List of illegal Educational institutions in Nigeria

The National Universities Commission recently released a list of illegal degree awarding institutions operating in Nigeria. The list of these illegal universities was made available to the public in a NUC’s weekly bulletin dated August 24. In the bulletin, the NUC Executive secretary, Julius Okojie, warned that Certificates obtained from these universities and colleges will not be recognized for the purpose of NYSC, employment and further studies.”

Full list:

1. University of Accountancy and Management Studies, operating anywhere in Nigeria.

2. Christians of Charity American University of Science and Technology Nkpor, Anambra State or any of its campuses.

3. University of Industry, Yaba, Lagos or any of its other campuses.

4. University of applied Sciences and Management Port Novo, Republic of Benin or any of its other campuses in Nigeria.

5. Blacksmith University, Awka or any of its campuses.

6. Volta University College, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana or any of its other campuses in Nigeria.

7. Royal University Izhia, P.O. Box 800, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State or any of its other campuses.

8. Atlanta University, Anyigba, Kogi State or any of its other campuses.

9. Sunday Adokpela University, Otada Adoka, Otukpo, Benue State or any of its other campuses.

10. United Christian University, Macotis Campus, Imo State or any of its other campuses.

11. United Nigeria University College, Okija, Anambra State or any of its other campuses.

12. Samuel Ahmadu University, Makurdi, Benue State or any of its other campuses.

13. UNESCO University, Ndoni, Rivers State or any of its other campuses.

14. Saint Augustine’s University of Technology, Jos Plateau State or any of its other campuses.

15. The International University, Missouri, USA, Kano and Lagos Study Centres, or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

16. Columbus University, UK operating anywhere in Nigeria.

17. Tiu International University, UK operating anywhere in Nigeria.

18. Pebbles University, UK operating anywhere in Nigeria.

19. London External Studies UK operating anywhere in Nigeria.

20. Pilgrims University operating anywhere in Nigeria.

21. Lobi Business School Makurdi, Benue State or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

22. West African Christian University operating anywhere in Nigeria.

23. Bolta University College Aba or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

24. JBC Seminary Inc. (Wukari Jubilee University) Kaduna Illegal Campus.

25. Westlan University, Esie, Kwara State or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

26. St. Andrews University College, Abuja or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

27. EC- Council University, USA, Ikeja Lagos Study Centre.

28. Atlas University, Ikot Udoso Uko, Uyo Akwa Ibom State or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

29. Concept College/University (London) Ilorin or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

30. Halifax Gateway University, Ikeja or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

31. Kingdom of Christ University, Abuja or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

32. Acada University, Akinlalu, Oyo State or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

33. Fifom University, Mbaise, Imo State or any of its campuses in Nigeria.

34. Houdegbe North American University Campuses In Nigeria.

35. Atlantic International University, Okija, Anambra State.

36. Open International University, Akure.

37. Middle Belt University (North Central University), Otukpo.

38. Leadway University, Ugheli, Delta State.

39. Metro University, Dutse/Bwari, Abuja.

40. Southend University, Ngwuro Egeru (Afam) Ndoki, Rivers State.

41. Olympic University, Nsukka, Enugu State.

42. Federal College of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Abuja.

43. Temple University.

44. Irish University Business School London, operating anywhere in Nigeria.

45. National University of Technology, Lafia, Nasarawa State.

46. University of Accountability and Management Studies, Mowe, Lagos Ibadan Expressway and its Annex at 41, Ikorodu Road Lagos.

47. University of Education, Winneba Ghana, operating anywhere in Nigeria.

48. Cape Cost University, Ghana, operating anywhere inNigeria.

49. African University Cooperative Development (AUCD), Cotonou, Benin Republic, operating anywhere in Nigeria.

50. Pacific Western University, Denver, Colorado, Owerri Study Centre.

51. Evangel University of America and Chudick Management Academic, Lagos.

52. Enugu State University of Science and Technology (Gboko Campus).

53. Career Light Resources Centre, Jos.

54. University of West Africa, kwali-Abuja, FCT.

55. Coastal University, Iba-Oku, Akwa-Ibom State.

56. Kaduna Business School, Kaduna.

57. Royal University of Theology, Minna, Niger Delta.

The NUC listed another eight illegal institutions as currently undergoing investigations and court actions. The commission said the action will lead to the prosecution of the proprietors and recovery of illegal fees and charges on subscribers.

