17062019 - Parents now afraid to send children to school — UNICEF

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2019—9
Nigeria, world’s 16th least
peaceful country —Report
NIGERIA is the 16th
least peaceful country
in the world, according to
the 2019 edition of Global
Peace Index, GPI. At 148 of
163 countries, the most
populous black nation
retained its position in the
previous year, even though
its score rose by 0.025, from
2.873 in 2018 to 2.898 in
2019.
The report “measures the
state of peace using three
thematic domains: the level
of Societal Safety and
Security; the extent of
Ongoing Domestic and
International Conflict; and
the degree of militarisation.
“The GPI covers 99.7 per
cent of the world’s
population, using 23
qualitative and quantitative
indicators from highly
respected sources.”
Iceland and New
Zealand retained their
positions as the first and
second most peaceful
countries respectively,
while Portugal dethroned
Austria to take the third
position.
Syria went from being the
least peaceful to second
least peaceful while
Afghanistan went one
place down to being the
least peaceful country.
According to the report,
produced by Institute for
Economics and Peace IEP,
Ukraine, Sudan, Egypt,
North Macedonia and
Rwanda showed the
largest improvements in
peace in 2019.
Like in 2018, Nigeria
ranked 40 out of 44
countries in Sub-Saharan
Africa, with Mauritius
topping the list, while
South Sudan was ranked
the least.
“Although the number of
countries suffering from
internal conflicts increased,
the number of deaths
decreased due to a lower
level of intensity in conflicts
in Syria, Ukraine and
Nigeria,” it read.
“The impacts of a lack of
water has also affected
conflict dynamics in
Nigeria. Lake Chad, a
major source of fishing and
farming livelihoods, lost 90
per cent of its surface area
in the past 40 years due to
climate change and
environmental
mismanagement. Resultant
unemployment and related
food insecurity contributed
to Boko Haram’s successful
recruitment of unemployed
youths in the area.”
While it said peacefulness
increased slightly, the
organisation added that the
2019 GPI showed “conflicts
and crises that emerged in
the past decade remain
unresolved.”
Fathers' Day: Women‘re
created equal to men
—Osinbajo
By Johnbosco
Agbakwuru
A President
BUJA—VICE
Yemi
Osinbajo, yesterday, advised
men not to treat women,
especially their wives, as
subordinate, saying women
were created equal to men.
The vice president gave the
advice while speaking to
State House correspondents
after celebrating this year’s
Fathers’ Day at Aso Villa
Chapel, Abuja.
Osinbajo was joined at the
service by his aged mother,
Mrs.
Olubisi
Osinbajo;Deputy President
of the Senate, Ovie Omo-
Agege; Secretary to the
Government of the
Federation, Mr. Boss
Mustapha, among others.
He said: “I think the
responsibility of the father is
incredible indeed and I think
what is most important is to
teach our men, young men
growing up, that they must
honour women, not just their
wives.
“Of course, you must
honour and love your wives,
but I think that it is very
important that we honour
women. We don’t treat them
as subordinate to us; they are
created equal to men.
“But most importantly, we
must honour them and
recognise their role as
partners, not just in families,
but in society as well.”
Osinbajo said men have
important roles to play in the
society, stressing that it was
not the ability to have a child
that made a man father.
Also speaking, Deputy
President of the Senate, Ovie
Omo-Agege, who earlier
took the 1st Bible Reading
of the service from Malachi
1:3-6, said “it is not what we
tell our children, but the lives
we lead and they see us lead
that is important in the life of
fathers.’’
INEC server controversy: Atiku denies
planning street protest
•INEC proposes constitution amendment to limit number
of political parties;•Kicks against guerrilla primaries
By Omeiza Ajayi
& Dirisu Yakubu
THE runner-up in
February’s presidential
election, Atiku Abubakar, has
denied planning to lead a
street protest over the
controversy surrounding the
election result.
This came on a day
Independent National
Electoral Commission,
INEC, lamented what it
described as the growing
number of ‘commercial’
platforms masquerading as
political parties, saying it
would be proposing
alterations to constitutional
provisions regarding
registration and deregistration
of political
parties in the country as well
as timelines for filing some
pre-election cases.
Abubakar, who contested
the election on the platform
of Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, is challenging the
victory of President
Muhammadu Buhari of the
All Progressives Congress,
APC, at the election tribunal.
One of his main grounds
of contesting the result is
that the officially declared
result is different from that
on the computer server of
INEC, which the electoral
commission has denied.
In a statement by his
spokesperson, Paul Ibe,
yesterday, Atiku Abubakar
said reports he was
planning to lead a protest on
the matter was false.
The statement read: "I wish
to emphatically state that
such a statement did not
emanate from Atiku
Abubakar or his privies. It is
the work of mischief makers,
who want to mar his spotless
pro-democratic record and
lay the ground work for their
threatened actions against
him on false charges of being
a threat to national security.
