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Abuja – The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubaka, on Sunday ordered the strengthening of security in all boarding schools in and around Makurdi.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, in Abuja.
The order is coming on the heel of a recent threat letter, purportedly issued by elements claiming to be Boko Haram members to two all-boys secondary schools, Government College and Mount St. Gabriel College, Makurdi.
Women Arise civil society led by Joe Odumakin (C) accompanied by afro-beat musician Femi Anikulapo Kuti demonstrate to press for the release of missing Chibok school girls in Lagos on May 12, 2014. Boko Haram released a new video on Monday claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. AFP
“Consequently, Benue State Police Command, working in conjunction with the State Ministry of Education and the affected school authorities, has strengthened surveillance in the schools and other boarding schools within Makurdi metropolis,” the statement said.
It said that the police had begun investigations to determine the “authenticity or otherwise of the hand-written letter (threat) now in possession of the force”.
The statement advised residents of communities where boarding schools were located to “remain perpetually on the alert and report any suspicious movement to the appropriate authorities”. The Principal of Government College, Makurdi, Mr Godfrey Ugudu, on Saturday had said that the school had received letter from Boko Haram sect threatening to attack the school.
Ugudu, who announced this at a news conference in Makurdi added that the school received two letters which had the same content on May 14.
“It is true that we saw two letters informing us of the intention of the sect to invade our school on Friday or Monday by Boko Haram.
“The letters were dated May 14, 2014, stating that they were coming either of the two days to abduct our boys whom they would marry to the secondary school girls abducted in Chibok.
“In the letter, we were asked to inform the Mount Saint Gabriel Secondary School opposite us to also get prepared as they promised to invade the place too.’’
According to him, “we immediately alerted the police and the Commissioner for Education. A report has been made to the Governor on the issue.
“The two letters, which were written in pidgin English, were sighted inside one of the classrooms and the second one was slipped into the staff room’’, he said.
The principal commended the government and security operatives in the state for their prompt response to the issue.
He said that everything had been done to ensure the safety of the school children, adding that he had informed the Principal of Mount Saint Gabriel.
About 500 out of about 700 students of the college are living in the school while Mount Saint Gabriel is purely boarding school.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Dan Ezeala, confirmed the report and assured that police were on top of the situation
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.
Boko Haram terror, at the weekend, raged in Borno State where 16 persons were feared killed in a fresh attack.
In two other attacks, five policemen were reportedly abducted with their armoured personnel carrier (APC) while a Chinese was killed and 10 others kidnapped during an overnight attack in Kuseri Village between Gamboru Ngala council and Cameroun.
The attacks put President Goodluck Jonathan and his counterparts from Nigeria’s neighbouring countries meeting in Paris, France, yesterday, under pressure to come up with concrete steps to address terrorism in the sub region. The missing/abducted policemen were identified by sources as Inspector Luka Maina, Sergeant Manya Chaka, Corporals Hassan Dauda, Emmanuel Onoche and Umar Ali.
Our correspondent gathered that the Banki incident took place on Friday at about 9:50 in the morning when some policemen attached to Banki Division were attacked by terrorists while trying to drop six of them at the junction road who were to proceed to their promotion course examination and interview.
Another source said, “ Five policemen attached to Banki, a border town with Bama and Cameroon Republic, were attacked by Boko Haram. The terrorists opened fire on the APC No: NPF4960c conveying the policemen led by an inspector and five others. The policemen quickly dropped from the APC and ran into the bush before the terrorists went away with the abandoned APC. As I am talking to you now (yesterday), the whereabouts of the policemen are yet to be known and we suspect the terrorists might have kidnapped or killed them”.
Borno Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tanko Lawan, confirmed the abduction of the five policemen and the seizing of the APC. The 16 persons were feared killed when some gunmen allegedly attacked Ngubdala village near Ngurosoye community in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.
The killing of the Chinese and abduction of the 10 others, reportedly took place at an encampment used by the Chinese road workers close to Chibok where some school girls were kidnapped April 14.
“The Boko Haram militants were heavily armed, they came in five vehicles”, an official in Waza, a town near the site of the attack, said on condition of anonymity. He said the camp where the Chinese road workers stayed was usually guarded by soldiers from Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, but many of the troops were in Yaounde for a military parade.
