Sick Nation !!! Births of 70 percent of under-5 Nigerian children ‘not duly registered’

Hapsatu Isiyaku, assistant director in charge of vital registration at the National Population Commission (NPC), says the births of 70 percent of under-5 children in Nigeria are not duly registered.

Isiyaku said this at a media dialogue on birth registration in Lagos.

The event was organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the ministry of information in collaboration with the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF).

According to Isiyaku, one of the major reasons for this development is ignorance of parents and care givers.

She noted that about 62 percent of births in Nigeria occurred at home while only 35 percent of births in the country are delivered in health facility.

Quoting the 2013 demographic health survey, Isiyaku said “birth registration of under-5 children in Nigeria is approximately 30%, while the remaining 70% remain unregistered and in legal terms do not exist.”

She explained that birth registration is the permanent and official record of a child’s existence by the government and that is fundamental to the realisation of children’s rights and practical needs.

“Birth Registration is free and universal and conducted within the context of a functional civil registration system in Nigeria”, Isiyaku said.

“Births in Nigeria keep growing to 7m a year whereas less than half are registered. Apparently, it would be difficult for government at all levels to plan properly for the children in all the nooks and crannies of the country, particularly in terms of healthcare delivery and quality education.”

Isiyaku said there is still huge gap in birth registration in Nigeria and that the country is estimated to have an annual birth cohort of around 7 million.

She said out of these 7 million children born every year in Nigeria, only eight in every 100 of them are registered in the country as indicated by the NPC RapidSMS database.

She said with this indication, more than half of all children born each year in Nigeria were unaccounted for and that officially, there are 32 million children unregistered in Nigeria.

A child Protection Specialist with the UNICEF in Nigeria, Sharon Oladiji said children whose births were not registered have no official record as citizens of the country.

“Their access to basic services is under threat; their official ‘invisibility’ increases their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation. In legal terms, they do not exist. Violations of their rights are going unnoticed,” she said. - TheCable

Country of slavery !! No going back on N30,000 minimum wage – Labour

The Organised Labour has insisted that the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage has concluded its assignment for onward submission to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Joe Ajaero, President, United Labour Congress (ULC), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

Ajaero was reacting to the statement made by Dr Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, that there was no agreement yet by the National Minimum wage Committee on the new Minimum wage figure in the country.

Ngige had said negotiations were still ongoing and the capacity to pay by employers remained the guiding principles.

NAN also recalled that Mr Ayuba Wabba, president, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had also stated that the Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage had completed its assignment for onward submission to President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to Ajaero, this is all politics; the true story is that at resumption of the hearing of the committee on the first day which was Oct. 4, government did not show any seriousness.

“So, on Friday, Oct. 5, government came with a proposal of either N20,000 or N21,000 which Labour rejected outright; they now moved almost to N24,000 and Labour rejected it again, while the employers were still on N25,000.

“But the state governments were either on N20,000 or so and there was almost a stalemate. So government then went out for consultation and by the time they came back, they brought about three scenarios.

“The three scenarios they brought forward were either N38,000, N35,000 or N34,000 but the Organised Private Sector (OPS) appealed to labour on the need to harmonise,’’ he stated.

Ajaero stated that the OPS noted that they were facing a lot of challenges affecting their businesses and that since they would be at the receiving end there was need to reach a consensus.

The ULC president further said that based on the private sector request, the sub-committee which Ngige was chairing moved a motion that N30,000 be adopted.

He added that the meeting agreed that they should go ahead to print clean copy in order for all parties to sign.

“So, if actually there is anything remaining it is only to sign the clean copy of N30,000,’’ he said.

He also noted that the committee agreed that on the day the clean copy would be presented to Mr President that all parties should be present to sign.

He also said that it was agreed that nobody should disclose the figure reached by the committee to the public.

“That is why none of us or any of the centres of organised labour has been able to disclose the amount.

“Right now, I would not know what has happened and I would not know why the Minister of Labour would be saying negotiations have not been concluded.

“Besides that, even the Chairman and members of the committee knew there was no more money and the budget given to the committee has been exhausted even to hold further meetings; this is the situation.

