Nigerian Environment Minister on Ogoni land Clean-Up

The Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, says the clean-up of Ogoni land is just the beginning of many other clean-ups that the government will embark on in the Niger Delta region.

President Buhari will on Thursday, June 2, fulfill his campaign promise by launching the Ogoni clean-up project and Mrs. Mohammed stated that how to keep the Niger Delta clean from further pollution after the clean-up is most important to the administration.

“Technologies are available, whether we are going to deal with the soil or the air and the gas flaring or we are going to be dealing with the water which is so contaminated."

“I think there is a broad knowledge of what is going to happen.” the Minister said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday."

Reacting to questions about the possibility of totally restoring the polluted areas in less time than the stipulated 25 years, the Minister noted that fixing the pollution cannot not be achieved in few years considering how long the damaging activities have been going on in the region.

“You’re not going to fix it in few years, no matter what technology you have. You have massive areas of land. Remember I said Ogoni is going to be our starting point, the rest of the Niger Delta is also polluted in heavy ways, perhaps even more so than Ogoni land.

“Even though there have been no production in the last 20 years there are still illegal activities that again refill the pollution.”

She gave the assurance that the Ministry would be deploying all available technologies and wealth of expertise from across the world and also from scientists in Nigeria universities towards achieving the targets.

WHO rejects call by Health Experts to Postpone Rio Olympics

According to over 150 global health experts, the summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympics should be moved or postponed due to Zika virus prevalence.

In an open letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the experts, including a former White House adviser, called into question the two organisations' close relationship and asked for the Games to be moved to another location or postponed "in the name of public health".

The letter cites that the Zika virus has more serious medical consequences than previously known and that the emergency contains "many uncertainties".

One co-author told the Press Association that if this year's Games went ahead, it risked becoming "the Olympics of brain damage".

WHO had declared the Zika epidemic to be a global emergency in February and in its latest assessment this week, said it "does not see an overall decline in the outbreak".

The experts, many of whom have worked with the WHO, also voiced concerns over the relationship between the UN's health agency and the IOC, who they said entered an official partnership in 2010.

Co-author of the letter, professor Amir Attaran called the partnership "beyond the pale" and called into question the independence of the WHO.

He said: "It is ignorant and arrogant for the WHO to march hand-in-hand with the IOC. How can it be ethical to increase the risk of spreading the virus?

It's Children Day

A big shout out with joy to all the children found present on the surface of the earth as they gloriously celebrate their day.

Every parent/government must endeavour to make this day colourful for their children.

We should be reminded that if children all over the world are accorded the necessary treatments, they are bent on having refulgent future.

Every society holds the family in high regard. The child turned terrorist tomorrow is likely to be the one whose mind was not instilled with the required moral values. There have been huge decline in moral standards around the continents just because parents failed to carry out their responsibilities in homes.

Most times, events keep repeating in a circle, where you see child traffickers, paedophiles and the likes commit such heinous crimes and go scot-free. This calibre of unscrupulous humans should be made to face the utter wrath of the law.

To the Children

• Be determined in pursuit for excellence; know that it takes much/less pains through hardwork and perseverance to attain mind-blowing results in life.

• You need to develop an efficient upthrust against wobbly conditions, having great confidence in God. With the Almighty God, YOU CAN reach the climax of your purpose here on earth.

• Crave for things that heightens your natural propensity for outstanding performance in your multifarious scheme of work.

With your hope in God, the sky will be your launch paid into greater accomplishments.

HAPPY CELEBRATION

from

realtimeclick-blogspot

Sexual Harassment In Nigerian Tertiary Institutions: Bill Passes Second Reading

Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institutions Prohibition Bill has passed the crucial second reading in the Senate.

The bill specifically makes it a criminal offense for any educator in a tertiary educational system who violates or exploits the student-lecturer relationship for sexual favours.

it is a bill which is sure to capture the attention of Nigerians and sponsored by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

He is seeking tighter statutory protection for students against sexual hostility and all forms of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions.

