Ex-UK Minister asks government to sanction Nigerian officials over #EndSARS protest

 

Theresa Villiers, a former Environment Secretary in the UK has called on the country's government to impose sanctions against Nigerian officials over the 'suppression' of EndSars protesters. 

 

Speaking during a one-hour-twenty-minute debate held in British Parliament to debate possible sanctions against the Nigerian government, Villiers asked the UK Government to place travel ban and freeze assets of Nigerian officials found to be involved in suppression of the protests.

 

The former Minister turned parliamentarian also disclosed that reports she gathered from some of her constituents who were of Nigerian descent and information from the Amnesty International, showed gross violation of peoples’ rights in the way the #EndSARS protests were suppressed.

 

A few other parliamentarians supported her call and argued that the only way the UK government could express its dissatisfaction with the alleged rights violation was through an imposition of targeted sanctions.

'You are a disgrace. Both home and abroad' - Adesua Etomi-Wellington slams Lauretta Onochie

 

Actress Adesua Etomi-Wellington lost her cool on Tuesday morning, November 24, after seeing a photo shared by a presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie.

 

 

Onochie shared the photo above on her Twitter handle as she called on Nigerians to ensure they wear facemasks.

''WEARING A MASK IS NOT A POLITICAL STATEMENT. ITS NOT PUNISHMENT BY GOVERNMENT PROTECT YOURSELF. Wear one. These have made efforts with masking where those of us who are more vulnerable & susceptible to COVID-19 are still swearing that it's a scam. God bless their efforts

 

Adesua saw the photo of the little children and was angry. Reacting to Onochie's post, Adesua wrote

'' You are a disgrace. Both home & abroad. You should be ashamed that these children have to do this with cardboards. Instead of talking about how to tackle poverty so they can be protected adequately against the virus, you're spewing this nonsense.

This picture made me so angry and brought tears to my eyes. They are so small, so vulnerable and so unprotected. Arghhhhhh. THIS COUNTRY

I am finally accepting the fact that some human beings, really are dead on the inside. Didn't understand how that could be even possible. I'm realising every day that it is.''

 

 

Gowon exited power without any evidence of wealth and that remains for over four decades after power - Shehu Sani counters British lawmaker's claim

 

Former Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani has countered British lawmaker, Tom Tugendhat's claim of former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon exiting power with half of the Central Bank. 

 

Tugendhat said this while contributing to the debate on possible sanctions against the Nigerian government over human right abuses during the #EndSARS protest. 

 

Shehu Sani however described this as falsehood, while also stating that Gowon exited power without any evidence of wealth and that has remained for over four decades after power. 

 

He tweeted; 

 

General Yakubu Gowon;The claim of ‘looting the CBN’ made by the British Minister for Africa as represented by Mr James Duddridge against Gen Gowon is nothing but outright falsehood.Gowon exited power without any evidence of wealth & that remains,for over four decades after power.

 

Flying Doctors founder, Dr Ola Brown gives interesting answer to the question "can women have it all?"

 

"Can women have it all?" is a question often posed to career women who are trying to build an empire and also manage their families. 

 

Most people are of the opinion that women can have it all with supportive partners, but some have opined that women can never have it all as one area of their lives - either family life or professional life - will have to suffer for another to thrive. Whereas men do not have these issues because they can thrive in their careers despite having a family.

 

Former PepsiCo CEO, Indra Nooyi, speaking from experience, said women cannot have it all. 

 

Indra, who was PepsiCo CEO for 12 years and worked in the company for 24 years, said in a 2014 interview:

 

I don't think women can have it all. I just don't think so. We pretend we have it all. We pretend we can have it all.

My husband and I have been married for 34 years. And we have two daughters. And every day you have to make a decision about whether you are going to be a wife or a mother, in fact many times during the day you have to make those decisions. And you have to co-opt a lot of people to help you. We co-opted our families to help us. We plan our lives meticulously so we can be decent parents.

But if you ask our daughters, I'm not sure they will say that I've been a good mom. I'm not sure. And I try all kinds of coping mechanisms.

I'll tell you a story that happened when my daughter went to Catholic school. Every Wednesday morning they had class coffee with the mothers. Class coffee for a working woman—how is it going to work? How am I going to take off 9 o'clock on Wednesday mornings? So I missed most class coffees. My daughter would come home and she would list off all the mothers that were there and say, "You were not there, mom."

The first few times I would die with guilt. But I developed coping mechanisms.

 

Nigerian-British medical doctor, Ola Brown who is married and also building a career, said she has been asked the same question multiple times and she responded on Twitter.

 

She said "having it all" is subjective as people want different things out of life. She added that judging based on what people refer to as "all", the answer will not be based on gender because even men do not have it all. 