“I want to say again, that we have discussed and have agreed on certain amount and government should come out and announced it rather than this dilly dally,’’ Ajaero said.

He, however, said that the N30,000 agreed upon was to ensure that the organised private sector businesses did not collapse.

He also said that organised labour would soon issue a statement on its position.- PM News

I have spiritual attack anytime my husband makes love to me – Wife tells court

A Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan, has dissolved a 14-year-old marriage between one Bunmi Adewuyi and Adegbite Adewuyi over spiritual attacks.

According to NAN, Bunmi told the court that her life was in serious danger due to series of spiritual attacks in her husband’s home.

Bunmi said, “My Lord, if I had known that my marital adventure will be characterized by unrest, bitterness and trauma, I would have chosen to remain a spinster.

“For over three years now, I have been suffering from uncontrollable menstruation after Adegbite had sexual intercourse with me.

“When I went to the hospital, the menstrual problem almost defiled treatment, but there was remedy at last.

“When Adegbite slept with me again, the problem started all over and since then, I have been battling it all alone.

“Then, he had been demanding sex from me without helping me to find solution to my problem.

“Since I stopped allowing him to sleep with me, Adegbite stopped catering for the child and I while enjoying himself outside.

“Worst still, anytime Adegbite had sex with me, some spiritual forces used to strangle my neck.

“At other times, those forces carry me into the jungle and present food which I must eat.

“Besides, our newly constructed building is usually a meeting point for soldier ants while a given snake also carries out its own threat.

“Lately, I have been experiencing a symptom of stroke on my leg, arm and leg.

“Adegbite has just married another wife, please release me from Adegbite’s bondage,” Bunmi cried.

However, Adegbite, who is a trader denied all the allegations against him and also opposed the divorce suit.

He expressed surprise at his wife’s arguments, adding that no form of dispute had occurred between them.

“My lord, I have done everything within my power to show Bunmi how much I love her and I even gave her a worthwhile 40th birthday celebration recently.

“On her complaint about spiritual attacks, I wanted to take her to a Celestial Church, but Bunmi turned down the offer.

“We have just moved to a new site where snakes and soldier ants’ attacks are normal occurrence.”

Ruling, the court, presided over by Chief Ademola Odunade, said that the court terminated the union in the interest of peaceful living.

Odunade awarded custody of the 13-year-old child produced by the union to Bunmi and directed Adegbite to pay a monthly allowance of N5, 000 for the child’s upkeep.

He advised Adegbite to also see to the education as well as the other welfare of the child. - Daily Post

Osinbajo: Nigeria needs $1trn investment to modernise energy infrastructure

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says Nigeria needs about $1 trillion investment to modernise its energy infrastructure.

Osinbajo said this on Thursday while declaring open the National Energy and Climate Change summit at the state house conference center in Abuja.

Represented by Ogbonnaya Onu, minister of science and technology, the vice-president said the Buhari administration was doing a lot to attract both domestic and foreign-direct investment into the energy sector.

He added that the nation’s energy and its policies were not only geared towards energy supply security but to also mitigate global warming.

“This important event will provide a high-level forum to discuss energy and climate change as they relate to economic development and environmental protection,” he said.

“I am hopeful that at the end of your deliberations, you will be able to provide solutions towards improving sustainable energy supply and access in the country. I am happy that the International Energy Charter (IECh), a reputable inter-governmental energy organization that has the main objective of promoting multi-lateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the field of energy development is here with us.

“I recall, the ceremony last year in this same hall, when the honourable minister of science and technology signed on behalf of Nigeria, the international energy charter political declaration after obtaining the approval of the president.

“Nigeria then joined the International Energy Charter (IECh) as an observer member state. I also recall that the Energy Commission of Nigeria immediately signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the IECh secretariat in order to promote such activities that will be beneficial to our dear country.

“Following this, a study of the Energy Investment Risk Assessment (EIRA) for Nigeria has been completed; the report, which has just been presented to us. I am happy that the assessment, which featured four (4) performance indicators, has scored our energy investment risks as moderate.” - TheCable

World Bank: We were wrong to advise Nigeria to invest hard in infrastructure

Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, says the institution’s advice to countries, including Nigeria to invest hard infrastructure was a wrong approach.

