Buhari to Convene National Economic Conference in March

President Muhammadu Buhar

• Job creation, oil prices, forex scarcity to top agenda 
• Naira reverses gains, slides to N330/$

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja and Obinna Chima in Lagos
As the Nigerian economy continues to reel from low oil prices and its attendant consequences, presidency sources confirmed yesterday that President Muhammadu Buhari is set to convene a major national economic conference next month.

One official in the presidency said the president himself would declare the conference open and participate in deliberations with government officials, the legislature, and the private sector.

The decision by the president to hold the economic conference may not be unconnected to the growing clamour by Nigerians of influence on the need to stem the economic slide through a public discourse where participants could air their views and proffer solutions on the measures to stem the economic decline.

One of such calls was from Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who expressed grave concern over the precipitous decline of the Nigerian economy and called for an “emergency economic conference”.

Prior to Soyinka, a conference of similar magnitude was also mooted last month at the 65th National Economic Council (NEC) meeting. NEC is a constitutional advisory council to the president.

At the January 28 meeting, the state governors, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Lawal Babachir, and some ministers, among other top government officials called for a major conference where the current economic fundamentals would be thoroughly discussed by the states and federal government with inputs from the private sector.

With the approval of the conference by the president, the presidency official said the views of private sector and non-state actors would also be sought with the inclusion of local experts, as well as global experts who are expected to aggregate the views of other governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions.

The NEC retreat, as it is being called by the federal and states governments, became imperative against the backdrop of low oil prices, and their direct and significant impact on the funds that are shared by the three tiers of government from the Federation Account.

For instance, the federal, states and local governments, for the month of January shared N370.4 billion a few days ago at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, compared to N387.8 billion shared the previous month.

Relative to the N629 billion shared in January 2015 and N503.6 billion in December 2014, it showed that FAAC allocations in one year have almost been halved due to lower earnings from crude exports.

Another concern of the federal and state governments necessitating the economic conference is the drop in foreign reserves, which have fallen to below $28 billion and compelled the CBN to adopt stringent forex measures, including the ban of certain items from accessing forex through the official window of the market and the rationing of forex for eligible items.

The depreciation of the naira has also been a major cause of concern for policy makers and the generality of Nigerians.
It is the expectation of the president, according to the presidency source, that the conference/retreat would be solution-centred and also create the platform to rally the nation, the federal government, states and the private sector towards a clear and mutually beneficial economic direction.

A government source involved in the planning of the conference billed tentatively for March 10-11, said: “It is interesting that a respectable Nigerian recently raised the idea of a national economic conference earlier this month – the same idea that had already been mooted by members of NEC at their January meeting. It shows there is indeed a wide consensus for the idea.”

Although government is not calling the conference an emergency one, it is clear that both the federal and state governments had agreed on the need to discuss frankly and develop innovative ways to take the country out of the economic challenges of the day.

The source explained that while the federal government is clear on what direction it intends to drive the country economically, there is need to rally the entire nation, including the need to call all tiers of government and the citizenry to tighten their belts and prepare for sacrifice.

The president, he said, had set the tone for frugality by cutting off routine security votes, among other cost-cutting measures. “Besides, zero-based budgeting and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) are part of the attempts by the federal government to stem leakages and ramp up revenue,” he added.

When contacted, the media aide to the president, Mr. Femi Adesina, said he had not been briefed by the president on the conference, but did not rule it out.

With the possibility of a high level conference on the economy on the cards, the hope among analysts who welcomed the public discourse was that the uncertainty over the naira, which yesterday reversed some of the gains recorded against the dollar in the last three days, would be addressed.

The naira clawed back some of its gains when it fell to N330 per dollar at the close of business in Lagos yesterday, weaker than the N300 to the dollar on Wednesday.

THISDAY gathered that the naira climbed to N290 to a dollar yesterday afternoon, before it later succumbed to demand pressure and weakened to its closing value. Currency traders blamed the volatility to the activities of speculators in the market.

CSL Stockbrokers Limited, in an analyst report, said the unpredictable nature of the parallel market revealed that it does not reflect the true value of the naira.

