Missions abroad. Give them money, but there is always a greater need for professionalism, which makes the diplomats of Nigeria’s golden era so sad. The foreign policy process also works better when there is Inter-Ministerial and Intra-governmental
collaboration. The tendency in Nigeria is for every department of government to operate as an independent foreign policy unit. Government officials get invited to functions by foreign embassies, without clearance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they just troop there to eat free food, but they never keep their mouths shut.  Nigerian officials are probably the most talkative in the world and with foreigners, they will offer their mother’s life history to make them appear important. That is not how to run foreign relations. There must be control, co-ordination, discipline, clarity and sanctions.

Every world leader wants to meet the Nigerian President. Nigeria is a strategic market and a very cheap one too, a source of raw materials and a dumping ground for finished products, with a consumptive population. Our balance sheet in all our relationships is unbalanced even in Africa, which we once described as the centerpiece of our foreign policy. We have toyed with many slogans: dynamic diplomacy, economic diplomacy, concentric circles of medium powers, citizen diplomacy, transformational diplomacy, what else/- the Buharideens are yet to come up with their own, but you wait, they will soon come up with something- really, the truth is that Nigeria’s foreign policy process is not strategic or competitive enough.

Within Africa, it is driven by too much kindness rather than enlightened self-interest, or deliberate search for sustainable advantages. A Donatus mentality has seen Nigeria over the years looking out for its African neighbours, donating money, supporting their causes, but Nigeria has gained little from this charity-driven diplomacy. Many of the countries we have helped to build openly despise us at international meetings, they struggle for positions with Nigeria, they humiliate our citizens in diaspora, and when they return later to beg for vehicles, or money to pay their civil servants or run elections, we still oblige them. The attempt in recent years to review all of this, and be more strategic should be sustained.

We must wield the carrot and the stick more often. American Presidents don’t just visit other countries, they make statements and often alter the course of history with their mere presence as Kennedy did with his visit to Berlin in 1963, Nixon in China in 1972, Jimmy Carter going to Iran in 1977, George Bush, visiting Mexico in 2001, and Obama in Cuba in 2016. In the international arena, we give the impression that we are ready to jump at any and every invitation in order to be seen to be friendly, but we tend to overdo this.  Foreign Affairs Ministry officials who want to be seen to be doing something will always try to convince the President to embark on all trips. The dream of every Ambassador on foreign posting is also to have his President visit, even if once during his or her tenure. The resident Ambassador is happy, the Foreign Affairs folks get quality eye-time with the President but the hosts look at us and wonder what is wrong with our country signing the same agreements with the emergence of every President and not being able to act.

It does not help either that with every new President, we talk about reviewing Nigeria’s Foreign Policy. We are probably the only country in the world that is always reviewing Foreign Policy and informing the whole world. That should be the routine work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, with inputs from the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), and the Presidential Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs.

We must never lose sight of a necessary linkage between domestic policy and foreign policy. What exactly is in it for the average Nigerian, for the Nigerian economy and for Nigeria? Do we have the capacity to maximize gains from foreign interactions?  Always, the real challenge lies in getting our acts together and tying up the loose ends in terms of sustainable policy choices, infrastructure, culture, leadership, and strategic engagement.

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Saudi threatens US with $750bln asset sale

Saudi Foreign Minister: Mr Abel bin Al-Jubeir

The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to sell of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets should the U.S. Congress pass a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper reported that Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told U.S. lawmakers last month that “Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in Treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.”

The bill, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year, would take away immunity from foreign governments in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil.”
The New York Times, citing administration officials and congressional aides, said “the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon.”

It added that the Obama administration had lobbied Congress to block the passage of the bill.
The State Department said it stood “firmly with the victims of these acts of violence and their loved ones.”
“We remain committed to bringing to justice terrorists and those who use terrorism to advance their depraved ideology,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

In September a U.S. judge dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia by families of victims of the attacks, saying that the kingdom had sovereign immunity from damage claims by the families and from insurers that covered losses suffered by building owners and businesses.