The Universities are:

1. National University of Nigeria, Keffi, Nasarawa state.

2. North Central University, Otukpo, Benue State.

3. Christ Alive Christian Seminary and University, Enugu.

4. Richmond Open University, Arochukwu, Abia State.

5. West Coast University, Umuahia.

6. Saint Clements University, Iyin Ekiti, Ekiti State.

7. Volta University College, Aba, Abia State.

8. Illegal Satellite Campuses of Ambrose Ali University.

U.S. Pilot killed in Lagos Helicopter Crash

The bodies of the two remaining persons missing from Wednesday’s Bristow helicopter crash in Lagos have been recovered by the search and rescue team. The bodies recovered at about 10.25 a.m. yesterday were that of a white American, Captain Jay Wyatt, who was the pilot and a black, who was the co-pilot. The two-man crew perished when the twin-engine Sikorsky 76C+ plunged into the water north of the city as it was heading back from an oil rig on Wednesday.

Marine police and fishermen delivered the bodies of Capt. Joseph "Jay" Wyatt of Oklahoma and First Officer Peter Bello of Nigeria, according to the helicopter's owner, Bristow Group of Houston, Texas. A statement from the company did not give Wyatt's home town.

According to a report by LASWA Managing Director, Mr Yinka Marinho,  submitted to the state government; ’At 9.30am yesterday, a joint effort by the Nigerian Navy and LASWA rescue teams retrieved the bodies of the Captain and co-pilot from the cockpit of the crashed helicopter. The bodies were handed over to the police station at Oworonshoki. The Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson, DSP Patricia Amadin, had confirmed that after the crash, six persons were rescued alive on Wednesday and four dead.

The police also confirmed that the ill-fated helicopter which plunged into the Lagos Lagoon at Oworonshoki, was carrying 12 passengers when the accident occurred at about 3.10 p.m.

20 Senior Pastors Retired from RCCG

TWENTY senior pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, who have attained the age of 70 had bowed out of active service in obedience to the church’s constitution which pegged retirement age at 70. The announcement of retirement was made at the conclusion of this year’s ministers’ conference, ahead of the convention, by the General Overseer of the church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.

Six of the pastors received awards of excellence while the 14 others got the award of “Fruitful.”

Moreover, they all received the General Overseer’s handshake, plaques and undisclosed sums of money. The church thanked the retirees and prayed for them.

In a similar development, the church gave awards to some of its pastors who have served the church for 20 years and more. They are in the categories of 20, 25 and 30 years.

Source: Vanguard

Ghana Oil Woes

When the Ghana shipped its first barrels of crude oil in 2010, then-president John Atta Mills pledged to build new roads and a deep-sea port, expand the power grid and create an aluminum industry.

Five years later and Ghana’s economy is sinking. The government was forced to seek an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund of almost $1 billion, the currency was the worst performer in Africa against the dollar in the first half of the year and power cuts of 24 hours at a time are crippling businesses.

The promise of an oil windfall led Ghana on a borrowing spree. Feted by donors for its stable democracy in a region known for coups and civil conflict, the West African nation attracted investors hunting for high yields. Spending controls weakened at the same time as gold and cocoa prices fell. Soon Ghana went from being almost debt-free to being downgraded by credit-rating companies.

“It’s clear that Ghana did fall prey to the oil curse in the sense of the expectation that oil money was going to solve all its problems,” Philippe de Pontet, Africa director at Eurasia Group, said from Washington. “That had a perverse impact on government planning, spending and behaviors.”

After posting the fastest economic growth in Africa in 2011, Ghana’s expansion of 4 percent in 2014 was the slowest in 20 years. This month it raised its 2015 deficit target to 7.3 percent of gross domestic product to account for lower-than-expected revenue from oil.

Ghana is among producers from Iran to Russia to Nigeria that are struggling with lower-than-expected crude revenue. They are whipsawed by a global supply surplus that caused the price of Brent crude to drop about 50 percent in the past year.

It’s a long way from 2007, when Ghana rode a wave of optimism after London-based Tullow Oil Plc discovered a large offshore reserve. The World Bank estimated in 2009 that the oil boom would boost government revenue by a third and transform an economy that stood at $16 billion at the time.

