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The choices that make a significant difference in our lives.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The choices that make a significant difference in our lives are the tough ones. They’re not often fun or easy, but they’re the ones we have to make. Each is a deliberate step toward better understanding who we really are.
– Alexandra Stoddard, writer, political commentator

October 9, 2009 | 1:05 PM Comments  1 comments
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THE FOLLOWING WILL HELP TO COMBAT CRIMES IN NIGERIA!!!
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

THE FOLLOWING WILL HELP TO COMBAT CRIMES IN NIGERIA!!!
(1)RETRAIN ALL OUR POLICEMEN:
All our security personnels starting from the IGP need retraining on their jobs to learn / agree / sign to reject bribery and corruption in all shapes or forms.This includes retired military men because if they do not work with the criminals,
armed robbery will stop.

(2)GOVT.should create jobs especially for young university graduates who have finished their YOUTH SERVICE. While
they remain unemployed, they should be paid UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS as is the case in US.

(3)OVERHAUL OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: Our universities should create opportunities for a WORK/STUDY PROGRAM
as is the case in US, and Britain etc.. Also GOVT. should grant
loans to students, to start refunding when employed after graduation. The present system whereby the entire burden of funding falls on parents is flawed,and gives room for frustrated students to take to crimes.

(4) SCHOLARSHIPS: The old system of SCHOLARSHIPS TO GIFTED STUDENTS should be restarted so that gifted students can be selected on merits, and trained to boost the required manpower

(5)STOP TAXING STUDENTS: The universities tax the students unnecessarily;lecturers extort money from students for HAND OUTS, DEVELOPMENT LEVY, SCRATCH CARDS, and BRIBE FOR YOUTHE CORPS POSTINGS. Thousands of graduates who cannot afford the bribe remain on the waiting list for years after graduation.

(5) The REBRANDING CAMPAIGN should be expanded to university campuses in form of "THE WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION"
(6) EMERGENCY POLICE SQUADS should be deployed in all townships,and rural areas instead of their hanging on highways to collect money from motorists,ans OKADA operators.
by

Mazi Godwin Anyaogu

September 13, 2009 | 8:18 AM Comments  0 comments
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Ritural killings in Nigeria
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


August 30, 2009 | 8:32 AM Comments  0 comments
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18 year old girl beheaded for rituals in Imo, Nigeria
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


August 30, 2009 | 8:29 AM Comments  0 comments
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HOUSE OF EXCUSES
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Guys,
Nigerians in America live in the house of Excuses.We want a beautiful Nigeria,but we do not want to participate in creating one.These are some of our Excuses for not moving back home to contribute,namely;
1] The roads are bad.
2]No steady electricity.
3]No running water.
4]The crime is so high.
5]The government is so corrupt.
6]No employment.
7]No health care.
8]The Education system is bad.
9]The sanitation is poor,and so on.

First,we have to move from the house of Excuses to the house of Responsibility.We must accept the fact that the Nigeria we want must be created by us.We must be willing to get our hands dirty inorder to create the Nigeria we want.
Air strike alone has not won wars.Air strike must be accompanied with foot soldeirs to capture and transform a place.If we are not willing to do this,we should keep our wisdom and intelligence to ourselves.
Guys,nothing will replace our presence in Nigeria.

by Ambrose E.Mmonu

August 11, 2009 | 4:58 PM Comments  1 comments


Nigerian visa applicant tortured at Polish Embassy
Related to country: Poland
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The deaths and killings of Nigerians in Diaspora are lamentable, but if back home in Nigeria fellow citizens are treated like animals, where is our locus to demand and expect decent treatment from foreigners abroad?



When a friend was telling me the story of a Nigerian beaten to pulp a Polish Embassy, my mind expected another disheartening story of innocent Nigerians whose only crime was to find themselves as economic migrants in a foreign land suffering ill-treatment and brutality from another western country.