 

She concluded by asking if Aliko Dangote, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates actually have it all.

 

She tweeted: 

 

One of the questions I get asked at womens groups is "Can a woman have it all?"

To me it depends on what you mean by "all". If you want a massive family with whom you spend 90% of your time and a small hairdressers that does N1m per year, of course. Not everyone has to be Aliko.

 

She continued:

 

But if your definition of "all" is building one of the largest companies on the continent/in the world with billions in revenue, then the question almost loses its relationship with gender. 

The people that have done it. Jeff Bezos, Aliko Dangote etc. Do they have it all?

 

 

Nigerian-American Scientist Robert Okogie inducted into NASA Hall of Fame

 

Robert Olusola Okojie, a Nigerian-American Scientist Robert Okogie has been inducted into U.S’s National Aeronautics Space Administration‘s (NASA) Inventors Hall of Fame.

 

Okogie who has been working with NASA for 20 years has 21 patented inventions to his credit, gained worldwide recognition as the leading expert on silicon carbide-based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for use in extreme environments.

 

It was further gathered that he joined the silicon carbide research group at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland in 1999. 

 

NASA wrote on its website; 

 

“He holds more than 20 patents relating to high-temperature devices, including several licensed for commercial use that could reduce spacecraft weight, and thereby launch cost and fuel consumption, while leaving additional space for scientific payloads. He has also published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers relating to his field."

 

Okojie who has received numerous accolades including the NASA Abe Silverstein Medal for Research in 2009 and the Glenn Research Center Distinguished Publication Award in 2012, was also recognized in 2002 as the Scientist of the Year by the National Technical Association for his “exceptional accomplishments in advancing the state–of–the–art of MEMS for use in harsh environments”. In 2007, he was a recipient of the Cleveland Executive Board Wings of Excellence award. 

 

Okojie whose current research focus is in single-chip integrated multifunctional sensing for extreme environments, has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute Of Technology.

Reno Omokri throws jab at slay queens using late Maryam Babangida's photos

 

Reno Omokri is again throwing jabs at slay queens.

 

Posting photos of ex-First lady of Nigeria, lady Maryam Babangida, Reno wrote

''Maryam Babangida was one of the world’s most beautiful women ever. We need the media to project more natural beauties like Maryam, instead of force feeding youths ‘stunning’ photos of bleached divorcee slay queens, with surgically enhanced bodies!

This is a real beauty. Not useless people who corrupt the morals of our youth. From head to toe, nothing about you is real. Teaching our beautiful melanin endowed girls to hate their bodies, not knowing one hot towel can wipe away your fake beauty!''

 

 

COVID-19 caused recession – Buhari

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the country's current state of recession on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

The President said this while declaring open the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit with the theme: “Building Partnerships for Resilience’’.

 

Buhari who was represented by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, said the decline in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) came after 12 successive quarters of positive growth. He also added that the lockdowns, disruption in global supply chains, business failures and rising unemployment caused the recent recession. 

 

The President said; 

 

“We can all recall that during the lockdown, farming did not take place, businesses were closed; schools were closed as were hotels and restaurants.

“Also, airlines stopped flying, while inter-state commerce was disrupted.

“The economy only began to recover when these activities resumed and if we are able to sustain the nearly three percentage point increase from the second quarter decline of minus 6.1 per cent, the performance in the fourth quarter could take us into positive territory."

 

Buhari who disclosed his adminstration's effort to mitigate such impact led to the introduction of the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), further revealed that all the programmes in the ESP are reliant on the private sector playing a key role in creating and conserving jobs and the production and delivery of services in agriculture, housing, solar power and digital technologies.

 

He added; 

 

“Of course, an improvement in global economic conditions, including the restoration of global supply chains and resumption of exports and remittances, should enable a V-shaped recovery.

“We expect, in the same spirit of partnership, that the private sector will complement these efforts by making maximum use of the provisions of the ESP and the Finance Bill when it is passed by the National Assembly and also by retaining and creating jobs so as to keep people at work.

“In a similar spirit of partnership, private sector enterprises should also pay their due taxes."

 

Buhari also noted that partnerships are essential and also necessary for framing medium and long-term development plans as the nation combats the COVID-19 pandemic. Pointing out that the  private sector had a key role to play in the efforts to build a more resilient and competitive economy as expressed in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, the President further averred that private companies in design, construction, logistics and finance were very much engaged in the nation’s infrastructural projects in power and rail as well as road and bridges.

 

He said; 

 

“I am pleased to inform in this regard that we are working actively with the CBN, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority and state governments under the auspices of the National Economic Council to design and put in place a N15 billion Infraco Fund, which will be independently managed.

“The Infraco Fund will help to close the national infrastructural gap and provide a firm basis for increasing national economic productivity and growth."