Residents of Madamai community have decried the unavailability of midwives and inadequate healthcare providers in their health facility, saying, in times of emergencies, the easiest form of mobility to take patients to the nearest hospital is ‘the wheel barrow’.
Madamai is a village in Kpak ward of Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna state in northwestern Nigeria. It is made up of Madamai I and Madamai II with about 8500 people who are mostly farmers. They cultivate mostly Yam, Okro, Maize and a local bean known as ‘waken Mada’.
The hilly village just like most rural communities in Nigeria is been deprived of basic infrastructures such as good roads, electricity, portable drinking water and a standard healthcare centers.
The slippery nature of the road into Madamai especially during rainy season makes it difficult for vehicles and motorcycle to ply, as such, wheel barrow becomes the best form of mobility to transport any pregnant woman who is in labor or any emergency cases to the major road or nearest hospital. The nearest hospital to the community is Turaki Bugai memorial hospital and Kaura General Hospital which is both located about five kilometers away from the community.
“The road is bad that even a bike can slip or a car get trap in the mud,” Mrs. Esther Yakubu, a resident of the Community said. According to her, when a woman is in labor or even emergencies, the men take off their shoes and push the woman while others follow to monitor her in case she delivers on the way, saying, the best thing is to push since the road is sloppy while going out.
Mrs. Esther Yakubu
Mrs. Yakubu who is a mother of five explained that, she delivered two babies at a healthcare centre and equally enjoyed the wheel barrow ride, noting that, there are instances where women deliver on the way, and they are returned to the village to be taken care of traditionally.
Explaining how they tackled some of the challenges arising from complications such as bleeding, Mrs. Madeline P. Akwok said they used traditional herbs to manage it and in any case it persists, they rush such patient to the nearest hospital which is five kilometer away from the village.
She also noted that with the little experience she has gained while attending ante natal of her pregnancies, it has enable her to render some form of assistance to women in the community during labor.
According to her, most of the women in the community are reluctant when it comes to attending ante natal but the little experience she had while attending antenatal has enabled her to render some form of assistance to many women who gave birth at home.
She added that in recent time, the community has not recorded any dead of women as a result of any pregnancy related complications but six babies died between January and August 2017.
Corroborating what the women said, the community leader, Mr. Andrew Lekwot said even though government has sent some healthcare providers to the community’s health centre which was built through community effort, sometimes the staff are hardly seen in the facility.
He also lamented the state of roads and lack of other infrastructure in the area, saying, “whenever it rain, the teachers that comes to teach our pupils don’t make it to the village; our women cannot take their farm produce to the market because of the bad condition of road which links the village to town.
V2V is a project facilitated by LEADS Nigeria with support from Christian Aid in Kaduna state, aimed at promoting accountability to address issues of development by empowering citizens to influence decision making around service delivery and to hold leaders accountable for improved public service.
The US city of Houston has declared a night-time curfew as it battles the impact of Hurricane Harvey.
The storm has dumped record rainfall, leaving large parts of the city underwater, homes destroyed and over 20 people reported dead.
Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said the curfew was needed to head off looting in America’s fourth most populous city.
President Donald Trump visited Texas on Tuesday to survey the damage brought by Harvey, calling the storm “epic”.
The curfew will run from 00:00-05:00 local time (05:00-10:00 GMT) for an indefinite period. Relief volunteers, first responders, and those going to and from work are exempt.
Mr Turner said the curfew would help prevent “property crimes” against evacuated homes, and was in force “only to prevent potential criminal acts”.
City officials have reported instances of looting, armed robberies and of people impersonating police officers.
Thousands of people have fled their homes in search of emergency shelter amid severe flooding.
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Media captionTrump: ‘Texas can handle anything’
President Trump earlier arrived in Corpus Christi, where Hurricane Harvey first made landfall on Friday, with First Lady Melania Trump.
