Obama San Francisco Fundraiser Addresses GOP Relationship: 'We Can't Have Perpetual Campaigns'

By Jeff Mason

SAN FRANCISCO, April 3 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama used a set of fundraisers on Wednesday to assuage supporters' concerns about a controversial pipeline and his commitment to climate change, while urging them to drive Republicans out of power in Congress in 2014.

The Obama administration is expected to decide later this year whether to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada's oil sands to Texas. Environmentalists oppose the project, saying its carbon emissions would contribute to global warming. Supporters say the pipeline is necessary to increase U.S. energy independence.

On a fundraising swing to boost Democrats' chances of winning back the House of Representatives, Obama highlighted his administration's achievements and pledged to work with Republicans. But climate change was clearly on his mind.

"Despite a very aggressive agenda on the other side to block action, we've been able to double fuel-efficiency standards on cars, we've been able to take mercury out of our air, we have been able to reduce carbon emissions in this country," he said at the first of two fundraisers on Wednesday night.

That fundraiser, a cocktail reception priced at $5,000 a person, was held at the home of billionaire former asset manager Tom Steyer, an ardent opponent of the pipeline project.

Obama did not mention Keystone, but came back repeatedly to the topic of global warming, calling it one of the biggest challenges the world faced.

He also told donors he expected Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, would become the chamber's top official again in the future.

To make that happen, Democrats must take control of the House by wining 17 seats in 2014. The fundraising trip to California was meant to help that effort by filling Democratic coffers.

Obama is trying to get Republican support for key policy priorities including immigration reform and deficit reduction in Washington. His broad comments - which were not especially critical of the opposing party - appeared to be designed not to antagonize negotiating partners on Capitol Hill.

"My intention here is to try to get as much done with the Republican Party over the next two years as I can, 'cause we can't have perpetual campaigns," he said.

But in the same set of remarks, he urged Democrats to do everything they could to help Pelosi take back power from Republican John Boehner, the current speaker of the House of Representatives.

"I expect that she is going to be once again speaker of the House," Obama said of the California Democrat. (Editing by Peter Cooney)
HuffingtonPost

Police To Blame For Rise In Politically-Motivated Killings – Fayose

Ayo Fayose, former Ekiti State governor,  yesterday accused the police of culpability in the rising wave of politically motivated killings in the state following their refusal to prosecute those fingered as master-minds of such killings in the past.
Fayose, who recently declared his intention to run in the state’s gubernatorial polls next year, also described the current administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi as the worst in terms of politically-motivated killings since the advent of democracy in 1999.
Fayose also alleged that the state government was working to influence the police with a view to cover up the killing of Ayo Jeje.
But the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Tayo Ekundayo, described Fayose’s comment as a figment of his own imagination, saying people of the state know who the real killers are.

Ekundayo, who said that there was no iota of truth in the allegation that the government is attempting to cover up the Erinjiyan murder, absolved Fayemi of any criminality under any guise as alleged by Fayose.
Fayose, who spoke with journalists on the spate of politically-motivated killings in the state, also accused the police of foot dragging on the various petitions levelled against some government officials over their alleged involvement in past killings.
Fayose said, “I was invited by the DIG four months ago when my supporters and I were attacked by the ACN’s thugs at different places during political meetings. The DIG collected files about past killings in Ekiti but after four months, nobody has come out with any report. It was Fayemi that invited the DIG and the IG wrote on the letter that the DIG should handle the issue but nothing has been done and that is why the impunity is continuing.
InformationNigeria

Shock As DSTV Station Airs Mandela’s Obituary

Shock and outrage have greeted Tuesday's accidental airing of the death hoax of revered South African former president, Nelson Mandela, fondly called Madiba.
The Universal Channel (shown on DStv channel 117) had aired a programme 'Remembering Nelson Mandela', apparently from an already prepared file on the global icon.
The channel on MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV cable network platform had accidentally aired the obituary to its millions of viewers who took to the social networks to express their shock and grief. Mandela's health had relapsed last week following infection of his lung. But latest reports from the hospital indicates that his condition is improving.
But realising its gaffe, the cable network has expressed its dismay at the technical error, noting that it was a glitch and not intentional as claimed in some quarters. It tendered apology.
The statement released by the Universal Networks International which programmes the Universal Channel on DStv reads in part: "Like any international broadcaster, Universal Networks holds obituaries ready for every major statesman in the world.
"Universal Networks wishes to offer a sincere and heartfelt apology for the airing of such an announcement for Nelson Mandela which was broadcast last night on the Universal Channel due to a technical error by our team.
"We unreservedly apologise to the Mandela family, to Universal Channel viewers and to DStv subscribers for the alarm and offence caused by this error. Our thoughts and best wishes are with Madiba and his family for a speedy and full recovery."
When contacted, DStv Head of Communications, Mr. Segun Fayose, said he would send a mail to that effect.
Naij.com