When Mills opened the first oil tap in December 2010, he pledged to avoid the mistakes of other African oil producers and save revenue for future generations. The resource comes with “serious responsibilities” and the government “must ensure oil is a blessing, is not a curse,” he said.

Ghana began racking up foreign debt less than two years after it was one of a group of highly indebted poor countries granted large write-offs. 

The government sold its first global bond of $750 million in 2007 and, following the oil discovery, received a $3 billion loan from China in 2011.

Authorities have sold $1 billion in Eurobonds in each of the past two years and plan to auction at least another $1 billion this year. The yield on the Ghana’s dollar debt maturing in 2023 is up 130 basis points, or 1.3 percentage points, to 9.286 percent since it was sold in July 2013.

Public debt has almost doubled since 2007 to reach 68 percent of gross domestic product. The country may be headed for default in the next few years, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Mark Bohlund wrote this week.

“Government has borrowed and borrowed,” said Mohammed Amin Adam, head of the Accra-based African Center for Energy Policy. “If you look at borrowing and spending behavior, it quickly reached unsustainable debt levels on the back of oil expectations.” Part of that borrowing was used to pay higher wages after Mills implemented a new salary structure for more than 600,000 civil servants in 2010. The wage bill more than doubled to 5 billion cedis ($1.5 billion) in 2011 and increased by 47 percent the year after that. Mills died in office in 2012. He was replaced by John Dramani Mahama, who has failed to stem debt levels or solve the energy crisis.

His government has blamed falling commodity prices for much of the crisis as it cut budgeted revenue, while pointing to oil prices for the cedi’s decline. Two phone calls and a text message to the mobile phone of Finance Minister Seth Terkper weren’t answered.

The IMF loan, agreed to in April, has provided the government with some breathing space and given investors reason to come back as authorities pledge to keep spending under control. The cedi has recouped all its losses of the first half of the year. And it has gained 26 percent against the dollar since June 29, when the IMF gave a positive assessment of Ghana’s budget targets.

 “With the IMF coming in, the government is being more cautious in terms of borrowing,” said Bernard Anaba, a policy analyst at the Integrated Social Development Centre, an Accra-based research group. “I’m optimistic that the accumulation of debt will slow down.”

The cedi has plunged 58 percent against the dollar since the beginning of 2011, reaching a record low of 4.49 on June 29. Inflation reached 17.1 percent in June. Santiago Cuneo, an economist at RVX Asset Management based in Miami, said he had owned Ghanaian debt before but wouldn’t jump at it now.

“Since the IMF deal, there has been some improvement in the numbers but I’m afraid we’re going to see a weakening cedi,” he said. “Even if there’s progress on the fiscal side, the price of oil and the falling commodity prices are not going to help.

Source: BloombergBusiness

Sudanese documentary wins big at Durban International Film Festival

Beats of the Antonov was a big winner at the 36th Durban International Film Festival, taking home both Best Documentary and the freedom of expression award. The uplifting documentary is a celebration of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, who fought with the South for independence but now remain trapped in a civil war in the North.

The jury awarded Beats of the Antonov R25 000 for Best Documentary “for its story, characters, relevance and visual interpretation,” and for a “story told with grace, while honouring the integrity of the people who gave them access as well as the subject matter.”

The jury for Arterial Network’s Artwatch Africa Award for freedom of expression, which carries a cash prize of R15 000, added, “This compelling film shows how the power of music, dancing and culture sustains the displaced people living in the remote war-ravaged areas of Southern Sudan.”

City Press similarly hailed Beats of the Antonov as “the must-see film at the Durban International Film Festival this year.” 

Scoring the documentary 9/10, reviewer Charl Blignaut said the "truly extraordinary film dances a line between cultural expression and an exploration of identity in a pure, textured and impossibly complex Fanonian sense… Beats of the Antonov is the purest kind of cinema. One man and a camera that unpeels a story of the unmakings and makings of identity through cultural production, one where the musician and the audience is unseparated, where music is able to express both lament and healing.”

The documentary also re-opened debate over the South African government’s decision to allow Sudan’s current president, Omar al-Bashir, to leave South Africa last month, flouting a court order and international convention. As Tymon Smith wrote in his festival review in The Times, the “excellent Beats of the Antonov… got tongues wagging.” As the headline of a Sunday Tribune op-ed said, “Zuma needs to see his Sudan documentary,” which positions the civil war in Sudan as a racist war driven by an anti-black notion of Arabisation.