But lo and behold, it was Mr Rasaq Salami, an Abuja-based businessman, who left his home in the early hours of Friday, March 20, 2009, to visit the Polish Embassy, located in the capital city of his own country, Abuja to retrieve the passport of his friend, Mr Mustapha Bakare which had been submitted for visa.

According to the SUN Newspapers, Soon after stepping into the premises of the Polish Embassy in Abuja, Salami was beaten black and blue by police officers attached to the embassy. After the security operatives finished with him, Salami was taken straight to the Maitama General Hospital where he was still recuperating almost two weeks after his ordeal.


Salami’s story to Sunday Sun was that Nigerian policemen and other security operatives at the embassy premises pounced on him like a common felon. According to him, his trouble started about 1.30 pm when he arrived at the embassy. They knocked at the gate and heard a voice, probably that of the security man, asking them “my friend, who is that knocking on the window?”


“From nowhere, the private security man opened the gate and a police constable started raining abuses on me. I asked him to tell me my sin for which he was insulting me”, he said.


According to him, the angry policeman got annoyed that he dared reply and challenge him and threatened to slap him.


“When I challenged him further that it was not proper for him to slap me without knowing my sin and the purpose of my visit, he held my shirt and dragged me into the compound and started punching and hitting me on the head, kicking me when I fell down on the ground,” he said.


Thoroughly overawed, Salami continued, “When I managed to get up, I headed to the door of the building but the police officer went in, dressed properly and brought out his gun and continued hitting me on my leg with the gun until my leg got broken…They tagged me a criminal and terrorist, and a white man standing by the door urged them to deal with me. When they were done with me, they asked me to walk out of the compound. But already I had fracture on my right leg and I told them I could not stand and so I could not walk. They dragged me out of the gate.”


According to the SUN, the Polish Ambassador Designate, Przemyslaw Niesiolowski, confirmed the incident but denied reports that he supervised his beating and ordered the police to deal with him. He claimed he was not in Abuja at the time the incident occurred but refuted claims by Salami and his friend, Bakare, that they were at the embassy to collect Bakare’s passport but justified the action of the security men against the victim.


It is unfortunate to say the least, that Nigerians would suffer this indignity in their homelands. Before this we hade been regaled with news of deaths and killings of Nigerians in Diaspora. There have been cases of Nigerians killed in Belgium, China, Ukraine and Spain in 2009 alone.


In Spain 2007, a Nigerian whose only offence was that he had no resident permit and therefore had to be deported was beaten, injected with what was later known as a tranquilizer with his mouth being closed with a plastic tape and both hands and legs firmly tied with ropes. They loaded him into the plane covering him with a sack thereby preventing him from passengers view. His killers tied his hands and legs with mouth closed and killed as common criminal.


In 2001 - The result of the autopsy of the Nigerian Samson Chukwu, who died during the procedure of a forcible deportation in Granges near Sion does not leave any doubt: The police officers have applied a method for handcuffing the Nigerian, which is well-known for being possibly lethal, and of whose application is warned in the appropriate literature. Forcing the victim to lie on the stomach with the hands cuffed behind the back, including a police officer to press on the thorax, prevented the necessary respiration. This led to the asphyxia of Samson Chukwu.


In 1999, a 25-year-old Nigerian asylum-seeker, Marcus Omofuma suffocated after being gagged and bound during his forced deportation from Vienna to Nigeria, via Sofia, Bulgaria On 15 April, after more than 50 hours of deliberation, Korneuburg Regional Court found the three police officers guilty of the crime of 'negligent manslaughter in particularly dangerous conditions and sentenced them to eight-month suspended prison terms. The verdict was criticized by some civil society groups due to its alleged leniency. Despite the verdicts of guilt, the police officers will continue to serve in the police force.


In March 1999, a Brussels court decided that five gendarmes should stand trial in connection with the death in September 1998 of Semira Adamu, a 20-year-old rejected asylum seeker from Nigeria after an attempt to deport her forcibly from Brussels-National airport led to her death.