According to the stockbroking firm, “Our point is that the parallel market lacks information. Nobody can say how liquid it is, though clearly it employs hundreds of mallams in Lagos alone. There is no data as to who supplies it with US dollars, or who buys them. In its current state it behaves like a fledgling market.

“One thing was perfectly demonstrated yesterday: the parallel market does not show the naira’s true value or fair value. It is much too volatile for that.”

The CBN said recently that speculators were behind the gyrations in the parallel market, where the naira sink to an all-time low of N400 to the dollar last week.

Emefiele accused speculators of colluding with some bureau de change operators to undermine the efforts of the central bank to defend the naira, warning that they would be punished by the market eventually.

Culled from Sun

Kerry weighs ‘genocide’ label for Islamic State

John Kerry testifies on Capitol Hill, Feb. 24, 2016. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Secretary of State John Kerry signaled today that he plans to decide soon whether to formally accuse the Islamic State of genocide amid what sources describe as an intense debate within the Obama administration about how such a declaration should be worded and what it might mean for U.S. strategy against the terrorist group.
“None of us have ever seen anything like it in our lifetimes,” Kerry said during a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday about beheadings and atrocities committed by the Islamic State.
But in response to questioning by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican who has been spearheading a resolution in Congress demanding the administration invoke an international treaty against genocide, Kerry was careful not to tip his hand on what has turned into a thorny internal legal debate with political and potentially military consequences.
Saying the department was reviewing “very carefully the legal standards and precedents” for a declaration of genocide against the Islamic State, Kerry added that he had received “initial recommendations” on the issue but had then asked for “further evaluations.”
In his first public comments on the issue, Kerry said he “will make a decision on this” as soon as he receives those evaluations. He didn’t elaborate on when that might occur.
The administration’s plans to invoke the powerfully evocative genocide label — an extremely rare move — was first reported by Yahoo News last November. But at the time, the State Department was focused on restricting the designation to the Islamic State’s mass killings, beheadings and enslavement of the Yazidis — a relatively small minority group of about 500,000 in northern Iraq that the terrorist group has vowed to wipe out on the grounds they are “devil worshipers.”

The disclosure set off a strong backlash among members of Congress and Christian groups who argued that Islamic State atrocities against Iraqi and Syrian Christians and other smaller minority groups also deserved the genocide label. Some conservatives even chastised the administration for displaying a “politically correct bias that views Christians … never as victims but always as Inquisition-style oppressors.”
The issue has since made its way into the presidential campaign; Sen. Marco Rubio has signed a Senate version of a House resolution, co-sponsored by Fortenberry and Rep. Anna Eshoo, for a broader genocide designation that incorporates Christians, Turkmen, Kurds and other groups. Hillary Clinton has also endorsed such as move. In response to a question from a voter at a New Hampshire town hall last December about whether she believes Christians as well as Yazidis should be declared victims of genocide, she said, “I will, because we now have enough evidence.”
But administration sources and others intimately familiar with the internal debate say the issue has proven more complicated. While ISIS has openly declared its intention of destroying the Yazidis, they argue, the terrorist group’s leaders have not made equally explicit statements about Christians even while committing killings, kidnappings, forced removals and the confiscation and destruction of churches aimed at Christian groups. As a result, administration officials and State Department lawyers have weighed labeling those acts “crimes against humanity” — a step that critics have said doesn’t go far enough. “We’ve been trying to tell them, crimes against humanity are not a bronze medal,” said one administration official, contending that it should not be viewed as a less serious designation.
Kerry seemed to hint as much in his responses to Fortenberry at Wednesday’s hearing, noting that Christians in Syria “and other places” have been forcibly removed from their homes. “There have been increased, forced evacuations,” he said. “No, its not — they are killing them in that case — but it’s a removal and a cleansing, ethnically and religiously, that is equally disturbing.”
At the same time, two sources familiar with the debate said, Pentagon officials have expressed concerns that a genocide designation would morally obligate the U.S. military to take steps — such as protecting endangered populations or using drones to identify enslaved women — that could divert resources from the campaign to defeat the Islamic State. (An administration official told Yahoo News Wednesday that any such concerns have not been raised in “interagency” discussions over the genocide issue. “There is no resource issue,” the official said.)
In fact, many legal scholars say, there is considerable debate about just what practical impact a genocide designation would have. It would be made under a loosely worded 1948 international treaty that compels signatory nations, including the United States, “to prevent and to punish” the “odious scourge” of genocide defined as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious group.” As documented by Samantha Power, now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in her 2002 book, “A Problem from Hell,” President Clinton’s Secretary of State Warren Christopher, resisted labeling the mass murder of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 as genocide for fear, as one State Department memo put it at the time, “it could commit [the U.S. government] to actually do something.”
But 10 years later, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared the killings of non-Arab people in Darfur to be genocide — the first time the U.S. invoked such a declaration during an ongoing conflict. But he did so only after receiving a secret State Department memo concluding the designation “has no immediate legal — as opposed to moral, political or policy consequences for the United States.”
Administration officials have argued they are already taking extraordinary steps to protect threatened minorities in Iraq, pointing to, for example, the 2014 evacuation of Yazidis from Mount Sinjar — and that a genocide designation wouldn’t change that. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said as much when he was pressed on the issue during a recent White House briefing during which he said a genocide designation is “an open question that continues to be considered by administration lawyers.”

