NCC to launch mobile number portability on March 26

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced March 26 as the launch date of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP).
Director of Public Affairs of the commission, Tony Ojobo made this disclosure during Channels Television’s flagship programme, Sunrise Daily, today in the video above.
“There will be a launch by the end of this month, we are going to flag it off’’
“So we are looking at the 26th of March or there about”.
Ojobo said the MNP will enable a consumer move from his service provider to another without losing the number he already uses despite the change in the SIM card of the consumer.
The service however will not be available to consumers who haven’t registered their SIM cards.

He further said service providers who try to woo consumers that have submitted request forms to another service provider will be dealt with by the commission.
The ability to choose or fire your GSM service provider is one whose time has come in Nigeria, and will only deepen competition among operators and improve service quality, so i think its a good one.
 BusinessNews

Nigeria Can’t Trace Sponsors Of Ghost Workers That Defraud Government Of N100 Billion - Okonjo-Iweala

The Nigerian government has been unable to trace any of its officials responsible for introducing about 45,000 ghost workers into the government’s payroll that cost the nation over N100 billion, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said this in Abuja on Thursday during a media briefing on the 2013 budget.
Her colleague, Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance, had said last month that the federal government discovered over 45,000 ghost workers on its payroll after auditing 153,019 government workers.
The audit was executed in January on 215 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government.
“What we have done so far, we have covered 215 MDAs and we have discovered 45,000 ghost workers and that has reduced the total bill by about N100 billion,’’ Mr. Ngama said.
A month after Mr. Ngama made the statement, no official has been held responsible for the fraud.
Unable to catch fraudsters
While responding to a PREMIUM TIMES enquiry during the media briefing, the finance minister said the government was still trying to identify the culprits.
“We haven’t caught anybody. I can’t tell you that today we have one person yet,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said. “But, it is something that is exercising our minds that if we are getting this, we must try to trace how some of these things are entering. If we don’t, they may enter again.”
The Minister appealed to journalists and Nigerians to suggest ways of identifying the officials responsible for the fraud.
“It’s something we have been thinking about how to get to. So, if you have any ideas of how people do this, please share with us. We are open to information,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said.
She said the government was baffled about how the names of the ghost workers always manage to get into the pay systems of the MDAs.
“It may be a little difficult to identify who has actually put the names of the ghost workers in the system,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said. “We (federal government) cannot verify the details of the person, because there is no biometric information. What is obvious is that there is someone there who is not real. But how their names got into the system, from which MDA (ministry, department or agency) they came is a little more difficult to trace.”
The minister said the federal government “hears stories of certain officers in the ministries slotting in names for themselves.”
“But how to ascertain that is something that is not very easy. What we have been asking ourselves is: How do we figure out who put in those names, so that they can be dealt with? It is a task that government has,” she said.
She explained that the government was working with some forensic auditors to find ways of resolving the problem; adding that periodic forensic audits and checks would continue to rid the system of the ghost workers.
Naij.com