Commenting on Nigeria’s ranking while unveiling the bank’s first-ever Human Capital Index,  Kim said the bank is taking responsibility for its actions.

The index measures countries’ contribution of health and education to the productivity of the next generation of their workers.

Nigeria was ranked 152 out of 157 countries considered in the index.

“Many African countries are in the red zone. I think that the World Bank has to take some responsibility for having emphasized hard infrastructure, roads, rails, energy, for a long time,” he said.

“And you know, that changed about 20 years ago. But there has still been the bias that says ‘You know, we’ll invest in hard infrastructure and then when we grow rich, we’ll have enough money to invest in health and education’.

“We’re now saying that that’s really the wrong approach, that you’ve got to start investing in your people right now.”

He said Nigeria’s low ranking should be a loud and strong message to African leaders, especially Nigeria.

“Nigeria is one of the most important countries not only in Africa but in the world. And also we feel that it will be extremely important for Nigeria to really go on a different level altogether in terms of their commitment to investing in human capital.

“A child born today, in 20 years almost certainly many of the low-skill jobs today will be gone. And the requirement for this child to be able to learn throughout his or her entire life is simply going to get higher. The requirement, the needs are going to get higher.

“And so this is a very loud and strong message to Africa. Africa needs to invest more in health and education.

“The message here is that heads of state and ministers of finance have to take responsibility. There’s so much waiting for the grants to come. And what’s happened is in many African countries, if they don’t receive grant-based financing, they just simply don’t spend on health and education.”- TheCable

Cristiano Ronaldo: German magazine ‘stands by reporting’ of rape allegation

The German magazine that reported a rape allegation made against footballer Cristiano Ronaldo says it has “no reason” to doubt the authenticity of key documents used in its story.

Ronaldo, 33, denies assaulting Kathryn Mayorga at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.

Lawyers representing the Juventus player said on Wednesday that documents had been “completely fabricated”.

But Der Spiegel said: “We have hundreds of documents from different sources that substantiate our reporting.”

It added in a statement: “We stand by our reporting. We have no reason to believe that those documents are not authentic.

“Furthermore, as always and before publishing every single article in Der Spiegel, we have meticulously fact-checked our information and had it legally reviewed.

“The statement that was issued by [Ronaldo’s lawyer] Peter Christiansen on behalf of Cristiano Ronaldo presents the usual path that Mr Ronaldo and his lawyers have taken in the past when unsuccessfully fighting our investigative work.”

The magazine’s story centres on a questionnaire, which it says came from Ronaldo’s lawyers, in which the Portugal international admits Mayorga, 34, said “no” and “stop” during the alleged attack.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Christiansen said the documents were “pure inventions” and the result of a 2015 cyber attack, during which “electronic data was stolen” from “dozens of entities (including law firms) in different parts of Europe”.

He added: “This hacker tried to sell such information, and a media outlet irresponsibly ended up publishing some of the stolen documents, significant parts of which were altered and/or completely fabricated.”

Der Spiegel responded by saying: “In our article, we quote two versions of a document with statements by Mr Ronaldo.

“It’s a questionnaire that comes from his lawyers and describes the course of the night, in which the alleged rape occurred. The first version of this questionnaire, in which Ronaldo is quoted as saying that Ms Mayorga said ‘no’ and ‘stop’, is consistent with many details of Ms Mayorga’s description of the incident.

“Both also state that he apologised to her afterwards. In a later version of this questionnaire, Mr Ronaldo denies the accusation of rape and denies apologising to Ms Mayorga.”

Christiansen said his client’s position continues to be that “what happened in 2009 in Las Vegas was completely consensual”.

He added: “So that there are no doubts: Cristiano Ronaldo vehemently denies all the accusations in this civil action, in consistency with what he has done in the last nine years.”

Mayorga’s lawyers have now called for any documents to be handed over to “the appropriate law enforcement agencies” to help resolve any discrepancies.

They added they wanted to review any evidence that showed documents had been altered or fabricated.

