Informing, Educating and entertaining peoples

Perhaps President Umaru Musa Yar Adua ought to be told that Had the United States been giving in to demands of armed groups the world would have been very much unsafe .So All I need to do to get  a presidential handshake is to steal and blow up oil installations?
Yes there is need to meet with all aggrieved groups..but really how do the militans of the Niger Delta represent the wishes and aspirations of the people?

Posted under Economy, Nigeriana, Politics, Social Issues

* Govt seeks $1b loan to fight malaria
From Mathias Okwe, Abuja

MORE Nigerians will fall into the poverty line this year, the World Bank has said.

According to the Bretton Woods institution, Nigeria will account for 18 of the 90 million Africans that will sink below the poverty line in 2009.

World Bank Country Director, Dr. Onno Ruhl, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, hinged the bank’s position on the worsening global economy.

He said economic forecast for 2009 might not be feasible because the current global financial crisis was getting worse and therefore difficult to predict how soon it would end.

“So far, every next step has been more negative than the previous. The average African will be poorer in 2009 because predicted growth rate of two per cent will be much lower than birth rate,” he asserted.

He also disclosed that the Federal Government has approached the World Bank for a $1 billion loan to fight the malaria scourge.

The World Bank announcement yesterday, came barely a week after the Senate accused the Executive arm of government of resorting to “recklessness borrowing from foreign institutions.”

Ruhl said the request was made by Nigeria at the just concluded Spring meeting in the United States of America (USA).

He said the World Bank was well disposed to the request because malaria accounts for the death of three million children yearly.

The board of the bank will soon meet to consider the request as Nigeria reportedly spends N12 billion yearly to fight the disease.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) recently put Nigeria’s foreign debt at $3.7 billion, in the proportion of 40 per cent indebtedness by the 36 states while the Federal Government accounts for 60 per cent.

Apparently fearing that the fresh borrowing could return Nigeria to the Paris and London Clubs debt trap, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Mr. Ehigie Uzamere, when he led his members to DMO on an oversight, said the Executive had not been complying with the provisions of DMO Act 2003 in contracting new loans.

But the World Bank official said the fresh loan being sought by Nigeria, would be under the concessionary window of the institution in the form of additional funding for the Roll Back Malaria project in seven states in which each household would be provided with two mosquito bed nets.

Ruhl’s statement is also seen as lead to claims that the Federal Government had initiated discussions on a loan from the World Bank to plug the deficit in revenue as falling oil earnings eat into its finances.

Guardian Newspapers, Lagos

Posted under Economy, International, Nigeriana, Politics, Social Issues

Last week South Africa Like Ghana  went to the polls which even the author and finisher of the shameful charade of Nigeria’s 2007 elections General Olusegun Obasanjo considered very fair and Ok. Its shameful that we no longer have the culture of shame. How could Obasanjo monitor the elections and not buried himself in shame.
Its even more worrfying that we can not conduct even a rerun election. How could the elections in Ekiti hang?
Fact is that we need a reform that will include having news voters list.
Its so easy now to misbehave because may be a majority of name on the voters regsiter are fake..so anythig can happen.
Ghana and South Africa have shown the way….Just hope other Nigeria would learn

Posted under International, Politics, Social Issues

A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Global Campaign for Education, has in Washington, said more than 774 million adults were illiterates across the world. The organisation said that 75 million children of primary school age were also outside the classrooms. A statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Washington DC said another 226 million children of secondary school age were not in schools. The statement was issued on the side line of the ongoing 2009 Spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.” Nearly all governments have promised ‘Education for All’ by 2015, yet the current global financial crisis threatens to worsen the global situation. The world’s poorest did not create this financial crisis, yet they stand to pay the highest price. Budget squeezes in education are threatening to reverse progress made in recent years. We cannot allow illiteracy to rise,” the statement said. It says the rich world has a responsibility to education, which is one of the best investments the world can make to combat poverty. “We are calling for $16 billion, a small fraction of the cost of the bank bailouts,” the statement quoted Assibi Napoe, Chairman of the Global Campaign for Education, as saying. As part of measures to promote education, the statement, said the CSO had launched The Big Read campaign, which features stories written in a book by prominent Africans like Nelson Mandela, is taking place across the world, in homes, schools, government buildings and public events.

Posted under Economy, International, Politics, Social Issues

Harvard University announced over late last month that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition.  In making the announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers said, “When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough.  We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the   lower half of the income distribution. ” If you know of a family earning less than $60,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition.  The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free no tuition and no student loans! To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard’s financial aid website at: http://www.fao. fas.harvard. edu/   or call the school’s financial aid office at  (617) 495-1581   .

SEND TO SOMEONE WHETHER THEY CAN USE OR NOT.  THEY JUST MIGHT KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN.

Regards,

Mike Omotosho B.Pharm, MBA, MSP, MRP
Head, Programmes & Advocacy
CHAN Medi-Pharm Ltd./Gte
Re-Insurance Building (3rd Floor)
Central Business Area, Abuja
08055779543, 08030402033

Posted under Nigeriana, Social Issues