#abuja (city/town/village)

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

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The Meghans are global frauds. Every "good" deed, Every word & Every dollar is a GRIFT. "Nigerian girls & women" my arse.💔

Do they really expect us to believe that a global games event could ever be hosted by a country that repeatedly loses track of women & children? Harry and Meghan have the lowest of low in IQs but the rest of the world can see that THIS poverty tourism trip is yet another SUSSEX SCAM.

No country will send disabled athletes or veterans to compete in a country that cannot keep track of school kids. Shame on Nigeria's Defense Minister and all at Invictus who are involved in this fraudulent visit.

"Bring Back our Girls 2.0

"The abduction of the 287 children in Kaduna state on March 7, 2024 near the West African nation’s capital, is one of the largest school kidnappings in the decade since the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village in 2014 stunned the world. Analysts and activists say the security lapses that allowed that mass abduction remain..."

"One man was shot dead as he tried to save the students, school authorities said"

"The parallels between the two kidnappings have created more worry for parents, as even to this day nearly 100 of the Chibok girls remain missing."

BY CHINEDU ASADU

March 8, 2024

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — "Security forces swept through large forests in Nigeria’s northwest region on Friday in search of nearly 300 children abducted from their school by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the latest mass kidnapping, which analysts and activists blamed on the failure of intelligence and a slow security response.

The abduction of the 287 children in Kaduna state, near the West African nation’s capital, is one of the largest school kidnappings in the decade since the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village in 2014 stunned the world. Analysts and activists say the security lapses that allowed that mass abduction remain.

The victims of the latest attack — among them at least 100 children aged 12 or under — were surrounded and marched into a forest just as they were starting the school day, said locals in Kuriga town, located 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the city of Kaduna. One man was shot dead as he tried to save the students, school authorities said."

J-P Mauro - published on 03/14/24

"With no word from the abductors, the bishops are calling on the state to identify the kidnappers and save the hostages.

The remote town of Kuriga, in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, is still reeling after dozens of armed extremists kidnapped hundreds of students out of their classes in broad daylight on the morning of March 7. Worried parents are now calling for government intervention, after days without any word from the abductors. As of March 13, the children have yet to be found. 

The AP reports that at least 287 students were abducted – with about 100 of them aged 12 or under – making it one of the largest kidnappings since the 2014 abduction of the Chibok girls, when 275 girls were taken from their school by Boko Haram.

The parallels between the two kidnappings have created more worry for parents, as even to this day nearly 100 of the Chibok girls remain missing. 

The March 7 kidnapping saw children taken from the school just as the day was starting, at around 8 a.m.. They were herded into the forest. It took authorities several hours to respond to the scene and begin a search operation, but it is unclear how deep into the forest the kidnappers went.

Locals have suggested that the abductors belong to a group of bandits who have been terrorizing remote villages in Nigeria’s northwest and central regions.

14-year-old Nigerian girl could declared a martyr. Nigeria is one of the places of most intense suffering for Christians in our day.

Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi has called on the government to intercede on behalf of the Christian population, which he said is being targeted by these attacks. Bishop Anagbe told OSV: 

“The kidnappings, killings and destroying churches we are experiencing every day are aimed at finishing Christians. We are worried that despite such killings and kidnappings, the government has never arrested anyone. As a church, we now demand that the government act quickly to stop these vices that continue to dishearten people.”

I try hard not to hate anyone, but The Meghans sure know how to push the right buttons. 🤐🤬

Safety 1st: The UK is unsafe but African countries where Nigerian schoolgirls are kidnapped & Zika Zones for childbearing royals are no problem.

Team Sussex: Global Court Jesters

[mvmandtravelagency]

Exploring Nigeria: A Journey Through Culture, History, and Natural Wonders with TraveloNigeria

Welcome to Nigeria, a vibrant and diverse country rich in culture, history, and natural beauty. From bustling cities to serene beaches, ancient landmarks to lush rainforests, Nigeria offers travelers a truly unforgettable experience. Join us as we embark on a virtual journey through the wonders of Nigeria with TraveloNigeria.

Discovering Lagos: Nigeria's Dynamic Megacity: Begin your Nigerian adventure in Lagos, the bustling metropolis and economic powerhouse of West Africa. Explore the vibrant streets of Lagos Island, where you can visit historic landmarks such as Freedom Park and the National Museum. Stroll along the scenic waterfront at Victoria Island, shop for traditional crafts at the Lekki Arts and Crafts Market, or relax on the beautiful beaches of Bar Beach and Elegushi Beach. Don't miss the chance to experience the vibrant nightlife of Lagos, with its lively bars, clubs, and music venues.

Exploring Abuja: Nigeria's Capital City: Venture inland to Abuja, Nigeria's modern capital city known for its striking architecture and green spaces. Visit the iconic Aso Rock, a massive granite monolith that overlooks the city, or explore the sprawling grounds of the Nigerian National Mosque and the Nigerian National Christian Centre. Take a leisurely stroll through Millennium Park, the largest public park in Abuja, or immerse yourself in Nigerian art and culture at the National Arts and Crafts Village.

Encountering Wildlife in Cross River National Park: Escape the hustle and bustle of the city and journey to Cross River National Park, one of Nigeria's most biodiverse regions. Explore the lush rainforests and rugged terrain of the park, home to a rich variety of plant and animal species, including chimpanzees, gorillas, and forest elephants. Embark on a guided trek through the park's pristine wilderness, where you can encounter rare and endangered species in their natural habitat, or take a boat ride along the Cross River for a chance to spot hippos, crocodiles, and birdlife.

Relaxing on the Beaches of Calabar: End your Nigerian adventure with a visit to Calabar, a historic port city nestled on the banks of the Cross River. Relax on the pristine beaches of Calabar, where you can swim, sunbathe, and enjoy water sports such as jet skiing and parasailing. Explore the historic landmarks of the city, including the Old Residency Museum, the Slave History Museum, and the Duke Town Church, or take a boat cruise along the Calabar River for panoramic views of the city skyline.

Conclusion:

As we conclude our virtual journey through the wonders of Nigeria, we invite you to experience the beauty, culture, and hospitality of this vibrant country for yourself. Whether you're captivated by the dynamic energy of Lagos, the modern architecture of Abuja, the natural beauty of Cross River National Park, or the historic charm of Calabar, NigeriaTravelAgency has something for every traveler. Plan your unforgettable journey to Nigeria with TraveloNigeria and let us help you create memories that will last a lifetime.

[hardynwa]

Ibadan chiefs seek governors’ support to tackle kidnapping epidemic

Ibadan traditional chieftaincy title holders, otherwise known as Mogajis, on Tuesday, sought the support of governors of South West states in tackling kidnapping. They said the security synergy needed to tackle the menace cannot be achieved without the support of the governors, most especially in Yorubaland. This development is coming following cases of kidnapping in Oyo State in recent times and the killing of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State. Unknown gunmen on Thursday abducted the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Philip Aivoji, and some other party chieftains at the Ogere area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Also, two traditional rulers were reportedly abducted on Monday by suspected kidnappers in Ekiti State while they were returning from a meeting in Irele-Ekiti. A statement by the President of Mogajis of Ibadanland, Mogaji Asimiyu Adepoju Ariori and Coordinator, Ibadan Compound Peace Initiative, Nurudeen Akinade, in Ibadan, the state capital, said re-insurgence of kidnapping and other criminal activities in Nigeria, especially in the South-West zone, called for a serious concern. The traditional rulers said the rate of kidnapping in the last few months across the nation which is gradually engulfing the South-Western part should be a concern to residents. The Mogajis further stressed that Ibadan as the gateway to other South-West states would not fold its arms and allow the menace to continue. The chiefs said, “The kidnappers have allegedly taken over some areas in Nigeria, particularly Yorubaland in the last few months. A few days ago, the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Philip Aivoji was abducted by some yet-to-identified gunmen along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. “Yesterday, two traditional rulers in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State were killed by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers. The two traditional rulers were the Elesun of Esun, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin and Olumojo of Imojo, Oba Samuel Olatunji, while the Alara of Ara-Ekiti, Oba Adebayo Fatoba escaped from the scene. “Kidnapping in the last few months was only in Abuja, but now gradually extending to Yorubaland, Ibadan as a gateway to all Yoruba states won’t fold its arm and allow such to persist. “We kick against the resurgence of criminals, we believe the criminal act has gone with our efforts, particularly the effort of the Ibadan Compound Peace Initiative in collaboration with other security agencies. “Considering the way we worked in synergy with other security agencies a few years ago, we thought the criminal act had been depleted but we just discovered that it has relapsed. “We are already in touch with all various community development groups and associations in the southwestern part of Nigeria, various informal groups and societies including but not limited to markets leaders, unions and associations and they are prepared to key in and be part of this all important security movement. “We implore the government to quickly without further delay fine-tune ways of having security synergy with all volunteers, our hunters’ associations, concerned local security networks, various security operatives, traditional institutions and other relevant stakeholders in Ibadanland, Oyo State and Yorubaland to find solutions to the issue. “If this is quickly encouraged, it will afford us the opportunity to block all the escape routes in all our cities, towns, and villages including our forests and bushes most of which are considered as ungovernable spaces. “We can’t successfully engage in this all important security synergy without the support of the governors, most especially in Yorubaland.” While appreciating all the regular security agencies including Amotekuns for their commitments and service to the nation, the Mogajis, therefore, called on the government not to withdraw the security agencies on the highways and major roads whenever they are having any major events like road commissioning as some of these attitude has been reportedly responsible for the upsurge in the onslaught of the Kidnappers on these highways. “It seems insecurity has engulfed the Yorubaland, we need to wake up before it get out of hand.” The statement added. Read the full article

[thisdaynews]

BREAKING:All the Land in Nigeria belong to Fulani - Miyetti Allah Leader

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/breakingall-the-land-in-nigeria-belong-to-fulani-miyetti-allah-leader/

BREAKING:All the Land in Nigeria belong to Fulani - Miyetti Allah Leader

•Fulani own all the lands in Nigeria

As the seven-day ultimatum Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, issued herdsmen occupying Ondo state forests expires tomorrow, the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo has declared that no power remove Fulani herdsmen from the state’s forests.

In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the Miyetti Allah leader stressed that their people have settled there for over 250 years and so they are not going to obey anybody to leave the place.

He claims the Fulani ethnic group owns all the land in Nigeria. “All the lands in this country belong to the Fulani, but we don’t have any business to do with land if it doesn’t have areas for grazing; if the land doesn’t have cow food, we won’t have any business with it. We don’t sell land, we don’t farm. What we consider is the areas that have cow food. If the place is good for grazing, we don’t need anybody’s permission to go there”, he stated.

Following allegations of kidnapping and robbery carried out by Fulani herdsmen, Ondo State government has given them seven-day ultimatum to leave the forests in the state, what is your reaction?

The Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu doesn’t have any right to give such ultimatum to our people. People, including Fulani voted for him to be the governor; so he should be the governor of everybody in the state.

Fulani have been in the forests he is talking about even before he was born; they have been there for over 250 years. No matter how dangerous a forest may be, Fulani would go and settle there. After staying there for a long time and their cow dung turns the place fertile, people would begin to come there to farm and to settle and from then, they begin to make claims that our cattle were destroying their farms.

We are suing the governor and seeking injunction restraining him and others from carrying out his threat. But even at that, nobody, no power can send the herdsmen out of Ondo State.

When are you going to court as the ultimatum will soon expire?

We are making consultations with our legal team. But before then, the governor and his people should stop embarrassing our people in the forests and all their businesses.

No any herdsman will obey the governor; the herdsmen will not step an inch out of Ondo forests; they are going nowhere. We won’t obey the governor; it is only the constitution of Nigeria that we obey. We have been in that area before he was born, how can he just grow up and ask us to leave; no Fulani will leave that place.

What are his reasons for the quit notice?

He alleged that it is the herdsmen that are kidnapping and robbing people and they operate from the forests. We are not in support of any form of criminality- armed robbery, kidnapping, gun running etc. These crimes are the reasons we have the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Army, DSS, even Civil Defence to nab perpetrators and there are courts everywhere to try them and if found guilty, appropriate punishment meted out to them. The governor is the chief security officer of the state, there is no reason he should single out one ethnic group for the crimes committed in the state. He is supposed to accommodate more Fulani in the state and not to drive them out. Driving them out is not the solution.

I have just concluded a meeting with my fellow Fulani and we have found out that some people will adorn Fulani attire to carry out various crimes. How can Fulani man living in the forest kidnap and ask people to pay ransom ranging from N5 million to N10 million. What would he be doing with that kind of money inside forest; if you pay herdsmen N20 million, N10 million, N5 million in the forest, where would he carry the money to and what will he be doing with such money? Check the leaders of those criminals; let the governors identify who the criminals are. They are not Fulani. He just wants to use that as an excuse to drive our people away from his state. It is just giving a dog a bad name to hang it; the herdsmen are not the kidnappers, let him carry out proper investigations. Let him know this, no any person in this country can push us out of the forests. If it becomes so hot and your people decide to go, where would you be headed?

The first thing is that nothing will make us take such decision. If you apply force and out of hundred Fulani, you kill 95 of them, the remaining five will go back there and continue with their grazing. They have been there for up to 250 years. They have been there before the state was even created.

All the lands in this country belong to the Fulani, but we don’t have any business to do with land if it doesn’t have areas for grazing; if the land doesn’t have cow food, we won’t have any business with it. We don’t sell land, we don’t farm. What we consider is the areas that have cow food. If the place is good for grazing, we don’t need anybody’s permission to go there.

Nigerians should know that our association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore is not backing anybody who is a kidnapper, armed robber, and we are calling for law enforcement agents to go after all these criminals and deal decisively with them. The criminality all over the country is the more reason we want to fully implement our vigilante system; we want to enter all the forests in this country to check these bandits in the forests that are causing these problems and denting the good image of Fulani ethnic group. We can’t wait any longer; we are sending our vigilantes into the forests to fish out these criminals – those intimidating the herdsmen and stealing their cows and secondly, these bandits causing problems in this country. It is only the Fulani that can enter any forest and chase out these bandits.

Why can’t your people live with the people in the community instead going to live inside forests?

We don’t need cities or towns. If you dash us FCT Abuja or the city of Lagos, we won’t have anything to do with it. We want a place where we continue to practice our age long culture of cattle rearing. We inherited it from our forefathers and it will continue till the end of the world. People are using propaganda to spoil Fulani name, and desperate politicians are in the forefront. Any governor that is drumming up on the Fulani herdsmen issue, watch well, he has issue or problem whether political or otherwise in his state. It is possible that Akeredolu is fighting a political battle, it may be 2023 election and that is why he is playing up this Fulani herdsmen issue. It is the same with Benue State governor, Ortom, when he was not performing; he started to play up Fulani herdsmen and farmers issue to draw support from his people. For almost six years, he hasn’t done any work in his state; he is talking about herdsmen and his people.

Fulani can settle in any bush or forest they want the moment they have cows. We agreed that our children will pursue education and other activities other people are doing in town, but even me, I’m not comfortable staying in the city, up till now my house is inside village.

Why is it that you would not take permission from the owners of the forests before you settle there?

Which forest, who has the forest? Any person who thinks he owns any forest should be taken to psychiatric hospital. Nobody owns any forest; forests are for Nigerians. Fulani herdsmen have the right to move into any forest and settle there for their business. Why do farmers go and cultivate thousands of hectare of land and fence it, who gave them that land? Nobody is born with a land in this country; people were just moving from one place to another for settlement. Fulani are settling in every community, but we are not claiming land, we are only interested on how our cows will have food to eat.

Fulani can’t value 100 people’s lives like he can value his one cow because since he was born, he doesn’t have any business except that cow. The cow is like his own brothers and sisters. If anything happens to his cow, do you think he can leave you? You have two or three storey buildings and you park your cars , do you fold your hands and watch somebody come to that house carry your cars, your clothes, your wife, destroy the buildings? You must fight. The Fulani man values his cow just as you value your brother and sister and you go all out to protect them. They love their cows beyond description, you can’t separate them from their cows to go and stay inside town or city. The cows have names. The way you give your children names when they were born is the same way they name their cows. Even a person who has one thousand cows, those cows have individual names and he knows them by name; the cows have fathers, grandfathers and grandchildren. What you have in human beings – the ways names are given to people, the same way Fulani give names to their cows. We are cow lovers , that is why sometimes if you kill their cows somewhere they go there to look for justice, because they see like somebody has killed their brothers; they must go to see who did that and they won’t leave that person.

You said that only the Fulani will drive out the bandits in the forests, why is it that they have not done so in the forests of Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Niger?

Those bandits are not Fulani, but they are damaging the name of Fulani and that is why this our vigilantes will go into all the forests in this country to chase out all the bandits. Whatever atrocity that the bandits commit is hanged on Fulani neck. These bandits are equally killing herdsmen in their numbers in various forests, but many people don’t understand this, and the moment they see herdsmen in the bush, they will tag them bandits or see them as kidnappers. This is disturbing us as it is eroding on our credibility; more so, useless people, desperate politicians and social media warriors have latched on this to poison everybody’s mind against Fulani ethnic group.

Why not your vigilante clear Sambisa Forest, which is so vast so that your people will settle and halt these conflicts in many states?

Borno State governor Zulum said he will give Fulani people Sambisa forest, we are waiting for him and when the approval is given I will be the first person to go and live there. We are also waiting for the federal government to put infrastructures there, and then we move in. Herdsmen in this country are suffering too much; as they move their cattle from one place to the other, some people who want to steal their cows will organise and even kill them, especially these people they are giving uniform in the name of vigilantes.

These people are causing confusion, you just pack some people, give them uniforms to go and drive out Fulani people in the forests. Yes, the Amotekun; I’m calling on the federal government to ban it. Since the federal government has left Amotekun, that is the reason we want to implement our own vigilante, whose operation will be all over the country, not only one state; we will operate everywhere you find Fulani people in this country, we can go there, enter the forests and chase the bandits away. We can help the Nigeria Army, the Nigeria Police Force, the federal government and relevant security agencies to end this banditry in the country. The Ondo State governor has a secret agenda for asking our people to leave his state, not the reasons he stated.

[naijablog]

Nollywood Big Boy Actor Jim Iyke Clocks 44 He was born in September 25, 1976 in Libreville, Gabon. His parents are Mr and Mrs Stephen Okolue, whose last name changed to Esomugha from ogwugwu village in Enugu Agidi town of Anambra State .He is the only boy in a family of eight children.He completed his secondary school education in F. G. C. Kwali Abuja from 1985 to 1991. Jim Iyke studied at the University of Jos, Plateau State where he got a diploma in Banking and Finance and then a BSc in Philosophy. Jim Iyke began acting in 2001. He's one of the highest paid actors in Nollywood and has appeared in over 150 films. He welcomed a Son In April 2019 (jim.iyke ) Worked into my birthday. Lol The making of the campaign to launch my partnership with THE SMART CITY ESTATE ENUGU.  THE ONLY ESTATE ON THE FREE TRADE ZONE IN THE ENTIRE SOUTH EAST.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. I ALREADY EMBODY EVERYTHING I HOPE TO BE.  TERRIBLY GRATEFUL LORD.  BACK TO WORK TOMORROW.  THANK U ALL FOR YOUR KIND WORDS  #JIMIYKECHRONICLES #topnaijablog#jimiyke https://www.instagram.com/p/CFjcWQUDQrc/?igshid=8y2icm6xly7x

[transgenerational-forces]

MALE MINISTER MONDAY SOLOMON LANGE Solomon Lange is an international gospel music minister, song writer and motivational speaker from Kaduna State. He was born in a village called Wasa, from Sanga in the Southern part of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Solomon Lange left the village after secondary school to Kaduna town, he studied Mass Communication in Kaduna State Polytechnic. He had always wanted to sing, this led him to joining the local Baptist Church Choir. He fully came into the gospel music world in 1997 by joining Kale Visions Music Ministry in Kaduna. In 2002, he became a solo artist. He is currently signed to his own record label. He has had great albums like, ‘Na Gode’ (Thank You) 2008, ‘Alheri’ (Grace) 2012, ‘Grateful’ 2014 and many more. He has performed all around the world, his songs are usually in Hausa and English. He is the organizer of 1Voice Gospel Concert, the concerts brings together different people of different ethnicities and diverse cultures to worship God as one in Nigeria and around the world. Great musical icons like the Winans, Panam Percy Paul, Mamman Shata and many others influenced his music. He is a great vocalist and his lyrics are usually heartwarming. Solomon Lange currently lives in Abuja, he is happily married to Flora Lange, and they are blessed with a daughter. His life from the village, to the city, touching lives with music cannot go unnoticed. We appreciate his songs, God bless him. SOURCE: Beliversportal.com,Legit.ng. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_fyc5BA262/?igshid=1j5c9gujqca2u

[ericfruits]

What the world has learned about facing covid-19

Mar 5th 2020

BEIJING, MILAN, SEOUL, SINGAPORE AND WASHINGTON

SPEAKING FROM his home in Abuja, Chikwe Ihekweazu, the director general of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, says China has one big lesson to teach the world about covid-19: “It can be contained.” Mr Ihekweazu was in voluntary self-isolation following a visit to Wuhan, the city at the centre of the Chinese outbreak, as part of a group of experts dispatched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to examine the country’s measures to stop the spread of covid-19.

