03082019 - Worsening Insecurity: Suspected herdsmen kill Catholic priest in Enugu

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38—SATURDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 3, 2019 The Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on Chinese state-owned oil trading company for buying Iranian oil in violation of American ban. US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said that the company, Zhuhai Zhenrong, and its chief executive, Li Youmin, were violating U.S. restrictions on Iran’s oil sector. For the first time the Trump administration penalized a Chinese company for defying recent United States sanctions on Iranian oil exports. They are barred from engaging in foreign exchange, banking or property transactions under US jurisdiction. China’s foreign ministry responded by opposing the sanctions of China’s enterprises and individuals based on American domestic laws. China strongly condemned and firmly opposed sanctions on related Chinese companies by the US. Many had wondered whether the US could punish Chinese companies over sanctions breaches of Iranian oil purchase as both countries are locked on issues of trade war. China is the world’s number one oil importer and major buyer of Iranian oil. Zhuhai Zhenrong until recently was the only importer of Iranian crude to China since it was set up 25 years ago. On November 4, 2018, the United States slammed new sanctions on Iran, as President Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear deal agreed in 2015 between Iran and five permanent members of the Security Council; Britain, China, France, Russia, United States, plus Germany, P5+1 that aimed to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran exports about 1.1 million barrels of crude oil a day, was down from around 2.5 million barrels before the United States imposed sanctions in November. Washington’s decision was to bring rom the outset I need to stress that I Fhave nothing against the idea of a national or state title of the “First Lady.” But when early last month President Buhari’s wife, Aisha, announced that she had decided to dump the title of the “Wife of the President” to assume that of the nation’s First Lady, she triggered an alarm. Sincerely, she could be called anything, really, as she became the First Lady simply owing to the fact that her husband became Nigeria’s first citizen once he was inaugurated President of the Federal Republic. Yet, there is something terrible about that announcement. First, Aisha Buhari and her handlers and by extension, her husband’s administration, once again, betrayed a total lack of respect for Nigeria’s constitutional federalism. Second, her explanation that her title was causing confusion in the states— whether the governor’s wives were to be addressed as wives of the governors or First Ladies—was totally out of place even as it is an affront on the constitution as the states reserve the right to term the Governors’ wives whatever title they choose. The matter at hand here is not Abuja’s to decree but each state’s to treat as they choose. It depends on each state to call the wife of the governor The First Lady or the Mother or Aunt or Angel of that state. Under a federal constitution, the nonconstitutional office of the First Lady has no power to tell any state how to treat the wife of a governor or local government chairman. For those who may not like the office of the first lady, they should train their anger at former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his late wife, Stella, for they had the opportunity to reverse the first lady policy which the rather comely late Miriam Babangida brought to a new height, (or notoriety to some), but failed. How? Well, let me explain: To chart a new direction, Obasanjo first set up a highpowered committee, the Presidential Policy Advisory Committee (PPAC) headed by Lt. General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd). Characteristically, Obasanjo, a fanfareenchanted President, received the report amidst great ceremonies in April 1999, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, a month before his inauguration. He announced that day that a new dawn was just over the horizon, waiting for him to be sworn into office. Then he vowed he would run a lean government, have no First Sanctions backlash:Iranian oil in Chinese bonded storage Iranian oil exports to zero. The U.S. sanctions are meant to deny the regime its principal source of revenue by putting maximum pressure on Iran to withdraw its alleged destabilizing activities in the Middle East. The trade war between the two economic superpowers may indeed, last longer and could jointly drive global economic growth a lot lower When it announced these sanctions in November, the United States granted the Significant Reduction Exceptions waivers to China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey that allowed them to continue their purchases of crude from Iran. The waivers allowed them more time to make up for the loss of supplies from Iran by finding new markets in major oil-producing countries in the Middle East, West Africa and Russia. China which is the largest importer of Iranian oil buys about a third of Iran’s crude exports. China opposed the sanctions on the basis of unilateralism and long-arm jurisdiction. China which may have been put in situation of not having easy access to crude imports for its slowing economy defiantly went against the United States sanctions by not cutting off oil supplies from Iran. Iran is hoping on Chinese purchases to help its economy withstand US