"Omar al-Bashir, who is by all counts a black African, chooses to identify mainly as Arabic-Islamic,” hajooj told The Financial Mail. "This is not an issue until he, and previous Sudanese governments, impose this, at gunpoint, as a national identity on the rest of the 56 major ethnic groups that make up Sudan. This one-dimensional Sudanese identity creates marginalised second-and third-class citizens and an endless state of war in Sudan."

Beats of the Antonov has charmed audiences around the world, winning The People’s Choice Documentary Award at The Toronto International Film Festival and four other international awards. Sudanese filmmaker hajooj kuka directed and shot the documentary over two years, at immense personal risk. He also produced alongside South African Steven Markovitz, as a coproduction between Sudanese production company Refugee Club and South African company Big World Cinema. South African Khalid Shamis edited the documentary with hajooj in Cape Town.

Nigerian appointed World Bank VP

Former Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh has been appointed Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank. Oteh was appointed DG of the SEC by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010. World Bank statement announcing the appointment is quite detailed and highlights Oteh’s impressive career achievements. Below is a part of it.

Arunma, a Nigerian national, was most recently the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria. Appointed to a five-year term by the President of Nigeria in 2010, she led the transformation of the country’s capital markets industry into a major global presence.

She was a member of the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the Chairperson of the Africa Middle East Regional Committee of IOSCO. Prior to joining the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria, Arunma was Group Vice President, Corporate Services, at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). In this role she oversaw a number of departments, including human resources, information and communications technology, and institutional procurement.

From 2001 to 2006 she held the role of AfDB Group Treasurer, where she led AfDB’s fundraising and capital market activities across the world. Earlier roles at the AfDB, which she joined in 1992, included trading room management, investment portfolio coverage, and public sector lending. She also held other positions in capital markets and lending during the course of her career at the AfDB.

Arunma began her career in 1985 at Centre Point, where she executed debt and equity offerings in the Nigerian capital markets. 

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Nigeria and her Masters of Business Administration from Harvard University.

As VP and Treasurer, Arunma will manage and lead a large and diverse team responsible for managing more than $150 billion in assets.

Her top priorities will be to:

(i) maintain the World Bank’s global reputation as a prudent and innovative borrower, investor and risk manager;

 (ii) manage an extensive client advisory, transaction and asset management business for the Bank;

(iii) engage, in her capacity as one of the World Bank’s key representatives, with outside stakeholders including global private sector financial institutions, the financial media and the sovereign debt and reserve managers in client countries, as well as ratings agencies; and

(iv) collaborate extensively with the Finance Partners throughout the WBG, including with IFC and MIGA, expanding shared approaches, in particular around innovative financing for development and for key new projects.

Ms. Oteh was selected to this position through an international competitive search. Her appointment is effective on September 28, 2015.

President Obama discusses AGOA

President Obama delivers remarks at a reception celebrating the African Growth and Opportunity Act, in the East Room of the White House, July 22, 2015.

Explosion in Damaturu as Muslims gather for Eid-el-Fitri prayers

Twin bomb blasts has been reported in Damaturu, Yobe state at the praying ground, where Muslim worshippers had gathered for the Eid-el-Fitri prayers. Death toll as at press time is 10. “The bomb was targeted at the prayer ground in the area and several persons that were injured were taken to General Hospital.”

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but such incidents are usually blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram. On Thursday, some 50 people were killed in bomb attacks at a market in Gombe, around 200 km (120 miles) from Damaturu. Damaturu city experienced two suicide bomb attacks in May.

Adefuye, Ojukwu other Envoys Recalled by Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has recalled political appointees serving as envoys abroad. They were told to hand over to the highest ranking officer in their various locations. They include Bianca Ojukwu who had been in Spain, Chief Ojo Maduekwe (Canada), Dr. Dalhatu Tafida (UK), Professor Ade Adefuye (USA), Mr. Taofeek Arapaja (Jordan), Mrs. Fidelia Njeze (Switzerland), and Mr. Yemi Farounbi (Philippines).

They were among the 93 envoys posted out in June 2012. Of the 88 envoy nominees sent to the Senate by Jonathan at the time, only 84 passed the screening. Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, who was nominated to represent Anambra State on the list of non-career category, had not appeared for screening but was confirmed nonetheless, her nomination coming barely a week after her husband died in a London hospital. The sack is the biggest since President Buhari assumed office on May 29.

