Federal government frustrated my efforts to free Chibok girls trice – Boko Haram close pal, Salkida

Freelance journalist, Ahmad Salkida, has revealed that several attempts made by him to free the abducted Chibok girls from captivity had been frustrated by the federal government.

Salkida, who is believed to have direct links to Boko Haram terrorists, said he met the girls and their captors at the instance of the federal government.

In an email to Daily Trust on Sunday, Salkida faulted the narratives of the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and President Muhammadu Buhari’s biographer,Professor John Paden, on why the rescue of the Chibok girls is yet to be actualised.

“At least, today, I am probably the only one who has gone to location of swaps with detainees and I set my eyes on the girls in their early days in captivity, under a presidential cover to negotiate,” he said.

Salkida, who had been in the United Arab Emirates on self-exile since 2013, recently returned to Nigeria after he, with two others were declared wanted by the Nigerian Army for having “links” with the Boko Haram and not divulging certain information.

Salkida said it was not true that the leadership of Boko Haram demanded 5 billion Euros (roughly N1.7 trillion) as ransom for the release of the abducted girls as stated by Paden in his book “Muhammadu Buhari: The challenge of leadership in Nigeria”.

According to him, “I’m not sure I understand why our leaders choose to declassify important aspects of this negotiation when the girls are still in captivity, but I can categorically say that the claim of a demand of 5 billion Euros as published by President Buhari’s biographer is not the truth.

“While it is true that the captors of the Chibok girls have shifted the goal post several times when a swap deal was near, we must ask ourselves, what was responsible for the volatility that has denied the rest of the surviving Chibok girls and other captives’ freedom?

“How did I know this and write with such audacity? I was the only negotiator that was flown to Maiduguri with some detainees in an Air Force plane and I stayed in the Maimalari military barracks for over three weeks with the detainees, trying to reach a deal.

“From my professional experience with both parties namely government authorities and the insurgents, I can state that these abducted girls would long have returned home if political and security officials in government had shown better understanding of what is at play.

“Never, even from the days of former President Goodluck Jonathan to today’s dispensation has government accepted a window of say two, three weeks and abided by it. So, we are dealing with insurgents who do not recognize your bureaucratic heritage and continue to shut out the windows each time the indicated timelines elapsed, and also dealing with political and security authorities that never considered it expedient to do their housekeeping ahead of acceptance of negotiation windows that are tied to timelines.

“There is no point to delve into much detail at this point, but suffice it to state that both sides have their share of blame. My experience is that both the Buhari led government and the preceding Jonathan administration desired a negotiated end to this imbroglio but none ever showed any hunger in tracking the footprints and understanding the tendencies of the enemy.

“I was not only involved in one or two attempts to free the Chibok girls with the current government, but on three separate occasions and even as recently as May/June, 2016, few months before I was declared wanted for allegedly refusing to cooperate with the same government and for having “links to terrorism” by the Nigerian Army,” Salkida said.

SOURCE: Dailypostng

Ethiopia Declares State of Emergency Amidst Ethnic Protests

Ethiopia has declared a state of emergen­cy following months of anti-government protests by members of the country’s two largest ethnic groups.

The Oromo and the Am­hara make up about 60% of the population. They com­plain power is held by a tiny Tigrean elite.

Violence has intensified since last Sunday when at least 55 people were killed in clashes between police and protesters at an Oromo festival.

Hundreds have died in months of protests, human rights groups say.

Tens of thousands have also been detained, they say.

Declaring the state of emergency, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam De­salegn said in a televised ad­dress: “We put our citizens’ safety first. Besides, we want to put an end to the dam­age that is being carried out against infrastructure pro­jects, education institutions, health centres, administra­tion and justice buildings.”

The state of emergency will last for six months.

BBC World Service Afri­ca editor Mary Harper says the violent protests are the most serious threat to Ethi­opian stability in a quarter of a century.

The protesters have been attacking foreign companies, she says, threatening Ethio­pia’s reputation as a growing economy, ripe for interna­tional investment.

The details of the state of emergency remain unclear, but she adds that protesters have already shown they will not back down when faced with force.

Many roads into and out of the capital, Addis Ababa, are blocked by protesters.

The protests are for man­ifold reason, and include: Muslims unhappy at the imposition of government-approved leaders; Farm­ers displaced to make way for commercial agricul­ture; Amharic communi­ties opposed to their inclu­sion in Tigre rather than the Amhara region and discon­tent among groups in vari­ous parts of the vast Oromia region.

SOURCE: thebreakingtimes

Nigeria: Boko Haram - World Bank Donates $50 Million to States Affected By Insurgency

The World Bank has donated the sum of $50 million Dollars to assist six states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe affected by Insurgency under the FADAMA programme.