Merger: CPC Sets Up Convention Committee

| By Channels Television

The National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Tony Momoh has appointed a 33-member committee to plan the Party’s convention.
A statement issued on Wednesday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, said the committee, which has been inaugurated, is expected to organize the party’s national convention to endorse the merger with the other progressive parties.

The National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Tony Momoh

The Committee is headed by the former Minister of Works, Hassan Muhammadu Lawal. Other members of the convention committee include: Senators Sani Saleh, Abubakar Sadiq Yar’adua, Hadi Sirika, Solomon Ewuga, Saleh Damboyio, Ibrahim Musa and Abu Ibrahim.

Others are Abdullahi Idris Garba, Hon Garba Datti, Gen India Garba (Rtd), Alex Hart, Mr Eddy Ogunbor, Sharon Ikeazor, Jerry Johnson, Basirat Noibi, Chris Hassan, Louis Ogbuefi, Munir Yakubu, Suleiman Hassan, Oscar Udoji, Idika Ochaa and Marliyya Zayyan.

Deputy Governor Funmilayo Olayinka Of Ekiti Sick With Cancer

Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Funmilayo Olayinka-Photo credit: PM News, lagos

By SaharaReporters, New York

Several government sources in Ekiti State have confirmed to SaharaReporters that Deputy Governor Funmilayo Olayinka
 is seriously sick. Two of the sources told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Olayinka has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The deputy governor’s prolonged absence from public events had fueled rumors that she had passed away. However, when a correspondent of SaharaReporters sent a text to Governor Fayemi of Ekiti four days ago inquiring about speculations of his deputy’s death, the governor wrote back denying the rumors. In his text, Mr. Fayemi stated that Mrs. Olayinka was alive.
Even so, Mr. Fayemi failed to respond to follow-up texts asking about the deputy governor’s whereabouts and health condition.
In interviews with several government sources, SaharaReporters learned that Mrs. Olayinka had been unable to perform official public functions due to her serious ailment. “Her Excellency, the deputy governor, is suffering from cancer,” said one of our sources. He added, “We’re all praying God to heal her and make it possible for her to return fully to serving the state.”
Our  sources disclosed that Mrs. Olayinka was receiving treatment at St. Nicholas Hospital in lagos. However, they  stated that they could not reveal the stage of her cancer.
One source disclosed that the governor had warned top government officials not to discuss the deputy governor’s health crisis. “The governor is in touch with her and with members of her family and is offering every possible form of assistance in addressing her cancer,” the source stated.
The government officials we spoke to were cagey about the deputy governor’s location. One of them said the ailing deputy governor “is very much in Nigeria,” even though he would not disclose whether she was within the state or outside. A different source also stated that the deputy governor had been discharged from St. Nicholas hospital and is currently recuperating at her Lagos home with her family.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party told SaharaReporters that he sympathized with the sick deputy governor, but he criticized the Fayemi administration for concealing information about her condition from the people of the state. “Governor Fayemi and his group raised their voices in protest when [former President] Yar’Adua was flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment without Nigerians receiving information or updates about his condition. Today, the same Fayemi is behaving like the cabal that surrounded Yar’Adua,” said the source. He added, “Mrs. Olayinka is a public official.
If she is too sick to attend to her official duties, then the good people of Ekiti State deserve to be told.”

Boko Haram’s tactics baffling – Ihejirika

By EVELYN USMAN

LAGOS—Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt.-General Azuibuke Ihejirika, yesterday in Lagos, expressed concern over the unpredictable and random nature of terrorist activities in the country, saying their modus operandi was posing a serious challenge to security forces in the country.

