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January 17, 2017 , ,
State television announced that the ministers of finance, foreign affairs, trade, and environment resigned late on Monday night. 


The political crisis in The Gambia escalated on Tuesday as four ministers resigned from President Yahya Jammeh's government.
State television announced that the ministers of finance, foreign affairs, trade, and environment resigned late on Monday night. Their resignations came a week after Minister of Communications Sheriff Bojang stepped down from his post.
Mr. Jammeh's term expires on Thursday, January 19, when President-elect Adama Barrow is scheduled to be inaugurated. But the Gambian president has maintained that he would not hand over power unless the Supreme Court upholds the results of the election.
It would be recalled that Mr. Barrow defeated the incumbent in the December 1, 2016 presidential election. Mr. Jammeh initially conceded defeat the following day only to reverse course a week later. He proceeded to appeal the results to the Supreme Court, which has postponed its ruling due to a lack of judges available to hear the case.
Mr. Jammeh's refusal to accept the results of the election has plunged the small West African country into a political crisis.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has urged Mr. Jammeh to hand over power to the president-elect, but has said it is prepared to stage a military intervention to remove him by force.
"The chiefs of defense staff of West African countries met yesterday (Monday) to discuss strategies on the best way to get Yahya Jammeh out if he refuses to hand over power," a Nigerian military source disclosed to Reuters.
"Some West African countries will be contributing troops, including Nigeria, for the operation," he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Nigeria deployed a warship to The Gambia in anticipation of a military intervention.
State of emergency
Faced with threats of military intervention, Mr. Jammeh declared a 90-day state of emergency on Tuesday, BBC reports.
He announced this on state television, condemning foreign interference in The Gambia's affairs.
Mr. Jammeh said that "any acts of disobedience to the laws of The Gambia, incitement of violence and acts intended to disturb public order and peace" are banned.
The declaration came after the Gambian National Assembly passed a motion condemning Senegal and the African Union for their "unlawful and malicious interference" in the country's political affairs.
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January 17, 2017 , ,
A Borno State official confirmed that over 100 refugees and humanitarian aid workers were killed.
During an operation aimed at clearing the area of Boko Haram insurgents, a Nigerian Air Force fighter jet mistakenly bombed a refugee camp in Borno State on Tuesday, killing no fewer than 100 civilians.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that a Borno State official confirmed that over 100 refugees and humanitarian aid workers were killed. According to an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker, 20 ICRC aid workers died.
Members of Medicines Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) were also killed, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). An MSF official disclosed to AP that 50 of its workers died while at least 120 were wounded.
“So far, it is a little bit disturbing; death has occurred. There are casualties; there were deaths and injuries," said Major General Leo Irabor, Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, confirming the incident to reporters in Maiduguri.
“This morning, we received a report about the gathering of Boko Haram terrorists around Kala Balge area of Maiduguri. I coordinated and I directed that the air component of the operation should go and address the problem.
“Unfortunately, the strike was conducted but it turned out that other civilians were somewhere around the area and they were affected," Mr. Irabor explained.
He added that two soldiers died in the misfire and several others were wounded.
“We are sending helicopters to evacuate those that were critically wounded, including our wounded soldiers,” Mr. Irabor said.
President Muhammadu Buhari offered his condolences to the families of the deceased.
"I received with regret news that the Air Force, working to mop up [Boko Haram] insurgents, accidentally bombed a civilian community in Rann, Borno State," Mr. Buhari said on his Twitter.
"I sympathize with the families of the dead, and with the injured, and the government and people of Borno State."
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January 17, 2017 , ,
Eyewitnesses said police officers wearing Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) uniforms apprehended Mr. Bwala and his driver shortly after they arrived at the premises of the publisher's office. 
Inuwa Bwala, publisher of the National Trail Newspaper and media aide to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was arrested on Tuesday evening in Abuja.
Eyewitnesses said police officers wearing Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) uniforms apprehended Mr. Bwala and his driver shortly after they arrived at the premises of the publisher's office.