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Nadal faces Murray in Monte Carlos semi, Federer ousted

Andy Murray faces Nadal today in semi-final

Roger Federer was sent packing earlier than expected on Friday by eighth seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals, while eight-time champion Rafael Nadal made it through.
The third seeded Federer, returning to the court for the first time since a knee surgery in February, fell to the Frenchman 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, despite holding two match points when 5-4 up in the decider.

“I think it had definitely some twists and turns,” commented Federer. “I’m not sure how come. Maybe we were both a bit up and down.”
The Swiss, however, was just happy that he did not catch any relapse at the first tournament he played since surgery.

“It was a good match. It was nice to play an intense match. I’m happy how the body reacted. So many good things this week. It’s all positive for me,” he said.
“It’s always special to play against him, especially on court, because you have all the crowd against you,” said Tsonga.

“I was expecting a difficult match, and that is exactly what happened. But I was able to turn it around. He dropped his level a little bit and I was able to come back into the match and end up winning. It’s good for me,” he added.

Tsonga will face his compatriot Gael Monfils in the semifinals after the latter eased past lucky loser Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 6-4.
World No. 2 Andy Murray and the fifth seed Rafael Nadal both snatched victories and will play each other in the semifinals.

Nadal, who’s on course to his ninth title at Monte Carlo, breezed off Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4, breaking Wawrinka’s serve four times and conceding only one break point to reach his 11th Monte Carlo semifinal.

Wawrinka, last year’s Roland Garros champion, broke his racquet in the fifth game of the first set to the boos of spectators, saying that he was disturbed by all of the noise coming from the restaurant above the court.

“You wonder whether people are coming to have lunch or to watch tennis. I don’t believe they saw a lot of the match. I think they also drank a lot of alcohol,” Wawrinka complained.
“When you don’t play well and you’re not in your match, it can bother you,” he added.
“Stan today, I think the last three games of the first set, that’s the only moment that he didn’t play well. Obviously he played with too many mistakes,” said Nadal.

Murray, who has a 6-16 record against Nadal and 1-6 on clay, will play the Spaniard for a place in the final after having routed Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-0.
The Scot beat Nadal in the Madrid Masters final last year, when he won his first of two career titles on clay.

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Mali’s president has tumour on the neck

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta: had operation for tumour

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita underwent an operation at a hospital in Paris this week as part of treatment for a benign tumour on his neck, the presidency said in a statement late on Wednesday.


Keita, 71, who has served as president of the West African nation since 2013, was operated on for a parathyroid adenoma in a procedure on Tuesday described by the presidency as routine.

“The after effects are generally simple … The recovery is progressing normally,” the statement said.
West and Central African nations, home to a number of long-serving leaders, often lack transparency with regards to the health of heads of state, a fact that regularly fuels rumours of serious illness

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Ghana on red alert for possible Jihadist attacks

President Dramani Mahama of Ghana: ask for vigilance

Ghana and Togo are the next targets for Islamist militants following high-profile attacks this year in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, according to a memo from Ghana’s Immigration Service.


The memo calls for better border protection in the latest sign of a heightened government response to the threat to West Africa by militants based in northern Mali who have stepped up a campaign of violence in the last year.

It says the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has evidence from neighbouring Ivory Coast from the interrogation of a man suspected of orchestrating an attack on March 13 in which 18 people were killed.
“Intelligence gathered by the … NSCS indicates a possible terrorist attack on the country is real. … The choice of Ghana according to the report is to take away the perception that only Francophone countries are the target,” said the memo, dated April 9 and published by Ghanaian media.

It ordered immigration agents on the northern border with Burkina Faso to be extra vigilant and said patrols should be stepped up along informal routes between the two countries.
Ghana is one of Africa’s most stable and peaceful democracies and has not suffered an attack by Islamist militants. Togo is the country’s eastern neighbour.

