Head of Dangote group, Aliko Dangote, has been named the second most powerful person in Africa and the 68th in the world.
Dangote was at the weekend named along other world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, American President-elect, Donald Trump and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel as the most powerful persons in the world by Forbes Magazine.
These personalities were ranked along with 7o others.
Dangote has constantly featured in the list since 2013 when he was listed as the only black African so rated by the popular Forbes Magazine in the list of 100 most powerful persons. In 2015 he was number 71 ahead of the American President-elect.
In 2016, he moved up the ladder of influential people occupying 68th position coming only after the Egyptian President, Abdel el-Sisi, who was adjudged the most powerful in Africa and 44th in the world.
The famed American business magazine, Forbes in the latest edition of its 74 World Most Powerful People ranking list released showed that the 64 year old Russian President, Vladimir Putin is the most powerful in the world, ahead of Mr. Donald Trump who is second on the list.
While the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is ranked the third most powerful person in the World, out-going American President, Barack Obama placed 48th on the list.
The Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis is the fifth most powerful person while the world Richest, Bill Gates comes seventh. Chinese President Xi Jinping comes before the Pope in number four while the Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg is the number 10 most powerful person in the world.
The Forbes reports that there are nearly 7.4 billion people on planet earth but the listed 74 men and women make the world turn.
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, said the federal government remains focused in degrading the activities of Boko Haram in the North east, renewed militancy in the Niger Delta region and other security challenges confronting the country by building the capacity of its officers in all areas to enable them perform adequately to their statutory duties.
Dan-Ali stated this during the passing out parade and commissioning of Direct Short Service Course 25/2016 Cadets at Nigeria Air Force Base, Kaduna.
According to him, “We have remained focused as evidenced in the overall performance of the Armed Forces in it effort in tackling the enormous security challenges confronting our dear nation.
“As you are aware the armed forces of Nigeria has made tremendous efforts to stamp out terrorism and insurgency perpetrated by Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.
“Equally, in recent times we have had to contend with other emerging challenges of cattle rustling, renewed militancy in the Niger Delta, kidnapping and other acts of criminality across the country.
“It is gratifying to state that the capacity of the insurgents to lunch coordinate massive attack has been sufficiently degraded through the coordinated effort of the Armed Forces and other security agencies,” he stressed.
The minister also charged personnel of the Nigerian Air Force against any act of corruption and indiscipline but be subjected to military and civil authority as well as protecting Nigeria’s democracy.
“Therefore as you pass out today, I urge all of you to be prepared to play your part in defending the territorial integrity of our great nation and protecting lives and property.
“You must avoid over zealousness and resist temptation to take law into your hand. You must also obey your superiors and remain absolutely loyal to the President and Commander -in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
A total of 105 graduated from Direct Short Service Course 25/2016 Cadets at NAF Base Kaduna.
By Iliya Kure Kaduna (Nigeria) — Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), a coalition of civil society groups advocating for improved policy on nutrition, has commended Kaduna State Government, in northern Nigeria, for including nutrition in its 2017 budgetary provisions.
Tuesday, Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna state signed the 2017 budget amounting to N214.9 billion into law, which allocates N130 million for the procurement of therapeutic food and drugs for management of acute malnutrition.
In a statement, Coordinator of CS-SUNN in Kaduna, Silas Spencer Ideva, says, the allocation for nutrition is a demonstration of commitment that will go a long way in tackling malnutrition currently threatening the lives of children in the state.
“In tune with the proactive action of signing into law of the 2017 budget, and the plan of emergency nutrition intervention programme as an outcome of the 2017 budget, we exult the landmark achievement of this government,” says the statement.
On school feeding programme of 2015/2016 academic calendar, the statement quotes Ideva saying, “We Commend the effort of the government on the school feeding program which aim on improving the nutrition of children in public primary schools, costing the state about N1.1bn every month in the 2015/2016 session.
It says by the action, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, has demonstrated his administration’s resolve to tackle malnutrition headlong in Kaduna State through various intervention in 2016.
The statement also calls for the full implementation of Nigeria’s National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN), which it says will reverse the negative indices associated with malnutrition in the state, as well as catalyse economic development for the state in the nearest future.
“Against the backdrop of the current nutrition indices in Kaduna State with Stunting and wasting rate at 57% and 42% (2013 National Demographic Health Survey) respectively, the NSPAN seeks to reduce stunting by 20%, reduce low birth weight among new-borns by 15% and increase exclusive breastfeeding in the first sixmonths of infant life by 50%, if fully implemented,”
Nigeria approved the NSPAN in 2014, and is expected to run till 2019, when all states in the federation act in meeting up the national target.