RCCG pastor, five others killed by Suicide Bomber

A suicide bomber has attacked a Redeemed Christian Church of God parish in Potiskum, Yobe State Nigeria. The attack occurred as worshipers were arriving for the Sunday Service. The pastor of the Church, a female parishioner and her two children are reported to be among the dead.

According to AFP the bomber entered the uncompleted Redeemed Christian Church of God at 9:55 am and detonated his explosives, killing the worshippers, including a woman and her two children as well as the pastor, they said. “Four worshippers died instantly while the fifth victim gave up shortly after she was taken to hospital,” according to a police officer involved in the evacuation.

Meanwhile, the General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adeboye is expected to make a statement with reference to the incidence and security in and around thousands of other parishes around the country.

Boko Haram slaughter nearly 200 in 48 hours in Nigeria

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram carried out a fresh wave of massacres in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, locals said, and killing nearly 200 people in 48 hours of violence President Muhammadu Buhari blasted as "inhuman and barbaric".

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Telecoms Coys in Nigeria burn $100M on Diesel Generators

Nigeria’s biggest telecommunications companies are spending close to $100 million a year on diesel fuel to keep their networks running due to the country’s poor electricity supply. Nigeria has the capacity to generate around 5,000 megawatts of electricity. In comparison South Africa with just over a third of Nigeria’s population generates around 40,000 megawatts. Even then, Nigeria’s supply is very erratic and is often far below its capacity.

Meanwhile, Kenya set to construct Africa’s biggest wind power farm, near Laisamis, 550km north of Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

Andrea Achudume

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Nigeria: Is ‘Change’ a social media experiment?

The article below is curled from the examiner.com and is titled; Executive stalemate: Nigeria’s new regime grounded in confusion

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Politics, Hunger for Power causes embarrassing Fracas in Nigeria House of Assembly

Members of the House of Representatives descended into full blown on July 25th 2015, as members disrupted its session and physically assaulted each other over the election of House principal officers.

The House broke into two factions, one supporting the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which seeks to choose the House principal officers, and another, backing the the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, who insists on defying the party. The House and the Senate have been rocked by crisis over the election of their principal officers.

Nine Black Church Members Shot Dead by alleged White Killer

A gunman opened fire killing nine people in a race-hate crime at the 150-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina. The gunman let one woman escape at the African American church so she could tell the world what happened. A five-year-old girl also survived by playing dead after the suspect, a white man in his twenties, stormed a weekly bible study group and opened fire on the room.

Eight of the victims died at the scene, and one later in a hospital.  At least one injured person is being treated in a hospital. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the church and South Carolina state senator, is among the dead and his sister has also reportedly been shot.  The city is now on lockdown as a police in bullet-proof vests launch a huge manhunt to find the killer, who entered the church and sat down quietly before suddenly standing up and opening fire.

According to Dot Scott, president of the Charleston NAACP, a female survivor told her family members the gunman came into the church at around 9pm on June 17^th.  

Michelle Obama brief Visit to UK

Michelle Obama, USA First Lady and her children, Sasha and Malia, spent two days in London to highlight her campaign to bring girls in the world's most impoverished communities into education.

During her brief visit Mrs Obama enjoyed tea with Prince Harry and had an affectionate reunion with David and Samantha Cameron on the steps of Downing Street.

After touching down in London on Monday evening, the famous family boarded Air Force One this morning to make their way back to The White House.

"That is why President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be championing our efforts to help adolescent girls around the globe attend and complete school through the initiative, which will build upon the public engagement campaign the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched last summer” said the first Lady.

Dangote Commissions $500M Cement plant in Ethiopia

Dangote Cement Plc has commissioned a 2.5 million metric tonnes per annual (mmtpa) cement plant worth N94.5 billion ($480 million) in Ethiopia as the company is set to invest N3.15 trillion ($16 billion) between 2015 and 2018 in its new and existing cement plants in furtherance of its expansion plan in Africa.

President/chief executive officer of the Dangote group, Aliko Dangote made this known at the commissioning ceremony of the Dangote Cement Plant in Mugher District, Ethiopia, yesterday. He said that Dangote Cement is setting up new cement plants and terminals across 16 African countries, including Ethiopia, saying, “This is in line with our long term vision to become one of the world’s biggest cement producers.”

