My credentials still with military, Buhari tells INEC

Over 70 out of the 91 political parties are presenting presidential candidates that will participate in the 2019 Presidential elections, The PUNCH can report.

Our correspondent, who visited the FCT office of the Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday, reported that over 70 names had been posted as of Thursday night.

The list was posted with INEC’s timetable which fixed October 25 for the publication of candidates of political parties across the country.

Opinion: Four persons to tear PDP apart.

As election moves closer. Here are list of candidates in the opposition PDP. the party needs to be wary about in other to save the party from losing yet another election.

1- Kwankwaso. The former Governor of Kano state knowing fully that he's the only candidate in the party   that can wooed more vote than any other candidates, will not sacrifice that opportunity to any candidates of the party. The only thing next in Kwankwaso agenda after Governing the must populated state in Nigeria is to become President.
2- Atiku Abubakar. Having been a vice-president for eight years with Obasanjo as President between 1999 to 2007. There's nothing one can do to satisfy Atiku Abubakar if not given him the opportunity to be the number one citizen of the nation. Atiku is ready to sacrifice everything to be President.
3- Bukola Saraki. The current Senate President is all eyes on the number one position. As the third man in the country Saraki is never satisfied with that position. He also have the believe that he's the only person in the opposition PDP to undue the President. Having beet the presidency on many occasions.
4- Tambuwal. The current Governor of Sokoto state, and hopefully the party favourite. On this one i don't have much to say. I'm also as confuse as you're, i believe the only person that can understand what Tambuwal did is he, himself and his close associate. All i know is, He can't sacrifice his 2nd term governorship ambition for just.

China: Massive Crackdown in Muslim Region

The Chinese government is conducting a mass, systematic campaign of human rights violations against Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang in northwestern China.
The 117-page report, “ ‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses’: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims ,” presents new evidence of the Chinese government’s mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment, and the increasingly pervasive controls on daily life. Throughout the region, the Turkic Muslim population of 13 million is subjected to forced political indoctrination, collective punishment, restrictions on movement and communications, heightened religious restrictions, and mass surveillance in violation of international human rights law.
“The Chinese government is committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang on a scale unseen in the country in decades,” said Sophie Richardson , China director at Human Rights Watch. “The campaign of repression in Xinjiang is key test of whether the United Nations and concerned governments will sanction an increasingly powerful China to end this abuse.”
The report is primarily based on interviews with 58 former residents of Xinjiang, including 5 former detainees and 38 relatives of detainees. Nineteen of those interviewed have left Xinjiang within the past year and a half.
The Chinese government’s “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism” began in Xinjiang in 2014. The level of repression increased dramatically after Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo relocated from the Tibet Autonomous Region to assume leadership of Xinjiang in late 2016.
Since then, the authorities have stepped up mass arbitrary detention, including in pretrial detention centers and prisons, both of which are formal facilities, and in political education camps, which have no basis under Chinese law.
Credible estimates indicate that 1 million people are being held in the camps, where Turkic Muslims are being forced to learn Mandarin Chinese, sing praises of the Chinese Communist Party, and memorize rules applicable primarily to Turkic Muslims. Those who resist or are deemed to have failed to “learn” are punished.
The detainees in political education camps are held without any due process rights – neither charged nor put on trial – and have no access to lawyers and family. They are held for having links with foreign countries, particularly those on an official list of “26 sensitive countries,” and for using foreign communication tools such as WhatsApp, as well as for peacefully expressing their identity and religion, none of which constitute crimes.
A man who spent months in political education camps, told Human Rights Watch: “I asked [the authorities] if I can hire a lawyer and they said, ‘No, you shouldn’t need a lawyer because you’re not convicted. There’s no need to defend you against anything. You’re in a political education camp – all you have to do is just study.’”
Outside these detention facilities, the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang subject Turkic Muslims to such extraordinary restrictions on personal life that, in many ways, their experiences resemble those of the people detained. A combination of administrative measures, checkpoints, and passport controls arbitrarily restrict their movements. They are subjected to persistent political indoctrination, including compulsory flag-raising ceremonies, political or denunciation meetings, and Mandarin “night schools.” With unprecedented levels of control over religious practices, the authorities have effectively outlawed Islam in the region.
They have also subjected people in Xinjiang to pervasive and constant surveillance. The authorities encourage neighbors to spy on each other. The
authorities employ high-tech mass surveillance systems that make use of QR codes, biometrics , artificial intelligence, phone spyware, and big data . And they have mobilized over a million officials and police officers to monitor people, including through intrusive programs in which the monitors are assigned to regularly stay in people’s homes.
The campaign has divided families, with some family members in Xinjiang and others abroad caught unexpectedly by the tightening of passport controls and border crossings. Children have at times been trapped in one country without their parents. The government has barred Turkic Muslims from contacting people abroad. The government has also pressured some ethnic Uyghurs and Kazakhs living outside the country to return to China, while requiring others to provide detailed personal information about their lives abroad.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) reviewed the situation in China in mid-August and described Xinjiang as a “no rights zone.” The Chinese delegation disputed this portrayal of the region, as well as its characterization of political education camps, calling them “vocational education centers.”
It is evident that China does not foresee a significant political cost to its abusive Xinjiang campaign, partly due to its influence within the UN system, Human Rights Watch said. In the face of overwhelming evidence of grave abuses in Xinjiang, foreign governments should pursue a range of multilateral and unilateral actions. They should also pursue joint actions at the UN Human Rights Council, creating a coalition to gather and assess evidence of abuses in Xinjiang, and imposing targeted sanctions on Party Secretary Chen Quanguo and other senior officials responsible.
“The pain and anguish of families torn apart, with no knowledge of what’s happened to their loved ones stands in stark contrast to Beijing’s claims that Turkic Muslims are ‘happy’ and ‘grateful,’” Richardson said. “A failure to urgently press for an end to these abuses will only embolden Beijing.”
Selected accounts
The names and identifying details of people interviewed have been withheld to protect their safety. All names of detainees are pseudonyms.
On political education camps:
Nobody can move because they watch you through the video cameras, and after a while a voice came from the speakers telling you that now you can relax for a few minutes. That voice also tells you off for moving…we were watched, even in the toilet. In political education camp, we were always under stress.
–Rustam, a former detainee who spent months in political education camps, May 2018
I resisted their measures…They put me in a small solitary confinement cell…In a space of about 2x2 meters I was not given any food or drink, my hands were handcuffed in the back, and I had to stand for 24 hours without sleep.
–Nur, a former detainee in a political education camp, March 2018
Everyday controls in Xinjiang:
A total of five officials…took turns to watch over me [at home]. And they had to document that they’d checked on me… The photos show them reading political propaganda together [with me] or show me moving a pillow on a bed to prepare for them to stay overnight; or them lying down on the sofa.
– Aynur, a woman who left Xinjiang in 2017, May 2018
Since early 2017, twice a week, officials came. Some people even stayed for a night. The authorities came in advance and made a list and assigned new “relatives” to you. … [The officially-assigned “relatives”] talked to my son, my grandkids, they took pictures, they sat at the table, they asked, “Where’s your husband, where did he go?” I was really frightened, and I pretended to be busy looking after my grandkids. I was worried that if I spoke I’d let slip that my husband had gone [abroad]. So, I stayed silent.
– Ainagul, 52, who left Xinjiang in 2017 and whose son is in a political education camp, May 2018
International impact of the Strike Hard Campaign:
First, the village police called, and then a higher-level police bureau called. Their numbers were hidden – they didn’t show where they were calling from…. The police told me, “If you don’t come, we’ll come get you.”
– Dastan, 44, who lives outside China and whose wife is in a political education camp, May 2018
They give a signal, that even if you’re in a foreign country, they can “manage” you. … I’m scared... I didn’t join any terrorist or any organization against China. I didn’t join any demonstrations. I didn’t carry any East Turkestan flag. I have no criminal record in China…why are they doing stuff like that [to me]?
– Murat, a 37-year-old student living outside China and whose sister is in a political education camp, June 2018