These measures seem to have had significant success. On February 4th China recorded 3,887 new cases. On March 4th the number was 139. The report that the WHO group published on February 28th put the good results down to the way that the state had used manpower and technology to implement quarantine meticulously on an unprecedented scale. It did not go into the disturbing mechanisms of state power employed to that end.

All over the country cities closed down schools, public transport and almost all social and economic activity to stop people from moving around. In Wuhan, a city of 11m people, have been restricted to their homes for five weeks. The lockdown was enforced not just by the network of officials which covers every block of flats, street and alley but also, under the influence of those officials, by the property managers at residential compounds. In some villages life is now relatively unconstrained; there are reports that in others every visitor has to be cleared by a local party boss. The top-down set-up lends itself to excessive alacrity among the lower echelons. Missing a target is less dangerous than overstepping the mark. Hence the (swiftly censored) online videos showing police smashing Mahjong tables, people being paraded or tied to trees for failing to wear face-masks, or a screaming woman barricaded in her home with iron bars.

How less thuggish states can achieve similar results remains to be seen. In South Korea, the country with the most cases outside China, stringent measures widely supported by the public may be slowing the rate of spread. A drop has definitely been seen in Singapore, where pandemic preparedness became a priority after the SARS outbreak of 2003. The city-state knows where all but 12 of the 112 cases it has seen got infected.

But whether the isolation of whole towns in northern Italy has done much to curb the outbreak there remains to be seen. In Iran there is no evidence as yet of any overarching control at all. And in America the response to date has been a shambolic missed opportunity. Shockingly, the worst American bungling has more in common with the catastrophic early stages of the Chinese epidemic—when officials minimised risks and punished truth-tellers, thus letting the disease spread much further and faster than it might have—than with the country’s later co-ordinated control efforts.

The wrong controls

In the week from February 26th to March 4th the number of countries and territories reporting cases of covid-19 rose from 50 to 85 (see map). Most, so far, have fewer than a dozen cases, mostly imported from or directly linked to cases in China, Iran, Italy and South Korea, which between them accounted for 91,903 of the 95,124 confirmed cases as of March 4th (see chart). Low case numbers, though, should not be taken to signify successful containment; they are often a measure of ignorance.

Take America. On February 25th Larry Kudlow, chief economic adviser to President Donald Trump, told reporters that “We have contained this. I won’CDC) were faulty; restrictions were limiting tests in other settings. By March 1st, when South Korea had run 100,000 tests for the virus, America—which saw its first case on January 23rd—had run fewer than 500.

The WHO team urged all countries which have seen any cases to follow China in carrying out as much testing as they could, especially of unexplained pneumonia cases and flu-like symptoms in patients who seem not to be infected with the flu virus. “Test and you shall find,” says Gabriel Leung of the University of Hong Kong, who was also on the WHO team. “You either test and find it early, and do something about it, or the body bags are going to pile up,” he adds.

That dire warning has not yet born bitter fruit in under-tested America, but it could. As of March 4th, there were cases in 14 American states. Some of them, such as that of a New York lawyer and his family, have no obvious connection to any of the four high-incidence countries, strongly suggesting that there are what epidemiologists call silent chains of transmission in the country. In a population without measures in place to control such chains, a single undiagnosed case can, in principle, give rise to more than 3,000 cases six weeks later. On March 4th, while Mr Trump blamed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for the CDC’s problems, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, revealed he had asked 1,000 people in Westchester, where the infected lawyer lives, to isolate themselves.

In South Korea, by contrast, the government is being forthright and formidably transparent, allowing Koreans to trace their possible brushes with the disease. As well as briefing the press thoroughly twice a day, and texting reporters details of every death, the government puts online a detailed record of each new patient’s movements over previous days and weeks, allowing people to choose to shun the places they visited. The risk of illicit activity being thus uncovered—at least one extramarital affair may have been—gives people an extra incentive to avoid exposure to a disease which, in most of the infected, results in only mild symptoms.

No Roman candles

Across the country, schools are closed and public gatherings cancelled. Though neither Daegu nor Cheongdo, the cities which saw the first clustered outbreaks, were ever completely locked down, more than 9,000 people in Daegu were quarantined. As in China, where personal data from electronic payment and social media apps have been used by the authorities to track people’s movements and estimate their chances of infection, phones play a role in South Korea, too. The government has produced an app which reports on quarantined people’s movements and can alert authorities if they abscond. Officials call regularly to check in on people.

South Korea has powers that put very little weight on its citizens’ privacy; some aspects of its response might be hard to mount in other democracies. But in countries where there is a high level of trust in government, some strong measures will be supported. When SARS hit Toronto in 2003 only 23 of almost 30,000 people placed under quarantine refused to comply. Asked in a survey how serious a crime or misdemeanour they thought breaking quarantine was, half of Canadians ranked it as similar to manslaughter. In all the countries questioned about their attitudes to quarantine in an Ipsos MORI poll at the end of February, a majority said that they would back quarantines if the government called for them. In Canada, the majority was 78%, one of the largest seen. In Italy it was only 60%, the smallest.

That seems to reflect national levels of trust. Last June polling by the Wellcome Trust, a charity, found that 78% of Canadians said they trusted government health advice. In Germany and Britain the number was over 80% and in South Korea a remarkable 86%. In Italy it was just 63%; in America, worryingly, lower still at 59%. Italians will need to wait a bit to discover if their government’s response has deserved what trust they have accorded it. According to Walter Ricciardi, a leading public-health expert in Rome, it will take until the middle of March to know whether sealing towns with outbreaks off into two “red zones” has worked to slow the virus’s spread. It cannot be good news that over 400 cases have now been diagnosed in an area around the city of Bergamo, north of Milan. On March 4th the government announced it was closing schools and universities until March 15th.

If a quarantine is to enjoy public support, the people it shuts away need to be well looked after. Economically, those in Italy may be: the government has put aside €3.6bn ($4bn) to cover the epidemic’s costs. Some of it is earmarked to help exporters such as the doubly unlucky Erik Granzon. Not only is his fireworks company suffering the inconvenience of life in one of the two red zones; it also lost €300,000 last week when big displays were cancelled in Qatar and Milan so as to limit opportunities for further infection.

Some in the other red zone have more pressing problems. In a video posted to YouTube on March 3rd, Costantino Pesatori, the mayor of Castiglione d’Adda, a village of 4,650 inhabitants, said: “We feel truly alone. People are ill and are not receiving the necessary assistance. Help us please.” There are around 100 infections among the villagers; there have been 15 deaths. Mr Pesatori told The Economist that all three doctors in the village were in quarantine and a locum had “no gloves, no mask, no overalls—nothing to protect him.” He is begging the authorities to open consulting rooms at two local hospitals or send in army doctors.

A lack of supplies is being reported elsewhere in the red zones, too. In nearby Casalpusterlengo, Anna Rossi, a pharmacist, says she has no disinfectant gel to sell her customers, nor any masks capable of stopping contagion. On March 2nd a group of general practitioners wrote to the health minister in Rome that they too lacked protective equipment. “We want to stay at our patients’ sides,” they wrote. “But how can we do so effectively if we are not given the minimal means with which to defend them and defend ourselves?”

This looks like being a problem more widely. The WHO says the world’s health-care workers will need 89m medical masks a month to deal with covid-19. Because production is currently only about 70% of that there are shortages, and prices have gone up six-fold. Germany, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand have restricted exports of masks to protect their domestic supplies. China, which last year made half the world’s face masks, has not banned exports. But in practice they have, understandably, ground to a halt.

Masks of sorrows

Production, though, has rocketed—as it could elsewhere, if politicians forced it to. According to the government, China is now making 116m face masks a day, 12 times the production a month ago, with 1.7m of them the high-performance sort that health-care workers need when faced with patients coughing and sneezing. A General Motors joint venture in south-western China is making both its own disposable face masks and face-mask-making machinery for the many other companies doing the same. There are no precise figures for the production of tests, but the number carried out suggests that it, too, has soared.

Some populations will not be able to afford to test at the necessary rates—or to hospitalise large numbers of patients. In Africa, which currently has very few cases, a big emphasis on tracking cases at this early stage in the epidemic could serve to limit the absolute number of infections, avoiding wherever possible the extensive community transmission that seems to have taken off in Iran. Bitter experience of other epidemics means that some African countries are well set up for this. Mr Ihekweazu’s teams go out to investigate a new disease outbreak of some sort almost every week with the help of SORMAS, an open-source data-logging app used by health workers.

That said, although covid-19 has become a major priority, it is not the overriding concern it could be. Mr Ihekweazu notes that Nigeria is currently experiencing the largest spike in Lassa fever cases it has ever seen; Africa also has a high burden of the world’s most deadly respiratory disease, tuberculosis. Most of Mr Ihekweazu’s team is focused on the new virus, but some remain ring-fenced for other areas “so that we don’t drop the ball.”

In places where the covid-19 ball is being dropped, or has been dropped already, the sort of self-isolation being urged in Westchester will be crucial to slowing the spread of the disease. In Britain statutory sick pay, normally not applicable until the fourth day of absence, will now be paid from the first to encourage people to stay at home if they think they need to. That said, the pay is not generous and does not cover the lowest paid.

In America both the health-care system and paid-leave laws are poorly configured for epidemics. Public-health authority is mostly devolved to state and city health agencies, creating a patchwork system of control. Preparedness, funding and sophistication all vary by county and hospitals, meaning that response and care could become uneven.

The patchwork system could be especially problematic if it leads to sick people showing up to work when they should not. Few lower-income workers in service-sector jobs have the option of paid sick leave available to them. The prospect of lost wages—and potentially a lost job—could be enough to persuade them to attend work rather than stay at home feeling a bit ill but increasingly poor. A study of paid sick-leave mandates in America by Stefan Pichler and Nicholas Ziebarth, two economists, found that the policy reduced the spread of influenza by 5% in normal times and 40% during a wave. Assuming that covid-19 is comparable, that calculation suggests that the 39 states that do not require paid sick leave risk a worsened crisis.

The second big problem is that, because pandemic preparedness is not generally billable, American hospitals do not keep spare infectious-disease capacity. “We’re already running our health-care systems razor-thin in terms of capacity. There’s very little excess capacity in people, beds...or protective equipment,” says Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Minnesota. A lack of preparedness has already forced the quarantine of 124 staff because of a single patient in California.

At the patient level, the costs of medical testing and treatment could act as a hindrance to effective containment. There are already widely circulating reports of worried patients showing up to emergency rooms for testing who are leaving with medical bills for thousands of dollars. More than a quarter of the 28m uninsured Americans say they have put off medical care they cannot afford. The Trump administration is said to be considering routing disaster-relief funds towards reimbursing the uninsured, which would ease things. The implications for the un- and under-insured of the $8.3bn “supplemental appropriation” passed by the House on March 4th are not clear.

