04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 SUMMIT: From left— Chief Executive Officer, Wellness, Mrs. Yomi Anenih; Brand Strategist, Mrs. Kemi Ogunleye; CEO, Human Capacity Development Consultant, Mrs. Abisola Longe; Lead, Strategy, Skillsultant Ltd, Mrs Toyin Ademola and Creative Director, Needle Point Shop Ltd, Mrs. Theresa Onwuka, during the 1st annual Productivity Plus Summit in Lagos. Police retirees allege underpayment of gratuity by PENCOM •They got what was due to them in compliance with our regulations—PENCOM By Alemma Aliu BENIN CITY—SEVEN police personnel who retired in various ranks have threatened to drag the National Pension Commission and the police authorities to court over underpayment of their gratuities after 35 years in service. They claimed they were grossly underpaid compared to their counterparts who had the same rank with them, enrolled into the police force and retired the same time. They are Monday Iguma, Michael Ezuem, John Ogodo, Onwuzuruike Godwin, Ocheni Friday, Abakar Friday Edokpolo and Augustine Dibie. A letter to the Head, National Databank Management Department of the National Pension Commission by their counsel, Olayiwola Afolabi had given them seven days Infant mortality: COWLSO hands over ultra mordern facilitits to 13 public hospitals By Olasunkanmi Akoni LAGOS—AS part of efforts geared toward reducing infant and child mortality rate in the state, Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, yesterday, donated 32 neo-natal incubators to 13 government hospitals in the state. Out of the 13 hospitals, the committee handed-over six birthing suites to Lagos Island Maternity, Amuwo Maternal and Child Centre, as well as Epe General Hospital. Chairman of COWLSO and wife of the incumbent Governor of Lagos State, Bolanle Ambode, accompanied by wife of the State Governor-elect, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, led the committee’s project team on inspection and handingover of the items, stating that their vision for pregnant women in the state was for them to have access to world class delivery facilities in public hospitals. Birthing suites donated are: Stand-alone delivery units, where all three stages of a woman’s labour and delivery take place. They have their own private conveniences for patient privacy and fitted with automated birthing beds, ultra-modern vital signs monitors for mother and baby; as well as specialized machines for monitoring the heartbeat of mother and baby and post delivery care. The incubators would regulate the body temperature of preterm babies and avail them the right environment to be nurtured, till Polls: Ogboru has reached his ‘political terminus' —Alatsha By Elizabeth Uwandu WARRI—DELTA State House of Assembly candidate for the Warri North Constituency under the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, Wilson Alatsha has said that the failure of the party's governorship candidate, Chief Great Ogboru in the just concluded 2019 general elections, has shown that he has truly come to his political terminus. He expressed regret that Chief Ogboru’s poor performance has given the negative impression that the APC is not on ground in the state, saying “that the APC is very much on ground. What happened in the last election is that God does not support the injustice represented by the Chief in coming to hijack the leadership of the party in the state”. According to him, “like a thief, Ogboru can never go too far. So he has got to his terminus entirely with his failure physically, socially for the anomalies to be corrected or risk legal action. He said the latest letter was a follow up to the one he had earlier written. He said the affected officer’s counterparts got not less than N4 million while they were paid less than N2 million each. “We hereby use this medium to demand for the payment of our clients’ accurate entitlement within seven days of the receipt of this they are fit to go home, thereby reducing infant mortality in the State. Speaking, Ambode stressed that, ideal child birth was that which ensured the best outcome and morally.” The APC chieftain who is currently in court over alleged substitution of his name as the rightful winner of the party primary for the position for Warri North constituency by the Prophet Jones Erue-led faction noted that Chief LAGOS—FIRST City Monument Bank, FCMB, has taken another major leap in the retail and mobile banking segments of the Nigerian financial services industry with the launch of a new product called FCMB Easy Account. Described as banking made accessible to all, a significant and value-added feature of this product is that the telephone numbers of the customers, without the first digit, serve as their respective account numbers. The Account is an enhanced version of its *329# Unstructured Supplementary Service letter. But a letter from the NPF Pensions Ltd dated March 6, 2019 addressed to Afolabi and signed by Mustapha Suleiman and Abdulkareem Gezuwa who are Heads, Benefit