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  • Vietnam:‘Wasting’ our lives, we’ll let our country go to waste

    HANOI – A drainage canal is not a garbage landfill.
    Why state the obvious?

    Because, on the ground, they seem synonymous. Every day, their stench assails our nostrils.
    Yet, we persistently treat our surroundings as a free-for-all garbage repository.
    How many of our rivers and other water bodies have died or are dying?
    In April 2018, a drainage canal in Hanoi’s Yen Hoa area was partially restored after a pile of garbage was fished out.

    This included different types of untreated household waste and carcasses. After many years, the stench had become unbearable, but it was only after the media raised a stink that the authorities deployed sanitation workers to clean it.

    But the dead and dying water systems in the capital city and elsewhere are not just the authorities’ responsibility. Anyone can see that a year after Hanoi’s campaign to prevent its rivers and streams from being choked to death by garbage- mainly To Lich, Nhue, and Đay rivers – such efforts are just a drop in the ocean. Every Hanoian is complicit in polluting the city’s environment, and the same can be said of localities nationwide.
    Which also means that every Hanoian and every citizen of this country is responsible for cleaning up our rivers, our soil and the air we breathe.

    A Hanoian who has lived all 38 years of her life along the Kim Nguu River, a distributary of the To Lich River, said that despite the daily effort of workers from Hanoi Sewerage and Drainage Limited Company (HSDC) to dredge out the garbage, many neighbours do not hesitate to dump their household waste in it.
    The pollution is so severe that the river has stopped flowing and reeks of rubbish.
    Compare such crass indifference with the concern shown by someone like Gondai Shoichi, a Japanese national who is organising a volunteer group to collect garbage at different places in Hanoi including Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), Hoan Kiem (Return Sword) Lake, Thong Nhat Park and Thu Le Zoo. Gondai told Viet Nam News that the pollution of rivers and lakes in Hanoi was similar to that of Japan in the 1950s. He ticked off a few important points: garbage should be separated at source; environmental education should start very early; environmental regulations should be very strictly followed.
    We need to go much further.

    Beyond obedience to laws, every action that protects our environment should become second nature. This is the biggest lesson we need to learn from our Japanese brethren.
    Wako Takatoshi, a Japanese expert in drainage and sewerage who has been working as a policy advisor on urban environment with Vietnam’s Construction Ministry for the last three years, said that removing garbage from rivers and lakes in Hanoi, as was done with the Yen Hoa canal, was very important, but by itself, it was not a sustainable measure.
    The responsibility of individuals and agencies for maintaining different parts of rivers, canals and other water bodies has to be clear cut, and people’s awareness raised to a point that their habits change, he said.
    Wako also offered a key psychological insight: “People can easily litter in a place that is dirty, but they tend not to do so when a place is very clean.”

    Unlearning a few things
    According to the Hanoi Urban Environmental Hygiene Company in 2018, the capital city generates more than 6,200 tonnes of garbage each day. Only 70 per cent of this is collected and treated. The remaining 30 per cent is dumped into the environment, including our water systems.
    Hoang Thao, who founded the Noi khong voi tui nylon (Say No to nylon bags) group, said many people dump garbage thinking they are being clean and doing their part for the environment.
    “For example, they put nylon bags or plastic bottles into a waste basket and think that they are doing it right, but they are not. It takes dozens of years for the former and hundreds of years for the latter to decompose completely,” she said.

    Practical practices
    Wako, Gondai and Thao were participants at a workshop on “Clean Water for Healthy Living” organised last Sunday by the Japan-Vietnam JDS Specialist Network (JSN) and the US-based FHHER Social Impact Fund.
    The workshop was organised at a coffee shop on Lieu Giai Street, with participants being advised to bring their own mugs in case the shop had no environmentally-friendly receptacles to offer.
    Personally, the get-together, second in the JSN’s Coffee Talk Series, was an eye-opener that went beyond learning about safe water. Experts and environmental activists shared shocking information: Humans have created enough plastic to cover the eight largest country in the world – Argentina; Vietnam ranks fourth among top 20 countries in mismanaging plastic waste; globally, up to 91 per cent of the plastic isn’t recycled.
    Ironies abound in the way “experts” attend workshops on environmental protection, despite the lavish lifestyles many of them lead, the means of travel they use, the amount of plastic used at such meets and so on.