Pay attention

Not all countries can be as well prepared as Singapore: rich enough to pledge S$5.6bn ($4bn)—as much as Italy—to blunt the disease’s economic impacts, well organised enough to enforce pretty strict measures and shaken by SARS into taking such things seriously. Yet Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister, still worried in February that the costs would eclipse those of SARS. Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the ministerial task force on covid-19, warns that “all it takes is one incident, one event, and there is a sharp spike in cases and sustained transmission.” Everyone has things to learn. Some have more than others. ■

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline "New world curriculum"

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[impactng]

Establishing Entrepreneurship Bank a promise that must be kept – Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says that the promise of establishing entrepreneurship banks in Africa is one that must be kept. Osinbajo expressed this view in his address at the fifth edition of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum (TEFforum2019) on Saturday in Abuja. The two-day event has the theme “Empowering Young Africans”. African leaders present were Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Macky Sall of Senegal, Felix Tshisekedi of Congo DRC and Ugandan Prime Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda . Osinbajo said that African schools should not only teach science and technology but focus also on critical thinking and entrepreneurship. “Our continent continues to be defined by unsavoury and unwholesome stories, which do not often accurately represent the reality of life and opportunity. “The people in this room are the perfect and long-awaited counterpoints to those one-dimensional narratives of Africa that have sadly gained ground over the years. “Outside on the streets of every village, town and city are many more individual embodiments of the potential of Africa. “But we can change that story; we must fund young entrepreneurs and provide opportunities for capacity building. “Our school curriculum must emphasise not just stem but critical thinking and entrepreneurship, and the promise of entrepreneurship banks must be kept.” The Vice President said that the event attracted a great representation of what the private sector could accomplish. He said that African governments were challenged to create the enabling environment for all young entrepreneurs to thrive. Osinbajo said that by birthing the intervention, Elumelu had compelled stakeholders to focus on what really mattered, the youth and their dreams. According to him, the message to Africa’s emerging business giants is a clear one, how and what can you contribute, like Elumelu, to empowering the next generation? “Helping them rewrite and revise the next chapter of the continent’s changing stories?” Read the full article

[qaumisafeer]

کراچی میں بم دھماکہ، 2 افراد ہلاک، 8 زخمی کراچی کے علاقے قائد آباد میں دھماکے میں 2 افراد ہلاک جبکہ 8 زخمی ہو گئے۔ ابتدائی اطلاعات کے مطابق دھماکہ قائد آباد کی لنڈا مارکیٹ میں ہوا۔ زخمیوں کو فوری طور پر جناح اسپتال منتقل کر دیا گیا ہے جہاں انہیں طبی امداد فراہم کی جا رہی ہے۔ انچارج جناح اسپتال ڈاکٹر سیمی جمالی کے مطابق پانچ زخمیوں کی حالت تشویش ناک ہے۔ دھماکے کی آواز دور دور تک سنی گئی۔ دھماکے سے اطراف میں موجود گاڑیوں کے شیشے ٹوٹ گئے۔ وزیر اعلیٰ سندھ سید مراد علی شاہ نے قائدآباد میں دھماکے پر ایڈیشنل آئی جی کراچی سے رپورٹ طلب کر لی ہے۔ ایس ایس پی ملیر کے مطابق دھماکے کی نوعیت کا اندازہ لگایا جا رہا ہے جس کے لئے بم ڈسپوزل اسکواڈ کو طلب کر لیا گیا ہے۔ ایس ایس پی عرفان بہادر کے مطابق ابتدائی تحقیقات کے مطابق ایسا لگ رہا ہے کہ دھماکہ کسی ڈیوائس کے ذریعے کیا گیا۔ کراچی پولیس چیف ڈاکٹر امیر شیخ نے بھی موقع پر پہنچ کر صورت حال کا جائزہ لیا۔ کراچی میں 6 سال سے ٹارگٹڈ آپریشن کے بعد امن و امان کی صورت حال میں نمایاں بہتری آئی ہے تاہم اس دوران قانون نافذ کرنے والے اداروں پر بعض خطرناک بم حملے ضرور کئے جاتے رہے۔ تاہم کئی سال بعد شہریوں کو بم دھماکے کا نشانہ بنایا گیا ہے۔ قومی سفیر ایک غیر منافع بخش ادارہ ہے۔ ہماری صحافت کو سرکاری اور کارپوریٹ دباؤ سے آزاد رکھنے کے لیے اس خبر کو زیادہ سے زیادہ شیئر کریں اور خبر کے بارے میں اپنی رائے کا اظہار کمنٹس میں ضرور کریں

[hardynwa]

Ibadan chiefs seek governors’ support to tackle kidnapping epidemic

Ibadan traditional chieftaincy title holders, otherwise known as Mogajis, on Tuesday, sought the support of governors of South West states in tackling kidnapping. They said the security synergy needed to tackle the menace cannot be achieved without the support of the governors, most especially in Yorubaland. This development is coming following cases of kidnapping in Oyo State in recent times and the killing of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State. Unknown gunmen on Thursday abducted the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Philip Aivoji, and some other party chieftains at the Ogere area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Also, two traditional rulers were reportedly abducted on Monday by suspected kidnappers in Ekiti State while they were returning from a meeting in Irele-Ekiti. A statement by the President of Mogajis of Ibadanland, Mogaji Asimiyu Adepoju Ariori and Coordinator, Ibadan Compound Peace Initiative, Nurudeen Akinade, in Ibadan, the state capital, said re-insurgence of kidnapping and other criminal activities in Nigeria, especially in the South-West zone, called for a serious concern. The traditional rulers said the rate of kidnapping in the last few months across the nation which is gradually engulfing the South-Western part should be a concern to residents. The Mogajis further stressed that Ibadan as the gateway to other South-West states would not fold its arms and allow the menace to continue. The chiefs said, “The kidnappers have allegedly taken over some areas in Nigeria, particularly Yorubaland in the last few months. A few days ago, the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Philip Aivoji was abducted by some yet-to-identified gunmen along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. “Yesterday, two traditional rulers in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State were killed by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers. The two traditional rulers were the Elesun of Esun, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin and Olumojo of Imojo, Oba Samuel Olatunji, while the Alara of Ara-Ekiti, Oba Adebayo Fatoba escaped from the scene. “Kidnapping in the last few months was only in Abuja, but now gradually extending to Yorubaland, Ibadan as a gateway to all Yoruba states won’t fold its arm and allow such to persist. “We kick against the resurgence of criminals, we believe the criminal act has gone with our efforts, particularly the effort of the Ibadan Compound Peace Initiative in collaboration with other security agencies. “Considering the way we worked in synergy with other security agencies a few years ago, we thought the criminal act had been depleted but we just discovered that it has relapsed. “We are already in touch with all various community development groups and associations in the southwestern part of Nigeria, various informal groups and societies including but not limited to markets leaders, unions and associations and they are prepared to key in and be part of this all important security movement. “We implore the government to quickly without further delay fine-tune ways of having security synergy with all volunteers, our hunters’ associations, concerned local security networks, various security operatives, traditional institutions and other relevant stakeholders in Ibadanland, Oyo State and Yorubaland to find solutions to the issue. “If this is quickly encouraged, it will afford us the opportunity to block all the escape routes in all our cities, towns, and villages including our forests and bushes most of which are considered as ungovernable spaces. “We can’t successfully engage in this all important security synergy without the support of the governors, most especially in Yorubaland.” While appreciating all the regular security agencies including Amotekuns for their commitments and service to the nation, the Mogajis, therefore, called on the government not to withdraw the security agencies on the highways and major roads whenever they are having any major events like road commissioning as some of these attitude has been reportedly responsible for the upsurge in the onslaught of the Kidnappers on these highways. “It seems insecurity has engulfed the Yorubaland, we need to wake up before it get out of hand.” The statement added. Read the full article

[jobsearchtips02]

These 10 nations face the most significant humanitarian crises in 2020

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A Syria Civil Defence member carries a wounded child in the besieged town of Hamoria in Eastern Ghouta on January 6,2018

Reuters

The International Rescue Committee humanitarian group has actually released its annual “Emergency situation Watchlist” noting the ten nations dealing with the world’s worst crises in 2020.

These countries integrated are home to less than 6%of the worldwide population, however produced 74%of the world’s refugees, the IRC stated.

The crises they face mainly include armed dispute, illness upsurges, and natural disasters, and so far see no signs of stopping.

Scroll down to see the list and why.

See Company Expert’s homepage for more stories.

Every year, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) lists the 10 countries facing the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, in an effort to highlight the vast amount of work world leaders and help employees require to do.

These nations combined are home to less than 6%of the international population, but produced 74%of the world’s refugees, the IRC kept in mind.

The crises that they face– which largely include armed dispute, illness upsurges, and natural catastrophes– have changed little because in 2015, highlighting the “protracted nature of much of these crises and cumulative failure of the worldwide neighborhood to fix their origin,” the IRC stated.

Scroll down to see the nations on the IRC’s “Emergency situation Watchlist,” and the problems they deal with.

10 Central African Republic

Antibalaka fighters walk in Gambo, southeast Central African Republic, on August 16,2017

ALEXIS HUGUET/AFP/Getty Images

A mainly-Muslim coalition of armed groups called Seleka took control of the VEHICLE’s capital in 2013, and the country has actually seen thousands killed amidst combating between Christian militias since.

The government and 14 armed groups signed a peace deal in February 2019, however that has only been partially observed and conflict continues, the IRC stated.

More than one in 4 of the nation’s population have actually been forced from their houses, leaving 600,000 individuals internally displaced and 600,000 more running away to neighboring countries like Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Chad, according to UN data

The country is likewise vulnerable to bad flooding, and people are at risk of food insecurity and contracting the Ebola infection from the neighboring DRC.

9. Somalia

University student Yahye Mohamed, right, teachers displaced Somali children at a makeshift school at the Badbado refugee camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, in June2018

Mohamed Abdiwahab/ AFP/ Getty

Somalia has actually seen persistent conflict since the 1990 s, leaving large parts of the population internally displaced or having fled to neighboring countries.

Drought in the Horn of Africa area has actually driven displacements and left the population facing the danger of having no more food.

The country also faces violence from groups including al-Shabab, which has ties to Al Qaeda, and local ISIS affiliates.

In early January, 3 Americans– one service member and two Department of Defense professionals– were killed in an al-Shabab attack at an airfield in Kenya

8. Burkina Faso

A soldier strolls near the Army Headquarters in main Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in March 2018 after a believed attack by Islamic extremists.

Ludivine Laniepce/AP

Those armed groups have also by force displaced and called on civilians to join their movements, stated the IRC, which has personnel on the ground.

The number of internally-displaced individuals swelled from under 9,000 at the start of 2018, to 47,000 at the start of 2019, to 56,000 at the end of 2019, the IRC stated.