“Cameroonian soldiers retaliated and the fighting lasted until 3 a.m. (0200 GMT)”, said a local police chief. He said one Chinese worker was killed and 10 others had been missing since the attack and were believed kidnapped by the Boko Haram gunmen. A source close to the Chinese embassy in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, spoke of 10 missing and one wounded but would not confirm or deny whether one had been killed.
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.
French P.M confirms Sunday Vanguard exclusives on Al-Qaeda’s support for Boko Haram
Jide Ajani, Ben Agande in Paris, France, Tony Nwankwo and Abiodun Alade
The havoc visited on the nation by Boko Haram was laid bare by President Goodluck Jonathan who, yesterday, claimed that the Islamist group’s insurgency in Nigeria had claimed over 12,000 lives.
Jonathan spoke in Paris, the French capital, at a summit with his counterparts from Benin Republic, Chad, Cameroun and Niger, where an action plan designed to counter the terror activities of Boko Haram in West Africa was approved.
The action plan would involve coordination of surveillance efforts, sharing of intelligence and joint efforts to secure the porous borders in the region.
French President Francois Hollande hosted the summit in response to the terror activities of Boko Haram which peaked about a month ago with the abduction in Chibok, Borno State, of more than 200 school girls.
“We have seen what this organisation is capable of”, Hollande said at the summit.
Addressing the summit, Jonathan stated that the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria also injured more than 8,000 persons.
His words: “This unconventional war has so far claimed over 12,000 lives with more than 8,000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians.”
Jonathan, who has been criticised for what many see as a lack lustre response to the Chibok girls’ abduction, said he was totally committed to finding them and returning them to their distraught families.
“We are totally committed to finding the girls, wherever they are,” he said.
“We’ve been scanning these areas with surveillance aircraft,” he added, saying Nigeria had deployed 20,000 troops to find the girls.
“Boko Haram is no longer a local terror group,” he said. “From 2009 to today it has changed and can be described as Al-Qaeda in western and central Africa.”
French President Hollande, who appeared to be confirming Sunday Vanguard’s exclusive stories on the network of terror that had forged an alliance between Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda, told the Paris summit that Boko Haram had forged links with terrorist groups all over Africa.
This is a full confirmation of Sunday Vanguard’s recent stories that Boko Haram was collaborating with other terror groups across Africa to attack Nigeria.
“They have threatened civilians, they have attacked schools and they have kidnapped citizens of many countries. France in particular has been a victim of it.
“When more than 200 young girls are being held in barbaric conditions with the prospect of being sold into slavery, there are no questions to be asked, only actions to be taken,” Hollande added.
At the summit, Paul Biya of Cameroun said it was time the continent declared war on Boko Haram.
“We have affirmed our solidarity and determination to vigorously fight Boko Haram,” Cameroon President Biya said. “They have committed one more attack, attacked businessmen and this comes after the French hostages were kidnapped. As we speak we are searching for an Italian priest and a Canadian nun. The problem has become regional, if not a Western problem.”
“Religious intolerance has no place in Africa,” Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi said at the summit.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters just before the summit that the countries in the region had to forge a “strategy to defeat Boko Haram more broadly” as well as resolving the case of the missing girls.
“This is one sickening and terrible incident but they continue almost every day to commit terrorist acts and atrocities,” Hague said.
“There are many borders here and they are porous. This is very relevant to finding the schoolgirls. We want to see the countries in the region working together in creating an intelligence fusion cell,” Hague said.
Among the resources already put at Nigeria’s disposal have been US drones and surveillance aircraft. Experts from Britain, France and the US are advising Nigeria on its counter-terrorism strategy.
France has direct experience of dealing with Boko Haram having recently secured the release of a French family that was kidnapped by the group in Cameroon and then held in Nigeria for two months.
Paris also has troops deployed on peacekeeping duty in the Central African Republic and in Mali, where it sent a force last year to combat Al Qaeda-linked militants who had seized control of much of the north of the country.
