Jonathan means well for Nigerians – Abati

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Read Time:11 Minute, 35 Second

In this interview, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, contends that contrary to the position of the opposition that President Goodluck Jonathan administration has failed in meeting the expectations of Nigerians, the president has actually carried the art of governance to a higher level.

He also speaks on what the government is doing about the security challenge, especially the issue of Boko Haram. According to him, government is winning the war on terrorism. He comments  on the controversy surrounding the building of the banquet hall in Aso Rock Villa, the vice president’s residence, war against corruption and other national issues. Excerpts:

What has been the most challenging experience since you took this appointment?
I would say that the biggest  challenge I have faced is disinformation by the opposition, by mischief makers and evil minded persons. Disinformation is black propaganda. People who take a position just to rubbish government, discredit it with the aim of embarrassing President Goodluck Jonathan. We have seen a lot of that happening. I have been on this job for a while now and I can do an intelligent analysis of the territory and the demands of what is expected. If there is anything that I have gained on this job, it is knowledge. How disinformation works is that Nigerians like to believe the worst about their leaders.

It is unfortunate that many Nigerians like to be attracted by sensational news. I appeal to Nigerians that as we enter the new year, we should listen to the truth because all of us are children of God and, somewhere in each person’s constitution, there is a conscience. People should listen more to their hearts. President Jonathan is the man they have voted for because they believe in him.

People have argued that the same goodwill that followed the president’s election has been dissipated because of what people see as his inability to meet the expectation of the people.

I have just identified the problem for you: disinformation and it means those of us who manage the president’s information process, we need to do more. As a spokesman, it means that I have to do more. It means that in 2013, we will do a lot more because maybe people are not getting the message; so we will do a lot more in explaining because a lot has been done, a lot has been achieved  in the aviation sector, in the agricultural sector, in education, in the power sector. This is what Nigerians should be talking about because this country is not about one individual; it is not about President Jonathan; it is about Nigeria;  it is about all of us and if we voted thus man to be our president.

The least we can do for him is to support him. What we are asking for is that support. Those who have committed themselves to disinforming the public, we have a duty also to show that they  are liars, they are mischief makers, they are people who do not mean well, they are people who are personalizing leadership. They want President Jonathan’s position which is normal. But when a man has won in an election free and fair; fair and squarely, that man should be supported because, ultimately, what is important is the country.

People like to quote the United States of America as a model but they are not learning the right lessons from those examples that they quote. If you look at the United States, the politicians, those who are in power and those in opposition, once the election is over, they all rally round in the defense of the country.

People have argued that the basic expectations from the president as priority are not being tackled. People talk about the seeming lack of political will to tackle corruption and they make reference to the recent Ribadu Committee report. Does the president have the capacity and the political will to tackle corruption?

I put it to you that this is all about the disinformation that I have spoken of. What this president has not done is to abuse the rule of law. What he has not done is to abuse due process. I have made it clear before that Nigerians still have this military hang-over that whoever is their president should be a bully. But they have as president a man who is an epitome of decency and a gentleman. There is a difference in terms of approach and style. What people must get used to is the fact that it is possible for a decent, disciplined, gentlemanly person to lead Nigeria. This president is fighting corruption. Those who are saying he is not fighting corruption are looking at big headlines. But they should use their intellect more positively.

Take this whole furore, this whole filibuster, this whole drama over fuel subsidy. The man that made it possible is President Jonathan. As far back as 2010, he had made it possible, under the leadership of Olusegun Aganga as the Finance Minister, to probe what was going on in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. By 2012, it is this same President Jonathan who ordered a disciplined probe of the NNPC and the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, and that is what is responsible for all these discussion. Unfortunately people are refusing to give him credit for that. Other administrations before him tried to pry into this sector but they drew blank. I think people should acknowledge that under President Jonathan, he is looking at these issues. Consequential action would be taken.

Intervention
I have already stated the intervention of the president in the petroleum sector. Look at the port sector reforms. It is this president that has made an effort to sanitize the ports which were hitherto regarded as centres of corruption and headquarters of scam. This president has cleaned it up. He has reduced the number of toll gates in the ports. The delivery time is now faster.

The agricultural sector used to be defined by fertilizer scam. That has not happened under this administration. It has been positioned strictly as business. The private sector has been empowered. People should talk about that. That was a major corruption centre that the president has transformed. Also look at the normal run of business. This government is the one that set up a committee to rationalize government departments and agencies. Actions would be taken. It is also this same president that ordered the audit and biometric registration of staff so that those workers in the federal civil service who used to make money by just being mischievous have been driven out of business.

When you fight corruption, it fights you back. We have a situation in this country where corruption is fighting back but President Jonathan is determined, he has the political will and he will do all in his powers to take on this challenge. People who say the judicial system is slow, the president cannot dictate to the judiciary. What we do at the executive end is to continue to advertise this message and to say that we expect other departments to key into this process and everything is being done to ensure that the justice delivery and administration system is quickened and made more effective than it is.

Critics have argued that one of the most glaring failures of this administration is the inability to fix the East-West Road the contract for which was awarded more than ten years ago. Does the president feel proud that he cannot fix the most important road for his people in the Niger Delta region?

What the president planned to achieve by December was sabotaged by the flood which was a natural accident. The president’s mandate was that by December he wanted  people to travel on good roads to their communities. The flood occurred and it affected the East-West Road. The president talks about the East-West Road again and again. He has taken action on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway to say that no individual can hold this country to ransom and that,  if there are issues, government has a duty to stand on the side of the people of Nigeria. That is the principle coming out of the handling of the Lagos Ibadan Expressway.

