Jeffery Hawkins, the United States Consul General to Nigeria has once again reiterated his country’s commitment towards putting a permanent end to the worrisome activities of the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

 

Nigerian Tribune reports that, the US envoy, who made this known on Wednesday in Lagos, further revealed that President Barack Obama-led administration remained committed in helping the Nigerian government to rescue the abducted school girls from Chibok, Borno State.

Nigeria’s former Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, yesterday declared that he is now a member of the All Progressive Congress.

In a recent sit down with reporters in Illorin, Kwara State, he said that his move was helped by the fact that APC were the only political party in the country that could offer the nation a credible political future.

He also told Nigerians to demand for change from their elected officers and show more interest in political decisions taken by the elected officers.

Abdullahi said: “The question you should ask yourself is whether you are better off today than you were six years ago; whether the education your children receive today is better than what they received six years ago and whether the health services available to you is better than what was obtainable six years ago?

“If you conclude that they are better, then there is no need for you to change, but if like many of us, you face the reality that they are not, then you will understand why we say that we need a change.

“I have served both at the state and national level and I am convinced now that I should be more involved in contributing to solving problems, not just writing about them (problems) again and that is why I am now a full member of the APC.

Ogun governor Ibikunle Amosun has said that health officials of state border areas have been put on red alert to prevent Ebola virus spread.

Photo: Ibikunle Amosun

While speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Abeokuta, the governor also urged the doctors to call of the ongoing nationwide strike, Premium Times reports.

Major political figure of the Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari has requested the Department of State Services (DSS) investigate allegations against him that he was behind the attack on Muhammadu Buhari.

In a letter written on his behalf by his lawyer, Festus Keyamo and addressed to the Director General of the DSS, Dokubo said after the bomb blasts in Kaduna on Wednesday, 23rd July, 2014 which killed about 85 people and was allegedly targeted at the former Head of State, Buhari and an Islamic Cleric, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, an online media, RESCUE NEWS, published a news item, accusing him of procuring the suicide bombers who attempted to kill Buhari.

According to Daily Trust Report, the letter read in part, "The publisher further alleged that our client paid the sum of N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) to the suicide bombers that carried out the said dastardly act and that one of the suspected suicide bombers arrested in connection with the said incident of 23rd July, 2014 has confessed to our client’s complicity in the said act.

"The said allegations have endangered the life of our client, the lives of his family, close associates and kinsmen."

Asari, who said he has the right to express his opinion on national issues just like any other Nigerian, described the allegations as too weighty and grave to ignore or disregard.

Pope Francis shared some simple advice for a happy, more fulfilled and long life.

Pope Francis

Speaking in an interview published in the Argentine weekly “Viva”, the Pope drew on his personal experiences to come up with his own lifestyle guide with a humble, anti-consumerist twist.

Pope Francis’s list of secrets to happiness (according to a Catholic News Service translation of the interview): 

1. “Live and let live.” Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, “Move forward and let others do the same.”

2. “Be giving of yourself to others.” People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because “if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid.”

Scientists have linked the recent outbreak of Ebola — a disease that causes its victims to bleed to death – to the indiscriminate consumption of raw bush meat and other exotic animals.

Bush meat is a known a delicacy in many parts of Nigeria. Indeed, many Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry its delicious aroma and taste in native soups, such as Egusi, Efo and Ofe Isla.

However, scientists say consumption and preparation of meat from forest animals, such as fruit bats, monkeys and chimpanzees is behind the transmission of Ebola, which has killed over 660 persons in the last six months in West Africa.

Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, countries where the Ebola Virus is spreading like wildfire, are also prefer such delicacy as meats from grass cutters, antelopes, gorillas and chimpanzees.

According to veterinary expert, Dr. Femi Oboye, game meats – usually free-range animals, which mean they have less saturated fat, which makes them healthier than other fatty meats – could host Ebola, anthrax and yellow fever and some other deadly fevers.

Oboye states that those residing in countries with poor meat inspection policy are at a greater risk of contracting the virus.

"Forest animals like monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees can also get the disease and pass it to humans. Apes are hosts to diseases, such as Ebola, anthrax and yellow fever. One can be infected if one is exposed to the secretions of an infected animal or eats an infected animal.

A Nigerian woman, Saze Osayande, took part in five-week technology training organized by TechWomen in Washington DC in the US where she was recognized by the United State Vice President’s wife, Jill Biden.

TechWomen, launched by former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in 2011, supports the United States’ global commitment towards advancing the rights and participation of women and girls around the world by enabling them to reach their full potential in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

78 women from across the world came to the US to take part in TechWomen, an initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The United State Vice President’s wife, who was at the training session to mentor the women, posted her encounter with Saze on her blog shortly after the training session.

She wrote: “I spoke with one of the TechWomen, Saze, from Nigeria, who started a company in her home country of Nigeria with dreams of providing digital content for the over 170 million Africans, as well as the 120 million who will come online in the next five years. Saze wants Nigerian and American women in STEM to work collaboratively to solve problems.”

Edo North Senatorial District, senator at the national Assembly, Domingo Obende, has come out and revealed that the senate had stopped impeachment moves against President Goodluck Jonathan in the interest of security.

 

He was speaking at his home town in Igarra in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of the Edo State and revealed his anger at the use of power by the PDP-controlled FG to pressure the opposition.

He said that red chamber decided to stop plans to impeach the President after Jonathan had “committed an impeachable offence,” in order to avoid national crisis.

