Supreme Court: PDP to protest at EU, AU Abuja embassies today
The leadership and other critical stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party will on Tuesday (today) protest at the embassies of the European Union and the African Union in Abuja.
The protest will involve members of the PDP National Working Committee, the Board of Trustees, other national leadership, members of the National Assembly, and other stakeholders, according to a statement on Monday by the PDP National Organising Secretary, Col Austin Akobundu (retd.), titled, ‘Protest to EU and AU embassies.’
He said the protest, which was planned to be peaceful and non-violent, would take off by 10 am at the party’ complex in Maitama, Abuja.
Recall that the PDP leadership and members had protested at the Abuja embassies of the United States, United Kingdom and some states in Nigeria against the January 14 judgment of the Supreme Court which sacked the 2019 Imo State PDP governorship candidate, Chief Emeka Ihedioha and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Hope Uzodinma, as the duly elected governor of the state.
Akobundu said, “In continuation of our protests as ordered by National Executive Committee, the National Chairman (Uche Secodnus) has directed that all members of the NWC, BOT, leadership and members of the National Assembly, and other critical stakeholders of our great party will be presenting our petitions to the Embassies of the European Union and African Union on the state of affairs in the country.”
BREAKING: Senate Suspends Plenary For Ignatius Longjan
The Senate on Tuesday suspended its plenary and all legislative activities in honour of the late Senator Ignatius Longjan.
Longjan, who represented Plateau South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, died at Turkish Hospital, Abuja, on Sunday.
The Leader of the Senate, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, shortly after the resumption of the plenary, moved a motion for the suspension of the plenary and the motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.
The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, who presided over the plenary also announced that the red chamber would dedicate tomorrow’s plenary to the late Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu, who died in December last year.
Omo-Agege urged his colleagues to dress either in white or black for the valedictory session in honour of the former representative of the Imo North Senatorial District, which would hold by 10 am.
Details later…
LASEMA monitors coronavirus, Lassa fever
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency LASEMA says it is closely monitoring the outbreak of hemorrhagic fevers to prevent an epidemic in the state.
The Director-General of LASEMA, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Lagos.
He said, “These epidemics which have posed global and local emergency health threats have fueled the preparedness plan of LASEMA,” Oke-Osanyintolu said.
Oke-Osanyintolu said that in order to achieve LASEMA’s response, the agency had to collaborate with the Ministry of Health and Primary Health Care Board of the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas to prevent the epidemic on the global and domestic fronts.
Coronavirus: UK declares virus serious threat, confirms another case
Britain on Monday declared coronavirus a serious and imminent threat to public health.
Britain’s health ministry said it had introduced new measures aimed at delaying or preventing further transmission of the virus.
“We are strengthening our regulations so we can keep individuals in supported isolation for their own safety and if public health professionals consider they may be at risk of spreading the virus to other members of the public,” a health ministry spokesman said.
Arrowe Park Hospital, near Liverpool in northern England, and Kents Hill Park, in Milton Keynes, have been designated as isolation facilities.
Meanwhile, a staff member at a British doctors’ practice in the southern English city of Brighton has tested positive for coronavirus, the BBC reports.
The County Oak Medical Centre has been temporarily closed down, the BBC reported. It did not cite sources.
Recently, health officials said a case of coronavirus had been identified in Brighton and they were working to prevent any further spread.
A message left at the medical centre’s phone says, “Unfortunately, the building has had to close due to an urgent operational health and safety reason.”
A British man who has not been identified tested positive for coronavirus in Brighton on February 6 after travelling to Singapore. He has since been taken to St. Thomas’s Hospital in London.
He stayed in a ski chalet in the French ski resort of Les Contamines-Montjoie where five British nationals and a child have been diagnosed with the virus.
Ighalo Makes Man United Squad For Chelsea Clash On Monday
Odion Ighalo will be in the Manchester United squad for the Premier League clash with Chelsea next Monday despite missing a training camp in Spain due to fears he could be denied re-entry into Britain if restrictions against the outbreak of Coronavirus are tightened.
The 30-year-old Nigerian international striker joined United on loan until the end of the season on deadline day last month from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.