Although the French believe that the intervention in Mali inflicted significant damage on groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), military planners remain concerned about the implications of potential alliances being forged between militants across the deeply unstable region.
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.
ABUJA, NIGERIA — The Nigerian president said today there will be "no negotiations for a prisoner exchange” with the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram for the return of the more than 250 kidnapped schoolgirls, a British diplomat told ABC News.
In a briefing in Abuja this afternoon, the United Kingdom's Africa Minister Mark Simmons said he had just left a meeting with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and that the president indicated the government will not negotiate an exchange.
There are more than 4,000 Boko Haram members in detention, according to the Nigerian Interior Ministry.
Responding to a question from ABC News about whether the West is sharing all relevant intelligence with Nigeria, Simmons said, “We’re working on it." He noted the U.S., U.K. and France are work to coordinate the best way to share intelligence with the Nigerians.
Simmons described a “fusion cell” of officials from various countries working to establish where the girls are and a plan to find them. He said the next step would be to bring them back.
The intelligence picture “is confusing,” Simmons said, noting that the Nigerian intelligence is “often conflicting."
And asked about efforts to find the Boko Haram leader, Simmons said “the priority is finding the girls."
As for military assistance, it's “very unlikely there’ll be U.K. combat troops on the ground," the minister said.
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.
Karl Rove's suggestion that Hillary Clinton suffers from a brain injury is coming under attack.
Rove, the mastermind behind George W. Bush's two presidential election victories, appeared at a conference last Thursday, where he discussed a 2012 incident that sent the then-secretary of state to the hospital, according to the New York Post's Page Six, the newspaper's well-known gossip column.
"Thirty days in the hospital?" asked Rove, a Fox News Channel contributor, according to the report. "And when she reappears, she's wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what's up with that."
Clinton, who's seriously considering a second bid for the White House, suffered a blood clot in December 2012, after falling. After first going to the hospital for testing, Clinton later was admitted for a three-day stay at a hospital in New York City.
The incident prevented Clinton from testifying to Congress about the September 11, 2012, attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead and some Republicans at the time questioned her injury. Clinton eventually testified in January 2013 about her role in the Benghazi attack, a role Republicans have increasingly criticized. Should the 66-year-old Clinton decide to run for the White House again, her health, like any other candidate's, would be an issue.
After the Post story posted, Democrats and others were quick to slam Rove. The Democratic National Committee put out a statement saying, "It appears Karl Rove's medical diagnoses are about as solid as his election night prognostications."
The DNC statement refers to Rove's prediction that GOP nominee Mitt Romney would win the 2012 presidential election.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said that "Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying."
As for Clinton's health, Merrill added, "She is 100%. Period."
Rove defended his comments Tuesday morning on the Fox News Channel, saying that it's legitimate to ask about a potential presidential candidate's health.
"No, no. I didn't say she had brain damage, she had a serious health episode and my point was that I think it was from the 7th of December in 2012 through the 7th of January of 2013, she underwent, first she had apparently a serious virus. They announced then on the 15th of December that she had at some period in the past week fallen. They didn't say when, they didn't say where. She was recovering at home. On the 30th of December she goes in and turns out to have had a blood clot. They won't say where. The next day they say it is between her skull and her brain behind her right ear. She is in the hospital for four days. She goes home, is back in the office on the 7th and testifies on the 25th wearing special glasses that allow her to deal with the double vision that this episode caused," Rove said
While she was hospitalized, Clinton's doctors said they were "confident she will make a full recovery."
Clinton has increasingly come under attack by Republicans as she seriously considers a 2016 presidential bid. If she decides to run, she would instantly become the overwhelming frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. At the same time, Clinton is keeping up a very demanding speaking schedule that includes lots of travel.
While she mulls her decision, the GOP and pro-Republican outside groups have stepped up their attacks on Clinton, on everything from the Benghazi incident to the 1990s Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Rove said Clinton's health will be a factor if she runs for the White House.
"My point was that Hillary Clinton wants to run for president, but she would not be human if this didn't enter in as a consideration. My other point is this will be an issue in the 2016 race whether she likes it or not. Every presidential candidate is asked for their health records," Rove added Tuesday.
Following Rove's appearance on Fox News, Merrill released a new statement.
