Nigeria Women - USA Women Preview: Falcons chasing faint hope of qualification

Edwin Okon’s ladies need to win against the Yanks in Vancouver to have any chance of making the round of 16 at the Women's World Cup

Nigeria's senior women team need nothing short of victory against the United States of America to fancy their chances of reaching the next stage of the Women's World Cup on Wednesday morning.

The African champions boast of a point from two games and will face their stiffest opposition in the ‘Group of Death’ when they face Jill Ellis’ side at the BC Place Stadium, Vancouver.

Despite the North Americans leading the group, they are still struggling to exert their supremacy in the competition no thanks to their aging forwards and defenders.

The Americans will have to cope with the quick Nigerian forwards should they dream of continuing their dominance over the Falcons on the international scene.

Edwin Okon will have to cope with the absence of Ugo Njoku who has been handed a three-match ban and fined heavily for serious foul play against Australia’s Samantha Kerr as he would be banking on 101 cap bound Perpetua Nkwocha and Asisat Oshoala to upset the Americans.

“You are a Big Betrayer” Tinubu tells President Buhari

A Former Governor of Lagos State and the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu has surprisingly criticized President Muhammadu Buhari, saying he betrayed the party.

This is in the wake of events that led to the emergence of Ex-Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki as the President of the Eighth Senate and the return of Chief Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President for a third term.

Tinubu, who on Wednesday through the Nation Newspaper, in an article titled “The untold story of PDP’s coup behind Saraki’s Senate Presidency” pointed an accusing finger at President Buhari for displaying neutrality in who emerges as the Senate President without due regard to the fate of the party.

According to Tinubu; “Despite the choice of National Assembly leaders being a mixture of party politics and legislative duty, the aloofness, or the perceived neutrality of the President allowed the ‘fight’ within APC to fester until it went of hand.”

He explained that the invitation of the APC lawmakers to the International Conference Centre, ICC, was said to be at the behest of the President; shockingly, the President did not show up.

“The bewildered 51 APC Senators, who were waiting endlessly for the President in ICC, watched the proceeding of the inaugural session from a nearby TV box.

“Before the 51 APC Senators could race down the five-kilometre stretch from ICC to the Assembly Complex, Saraki had emerged as an unopposed candidate.

“To add insult to injury, President Muhammadu Buhari neither showed up nor sent apology to the stranded Senators at the ICC.

“They were left at the mercy of troops from the Brigade of Guards, who had already been deployed in the centre ahead of the supposed arrival of the President.

“Unfortunately, there was no communication between his office and the 51 APC Senators who heeded his invitation.

“It was around 10.35am, we saw that the inaugural session was already on and Saraki had been elected. If we were to be defeated, it should have been done on the floor.”

In defence of President Buhari, a highly-placed source, said: “The President had actually made up his mind to be at the ICC but there were feelers that some associates and strategists prevailed on him not to dabble in the selection of the Assembly leadership because he will portray himself as an inconsistent leader having promised not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Legislature.

“Probably acting a pro-Saraki’s script, these associates/strategists made the President to realise that his last-minute intervention would amount to dancing to the tune of one man: Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

“Even if President Buhari is not interested in a second term, he owes the APC a duty to keep the party intact.”

Tinubu therefore stressed that the coup in the National Assembly by PDP was a litmus test for Buhari’s leadership prowess.

“The President may need to assert himself by playing a fatherly role to reunite his political platform that is in tatters.

“When some leaders met with the President after the coup in the Senate, he was said to ‘be hollow’ without a solution to the crisis at hand. The time to act is now,” he emphasized.

The APC National leader berated Buhari for the refusal of the APC leadership to address the important index of power-sharing formula deprived its National Assembly members of the much-needed unity.

“If there had been an acceptable formula in place, the situation may not degenerate to this extent. What Saraki did was to be tactical in conceding the Deputy Senate President to the Southeast which is almost relegated to the background by the Buhari administration.”