The British government called the novel coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat”, and said anyone with the disease can now be forcibly quarantined if they are deemed a threat to public health as the number of cases in Britain doubled to eight.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak surged past 1,000 on Tuesday.
Most cases overseas have involved people who had been in Wuhan, the quarantined central Chinese city where the virus emerged late last year or people infected by others who had been at the epicentre.
United said Saturday in a statement that Ighalo had been left out of the Spain squad to avoid any potential problems related to the killer virus on re-entry to Britain.
However, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told the club’s website Ighalo will be in the squad for a match that could have a crucial bearing on who finishes in the top four this term and qualifies for the Champions League next season.
“Yeah, he is going to travel with us,” said Solskjaer.
“We will just see his fitness work this week and I think we will get him sharp.
“We want to integrate him as quickly as we can because, of course, he is desperate to play for us.”
Ighalo, who has played his club football in China for the past three years after joining Changchun Yatai from Watford, was signed as emergency cover for the injured Marcus Rashford.
Chelsea presently occupies the fourth and final Champions League spot and are six points clear of eighth-placed United.
The other three Champions League places look destined for Liverpool, Manchester City and third-placed Leicester, who have a 10 point advantage over fifth-placed Sheffield United and a game in hand to boot.
(AFP)
Fire razes Atakumosa central market in Osun
Goods worth millions of naira have been destroyed as a result of a fire outbreak in Atakumosa central market, Adeti, Ilesha in Osun state.
The fire which started around 1 am affected several shops located at the entrance of the market but was later put out through the combined efforts of the Police and firemen.
Speaking with Punch correspondent, Mr Fatai Aremu the Osun State Fire Service administrative office says, despite the early response to the call, barriers at the entrance of the affected shops did not allow the firemen access.
At the time of filling this report, the cause of the fire has not been ascertained
Mother kills one-day-old baby, buries him in bush
The Police in Jigawa has arrested an 18-year-old lady (name withheld) for allegedly killing her one-day-old baby boy after they exhumed the corpse in Ringim Local Government Area of the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Abdu Jinjiri, confirmed the incident to News Agency of Nigeria in Dutse on Monday.
Jinjiri said the suspect, a resident of Dandabi village, was arrested after she allegedly connived with her stepmother now at large, and buried the corpse of the baby, which she delivered as a result of an unwanted pregnancy.
“An information from reliable source had it that one young lady aged 18 of Dandabi village in Ringim LGA has given birth to a baby boy, however, the baby was nowhere to be seen.
“As a result, the police arrested the suspect for interrogation. An investigation revealed that the suspect after eight months’ pregnancy, was on January 31, taken to one house in Sankara village by her stepmother where she was given injections by medical personnel also at large.
“A day after, that was on February 1, she gave birth to a baby boy which was killed instantly and buried in a bush.
“Police later discovered where the corpse of the baby was buried, exhumed and took it to hospital for doctor’s analysis,” Jinjiri said.
He explained that in the course of interrogation, the suspect confessed to have killed the baby by strangulation.
The spokesman added that the suspect also confessed to burying the baby with the assistance of her stepmother.
According to him, a 20-year-old man of the same village, who was responsible for the pregnancy, has also been arrested by the police.
Jinjiri added that the police have launched a manhunt to arrest the two fleeing suspects, while an investigation into the case was ongoing.
87% Nigeria’s poverty rate in North – World Bank
The North accounted for 87 per cent of all the poor people in Nigeria in 2016, the World Bank has disclosed in a new report.
The report titled ‘Advancing social protection in a dynamic Nigeria’, released on January 28, 2020, was described as a ‘detailed analysis of the social protection sector’ in the country.
The report noted that social protection measures implemented by the government in Nigeria had not been able to address the high level of poverty, as well as the negative impact of conflicts and natural disasters.
In the comprehensive report, obtained by one of our correspondents, the World Bank observed that although Nigeria was a richly endowed country, it had a larger proportion of the world’s extreme poor than any other nation.
The report further noted that most of the poor in Nigeria was found in the Northern part of the country.