The leader of the World Bank delegation, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, who stated this to Journalists in Yola, Adamawa State, said the reason for carrying out such project is to deal with the negative impact of insurgency that have affected the people of the North-eastern states.

Oredipe further explained that the project is a combined effort of the federal government and international community to revive livelihood in the North-east due to losses incurred as a result of the activities of insurgents.

According to him, the world Bank has targeted 600 communities and 24000 households in the North-east region of Nigeria.

"Our idea is to work with 600 communities in the six states and we have agreed to do more in the directly affected states: Borno, Yobe , Adamawa and do a little in Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe who are the receivers of the displaced people,"Oredipe stated.

"For us as World Bank, you know we are not into humanitarian programme, but we support activities based on needs," he added

He explained that the purpose of the project was not just to reach out to the six affected states but to bring all key stakeholders and team players on the same page on what the project intends to achieve and how to go about the implementation and approach exercise.

When asked why the project is being implemented under FADAMA 3, he replied that they saw FADAMA 3 as a good platform "that has established links in the rural areas to run the initiative that is why we use such platform to reach out to farmers affected by insurgency in rural communities."

On how they tend to reach out to the exact beneficiaries, he said there would be an open and transparent process where people would meet at the village square in the presence of all the traditional rulers and key actors of the community, who would be there to identify 40 households that are basically agricultural households and the assistance would be disbursed.

SOURCE: Thisdayng

Nigerian Army Commends Media Over Boko Haram Reportage

The Nigerian Army on Monday commended the Nigerian media for its objectivity in the coverage of the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the North-East.

The commandant of the Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information, Col. John Agim, made the commendation while speaking in Maiduguri. Agim said that the media had played great role in disseminating accurate information to Nigerians on the successes recorded by the military on the operations against Boko Haram.

“I think that the Nigerian media has lived up to expectation in keeping Nigerians abreast on the military operations in the North-East. “When we arrived Maiduguri we were surprised that there is peace everywhere, contrary to the belief in many areas. “I think that the media has a lot of job to do in letting Nigerians and the whole world know that peace has returned here, because outside there many people do not know,” he said. Ajim added that genuine investors would return to the state when they became aware of the restoration of peace to the troubled zone.

The commander, who led members of the Senior Course on Strategic Communication of the school on tour of the state, said the visit was aimed at getting first-hand information on the military operations in the state.

 “The Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information is the one that drives the information sector of the Nigerian Army. “For the course to achieve its aim we need to be on ground in one of the areas the army is carrying out operations to get first-hand information,” he said.

The team also paid courtesy visits to Gov.Kashim Shettima and the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai.

SOURCE: Vangaurdngr

Accelerating innovation with Leadership By Bill Gates

As the U.S. presidential candidates lay out competing visions for the country, I have been thinking about a topic they have not yet discussed in detail: what political leadership can do to accelerate innovation. Innovation is the reason our lives have improved over the last century.

From electricity and cars to medicine and planes, innovation has made the world better. Today, we are far more productive because of the IT revolution. The most successful economies are driven by innovative industries that evolve to meet the needs of a changing world.

From the advances that put a computer on every desk to the discoveries that led to lifesaving vaccines, major innovations are the result of both government investments in basic research and the private-sector creativity and investments that turn them into transformative products. I’ve heard some people argue that life-changing innovations come exclusively from the private sector.

But innovation starts with government support for the research labs and universities working on new insights that entrepreneurs can turn into companies that change the world. The public sector’s investments unlock the private sector’s ingenuity. I was lucky enough to be a student when computers came along in the 1960s. At first they were very expensive, so it was hard to get access to them. But the twin miracles of the microchip revolution and the internet—both made possible by U.S. government research—completely changed that. It’s no wonder that today most of the leading hardware and software companies are based in the U.S.

Accelerating innovation requires both political leadership and private sector leadership. As U.S. voters decide which candidates they want to elect to fill national, state, and local offices, and as many countries around the world undergo similar political transitions, I think we should consider what kind of leaders can drive the innovations we need.

The best leaders have the ability to do both the urgent things that demand attention today and at the same time lay the groundwork for innovation that will pay dividends for decades. As a country and around the world, we confront a wide array of urgent issues that our leaders must address—from terrorism to job creation to migration.

Our next president will be part of a new group of global leaders who will wrestle with these urgent problems. Those leaders can either prioritize alleviating poverty, making everyone healthier, and accelerating economic growth—or they can let progress stall.