It is not only about road. The government is also intervening robustly in the aviation sector. The airports in Nigeria today have been transformed. It is in this country that a government shut down the airports with a promise to fix them. Nothing happened. In less than two years, Nigerians can see that Nigerian airports are being transformed because President Jonathan wants safety, he wants to ensure international standards. There is evidence in Lagos and Kano and elsewhere. We need people to acknowledge this.

Look at the railways. Contracts were awarded in the past before and nothing happened. Under President Jonathan, the railways are coming alive. In the North, in the south-west, people are travelling by  rail. The president has promised that in terms of infrastructural provisions, what the government has achieved,  it will not go back. It will only move forward.

Government’s claim that the economy is growing is not been felt by majority of Nigerians. What are the indices that this economy is really growing?

The government is providing jobs, the government is creating jobs. The power sector has improved tremendously and this has a knock on effect on the economy because small and medium scale enterprises are able to function and provide opportunities  for people. The executive of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria came to President Jonathan to express their appreciation for the improvement in the power generation.

Of course we need more. Once you transform the power sector, you create opportunities for job creation. What is being done in the  agricultural sector which has not been done before is also providing opportunities for people. What is being done in  aviation provides opportunities.  What is being done in the Information Communication Technology sector is providing opportunities. Teledensity has improved. More Internet facilities are available.

And beyond this, the president is mopping up the riotous population of idle children through the Almajiri programme. Schools are being built; more children are being put into school to secure the future of Nigeria. One thing people must note is that all of these  is a process. Transformation does not happen overnight. President Jonathan inherited a riotous, chaotic problem-ridden system. He is trying to clean it up. People must give him time.

Despite the assurance by the president that the Boko Haram menace is being tackled, attacks have continued unabated. Does government have the capacity to end this security challenge?

The Boko Haram challenge was worse two years ago. Where we are now, what is clear is that the Jonathan administration has shown the determination to confront this matter headlong; it has gained the required knowledge to expand the capacity to deal with the problem and has become proactive in dealing with the problem. Every honest Nigerian will tell you that the situation is not as bad as it was. The issue of securing the lives and properties of Nigerians is non-negotiable. This president has the political will, the determination and the commitment to the interest of Nigerians.

The president talks about a slim government yet it is expending so much money on building a banquet hall. Is that not contradictory?

This has again to do with disinformation by certain parties. The government is building a multi-purpose hall which will be used to serve the purpose of even the media. When I send journalists to the residence of the president, they don’t have anywhere to stay. They stay in the sun. This proposed building is going to include a communication centre where the press can stay, monitoring the president from the residence. When we host diplomats in the residence, there is no space. When the president has a presidential media chat, we use the tea-room adjacent the Council Chambers. There is no space. When the president receives people who are coming to pay homage, people sit on top of each other.

The purpose of the multi-purpose hall is to accommodate all of these and to create better convenience. When the president completes his tour of duty, he will not carry the building to his village. This is why I said disinformation is the major challenge that we face.

People are also talking about the residence of the vice president. Effectively, the vice president of the  does not have a residence. Where he stays is supposed  to be a guest house for visiting heads of state. Previous governments, not this government, started building an effective residence for the vice president and Nigerians are saying so much money. That project is on-going;  if Nigerians want it abandoned, it can be abandoned. The residence of the vice president is not just one house. It is a whole environment. There would be guest houses. The building would be used for other purposes of state. It is about Nigeria, it is about the institution of the Presidency.

What does the president mean when he said 2013 would be better? What should we expect?
The president has made it clear that we will make more progress and Nigerians should resist the temptation to listen to those who are disinforming the public, those who are spewing black propaganda and all hunters of fortunes and rent collectors who are trying to discredit this administration. Nigerians should see through them and focus on the good things that this administration is doing.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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I don’t have 48 houses anywhere in the world – Sylva

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Read Time:1 Minute, 58 Second

FORMER Governor of Bayelya State, Chief Timipre Sylva, Saturday, insisted that the 48 properties in Abuja, allegedly confiscated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, were not his, saying he had no 48 properties anywhere in the world.

According to him, he had only three properties in Abuja but said he and his wife acquired the three Abuja properties before he became governor.

He declared that the three properties were declared in his assets declaration form after he became governor.

In a statement made available to Vanguard in Abuja, through his counsel, Mr Benson Ibezim,  Sylva said the anti-graft agency was out to humiliate him just as he advised people not to jump to conclusion based on what they read in the media.

“We seriously frown at the practice of media trial and condemnation without getting to the root and substance of the facts. Trials are done in courts of law and not on the pages of newspapers where the general public is fed with all manner of falsehood, including imaginary 48 houses. We humbly and respectfully call on the media to exercise due diligence in their reporting”, he said.

“We were astonished to read from virtually all Nigerian Newspapers that 48 houses belonging to Chief Timipre Sylva were seized.

In the first instance, Chief Timipre Sylva is not having 48 properties anywhere in the world. The three properties he has in Abuja had been secured by an order of court granted by F.C.T. High Court and the Attorney General of the Federation and EFCC has been duly served since the 27th day of December, 2012”.

The former governor accused the Attorney General of the Federation and the Chairman of EFCC of  sinister plan to humiliate him by throwing him out of his house that he bought before he assumed the governorship office.

