ABU records breakthrough in refining petrol

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Cherry news of a major breakthrough in the local refining of heavy crude using wholly locally sourced raw materials has come from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

A statement from Head and External Relations of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Kalu Otisi, quoted ABU’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, as saying that the feat was the outcome of a four-year intensive research on the production of zeolite catalyst using clay by a team of researchers led by the chair holder of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Endowment in Chemical Engineering at the University, Prof. Abdulkarim Ahmed.

Zeolite catalyst is an essential additive in the conversion and refining process of heavy gas oil into usable gasoline and petrochemical products in refineries.

Mustapha revealed this development at the 2014 Yearly Lecture of the PTDF Professorial Chair in Chemical Engineering.

He said the design and fabrication of the pilot plants for the production of Zeolite Catalyst has reached advanced stage with a view to commissioning a prototype refinery in November this year.

The Executive Secretary, PTDF, Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, commended Ahmed for his high sense of commitment to actualising the research goals for which the university was endowed. He described the outcome as fundamental to the sourcing of local raw materials like kaolin in producing Zeolite Catalyst, with the economic implication of reducing the huge capital flight on the importation of the raw materials for use in local refineries.

He added that in 2011, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refineries imported Zeolite Catalyst worth 12 million dollars, saying: “The application of novel techniques in Zeolite Catalyst production will not only offer huge opportunities for entrepreneurial development of sustainable refinery and petrochemical products but would also create job opportunities for Nigerians. PTDF has keen interest on enhancing refinery and petrochemical operations in Nigeria as seen by the various research programmes we are funding.”

Also, Ahmed explained that the characterisation tests conducted abroad on the locally-produced Zeolite Catalyst using Kaoline obtained from Kankara in Katsina State indicate a 75 per cent viability in outperforming the commercial catalyst currently being used by NNPC refineries.

Speaking on the feat with The Guardian yesterday, Ahmed said that the catalyst needed by refineries in the country was developed from local clay and would make the cost of producing petroleum products from crude oil more cheaper and faster.

Ahmed, who is a former Head of Department of Chemical Engineering at ABU, explained that presently, the nation’s refineries have to source for catalyst overseas for the production of petroleum products at a high cost in foreign exchange.

He further remarked: “We have now developed a catalyst locally. Catalyst is what we use in refining crude or raw petroleum.

“If you do a straight run of raw petroleum, you will get a small fraction of gasoline. The entire demand of gasoline worldwide is expensive. The catalyst was got from clay and pure chemicals. I am actually working as the PTDF chair at ABU. So, we have been able to develop this catalyst from our own local clay in Nigeria.”

He added: “When we tested our own catalyst with the imported one being used by the Kaduna Refinery, ours out-performed the foreign one. We presently buy some of the materials from abroad but if we are now producing it in the country, our foreign exchange would be saved and more people will be employed. And from the local catalyst, we will be able to produce other chemicals, all from clay. So, it is going to be an expansion for chemical production. And this will have positive impact on other sectors of the economy.”

Reacting on the development, an industry source said: “I think this discovery of using local raw material for refining purpose has vindicated both the Petroleum Minister and President Goodluck Jonathan that empowering Nigerians to take active role in the hydrocarbon industry is the surest way of getting Nigerian economy out of the woods.

BusinessDispatch

First lady receives plea from daughter of unemployed man

 Adam Aigner-Treworgy

Washington (CNN) - The children of Executive Office employees crowded into the East Room of the White House on Thursday to ask first lady Michelle Obama a question as part of the White House’s annual celebration of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

While most children used their question to ask Obama about her favorite food or drink or place to travel, one young girl seated in the front row took the opportunity to try to help her unemployed father.

“My dad's been out of a job for three years and I wanted to give you his resume,” the young girl quietly said, before handing the first lady a folded piece of paper.

Taking the paper, Obama hugged the little girl and whispered something to her away from the microphone. Many of the other children in the audience, unable to hear what the girl had said, immediately asked the first lady what their exchange had been about.

“Well it's a little private, but she's doing something for her dad, right?,” the First Lady said, looking at the girl and holding up her father’s resume. “Got it.”

Obama made sure to grab the piece of paper off the table next to her at the end of the event and give the girl one more hug on her way out.

What the first lady misses

Next up was a young boy named Thomas who asked Obama if she missed her old job.

“I think this is a pretty cool job,” the first lady said, apologizing to her old coworkers for any offense. “But sometimes I miss like a normal life, right? Without security guards. Sometimes I miss being able to walk out the door and go wherever I want to whenever I want to. Sometimes I miss, walking around where nobody even cares whether you're there, right?”