The key to prioritizing progress is support for innovation. When we innovate, we create millions of jobs, we build the companies that lead the world, we are healthier, and we make our lives more productive. And these benefits transcend borders, powering improvements in lives around the world. Our global culture of innovation has been most successful at those moments when science, technology, and great leadership come together to create miracles that improve modern life.

 I believe we are in one of those moments. One of the most indelible examples of a world leader unleashing innovation from both public and private sectors came in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy spoke to the U.S. Congress and challenged the country to put a man on the moon within the decade.

That speech came at a time of cultural and political turmoil, when national and economic security dominated the headlines. President Kennedy believed looking to the skies would inspire the country dream big and accomplish huge things. That speech didn’t just launch humankind on a successful journey to the moon. It also inspired America to build a satellite network that changed the way we communicate across the globe and produced new forms of weather mapping which made farmers far more productive.

 In the face of fear, President Kennedy successfully summoned our country to harness American ingenuity and advance human progress. It’s important to remember what made the moonshot the moonshot—that is, what transforms political rhetoric into game-changing breakthroughs. A moonshot challenge requires a clear, measurable objective that captures the imagination of the nation and fundamentally changes how we view what’s possible. And it requires marshaling the resources and intellect of both the public and private sectors.

When we do that, we chart a course for a future that is safer, healthier, and stronger. Because we are at a pivotal moment when the conditions are ripe for transformative innovations, there are many important things this new group of national leaders—including whoever is elected in the U.S. in November—can accomplish over the next decade. There are four objectives I think we should prioritize: 1. Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change.

2. Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for neurodegenerative diseases.

3. Protect the world from future health epidemics, which might be more infectious than Ebola and more deadly than Zika.

4. Give every student and teacher new tools so all students get a world-class education. Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change There is enormous potential to develop technologies that will make energy cheaper and reduce our energy imports without contributing to climate change or air pollution.

In the next eight years, we could start the transition to a new type of clean fuel that doesn’t emit carbon, deploy batteries that let electric cars run far longer on a single charge, and produce dramatic drops in the total cost of renewables.

Last year, the U.S. and 20 other countries committed to doubling their energy R&D budgets, and 28 investors pledged to invest in the output of that research. This is only the start. By increasing government support for clean-energy research, presidents and prime ministers could attract more private investors to the field.

As early-stage ideas progress, private capital will pour in to build the companies that will deliver those ideas to market. Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for neurodegenerative diseases With the right leadership and investments over the next decade, we can discover and deliver a vaccine for HIV.

 Many have forgotten about the scourge of AIDS, treating it like a disease that can be managed instead of the deadly virus that kills more than 1 million people worldwide every year. Based on recent progress, I believe world leaders could help make an effective AIDS vaccine a reality within the next decade. And with a vaccine, we would be on the path to ending the disease altogether. We can also make tremendous progress on ending neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

These diseases are devastating for the people and families that they affect. They are also huge drivers of out- of-control health care costs, which deplete government budgets that could be used for other critical functions. 

SOURCE: Vangaurdngr

Recession: NNPC warns Nigeria’s oil, gas reserves running out

Following the recession currently bedeviling Nigeria, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, has raised alarm over the depletion of the nation’s crude oil and gas reserves.

Baru, made the disclosure when he was hosted by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, NAPE, in Abuja, according to a statement released yesterday.

The NNPC boss appealed to oil and gas exploration companies, professionals and other stakeholders to focus on increasing the nation’s oil and gas reserve base.

According to Baru, the NNPC was ready to partner stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to grow the nation’s fast depleting reserves in order to increase productivity in the petroleum sector.

He said, “Our national gas demand forecast to year 2020, domestic plus export, indicates a rapid growth to 15 billion Standard Cubic Feet per day (bscfd), meaning current reserves level can only sustain that production for 35 years, if we do not increase the 2bscfd gas reserves base which require three trillion cubic feet (tcf) to replace production yearly.”

Baru stated that the country’s aspirations were to increase oil production to four million barrels per day and meet gas demand of 15 billion standard cubic feet per day, bscfd, by 2020, required for industrialization and consumption.

Lamenting that less than three per cent of all oil wells drilled in the Niger Delta Basin, both onshore and swamp, were deeper than 15,000 feet, Baru stated that a greater number of these wells had not gone beyond the 10,000 feet as a high pressure regime seemed to be a limiting factor.

He stated that “some of our earlier drilled non-commercial holes could be turned around if we deploy requisite technologies; we need to change our perspective of risk as technology is advancing.”

In a related development, former Group Managing Directors, GMD, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has warned that if left unattended to, the current challenges plaguing  Nigeria’s oil and gas sector was capable of leading to its total collapse.

