Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, former Super Eagles Coach and one time defender of the Super Eagles is dead. The post Breaking News: Former Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi Is Dead appeared first on Vanguard News.
Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, former Super Eagles Coach and one time defender of the Super Eagles is dead.

Keshi who is 54-years-old died at the wee hours of Wednesday in Benin

He was confirmed dead by Ben Olaiya. Olaiya speaking to Vanguard Sport Editor Tony Ubani said ‘Tony yes the Big Boss is dead the Big boss is dead’

Also Ademola Olajire, an Assistant Director of Communications in the Nigeria Football Federation, said that Keshi died after he was rushed to an hospital after complaining of his legs.

He said that Keshi had problems with his legs and that he could not stand for long.

More so Valere Hounandinou, an Assistant Coach to Keshi, confirmed to Vanguard that ”last week Stephen Keshi complained to him that he was having irregular heart beats and he advised him to go the hospital’.

The Nigeria Football Federation on it twitter handle @thenff tweeted ‘Former Nigeria Captain and Coach, Stephen Keshi, is dead. Reports say the legend died in the early hours of Wednesday, RIP Big Boss,

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No fewer than 772,224 children registered by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) are living at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the northeast. Mr Olusoji Adeniyi, UNICEE Emergency Specialist, disclosed this on Tuesday at a workshop on emergency preparedness organized by the fund for stakeholders in Kaduna. “Out of the number, 50 per cent... The post 772,224 displaced children live in IDPs camps – UNICEF appeared first on Nigerian News from Leadership News.

CHILDREN

772,224 displaced children live in IDPs camps – UNICEF


No fewer than 772,224 children registered by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) are living at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the northeast.

Mr Olusoji Adeniyi, UNICEE Emergency Specialist, disclosed this on Tuesday at a workshop on emergency preparedness organized by the fund for stakeholders in Kaduna.

“Out of the number, 50 per cent of the children have no family tracing, which was causing more concern on child protection.”

Adeniyi said some of the children were traumatized and required psycho-social attention and support to appropriately reintegrate them into the society.

“Most of the children are lost out because they have lost very precious parts of their lives as a result of insurgency,” he said.

He said the situation called for collective action from all concerned as the “children are the responsibility of everyone everywhere”.

“So, we must join hands in saving their lives and guaranteeing their future,” he stressed.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was organized by UNICEF to create awareness among stakeholders on the importance of emergency preparedness, child rights and protection. (NAN)

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According to the great Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” I cannot agree less with Madiba. If Nigeria must witness change in the real sense the most potent weapon to be deployed is education. There is no doubt that the current government was bequeathed a... The post One Year of Education Under Change Agenda appeared first on Nigerian News from Leadership News.

According to the great Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” I cannot agree less with Madiba. If Nigeria must witness change in the real sense the most potent weapon to be deployed is education.

There is no doubt that the current government was bequeathed a decayed education sector. Graduates from our universities are considered not employable by many multinational companies working in the country, not their fault though, I have been privileged to sit in an interview session once and I was shocked at the quality of graduates produced by our universities, I saw graduates who could hardly write or speak a complete sentence correctly in English.

We should not be surprised that we are here already, several years of neglect, nepotism, and corruption couldn’t have produced a different result. Today we have many certified uneducated graduates roaming the country. Nigerians not only send their children to Europe and America to study, they were sending them to Ghana and Togo as well. This was happening in a country whose once upon a time our premier universities were great citadels of learning that could compare with any in the world. Foreign students trooped into our universities because of the quality of learning they offered.

All of that became history; our citadels of learning became the den for all sorts of vices, such as cultism, hooliganism, prostitution, exam malpractices, plagiarism, sexual harassment etc.
Lectures no longer serve as the eggheads of society, many now engage in sex for grades and selling of handouts to students. I cannot recall lately any research innovation from our Ivory towers that helped solve a national problem the nation was faced with. Rather than research Lecturers are now more of businessmen.

The secondary and primary levels are not any better save that the private sector is heavily involved at those levels. Government over the years has simply adopted a very mediocre approach to the provision of quality education at all levels.

The Buhari administration has promised to fix the decay in the education sector. The government in its first budget sent in a 403.16 billion naira for the education sector. This amount is only lesser than that of three ministries namely the ministries of Interior, Power, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Defense. The government through the Minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu has promised to ensure that all funds allocated to the Ministry of Education will be judiciously used unlike what obtained in the past.