“It should also be mentioned that when Chief Timipre Sylva became aware of the sinister plan of  the EFCC to humiliate him by throwing him out of his house that was bought before he became the governor of Bayelsa State, we wrote a letter to the Attorney General of the Federation and the Chairman of EFCC. Till date both of them did not response to the said letters”.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: How we killed Kano lawmakers for N40,000

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Read Time:4 Minute, 33 Second

To a self-confessed assassin in Kano State, the lives of two lawmakers are not worth more than N40,000.
That is the amount he and his colleagues were allegedly paid by their suspected sponsor to assassinate Hon. Ibrahim Abba Garko and Hon Isa Kademi, both members of Kano State House of Assembly.

The money was said to have even been paid in two installments of N20,000 each.

Garko was killed on  November 17, 2012 by gunmen operating on motor bike in front of his house located at Yanáwaki Ungwa-Uku General Area while Kademi fell to the assassins bullets on December 14 in front of his guest house situated at Hotoro Maradun during the evening rush  hour.

Until their assassination, Garko, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), represented Garko local government in parliament whereas Kademi, of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), was a three-time chairman of Gaya local government and a former chairman of Association of Local Governments in Kano State.

Sunday Vanguard exclusively obtained the interrogation tape of the professional dyer-turned- self-confessed assassin, Ibrahim Lawal, in which he claimed to have been  a member of the gang that murdered the two lawmakers and named one Alhaji Sale Kura, a PDP chieftain, as their sponsor.

Kano State Police Commissioner, Mr  Ibrahim Idris, had, on Wednesday, paraded Lawal and Sale in connection with the assassination. Both of them, however, denied afterwards, their involvement in both killings to journalists.

“I am not a member of Boko Haram. I am a hired assassin and armed robber. We operated in a group of six and all of us live at Ungwa Uku,”Lawal told interrogators in the 25-minute tape.

On the killing of the lawmakers, the suspected assassin said, “We were mobilised by Sale Kura who personally handed over to me N20,000 twice (making N40,000) and we trekked to the abode of one of the targets while some other members of the gang arrived on motorbike.

“The target was identified and we went out of our way to spray others within the vicinity to avoid any of them recognising us. The gang escaped in the ensuring melee.”

The first scene of the video tape of Lawal’s interrogation opened in an apartment where six cops, led by a high ranking officer, were seated. A Mobile Police officer came in with the  suspected assassin.

A gentle voice fired the first salvo,”Who are you”?

The suspect answered: “My name is Ibrahim Lawal; I live at Layin Yarbawa Ungwa-Uku. I had my primary  education at Ungwa Uku, and proceeded to Government Secondary School Bichi. I ventured into professional dying after I dropped out of secondary school. I maintained a shop at Layin Tazarce at the same quarters.”

In response to a question on whether he was a member of Boko Haram, the suspect, in a loud voice, declared: “I am not a member of Boko Haram; I am a hired assassin and armed robber. We operated in  a group of 6 and all of us live at Ungwa Uku”.

“Tell us more about the group”?, one of the police officers said.

Lawal replied: “We have Sagir Yahuza of Farin Massalaci Ungwa Uku, Surajo Adamu of Layin Tazarce Ungwa Uku, Tasiu Shuaibu of Layin Yarabawa Ungwa Uku and Mohammed AbdulSalam of Layin Tazarce Ungwa Uku quarters in Kano metropolis”.

On how he joined the gang, the suspect alleged, “I was personally recruited into the group by Alhaji Sale Kura who happens to be my neighbor and we enjoy a close relationship since 1999 when he became the PDP chairman of Tarauni Local Government Area of Kano State”.

Asked to comment on the criminal gang, Lawal stated:  “We are not only into killings, we were also involved in violent robbery operations and Alhaji Sale Kura usually provided  us with concoction to drink before embarking on operations. The drink had the effect of emboldening us  as we confronted  risks head on”.

The interrogation drew to a close with a question on how the suspect was captured by the police.

Lawal stated: “I was with Mabo, the leader of the gang, when we received a call that a person on our hit list was sighted around Mabo shop and we quickly armed ourselves and moved in but, on arriving at the shop, the said person was no where to be found.

“As we were returning to my shop on a motorbike, we were accosted by a team of police officers who arrested me but Mabo was lucky as he escaped.”

Already, the state command of the Police has vowed not to spare anyone connected with the assassination of the lawmakers.

A senior officer of the Command told Sunday vanguard that “we would ensure that our investigation into the matter is very thorough as well as send the right signal that the Police Force of today means well; just as our Inspector General, MD Abubakar, is leaving no stone unturned in his transformation of the Force

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Keshi, NFF and semi final target

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Read Time:4 Minute, 45 Second

I have never seen a group of pessimistic people like the average Nigerian football fan. Days to the much talked about friendly match between the Super Eagles and the Catalonian selected, they had written off the Eagles and predicted disgusting scorelines against the side Stephen Keshi is preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations which begins in South Africa in about two weeks time.

Their reasons ranged from the scoreline against the same side some years ago to the profile of the Catalans who were mainly stars of the fearsome Barcelona FC that have at various times conquered Spain, Europe and the world.

The Nigerian side paraded mostly home-based players spiced with a handful of Europe-based professionals Keshi is trying to mould into a team for the Nations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.

The game had hardly started at the Estadi Cornella, home turf of Espanyol than the Eagles conceded a penalty from Fegor Ogude who was only trying to save his head from the shot from a Catalan attacker. That early goal caused the pessimists to start counting on their finger tips the number of goals the Eagles would finally concede.

