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Court remands monarch in prison
Osogbo – (NAN) Oba Adebukola Alli, Alowa of Ilowa in Osun, standing trial for alleged rape of a 23-year-old NYSC member, was on Friday remanded in prison custody.
When the case came up at an Osogbo Chief Magistrates’ Court, the lead defence counsel, Mr Victor Opara, sought for the vacation of an earlier order of June 24, which placed his client on house arrest.
Opara argued that the court’s order that a government doctor should attend to the monarch at his palace had not been complied with as no doctor came to treat him.
He expressed fear that the life of the traditional ruler might be in danger in view of his poor health condition.
The lawyer also told the court that the private doctors of the traditional ruler were aware of the order and so did not come to treat him.
The counsel urged the court to grant his application and vacate the order to enable the traditional ruler to access medical services in a hospital of his choice.
Mr Olufemi Adedokun, the state counsel did not oppose the application, but he told the magistrate to use his discretion on the matter.
Chief Magistrate Adewunmi Makanjuola, in his ruling, observed that the traditional ruler did not appear physically sick, saying that it was all a ploy to evade justice.
According to him, the claim in the application that the life of the traditional ruler is in danger is suspicious and can be misleading.
Although, the magistrate ordered prison officials to give Alli adequate medical attention, he said “the accused person is hereby ordered to be remanded in the prison custody.”
He also ordered the prison’s medical team to furnish the court with details of the medical report on the accused at the next hearing adjourned to Friday July 8.(NAN)
Jonathan Ends 36 States Campaign Tour
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ABUJA – President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday concluded his campaign tour of the 36 states of the Federation which was flagged off in Lafia, Nassarawa State on Monday, February 7, 2011.
A statement by Mr. Ima Niboro, Special Adviser to the President, Media & Publicity, said the President who ended the campaign in Dutse, Jigawa State thanked Nigerians for their massive turn-out.
With the conclusion of the state-by-state campaign by President Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo, the stage is now set for the grand finale of the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential campaign scheduled to hold at the Eagle Square in Abuja on Saturday, March 26, 2011.
“Keeping to a grueling and arduous schedule which sometimes had him campaigning in as many as three states in one day, President Jonathan has successfully taken his message of unity, togetherness, strength in diversity, peace and stability for rapid national progress to all the geo-political zones of the country”.
According to the statement, “the President thanks all Nigerians who have turned out in their thousands to listen to him and his team at their various campaign stops across the country”.
President Jonathan urged Nigerians to affirm that they have indeed received and taken his message of unity, peace and progress to heart by coming out to vote en-masse for the Peoples Democratic Party when the general elections begin next month.
He also extends his heartfelt appreciation to all officials and members of the PDP who have worked extremely hard to make his campaign tour a success and prays that God Almighty will crown their collective efforts with success at the polls.
Health Is Wealth’ – 9ice
Since the release of his debut work ‘Certificate‘, 9ice has truly evolved over time. Even though he is still centered around a very traditional content and singing style, it is this concept and style of his music that has seen him thrive and eventually succeed in his musical journey to recognition and stardom.
So when an artiste with so much local content to pour out teams up with a Fuji great like KWAM 1, you expect nothing but greatness that the young and old can both relate to.
‘Health is wealth‘ is an easy going, melodious number to sway to. With accordions sounds and timed percussions, K Ultimate and 9ice blend well as they keep the lyrics simple but pass their message along. Good care for the body is essential…
Soyinka Calls For Emergency in Education
The Nation
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Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday called for emergency in the education sector. He said there was urgent need for the government to redress the problem facing the sector.
Soyinka spoke at the opening of Education Summit organised by the Osun State Government. It was held at the State University main campus in Osogbo, where he advised President Goodluck Jonathan to call a round table conference to dialogue on the way forward in the sector.
Soyinka, the chairman of the summit, noted the prime importance of education for the growth of the country, maintaining that government has failed the sector.
He lamented that there were no sufficient learning materials for students, saying the poor performance of students was traceable to many of them learning under very harsh conditions.
Soyinka, expressing appreciation to Osun State for organising the summit, appealed to the three tiers of government to create an enabling environment suitable for learning.
He said: “Students nowadays learn under very harsh conditions which in itself could lead to crisis. There are no sufficient teaching materials in our schools again, there is poor welfare for the students and the library and laboratories are now empty.
“It is high time the government and other stakeholders in the education sector to gave greater attention to education as a means of facilitating rapid socio-cultural and economic development of the country.
“I salute the courage of Governor Rauf Aregbesola for taking interest in the future of the young generation. I believe the summit is one channel through which the education sector can be developed.”