“Unless an urgent reconciliation is put in place, the anti-party activities which led to Saraki’s Senate Presidency might cause a prolong crisis in the party. And with plans by the APC leadership to enforce discipline, some leaders might call it quit with the party,” Tinubu added.

Buhari to announce ‘shocking’ Ministerial list Next Week, as Fashola sets to bag Secretary

    Fashola to bag Secretary of Government 
·         Buhari continues to clip Bola Tinubu’s wings 

As the days go by in the era of a new Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari, he is still yet to give indication of who will occupy his cabinet. However, a source close to President Buhari has told Newsintels that Babatunde Raji Fashola (Former Governor of Lagos State) has secured himself a top 5 spot on Buhari’s list. This is as Bola Tinubu has started to realise that this new administration may not be the stroll in the park that the envisioned.

Babatunde Fashola,highly regarded  amongst the populace for transforming Lagos within his 8 years as governor,fell out with his godfather, Bola Tinubu, when they supported different candidates for the last Lagos State gubernatorial election. Bola Tinubu was behind the eventual winner Akinwunmi Ambode whilst Babatunde Fashola  supported Supo Shasore who lost at the primaries.  One of the contestants for the governorship post of Lagos told NewsIntels in confidence that “Tinubu is a very vindictive person. Fashola did not even make to the list of nominations that Tinubu sent to President for consideration. This disappointed Fashola so much that he swore to accept any appointment from this current administration. However, we have persuaded him to let bygones be bygones and I am happy to see that he was on the G7 team.”

Newsintels further gathered from our reliable  informant, who tipped us on Femi Adesina’s appointment as Spokesman a week prior, that Babatunde Fashola would occupy the position of the Secretary of the Government and Buhari would announce the Ministerial list next Monday. “The president is just waiting to receive the reports from the transition committee today and thereafter review over the weekend.Barring any major contrary information in the transition committee’s report, Buhari should make this list public as early as Monday that will shock everyone”. The sources said over the telephone.

Tinubu is expected to make inputs into the list but his choices might see him clash with Buhari. The same APC chieftain told NewsIntels that he was aware that Buhari wants a good mix of politicians and private sector players as members of his cabinet. It would be recalled that President Buhari turned down the list Governors, when he retorted that “ I don’t appoint commissioners for the governors and so they cannot appoint my ministers.”

It is now very evident from President  Buhari’s inaugural speech and his commentary on Senator Bukola Saraki’s recent emergence as Senate President, that all is not well between the man Tinubu and his ‘godfather’. In fact, Buhari seems to be poised to prove to the whole world that he is ’everybody’s man and nobody’s man’ as he continues to clipped Tinubu’s now broken wings.

President Buhari’s recent invitation to Fashola to accompany him to the G7 summit in Germany, continue to buttress watchers’ postulation that  Fashola is indeed an anointed one. The chemistry between the two men whilst  at the summit is a testament ti the fact that they are both on the same mental ship.

In fact, political pundits are of the widespread opinion  that Fashola only did not make it as Vice president because he and the President are of the same religion.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Leadership by Example League International (LELI), has requested for the suspension of the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Senator Barnabas Gemade, over their opposition to the election of Senator Bukola Saraki.

In a statement by Dr. Batos Nwadike, Chancellor of the group, recieved by NewsIntels, congratulating Saraki, LELI said it was hopeful that with the election of Saraki as Senate president and Senator Ike Ekweremadu as deputy Senate president, the upper legislative house was poised to give effective leadership to Nigerians through seamless legislations.

“The statement emanating from Tinubu and Gemade to the effect that they do not recognise the avowed election held transparently in the hallowed hall of the red chamber on Tuesday is embarrassing.It expressed worry over what it called ‘April fool in June’ allegedly given to the senators of APC extraction by Tinubu that “President Muhammadu Buhari was coming to address the Senate when there was a due letter of proclamation of the National Assembly.” The statement said.

Assembly poll: Tension in Bayelsa as INEC reverses APGA’s victory

There was tension yesterday in Brass, Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reversed itself on the state House of Assembly election into Brass Constituency 2.