Repeating a variation of a response she’s delivered to similar questions in the past, Obama went on to say that while living in the White House and at the center of the public eye can be trying at times, she “wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

“Sometimes we – me and the President – we dream about sneaking out of the White House and going to have ice cream and nobody really knowing who we are,” she said. “But the truth is I have a really cool job. I mean I get to have an effect on issues that really matter, and there are few jobs in the world that I could say I could ever do that.”

CNNPolitics

White House Insider: ‘Barack Has Lost All Control Of Michelle’

The Patriot       

Once again, there is trouble in White House paradise. According to sources close to the couple, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are again considering divorce.

Conflicts between the Obamas may be attribute to Michelle’s lavish spending habits, sources say. The First Lady received backlash from the White House and her husband, when she refused to cancel a lavish trip to China, paid for by taxpayer dollars.

The presidential couple is already notorious for the extravagant vacations they have taken in Obama’s years as President. Michelle’s latest stunt tips the Obama’s vacation expenses to over $150 million in the last five years.

An insider told reports that the argument over China was “a blowout of epic proportions – probably the nastiest White House fight they’ve ever had.”

The source also claims that the President is powerless to stop the first lady from “seeing the world on the American taxpayers’ dime.”

What do you think—will Obama give Michelle the boot?

What a Gentleman! President Obama Saves First Lady from Windy Wardrobe Malfunction

By Yolanda Sangweni

AP Images

That darn wind can always get the best of us. Especially when you're wearing a flowing skirt.

Such was the case when First Lady Michelle Obama was making her way off and onto Air Force One in Houston, Texas this week. A strong wind gust caught the Obamas off guard, blowing the First Lady's skirt in the air. Luckily, President Obama was there to save the day and avoid a First Lady 'Marilyn Monroe moment.'

The Obamas were on their way to Austin to visit the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library where POTUS delivered the keynote speech to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Mrs. O wore a blue and black striped full skirt with a cream top and white bolero.

The First couple capped off their week with a date night in New York City where they watched A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway, starring Denzel Washington, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Sophie Okonedo, Anika Noni Rose, Sean Patrick Thomas and David Cromer. The president and Mrs. Obama went backstage to greet the actors at intermission, reports the Associated Press.

Essence

Let’s take a close look at that Buhari-Tinubu presidential ticket

A recent front page banner headline of a major national newspaper titled, “APC Inches Towards a Buhari – Tinubu Presidential Ticket”, elicited comments not surprisingly from a few disgruntled elite. The crux of their argument was that in a multi-religious country like Nigeria, to present two persons from the same religious group for the office of the president and his vice was unacceptable. Thanks to Karl Marx, we have always known that if you want to deceive the people tell them about religion. But the level of frustration in Nigeria has risen so high that the masses can no longer be deceived by politicians.

When I was in the university, one of my lecturers Epiphany Azinge, oven-fresh from the London School of Economics with a P.H.D. in Law had insisted in many of his lectures that it was better to present a weak argument strongly than to present a strong argument weakly. In the present discussion, Azinge did not imagine a third scenario where a weak argument would also be presented weakly.

The travesty of a few arguments I have heard against this potential ticket is that they are both Muslims. This lame argument is further worsened by another to the effect that since the terrorist group Boko Haram is on the rampage, putting two Muslim candidates on the ballot would be rejected by Christians. When reminded that in the 1993 June 12 Presidential elections both M. K. O. Abiola and his Vice Babagana Kingibe showed by their victory that ordinary Nigerians who are in the majority unlike the elite are not interested in ethnicity and religion but a good government that would provide basic amenities like pipe borne water, electricity, good roads, houses, etc, they are quick to point out that those days are gone.

Rev. Father Mathew Hassan Kukah the Lord Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese in most of his public interventions has maintained that part of the problem of Nigeria can be traced to an intellectually and morally bankrupt elite that encourages the accessing of power and privileges only on the basis of religion and ethnicity and not merit and competence. I believe in meritocracy and I am against mediocrity and favouritism in public office because they retard national development and make lives of the citizens miserable.

