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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