Administration and Executive Director in charge of operations said the retried personnel got what was due to them in compliance with PENCOM regulations. for the mother and baby, in a safe environment that guaranteed quick recovery from birthing process, and allowed early and optimum bonding of the baby with its mother. Ogboru cannot also enjoy the privilege of taking the Governorship slot come 2023 on behalf of the Urhobo dominated Delta Central Senatorial district in line with the power rotation principle because he does not believe in equity, saying that “all he is interested in is “after Ogboru, for Ogboru and in Ogboru.” FCMB launches Easy Account Data, USSD, platform. In a statement, the bank explained that FCMB Easy Account has been designed to make banking accessible to all Nigerians and will help to achieve the laudable goal of financial inclusion for most Nigerians as set by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. It is a product open to all, particularly to meet the needs of low-income earners and the unbanked segment of the society. The bank explained that it enables the account holders have access to convenient and secured financial services, irrespective of their locations. Escalating US, China trade war would hit manufacturing, agricultural jobs — IMF AN escalation of the United States and China trade war would drive manufacturing away from both countries and likely cause job losses, but would not change their total trade balances, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report showed yesterday. The United States and China would see “sizable” losses in manufacturing as capacity moves toward Mexico, Canada, and East Asia if tariffs were hiked to 25 percent on all goods flowing between the two countries, the IMF said in its April World Economic Outlook. That would escalate a tit-for-tat tariff battle between the two economic giants that has gripped global financial markets since mid-2018. The United States already has tariffs of 25 percent on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods and levies of 10 percent on another $200 billion. China has retaliated with duties on U.S. products, including key agricultural crops. Japan display to supply OLED screens for Apple Watch, Sources JAPAN Display Inc will begin to supply organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for the Apple Watch later this year, two sources said, a breakthrough for the cash-strapped company whose late shift to OLED has cost it orders from Apple. The supply deal would mark Japan Display’s foray into the OLED display market, the two sources familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media. A spokesman for Japan Display said he could not comment on specific customers. Japan Display’s mainstay liquid crystal display (LCD) business has been slumping due to Apple Inc’s recent shift away from LCD, and disappointing sales of the iPhone XR, the only LCD model in Apple’s 2018 line-up. Wall Street rises as trade hopes build; chip index hits record United States stocks rose yesterday, extending a strong start to the quarter as rising hopes of a trade deal with Beijing and bullish reports lifted the semiconductor index to a record high. Advanced Micro Devices Inc jumped 10.9percent, the biggest gainer on the S&P 500, and Intel Corp rose 2.6percent after Nomura Instinet started coverage of both the stocks with “buy” ratings. Semiconductor stocks, which are heavily reliant on China for their revenue, have surged more than 25 percent this year on optimism about trade and recovering demand for chips. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index jumped 2.9percent to a record high. The rally came as White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow sounded upbeat about the trade talks, adding that Beijing and Washington hope to get closer to a deal this week. Viacom signs content distribution deal with T-Mobile VIACOM Inc signed a content distribution agree ment with T-Mobile US Inc, under which the media company’s brands including MTV and Nickelodeon would be available to the wireless carrier’s 80million customers, the companies said on Wednesday. The deal enables T-Mobile to bring together live feeds of Viacom’s channels as well as a broad range of ondemand content to T-Mobile’s customers. Last month, Viacom renewed its carriage contract with AT&T Inc, avoiding a blackout of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central for users of the telecom carrier’s pay TV service DirecTV. Viacom needed to resolve the AT&T contract before considering any other strategic moves, including a potential tie-up with CBS Corp, sources had told Reuters. All stories credited to Reuters.