Texas orthodontic Medicaid Scam uncovered

Texas paid $191,410,707 for unallowable orthodontic services from 2008 through 2010, one of the largest scandals in the history of the Texas Medicaid program according to a federal investigation. As many as 90 percent of those procedures were against state rules, federal investigators found. Federal investigators based in Dallas checked random claims submitted by Texas dentists over a 33-month period from 2008 to 2010.

One in 10 claims that were approved for payment by the state did not have proper documentation.

Eight in 10 claims approved by the state were improper, even though they did include requisite documents. Only one dentist — Dr. Jerry Felkner — was involved in examining all the dental claims submitted statewide in a program that served as many as 80,000 children per year at its peak.

My thought: Really wondered why everybody on the streets seemed to be wearing braces.

Source: wfaa.com 

Flood and fire kill over 90 in Ghana

Flooding in Ghana's capital swept stored fuel into a nearby fire, setting off a huge explosion at a gas station that killed over 90 people and set alight neighboring buildings, authorities said Thursday. The blast took place as dozens of people sought shelter at the gas station and in nearby shops in central Accra to escape the torrential rains. The disaster raised anew concerns over the city's inadequate infrastructure.

TV footage showed corpses being piled into the back of a pickup truck and other charred bodies trapped amid the debris. Floodwaters around the site hampered rescue and recovery efforts. Officials at the nearby 37 Military Hospital said its morgue had reached capacity. President John Dramani Mahama visited the scene on Thursday, calling the death toll "catastrophic" and offering condolences to families of the victims.

The flooding "caused the diesel and petrol to flow away from the gas station and a fire from a nearby house led to the explosion," said Billy Anaglate, spokesman for Ghana's national fire service. In addition to the dead at the gas station, local media reported that many drowned in various parts of the city following two days of torrential rains. The combined death toll from the explosion and flooding is expected to rise. Anaglate said precise figures were not available at midday Thursday.

The explosion is likely to intensify criticism of the government's failure to improve the infrastructure. Though the downpours this week have been especially bad, heavy rains in June are not unusual yet drainage systems in Accra remain inadequate. The area where the blast occurred is a heavily trafficked section of central Accra with several banks and other offices in addition to residences. Multiple bus terminals connect the area to the rest of the city.

Throughout Accra, drivers caught in the flooding abandoned their cars on the road. The Education Ministry instructed all children who were not already at school Thursday morning to stay home.

Source: AP/abc

Iphie Aggrey-fynn, Rhythm 93.7FM personality Killed

Armed Robbers shot at a vehicle that was conveying Iphie Aggrey-fynn and she was killed in the process.  She had just visited her parents in Aba, Abia State Nigeria and was returning to Port Harcourt on the notorious Aba-Port harcourt expressway when the incident occurred. Her soul Rest in peace. 

Woman fired for trying to help crying child

A school kitchen manager and married mother of two from Colorado was fired last week for offering hungry elementary school students free lunches when they could not afford to pay for them. Until Friday, Della Curry, 35, had supervised food preparation at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora.

The school staffer has revealed this week that she was let go for feeding hungry children in violation of district rules. But students whose families do not meet the district's strict income parameters receive no more than a single slice of cheese on a hamburger bun and a small carton of milk, according to Ms Curry.

The former school kitchen manager, who has two young children of her own, said she often paid for kids’ lunch out of her own pocket to keep them nourished.

source: dailymail

Sepp Blatter resigns as FIFA president

Sepp Blatter has sensationally announced his intention to resign as the head of FIFA after a 17-year career that has ended in infamy. In an astonishing announcement at FIFA HQ in Zurich this evening, Blatter revealed that he will call an emergency congress of FIFA executives to vote in his replacement.

While no timetable has yet been set for the election, officials have said it could take place any time between December this year and March next year. Blatter will continue in his role until then. At an earlier  press conference, Blatter said: 'I have been reflecting deeply about my presidency and about the forty years in which my life has been inextricably bound to FIFA and the great sport of football. I cherish FIFA more than anything and I want to do only what is best for FIFA and for football.

Coscharis Motors hosts Ford Ranger Odyssey special event

The second tough and reliable Ford Ranger Odyssey in-market special event held on the grounds  of the ultra-modern Coscharis Motors facility on the Lekki Peninsula axis in Lagos. Coscharis Group Managing Director Mr. Josiah Samuel described Ford Ranger Odyssey as an extremely tough adventurous expedition and not a’race or rally’. The Odyssey is designed to test participants 4x4 driving and mechanical skills, endurance, stamina, perseverance and resilience against the worst that nature has to offer.