"From the moment this happened seventeen months ago, the Right has politicized her health. First they accused her of faking it, now they've resorted to the other extreme – and are flat out lying. Even this morning, Karl Rove is still all over the map and is continuing to get the facts wrong. But he doesn't care, because all he wants to do is inject the issue into the echo chamber, and he's succeeding. It's flagrant and thinly veiled," Merrill said.
"They are scared of what she has achieved and what she has to offer. What he's doing is its own form of sickness. But she is 100%, period. Time for them to move on to their next desperate attack," he added.
The 2012 incident was not the first time Clinton dealt with blood clots. She told the New York Daily News in 2007 that while campaigning for Sen. Chuck Schumer in 1998 she suffered a large blood clot behind her right knee and had to be rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington, D.C.
"That was scary because you have to treat it immediately – you don't want to take the risk that it will break lose and travel to your brain, or your heart or your lungs," Clinton told the newspaper. "That was the most significant health scare I've ever had."
Clinton also fell and fractured her right elbow as secretary of state in 2009 and was treated at George Washington University Hospital.
Age an issue in presidential elections
Rove pointed out that some Democrats in 2008 made Republican presidential nominee John McCain's age an issue during the campaign.
The AFL-CIO launched a website called "Younger than McCain," which featured a video listing things that were all younger than McCain's 72 years, including plutonium, McDonalds and the country of Pakistan.
The age attacks were not limited to outside groups, either. Democratic Rep. John Murtha told a union group that McCain was too old to be president. During an interview with CNN in 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama said that McCain had "lost his bearings" while pursuing the Republican nomination, a line that was seen as a subtle attack.
Age is often made a campaign issue. Bill Clinton's campaign portrayed incumbent George H.W. Bush as old and out of touch during the 1992 presidential race. Then-President Ronald Reagan famously turned the issue on its head in 1984 by telling voters during a debate with challenger Walter Mondale that "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
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.
This was to be the fourth meeting between the man Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and this writer. However, last Sunday’s meeting with the man who is now President brought home some truth. From the preparation for the live broadcast of the PRESIDENTIAL MEDIA CHAT, to the post-event dinner at the President’s residence, one point remained very critical: Nigeria’s President needs help. Before your imagination runs riot, this report presents the details of the encounter which lasted about three hours and thirty minutes; situating and contrasting it with a similar encounter with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. And after all said and done, you can then make up your mind on the type of help President Jonathan needs.
The President of Nigeria needs help from a wide range of people: His wife, his aides, friends and associates; foreign governments; Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leaders; opposition politicians; and just about any individual who believes in Nigeria. But the context of the help is what needs to be properly situated. The boy who wore no shoes to school and who used to put his books on his head is now the President of Nigeria. Grace and good luck don’t come any better! That is the lot of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who hails from the dingy, sleepy creek community of Otuoke in Bayelsa State.
A simple, very simple man by nature, Jonathan’s life has been one dominated by grace and good luck. The story of his ascendancy is too familiar to be retold here.
But last Sunday, May 4, 2014, the encounter with Jonathan was like none other. For some 10minutes, apprehension, occasioned by a massive dose of excitement and anxiety, reduced the esteem of this writer as he entered one of the chambers inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa in the company of Funke Fadugba of AIT/Faaji FM; Cyril Stober of NTA; and Bashir Saad of the BBC.
The first pleasant surprise was that there was no schooling – that is no government official came to tutor the quartet on what to ask or what not to ask President Jonathan. Pre-recording formalities done, in came Mr. President in the company of some aides and friends who had come for one appointment or the other. Jonathan looked cool. After warm handshakes, he took his seat.
Sensing that this writer was already sweating, the President dropped the hint about government’s plan to build a standard studio for recording; with all the necessary facilities and equipment. Some 20 seconds before7pm, the cameraman signaled that we “would soon be live”. Stober, the anchor for this edition of the media chat, set the ball rolling with the issue of insecurity, specifically the abducted girls, as agreed by the quartet.
It was at this point that the enormity and reality of the challenges confronting President Jonathan reared their heads like a multi-headed monster. Though he was very emotive, feeling helpless and displaying what can be described as real signs of pain, the verbalization of the emotions left much to be desired.