Mostly in the first half of that game, the home side strung passes reminiscent of the typical Barca side tutored by the soft-spoken and unassuming Pep Guardiola with our Eagles almost running aimlessly from one end of the pitch to the other.

The stage was like the battle field between the biblical David and the Goliath with the Goliath beckoning to David to come forward to be slaughtered. The crowd at the stadium yelled each time Carles Puyol, Gerrard Pique or Xavi Hernandez were with the ball.

The Eagles were however, gaining confidence as the game progressed and just eight minutes into the second half, the Eagles struck through US-based Bright Dike to the delight of the handful flag-waving Nigerian fans at the stadium and joy of the coaching crew.

The homers and their fans must have felt that there was still enough time to dislodge the Eagles and score more goals but their optimism faded as the game wore on until the final minute and the rookies, that the Eagles were, triumphed even though the scoreline was 1-1.

The same Nigerian fans who had predicted a massacre of the Eagles by the Catalan side began singing eureka, praising Keshi for his rebuilding process which they now claim was beginning to yield good result..

Some others however, dismissed the feat as nothing because, according to them, it was a mere friendly match and nothing was at stake. These set of fans were the ones who reminded all that their earlier meeting was a disastrous 5-0. Then they didn’t remember it was also a friendly match then.

Apart from the fans, most of the NFF Board members never gave Keshi and the team any chance against these football greats from Spain, forget about the freedom seeking Catalans, because majority of the players play for the reigning European and world champions,  Spain.

My worry here is the Nations Cup semi final target the NFF  gave to Keshi to achieve or get fired before he even started the business of rebuilding the team. This action is the attitude of one trying to win at all cost, not caring how the target is achieved.

If they remember that Nigeria’s football was at its lowest ebb when Keshi came on board and that it needed a revival, they should also know that the task was not one that could be achieved with one competition or under one year.

If Keshi is allowed enough time to rebuild the team from the scratch with home-based players spiced with some foreign ones, the dream of returning the Eagles to the Clemens Westerhof era could be achieved. A fire brigade approach or threatening target like was done under Shaibu Amodu, Austin Eguavoen and Samson Siasia will fall flat on our faces and make us return to that stage were the Eagles will struggle to qualify for the Nations Cup.

At last the truth is out
For many months, our football officials, especially those on the side of erstwhile boss of the Nigeria Premier League, NPL, Rumson Baribote have been talking tongue in cheek as per the sponsorship deal won by Total Promotions on behalf of MTN.

They rubbished the deal and caused the league to run without a sponsor till date and in the process, clubs laboured week in week out, playing matches in far flung places, most times at the risk of their lives without any prize to fght for.

Our elders say that it takes time for a stammerer to mention his father’s name but he will surely mention it. That is the case with the real organisation which won the sponsorship of the Nigerian league. After Total Promotions won the bid for MTN, those who hated Davidson Owumi brought in legal jargons to say that MTN got the sponsorship by proxy and didn’t deserve to get it.

Because they wanted Owumi out, they allowed the league and Nigerian players to suffer unduly. Now because the same Baribote they were protecting has accused the Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi of conspiring with club owners to remove him ‘illegally’, the minister has come out to say that Total Promotions actually won the bid to sponsor the league but out of Baribote’s selfishness, the deal was truncated. What a way to run sports in a country that wants to be among the 20 most developed countries in the year 2020.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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In the name of the President…let the campaigns begin?

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Read Time:5 Minute, 53 Second

It is complicated. And it would be even more complicated. Certain events happen in the life of a nation and those events change the course of history for that nation.  Nigeria is no exception.  For good or ill, some individuals are thrust on a nation as leaders and their actions and in-actions, consciously or sub-consciously, mould the nation’s path to greatness or otherwise.

In all of these however, fate  plays a very key role.  All efforts are sometimes made to look like a fool’s errand when fate strikes. But what is fate?  It is that which is inevitable.  Its signs are all around us but we, most times, don’t see them.  They operate in an invisible manner until fate itself happens on us.  When some inexplicable things happen to individuals, in such an unpalatable manner, people say it is fate.

Fate is hardly linked with goodness.  Ayanmo (destiny) is usually associated with success.  Kadara (fate) is that which is used to explain away the ill-fortune of men and women.  But ‘sense’ could be made of fate the minute men introduce logic.  It is when logic comes in that linkages are made of some signs to arrive at the reason(s) why certain things happen.  Those signs are products of choices arising from decisions we take.Jonathan-poster-cartoon

In taking decisions, there is an old prayer beseeching God Almighty to grant “the serenity to accept the things we can not change; the courage to change the ones we can; and, above all,  the wisdom to know the difference”. But poor man, no matter how hard he prays, still arrogates to himself the power to do and undo; to change his destiny believing that “his destiny is in his own hands”.

What that does is that it renders the supplication for serenity, courage and wisdom inconsequential.  What paradox!

Enter folly. If man believes in his own ability to chart his path to greatness, why then does he needlessly place a burden on God to help him achieve what he already thinks he can achieve?  For believers in that Supreme Being, God, they are also admonished to work hard because there is no food for a lazy man.

So, man may, therefore, not be all that foolish to try to do something to achieve his goals.  However, in doing something, man must recognize that, over time, his ability or inability to read situations properly lead to choices that do not help his objective.  And that does not make him foolish.

In the Book of Proverbs, 26, 3-7 (with emphasis on 4 and 5), the following verses say:

“A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back

“*Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him

“*Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit

“He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage

“The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of a fool”.

