Professor Babagana Umara Zulum
Governor of Borno State has relieved the state Head of Service (HOS), Mr Mohammed Hassan, of his appointment.
Alhaji Usman Shuwa, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), made the disclosure in a statement on Tuesday in Maiduiguri.

Shuwa disclosed that the governor also approved the appointment of Mr Simon Malgwi, as the new HOS, adding that the appointment was with immediate effect.

“Gov. Babagana Zulum has relieved Mohammed Hassan of his appointment as the HOS with immediate effect.
“He has accordingly approved the appointment of Barrister Simon Malgwi, as the new HOS,” he said.
Shuwa added that until his appointment, Malgwi was the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education.

Source:NAN

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, on Monday said that the Federal Government would establish primary healthcare centres in every political ward to increase access to health services.
Enahire said this in Abuja, at a news conference to mark World Pneumonia Day as well as World Pre-maturity Day which are celebrated on Nov. 12 and Nov.17 respectively.
Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia in 2009 picked Nov. 12 as World Pneumonia Day to raise awareness on the under-rated childhood killer disease.

The coalition also seeks to advocate for affordable solutions that will save millions of young lives from Pneumonia.
The minister explained that pneumonia takes the life of one child every 20 seconds somewhere in the world, adding that it was an even more potent killer than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles all combined.
“ While most deaths from Pneumonia occur in developing countries, up to three-quarters of the global mortalities is thought to occur in Nigeria and 14 other countries.
“ Indeed, WHO estimates that Nigeria witnesses about 143,000 under-five deaths annually, due to this disease which translates to 392 under-five deaths per day.
“Most of these deaths occur in Nigeria due to ignorance or lack of access to healthcare facility; that is why we decided to establish primary health care centres in all political wards; people don’t have to go up to five kilometres to access a hospital.
‘`If this strategy is worked out and if stakeholders too can help us build primary healthcare centres, it will benefit everyone and bring services to people since that is the challenge,’’ he said.
Ehanire said that the ministry was also working on introducing community health advisers who would be recruited from communities and assigned to households to care for them.
According to the minister, these advisers will regularly visit homes to ensure people are healthy and make referrals in cases of emergencies, thereby curbing deaths.
He said that the services of the advisers would include ante-natal among others, adding that the ministry was also looking at working on efficient transport system and mapping out ambulance services to help convey sick people to the hospital .
The minister said that mapping of ambulance was ongoing, adding that the private sector would also be drawn into this to assist and then be refunded later .
He said that all accredited and assigned ambulances would be paid, adding “with this strategy, the number of deaths will be reduced as most people die due to delayed access to healthcare .’’
Ehanire said that as deadly as the conditions could be, pneumonia and prematurity could be defeated if consistent and integrated approaches were adopted to prevent, protect and care for the children.
He said that the Nigeria Integrated Pneumonia Control Strategy and Implementation Plan, brought together all critical services and interventions to create healthy environments, promote best practices proven to protect children from pneumonia.
According to the minister, the ministry remained committed to increasing high impact interventions and advocacy, like routine immunisation, prenatal care, exclusive breast feeding, Kangaroo Mother care, human resource and capacity development, to curtail major childhood killer diseases.
Earlier, Dr Adamu Isah, Chief of Party, Inspiring Project Save the Children, Nigeria, said that the organisation decided to focus on pneumonia because the disease remained the biggest killer of children under five, both globally and in Nigeria.
Isah said that children suffering from malnutrition or those that had their immune systems weakened by other infections, and those living in air polluted areas were prone to the disease .
He said that Save the Children supported the Federal Ministry of Health to produce a roadmap to help in combating the disease and urged all stakeholders to sustain the fight against pneumonia and raise awareness in rural communities.
This, he said, was because 40 per cent of women in rural areas could not recognise the symptoms of pneumonia and this ignorance contributes to high rate of deaths .
He called for the implementation of roadmap towards an effective tackling of the disease.

Source:NAN

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has withdrawn a 14 count charge filed against a former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Madueke, along with Ben Otti, Nnamdi Okonkwo, Stanley Lawson, Lanre Adesanya, and Dauda Lawal, all of them former officials of commercial banks and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Daily Trust yesterday gathered that at the resumed hearing of the matter before Justice Muslim Hassan of a Federal High Court Lagos on 5th November 2019, EFCC through its lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo dropped the corruption charges against most of the accused persons through an amended four-count charge.