The President said all he wanted to plead for is that the parents of the missing girls should help government; that they should cooperate with government; that they should come and volunteer information and tell government where the girls are. He confessed, rather helplessly, that government had no information regarding the location of the girls.
But that response on national television belied a deeper challenge, steeped in frustration that Jonathan was facing.
Sunday Vanguard gathered from Aso Rock insiders that a meeting the day before, between President Jonathan; Governor Shettima of Borno State; CP Lawal Tanko, Police Commissioner in the state; Mrs. Asabe Kwambula, the school principal; Comrade Inuwa Kubo, Education Commissioner; and the DPO for Chibok, Hezekiah; had caused more muddle. It was discovered by Sunday Vanguard that the four actors from Borno gave different versions of the incident of April 14.
Challenge of capacity A source inside the Villa disclosed that this development threw every effort being mounted from the Presidency into a kilter. “Even Mr. President could not believe what he was hearing from the principal, the education commissioner, the police commissioner and the DPO. Those at that briefing listened with mouths opened wide”. It was this sentiment that President Jonathan re-echoed on national television. From the gesticulation of hopelessness that he displayed regarding the insecurity in the country, what was clear was a challenge of capacity. Even an attempt to help Mr. President place some of the blame where it really belongs – at the door step of leaders in the North, who allowed the Boko Haram insurgency fester and blow out of proportion – he condescended and rationalised this leadership failing, explaining that leaders in the North were dealing with terrorism and not militancy.
On the question of corruption and the NNPC, President Jonathan missed some points. He did not need to attempt to define corruption and its relationship with stealing. He did not also need to drag the legislature into it – by saying he smelt legislative dictatorship in the conduct of the activities of the House of Representatives; he also did not need to attempt to draw a parallel between corruption, inflated pump-head price of petrol and the popular rally of January 2012.
On the issue of governance and politics, President Jonathan said he wasn’t ready to declare whether he would seek re-election or not. He voiced out the same mantra of not wanting to be distracted. That response was expected any way.
On the need to curtail the excesses of petroleum products’ marketers who are selling beyond the official rate, President Jonathan sounded very distant. There is the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, statutorily mandated to monitor activities in the sector. But Mr. President first embarked on a voyage of disbelief; that he finds it difficult to believe that the claim was true; and that Nigerians were responsible for the serial inhumanity against fellow Nigerians. Then suddenly, Mr. President remembered that there was DPR which, he admitted, should begin to do its job.
Jonathan also responded to questions regarding the need for a sound electoral system. He tackled, quite well, the need to ensure that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, gets good funding to prosecute next year’s general elections.
The National Conference going on in Abuja got a fair share of mention. Tackling the need to provide a legal framework that would ensure that resolutions from the confab found their way into the Constitution, Jonathan assured Nigerians of the genuineness of his intention. He provided a pan-Nigerian vision which he said should be the abiding mantra. He made it clear that it would be better for Nigerians to buy into the resolutions so long as they are meant for the enthronement of a nation built on fairness and equity.
Reality check At the end of the two-hour session, the coterie of staff and a few friends were all smiles. ‘Mr. President, well done’; ‘Mr. President, that was a good one’; ‘Mr. President, that was great’. Those were the comments from virtually everyone around. So, you needed to do a reality check: Were these guys referring to the same media chat that had just ended; a chat that saw Mr. President avoiding some questions and instead launching into a series of expeditions. But then, you were quickly reminded that by Mr. President’s own standards, this was one of the best performances.