These Bluetooth Hacks Can Steal Your Credit Card PIN

All manner of shops, pop-ups and market stalls are using cheap mobile point-of-sale systems, those card readers that look a little like calculators made for infants.
Hacking them might not be child’s play, but as benevolent hackers from cybersecurity company Positive Technologies revealed Thursday, it’s certainly possible. And their attacks could drain shoppers’ bank accounts.
They tested a range of devices shipped by some of the best-known payment companies in the world, PayPal and Square, as well as up-and-coming players iZettle and SumUp. Two versions of the same reader were found to be vulnerable to hacks that could steal PIN numbers in plain text.
Those two were the PayPal and Square readers based on a model from manufacturer Miura. In particular, Positive researchers Leigh-Anne Galloway and Tim Yunosov discovered an old version of the Miura device’s firmware (the core code at the heart of the reader) contained a vulnerability allowing a hacker to access the card reader’s file system.
There were some limitations to the attack on the Miura M010 model. For starters, the hackers would have to find a way to downgrade the firmware to the older, vulnerable version. That was possible through another hack discovered and detailed by Galloway and Yusonov in a paper released Thursday.
The attackers would also have to rely on the terminal failing to update to later, more secure versions. But the researchers said they could stop the device checking for updates or could drop all connections that tried to install newer firmware.
Demonstrating the attacks to Forbesahead of their talk at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this week, Galloway and Yusonov chose not to do anything malicious, but to instead install an image of the Nyan Cat on the Miura M010 reader
In a real-world scenario, a successful attack where the firmware was downgraded and exploited would take between five and ten minutes, said Yusonov. That may be unrealistic in some settings, especially where the merchant has access to the reader, but Galloway said it would be entirely reasonable in others. “My physio takes place in a posh gym, where they have a Miura reader completely open all the time. You could sit there and completely carry out ... this kind of attack.”
Square said that once it learned of the flaws it accelerated plans to move customers off the Miura device. Though it was only used by a couple of hundred clients in the last month, the Miura machine was being phased out as of August 1 and all affected sellers were being given a free Square-made reader. “As a result, today it is no longer possible to use the Miura Reader on the Square ecosystem. It’s important to note that this is not a vulnerability in any Square hardware or software, and we have no indication that any Square sellers have been impacted by it,” a spokesperson said.
A PayPal spokesperson said the company had updated Miura devices to prevent attacks. “PayPal’s systems were not impacted and our teams have remediated the issues raised by the researcher.”
Miura said it had put measures in place to prevent such attacks and that it had contacted partners to ensure they were running the latest software. “In respect to downgrading of the device, a number of our partners have already implemented controlled processes within their solution that prevent the active downgrade of the Miura hardware application and as standard do not make older versions of application available via online services,” added Andrew Dark, chairman at Miura.
Fraudulent dealers
The Miura hack wasn’t the Positive researchers’ only trick. They also detailed hacks that could be used by a fraudulent merchant to surreptitiously alter the amount charged to customers, different to that displayed on the screen of the reader. In such a case a fraudulent seller would have to intercept encrypted traffic going between mobile devices, the reader and the server managing payments. They could then alter the value of a transaction.
“This vulnerability can be used by a fraudulent merchant to force a cardholder to approve a much higher value amount,” the researchers wrote in their paper.The PayPal and Square Miura devices were affected by that hack, alongside readers from SumUp, Square and iZettle.
Square said it had actually detected the researchers’ attempts to alter the payment amount and blocked the apparent fraud. It would do the same in cases where real fraudsters were trying to do the same, a spokesperson explained.
An iZettle spokesperson said: “The potential issue flagged to us by the researcher was resolved immediately. We are also aware of some other findings, and we are reviewing these. The iZettle service and its community remain unaffected and secure.”
SumUp noted that the attack only worked where mag-stripe transactions were taking place. A spokesperon said SumUp “removed any possibility of such an attempt at fraud in the future” after the flaws were disclosed. “It is clear that this reveals more about the limitations of increasingly obsolete magnetic stripe technology than problems with card terminal systems,” the spokesperson said.

But as long as vulnerable devices remain in use, malicious merchants remain a real threat, according to Galloway. “That’s the real issue with these kinds of attacks: What can a fraudulent merchant do? Will they get caught? The answer is, in some cases, they won’t get caught for a long time.”

Yemen war: Saudi-led air strike on bus kills 29 children

The Saudi-UAE military alliance at war with Yemen's Houthi rebels has been blamed for an air attack on a school bus that killed dozens of people, including at least 29 children.

The vehicle came under attack as it was driving near a crowded market in the Houthi-controlled province of Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday.

The ICRC said on its Twitter account that its medical team at the ICRC-supported hospital in Saada had received the bodies of 29 children, all under 15 years old. The hospital also received 48 wounded people, among them 30 children.

In a separate Twitter post, Johannes Bruwer, the head of an ICRC delegation in Yemen, said that "according to local officials a total of 50 people died and 77 were injured this morning.