“The decision to apply this term to this situation is an important one,” Earnest said during a Feb. 4 briefing. “It has significant consequences, and it matters for a whole variety of reasons, both legal and moral. But it doesn’t change our response. And the fact is that this administration has been aggressive, even though that term has not been applied, in trying to protect religious minorities who are victims or potential victims of violence.”

Culled from Yahoo finance

Speculators Get Their Fingers Burnt, Naira Strengthens to N310/$-Obinna Chima and Eromosele Abiodun

• BDCs to introduce forex band, reforms for parallel market

Foreign currency speculators, who launched an unprecedented attack against the naira in the last two weeks, got their fingers burnt on Tuesday when the nation’s currency staged a major recovery, rising to N310 to a dollar at the close of business, compared to N375 at which it sold on Monday.

The naira fell to an all-time low of about N400 to a dollar on the parallel market last week fuelling concerns that it would plummet further to N450-N500/$ this week.

But findings from THISDAY showed that the naira defied expectations, climbing to as high as N305 to the dollar at some parallel market points in Lagos on Tuesday afternoon, before settling at N310.

Forex dealers and currency analysts attributed the significant gain on the parallel market to excess supply of the greenback in the market, even as it looked like a lot of speculators lost the shirts on their back.

THISDAY gathered from a reliable source that speculators who thought that by attacking the currency last week, coupled with misplaced concerns that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was going to stop the allocation of forex for school fees and medical bills abroad, this would compel the central bank and President Muhammadu Buhari to alter their stance against the devaluation of the currency.

But they were disappointed when Buhari, in Egypt at the weekend, adamantly ruled out the devaluation of the naira on the grounds that Nigeria does not have the competitive advantage to benefit from an official currency adjustment.

Reacting to the president’s stance, speculators who had been betting that the naira would depreciate further, started dumping the dollars with reckless abandon, effectively creating excess supply of the greenback in the parallel market.

Commenting on the situation in the secondary forex market, the chairman, Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said: “The market is moving from perception to reality.”

Similarly, an analyst at Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Kunle Ezun, predicted that the naira would edge higher in the coming days.
“We expect that the naira would appreciate further. We have always said that what happened last week was purely a speculative attack.

Some people felt that if they pushed the naira down to that level, they could force the CBN to devalue, so that when the naira is devalued and the gap widens further, they would now bring out the dollar cash to make a kill,” Ezun said.
He however urged the fiscal authorities to introduce policies that would help stimulate economic activities, saying that the fundamentals of the economy were still weak.

ABCON also aligned with the federal government’s decision not to further devalue the naira.
Gwadabe said this at a media briefing, pointing out that devaluing the naira would create more problems than it would solve.
He said that as a way of enhancing transparency in the BDC sub-sector, his association had decided to introduce a forex rate band weekly.

This rate band is expected to serve as a guide for all BDCs and the public on the prevailing exchange rate across the country, he added.
In addition, it will be operated in line with the regulated forex rate in the economy.

“This is to forestall exploitation of forex end users, and also to ensure that end users are informed to avoid falling victims of exploitation.
“The band will be announced via weekly press releases that will be circulated to the media for publication.