President John Mahama spoke about the memo in an interview on state radio’s Sunrise FM on Thursday. He asked for public vigilance and said Ghana was also at risk from home grown militants, while noting that countries in the region share intelligence on militant threats.

“We must deal with this without creating panic amongst our people,” he said, adding that the memo should not have detailed the intelligence on which its calls for greater vigilance were based.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for attacks on a hotel in the capital of Mali last November, a restaurant and hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital in January and the Ivory Coast attack. In all, more than 65 people have died, many of them foreigners.

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Polisario urges more UN pressure on Morocco

Ban Ki Moon: Polisario Front sends him a letter

The leader of Western Sahara’s Polisario Front separatist movement on Thursday wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him and the Security Council to pressure Morocco to stop interfering with U.N. peacekeepers.

Last month, Ban used the word “occupation” to describe Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara in 1975, when Rabat took it over from colonial power Spain. Infuriated by what it saw as a shift away from a neutral position, Morocco expelled dozens of U.N. staff working for the mission there known as MINURSO.

“We warn that the absence of real and direct pressure on the occupation state of Morocco … will be considered a green light to a military aggression by the Kingdom of Morocco against the Sahrawi people,” Polisario President Mohamed Abdelaziz wrote to Ban in a letter seen by Reuters.
Morocco has said its decisions were irreversible but it was still committed to peace.

Abdelaziz said the 15-nation Security Council should pressure Morocco to enable “the return of MINURSO to resume its work and mandate regarding organizing a referendum on self determination to the Sahrawi people.”
If that does not happen, Abdelaziz wrote, the Sahrawi people “will find itself, again, obliged to defend its rights by all legitimate means, including armed struggle.”

The letter was sent as Ban’s office prepares its annual report for the Security Council on Western Sahara before a council vote this month to renew MINURSO’s mandate. The report, which was due last week, has been delayed because of the dispute over Ban’s remarks in March, council diplomats said.

Polisario says Morocco is putting the ceasefire at risk by expelling MINURSO staff and trying to scuttle the plan for a referendum on independence. Morocco has offered an autonomy plan as the only way forward.
Several diplomatic sources familiar with the issue said that Morocco wants the council to change the mandate of MINURSO so that it will no longer include the goal of organizing a referendum.


The majority of council members are opposed, the sources said, though they added that Morocco has some diplomatic support from veto power France, Rabat’s traditional ally, and African council member Senegal.
The controversy over Ban’s comment during a visit to refugee camps for Sahrawi people is Morocco’s worst dispute with the United Nations since 1991, when the U.N. brokered a ceasefire to end a war over Western Sahara and established MINURSO.

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Egyptians demand fall of Al-Sisi

Egyptians on the street against Al-Sisi

Thousands of Egyptians angered by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s decision to hand over two islands to Saudi Arabia called on Friday for the government to fall, chanting a slogan from the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

Their protests clearly signaled that the former general, under mounting criticism now also for the struggling economy, no longer enjoys the broad public support that let him to round up thousands of opponents after he seized power in 2013.

Sisi’s government prompted an outcry in Egyptian newspapers and on social media last week when it announced a maritime demarcation accord last week that put the uninhabited Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir in Saudi waters.

Protesters in Cairo

“The people want the downfall of the regime,” the protesters cried outside the Cairo press syndicate, using the signature chant of the 2011 revolt against then president Hosni Mubarak, who later stepped down.
They also chanted: “Sisi – Mubarak”, “We don’t want you, leave” and “We own the land and you are agents

 who sold our land.” In other parts of Cairo, police fired tear gas at protesters, security sources said.
Saudi and Egyptian officials say the islands belong to the kingdom across the Red Sea and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh had asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them.

Egyptian policemen fire teargas at protesters

Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf Arab states showered Egypt with billions of dollars in aid and grants after Sisi toppled freely elected President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against him.

But a sharp drop in crude prices and differences with Cairo over regional issues such as the war in Yemen have raised questions over whether their strong support is sustainable.