Ronaldo scored for Juventus last Saturday, but has chosen not to join up with Portugal team for matches against Poland on Thursday and Scotland on Sunday

‘Admittance of payment’

Der Spiegel also believes Ronaldo’s representatives have changed their narrative regarding the alleged payment that was made to Mayorga by Ronaldo’s lawyers in 2010.

Mayorga, who the magazine says filed a report with Las Vegas police shortly after the alleged incident, reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo involving a $375,000 (£288,000) payment for agreeing never to go public with the allegations.

Christiansen says Ronaldo does not deny he entered into an agreement, but “the reasons that led him to do so are at least to be distorted”. He added: “This agreement is by no means a confession of guilt.”

Der Spiegel said: “When we published an article about the settlement agreement between Ms Mayorga and Mr Ronaldo in 2017, his advisors called it ‘nothing but a piece of journalistic fiction’.

“Now, Mr Ronaldo admits that he agreed to that settlement.”

The magazine’s statement added: “Before publishing our story about the rape accusations, we gave Mr Ronaldo and his lawyers the opportunity to respond to the allegations.

“They could have disputed the facts that we presented to them. They did not do that. In no way did they claim that parts of our information were ‘pure inventions’. One of his lawyers threatened to sue us for publishing because he said that we infringed Mr Ronaldo’s personal rights. So far, we have not received anything in this regard.

“Only Kathryn Mayorga and Cristiano Ronaldo know the truth about the incident that occurred on June 13, 2009. It’s not our job to judge. What we do is to report. We tell both sides of the story.

“The responsible authorities of Nevada will determine the following steps in this process. So far, of course the presumption of innocence applies to Mr Ronaldo.”

-BBC

Why Buhari signed Executive Order 8 – Aide

The Special Adviser to the President on Justice Reform, Mrs Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, says the Executive Order 8 signed by President Muhammadu Buhari will serve a death knell on money laundering.
Ibekaku-Nwagwu, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Enugu West Senatorial Zone, said this in a statement in Enugu on Thursday.

She said that the bold step by the president needed to be commended by friends and citizens of the country as it had served quit notices to financial impropriety and tax evasion.

The presidential aide said the move was another clear indication that the president was determined to reposition the country on the path of sustainable recovery.

She urged the president to remain focused and steadfast in his efforts in spite of the activities of a few individuals that were short-changing the country.

“Mr President is very determined to reposition the country on the path of a sustainable economic recovery.

“He has displayed the determination and willingness, bearing in mind that those who have been short-changing the country will want to frustrate this effort,” she said.

Ibekaku-Nwagwu, who also manned the Open Government Partnership, said that outside accruable revenues from crude oil, revenue from taxes ought to be the second largest source of income to the country.
“Recall that Mr. President, in signing the order, noted that under Nigerian law, every citizen has the duty to declare their income and assets and pay taxes,” she said.

She, however, said that the sad reality was that efforts to recover taxes from defaulters through litigation were often frustrated.
“This is due to the complications caused by the change in the character and nature of such assets, insufficient financial intelligence, long delays in courts, among other reasons,” Ibekaku-Nwagwu said. - Daily Post

Nigeria among bottom seven in World Bank’s first ever Human Capital Index

Nigeria has been ranked 152 out of 157 countries in the first-ever Human Capital Index released by the World Bank Group.

Unveiling the report on Thursday at the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Bali, Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, said educational outcomes from Nigeria are too poor.

“Nigeria, unfortunately, ranks 152 out of 157 countries. We provide quite a bit of support for Nigeria in terms of the health budget. But we feel that the overall spending on health is far too low, 0.76% of GDP. And also the educational outcomes in Nigeria are very poor,” he said.

“Many African countries are in the red zone. I think that the World Bank has to take some responsibility for having emphasized hard infrastructure, roads, rails, energy, for a long time.

“And you know, that changed about 20 years ago. But there has still been the bias that says ‘You know, we’ll invest in hard infrastructure and then when we grow rich, we’ll have enough money to invest in health and education’.

“We’re now saying that that’s really the wrong approach, that you’ve got to start investing in your people right now.”

The World Bank boss urged African leaders to take responsibility for investing more in health and education.

“What’s happened is in many African countries if they don’t receive grant-based financing they simply don’t spend on health and education,” he said. - TheCable