Of these, the ICRC hospital in Al Talh received 30 dead and 48 injured, of which the vast majority were children."

According to multiple sources, the attack took place early on Thursday outside a busy market in Dahyan city.

Al Masirah, a pro-Houthi rebel TV network, said the bus, which was carrying a group of students attending summer classes learning the Holy Quran, was targeted.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports.

'Body parts were scattered'

The network posted several videos on Twitter showing the aftermath of the attack, including one with several dead children, and another of blood pouring from the heads of three child survivors.

The Saudi-UAE alliance later issued a statement to the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network saying it launched the attacks on Saada, but that it had targeted "missile launchers".

"[The air strikes] conformed to international and humanitarian laws," a statement quoting coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said.

However, Nasser Arrabyee, a Yemeni journalist based in the capital Sanaa, said there were no Houthi fighters in the vicinity of the market where the attack took place.

"The place is known to be a market, [and] there is no military installation nearby ... but the Saudis are known to have done this many times - target schools, weddings and so on."

He added that health centres in the war-ravaged province would struggle with the number of wounded, and the death toll was likely to rise.

"It's difficult to treat such a big number of injured in Sanaa, let alone in Saada, which is very remote and primitive.

"This makes the situation worse, with many of the wounded likely to die because there is no treatment, no medicine".

Arrabyee added, "even first responders, were killed", with their "body parts scattered."

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said this latest attack was going to enrage Yemenis who are already aggrieved over the rising civilian death toll.

"The Saudis tend to deny these kinds of actions, which have sadly become all too common," he said. "It's all too rare for either party [the alliance or the Houthis] to take responsibility".

The United Nations agency for children UNICEF condemned the attack.

"NO Excuses anymore!" said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa. "Does the world really need more innocent children's lives to stop the cruel war on children in Yemen?"

Needs to stop'

Later on Thursday, sounds of blasts from air raids that hit Sanaa reverberated across its southern and western neighbourhoods. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties in those attacks.

Jolien Veldwijk, the acting director of Care International, told Al Jazeera that at least "five very intense air strikes" targeted densely populated areas of the capital.

"Planes are still circulating in the sky and we expect more strikes," she said.

Veldwijk added that if attacks on civilian areas continue, aid agencies would not be able to continue with their work.

"This needs to stop, there's no way we can continue with our work with all these air strikes," she added.

With logistical support from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have carried out attacks in Yemen since March 2015. The war effort is an attempt to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

In 2014, Hadi and his forces were overrun by the Houthi rebels who took over much of the country, including Sanaa. 

Earlier this month, dozens of people - including women and children - were killed in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in air raids carried out by the Saudi-UAE alliance.

According to the UN, at least 10,000 people have been killed in the three-year war - a death toll that has not been updated in years and is certain to be far higher. 

In June, Saudi and UAE forces carried out 258 air raids on Yemen, nearly one-third of which targeted non-military sites.

The Yemen Data Project listed 24 air raids on residential areas, three on water and electricity sites, three hitting healthcare facilities, and one targeting an IDP camp.

Impoverished Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is now in the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22.2 million people in need of assistance.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has been pushing the warring parties to restart peace talks. He recently announced plans to invite Yemen's combatants to Geneva on September 6 to hold the first round of negotiations.

Is Katsina State @30 worth celebrating?

By lawal Abdullahi Funtua

The military Administration of President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida created two states of Katsina and Akwaibom states respectively in 1987. While Akwaibom is situated in the South South region of Nigeria, Katsina State lies at the  extreme end of North Western Nigeria and shares borders with Niger Republic.

    What are the Achievements?

1. The majority of Katsinawa are Farmers and farming is one of the major employer of Labour in the state considering the fact that most of the rural dwellers are actively engaged in farming activities throughout the centuries.

 Katsina state has the potential of becoming the food basket of the nation if better agricultural policies are introduce and implemented, due to large arable land and human resources endowment which are mostly untapped in the State.

But despite all efforts made by the previous administrations to make farming attractive to the average farmer in the state, the successive governments had failed squarely in providing the necessary mechanism and technical knowledge to the farmers who relied upon the archaic systems inherited from the fast. The problems persists uptil today. I'm yet to see achievements in terms of adoption and applications of mechanise farming and modern marketing of farm products.

The previous Administration of Shema has succeed in establishing the organic fertiliser in Katsina state.

2. Education: Success or otherwise of education is not about the number of graduates you produce yearly but how qualitative the educational system is. The past governments had tried in renovating the faces of our schools both secondary and primary, but the questions are;
☆Did we invest in improving the intellectual capabilities of the teachers?

The Administration of His excellency Aminu Bello Masari is succeeding in reinvigorating the educational system by employing more qualified teachers into the classroom.

3. Economy: The economy of the state is now improving with the majority of our people embracing the farming. Like I said earlier that farming provides most of the jobs because almost all the industries had collapsed and files for bankruptcy, so there are no jobs in the factories.

Katsina state is far behind her counterparts of Akwaibom in terms of infrastructure and the economy, but the good news is that there's light at the end of the tunnel if we can judiciously channel our resources to critical infrastructure with the views to creating a conducive environment for investment.

I THEREFORE CONGRATULATE THE ENTIRE PEOPLE OF KATSINA STATE FOR CELEBRATING KATSINA @ 30 MAY  ALLAH CONTINUE TO GUIDE OUR LEADERS RIGHT.

10 Unique Perspectives On What Makes A Great Leader

By Brent Gleason
All business owners and executives have varying experiences and perspectives on the approach and qualities necessary for effective leadership. And not all situations require the same type of leadership style. Great leaders adapt to their surrounding environments and empower the team to succeed together.

Many experts across countless leadership books and articles agree on certain principles required for leading a team to greatness, but when it comes down to it, the most important factor is whether or not the leader is getting the job done.

My philosophies on leadership have evolved over time through research, experiences in combat as a Navy SEAL and from my successes and failures running my own businesses. I believe that the best leaders are passionate about developing the emerging leaders around them, they constantly work to improve their emotional intelligence and know that a strong team culture is the foundation for accomplishing the mission. They are in a perpetual state of preparation and embrace the inevitable changes their businesses will face.

For the purposes of this article however, I wanted to get other business leaders’ perspectives by having them answer one question:

In your opinion, what makes a great leader?

Their responses were collected in partnership with the American Board of Experts™. Here they are!