The Chairman, Governing Council of Osun State University, Prof. Peter Okebukola said the nation must start to expand its scope in education, noting that it needs quantity and quality teaching facilities to improve the sector.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola described as “prohibitive” the tuition fees of tertiary institutions in the state.
He pledged to review the fees to bring education nearer to the people.
Hundreds of students of the state’s six tertiary institutions protested high fees.
The students carried placards to the summit.
They described as undemocratic the immediate past administration of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, which increased the fees.
Writer Okey Ndibe Briefly Detained in Nigeria
TTimes Lagos
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The Nigerian State Security Agency SSS temporarily detained Okey Ndibe, a columnist and US professor for questioning. Mr. Ndibe arrived on Turkish airlines at 9:31 PM (Nigerian Time). An Immigration officer handed his passport to an State Security Service (SSS) who instructed him to get his luggage and come with them. One SSS officer named "Mr. George" told Mr. Ndibe his supervisor needed to see him on the first floor at room 1062.
After being held for several hours he was released after he was made to give his Nigerian address, but just before he was released, his Nigerian passport was seized by the agency. They requested that he appears before the Kingsway Road office of the agency on Monday to interview with their director for further action.
Okey Ndibe is a US professor and a columnist for the SUN newspaper, a Guest writer for TTimes World, TTimes Nigeria as well as several websites. He is also a professor of English Literature at Trinity College in Connecticut and Brown University in Rhode Island.
Central Bank Disburses N8.3 Billion Agric Fund
Transatlantic Times News
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disbursed N8.281 billion during the fourth quarter of 2010 under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).
According to data on the Bank’s website, a total of N96.811 billion has so far been disbursed to 86 projects/promoters and 18 state governments in the second tranche since the scheme began in 2009. This brings the number of beneficiaries to 104, out of 347 projects that applied to benefit from the scheme.
The CBN in 2009 set aside N200 billion for onward lending to farmers under the scheme towards boosting agricultural production in the country. The balance of CACS funds as at December, 2010 stood at N103.189 billion.
In a memorandum to the National Economic Council, the Central Bank said that under the second tranche, 18 state governments: Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Enugu, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Imo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Sokoto, Taraba Zamfara, FCT, Akwa Ibom and Rivers accessed N1billion each for on-lending to farmers’ co-operatives and other areas of agricultural interventions in their various states.
FOOD SECURITY
The initiative is expected to enhance food security, reduce cost of credit in agricultural production, and increase output and employment in the sector. Target commodities under the scheme include the cultivation of target crops (rice, cassava, cotton, oil palm, wheat, rubber, sugar cane, fruits, and vegetable); livestock (dairy, poultry, piggery); and fisheries.
As at December, 2010, 11 banks: Access, Fidelity, First, Guaranty Trust, Oceanic, Skye, Stanbic IBTC, Union Bank, UBA, Unity and Zenith are participating under the scheme. UBA has the highest disbursement of N35.162 billion followed by Zenith with N13.835 billion, Union, N10.903 billion, First Bank, N9.135 billion and Skye Bank with N6 billion. Also, N13.934 billion, comprising N11.353 billion from UBA, N2.00 billion from Skye Bank and N0.581 billion from GTB has been withdrawn in respect of undisbursed funds.
ELIGIBILITY
Under the eligibility guidelines released by the Central Bank, borrowers under the scheme shall be a limited liability company, with asset base of not less than N350 million, and with prospect to grow the net asset to N500 million in the next three years and comply with the provision of the Company and Allied Matters Act (1990). This, however, is not applicable to loans taken by state government for on-lending.
Such companies must also have a clear business plan, provide up-to-date record on the business operation, if any, and satisfy the entire requirement specified by its lending bank. According to the CBN, “interest on loan shall not exceed nine per cent, inclusive of all charges.
To ensure safety of the funds, the banks bear the credit risk of the loans, while state government have to sign an irrevocable standing payment order (ISPO) in favour of the CBN to deduct at source the total amount in default from the states on monthly basis of State revenue allocation.
Wisconsin Boy Takes Classmates Hostage,
Shoots Himself.
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A 15-year-old boy took 23 of his classmates and a teacher hostage in a classroom at a small-town Wisconsin high school on Monday, shooting himself as police broke in.
The 24 hostages were released unharmed from the classroom at Marinette High School and the suspect, identified by authorities only as a 15-year-old sophomore, was rushed to a local hospital, Marinette Police Chief Jeff Skorik said.
The boy's condition was not immediately clear.
Skorik said police were dispatched to the high school, where the young suspect held the hostages at gunpoint for some four hours. After five of the student hostages were released, officers surrounding the school heard gunshots and rushed the classroom.
"They saw the suspect with his hands at his sides, they approached him and at that point the suspect raised the gun and shot himself," Skorik told Reuters in an interview.