Officers pushed her face into a cushion placed on the knees of one of them and pressed down on her back, she began to struggle. The so-called ''cushion technique'' - a method of restraint authorized by the Ministry of Interior at that time but since banned - allowed gendarmes to press a cushion against the mouth, but not the nose. Semira Adamu's face was pressed against the cushion for over 10 minutes and she fell into a coma as her brain became starved of oxygen. She died of a brain haemorrhage later that day.


These deaths and killings of Nigerians in Diaspora are lamentable, but if back home in Nigeria fellow citizens are treated like animals, where is our locus to demand and expect decent treatment from foreigners abroad?

http://www.elombah.com/index. php?option= com_content&view=article&id=632:nigerian- visa-applicant- tortured- at-polish- embassy&catid=25:politics&Itemid=37



from Daniel Elombah
Publisher: www.elombah. com
(A Nigerian Perspective on world affairs)

April 25, 2009 | 7:20 AM Comments  0 comments
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Nigeria Moves to Address Chronic Power Outages
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Nigeria Moves to Address Chronic Power Outages

By WILL CONNORS
LAGOS, Nigeria -- Officials here are embarking on a costly drive to revamp Nigeria's power sector as the government struggles to keep the lights on.

After months of delays and political maneuverings, the government of Africa's largest oil producer approved this month a plan to allocate over $5 billion in emergency funding to repair its power sector. The money is slated to come from the country's excess crude-oil account. It's a huge outlay, accounting for some 40% of the rainy-day fund's current value of $13.5 billion.
Dozens of power lines crisscross an electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria. The government is beginning an overhaul of the country's power sector.

The new spending program underscores a realization among top officials about the extent of Nigeria's power problems. Many analysts consider the lack of reliable power the biggest impediment to economic growth in Nigeria -- bigger even than the estimated annual loss of billions of dollars in oil revenues to smuggling and corruption.

The large majority of Nigerians, over 70% of whom live on less than $1 a day, often go without reliable access to electricity. Those who can afford them operate costly diesel or gasoline-based generators because of daily blackouts. One neighborhood in Lagos recently went without power for a month. Those who can't afford generators use inefficient kerosene lamps.

Big companies like Procter & Gamble Co. and Coca-Cola Co. have resorted to running generators to provide power to 100% of their operations, pushing costs in Nigeria 10% and even 20% higher than in neighboring countries, executives say. Other foreign companies have pulled out of Nigeria, citing high energy costs as one of the primary reasons for doing so.

South Africa, with a third of the population, has more than 10 times the power generating capacity of Nigeria.

The new funding will go toward improving existing grid infrastructure and funding public-private partnerships, the government has said.

Whether the money from the country's windfall oil account will be used properly remains a critical question. The federal power authority, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, like many of Nigeria's government institutions, has earned a reputation for inefficiency. Critics accuse it of being driven by the financial and political interests of its officials and others in the government.

PHCN officials didn't respond to requests to comment.

The current government estimates the previous administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo spent freely but without oversight, channeling $10 billion to the power sector during his eight-year rule. Most of this money, however, went unaccounted for, and senior lawmakers have recently put the figure of misplaced funds used for the power sector closer to $16 billion.

The current government of President Umaru Yar'Adua made fixing the country's dilapidated power infrastructure a hallmark of his 2007 campaign. But the gap between electricity supply and demand in Africa's most populous country has only worsened since he took over.

This week, seven senior officials from the country's electricity regulatory body, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, were arrested and charged with fraud, accused of diverting $33 million in state funds for their personal use.

Mr. Yar'Adua has set power production goals of some 6,000 megawatts by the end of this year and 10,000 megawatts by the end of 2010. Few see these goals being met. In 2008, power production dropped on one occasion to as low as 800 megawatts, according to the state power company. Current production is between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts, according to the government.

"There were three days when no power at all was generated by the Nigerian government," said one official involved in high-level, power-sector reform talks with the government. "The worst part was, nobody at [the government power agency] noticed."