Some press contacted the Abuja police to clarify the cause of Mr. Bwala's arrest, but the police declined to comment.
Journalists, however, were able to confirm that Mr. Bwala was taken to the SARS office in Abuja. He was seen urging one of his friends to buy his prescription drugs for him while he was in detention.

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January 16, 2017 , ,
Zinedine Zidane’s men have gone 40 games without defeat but Sevilla ended their Incredible Records tonight as they lose 2 – 1 to Sevilla. Real Madrid have lined up with a 3-5-2 as they take on Sevilla for a second time in three days, this time in La Liga. Cristiano Ronaldo is back in the side – he loves scoring against this team, he has 22 goals in 15 games! But Sevilla are a different prospect this year under Jorge Sampaoli, whose high-intensity tactics have lifted them to third in the table just two points behind Barcelona in second with a game in hand. The league leaders will take some beating though – they’re on a 40-match streak without losing a game in all competitions.
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January 15, 2017 , ,
HE Nigerian Army has said that its recent security exercise tagged, Operation Python Dance, in South-East was a huge success, insisting that it denied miscreants and criminals, freedom to act and molest the people.

The Army also said the exercise brought peace, law and order as well as secured environments in the entire South Eastern states.
In a statement to evaluate the exercise, the Army said the exercise was successful such that “most of the security challenges, such as intra and inter communal crisis, farmer-herdsmen clashes, kidnapping, armed robbery and cultism as well as trading in human beings  in the region, were grossly reduced to the barest minimum.”
According to Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, “due to intensity of patrols, road blocks, raids and other activities in the Military Line of Operation, miscreants and criminals were denied freedom of action.
“As a result, most of the criminal elements fizzled out of the region into neighbouring Delta and Rivers states. This accounted for peace, law and order as well as secured environment in the entire South Eastern states.
“Also, most of the security challenges such as intra and inter communal crisis, farmer-herdsmen clashes, kidnapping, armed robbery and cultism as well as ‘trading in human beings’ in the region were grossly reduced to the barest minimum. These menaces are and have been the focus and targets of this exercise and have so far been effectively achieved.
“Similarly, violent secessionist agitators and related divisive irredentist groups were silently suppressed. Consequently, the region was stabilized, with an increased level of free movements and a boost to economic and social activities.”
Sagir explained that the exercise also effectively reduced “the annual gridlock on the Niger Bridge at Onitsha. The yearly sufferings, inconveniencies and insecurity arising from traffic jam  on the Asaba-Onitsha axis of the bridge were curtailed.  Seamless flow of traffic was achieved by our troops working in synergy with the Federal Road Safety Commission and the Nigeria Police Force.”
“Above all, Federal Road Safety Commission available Road Traffic Accident Statistics in the entire region present a significant reduction occasioned by the strength of road blocks, check points and patrols during the period.
“Equally important is that the exercise has further raised the image and reputation of the Nigerian Army in its struggles to end insurgency, crimes and criminalities across the nation. Here further lies the beauty of the pragmatic approach to Internal Security Operation in Nigeria”, Sagir noted.
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January 15, 2017 , ,
You bring back hope to despairing minds; add spirit and strength to the poor…Horace, 65-8 BC.VBQ, P 94.

IN a December 25, 2016 article titled HOPE RETURNS WITH 2017 BUDGET – IF WE BELIEVE IN OURSELVES, Nigerians had been classified on January 1, 2017, into two groups regarding the 2017 Budget: pessimists and optimists.
Ordinarily, it would have required up to the second half of the year for those in the minority to start saying “I told you so!” But, fortune and research had combined to provide optimists an early advantage in the competition for the minds of Nigerians. For this writer, this turn of events was expected and the reasons had been pointed out in the December article. But, the pessimists might have ignored it as hearsay and unreliable information, while the optimists might have missed its significance altogether.