This is quite reassuring , for those who know, they will tell you that some of the biggest frauds that was done in the last government was carried out in the ministry of education and agencies under it, many funds that could have gone into providing infrastructure in our various institutions were simply diverted to private pockets. Fortunately, the close watch Mallam Adamu has kept at the ministry has given effect to President Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption as the ministry is now a trailblazer in how to make government transparent.

Nonetheless, the government must further intensify efforts at stamping out corruption in our education sector. Quality educational standards can never be achieved in a corrupt environment. The government must act to sanitize the processes of appointing heads of agencies of parastatals and agencies under the ministry of education. Since the minister is already on the right track in this regards, I can only urge him to do more.

The government has promised to build six new universities of technology in the six geo political zones of the country. This is in furtherance of its commitment to promote the growth of science and technology in the country. This is a welcome development and it is quite commendable. I am however amazed when some people criticize the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) in its efforts to introduce computer based examination systems.

The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu must see to it that this progress is not rolled back and it is commendable that he has already thrown his weight behind the innovation. Government cannot be seen as claiming to encourage science and technology on the one hand and then on the other hand withholding support for innovative technological processes within its agencies. The government should support the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), in its effort to improve the quality and processes of its exam.
Anyone who chooses to study at the tertiary level in the year 2016 must at the least be able to operate a computer to take a test.

I am constantly impressed by the rate of computerization of the processes at JAMB. From the purchase of forms, to registration, the unification of admission processes, to checking of results all these processes are computer based. For this reason I believe the government should back the recently introduced computer based examination system. The computer based system will reduce exam malpractices drastically and further improve the quality of students being admitted into our higher institutions.

I want to commend the Dibu Ojerinde-led JAMB for being innovative and leading in deploying technology appropriately to solve our educational challenges. Prof Ojerinde will definitely be leaving behind a visible mark of excellence and innovation like no other in this organization that he has led for close to a decade now. If other agencies of government are as pragmatic and as innovative as JAMB has been in the last decade, I am sure our education sector will not be where it is today. I singled out JAMB to proof that transforming out education sector is not impossible; it however requires men of vision and character to lead such transformations.

Also now that the budget has been passed the government should begin work on its plans to recruit 500,000 graduates to help with teaching at the primary school level. This will go a long way in improving the quality of education at the foundation level, which is the most important part of any building.

Training and remunerations of teachers is also key. If teachers are not happy with their working conditions they may teach but just halfheartedly, if any job requires full dedication it is that of teachers. They have the enormous task of impacting knowledge on the future leaders of the country. To that extent, teachers’ wages must be seen to be commensurate with the task they have. This one write up cannot proffer solution to all the challenges our educational sector faces.

But at least opens up the space for more discussion on the way forward for this critical sector that has been neglected for so long.

One thing that seems to be in abundance at the moment though are promises, promises everywhere, we now wait to see the sustained fulfillment of this promises by the APC government as already being demonstrated in the education sector.

Agbese is the National Coordinator of the United Kingdom based Civil Rights Coalition known as Stand Up Nigeria and contributed this piece from Watford Way, London.[b][/b]

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given a deadline date for the conduct of the suspended elections. INEC on Tuesday said it is committed to concluding the suspended elections in Rivers, Imo, Kogi and Kano States which were disrupted by violence not later than 31st July, 2016. The Commission said it will conduct the... The post INEC To Conclude Suspended Elections Not Later than July appeared first on Nigerian News from Leadership News.

Mahmood-Yakubu-INEC-Chairman
INEC To Conclude Suspended Elections Not Later than July

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given a deadline date for the conduct of the suspended elections.

INEC on Tuesday said it is committed to concluding the suspended elections in Rivers, Imo, Kogi and Kano States which were disrupted by violence not later than 31st July, 2016.

The Commission said it will conduct the elections in the time frame provided that all necessary consultations and activities leading to the elections were concluded in time.

The Commission gave a stern warning, that in spite of its commitment, it would not return to conduct elections or hesitate to further postpone or discontinue the suspended elections in any area where there is imminent threat to lives or to peace or security, especially where such threats are likely to lead to breakdown of law and order.

In the statement issued by the Commission’s Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr Oluwole Osaze Uzzi, the commission issued a road map for the resolution of the crisis and violence which led to the suspension of the elections in the affected areas and said it would fix the dates for the elections following consultations with political parties and candidates.

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Mr. Babandede says surveillance has been placed at the nation’s airports to arrest any unqualified holders of those categories of passports. The post New Comptroller-General of Immigration orders arrest of ex-governors, ministers with diplomatic passports appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

The Nigerian Immigration Service on Monday directed its personnel across the country to apprehend all former government officials, including governors and ministers, who failed to relinquish their diplomatic passports after leaving office.