After landing in Texas, Mr Trump said he wanted the relief effort to stand as an example of how to respond to a storm. “We want to do it better than ever before,” he said.
“This storm, it’s epic what happened. But you know what, it happened in Texas and Texas can handle anything.”
He will not be visiting Houston. The White House said he did not want his visit to disrupt the emergency response.
The rainfall in Texas set a new record for the continental US, the National Weather Service said on Tuesday. A rain gauge in Cedar Bayou recorded 51.88 inches (132 cm) of rain since Friday.
More than 13,000 people have now been rescued in the affected areas.
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Media captionStorm Harvey: Three factors that came together to bring unprecedented rainfall
In other developments:
A Houston police officer died after he became trapped in flood waters whilst trying to get to work, the city police chief said
Almost a third of Harris County, home to 4.6 million people, is reportedly underwater – an area 15 times the size of Manhattan
Officials in Harris County said 3,000 homes had been flooded by water spilling from the Addicks and Barker dams, according to Reuters
Some bridges and roads are said to be buckling under the stress
A levee at Columbia Lakes in Brazoria County, south of Houston, was breached, with authorities tweeting: “Get out now!”
A 1.5 mile (2.4km) radius around a chemical plant at Crosby was evacuated due to the possibility of a fire or explosion.
Mr Trump has already declared a federal state of emergency in both Texas and nearby Louisiana, where Harvey is expected to make landfall again on Wednesday morning.
The move releases emergency government funding and other assistance.
Harvey was the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years when it made landfall on Friday near Corpus Christi, 220 miles (354km) south-west of Houston.
It was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, but is expected to continue dumping huge amounts of rain in the coming days over already flood-hit areas.
Residents of the Louisiana city of New Orleans, which marked the 12th anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday, are bracing for heavy rain and flash floods over the next two days.
Are you affected by Tropical Storm Harvey? Let us know about your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories.
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Gombe (Nigeria) – A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Gombe State northeast of the country, Abubakar Habu Mu’azu has described the recovery and return of President Muhammadu Buhari as a sign for Nigerians to know that Allah still has a good plan for them and for the President to continue his good leadership in the country.
Mu’azu stated this Tuesday, at a prayer and rally for President Buhari organised by him in Gombe, saying some Nigerians are still doubtful of Buhari’s miraculous recovery.
The APC stalwart said life and leadership are in Allah’s hands and further warned Nigerians, who wished the President dead on social media, to desist from such act, as Allah is the sole determinant of who should live and who should not.
“Sickness and recovery of Mr President was just for him to appreciate that God still has a good plan for his governance in Nigeria, and the return of President Buhari is worthy of celebrating; as you know the president and his Vice President were already taking step toward resuscitating our ailing economy.
“We need only Buhari and his VP to continue fighting corruption and recovering all the tax payers’ money stashed away by corrupt politicians.
“We must continue to pray for the president for sound health to enable him continue to fight insurgency in the country. We are so happy and our prayers remain with the president.”
Also speaking the Campaign Coordinator of Buhari in 2015 elections in the state, Sa’ad Abubakar Abdullahi, said Nigerians should thank Allah for returning him safely and those wishing him dead should desist from such wishful thinking.
He further urged Nigerians irrespective of religious and political inclination to continue to pray for the sustenance of peace and unity in the country.
Even the diehard cynics know that Buhari has done well in tackling the security challenges which bedevilled the country especially in the Northeast region.
Some of the residents of Gombe who spoke with AFRICA PRIME NEWS said they were happy that the President returned to the country safely and in good health.
“I heard the news of his return and since then I have been very happy, because Buhari meant well for our country and I thank Habu Mu’azu for organising this rally ” a resident, Garba Ali said
Media captionDays of destruction: The story so far
A major dam outside Houston has begun spilling over as Storm Harvey pushes the reservoir past capacity, Texas officials say.
Engineers have tried to prevent nearby communities from being inundated by releasing some of the water held by the Addicks dam.
