10 Ways Tanzania’s New President,John Magufuli Shows How to Lead an African Country

It has been only three weeks since Tanzania elected John Magufuli, the son of a farmer, to take over from Jakaya Kikwete, whose government was scarred by scandals and excesses, and it’s already clear why the can-do, cost-cutting, austere, corruption-hating new leader is known as Iron Fist and the Bulldozer.

There might be tongue-in-cheek celebrations on Twitter – the hashtag is‪#‎WhatWouldMagufuliDo‬ – but Africans across the continent have already started asking on social media if their leaders are paying attention to Magufuli. Someone has already even coined a verb: to “magufulify” (to render or declare action faster and cheaper; to deprive (public officials) of their capacity to enjoy life on taxpayers’ money; to terrorize lazy and corrupt individuals in the society”.

Comparisons are also being drawn to the enigmatic Rwandan president Paul Kagame, whose country is seen as a hope of East Africa, calling the latest actions by Magufuli the “Rwandanisation of Tanzania”. Here are some of the things John Magufuli has done already in less than a month:

1.Soon after his election, Magufuli declared there would be no celebration of Independence Day on 9 December because it would be “shameful” to spend huge sums of money on the celebrations when people were dying of cholera. Instead, the day has been set as a national day of cleanliness, and the money will go toward street-cleaning services. He has said everybody should pick up their tools and clean their backyards.

2.After his first official visit to the Muhimbili Hospital, and seeing the horrible state it was in, he ordered over 200 million shillings marked for “parliament parties” be used to pay for beds for people lying on the floor and sharing beds. A few days later 300 beds were delivered.

3.He dismissed the governing board and got a new team in place, and within days the broken MRI was fixed.

4. He also pared down his inauguration party from $100,000 to $7,000 and sent the extra money to the hospital.

5.Three days into his term, Magufuli announced a ban on all foreign travel by government officials. They have been instructed to instead make regular visits to rural areas to learn and help solve problems facing everyday Tanzanians. All tasks that required officials to travel abroad would instead be done by high commissioners and ambassadors who are already in place.

6.He has restricted all first- and business-class travel to government officials, except the president, vice-president and prime minister.
There will be no more workshops and seminars in expensive hotels when there are so many ministry board rooms available

7.He suspended the Tanzania Revenue Authority’s chief and other officials pending investigations after a visit by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa to the port of Dar es Salaam found 350 containers listed in its books were missing.

8.When he had to travel 600km to Dodoma, from Dar, to officially open parliament last week, he didn’t order a private jet – instead, he chose to drive.

9.At the National Assembly in Dodoma last week he clearly sent out the message that it will not be business as usual under his leadership.

10.He promised to cut public spending, fight corruption and enhance accountability in public service. He said it is time for Tanzanians to walk the talk.

Magufuli reportedly told parliamentary leaders that the people of Tanzania want him to solve their problems and not make speeches.

Seven students killed, 21 injured in Kano dormitory fire

At least seven students died, while 21 others were injured in a night fire at Government Girls Secondary School, Jogana, 20 kilometers from the city of Kano.

Hospital and school officials confirmed the deaths of the seven female students, saying their bodies were deposited at Murtala Mohammed Specialists Hospital.

A source at the school told PREMIUM TIMES the fire occurred at the biggest hostel of the school when the students were sleeping, and that the cause of the fire was still not known.

The Executive Secretary of Secondary Schools Management Board, Husaini Ganduje, also confirmed death of seven students in the fire, saying those who sustained injuries were currently receiving treatment.

A statement Sunday night by Usman Bello, the director of press to the deputy governor, Hafiz Abubakar, said the fire had been put under control in the night, and the affected students were rushed to hospital.

“Firemen have quenched the fire that broke out at the hostel of the Government Girls Secondary School Jogana,” the statement said.

“The students were evacuated to their classes and those affected were rushed to Gezawa and Sir Sanusi Hospital.

“The special adviser to the governor on education Dr. Bakari Ado Hussaini and management of Kano State Senior Secondary Schools all mobilized to the school and were coordinating with the state deputy governor and commissioner of Education Prof. Hafiz Abubakar.

“The commissioner of health has also mobilized health personnel to attend to the victims of the incident,” the statement added.

Another source at the emergency unit of Murtala Mohammed Hospital told PREMIUM TIMES that most of the students died of suffocation and stampede, not burns.

Source:Premiumtimesng

‘There is nothing like subsidy, Obasanjo created it to cheat govt’ – Ex-minister

A former Minister of Finance, Chief Anthony Ani, has faulted the petroleum subsidy scheme, describing it as a ruse, calling on government to instead “get the nation’s refineries right.”

“There is nothing like subsidy in Nigeria. Obasanjo did that to assist people to cheat this nation. We had a situation where one person was given the sole right to import diesel, yet we could have produced the diesel,” Ani said in an interview with The Guardian.

He said: “What is happening is that the template Obasanjo brought in for petroleum products was importation-based. I, and Aminu Saleh and Buhari drafted the Petroleum Trust Fund (PFT) law and it was based on production. Let us go back to production. When you produce, you have by-products and those by-products are even more expensive than your barrel of oil. Therefore, if you do the production costing properly, you will find out that the cost of production of your litre of oil is much less than what we are importing.