Muhammad Babandede, the Service’s new comptroller-general, gave the instruction while briefing senior officials as part of activities marking his official assumption of duties at the agency’s headquarters.

Mr. Babandede said the service had so far retrieved about 158 diplomatic passports and 310 official passports.

“In view of the earlier publication for return of official/diplomatic passports by former political officeholders and retired public servants, it must be noted that charges will be pressed against unauthorised holders of such documents,” Mr. Babandede said. “This is because such persons are no longer in the eligibility list and, therefore, in contradiction of Section 10 of the extant Immigration Act, 2015.”

Mr. Babandede said surveillance had been placed at the nation’s airports to arrest any unqualified holders of those categories of passports.

“I am hereby directing that unauthorised holders of such passports be arrested at the airports and other points of entry/departure. Efforts will be made also to trace such unauthorised holders in their given addresses.”

Similarly, Mr. Babandede promised tougher sanctions against unscrupulous individuals within the NIS, saying they are “heartless officers who are setting up illegal check-points to extort Nigerians.”

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The last one year of President Muhammadu Buhari has been made for television, true or false? Discuss. The answer to the above question is both true and false. The post 365 days of Buhari: Will this giant learn to dance? appeared first on Vanguard News.
By Jide Ajani

The last one year of President Muhammadu Buhari has been made for television, true or false? Discuss. The answer to the above question is both true and false.

PRESIDENT BUHARI ATTENDS APC NEC MEETING
PRESIDENT BUHARI
But in engaging a meaningful discourse, we would need to situate what has happened in the last 365 days within the praxis of whether the scripting could have been done in any other manner.

Yet consider: Buhari, as indeed many right-thinking Nigerians, has been embarrassingly stunned beyond imagination by the high level of graft discovered upon assumption of office; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, under the new leadership of Ibrahim Magu, appears to have been reinvigorated, as it daily titillates Nigerians with one fantastic corruption discovery after another; the global economic downturn as and the dwindling crude oil price have conspired to initially pour cold water on the President’s enthusiasm.

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President Buhari’s choices as Nigerian leader in the last 12 months, have revealed his personality. The post Seven low-hanging fruits President Buhari failed to pluck in his first year in office appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.
A year ago, Muhammadu Buhari was Nigeria’s Rorschach test, upon whom Nigerians could project their disparate yearnings, following widespread disenchantment with the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

To govern, however, is to choose, and the choices the leader of this diverse entity called Nigeria, makes in a 12-month period, must reveal his personality.

Like any new leader, especially one dogged by security threats and plummeting economic indices, President Buhari wishes he could have had it less tough.

Mr. Buhari stated earlier this year that he wished he hadn’t been elected president at a time Nigeria is grappling with acute insecurity and low crude oil prices at the international markets.

“But I say why me? Why is it that it is when they have spent all the money, when they made the country insecure that I returned?” Mr. Buhari lamented in a February 5 interview with Al-Jazeera. “Why didn’t I come when the treasury was full? Oil price was over $140 per barrel and when I came, it slipped down to $30. Why me?”

Although Mr. Buhari still frequently blames his predecessor for running the country aground, bequeathing only a “virtually empty” treasury to him, he also committed ample embarrassing gaffes in terms of policy pronouncements and his deliberate indifference to the public mood.

Since Mr. Buhari did not participate in any debate during the campaign–and the number of times he made stump speeches for himself could be counted on fingertips—it is hard to suggest that the president would, in hindsight, wish he had not pit an ardent campaign against his major challenger, Mr. Jonathan.

Juxtaposing the current state of his presidency with the euphoria that greeted his emergence as winner of the historic 2015 elections, here are some low-hanging fruits that require no legislation that Mr. Buhari should have plucked to assert himself clearly as a leader who has both the moral and intellectual astuteness to effect the fundamental changes Nigerians have long craved.

Disclosure of Assets

Mr. Buhari is arguably the first-ever Nigerian leader that was elected into office on the perceived strength of his character as a conviction politician that could decisively deal with corruption —Nigeria’s original bane.

To further convince Nigerians that he was, indeed, a frugal and incorruptible man, Mr. Buhari, in one of his speeches, said he would publicly declare his assets upon assumption of office. He also said he would prevail on his appointees to do the same.

Shortly after his swearing-in, Nigerians began demanding copies of Mr. Buhari’s assets declaration documents as submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau. And the president began prevaricating about the matter immediately.