The amended charges which border on money laundering only seeks to prosecute a former Executive Director of First Bank PLC, Dauda Lawal alongside Diezani Madueke and Ben Otti who served as Group Executive Director of finance at the NNPC.

Madueke and Ben Otti have both been at large since the beginning of the matter which was first filed in Court on 28th November 2018.
Also Nnamdi Okonkwo, Managing Director, Fidelity Bank; Stanley Lawson, a former Group Executive Director Finance NNPC and Lanre Adesanya, an Executive Director at Sterling Bank all did not make any appearance in court and have not been arraigned.
However, in a twist at the resumed hearing of the matter on 5th November 2019 almost one year after the charges were filed, a source close to Dauda Lawal, who noted that the former Executive Director First Bank did not fail to appear in court in all adjourned dates of the matter were shocked that all other accused persons have been exonerated.
The EFCC had in the 14 count charges accused the bank executives and the NNPC officials of conspiring to conceal $153 million in Fidelity bank which they ought to have known were proceed of corruption punishable under the Money Laundering Act.
Daily Trust gathered that in 2015, the EFCC discovered $153m was deposited, being collection from oil companies allegedly to fund the presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.
The matter was investigated by the EFCC and the bankers were alleged to have conspired with Madueke and other NNPC officials to conceal and distribute parts of the fund.
However, Lawal then Executive Director of First bank is being accused of assisting Madueke to purchase a property known as Merdien Hotel Ogeyi Palace in Port Harcourt when he received $25m from Fidelity Bank and deposited the same amount with Sterling Bank allegedly on the instruction of Stanley Lawson.
A source familiar with the First Bank transaction noted that it is curious how the banker who had no contact with Madueke and was only acting on the instruction of a customer can be charged for conspiracy, while those who were alleged to be directly linked to the funds have been exonerated.
When contacted yesterday for comments on the story, EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren said he is not aware of the matter.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, spoke in favour of Nigeria’s partial border closure with neighbours, asking Benin Republic to change its ways for a harmonious bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Obasanjo spoke on a day former Director of Kenyan Anti-Corruption Commission, Prof. PLO Lumumba, said in Lagos that Nigeria was too big to be threatened by smaller neighbouring countries to resort to closure of its land borders.

The former President made the remark at a briefing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sideline of the two-day Policy Dialogue of African Business Associations on Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Agreements, co-organized by the African Union (AU), African Development Bank, AfDB, the African Export – Import Bank, AFREXIMBANK, among others.

Obasanjo, who is the chairman of Afro-Champion Initiative and Coalition of Dialogue Africa, CoDA, Board of Directors, explained that Benin’s notoriety was not new, noting Nigeria had for long been enduring the practice which undermined its economic well being.

He said: “It happened when I was President of Nigeria. I called the then Benin President, Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, to let us meet at any of our border posts over the issue.

“We eventually met at Badagry (in Nigeria) where we agreed that Nigerian Customs would be stationed in Benin. They (the Nigerian Customs) are still there. We don’t have issues with goods manufactured in Benin, they are welcome. But as long as Benin allows dumping of goods, there will always be problem with Nigeria.’’

He said the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, was not created to allow one country turn itself to a dumping ground.

On AfCFTA, Obasanjo said the execution of the agreements was crucial to its success and sustainability, noting that the intense support AfCFTA has received from various member states was a clear indication of its importance.

“CoDA is highly engaged to seeking success of AfCFTA and other multilateral agreements. CoDA’s work is informed and guided by the notion that no one has monopoly of ideas,” he said.

He urged more actions, beyond words, adding that with fragmented 55 markets, Africa would remain a small player in the global market place.

In his welcome address, AU Commissioner, Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Albert Muranga, called for a change of attitude on the continent, if the goals of AfCFTA were to be attained.

“A new mindset is necessary. One country should not be going west and the other going east. All of us should be going in one direction. For AfCFTA and our dreams of African integration to meet with success, it requires cooperation from all stakeholders,” he said.

