UK kicks against death sentence over blasphemy

 

The United Kingdom has joined the call for observation of human rights in Kano on Wednesday as it opposes the death sentence passed on a Kano musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, by a Shari’a court.

The Shari’a court had penultimate Monday imposed the death sentence on Sharif-Aminu, aged 22, for committing blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed in a song he circulated via WhatsApp.

It also sentenced a 13-year-old boy, Umar Farouq, to 10 years in prison for making derogatory statements toward Allah in an argument with a friend.

The British High Commission in Nigeria maintained that individuals had the right to freely express opinions and peacefully challenge authorities, noting that this was essential to a free and open society.

Commenting on the sentence on Wednesday, the commission said it would continue to monitor the situation.

The Senior Press and Public Affairs Officer, British High Commission, Christopher Ogunmodede, the Mission said the UK Government opposes death penalty in all circumstances.

“The United Kingdom is firmly committed to promoting and protecting the right to freedom of religion or belief around the world, and to being a strong voice internationally in defence of this fundamental right.

“We believe that the rights of individuals to express opinions and peacefully challenge authorities are essential to a free and open society. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. It is a longstanding policy of the UK Government to oppose the death penalty, in all circumstances, as a matter of principle.”, Ogunmodede said.

Meanwhile, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also condemned the blasphemy laws in Nigeria and has faulted the judgment of an Upper Sharia Court in Kano.

- PM NEWS

Man Utd told to sign Luis Suarez from Barcelona

Brighton striker, Glenn Murray, has urged Manchester United to sign Barcelona’s Luis Suarez.

Murray said this after Barcelona put Suarez up for sale with other senior players following their exit from the Champions League in the hands of Bayern Munich last Friday.

The 36-year-old believes Suarez, 33, can take the pressure off Man United front three players, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood.

“I don’t really think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants somebody to lead the line,” Murray said as quoted by Daily Star.

“I think he wants a more interchangeable three that when the play breaks down the three strikers he picks are comfortable anywhere.

“Saying that I do think that with (Anthony) Martial and (Marcus) Rashford at either side, a pure goalscorer in the middle would benefit Manchester United massively.

“Someone that springs to mind who I think would thrive in this team is someone like Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

“If you’re talking about bringing Someone into Manchester United to do that, to score the goals and take the pressure off that front three, I would say Someone like (Raul) Jimenez. Or, a curveball, Luis Suarez from Barcelona.”

- DAILY POST

How I turned down 17 honorary degrees – Fashola

 

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has revealed how he turned down 17 honorary degrees from Nigerian universities.

Fashola said the various institutions came to offer him honorary degrees when he was governor of Lagos State for eight years.

Fashola, who spoke when the Committee of Vice Chancellors/Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVC/AVCNU), paid him a courtesy visit, also stressed the importance of universities as a place where the characters of young people were finally shaped in readiness for leadership.

He lamented the proliferation and abuse of Honorary Degrees by universities in the country recalling that in his eight-year tenure as Governor of Lagos State and Visitor at LASU one of the things his administration did was to put on hold the award of any Honorary Degree for about two to three years.

“We said, look we are going to be different and for two or three years we did not award any Honorary Degree because truly the idea of Honorary Degree is an important building block of society and once we throw those blocks away or make them unviable then the purpose for it is lost”, the Minister said.

He recalled. “In my eight years in office I had 17 offers and I didn’t take one. I told them to wait until when I was out of office and if they still find me worthy they should then come. And when I was out of office only one came back.

“The point I want to make is that we have to encourage our children to work hard. What have these honorees of the universities done to deserve the honour? What of those who have become undeserving, will you go back and tell them to return the degrees, that they don’t deserve it anymore?”

Noting that there was need to have an acceptable version of the History of Nigeria, Fashola charged the Committee to assemble the many professors of History in the universities and assign the task to them to produce such a version that would be a true History of Nigeria, acceptable by all Nigerians, including the Historians themselves.

Stressing the importance of universities as platforms for character molding, among other functions, the Minister, who described investment in universities as “casting a stone of faith into the future”, said it was an investment that always yielded very enormous profit for any nation.

“It is a place where young boys and girls transit to becoming young men and women and that is where their characters are finally shaped in readiness to take over the leadership of the country”, he said, adding that as overseers of the institutions, the Vice Chancellors have daunting tasks to accomplish.