L-R: Moyosore Fawole, 1st Runner-Up; Ugochukwu Onuiri, Winner; John Amadi, 2nd Runner-Up; All of the 2015 Ranger Odyssey In-Market Competition organized by Coscharis Motors

L-R: Justin Ngini, Assistant General Manager, Ford, Coscharis Motors; Ugochukwu Onuiri, Winner; Moyosore Fawole, 1st Runner-Up; John Amadi, 2nd Runner-Up; Abiona Babarinde, General Manager Marketing & Corporate Services, Coscharis Motors; During the 2015 Ranger Odyssey In-Market Competition organized by Coscharis Motors

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Senator Elect Kashamu Arrested in Lagos

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian drug agents on Saturday arrested a senator-elect wanted by the United States in a nearly 20-year-old heroin deal that was allegedly the basis for the TV hit "Orange Is The New Black."

Buruji Kashamu is under house arrest at his Lagos home, spokesman Ofoyeju Mitchell of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency told The Associated Press. He said Kashamu, 56, will appear in court Monday to start extradition proceedings to the United States. Kashamu had already been suing a Nigerian court to prevent attempts to extradite him. Kashamu had become a powerful politician and financier of President Goodluck Jonathan's party. Jonathan and his party both lost in the March election but Kashamu was elected a senator in balloting opponents said was rigged.

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Baltimore on Fire

The historically relevant city of Baltimore in the USA is literally on fire as a result of protests fueled by the recent death of Freddie Gray. Gray died in police custody under circumstances that remain unclear. His death has sparked ongoing protests in Baltimore and raised long-simmering tensions between police and residents. Chaos and violence erupted on the streets of Baltimore late Monday as protesters clashed with police, several of whom were injured.

"This afternoon, a group of outrageous criminals attacked our officers. Right now, we have seven officers that have serious injuries, including broken bones, and one officer who is unconscious,

Video showed police in riot gear taking cover behind an armored vehicle, as protesters pelted them with rocks. At one point, it looked like officers used tear gas. The Baltimore Police Department said it had heard reports of protesters setting small items on fire, and footage showed a cruiser in flames.

Video also showed people looting local stores, and an area CVS Pharmacy was set on fire after it was ransacked. Thick dark smoke filled the streets.

Chimamanda Adichie: On The Oba Of Lagos

A few days ago, the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbo leaders. If they did not vote for his governorship candidate in Lagos, he said, they would be thrown into the lagoon. His entire speech was a flagrant performance of disregard. His words said, in effect: I think so little of you that I don’t have to cajole you but will just threaten you and, by the way, your safety in Lagos is not assured, it is negotiable.

There have been condemnations of the Oba’s words. Sadly, many of the condemnations from non-Igbo people have come with the ugly impatience of expressions like ‘move on,’ and ‘don’t be over-emotional’ and ‘calm down.’ These take away the power, even the sincerity, of the condemnations. It is highhanded and offensive to tell an aggrieved person how to feel, or how quickly to forgive, just as an apology becomes a non-apology when it comes with ‘now get over it.’

Other condemnations of the Oba’s words have been couched in dismissive or diminishing language such as ‘The Oba can’t really do anything, he isn’t actually going to kill anyone. He was joking. He was just being a loudmouth.’ Or – the basest yet – ‘we are all prejudiced.’ It is dishonest to respond to a specific act of prejudice by ignoring that act and instead stressing the generic and the general.  It is similar to responding to a specific crime by saying ‘we are all capable of crime.’ Indeed we are. But responses such as these are diversionary tactics. They dismiss the specific act, diminish its importance, and ultimately aim at silencing the legitimate fears of people.

We are indeed all prejudiced, but that is not an appropriate response to an issue this serious. The Oba is not an ordinary citizen. He is a traditional ruler in a part of a country where traditional rulers command considerable influence – the reluctance on the part of many to directly chastise the Oba speaks to his power. The Oba’s words matter. He is not a singular voice; he represents traditional authority. The Oba’s words matter because they are enough to incite violence in a political setting already fraught with uncertainty. The Oba’s words matter even more in the event that Ambode loses the governorship election, because it would then be easy to scapegoat Igbo people and hold them punishable.