    #7 Day Challenge
    As a nation, institution or individual, the biggest change starts with a single step.
    One such step is the “#7 Day Challenge” launched on April 10, 2018 by the United Nations in Vietnam in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden and the Live & Learn environmental education organisation.
    The challenge encouraged people to practice ways of eating, moving and living without damaging the environment. It commemorated Earth Day which was ambitiously themed “End Plastic Pollution” in 2018.
    Participants raised awareness by posting photos and stories of taking buses and bicycles to work, not using nylon bags or plastic cutlery, turning off all unnecessary bulbs.
    Our leaders, like the Environment Minister, the President and the Prime Minister, can give this campaign a powerful push by accepting the challenge.
    I hope to see this happen, but the question remains: Is this enough?
    No.
    We, as people, experts and politicians, are very fond of intoning the need for “drastic” measures, but fail to recognise that what is needed is a drastic, sustained change in our attitude and lifestyle, a change that cannot be postponed or passed on to others. The change starts with each one of us.
    Nothing else will work.
    More than a year after a hefty increase in fines for littering violations, there has been no appreciable improvement in the situation, not a dent in the magnitude of change that is needed.
    We can no longer afford to accept inane, comforting messages that say small actions make a big difference. We need big actions that make a huge difference.

    This commentary by Hồng Minh was originally published by Viet Nam news on April 13, 2018.

    BEHIND THE STORY
    Vietnam is one of Asia’s five worst polluters of ocean with plastic waste, according to international organisations. This commentary by Hồng Minh was published together with an anecdote about a dying canal in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi, due to littering. The writer investigated the pollution of the city’s water system as well as other parts of the country. The writer also met and talked to experts and activists dealing with the problem and had some suggestions on how to help prevent and reduce waste, especially plastic waste. The piece was then widely shared among sanitation and plastic waste experts as well as environmental groups. The problem of illegal littering and untreated plastic waste has become so alarming that the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, launched a national campaign on June 9 to prevent plastic waste with the target to rid Vietnam of single use plastic products by the year 2025. Viet Nam News has been running a series of articles, news, opinions regarding the problem in the country as well as measures to reduce the consequences.

  • Malaysia: Pricey problems with medicine

    The issue of access to drugs is not just a Malaysian issue but a global one. In fact, there was a “global war” being waged on this issue. The concern over astronomically expensive drugs and the lack of accessibility has reached the World Health Organisation (WHO) level, and access to medicines and vaccines is expected to be among the top items on the agenda at the 72nd annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

    THERE is a global “war” being waged in the health industry.

    Civil societies and several governments in poor as well as rich countries – including Malaysia – are up in arms over pharmaceutical companies setting prices so high that some life-saving drugs are beyond the reach of many.

    The concern over astronomically expensive drugs and the lack of accessibility has reached the World Health Organisation (WHO) level, and access to medicines and vaccines is expected to be among the top items on the agenda at the 72nd annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, beginning tomorrow (the assembly ends on May 28).

    Geneva-based Health Policy Watch says that the WHO’s executive board in January held a lengthy debate on a roadmap for access to medicines, and now it will be put before the assembly.

    On Feb 1, Italy proposed that the WHO set international standards for drug-pricing transparency. It has asked the assembly to adopt a resolution that would require drug makers to disclose their R&D and production costs, as well as prices charged for medicines and vaccines.

    The proposal sent to governments on April 29 had 10 co-sponsors and Malaysia is one of them; the rest are Italy, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and Uganda.

    Italy’s proposal “has generated significant discussion and may be overshadowing the focus on the WHO roadmap to access to medicines, vaccines and other health products,” says Health Policy Watch.

    Skirmishes already began on May 7 at informal negotiations ahead of the assembly.

    Several developed countries have proposed amendments to Italy’s proposal that activists claim will make it confusing, weak and useless in many areas. Some countries have also sought to postpone discussion of the proposal.

    Following such resistance, more than 100 civil society organisations and health experts sent an open letter to WHO member state delegates on May 9, urging them to oppose harmful proposed changes to the resolution.