The bill also stipulates as offenses; solicitation of sex or sexual advances by lecturers which result to intimidation, hostile or offensive environment for students.

The bill enjoyed the support of majority of the lawmakers.

after the debate, the bill was sent to the Senate Committee on Judiciary for further legislative work before a public hearing on the bill.

Chibok girls: One of the abducted girls rescued; reunites with family

The first of the missing Nigerian schoolgirls to be rescued since her capture two years ago has had an emotional reunion with her mother.

Amina Ali Nkeki, 19, was found with a baby by an army-backed vigilante group on Tuesday in the huge Sambisa Forest, close to the border with Cameroon.

She was one of 219 pupils missing since they were abducted by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram from a secondary school in eastern Chibok in April 2014.

Amina was reportedly recognised by a civilian fighter of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), a vigilante group set up to help fight Boko Haram.

She was with a suspected Boko Haram fighter who is now in the Nigerian military's custody. Named as Mohammed Hayatu, he said he was Amina's husband. 

A spokesman for Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the rescued young woman would be brought to meet the head of state, before being helped to reintegrate into society.

Hosea Abana Tsambido, the chairman of the Chibok community in Abuja, Abuja, told the BBC that Amina had been found after venturing into the forest to search for firewood.

"She was saying… all the Chibok girls are still there in the Sambisa except six of them that have already died."

 

Man Receives First Penis Transplant in US

Thomas Manning after the successful surgery

A man whose penis was removed because of cancer has received the first penis transplant in the United States, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Thomas Manning, 64, a bank courier from Halifax, Mass., underwent the 15-hour transplant operation by a team doctors on May 8 and 9. The organ came from a deceased donor.

“I want to go back to being who I was,” Mr. Manning said on Friday in an interview in his hospital room. Sitting up in a chair, happy to be out of bed for the first time since the operation, he said he felt well and had experienced hardly any pain.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Dr. Curtis L. Cetrulo, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and a leader of the surgical team. “It’s uncharted waters for us.”

The surgery is experimental, part of a research program with the ultimate goal of helping combat veterans with severe pelvic injuries, as well as cancer patients and accident victims.

If all goes as planned, normal urination should be possible for Mr. Manning within a few weeks, and sexual function in weeks to months, Dr. Cetrulo said.

Mr. Manning welcomed questions and said he wanted to speak out publicly to help dispel the shame and stigma associated with genital cancers and injuries, and to let other men know there was hope of having normal anatomy restored.

“Don’t hide behind a rock,” he said.

He said he was not quite ready to take a close look at his transplant.

He will have to take several anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life. One of them, tacrolimus, seems to speed nerve regeneration and may help restore function to the transplant, Dr. Cetrulo said.

Another patient, his penis destroyed by burns in a car accident, will receive a transplant as soon as a matching donor becomes available, Dr. Cetrulo said.

Dr. Cetrulo estimated the cost at $50,000 to $75,000. Both hospitals are paying for the procedures, and the doctors are donating their time.

Nigeria hosts security summit on battling Insurgence

World powers turned their focus to the Boko Haram terror group this weekend as regional leaders gathered in Nigeria to devise ways to tackle the Islamist extremist movement.

In a presidential statement issued Friday, the Security Council expressed alarm at Boko Haram's links to ISIS and stressed that the group's activities "undermine the peace and stability of the West and Central African region."

It also said it was concerned over the food security crisis in the region and cited the widespread displacement caused by Boko Haram.

Leaders from Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger were among the delegates, alongside French President Francois Hollande, and high-ranking diplomats from the US, UK and the European Union.

The leaders were expected to sign "new agreements on further defense" as part of a regional security summit in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Femi Adesina, media advisor to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, said.

Nigeria is seeking closer military cooperation to bring to an end nearly seven years of violence in the northeast, which has left at least 20,000 dead and forced more than 2.6 million people from their homes.

The UN Security Council on Friday said the talks should help develop "a comprehensive strategy to address the governance, security, development, socio-economic and humanitarian dimensions of the crisis".

