Nigerian Government Begins Preparation of 2017 Budget

The Ministry of Budget and National Planning says it has started preparation of the 2017 budget to enhance economic development.

This is contained in a statement by Charles Dafe, Director of Information in the ministry, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

The statement said that the Minister of State Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this when the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) paid her a courtesy visit.

She added that the Federal Government had also started the preparation of the Medium Term 2016-2020 Development Programme to achieve sustainable development.

The ministry, however, solicited the support of ANAN to build the capacity of the staff on Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) application.

The minister also appealed to the association to assist the present administration to fight corruption.

"As accountants, we can resist corruption, block illegal releases; we need to start from ourselves; we must uphold the tenets of our profession and make ourselves clean and accountable always."

"Our administration came on a change mantra; we shall be transparent and accountable to all Nigerians," she said.

FG will not fund foreign medical trips for officials

Mrs. Boade Akinola

A statement had it that the Federal Government will not provide resources for any government official to travel abroad for medical attention unless the case cannot be handled in Nigeria.

The statement was issued by the Director, Media and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola, in Abuja on Thursday.

It said President Muhammadu Buhari made the fact known at the opening ceremony of the 56th Annual General Conference and delegates meeting of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Sokoto.

The President, who was represented by the Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole, said the government would not deny anyone his or her fundamental human rights.

He, however, added: "We will certainly not encourage expending Nigerian hard earned resources on any government official seeking medical care abroad when such can be handled in Nigeria.”

Buhari called on health professionals to discontinue inter-professional crises which had impacted negatively on the healthcare delivery system of the country.

“We have seen the hazards that this unfortunate and highly preventable problems have caused to the quality of health care delivery in Nigeria."

"May I employ members of NMA to always imbibe the spirit of teamwork to ensure harmonious relationship with other health professionals, no profession can effectively and efficiently function without the other,” he said.

Concerning the welfare of health professionals, the president said "government will review all previous agreements and take reasonable decisions that will not infringe on the rights of the workers."

"This government will invest in programme that will improve capacity of all cadres of health workers.’’

Thailand faced with worst drought in decades

A dried-out canal in Nakhon Sawan province (Heavenly City), north of Bangkok.

Widespread drought and sweltering heat have left much of Thailand as well as Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in dire need of water for both crops and residents

People in parts of Thailand are struggling to make ends meet as the country faces its worst drought in decades.

It is the effect of a phenomenon known as El Nino, which has caused much lower rainfall than usual over the past two years.

Across much of central and north-eastern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam's Mekong Delta rice bowl, temperatures are soaring into the 40s, and are likely to stay there until around the middle of next month. 

A second year of summer drought has been exacerbated by the El Nino effect. On Friday, Thailand's meteorological office said a heatwave late this month or early next month would push temperatures to 43 deg C or 44 deg C. 

In a related event, Vietnam's coffee growers have suffered as have Thailand's rice farmers. But while a supply dip could raise coffee prices, rice prices might not be affected, analysts say. 

Scientists say the good news is the El Nino effect will start fading towards the end of next month and annual monsoon rains will begin.

2016 Budget: Lawmakers’ Meeting With President Buhari Fails To Hold

Despite the unyielding protracted period slated for the signing of the 2016 budget, the much anticipated meeting between the National Assembly and the Presidency failed to hold on Tuesday.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, held a closed door meeting with the President in Abuja; he was seen leaving the Presidential Villa at about 2pm, after 30 minutes and was shielded by security operatives.

State House correspondents were prevented from interacting with him as he left the villa.

An official at the Presidency told State House correspondents that the meeting did not hold because other principal members of the National Assembly including the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, were not present.

On Sunday, the spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Abdulrazak Namdas said that members of the legislature would continue deliberations with the executive during the week to resolve some grey areas in the 2016 budget.

Mr. Namdas explained that the delay in the signing of the 2016 budget is not as a result of inaction by the National Assembly but because the President is yet to be convinced to sign the document.

Emir of Ilorin Calls for Decisive Action on Herdsmen Attacks

Alhaji Sulu Gambari

The Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari, has urged the Nigerian government to take a decisive action on the incessant herdsmen attacks on communities to avert the risk of another security crisis like the Boko Haram in the north of the country.

He said that the herdsmen are not Fulani but persons who are taking advantage of the persistent crisis and lack of government intervention to cause the loss of lives and property.

Alhaji Gambari was speaking to the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who paid him a visit on his way to inspect the steel manufacturing industry in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

Professor Osinbajo assured the monarch that the federal government remains commitment to its fight against terrorism and other forms of attacks on innocent Nigerians.

Speaking on his mission to Ilorin, Professor Osinbajo said that Nigeria must take steel manufacturing to the level in which it would provide all of the country’s needs and also enhance exportation.

The Vice President is expected to carry out a ground-breaking ceremony for a steel sheets manufacturing site in Kwara State.

Top Burundi general, wife, daughter gunned down

Gen. Athanase Kararuza

A Tutsi general and security advisor to Burundi’s Vice President was killed Monday in an attack by heavily-armed men, along with his wife and daughter, a security source said.

It was the latest bloodshed to hit a country which has been engulfed by a political crisis which erupted in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in office, which he won in July.

The resulting violence has left at least 500 people dead, while more than a quarter of a million others have fled the country, prompting the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to announce Monday she was opening a preliminary probe into the crisis.

The latest attack took place in the capital Bujumbura as General Athanase Kararuza was dropping his daughter off at school in the northeastern Ghosha district, the high-ranking security source said.

He had been recently named as advisor to Vice President Gaston Sindimwo, also a Tutsi. Under the constitution, the Vice President must always be from a different ethnic group and a different party than the head of state.

Kararuza also served as deputy commander of the African Union-led peacekeeping force in Central African Republic from December 2013 until late last year.

Crowds celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday

The Queen lights the first of more than 900 beacons

being lit across the UK and overseas

Queen Elizabeth greeted thousands of well-wishers from across Britain and beyond as she celebrated her 90th birthday, demonstrating the world's oldest monarch's intent to keep doing the job she has performed for more than six decades.

Usually the Queen's birthday passes with little ceremony but to mark Thursday's milestone a beaming Elizabeth, attired in a light green outfit, mingled with crowds during a lengthy walkabout near her Windsor Castle home, west of London.

In a rare move in recent years, she then drove through Windsor in an open-topped car with Prince Philip, her husband of 68 years, by her side.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip greet crowds in Windsor

 

Photos: Olympic torch begins journey to Rio for the 2016 Olympic games

The Olympic flame is back: Greek actress Katerina Lechou performs

the role of the high priestess as she lights the Olympic flame at the

Temple of Hera at the site of ancient Olympia.

The traditions of the torch-lighting ceremony, which include playing of the

ancient Greek instrument the lyra and the release of a

white dove for peace, were established at the Berlin Games in 1936.

Lechou passes the Olympic flame into a small ceramic bowl.

The ceremony was performed at the site where the Olympics were

born in 776 BC and remained for 12 centuries.

The first torchbearer was Greek gymnastics world champion Eleftherios Petrounias.

The torch is beginning a six-day relay tour of Greece which includes a

pass through a refugee camp in Athens.

Gold medal-winner Petrounias said he was said he was shocked to be

chosen as the first torch bearer. "I was driving when I heard,"

he told the Games' official website. "I almost crashed my car."

The Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro will host the opening

ceremony for Brazil 2016. The Games run from 5-21 August.