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Friday, December 09, 2016

Cross River Super Highway: Court Dismisses Communities’ Suit against Superhighway Construction

A Federal High Court in Calabar yesterday gave judgment in favour of the Cross River State government against two communities that dragged the government to court over the proposed 260 km superhighway, one of the signature projects of the governor, Professor Ben Ayade.

The suit with no HM/191/2016 was initiated by the people of New and Old Ekuri of Akamkpa Local Government Area seeking to stop the construction of the superhighway.

But delivering judgement yesterday, Justice Maurice Eneji of High Court 3 dismissed the suit as an abuse of court process.

The judge similarly did not grant the prayer of the applicants to stop the construction of the superhighway.

Allah Is Telling Me My Time Is Up: Gambia's President

Gambians celebrate the victory of opposition coalition candidate Adama Barrow by tearing down a poster of longtime President Yahya Jammeh in the streets of Serrekunda, Gambia, Friday Dec. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

BANJUL, Gambia (AP) — Gambia's president of 22 years acknowledged his election defeat on state television Friday night, vowing to step down hours after news of the results prompted thousands to celebrate in the streets in an unprecedented display of disdain for his rule.

With cameras rolling, Yahya Jammeh called the winner, opposition coalition leader Adama Barrow, on a mobile phone to praise the election and vow not to contest the result.

"Allah is telling me my time is up and I hand over graciously with gratitude toward the Gambian people and gratitude toward you," Jammeh said.

The new president of Gambia, Adama Barrow smiles as he makes a call at his home in Yarambamba, West Coast Region, Gambia December 3, 2016. REUTERS/ Thierry Gouegnon

BANJUL (Reuters) - The winner of Gambia's presidential election told Reuters on Saturday he was keen to form a new cabinet to get cracking with reforms, a day after veteran leader Yahya Jammeh stunned the tiny west African nation by conceding defeat.

Jammeh's statement on state radio sparked wild celebrations in a country he has ruled with an iron hand since taking power in a coup 22 years ago, but doubts persisted over how he would step aside and whether the army would switch its allegiance.

Naira Sinks To 480/$1 ....

The Nigerian Naira on Tuesday sank to 480/$1 as fresh forex scarcity hit the parallel market.

The depreciating Naira also traded at 585 and 500 to the British pound and European Euro, respectively.

At the official side of the forex market, the local currency also depreciated against a resurgent US dollar, trading at 315.125 per dollar, according to the FMDQOTC trading quotes.

Bureau de Change (BDC) operators who spoke to TheCable blamed the scarcity of forex on the inability of commercial banks to provide stipulated weekly allocations for BDCs.

The Federal Executive Council has approved the 2017 budget proposal for onward submission to national assembly for final approval.

Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning, revealed this at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council in Abuja on Wednesday.

He stated that the approved document would soon be presented to the National Assembly, but he didn’t give details of the budget benchmarks.

Udoma added that the date for the presentation would be given by the National Assembly; he explained that the N290 per dollar benchmark has had to be adjusted.

Senate President Bukola Saraki has expressed optimism that the 2017 budget will be passed sooner than the 2016 budget, and without rancour.

He gave the assurance when he spoke with state house correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari‎, at the presidential villa.

Saraki, who said he was at the villa to consult with the president on a number of national issues, including the budget, also said the national assembly was expecting to get the budget in the next 10 days.

The federal executive council presided over by President Buhari had on Wednesday approved the 2017 budget, preparatory to its transmission to the national assembly for its consideration and approval.

Lagos by Night

Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of Lagos state, launched his light up Lagos project immediately he assumed office in 2015, powering many major roads across the entire state.

On Wednesday, at the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) power and utilities roundtable, Olawale Oluwo, Lagos Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, unveiled more features of the state’s power plan. Highlights below:

46,000 STREET LIGHTS ACROSS THE STATE

According to Oluwo, Lagos has installed 36,000 street lights since the new administration came on board. however, there are still 10,000 street lights to go before the state can claim to have completed the street light project.

Street lights are “improving night-time economic activities, night-time illumination, and night-time security across the state”, Oluwo said.

AACLE International, a UK-based company founded by Nigerian professionals, is set to launch an online community of entrepreneurs providing financial and other solutions to the business needs of each member of the community.

AACLE, whose website launches Thursday, December 1, will target young school leavers, young adults with viable business ideas and SMEs.

The company plans to support these groups with business grants ranging from N20,000 to N1million.

According to Tosin Adebusuyi, AACLE’s director of social enterprise, the aim of AACLE is to help bridge the gap as a social enterprise that provides a veritable and robust space for interaction among entrepreneurs on one hand; and interaction with solution providers on the other hand.