In 2018 the country was called one of the poorest nations in the world by the International Monetary Fund, which kept in mind that the average person there lives on less than $1,000 a year.

7. South Sudan

An armed man walks near the village of Nialdhiu, South Sudan, in February2017

Siegfried Modola/Reuters

Civilian violence has actually afflicted South Sudan since 2013, 2 years after its facility, which itself followed a decades-long civil war in Sudan.

The battling considering that 2013 has produced 2.2 million refugees and 1.5 million internally-displaced individuals, according to the UN

The risk of food insecurity runs high, which is intensified by corruption and threats of drought and storms. Heavy seasonal flooding in 2019 likewise caused increased varieties of people experiencing health concerns like malaria and diarrhea, the UN stated.

Every other child can be ill with fever or malaria, and one in 4 kids can have diarrhea at any one time, the UN reported.

Access to South Sudan is likewise challenging due to conflict and bureaucratic obstructions from the government and armed groups, the IRC stated. Dozens of humanitarian workers have also been killed given that 2012, it added.

South Sudan was also included in the IRC’s 2019 watchlist, in an indicator of how little has changed in the country over the previous year.

6. Afghanistan

2 Afghan households on motorbikes go by an US Marine patrol in Nawa district, Helmand province, in September2009 US forces have actually remained in the country since2001

Brennan Linsley/AP

Afghanistan still faces political instability after the 2001 US-led invasion, which is still continuous and has cost American taxpayers $1 trillion. Clashes between armed groups, including the Taliban and ISIS, continue with the federal government.

The dispute has produced nearly practically 2.5 million refugees outside the nation, according to the UN The nation continues to face dangers of drought, landslides, and seismic activity, which are exacerbated by bad infrastructure.

The IRC also highlighted the high danger of terrorism and human-rights infractions.

The United States has taken part in peace talks with the Taliban, which stopped and began in2019 President Donald Trump has pledged to eliminate the US from “permanently wars” like Afghanistan, but has actually not delivered on the promise so far.

Confidential files acquired by The Washington Post, published early December, showed that United States officials have ” constantly” misguided the American public about the war, had a hard time to specify their objective, and do not have a sufficient understanding of Afghanistan.

5. Venezuela

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas in July2019

Reuters

The continuous crisis left has 94%of families in hardship and 90%of medical facilities reporting a lack of supplies, according to the United States State Department’s 2018 data

Some 7 million people– or about one in 4 of the population– are likewise in need of humanitarian help, the UN said

Images from the area, published by Business Insider last year, also revealed dripping drain pipelines, decomposing meat in fridges, and a Pleased Meal costing more than a year’s wage.

4. Nigeria

People sit near a charred home after an attack by presumed members of the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency in Bulabulin town, Nigeria, in January2018

Reuters

Large parts of the northeast are successfully under the control of armed groups, leaving some 1.2 million citizens not able to access important features like food.

This is intensified by a relentless threat of drought, flooding throughout rainy season, and the spread of cholera.

The relative hardship and weak infrastructure greatly differs from the wealth in major southern cities, like Lagos and the capital Abuja.

3. Syria

A Syria Civil Defence member carries a wounded kid in the besieged town of Hamoria in Eastern Ghouta in January2018

Reuters

The continuous combating and airstrikes have actually harmed a big quantity of civilian facilities, leaving less than half of the country’s health facilities staying completely practical, and more than one in 3 schools damaged, the UN said in March 2019.

The dispute has actually likewise produced more than 6 million internally-displaced people and 5.7 million refugees, making this the biggest refugee crisis in the world, the IRC stated.

Fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, political rebels, and other celebrations remains intense.

2. Democratic Republic of Congo

Soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo walk near the town of Kimbau, North Kivu Province, in February2018

Reuters

The population is also mainly dependent on subsistence farming, making it susceptible to natural catastrophes and disputes, the IRC said.

Almost 16 million Congolese are in requirement of humanitarian support, and some 5 million people in the country are internally displaced– making the nation home to the biggest internally-displaced population in Africa.

1. Yemen

Observers collect around a vehicle torched by an explosion in Taiz, southwestern Yemen, in January2019

Reuters

A lethal civil war, supported by a Saudi-led union, has been raging on in Yemen since 2015 with no end in sight.

Civilians battle with frequent air strikes and attacks on standard infrastructure like health centers, schools, and sanitation systems. Numerous ports have actually been shut off, making the import-dependent country in alarming requirement of food, fuel, and medicine.

Since 2015, around 250,000 people have died due to the war, with 100,000 straight since of the battling and the rest indirectly due to problems like the absence of food and health, the IRC said. The nation has also fought a cholera endemic for the previous three years.

More than 24 million Yemenis– or 80%of the population– are likewise in requirement of humanitarian assistance, the UN’s humanitarian office stated

Though the warring parties agreed in December 2018 to address the spiraling humanitarian crisis, development has actually still been slow.

The Yemeni government signed a power-sharing agreement with separatists in November 2019– producing a force that could fight the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels– however the IRC alerts that there could be restored hostilities if this agreement breaks down.

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Features Humanitarian Crisis Worldwide Rescue Committee Yemen

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/these-10-nations-face-the-most-significant-humanitarian-crises-in-2020/

[thisdaynews]

We must repatriate some of our wealth home to make our zone great — Ndigbo

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/we-must-repatriate-some-of-our-wealth-home-to-make-our-zone-great-ndigbo/

We must repatriate some of our wealth home to make our zone great — Ndigbo

ENUGU—The association of South-East town unions, ASETU, has called on wealthy Ndigbo in Nigeria and in Diaspora to start investing part of their wealth in Igboland to stimulate industrial and economic development of the South-East and provide jobs for the youths of the zone.

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Proposed as Aku Ruo Ulo Investment Initiative, (Think Home), ASETU argues that if wealthy Ndigbo across the globe bring about 20% of their investments to Igboland, with the acclaimed ingenuity of Ndigbo, South-East could turn to Dubai or California of Africa.

From reaction, it seems Ndigbo agree with the proposal. According to them, the ‘Think Home’ investment idea is a clarion call to wealthy sons and daughters of the South-East to look towards home while channelling their investments to make Alaigbo great again. Chief Emeka Attama, the Media Adviser to the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo agrees with the idea and said the call by ASETU is the same thing with the recent programme of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, calling for the establishment of Alaigbo Stabilisation Fund.

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He believes that if the intended objective of ‘Think Home’ investment is achieved, it would make Igboland the Catalonia or Bayern of Africa, a business hub of note. Attama also believes that the Alaigbo Stabilization Fund is a noble idea as the think home project, as they would create a conducive environment for prospective investors, pointing out that any contributor to the funds automatically becomes a shareholder.

In the views of the traditional ruler of Likke Iheaka in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State, Igwe Christopher Nnamani, Igbos living outside the South-East states of Nigeria and in the Diaspora should embrace the idea and think home with their investments.

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Igwe Nnamani said that the ugly experiences of the Nigerian civil war should teach Igbos that regional development remains a stimulant for socio-cultural and economic growth of the South-East states, adding that those who invested outside Igboland during the war lost most of their assets and are still being attacked at any slightest provocation by other regions in the country. For the President-General of Imufu autonomous community in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Lawrence Mamah, Igbos should remember that their investments are more protected at home than anywhere else in the world.

“If you remember the quantum of properties which the Igbos who invested outside lost during the civil war, you would know that there is no place like home. “Our investments are more protected at home than outside and that is why I urge our people to bring back their investments to boost our region economically.

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This will enable our people to have a fallback on something if there is any incident in Nigeria. “If you know the story of I.K.B Igboanugo and the court injunction that crushed the company, you would see reasons why we need to invest at home.

“We can create Dubai in the South East here because we have abundant natural resources and we are industrious.” Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, an industrialist and proprietor of Rojenny Tourist & Games Village, Oba, Anambra State and Chief Mike Emerah of the Macdon Investments Limited, Onitsha believe in the project and agree that there is need to invest both at home and abroad. According to Ezeonwuka, if Ndigbo could bring their investments back home and become the Taiwan of Nigeria, and people are scrambling for their quality products, they would not need to agitate for Biafra since they are comfortable and self-sustaining.

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Ezeonwuka described as madness, a situation where wealthy Igbo sons and daughters would build sky-scrapers in Abuja, Lagos and even overseas without boasting of having small factory in their home town or any other part of Igboland. However, Chief Mike Emerah, a known industrialist, said he has a reservation for such a call because in most cases, government and its agencies scare the investors in Igboland by introducing multiple taxation,

high interest rates on bank loans, epileptic power supply with attendant highly estimated electricity bills, bad roads, lack of water supply, among other impediments. According to Emerah who spoke through his media consultant, Chuks Agu, ASETU’s call for think home philosophy is good, but they should go beyond the call and look into the encumbrances which is scaring people from doing so,

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such as excessive taxation, Chief Tony Ukasoanya in his opinion welcomed the idea and tasked wealthy people of Abia State origin to invest to assist the government to develop the state. He explained that the support of Abia people living in the state and in the Diaspora is highly needed to rally round the government to revitalise the economy by planting industries in every part of the state.

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He lauded the Enyimba City Economic project that has secured the approval of the Federal Government, saying that when fully realised, it would put Abia on the world map of economic development. He said such project would boost the idea of think home investment.

Sources:Vanguard News Nigeria.

[nasurumaikwano]

WHY THE NORTH HATES THE PDP!

Or, alternatively, WHY THE NORTH WILL STILL NOT VOTE PDP MASSIVELY....

By Sharon Faliya Cham

The PDP is a creation of the north at a time the north was in control of all the levers of power in 1998, and in total deference to the unmatchable political liberalism and generosity of spirit of the north, the entire northern power brokers both in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Peoples Party (APP) pulled all the levers of power at their disposal to move power from the north to the south, and to ensure a smooth cession of that power to the south, all the power brokers made sure the candidates of both parties emerged from the same region and even the same religious faith. In good faith, they pulled General Olusegun Obasanjo out of prison and made him candidate of the PDP and ultimately the presidency.

But then, it didn't take long before this very same PDP that was generously created by the north turned itself completely against the north and her interests. It became a machine that was deployed by the beneficiaries of northern generosity to wage war against the cohesiveness of the north and her wellbeing. Sitting pretty as President, one of the first things Obasanjo did was a selective mass retirement of northern military officers from service, which was followed by the relocation of some key military hardware out of the north plus the relocation of certain federal agencies from Abuja back to Lagos in clear abuse of the centrality of location of the Federal Capital Territory to all regions of Nigeria!

When murmurings from the north over this open war against her interests became loud screams, President Olusegun Obasanjo arrogantly said those who thought they invested in making him President in order to control him should consider their investment as bad investment, a statement that was loudly cheered and applauded by certain bigots and nepotists across Nigeria at that time. In other words, what Obasanjo plainly meant was that the north should regard their investment of their time, power and resources in pulling him out of prison into the presidential villa as bad investment, which literally meant he was going to go on with his deliberate warfare against the interests of the north.