Amid the power crisis, several state governors, in an attempt to bypass the federal bureaucracy in the capital Abuja, have sought private funding to build their own power plants.

The governor of Kwara State, in southwestern Nigeria, has built a small power plant, funding it without federal support. The governor of Rivers State has been in negotiations to wrest control of energy distribution.

April 25, 2009 | 7:20 AM Comments  0 comments
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Swine Flu
Related to country: Mexico
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

A strain of flu never seen before has killed up to 68 people in Mexico and spread to the US. Skip related content

Mexico's government said at least 20 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 48 other deaths.

Mexico reported more than 1,000 suspected cases and four possible cases were also seen in Mexicali, right on the border with California. In the US, eight people were infected but recovered, health officials said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said tests showed the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients was the same genetically as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight patients in California and Texas.

Global health officials are not ready to declare a pandemic - a global epidemic of a new and deadly disease such as flu - but the new virus raised fears of a major outbreak.

Mexico's government has cancelled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas. All large public events like concerts were suspended in Mexico City.

Close analysis showed the disease is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the US Centrers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of the Mexican dead were aged between 25 and 45, a Mexican health official said. Seasonal flu can be more deadly among the very young and the very old but a hallmark of pandemics is that they affect healthy young adults.

Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090425/twl-flu-outbreak-reaches-us-41f21e0.html

April 25, 2009 | 6:47 AM Comments  2 comments
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Black Monday: Robbers kill over 30 in Anambra
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Hell was literally let loose in Anambra State on Monday as armed robbers shot and killed over 30 people. The victims who included policemen, commuters and a soldier were felled during a shoot out that lasted for about two hours.
According to eyewitnesses, the armed robbers who operated with one Toyota Hilux, Hiace Commuter and one jeep were on the trail of a bullion van that took off from Onitsha to Nnewi through Oba old road. They were said to have launched an attack on the van within Oba area in Idemili South Local Government Area, Anambra State.
During the shoot out with the police joint patrol team, Daily Sun gathered, passengers in buses and other vehicles that were trapped in the scene fell victim as some of them including three pregnant women were shot dead while others were seriously wounded. Our source said that the hoodlums blocked the expressway by Oba junction new and old roads to avoid disruption before they began the operation.
The bandits were said to have set the bullion van ablaze along with two other vehicles but as at the time of filing this report it was not certain whether they succeeded in breaking the bullion van or not before burning it.
Like demons from hell, Daily Sun was told that the armed robbers ran amock ran wild as stormed Nnobi road towards Oraukwu and Adani shooting indiscriminately at commuters as they made for escape. Our source said that a tipper lorry driver was shot dead in the rampage.
Some of the corpses were deposited at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) while others were taken to nearby hospitals as (NAUTH) mortuary was already congested, according to an official of the hospital.
A doctor at NAUTH casualty ward who pleaded anonymity said there were over 15 victims with serious bullet wounds receiving medical attention at the ward.
One commercial bus driver, Mr Ifeanyi whose bus was also attacked near Oraukwu junction said two men and a woman were shot dead in his bus by the armed robbers.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Fidelis Agbo (CSP) confirmed the incident. According to Mr Agbo three police officers, one soldier and four commuters were feared dead.
He said that the police have spread their dragnet to apprehend the dare-devils as none of the armed robbers was killed during the gun battle.
Meanwhile, two suspected armed robbers were killed and two others seriously wounded in a shoot out with the police along Ogoja Road Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital on Monday bringing to 11 killed in two separate attacks within one week in the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Chris Anyanwu said the hoodlums operating with two motorcycles marked QB 780 ZLL and WF 189 ENU had trailed their victim, one Mr. Simon Iseh from a bank to his petrol station and robbed him of the sum of over N1.2 million at gun point.
He said that the hoodlums, after snatching the money were intercepted at Nwokpo junction along Ogoja road while trying to escape with their loot.
He stated that items recovered from the bandits include two locally made pistols, four GSM handset, and some objects suspected to be charms.
Anyanwu gave the names of the suspected armed gang as Ogbonna Sunday from Agbaja Umuhu in Izzi local government area of Ebonyi State and Orji Calistus from Amaorji Nenwe in Agwu local government area of Enugu State while the two that died at the spot were identified as Jude and Ernest.
The robbery victim, Hon Simon Iseh, pioneer Minority Leader of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, said that he left his house early in the morning to the bank to make some withdrawals but was delayed for some time at the bank.
“I came out of the bank and never suspected anything. I entered my car and drove off not knowing I was being followed.”
“On getting down at the petrol station four boys jumped down from two motorcycles,’ at gun point they asked me to hand over my car keys which I immediately did. Having collected my car keys, they also commanded me to hand over the money I withdrew from the bank. I realized that if I had refused to hand over the money they would possibly shoot me, so I handed over the money to them and immediately, they drove away in the opposite direction heading towards rice mill.”
He said that it was his salesgirls who, perhaps, observed what happened that raised alarm. “Fortunately for me, the Scorpion team of the Ebonyi State police command were driving towards the direction the hoodlum went and we had to alert them of the robbery attack. On sighting the police patrol van they opened fire and the police retaliated leading to the killing of two of the robbers while two others received gun shot wounds.”
The former House of Assembly member said that of the over N1.2 million snatched from him only N795,000 was recovered while the balanced could not be traced as at press time
ASP Anyanwu attributed the recent successes of the state police command to the determination of the force to curb crime in the state, adding that the command would continue to ensure that the state is safe for habitation.