Kaduna (Nigeria) — Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Kaduna Polytechnic Chapter on Friday threatened to shut down the institution over reappointment of Dr. Muhammed Bello Ibrahim as the institution’s Rector, saying, the institution needs a selfless, transparent, dedicated, patriotic individual who would work for the attainment of the institution’s vision and mission.
Addressing journalists Friday, ASUP Chairman of the Polytechnic, Dr. Aliyu Hassan Ibrahim said, the high level of decay in the institution was basically as a result of corruption, mismanagement, misappropriation of fund and connivance with bootlickers and sycophants that are determined to kill the system at all cost, adding that, all these were evident throughout the four years of the Rector’s administration.
while calling on the federal government and federal ministry of education for the annulment of his reappointment, the Union noted that, reappointing him would be tantamount to another four years of disaster for the students and staff of the institution.
He said, “This misery makes accountability questionable and thus suffocating the system, this must stop as we advice that the Hon. Minister of Education should call for vacancy advertisement instead of re-appointing Dr. M. B. Ibrahim for the second time.
The Union further alleged that in the Rector’s administration, “December 2015 salary was paid in 4 installments of 24.9%, 25.1%, 25% and 25% respectively over a period of two months.
“N67m of December 2015 salary is yet to be fully paid in terms of cooperative deductions, tax remittances, church and mosques deductions, etc.
“Diversion of N36m TETFUND construction fund to other charges making it impossible to pay-off contractors after five month of project completion.
“Investing over N900m for the upgrading of Applied Science laboratory which visually cannot be substantiated, for example Procurement of Equipment for Borosilicate Turbing machine for the Department of Applied Science CST (Lot B2) under 2011/2012 TETFund Normal Intervention of N18, 010, 628.97 paid on the 25th August, 2016 (a day to his official exit), please visit the lab to see for yourself. The money was paid to SSECCONN LTD at exactly 5.54pmthrough Zenith bank with account No. 1011471553 via remita STP, Batch number 426.
“Illegally operating the account of the institution from 27th August till 18thOctober, 2016 with transaction to the tune of N1.091b (through GIFMIS and REMITAS) which mostly are made through personnel cost and SMKMC bills.
“Transferring of excess personnel cost to other charges to pay contractors (gross misappropriation of fund). “Presently the accreditations of over 18 courses have expired since January 2016 and you know what that means. “Expending over N87m on a flop convocation that was not attended by graduating students.
“A leader that is insensitive to the plight of his staff in terms of payment of allowances, promotion implementation/arrears and the squandering of over N700m internal generated revenue (IGR) on yearly basis.
“For instance, a TETFUND merged intervention project (Department of Environmental Science) has been completed for the past two years but the leadership of Dr. M. B. Ibrahim could not furnish the classrooms with only N5m out of the over N700m being generated as IGR annually, thereby leaving the structure abandoned to the caprices of rodents and weeds.
“We need a Rector that is selfless, transparent, dedicated, patriotic and nationalistic to the vision and mission of Kaduna Polytechnic and obviously all these qualities are lacking in the person of the former Rector.
“We shall reject anyone who will not propagate the vision of our dear institution in positive light as enjoyed during the tenure of Mallam Hamman Tukur and Dr. A.T. Abdullahi.
“The academic staff union will not sit down and fold its arms without asking for the right type of leadership and management from government,” he stressed.
The Gambia’s president-elect, Adama Barrow, has said he will declare himself president on January 18th despite incumbent Yahya Jammeh’s rejection of the election result.
BBC reported that, Barrow said his team was preparing for his inauguration and he has also urged Mr. Jammeh to respect the will of the electorate.
The election commission declared Mr. Barrow winner of the 1 December poll.
Mr. Jammeh has launched court action to annul the result after initially accepting defeat.
His security forces have seized control of the election commission’s headquarters in the capital, Banjul.
The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.
Mr. Jammeh first seized power in a coup in 1994, and many of his critics have been jailed or forced into exile.
Mr. Barrow, a property developer who was the candidate of a coalition of seven opposition parties, defeated him by four percentage points.
In the interview with the BBC’s Umaru Fofana, Mr. Barrow said Mr. Jammeh’s move to annul the election had come as a surprise.
Mr. Jammeh had phoned to congratulate him soon after the election and had stated that “our system is the best” and “nobody can rig” the elections, Mr Barrow said.
He ruled out a recount or re-run of the election: “We are not supporting anything as at now. Our position is very clear. I’m president-elect. We advise the president to cooperate.”
Asked about his inauguration, Mr Barrow said: “We have a team that is working on our inauguration. We are working on it; on the 18th, I’m the legal president of this country.”