Muranga also restated the fears as espoused by members of the organised private sector on the dangers ahead of AfCFTA, assuring that such fears also enjoyed the attention of framers of the AfCFTA initiaive.

According to him, such fears include stability, predictability, fairness, corruption and enabling environment.

Lumumba on border closure
Meanwhile, former Director of Kenyan Anti- Corruption Commission, Prof. PLO Lumumba, has said that Nigeria was too big to be threatened by its smaller neighbours, stressing there was no need for the federal government to resort to closure of land borders.

Fielding questions from newsmen during the 6th Giddy Jidenma Foundation public lecture in Lagos, Lumumba said: “I can understand why Nigeria is closing it’s borders but I am of the view that Nigeria is too big to be threatened by Benin.

“The apparent losses which we are seeing in the early days which involve abuse of Nigeria’s laws, can be dealt with through regulations. If regulations are put in place in a proper manner, there would be no need to close the borders.

“There are three ways to deal with it. First, the short term way of dealing with it is addressing the regulatory issues which present themselves as existential threat to Nigeria’s market.

“The medium term is to look at the movement of goods and determine the source so that Nigerian laws are not abused and to protect the Nigerian industries, be it agriculture or textile.

“I agree with the government that when borders are porous, individuals take advantage of it to commit criminality, but I believe borders can be open without being porous.

“In other words, you institute measures that ensure that those malcontent are removed from free entry and yet you do not undermine trade. I understand that this lesson that has been learnt now will help Nigeria to control its boundaries without undermining trade, going forward.”

While reacting to claims of Benin and Niger not complying with the MoU signed with the federal government in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, as reported by Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, as well as the ECOWAS transit protocol, Lumumba said: “If there is Memorandum of Understanding ,MoU, signed, fidelity to the MoU is critical.

“If they don’t comply with the MoU, then there must be consequences. But these consequences must be the one brought to bear so that not everyone suffers with those who have not complied. In other words, compliance to MoU is critical for the benefit of all.”

In a related development, chairman of Oil and Gas Traders Association in Ogun State, Chief Surajudeen Adebisi Bada, has commended the federal government over the current termination of fuel supply to petrol stations in the border areas of the country.

According to him, the step will check incessant fuel scarcity being experienced in the country.

Bada, who gave the commendation while speaking with newsmen at the 2nd Edition of Youth in Community programme put together by Abeokuta North Zonal Community Development Committee, said the safety and security as well as economic emancipation of the country and its people should be above every other interest.

He said border closure and stoppage of fuel supply to filling stations in border areas was a wise decision, positing that the step was aimed at uplifting the well-being of Nigerians.

He added that the number of filing stations within 20 kilometres radius of Nigerian borders were more than the number of filling stations inside the towns, explaining that such filling stations were being used as a conduit pipe through which smuggled petroleum products were taken out of the country.

He said: “Though the policy will affect the lives of innocent people living in border areas, the safety and security of the country and its citizens should be above every other interest.

“I pity and sympathize with people living in border areas because this policy will greatly affect their livelihood. I want to appeal to the federal government to create alternative measures to ease their suffering in this regard.

“In the past, you and I know what we usually go through in December in relation to fuel scarcity, but by the grace of God and the current border closure on fuel, coupled with the quantity of fuel we import into the country, there would be nothing like fuel scarcity this December.

“If it is this policy that will put permanent end to fuel scarcity in Nigeria, so be it.”

He said since the land borders were closed, the local consumption of fuel has dropped by 30%, apparently due to reduced smuggling of the products to neighbouring countries.

While campaign promises can be enticing, talk is cheap, and even the governors and presidents with the best intentions can have difficulty making them happen.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common economic campaign promises that presidential and governorship candidates make and evaluate what it takes to make these a reality

Reasonable Promises
Campaign promises may change slightly from election to election, but they are almost always related to changing current issues that are on the minds of voters.

Some may be ideological in nature, like implementing governmental fiscal responsibility, or more specific, like proposing precise cuts for tax rates per person.

However they are proposed, there are promises that are credible and reasonable and those that are just shots in the dark.