FG Dodging Foreign Reserves Debate At NASS - Oby Ezekwesili

Former World Bank Chief and ex-Nigeria Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesil, has just one swift question concerning a debate on the status of Nigeria’s foreign reserves: “Why won't the federal government agree to the public hearing called by National Assembly?”
In a statement today, Mrs. Ezekwesili, who was once known in the corridors of the executive as ‘Madam Due Process,” said she had painfully rescheduled her international commitments when she was invited to the hearing, which was scheduled for the 5th of March, only to be told that the Executive was not "ready"?
“They were not and [are] still not ready for a public discussion of the issues but they seize every opportunity to make "side comments" on such a serious issue?” she said.
The latest such comment came from Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who said on that same day that Nigeria never had as much as $67billion in its external reserves, in reference to the substance of Ezekwesili’s statement last January.
“Sanusi has obviously misread the point of my Speech,” Ezekwesili said.  “He needs to read that speech again.”
Speaking in riddles at a luncheon of the Metropolitan Club in Lagos, Sanusi tried to justify the criticism that the governments of Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan have squandered Nigeria’s commonwealth.
He said, "There is also a certain truth to a basic proposition that if we saved money when oil price was high, it is expected that when oil price crashes, we would de-save.  Look at Germany, US, UK, after the crisis. They all had huge deficits. So our incurring of deficit was a reduction in reserves.”
According to his logic of inadequate savings and overspending, “No one can deny that between 2010 and 2011, when oil price was going up, we should have saved more than we actually did and we spent more than we ought to.   As CBN Governor, I spent the whole of those two years talking about fiscal leakages.”
Fiscal leakages, it would seem, seems to be a soft description of looting and brigandage in government.
Ezekwesili, when she heard that on Tuesday, had heard enough, and she was ready.
“Since they are finally admitting “fiscal leakages," perhaps with a debate we can all learn more,” she said, pointing out that Sanusi well knows that in her famous speech at the University of Nigeria, she stated that the Foreign Reserve was $45b and not the "$67b Foreign Reserve" government officials have been quick to quote in order to paint the picture of "false accusation," so as to manipulate and distract everyone.
“He knows that they are distorting the point of my article by using their "straw number" of $67b which I did not use in my speech. My speech stated $45b Foreign Reserve and $22b ECA and he more than anyone knows that Excess Crude Account is a sub-set of Foreign Reserve!
“Sanusi knows that the Foreign Reserve is a "composite" or "aggregate" amount of ALL official foreign exchange belonging to a country. So I wonder why they are seeking to confuse the point for citizens?
“He knows that I separated the ECA amount in that speech deliberately to make a separate point on the terrible fiscal choices of expenditure that wrecked what was supposed to be "savings for rainy days".
Of the CBN governor’s admission of fiscal leakage, she observed that it is proper that the public know the magnitude of that leakage of public resources especially in a democracy.
“Is it not proper that we should learn how it is that our Foreign Reserve depleted and was not growing over a period of at least 4 years of high oil prices - double the prices at the time that the $45b Foreign Reserve was accumulated?” she asked.  “Except for a few months in 2009 when oil prices fell significantly but then sharply rose again what explains the fact that our public finance is under stress at a season of Oil Boom which other OPEC nations are relishing?
She called on the mass media to keep up the pressure for the Executive to agree to the Public Hearing by the National Assembly, stressing that the serious issue is not about her, but about Nigeria and how the political class abuses it with impunity.
“I have no personal gain in standing on my now over two and a half decade conviction that Good Governance is the foundation of any decent society that has ever been built to greatness all over the world,” stressed the former Word Bank Vice-President for Africa, pointing out that when Lamido’s predecessor left office in 2009, even after spending $15b to defend the Naira with the Foreign Reserve, he still left behind about $45b.
“Now imagine that since that time oil prices have averaged between $95-$100 per barrel and we export an average of 750 million barrels per annum,” Ezekwesili said.   “How then can the Foreign Reserve only now be starting to grow back to the same size it was in 2009 after such hefty earnings of the last 4 years? The FG numbers do not add up at all and we need to know why!
“The citizens need an explanation and that's why I called for accountability. It is simply a patriotic call which should not result in the name calling by officials of government.”
On January 27, 2013, while giving the keynote at the 42nd convocation ceremony of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ezekwesili accused Nigeria’s governments since 2007 of squandering $45 billion in the Foreign Reserve Account and another $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account, and demanded “full disclosure and accountability by the Federal Government on the issues of poor management of oil revenues.”
Ezekwesili’s former colleague at the World Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who now serves as Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of the Economy/Minister of Finance, seems to have adjusted her gele a little lower to cover her eyes, curiously silent about whether she agrees with the “leakage” of which Sanusi speaks, or the swindle and mismanagement Ezekwesili wants discussed publicly.
Naij.com

ACN, CPC, ANPP Will Cease To Exist After APC National Convention – Lai Mohammed

All Progressives Congress, APC will hold its National Convention in the coming weeks. This is as disclosed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
Mohammed told DailyPost in Abuja on Thursday that each of the three major parties – ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP would cease to exist after the first APC National Convention in April.
The convention is expected to ratify the formation of the new party.
According to Mohammed, the parties had ratified the draft of the APC’s logo, manifesto and constitution as proposed by its NEC/legal compliance committees, which were inaugurated a fortnight ago.
He said, the logo, slogan and motto were unanimously adopted after Tuesday’s meeting of the larger committee with the governors elected on the platform of the parties.
He said there were no objections to the logo, slogan and motto of the APC when they were presented for adoption at the meeting.
According to him, “Only the Merger Committee has the final authority on any issue about the proposed merger.
All the decisions the governors arrived at in their meeting were presented to the larger committee for approval and we all deliberated on them and arrived at a consensus on the grounds that there must be give and take by all the political parties. On Tuesday, there was no dissent from any group after the meeting of the governors with the Merger Committee. The proposal of the governors was endorsed by the chairmen of each of the merger committees of the political parties.
“This is a process, before you write to INEC of your intentions to merge; you must accompany the letter with the name of your party, the logo, slogan, manifesto and constitution of your party. This is why it is important the sub committees are set up because it is part of the process of the merger.
“The first thing to do is for each of the merging parties to write to INEC of its intention to merge, after which the parties will call a convention to secure the mandate to merge. It is after that mandate is given at the party’s convention, to which INEC will send observers that the process of winding up will begin so as to join the merger.
“Then, those parties will have to surrender their certificates of registration and identity to INEC, which means the ACN, CPC, ANPP and others will cease to exist as registered political parties.”
Naij.com

PDP crisis: Amaechi, others seek truce with Jonathan

 by Niyi Odebode, John Alechenu, Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja, and Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt 

Governor Rotimi Amaechi and President Goodluck Jonathan

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and some Peoples Democratic Party governors may have reached out to President Goodluck Jonathan, investigations have shown.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that the governor and his group initiated the peace move after the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Chief Goodswill Akpabio, threatened to flush out traitors from the ruling party.