Barrow also said that Jammeh would not be prosecuted if he stepped down because his government would focus on “truth and reconciliation”. He should feel secure because he is a Gambian.
“If South Africa can reconcile [after the racial system of apartheid ended in 1994], I see no reason why Gambians cannot reconcile. We are not saying prosecution; we said truth and reconciliation.”
Mr Barrow added that he feared for his safety but had the “support of the whole world”.
“That puts me in a strong position and I’m a very strong character. I have faith in God.”
Mr. Barrow rejected suggestions that foreign troops should intervene to help him take power.
According to the electoral commission’s final count:
Mr Barrow won 222,708 votes (3%)
President Jammeh took 208,487 (6%)
A third-party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won 89,768 (1%)
Results were revised by the electoral commission on 5 December, when it emerged that the ballots for one area had been added incorrectly, swelling Mr Barrow’s vote.
Jos (Nigeria) — The Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN) has advised mothers and guardians to ensure they separate children’s rooms from the adults to reduce sexual offences bedeviling the society.
Leader of FOMWAN in Plateau Central Nigeria, Mairo Sani, said this in an interview with journalists in Jos.
She said separate rooms ensured children were not affected by sexual relations of parents thus discouraging desire to explore such practice.
“I advise mothers and guardians to ensure that they should have separate rooms from their children so that the children are not affected by their sexual relation and may not attempt to practice with their siblings or anyone.
“Such children may grow up with sexual scenes imprinted on their minds and would like to practice with people around even forcefully thus increasing the number of child rape and sexual offences bedeviling the society, it is psychological,’’ she said.
She said children should be properly taken care of especially girls who were usually sent for hawking of goods not more than N100 of which they are being abused in the process.
According to her, “Girls sent to hawk are more susceptible to child rape because they are exposed to all manner of people, the items may not be even up to N100, these girls may be paid more than that and violated at the same time, it is sad because they may may be just five years.”
Sani said scenes of child sexual offences should not be tampered with for evidence to prosecute culprits and the victims taken straight to the police or the Child Protection Network(CPN) office where they would not be financially burden.
She said the network whose objective was to protect the child from violence of all forms and ensure their well being would conduct their analysis, take them to hospital for treatment and ensure justice for victims.
She said strict punishment enacted for child offenders was laudable sand would reduce the number of cases in the society.
The CPN in Plateau is currently following up 50 cases of child sexual offences.
The scale of devastation wrought by the insurgency in the North East by the terrorist insurgency is unprecedented in Nigerian history. Since 2009, it has claimed more than 20, 000 lives, and accounted for the displacement of 2.4 million people with 177, 000 Nigerian refugees in the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In all, an estimated 14.8 million people have been affected by the insurgency in the North East. The numbers are staggering and the situation is one of the most urgent humanitarian crises in the world at present.
Upon assuming office, President Muhammadu Buhari rightly made ending the insurgency and reconstructing the North East cardinal priorities of his administration. To this end, he has since inaugurated the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI) under the leadership of Lt. Gen. T.Y. Danjuma (Rtd) to oversee and coordinate all relief and rehabilitation efforts in the region, and unfolded a comprehensive roadmap for the region’s reconstruction. The Buhari Plan, as this roadmap is called, is an 800-page framework that synthesizes a vast range of relevant studies and research efforts by local and international partners, as well as the views of thousands of Nigerians in government and civil society. It is the guiding document for coordinating all interventions in the region and harmonizing the activities of all stakeholders including civil society organizations, international development partners, philanthropists, state governments, local governments, the private sector, federal ministries, departments and agencies.
The goal of the Buhari Plan is to reverse the devastating conditions created by the seven year insurgency. Given the grave urgency of the situation in the North East, the plan fittingly makes internally-displaced persons in camps and host communities our first priority. The first 6 to 12 months of the plan’s operation will witness the deployment of a comprehensive relief programme that will provide immediate humanitarian assistance, social stabilization and early recovery support to protect all affected populations within the region. 2 million people will be provided with food, non-food items, healthcare, psycho-social care and rehabilitation and unconditional cash transfers to jumpstart their productive lives. To tackle the severe disruption of education, rapidly deployable mobile schools will become operational during this phase. The establishment of secure learning spaces for our children is a major priority. The target areas for this intervention have been determined empirically by a matrix that assesses communities’ extent of exposure and vulnerability thus ensuring that the most affected and afflicted people that are most in need of help receive urgent attention.