Why should you not answer a fool? Because you do not want to be like him! But why should you answer a fool? So that he does not think he is wise!

In his 1709 AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM, Alexander Pope, noted that folly could be intense: “Nay, fly to altars; there they’ll talk you dead; For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”  If fools rush in where angels fear to tread, such folly must be truly  intense.  And the problem with a fool is that in attempting to fool others, he must indeed first fool himself.

In governance, when Presidents try to feel the pulse of the people, an attempt at hawking folly is always made for those who would buy it.  A script writer once noted that people would drink sand in the desert thinking it is water; but a counterpoise by the same sript writer insisted  that people would drink sand because they do not know the difference between sand and water.

President Theodore Roosevelt once referred to the presidency of America  “as the ‘bully pulpit’  from which to raise issues nationally, for when a president raises an issue, it inevitably becomes  subject to public debate”. That was exactly what happened on the first day of 2013.

Just as President Goodluck Azikiwe Jonathan did last year when he suddenly and rudely increased the pump-head price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly called petrol, some individuals posted campaign materials for the president’s re-election. His adviser on media has denied any involvement of the presidency in the matter, insisting that he does not want to be distracted.  “Those who have done this to him are being truly unfair. And they only want to distract him”.  Perish the thought; junk it. We reach for a local jargon, TU-FIA-KWA (stop that trash).

Was it not this same presidency that denied that there was ever any meeting where the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, agreed on zoning, eight years a-piece for North and South, on December 22, 2002?

Was it not this same presidency that denied the participation of incumbent President Jonathan (then deputy governor of Bayelsa State, representing his boss, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha) at that meeting? A meeting where he voted yes for zoning? Was it not his presidency that sold a dummy to Northern leaders that it only wanted to concentrate on healing the nation before the 2011 general elections, only to turn round and contest?

The presidency is the BULLY PULPIT.  It even operates more like that in a developing, poverty stricken land like Nigeria where cash-and-carry politics is the order of the day. Therefore, President Jonathan should begin to think of how to present his case for re-election (which is guaranteed by the constitution any way), having serially refused to be bold in coming clean.

The strategy of the fool, being a fool, is to assume that the other person has been sold a dummy. That, it is hoped, is not the way President Jonathan wants to go. He should be bold enough to outline the issues regarding re-election as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the works of his hands and spare Nigerians the heat of a bonfire for which he is today stockpiling wood.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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The lottery of life: Where to be born in 2013

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Read Time:3 Minute, 42 Second

Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930). A quarter of a century ago, when The World in 1988 light-heartedly ranked 50 countries according to where would be the best place to be born in 1988, America indeed came top. But which country will be the best for a baby born in 2013?

To answer this, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, has this time turned deadly serious. It earnestly attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.
 
Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too. In all, the index takes 11 statistically significant indicators into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on policies and the state of the world economy.

A forward-looking element comes into play, too. Although many of the drivers of the quality of life are slow-changing, for this ranking some variables, such as income per head, need to be forecast. We use the EIU’s economic forecasts to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.

Despite the global economic crisis, times have in certain respects never been so good. Output growth rates have been declining across the world, but income levels are at or near historic highs. Life expectancy continues to increase steadily and political freedoms have spread across the globe, most recently in north Africa and the Middle East. In other ways, however, the crisis has left a deep imprint—in the euro zone, but also elsewhere—particularly on unemployment and personal security. In doing so, it has eroded both family and community life.

What does all this, and likely developments in the years to come, mean for where a baby might be luckiest to be born in 2013? After crunching its numbers, the EIU has Switzerland comfortably in the top spot, with Australia second.
 
Small economies dominate the top ten. Half of these are European, but only one, the Netherlands, is from the euro zone. The Nordic countries shine, whereas the crisis-ridden south of Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) lags behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate. The largest European economies (Germany, France and Britain) do not do particularly well.
 
America, where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place. Despite their economic dynamism, none of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) scores impressively. Among the 80 countries covered, Nigeria comes last: it is the worst place for a baby to enter the world in 2013.

Boring is best

Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese. America was helped to the top spot back in 1988 by the inclusion in the ranking of a “philistine factor” (for cultural poverty) and a “yawn index” (the degree to which a country might, despite all its virtues, be irredeemably boring). Switzerland scored terribly on both counts. In the film “The Third Man”, Orson Welles’s character, the rogue Harry Lime, famously says that Italy for 30 years had war, terror and murder under the Borgias but in that time produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance; Switzerland had 500 years of peace and democracy—and produced the cuckoo clock.
 
However, there is surely a lot to be said for boring stability in today’s (and no doubt tomorrow’s) uncertain times. A description of the methodology is available here: food for debate all the way from Lucerne to Lagos.

Source: economist.com

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nations Cup: Keshi in ‘trouble’ over final team selection

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Read Time:2 Minute, 1 Second

AS the CAF deadline for the submission of team’s final 23-man list approaches, Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi is “growing grey hairs” over picking his squad for the Africa Nations Cup, officials have said.

Eagles spokesman Ben Alaiya disclosed that the performance of the players in a training camp in Faro, Portugal, has made Keshi’s job of selecting the best players for the Nations Cup difficult.

”The competition here is very tough. Coach Keshi is growing grey hairs over who to drop because all the players are on top of their game as they all want to be at the Nations Cup,” Alaiya said on a Brila FM sports programme monitored in Lagos yesterday.

“In fact Keshi at the training on Thursday did not know when he voiced out that he is in trouble as he doesn’t know who to drop.”