The North-West, specifically, was described as home to almost half of all the poor in the country.
Nigeria’s President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, (retd.), is from Katsina, a state in the North-West, which like other parts of the North, has produced a larger proportion of Nigerian leaders.
Looking at inequality in the country, the report said, “Nigeria experiences high inequality along geographic lines, with poverty mostly concentrated in the North and in rural areas.
“Poverty in the northern regions of the country has been increasing, especially in the North-West zone.
“Almost half of all the poor lived in the North-West and the North accounts for 87 per cent of all the poor in the country in 2016.”
“Poverty rates in the southern zones were around 12 per cent with little variation across zones. The South-South zone saw the most significant drop in poverty from 2011-2016.
“Poverty was significantly higher in rural areas of the country in 2016. An estimated 64 per cent of all poor lived in rural areas and 52 per cent of the rural population lived below the poverty line in 2016. In contrast, the poverty rate in urban areas remained stable at 16 per cent between 2011 and 2016.”
Painting the picture of a relatively prosperous South and an impoverished North, the report stated, “Regionally, the North lags far behind the South in every human capital outcome. People in the Northern regions are also more vulnerable to falling into poverty.
The report established a link between poverty in the North and the Boko Haram insurgency. According to the World Bank, most of the youth recruited by Boko Haram are jobless, a development which made them more prone to radicalisation.
It noted that the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East since 2014 had created a sense of ‘failed political promise’.
It added, “Disasters and conflict have displaced many Nigerians, especially in the North-East. According to estimates provided by the International Displacement Monitoring Centre, there were more than two million internally displaced persons in Nigeria as of 31 December 2018.
“In 2018 alone, more than 600,000 Nigerians were displaced due to natural disasters and more than 540,000 were displaced due to conflict and violence.
“In the North-East, the emergence of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram since 2014 has not only caused large-scale displacement, but also several incidences of kidnapping, death, and injuries, and the erosion of social contract due to a despread perception of a failed political promise. Poverty and deprivation have played a central role in fostering a social divide.
“The youth used by Boko Haram to partake in the conflict are jobless, without skills, or trades, and are easily susceptible to radicalisation,” the report said.
The World Bank added that besides conflict, climate-related factors had caused additional displacement in the North and the Middle Belt regions of the country.
In 2018, flooding affected 80 per cent of the country and triggered more than 600,000 new displacements.
The report said, “Social protection measures in the country are neither well-suited to respond to conflict, nor well-placed to anticipate and mitigate the risks of natural disasters caused by climate change.”
Weak governance, lack of basic infrastructure, poor quality of education, and poor social service delivery, were identified as some of the reasons for the high level of poverty in Nigeria.
According to the report, “Poverty remains high in Nigeria due to its dire social service delivery outcomes and lack of basic infrastructure.
“Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children of primary school age in the world with nine million children out of school.
“There has been little change in vaccination rates over the last 25 years and Nigeria is set to overtake India as the country with most under-five deaths in the world.”
The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, recently raised the alarm over a large number of out-of-school children in the North.
The World Bank added that 71 million Nigerians lack access to improved water, while 130 million people do not meet the Millennium Development Goal standards for sanitation.
However, the situation is worse in the North-East and North-West, where only around 25 to 28 per cent of households have access to basic services such as electricity, water, and sanitation.
The World Bank further observed that number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty went up from 2011 to 2016.
The poor in Nigeria lag far behind the rich in every human capital outcome, according to the World Bank Human Capital Index, where Nigeria ranked among the worst seven performers.
It noted that the rate of poverty in Nigeria increased from 35.0 to 38.8 per cent of the total population from 2011 to 2016.
In the same vein, the report pointed out that, despite Nigeria’s middle-income status, almost four out of 10 citizens lived below the national poverty line in 2016.
Between 2011 and 2016, the total number of people living in poverty increased from 57 million to 74 million, the World Bank added.
Commenting on the report, prominent northerners, including ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Junaid Mohammed, called for emphasis on education and a change in some cultural practices.