As the President noted while inaugurating the PCNI, the valiant efforts of our military have ensured that the worst of the insurgency is behind us and many displaced persons are willing and ready to return home to pick up their lives and move forward. “However and sadly so, many have nothing to return to. They have lost everything to the insurgency. In addition, social and public services are also absent due to the massive destruction of infrastructure.” To this end, our intermediate objectives which will build upon the short term interventions will include screening, cleaning and securing reclaimed communities, destruction of land mines in these areas and the relocation of IDPs and camps and the full resettlement of all IDPs.
PCNI is also working with various development partners to facilitate the restoration of critical infrastructure – roads, bridges, markets, and police stations – structures essential for the re-establishment of civil order. In addressing the task of rebuilding over 430, 000 housing units, we are not only working with development partners. We have devised a public works scheme that will use local materials and designs and engage the available labour in the affected areas in the massive reconstruction efforts that are now underway thereby providing much needed employment. The people of the North East will literally be rebuilding their homesteads in a demonstration of their ownership of the plan, their reclamation of agency over their lives, and their participation in the revitalization of their communities.
Even as we activate peace-building mechanisms and counter-measures against violent extremism in the North East, these are only part of the multidimensional toolkit for the region’s reconstruction. As military hostilities die down, the challenge will increasingly become that of winning the peace. We recognize that this is a question of guaranteeing long term economic growth and ensuring that people of working age in the region are engaged in productive activity.
Our long term outlook is shaped by two considerations. Firstly, even before the advent of the insurgency, the socio-economic indices of the North-East were the worst in the entire country. Secondly, the North-East is essentially a post-conflict economy and like all post-conflict economies, the risk of relapsing into warfare or degenerating into violent crime can only be mitigated by creating mechanisms that will engender growth.
The North East needs humanitarian intervention in the short term but to forge a truly sustainable peace it needs investment. Consequently, our third priority is a comprehensive programme of development that is based on the self-evident need to revitalize the region’s economy. We are aiming to revamp agriculture, generate jobs, mobilize local entrepreneurs, facilitate the organic development of the region’s natural resource potential and leverage the geographical location of the region to position it as a regional trade hub and an investment destination. While we are working to urgently address the crisis in the North East, we are doing so with a long term view with the ultimate goal of ensuring a sustainable peace in the region. We believe that as we work with our partners and the people of the North East to rebuild, we can make the region an enduring symbol of the resilience of the Nigerian spirit.
Tumsah is the Vice Chairman Victims Support Fund VSF and the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative PCNI
What a helluva week for a man who turns 74 today. In one day, in his birthday week, he flew from Abuja to Monrovia, from there to Freetown, and then to Banjul, in The Gambia. He held meetings lasting many hours, then flew to Freetown, again to Monrovia, and then returned to Abuja by 3.20 a.m. In the afternoon of that same day, when most of those who travelled with him would have given anything to be in slumberland, he presented the 2017 budget proposals to the National Assembly. If I am lucky to live to that age, I don’t wish to run such punishing schedule.
But for that reason was Muhammadu Buhari born on December 17, 1942, in Daura, present day Katsina State. For that reason he came to the world. To serve humanity, serve his country, and make a huge difference. He was sent here to show that it is possible to be squeaky clean, play according to the rules, and live for others, not for primitive accumulation.
The word came out on Monday, a public holiday. We were headed for Gambia the next morning, and we must set forth at dawn. For we were returning to Abuja the same day. By 6 a.m, we were on the way to the airport. A few minutes past 7 a.m, the great bird lifted into the sky. The peace shuttle had begun.
What took President Buhari out at short notice was the developing situation in The Gambia. President, Professor, Dr, Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, who had taken power from Sir Dauda Jawara 22 years earlier in a military coup, and who had transmuted to a civilian ruler along the way, had suddenly recanted on an election he lost, and over which he had congratulated the winner. Jammeh said the scales had fallen from his eyes, he had seen the light, and the defeat he had conceded was no longer so. The election was flawed, and there must be a new exercise under a “God-fearing electoral commission.”
This was deja vu. Another Gbagbo scenario, as we had seen in Cote D’Ivoire? A playback of 1998 Sierra Leone, in which ECOMOG troops, led by Nigeria under Sani Abacha, had flushed out the military junta led by Johnny Paul Koroma, which had ousted President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah from power? Will the President, Professor, Dr, and Alhaji be given the Gbagbo and Koroma treatment? It seemed inevitable. But blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Buhari of Nigeria, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, and John Mahama of Ghana, decided to wave the olive branch. It was time to try and talk some sense into Jammeh’s head. The presence of Mahama in the team was significant, as he had also conceded defeat in the presidential election held in Ghana only a few days earlier.