I had wanted those who are against the ticket to advance cogent reasons why the duo would not be acceptable to the electorate than make a mere appeal to religious sentiment. It was perhaps for this religious sentiment that Buhari in 2011 elections picked a Christian cleric as his vice presidential candidate. However, any objective political observer would quickly admit that the respected Pastor Tunde Bakare being on the ballot hardly made any impression on the Christian electorate throughout the country. I should have thought that at the crossroads where Nigeria is today, the only consideration for public office would be to elect a leader or leaders who can solve the key challenges confronting the nation, which includes, but not limited to mass poverty, unemployment, infrastructure deficit and corruption amongst others. I would have gladly welcomed a critique of both Buhari and Tinubu. Such a review would have shown that Buhari was reported to be autocratic as a military Head of State. On the converse his supporters would have argued that under a constitutional democracy, the parliament, the judiciary and the media are there to effectively check the excesses of any president. Besides they would have argued that Buhari is also perceived by a majority of Nigerians as being honest, disciplined and patriotic. Even till today, 30 years after, people still talk about his fight against corruption and his War Against Indiscipline (W.A.I.) program. One of his enduring legacies includes the monthly sanitation exercise which many governors have adopted in their states.

On the side of Tinubu, even his worst enemies would concede that he is a rare and unique political leader. By 1999 when he assumed office as governor, many roads in Lagos were routinely blocked with refuse leading to traffic gridlock. With a rejuvenated Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA), Lagos improved dramatically into a clean city. He also introduced Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) to address the chaotic traffic situation in Lagos State. The Kick Against Indiscipline (K.A.I.) agency has helped to reduce environmental degradation caused by lawless street traders, etc. He also introduced the Bus Rapid Transport (B.R.T.) system that has made public transportation much better than the days when the ubiquitous “Molue” held sway. He also addressed security issues through the establishment of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). I do not intend to go into his achievements in road construction, housing, health and public education where he started paying West African Examination Council (W.A.E.C.) and National Examination Council (NECO) fees in pubic school for Senior Secondary School Certificate Students. Nor do I want to talk about his free eye diagnosis, treatment and free eye glasses to Lagosians, etc. I have only been dragged into these examples to show that performance has nothing to do with a person’s religion and to buttress that these services provided by Tinubu were enjoyed by both Christians and Muslims alike without discrimination.

Therefore, it beggars the question for anybody to suggest that these type of exemplary leaders should be disqualified from contesting elections simply because they belong to a certain religion. Of course, both men have their own flip sides which can be discussed on the balance by analysts. For top confidential reasons, details of which I am precluded from disclosing here, the Buhari/Tinubu ticket remains the best option for the A.P.C. to wrest power from the Peoples Democratic Party (P.D.P.) or make a good show at the elections.

It is for the same reason that I see nothing fundamentally wrong with the Buhari/Tinubu ticket that I criticize those who say that President Goodluck Jonathan should not contest the 2015 elections simply because he is from a perceived minority tribe or because he is perceived as coming from the Old Eastern Nigeria or better still that he disrupted the turn of Northerners in the shadowy P.D.P. zoning arrangement to continue with the President Umaru Yaradua’s tenure after he died. If President Jonathan provides dams for irrigation, electricity and drinking water in the north, will the Muslims or northerners refuse to enjoy it simply because it was built by a Christian or a person from the South-South geo-political region? Why do Nigerians use cars, clothes, shoes, bags and eat food imported from Asia, America and Europe without first inquiring whether the manufacturers or producers practice Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Shintoism, Judaism or are even Atheists?

Finally, when a much acclaimed Governor Godswill Akpabio provides social amenities to the residents of Akwa Ibom, I do not think Muslims who live there would refuse to enjoy them because Akpabio is a Christian. Likewise, when a hardworking Governor Adams Oshiomhole delivers the dividends of democracy to Edo residents, I do not think that anybody would first try to ascertain his religion before accessing and enjoying them.

In conclusion, the way we talk about tribe and religion in Nigeria, it would appear that citizens of other countries do not have ethnic nationalities or practice any religion. The United States of America, Britain and many Asian countries all have people of different ethnic nationalities and religion but they have put merit and equality before the law first, hence the progress of their different countries. Let candidates jostling for public offices in Nigeria tell us about their achievements, antecedents and manifestoes and not deceive the people with the Bible or Koran!

- This Best Outside Opinion was written byAham Njoku
Daily Independent

IS NIGERIA A NATION RULED BY PATHOLOGICAL LIARS? (PART 2)

      By Eddy Ogunbor

When has a national Security Council meeting become a PDP only affairs? The Service Chiefs, NSA, Chies DSS, NIA, were present!!! Are we to believe that these Security Chiefs are bonafide and card carrying members of the PDP?There is no doubt about that now, as their strategy is to map out steps to take towards the 2015 elections. The situations are getting clearer to Nigerians.