pressure. Iranian tankers appear to have loaded oil after the U.S. waivers ended with reports that Iranian oil cargo was first delivered to China in June. From Tanker trackers some Very Large Crude Carriers, VLCC discharged at Tianjin in early July after sailing from the Middle East. Iran-owned tankers including VLCC Stream discharged at Tianjin on June 19, while Amber, Salina and C. Infinity offloaded crude at the ports of First t Lady? I feel like screaming Lady but just a wife, who was barred from going with a convoy of cars and using sirens. Same too for his ministers, he said. That the Office of the First Lady existed under Yar’Adua and Jonathan as it did under Obasanjo, whose late wife, Stella, actually issued orders to the state governors’ wives to desist forthwith from going to the airports to personally welcome the Vice President’s wife, but must send the Deputy Governors’ wives instead, may not have had any direct effect on the economy but merely served as an example of pettiness on a grand scale. Yet, Stella Obasanjo did not explain the reason behind the order, but if she felt that it was against protocol for First Ladies in the States to extend the honours meant for her as the national First Lady to her deputy (?) who by all means and purposes was the Second Lady because she and her husband as well as their children made up the Second Family, she forgot that even the State Governors always went to the Airport to welcome a visiting Vice-President. If Stella’s supposed but ridiculous logic were to be extended even further, it would have meant that only the wife of a Speaker of a House of Assembly would be right in the perking order to welcome a visiting spouse of the Senate-President. But pray, who would then have needed to welcome the wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives? This is because while the centre has a bi-cameral legislature, the states have a uni-cameral one, and so while the Speaker was the Federal Government’s Fourth Citizen, the States’ Speakers real equivalent in Abuja is the Senate President and not the Speaker! But the states MUST NOT have offices equivalent to Abuja’s! The real point here is that though Nigeria operates a federal system whereby the states are the component parts, and elect their own governors independent of the president, all the states’ First Ladies’ obeyed Mrs. Obasanjo’s vanity-inspired and totally whimsical order. Yet, why did they not ignore her, especially as both hers and their offices were unknown to the Nigerian constitution? The answer is simply this: Nigeria neither practiced a true federalism nor true democracy; so any governor whose wife disdained the former President Obasanjo’s wife, disdained Obasanjo, and any who disdained the President, was inviting the wrath of the President on himself— and on Obasanjo rested the decision about who would continue in office, aspire to another office or simply end up in jail. Or he appropriated (misappropriated really) that emperor’s role. Also, on the President, especially under Obasanjo, rested the decision about who would be impeached, and the person would be impeached, even when the majority members of a given State House of Assembly fully backed their chief executive, he would be impeached nevertheless, as the impeachments effected in Plateau state (against the then Governor Joshua Dariye) and in Bayelsa (against then Governor D. S Peter Alamieyesiegha) showed. Now, this ill-thought out order could have raised a war whose genesis would never have been known to one of the belligerent sides. Any illdisposed wife of a state governor could have raised hostilities between the President and her own spouse if she, for cogent reasons, asked the wife of Huangdao, Jianzhou and Ningbo. Salina, which can carry more than a million barrels of crude oil, docked at Jianzhou Bay and unloaded on June 20. Since the ban on the purchase of Iranian oil by the United States in May, it was reported that millions of barrels of Iranian oil continued to flow into bonded storage tanks in Chinese ports for possible future use. The logic behind what is referred to as bonded storage is that such supplies do not cross Chinese customs or show up in the nation’s data of imports meaning that it is still owned by Iran since it is still in transit and in speculative contemplation. The interpretation is that it is not a breach of sanctions. But the bonded storage encourages Iran to produce more to build up supplies near the number one global oil buyer in the belief that one day sanctions would be over. Analysts believe that the store of oil has the potential to push down global prices if Chinese refiners decide to draw on it, even as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies in OPEC+ curb production as growth slows in major economic hubs. It also allows Iran to keep pumping and move oil nearer to potential buyers. Iranian crude in bonded storage tanks in China also means Iran can avoid having to tie up part of its tanker fleet by storing the oil at sea for months at a time. The Iranians used floating storage from 2012 to 2016 and again in 2018 when buyers shunned its crude due to U.S.