But flood control official Jeff Lindner says water levels are now over the height of the reservoir edge.
Harvey has brought huge floods to Texas and is starting to affect Louisiana.
Unprecedented rainfall has forced thousands of people to flee their homes while rescuers are trying to reach others that remain stranded.
At least nine people are reported to have died, including six members of the same family whose van was swept away by rising floodwater, and a man in his 60s who apparently drowned while trying to swim to safety.
While spillover would not cause the Addicks dam to fail, it would add to flooding in areas close to the Buffalo Bayou, the main river into the fourth largest city in the US.
Experts are also concerned about the Barker dam, which also controls the amount of water in the river. The flood gauges on the dam have themselves been put out of action by the deluge.
Meanwhile, officials in Brazoria County, south of Houston, said a levee at Columbia Lakes had been breached, tweeting “Get out now!”
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are visiting Texas on Tuesday to see the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, now downgraded to a tropical storm.
Meanwhile, rain is continuing to fall. In Houston, forecasts suggest that some areas in and around the city could see up to 12in (30cm) of rain on Tuesday, bringing the total rainfall from Harvey to about 50in.
Harvey was the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years when it made landfall on Friday near Corpus Christi, 220 miles (354km) south-west of Houston.
The slow-moving storm – currently over the Gulf of Mexico – will continue to dump huge amounts of rain in the coming days over already flood-hit areas.
Makeshift armada
By James Cook, BBC North America correspondent, Houston
All day in the suburbs to the west of Houston, hundreds of families waded cautiously along a road they usually take to the shops, to school and to work.
It was an exhausting journey of well over a mile in waist-high flooding.
All night, as water lapped into their homes, people had been calling for help, they said, but no-one came.
Eventually a lone police officer arrived but by then people had taken matters into their own hands, forming a makeshift armada of little boats, jet skis, blow-up mattresses and even rubber rings.
All day long they streamed out in the teeming rain.
Occasionally someone would collapse and have to be helped up. Some children cried but most sat in shocked, soaking silence as they bobbed along on their inflatable rafts, teeth chattering in the cold.
Wading through the water, Anthony Rogers, 54, summed up the mood. The authorities, he said, had been “useless”.
West Africa’s leading provider of connectivity and data center solutions, MainOne (www.MainOne.net) has reiterated the importance of Internet traffic domiciliation as a key requirement for growing the internet ecosystem in Africa.
Speaking at the just concluded African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF), MainOne’s Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke challenged the continent’s leading Internet players to exchange traffic on the continent, noting that this would significantly lower costs and improve performance.
During her keynote address titled “Vision 80/20 by 2020” which approached the goal set by AfPIF to route 80% of Africa’s Internet traffic on the continent by the year 2020, Ms. Opeke examined the internet landscape in Africa and rued the current ecosystem of routing over 80% of the Internet traffic from Nigeria abroad, incurring expensive transit costs and increasing service latency.
According to her, transactions initiated in Africa typically leave the sender for a long journey outside the continent, usually to Europe, America or even Asia before returning to target recipient e.g. a bank down the road from the sender, with the response traveling all the way back the same tortuous route to the sender.
She inquired why an end-user who requests to access his records in a bank down the road would want their banking transaction to travel from Lagos to London, when it is feasible to interconnect this traffic, and revealed that this process of routing traffic outside the continent increases Internet costs and delays content delivery to the region by approximately 150 milliseconds.
Ms. Opeke noted that “Africa needs to retain more local traffic within the continent to drive more value from the Internet. This can be achieved by leveraging robust Internet Exchange Points and access via local interconnection points and local data centers which provide a platform for different networks to directly interconnect with other operators and exchange traffic, guaranteeing lower bandwidth costs, quicker access to more content providers and carriers and lower latency for local markets.”
