The Christian Association of Nigeria, for the umpteenth time, dissociated itself from the unveiling of the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kashim Shettima.
According to CAN, those who were presented as church leaders and Bishops were “unknown clerics.”
CAN made the clarification in a statement by its General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, in Abuja on Thursday, titled, “Stop impersonating us, CAN tells politicians.”
He said, “We are shocked, disappointed and worried about the desperation of some politicians who once claimed Christians do not matter in governance and politics but went to hire some unknown ‘bishops, pastors and priests’ to impersonate the leadership of CAN in their political meeting.
“This is totally unacceptable, reprehensible, unprecedented and ungodly. If they are saying Christians have no electoral values, why impersonating them in their meetings? We are throwing their principals and sponsors into the court of conscience.
“These actions of theirs have shown who they are to the public and what they are capable of doing to us all.
“We are asking political parties not to ignore religious sensibilities and sensibilities of the people, especially in today’s Nigeria, when Christians are becoming endangered species daily.
“Our quest is within the constitutional requirements and ignoring it is like trampling on the Constitution especially the Federal Character Act.
“At the fullness of time, we will direct our members nationwide on how to use their Permanent Voters Cards come 2023.”
The Director-General, National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Muhammad Fadah, on Thursday commiserated with the families of two corps members that lost their lives in a ghastly motor accident on their way back home to Kaduna State.
They were said to be returning home after the 2022 Batch “B” Stream One Orientation Course in Adamawa State.
A statement signed by NYSC Director, Press and Public Relations, Eddy Megwa, said the deceased was on relocation from Adamawa to Kano State before the unfortunate accident occured along Zaria/Kano highway after their registration in Kano. اسرار لعبة الروليت
Speaking during his condolence visits to the bereaved families in Kaduna on Thursday, Fadah commended the patriotic spirit of the deceased corps members who paid the supreme sacrifice while serving their fatherland.
The Director-General also visited the other two corps members that survived the accident but receiving treatment at the 44 Military Hospital in Kaduna. قانون البوكر
The NYSC DG prayed for their quick recovery adding that the Scheme would do everything possible to put smiles on their faces.
Fadah commended the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Colonel N. S. Onuchukwu and his staff for providing adequate medicare for the hospitalized corps members.
The CMD assured the Director General that the hospital would do everything possible to ensure that the injured corps members receive prompt and necessary medical attention.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, has said 61,446 civil servants from various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies have been verified on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.
She also said 3,657 civil servants have so far been reported to the Independent and Corrupt Practices and related offenses Commission for prosecution over failure to get verified on the platform.
Yemi-Esan revealed this to State House Correspondents on Thursday during the 43rd session of the State House Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
According to Yemi-Esan, at least 1,618 applicants floated illegal or fake letters as 874 officers have so far been suspended from the IPPIS platform.
She also disclosed that the government saves about N180m monthly and about N2bn annually by implementing IPPIS.
The HoS boasted that IPPIS can incorporate the salaries of striking university lecturers.
However, the lecturers under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, have been on strike since February 14, 2022.
ASUU had rejected IPPIS in favour of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution which, according to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has met only one of the three major criteria on its integrity tests.
The Industrial Training Fund and other stakeholders in the labour sector have said that Nigeria should make the best out of her rising population through a skilled workforce.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria also further tasked the ITF to leverage on the available €3 million grant to produce more skilled workers in Nigeria.
It noted that the desire of the ITF and other critical stakeholders in the labour sector to have a productive population came during a public hearing session on a bill seeking for amendment of the ITF Act, organised by the Senate Committee on Industries.
The bill sponsored by the ITF and given legislative acceleration by Senator Sa’idu Alkali, was seeking to widen the scope of operations of the training agency regarding provision of skills training in management for technical and entrepreneurial development in the public and private sectors of the economy.
In his presentation at the public hearing, the Director-General of the ITF, Dr Joseph Ari said, ”Amendments being sought through this bill will serve to expand the scope of our operations and enhance our activities.