Free Basics finally launched by Facebook in Nigeria

Facebook has launched its Free Basics service in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country—and its biggest market on the continent. The platform which allows users to access listed websites at no cost was launched in partnership with Airtel, the country’s third largest telecoms operator with almost 34 million subscribers.

Free Basics is part of Facebook’s internet.org initiative which aims to provide internet access to the two-thirds of the world without access and the company says the project has helped bring 25 million people online globally. In Nigeria, where it has 16 million users, the high price of data remain an impediment to internet access despite growing smartphone penetration.

The controversial free service has been criticized for its “walled garden” version of the internet to users meaning they could only accept select websites on the service. But Facebook responded by opening up the platform to a wider range of sites which met “technical specifications.” While it has drawn the ire of net neutrality advocates globally, it has also faced stiff opposition from some national regulators.

India effectively banned the service earlier this year despite intense lobbying from Facebook. The move was expected to spur critics of the service to seek similar bans in other countries but across Africa, the service has been largely welcome. In Tanzania, where internet penetration stands at only 5%, the country’s regulator said the possibility of increased “adoption of data services” by Tanzanians was more beneficial to the market.

Power prices went negative due to much renewable energy generated by Germany

Windmills for renewable energy

Germany has made headlines for its renewable energy use before, and this past weekend. On Sunday, May 8, Germany hit a new high in renewable energy generation. It generated around 87 percent of its power from renewable sources. Electric suppliers effectively paidusers to consume energy.

It was a lovely spring Sunday – sunny and windy – and around one in the afternoon the country was receiving so much power from wind, solar, biomass, and hydro plants that electricity prices plunged into negative numbers. Out of the 63 GW being consumed, 55 GW came from renewable sources. With new wind power plants entering the scene soon, it’s safe to say Germany just might reach its goal of electricity from 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.

 

Solar panels structured before the sun

Nigeria and Afghanistan described as 'fantastically corrupt' by British PM

David Cameron has described Nigeria and Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" in a conversation with the Queen.

The PM was talking about this week's anti-corruption summit in London.

"We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world," he was overheard saying.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, elected last year after vowing to fight corruption, said he was "shocked".

And a senior Afghan official said the characterisation was "unfair".

After Mr Cameron's comments, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby intervened to say: "But this particular president is not corrupt... he's trying very hard," before Speaker John Bercow said: "They are coming at their own expense, one assumes?"

The conversation took place at Buckingham Palace at an event to mark the Queen's 90th birthday, attended by political leaders and other public figures.

On the face of it, it is perhaps one of the most undiplomatic things a prime minister could say; to describe two countries as fantastically corrupt just hours before their leaders visit Britain.

In response, Mr Buhari said his government was deeply "shocked and embarrassed" by the PM's comments. Speaking through his spokesman, he suggested that Mr Cameron must be referring to Nigeria's past notoriety for corruption before his coming to power last year.

The Afghan embassy in London said tackling corruption was one of President Ghani's top priorities and "bold" action had been taken.

"We have made important progress in fighting systematic capture in major national procurement contracts and are making progress on addressing institutional issues as well as issues related to impunity... Therefore calling Afghanistan in that way is unfair."

France's Hollande to Attend Talks on Militant Threat in Nigeria

French President Francois Hollande will attend a summit in Nigeria on Saturday that’s meant to find a regional response to the security threat posed by militants in West and Central Africa, according to Nigeria’s presidency.

Nigeria and France plan to sign a defense cooperation agreement during the summit in the capital, Abuja, the office of President Muhammadu Buhari said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. The heads of state of Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin will also attend the talks to address the crises caused in the region by “terrorist groups,” according to the statement.

Buhari has pledged to quash the militant organization, Boko Haram, whose campaign to impose sharia law has costs thousands of lives in northeastern Nigeria.

Since the beginning of the year, neighboring countries including Cameroon and Niger have witnessed a surge in attacks by supporters of the group.