MISHANDLED CRISES

Egyptians are eager for an economic revival after years of political upheaval, but the islands issue seems to have hurt their national pride, and prompted thousands to return to the streets to challenge their leader.
Critics say the government has mishandled a series of crises from an investigation into the killing of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni, 28, in Cairo to a bomb that brought down a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula last October.

Torture marks on Regini’s body prompted human rights groups to conclude he died at the hands of security forces, which Egypt denies. That revived complaints of police brutality, one of the issues prompted Egyptians to challenge Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

Sisi has made fighting corruption a top priority. But he drew fire last month after sacking Hesham Geneina, Egypt’s top auditor, who had stirred controversy by publicly concluding that state corruption had cost the country billions of dollars.

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Lagos leads with N268.2b IGR in 2015, says NBS

Lagos State leads the rest of the country in internally generated revenue, the National Bureau of Statistics  has reported.

NBS said Lagos earned N268. 2 billion in 2015,  almost 40 per cent of the  N682.7 billion generated by the entire states.

Rivers state came second with N82.1 billion and Delta, third  with N40.8 billion.
 Yobe state is also a low IGR earner  with N2.2 billion and Zamfara with N2.7 billion. Ekiti made N3.3 billion, Borno N3.5 billion and Kebbi N3.7 billion.

There was no record for Ebonyi state.
The report showed that the overall IGR of states  dropped by N25.18 billion from N707.9 billion in 2014 to N682.67 billion in 2015.

The report showed that while 24 states recorded a decline in revenue when compared to 2014, 11 states were able to shore up their revenue base within the 2015 fiscal period.

The 11 states that were able to increase their revenue according to the report are Ogun  from N17.49 billion to N34.59 billion, Abia from N12.3 billion to N13.4 billion, Anambra from N10.4 billion to N14.79 billion, Bauchi from N4.85 billion to N5.39 billion, Borno from N2.76 billion to N3.53 billion, Edo from N17 billion to N19.1 billion, Kogi N6.5 billion to N6.7 billion and Nasarawa from N4.08 billion to N4.28 billion.

The rest are Niger from N5.73 billion to N5.97 billion, Sokoto N5.6 billion to N6.2 billion and Taraba from N3.79 billion to N4.15 billion.

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Nasarawa donates buses to security agencies for keeping state peaceful

Governor Tanko Al-Makura

Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State said  that the state had enjoyed 12 months of peace “without any serious security challenge”.

The governor said this when he presented 10 buses to all the security agencies in the state at a brief ceremony in Lafia.

“For the past one year now we have not had any serious security challenge, which shows that the security and stakeholders are synergizing seriously and very effectively”, the governor said
He said that the buses would be used to convey security operatives to wherever they might be needed in the course of their duties.

Al-Makura said the security operatives have been putting in their best in ensuring peace rein in the state.
He said that he was donating the vehicles to them to further encourage and assist them in effective crime management in the state.

Al-Makura said that the gesture was for the government to show appreciation to the security agencies for a job well done.
He said this would also encourage them as well as ensure that law abiding citizens of the state go to bed with their two eyes closed.

The governor said the issue of security should not be left in the hands of the security operatives alone but be seen as a collective effort.
Responding on behalf of other sister security agencies, the Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Lawal Shehu-Batsari, thanked the governor for the assistance.
He said the vehicles would spur them to do more in the area of crime control and prevention

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Civil servants plan to storm NASS over budget cuts

Workers at the Federal Secretariat Abuja

Workers in the Federal  public service  said that they would march to the National Assembly to protest the cut in budgetary allocations to the service.

The Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Mr Alade Lawal, told newsmen in Lagos that they had mobilised workers all over the country to storm the Assembly.

Lawal said that the association had concluded plans to mobilise workers all over the Federation to march to the National Assembly over the cut in the budgetary allocation under which promotion arrears, salary increase and pension of workers were captured.

He said that it was inconceivable that the lawmakers decided to reduce by N28.5 billion, the ₦465 billion voted by the Executive arm of government to settle some arrears of allowances owed thousands of civil servants.