After the remaining hostages were evacuated from the school, he said, investigators recovered two guns -- a .22 caliber handgun and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol -- along with shell casings from both weapons.
He said the hostages were being interviewed by investigators and reunited with family members but that none had been physically injured.
Skorik said police still had no idea of the boy's motive and said he was a student in the classroom that he took hostage. Marinette High School has about 800 students, according to its website.
The school superintendent in Marinette, a town of nearly 12,000 people some 50 miles north of Green Bay, ordered that the school be open for counseling sessions on Tuesday but said regular classes would not be held and attendance would not be mandatory.
"I think its going to take a little while for this all to sink in," Skorik said. "Its a horrific ordeal for anybody to go through, especially for children in high school."
Law enforcement and school officials are more vigilant about the potential for gun violence in schools following the April 20, 1999 shooting massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado.
At Columbine, students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher and injured 21 other students before taking their own lives.
College presidents taste life outside their offices
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In his three years as president of George Washington University, Steven Knapp has tried nearly everything to bond with undergraduates. He moved onto campus, right across the street from a freshman dorm known for its party culture. He hired a graduate student to tell him which events to attend. He helped students haul their stuff into the dorms, created a Facebook account, danced at parties, judged a pie-eating contest and drummed with a basketball player.
Still, many students thought he was boring and out of touch.
They kept comparing the quiet academic to his gregarious predecessor, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who worked the campus like a politician for 19 years and wrote a book called "Big Man on Campus."
A generation ago, it was typical for college presidents to be stuffy and hard-to-approach chief executives, the type who inspired the Dean Wormer character in "Animal House."
(Photos of college presidents mixing it up with students)
Many of the barriers separating a college's top-paid leaders from its tuition-paying students have disappeared in the past decade. E-mail, text messaging and social media give students unprecedented access to a chief executive, who can no longer hide behind a secretary and an office door.
Today, many students -- and their increasingly over-involved parents -- want a personal bond with the president. Instead of occupying the president's office, more students are stopping by to chat. They want to be friends -- and not just on Facebook.
In an effort to be more cool, presidents across the United States are starring in YouTube videos, serving hot dogs, starting blogs, hosting parties and eating with the masses in dorms.
Knapp's big break came in February, when he stopped by a nighttime snowball fight between GWU and Georgetown University, surprising student organizers.
"It was like a Civil War battle. We were all lined up," Knapp recalled. "I think I was a target, because I got pretty pelted." After victory was declared, Knapp made a speech and canceled classes for the next day. Suddenly, he had some street cred.
Ethics and Values: Pillars of Economy
Says Rev. Jim Wallis
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WASHINGTON, DC – Rev. Jim Wallis is in Davos, Switzerland this week providing leadership to the ethics and values pillar, one of six pillars, at the World Economic Forum.
According to recent survey findings released by the World Economic Forum and Georgetown University, two-thirds of the 130,000 respondents, from ten countries, including the United States, believe that the current economic crisis is also a crisis of ethics and values. In response, the World Economic Forum has placed corporate ethics and personal values as one of the six core pillars of this week’s conference.
Wallis helped begin this conversation about personal values and corporate ethics by telling the assembled leaders at last year’s Forum that they were asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, “When this crisis will be over,” the question should be, “How will this crisis change us?” At this year’s Forum, Rev. Wallis will once again help guide the conversation by participating in a number of key sessions, including a plenary session entitled “Rethinking Values in a Post Crisis World.”
From his experience last year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jim Wallis expanded upon his thoughts in a new book, “Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street” launched only a few weeks before this year’s Forum. Over the past few weeks, Wallis has embarked on a nationwide media and publicity tour, with stops on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and PBS’s The Tavis Smiley Show.
50% of Soft Drink Fountains Are Contaminated
Many Contain Bacteria Contaminants
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You may want to think twice before gulping down a soft drink from a restaurant, according to new research. The study found 48 percent of the sodas from fountains were contaminated with coliform bacteria.
Researchers from Hollins University tested 90 beverages from 30 fountains in fast food restaurants. It's unclear if the bacteria, which is a form of fecal contamination, came from people with dirty hands or the soda fountains. "You can get collections of bacteria in the water line and that then runs through the whole machine and gets in to the beverage. Any time any water or liquid sits somewhere, it's just a breeding ground for bacteria," said Dr. Alanna Levine, a Primary Care Physician. The study also found the bacteria from soda fountains was resistant to antibiotics, which would make it more difficult to treat. "We all have bacteria living in our bodies and our intestines. Normally it really becomes more of a problem for people who have compromised immune systems," said Dr. Levine. For most people, drinking soda from contaminated fountains would only cause stomach flu-like symptoms.
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