And before you could say anything more, President Obasanjo vigorously pursued a policy of liberalization of importation of textile materials so that the textile factories in Kaduna and Kano as well as the cotton farms and cotton businesses in the entire north would die, and he succeeded. Imported textile materials became cheaper in our markets, killing off any competition from our local textile factories, and because our textile factories could not match the competition, considering that Obasanjo has refused to ban the importation of textile materials, our cotton farmers subsequently lost their cotton market. With that huge loss of market and revenue, poverty began to set in. This was the same picture in other aspects of agriculture whereby the Obasanjo government encouraged the importation of basic food items like rice, wheat and even corn. The net result was a huge public appetite for foreign food items, with the local varieties being scorned and shunned, such that only the very poor could be seen patronising the locally produced staples. The economic implication of that policy was that foreign farmers and their nations continued to become wealthier with our cash while our own farmers continued to grow in poverty with the nation losing its opportunity to diversify its economy and boost its foreign exchange market and tax revenue.

With such system firmly in place, what do you expect? Of course, apathy for farming grew with both our young and old ones shunning it, as it was neither profitable nor seen to be respectful. The famous northern cotton and groundnut pyramids disappeared. Search for nonexistent white collar jobs increased without success. Frustration began to set in with education losing its appeal and glamour, especially since graduates could no longer secure jobs, and before you knew it the number of jobless youths (and even old people) thronging the homes and offices of politicians to beg for money grew astronomically!

With textile factories closed down and agriculture reduced to a mere subsistence level, other factories that were very functional during the military era also took a Tysonian hit from the PDP and collapsed. Example is the STEYR motor plant in Bauchi that was building and assembling trucks, tractors, agricultural machines and military tanks and vehicles apart from the famous Bauchi meat factory that was a source of healthy meat for the state and its catchment areas. The cities of Kano, Kaduna, Zaria and others were also famous for having several other factories that were producing and assembling cars, trucks, motorcycles, plastics and other products apart from their famous textile factories. All of them began to die since the PDP and Obasanjo took over power in 1999, and by the time the crime machine was sent out of power in May 2015 virtually all of them have died!

Well, that was not all of the blow and persecution the north suffered from the PDP, for while the north was waiting patiently for Obasanjo's eight years to peter out, Obasanjo had other mischievous ideas. Since he couldn't secure his coveted Third Term in office, which could still have been disastrous for the north and the entire country in general, Obasanjo carefully and mischievously sought out an ailing Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and paired him with a rattle snake called Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who had the deceptive look of a holy monk in a monastery, and foisted them on the country as President and Vice President. Probably to fulfil Obasanjo's secret desires, which we may not know now, President Yar'Adua barely governed for two years and then died, leaving the door wide open for Jonathan to succeed him. Then one of the worst forms of persecution and open warfare against the north and its entire value systems was unleashed, apparently as an official policy of the administration.

On hand as a tool was Boko Haram, which has earlier been decidedly reduced to ashes in September 2009 by President Yar'Adua but which was cleverly brought back to life effectively on October 1, 2010 when a group of bombers from the Niger Delta blew some IEDs in the heart of Abuja city for which President Jonathan and his acolytes openly blamed it on northerners in spite of earlier claims to the attacks by the Niger Delta bombers. It later emerged in court documents in South Africa that President Jonathan and his inner circle actually green-lighted the bombings so that they would be pinned on the north as a weapon of political blackmail and as a means to curry sympathies and political favours from minority ethnic groups plus one of the major religions. It was in such a suspicious situation that Boko Haram quickly became ''Boko Haram'', with a great ability to deploy a long convoy of militarized trucks to seize and bomb out villages, towns and cities, always gliding easily through the uncountable military checkpoints set up all over the north by President Jonathan and his military generals who were supposedly operating a reign of State of Emergency to ''crush Boko Haram''!

And while all this well coordinated attacks and destruction of the north was going on, all bigoted groups and persons got themselves aiding and abetting Jonathan by heaping the blame for this very same northern destruction on northern leaders, which was a contradiction of sorts because the terrorists (or insurgents) were mainly seeking out the same northern leaders to kill them, especially northern leaders that were not members of the PDP of which among the victims was the highly respected General Mamman Shuwa. Emirs were attacked with some killed while some of them fled their thrones, becoming refugees for about two years until after Buhari who himself was targeted to be bombed to pieces was sworn in as President at the end of May 2015!

As if the death of all the textile factories and other factories in the north was not enough, ''Boko Haram'' went on rampage against cattle markets, schools, and places of worship. It was like the entire socioeconomic system of the north was programmed for complete destruction. And to accentuate this complete economic destruction, the Jonathan regime ordered the closure of all international flights at the Aminu Kano International Airport such that it became extremely difficult for northern business men and women to embark on international business deals. In short, the north was in complete siege, and this was the state it was in during the buildup to the 2015 general elections. And because it was not lost on northerners that their region has been raped, plundered, denigrated and mocked by the PDP over the years, it became difficult to see PDP flags and offices in the north prior to the 2015 elections except in certain places in the north where some people seemed to have been programmed by Jonathan, Olisa Metuh, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayo Oritsejafor and their types to believe that the PDP was established by missionaries in 1808 to bring salvation to their souls while the APC was an Islamic party created by Muslim Jihadists holding long drawn swords and galloping wildly on horses towards them to forcefully Islamize them!

In other words, crooks and gangsters sold the PDP to them as an emblem of their faith whereas in truth, accepting such a crime machine as an emblem of faith is itself a sheer demonstration of faithlessness in the faith they purport to adhere to, because there has been nothing edifying and neither has there been anything moralising about the PDP to make any sane, rational God worshipping human being to regard it as an object of adoration much less of faith. In any case, it has always been the norm worldwide since the Fall of Man for crooks to assert themselves in power and authority by causing and promoting rifts among the people they seek to plunder. You are either wise and resilient against them or you become a pawn in their hands to sustain their empire of greed and avarice. Of course, let me sound sarcastic by saying the PDP now has a presidential candidate for the 2019 elections who is a bishop with four wives, and his great passion and love for Christianity is such that he has built over 100 mosques across the country without building a single church. And to further cement his love and admiration for Christianity, he got his only Christian wife to convert to Islam and even changed her name to a befitting Islamic name!

Well then, this is 2019; what has changed with the PDP? Actually nothing has changed with the party, rather it has proven to be the same crime machine it has always been by putting forward a northern presidential candidate that was Vice President for eight years when the party was busy killing off the economy of the north apart from having the excess baggage of being documented in his former boss's book and the files of the US Congress as well as in certain influential press materials as an established thief that is not worthy of being trusted with any public office. And not surprisingly, today everyone that has openly hated the north has queued up behind him, including essayists that have consistently written all manner of insults, contempt and disdain for the region and its leaders, and their lining up behind him is not borne out of any belief about him being a unifying factor, for they do not even believe in the unity of the country, rather they see him as one through whom they can line themselves back to power to continue from where they stopped, and their only point of attraction together is their combined mutual love and affection for corruption.

If the north looks over its shoulder and take a good glance at the type of people that have queued up behind Atiku Abubakar, it should have cause to shudder over what will become of it after they succeed him by whatever means. You can't have your sworn enemies lining up behind someone or something and yet feel comfortable with it, but thankfully enough that's not the case here, and that's because the north has a good memory of the kind of afflictions it suffered under the PDP as much as it is dutifully aware of the authors of those afflictions. The PDP symbol in the north today is viewed with such horror similar to the way and manner the Jews and much of the free world view the Nazi swastika symbol. And it is not as if the north was the only victim of the PDP crime machine, no, it was the entire country that was plundered and stunted by it. But the point I am stressing here is the fact that, virtually everybody that hates the north and its values loves the PDP with great passion in spite of the fact that the party was a creation of the north. Just take a good look at some of the groups and persons lining up behind Atiku Abubakar viz a vis their utterances recently or in the past, and figure it out.

Mercifully, with the resumption of work at the Mambilla hydroelectric dam in Taraba State, which was abandoned for 45 years; the completion and commissioning of the Baro sea port in Niger State; the resumption of work on the Ajaokuta steel rolling mill; the development of railway infrastructure that was abandoned for over 16 years; the reconstruction of our roads; the resumption of oil exploration in the north, and the massive investment in agriculture, all by the Buhari administration makes it clear that the glory and prestige of the north have been restored. It's only a matter of time before the long dead textile factories and other factories rev back to life just as it is also a matter of little time before the famous cotton and groundnut pyramids rise up towards the sky again. And with the Baro sea port, which is the first of its kind in the north, now functional, northern big time business men and women have been saved the hassles of having to move their imported goods from far ports, and it also opens a whole new vista of export opportunities for all categories of merchants.

For these and with these alone, including much more to come in the NEXT LEVEL, the north is in safe hands, and that's why they will massively reject the #PDP that has proven to be antithetical to their interests and wellbeing.

[torixus]

DERICO NWAMAMA: A NAME NO REAL IGBO MAN WILL EVER FORGET!

The most populated country in Africa, Nigeria has had her fair share of notable armed robbers like Dr Ishola Oyenusi and Abiodun Egunjobi who terrorised the entire South-west. Lawrence Anini who dealt with the entire South-South. Torixus presents to you the story of Derico Nwamama who held the Entire South-East to a stand-still (Especially Anambra State). His real name is Okwudili Ndiwe A.K.A Derico Nwamama!