1 - Have Faith in Their Beliefs

"It's a mix of a lot of things, but first and foremost it's about having faith in your beliefs. You can't expect others to consider you a leader unless you have solid faith in your ideas. And once it's there, you build on it by being a good communicator, listening to others, setting examples and by putting your best foot forward and not giving up. Leadership is all about being passionate about what you do, and having confidence in yourself and your followers whom you have to motivate and inspire.

2 - Make the Hard Choice

“Great leaders make the hard choice, and self-sacrifice in order to enhance the lives of others around them. As a business owner, not only does your family rely on you - so too, do the families of those who work for you. Each employee has a family. Even if you're a small business owner with four employees, you're in essence potentially responsible for an additional ten or fifteen people.”

Joel Farar, Farar Law Group

3 - Earn the Respect of the Team

“Having the ability to show respect, empathy, and care to those that follow you, are all attributed to being a great leader. Earning respect is crucial to a successful relationship with someone, while also showing that you care about their work or ideas. Being empathetic allows a leader to tap into the emotions of that individual in order to connect in a way that lets that person know you understand what it means to be in their situation. Combining all three of these traits can definitely make someone a great leader. These are things I work on constantly with my own staff and myself, all in order to become a better leader to those I care about.”

Brandon Swenson, SEO Pros

4 - Know the Team

"Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every individual to effectively manage the outcome of a team is imperative for success. Leaders have a great vision and use the resources at hand to solve problems. They take risks and make hard decisions, knowing they could sometimes be wrong. Those are the most important qualities of a real leader that work similarly in our professional and personal lives."

Alex Gerasimov, Insomnia Escape Room DC

5 - Know That the People are the Key to Success

“A great leader understands that it is the people they lead that ultimately determines the success or failure of any venture. They surround themselves with great people that they can cultivate into a team of competent, confident individuals who can work well as a team. They then have the ability to guide this team towards a well-defined vision by clearly communicating short and long terms goals, inspiring confidence and trust among colleagues, and influencing common efforts through character rather than by a position of authority. Ultimately, a great leader creates and nurtures other leaders.”

Randy Soderman, Founder of Soderman Marketing SEO

6 - Articulate a Clear Vision

“A great leader posses a clear vision, is courageous, has integrity, honesty, humility and clear focus. He or she is a strategic planner and believes in teamwork. Great leaders help people reach their goals, are not afraid to hire people that might be better than them and take pride in the accomplishments of those they help along the way.”

Bhagi Rath, Mattress Inquirer, Do Your Research to Find a Great Bed

7 - Push People to Be Their Best

"Great leaders have clarity of purpose and are great at articulating their beliefs. I aspire to be the kind of leader that pushes people to be the very best they can be but still make people feel safe because it starts with the heart."

Amas Tenumah, CEO BetterXperience

8 - Serve a Greater Cause

“Great leadership is determined by one’s periodical blend of personal humility and unparalleled will to lead others in service of a cause bigger than themselves. Great leaders are incredibly ambitious, but never for themselves. Rather, they are ambitious for the company and possess the will do do whatever is necessary in service of this greater cause.”

Jake Rheude, Director of Business Development for Red Stag Fulfillment

9 - Focus on Helping the Team

"Someone who leads by positive direction and builds agreement among its group members towards the accomplishment of a coordinated goal. Ultimately, leadership is not about who is in charge. It's about making sure your team stays focused on the goals, keeping them motivated and helping them be the best they can be to achieve those goals. This is especially true when the risks are high and the consequences matter."

Kara Kelly, Executive Director of CompleteContents.com

10 - Do Not Lead by Force

“A great leader does not lead by forcing people to follow. Instead, a great leader motivates people. They encourage others to follow them. They also lead by example, which few leaders do today.”

Mike Dan, SMS Marketing

Being an effective leader requires constant focus, perseverance and building a team that is accountable and designed get results. Without the team there can be no real leadership. These ten unique perspectives provide great insight while also validating certain commonalities.

Many of us in leadership or management positions know what we need to do to be better leaders, we just sometimes fail to act. Being a great leader requires constant personal and professional development, regular transparent feedback from the team, self-reflection and taking action on feedback received. Great leaders are rarely satisfied with their performance.

Video: excitement as the first passenger train arrives Warri Delta from Itakpe Kogi

Full excitement in Warri as they witness the first passenger train in their community.

5 NYSC Members, 4 Soldiers killed as Cross River-Ebonyi crisis death toll rise to 210

The death toll in the communal clashes between Ukelle in Cross River State, and Igbeagu community in Ebonyi State has risen to 210. Among those who lost their lives in the renewed clash were four Military men who were deployed from Cross River to maintain Peace in the trouble spot and five Youth corps members from Ukelle who were returning their area of primary Assignment. The latest attack by the Izzians, CALABAR REPORTERS gathered was an accession by a fresh impetus of support given to the state-sponsored militia group by Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Kelechi Igwe said: “I am here to assure you of the state government is willing to support you against your attackers in order to find a lasting solution to this Means as the State government would not fold its arm and watch Ebonyi people slaughtered on the altar of insecurity and wickedness” published in Vanguard online of 25th June 2018. He made this disclosure while on a visit to Ndagbarata Igbeagu on Monday while the killings took please on Tuesday. Reacting to the statement above, Barr. Alex Ebi Edim said “I wish to state her clearly that Ebonyi state government is strongly in the centre of the aggression carried out by the izzians, this is largely due to the unimaginable falsehood and propaganda from the Ebonyi state government as contained in several press conference spearheaded by the Deputy governor, Kelechi Igwe which same was never rebuffed or rejoined, it is sad, regrettable, animalistic, barbaric and most inhuman to think of, come to think of it, in utter quest for Federal Government’s sympathy, he has reduced himself to SA media to the governor, or state commissioner for information. He alleged that there has been a grant plot by Ebonyi State Government to totally eliminate the Ukelle people at the border community. The Ukelle community is calling on the President, the Civil Society Groups and the international community to intervene in the situation. This is happening despite the presence of the Military and anti-riot policemen, deployed from Calabar and Abakiliki. It is worth to note that in all this the Ukelle Community had been at the receiving end since the “war,” broke out at the weekend. The Izzi people preventing Ukelle farmers from cultivating their land at Ijibolo in Ntrigom and some other parts of the community. It was also gathered that the attack on the farmer at Ukelle was said to have spread to other communities in Yala LGA on the same day. A resident of Ijibolo in Yala LGA, Mr. Michael Ojobo, alleged that the attack started at Ijibolo village when irate Izzi youths attacked the farmer. He said, “There was an attack on my village, Ijibolo, when the Izzi people waylaid villagers who were returning from a meeting and many people sustained gunshot wounds.” Another resident, Lawrence Ilop, said over fifty persons had died while an uncounted number of persons has been declared missing in subsequent reprisal with several houses burnt. “I saw five people dead. There had been several injuries and so many houses have been burnt on both sides.” Sources said the conflict was caused by land disputes alleging that some Izzi youths had on several occasions prevented the family of one Mr. Ojo Affi from harvesting his cassava farm at Ijibolo II, that is far from the “disputed” area and made away with the harvested crop have been to a state of coma. The community in the petition said in order to avoid a repeat of the past clash, it has prevented its people from any form of confrontation against Izzi community on their renewed insurgency. “We must inform you that the Izzians are poised for total war with Ukelle. They have stockpiled arms and ammunition in their place and are just looking for any excuse or little reaction from us to attack,” said a community leader. The two communities have a long history of communal conflict which, on several occasions, had consumed many lives and property. Sometime in April 2005, the two communities engaged in warfare over ownership of parcels of land along their border communities of Ijibolo 1&2, Ogba, Ijama and Ipollo, which resulted in the death of many people and property worth billions of Naira destroyed.