It was learnt that the pro-Amaechi group weighed the implications of continuing the ongoing power struggle with the President and the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

With the President and Tukur taking over the Board of Trustees and the National Working Committee of the party, there is a high possibility that they will soon control the National Executive Committee.

Investigations showed that the Amaechi group feared that the ongoing power struggle might result in their alienation from the party.

The PUNCH had reported on Thursday that Jonathan, in a bid to divide the ranks of the PDP governors, had invited six of them to the party’s caucus meeting on Wednesday night.

Those invited are Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Gabriel Suswan (Benue); Theodore Orji (Abia); Godswill Akpabio (Cross River) and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta).

It was gathered that some PDP governors, who had earlier identified with the Rivers State governor, had already shifted allegiance to Jonathan.

The President is also said to be in control of all state chapters of the party in the South-South, except Rivers.

Besides the southern chapters, with the support of the governors of Benue and Plateau states, Jonathan is in firm control of other state chapters.

It was also learnt that Vice-President Namadi Sambo had mobilised the Kaduna State chapter to support his boss.

Investigations revealed that the Amaechi group members reasoned that if they were pushed out of the PDP, they might not be readily accepted in the newly formed All Progressives Congress.

A top member of the PDP NWC, who pleaded anonymity, said, “Amaechi and the other governors are reaching out to the President and other leaders of the party because they fear that they may lose out in the struggle for the control of the party’s NEC.

“No truce has been reached yet because we feel that they are retreating to re-strategise. We do not want to be caught unawares.

“The truth is that most state chapters are not with the group. If the party’s NEC is held today, they will lose.

“The option of going to the APC is out of it because the new party is loaded already. If they go there, they will not command the kind of respect they command in the PDP.”

When asked about the development, Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak said, “I am not aware of that but if they want peace and have made an approach, it is good.

“Everybody must be subject to party discipline and party supremacy; even Mr. President submits himself to party discipline and party supremacy.

“If the President submits himself to party discipline and party supremacy, the governors of PDP must do the same, the senators of PDP must do the same, every member of PDP should do the same for sake of peace.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said, “There is no crisis between the party and any of its governors. We are on the same page. The formation of PDP Governors’ Forum has nothing to do with the NGF.

“The PDPGF is meant to project the image of the party and has nothing to do with the NGF. We are the largest party in Nigeria, with the highest number of governors. Nothing stops us from asking our governors to come together and form their own forum to project the image and performances of the party.

“But I can tell you that there is no conflict between us as a party and any of our governors.”

Attempts to reach the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, to speak on the issue failed to yield any result

The state PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. George Ukwuoma-Nwogba, who earlier said he would speak on the matter, later changed his mind and declined to make any remark.

Punch

North Korea Rejects U.N. Sanctions

By Jack Kim

SEOUL, March 9 (Reuters) - North Korea formally rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution on Saturday that demands an end to its nuclear arms programme, signalling it would defy international sanctions and pursue its goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons state.

The Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday, tightening financial restrictions and cracking down on its attempts to transport banned cargo.

The North's sole major ally China wants the sanctions fully implemented. The sanctions are designed to make punitive measures more like those used against Iran, which Western officials say have been surprisingly successful.

The resolution, the fifth since 2006 aimed at stopping the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programme, coincides with a sharp escalation of security tensions on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang's third nuclear test on Feb. 12.

"The DPRK, as it did in the past, vehemently denounces and totally rejects the 'resolution on sanctions' against the DPRK, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward it," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The world will clearly see what permanent position the DPRK will reinforce as a nuclear weapons state and satellite launcher as a result of the U.S. attitude of prodding the UNSC into cooking up the 'resolution.'"

The United States warned North Korea it will achieve nothing by repeating threats of provocative actions and will only drive itself deeper into international isolation.

"The United States of America and our allies are prepared to deal with any threat and any reality that occurs in the world," U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said ahead of his visit to Afghanistan on Friday. "We are aware of what's going on. We have partnerships in that part of the world that are important."

North Korea defied international warningsand conducted a third nuclear test in February, setting off a device that yielded a stronger blast than its previous test in 2009. It claimed it had made progress in miniaturizing an atomic weapon.

Experts are sceptical of such a claim, and the threat this week to attack the United States, seeing them more as an attempt to boost its security leverage in the face of deepening diplomatic isolation and growing military pressure from the United States and South Korea, which are conducting joint military drills to deter any armed aggression from Pyongyang.