- imposed trade restrictions. The overall oil market remains relatively well supplied, with some traders saying prices could fall sharply if China steps up purchases of Iranian crude. Last week data showed that China imported 855,638 tons in June, the equivalent of about 209,000 barrels a day. The US-China relationship is indeed complicated. The trade war between the two economic superpowers may indeed, last longer and could jointly drive global economic growth a lot lower. In December 2014, Muhammadu Buhari went on the record to say he would abolish, scrap or ban the office of the First Lady if he was elected as President, saying that it was unconstitutional the deputy-governor to represent her at the Airport ceremonies for a visiting First Lady Stella Obasanjo. Mrs. Stella Obasanjo was generally seen as unassuming, as opposed to over-bearing, as a First Lady, owing to this, she did not attract bad press as much as her two immediate successors did. Not even the report by human rights organisations that Mr. Orobosa Omo- Ojo, the publisher of the inconsequential Lagosbased Nigerian Midwest Herald newspaper, was arrested on Stella Obasanjo’s orders on May 2, 2005 and taken to Akure prison and that his arrest was prompted by an article the previous week about her, headlined “Greedy Stella,” made a dent on her genteel image. Now, why would the title Mrs Aisha Buhari, (of the other room’s fame) favoured in June 2019 make news? Answer: In December 2014, Muhammadu Buhari went on the record to say he would abolish, scrap or ban the office of the First Lady if he was elected as President, saying that it was unconstitutional. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which endorsed Buhari for the 2015 general elections, commended Buhari for his plans, when elected as President, to scrap the so-called ‘Office of the First Lady.’ MEND went on to say that the office of the first lady is obviously an irrelevant, fraudulent and unconstitutional office, whose only purpose is to further plunder the resources of the country. Poor MEND. Supporting Buhari’s policies come with the risk of what happens when Buhari does a policy somersault as he usually does. This is not just an example of a campaign promise not kept but touches on how deeply the Buharis think things through before pronouncing on them. Put differently; how much is their word their bond? Or has the Office of the First Lady become constitutional now? Next time, Mrs Aisha Buhari should respect Nigeria’s federalism and leave the governors’ wives out of what to call herself.
SATURDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 3, 2019—39 Setting agenda for the new Aviation Minister Stories by Lawani Mikairu s the nation waits anxiously for President AMuammadu Buhari to assign portfolio to his new ministers designates, there is urgent need to point out ongoing projects and projects that need immediate attention for the incoming Aviation Minister to concentrate on if the current efforts to reposition Nigeria aviation will yield positive results. The last Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika identified some airports that needed urgent repair work and rehabilitation. One of those airports is Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu. The new minister needs to immediately commence repair work on the airport because of its strategic importance to the South East geopolitical zone of the country. Enugu is seen as the economic gateway to the abundant economic opportunities in that zone of the country. Last Saturday, no commercial plane could land at the airport as the vital areas, including the runway, were flooded. It was 24 hours later that one of the two airlines currently flying to the airport, Air Peace, was able to conduct flight out of the airport. The other airline, Ethiopia Airline, did not operate any flight into and out of the airport. The Enugu Airport has been in state of disrepair with very bumpy runway that is hazardous to smooth takeoff and landing of aircraft. This has posed operational risk, with many airlines, especially the foreign airlines refusing to use the airport except Ethiopian Airline that does few trips a week to the airport. This problem came to the fore when Sirika threatened in May this year to downgrade the airport and even shut it down. He said while addressing his 6th Aviation Stakeholders forum in Lagos that the present condition of the airport cannot be allowed to continue. According to him, the runway needs to be completely rehabilitated and not the current weekly remedial job being done there.”Like Abuja Airport, we need to close down the Enugu Airport and overhaul the runway. What we have been doing there is monthly maintenance of the runway which goes bad immediately a week later. We cannot continue wasting money there. So we will close down the airport for a period of time and overhaul the runway”, he said. Sirika further said foreign airlines were reluctant to go to Enugu because the runway ermit me to drag President PMuhammadu Buhari into soccer once again. I trust that his top aide, Femi Adesina, will draw PMB’s attention to this and do the needful since the NFF may not be willing to invite Emmanuel Amuneke. Gernot Rohr has won his own World Cup with the Eagles, a bronze, at the Egypt 2019 Africa Nations Cup and should be encouraged to wander across our borders to continue his trade. Definitely, this man’s best is not good enough for Nigerian football. Amuneke should be invited as Rohr’s replacement. This prophet must be honoured in his own home. And it can only take a Presidential directive to realize this. Sure, in times of crisis, Mr. President can call the NFF to order. We must applaud Amuneke for taking the Taifa Stars to a second Nations Cup appearance after 39 years. And the former Eagles winger and African Footballer of the year must not be judged by Tanzania’s Egypt 2019 outing. Critics must not overlook the fact that Tanzania played alongside Algeria, Senegal and Kenya in Group C. The Desert Foxes and Teranga Lions advanced to the