“ABCON will introduce a series of measures aimed at transforming the operations of BDCs in Nigeria to align with global best practices. These include: review and updating of BDC operational manual; introduction of live trading platforms; automation of all transactions and documentation requirements; and increased partnership with the CBN and other relevant agencies.

“Further, as part of its responsibility as a self regulatory organisation (SRO), and also in continuation of its aim to transform its members to compete within the global regulatory currency market, ABCON will seek the approval of relevant monetary and fiscal authorities as well as partnership for effective use of the nation's external reserves to enhance domestic trade and foreign exchange management.
“To this end, our website and internet platforms will be developed to position BDCs to serve as agents of Western Union and currency auctioneers.

“We would also develop platforms that will allow our members to access sources of autonomous foreign exchange like govt agencies, embassies, IOCs and export proceeds, etc,” he explained.
He also urged the federal government to introduce policies that would diversify the economy to increase non-oil export earnings, and reduce imports.

This, according to him, would lead to increased foreign exchange inflow and a reduction in demand for foreign exchange.
In addition to policies that would diversify the economy, ABCON suggested that the CBN should review the policy of dollar importation into the economy for the purpose of defending the naira.

According to the association, the central bank should introduce a policy whereby the naira is used to intervene in the real sectors of the economy to boost productivity.

Furthermore, Gwadabe said as a way of reducing demand for dollars, the CBN should explore the option of promoting the use and acceptability of naira for transactions within the West African sub-region.

He added: “We observe that this is already happening at the level of informal trading activities within the sub-region, and it is our belief that this can be replicated at the level of formal economic activities.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mr. Atedo Peterside, has expressed concern over the uncertainty arising from the federal government’s foreign exchange policy, warning that it is threatening macroeconomic stability in the country and is unsustainable.

He stated this yesterday at the 2016 Standard Bank West Africa Investors’ Conference tagged, “Unlocking Nigeria’s Potential…Growth through Diversification”.

He said the federal government’s foreign exchange policy is the biggest uncertainty facing the country today following the lack of economic policy direction and the likely composition of Buhari’s economic team for much of the third and fourth quarters of last year.
According to him, “The argument at stake is not whether to devalue or not because there has already been an effective devaluation.

“The naira prices of various capital goods are now being ‘correctly’ priced purely on the basis of realistic expected replacement costs and so the economy is sliding towards an unpalatable scenario where the consumer suffers the ‘pains’ of devaluation (rising prices) without witnessing any of the expected ‘gains’ such as enhanced fiscal viability (in local currency terms at least) of the three tiers of government and increased competitiveness of Nigerian businesses.”

Peterside stressed that the much-craved economic diversification could only take place meaningfully if new capital investment activity takes place to take maximum advantage of increased domestic competitiveness.

“Sadly, most investors here – local and foreign – are currently caught up in a frenzied pursuit of the cheapest available dollars and the difference between losing this game and winning it can be as high as a mind-boggling 50 per cent on new transactions.

“The pursuit of scarce forex for today’s needs has understandably become the main game in town and this has exacerbated the pressures on Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves and the naira via the one-way bet that is currently on against the naira, that is, everybody wants to take foreign exchange out and nobody really wants to bring it in,” he added.

He further stated that the excitement caused by the important development in Nigeria’s political landscape last year, where a change in government occurred at the federal level after a keenly contested election, has given way to some apprehension surrounding whether a populist government can take the necessary tough economic policy actions that are necessary to restore confidence and stimulate badly needed new investment activity.

Culled from Thisday

Zika has been linked to birth defects. Now it may be causing paralysis.-By Nick Miroff

 

Liliana Zuñiga Ayarza sits at her home with daughter Isabella Murillo remembering her mother, Belarmina Ayarza Garcia, who was one of several recent deaths linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome in Colombia. (Dania Maxwell for The Washington Post)

TURBO, Colombia – The Zika epidemic flaring across the Americas has produced several hot spots with large numbers of cases. But there is no place quite like Turbo.
The mosquito-borne virus has spread rapidly here and across lowland Colombia, but the city is unusual for the subsequent outbreak of a rare, debilitating disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, whose precise link to the virus remains unclear. Before Zika’s arrival in Turbo, a mostly Afro-Colombian town of 60,000 set amid vast banana plantations on the country’s north coast, doctors typically saw one case of Guillain-Barre a year, if that.