To be fair, not every man is blessed with the magisterial elocution or oratory of Obama; therefore, we cannot hold President Jonathan accountable on that score. However, we can hold his handlers culpable of dereliction of duty. Was Mr. President not coached properly on how to handle questions? Was he not prepared on the art of effective response to issues raised? Whatever you say of President Jonathan, he is a thorough gentleman who appears to mean no harm. He may be limited as all mortals are. He may also have been catapulted, by grace, beyond his wildest imaginations as he is wont to admit. However, President Jonathan has spent enough years on the seat of power to realign the realities of his present situation by desisting from constantly disappointing some of his admirers. What one saw last Sunday was the same man whom one had met twice at Government House, Bayelsa, between 2000 and 2004; and the man one met, through the facilitation of now Senator Smart Adeyemi, at Eko Hotel in 2006 – his very early days as governor of Bayelsa State. Verdant, innocent, unacquainted and untried, four years on the seat of the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria is more than enough time to recreate a man. And whereas an old adage says you cannot teach a man to become left-handed at old age, and while not being totally dismissive of the token transformation of Jonathan the village man to Jonathan the President and Commander-in-Chief, there is still much work to be done. And this is where Mr. President’s need for help starts. He invited the quartet to his residence for dinner. First was the weight of the dinner chairs! Only God knows what material was used. Just pulling out the chair, it felt like the weight of a 25kg bag of rice. One of the guests could not but voice “these chairs are heavy, very heavy”. And if one had thought the needless effusion of praise about his performance was absurd enough, more was to come at dinner table. We would need to be charitable here. Apart from Mr. Vice President, Namadi Sambo; Chief of Staff, Gen. Arogbofa (rtd); Dr. Reuben Abati; and Labaran Maku, Information Minister; the dinner table was filled with jesters. Some would not even allow Mr. President to finish a sentence before they would interject and complete the sentence for him.
Real help When Jonathan tried to explain the complexities involved in the abduction saga and why he remained disappointed in the way the episode is turning out, some people around the table would not let him finish. ‘Yes, the state government should be blamed Mr. President’; ‘the school principal is not fit to head a school’; ‘Mr. President, this looks like a set up’.
Emotive as the crisis at hand was, some individuals cracked jokes that were at once dry and unproductive. Yet, some of these persons are aides who are very close to the President. But the real help Jonathan needs must be offered by all well-meaning Nigerians. He remains the leader. Whatever shambling of issues you may accuse him of, he remains the number one citizen of the country. Those who are guilty in this regard are legion. His wife for instance! Patience Jonathan may be a wonderful wife on the inside but each public intervention by her comes with a heavy baggage of collateral mishap, which, in turn, only breeds public opprobrium. Giving instances here would be impolite but the social media videos of her intervention did more damage than good – even infusing the abduction issue with some sordid comic relief.
But Jonathan’s friends and close aides are the guiltiest of the lot. They appear to have ring-fenced the man from reality. Those who would have been able to offer good counsel and meaningfully contribute for the success of his administration are either kept at bay or do not enjoy quality time to strategic and serious thinking. What you then have is a miss-mash of ineffectual policy pronouncements. Those who seem to think the disgrace being suffered by the Jonathan Presidency – yes, disgrace – because of the abduction should not glory in it. It is a disgrace for the whole nation. The party leaders, the former heads of state, the elder statesmen who labored to ensure that Jonathan got his ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ should carry part of the blame of what this Presidency is turning into. Is it that they offered counsel and were rebuffed? True, he cannot be held responsible for this insurgency but he can be blamed for the way he handled the abduction of the girls.
Throes of evil True there may have been political undertone in the beginning but when the Presidency is quick to splash the tar of politics on every insurgency, thus belies the fundamental issues which are related purely to a lack of capacity. There was once the sharia movement in this same country. A President dealt with it and even proclaimed that it would fizzle out. President Jonathan was on CNN mid last year waxing pontifical that Boko Haram would be forgotten in three months, that he would reappear on CNN to tell the story. Sadly, the story on CNN today is about a nation in the throes of evil occasioned by the insurgency.
Still on this issue of abduction, how did the Defence Ministry come out within 24hours to say all the abducted girls had been rescued? Was it PR gimmickry? For all of three weeks, the Presidency was asleep. Until the weekend of the media chat, there was no momentum. In times of national crisis, every nation needs a leader. A leader who means well must be seen to be doing well. In the case of the Jonathan Presidency, from what the naked eyes could see, there appears to be a great disconnect between the desire to accomplish and the capacity to deliver.
Mr. President needs help from all Nigerians because at least, as of today, he is still the President. We have had leaders who were rambunctious, some deceptive, others meek, and yet some clueless and uncoordinated. How would you describe President Jonathan?