The Returning Officer, Mr. Perekemor Bathola, a lecturer in the Niger Delta University (NDU), had on Sunday after the rescheduled elections declared Mr. Alfred Watson Belemote of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) winner.

He had announced that of the 2,805 accredited voters, the APGA candidate scored 849 to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate who scored 380 while the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 476 votes

However in a shocking reversal, INEC said the election was inconclusive and that the returning officer was forced to declare Belemote winner.

Public Relations Officer of INEC in the state, Mr. Timidi Wariowei, said INEC had decided to suspend the announcement of the result because of conflicting signals from the returning officer.

NIGERIA CBN releases audited financials

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), at the weekend, formally released its audited financial statements for 2013 and 2014, which it had prepared in line with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The two financial statements posted on its website (HYPERLINK “http://www.cbn.gov.ng” www.cbn.gov.ng) had been approved by its board in accordance with the provisions of the CBN Act 2007.
The IFRS, one of the frameworks internationally recognised and accepted, mandates adopters of the framework to prepare consolidated financial statements.
The released financial statements made available to Daily Sun, indicate that the net income of the bank for 2013 amounted to N209.6 billion while that of 2014 was N35.4 billion, totaling N245 billion, out of which 80 per cent has since been remitted to the Federal Government in accordance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The balance of 20 per cent was also transferred to the Reserves within the bank.
The IFRS requirement implies that the financial statement of CBN be consolidated with those of investee entities, namely Nigeria Export-Import Bank, Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange, Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, National Economic Reconstruction Fund, Financial Markets Dealers Quotation, African Finance Corporation and Agricultural Credit Guarantee Fund.

Thus, the bank now has full IFRS-compliant financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2014, respectively. Hitherto, its financial statements had been prepared under the CBN framework.Meanwhile, the adoption of IFRS by the CBN or any central bank the world over is not without difficulties in view of a number of challenges that include the non-profit-oriented mandates of central banks in their roles of price and financial system stability and economic growth that could be contradicted by the application of some of these IFRS standards, which are for direct profit-motivated commercial entities.Another challenge is the statutory constraints on the central banks. This explains why very few central banks have adopted the IFRS. Many of the central banks, which claim IFRS adoption, did so partially within statutory constraints. But the CBN was, however, able to work around these challenges to conclude a successful adoption of the IFRS. It is worthy of note that the CBN has been able to conclude IFRS adoption within a period of two years as global experience indicated that many of the IFRS adopting central or reserve banks took longer periods of time to conclude IFRS adoption.

Buhari tasks new National Assembly

President Muhammadu Buhari, has charged the new-elected members of the National Assembly to focus on bringing positive change to the lives of Nigerians.

Reacting to the outcome of the just-concluded election of leaders of the National Assembly, the President said he would have preferred the new leaders to have emerged through the process established by the party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

He reiterated his earlier stance that he was willing to work with whoever the lawmakers elected, adding that he had no preferred candidate for the Senate and the House of Representatives leadership.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said he would have preferred that the process of electing the leaders as initiated and concluded by the APC had been  followed. Nonetheless, the President took the view that a constitutional process has somewhat occurred.

“President Buhari had said in an earlier statement that he did not have any preferred candidate for the Senate and the House of Representatives, and that he was willing to work with whoever the lawmakers elected.

“That sentiment still stands. Though he would have preferred the new leaders to have emerged through the process established by the party.”

Adesina stressed that the stability of constitutional order and overall interest of the common man were uppermost on the President’s mind, as far as the National Assembly elections were concerned.

The President called on the elected representatives of the people to focus on the enormous task of bringing enduring positive change to the lives of Nigerians,” the statement added.

FG urged to recover $7.5bn taxes from IOCs

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the recovery of over $7.5 billion from oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria as a major priority in his economic policy agenda expected to be unfolded very soon.

The amount represents cases of underpayments, under-assessments of taxes, royalties, rents, among others, revealed by NEITI in its several independent audit reports, which have not been adequately addressed in the past.