Alade Lawal: workers being mobilised for protest at NASS

According to Lawal, some of the workers are being owed outstanding salary since 2007.
He recalled that when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office, the union wrote series of letters to draw his attention to the outstanding allowances which had continued to generate restiveness in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for years.

“This is why the Federal Government set up a Government-Labour panel under the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to look into the matter.

“The office of the Head of Service of the Federation (OHSF) directed all MDAs to compile their indebtedness as it affects the outstanding salaries and allowances for the purpose of settling them,’’ he said.
Lawal said that the documents were submitted and computed in record time with the resultant figure added into the 2016 budget estimate.

“The allowances include but are not limited to salaries, promotion arrears outstanding since 2007; first 28 Days in lieu of Hotel Accommodation; Duty Tour Allowance (DTA), Mandatory Training Allowance for 2010; Burial expenses and Repatriation allowance,’’ he said.

Lawal said it was sad that the National Assembly was insensitive to issues concerning welfare of Nigerians.
He suggested that the legislators should go through the estimate and see how the budget conformed with government’s policy.

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Count me out of move to amend CCB Act: Senator Yayi

Senator Adeola, a.k.a Yayi

Senator Olamilekan Adeola has distanced himself with the move by the Nigerian Senate to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau Act.

In a post on his Facebook page, Adeola said he was not in support of the move and had staged a walk-out, along with some of his colleagues when the bill was being steamrolled through.

The bill in two days had  passed the second reading, sparking condemnation by lawyers and activists who condemn the morality of the amendment at a time the Senate President, Bukola Saraki is facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for false asset declaration.
Said Senator Adeola:

“I am sure many of you have read that the bill to amend the Code of Conduct Act passed second reading today on the floor of the Nigerian Senate, with deputy senate president Ike Ekweremadu presiding.
“Even though the majority in senate will always have its way, I and my constituents in Lagos West Senatorial District are not in support of the amendments to the Code of Conduct Act CAP C15 LFN 2004, which was sponsored by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi.

“I and some of my colleagues stepped out in opposition to the amendments.

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Amosun attracts $1.2bn Chinese investment to Ogun

Governor Amosun, second right, and his hosts in China

Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, recently took part in a one-week work visit to China alongside President Muhammadu Buhari, other state governors and ministers, in the course of which investments worth over $1.2bn were attracted to the gateway state.

During the visit, the Ogun State Governor participated in the Nigeria-China Business Forum, which drew attendance from about 100 Nigerian businesses and 300 Chinese firms.
Apart from that forum, Governor Amosun was also part of many fruitful business meetings and concluded a number of agreements with the Chinese.

According to a statement by Adejuwon Soyinka, Senior Special Assistant (Media) to the Ogun State Governor, the agreements, which hold huge prospects of further enhancing the economic fortune of Ogun State, are in line with the Governor Amosun-led administration’s Mission to Rebuild the gateway state.
Some of the agreements announced and signed during the visit include a $1 billion deal for the establishment of a Hi-tech industrial park in Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone located at Igbesa.

In the course of the visit, the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone and CNG (Nigeria) Investment Limited also signed an agreement valued at $200 million for the construction of two 500MT/day float gas facilities.

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Second earthquake hits southern Japan , Shinzo Abe cancels tour

Part of the homes destroyed in Kumamoto

Japan was hit with a second earthquake today,  in the same region already struggling to cope  with the effects the first quake and its after shocks.

And the second quake even struck harder at 7.2-7.3.
Japan’s Kumamoto earthquake was felt across wide swathes of southern Japan and triggered a tsunami warning, although the advisory was later lifted.
As the situation in Kumamoto continues to escalate, a second quake registering magnitude-5.8 also struck in the region at 03:55 local time.

Prior to that, numerous aftershocks jolted the region that had already been pummeled by a series of quakes and aftershocks striking a day earlier.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s planned trip to the already quake-ravaged region, scheduled for Saturday, has been officially cancelled following the latest quakes and the likelihood of further aftershocks, according to his office.