In terms of assistance, mercifully, at the time of going to press, many countries of the world have shown considerable concern about the state of affairs in Nigeria and are sending help. Nigerians, the elites should help their President in the area of capacity-building. Watching our Information Minister on CNN, shouting and attempting to use decibel to break down their microphone smacks of panic response. Yet, I can bet you, as indecorous as that action may be, there would be some people in the Villa who would say, ‘Well done, Mr. Minister,’ ‘You did well Mr. Minister’.
That is the way we are. But the way we are would not help President Jonathan.
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.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After bombarding South Korea's female president with sexist invectives, North Korea's state news agency has fired off racist insults against President Barack Obama that U.S. officials condemn as "disgusting."
North Korea is notorious for inflammatory, warlike rhetoric against its rivals South Korea and the U.S. but had rarely used racial slurs in its verbal attacks. Pyongyang's tone has grown angrier in recent weeks as it threatens to conduct a fourth nuclear test.
In a lengthy May 2 dispatch released only in Korean, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency published comments from a factory worker who said Obama has the "shape of a monkey" and made many other crude insults.
"It would be better for him to live with other monkeys at a wild animal park in Africa … and licking bread crumbs thrown by onlookers," worker Kang Hyok at Chollima Steel Complex was quoted as saying.
Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, said Thursday that the North Korean dispatch was "offensive and ridiculous and absurd."
"I don't know how many words I can use up here to describe the rhetoric … It's disgusting," she told reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington.
Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of North Korea studies at Korea University in South Korea, said North Korea is trying to get attention by publishing such comments through its state-run news agency. But he added that it tried to distance the government from the remarks by attributing them to a citizen.
"If it was to publish such a report in the voice of the authorities it would entrap them, whereas reporting the story under some ordinary citizen's name will give them leeway," Yoo said.
The North's rhetoric against Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye intensified after they held a summit in Seoul late last month. During his visit, Obama said at a joint news conference with Park that it may be time to consider further sanctions against North Korea, and that the U.S. will not hesitate to use its military might to defend its allies.
Recent state media dispatches criticizing Park are full of sexist tirades such as "old prostitute coquetting with outside force."
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.
Abuja – President Goodluck Jonathan says he will “not sleep” or rest on his oars until the over 200 abducted girls in Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno, are rescued.
He stated this at a world press conference to mark the end of the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF) hosted in Abuja.
Jonathan, who appealed to the parents of the abducted girls to be patient and cooperate with government, said that the girls and their abductors were still within Nigeria.
President Goodluck Jonathan
He assured that with the support of the international community, the satellite imagery to be deployed would locate the kidnapped girls and they would be safely rescued.
“We plead with the parents, as a father, and the President of this country, I feel pained and I don’t sleep with my two eyes closed.
“And, I will not sleep with my two eyes closed until these girls are brought safely back to their parents.
“The attackers are in a part of Borno State described as Sambisa forest. It is a forest area and we are working with the experts that will used remote sensor to see that wherever they are we will seen.
“So, the best we can say is that they are within the Sambisa forest area.
“Of course, I agree that there are stories that they have moved outside the country but if they move that number of girls to Cameroon, people will see.
“So, I believe that they are still within Nigeria.”
The president said that he was in touch with a number of presidents and had been talking to all the presidents of neighbouring countries, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin.
“I am going beyond that also because the crisis we have in Nigeria cuts across Africa.
“It goes up to Central Africa, it goes up to North Africa. So, I am discussing with the leaders within the region and of course the world leaders that will support us.
“A number of the countries already their personnel have arrived Nigeria to assist us to find the girls; collectively we must find these girls.”
Jonathan clarified that contrary to the believe in some quarter, there was no slow response to the kidnap when it happened.
”Is a misconception, the response is not slow. I have explained this that Borno State can be described as the headquarters of the terrorists, Boko Haram; they are more in Borno State, then followed by Yobe and then Adamawa.
“These are the three states we have declared state of emergency already.
“So, they have military personnel in that state.
“Immediately this incident happened, they have been following it both the Army and the Air Force, they have been combing the area.”