After a flight of two hours and forty minutes, we landed in Monrovia. We took aboard Johnson-Sirleaf, and some of her aides. A few days earlier, in her capacity as chair of ECOWAS, she had headed for The Gambia. Jammeh did not give her plane permission to land. She had to return home. Liberia. Land of blood, caused by greed for power. Samuel Doe. Yormie Johnson. Charles Taylor. Many others. They wanted power, and did not mind turning their country to a killing field. Very sad. After 47 minutes, we landed in Freetown. Some years back, the town had not been free. The same lust for power. Foday Sankoh led what he called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and his type of revolution was to chop off the hands of innocent people. If he cut it at the wrist, he called it long sleeve. If he butchered at the elbow, he called it short sleeve. Sierra Leone was filled with thousands and thousands of amputees. Sheer madness!
But the day of reckoning came, as it always does. Sankoh was arrested, and put on trial. He fell ill, was wheelchair bound, and eventually died. He escaped the justice of man, but not of God. I was editor of Daily Sun when he died. I remember my headline: ‘Foday Sankoh goes to hell.’ The Mirror of London went the same way. NEXT STOP:HELL. That was the paper’s headline. You can accuse us of being judgmental, playing God. But as far as human beings knew, Foday Sankoh had no other destination. Only hell, to keep a date with his master, Satan.
But I digress too much. We are talking of a peace shuttle in a birthday week. Yes, we took on board President Bai Koroma and his aides, and we were on the way. An hour later, we were overflying Banjul. Would we be permitted to land, or given the Johnson-Sirleaf treatment? Happily, the big bird swooped down, and we landed. I was back in Banjul, 12 years after my last visit. Everything seemed the way I had left it. Only Jammeh had changed. From conceding defeat, to calling for another election.
The three presidents joined John Mahama of Ghana at the Coco Ocean Hotel, a lovely resort by the sea. Would the waters be turned crimson red soon? God forbid. That was why the peacemakers were around. For the next seven hours, they met with Adama Barrow, the victor in the election, the leadership of the electoral commission, a delegation of the coalition that gave Barrow victory, Security Chiefs, and many others. Twice, they met with Jammeh at the State House. Before proceedings began, and after. What were they asking for? Simple. Respect the Constitution of your country. Honour your word, and uphold the results of the election. Vacate power next January, as decency requires.
There was no positive commitment from Jammeh, and the parley continues, as ECOWAS meets in Abuja today. On his 74th birthday, President Buhari, instead of wining and dining, would be hosting leaders of the West African sub-region. For that reason was he born. For that purpose was he sent to Nigeria. To serve the country, serve humanity, and show that things could be done differently. By 10 p.m Nigerian time (9 p.m Gambian time) we boarded the presidential jet. I remembered a primary school song:”Oh Nigeria, oh my native land, Never again may I roam. I’ve been to Ghana, I’ve been to Sierra Leone, I’ve been to Gambia, I’m going back to my native land, never again may I roam.”
It was a day of roaming, but for a good cause. We dropped off the Sierra Leonean contingent first. Freetown, the land of my father. In 1955, my father had sailed from Nigeria to Sierra Leone, in search of the Golden Fleece. He had gone to study at Fourah Bay College, from where he took a degree in Economics, and returned home in 1959. He took to teaching, and retired as a school principal in 1971. He had good stories to tell us about Sierra Leone. That was before the country lost its innocence, erupting in an orgy of killings. We dropped off the Liberian contingent, and headed for Abuja. If we had gone straight, we needed only two hours and forty minutes. We spent five hours and five minutes. Double that, and we had spent more than 10 hours in the air, all in West Africa. Blessed are the peacemakers… Yesterday, President Buhari gave out one of his daughters, Zahra, in marriage. Today, he would be with ECOWAS leaders for most of the day. How do you remind him it’s his birthday? On Wednesday morning, we had got back to Aso Villa at 4 a.m. By 2 p.m, the President was presenting Budget 2017 to a joint session of the National Assembly. On Thursday, he was in Lagos to commission a ship at the Naval Dockyard. What a helluva birthday week! I repeat. If I am lucky to live till 74, I don’t want to run such punishing schedule.
Some people say they used to give them some injections in the military that make them go on and on. True? False? I don’t know. We saw the same of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, also a retired General, who worked endless hours. Could the injection theory be true? Somebody, please confirm.
The man the people call Mai Gaskiya (honest man) turns 74 today. I wish him longer life, in good health. The sailing may be rough and tempestuous on the economy front now, and some people are shouting; carest thou not that we perish? We are hungry and dying. But Nigeria will get to halcyon shores. This land will prosper again. Our captain is at the helm. He is tested and trusted. We can then sleep through the storm.
Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria
