Scotland vs Nigeria investigated by police over match-fixing claims

Scotland's friendly against Nigeria in London on Wednesday night is being investigated by police after claims that attempts have been made to fix the match.

National Crime Agency officers, who investigate serious and organised crime, have tipped off world governing body FIFA over possible attempts to rig the fixture.

There is no suggestion of Gordon Strachan's Scotland players being involved in any potential scam. Neither is there a threat to Nigeria’s pre-World Cup warm up at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, where 10,000 Tartan Army footsoldiers are expected to be following their team.

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Friendly fire: Scotland, with (from left) Leigh Griffiths, Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew and Ikechi Anya in their ranks, trained at Harrlington on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday night's friendly against Nigeria

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On the ball: Gordon Strachan will look to continue his impressive run as Scotland boss

However, SFA head of security Peter McLaughlin has been in touch with National Crime Agency for the last three days after the agency – Britain’s equivalent of the FBI – received general intelligence concerning the London clash.

The SFA declined to comment but confirmed they are aware of the matter. Neither would the National Crime Agency offer a public comment.

But a spokesman said: 'The NCA will from time to time provide operational detail necessary for public reassurance purposes. It does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of specific operations or provide ongoing commentary on operational activity.'

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Putting in a shift: Coach Stuart McCall puts Steven Naismith through his paces ahead of the Nigeria match

From Garamba to Sambisa Forests, By Olusegun Adeniyi

Located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and established in 1938, the Garamba National Park was in 1980 designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. But what most people across the globe easily remember about the park is the 2008 US-supported “Operation Lightning Thunder”, an unsuccessful attempt by the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) to capture or kill Mr. Joseph Kony, the Ugandan rebel leader who could easily be described as the number one terrorist in Africa. Dubbed by the media as the “Garamba Offensive”, the operation was led by the Uganda Army (with logistics provided by the United States military) who pursued Kony whose men had massacre several people, including 14 soldiers. At the end, they failed to get him even though the operation succeeded in freeing hundreds of children from his captivity.
Against the background that in October 1996 Kony’s LRA also abducted 139 female students from St. Mary’s College Boarding School, Apac district in Uganda, I am beginning to wonder if Boko Haram is not reading from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) manual. Therefore, as the United States, France, China, United Kingdom, Canada and Israel join our country in the efforts to rescue the more than 200 female students abducted from Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents, there are lessons to learn from the activities of the Kony-led LRA in Uganda.
In the last few days, I have been drawing interesting parallels between the LRA and Boko Haram and other terror affiliates whose men kill in the name of religion as I read again “The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa’s Most Wanted”, autographed for me by the author, Matthew Green, about four years ago.Green, a British journalist who had spent five years as the Central Africa correspondent for Reuters, was in Nigeria between 2007 and 2009, reporting for the Financial Times of London before leaving to become their South Asia Security Correspondent, where he is now covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the introduction to the very revealing book, Green had written: “From our crow’s nest in Nairobi, the conflict looked like a classic tale of pointless savagery. The rebels had massacred villagers, mutilated hundreds of people and abducted thousands of children—all for the sake of one man’s ambition to rule according to his warped reading of the Bible.”
For those who may not be familiar with the LRA, it is not too different from Boko Haram except that the former claims to draw inspiration from the Bible while the latter claims to draw its own from the Quran. In the narrative of a dramatic encounter, Green reveals the mindset of the LRA leader: “I would like to declare today clearly why we are fighting,” (Joseph) Kony went on, reverting back to Acholi (his native language). “Of course our political agenda has already been explained. We are fighting for God’s Ten Commandments; we are fighting for God’s power. If you look at the Ten Commandments, are they bad? We are fighting for God’s rule because God’s rule is eternal…”
Given what they cite as raison d’etre for their actions, one can easily conclude that both Kony, (who was for a long while the lord of the Garamba forest) and Abubakar Shekau (who has become the lord of the manor at Sambisa Forest), seem to be operating from the same template. One, both of them are fighting what they consider holy wars in the bid to impose a theocracy in their respective countries in the name of their Gods. Two, they both consider abduction of young girls for deployment as sex slaves as no more than fair games. Three, there is a sectional undertones to their narratives or so it is perceived. While Kony hails from the largely agrarian northern region of Uganda whose people are generally opposed to incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, Shekau also comes from the North of Nigeria where many political leaders feel short-changed that a southerner in President Goodluck Jonathan is currently occupying Aso Rock against the principle of zoning enshrined by the ruling Peoples Democratic party (PDP).
Four, the international community had/have to intervene in both countries following humanitarian calamities involving women and children. Five, the people of the region where both hail from suffer the collateral damage of their murderous activities. (A conversation between Green and his guide, a young man named Moses who comes from the Northern region like Kony buttresses this point: “People were forcibly taken to camps—they did not want to go”, Moses said. “But the soldiers burned their houses, all their crops were slashed down, they beat people. We Northerners, we are not given any respect, we are just like slaves...the civilians and the government don’t trust each other now, the rebels come and tell the civilians: ‘you are supporting the government’. And the government tells them: ‘you are supporting the rebels—they are your children’. So we end up being caught in the middle.”)
Six, both the LRA and Boko Haram had/have sympathisers within the establishments who provide them with intelligence information either on government’s intentions, plans or troop deployments and strength. (President Jonathan has, for instance, said in the past that Boko Haram has sympathisers within the executive, Judiciary, legislature and the security agencies. In the case of Uganda, Lt. Col. Arop, a LRA senior commander captured during the Garamba offensive, said Kony addressed the rebels two days before the operation, urging them to prepare for a UPDF imminent attack). Eight, both the LRA and Boko Haram avoided/avoid sustained direct confrontation with the respective militaries. They are always divided in small formations which are extremely mobile and hard to detect until they strike their soft targets, mostly defenceless villagers. This makes it very difficult for the national armies to defeat them easily. Nine, both extremists are transnational in operations and have external support. Ten, foreign mercenaries are members of the terror machines of both the Boko Haram and the LRA.

Russia, China sign deal to bypass U.S. dollar

In a symbolic blow to U.S. global financial hegemony, Russia and China took a small step toward undercutting the domination of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency on Tuesday when Russia’s second biggest financial institution, VTB, signed a deal with the Bank of China to bypass the dollar and pay each other in domestic currencies.
The so-called Agreement on Cooperation — signed in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on a visit to Shanghai — could be followed by a long-awaited announcement this week of a massive natural gas deal 10 years in the making.
“Our countries have done a huge job to reach a new historic landmark,” Putin said on Tuesday, making note of the $100 billion in annual trade that has been achieved between the two countries.
Demand for the dollar, which has long served as a safe and reliable reserve currency in international transactions, has allowed the U.S. to borrow almost unlimited cash and spend well beyond its means, which some economists say has afforded the United States an outsize influence on world affairs.
But the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a bloc of the world’s five major emerging economies — have long sought to diminish their dependence on the dollar as a means of reshaping the world financial and geopolitical order. In the absence of a viable alternative, however, replacing it has proved difficult.
For its part, “China sees the dominance of the dollar in international trade transactions as a remnant of American global dominance, which they hope to overthrow in the years ahead,” said Michael Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College. “This is a small step in that direction, to reduce the primacy of the dollar in international trade.”
Some have been tempted to view Tuesday's deal in the context of Putin's showdown with the West over the crisis in Ukraine. After the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions on Moscow for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, Putin may have finally made good on promised retaliation against what he views as Western hegemony in Russia's near abroad.

Man Who Sent Poisoned Letters To Obama Gets 25 Years In Prison

 
A Mississippi man who pleaded guilty to sending letters dusted with the poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other officials was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison.
James Everett Dutschke was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock in Aberdeen after telling the judge May 13 that he had changed his mind about wanting to withdraw his guilty plea in the case. He also was sentenced to five years of supervised release and remains in federal custody.
Dutschke waived his right to appeal. He wasn't fined or ordered to pay restitution because he doesn't have enough money, federal prosecutor Chad Lamar said.
Unlike last week, Dutschke said little and allowed his lawyer to do the talking, Lamar said.
The 42-year-old Tupelo resident sent the letters to Obama, Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland in what prosecutors have said was an elaborate plot to frame a rival, Paul Kevin Curtis. Poisoned letters addressed to Obama and Wicker were intercepted before delivery, but one letter reached Holland. She was not harmed.
Aycock had already signaled that she intended to accept the original plea, and Lamar said that Aycock found the outcome to be balanced.
"She found our agreement to be a fair sentence and one that represented the severity of the crime committed," Lamar said after the hearing.

Christian in Sudan sentenced to death for faith

 
Hours after a Sudanese court sentenced his pregnant wife to death when she refused to recant her Christian faith, her husband told CNN he feels helpless.

"I'm so frustrated. I don't know what to do," Daniel Wani told CNN on Thursday. "I'm just praying."

This week a Khartoum court convicted his wife, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith.

Ibrahim is Christian, her husband said. But the court considers her to be Muslim.

The court also convicted her of adultery and sentenced her to 100 lashes because her marriage to a Christian man is considered void under Sharia law.

The court gave her until Thursday to recant her Christian faith -- something she refused to do, according to her lawyer.

During Thursday's sentencing hearing, a sheikh told the court "how dangerous a crime like this is to Islam and the Islamic community," said attorney Mohamed Jar Elnabi, who's representing Ibrahim.

"I am a Christian," Ibrahim fired back, "and I will remain a Christian."

Her legal team says it plans to appeal the verdict, which drew swift condemnation from human rights organizations around the world.

In the meantime, Ibrahim, who is eight months' pregnant, remains in prison with her 20-month-old son.

"She is very strong and very firm. She is very clear that she is a Christian and that she will get out one day," Elnabi told CNN from Sudan.

Ibrahim was born to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left when she was 6 years old, and Ibrahim was raised by her mother as a Christian.

However, because her father was Muslim, the courts considered her to be the same, which would mean her marriage to a non-Muslim man is void.

The case, her lawyer said, started after Ibrahim's brother filed a complaint against her, alleging that she had gone missing for several years and that her family was shocked to find she had married a Christian man.

The court's ruling leaves a family divided, with Ibrahim behind bars and her husband struggling to survive, Elnabi said.

Police blocked Wani from entering the courtroom on Thursday, Elnabi said. Lawyers appealed to the judge, but he refused, Elnabi said.

Wani uses a wheelchair and "totally depends on her for all details of his life," Elnabi said.

"He cannot live without her," said the lawyer.

The couple's son is having a difficult time in prison.

"He is very affected from being trapped inside a prison from such a young age," Elnabi said. "He is always getting sick due to lack of hygiene and bugs."

Ibrahim is having a difficult pregnancy, the lawyer said. A request to send her to a private hospital was denied "due to security measures."

There also is the question of the timing of a potential execution.

In past cases involving pregnant or nursing women, the Sudanese government waited until the mother weaned her child before executing any sentence, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide spokeswoman Kiri Kankhwende.

Christian woman could face death for her faith in Sudan

 
A Christian woman in Sudan reportedly has until Thursday to either recant her faith or face a possible sentence of death.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, was convicted by a Khartoum court this week of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith, Amnesty International said Wednesday, a day before the expected ruling. The court considers her to be Muslim.

According to the rights group, she was also convicted of adultery because her marriage to a Christian man was considered void under Sharia law.

"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered," Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher, said in a statement.

"'Adultery' and 'apostasy' are acts which should not be considered crimes at all, let alone meet the international standard of 'most serious crimes' in relation to the death penalty. It is flagrant breach of international human rights law," the researcher said.

Ibrahim is eight months pregnant and currently in custody with her 20-month-old son, according to Amnesty International, which considers her a prisoner of conscience.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, another rights group, described Ibrahim's case as follows:

She was born to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left when she was 6 years old, and Ibrahim was raised by her mother as a Christian.

Wole Soyinka: “We must respond to those who feel they have a divine right to mess up our lives” – Magnus Taylor

Wole Soyinka is 80 this year and has long inhabited that illustrious pantheon of African literary greats, the Godfather of whom was the late Chinua Achebe. But Soyinka achieved something that his contemporary, Achebe (whose frail health in later years made him seem like a much older man), never did: in 1986 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the citation reading: “[he] in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence.”
With his resplendent, silver afro giving him the most iconic profile in Nigeria, when Soyinka talks, and he does so in long, gravelly sentences, you listen. And whilst his most famous dramatic works may be substantially metaphysical in theme, his current outlook seems more forcefully political. Or perhaps this is a product of what his admirers and questioners most want to talk about: how do we solve the ‘problem(s)’ of Nigeria? When, in reality, Wole might prefer to ponder the mysteries of the universe, the audience the RAS’ ‘Africa Writes’ lecture last night brought him firmly back down to earth.
And the problem-du-jour in Nigeria is currently quite clear: the case of the 300 school girls kidnapped by the islamist group Boko Haram from a small town in the country’s northeastern Borno state. The imaginative #BringBackOurGirls campaign has galvanized a previously ambivalent international community to pay attention to a conflict that was formerly viewed as a parochial ‘Nigerian problem’.  One gets the feeling that even in Nigeria the insurgency in its poor northern regions has been viewed as something that could be effectively contained and had little impact on the oil-rich southern states.

Why Nigeria has not defeated Boko Haram - Andrew Walker

Exactly a year after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a "state of emergency" in north-eastern Nigeria, it seems to have had little effect in curbing the Islamist insurgency.

Attacks by the Boko Haram group that provoked the move included an assault on a military barracks, detonating a bomb at a bus station in the northern city of Kano and the kidnap of a French family, including four children, which grabbed the world's attention.
The declaration would bring "extraordinary measures" to bear against the insurgents in order to "restore normalcy" to the region, the president said.
"The troops have orders to carry out all necessary actions within the ambit of their rules of engagement to put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists," President Jonathan said.

Obese man lost so much weight in Thailand border guards refused to believe he was same person

Slim: Ross before and after

 

 

Ross Connor spent £6,000 to join a year-long kick boxing camp in Phuket and by the time he wanted to go home he was 13st - but was detained at the airport

 

A 21st man shed so much weight in Thailand that border guards refused to let him fly home as he looked so unlike official photos taken of him on arrival.
Ross Connor, 33, spent £6,000 to join a year-long kick boxing camp in Phuket and by the time he wanted to go home he was 13st .
He was detained at the airport until he showed officers photos that documented his fitness regime.
Ross, of Peterborough, Cambs, said: “It was a worrying moment.
“I knew I’d lost a lot of weight, but I never expected they wouldn’t let me on the plane.
“But when they showed me the image taken on my arrival, even I had trouble recognising myself.
“After all my hard work, I thought I wasn’t going to get home to show my family the result of my year of training.”
Ross started suffering breathing problems and had trouble walking after gorging daily on takeaways.
In March last year he decided enough was enough and joined the Muay Thai boxing camp on the paradise island of Phuket.
For the next 12 months he worked out four hours a day in the blistering heat and humidity - losing eight stone.

SOURCE: www.mirror.co.uk/

CBN orders banks to destroy cards trapped in ATMs

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed Deposit Money Banks to henceforth destroy Automated Teller Machine cards trapped in their ATM terminals.


The CBN also gave banks 24 hours to reverse debit entries arising from failed transaction attributable to system-related issues.

The directives were contained in a 14-page ‘Guidelines for card issuance and usage in Nigeria’ released by the Banking and Payment System Department of the CBN on Tuesday.

The CBN guidelines read, “Any trapped card in the ATM shall be rendered unusable (by perforation) by the acquirer and returned to the issuer on the next working day.

“All debit entries arising from failed transactions attributable to system-related issues must be auto-reversed. Where auto reversal is not feasible, manual reversal must be carried out within 24 hours.”

“The security of the payment card shall be the responsibility of the issuer and the losses incurred on account of breach of security or failure of the security mechanism shall be borne by the issuer, except the issuer establishes security breach on the part of the card holder.”

Consequently, banks are to ensure ATM cards are issued from card schemes that have demonstrable fraud management systems.

A Well-Kept Secret- Breastfeeding's Benefits to Mothers-Alicia Dermer,

Very few people are unaware of the benefits of breastfeeding for babies, but the many benefits to the mother are often overlooked or even unknown. From the effect of oxytocin on the uterus to the warm emotional gains, breastfeeding gives a mother many reasons to be pleased with her choice. These documented effects are outlined in this excerpt from Breastfeeding Annual International 2001, a recently published anthology which was edited by Dia Michels, co-author of the classic breastfeeding advocacy book, Milk, Money, and Madness. Both books are available from LLLI.
One of the best-kept secrets about breastfeeding is that it's as healthy for mothers as for babies. Not only does lactation continue the natural physiologic process begun with conception and pregnancy, but it provides many short and long-term health benefits. These issues are rarely emphasized in prenatal counseling by health care professionals and all but ignored in popular parenting literature. Let's look at all the benefits breastfeeding provides mothers and speculate as to why so few are finding out about them.

Physiologic Effects of Breastfeeding

Immediately after birth, the repeated suckling of the baby releases oxytocin from the mother's pituitary gland. This hormone not only signals the breasts to release milk to the baby (this is known as the milk ejection reflex, or "let-down"), but simultaneously produces contractions in the uterus. The resulting contractions prevent postpartum hemorrhage and promote uterine involution (the return to a nonpregnant state).
Bottle-feeding mothers frequently receive synthetic oxytocin at birth through an intravenous line, but for the next few days, while they are at highest risk of postpartum hemorrhage, they are on their own. As long as a mother breastfeeds without substituting formula, foods, or pacifiers for feedings at the breast, the return of her menstrual periods is delayed (Lawrence and Lawrence 1999). Unlike bottle-feeding mothers, who typically get their periods back within six to eight weeks, breastfeeding mothers can often stay amenorrheic for several months. This condition has the important benefit of conserving iron in the mother's body and often provides natural spacing of pregnancies.
The amount of iron a mother's body uses in milk production is much less than the amount she would lose from menstrual bleeding. The net effect is a decreased risk of iron-deficiency anemia in the breastfeeding mother as compared with her formula-feeding counterpart. The longer the mother nurses and keeps her periods at bay, the stronger this effect (Institute of Medicine 1991).
As for fertility, the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) is a well-documented contraceptive method, with 98 to 99 percent prevention of pregnancy in the first six months. The natural child-spacing achieved through LAM ensures the optimal survival of each child, and the physical recovery of the mother between pregnancies. In contrast, the bottle-feeding mother needs to start contraception within six weeks of the birth (Kennedy 1989).

The Real Africa-David Brooks

In 2005, Binyavanga Wainaina published a brilliantly sarcastic essay in Granta called “How to Write About Africa,” advising people on how to sound spiritual and compassionate while writing a book about the continent.

“Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title,” Wainaina advised. “Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.”

Wainaina had other tips: The people in said book should be depicted as hungry, suffering, simple or dead. The children should have distended bellies and flies on their faces. The animals, on the other hand, should be depicted as wise and filled with family values. Elephants are caring and good feminists. So are gorillas. Be sure to show how profoundly you are moved by the continent and its woes, and how much it has penetrated your soul. End with a quote from Nelson Mandela involving rainbows. Because you care.

There’s been something similarly distorted to some of the social media reactions to the Boko Haram atrocities over the past week. It’s great that the kidnappings and the massacres are finally arousing the world’s indignation. But sometimes the implication of the conversation has been this: Africa is this dark and lawless place where monstrous things are bound to happen. Those poor people need our help.

Nigeria: Shekau takes BH further down Al Qaeda path – By Jacob Zenn

 
After four years of incessant Boko Haram violence in northern Nigeria and an estimated 8,000 deaths, Nigerians are now protesting what they see as an ineffectual government response to the insurgency. International media is now also paying greater attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in the Nigeria-Niger-Cameroon-Chad border axis. The cause of the latest outrage in Nigeria is Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 230 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State and the bombing of a motor park outside of Abuja that killed nearly 100 bystanders. Just today there has been another bombing in Abuja, latest reports indicate that 19 people have been killed.
Both the mass-kidnapping and the first of the motor park bombings occurred within a 24-hour span on April 14-15 and were highly foreseeable—and likely preventable.
In video statements since 2013, Boko Haram’s religious leader, Abubakar Shekau, has warned that ‘infidel’ women would become his “slaves” and that he would “sell them in the market.” According to Boko Haram, the girls in Chibok are “infidels” whether or not they are Muslim because they receive Western education – which Boko Haram considers apostasy – instead of Boko Haram-sanctioned Islamic Salafist education. Boko Haram founder Muhammed Yusuf preached that the only “pure” scholars that Muslims should follow are al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Usama bin Laden.
Boko Haram further believes that ‘infidels’ must pay a tax imposed on non-Muslims under Muslim rule, which is called jizyah in the Qur’an, to Boko Haram for protection. But because the girls in Chibok did not pay the tax, Boko Haram is entitled to forcibly marry them as compensation or – as Shekau promised – sell them. Boko Haram already sold several girls as ‘brides’ to Boko Haram members across the border in Cameroon for $12.
Shekau rose to become the second most important imam in Boko Haram before Nigerian security forces killed Muhammed Yusuf in 2009 and was recognized as being a charismatic—albeit chaotic— speaker on Islam. He manipulated the Islamic history of the Borno Empire, which spanned northeastern Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Libya, to rally followers to embrace jihad against the Nigerian government and resurrect Borno’s supremacy. It also helps that Shekau speaks Hausa (the lingua franca of northern Nigeria), Kanuri (the native language in Borno), classical Arabic (the language of the Qur’an) and English (the language of Nigeria’s elites). This suggests Shekau himself is a product of ‘Boko’, which roughly translates as ‘Western education’ in Hausa (‘haram’ means ‘forbidden’ to Muslims).
Since Boko Haram became an underground jihadist group after Yusuf’s death, Shekau likely took his cue from al-Qaeda, which Boko Haram contacted as early as 2004, and may have literally read scripts that al-Qaeda provided to him for sermons he taped from his various hideouts. Shekau typically pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda and its affiliates and threatens America in the introductions to his sermons, often with a script in hand, before chaotically “damning” all Christians, politicians and

THE MAN : JUSTICE CHUKWUDIFU AKUNNE OPUTA

 
IT was the late African oral historian and philosopher, Hampate Ba, who once said: “When an old man dies in Africa, a whole library is lost”. This age-long saying can well be used to describe the repository computation of Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa’s knowledge base. A human library of some sort. This iconic jurist, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is well known for his intellectual robustness and unusual display of knowledge of the law.

While he was at the apex court, he was regarded and addressed as the Socrates and Lord Denning by his colleagues, as well as those who admire him and his judgments he delivered while he was on the Bench. Most of his pronouncements at the Supreme Court were indeed branded as legal and judicial activism by many distinguished legal minds.

With his first degree in Economics, his second in History before delving into law, and with a thorough grounding in Literature and traditional lore, Oputa unarguably is a rare repository of sort and indeed a living human heritage. His passion for law, and by extension, the rule of law and constitutionality, is exemplary and worthy of emulation. It is his belief that justice should be made functional and relevant to the ordinary man, an advocacy he has repeatedly admonished his colleagues still on the Bench to continue to interpret the constitution and other relevant laws liberally for the benefit of all. In many of his seminal articles and books, he preached that the country should sustain the democracy it has earned, adding that democracy, which is anchored on peace and peace in turn, is the by-product of justice and fair-play.

To prove this point, he authored several articles and books to concretise his ideas. Some of the titles of his works include: “Towards Justiciability of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy in Nigeria”, Legal and Judicial Activism in an Emergent Democracy: The last hope for the common man”, and Democracy: The Judiciary and the New Challenges”; Modern Bar Advocacy (1973); The Law and the Twin Pillars of Justice (1981); and Human Rights in the political and legal culture of Nigeria (1988); just to mention but a few.

We Must End Boko Haram’s War on Children – By Debbie Ariyo

The news that over 200 school children were last week abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group in North East Nigeria makes for depressing reading. Pupils sitting their end of school examinations were rounded up, packed in to vehicles and taken away after their school was invaded in a 4 hour operation. The Nigerian military then issued a statement that almost all the girls had been rescued. This proved to be a lie as the school principal gave a statement to the contrary. It now appears that a few of the girls were able to escape with the rest still held captive. Of course the military later issued a statement to retract their earlier one. So far no one knows the fate of the missing 200 or so girls.
Or maybe we do. We know the fate of girls who are usually caught up in conflict situations all over the world. In the past, in conflict zones like Sierra Leone, Liberia and Uganda, girls who were abducted were turned into sex slaves or forced to “marry” their abductors. Their main role was to serve their masters in every way possible. They cook, clean and are forced to have unprotected and endless sex with their abductors. They are forced to have babies – who are later groomed as children to become child soldiers to continue the war and kill people. They become indoctrinated and are forced to partake in killing people. This singular act of mass abduction of children has shifted the Boko Haram insurgency from a middle of the road uprising to a possible longer term conflict situation in Nigeria. It is obvious that with the success of this initial mass abduction of girls, other operations of a similar nature are bound to follow and other schools will be attacked with girls abducted and enslaved.

10 Leadership Failures In The Short Career Of David Moyes In Manchester United

 
1) Don’t change the two most important people in the organisation at the same time
Sir Alex Ferguson had been manager of Manchester United for 27 years and David Gill had racked up a decade as chief executive when the duo stepped down last summer. For manager and chief executive at a football club, read chief executive and chairman at a publicly listed company. Allowing both to leave at the same time is dangerous, particularly when their combined leadership has been so successful. Where was the succession planning that didn’t let that happen? And what happened to the board’s oversight of the career decisions of its two most important executives? How many companies have lost their chairman and chief executive at exactly the same time and replaced both with great success?
2) Don’t let the last business leader choose the next one?
Sir Alex Ferguson imposed what some observers have described as a “Stalin-like grip” on Manchester United during his 27 years in charge. Very little, it is said, happened without either his direct say-so or tacit approval. But allowing the man who has had a stand named after him and a statue erected at the club’s Old Trafford stadium to effectively nominate his replacement as manager brought personal emotion, ego and self-interest into the succession, when it should have been a rational, well thought-out collective board decision. Who on the board would have dared to shoot down the suggestion of the club’s most successful manager ever? Ferguson was allowed to become much too important during his reign at the top. How many departing chief executives are allowed to select their successors?
3) Groom successors from within when you have a winning team
Ferguson’s biggest failing perhaps was not grooming a potential successor. Maybe that’s a pitfall of having a domineering, win-at-all-costs personality. But some of the most successful leadership at winning companies has taken more of a team-based approach, generating a cadre of capable lieutenants who have gone on to follow them as well as taking the helm at other companies. Groups including Procter & Gamble PG -0.15%, Dixons, Asda and the former menswear chain Burtons have served as prodigious academies of management talent. And in British football three of the 19 other managers in the Premier League served as players and/or backroom staff under Ferguson, demonstrating that the talent to groom at hand was indeed available.
4) Keep the most important support staff intact when the top jobs change
David Moyes entered the lions’ den when he took the manager’s job at Manchester United. The previous manager had won everything there was to win in a glittering career; the top players’ medal cabinets were stuffed full too. Having never won a major trophy himself as a manager, he had an instant credibility gap and needed wise heads around him who had the benefit of having been around in the glory years. Instead, he replaced the entire top coaching staff, bringing in the team that had served him at Everton. While this might have been seen as asserting his authority at the time, it left Moyes unsupported within the club and deprived the club of vital experience, know-how and continuity.
5) Appoint someone big enough for the job
Moyes has never won a major trophy as a football manager and yet he was expected to deliver more or less instantly at a club whose previous manager had won 13 Premier League titles and two European Champions Leagues. As if this was not mission impossible, his body language, demeanour and communications with the media suggested almost from the outset that he did not feel that he was up to the task.

Why's Intercountry Trading In Africa Done With Foreign Currency?

 
Why is it that African countries are not using their own currencies to trade with each other?
When the Constitutive Act of the African Union was written to implement the Sirte Declaration, there were three financial institutions that were established to facilitate inter-African trade.
These were: the African Investment Bank (AIB), the African Monetary Fund (AMF) and the African Central Bank (ACB). It was agreed that it would be necessary to establish a single common currency in Africa in order to speed economic integration.
The planning for the African Monetary Fund and for the African Central Bank was supposed to be a phased process alongside the process of the full unification of Africa, leading towards the Union Government of Africa.
When the Constitutive Act was written, there was no sense among the leaders of Africa that the capitalist crisis would bring down governments in Europe, spawn a Eurozone crisis along with the current currency war that is being waged against the poorer nations.
Since the start of 2014 the world has witnessed a new battle ground as currency speculators put the reserves of poorer countries under pressure. The attacks on the currencies of societies such as Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, India, and others have reached the front pages of international news beyond the financial pages.
What is clear is the predators on Wall Street are now attacking the currencies of the exploited world and nations with the smallest reserves have to dig into their reserves to fend off currency speculators as we are continuing to see the exchange rates of Africa under pressure.
What is less clear in many countries in Africa and other parts of the Developing World, though, is the ways in which this currency war is inextricably linked to the volatility of Wall Street. Neo-liberal interpretations of the world allow policymakers to promote prescriptions that exacerbate capital flight from Africa. The belief in markets is one myth that has suborned technicians in Africa to continue to support the political and military power of the USA. The assertion that the United States has a comparative advantage as an originator of high value quality financial assets can now be dismissed as the justification for supporting the military power of the USA.
It is within this context that it is urgent that Africa begins to work toward a single currency.
One of the prior steps would be to establish the African Currency unit with strict benchmarks for the integration of Africa towards the adoption of a single currency.
Without the establishment of the African Central Bank that functions under democratic control, and a credible African currency the drain of resources will continue. The amount of documented evidence is well known. Research from the African Development Bank (AfDB) revealed in May 2013 that in the three decades from 1980 to 2009, African countries lost up to $1.4trillion in illicit financial flows, known as capital flight. These figures from the African Development Bank are repeating the scholarly findings of James K. Boyce and Léonce Ndikumana that has been around for about twenty years.
One of the most urgent political matters for the progressive forces is to end the capital flight from Africa and the seizure of African resources for external forces in alliance with African militarists. Capital flight from Africa ensures that there are no resources for infrastructure, for social development and programs and to provide for the needs of the majority of the African peoples.
Progressives and those working for the full unification of Africa should be promoting the process of establishing a common currency in Africa so that Africans no longer keep their foreign currency reserves in the US dollar, Euro or the pound sterling.
Africans can learn a lot from what is being done in the ASEAN societies where the first step of monetary integration has been placed on the table in the form of the Chiang Mai Initiative. This Initiative has laid the basis for a number of ventures such as bilateral swaps to protect the societies of East Asia from the Wall Street foreign exchange traders and to enhance regional trade. The planning for the Asian Currency Unit is following the lines of creating a firewall in Asia to protect the societies from the currency wars being waged by currency traders.
Within Asean states bilateral pacts to swap and repurchase central-bank reserves have prevented the kind of raiding that went on at the time of the Asian financial crisis 1997-1998. These societies in Asia do not agree politically and have many differences but they are all agreed to establish various initiatives to ensure that their societies are not bullied by the IMF or the World Bank. Moreover, they have learnt the harsh lessons from 1997 when George Soros and other derivative traders undermined their currencies.

One in four women hates their partner's friends because they are a bad influence.

A quarter of women dislike their partner's friends, a poll has revealed

Believe they influence their other half to drink, swear and  'act differently'

One in ten said their partner's pals had put a strain on their relationship

Millions of women dislike their partner's friends - because they drink too much, stay out late and talk about football all the time, it has been revealed.

A quarter of females feel the people their other half spends time with have a detrimental effect on his behaviour, according to a new study.

They believe they are 'too loud', 'show off' and influence their partner to 'act differently'.

Meanwhile, 16 per cent of women have confessed to trying to prevent their boyfriend, fiancé or husband from mixing with his 'undesirable' friends.

And a third of women have made up excuses to avoid spending time with their partner's pals, the poll to launch 2 Guns on DVD found.

The action film follows the 'bromance' of Robert 'Bobby' Trench (Denzel Washington) and Michael 'Stig' Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) as they are forced to go on the run together.

The survey also found that one in twenty women dislikes one particular person in their partner's friendship group - while a hard-to-please 75 per cent admitted not liking the majority of them.

Abigail Anaba: Some boxes are better left unopened, Gov. Nyako

If you are familiar with Greek Mythology then you must have read about Pandora and her box which she got as a wedding gift from Zeus with instructions not to open it. The box contained all the evils of the world. Out of curiosity, Pandora opened the box and out poured all the evils in the world today.
Curiosity killed the cat, so the saying goes. But these days it seems humans have become more curious than cats and can’t help opening boxes.
Mind you, there was evil in existence before Pandora opened her box. Just it was trapped in a box and wouldn’t have seen the light of day if Pandora hadn’t done the honours.
Pandora is no longer with us but we have been gifted a saying to remember her by. When we today speak of opening Pandora’s box, we mean that someone takes an action which seems innocent but turns out to have severe consequences. Like Murtala Nyako, current governor of Adamawa state and former Naval officer 1966 to 1993.
That Nyako began serving in the Nigerian Navy in 1966 is noteworthy. 1966 was a pivotal year in Nigerian history, a year many people would rather not talk about. A year we have kept in a box. A year when the beats of drums of war gathered momentum. A year Nyako decided to talk about in his recent memo.

FULL TEXT OF THE MEMO BY NYAKO TO THE NORTHERN GOVERNORS FORUM

 


A Memo To The Northern Governors’ Forum
By
His Excellency,
Vice Admiral MURTALA H. Nyako (Rtd),
Executive Governor, Adamawa State
On
Genocide In Northern Nigeria