    The proposal will give the WHO and national governments a strong mandate to collect and analyse data on drug prices, R&D costs, clinical trial results and costs, the patent landscape, and more, says the letter.

    “At a moment when the public is looking to their elected governments to address the crisis in the pricing of new drugs and other biomedical inventions, the WHO has been asked to do something important: improve the transparency of markets for biomedical products and services,” says Knowledge Ecology International’s (KEI) director James Love on its website.

    The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations warns that the Italian proposal could lead to unintended consequences for the capacity of companies to offer preferential pricing to developing countries, and that it must be seen from diverse perspectives.

    It urges WHO and its member states “to conduct careful analysis of the potential benefits and risks to patients and to health systems, particularly for less developed countries, in addition to future innovation,” the Health Policy Watch reports.

    The federation says its industry has responded to concerns raised in the proposal, citing its Principles for Responsible Clinical Trial Data Sharing, and the Patent Information Initiative for Medicines as examples.

    Radical moves that tumbled prices

    In the last few years, some countries have resorted to drastic legal action to gain access to affordable drugs.

    Malaysia came to the forefront of this issue when, in 2017, it became the first country in the world to impose a compulsory licence to gain access to the cheaper generic version of the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir for about 400,000 of patients.

    The compulsory licence is provided for under the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellec-tual Property Rights. It allows for the generic version of a drug to be imported or manufactured while it is still under patent protection.

    Malaysia was placed under a lot of pressure for the move, prompting the Health Ministry, on Feb 25, to urge the WHO to look into the pricing system of medicine by pharmaceutical companies.

    The hepatitis C virus affects about 71 million people globally, over 66 million of whom are not being treated, according to the WHO. This is despite the fact that 95% of people with hepatitis C can be completely cured within two or three months of beginning treatment.

    Last August, China compelled a pharmaceutical company to withdraw unmerited key patent claims on the sofosbuvir base compound. With 10 million people in China living with chronic hepatitis C, the ruling opens the door to affordable generic treatment ahead of the patent’s expiry in 2024. The base compound patent on sofosbuvir was granted in China in 2009.

    A nonprofit that specialises in uncovering unfair patents, Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), estimates that treating just 15% of China’s hepatitis C patients with generic drugs would save US$13bil (RM54bil), with a massive US$87bil (RM362bil) saved if all patients are treated.

    There is a growing global momentum to challenge unmerited patents to ensure more people can access life-saving treatments, I-MAK says.

    Sofosbuvir (400mg) was priced at US$8,939 (RM37,218) for a standard 12-week treatment regimen upon launch in China in November 2017, but generic alternatives are available for US$249 (RM1,037), a potential 98% price reduction enabled by this decision, it says.

    China is also overhauling its healthcare system to provide better access to quality drugs and treatment for its population.

    In December, news agency Bloomberg reported that the government had asked 11 major cities to band together to buy drugs in bulk through a tender process to bring down prices.

    Patent problems

    It’s not just developing or poor countries that are struggling with high drug prices.

    In the United States, 18 lawmakers wrote to the US Department of Health and Human Services in February last year to consider issuing a compulsory licence for expensive hepatitis C treatments because rationing high cost treatment was harming the country’s public health.

    On Feb 5 this year, President Donald Trump, in his State of the Union address, called on Congress to contain the rising costs of prescription medications, saying it is unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other countries.

    I-MAK exposed drugmakers’ abuse of patent law in the United States in 12 bestselling drugs in 2017.

    To protect themselves from competition, drug companies file hundreds of patent applications – the vast majority of which are granted – to extend their monopolies far beyond the standard 20 years of protection granted under US patent law.

    I-MAK says the average number of years blocking generic competition are 38, years blocking patent applications are 125 and the average price hike since 2012 is more than 68%.

    The US Senate Finance Committee launched a bipartisan probe to examine drug pricing in the United States and the rising costs for consumers and taxpayers.

    During the hearing on Feb 26, the committee censured a drug company that had, in 2017, spent around US$11.5bil (RM48bil) on dividends, stock buybacks, marketing, sales and administrative costs – roughly triple the amount it spent on R&D.

    It also lambasted another company for increasing the price of insulin from less than US$100 (RM416) in 2010 to nearly US$300 (RM1,248) last year (the company raised prices again this year).