Nigerians who consider themselves enlightened might dismiss the Oba’s words as illogical. But the scapegoating of groups – which has a long history all over the world – has never been about logic. The Oba’s words matter because they bring worrying echoes of the early 1960s in Nigeria, when Igbo people were scapegoated for political reasons. Chinua Achebe, when he finally accepted that Lagos, the city he called home, was unsafe for him because he was Igbo, saw crowds at the motor park taunting Igbo people as they boarded buses: ‘Go, Igbo, go so that garri will be cheaper in Lagos!’

Of course Igbo people were not responsible for the cost of garri. But they were perceived as people who were responsible for a coup and who were ‘taking over’ and who, consequently, could be held responsible for everything bad. Any group of people would understandably be troubled by a threat such as the Oba’s, but the Igbo, because of their history in Nigeria, have been particularly troubled. And it is a recent history. There are people alive today who were publicly attacked in cosmopolitan Lagos in the 1960s because they were Igbo. Even people who were merely light-skinned were at risk of violence in Lagos markets, because to be light-skinned was to be mistaken for Igbo.

Almost every Nigerian ethnic group has a grouse of some sort with the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state has, by turns, been violent, unfair, neglectful, of different parts of the country. Almost every ethnic group has derogatory stereotypes attached to it by other ethnic groups. But it is disingenuous to suggest that the experience of every ethnic group has been the same. Anti-Igbo violence began under the British colonial government, with complex roots and manifestations. But the end result is a certain psychic difference in the relationship of Igbo people to the Nigerian state. To be Igbo in Nigeria is constantly to be suspect; your national patriotism is never taken as the norm, you are continually expected to prove it.

All groups are conditioned by their specific histories. Perhaps another ethnic group would have reacted with less concern to the Oba’s threat, because that ethnic group would not be conditioned by a history of being targets of violence, as the Igbo have been. Many responses to the Oba’s threat have mentioned the ‘welcoming’ nature of Lagos, and have made comparisons between Lagos and southeastern towns like Onitsha. It is valid to debate the ethnic diversity of different parts of Nigeria, to compare, for example, Ibadan and Enugu, Ado-Ekiti and Aba, and to debate who moves where, and who feels comfortable living where and why that is. But it is odd to pretend that Lagos is like any other city in Nigeria. It is not. 

The political history of Lagos and its development as the first national capital set it apart. Lagos is Nigeria’s metropolis. There are ethnic Igbo people whose entire lives have been spent in Lagos, who have little or no ties to the southeast, who speak Yoruba better than Igbo. Should they, too, be reminded to be ‘grateful’ each time an election draws near?

No law-abiding Nigerian should be expected to show gratitude for living peacefully in any part of Nigeria. Landlords in Lagos should not, as still happens too often, be able to refuse to rent their property to Igbo people. The Oba’s words were disturbing, but its context is even more disturbing: The anti-Igbo rhetoric that has been part of the political discourse since the presidential election results.  Accusatory and derogatory language – using words like ‘brainwashed,’ ‘tribalistic voting’ – has been used to describe President Jonathan’s overwhelming win in the southeast. All democracies have regions that vote in large numbers for one side, and even though parts of Northern Nigeria showed voting patterns similar to the Southeast, the opprobrium has been reserved for the Southeast.

But the rhetoric is about more than mere voting. It is really about citizenship. To be so entitled as to question the legitimacy of a people’s choice in a democratic election is not only a sign of disrespect but is also a questioning of the full citizenship of those people.

What does it mean to be a Nigerian citizen? When Igbo people are urged to be ‘grateful’ for being in Lagos, do they somehow have less of a right as citizens to live where they live? Every Nigerian should be able to live in any part of Nigeria. The only expectation for a Nigerian citizen living in any part of Nigeria is to be law-abiding. Not to be ‘grateful.’ Not to be expected to pay back some sort of unspoken favour by toeing a particular political line. Nigerian citizens can vote for whomever they choose, and should never be expected to justify or apologize for their choice.

Only by feeling a collective sense of ownership of Nigeria can we start to forge a nation. A nation is an idea. Nigeria is still in progress. To make this a nation, we must collectively agree on what citizenship means: all Nigerians must matter equally.

By Chimamanda Adichie

Sorted by Andrea Achudume