April 24, 2009 | 9:23 AM Comments  0 comments
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Easing Cuban Restrictions: Good or Bad?
Related to country: Cuba
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

CBNNews.com
April 17, 2009


Watch Low Band CBNNews.com - The Obama administration has announced plans to loosen restrictions on how Americans can visit and do business with Cuba.

The changes mean that Cuban Americans can visit family on the island anytime they want. And they can send as much money as they wish to relatives there.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro says the U.S.should go further and lift what he calls the cruel trade embargo.

But on the same day the U.S. made its announcement, Cuba denied visas to members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The group had planned a trip to the country to evaluate the state of religious freedom in the island nation.

The commission says it will continue to apply for visas.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/579832.aspx

April 24, 2009 | 9:23 AM Comments  0 comments
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Without GOD, our week would be
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Without GOD, our week would be:

Sinday, Mournday, Tearsday, Wasteday,
Thirstday, Fightday & Shatterday.

If you are not ashamed of GOD, pass it on.

Remember seven days WITHOUT GOD makes
one WEAK!!
































April 24, 2009 | 8:59 AM Comments  0 comments
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45 Nigerian Deported From Equatorial Guinea
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Thursday, April 16,

Deportees raise the alarm over Nigerians'

By Friday Olokor, Oyetunji Abioye and Emeka Ezekiel

The 45 Nigerians deported on Tuesday by the Equatorial Guinea Government have expressed fears on the whereabouts of 11 others, saying they may have been killed in that country.
They also demanded the release of the 15 corpses of Nigerians killed for proper burial at home and $100m compensation to the owners of seized boats and the detainees.

Out of the 128 Nigerians detained by the government of that country, 11 of them were removed from their cell, to an unknown destination, while efforts to trace them have proved futile.

A statement entitled, Report of Assault on Nigerian businessmen and Sailors in Malabo by the Government of Equatorial Guinea, signed by the Secretary-General of Nigeria/Malabo Boat Owners Association, Mr. Wisdom Archibong and made available to our correspondent in Lagos on Wednesday, also alleged that 12 of them died through torture and shooting.

They were arrested on February 17 by a combined team of Equatorial Guinea Police, Navy and Army who took 98 sailors and 30 other Nigerians and detained at the Central Police Station in Malabo.

Three of the people shot dead, alleged Archibong, included one Mr. Sola Jide, adding that "three of the people in the boat were tortured to death, including a woman. The Equatorial Guinea Police, after killing them, placed guns on their bodies, took photographs and branded them militants.''