PARIS CLUB REFUND TO STATES
On Saturday, January 7, 2017, the NATION on its front page published the list of thirty-five states which received refund from the debt settlement of the Paris Club loans to Nigeria in 2004 by the President Obasanjo regime. Confession must be made that some of us with our noses to the ground and in search of reasons for hope for economic recovery in 2017 were aware that the states were about to receive this windfall.
The only state inexplicably left out of this bonanza is Kano. This is, however, not the time to start making inquiries into the exclusion. For now it is important for us to examine the significance of this stroke of good fortune at this time and its impact on the robust debate between the eco-pessimists and we the eco-optimists.
The states are ultimately entitled to N522.74 billion. But, right now, they have N388 billion jingling in their pockets. In order for readers who are not economists to place this development in true perspective, six states, one each had been selected from each zone had been selected for comparative analysis between what the states had received from the Federation Account in some months of 2015 and 2016.
Ordinarily, the table should have been sufficient to declare that “the difference is clear.” But, in Economics, figures don’t usually speak for themselves. At any rate they seldom say all there is to say.
Simple arithmetic would demonstrate that what the states have received as unexpected windfall amounts to multiple months revenue as follows: Bayelsa 2.3; Borno 4.3; Katsina 4.6; Niger 4.7; Imo 5.2 and blessed Osun 33 months!! On the average the states of Nigeria had received in January 2017 three and a half months extra dividends. That explains why economic recovery will start from there.
Furthermore, there is the equivalent of a month’s bonus to be collected later in the year. When the ripple or multiplier effects of these providential showers of blessing are added together, the result will be staggering. These are some of the reasons for cautious optimism and a point the pessimists missed. Yet, that is not all in this year when states will, for once, become the engine rooms of our nation’s economic growth.
GO EAST MY SON
Encouraging as the report above is, it pales by comparison with what is about to occur in two South-East States – Abia and Imo. But, before letting readers into the secret, it is pertinent to take a look at history which should always guide us.
Back in the early years of settlement in America, the Pilgrims first landed on the East Coast. As the population grew and job opportunities became scarce they discovered that there were hidden resources and opportunities on the West Coast. So, as sons grew up and were jobless, the advice to them by the older generation was “Go West my son and prosper”. And they went and developed states like California and became billionaires.
Today, in Nigeria, the advice is “Go East, especially Abia and Imo.” In April 2011, former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, was declared the first “one trillion naira governor in Nigeria” – right here in VANGUARD. In just over five years, Akpabio had collected from the Federal Government almost twice what his predecessor, Governor Victor Attah, received in eight years in the same office. That was a record still unbroken till now.
In 2017 the incumbent governors of Abia and Imo States are about to break Akpabio’s record – in one day. For reasons too lengthy to discuss here and need not delay us, the two SE states are poised to lay claim to about N7 trillion (shine your eyes) on funds which had been lying in an escrow account in the Central Bank of Nigeria in their favour for more than ten years.
That is about the same amount as the Federal budget for 2017. Granted for a lot of reasons the entire amount will not be released to them this year; but, even twenty five per cent will lift the two states past Lagos State as the states with the biggest annual budget for the first time in our history. Change? Perhaps.
And, it will not be for 2017 alone, it might continue for about four years. The rapid economic growth the two states will experience will certainly impact positively on the states surrounding them and might even promote reverse migration of the states indigenes from other parts of Nigeria as well.
Again, the multiplier effect of additional N1.8 trillion being pumped into the economy from the two states cannot be easily quantified; but, it will be enormous.
Finally, the price of crude oil climbed to $65 per barrel for the first time in twenty months – meaning more petro-dollars are on the way. God has taken control.
We conclude where we started. Newly available evidence points to the likelihood of a robust first quarter of the year 2017 and if the Federal Government speeds up the release of funds to Abia and Imo from the escrow account, the debate about the direction of the economy in 2017 is over. The eco-pessimists can go fishing. The Nigerian economy will grow positively, perhaps as mush as three to four per cent this year.
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