After the elections: The next level MERCIFULLY the elections are over. Phew! Huge sigh of relief. Now we can settle down to the humdrum of our daily lives and let those who have won the elections do the needful by carrying on to fulfil their promises. One can only congratulate the winners and commiserate with the losers. One also hopes that the politicking activities that have taken over our lives in the last many months will now be consigned to the back burner, where they truly belong. And serious governance should start. At the federal level the promise is to take the country to the next level. And all aspects of governance must be geared towards that. The President who has won a second term must be aware that the beginning of his last outing was a disappointment to many. He let go the crucial appointments of the principal officers of the National Assembly to the naïve attitude of non interference in their affairs. In the end some scheming interlopers hijacked the process and installed themselves at the helm of affairs and went ahead to have a successful tenure of unbridled spoilage to his entire budgetary plans and caused untold delays to his vital appointments. He could do nothing to the National Assembly but sit around the Villa sulking. The president’s By Tony Ademiluyi THE war time British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, reached his peak in 1940 when at 66 he replaced the weak Neville Chamberlain as the British prime minister. He rallied round the Brits to fight against the malevolent forces of the axis alliance led by the Nazi Germany under the murderous Adolf Hitler. The public praised him to the high heavens and the academically slow, bashful lad became a public hero. In 1945, general elections were held and to the amazement of political pundits, Churchill lost to Labour leader, Clement Attlee, in one of the greatest electoral upsets in the history of electioneering. The 2019 elections in Nigeria have come and gone, but as historians, it is necessary to critically examine them and see what lessons can be learned by state and nonstate actors as well as the citizens. There were many upsets this year. The O toge movement in Kwara State ended the decadesold Saraki dynasty in that state. How did the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, lose out totally in the scheme of things? Some analysts opine that the people were tired of him and wanted a change. They had served the father for decades with nothing tangible to show for it and they were tired of also serving his son and if care wasn’t taken his grandson. They came together under the O to ge banner which had the imprimatur of several politicians like the Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the senator-elect for Kwara Central, Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe, his estranged sister, Gbemi Saraki, amongst many others, to retire him. Many politicians in the APC didn’t also forgive him for ceding the deputy Senate presidency to Ike Ekweremadu. In the current American presidential system of government, it’s the winner takes all syndrome. It was suicidal to concede a key position to the opposition. That was a sin that was mortal, apologies to the Roman Catholic Church. What do you make of the deployment of Bola knack for delays to take crucial decisions at the right moment and making key appointments whether it is to the cabinet or some vital parastatal became a legend of sorts. On top of all that, the country had the bad luck of the sharp fall in oil prices at the start of the president’s tenure and the repercussions that followed, particularly the run on the Naira. However, like many Nigerians who had some knowledge of the science of economics, I had the nagging feeling that the run on the Naira could have been handled better. As a consequence, the entire nation has been left to suffer the after-effects of a horribly devalued currency. I doubt it very much if what happened was due to lack of good professional advice, considering the number of economists dotting offices in the Presidential Villa. To worsen matters, President Muhammadu Buhari periodically fell ill and at a point in 2017 was away for three months attending to health issues in Britain. Somehow he bounced back and by the time the campaigns started last year there were obvious signs that with his renewed physical vigour, and a national economy that was showing signs of redound, he would give any challenger a good fight. Probably far more than all that, the president’s personal integrity seems unscathed and he 2019 elections: A post-mortem Tinubu’s erstwhile chief security officer as the Kwara State Commissioner of Police? Why Kwara after the public outcry when he was first deployed to Lagos? Some analysts opine that the hubris of pride was his undoing. He devoted more time to coordinate Atiku’s campaign and took his home turf for granted. Others say his decamping to the PDP was his greatest undoing. I beg to disagree. What do you have to say about the likes of Dino Melaye, Samuel Ortom and Abubakar Tambuwal who defected from the APC to the PDP and still won? Oil magnate, Ifeanyi Ubah got his first Anambra State has the highest number of female senators in the country which is a victory for gender parity in the polity electoral