He stated that despite complaints to the Nigerian government, the Consul-General remained mute over the matter.

But the spokesperson of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Ayo Olukanni, told The PUNCH on the phone that "both the Nigerian Mission in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and the Federal Government have taken up the issue to ensure that the rights of our people are protected.''

Reacting to the development, human rights advocate, Mr. Femi Falana, told our correspondent that he would reach out to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and draw the attention of the government to the plight of Nigerians in Equatorial Guinea.

April 19, 2009 | 5:48 PM Comments  0 comments
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Love One Another
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Love One Another 1 Jn 3:11-18 ESV


For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers,[a] that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:11-18 ESV

by...
Felix Oti

April 18, 2009 | 11:36 AM Comments  0 comments
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Democracy in danger - Gowon
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Democracy in danger - Gowon
From OLUWOLE AKINBOYEWA, Abuja

Friday, April 17, 2009 Elder statesman and Nigeria’s former military head of state, Dr. Yakubu Gowon, has predicted that high profile corruption and long neglect of the masses’ welfare since 1960, may soon make the preferred civilian administration lose its valued place to options
Gowon, who gave the warning at the launch of a 24-member national working committee on the establishment of a functional social security policy, headed by him, in Abuja on Thursday, said the continued presence of corruption, its attendant unemployment and poverty; social insecurity and uncoordinated governments’ policies and programmes, over the decades, would make government by the people lose its appeal.
He explained that though, the citizenry had faithfully been expressing their choice through the ballot box in the last few years, they may abandon the system, when their struggle for survival had left them with little strength to defend that system, owing to hunger, poverty, weak or non-existent basic infrastructure, social injustice and physical insecurity.

“Nigerians have continued to be traumatized by poverty that they are left with little or no time to defend democratic ideas and ethos. While democracy remains the _expression of the people’s choice through the ballot, the struggle for survival has continued to take away the little strength left in our people to stand and defend that choice.

“Unfortunately, democracy may not take firm roots in an environment of debilitating and excruciating hunger and poverty, compounded by weak or non-existent basic infrastructure, social injustice and physical insecurity. Democracy may soon lose its appeal, unless Nigeria comes up with policies, which are designed to save the poor from getting poorer…,” he stressed.

The Nigerian civil war hero queried the unpopular social, economic and political policies of successive administrations in 49 years of sovereignty, which at best, continued to identify national problems without impact, as witnessed by the “gradual but steady decline in the people’s standard of living, unpredictable crude oil market prices, rising unemployment, inclement business environment, widening income inequality, rising cost of goods and services and above all, the current financial and economic meltdown.”

Gen. Gowon called for the establishment of functional people-oriented policies, aimed at saving the poor from getting poorer and redressing the tempo of over 50 per cent of the population from falling below the poverty line, through a suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum wage, old age care and pensions, employment, sick benefits and the disabled welfare to all Nigerians.

He expressed dismay that despite many social programmes championed by organs of governments and substantial funding by international organizations over the years, there had been no substantial positive effect of poverty reduction in the country.

Launching the committee, the Labour and Productivity Minister, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, declared that the 2004 Pension Reform Scheme had not succeeded beyond the establishment level because there was no empowering Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), providing the needed fund to implement the policy.

Kayode, who also lamented the failure of two existing laws empowering the scheme, blamed the various ministries, departments and agencies, tasked to providing some social parameters for the scheme of engaging in uncoordinated programmes not helpful to reaping the expected social benefits.

The minister referred to some constitutional provisions and international conventions supporting the national social security policy, promising that Nigeria would this have a functional and lasting social security policy once and for all.

He highlighted the committee’s terms of reference, which included recommending a policy serving the benefits of the formal and informal sectors including the poor and rich, the urban, rural and informal dwellers, a robust and sustainable financing of the scheme, and an administrative implementation structure.