“Therefore, let us go back to the issue of changing the template to that of production. What we are doing now is that the driver in this country is subsidising what is produced in petro-chemicals and fertilisers because all the by-products go there, and they are going there at zero cost. Whereas, if you do it properly, you will find out that what is going into petro-chemicals, the costing is even more expensive than a barrel of oil. So, let’s get our acts right.”

The former finance minister also faulted the recent call by former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT), adding that “government will collapse in no time,” if the suggestion is followed.

Source:todayng

DNA Confirms Hakeem from ‘Empire’ is Jay-Z’s Biological Son

DNA analysis has been released revealing that Bryshere Y. Gray also known as Yass the Greatest who plays Hakeem Lyon on the hit show Empire is actually the biological son of rap mogul Jay-Z. This doesn’t come as too much of a shock as the rapper’s dalliances are well accounted for, but it does ask the question of whether or not Bryshere will inherit “The Rock” from his estranged father.

Jay-Z proudly confirmed that he is in fact his father in an interview by saying:

“YEA THAT’S BLUE IVY’S BIG BROTHER CAN’T YOU TELL THAT’S MY GENES THAT GAVE HIM HIS SKILLS. I’M PROUD OF MY SON I MIGHT SIGN HIM TO ROC NATION IF IT MAKES SENSE”

Byshere’s mother “Donut” Shannon Bryshere was one of Jay-Z’s “ghetto flowers” back in the day when he was selling drugs to help support his musical career. The two distanced themselves from one another after Donut took the fall for a drug charge to keep Jay-Z from going to prison.
Little did Jigga know at this time that she was pregnant with his child.

Now, Bryshere is back in the picture as the rightful holder to take the throne from his father, but is he too young? Does Bryshere have what it takes to take over for his father or will his brash, youthful arrogance get in the way? While there’s so many questions, one thing is for sure: the answers won’t be boring or logical.

Source: Celebtricity

Model has 6 of her ribs removed to achieve cartoon character look

Former electrician from Sweden and just 25 years old, Pixee Fox, has spent more than $119,200 (£79,160) on surgical procedures to achieve her desired look. She's had six of her lower ribs removed in a bid to shrink her waist to a record breaking 14 inches.

Taxi driver manhandles female passenger

JOHANNESBURG - A video of a taxi driver manhandling a female passenger has gone viral.

According to Facebook page 'Taxi Drivers and Other Sad Stories', the driver tried to pull the woman out of the taxi because her cellphone rang.

In the video, the driver can be seen trying to force the woman out of the vehicle.

He also insults her, calling her a 'b*tch'.

The driver and woman's identities are not revealed, but the page says the taxi was on its way to Sunninghill.

A commentator by the name of Claudia Pienaar on Friday morning said the incident happened a year and a half ago.

She wrote: "This taxi was from town to Sunninghill and the same guy who took a video eventually got involved to help the lady. He was taking a video as evidence, they later opened a case and God knows what happened after. The lady is over this incident, it's been a year and a half since it happened and she's doing well. Moral of the story: No one has right to assault anyone!"

SOurce: MSN News

Oscar ‘had a normal jail experience’

Johannesburg - Oscar Pistorius didn't receive preferential treatment while in jail at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria.

And the authorities plan to open the facility to prove their case.

“We will start opening the doors of our facilities to allow the media to see that we did not give him preferential treatment,” said Correctional Services acting regional commissioner Mandla Mkabela.

He was speaking at the Gauteng regional 30-year service recognition ceremony on Wednesday morning. Warders from various Correctional Services facilities across the country were given awards.

Mkabela said the department had been on the receiving end of negative publicity from the media, and opening the facility would change the public's perceptions of what prisons did.

“We want people to see what we are doing. People think that Oscar was in a fancy cell while he was here, but he wasn’t; it was a normal cell.

“There are perceptions and myths about the department. Those are just myths,” Mkabela said.

There were numerous claims about the former Paralympian who was serving a five-year sentence after being convicted of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.

He is serving the remainder of his term under house arrest.

Beeld newspaper showed a picture of him enjoying his 29th birthday at the weekend with a group of young children, relatives of his aunt and uncle, and their friends.

The State has appealed Pistorius’s conviction, and the outcome of the appeal will be revealed in the next few weeks.

Mkabela said being a prison warder was a difficult calling that went unappreciated and attracted a great deal of negative publicity, and that was one of the reasons it was important for the department to honour its long-serving members.

“What you do is not a simple feat,” Mkabela told the warders. “One has to overlook the challenges that come with being a warder, especially for as long as 30 years.

“Being responsible for convicts and overseeing their rehabilitation to make sure that they go back into society as better people is not an easy task,” Mkabela said.

He added that the department was embarking on a project which would focus on nurturing scarce skills in order for it to improve its services. These skills were attributed to the medical profession, nursing and social workers.

“What you are doing is a scarce skill in itself; what you need is skill, experience and knowledge that cannot be found anywhere else,” he told the warders.

His sentiments were echoed by one of the recipients of the awards, Richard Malebane, who served at a number of Correctional Services centres across the country and is now in a senior position at Kgosi Mampuru.

“The most challenging thing about Correctional Services is that it is dynamic, and one does not stop learning. It has all the professions in one,” Malebane said.

He added that one of the most challenging aspects of his profession was the unpredictability of convicts. “These are humans. We have to deal with them, their families and normal civilians on a daily basis. You have to switch characters between all three of them. But it’s part of the job,” he said.

SOURCE: MSN news