grand finale. The import is that Amuneke found his team in a very tough group. The same Algeria, conquerors of the Super Eagles in the semi finals, defeated Tanzania 3-0. Senegal had earlier beaten the Nigerians in a tuneup just before the Nations Cup. My take is that Amuneke has what it takes to lead the Eagles. If Didier Deschamps, who won the Russia 2019 World Cup with France, had taken the Tanzanians to Egypt, he would not have achieved a better result. The Taifa Stars have no big names playing anywhere outside Africa and they were on their way out of the qualifiers until Amuneke joined them very late in 2017. They made it, beating already qualified Uganda 3-0 at home. was not very safe for flight operations. According to him, “there is a market at the end of the airport runway. There is also a telecommunication mast there and on the other end of the runway, there is a free trade zone. An abattoir is also located within the airport vicinity which attracts birds. The airport is currently not safe for flight operations .” “We are going to downgrade the airport to a local or domestic airport from its present international status. Our huge investment in the new terminal there is not yielding the desired returns in terms of patronage. We have engaged the Enugu State government several times and they promised to bring down the mast and remove all other identified obstacles, but this has not been done. I have visited the airport in recent times more than five times. We cannot continue to do remedial work there. We need to take drastic decisions and drastic measures,” Sirika added. Some of the conditions the then minister listed for the State government to meet before the commencement of rehabilitation work by the federal government have been met by the current Enugu State governor. The new aviation minister therefore needs to commence the facelift of the airport. There is also an urgent need to commence the reconstruction of the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos terminal building as the airport is the most viable among all the airports in the country. According to the last aviation minister, “the proposed reconstruction was a fall-out of a comprehensive study carried out by construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited. Besides the comprehensive study, airlines and other users of the terminal have over the years canvassed the overhaul and expansion of the facility.” The minister further said that the Lagos airport which was inaugurated in “ 1979 for 300,000 passengers capacity now process about Eight million passengers. Such mismatch does not portray Nigeria as a country planning for the growth of its aviation industry.” “The airport generates most of the income, so it is only right we give it a facelift it requires. It is incumbent on government to give attention to MMIA as the busiest airport in the country, which should be developed as a regional hub within Africa and other parts of the world. It is part of government plan to develop an aerotropolis, where airports play key roles as enablers of economic development”, he added Similarly, the new minister has to identify and complete the rest of the 157 projects which Sirika said were embarked upon in the last Four years. Sirika explained that 134 of the 157 projects were 100% completed. He also NCAT commences OND, HND courses igerian College of Aviation NTechnology,NCAT, Zaria has commenced courses leading to the award of Ordinary National Diploma (OND), Higher National Diploma (HND) and Post Graduate Diploma into various fields of academy. Admission is currently ongoing into the various courses. Capt. Abdulsalami Mohammed, the Rector of the college who disclosed this while addressing journalists in Lagos said that the essence of the programmes was to improve the academic knowledge of professionals in the sector. According to Mohammed, NCAT had sought and received accreditation from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for the legitimate awards of the programmes, before the commencement of sale of forms for the programme. For OND, he explained that the college was running courses on Electrical/Electronics Engineering Technology, Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Technology, while for HND, admissions were available for Aviation Management, Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Technology (Avionics option) and Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Technology (Airframe/Power Plant Option). Besides, he stated that the college was also offering PGD in Aviation Management (full time), which would be held in Zaria, Kaduna State, while the part-time of the programme would hold in Lagos. He said: “We are introducing the OND, HND and PDG programmes to interested candidates, especially those already in aviation in order to increase their knowledge Buhari: Fire Rohr ohr, , hire Amuneke! e! And we must realize that the Tanzanians have the funny luck of being put in a very tough group at the Nations Cup. During their debut in 1980, they were in Lagos Group A with eventual winners, Green Eagles of Nigeria. Amuneke is looking up and one must not wash away his pedigree. He is the second Nigerian to take another country to the Nations Cup. Stephen Keshi did it with Togo and later with Mali. Big boss capped it all when he took the Eagles to cup glory in 2013. Without taking anything away from the great Keshi, I think he was better placed than Amuneke . Togo and Mali are miles ahead of Tanzania in soccer. And their records speak volumes. Togo produced Emmanuel Adebayor, one time African Footballer