"For the avoidance of doubt,
Atiku Abubakar believes in
the Rule of Law and in the
Labour rejects planned sale of NIGCOMSAT,
petitions Buhari
By Victor
Ahiuma-Young
SENIOR Staff Association
of Statutory Corporations
and Government Owned
Companies, SSASCGOC,
has rejected plans by the
Federal Government to sell
Nigeria Communication
Satellite Company,
NIGCOMSAT.
In a petition to President
Muhammadu Buhari, the
union expressed shock over
the plan to sell off
NIGCOMSAT to private
individuals, and called on the
Bureau of Public Enterprise,
BPE, to halt all process in the
interest of the nation.
In the petition, entitled,
“The proposed sale of Nigeria
Communications Satellite
Company: A call for caution,”
VISIT: From left, Segun Opeke, Directorate, Head, Polaris Bank, Lagos Business; Dr. Obafemi
Hamzat, Lagos State Deputy Governor; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State; Muhammed
Ahmad, Chairman, Polaris Bank, and Tokunbo Abiru, Managing Director/CEO, Polaris Bank, when
the bank's leadership paid a visit to the governor and his deputy at Lagos House, Marina,weekend.
the union contended that
NIGCOMSAT, a
government company
created via the Company and
Allied Matters Act, was
established on April 4, 2016
by the previous
administration.
SASCGOC in the petition
signed by its President
General, Mohammed
Yunusa, and its General
Secretary, Ayo Olorunfemi,
reminded President Buhari
that the agency was created
due to the need for critical
national infrastructure for
security communication to
bridge digital drive and for
digital/financial inclusion for
large rural Nigeria.
The petition read: “As a
responsible union, we do
acknowledge the fact that
NIGCOMSAT is yet to
realize its full potentials. We
equally know as a matter of
fact that selling it to private
individual or company cannot
be a solution and will not be
in the interest of the country.
“It is sad that the Federal
Government of Nigeria has
refused to fortify
NIGCOMSAT Limited
through an enabling Act,
mandating all Ministries,
Agencies and Departments,
MDAs, to procure satellite
services from NIGCOMSAT
Limited.
‘’The government instead,
went ahead to create Galaxy
Backbone, thereby
compounding the situation.
Galaxy Backbone was
created and mandated by
law to provide internet
services to all ministries
and agencies of
government across the
country."
laws of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. In his almost four
decades in politics, he has
never taken action or spoken
words against democracy
and will not start now."
INEC proposes
constitution
amendment to limit
number of political
parties
Meanwhile, INEC has
lamented what it described
as the growing number of
‘commercial’ platforms
masquerading as political
parties, saying it would be
proposing alterations to
constitutional provisions
regarding registration and
de-registration of political
parties in the country as well
as timelines for filing some
preelection cases.
The electoral umpire also
announced the registration of
Nigeria’s 93rd political party,
Boot Party, through the
instrumentality of the court,
having initially declined to
register the political
association.
The commission described
most of the political platforms
as “commercial platforms for
hire” in apparent reference
to the manner in which tens
of political parties usually
pledged their allegiances to
either of Nigeria’s two major
political parties, APC and
PDP.
INEC National
Commissioner in charge of
Information and Voter
Education, Mr Festus
Okoye, who disclosed these
during the state-level review
of the 2019 general elections
in Makurdi, weekend, said:
“Nigerians must engage in
root and branch review of the
number of registered parties
in Nigeria.
‘’The presence of too many
political parties on our ballot
papers has in some instances
confused some of our
compatriots that are not well
endowed in literacy. It has
bloated the ballot papers and
result sheets and trucking
them to the polling units has
become a logistics
nightmare."
Flawed, opaque,
guerrilla primaries
The commission also
faulted political parties for
conducting opaque and
flawed primaries, which
were at the root of the
myriads of pre-election
matters in various courts.
He said: “The commission
believes that the conduct of
opaque and flawed party
primaries is at the root of the
plethora of pre-election
matters pending in various
courts.
‘’The commission has
issued Certificates of Return
in some cases based on court
orders, withdrawn
Certificates of Return based
on court orders , restored
withdrawn Certificates of
Return based on court orders
and withdrew the said
certificates again based on
court orders."
New framework
“The commission will
design, and test run a new
framework for the monitoring
of primaries of political
parties. The commission will,
henceforth, tie the
acceptance of the list of
candidates of political parties
emanating from party
primaries to the
authentication of the results
of the outcome of the said
primaries.
‘’In other words, the
commission will not accept
the list of nominated
candidates that are at
variance with the clear
intendment of section 87 of
the Electoral Act. The
commission, therefore,
supports the proposition that
any political party intending
to conduct party primaries
shall publish in two national
newspapers the date, venue
and time for the conduct of
the said primaries.