He said: “What are we even talking about? Who is saying that the President himself has not committed an impeachable offence?

“That is what the National Assembly ought to be looking at, but because of stability. And the leaderships of the two chambers of the National Assembly are mature in the way they are handling the issues, and we look at Nigeria as an entity that must be salvaged.

“And, of course, the whole of African nations are looking at us as the giant of Africa.

“Are we going to be a giant in rascality?

The lawmaker, who doubles as the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, said that the nations democracy faces higher risks, if this new wave of impeachment is unchecked.

Former All Progressives Congress member and, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has once again told the APC to come out clean and explain their alleged relationship with insurgency group, Boko Haram.

 

He told these to Reporters at Osogbo, Osun State capital, after a Peoples Democratic Party rally in the state yesterday and said that the APC were trying to controvert him, few months ago.

Kayode went on to say that the northern members of the APC were behind Boko Haram, he said:  “The APC in the North is the political wing of Boko Haram in the northern part of Nigeria. This, I have said before and no one among them was bold enough to challenge me. I will continue to say it again and again. The northern elements in the APC have to explain to all Nigerians why some of their leaders in the North support, encourage and defend Boko Haram members.

“No member of the APC has been bold enough to controvert what I said about their relationship with the Boko Haram members in the North. I stand to be challenged if any of them has a contrary view.”

FFK had only just a couple of months earlier changed party from the APC to the PDP, after Jonathan and highly placed members of the PDP had assured him of an enabling stay in the ruling party.

Naij.com guest writer Itekena Evans Thompson blasts "selfish" Nigerian doctors for embarking on a seemingly endless and, according to him, "irrelevant" strike, and criticizes the Federal Government for not implementing more resolute measures.

"I have not heard of any country, even among our West and East African neighbours, where doctors would go on strike. But in Nigeria, "giant of Africa," it is a reality."For over a month (just to be cautious of overstatement), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) have been on strike. Still, they are being paid their full salary; they will get their money without working until whenever they decide to call off this irrelevant strike action. And I will tell you why I call it "irrelevant".

"The following question begs itself: where from or how does our Government generate the money to pay Nigerian doctors on strike? 

"The hospitals are closed, no revenue is made from the health sector. If your mind is working the way my mind is working, then, by now, you must have come to the inevitable conclusion: we, the tax payers, are the ones these doctors want to be feeding on while they lay about doing nothing.

"Oh! Sorry, they are not doing nothing, they are rather busy rendering medical services in their private ill-equipped clinics at a cut-throat prices.

"So, you may want to ask the question: who is at the losing end and who is benefitting? Engaging in full-time private practice while the Government pays them at the end of the month.

"More worrisome is the seemingly helpless posture assumed by the Federal Government on this matter. The Government really has one thousand and one alternative to provide health care to over 170 million Nigerians who are now dying in anguish every day, waiting for the hospitals to reopen, even if these hospitals are below the World Health Organization-recommended standards. At least they are still hospitals."

"Apart from Nigeria, could anyone think of a country where all its hospitals will be closed down for a day? This tells you something about its people. Welcome!

"One may also ask, what do the striking doctors really want?

"From my own viewpoint (of course, a myopic one) the whole reason why the doctors are holding the health sector hostage is not about improved "take home" package, but their ego!

"They want to occupy certain administrative (not medical) positions in the hospital, positions they were not employed or trained to take in the first place. They want management of the hospital to be their sole prerogative.

"Then how about the pharmacists who know all about drugs, produce them, prescribe their usage and dosage, its administration and reaction for physicians to apply? The Nigerian physician will tell us that pharmacists are lesser mortals, not knowledgeable in hospital administration or management, their place is in the laboratory researching on new cures to illnesses.

"Okay, how about lab scientists? Those who investigate and diagnose a disease and suggest treatment. Oh! The physician will say the same thing: lab scientists are lesser mortals compared to him and are not trained in hospital management and administration.

"What really do the physicians (doctors) do over and above the others that they now arrogates to himself such level of superiority to the point of protesting reference to the others as medical personnel or consultants, etc.? According to the physicians, they are the only ones who should be referred to as "consultants". So is it a mere nomenclature that they are fighting for and are allowing helpless Nigerians languishing of ailments in their houses? I don’t think so. But for the benefit of doubt, let everyone of us "consult" our dictionaries to know the meaning of that word. Oh! Please do not "consult" your dictionary, simply look at it, lest the physicians protest against the dictionary for being "consulted".

"So what is happening in hospitals?

"A patient comes to see a physician for primary consultation. The physician listens to and examines the patient to determine the possible ailment he or she is suffering from. Then, the physician refers the patient to the lab scientist for proper diagnosis, which is a secondary and more complex consultation. The lab scientist does all what he is required to do and sends the report back to the physician. A report which explains what exactly is wrong with the patient, what type of drug (chemical) the disease is sensitive and or resistant to, the degree of the disease, etc. it is with this report that the physician will now prescribe drugs to the pharmacist who will release the drugs to the patient. The whole process is a teamwork he purpose of which is the patient’s recovery.

"Therefore, what makes a physician more important than the rest, what makes him a better administrator or manager?

"Let’s look at the position of a Surgeon General. Apart from the United States, I do not know of any other country that has this post. Must we follow the U.S. sheepishly? Will it not amount to duplication of offices? What has the Surgeon General done that Nigeria is now shutting down hospitals?

"I think it’s high time the average Nigerian showed how annoyed he is with the happenings in this country!"