Ihejirika spoke at the Interactive Session on Military-Media Relations in Nigeria with the theme Enhancing Military-Media Relations Toward Improved Security.

He said: “In Nigeria, the activities of Boko Haram sect and other terrorist groups continue to threaten peace and security while their modus operandi poses serious challenge to security forces in the country.

“The affiliation of the sect to Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Shabab has added an international dimension to its activities.”

COAS said it had been established that Islamist sect declared intent was the Islamisation of the entire Northern states of Nigeria without regards to constitution of the country, noting that any country or community whose citizens had high level of security awareness had greater chances of defeating terrorists.

He said the role of the media in warfare took root in the dynamics of the global security environment and explained that it was established that the primary goal of terrorists was to win the attention of the media both home and abroad, and decision makers in government.

Ihejirika said: “It is for this reason that terrorists carefully select the places in which they carry out their attacks to provide the best media coverage. On the whole, terrorists rely on the media as a tool to shrink the power asymmetry between them and the governments they fight, create an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, legitimise their acts, and reach greater audience.

“All these attributes have come to play in the activities of Boko Haram here in Nigeria.”

and that explains why we need to continuously partner with the media to deal with the menace.”

Declaring the programme open, Minister of Defence, Dr. Olushola Bada, said apart from performing its primary role very well, the Nigerian Army had equally promoted the ideal of professionalism, integrity and discipline in all its engagement.

Vanguard

FG to scrap JAMB exam, NECO, NAPEP

By Ben Agande
ABUJA—The Federal Government is scrapping the National Examinations Council, NECO, and the National Poverty Eradication Programme, NAPEP among other government agencies. It is also divesting the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board of powers to conduct examinations into tertiary institutions in the country.

Some candidates during Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations

The government is taking the decision in order to streamline agencies of government and reduce the cost of governance.

The decision, Vanguard gathered is part of the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye Panel Report on the reform of government agencies and ministries.

The Oronsaye Committee Recommendations

Mr Oronsaye who was the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and reversal of 14 to departments in ministries.

According to the white paper, which was drafted by a committee headed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board would be divested of the powers to conduct matriculation examinations into tertiary institutions while universities would be allowed to conduct their entrance examinations to students.

Although the JAMB would not be scrapped, it would be a mere administrative structure that would set standard for minimum requirements on how  the various universities would conduct entrance examinations.

JAMB to be re-modelled

JAMB will be modelled along same line with the body in the United States of America which sets standards for admissions into institutions of higher learning.

Other decisions taken by government on the Oronsaye committee include the scrapping of the National Examinations Council, NECO, the National Poverty Eradication Programme, NAPEP, and the National Complaints commission.

The report seen by Vanguard, recommended that the functions of NECO would be assumed by the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, which will also take over the structures of NECO nationwide.

In order to make up for the deluge of students who sit for the external examinations of Neco, WAEC would be expected to conduct two external examinations, one in January and another in November for external students while still running its internal examination programmes for secondary school students.

Under the proposal, the National Poverty Eradication Programme would be replaced by an agency called National Agency for Job Creation and Empowerment (NAJCE) while the National Complaints Commission will be merged with the National Human Rights Commission.

The Government rejected the recommendation urgung the scrapping of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and the Ministry of Police Affairs, saying it would be counter productive.

A member of the committee told Vanguard that the decision was preparatory to government’s plans to overhaul major sectors in the country.

“JAMB will be divested of the admission provision. It will no longer conduct examinations but will be a clearing house. Every school will admit its students.

“Neco will be scrapped and its infrastructure will be merged with that of the West African Examination Council (waec).

“Universities will be allowed to set their standards but jamb will set the minimum standard for admission into all tertiary institutions” the source said.

Several efforts to reach the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity failed as he did not pick his phones as at the time of this report.

It will be recalled that the Oronsaye report stated that the average cost of governance in Nigeria is believed to rank among the highest in the world.

Oronsaye said in his report that “there are 541 Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies (statutory and non-statutory).

“Going by the recommendations of the Committee, the figure of statutory agencies is being proposed for reduction to 161 from the current figure of 263.

“The Committee believes that if the cost of governance must be brought down, then both the Legislature and Judiciary must make spirited efforts at reducing their running costs…”

Vanguard