“In addition, the amendments are imperative now that unemployment in Nigeria has been estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics that Unemployment and Underemployment Report of Quarter four, 2020, to be over 23 million Nigerians despite several surveys indicating the existence of vacancies in several sectors of the national economy that could not be filled because of the lack of requisite skills, which underscores the need for all hands to be on deck to ensure that as many Nigerians as possible are equipped with relevant and contemporary skills.
“The amendments are equally pertinent when you consider the recently released 2022 World Population Prospects by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs that projected that Nigeria’s population will hit 216 million by November 2022, and 375 million by 2050.
“Therefore, if necessary measures are not put in place by empowering the youths with skills for employability and entrepreneurship, the socio-economic problems that we are currently contending with in the country will conceivably escalate.
“An amendment of the Act will enable the Fund to expand its infrastructure to be able to accommodate as many Nigerians as possible that are willing to acquire skills for the national growth and development of the country.”
Supporting the proposed legislation, the President of MAN, Mansur Ahmed, represented by the Abuja Laision Officer, Adeyemi Folorunsho, said the ITF should further be empowered through the passage of the proposed bill.
According to him, in a recent conference on skills and vocational training across the countries in Africa, the ITF was proposed to be the flagship of such training which are to be facilitated by a €3 million grant.
Other stakeholders like the Trade Union Congress, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, the Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, etc, in their separate presentations, threw their weights behind the amendment bill proposal.
While closing, the Chairman of the Committee, the lawmaker representing Lagos East, Senator Adetokunbo Abiru, said the amendments being sought in the ITF Act were very necessary towards making Nigeria move with global trends as far as globally competitive skills training were concerned.
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, said on Wednesday that the recent total National Grid Collapse is too much for the Nigerian people to bear, saying it is becoming embarrassing.
Atiku while stressing that the grid collapse on Wednesday is the 6th time it has happened in 2022, proposed an advanced strategy for funding infrastructure which will lead to creating a conducive environment for investors to come in and stabilise the power sector.
“Due to the priority that I place on the power sector upon which the successes of other sectors are hinged, I am proposing innovative financing of infrastructure that will involve the facilitation of a review of the financial, legal, and regulatory environment to promote private investment in power, among other sectors.
“I’ll promote the incentivisation, with tax breaks, a consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all the sectors of the economy.
“The IDF will have an initial investment capacity of approximately US$20 billion,” Atiku promised.
Additionally, the PDP Presidential candidate said he will cause the creation of an Infrastructure Development Credit Guarantee Agency to complement the operation of the IDF by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova
Maria Zakharova said that the main reason for the lack of such contacts is the destructive policy of US President Joe Biden’s administration, “which set the defeat of Russia in Ukraine as its goal”
Moscow and Washington have no contacts on Ukraine, all discussion of the topic is reduced to technical issues, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
“There are no official Russian-American contacts on Ukraine. Technical issues are discussed at the level of our diplomatic missions, embassies in Moscow and Washington. These are technical problems and issues,” she said.
Zakharova said that the main reason for the lack of such contacts is the destructive policy of US President Joe Biden’s administration, “which set the defeat of Russia in Ukraine as its goal.”
“The American administration has forbidden its Kiev underlings to even think about negotiations with us, forcing us to fight to the last Ukrainian. Accordingly, under these conditions, how can we talk to the United States of America? Then they will have to accept and acknowledge reality on the ground. But for now there is no point. We proceed from the actions, statements and concrete steps that the United States is taking in this direction,” the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Thursday revealed that only 378,639 of the 1,761,338 who wrote the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations scored 200 and above.
This was disclosed by the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, during the 2022 policy meeting.
JAMB had earlier revealed that an Ekiti indigene attained the highest score during the 2022 UTME examinations conducted by the board.
While giving further statistics of the 2022 examination, Oloyede noted that 378,639 scored above 200; a total of 520,596 candidates scored 190 and above; 704,991 scored 180 and above; 934,103 scored 170 and above; 1,192, 057 scored 160 and above.