The adverse security situation in Northern Nigeria in particular and Nigeria in general is being felt by all of us. While every State Government is doing everything possible using virtually all its resources to stem the tide of near disaster facing all of us especially in the North, it is a well-known fact that the present Federal administration has now become a government of impunity run by an evil-minded leadership for the advancement of corruption that is apparently enjoying the protection of the Federal administration as a citizen of this country should enjoy but is being denied by the administration using its mass murderers/cut-throats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional Defence and Security organisations. It is very clear that the protection of life and property of innocent citizens in Northern Nigeria and recognising their Human rights and Voting right in the forthcoming general elections is no longer a cardinal principle of the administration.
The beginning of Genocide:
Clearly the victims of the Administration’s evil-mindedness are substantially Northern Nigerians. The administration is bent on bringing wars in the North between Muslim and Christians and within them and between one ethnic group and another or others in various communities in the region. Cases of mass murders by its bloody minded killers and cut-throats are well known, but it attributes the killings to so-called Boko-Haram. Thousands of our young girls and boys have been kidnapped by clearly organised militia in the last few years and kidnapping is now a random affair all over the far North. These organized kidnappers must have the backing of the Federal administration for them to move about freely with abducted children just as those who convey ammunitions and explosives from the Ports to the safe-houses of so called Boko-Haram in the North. Hurrah we are no longer being deceived!
We no longer accept let alone believe that our prominent Mallams in the Mosques in Kano and Zaria have been killed by ‘innocent’ Boko-Haram members or Christians in the North, nor do we believe that the killing of the Pastor and other worshippers in the Christ Apostolic Church in Jimeta-Yola was done by any Muslim or Boko-Haram members. We know where we are now pointing our fingers. There have also been attempts to assassinate the Senate President (Northerner) in Imo State, two Executive Governors of States in the North (the Governor of Benue State and my humble self), two of our most prominent Traditional leaders (Shehu of Borno and the Emir of Kano), Senators and others too numerous to mention, all from Northern Nigeria. This is in line with the demonic policy of the evil-few in and around the administration that have advocated how Northerners, both Christians and Muslims, are to be so dealt with, ill-treated and oppressed!
No wonder, we in the Northern Nigeria are now facing an organised ethno-religious campaigns of hate fuelled by the Federal administration to make communities which hitherto have remained peaceful for centuries to start killing the minorities in their midst and to facilitate mass killings of the innocent and the arbitrary arrests and torture of elders of minority ethnic groups in the various Northern communities. The reader is please requested to note what has been happening in Plateau State and the recent happenings in Benue and Nasarawa States. We, in Adamawa State, have been battling this heinous machination in the last 3 years. Yes, we noticed it! We also saw it as the Beginning of Genocide. Genocide kingpins are now on prowl in Northern Nigeria!
Fulani communities in parts of the North who have been in their locations for over 100 years are now being raided and uprooted by paid killers within the Nigerian Army for the satisfaction of the Federal administration instead of being protected as citizens with their rights and dignity safe-guarded. This has happened to those communities at Keana L.G. in Nasarawa State and Laddoga and Kachia in Kaduna State. It is presently extended to Benue, Zamfara and Katsina States. Furthermore it is a well-known fact that virtually all the soldiers of Northern Nigerian origin recently recruited to fight Boko-Haram have been deceived in that aspect. They are being poorly trained, totally ill-equipped, given only uniform and are killed by their trainers in Nigerian Army training centres as soon as they arrive in the Nigerian Army camps being used by so-called Boko-Haram insurgents. Virtually all the Nigerian Army soldiers killed/murdered in these operations so far are of Northern Nigerian origin. The Administration has also hired militia from all across especially North Africa who have been deceived into accepting to come because they were made to believe that they would be fighting infidels.
The Federal administration’s affront to frame Northerners is also an open secret. Senior Special Assistant to Mr President tried to hoodwink us into believing that Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was kingpin of Boko-Haram. Typical bullshit from the Federal administration. Mr Henry Okah, the convicted leader of MEND also stated under oath that he was being put under pressure by the administration to implicate senior Northern elements such as IBB and Buhari as financiers of Boko Haram terrorism. We are in deep trouble. We have begun to sleep with ‘both our eyes widely open’!
Let me paraphrase what humanity has been humming over the ages: ​
A call to Action
When they killed the Jews, we watched unconcerned because we were not Jews.
When they murdered the Blacks we were still unconcerned because we were not Black.
When they massacred the Asians we kept mute because we were not one of them.
Then we saw the Marauding Murderers coming and we realised they were coming for us and we were not safe.
That was when we knew that if we had collectively protested the Killings of the Jews, the Murder of the Blacks and Massacres of the Asians, we would all have been safe.
Right here at Home
They started killings in Borno State we kept quiet.
The hired killers got to Yobe State we remained mute
They proceeded to Adamawa State we watched
They attacked Kano, Katsina and Sokoto we said nothing
The North-East is under occupation
The North-West is under assault
Now their tanks and marauders have begun rolling into the North-Central
The North is under occupation
Yet we are still silent!
Nigerians stand-up and talk! Injury to one is injury to all!
Full-fledged Genocide
It is fortunate that the people of Northern Nigeria and indeed Nigerians have friends namely the good people of this country and other nations, International Court of Justice and NGOs dealing with the protection of humanity against Genocide etc. The International Criminal Court Charter broadly defines genocide as:
• Mass killings of human beings
• A deliberate action by a government that embarks on a policy that denies a group basic social amenities.
• A deliberate action by a government or group of people who embark on campaign of hatred against the innocent.
The International Criminal Court Charter also empowers any aggrieved person(s) or NGO to approach the Court to intervene when a Nation/State party fails to prosecute perpetrators of genocide or grave human right violation or human right offences.
One must confess that all these elements of genocide have been perpetuated by the present Federal administration against the people of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States and is beginning to rapidly spread to other 14 States of Northern Nigeria. The dead bodies being dragged daily from the Nigerian Army hitherto armouries now turned into killing chambers as identified by Human Right organisations and the last weekend massacre of inmates of SSS cells in Abuja speak volumes on genocide being committed in our country today. Mass killings of students and children in their schools’ dormitories and on their way to take exams are now virtually daily occurrence in Borno and Yobe States. Below is the chart on numbers and percentage of people killed in key trouble spots of the world (Courtesy of Sunday Trust of April 6, 2014) and some of the gruesome pictures of the dead in our country recorded by the Nigerian media and international NGOs.
We in the North must now have an open agenda to protect our people from acts against us similar to those in the foregoing. We should demand our Human Rights; we should demand protection against the evil acts being done to our people and environments; we should demand the Right to Vote in forthcoming General Elections as the people of war-torn Afghanistan did and were able to vote in smooth General Elections on 5th April, 2014. If it could be done in Afghanistan, it should be done in Nigeria, the whole of Nigeria!
It is overdue for us to commence the very serious business of purging all Northerners and fellow Nigerians of mutual hatred and suspicion against fellow countrymen and to inculcate true love and patriotism in the minds of all of us. How could we be nonchalant to the activities of the Federal administration which is involved in the daily massacre of our young men and women, selected elders and eventually all and sundry? It is also time to mobilize International NGO to bring to an end all the atrocities being committed by the evil-few in Abuja against millions of our innocent people. We need international support to compile an accurate data on the dead, maimed, wounded, displaced and missing in the North-East Zone especially Borno State and Yobe State and now other Northern States for payment of full compensation for the loss of life and property.
We need the Red Cross to help us set up an efficient medical and ambulance services etc. We need the services of other international organisations such as UNICEF to assist us trace the whereabouts of our abducted children and return them to their parents. They should also assist us to rehabilitate all those who have been adversely affected by the evil machinations of the Federal administration and those evil-few around it. We also need the services of appropriate NGOs to help us arraign all those involved in the genocide before the International Criminal Court at The Hague! We urgently require the services of all those that could help us achieve the objective of the UN Millennium Declaration 2000 where all parties agreed viz “We recognize that, in addition to our separate responsibilities to our individual societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. As leaders we have a duty therefore to all the world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs”. Nigeria is a signatory to this Declaration.