After the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached its first deal in eight years, oil prices have been on the increase but they remain short of Nigeria’s healthy price range.

Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, had climbed to $50.47, as of Thursday morning, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $49.81 per barrel.

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, said on the sidelines of the meeting in Vienna that the healthy price of crude for Nigeria would be in the mid-$50s.

How to Make Over Your Business

Arriving in the U.S. from Macedonia in 2001 with no savings, he settled in Chicago, and within five years, he opened his own beauty salon, Goran Coban Salon. Today his flagship salon location in downtown Chicago employs a staff of 18 people.

"I don't see it as a business. Maybe that's the most important. I consider myself an artist,” he said. “All my colleagues are very artistic people. And it's more of a fun environment for everyone, and for me.”

But with a salon that serves up to 50 clients a day, that perspective can create some management and organizational problems.

Woman Buys 23-Pound Lobster Named 'King Louie' to Set Him Free

Love live King Louie, the 23-pound lobster who has been given a second chance at life after a woman set out to free him.

A Canadian woman bought the giant lobster, estimated to be 100 years old, to spare him from the dinner table, Canadian news channel CTV reported.

King Louie was caught in the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick by Rodney MacDonald, whose family runs the Alma Lobster Shop. After local media got wind of the enormous crustacean, the shop received several suggestions on what to do with King Louie.

Uganda: Clashes Kill Scores in Restive Ugandan Kingdom

President Yoweri Museveni

At least 55 people have been killed in fierce fighting that erupted in western Uganda between security forces and a separatist militia linked to a tribal king, according to police.

Andrew Felix Kaweesi, police spokesman, said on Sunday that 14 police officers and 41 rebels had died in the clashes in the town of Kasese on Saturday, when fighters linked to the royal guard of the Rwenzururu kingdom attacked patrolling security forces.

"Yesterday a joint Uganda police and UPDF (army) operation, patrolling in Kasese town... came under attack by royal guards of the kingdom. The attackers threw an improvised grenade which exploded and injured one soldier. Security forces reacted and shot in self-defence, killing four attackers," said Kaweesi.

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, on Monday said soon, Nigerians might begin to show evidence of tax payment before obtaining their passports.

Tunde Fowler said this at the 136th meeting of the Joint Tax Board which had the theme: "Increased Inter-Agency Co-operation to Enhance Tax Compliance and Optimise Revenue Collection" in Abuja.

"We did take a position and I believe it would be implemented in the very near future that before you get any services from the immigration department: renewal of passports etc, you'd have to show that you are a tax payer.

Dar es Salaam — Trouble bedeviling operations of the Dangote cement factory in Mtwara could derail the mega plant and blot the country's attractiveness for investment.

The $500 million (Sh1 trillion) investment by Africa's richest businessman Aliko Dangote of Nigeria was commissioned in October 2015 amid pomp and ceremony but high operational costs associated mainly with over-dependence on diesel have led to a slow down on production since the beginning of the last quarter of this year and a complete halt last week.

More than meets the eye

The factory's management yesterday cited "non-critical, technical issues" as the reason for suspending production but high placed, impeccable sources from within the government and in the Dangote Industries Tanzania Limited say there was more than meet the eye in Dangote operational problems.

Biafra, Scene Of A Bloody Civil War...

In this 2012 photo, Igbo men carry a Biafra flag during a protest in Nnewi, Nigeria. (AP)

At first, the mood at the demonstration staged on a high school playing field in the city of Aba, Nigeria, was almost festive. Dozens of demonstrators, calling for Biafran independence, waved red, black and green flags, and danced, clapped and chanted. Within hours, the military moved in and opened fire with live bullets.

The flags toppled and were picked up by soldiers who used the wooden flagpoles to beat protesters who had fallen, as others fled. The scene plays out on a video taken by a witness and offered to the rights group Amnesty International.

Lagos (AFP) - It's not Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's fault that Nigeria's economy is inextricably tied to the global price of oil, now half of its 2014 peak of over $100 per barrel.

But the president's response to the economic crisis has a growing number of people concerned that he doesn't have what it takes to rescue Nigeria from recession.

Warning signs appeared early. Buhari took six months after being elected to name a Finance Minister, then vowed not to "kill the Naira" by devaluing it, against expert advice and with nefarious consequences.

Editorial Board

Africa and the world cannot afford a failing economy in the continent’s most populous nation. Yet that is exactly what Nigeria might be getting: Its economy is on track to shrink by 1.7 percent this year, the official unemployment rate has more than doubled over the last two years, and inflation is at an 11-year high.