The Executive Secretary, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, made the call in Abuja at an Oil and Gas Conference convened to articulate an agenda for the administration in support of the  proposed oil and gas industry reforms. She explained that at a time when the new administration is in dire need of funds to tackle complex problems facing the nation, recovery of the funds should be pursued vigorously with all political will and seriousness it deserves. Mrs. Ahmed gave the assurance that NEITI was ready and willing to provide every information and data to assist the government to recover the funds.

She also disclosed that a total of $11.6 billion, which represents outstanding total dividends arising from loans and interest repayments from Federal Government’s investment in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) also needs to be recovered into government coffers. “Our 2012 Audit Report discovered that total dividend loans and interest repayment from LNG paid to the NNPC in 2012 was $2.8 billion. However, in the course of NEITI’s audit, NNPC was unable to provide any evidence that the funds were remitted to the Federation Account as required by law.

“The total amount received by NNPC from LNG under the same circumstances, which have not been remitted to the Federation Account stands at $11.6 billion.”

Mrs. Ahmed also used the forum to call for full investigation into the transfer of eight oil wells sold by NNPC to the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in 2010 and 2011.

“The position of NEITI is that the whole transaction is not transparent.”

The Federal Government needs to carry out a full investigation into the sale to ascertain the actual cost of the oil blocks and revenue loss to the federation in the whole transaction.

She used the forum to convey NEITI’s position for the removal of oil subsidy to save the nation from huge revenue loss and embarrassment that the management of the exercise has represented. “It has been the position of NEITI that the oil subsidy regime is a fraud that should not be allowed to stand any longer. The amount spent so far annually is enough to repair the refineries or even build new ones.”

She advised the new administration to provide the necessary political will required for implementation of other findings and recommendations contained in NEITI’s independent reports, which she said are quite comprehensive and insightful to guide the government to reform the sector.

The conference was convened for experts in the oil and gas industry to articulate an advisory agenda that will help the new administration in its plan to reform the oil and gas industry.

GEJ’s Men Returning Stolen Money - Nasir El Rufai

The new government of Muhammadu Buhari has started receiving money stolen by the cabinet members of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

This was disclosed by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, in an interview with the journalists on Monday.
He said it was true that they have recovered some money from many people who agreed to do so in the interest of Nigeria.
Mr. El-Rufai, who refused to disclosed the identity of those returning the money and how much was so far been returned, said the action was a welcome development.

                                      
He said it was not good for the government that has good intention to expose those who wish to be Good Samaritans and patriotic through their actions.

Saraki; New Nigerian's Senate President.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has adopted Senator Bukola Saraki for the position of Senate President.

In the same vein, the PDP has adopted Yakubu Dogara for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The party, in a statement Tuesday morning, urged its senators and members-elect in the National Assembly to vote the two lawmakers.

The party’s move directly counters the position of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, whose adopted candidates are Femi Gbajabiamila for the position of Speaker, and Ahmed Lawan for the position of Senate President.

Meanwhile, just hours before the election at the National ASssembly, President Muhammadu Buhari will meet with all Senators  and House of Representatives elect of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Tuesday  at 9 am at the International Conference Centre Abuja.

Mr. Buhari returned to the country at about 1a.m. from Germany where he attended the meeting of the G7 countries.

The spokesperson for the APC, Lai Mohammed, who announced the meeting also urged all concerned to attend.

The APC has been enmeshed in crisis in the build up to the election of new Principal Officers for the National Assembly.

Nigeria: Without the Health Sector, Nigeria Cannot Have Economic Progress

Erstwhile Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, was the centre of attraction last week during a sent forth organised in his honour by the the cream of private medical doctors in the country. who appreciated him forr his exploits in shaping fortunes of the Lagos state health sector over the years. In this interview with Chioma Obinna, Idris, who for eight years, held sway at the helms of the affairs of what is widely acknowledged the most sophisticated health ministry in the country, speaks amongst others, of his successes and challenges as well as the importance of the health sector. Excerpts:

The beginning

In 1999, there were things that put in place by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was Governor. He set up different committees to address, one was on health. He established a committee headed by late Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti and that committee looked at the health sector and gave its recommendation; where it felt there were challenges. A major one was the primary healthcare; two, how to take care of the poor, and three, health promotion, disease prevention and the issue of immunisation, etc.

