Barack Obama becomes first US President to publish an academic paper


In the article, Mr Obama discusses the advances made by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and outlines a blueprint for future improvements to the health care system in the US.

“I decided to prioritise comprehensive health reform not only because of the gravity of these challenges but also because of the possibility for progress,” he wrote.

The paper – called United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps – was published by the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

Although the article – published as a ‘special communication’ – was not formally peer-reviewed, the journal’s editor-in-chief Howard Bauchner told Bloomberg it had been revised and edited.

“While we of course recognised the author is the president of the United States, JAMA has enormously high standards and we certainly expected the president to meet those standards,” he said.

Mr Obama, occasionally derided as ‘Professor Obama’ by right-wing populist critics who claim he is too intellectual, admitted in the paper that he had not solved all the problems with the American healthcare system.

“Too many Americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles, or pay their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured,” he said.

However, he added: “The ACA experience… makes me optimistic about this country’s capacity to make meaningful progress on even the biggest public policy challenges.

“Many moments serve as reminders that a broken status quo is not the nation’s destiny.”

According to the paper, around 20 million Americans have gained insurance coverage since the launch of the policy, with the number of uninsured people falling to historic lows.

The sharp decline in readmission rates also suggests the policy has improved the quality of care, Mr Obama said.

While Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton has said she will continue to work on the ACA, the Republicans’ Donald Trump has said he will scrap the policy and replace it with something better, although he has given details of his scheme




DSS arrests Obanikoro’s wife


Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) yesterday stormed the Ikoyi residence of the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and picked up his wife, Alhaja Moroofat Omolola. The agents raided the house for hours.

DSS had reportedly gone to search the house for possible documents to nail Obanikoro, who is being accused of transporting hundreds of millions in cash via Akure airport during the 2014 election campaign of Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose

Mrs. Obanikoro was afterwards taken to their office on CMD Road, Shangisha. She was later transported to the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where she was eventually released.

The raid follows a similar one by the EFCC mid-June.

Obanikoro, who is still out of the country, had via his twitter handle condemned the EFCC raid, describing it as witch-hunt and injustice.

He further accused President Muhammadu Buhari-led government of promoting “ethnic divisions, political persecution and official gangsterism.”



At least 84 dead as lorry ploughs into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France


At least 84 people have been killed, and around 50 injured, after a lorry drove into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France on Thursday (14 July).

The driver ploughed on for 2km (1.4 miles) along on the Promenade des Anglais at about 23h local time, before being shot dead by police.

The driver also opened fire on people in the crowd, according to local reports, and has been identified locally as a 31-year-old man of Franco-Tunisian origin from identity papers found inside the lorry. However, police are yet to confirm these details.

Police found guns and a grenade inside the lorry, but later said these were fake. It was not initially clear if he was acting alone. In the area around Nice, the anti-terror alert has been raised to its highest level. President Francois Hollande was flown back to Paris from a visit to Avignon, joining Prime Minister Manuel Valls in a crisis room. President Hollande said it was “an attack whose terrorist nature cannot be denied”.

Only hours before the Nice attack, President Hollande had announced that France’s state of emergency would be removed later this month. He has since announced it will be extended.

French National Front leader Marine Le Pen has said on the party’s website that “the war against Islamist fundamentalism” must begin. Meanwhile, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said on Facebook: “We are in a war that will last, with a threat that is constantly renewing itself. “Adapting and continuously strengthening our plan of action against Islamist terrorism remains a top priority.

“Exceptional firmness and vigilance is needed in every moment as well as over a long period of time. Nothing can be as before.”

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said terrorism is a threat that is “weighing heavily on France”. Valls said: “The goal of terrorists is to instill fear and panic.

“But France is a great country and a great democracy that will not allow itself to be destabilized.” He added that there will be three days of national mourning starting tomorrow (16 July).



Edo Election: The PDP engine is dead on arrival says Oshiomhole


Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole said the engine of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is dead.
He was referring to the party’s bid to reclaim the state in the September 10 governorship election.

Oshiomhole said the absence of PDP governors at the flag-off of the campaign of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu was an indication that the party had rejected its flag-bearer.

He said this yesterday during a stakeholders’ meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benin, the state capital.

“The campaign of the PDP, for the forthcoming governorship election in the state, is dead on arrival. Whether you like it or not, the PDP engine is dead on arrival.

“The early morning signals are clear. For the first time since 1999, a candidate was presented to the people of Edo State for the most important single job and the key pillars were there fastened to their chairs and their tables; none of them could stand on their feet to say one word.”

The governor said unlike the PDP, which did not enjoy leadership support; the chairman APC and some governors would attend the launch of the campaign of Godwin Obaseki, the ruling party’s candidate for the election.



Global oil spending drops by over $1trn


A report by Wood Mackenzie released Wednesday, said global upstream and exploration spending has dropped by more than $1 trillion since the start of the oil price slump in mid-2014.

Already, Nigeria is feeling the heat as majority of the oil service firms have downsized in huge numbers while many indigenous operators are finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations to their banks as a result of frequent cancellation of contracts by International Oil Corporation (IOCs).

The report equally said that most major conventional oil projects are at risk of cancellation or deferral if global prices remain at $50 a barrel.

Wood Mackenzie, which publishes regular assessments of the economics of the world’s oil and gas fields, said especially deepwater projects offshore west Africa and in non-OPEC nations won’t make any money at the current market price of $50 a barrel.

“In conventional oil projects, deepwater west Africa is a tough place to be. A number of projects in Angola and in Nigeria have been pushed out of our analysis,” Simon Flowers, Wood Mackenzie’s chief analyst, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol has suspended all talks relating to assets sales and in Nigeria, the government has warned about using funds set aside for oil projects to fill budget shortfalls.

Nevertheless Wood Mackenzie’s analysis showed that aggressive cost cutting had increased the percentage of projects viable below $60 a barrel to 70 percent, up from 50 percent a year ago.

Reductions of around 15 percent in global oil service costs, including payments for drilling rigs or personnel, have helped boost some project economics, especially in the U.S. tight oil market, the report said.

As much as 9 million barrels per day (bpd) of potential fresh oil supply is currently commercially viable at an oil price of $60 a barrel, compared with 7 million bpd in the previous study.

“You will begin to see more FIDs (final investment decisions) come through by the end of this year and early 2017,” said Flowers, adding that U.S. tight oil and near field projects will be targeted as they are cheaper to bring on stream.




Apologize to Tinubu – Group Tells Dino Melaye

A Coalition of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Good Governance, COCMEGG, has described the lawmaker representing Kogi West, Senator Dino Melaye as a disgrace to the senate for allegedly threatening to assault ‎Senator Oluremi Tinubu‎, the wife of the All Progressives Congress, APC, National leader, Bola Tinubu.

Melaye had on Tuesday during a closed-door session of the senate allegedly threatened to beat up Mrs Tinubu; this he, however, denied.

But the group which viewed Melaye’s utterance as unparliamentary and ungentlemanly, in a statement by its President, Kenneth Aigbegbele and Secretary, James Okoronkwo called for an unreserved apology from the lawmaker.

“Dino Melaye is a huge disappointment to his constituency, the Senate and the Nigeria’s democracy. It is unfortunate and reprehensible that Senator Dino had resorted to maligning the constituted authority on whose platform he rose to become a senator.

“We, therefore, condemn this despicable unparliamentary behaviour in its entirety and demand an unreserved apology on the floor of the Senate, failure of which, we will be forced to mobilize and commence recall proceedings against him.”