Then government in all these insecurity and confusing situations found it convenient and comfortable to go on holiday for the Easter celebration, leaving Nigerians to their faith until Wednesday when government will resume to continue deliberations on the country’s security situation. A serious and responsible government will  not  go on holiday. What a decision and what a government!?

I have watched and listened to a Captain (rtd) Umar Aliyu, a Security Expert/Consultant talk on and analyse the security siotuation in Nigeria. This retired Captain has impressed Nigerians and myself going by his analysis and understanding of security lapses in the country. The questions asked by most Nigerians are:-  Why was this young officer retired? Why is government not listening to or using the analysis of this Captain? Why, as a Consultant, government will not consult with this Captain instead of those run of the mill and government paid security “Consultants” who were former this and that in the DSS, SSS, Police Force etc? Revelations of Captain Umar on the security lapses in the country, competence of our security Chiefs and the politicisation of the Nigerian Armed Forces and security agencies will shock the world.

Captain Umar Aliyu informed Nigerians and in his own words – “I sit down and listen to Security Chiefs speak,... honestly they are not on the same page with us!! He said they are not in control of the situation for political reasons or agenda of government. He therefore requested for a “rebasing” of our military or Defence sectors and security agencies. In Captain Umar’s opinion, intelligience required by the security agencies in Nigeria to solve the state of insecurity are all on the pages of our Newspapers and on TV channels. This may come as a surprise. But consider what happened in the recent Nyanya Park bombing situation and the abduction of the secondary school girls in Chibok –

1.How many eye witnesses at the scene of the bomb blast that we saw on our TV stations and read their accounts on the pages of our Newspapers were or have been invited by the security agencies for debriefing and documentation of their accounts of what they saw and what happened pre and post the incedent? We have heard and read about the eye witnesses accounts on the pages of Newspapers and on TV stations. The security agencies are still at the scene of the incedents searching and picking up debris for forensic analysis!! (2). Then the case of the abducted Chibok girls. The Newspapers and TV stations have reported the escape of some of the girls from their abductors and ever since these reports came out, the security agencies have not and did not invite any of the escapees for debriefing and documentation of accounts of their abduction, escape and escape routes of their abductors. Whatever happened to preventing and proactive security intelligence?

Government promised to tackle corruption decisively but check unresolved corruption cases:-

-          Faroukgate

-          Subsidygate

-           Bankolegate

-           Ottehgate

-          Oduahgate

-          Missing $20 billion

-          NIS Employment Scam

-          CCTV Scam

-          Eagle Square 2010 bomb blast

-          Police HQ Building bomb blast

-          UN Building bomb blast

-          Kano Motor Park bomb blast

-          Suleja Motor Park bomb blast

-          Churches bomb blast.

And many more of such unresolved corruption cases. It is always one excuse or the other by government to scuttle speedy resolve of these cases.

The patience of Nigerians is very elestic and with Nigerians, the elastic limit will take a long time in coming.

Did I miss anything on facebook during the three days mourning period? Certainly not!! I read comments by some Nigerians attempting to justify the show of shame of the ruling party by party faithfuls. Some Nigerians obviously have lost their senses of reasoning and this is the reason the country has the type of government that is insensitive to the plight of the common man.

IS NIGERIA A NATION RULED BY PATHOLOGICAL LIARS?

WELCOME BACK TO MY PAGE.

STATE HOUSE RELEASE : President Jonathan Applauds General Buhari’s Patriotic Call For National Unity Against Terrorism

By Reuben Abati

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan commends General Muhammadu Buhari for his very statesman-like views on terrorism and insecurity  in Nigeria as expressed in his article which was published by the media over the past two days.
President Jonathan believes that the position taken by General Buhari is that of a true patriot, respected former Head of State, revered elder statesman and nationalist.
The President welcomes General Buhari’s call on all Nigerians to remain steadfast and work in unity to overcome terrorists and other merchants of death who currently threaten national security.
President Jonathan fully shares General Buhari’s view that a minority must never be allowed to “bring the nation to its knees through terror”.
He has noted General Buhari’s recommendation that the nation’s counter-terrorism strategies be further fine-tuned and welcomes his kind offer of support and co-operation in dealing with the challenge of terrorism.
The President assures General Buhari of his Administration’s sincere commitment and dedication to the successful prosecution of the fight against terrorism and all other threats to national security.
He further assures the General of his preparedness to work with him and all other patriotic Nigerians, irrespective of their political affiliations, to strengthen national security and end the scourge of terrorism.
Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)