Africa needs to retain more local traffic within the continent to drive more value from the Internet
She explained that until a few years ago, internet capacity in Africa was low with few high-speed networks and data centers to provide users the connectivity and content they desired. According to her, this narrative is changing, as Africa’s growing fiber network density and increase in world-class data centers makes it much easier for content providers and OTT operators to host and serve data locally.
Ms. Opeke said MainOne’s data center company, MDXi had addressed these concerns by hosting the Nigerian Internet Exchange and launching an open interconnection service to facilitate collaboration and peering within its Lekki data center. Ms. Opeke also shared the company’s strategy towards deepening regional integration and digital transformation of West Africa with submarine access to data centers in Lagos and Accra interconnecting all major operators, a new data center coming up in Sagamu, Nigeria, and its intent to extend its submarine cable to Cote D’Ivoire.
During the panel session that followed, industry experts queried why Nigeria, with the largest number of investments in subsea cables in the region, has failed to produce digital oil by taking its rightful place as the Internet hub for West Africa. They urged for regulatory incentives to increase private and public peering at local exchanges to boost internet traffic, which is guaranteed to create and improve the ease of doing business across the continent and boost economic growth.
An initiative of the Internet Society, the three-day conference focused on developing Internet interconnection and traffic exchange opportunities and brought together key infrastructure providers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), global content producers and providers, data center operators, policy-makers and regulators and other key players across Africa to discuss Internet traffic exchange issues on the continent.
Ghana has successfully completed the conversion of its only research reactor from the use of high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel, in an international project supported by the IAEA to help decrease the proliferation risks associated with HEU fuel.
HEU is an ingredient that can be used to create a nuclear device intended for malicious use, and since 1978 various national and international activities have been underway to convert research and test reactors from the use of HEU to LEU fuel, with the aim of minimizing and eventually eliminating the civilian use of HEU.
The HEU fuel was repatriated to China.
The three-year project, which was a joint undertaking of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and the IAEA, was completed last week. Ghana has become the first of the five countries operating a Chinese-supplied Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) to successfully convert and repatriate its irradiated HEU core to China.
“With this pioneer engagement Ghana demonstrated the feasibility of the MNSR conversion outside China,” said Kwame I. J. Aboh, Project Manager at GAEC. “We hope our model of conversion and repatriation can be applied in similar operations in other countries operating such facilities.”
The conversion from HEU to LEU reduces the enrichment level from over 90% uranium to below 20%, without affecting the reactor’s research capabilities. Therefore, GAEC is still able to maintain its scientific research, education, training and industrial applications based on nuclear facilities following the conversion.
“Ensuring the sustainability of MNSR operation with a LEU core was a key success factor of this project,” said Christophe Xerri, Director of the IAEA Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology. “This experience offers a good example of international cooperation to foster nuclear science and practical training while addressing non-proliferation concerns and delivering capacity building.”
To ensure successful knowledge transfer for future conversion projects, a mock-up MNSR vessel was built for operator training at the GHARR-1 facility. This has since been further developed into a full-scale MNSR Core Removal Training Centre (CRTC), available for training operators from other MNSR countries. “The National Nuclear Security Administration is a strong supporter of the CRTC concept,” said Dave Huizenga, Acting Deputy Administrator of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at NNSA. “This helps harness experience gained from the pilot project in Ghana and offers full-scale training possibilities for the MNSR operators facing similar challenges in the future.”
Two meetings were held in the summer of 2017 to capture lessons learned from the implementation of the project – which could benefit other reactors looking to convert to LEU fuel. “Outcomes of these meetings will build up the Ghana model and support similar operations in the future,” said Lixin Shen, Deputy Director General of China Atomic Energy Authority.
Chinese-designed MNSRs
MNSR type research reactors were designed and manufactured by the China Institute of Atomic Energy, and the original design had a compact core with 30 kW thermal powers, containing about 1 kg of 90% enriched HEU.
Nine Chinese-designed MNSR facilities exist: four in China – one of which has been converted to LEU fuel – and one each in Ghana, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. They are used primarily for education and training purposes.