victory at long last under the platform of the obscure Young Peoples Party. To have defeated Senator Andy Uba and his younger brother, Chief Chris Uba, was no mean feat. He has already begun hobnobbing with the ruling APC, though he debunked rumours of his defection to the party. Time will tell if he stays glued to the YPP. With the re-election of Stella Oduah and Uche Ekwunife, Anambra State has the highest number of female senators in the country which is a victory for gender parity in the polity. Dino Melaye proved to be a dogged fighter as he once again beat the former Nigeria Union of Journalists president, Senator Smart Adeyemi, in a largely APC-controlled state. He is indeed a cat with nine lives as he battled his state governor, Yahaya Bello, surviving a recall by his constituency and the Federal Government which led to his brief incarceration. Ortom proved to be an adept risk taker as he read the mood of the people of Benue who wanted a change of parties as the APC proved went through the campaigns with a popularity rating that was even higher than when he was initially elected. His party, the APC, was able to build on that crucial selling point- his integrity- and garnished it with his other accomplishments, particularly on security, to win. We now expect the president to draw many lesson from that disastrous outing in the first term and focus on those things that could derail his plans for the second term. Obviously one of the first items in the list should be who emerge as leaders in the next National Assembly. We must all bear in mind that whatever the president has in stock for the nation, the realisation of that must be consequent to the kind of leadership that hold sway in the Whatever the President has in stock for the nation, the realisation of that must be consequent to the kind of leadership that hold sway in the National Assembly National Assembly. Both the president and the leadership of the National Assembly must be able to work in tandem. Or we shall have a repeat of the disaster that was the eighth assembly where the leadership of the National Assembly and the president were hardly on speaking terms. It, therefore, behoves on the president and the leadership of the APC to save us from the agony of another round of raucous relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly. To do that, we expect a close meeting of minds between the party leaders (symbolised by Adams Oshiomhole or is there anyone else Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 —17 17 really left in the party headquarters?), the aspirants and the general membership of the party in the National Assembly to avoid a situation whereby the majority gained by the party in the elections is rendered futile and sterile. Fortunately, the struggle for the prime positions in the National Assembly has begun in earnest. As there is a zoning formula at work, there may be less frictions when the selection comes to be made in the National Assembly. There seems to be unanimity in the party to lease the position of Senate president to the North-East, and already, prominent ranking senators, Ahmed Lawan and Mohammed Ali Ndume, are out on the hustings cajoling votes for the plum seat. Both are highly qualified, top-ranked in the peculiar pecking order of the National Assembly, where the two have paid their dues to their colleagues in many ways. Both are great academics. Ahmed Lawan has a Ph.D in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Service, GIS and had been teaching in the University of Maiduguri before harkening to the call of his people in Gashua. He first served for two terms in the House of Representatives before moving to the Senate when the late Usman Albishir who represented that constituency left in 2007 to stand in the Yobe State gubernatorial election. At the resumed sitting of the Senate in 2015, Lawan was touted by the party to the eigh th assembly as Senate president but the process was overwhelmed by other determined forces. Despite the disappointment of being passed over as Senate president and the ranking offices that followed, Lawan kept faith with his colleagues in the assembly, making himself a rallying point and always making sound incapable of effectively protecting them from the murderous herdsmen. He smartly defected to the opposition PDP and was handed the second term ticket as a reward. George Akume’s re-election bid was stopped by a coalition of powerful forces. David Mark was succeeded by Abba Moro, the former interior minister. In a decent country, Moro would have faced a trial for the deaths of the applicants for the immigration jobs who died in the stampede. Alas, this is Nigeria where we have a collective amnesia as well as being a nation where anything goes. Mark left a ‘legacy’ by getting his daughter to be a member of the incoming nin th National Assembly in the Federal House of Representatives. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was demystified as his open support of his former deputy didn’t make him win. This is the first time a candidate he backed lost. The O toge movement didn’t sweep Lagos as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, fondly called Jagaban, is still in charge. He christened his own movement ‘Otope’ and threw his weight behind the candidacy of his anointed son, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu who won with a landslide. Jimi Agbaje was forced to congratulate him, meaning that he won’t be presenting his case before the elections petitions tribunal. Omoyele Sowore presented his party - the African Action Congress with its campaign slogan ‘Take it back’ as the third force. However, he didn’t even emerge third in the elections, forcing him to scream blue murder of a massive rigging against him. His party is being used by Rotimi Amaechi to battle Nyesom Wike for the Rivers State gubernatorial elections after the suspension of the APC gubernatorial candidate, Tonye Cole. The question on the lips of some pundits is why AAC? Some Sowore critics contend that the Sahara Reporters founder is surreptitiously working for Tinubu having allegedly worked for Buhari in 2015. The New York based activist has denied any link with APC. Even after the contributions to debates. He patiently bided his time, until two years into their tenure when he was crowned House Leader. Mohammed Ali Ndume came to the National Assembly following the self-same route. A brilliant student who shone in every school he attended, Ndume clinched the B.Ed and M.Ed from the University of Toledo, USA, where he was awarded the Magna Cum Laude academic honour and was thus admitted into Phi Kappa Phi academic society for outstanding performance. He was teaching in Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri when his people in the Chibok/ Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency called him in 2003 to represent them. He was elected. In his second tenure in the House of Representatives he was elected the House Minority Leader. In 2011 he got into the Senate by dislodging an incumbent and went on to have a very colourful and eventful time in his first term. He first got enmeshed in a Boko Haram controversy which he fought to a standstill. At the start of the eigh th assembly he was one of the key APC senators who supported and made Saraki the Senate president against the wishes of the party and was rewarded with the position of Senate leader. In due course Ndume found himself on the wrong side of Saraki and got himself suspended for a whole year. Nevertheless, he fought his suspension with characteristic grit, never apologised when asked to and eventually lost the Senate leader's seat to Ahmed Lawan. Is it not a good coincidence that these two brilliant men whose paths have crossed a number of times are today competing for the number one seat in the National Assembly. Whoever wins will in my estimation be an asset to the flight taking us to the next level. We can only wish them luck. defection of the running mate to the PDP, the gubernatorial candidate, Awari, told the world how he turned down a N3 billion offer from Wike to step down for him. The question is why AAC? What is the special interest in this supposed third force by Amaechi and Wike? Time, the ultimate revealer will tell. Dr. Oby Ezekwesili disappointed her numerous supporters and fans by pulling out a few days to the elections to support the socalled third force coalition. She has been silent since then and may not be taken seriously in future elections or even in the general political discourse in the country. Oyo State has the distinction of being the only PDP state in the South-West. Analysts posit that it was the bad policies of the Senator Abiola Ajimobi-led government that led to their electoral loss. He also suffered a senatorial loss as the Ibadan people were hellbent on dealing with him as a result of some anti-people policies that he implemented which included the abrupt demolitions of properties which included the studio of the popular musician, Yinka Ayefele and the arrogance he displayed towards the students in the Lautech crisis. The votes of the masses truly counted in the pace setter state. There were pockets of violence in some states which led to re-runs in the affected places. Foreign observers were divided in their verdict. While some gave the elections a pass mark, others dismissed it as a sham which didn’t truly reflect the will of the people. The emergence of the principal officers of the ninth Senate will be of keen interest to all Nigerians. Adams Oshiomhole already said that there won’t be sharing of power by the APC with any other party - a tacit condemnation of what Saraki did. The next four years will be filled with drama and intrigues. We hope that the Man on the Clapham Omnibus gets the full dividends of democracy as every revolution must begin with a breakfast. •Ademiluyi, a political analyst, wrote from Lagos. C M YK
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