Speaking further, Oloyede noted that the board allowed candidates awaiting results to register for the 2022 UTME.
“JAMB allowed awaiting results candidates to register and sit for the 2022 UTME. These candidates can’t be considered for admission on awaiting result status. They must present their O’level results on the board’s portal before the commencement of admissions”.
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, Wednesday, disclosed that over N80 billion has been expended on the establishment of King David University of Medical Sciences located in Uburu, Ebonyi State.
The goverrnor,speaking during a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, in Abuja, also solicited for a take-off fund for the university.
“We are soliciting for take off fund. That university; we have sunk over N80 billion in it. If it is done by any other agency, I am sure that N150 billion cannot do it. I am not boasting about that,” he said.
He also stated that his reason for the visit was to congratulate the executive secretary for the new job which was based on his exemplary job to the country, adding that his appointment as the TETFund boss will bring huge transformation to the Fund.
“I am here to congratulate my brother for there promotion based on the job he has done for the country and to thank him for the exemplary public service.
“Whenever you call him, he picks and it is not because I am governor. The ordinary people are passing through a lot of challenges and if they can’t get, at least, they should get hope and the only way they can get hope is when you respond to them because you are answerable to them.
“I say to him to do everything he can to fast track projects because of the issue of prices in the market and he has started to address that and I am very happy about that,”he said.
The governor,”Having work in the ministry of works, I know it is top priority for him. There is no price that is constant in this country within the period of 60 days so since he has started, it means we will definitely succeed.”
“I am also here to thank him for the work he is doing in the new seven universities, which one is in my state. The President graciously named the university after me. I am here to say thank you to him. We also have interventions for the university.
“Before I could ask,the executive secretary had written a letter requesting that the university come up with proposal. That is how it ought to be. Before now, you have to beg and wait and the project of one year, will take up to two years. It shouldn’t be so. I am very happy with what they are doing for us and what they will still do for us,” he said.
Responding, the executive secretary commended the governor for the many transformation he has brought to the state, adding that the governor has become a standard bearer for measuring public service.
“I want to make bold to say that the executive governor of Ebonyi State is one governor the whole country is proud of,seeing the transformation that has taken place in the state. We all know what the state was in years of its standing, both within the Southeast and even the entire country. That’s one of the disadvantaged states in terms of infrastructure and educational facilities.
“But with the transformation that we witnessed under the leadership of his excellency, everybody is taken a cue. It has become a standard bearer for measuring public service and even the delivery of the dividend of democracy as it is captured,”he added.
He added that the president was impressed with the structure put in place by the governor in the new Medical Sciences University.
President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce his plan to reduce gun crime, outlining during a trip to Pennsylvania how his administration would spend the $37 billion in his 2023 budget request to “support law enforcement and crime prevention,” according to a White House fact sheet and senior administration officials.
Biden’s “Safer America Plan” details for the first time how the funding in his 2023 fiscal year budget proposal would be used to fight crime. The proposal, which does not include an allocation of existing funding, still requires congressional approval.
The proposed plan, according to the officials and fact sheet, would help police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 police officers, invest $3 billion to clear court backlogs, establish a new $15 billion grant program for cities and states over the next decade to help them prevent violent crime and “ease the burden on police officers by identifying non-violent situations that may merit a public health response or other response.” It would also invest an additional $5 billion in community violence intervention programs.
Additionally, the plan aims to take “additional commonsense steps” to reduce the proliferation of firearms through proposals, including increasing funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and urging Congress to pass legislation to strengthen background checks and ban assault weapons.
During his Thursday remarks, Biden will drive a “clear contrast” with congressional Republicans as he outlines how he and Democrats have “funded the police and taken action to fight crime while congressional Republicans have opposed these efforts at every turn,” according to one senior administration official.
The people of Ebem Ohafia Ancient Kingdom have rolled out warm tributes to Hon. Chief Ibe Okwara Osonwa, Member representing Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency in...