Upon the commitment of the Chinese Government, the China Atomic Energy Authority undertook the responsibility of MNSR conversion first for the prototype MNSR in China, and then worked with GAEC to complete the conversion of GHARR-1 and take back the HEU.
IAEA assistance
The IAEA’s cooperation with the MNSR community began in 2006 with a coordinated research project to determine the technical feasibility of converting them to LEU fuel.
Upon request from Ghana in 2014 for assistance in securing a LEU core for the country’s GHARR-1 facility, the IAEA’s Research Reactor Section provided support for the conversion and removal, carried out review missions at the GHARR-1 research reactor focusing on safety, offered regulator training on cask licencing and held workshops on transport security.
Nigeria and Syria have also requested IAEA assistance for conversion and HEU core removal. The Nigerian project is scheduled to be accomplished in 2018.
In Beijing, where the HEU fuel has just arrived, Mary-Alice Hayward, IAEA Deputy Director General, head of the Management Department, represented the Agency at HEU return event that the Chinese authorities organised today. She stated that “The IAEA was pleased to support our Member States with the conversion of Ghana’s MNSR and the return of its HEU fuel to China. This project represents a significant milestone in the broader endeavour to minimize the use of HEU in civilian facilities while ensuring continued access to nuclear research and training capabilities.”
On 25th August,2017,the Attorney General of the federation(AGF) Mr. Abubakar Malami(SAN) wrote a memoir to Hon. Justice Binta Nyako beseeching the judge to revoke the bail the lordship granted the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) on 25th April,2017. AGF Malami pretended to pillar his irredentist-inspired memoir on Mazi Kanu’s violation of his bail conditions.
A casual perusal of opinions AGF Malami’s memoir generated suggest ;unintended outweighed intended consequences. And finally confirmed President Muhammadu Buhari and his rapacious men in the loop chronic irredentists and nepotists working hard to convert Nigeria to a semi-apartheid state where peoples ethnicity and religion determines how they treat them.
One of the best reaction to AGF Malami’s bail revocation request came from Ndigbo’s Pan cultural body Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Mr.John Nwodo ,the leader of the body, inflicted moral and legal uppercuts on the FGN and accused the AGF of bias. His moral punch came in these word: “I am equally miffed by the audacity with which the Attorney-General displays his bias without regard to his oath of office”. On legal ground, Nwodo Piqued: “I am amazed that the distinguished attorney is prepared to contest the superiority of the provisions of the constitution on fundamental human rights of freedom of movement and freedom of association over an erroneous judicial proclamation violating those rights”.
Ohanaeze’s swift, sharp and unequivocal reaction to AGF’s request is the sign that the end of Nigerian “Aryan Race” treatment of others as a conquered and captured people is coming to a disastrous end.
AGF Malami’s request has raised question bordering their refusal to arrest and prosecute Arewa Youths that gave Igbos living in Northern Nigeria a Quit Notice on 6th June,2017, a decision now known as THE KADUNA DECLARATION.A day after their press conference(7/6/2017),Kaduna State Governor Mr. Nasir El-rufai, FGN, and the chairman of Northern Governors Forum threatened thunder and brimstone.
While the arrest orders hangs, these miscreants and intended “genociders” kept appearing as guests in media houses, reviewing their Quit Notice,and daring those that ordered for their arrest.Funny enough, at some point, we started seeing their pictures with some governors that threatened to arrest them. The peaked of this drama was staged on 24th August 2017-a day the felons “officially withdrew” their Quit Notice. The Chairman of Northern Governors Forum was at the venue and participated in the press conference.
In addition to these curious scenes, the FGN via the minister of interior became their official mouthpiece by saying; the felons were misquoted, hence FGN’s refusal to arrest them. The question begging for answer here is; if they were misquoted,why the official withdrawal of the Quit notice on 24th June 2017? This shows their poverty in logic and act of monitoring their lies.
