Nigeria Property

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Forty-five individuals have kicked the bucket in a massive blast at a footwear production line in the Philippine capital and 26 others stay missing, authorities said on Thursday, as lamenting relatives portrayed sweatshop conditions and poor flame security standards.

Salvage specialists hauled many bodies out of the remnants of the two-story building in Manila, a hefty portion of whom were accepted to have been caught on the second floor after the blast broke out after evening on Wednesday.

“Many of those retrieved were reduced to skulls and bones,” national police chief Leonardo Espina said during an emotional press conference, as city authorities confirmed that 45 bodies had so far been found.

“Someone will definitely be charged because of the deaths. It doesn’t matter if it’s an accident, people died. Right now, we are investigating to clearly define what happened. For sure, someone will be charged.”

Sparks from welding equipment used to repair a broken gate are believed to have caused the fire when they ignited flammable chemicals stored nearby.

The building, among a long row of factories in the rundown district of Valenzuela on the northern edge of the Philippine capital, made cheap slippers and sandals for the local market.

The footwear had names such as “Havana” that sound like well-known global brands, company employees said.

– No safety standards –

The factory workers toiled for as little as 300 pesos (US$6.70) a day routinely surrounded by foul-smelling chemicals and were not aware of fire safety standards, survivors and relatives said.

“The families can’t help but be angry about what happened. We will never forget this,” Rodrigo Nabor, whose two sisters were inside the factory and remain unaccounted for, told AFP.

Nabor was among relatives of factory workers waiting for body bags at a village hall that had been converted into a makeshift morgue.

“I’ve lost hope that they survived,” said Nabor, 31, who works at a nearby plywood factory.

“I can’t explain how I’m feeling. I didn’t sleep at all last night. I just kept walking around the factory hoping for news.”

Nabor said his sisters, Bernardita Logronio, 32, and Jennylyn Nabor, 26, often complained of foul-smelling chemicals in their workplace.

“They said they keep an electric fan on to drive some of the smell away,” he said.

Nabor said their pay depended on how many sandals they finished, which could be as little as 300 pesos a day. Nabor’s sisters each had a young child.

One survivor, Janet Victoriano, signalled lax fire safety standards may have contributed to the high death toll.

“I had never been involved in a fire drill ever,” Victoriano, who had worked at the factory for five years, told DZMM radio.

Victoriano said she was able to escape because she was near the front door when the blaze started.

“The building was totally damaged, the roofs caved in and portions of the second floor collapsed,” the city’s fire marshal, Senior Superintendent Rico Kwantiu, told AFP.

Valenzuela mayor Rex Gatchalian told reporters that rescue workers would continue scouring the building on Thursday for the 26 people still missing, while also checking to see whether they had escaped.

“The city government is still praying and hoping some of them must have gotten out,” Gatchalian said.

Deadly fires regularly rip through the poor shanty areas of the Philippine capital, where there are virtually no fire safety standards.

In the deadliest fire in Manila in recent times, 162 people were killed in a huge blaze that gutted a Manila disco in 1996.

Health & fitness news - Air pollution...cold on a plane

Air pollution takes early toll on children

Air pollution can be bad for children — starting even before birth, a new study suggests.

Researchers studied exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, a form of pollution caused by burning gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil and coal. They found that prenatal exposure to these compounds was tied to changes in the structure of an offspring’s brains and to intellectual deficits and behavioral problems in childhood.

The researchers measured PAH concentrations in the air and in the blood and urine of 40 mothers in their third trimester of pregnancy, as well as in their children’s urine. They followed the children until they were seven to nine years old, performing magnetic resonance imaging tests on their brains.

The results are in JAMA Psychiatry.

The higher the exposure to PAHs, the more reductions the children had in the white matter surface of the left hemispheres of their brains. The amount of damaged white matter correlated directly with higher scores on measures of symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other behavioral problems.

Higher exposure to PAHs and white matter deterioration were also associated with lower scores on tests of processing speed, the ability to take in new information and respond to it.

“Everyone is exposed to these compounds,” said the lead author, Dr. Bradley S. Peterson, the director of the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Pregnant women and young children are very vulnerable to environmental insults to the developing brain, and these exposures are likely having devastating effects.”

How not to catch a cold on a plane

What can you do to reduce the possibility of becoming sick when you are trapped on a plane with a sneezing, coughing fellow passenger?

Take heart. Not everyone on the plane will catch whatever illness is being spread by those sneezes, and if you are uncomfortably close to a sick person, you might be able to request a seat farther away.

Research published by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that even a few rows of distance will cut risks significantly.

A small study of passengers on two long-haul flights carrying people infected with H1N1 influenza found that the transmission risk was increased by 7.7 per cent for those within two seats of people with symptoms. If passengers were just in the same row or within two rows, the risk was increased by only 3.6 per cent.

You can take a face mask that covers your nose and mouth. The CDC says that N95-type face masks,which filter out 95 per cent of particles, have been up to 90 per cent effective in warding off infection in experiments. Even a less efficient mask could be useful on a plane, the researchers said, based on a study of the transmission of H1N1 flu on another international flight.

And remember that not all disease transmission is airborne. The standard recommendations for washing your hands frequently will go a long way toward protecting you on a plane.

New York Times Service

Missing NNPC Big money: Emir SLS reviews PwC report, says report confirms $18.5bn was diverted

Previous Central Bank Governor and now Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II who blew the cover on the missing NNPC cash has assessed the recently released PWC evaluators provide details regarding the missing NNPC cash. He shared his contemplations in a piece titled ‘Unanswered inquiries on Nigeria’s missing oil revenue billions” published in the Financial Times yesterday May 13. See what he composed bellow.

Just over a year ago President Goodluck Jonathan suspended me from my position as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria after I questioned an estimated $20bn shortfall in oil revenues due to the treasury from the state oil company. As I said then, you can suspend a man, but you cannot suspend the truth. The publication last month of a PwC audit into the “missing billions” brings us a step closer to it.

When I was central bank governor I raised three broad questions. First, did the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation remit to the government the entire proceeds of its crude oil sales? Second, if it did not, is there proof of the purpose to which the unremitted amounts were applied? And third, did NNPC have the legal authority to withhold these funds?

Contrary to the claims of petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, the audit report does not exonerate the NNPC. It establishes that the gap between the company’s oil revenues between January 2012 and July 2013 and cash remitted to the government for the same period was $18.5bn. And it goes into detail about the NNPC’s account of how it used that money, which raises serious questions about the legality of the state oil company’s conduct.

The auditors say a significant part of the unremitted funds is supposed to have gone towards a kerosene subsidy that had been stopped two and a half years earlier by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. His decree never appeared in the official gazette, leading some to question whether it ever had legal force.

Evidence disclosed in the report suggests this is a sideshow. The executive secretary of the agency charged with administering subsidies confirmed that, acting on Yar’Adua’s orders, it had ceased granting subsidies on kerosene. There was no appropriation for such a subsidy in the 2012 or 2013 budgets.

Throughout all this, Nigerians paid 120-140 naira a litre of kerosene, far more than the supposed subsidised price of 50 naira. Yet the state oil company withheld $3.4bn to pay for a subsidy that in effect did not exist. I have consistently held that this was a scam that violated the constitution and siphoned off money from the treasury.

The second major item raised in the report relates to the transfer of oil assets belonging to the federation to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.

NPDC has paid $100m for these assets, from which it extracted crude valued at $6.8bn but paid tax and royalties worth $1.7bn in the period scrutinised by the auditors. PwC was unable to establish how much of the remaining $5.1bn should have been remitted to the government. But the report showed that, along with the private companies NPDC partnered with, it was extracting crude worth billions of dollars but yielding very little revenue for the treasury. I was investigating related transactions when I was suspended.

The third major item is a claim of $2.8bn by NNPC for expenses not directly attributable to crude oil operations; PwC said “clarity is required” on whether such upfront deductions from remittances to the federation accounts are allowed, or whether the money should have been remitted to the government. Finally, there are duplicated expenses, “unsubstantiated” costs, computation “errors” and tax shortfalls; a total of $1.48bn has to be refunded.

Of the $18.5bn in revenues that the state oil company did not send to the government, about $12.5bn appears by my calculations to have been diverted. And this relates only to a random 19-month period, not the five-year term of Mr Jonathan, the outgoing president.

Nigerians did not vote for an amnesty for anyone. The lines of investigation suggested by this audit need to be pursued. Any officials found responsible for involvement in this apparent breach of trust must be charged.

The writer is the emir of Kano and a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

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Lagos Commissioner's Father passes on @102

Subsidy Scam: EFCC Re-Arraigns Ahmadu Ali’s Son

$8.4Million Scam: EFCC's Tenders Polygraph Test Result in Court…

… As Interpreter Stalls Re-Arraignment of Waheed Omotayo, 2 others

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on May 13, 2015 tendered the result of polygraph test conducted on Mrs. Rosulu Idowu Oluronke, a former Lagos Court Registrar standing trial for allegedly defrauding a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi of $300,000.

EFCC’s polygraph expert and prosecution witness, Chinedu Enanya, who addressed the court on the result of the tests, said they showed that the defendant was deceitful.

According to him, “the polygraph tests, after each examination, usually show whether the examinee was truthful or deceitful when asked relevant questions”. He explained that the tests could be pre-texts; in-texts and pro-tests.

In running the tests, Enanya said that both relevant and irrelevant questions were asked. After the tests, analysis was done and scores recorded. He said the result showed that Oluronke was deceitful. A further post-test was conducted to enable the defendant respond to the outcome of the tests. On the strength of the tests, four documents presented before the court by the prosecution were admitted as exhibits. The documents are: EFCC polygraph consent form, certification of identification; copy of polygraph chart and polygraph report.

Under cross examination by defence counsel, K. O Osinowo, Enanya said that a legal representative of the defendant came around for the polygraph test, but was not allowed into the examination room, so as not to distract the defendant. He told the court that no further test was conducted after the polygraph result came out.

Justice Lawal Akapo adjourned the matter till June 8, 9, and 10, 2015 for continuation of trial.

It would be recalled that Ajudua and the defendant, were initially arraigned by the EFCC before Justice Ipaye, but the second defendant, who is a public servant requested for separation of the charges and expeditious trial.

Oluronke, is facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretence. The EFCC alleged that she helped Ajudua to obtain the money from Bamaiyi between November 2004 and June 2005 while both of them were at Kirikiri Prison for separate offences, by claiming that it represented the professional fees charged by Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) to handle his case.

Meanwhile, the planned re – arraignment today, of the trio of Waheed Omotayo (alias Badmus Mustapha), Giwa Tunde Abiodun and Aghama Peter before Justice Othman A. Musa of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo Abuja on an 8-count charge bordering on forgery, could not go on as the first accused claimed he does not understand English language.

The case which started in January 2013 was transferred to Justice Musa following the retirement of the former trial judge, Justice Buba.

When the case came up today, the prosecuting counsel Cosmas Ugwu told the court that he had already obtained leave to prefer charges against the accused persons.

One of the counts read, “That you Waheed Omotayo (Aka Badmus Mustapha) Giwa Tunde Abiodun and Aghama Peter and one Mallam Mohammed (still at large) on or about the 23rd of May 2012 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory with intent to defraud did forge a document titled Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt Entry Visa Application Form in the name of one Badmus Fatimoh Omotoke and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 362 (a) and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code”.

Another count reads: “That you Waheed Omotayo (Aka Badmus Mustapha) Giwa Tunde Abiodun and Aghama Peter and one Mallam Mohammed (still at large) on or about the 18th of May 2012 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital territory with intent to defraud did forge a First Bank of Nigeria Plc Statement of Account in the name of one Badmus Mustapha Olayemi with Account no 2013715284 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 362 (a) and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code.”

However, just as plea was about to be taken, counsel to the first accused Usman Ebere informed the court that his client, Waheed Omotayo, only understands his native Yoruba language and would require an interpreter.

Justice Musa, after ascertaining their bail status which was confirmed by counsel, directed that the prosecution arrange for an interpreter for the accused and adjourned the matter to June 24, 2015.

Media & Publicity

13th May, 2015

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

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Modern manhood is in crisis

The term ‘man’ is usually reserved for an adult male of the human species; while the term ‘manhood’ is used to describe the period after he has transitioned from boyhood, having attained male secondary sexual characteristics that symbolise his coming of age.

Masculinity may vary in different cultures, but it has universal principles across cultures. Sometimes, gender scholars use the phrase ‘hegemonic masculinity’ to establish this universal concept.

Masculinity embodies assertiveness, responsibility, selflessness, ethics, sincerity and respect. Masculinity itself has social status that has strong associations with physical and moral strength. The biological inputs through hormones induce the masculinisation process that redirects the biological processes from the default female route.

In many cultures, displaying characteristics not typical to one’s gender may become a social problem for the individual. However, labelling and conditioning are based on gender assumptions as part of socialisation to match the local cultural template.

In the primitive hunter-gatherer societies, men were often — if not exclusively — responsible for all large game killed, the capturing, raising and domesticating of animals, the building of permanent shelters, the defense of villages and other tasks where the male physique, strength and spatial cognition are most useful.

Evidence abounds to show that the Neolithic revolution by men that led to the status of prehistoric ranches was a product of the intimate knowledge of animal life. Each time the universally agreeable traits of manhood are challenged, anxiety and anger may be provoked, leading to maladaptive behavioural patterns.

With the globalisation of values, there is an increased objectification of both sexes. Although the actual stereotypes may have remained relatively constant, the value attached to masculine stereotypes may have changed over the past few decades since it is argued that masculinity is an unstable phenomenon and never ultimately achieved.

However, the old ideals of manhood are getting obsolete, just as the new is still invisible to us as we grope in darkness concerning what forms the basis of manhood and masculinity crisis, with grave mental health consequences in societies in cultural transition, such as ours.

The typical modern African man has cognitive dissonance with respect to his roles as a traditional dominant male in the family, as he also attempts to espouse the western ideas that compel him to recognise his wife as a partner in the business of raising the family.

The traditional stereotypes of the father as the breadwinner and the mother as homemaker are almost historical in the light of today’s economical realities.

The masculinity crisis ensues as men are in search of a role in modern societies, since the traditional male attitudes are no longer in much demand anywhere. Deindustrialisation, which involves the replacement of old smoke stick industries with new technologies, has allowed more women to enter the labour force and reduced the demand for great physical strength.

The gender warfare through feminism questions male dominance over women; and the rights that had been erstwhile granted on the basis of their sex.

Masculinity crisis arise from the fundamental incompatibility between the core principle of modernity that all human beings are essentially equal (regardless of their sex) and the parochial tenet of patriarchy that men are naturally superior to women and thus destined to rule over them. The Nigerian situation is serious because the current mental health consequences of this crisis are enormous. A good number of the boys drop out of school, indulge in cybercrime, just as they come down with substance abuse disorder. There is a growing population of young men that lack the emotional maturity and capacity to give leadership in a home.

True manhood, which finds its expression in creative leadership, courage, protection and nurturing of the female gender, is never developed as a result of the maladaptive coping strategies.

It is equally disturbing that in most convocation ceremonies, the females may have 11 and only one for the males, illustrating the manhood crisis emerging in Nigeria. The female employees appear more focused and competent than their male counterparts. A good number of today’s men were brought up by single mothers who were the first set to have experienced this masculinity crisis that saw these boys grow up without a man in the house. The single mothers effectively train the girls, while the boys play the role of surrogate husbands as he does not take responsibility in the house, with reckless access to mummy’s money and car, while his female siblings plan the budget and do house chores.

The boy now grows to become irresponsible and turn round to invoke the traditional attributions of dominance without responsibility, resulting in high rates of divorce, growing population of marriageable ladies without mature young men to marry them.

The increasing rate of mental health disturbances in this cohort is alarming; and the situation requires urgent attention by all stakeholders.

Source

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Why I challenged 2003, 2007, 2011 polls in court – Buhari

President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday explained why he went to court to challenge results of the presidential elections he lost in 2003, 2007 and 2011. Buhari, who stated this when Delta State All Progressives Congress members visited him in Abuja, said he took the decision because he believed Nigeria must be free.

Buhari said,

“Going through the court is not easy, both materially and physically, and I maintained that consistency because my view about my country is that Nigeria should be truly free.”

He condoled with the delegates over the killing of some people during the last general elections.

The president-elect added, “I understand why many of you, who were denied the opportunity to choose those you want to represent and lead you are taking the line I took in the last 12 years in line with our constitution.

“Whether you get it or not, the most important thing is that you believe in the system and you should continue to try until the system is perfect.

“I express my condolence to you for the people murdered and I assure you that my objective of remaining consistently in partisan politics is to make sure that Nigerians are given their inherent right to choose whoever they want to lead them.”

The president-elect said he would never support anybody who undermined that right of Nigerians.

He added that arming unemployed youths and sending them to kill their own people was the worst thing anybody, aspiring to leadership, could do.

According to him, he will concentrate on what Nigerians would be proud of, adding that Nigerians would be respected. Buhari explained that the first objective of the APC would be security, adding that insecurity destroys the economy. The leader of the delegation and the APC governorship candidate in the state, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party disenfranchised the people of Delta State and the South-South at both the presidential and governorship elections.

He stated,

“As our submission to the tribunal in respect of the governorship and state Assembly elections will demonstrate, in truth, majority of Deltans were ready for the change you represent and were geared to vote massively for you and APC.

“Unfortunately, a grand design executed by the PDP in the South -South and South-East and particularly Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, made sure that no proper elections took place.”

He alleged that result sheets were confiscated and results fabricated, alleging that PDP resorted to violence and intimidation.

Emerhor said,

“Our election petition shows that while announced voter accreditation was over 1,017,796, the actual card reader accreditation report shows only 709,700. “As you are aware, Delta State, along with Akwa Ibom and Rivers states are rich in oil resources and the PDP is determined to hold on to these states at all cost in order to utilise the huge revenue base of these states to re-launch itself to national reckoning.

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Geopolitics: Yet another huge diplomatic victory for Russia

Unless you read Russian or monitor the free blogosphere, you might not have noticed this, but something big just happened in Russia: Kerry, Nuland and a large State Department delegation have traveled to Sochi were they met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and then with President Putin.

Welcome back to reality John!

With the latter they spent over 4 hours. Not only that, but Kerry made a few rather interesting remarks, saying that the Minsk-2 Agreement (M2A) was the only way forward and that he would strongly caution Poroshenko against the idea of renewing military operations.

To say that this is a stunning development would be an understatement.

For one thing, this means that the so-called “isolation of Russia” is now officially over, even for the “Indispensable Empire”.

Second, this is, as far as I know, the first official US endorsement of M2A. This is rather humiliating for the US considering that M2A was negotiated without the Americans.

Third, for the very first time the US has actually warned the Ukronazi junta against a military attack. This, at a time when the Ukronazis are in a state of bellicose frenzy and Poroshenko just promised to re-conqueor not only the Donetsk Airport, but all of the Donbass and even Crimea, show that for the very first time the US and Kiev are not on the same page.

Fourth, the USA has, for the first time, declared that if M2A was implemented, EU and US sanctions would be lifted. Interestingly, the Russians were not even interested in discussing the topic of sanctions.

So what does that all mean?

At this point, nothing much.

Americans are terrible negotiators and in every single US-Russian negotiation over the conflict in the Ukraine the Russians completely out-negotiated their American “geostrategic partners” (the quasi-official ironic Russian term describing the West) every time. What typically happens, is that Kerry caves in, then comes back to Washington and changes his tune by 180 degree. The Russians know that and the Russian media stressed that in its analyses.

Still, the USA can zig and then zag as many times as they want, reality does not zag. If anything, the recent presence of Chinese and Indian troops on the Red Square showed that the notion of “isolating Russia” is a non-starter whether Kerry & Co. accept it or not.

Then, there was the rather interesting behavior of Nuland, who was with Kerry’s delegation, she refused to speak to the press and left looking rather unhappy.

Not on CNN

Finally, a quick check of the Imperial Mouthpieces reveals that the Imperial Propaganda Department does not really know what to make of it all.

So what is going on, really?

Honestly, this one is too early to call and, as I said, the chances for yet another US “zag” are very high.

Still, what *might* be happening is that the Americans have finally (!) figured out a few basic facts:

Russia will not back down

Russia is ready for war

The Nazi-occupied Ukraine is collapsing

Most of the world supports Russia

The entire US policy towards Russia has failed

All of the above is rather obvious to any halfway competent observer, but for an Administration completely intoxicated with imperial hubris, crass ignorance and denial these are very, verypainful realities to catch up with. However, denying them might, at the end of the day, get the USA nuked. As the expression goes, if you head is in the sand, your ass is in the air.

Not on CNN

Thus it is possible that what just happens is the first sign of a US sobering up and that what Kerry came to explore with Lavrov and Putin is some kind of face saving exit option. If that is so, then this is terminal news for Poroshenko as this means that the US has basically thrown in the towel in utter disgust with the freaks in power in Kiev.

Furthermore, this might be a sign that US military analysts have taken a very negative view of the Ukronazi changes of success in their planned “Reconquista” of the Donbass. By going to Russia and officially endorsing M2A Kerry might be sending a message to Poroshenko: forget it, it ain’t happening!

Still, I would strongly caution against any premature optimism. I consider a US “zag” a quasi-certitude. My hope is that the “zag” will be limited in magnitude and that when it happens, it will be more about face-saving exit for Obama than about a denial of reality.

What is certain though, is that Russia has won yet another battle is this long war and that all the signs are pointing at the inevitable defeat of the Empire.

The Saker