of the Year. When an Africa Selected side took part in a championship in Latin America in 1972, the team had a Togolese, Mathis , as Coach. And one of the players, Sylvester, was his compatriot. As far back as 1968, Etoile Filante of Togo lost in the finals of the CAF Champions League [then known as the Africa Cup of Champion clubs], to TP Englebert of Congo Democratic Republic. That was also the year Nigeria debuted through Stationery Stores Lagos who could not go beyond the quarter finals. They lost to Moroccan army team, FAR. Mali boast of a bunch of superstars. Frederic Kounate, became the first player born outside the continent to win the African Footballer of the year award, in 2007. He also played for one of the big teams in Spain, Seville. Seydou Keita was part of the Malian Under -20 squad that won bronze at the Nigeria ’99 FIFA Under-20 championships. The Flying Eagles got nothing. Keita later won the UEFA Champions League with Barcelona. His uncle, Salif Keita, remains one of the first set of Africans to play professional soccer in Europe. The younger Keita did better than his uncle in France, gaining prominence with Marseille and Lorient before joining Seville, Spain. Malian clubs went continental before Nigeria. In the first CAF Champions League final, 1965,Stade Malien, lost 2-1 to Oryx Douala. In 1966, Real Bamako, fell to Stade Abidjan. The Malian national team, Eagles, won an Afcon medal before Nigeria. In 1972, Mali lost 3-2 in the grand finale to Congo after gaining a 1-0 advantage in the first half. Ever before the Eagles picked their only All Africa Games in 1973, Mali had played in the grand finale of the First All Africa Games, Brazzaville ’65. The match with Congo ended goalless before the hosts won 7-2 penalties. Presently, the Malian Under-20 boys are African champions. And the lads revealed that of the “remaining projects, 14% were above 50% completion while 13% are below 50% complete giving an 80% delivery rate of the projects set about” . The cry by domestic airline operators that the Federal Government should stop granting multiple destinations to foreign airlines operating in Nigeria should be urgently looked into by the new minister as that has been identified as one of the factors militating against the growth of domestic airlines in the country. Local airlines market has almost been taken over by these foreign airlines. Aviation stakeholders and experts were unanimous in their view that the Nigeria aviation was yet to attain international standard, not because solutions to the problem were not known but the will to implement the solutions by those at the helms of affairs in the aviation ministry and parastatals was lacking. What the new minister should avoid is setting up panels and committees to identify the aviation sector problems . Numerous panels and committees have done this in the past with multiple findings and solutions not implemented. The new minister should simply call for the reports of the various committees set up under different aviation ministers and implement those that can fasten the growth of Nigeria aviation sector. and exposure. Just as you are aware, education is the bedrock of any society. “All the courses will take place in Zaria, except the PDG, which has both full time and part time. We decided to bring the part time programme to Lagos in order to attract aviation professionals more. We discovered that most of them were working and their tight schedules may not permit them to run such a programme in Zaria. So, we brought it closer to them in Lagos. “The only difference in it and the full time is just a semester. For the full time, a student will complete the programme in two semesters, while for the part time, it is just in three semesters. We hope that this programme will further increase the knowledge of aviation professionals in the industry and will enhance professionalism.” gave a good account of themselves by defeating Argentina at the world championships. The Flying Eagles could not go beyond the opening round. So in comparing Keshi with Amuneke, if we really have to do that, one must agree that the teams they handled differ in so many ways, with Tanzania falling short of any achievement whatsoever. Even in East Africa, the Tanzanians are no giants. Although like Nigeria, their CAF Champions League debut was in 1968 [through Cosmopolitan], they are not as strong as their brothers, Kenya and Uganda. Kenya’s Gor Mahia won the Africa Winners Cup in 1987, after defeating Esperance, Tunisia. Gor had lost in the finals of the same competition, to Canon Sportif of Cameroon in 1979. Uganda’s Simba lost to Hafia, Guinea in the finals of the 1972 Champions League. Nakivubo Villa did the same in 1991 to Club Africain, Tunisia. In 1992, Villa slumped to Shooting Stars, Ibadan in the maiden CAF Cup. Harambee Stars played in the final of the Kenya ’87 All Africa Games. Cranes of Uganda were grand finalists at the Ghana ’78 Nations Cup, after stopping the Green Eagles. Taifa Stars have no pedigree. Amuneke, born on Christmas Day in 1970, could not perform a miracle with Tanzania. As a player, he won the CAF Champions League with Zamalek of Egypt. He is also the first Nigerian to join world giants, Barcelona. Amuneke won the FIFA Under-20 championships as Eaglets coach in 2015. We must not go for another million-dollar gulping foreigner. We have a coach, ready-made and home bred.
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03082019 - Worsening Insecurity: Suspected herdsmen kill Catholic priest in Enugu

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