The president thanked the organiser of the WEF for bringing the whole world to Nigeria, especially at the period the nation was facing the attacks of terrorists.
He said that if they had not come, “people will think that you cannot even spend a night in Abuja, but, at least, you have been here with us for the period, and you have seen that the country is moving.
“Yes, we have challenges but we are going to move on”.
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.
Vladimir Putin is going to new lengths to control not just the actions, but the words of his people. The Russian president just signed a new law, passed by the legislature on Monday, that will allow the government to monitor and censor more of the Internet. This comes on the same day that he ruled that swearing is not allowed in movies, theater, or in concerts as of July 1.
The online regulations, which go into effect August 1, are aimed at silencing opposition websites, while also providing the Russian government with a wealth of user data. The law requires blogs with 3,000 or more unique visitors per day to register as "mass media." Those bloggers will be held to the same standards as other mass media, in that they will be "required to certify the factual accuracy of the information in their blogs" or risk punishment.
Irina Yarovaya, one of the leading sponsors of the law, told NPR, "In principle, anonymity is always deception. It's a wish to mislead someone. I can't see any reason to raise lying to [the status of] a human virtue or an understanding of what freedom is." The new regulations can, and likely will, successfully shutter digital anonymity in Russia.
Another clause in the law is directed at a practice opposition bloggers have taken up recently: revealing the personal information, such as addresses and secret bank accounts, of public officials. The law now prohibits revealing information about a person's home and personal life online.
The law also requires that all distributors of online content keep user data for six months after its creation within Russia. This will allow the Kremlin direct access to email providers and social networks that serve Russian citizens. The six-month storage clause will force foreign Internet providers to comply with Russia's request for user data, or else risk getting subpoenaed by the Russian government.
This is not so simple, as a company can be active in Russia without having servers there. Putin is looking to change that: "With regard to the civil sphere, here it is necessary to transfer servers. It is possible to do, but it takes time and capital investment." However flawed, his thought process for this law seems to be that he wants to creating a local version of the U.S.-dominated server system. But he is going one step further, aiming to use servers as a state-controlled data source. While the subpoenas might be sent, it is unlikely that companies without Russian-based servers would comply. This includes the likes of Facebook and Twitter, though Google does have one server in Russia.
If a website or internet provider does not comply with the Kremlin's request for data, they will be hit with a fine of 50,000 to 300,000 Rubles ($1,413 to $8,479 USD.) This is a minimal fine for web giants like Google, but for smaller websites, it could take them out of business completely. The compliance regulations do not stop there. In the event the fines aren't doing the trick, websites can be shut down or have their content filtered. In a worst case scenario, Google and its subsidiaries (mainly YouTube) could become banned in Russia.
While Putin is hungry for information about his internal opposition, this law also stems from a resurgence in Cold War sentiment. Putin associates the world wide web with the United States, recently telling reporters: "You do know that it all began initially, when the Internet first appeared, as a special CIA project. And this is the way it is developing."
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.
As outrage continues to mount over the kidnapping of more than two hundred girls by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, a second incident was reported by officials on Tuesday. Local officials said that approximately 11 more schoolgirls had been kidnapped.
As a result of the worsening crisis, and as international criticism swells, the United States offered to assist Nigeria’s efforts to recover the girls by providing a team of experts that includes military and law officers, negotiators, and psychologists.
The crisis comes at an inopportune time for Nigeria, as delegates arrive for the African meeting of the World Economic Forum. Additionally, conflicting reports from government and U.N. officials cast skepticism over how seriously the Nigerian government is taking the situation.
As Pamela Constable writes in The Washington Post:
One of the factors in play, several experts said Tuesday, is the permanent tension between northern and southern Nigeria. Jonathan is a southerner and many northerners are said to oppose his bid for reelection next year, which may have dampened his eagerness to intervene in the kidnappings there.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and his administration have sustained criticism for their perceived unenthusiastic response. A spokesman for the president told CNN, “We’ve done a lot—but we are not talking about it. We’re not Americans. We’re not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something.”
In Congress, 20 female senators signed a letter calling on President Obama to take action against Boko Haram, and press for UN sanctions against the group, designated by the administration as a terrorist group.
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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