That committee gave some recommendations and when I came in and we looked at them and I said to myself the recommendations had made my job a bit easier. We saw the areas of challenge they highlighted. When we came we did not have to start grumping. We decided to start addressing all those issues. If you remember all those programmes that were started, such as blindness prevention, immunisation, HIV and AIDs etc., we were addressing them one by one.

But the challenge was that if we wanted to do health insurance and everybody was talking of free health, we realised that it is more like a financing scheme for any health system. If you have health system with no financing mechanism then you would not go far because no government can raise all the resources for the health sector.

As we got along a couple of years, we decided to have a review of the whole system. That was when we decided to embark on reform of the sector.

Health reform

We sensitised people on the need for reform. Reform basically is to look at areas of challenge that we need to address. We must understand that reform on its own is not the end product. As you are solving a problem, other problems will come up. To restructure the h system, we are going to address the system of infrastructure, human resources. We went about sensitising people and the essence was that restructuring the system has to be reorganising the system itself.

What we did was to let the ministry be seen to be doing what it was meant to do, which was policy making, planning and monitoring and research. We created avenues for people who would provide service delivery so that the hospitals and the facilities would do their bit but let us do the monitoring.

We faced the issue of primary healthcare knowing that primary healthcare is the bedrock of any health system. That is where 70 percent of the basic health problems can be resolved. Once you can resolve that, other things are easier to achieve. That is what health reform is all about.

In the process, we decentralised so many things. To make it easy for decision making so that people can go about doing their work without coming the centre to get direction.

Responsibility and accountability

That was when we decided to set up the Hospital Board for different hospitals to let them take decisions at that level. Gone are the days when you wanted to take a decision when you are in Badagry you will now have to come to Lagos.

If you recall, in those days, most hospitals were mere consulting rooms. If you didn't have a proper facility to work then the people would not work. The doctors were restless because they had nowhere to work and no tools to work with. Hard decisions had to be made. Of course we made some decisions, some people were not happy but the decisions we made were for the benefit of the people.

We addressed the issue of infrastructure, refurbishing hospitals, building new ones, modernising some. We needed to divert money to do that. Some things had to suffer. You could not recruit as many people as you wanted. But again, Lagos state has a huge population, as you are making progress more people are coming in and adding to your burden.

Fashola Accompanies Buhari To G7 Summit In Germany

President Muhammadu Buhari today left Abuja for Germany to attend the G-7 meeting, accompanied by a 20-person delegation including Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos state, former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), his personal photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo, and his cook named ‘Anne’.

It was gathered that former Governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi led a small advance team to Germany to prepare for Buhari’s arrival.

The presence of both former Governors Fashola and Fayemi on the delegation raised fresh speculations about President Buhari’s possible role for both men in his administration.

A source close to the president told SaharaReporters that Buhari was considering appointing Fashola as his Chief of Staff, adding that, the former governor of Ekiti state was also in the running for the same position.

Ex-President Jonathan Spotted Without Hat In London

Former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan was earlier today pictured with some Nigerians at Heathrow Airport, London.

He was seen smiling as usual and without his trademark bowler hat. He is scheduled to visit a number of countries for rest and national duties following his handover of power to President Buhari. 

Rhythm 93.7 FM OAP, Iphie, Shot Dead Few Days To Her Birthday

Rhythm 93.7FM PH on-air personality, writer and motivational speaker, Ifeoma ‘Iphie’ Aggrey-Fynn, was shot dead by armed robbers along Aba-Port Harcourt expressway on Tuesday.

The Ghanaian-born Iphie, who is also a blogger, had gone to see her parents in Aba, the commercial city of Abia State, and was on her way back to Port Harcourt when their bus was attacked by armed robbers.