We should change culture that militates against poverty alleviation – Junaid
In separate telephone interviews with one of our correspondents in Abuja, on Monday, Mohammed and Musa said successive administrations had failed to reduce poverty largely because they failed to ensure that funds meant for the poor reach the masses.
Mohammed said, “I have no doubt in my mind that while it is important to concentrate on the economics of fighting poverty, it is important also for people to be sincere and confront those aspects of their culture which are counterproductive in the fight against poverty.What needs to be done is for government to be sincere in tackling poverty.
“Sadly, even the pittance that is allocated to poverty alleviation in this country is being stolen by those in power because they know nothing will happen.
“Unless we have the political will to deal with this issue nothing will change. We must have leaders with sincerity of purpose. One of the tragedies of poverty in this part of the country is sadly the reality of some of our cultural practices which today’s reality cannot support.”
Balarabe Musa links poverty in North to low education level
Musa said the level of poverty was more in the North because of the poor level of western education.
He stated, “The level of education here is certainly lower that what you have in the South. So, definitely, the level of poverty in the North is higher than that of the South. But if we really decide what is poverty, we will find out the difference between the north and the south is relative in terms of poverty.
“When you are talking of the bourgeois sense of poverty which is restricted to the level of empowerment at the higher level, yes you can say there are poorer people in the north than in the south but if you take Nigeria as a whole, the country as a whole is suffering from poverty that of the north is certainly higher.
“Poverty alleviation programmes by successive administrations have failed because they are bourgeois based.”
Atiku attributes North’s poverty to insecurity, lack of education
On his part, Atiku said insecurity, unemployment, lack of skills and lack of education were responsible for the high poverty rate in the North, especially in the North-East and North-West.
Atiku, who spoke through his Media Adviser, Mr Paul Ibe, said businesses would not thrive in an environment that was plagued by insecurity, lack of skills and lack of education.
Atiku said, “It is very clear that the North-East and North-West have a lot of shortcomings when you look at the index of education. So, education is key. It is the fastest vehicle for upward mobility.
“Education is a game-changer. The North -East and North-West are not doing well in that particular sector. That has impacted on the poverty aspect. To move from the threshold where they are now to the next level, there is the need for re-prioritisation of education as the most important sector.
The Coalition of Northern Groups attributed the high level of poverty in the North to the failure of current crop of northern elite to realise that grabbing political powers was not enough to lift the people out of poverty.
Spokesman for the group, AbdulAzeez Suleiman, told one of our correspondents that the First Republic leaders from the North were farsighted.
“The Northern elite in the First Republic were far-sighted and focused on promoting a socio-cultural revolution that would have ensured that the North adopted the twin policies of education and entrepreneurship at the grassroots.
“On the other hand, the elite that followed were grabbing political power with single-minded focus. They have failed to ensure that every child either acquires education and thus becomes ‘employable’, or learns a trade and becomes self-employed.
He said the northern leaders should ensure that every child was employable or self-employed through education, vocational training and skill acquisition programmes. (PUNCH)
Supreme Court: PDP to protest at EU, AU Abuja embassies today
The leadership and other critical stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party will on Tuesday (today) protest at the embassies of the European Union and the African Union in Abuja.
The protest will involve members of the PDP National Working Committee, the Board of Trustees, other national leadership, members of the National Assembly, and other stakeholders, according to a statement on Monday by the PDP National Organising Secretary, Col Austin Akobundu (retd.), titled, ‘Protest to EU and AU embassies.’
He said the protest, which was planned to be peaceful and non-violent, would take off by 10 am at the party’ complex in Maitama, Abuja.
Recall that the PDP leadership and members had protested at the Abuja embassies of the United States, United Kingdom and some states in Nigeria against the January 14 judgment of the Supreme Court which sacked the 2019 Imo State PDP governorship candidate, Chief Emeka Ihedioha and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Hope Uzodinma, as the duly elected governor of the state.
Akobundu said, “In continuation of our protests as ordered by National Executive Committee, the National Chairman (Uche Secodnus) has directed that all members of the NWC, BOT, leadership and members of the National Assembly, and other critical stakeholders of our great party will be presenting our petitions to the Embassies of the European Union and African Union on the state of affairs in the country.”