Experts believe the North is still years away from developing the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon to the United States but say it can strike South Korea or Japan using its short and medium-range missiles.

North Korea has accused the United States of using military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war and declared on Tuesday it would scrap the armistice with Washington that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas are technically at war because the armistice and not a formal peace treaty ended their 1950-53 conflict.

South Korea and U.S. forces are conducting large-scale military drills until the end of April. The North is also gearing up for a massive state-wide military exercise.

Pyongyang's soaring anti-American rhetoric is seen by experts as a ploy to be taken as a serious threat and to force Washington back to the negotiating table.

A more likely option for Pyongyang than a full-scale conflict is to stage a series of clashes along a disputed frontier with the South, a sea border known as the Northern Limit Line, which has been the scene of previous clashes.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have growing since the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in March 2010 widely blamed on North Korea, although Pyongyang denies responsibility. The North in November that year bombed a South Korean island killing two civilians.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Kabul; Editing by Michael Perry)
HuffingtonPost

International Women's Day 2013: 7 Sadly Disturbing Truths About Women's Bodies (HOW YOU CAN HELP)

The Huffington Post  |  By Eleanor Goldberg  

On International Women’s Day, we have a number of groundbreaking accomplishments to celebrate. This year alone, women in the U.S. won the right to serve on the front lines in combat and President Obama inched closer to pushing for equal pay for men and women.
Global health for women has also seen some major boons, too. The number of mothers who die during childbirth has been reduced by almost 50 percent and HIV drug prices have fallen by more than 99 percent since 2000.
But we’re not done fighting yet.
Women across the globe still face horrifying abuse and health risks, including sexual exploitation and genital mutilation, devastating injustices that are in our power to eliminate in this lifetime.
Read through the seven disturbingly sad truths women face and find out how you can get involved in improving the lives of women across the world.
Female Genital Mutilation
FACT: In Africa alone, 101 million girls have undergone female genital mutilation, a cultural practice that’s meant to keep girls chaste, but subjects them to intense torture in the process. With no anesthetic, a girl’s genitals are carved out (including her clitoris and labia) and what remains is stitched together, allowing a small enough aperture for urination and menstruation, which can lead to serious health consequences, New York Times' Nicholas Kristof reports.
What you can do: While the practice has been recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights, activists say that through education and raising awareness, we can work to ultimately change the culture to end the practice. Find out more here.

Maternal Health
FACT: Every year, life-threatening complications from pregnancy and childbirth claim the lives of nearly 300,000 women, according to the Gates Foundation. While the number of mothers who died in childbirth has been reduced by nearly 50 percent, it is within our reach to reduce that figure to zero.
What you can do: Low-cost medical interventions with local healthcare providers are critical to protecting and saving the lives of expectant mothers. Learn more about how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Maternal, Neonatal & Child Health is advocating for mothers and how you can get involved here.
Fistula
FACT: Fistula –- a hole that develops between a woman’s vagina and bladder or rectum –- is one of the most devastating birth injuries and it affects between 30,000 to 50,000 women a year simply because they can’t afford proper medical care. The condition leads to such severe incontinence that the woman’s body leaks urine and feces, and oftentimes, the smell becomes so unbearable that her husband will force her out of the home to fend for herself.
What you can do: Support the Fistula Foundation, which raises awareness for the condition and funding for repair, prevention, and educational programs worldwide to help eliminate fistula. Get involved here.
Rape
FACT: One in three women on the planet will be raped, beaten or assaulted in her lifetime, that’s a total of 1 billion women subjected to devastating violence.
What you can do: Join 1 Billion Rising, a global movement that came together on Valentine’s Day to demand an end to violence against women, and continues to fight for women’s right to live in a world where their safety is never at stake. Get involved here.

Human Trafficking
FACT: An estimated 2.5 million people across the globe are trafficked, according to the UN. Of those victims, 43 percent are used for sexual exploitation, of whom 98 percent are women and girls. Globally, there are more slaves than ever before in history.
What you can do: A number of organizations are fighting to finally put an end to human slavery once and for all. Find out how you can get involved here.

Child Brides
FACT: Child marriage has been outlawed in most countries, but enforcement is so poor that more than 60 million girls under the age of 18 are married (many to men twice their age or older), according to CARE. This forced institution subjects girls to health risks and deprives them of the opportunity to pursue an education and personal development.
What you can do:A number of organizations are working to put an end to this inhumane practice. Find out how you can get involved here.
Infant Mortality
FACT: Every day, more than 19,000 children die from preventable causes, according to UNICEF.
What you can do: When mothers across the globe have access to clean drinking water, nutritious food and necessary immunizations, we will be able to bring the infant mortality rate down to zero. Find out how you can join UNICEF to fight to save children around the world here.
CORRECTION: This post originally reported one in three women would be raped in her lifetime. It has been corrected to say "raped, beaten or assaulted."