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In the past six weeks, there have been five, all of them severe. Three patients have died. One is fighting for his life in an intensive care unit. The fifth, a 10-year-old girl, hasn’t been able to move her legs in a week.

Jose Molinares Cruz crosses a bridge outside his home in Turbo on Feb. 17. Cruz’s sister, Paula Molinares, 10, is being treated for Guillain-Barre in Montería, a major city in Colombia. (Dania Maxwell for The Washington Post)

The deaths, and the aggressiveness of the Guillain-Barre cases here, are among the first signs of a strange and worrisome pattern that is challenging the way doctors in Colombia and across Latin America are preparing for the spread of Zika.

Much of the global attention to the virus has zeroed in on a suspected link to microcephaly, a congenital defect that leaves babies with undersized heads and varying degrees of nerve damage. Brazilian officials say they may have hundreds or thousands of such cases related to Zika. But the photos of worried mothers and distressed infants may have given many people the impression
that the virus poses no major risk to anyone else.

[Zika prompts urgent debate about abortion in Latin America]

That is not true, and certainly not here in Turbo, where rank sewage-filled canals line the streets and more and more people are arriving at the crowded emergency room with bloodshot eyes and itchy, red pockmarks, the telltale signs of Zika. Something about the virus – and researchers still don’t know what it is – appears to significantly increase the incidence of Guillain-Barre.

The first resident here to get it was 41-year-old Eliana Uribe. She called in sick to her cousin’s dress shop one morning in mid-January, not long after missing several days of work with a strange rash and sore joints. Something was wrong with her feet, she said.

Katarina Lemus Uribe shows a photograph of her cousin, Eliana Uribe Leon, shortly before she died from Guillain-Barre after being infected with the Zika virus in Turbo. (Dania Maxwell for The Washington Post)

A few hours later, when Uribe tried to walk, she collapsed. Her legs felt “like rags.” The illness was creeping toward her torso.
Uribe’s family carried her to the emergency room. German Gomez, the internist at the small public hospital, thought it might be Guillain-Barre. But he wasn’t sure.
“I’d been here 15 months and hadn’t seen a single case,” he said.
Two days later, Uribe lost control of her tongue and facial muscles. She fell short of breath. Doctors rushed her to a bigger hospital.
Uribe died Feb. 2, her brain swamped in fluid – “severe hydrocephaly,” doctors told her family. “They never told us you could die from it,” said Katarina Lemus, Uribe’s cousin. What is hydrocephaly?
The day after Uribe’s death, another Turbo resident, Edelberto Padilla, 51, also died with Guillain-Barre, at a different hospital. He had the symptoms of Zika, too.
The Colombian government has confirmed three fatalities with Guillain-Barre, including two of the Turbo patients, blaming the deaths on Zika.

Alma Leon cries in her home in Turbo remembering her daughter, Eliana Uribe Leon, who recently died from complications related to Guillain-Barre on Feb. 2. (Dania Maxwell for The Washington Post)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed two cases of Guillain-Barre related to Zika in the United States, presumably among the more than 80 travelers infected by the virus who have returned to the country. Another Guillain-Barre case was reported in Puerto Rico.
The normal prevalence rate for Guillain-Barre is one or two cases per 100,000 people, said Kenneth Gorson, a professor of neurology at Tufts University in Boston, who is one of the leading U.S. authorities on the disorder, named for the two French neurologists who discovered it exactly 100 years ago.
At its most basic level, Guillain-Barre is what happens when a patient’s immune system fights off an infection and then goes haywire, as antibodies turn against the body’s own nervous system, Gorson said. They attack nerve cells, apparently mistaking them for a virus. In some instances,the antibodies strip away the membrane that protects nerve endings, called myelin, leaving the body’s muscles essentially unable to communicate with the brain.

In his courses, Gorson tells students that Guillain-Barre itself isn’t fatal. “What kills people is being paralyzed in an intensive care unit,” he said. “It’s the complications from being on a ventilator for long periods of time, the risk of blood clots, wound infections from lack of movement or other numerous medical complications that occur in paralyzed patients. Access
to quality care is critical.”
Adults and children appear to be equally at risk of developing Guillain-Barre, but patients who already have health problems or compromised immune systems are less able to recover from it.