One concrete step President Muhammadu Buhari could take to address the crisis would be to eliminate the country’s disastrous foreign exchange controls. Instead, Buhari has made no secret of his desire to defend Nigeria's currency.

Clinton Is Playing With Fire By Backing a Recount in Wisconsin

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is playing with fire by allowing her unsuccessful Democratic presidential campaign organization to participate in an election recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

Marc Elias, the Clinton organization’s general counsel, said over the weekend that the campaign would take part in the Wisconsin recount without financially contributing to the operation. He also raised the possibility of joining the Third Party in recounts in two other closely contested states, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump, seething over what he and his top advisers perceive as Clinton’s reneging on her pledge to abide by the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, predicted that a recount in Wisconsin and the other states would not alter the results of the election.

Job Hazard: Collapsed Scaffolding Left 67 Dead In East China

BEIJING (AP) — Scaffolding at a construction site in eastern China collapsed into a deadly heap on Thursday, sending iron pipes, steel bars and wooden planks tumbling down on about 70 workers in the country's worst work-safety accident in over two years.

At least 67 people were killed by the collapse of the work platform at a power plant cooling tower that was under construction, state media reported. Two others were injured and one worker was missing.

The cooling tower was being built in the city of Fengcheng in Jiangxi province when the scaffolding tumbled down at about 7:30 a.m., an official with the local Work Safety Administration who would only give his surname, Yuan, said by telephone.

Clinton To Challenge Election Results....?

They claim electronic voting machine tallies in key states show discrepancies that hurt Clinton.

A group of computer scientists and election lawyers are urging Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to challenge her election loss, saying they have evidence the results in three key battleground states were compromised.

According to New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, the activists say electronic voting systems in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania produced discrepancies that hurt Clinton.

Pregnant And Unwed Pastor Refusing To Step Down

One of the things I love most about my church in New York, First Corinthian Baptist Church is the genuine love you experience when you walk through the door. They literally have a Smile ministry, people who smile at you, sincerely when you walk into the sanctuary for Sunday service. When people join the church, the congregation literally sings a song to them. A song including the lyrics, “We love you.” But it’s not just something they say, it’s something you feel and experience.

And it’s consistent.

Their reaction to one of our executive pastors turning up pregnant and unmarried, was also one of love.

And while the church was willing to embrace Pastor Desiree Allen with open arms, the process for her to shake off the shame and stigma was a separate process. One she wrote about extensively on her blog, NotCinderella.com.

More than 40,000 Nigerians demand action from Shell to clean up oil spills that have devastated communities for decades.

The Nigerian water is contaminated with oil and cancer-causing compounds such as benzene. It is what his people drink every day.

Lawyers for more than 40,000 Nigerians are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills.

Britain's High Court began hearing lawsuits on Tuesday filed by the Ogale and Bille people alleging that decades of oil spills have fouled the water and destroyed the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the Niger River Delta, where a Shell subsidiary has operated since the 1950s.

They brought their fight to Shell's home base because they say the Nigerian courts are too corrupt.

This Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, shows a jacket once worn by a Holocaust survivor in the Queens borough of New York. A woman hunting for bargains at a tag sale on July 4, 2015, found the jacket hanging in the back of an upstairs bedroom closet and bought it. She then donated it to the Kuperferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College, where it is the centerpiece of an exhibit about the life of the man who wore it, the late Ben Peres. (AP Photo/Frank Eltman)

NEW YORK (AP) — The blue and gray stripes struck Jillian Eisman like a lightning bolt.

She was rummaging through a packed closet during a Long Island tag sale when she immediately recognized the symbol of horror and hate: a jacket worn by a prisoner at the Nazi Dachau concentration camp during World War II.

"I knew exactly what it was, even before I saw the numbers (84679 on the chest)," said Eisman, who purchased the jacket for $2 at the sale last year and donated it to the Kupferberg Holocaust Center in New York City.

330KV Power Switching Station In Akwa Ibom

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday, inaugurated a 330KV power switching station in Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom.

The minister, at Ikot Inyang village in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom, said that the switch on of the station would boost electricity supply in the country.

He said that the station was expected to evacuate electricity from power plants in Alaoji, Afam, Calabar and Ikot Abasi and route same to Ugwuaji in Enugu up to Jos.

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Central and West African countries have promised to protect their tropical forests from being cut down to make way for palm oil crops, in a declaration signed on Wednesday by governments representing more than 70 percent of Africa's tropical forests.

Palm oil, one of the world's most widely used vegetable oils, is a fast-growing business and a major cause of tropical deforestation worldwide.

The seven countries that signed the declaration in Marrakesh, where international climate talks are taking place, want to expand into the $50 billion global palm oil market.