Police uncover illegal gun factory in Benue

The Benue State Police Command on Tuesday uncovered an illegal gun manufacturing factory in the Oju Local Government Area of the state. The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who led his men to the factory located at Amyuwogbu-Ibilla in Oju, said the legal factory owner, Abi Odah, was arrested alongside his son, Kingsley Abi and one Thomas Ode, aka Tommy. Owoseni, who paraded the three suspects at the Oju Police Division, stated that the police were investigating a case of abduction and rape when they stumbled on the illegal factory. He said 19-year-old Kingsley and his friend, Tommy, 17, were earlier arrested following an allegation of abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl. The CP added that when policemen got to Kingsley father’s home, they found prohibited items in the father’s workshop located behind the house. The commissioner added that further probe into the activities of Odah, who was a blacksmith, revealed he was fabricating weapons while disguising them as Dane guns for hunters. “Some of the locally-fabricated guns use AK-47 ammunitions,” Owoseni said. Odah, who said he fabricated Dane guns for hunters, however, said not all the tools belonged to him.

Trump’s not a liar. He’s a madman.

By Dana Milbank Columnist May 29 at 5:01 PM Email the author

Even by President Trump’s standards, this Memorial Day weekend was memorable for the sheer volume of balderdash, bunk, poppycock and patent nonsense flowing from the White House. Balderdash: Trump went after the “failing and corrupt” New York Times for citing a senior White House official “who doesn’t exist” and admonished the newspaper to “use real people, not phony sources.” It turned out the senior official in question had spoken at a White House briefing arranged by Trump’s aides and attended by dozens of reporters. Bunk: Trump attacked “the 13 Angry Democrats” working for Robert S. Mueller III, apparently referring to prior party registration. But Mueller himself is a Republican, appointed by a Republican who was himself appointed by Trump. Poppycock: He called for “pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.” There is no such law, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has acknowledged that family separation “inevitably” results from Trump’s “zero-tolerance” enforcement policy. Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt?” Trump asked. I can picture the GoFundMe campaign: “Paul Manafort, a young and beautiful 69-year-old, had a promising career ahead of him selling access to the White House before he was cruelly indicted . . . ” Early in this weekend’s monsoon of malarkey, New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted that Trump told “demonstrable falsehoods” — and she was roundly ridiculed on Twitter for failing to say Trump was lying. She defended herself by saying Trump’s pronouncements “can be hard to label” because “he often thinks whatever he says is what’s real.” Haberman is right, but there’s another reason not to label Trump’s untruths “lies”: Calling him a liar lets him off easy. A liar, by definition, knows he’s not telling the truth. Trump’s behavior is worse: With each day it becomes more obvious he can’t distinguish between fact and fantasy. It’s an illness, and it’s spreading. I’ve been writing for two years about his seeming inability to separate truth from falsehood: from his claim that he opposed the Iraq War to his belief that his rainy inauguration was “really sunny.” The man who ghostwrote Trump’s “Art of the Deal” marveled at Trump’s “ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true.” Trump has acknowledged as much himself. In a 2007 deposition — he was suing author Timothy O’Brien for asserting that Trump’s net worth wasn’t in the billions but in the range of $150 million to $250 million — Trump was asked how he calculates his net worth. “My net worth fluctuates,” Trump said, “and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings. . . . I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked.” Of course, Trump’s “feelings” don’t change his net worth any more than they change the weather. That he thinks they do is his problem — and ours. Writing last week for NBCNews.com, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, along with a researcher, offered an explanation for Trump’s mendacity. Noting that the daily average number of Trump falsehoods has been rising since he took office (as measured by The Post’s Fact Checker), the professor, Tali Sharot, pointed to the biological process of “emotional adaptation.” People tend to feel uncomfortable when they tell lies, but research has found that the discomfort is reduced each time a person lies — thereby increasing the frequency of lies. Trump’s fictions are so pain-free that they may not feel like lies to him — honestly. And, ominously, they may seem less glaring to others over time. Sharot noted that people “may desensitize to the president’s falsehoods in the same way that they do to overused perfume, making them less likely to act to correct this pattern of behavior.” You can see this in the repeated failure of congressional Republicans to call out Trump’s untruths, when they obviously know better. And you can see it in administration officials’ determination to support whatever Trump says, no matter how ludicrous. (The White House held a briefing Tuesday to support Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for immigrant family separation.) Trump may not be able to separate fact from fiction, but those who knowingly back up his falsehoods are liars. So what should we call the twaddle and claptrap Trump spouts? I propose “Trumpery.” Defined as “worthless nonsense,” it also has a felicitous echo of “Trumped up.” Go ahead and say he’s lying, if you think so. To me, his facility with fallacy and his pain-free fibbery aren’t sympto­matic of a liar but of a madman.