One Guillain-Barre study in the Netherlands found a death rate of 1 in 20, “but that is with high-level care,” Gorson said. About one-quarter of patients need breathing assistance.
Belarmina Ayarza, 58, contracted Zika while visiting her family in Turbo in January, then checked into a hospital in the city of Medellin 10 days later when she lost feeling in her legs. Doctors diagnosed Guillain-Barre, said her son, Jose Barrios. Ayarza was a diabetic, with high blood pressure. But her condition stabilized and Barrios was able to take her home in a wheelchair. On Feb. 7 she started convulsing in her bed. “I picked her up and held her in my arms,” Barrios said, “but she was gone.” Doctors said she’d had a heart attack.
Lack of high-level care
In the rural areas of Latin America where Zika is spreading, high-level care is often unavailable. Wait times at public hospitals, especially those swamped by Zika patients, can discourage patients from seeking care. Those with aggressive Guillain-Barre need complicated blood transfusions or a treatment known as immunoglobulin therapy to essentially wash out the harmful antibodies. But the treatments can cost more than $10,000, and patients may need several rounds.

The Zika virus, explained

Pla Video2:52

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Zika virus and its spread across North and South America. (Daron Taylor,Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

Colombia says that more than 30,000 citizens have been diagnosed with Zika so far, with 97 cases linked to Guillain-Barre. Brazil, Venezuela, El Salvador and Suriname have also reported a surge in the disorder. The same pattern appeared during the Zika outbreak in French Polynesia in 2013 and 2014, when at least 42 patients, most of whom were diagnosed with Zika, developed
Guillain-Barre.
“We are seeing a spike everywhere that we are seeing the Zika virus,” said Tarun Dua, a neurologist at the World Health Organization (WHO). What’s unclear is whether Zika is causing Guillain-Barre or whether it is”cross-reacting” with antibodies from other widespread mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue or chikungunya.
Another major problem: There is no widely available, quick test for Zika, and the virus remains in an infected patient’s blood only for about a week. So it’s difficult to test for Zika in patients hospitalized with Guillain-Barre symptoms.
“The hypothesis is that Zika may be a more efficient trigger of Guillain-Barre, but we can’t say that at the moment,” said Anthony Costello, director of maternal, child and adolescent development at WHO. “The detective work is starting, but it takes time.”
In Turbo, patients diagnosed with Zika – whose symptoms include rash, joint pain, headaches and bloodshot eyes – are typically given acetaminophen and sent home to rest.
But they may share their homes with the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that pick upthe disease from infected people and spread it. They breed in stagnant water.

Wilfrido Manuel Molinares looks out on a sewage canal to arrive at his home in Turbo on Feb. 17. His daughter, Paula Molinares, 10, is being treated for Guillain-Barre in Montería. (Dania Maxwell for The Washington Post)

In a squalid neighborhood at the edge of a town known as El Bosque, the streets are unpaved and motorbikes weave around chickens and kids playing in the streets. Occasionally a truck rumbles through blaring advertisements on giant speakers, with an occasional public-health message urging residents to dump out standing water.
There are no health inspectors or fumigation crews to be seen. A foul, black bisque of sewage and trash oozes through a canal right in front of the home of Wilfrido Molinares. Children and horses walk through the muck; a frayed sofa sits half-submerged, rotting.
Molinares’s daughter Paula, 10, has been hospitalized with Guillain-Barre for nearly two weeks in the nearby city of Monteria. She had Zika symptoms before that. He’s had Zika, too, and was laid up from his construction job for two months last summer with chikungunya, which causes fevers and joint and muscle pain. Zika seemed mild compared with that, he said, until his daughter couldn’t stand on her own.

The window from Wilfrido Manuel Molinares’ bedroom looks out into a puddle of stagnant water in Turbo, Colombia on February 17. (Dania Maxwell for the Washington Post)

In their neighborhood, everyone stores drinking water in tanks, jugs and empty bottles.
“There are a lot of mosquitoes here,” Molinares said. “I bought mosquito repellent and spray it all over. But when the sun goes down, sometimes you can’t even sit outside.”

Culled from The Washington post

Buhari Promises to Abide by Rule of Law in Corruption Fight-Tobi Soniyi

President Muhammadu Buhari 


President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja promised to respect the rule of law in the fight against corruption.
Speaking at a reception he held for members of the diplomatic corps at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, Buhari said he would leave no stone unturned in the effort to rid Nigeria of corruption.

“I must, however, add that in doing this, we shall operate within the ambit of the law,” he added.
His statement, however, contrasted with the disobedience of court orders by his administration in cases involving the former National Security Adviser  (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, who have been kept in detention despite bail granted both of them by different courts.

Buhari said he was ‎resolved to build a stable and prosperous Nigeria, a country that would be inclusive of all her diverse peoples and a country that would be at ease with itself.

He added: “Building such a country will not be possible where corruption is pervasive. Mindful of this, it has become necessary to wage a relentless war against the cancer of corruption. So long as corruption holds centre stage in the affairs of Nigeria, the country will continue to suffer incalculable harm.

“You are witnesses to the preliminary findings that have emerged in the past few weeks from our investigations into corrupt practices in different sectors of Nigeria’s public service.
“I will leave no stone unturned in the efforts to rid Nigeria of corruption. I must however add that in doing this, we shall operate within the ambit of the law.”

He told the diplomats that ‎in a similar fight in the past, and armed with military might, “I led a government that required persons presumed to be corrupt to prove their innocence,” adding, ‎”Today, as committed democrats, and in a culture of deepening democracy, we respect the law that presumes all persons innocent until they are proven to be guilty.‎”

Buhari said he was convinced that there was no alternative to democratic governance, adherence to the rule of law, respect for human rights and adherence to constitutional order.

According to him, upholding these values remained the essential for peace, stability and development.
‎He told the diplomats that Nigeria’s foreign policy vision under his watch would be anchored on meaningful engagement with “our neighbours, the African continent and the world at large”.

He said Nigeria would continue to build strong partnerships, strengthen regional ties and promote global solidarity.
“Nigeria will remain a responsible and active member of the international community; promoting tolerance, accommodation, reconciliation and pacific settlement of disputes,” he added.

He said Nigeria would also continue to shoulder responsibilities in peace keeping under the auspices of the United Nations.
‎On the fight against Boko Haram, Buhari said there had been a resurgence in the morale and will of the Nigerian Armed Forces to dislodge Boko Haram from their bases in the North-east.

According to him, the changes in both the command structure and operational tactics of the military had brought about significant gains on the ground.

He said: “The Armed Forces have been given specific instructions on rules of engagement to treat captured terrorists humanely and to avoid civilian casualties.”

He recalled that when he assumed office on May 29, 2015, Boko Haram had full control of 14 local governments areas in the North-east, “but today, the group holds no territory in Nigeria”.
He said members of the sect were hiding in Sambisa forest and occasionally undertook cowardly attacks on innocent citizens using soft targets.

In his remarks, the dean of the diplomatic corps and Camerounian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Salaudeen Ibrahim, commended Buhari in his resolve to fight corruption.

He assured the president of the support and cooperation of the international community in the efforts to tackle insecurity in order to provide the enabling environment to do business.

Culled from Thisday

Nigerian Students at Canadian University Struggle to Pay Tuition in Wake of Dollar Scarcity

Some students from Nigeria studying at University of Price Edward Island (UPEI) in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, are struggling to pay their tuition after new banking rules in Nigeria are making international money transfers more cumbersome.

The new government in Nigeria, hamstrung by low oil earnings, is demanding more paperwork for international money transfers, which is making it difficult for families to send money to their children studying in Canada.

Caleb Ofoegbu, a fourth-year student from Nigeria studying economics and sociology, was unregistered when his family was unable to pay his tuition last semester.

His father was finally able to transfer money in late January, allowing Ofoegbu to start the semester one month late.

“If I hadn’t gotten the money, the little money I had to pay the tuition, I think my graduation would have been in the balance and I don't think I would have been graduating this semester,” said Ofoegbu. 

He said most of his core course work was done and he’s taking three elective courses online, so he’s been able to catch up after the late start.