Eagles goalkeeper trainer Ike Shorunmu is also satisfied with the showing of the goalkeepers from the Nigeria Premier League, Daniel Akpeyi and Chigozie Agbim.

”Ike Shorunmu is happy with the form of Akpeyi and Agbim, who we all saw what he could do against Catalonia.

Ike said any of these goalkeepers could be in goal and he won’t panic if Enyeama and Ejide decided to stay away,” Alaiya said.

Meanwhile, Valenrenga of Norway midfielder Fegor Ogude has admitted that the fight for places in the Eagles midfield will be fierce.

With the emergence of Ogenyi Onazi, Rabiu Ibrahim, Nosa Igiebor, Gabriel Reuben, Henry Uche, Raheem Lawal, Obiora Nwankwo and Mikel Obi, Fegor told MTNFootball.com: “The battle for a shirt in the midfield would be tensed. We have great players who are skilful and can handle the ball very well.

“But I am not afraid because this is my job, it’s what I do every day and as such I am battle ready for the challenge.”

Keshi has said he will make public his final squad on Tuesday, a day before the CAF deadline. The Eagles who are due to fly out to South Africa on January 16 will take on giant killers Cape Verde in another AFCON warm-up game on Wednesday in Faro.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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2013: Time to put the masses first

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Read Time:6 Minute, 51 Second

When on Friday December 7, 2012, I read the headline ‘SENATE KICKS AGAINST EXTRA 9 billion naira for Vice-President’s residence’, in one of our national dailies, I felt very frustrated and disappointed, and I began to doubt if our rulers are really aware of the myriad problems Nigeria faces, and how to combat them.  Or perhaps they do know, but don’t know which are of utmost importance to the nation.

With the numerous aides and advisers that our leaders have around them to help them carry out their duties successfully and creditably, one would expect they know precisely the state of the nation at any given time. These advisers are meant to feel the pulse of the masses and advise their bosses correctly, so that these bosses can carry out their duties in ways that would benefit our citizens. I doubt if erecting residences for our leaders at  massive costs at a time  when government claims it has no money to improve our welfare in meaningful ways, is of great benefit to us at present.

How can this bring relief to a nation where unemployment is very high as more and more industries are folding up; bread winners in families are losing their jobs; young people are wearing out their shoes, pounding the pavements in search of elusive jobs (some commit suicide out of despair while some take to crime and prostitution); pensioners are owed several months of their meagre monthly pensions, and several die every year during the rigorous verification exercise.

Security is of very great concern these days, but we learn that our law enforcement agencies are no match for their opponents because they lack the sophisticated and high-powered equipment the other side has. At any given time, one after the other, or sometimes at the same time, teachers, doctors, nurses, university staff and  other government workers are on strike.

Reason?  Government has reneged (yet again!) on its promise of paying the agreed salaries and benefits, and improving their lot.   We have many efficient and qualified medical personnel, but there’s brain-drain there because of poor pay and lack of adequate hospital equipment, including steady power supply and reliable generators, with which to work.  Patients suffer lack of care and some deaths occur.

It is one thing to fight tooth and nail to win at elections, or to be appointed into a position of authority, and it is another to know precisely what to do with the power given, in order to fulfill the purpose for which you were chosen/appointed.

I salute the courage of Senator Smart Adeyemi, a former national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, for his remark after paying an oversight visit to the site of the project at Aso Drive.  The paper said that he noted that such a huge sum of money was uncalled for especially at a time when most Nigerians cannot afford three square meals a day.

His remark, though sincere and echoing what many Nigerians would say on the matter, is courageous because he belongs to the ruling political party. He easily could have kept quiet ‘in order not to upset those who put us there!’.  The nation will now wait to see what the end of the matter will be.  Governance and law-making are supposed to put citizens first in their decisions.

I may be wrong, but to me, our Vice-President seems a humble and down-to-earth person who wouldn’t insist on having an official residence for his position constructed at such huge costs when he’s very aware of the situation of the average Nigerian.  Even though the mansion won’t be his personal property, and there’s no guarantee that it would be completed on time for him and his family to occupy during this his term in office; and even if the project may have been on ground before this present administration came into power (?),  I don’t think it’s prudent for us to spend billions of  naira on such a project at this point in time.  Someone told me that it’s because of the security gadgets that need to be installed that the cost is so high.

Fine, but the most effective security is the one that God provides.  He will keep safe those whom He will.  But let’s make sure that citizens, particularly the masses,  have qualitative lives.  Maybe we can easily afford this sort of project   in future when unemployment is down to almost zero level, and we’re counted among the developped nations of the world, with much improved healthcare, educational system, roads, water supply, and working social services.

I learnt from the news report that the project which is being handled by the Federal Capital Development Agency, who requested for a further nine billion naira, has already gulped seven billion naira!  Now, this is a huge sum of money, by any standard, at least to many of us.

To ask for a further nine billion naira, seems outrageous to me when there are so many masses-aimed projects which are begging to be executed.  Most roads all over the country are still quite bad and dangerous. The Lagos/Ibadan road, we’re told, is merely being repaired for traffic at Christmas, and has not been awarded for rehabilitation to any construction company, as we believed.

The Lagos/Benin road is still quite testy although repairs are going on still, as on  some other roads in  the country; thanks to the efforts of the energetic current Minister for Works who seems to be aware of his duties and commitment to making our roads more motorable and safe. We hope lack of funds won’t halt these road works.  Fuel scarcity inched back into our lives in September. We’ve been told that de-regulation of pump prices is inevitable, and we shall have to pay more for fuel in this new year.