TAX CUTS
While taxes are inevitable, you don’t see candidates proposing to raise taxes during their campaign – usually it’s quite the opposite.
Only government with a successful tax policy and only when it’s implemented and followed due process.
(For example yesterday governor Simon Bako Lalong presented a budget of about #172billion to the house of Assembly) how does he intent to achieve that if not through good tax system policy.

However, the majority of a new presidents and governors financial promises, including tax cuts, will be paid for by way of fiscal policy.

But, while a campaign In other words, the tax cuts need to be budget-neutral, especially if they are proposed outside of the annual budget resolution process.

Campaign promises to cut taxes are quite common and appealing, but they are rarely proposed without the offsetting legislation or solution that will enable the cuts. So, as a promise tax cuts are reasonable, in order to achieve any desired result beyond wooing voters, the cuts need to be far-reaching and based on reasonable expectations.

JOB CREATION
Promises of job creation are very popular for the campaigning candidate, especially if the current economic environment is weak and unemployment is an issue.

A promise to create jobs can be both reasonable and unreasonable.

To be reasonable, the promise should include how the candidate proposes to achieve results and falls into the fiscal policy arena.
Jobs can be created by direct government intervention and spending, a strategy that was successfully deployed by President Yakubu Gowon when he was in power, he established public works projects such as the Works Progress Administration,the the national youths service corp(NYSC) and Civilian Conservation Corps, which created jobs for the large numbers of unemployed citizens. This was an extreme example and was not short of controversy,
but it did succeed in reducing high unemployment rates and provided significant hope for the struggling economy

CONCLUSION
It’s interesting to see how history tends to repeat itself and how short-term our memories can be.

With good intentions, governorship candidates stage their platforms with campaign promises designed to sway voters’ opinions and get elected.

Some of the promises are ideological in nature and difficult to quantify, while others are more direct and accountable. In an ideal world, each campaign promise would be presented with the complete story, but the political process doesn’t seem to promote that concept.

Campaign promises can create controversy, evoke emotions and can tilt an election toward the candidate that either has the best promise or markets the ideas the best.

It would be ideal for all governorship candidates to just tell us that we will have to raise taxes and cut spending to make ends meet, but unfortunately, what candidates promise and what they are able to deliver can be very different things, particularly when candidates are power drunk.
May God help us all

PRESS STATEMENT.

The zamfara state house of assembly in its 078 sittings today has laid to rest the ranging controversy of payment of pension and other entitlements for the former governors ,their deputies , former speakers and their deputies in the state by repealing the law outrightly.

Presenting the bill before the house today the house leader hon Faruk Musa Dosara (PDP Maradun 1) urged his collogues to as a matter of urgency consider the complete repeal of the law which provides the jamboree pay for the former political leaders of the state at the detriment of the retired civil servants who have not been paid their entitlements over the years.

According to hon Dosara these category of past leaders are collecting over N700,000 million naira annually which he said the present state economy cannot accommodate for now.

Seconding the motion at the chamber hon Tukur Jekada Birnin Tudu (PDP)Bakura local government said the abolition of the law is highly necessary as its detrimental to the socio-economic well being of our people.

After serious deliberations and contributions by the house members, The speaker Rt Hon Nasiru Mu’azu Magarya ordered the clerk to the house to give the bill first and second reading and later the house went for a committee of the whole in which thereafter the bill went for a third reading and resolved that the bill has now passed into law and will be sent to the governor for his assent.


With this development according to the spokesperson of the state house of assembly Mustapha jafaru kaura all past political leaders in zamfara state will longer enjoy any entitlements unless those prescribed by national revenue mobilisation allocation and fiscal commission.