    The committee also said that in 2017, a portion of a CEO’s multi- million-dollar bonus was directly tied to sales of an arthritis medication.

    “Over six years, the company doubled the price of a 12-month supply from US$19,000 (RM79,000) to US$38,000 (RM158,000).

    “Can patients opt for a less expensive alternative? No they cannot,” it said, adding that the company protects the exclusivity of the drug like Gollum with his ring (referring to the character in the Lord of the Rings series).

    “It is morally repugnant when ailing patients are forced to choose between filling that next prescription or putting food on the table, because they can’t afford both. It is morally repugnant when patients are forced to skip doses.”

    Top executives from the seven largest drug companies were also hauled up before the committee to explain the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs.

    On Wednesday, the committee tweeted again, saying: “@HHSGov is starting to look into drug company middlemen that take millions from taxpayers. But more needs to be done to prevent these middlemen from using schemes like ‘spread pricing’ to take big profits while taxpayers get stuck with the check.”

    (How spread pricing affects the consumer: a pharmacy benefit manager company pays a pharmacy a minor amount for a drug but charges the health insurer that employs it much higher prices; the insurer in turn will charge its customers higher premiums to cover its costs.)

    The comparison method

    In Europe, issues relating to external reference pricing was reignited by an unprecedented meeting in Brussels in mid-April that brought together national pricing authorities with drug companies, patients, payers, physicians, and civil society.

    A decade ago, EU national authorities conceived a scheme known as Euripid to boost their negotiating powers with pharmaceutical manufacturers by exchanging pricing information among themselves. (One country compares the price of a drug in several other countries to derive a reference price that is then used to negotiate the product’s price in that country.)

    Pharmaceutical companies say this could hinder drug access since companies tend to delay the launch of products in countries with the lowest prices, to counteract the downward pressure in price-comparison baskets. The industry is also pushing back against Euripid’s ambitions to shift its focus from list prices to net prices, PharmExec.com reports.

    Now, with more countries holding pharmaceutical companies to account, more intense debate is expected at tomorrow’s WHO assembly.

    More transparent pricing and a redirection of how medicines are sold is urgently needed.

    Buying most products and services is a choice – but you can’t choose not to buy medicine, so if you need that patented drug to save your life, you have to find some way to cough up the exorbitant price.

    This does not work, especially on a global scale, where millions lack access to the treatment for certain infectious diseases that continue to spread, setting up a vicious cycle. This is a free market failure that must be addressed.

    A short write up about the impact of the story
    The article gives an explosive overview of the concern global communities have with high cost of drugs and the need to address the market failure relating to maximising of profits. I have been following the issue closely for three years and have been consistently writing about it to raise awareness and advocate for fair and lower drug prices.
    This is because the issue is also related to human rights to health.
    The price transparency concern was subsequently brought to the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May this year.
    In my writing the article and previous articles on high drug prices, combined some others’ work in other parts of the world and the role of governments in wanting the issue to be addressed at the World Health Organisation (WHO) level, the issue received the spotlight in the WHA meeting. The drug price transparency resolution proposed by Italy for the WHO was adopted. Although diluted, civil society organisations and many countries were glad that it had made an inroad and the initial resolution serves as the first step in bringing greater disclosure of prices.

  • NSCDC nab 20-year old woman for hawking N.3m naira notes

    A 25-year old woman, Oluchi Faith Imo was on Friday, arrested by the Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for hawking N398, 500.00 naira notes in Awka, Anambra state.

    The suspect was arrested in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with various denominations of naira around Dike Motor Park, in the state capital.

    Addressing newsmen in Awka, NSCDC Commandant, Anambra State Command, Mr David Bille, said the arrest was aimed at forestalling illicit sales of the country’s currency notes.

    He said, “A female suspect Oluchi Faith Imo, aged 20years was arrested by my personnel with a total sum of N398, 500.00 consisting of various denominations which she displayed waiting for customers.

    “The clampdown on the naira vendors and sellers is hinged on the CBN’s Act, Sections 20 and 21 that make it a punishable offense for any individual or group of people to hawk, sale or otherwise trade in the naira notes, coins or any note issued by the CBN.