While playing their script of official withdrawing of the Quit Notice, they ordered the FGN to rearrest the IPOB leader. To show that they are a tag team, FGN via Malami within 24hrs wrote his memoir- a demonstration that; rearresting Kanu was part of their overall game plan. The flow of events made it easy for proverbial Benjamin The Donkey to connect the dots with ease of knife on butter.
Equally, King Solomon’s wisdom in not desire to discern that Arewa Youths are jumping jacks of a scheme incubated and hatched by some government personas in tandem with some Northern regional power pullers. Their assumption is, when they issue the Quit Notice to Igbos living in the north, that will make Igbos mount pressure on IPOB’s leader to sink his referendum Advocacy.
I guess they are now licking their wounds because their criminalistic project boomeranged. Their tactless decision has attracted a decision by the United Nations. The whole world is patiently waiting to see whether they will respect the UN’s order or will wear a deaf ear. One good thing is, whether they act or not, another government will make them account for their criminality.
There is not stretching the fact; Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB’s Advocacy for a UN monitored referendum for Biafra is responsible for all these drama and melodrama that is forcing the FGN to dance necked in the public square. Let me state for the umpteenth time; Mazi Kanu and IPOB’s clamour for a referendum for Baifrans have a base in local and international laws.Their quest falls under the globally acceptable principle of SELF-DETERMINATION.
FGN and other pro system ideologue’s attempts of decorating the Baifrans struggle and strugglers for self determination in a felonious regalia do not have a legal nuisance value. And malnourish of logic and syllogism because it was on the same principle that our nationalists fought for our self rule and successfully liquidated colonial rule on 1st October 1960.
The most pettiest dimension of FGN’s take is equating the push for self determination with treason or call to war without providing a convincing nexus between the two. FGN is behaving as if it is not aware that countries like: Crimea; South Sudan; Eritrea; Kosovo were product of contemporary referendums. And Catalans, Scots and Irish are pushing for referendums. Governments of countries that aforementioned referendums occurred and advocacies are on;did not and are not criminalizing or equating them with a call to war. Why is Nigeria one of its kind?
More often, you hear enemies of freedom and liberty spewing bunkum balderdash like; cooperate existence of Nigeria is not negotiable despite rumbling echoes of centrifugalism and centripetalism in the political atmosphere. It is essential for those benefitting from the 1914 political contraption called Nigeria know that no amount of threat and brutality will quench voices and activism questioning the very foundation of the country that consciously made them second class citizens. And placed bars to the height they can attain, politically.
Whether apologists of the lopsided system are cherry or wear stone faces, they can’t wished away the compelling realism that Nigeria was mischievously manufactured by U.K. imperialists to advanced their economic and political interest.Because the intent was heinous, every structure crafted was unjust and titanically skewed. To state the truth, devoid of any political correctness, the colonial masters created a semi-apartheid state with our own version of “Boers” to sustain colonial and post colonial political structures.
Now that IPOB and most South East political juggernauts vowed to resist this impunity and attempt to rearrest Kanu, what are the options on FGN’s table? To turn-tail-run or to roll out the tanks against Kanu and his people? Or order for the arrest of every soul that opposed FGN’s dictatorial, irredentist and nepotic move to revoke Kanu’s bail and criminalization of the clamour for a referendum?
The character of President Muhammadu Buhari of today is the same with that of General of 31/12/1983-27/8/1985. The same highhandedness, intransigence, my-way or highway mentality, and sadism is on display. The dictum that said no amount of downpour can wash away spots on the skin of a leopard is at play. His statement that he is a born again democrats during the electioneering campaigns is dissimulative and a bogus votes hunting mantra.
AGF Malami’s memoir is simply a joke stretched too far.
Residents of Madamai community have decried the unavailability of midwives and inadequate healthcare providers in their health facility, saying, in times of emergencies, the easiest form of mobility to take patients to the nearest hospital is ‘the wheel barrow’.