We all know that bad roads and increase in pump prices  mean hefty hikes in food prices, as farm products rot away on the farms because the farmers cannot afford the cost of transportation even to the local markets, and those who are able take their products there at huge costs, just have to increase their prices in order to break even.  Market people add their own overheads too, and by the time that yam or plantain gets to your table, you feel the pinch in your pocket.

Right now, doctors are on strike, yet again, in hospitals across the nation.  This means that even the poor healthcare services we have in these health institutions, are no longer available to the common man.  Even the poor now have to borrow money to send their sick to India for medical attention.

Power supply has worsened in recent times, and on the days power is supposed to be on in your area, it’s low current for half the time, and no power for the other half. Small scale industries and self-employed artisans are left helplessly idle most of the time.

Senator Adeyemi spoke of three square meals.  Sorry, Senator, only the very rich can afford to eat three meals a day these days.  Many families can afford only the evening meal, and that’s with the contribution of children who have to go hawk on the streets to help financially in the home.

Our rulers should wake up and be alive to their responsibilities towards the masses.  They should put the interests of the masses first before their own personal interests. We don’t want a revolution, do we?

HAPPY, HEALTHY, SUCCESSFUL AND SAFE NEW YEAR TO ALL READERS OF THIS PAGE. AMEN.  THANKS FOR READING IT.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: Okorocha, My siren is louder than yours

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Read Time:5 Minute, 26 Second

Unprecedented levels of violence and public insecurity or disorder have marred the Nigerian social space, so much indeed that Nigerians at every level now live with a siege mentality. A significant level of this state of siege is encouraged and maintained by irresponsible political leadership.

Two weeks ago, Mrs. Chris Anyanwu, the senator representing Owerri in the Nigerian senate claimed to have been run-off the road on her way to her home in Mbaise by a convoy of vehicles accompanying the Imo state governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha.

According to the senator, right about Azara-Egbelu, on the Owerri-Umuahia highway, Mr. Okorocha’s convoy, with its blaring siren and phalanx of heavily armed “security men” stopped her own witless driver who apparently had been too slow in getting off the road for the governor to sail through .

The governor’s armed men dragged out the man and beat him mercilessly. Unable to stand the beating any longer, the senator claimed to have intervened: “I rushed out of my car barefoot and started shouting: “I am Senator Chris Anyanwu, please don’t kill my driver.

But one of the armed men charged at me and threatened to shoot me for running into the governor’s convoy. All these while, the Governor was seated in his car with the glass wound down and I heard him shout at his security men to disarm my orderlies”.

A cardinal ground for the establishment of government, particularly a government of the people by the people has been violated. I speak here of the social contract – the basic principle that legitimate authority is established on the consent of the individual.

People basically come together to organize their society under the rule of law. The principle of the contract recognizes that in consenting to cede their individual freedom to an established government, the individual expects in exchange of his absolute freedom the protection of his rights and liberties by the organized government. A contract exists only when these guarantees are met by either party in the relationship between the state and the individual.

A rational individual consents to give up his or her natural freedom in exchange or in the hopes of obtaining the benefits of political order. In other words, government is the largest mutual benefits society ever created by man as a means of taming the wild and insurgent capacities of the individual.

Without consent to submit to the established and legitimate authority of the state the individual becomes an outlier; he is governed by the natural instincts to survive; he is untamed by law; and societies slip back to natural states of chaos and disorder, or what Thomas Hobbes called “the state of nature.” Nigeria has inched closer and closer to this situation because the legitimacy of the Nigerian state is increasingly questioned by the people.

There is incoherence in the organization of government. There is in fact rapid discontent. The political leadership seems fundamentally disconnected or dissociated from the common reality of those by whom they derive their legitimate authority. The state fails because it can no longer guarantee the safety of Nigerians and their fundamental right to life, property, and the pursuit of individual happiness. The mindless overreach of authority bespeaks a fundamental lack of awareness of the nature of the contract between Nigerians and their political representatives.

Let me draw this example: a governor of a state who uses an armed convoy and drives rough-shod through the streets, driving citizens out of the road to make way for him sets a very bad example. Governor Okorocha and all such state officials are still hung up on a terrible habit established under military rule in which military administrators saw government as an emergency and citizens as “ordinary civilians.”

The soldiers appropriated all kinds of power, including the power to ride in a sirened convoy of armed men to demonstrate the force of military rule. Such images have no place in a civil and elected government. An elected governor should have no more than a police orderly and an official driver and car for his use and only for official business.

Riding about in an armed convoy is mindless overreach; and uncivilized. Sirens were traditionally reserved for emergency vehicles: police in the pursuit of criminals; ambulances in conveying the sick to the casualty ward, the fire services on emergency runs, and used only on ceremonial occasions for conveying public officials.

There is no protocol under the rule of law that grants the governor of the state any more rights on the road than any other citizen. Governor Okorocha therefore breaks a fundamental law that needs to be addressed very urgently because it goes right up to the very soul of the rule of law. Does an elected governor have the right to drive other citizens of the state off the road by the use of armed force?

There is no place in the civilized world for such conduct and such primitive show of power. Did the governor break a law in ordering his so-called “security men” to beat up a citizen and thus taking the laws under his own hand as if Imo State is a jungle without courts or magistrates?

Before the law, the governor is equal to the least citizen in Imo State. His legitimacy is guaranteed by their consent. Mr. Okorocha ought to be brought to heel on these facts.