    READ ALSO: NSCDC arrests kidnap kingpin in Borno

    “We have commenced full investigations into the matter to ascertain the source of the naira notes and once we are through, the suspect will be charged to court.”

    Bille assured that NSCDC and the CBN would continue the clampdown on the perpetrators which he said, was punishable under the CBN Act 2007 and carries not less than six months jail term or fine of not less than N50, 000 or both.

    ”Acts of spraying the naira notes at occasions, soiling and writing on the naira, squeezing the naira, as well as hawking and selling of the country’s currency notes, are abuses of the naira and are punishable by law,” he added.

    The NSCDC boss appealed to the general public to desist from acts of abuse of the naira, stressing that the currency was one of the symbols of Nigeria’s identity.

  • ‘My husband calls me barren” – Woman tells court

    A 40-year-old businesswoman, Temidayo Amosa, on Friday dragged husband, Omotosho, before an Igando Customary Court, for allegedly calling her a barren woman.

    Amosa told the court that she has been married to Omotosho,70, for nine years.

    ”In January 2017, my husband sent me a text, calling me barren. He ordered me to leave his house. He said he was no longer interested in me,” she alleged.

    “I pleaded with him to divorce me so that I can move on with my life, because age is no longer on my side, but he refused,” she said.

    READ ALSO: ‘My husband slapped me for asking him to wash plates’

    Amosa prayed the court to dissolve the marriage.

    Responding, Omotosho prayed the court to grant the petitioner’s prayer.

    “I do not love her anymore, please grant her request. I have six children and some of my children are abroad. I don’t even need a child from her,” the respondent said.

    After listening to the both parties, President of the Court, Mr Adeniyi Koledoye, adjourned the case until Oct. 24 for judgment.

    (NAN)

  • Video: Peter Okoye denies promising Tacha N60m

    By Samuel Oamen

     

    Superstar musician Peter Okoye has denied promising to give Tacha, who was disqualified on Friday from #BBNaija whether or not she wins the reality show.

    Okoye was seen in a live video promising to give the controversial the prize money whether she won or not.

    However, Okoye made another live video on Friday to debunk the promise.

    Read Also: BBNaija: Will Peter Okoye fulfill his promise to Tacha?

    He said he never promised to give Tacha any money.

    According to him: “I said I will teach her how to make N60million, I never said I will give her N60million.”

    Peter went ahead to pledge to give N10million to anyone who can provide a video evidence or a tweet where he promised Tacha N60million.

    WATCH VIDEO BELOW

     

  • Strike at expense of patients’ interest unethical, Obasanjo tells Doctors

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday appealed to the medical practitioners in the country to always put the lives and health of their patients first before going on strikes.

    Obasanjo declared that the culture of doctors proceeding on strike and abandoning patients to their fate is even more unethical, advising them to fashion out another way to show their displeasure.

    The elder statesman made this known during the opening ceremony of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMD), at the Doctor’s House, Lukosi, Abeokuta.

    The ex-Head of States, who was the Father of the Day at the occasion, passionately appealed to physicians to make patients’ conditions a matter of priority while demanding better welfare from their employer(s).

    He said: “A major issue that I always want to talk about whenever I am in your midst, which I told you when you came visiting is the issue of going on strike anytime you want to show your displeasure particularly, government Doctors.

    “My position is that since the care for your patient is a major ethical issue of your profession, abandoning them to go on strike is even more unethical. You should fashion another way to show your displeasure and not doing so at the expense of your patients.”

    Commenting on the conference themed: “The Importance of Supply Chain Management in Health Care System Straightening,” Obasanjo called for the resuscitation of the old central medical store system in order to boost availability of drugs in the country.

    “We used to have something like that in the past during the Western region. I don’t know whether we still have it. If we don’t, made this is time to return it or have something near it, which will bring efficiency and affordability to our drug chain system,” he said.

    Also, the Secretary to the State Governor (SSG), Mr. Tokunbo Talabi who represented the governor, Dapo Abiodun aligned with the ex-President and called for caution over tendency to resort to strike.

    Read Also: Obasanjo’s son to court: I haven’t served my wife divorce papers

    “I want you to look into what Baba Obasanjo has said on this issue of strike. You can get alternative for Taxi drivers if they decide to go on strike, yes, we have Okada drivers, but, this is not so for you. God made you so special to save lives and you should live up to the expectation. We can device other ways to save these lives it is very important,” Talabi said.