SOURCE: Dailypostng

Air Force: Another fight for girl-child

Inside the headquarters of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Abuja, the vision statement of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar was boldly written. The statement reads:  “To re-position the NAF into a highly professional and disciplined force through capacity building initiatives for effective, efficient and timely employment of air power in response to Nigeria’s national security imperatives.”

On the surface, it may look like one of those well-crafted mission statements which usually end up as empty statements, but for the man who is referred to simply as “chief”, the vision is worth every weight.

One of the ways which the CAS is hoping to re-write history and fulfil his vision is through education not only of Air Force personnel-which is done through training- but also providing for the needs of the dependents of his men through provision of world-class educational facilities.

One of such is the Air Force Girls’ Comprehensive School located at the NAF Base Abuja.  The NAF was not the original initiator of the school, but the Nigerian Air Force Officers Wives Association (NAFOWA) led by Hajia Hafsat  Abubakar, wife of the CAS. But the NAF took over the construction of the school after NAFOWA ran out of resources to complete it in 2013.

In December 2015, the CAS directed that work should resume and in eight months, a world class infrastructure stood in the ruins of the abandoned structure. What was built was described by the Minister for Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan as a “21st century school.”  The sparkling new school boasts a mini stadium, dining hall, hostel, tennis court, fully equipped classrooms, a library and a clinic. There is a standby generator to provide electricity while the science, art and agriculture laboratories and four other classrooms are equipped with interactive white boards which enables the students to experience the three ways of learning: hear, see, feel.

Educating the girl child

The CAS did not bite his lips when he enumerated the importance of educating the girl child and why the NAF view it as one of its cardinal focus.” Our experience in fighting insurgency in the Northeast indicates the exploitation of the girl-child by insurgents due to low literacy level. At present, birth rate statistics show that 65 percent of births are girls. It is documented by most state Ministries of Education that the enrolment of girls in secondary schools is below 45 percent.

“This statistic is further supported by the results of the West African Examination Council. For instance in 2011out of a total of 688,516 girls that sat for the examination, only 226,804 got 5 credits. Similarly in 2012, about 747,553 girls sat for the examination and only 310,822 were successful.”

The CAS said this NAF resolved to establish the school as “our modest contribution to Mr. President’s efforts at enhancing girl-child education in Nigeria.” With the new school, the NAF now has two secondary schools dedicated to girl-child education with one in Jos and Abuja respectively. He added that the school will educate the hearts and minds of the girls that would pass through its gates.

For the Minister of Education, the construction of the school was “humbling” also stressing that the ratio of girl child education to boys is 1:3 in some states. This is also reinforced by the extremism of Boko Haram and the risks associated with girl child education kept the female educational attainment perpetually low.

After commissioning the school and a tour of the facilities was conducted, Dr. Yemi Esan said: “ I came here with some uncertainties but I am impressed, this school is directed towards the underprivileged to curt out of school syndrome, we encourage other arms of government to follow suit, this is a 21st century school.”

Yemi- Esan would not be the only one to be impressed, the next day at the Air Force Base Kaduna where NAFOWA had rehabilitated a nursery school and added the NAFOWA Little Angels Primary School, the CAS was also left impressed.

“I am overwhelmed,” he said when he was called to make a remark after the school had been commissioned by Hajia Aisha Buhari, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the wife of Kaduna State Governor, Hajia Hadiza El-rufai.

“Four years ago, I brought my daughter to the crèche here, but I am sure she cannot recognize her school again because of the transformation,” he said. Like the girls school, the NAFOWA Primary school was built to world standard with ample playing room for the children, a fully equipped library and computer centre, spacious and conducive atmosphere for learning, white black boards, fully equipped home economics room and a crèche with modern facilities.

While the CAS may have focused on education for the dependents of personnel, the real driver of these projects is adding value to the society.” Adding value to the society is our core mandate, I strongly belief that adding value to the society is the best legacy we can bequeath to our children,” he said.

But there is also a greater vision: thinking ahead.

“We have recruited 2,400 personnel and with the increase, you must start thinking of infrastructure. Our actions are driven by the desire to add value to society and that is the right direction to go,” he said.

There are many worries that come with such projects, will the infrastructure not a pointer to an exorbitant school fees.  Will the school be opened to children of civilians and how would the NAF maintain such a high standard facility, how much was expended into the project?

The CAS has answers for all. The school will follow the usual NAF fees schedule without adding anything on, the school will be opened to civilians, the NAF has maintenance structure put in place and the schools are of high standard so will stand the test of time and the schools are built using direct labour from the NAF, thereby cutting costs and enhancing the skills of Air Force engineers.

SOURCE: Thenationonlineng