Derico started out as a Street Urchin in Onitsha, then graduated to a pickpocket, and then to a dreaded Criminal whose mere mention of his name sent shivers down the spines of every single human being in the entire South East part of Nigeria. THE RISE OF DERICO NWAMAMA! Indeed, long before Derico became famous for his Exploits in the City of Onitsha, The entire Anambra State was under the control of another Ruthless, Merciless and Cold Blooded Armed Robber known as Chiejina... Under the Reign of Chiejina and his gang, all residents of Onitsha were living in fear. In fact, a Policeman once told me a horrifying story about Chiejina. He said that on 16th of February 1999, two days after valentine celebration, Chiejina, acting on a tip-off besieged a family in Onitsha hoping to get money from the man of the house, but unfortunately, the man didn’t come home with money, he had gone to the bank before going home. Chiejina became so enraged that he grabbed the man’s 4months old son, threatened to throw the baby from a 3 storey building, and when the man and his wife weren’t forthcoming with his demands, he flung the baby from 3 storey building and shot the man twice in the head! HE WAS THAT RUTHLESS! In fact, Reports have it that he forced families to have incest in front of him for his own amusement. He forced Fathers to sleep with their daughters and Mothers to sleep with their sons, Refusal meant death! Derico and Chiejina were very good friends at that time and also colleagues in the Armed Robbery Business, a friendship that started during the famous Umuleri/Aguleri War... But Derico was not based in Onitsha then, he was based in Abuja, the Federal Capital territory and only visited the east from time to time to carry out his robbery operations with maximum terror. And after raining a torrent of bullets and gunfire upon the hapless and ill-equipped officers of the Nigerian Police and defenceless Nigerians, he would speed back to his safe haven, with his loot, safe on the laps of power, luxury and comfort. But according to reports, wahala started in November 1999, when the then Obi Of Onitsha, HRH Obi Ofala Okagbue rallied Onitsha-Ado Youths to help curb the ever rising Crime in the City to enable indigenes who ran away to return for the Christmas Celebration of that year... Ado youths then sat together with some of the notorious armed robbers to know how to settle them and have peace return to the City of Onitsha... Chiejina and Derico were present in the meeting! But after the meeting, the deadly Chiejina refused to stand down, in fact, he attacked some members of the Ado Youth and became even more ruthless in the entire State! Ado Youths sought the help of his bosom friend, Derico but it didn’t yield much fruit, so they decided to give him a taste of his own medicine! They liaised with Derico and some special Police Officers to raid Chiejina and his gang. The Operation was not totally successful because Chiejina was not present at the time but members of his gang were rounded up and sent to The Central Police Station, Onitsha. When Chiejina learnt what happened, he felt betrayed by his bosom friend, Derico, and without thinking about the consequences, called on his right-hand man who also doubled as his bike man, Amobi, to take him straight to Derico’s parent’s house. On getting there, he met Derico’s father and decorated the man with lots of bullets!!! Derico heard about it and set out for revenge immediately, he ran into Chiejina close to Emmanuel Church at Ugwunokpamba road, Onitsha and pumped in lots of bullets into the Great Chiejina, and the Iroko of the Underworld fell into a gutter...

Derico then put Chiejina into a wheelbarrow and wheeled him to the Police Station at Isiokwe, Onitsha. An unconfirmed report claimed that Chiejina didn’t die on the spot, that while in the wheelbarrow, he begged Derico to kill him and not take him to the Police Station alive. Derico then obliged him and pumped in one final shot to end the evil reign of one of Nigeria’s meanest Criminals! On getting to the Police Station, Officers were dancing and celebrating, they lifted Derico up as their Hero and celebrated him as the King of the Town. Little did they know that they just crowned a more wicked soul, the King and Protector of Onitsha! INDEED THE DERICO YOU KNOW WAS “BORN” ON THE DAY HE KILLED CHIEJINA! After the death of Chiejina, Derico became the undisputed Emperor of Terror in the Land. The Entire Anambra State was in the soup and the environs will not be spared too! At some point, Derico used the town of Umuleri as his hideout. Then from there, he would issue threatening messages to the police that they will pay for killing members of his gang. He also maintained bases in other towns like Agbor, Benin and Asaba. Indeed, the traders in Onitsha could not display their wares with peace while many slept with one eye open. Derico sacked commercial banks in Onitsha, carting away millions of naira. Travellers who had to pass through the state held their breath expecting the hoodlum to strike at any time. The then Governor of the state, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, became an old man over night with worries on how to handle the menace of Derico. He was described as the personification of terror. From Nnewi to Nkpor, down to Onitsha, up to Asaba, from the villages in Umuleri to towns in Ihiala, the old and the young, Men, women and Children were terrified at the mere whisper of Derico Nwamama. He took over people’s Lands, Businesses, Wives and all his members including members of his family got away with anything because they were related to him! At that time, he was said to be invisible and could not be arrested. According to reports, Derico Nwamama killed over 200 people including 25 police officers whose lives he mercilessly wasted. He was a master of countless bus robberies and will not blink twice before pumping his hot lead bullets into the beating hearts of helpless victims. And after his successful raids, he would boast and declare himself invincible. Derico seemed to have placed a lot of faith and confidence in the charms prepared for him by the traditional witch doctors. Indeed, Governor Mbadinuju was not the only one worried about the reign of terror perpetrated by Derico Nwamama as even President Olusegun Obasanjo was enraged that the criminal was left to unleash terror in a part of Nigeria.

The police were helpless and had lost many men to the dreaded bandit and seemed at wits end on what to do to bring him and his gang to book. In May 2001, the Anambra State Police Command launched the Operation Derico, which was aimed at capturing Derico and his gang members at all cost. The police managed to arrest some of Derico's men but he was still elusive as he kept operating with reckless abandon, robbing, killing and kidnapping innocent Nigerians. THE FALL OF DERICO NWAMAMA! In December 2000, Derico and his gang committed the worst crime known to man till date! They attacked a 59-seater-Luxurious Bus filled to the brim at the Popular Upper Iweka. The bus was about to leave for Lagos. After robbing every single person in the bus, they decided to kill everybody on board! Including women and children, and mercilessly, the devil himself (Derico) gave the orders and his men shot all the passengers, execution style and left them for dead! (Only 4 people survived the ordeal)! After that horrible incident, the then Governor of Anambra State, Chinwoke Mbadinuju didn’t have any other choice but to bring in the Dreaded Bakassi Boys to help save the State. Bakassi Boys in Action On Tuesday, July 3, 2001, (If this date is your birthday, then u deserve one bottle of whatever your brand plus one plate of Nkwobi because that was the day Onitsha, and indeed Anambra State was liberated)! On the 3rd of July, 2001, Derico was on a bus going from Agbor to Onitsha, on getting to the Onitsha axis of the Bridge Head, The Dreaded Bakassi Boys stopped the bus. Sensing danger, The Crime Lord Jumped the Window to run away, but before he could make the first after jumping out, the nearest Bakassi member on the scene chopped off his left ear and that was how Derico was captured. And For a man who thought he was above the law and could not be captured, it was funny how he started crying and pleading for his life. He was taken to Borromeo Hospital for treatment cos he was bleeding profusely. When news of his capture broke, ever single human being in Anambra State celebrated as if it was the second coming of Christ! Indeed, Derico met his end in an awful manner. Before then, the Bakassi Boys had developed a terrible and blood-chilling reputation for dealing with suspects and Derico's days were surely numbered from when he was caught. On the 9th of July 2001, six days after Derico was captured at the Niger Bridge, the Bakassi Boys did to him what many had earlier predicted. Chanting war songs, they drove in their convoy around the town and ended at the Ochanja Market Junction along the popular Upper Iweka Road in Onitsha. As their buses came to a halt, shouts of excitement and expectation rented the air. Many knew the fate that would befall Derico, so they all trooped to the spot to witness the final judgment on him. Derico was dragged out from the bus, looking gaunt and severely beaten, a trademark of the vigilante group. His body bore cuts and gashes, a testament to what he must have gone through in their hands. He must also have known that the day of reckoning has come. He was in obvious pains but no one seemed to care. Still chanting war songs and egged on by the enchanted crowd, one of the commanders of the Bakassi Boys named Okpompi, addressed the crowd, telling them they were in the state not for politics but to fight crime. He handed over the microphone to the now trembling Derico who, like a coward, began begging for his life to be spared. He made feeble attempts at declaring his innocence: “My name is Oddy, alias Derico, alias Nwa Mama. I appeal to you the people of Anambra State, please don’t kill me, I don’t like evil. It was when I killed Chiejina that people thought I am a strong guy, you know. I trust Bakassi Boys. They are strong. Please, mercy for me. Nobody can identify me as having robbed him. People just believe that I am a strong guy.” He confessed that while he was on the run, he was sheltered by a member of the National Assembly in Abuja. He also confessed that he had two other powerful protectors, one being a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly while the other was the chairman of a local government council. What was to follow remains one of the most macabre displays of public executions in Nigeria. With the speed of a guillotine, a cutlass handled in the strong arm of one of the Bakassi Boys flew and came down with an unforgiving thud, landing on Derico’s slim neck. In a flash, Derico was beheaded. TAKE A PAUSE AT THIS POINT AND PLACE YOURSELF ON THE SCENE! MIND YOU, THIS POPULAR DERICO WAS JUST 22 YEARS OLD WHEN HIS HEAD LEFT HIS SHOULDERS!!! His severed head rolled on the floor before the crowd while his convulsing body collapsed on the ground, with bright-red blood gushing from his carotid arteries. It was as if a sacrifice to the gods had just taken place. The crowd was satisfied and as far as the Bakassi Boys were concerned, that was a clear lesson and message to any criminal bent on making life miserable for the Anambrarians. With the lifeless remains of Derico still lying on the floor, the people erupted in jubilation, patting one another on the backs and exchanging mutual congratulations after a monstrously grotesque show of iron and blood. That was not the end. Razor-sharp machetes flew from different directions and chopped his pitiful remains into sizable chunks. Derico’s mangled remains were heaped up, properly rinsed with fuel and set on fire. Derico Burnt to Ashes AFTER HIS DEATH, LOTS OF MOVIES ABOUT HIM WAS MADE! BUT HE WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS!!! Culled (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); via Blogger https://ift.tt/2SYg84r

[innercitypress]