    The Ogun State chairman of NAGGMD, Dr. Olufemi Odusote, in his welcome address hinted that the theme for the 2019 National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, “The Importance of Supply Chain Management in Health Care System Straightening” became imperative in view of the health challenges, which included manpower, brain drain, and general welfare of members and security challenges have made doctors vulnerable.

    “With the calibre of resource persons, including our highly revered Erudite Professor Ogunlesi as our guest lecturer, we are of the view that we are going to get solutions to these challenges confronting us as a body in the country.”

  • Gunmen kill policeman, seven vigilantes in Niger

    A policeman and seven members of the vigilante group have been killed by gunmen in Kusherki Community in Rafi local government area of Niger state.

    The gunmen were said to have laid ambush for the security operatives rushing to the village after receiving distress calls that it had been invaded by gunmen.

    The gunmen and security agencies exchanged gunfire that lasted for three hours which resulted to the death of the policeman.

    Policemen were said to have received a distress call that some gunmen stormed Lamba Waya village at Pandogari to rustle cows, prompting the deployment of a combined team of the Police Civil Defence and Vigilante group to track down the rustlers.

    Read Also: Gunmen abduct NRC MD’s wife

    Witnesses said that the gunmen escaped with the rustled cattle, leaving seven vigilantes and one policeman dead.

    The Niger state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Muhammad Abubakar confirmed the incident.

    He said that some of the cattle rustlers were also badly injured and a combined team of the Police Civil Defence and Vigilante group has been drafted to the area with a view to apprehending the culprits.

    DSP Muhammad Dan Inna alleged that some of the cattle rustlers were killed while others sustained various degrees of injuries as a result of gunfire.

    “Our men are following the blood trails and combing the areas as we speak, ” he explained.

  • COZA: Fatoyinbo not ready to be helped, says ex-spiritual father

    Founder of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) Abuja, Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo, is not ready to be helped to overcome his sexual weaknesses, his former spiritual father, Pastor Emmanuel Oset has declared.

    Oset, presiding pastor of Champions’ Church Ilorin, was reacting to the allegation of rape against Fatoyinbo by celebrity photographer, Busola Dakolo.

    Several women have also alleged the preacher had illicit sexual relations with them.

    The first allegation broke in 2013 when Ese Walters gave graphic details of how he had a long affair with the preacher, culminating in sexual relations while in the United Kingdom.

    Oset, to whom Fatoyinbo submitted until 2014, described his estranged spiritual soul as a man who cannot be helped by man or God.

    He spoke on Thursday in an interview on Arise TV.

    Read Also; Rape saga: Jealous pastors behind Fatoyinbo’s ordeal — COZA

    According to him:“Our Lord Jesus Christ knew that Judas had become a thief but it wasn’t Jesus who said so, it was John who said so. Not because Jesus was weak but because Jesus was hoping that this man would change,” he said.

    “You always find in the scripture, the purposes of God are redemptive. Before God comes with judgement in any case, you will see that he would have tried to get through to the person. It is when His love has been rebuffed and rebuffed again that He comes with judgement. That is God’s procedure.

    “God does not rule by force, he rules by love.

    “People have spoken. People spoke in 2013 but you can only help somebody who wants to be helped.

    “If somebody doesn’t want to be helped, even God will not be able to help him. His hands will be tight in that regard.”

    Recalling his efforts to bring Fatoyinbo to order in 2013 when Walters allegations became public knowledge, Oset said: “When in August 2013, news broke out online concerning him and his ministry, as somebody he was close to as an elder I thought it was my responsibility to get across to him.

    “I was preparing to go to the United States for ministry and after some efforts because it wasn’t easy to get through to him, his pastor in Ilorin here, I told him, get through to your boss and I want to share a thing or two with him.

    ‘’Eventually he succeeded, and he called me from Abuja. And I told him this news is all over the place and I want to hear from you and I want to also give you some counsel if need be.

    ‘’And he said he would get in touch. I said okay, I’m on my way to the US while I’m there if I want to get through to you how do I do it?

    “I thought he would just say sir you can get through to me using my email. Then he said his fear that time was that he was being bugged.