President Buhari’s 2018 DemocracyDay Speech

I am happy to join the array of eminent Nigerians present here today, as we celebrate the 2018 Nigeria democracy day which marks the 3rd year of this administration and to reflect on the progress we have made in our democratic journey and governance in the last three years. A government elected by the people, must continually be in touch with the aspirations of the people, and work for their highest possible good. The theme of this year’s celebration “Peace Building and Good Governance for Sustainable Development’’ has been carefully selected to reflect our current opportunities and challenges. We have experienced rough times, but through good governance we have not allowed ourselves to be overawed by the existing of challenges. Weak governance is often at the core of rising inequality and unequal development resulting in social disruption and political unrest with negative impacts on growth and development. Accordingly, we have engaged in several rounds of dialogue and town hall meetings, targeted at peace building, between the aggrieved and in some cases warring factions and communities. We have worked hard to dialogue with and if they turn unreasonable decimate insurgents in various parts of the country. We are still grappling but successfully, with border disputes and restoring the much needed peaceful co-existence amongst our people and neighbouring countries. The rebuilding of the North East is ongoing, to return our internally displaced brothers, sisters and children to their ancestral homes. Our resolve to fight corruption was informed by the realisation that reducing corruption and ensuring the effective and just utilisation of public resources, are crucial for achieving sustainable growth and development in Nigeria. Corruption has been at the root of most of the development challenges of our country. There can be no progress in any facet of our national life unless we tackle and curb corruption. Good governance is the polar opposite to corruption. Accordingly, we will not relent in our efforts to eliminate it regardless of the opposition. It manifests itself in several forms including accelerating poverty, conflicts and civil disturbances, as those who feel short-changed, resort to violence and destruction. The security in the country today has considerably improved against the background of what we met in May 2015. Incidences of bombings in towns and villages have been drastically curtailed, series of plots have been averted and stopped and culprits arrested through the vigilance, patriotism and professionalism of our security agencies. The entire country has been freed from occupation of any of its parts by insurgents. While we grieve with our compatriots who have lost relatives and properties, we are unrelenting in equipping and preparing our troops to confront the agents of violence, who have been engaging in banditry and reckless killings in various parts of the country under whatever guise, until total victory is achieved. Again it is pertinent to note that insurgency and terrorism are world-wide phenomena affecting even the best policed nations. Our Economy is on the mend. We have achieved a good number of our set objectives, notably increased food production and food security; increased economic diversification into sectors that were hitherto neglected or under-explored. Our foreign reserves have reached new heights and the outcome in respect of investments in infrastructure expansion are manifest everywhere. Overall, we are on track. I thank and commend all who have worked so hard with us to achieve these successes. I assure you that our people will continue to see and experience more progress, more prosperity and greater security. Finally, I call on Nigerians to remain steadfast and to keep faith with this Administration, as we remain committed to peace building and good governance, to deliver the best of dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people. Thank you and God bless.