Japan’s top government spokesperson Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press briefing that significant damage was feared to have been caused in the quake-hit region, with prefectural officials saying a municipal hall building has partially collapsed in the city of Uto in the embattled prefecture.

Local media reported the possibility of at least one death as a result of the latest quakes, with reports also being made of people being trapped beneath collapsed buildings and rubble, some have been reported to have been buried alive, as search and rescue operations swing into high gear just before sunrise.
Other media reports said some 190,400 households have been without power in the quake-ravaged prefecture.

One of the many aftershocks centered in neighboring Oita Prefecture resulted in numerous injuries being reported, local media said, as houses were seen to have collapsed in the town of Yufu, well-known for its natural hot springs and accompanying resort-type facilities.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) rattled the nation’s nerves by initially issuing a tsunami warning just two minutes after the main quake struck in the early hours of Saturday, saying waves of up to one meter could hit the coast of Japan, with the advisory given for both the Ariake and Yatsushiro sea areas.
The warning was later cancelled.

Regarding the possibility of further quakes and aftershocks, the weather agency has advised enhanced vigilance from the public, particularly in hilly areas where mudslides are highly possible.
Xinhua reporters in Mashiki have been spending the night on the opening ground, feeling aftershocks hitting regularly and there was widespread panic in the town with people seen flee from buildings to open areas, with some ducking into vehicles for protection.

The town being plunged into darkness following a power cut is adding to the alarm.
The number of further fatalities and injuries, as yet, has been unreported by prefectural officials and rescue services in the quake-hit region, although rising numbers of injuries are widely expected.
Prefectural officials once again on Saturday confirmed that no abnormalities had been noticed at any of the nuclear facilities in the quake-affected areas.

Kyushu Electric Power Company said following Friday’s quake its Number 1 and Number 2 reactors at its Sendai nuclear power plant in Satsuma-Sendai City, in the quake-hit prefecture, were functioning normally. The two are the only reactors currently online in Japan.

The majority of Japan’s nuclear power plants remain offline for regular safety inspections and in the wake of the massive earthquake-triggered tsunami in March 2011, that pummeled the Daiichi nuclear facility in Fukushima Prefecture, in Japan’s northeast, leading to the worst commercial nuclear crisis in history.
Following Saturday’s quake, large sections along major arterial routes and expressways have been closed off, the traffic information center confirmed.

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US envoy arrives Nigeria over Boko Haram threats

Samantha Power: begins Nigeria visit today

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power,  begins a visit to Nigeria today over the growing threats of Boko Haram.

She would later visit  Cameroon and Chad, winding up the tour of the Lake Chad basin on 20 April.
The U.S. State Department  said Power, while in Nigeria  would engage with the Nigerian leadership and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja. She would then travel to the North East region to visit a settlement camp for civilians displaced by Boko Haram’s violence.
She would also host a town hall meeting with students and would participate in a Peace through Sports event with young Nigerians.

The US State Department describes Boko Haram as one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world, posing an acute threat to civilians across the Lake Chad Basin.
The US said the group’s increasing lethality and relationship with ISIL is  a cause for alarm.
The U.S. reiterated its pledge to work with partners in the region to develop a comprehensive counter-Boko Haram effort that includes a more coordinated military campaign, improved humanitarian access and response.

In Cameroon,  Power would meet with government officials and CSOs in its capital, Yaoundé.
She would also travel internally to meet with refugees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and Cameroonian forces on the front lines of the regional effort to combat Boko Haram.
She would also participate in a public destruction of confiscated ivory and pangolin scales, demonstrating the strong U.S.-Cameroonian partnership to counter wildlife trafficking.

While in Chad, Power would meet with government officials in N’Djamena and visit the headquarters for the Multinational Joint Task Force, a regional military effort composed of Boko Haram-affected states in the Lake Chad Basin.
Power is also expected to meet with Chadian CSOs and civilians affected by the violence.

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