    “When I came back from the United States, I still tried to get across to him because my desire is always to please God. I am not saying this to impress anybody.

    “I wasn’t part of those already making comments on the issue. I just wanted to see how I could be useful in terms of helping him, but he didn’t show up.

    “I waited from August 2013 to April 2014. When he didn’t show up and he was coming to town, having meetings I was seeing his billboards in town, well, my wife and I said to ourselves we’ve done our bit.

    ‘’It was then I wrote him a letter and I said consider that we no longer have anything to do with you and your ministry. I didn’t post it, it was hand delivered by his pastor.”

  • No timeline to begin implementation of minimum wage – Labour

    The Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) has said there is no timeline on when the Federal Government would begin the full implementation of minimum wage to workers on all levels.

    The General Secretary, JNPSNC Alade Lawal, said this in an interview in Abuja.

    Lawal said that he was hopeful that both the federal government and the organised labour would arrive at a decision soon.

    He said that negotiation with the government team may resume in a couple of days.

    Lawal said: “It is still as it was. On the part of labour we are talking to our people, we are briefing them. You can call it mobilisation if you like. With the way they are working behind the scene we may be back to the negotiation table in a couple of days.

    READ ALSO: TUC to FG: conclude discussion on new minimum wage

    “This is not something that somebody can put a timeline. It is negotiation and when you negotiate you have fair deal from your side that you believe should be the ruling wage. They have their positions base on the numbers in the books.

    “So when you have two sides of a coin and you are meeting you can’t put a timeline but I want to believe that if you follow the trends of discussions, follow the trends of development, follow the trend of sincerity on the part of government, you will agree with me that we are moving very close to either arriving t something or let us see how it goes.”

    He dismissed the payment of minimum wage to workers on levels 1-6, stressing that as far as labour was concerned, the federal government had not paid minimum wage.

    “As far as we are concerned they have not paid anything. It has no effect,” he added.

  • FG approves N600bn facility for power sector

    The Federal Government has approved a N600billion assurance facility for the power sector until June, 2020.

    The amount, which is contained in the 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), is as a result of the failure of the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP).

    The document added that additionally, an accountability framework has been finalised by the federal government which will guide the drawdown of a $2billion World Bank Facility to support the implementation of the PSRP over the Medium Term.

    The document said the federal government may consider a Tariff review over the medium term, subject to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) review of the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO).

    According to the MTEF/FSP: “A N600billion payment Assurance Facility extension has been approved by the Federal Executive Council until June next year.

    “In addition, an accountability framework has been finalized with conditions precedents which will guide the drawdown on the $2billion World Bank Facility (of which $1billion is a performance-based loan) to support the implementation of the FGN PSRP will be finalized over the medium term.

    “Tariff review shall also be considered over the medium term, subject to NERC’s review of the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO).”

    The document also revealed that the federal government maintains a N20billion balance in the Ecological Fund for emergency response in the event of an unforeseen natural disaster in any part of the country.

    “Aside flooding, there is no imminent natural disaster warning for Nigeria from any of the relevant agencies monitoring such. Nevertheless, the FGN maintains a N20billion minimum balance in the ecological funds account for immediate emergency response in the event of a natural disaster in any part of the country,” the MTEF said.

    The MTEF/FSP document noted that the federal government as a result of the failure of revenue generating agencies to meet non-oil revenue projection, is working on collection efficiency of major revenue generating agencies to be improved upon.

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    The federal government, the document said is carrying out ongoing efforts to improve Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) through a Performance Management Framework whole reviewing their operational efficiencies and cost-to-income ratios.

    “The FIRS is working to increase the tax payers database from the current 20million to 45million before the end of 2019.

    “In addition efforts are ongoing to improve GOEs revenue performance by full implementation of a Performance Management Framework for the GOEs whilst reviewing their operational efficiencies and cost-to-income ratios and generally ensuring they operate in more fiscally responsible manner,” the document said.

    On tackling insurgency in 2020, the federal government said it shall deploy its strategy of dialogue and military force in the event of upsurge in major security breaches.

    According to the MTEF/FSP document: “The mitigation action largely remains the same from previous year, a twin track approach of dialogue and military force shall be deployed in the event of an upsurge in major security breaches.”