Speech by Bill Gates at the National Economic Council

Your Excellency Muhamadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Senator Bukola Saraki, Senate President; Honorable Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House; Your Excellencies, executive governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Royal fathers; Distinguished ladies and gentlemen; and as you say in Nigeria, all other protocols observed. Thank you for welcoming me to Nigeria. I’ve been coming here regularly since 2006, and I’ve always felt welcome. Nigerians usually greet me warmly. The first time I met the Sultan of Sokoto, I was honored that he greeted me with the gift of a white horse. At some point during every visit, though, some brave person eventually asks me—very politely—“Why are you actually here?” It’s an understandable question. Most American technology guys don’t wander around Nigeria learning about its health system. But I think I have a good answer. When we started Microsoft 40 years ago, we wanted to build a successful business, but we also wanted to make people’s lives better. We believed computers could revolutionize the way people lived and worked. But back then only big companies could afford them. We wanted to give everybody access. As I got older, traveled more, and learned more about the world, I realized that billions of people had a problem that computers couldn’t solve. They lacked the basics of a good life: food, shelter, health, education, and opportunity. And so I started my second career with my wife Melinda. With the money I’d been lucky enough to earn at Microsoft, we started working toward a different goal: a healthy and productive life for everyone. That’s why I come to Nigeria, and that’s why Melinda and I will continue coming for as long as we are able. Our foundation’s biggest office in Africa is here. We have committed over $1.6 billion in Nigeria so far, and we plan to increase our commitment. We have strong relationships with the federal government, state governments, businesses, NGOs, and civil society organizations. We are eager to support you as you work to make Nigeria a global economic powerhouse that provides opportunity for all its citizens—as you strive fulfill this country’s immense promise. I’m blown away by how much Nigeria has changed in the past decade. Consider the technology sector. That energy I talked about during the early days of Microsoft, our passion and our eagerness to take risks…. That’s the same energy that powers technology hubs across Nigeria like Co-Creation and Enspire. The novelist Chimamanda Adichie, who my wife especially admires, captured the country’s spirit when she said her fellow Nigerians have “big dreams and big ambitions.” This line graph of Nigeria’s per capita GDP shows where those dreams and ambitions can lead. With the exception of the recent recession, the slope goes straight up. As a result of this growth, Nigeria is now the biggest economy on the continent. You are rapidly approaching upper middle-income status, like Brazil, China, and Mexico. But growth is not inevitable. Nigeria has unmatched economic potential, but what becomes of that potential depends on the choices you make as Nigeria’s leaders. The most important choice you can make is to maximize your greatest resource, the Nigerian people. Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive. If you invest in their health, education, and opportunities—the “human capital” we are talking about today—then they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you don’t, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be a sharp limit on how much the country can grow. You see this risk in the data. From the point of view of the quality of life, much of Nigeria still looks like a low-income country. Let me give a few examples. · In upper middle-income countries, the average life expectancy is 75 years. In lower middle-income countries, it’s 68. In low-income countries, it’s 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still: just 53 years. · Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world, ahead of only Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Chad. · One in three Nigerian children is chronically malnourished. I do not enjoy speaking to you this bluntly when you have been gracious enough to invite me here. But I am applying an important lesson I learned from Alhaji Aliko Dangote. Recently, Aliko and I were having a conversation with several governors about their states’ official immunization rates. Aliko’s way of stressing the importance of accurate data was to tell us, “I didn’t get rich by pretending to sell bags of cement I didn’t have.” I took from that that while it may be easier to be polite, it’s more important to face facts so that you can make progress. On immunization, you are already living that lesson: last year Nigeria revised its immunization coverage numbersdownward to reflect more accurate sources, and I applaud you for those lower numbers. They may look worse, but they are more real, which is the first step toward saving and improving more lives. I urge you to apply this thinking to all your investments in your people. The Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identifies “investing in our people” as one of three “strategic objectives.” But the “execution priorities” don’t fully reflect people’s needs, prioritizing physical capital over human capital. To anchor the economy over the long term, investments in infrastructure and competitiveness must go hand in hand with investments in people. People without roads, ports, and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports, and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy. In preparation for my visit, I asked a research institute at the University of Washington to model Nigeria’s economic growth under three scenarios related to health and education, the core of how economists define human capital. Here you can see Nigeria’s per capita GDP growth from 2000 until today. If current education and health trends continue—if you spend the same amount in these areas and get the same results—per capita GDP flatlines, with economic growth just barely keeping up with population growth. If things get worse, it will decline. Unfortunately, this scenario is a very real possibility unless you intervene at both the federal and state levels. Because even in the worst-case scenario, your national income level is about to make you ineligible for certain kinds of development assistance and loans that you’ve been relying on to fund your health system and other priorities. Without more and better spent domestic money, investment in your people will decline by default as donor money shrinks—a lose-lose scenario for everyone. However, if you commit to getting better results in health and education—if you spend more and more effectively—per capita GDP will stay on its remarkable pre-recession trajectory. This is the scenario we all want: Nigeria thrives because every Nigerian is able to thrive. And the data makes it clear that this scenario is entirely within your reach. What do I mean by investing in your people? I mean prioritizing health and education, the factors included in the model I just showed you. I also mean continuing to open up opportunities in the agriculture and microenterprise sectors, as the government has proposed in the ERGP. I mean creating the conditions where Nigerians can reach their goals while adding value to the economy—the win-win scenario. Our foundation doesn’t invest directly in education here, but the World Bank World Development Report that just came out makes it clear that education leads to improvements in employment, productivity, and wages. Today, though, more than half of rural Nigerian children can’t read and write. The conclusion is inescapable: Nigeria’s economy tomorrow depends on improving its schools today. The same is true of health, our foundation’s primary focus area. In 1978, Dr. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, who later became the Nigerian minister of health, helped establish primary health care as the global standard. We now know that a strong primary care system takes care of 90 percent of people’s health needs. Tragically, 40 years after Dr. Ransome-Kuti helped other countries set a course for the future, the Nigerian primary health care system is broken. The evidence for this can be found in the epidemic of chronic malnutrition, or stunting. As the name suggests, chronic malnutrition is not a disease children catch. It is a condition that develops over time because they are deprived of a diverse diet and the services a strong primary health care system provides. The consequences of stunting are devastating. Though stunted children are defined as shorter than average, we’re not particularly concerned about their height. What we’re concerned about is their brains, or what Akin Adesina calls “gray matter infrastructure.” This is a picture of the brain of a single normally developing infant. And next to it is a picture of the brain of a single chronically malnourished infant. Every brain and every child are different, but you can clearly see the difference in the number of neural connections in these two brains. And once this kind of damage is done, it’s very hard to repair. In Nigeria, one in three children is chronically malnourished and could therefore be at risk. This is a tragedy for each one of these children; it is also a huge blow to the economy. According to the World Bank, addressing the stunting crisis in Nigeria would add almost $30 billion to the GDP. So what will it take to solve stunting? It will take a focus on agricultural development, nutrition, and primary health care. A functioning primary health system has six features. · Adequate funding. · Good facilities located in the right places. · Skilled and dedicated health workers. · Ample stocks of essential equipment and medicines. · Patients who know about the system and want to use it. · And a mechanism for collecting the data needed to improve quality. I believe the Nigerian primary health care system is not adequately funded. But it also doesn’t get the most out of its current funding. I want to re-emphasize that last point about data. More transparency would lead to more accountability, which would strengthen governance, leadership, and management, which would improve quality across the board. I visited a health clinic in Bodinga LGA in Sokoto yesterday, and it reminded me why I do this work. I’d like to ask all of you to spend one hour at a health center in the next month. I think you’ll see how the system can be improved—and how much good it will do when it is. I know Nigeria can build up its primary care system, because I’ve seen what you accomplish when you meet health challenges head on. As many of you know, we’ve been very close partners in your fight against polio. As you can see on this graph, the hard work of hundreds of thousands of local leaders and health workers since the turn of the millennium has paid off. Nigeria has not had a case of wild polio virus in more than a year. But the graph also shows that you’ve reported zero cases before, only to learn that the disease was still circulating in tiny pockets hidden by insecurity. It would be catastrophic to let your guard down when you’re on the verge of eliminating the disease once and for all. I believe—because I have seen your work in the field as recently as yesterday—that you will do what it takes to end polio in Nigeria. We will be here, working side by side with you, until you do. Though health is our foundation’s primary area of expertise, it’s not the only thing we do, and it’s not the only thing I mean when I say Nigeria should invest in its people. Healthy people need opportunities to thrive. One of the most important of these opportunities is agriculture, the sector that nourishes Nigerians and supports half the population, especially the poorest. The agricultural sector is a pillar of the Nigerian economy. It accounts for a large proportion of your GDP, and during the oil price collapse and recession, it helped cushion the economy. But it still has a lot of potential to grow. The majority of Nigerian smallholder farmers lack access to the seeds, fertilizer, and training they need to be more productive, and they lack access to the markets they need to profit from their labor. The government has taken important steps to fill these gaps, with both more investment and a series of smart policies to encourage private sector investment. These reforms lay the foundation for a booming agricultural sector that feeds the country, helps end chronic malnutrition, and lifts up tens of millions of smallholder farmers. I urge you to build on this good work. One of the barriers that continues to prevent smallholders from thriving is their lack of access to finance. Like good roads, finance connects farmers to opportunity, yet only 4 percent of Nigerian farmers currently have a loan to grow their business. In a country where three quarters of people have mobile phones, digital financial services provide a solution to this problem. In fact, digital finance offers the potential to boost the economy from top to bottom. Right now, more than 50 million Nigerian adults are at the whim of chance and the informal economy. With access to digital financial tools, they can cope better with disasters that threaten to wipe them out, build assets and a credit history, and gradually lift themselves out of poverty. Consider the impact this would have on businesses. Of the 37 million micro, small, and medium enterprises in Nigeria, more than 99 percent are micro. Their lack of access to finance is a leading reason why these businesses can’t grow. With digital payments, savings, and credit, they will finally have the resources to plan for the future. According to the best estimates, digital financial services will create a 12.4 percent increase in Nigeria’s GDP by 2025. Meanwhile, oil accounts for about 10 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. Imagine adding another oil sector and then some to the economy, but one whose benefits spread far and wide and reach almost every single Nigerian. There is another benefit to digital financial services that will make everything I’m urging you to do much easier: it will vastly improve the government’s ability to tax and spend efficiently. Let me pause for a moment to say, I am confident that one thing you’ve been thinking as I’ve been talking is that, while you would like to spend more on health and nutrition and education and agriculture, you don’t have the money to do everything. I appreciate the fact that what you can spend is a function of what you raise. Nigeria’s government revenue as a percentage of its GDP is by far the lowest in the world, at 6 percent. That makes investing in your people difficult. The next lowest country, Bangladesh, collects 10 percent of its GDP. If you got yourself up to second-to-last in the world, you would have an extra $18 billion to budget. Obviously, you’re aiming higher than that, but it gives you some idea about the scale we’re talking about. We want to support you in your work to mobilize more resources to invest in your country. That’s why our foundation is working with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to help states track internally generated revenue. Ultimately, raising revenue to invest in growth will require delivering on the government’s commitments to the Nigerian people, and convincing them that they will get a return on their taxes. Right now, Nigeria’s fiscal situation is at what you might call a low equilibrium. In return for low levels of service, people pay low levels of tax. We hope to help you reach a higher equilibrium rooted in effective and transparent investments in people. This equilibrium would trigger a virtuous cycle. More government revenue would lead to more money to spend on health and education. Better health and education, and investment in sectors like agriculture, would lead to more productive farms and factories. More productive farms would lead to more prosperous farmers who could expand their farms or invest in other businesses, especially if they had access to credit and other financial tools. These thriving farms, factories, and new businesses would lead to more government revenue. And the cycle would start again. Triggering that cycle will require bolder action—action you have the power to take as leaders, governors, and ministers focused on Nigeria’s future. Nigerians are known around the world for their big dreams and big ambitions. Together with the Dangote Foundation, we will be here to help you achieve your dreams and ambitions. You have the support of the international community. The Nigerian private sector will continue to invest. We are eager to help, but we know we can’t lead. You must lead. I believe in the grand vision of Nigeria’s future. I believe in it because I’ve seen it. It’s represented by this line—the line that depends on healthy, educated people and the surge of economic activity they will unleash. And that means that the future depends on all of you—and your leadership in the years to come. Thank you.