Ofoegbu said he’s hearing from other Nigerian students on the UPEI campus who are feeling stressed about the situation at home.
“The problem is most of them are afraid to speak out,” Ofoegbu said. “They prefer to let the situation overwhelm them.”

Ofoegbu said his family is struggling in the wake of plummeting price of oil, which has sent the Nigerian currency into a downward spiral, making their money worthless in Canada.

His father is a retired engineer who now runs his own business dealing with aviation equipment and tractors. 

“His business comes from the economy, right?” Ofoegbu said. “People won’t want to invest their money in an unstable economy.
“Recently he expanded his business so he collected loans from the bank ... And he used our house as collateral. So if he misses any payments, everything is gone.”

Ofoegbu’s brother has graduated from an MBA programme on Vancouver Island. His younger sister would like to study at UPEI, but the family can’t afford her tuition right now.

UPEI is doing what it can to accommodate the changing situation in Nigeria.

With more than 100 students from the African country, it’s the third largest group of international students on campus after the U.S. and China.

Zhaohui Wang, manager of enrolment at UPEI, said the Nigerian government’s new policies on transferring funds internationally are “more cumbersome and difficult”, creating more red tape for students and their families.

“There are extra steps for them to go through, additional documents for the parents to obtain from us, to provide to the banks,” Wang said.

“It has been a learning curve but we are trying our best to accommodate.

“Personally I have not heard from students who have to leave because we have policies in place that will accommodate the students’ late payments, but I can certainly understand the anxiety it creates among our students.”

Wang said he doesn't expect the banking changes will have an impact on the number of students from Nigeria attending UPEI.

“I think it will just require the university and the students to take more time and it will probably create more work for us.”

Ofoegbu hopes “things change for good” but he admits the new Nigerian government is still in its first term, and it’s likely the crackdown on international banking transfers will continue.

After he graduates, Ofoegbu hopes to find a job in Canada and become a permanent resident. He also wants to pursue a post-graduate degree — but said that will have to wait until he can afford the tuition.

Culled from CBC News

Senate leadership crisis deepens- Fred Itua

The leadership crisis in the Senate yesterday assumed a new dimension as the Upper Legislative Chamber directed its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, to investigate Senator Kabir Marafa over an alleged false publication in a national daily.
The result of the probe may lead to his suspension. Some Senators are calling for reining in Marafa for allegedly embarrassing the Upper Chamber with his press interview.
Relying on a Point of Order, Senator Isah Misau said the said the report published on February 7, 2016 and credited to Senator Marafa was misleading and has brought the Senate to disrepute.
He said it was unfortunate that at a time when the Senate was working hard to pass the budget in good time, one of them was misleading the generality of Nigerians with falsehood.
Misau said it took him about 11 years to get to the Senate and as such, could not overlook the situation where his integrity and the Senate’s are being rubbished by another senator.
“Senator Kabir Marafa granted an interview misleading the public telling lies against this institution, the Senate. I think I have received more than 500 calls from my constituency in respect of this publication.
“I will not allow somebody who enjoyed the seventh Senate to come and not allow us to do our work properly here. Mr President, I think the leadership has to do something about this, we cannot allow one person to continue to tell lies against the Senate misleading the public.
“I think it is better we take a decision so that we correct things not only Marafa, anybody that is here would not be allowed to be misleading the public,” he said.
Also contributing, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South), said it was disheartening that a lawmaker would continually bring the entire Senate to disrepute.
“I want to say with every element of responsibility that publication smears the integrity of this house. The leadership of this house that I have so much respect for, has been brought to total disrepute,” he said.
The Senate thereafter referred the motion to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions chaired by Sen. Sam Anyanwu (PDP Imo) to report back in one week.
Meanwhile, Senator Marafa has reacted to the alleged plot to suspend him. He told Daily Sun, that he was ready to face the committee and tell the whole world what he knows about the goings on in the Senate.
Marafa said: “Do they have any rules in the Senate? How many times did I raise Points of Order to call their attention to the violation of Senate Orders? I will gladly honour the invitation of the committee.”
I have been waiting for the opportunity to appear before them. I am waiting for them. Let them expedite action on it. I am calling on all Nigerians to come and witness the mother of all trials.”

Culled from The SUN