The house adjoined sitting to tomorrow Wednesday 27/11/2019 by 10:am prompt

Mustapha jafaru kaura
(P.R.O.)ZMHA

Prof. Egodi Uchendu, convener of Nigeria’s conference on witchcraft
The organisers of the controversial conference on witchcraft have explained the reasons behind the conference and how Nigeria could gain from it.
The two-day conference began on Tuesday at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Enugu, South-East Nigeria, despite the initial protest and threats from Christian communities within and outside the school.
It is organised by B.I.C Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies and Research, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The centre is headed by Egodi Uchendu, a professor of history and international studies in UNN.
Ms Uchendu, in her welcome remarks, said the conference would help to investigate and “critically evaluate” the belief in witchcraft to find out what impact it has on the Nigerian society.
“Apart from rumours about witchcraft, can we intelligently discuss the phenomenon of witchcraft? Can we delineate its evolving dynamics, especially in regard to human and societal development? What does belief in witchcraft symbolize for civilians, the military, politicians, scholars and others?
“This conference, therefore, seeks to ‘determine amongst other things the intelligibility of witchcraft’, the principles that underpin it and the impact it has on human life, society and progress,” she said.
“Many men and women in different parts of Nigeria have been treated badly in 21st Century Nigeria because of witchcraft-related accusations.
“Last week, a priest of the Catholic Church recounted that one of his step-mothers was burnt alive on account of witchcraft accusation. A young woman, seeking for a casual job, in an office in the University of Nigeria, had her case thrown out because she had shared that she was accused of being a witch by a family member; the then Head of Department would not consider her plea for the job on hearing of this accusation.
“Similar examples of this abound all around us. Not to mention the fact that charms and charmers have been included in both the arsenal and the medium for publicly contending with banditry in a state like Zamfara and Boko Haram under the guise of the Joint Task Force. This, perhaps, may be anchored on the thesis by the Chief of Army Staff that, I quote “Boko Haram and the likes cannot be defeated by kinetic military warfare alone.”
Ms Uchendu said Nigerians have for too long glossed over witchcraft as an issue, and yet it has persisted, “even as people pray against witches and wizards”.
“The fact that this matter has persisted in our society up to the present day is evidence that the strategy of prayer, alone, is not enough to combat the challenges of belief in witchcraft,” she said.
She said a university system has a task to help in “setting up the ideological imprint of a people”.
Ms Uchendu, while weighing in on the debate about the appropriateness or otherwise of hosting the conference, said the B.I. C. Ijomah Centre desires to be a flagship research centre to “provoke intellectual reflections that guide the shaping of thoughts and the development of a pro-positive developmental mindset in Nigeria and Africa”.
She said the centre is not cut out for pre-determined doctrines.
On the effect of the opposition against the conference, she said the centre was asked to change the title on the conference banner and that the keynote speaker withdrew from the conference, following the protests and confusion.

Reports are rife that a bachelor of computer science student of the Federal University of Lafia (Fulafia) in Nigeria has been expelled from the school after sleeping with a female lecturer and getting her pregnant.
According to Campus Cam Ug, the student identified only as Kevin has pleaded for leniency, explaining that his lecturer seduced him irresistibly but Fulafia authorities would not rescind their decision.
The alleged sexual misconduct has brought the University’s name into disrepute with many questioning its etiquette on lecturer – student relationship.
Campus Cam Ug reported Kevin as clarifying that the initial advances into the love affair were initiated by the lecturer, who ended up desperately pleading with him to engage in a sexual affair with her and even possibly impregnating her.
He confessed that on times without numbers, the lecturer had convinced him to smash her cookie jar through her seductive moves and highly palatable figure. He said that he could not turn down the offer that came with harsh penalties from the lecturer and of course, his desire to swim in the attractive waters and get cool his appetite.
Kevin confessed that the lecturer had served him with ultimatums that would only be injurious to his stay in the university if he failed to drink from her river of life. Therefore, having no other choice, but to get down to business, confessed the lad, he jumped into the sweet business.
How the peculiar news went around the university and reached the board remains a mystery. What the student recalls was an urgent call he had received one fateful day morning, requiring him to appear before the board the very day not later than noon.

Overwhelmed with curiosity and panic, he had prepared himself, ready to find out what lay in store for him. That is when he sadly learnt that this affair with the lecturer had not only resulted in him impregnating her, but also landed him into hot soup.
Kevin confessed that he had slept with the lecturer on so many occasions, including in her office set within the administration block.
Crying for clemency and seeking pardon, the student had broken down into uncontrollable tears, but the university Senate had made their decision. Kevin has since suffered the shock of his life and continues to ask for intervention from the university senior administrators, to lift the expulsion and mete a lesser punishment on him.
It is not clear yet what penalties if any at all the pregnant lecturer has also suffered or is likely to suffer as the sex that resulted in the pregnancy was consensual.