Buhari’s govt is not corrupt like past administration –Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said the difference between the present administration and “the other” was that the “Muhammadu Buhari administration is not corrupt.” He said once a country had a President that was not corrupt, half of such country’s financial problems were over. Osinbajo spoke at the Seventh Presidential Quarterly Business Forum for Private Sector stakeholders at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He said, “Today, with less revenue, we have increased capital funding by 400 per cent … in power, works and housing, in defence, transportation and agriculture. “If we want to do analysis in Nigeria, it is either fraudulent or ignorant if we do not bring money that belongs to corruption into the mass. “This is what distinguishes, in my own respectful view, this administration from the other. I can say that with what I have seen, if you have a President who is not corrupt, 50 per cent of your financial problems are over. This is what I have seen; I can demonstrate it with facts and figures. The Vice-President, however, admitted that corruption had not been completely dealt with under the present administration. He said where corruption had become systemic, the scourge could not be dealt with easily. “I am not saying that corruption under this administration has been completely dealt with; no, certainly not. “Where corruption has become systemic, such as we have in our country today, you cannot deal with it in one full fell swoop, it is not possible. “In any event, you still have corruption fighting back. The system fights back and it’s both an internal and external fight back and you have to be steadfast and strategic to win the battle. “There’s no way that you have a system such as ours that has consistently thrived on corruption and proceeds of corruption and public financing in particular, that will give up and say guys, the problem has been solved. No. “It is a system that has fed on corruption and it affects all aspects of governance, so trying to deal with it is certainly not a walk in the park,” he added. Osinbajo said if government continued in the same manner, the country would make the kind of progress that it deserved to make with all the resources at its disposal within a few years. “If we stick to the policy of ensuring that as far as public finance is concerned, there is no impunity and we hold people to account, I am confident that this country has what it takes to make the kind of progress we deserve to make as a nation,” he added. According to him, while the current administration with less revenue has increased capital funding by 400 per cent in the power, works and housing, defence, transport and agriculture sectors, the President Goodluck Jonathan administration with surplus funds, spent N14bn on agriculture in 2014, N15bn on transport, and spent a total of N153bn on infrastructure in three years, adding that two weeks before the 2015 elections, the sum of N150bn was essentially shared. He said, “I do not think that any consideration about our economic development can be properly and honestly done without fully analysing corruption, especially grand corruption in the public finance space. “Sometimes when we talk about our economy we talked about the fact that we have relied on a single commodity. “Yes, that’s quite true but the fact is that proceeds from that single commodity were regularly hijacked by a few. If we had spent the proceeds the way we ought to, we won’t be where we are today. “Most of the proceeds went to rent seekers in the industry and production. For example, I’m sure that many of us are familiar with the so called Strategic Alliance Contract with the NNPC and NDDC, the promoters of the companies made away with close to $3bn, almost a tenth of our reserves. “There is no way someone will make away with a tenth of your reserves and you will not have a major economic shock. And if we don’t deal with it, if we don’t talk about it, how will we be able to discuss our economy in a real honest way with a view to ensuring that these things do not happen again,” he said. “In one single transaction a few weeks to the the elections in 2015, sums of N100bn and $295m were just fretted away by a few. “When you consider that in 2014, as the minister of finance has said, oil price was an average of $110 a barrel and only N99bn was spent on power, works and housing and when we talk about the economy, we talk as if these are normal by every standard. “Nobody should talk about the economy when you have huge leakages and huge corruption. Corruption that completely makes nonsense of even what you are allocating to capital projects,” he added. The Ministers of Petroleum; Ibe Kachikwu, Budget and National Planning; Udoma Udoma, Finance; Kemi Adeosun, Industry, Trade and Investment; Ikechukwu Enelamah and Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dipo Dipeolu, were in attendance at the event. Other participants spoke about the work that had commended on the Apapa-Wharf Road, contractors that had abandoned work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the need to revive railway for ease of transporting goods from ports, the need to stop multiple checks at airports, the need to take interest in education and the need to revive eastern ports, including Onitsha, Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar ports. Your govt stinks, PDP tells Buhari But the Peoples Democratic Party, in its reaction, said the government of Buhari stank and he should stop pointing accusing fingers at the past administration. The PDP said the President should watch its back and take action on those associated with corruption in the government. The National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, who spoke with one of our correspondents, accused the Buhari administration of covering up for those accused of corruption in its fold. He said, “While we do not concede that the PDP is corrupt as a political party, it is on record that the present administration has been shielding members of its political party who have been accused of corruption. “Where are those responsible for the massive fraud in the Internally Displaced Persons camps across the North-East? What of those accused of massive fraud as governors in their states before defecting to the ruling party now? “No government is as corrupt as this government. But one thing is clear; Nigerians will soon do away with it comes 2019.”