Kayode commended the Federal Government for its commitment to the success of the seven-point agenda, as a measure of saving the masses from untold hardship amidst plenty.

April 18, 2009 | 11:27 AM Comments  0 comments
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The bionic body 2.0
Related to country: United Kingdom
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

By Grace Wong
For CNN

Spence, who lost an eye in a childhood accident, is in the process of installing a tiny camera into his prosthetic eye. He announced his plan last year, and now he's a step closer to fulfilling his aim.

"It's been an expensive and laborious process to make this thing. But fortunately we have leveraged the right people and have a working prototype," he says.

A documentary filmmaker based in Toronto, Spence wants to use the wireless camera in his eye to make films and examine where "recorded image and video intersect with humanity." Although, he says, the prototype containing delicate electronics isn't ready for frequent use yet.

Spence, who calls himself the "eyeborg," is the latest example of the convergence of human and machine. No longer restricted to the realm of sci-fi novels and movies, technology is increasingly being integrated into the living body.

Human kind has been using technology to improve the power of their senses since the days of cave men, according to James Geary, author of "The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses."

He loosely describes bionics as any device that extends, repairs or enhances natural sensory abilities. For him, that includes everything from cochlear implants that provide deaf people with a sense of sound to the wireless gadgets people use today to talk on their mobile phones hands free.

In recent years, technology has helped create smaller, more power efficient electronic devices. As a result, there has been a "big conceptual shift towards inserting these components inside, instead of outside the body," says Geary.

Spence will not be augmenting his senses in the traditional bionic sense -- his vision won't improve at all because his retina was damaged to the point where he had his eye replaced with a prosthetic.

But a California company, Second Sight, has developed a device that can restore limited vision for some blind people. So far, the company says it has implanted the device in 21 people around the world who have retinal degeneration.

The device, which is still in clinical trials, consists of a camera mounted on a pair of glasses. Captured images are transmitted to electrodes implanted in the retina, which then send images to the brain. The device gives patients the ability to perceive patterns of light, which are then interpreted as images.

Retinal implants, mind-controlled limbs, electrodes inserted in the brain -- they're just a few examples of next-generation technologies that may speed up the integration of body and machine. See photo gallery of bionic devices »

What do you think about the merging of humans and machines? Tell us in the SoundOff below

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis is a neuroscientist at Duke University. He has spent the last decade investigating the links between brain activity and devices, an area of research known as brain machine interface.

He hopes developments in the field will lead to the creation of the next generation of mind-controlled limbs. "We hope to restore mobility to those who have lost the ability to send messages to the brain and their muscles," he tells CNN.

Scientists have already shown that monkeys with probes inserted in their brains are able to control artificial devices like robotic arms with their minds. They've found that computer software can interpret signals picked up by the electrodes.

Brain machine interface ultimately could help restore mobility to quadriplegics and others, such as those suffering from spinal cord injuries, says Nicolelis.

He's involved in a global project called Walk-Again that aims to develop a wearable exoskeleton that paralyzed users could control with signals from their brain.

Finding a way to safely insert electrodes and probes into human brains remains an obstacle. But scientists are constantly working on finding ways to better integrate devices in living organisms.

Seamlessly fusing engineered devices into living tissue can be challenging since devices usually are metal, hard and flat, according to David Martin, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan.

"This is where the real interesting scientific frontier is -- implanted devices integrating themselves in the brain, ear, eye and in muscle. The question is whether we can do that and not cause too much cell damage," he says.

The technology being developed is cutting edge and pushing boundaries, but there are potential pitfalls. Since it's still early days, no one knows how bodies will react over the long term to inserted devices.

Furthermore, people have a heightened awareness when it comes to their body, and privacy concerns are already being raised, according to Geary.

"We're just really sensitive about anything we put in our bodies," he says. In science fiction, the cyborg is almost always the bad guy. The big barrier is overcoming that fear, he says

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/08/bionic.body/index.html

April 9, 2009 | 8:21 AM Comments  0 comments
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