On Cameroon UN Spox Refused Inner City Press Questions Told Retiree Gute... On Cameroon UN Spox Refused Inner City Press Questions Told Retiree Guterres With GovBy Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Goot PFT NYP UNITED NATIONS GATE, December 17 --After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years lied that Transparency International was observing his re-coronation, and burned village after village in the Anglophone regions while hiring lobbyists to seek and get support from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on October 22 he claimed to win over 71% of the vote and even that 16% of those eligible voted in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions. None of this is credible. Nor is Guterres' spokesman and censorStephane Dujarric, refusing to answer dozens of Cameroon questions from banned Inner City Press, servicing only those he allows in his briefing room including the retiree who earlier cracked, "The Anglophone have been doing some shooting." Video here. Designated or self-styled patsie, producing nothing, elbowing out others, classic UN. Now here is the video, even as decrepit and corrupt Guterres' website is down. The money (literally) quote is that Guterres is "in touch with the government." YouTube here. Is there impeachment in the UN? Shouldn't there be?  Inner City Press before Dujarric's December 17 briefing asked: "December 17-4: On Cameroon, on which you have been refusing Inner City Press' questions, what is the SG's comment and action on Paul Biya's government's use of the charge of “fake news” to not only insult but lock up journalists covering Biya's army's killing there? Again Francois Fall describes “Gender Desks” in police stations but an Inner City Press reader today called the Kumba police station and they'd never heard of it. What was the basis of Mr. Fall's statement?" During his December 17 briefing, Dujarric joked about "une cuisine interne" - an internal cooking that Guterres and he and Alison Smale have turned the UN into. And still no answers. Also not credible are parts of this UN World Food Program pitch, which leads with "NSAG" violence in a way it would not in, say, Syria: "In November 2018, 21,748 people (10,439 men, 11,309 women) from the North West and South West (NW/SW) regions residing in the Littoral region received food assistance. WFP Cameroon urgently requires US$ 24 million in the next 6 months to provide food assistance through general food distribution to 400,000 vulnerable displaced and local host populations affected by the NW/SW crisis. Since June 2018, non-state armed groups (NSAG) have intensified their operations, notably around Kumba, Buea, Mamfé and Bamenda. While attacks were previously confined to rural areas and the Nigerian border, main town centres and peripheries are increasingly affected by the violence. On the other hand, security forces have intensified operations against NSAGs in the SW in October, and NW in November. Between March and October 2018, a drastic increase in the number of IDPs was recorded, going from 40,000 to a total of 440,000. Through joint efforts, WFP continues to coordinate with other agencies to assess the security situation and ensure favourable conditions on the ground for distributions (particularly in Kumba). A recent mission organized jointly with OCHA, UNDSS and the Logistics Cluster confirmed roads and access to markets have been significantly affected, as well as access to transport and warehouse facilities. Strengthened coordination on the ground is in place. In an effort to respond to the growing needs of IDPs, WFP is scaling up its support to reach approximately 400,000 IDPs and local host populations affected by the NW/SW crisis who are in dire need of food assistance in the North West, South West, West and Littoral regions by April 2019. If the food security situation in NW/SW improves, WFP will gradually scale down its intervention after the lean season from July 2019, transitioning into recovery activities for the extremely vulnerable."  We'll have more on this. Also not credible is the new report by Guterres' failed envoy Francois Lounceny Fall, nor Fall's presentation to the Council, entry to cover which Guterres is corruptly barring Inner City Press on December 13, for the 162nd day. After Fall's pitch, and dubious claims of concern from countries which are withholding all documents about Cameroon which Inner City Press has requested from them under Freedom of Information laws like the Dutch WOB, on December 13 and 14 Inner City Press asked the UN: "December 14-6: On Cameroon, on which you have been refusing Inner City Press' questions, now that Francois Fall has said he visited in November and met Government officials, state with whom else he met. He describes “Gender Desks” in police stations but an Inner City Press reader today called the Kumba police station and they'd never heard of it. What is the basis of Mr. Fall's statement?" Hours after the December 14 UN noon briefing at which those allowed in asked not a single question about anything in Africa, much less Cameroon, Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq sent this: "Regarding question December 14-6, we have provided Mr. Fall’s briefing to the Security Council, in which he details his concerns about Cameroon and his work there." And the Gender Desks? Here is a paragraph of Fall's and Guterres' report: "5. The security situation in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon continued to deteriorate. Sporadic fighting between security forces and armed groups was reported throughout the reporting period. On 12 July, the convoy of the Minister for Defence was attacked on two separate occasions near Kumba in the South-West region. On the night of 28 to 29 July, an armed group attacked a prison in Ndop in the North-West region, resulting in the escape of 163 inmates. On 26 September, armed individuals also attacked a prison in Wum in the North-West region, leading to the escape of 80 inmates. On 5 November, nearly 80 students and staff from a secondary school in Bamenda, in the North-West region, were kidnapped. All of the students were released the following day. During the reporting period, there were reports of sexual violence perpetrated by both security forces and armed groups. In response, “gender desks” were established at police stations in the South-West region in an effort to establish a safe and confidential reporting process on sexual and genderbased violence and related crimes. On 11 October, religious leaders of the Catholic, Protestant and Muslim communities in the English-speaking regions held a meeting in preparation for an “Anglophone General Conference” scheduled to be held in Buea, in the South-West region, on 21 and 22 November, but which was later postponed. At the same meeting, they reiterated their appeal for the cessation of military and insurgent operations in the English-speaking regions." And Antonio Guterres... took Biya's golden statue, made a Budget Committee deal to stay quiet on the slaughter, and had roughed up and banned for 161 days and counting the Press which asked him about it. Then there is the Paul Biya government's denial via Xinhua of having killed a priest from Kenya, below, nor Guterres' UN system's belated expressions of concern after he sold out for more than a year and most recently has been refusing through two spokesmen to respond to or even acknowledge Inner City Press' formal written questions - even when about circulating reports of the use of chemical weapons. Before 9 am on November 28, heading to cover the third day of the UN bribery trial of US v Ho, Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres and his spokesmen, "November 28-2: On Cameroon, beyond the many unanswered questions, what is the SG's comment and action on that ten leaders who were [illegally refouled] from Nigeria earlier this year will face trial next month on terrorism charges that could lead to the death penalty, one of their lawyers said after a court hearing on Tuesday. Among them is Sisuku Julius Ayuk Tabe. Mr Tabe and his co-defendants have been charges with 10 offences, including terrorism, advocating terrorism, secession, civil war and revolution." Nine hours later, while answer another question about Romania, no answer at all on Cameroon and Guterres heading out of town again, with Inner City Press which asks banned for the 147th day, no end in sight. The UN of Guterres is cortupt. On November 26Inner City Press asked in writing Guterres, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed, Communicator Alison Smale and two spokesmen questions including "November 26-1: On Cameroon, what is the SG's comment and action on the killing by government forces, of Kenyan priest Cosmas Omboto Ondari, Vicar of the St Martin of Tours Parish in Kembong, Mamfe, now what Kenya's FM Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau has demanded answers from the Biya government? What is the UN's knowledge of and action on the alleged use of chemical weapons (!) in Bali in Cameroon?" While lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq sent responses to two other questions - one a mere link to a press conference Guterres banned Inner City Press from, the other an evasive recycled statement from the first UN bribery case - nothing on Cameroon. Guterres comments on reports of chemical weapons in, for example, Syria. What explains his silence and censorship on Cameroon? On November 25 Kenya's Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and former UN official, Macharia Kamau said the ministry would continue pursuing the answers on circumstances that led to the priest's death. "The government of Kenya, through its High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria has urgently and formally inquired from the government of the Republic of Cameroon about the circumstances leading to Father Ondari's death," Macharia said. "As we mourn the death of one of our citizens, the ministry continues to relentlessly pursue answers on this sad event." Here's hoping he does - he has seen the corruption of the UN, when it awarded Nairobi based UNEP to an absentee director, and under the time of Antonio Guterres and his lax sending RoselynAkombe, censorship of Press, and more. We'll have more on this. On November 21 banned Inner City Press reported Biya's forces' murder of a Kenyan priest - the Bishop of Mamfe cites eye witnesses the shotswere fired by government soldiers, from their passing vehicle. Now with the UN silent and once again covering up, even where Guterres is, Biya's government is again denying as they did after killing Charles Wesco, now via Xinhua: "The preliminary investigations reveal that the authors of this criminal act did this to discredit the defense and security forces." Joseph Beti Assomo, Cameroon's Defense Minister said in a statement on Friday." Guteres is silent and missing; he has refused to audit China Energy Fund Committee which is charged with bribery in th UN, and has banned Inner City Press which asked about that and about Cameroon for 140 days and counting. On the morning of November 23 Inner City Press asked out of town Guterres (by email, which he is supposedly scrolling) and his spokesmen: "November 23-2: On Cameroon what is the SG's comment and action on the murder, by government forces, of Kenyan priest Cosmas Omboto Ondari, Vicar of the St Martin of Tours Parish in Kembong, Manyu, and what follow up the SG / UN even did on the murder of missionary Charles Wesco." Guterres' spokesman's office was ope and people getting paid (though Dujarric didn't sign Guterres' derivative statement on Pakistan), but no answer. We have more on Father Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Mill Hill Priest from Kenya, serving as the Parochial Vicar of the St Martin of Tours Parish in Kembong, near Mamfe in Manyu. It's said, now by many, that he was shot twice by the Cameroonian military in front of the Church at about 3PM, Wednesday November 21, 2018. Biya's soldiers were shooting out of their vehicles. Ondari been ordained on Sunday March 26, 2017 in Kisii, Kenya together with two others by Bishop Joseph Mairura Okemwa and appointed to Mamfe -- shot dead 11 days after the burial of Charles Trumann Wesco, an American missionary from Indiana. In that similar case, Biya's government locked up Mimi Mefo for reporting who killed Wesco (and, only after repeated written questions from Inner City Press and more UN noon briefing pantomine like questions from the friend of UK USG Alison Smale who said smirking, The Anglophones were doing some shooting, Guterres issued a wan call fr an investigation which he typically never followed up on. Previously the military shot and killed a Ghanaian Missionary, Isaac Attoh of the Destiny Impact Ministry on Saturday July 14, 2018 in Batibo in North West Region. So when will the UN Security Council act. Guterres is still trying to cover it up. See November 20 video here. After refusing Inner City Press' Cameroon question and driving off in his / your Mercedes, Guterres left town, without the UN saying to where or who's paying. Sounds like Biya.

[global-news-station]

ABUJA: Booko Haram have killed 53 soldiers and farmers in three days of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, security sources said Tuesday, in a new show of force ahead of February elections in the West African country.

Despite the government’s insistence that Boko Haram is near defeat, the group has recently carried out a string of major attacks on military and civilian targets.

President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking re-election in February, faces widespread criticism over his security record as soldiers based in the northeast regularly complain of fatigue and insufficient supplies of food and arms.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group, killed at least 44 soldiers in attacks on three military bases at the weekend, according to security sources.

Of those, at least 43 were killed on Sunday in Metele, a remote village near the border with Niger, according to a military officer who requested anonymity.

“Our troops were completely routed and the terrorists captured the base after heavy fighting,” he told AFP, adding that the base commander and three officers were among the dead.

A search was under way for survivors or further victims in the surrounding bush, he said.

A pro-government militiaman said the militants arrived on around 20 trucks and army air support did not arrive until after they had “invaded the base and looted the weapons”.

The same day, militants also launched a pre-dawn attack on a base in the town of Gajiram, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

Fighting lasted several hours, local residents told AFP.

And a soldier was killed in an attack Saturday on a base in Mainok, also in Borno state, the cradle of the Boko Haram movement, security sources said.

– Villages also attacked –

ISWAP asserted responsibility for the attacks in Metele and Mainok, claiming to have killed at least 42 soldiers in addition to carting away four tanks and other vehicles, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring group.

In addition, Monday saw the latest in a string of attacks on villages, usually carried out to pillage food and abduct civilians used as fighters or forced to marry jihadists.

The militants have accused farmers and loggers of passing information to the military.

Armed with guns and machetes, militants killed nine farmers and abducted 12 others in the Mammanti village in Borno state, locals told AFP on Tuesday.

The militants came on bicycles, said Usman Kaka, a farmer who escaped. “They just opened fire on us and continued to fire as we fled,” Kaka said.

Village chief Muhammad Mammanti said the assailants had hacked “three people who resisted being abducted”.

Also on Monday, seven women were snatched while working in fields near the city of Bama, according to militiamen fighting alongside army soldiers.

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