A governor who oversees the brutal molestation of a citizen of a state, simply on some infraction of a presumed privilege, is not fit for public office. It is incumbent therefore on the Imo State House of Assembly to do their duty as the elected guardians of the state, by opening up an investigation into this incident.

Complicity in the brutal, physical molestation of a citizen of the state, the senator’s driver, by the governor is an impeachable offence because it reduces not only the dignity of the office, but violates the oath of the governor’s office. It is about time we stopped tolerating the extreme and primitive behavior of people elected into public office to serve us who end up playing gods over us. As citizens, our greatest security is the rule of law.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: Kogi State desires better health facilities

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Read Time:5 Minute, 35 Second

On Friday December 28, 2012, the Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada was seriously injured in an auto crash. The accident reportedly occurred at Emi Woro village in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of the state when one of the tyres of the governor’s official car, unexpectedly burst in motion. Wada’s aide-de-camp (ADC), Idris Muhammed, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), lost his life in the crash.

The governor who was initially rushed to the Kogi State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja after the accident, later had surgery at Cedar Crest Hospital, Garki Abuja. The surgery, which lasted two hours, was rated as successful by the doctors at the hospital who also allegedly revealed that Wada rejected the option of flying him abroad for further treatment.

On the basis of this rather uncommon taste, the governor has been applauded all over the country as a lover of made in Nigeria goods.  The Nigerian Medical Association was among the first to commend the governor. While thanking God for the life of Governor Wada, we are not similarly enthused by what is being seen by some people as patriotism.

To start with, it is obvious that the Governor made the decision because his stable condition at the end of the initial treatment positioned him to be so disposed. According to the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Felix Ogedengbe, “there was no immediate need to fly him abroad.” Wada would probably have had no option if he had a complication similar to what his Taraba State counterpart; Danbaba Suntai experienced some 3months earlier. We agree that some of our leaders take delight in oversea treatment.

Indeed, some go there to treat headache while some others go to find out if they might be sick someday in the future which is called ‘medical check-up’.  However, many people who have no faith in our health delivery system are not necessarily unpatriotic. They are only being realistic and Governor Wada is inadvertently one of them.

It is inaccurate to say he did not opt to be flown abroad for treatment because the definition of ‘Oversea treatment’ cannot be narrowed down to one outside a country; it should be inclusive of treatment outside one’s domain. To elicit the applause of this columnist, Wada should have insisted on being treated in Kogi State whose medical facilities are in the poor state in which his government inherited them.

Instead, the governor whose accident took place some 12 kilometres form Lokoja, his seat of government went hundreds of kilometres ‘abroad’ to Abuja for treatment. In addition, he went to a private rather than a government hospital giving room to the Kogi State Chapter of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), to wonder “why a man who loved to patronise local hospitals, evaded the state-owned specialist hospital in Lokoja.”

The Nation newspaper put it better in its comment of January 3rd, 2013 titled ‘Wada goes back to work’, that “while the Abuja treatment is commendable, it also brings out the disturbing fact that there is no single hospital in Kogi good enough for gubernatorial care! That is an indictment on his tour of duty as governor. Now that he has survived the accident therefore, it is time for him to put in place better medical facilities in his state. That way, he would have domesticated, in his own state, his campaign for VIP confidence in our local medical personnel and hospital facilities”

The fact that the governor’s driver who was also involved in the same accident was left in hospital in Lokoja suggests that many Kogi citizens who were made to vote for the governor, in our type of free and fair elections, cannot afford the Abuja option.  They are sentenced to treatment in the State’s poorly equipped hospitals.

Anyway we hear the governor is back to base and has allegedly resolved that “2013 would see the visible implementation of his transformation agenda to move Kogi State to where it ought to be”. If so, here are a few reminders.  First, the Nigerian Navy during its 56th anniversary some 6 months back chose Karara-Otube in Kogi State as one of the villages to benefit from its medical assistance.

According to Navy Commodore Innocent Kofi Yinfaowei, the choice was predicated on the dearth of medical facilities in the village health centre, with a target of no fewer than 2,500 persons suffering from various ailments to benefit from the week-long programme.

Second, it took the Australian government to rebuild and restock with drugs a rundown clinic serving the people of Agojeju-Odo community in Omala Local Government Area. Otherwise the people would have continued to travel far to receive treatment for even common ailments.

Third, only last month, Wada himself admitted that maternal death and infant mortality rate in the State was not only alarming but was on the increase. Speaking at the kick-off of Maternal Newborn and Child Health week, in Lokoja, the governor said, “it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of new born babies that died in and around birth, and women who died during childbirth”. He then promised to evolve a mechanism to reduce the cost of medical treatment for pregnant women and children under five years across public health institutions in the state.

In a country where pronouncements are hardly backed by action, the time to act for Wada is now. He should listen to the World Bank,  the London Tropical School of Medicine and the Bill gate Institute of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, which have testified to the efficacy of “the ABIYE safe motherhood Programme’’ in neighbouring Ondo State, which Governor Olusegun Mimiko has used “to drastically reduce infant and maternal mortality.

He should also redress the findings of a recent study, that Kogi East which has produced the Governor of the state since its creation in 1991 has the lion share of 66.3% of health facilities in the State while Kogi West and Central have 19.6% and 14.1% respectively. If Wada provides better health facilities and evolves a more equitable distribution of such facilities in the state, so as to engender equity and social justice we too, will join those who genuinely see him as a patriot.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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