At first, he released a statement claiming to have fulfilled his public assets declaration vow on June 6, 2015. That turned out to be misleading. Mr. Buhari only submitted his assets declaration form to the CCB as every government official is mandated to do.

Under intense public pressure, the president released a statement enumerating his assets and those of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The statement was at best imprecise, with no clear details of listed assets. It failed to provide addresses of landed of properties, vehicle models, assets of spouse and children as required by law, and more. The presidency assured those details would be available to every Nigerian once they were verified by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

The bureau has since done so, but Mr. Buhari still refuses to come entirely clean on how much he is worth, even though the Ahmed Joda transition committee advised that immediate public declaration of assets would be a “quick win” for Messrs. Buhari and Osinbajo.

Questioned during a presidential media chat in 2015, a visibly itchy president questioned why he was singled out, from amongst the governors and other political leaders.

Till date, a day away from the government’s first birthday, the president has failed to disclose his assets by sending the photocopies of what he submitted to CCB to the media, as former President Umar Yar’Adua did.

Reap as you vote

The ethnic and tribal sentiments that have for long been a feature of Nigeria’s elections were palpable in the outcome of 2015 general elections. The results showed that while the people of the north embraced Mr. Buhari in large numbers, those in the south-south and south east overwhelmingly voted to keep “their own” in office.

Notwithstanding, a plurality of Nigerians had expected that the president would govern fairly and inclusively in order to heal whatever wound the election may have left behind.

Alas, there’s little evidence to show that Mr. Buhari did this. Instead, he began by appointing mainly northerners to the consternation of even those who were amongst his staunchest allies. Mr. Buhari appointed dozens of aides in the first weeks of his administration without ceding any of the positions to the southeast.

Asked how he intended to implement an inclusive development of the south-south, Mr. Buhari delved into the results of the elections, speaking of how the limited support he received from the area would certainly reflect in his government’s policies and programmes to them.

When pressed on how the south east complained of being marginalised, rather than explain his decisions to Nigerians, a visibly-irritated president asked in his maiden media chat on December 30, 2015: “What do the Igbos want?”

Public mood and local media

Upon assumption of office, President Buhari was met with incessant and devastating attacks by suspected Boko Haram members. It took intense public criticisms for him to issue a single statement condemning the attacks. He was quiet most times. He showed similar reluctance with the herdsmen crisis across the country. The killings in Agatu and other southern communities were not condemned by the president for weeks. Most went without a single statement of condolence from his office.

But the president was swift in condemning terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, Grand-Bassam and elsewhere.

Similarly, Mr. Buhari hardly speaks to local media. From when he would name his ministers (in U.S.) to how he won’t let the central bank devalue (in Paris) the president has made most of the key pronouncements abroad. Talking to local media would have helped him better understand and gauge public opinion.

Presidential Air Fleet

From a Boeing 737 to choppers, there are 11 fleet it available to Mr. Buhari. His campaign assured those aircraft would be disposed of timeously if the president won the elections. Not one has gone yet. Why has Mr. Buhari not sold any of them to or even addressed Nigerians on why he couldn’t sell?

Appointment of ministers

Mr. Buhari failed to appoint his ministers early. From the moment he took over on May 29, 2015 till October ending when he finally released names of his prospective ministers, Mr. Buhari claimed he was taking his time to appoint the best.

In hindsight, very few people believe the president’s appointment was worth the time he spent shopping for them. Some analysts have blamed the late appointments partly for the declining state of the economy. Given the prolonged fall in oil prices even before the elections, they argue, appointing a top economic team early enough could have helped stabilise the system and assure investors. The president missed that opportunity.

With budget, it’s business as usual in Abuja.

Given that one of Mr. Buhari’s rallying cries during the campaign was a promise to eliminate waste within his administration and streamline state agencies and parastatals, history has recorded that Mr. Buhari’s first budget was marred by irregularities–embarrassing and administrative irregularities. It failed to send the much-needed signal to unscrupulous civil servants that a new sheriff was indeed in town. It was a disaster.

Being Nigeria’s most effective salesman.

Of the 30 foreign trips Mr. Buhari made in his first year, hardly did he return from any without dropping a “bombshell”. While some were inadvertent gaffes, too many others were as deliberate as they were damaging.

Nigeria’s president has travelled to distant lands to castigate his people as “criminals”, “corrupt” and “unruly” and even urged foreign investors to be wary.

Although a plurality of Nigerian foreign policy analysts have condemned the president for his outbursts, some of his supporters say he was being honest. That could seem an afterthought. If the president does not want to sell Nigeria–which is actually part of his job– he should, at the least, not de-market it.

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