Assuring the University dons of government support to ensure success, Fashola declared, “Somebody like me, I am a product of an investment of those who set up the University of Benin. Also there are many Nigerians who, like me, are products of that act of faith that happened in the 1970s.”

“I sit here today, and there are Senators, Senate Presidents and so many other professionals who were also products of that investment. And what is true of the University of Benin is also true of all other universities across the country”, he said.

The Minister also charged the Universities on the collation and use of data, saying that the world was now chasing data and there was, therefore, need for the universities to put in useful form the data they have accumulated over the years to assist governments and businesses in the country in national development.

“The world is chasing data, collating data. This data is sitting in our universities. Almost every lecturer I know asks students to write one research paper or the other. The data is there, but can we put it in a useful form to inform our governments, to inform our businesses, to inform our society?”

Recalling his years as Visitor to the Lagos State University (LASU), Fashola, who noted that they had meetings which they christened “The Town and Gown”, with the Town representing Government and the Gown representing Universities, said his administration gained a lot in terms of research outcomes and development.

“It was a time when we had lectures, symposia, not just in LASU but in other universities”, he said, adding that the University of Lagos Consult was one of the state government registered consultants which his administration used to do a lot of research and a lot of consultancy work.

The Minister, however, expressed regrets that not enough universities were investing in such consultancy today, pointing out that there are many areas in which Nigerian universities could do research and consultancy such as on general elections and other political issues arising from elections across the country.

- PM NEWS

‘It is senseless for first-class graduates to look for jobs’ — KWASU VC endorses entrepreneurship

 

Muhammed Akanbi, the vice-chancellor of Kwara State University (KWASU), says it makes no sense for first-class graduates to search for jobs.

Akanbi was reacting to the recent report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which states that 21.76 million Nigerians are now unemployed.

According to the Labour Force Statistics report, the number of unemployed Nigerians went from 20.93 million in 2018 to 21.76 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Speaking when he led the university’s management team on a visit to some selected government agencies in Abuja to mobilise support for the school, Akanbi said it is wrong for universities in the country to graduate first-class students with no job-enabling skills.

He said KWASU prioritises entrepreneurship and community development, adding that the institution seeks to graduate students with skills needed to create jobs for others.

The vice-chancellor said the university students are recipients of CAC awards because “every year, almost 2,000 students register with the CAC because when they come in, it is expected that it is not going to be only a classroom thing.”

“Already, we encourage our students to engage in different entrepreneurship skills, acquire, hold and consider all certificates important. It does not make any sense if you are a first-class student and you are looking for a job. And I mean first-class in any programme,” he said.

“Our university is a university of community development and entrepreneurship. We have a centre which is being rejigged and rejuvenated. It is now called the Centre for Vocational, Technical and Entrepreneurship because we don’t want to teach entrepreneurship just in theory.

“We get our students involved in vocational things and technical aspects. You will see students engage in things like making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers; some are into tailoring, some are into carpentry, some are into what I call mechanical automobile repair and things like that.”

- THECABLE

Insecurity: Life has never been so tough – Buhari’s ex-minister, Audu Ogbe laments

 

Audu Ogbe, the newly inaugurated Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has said that apart from during the civil war, Nigeria has never witnessed the level of insecurity it is currently facing under the present administration.

Ogbe, who was a former Minister of Agriculture during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term, said this in Kaduna yesterday at the maiden meeting of the newly elected National Working Committee (NWC) of ACF.

He said the Northern part of the country was faced with the problems of killings day and night which are greater than ever, except in 1966.

The former Minister said, “We have not faced this challenge before: Killings day and night. At no time has life been so tough except during the civil war.”

Audu Ogbe’s position was contained In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the Forum’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Yawe..

The communique quoted him as saying that “78% of Nigerian land mass is in the north and we are faced with the problems of killings day and night which are greater than ever, except during the civil war.

“Our responsibility now is greater than before. We have not faced this challenge before: Killings day and night. At no time has life been so tough except during the civil war.”

He warned that “if we do not save the north now, we will lose the North.

“Because of the existing tensions and crises leading to a general sense of insecurity, destruction of property and killings in the north, religious, ethnic, traditional and political leaders in the north should be cautious in their utterances and should refrain from making wild and inflammatory utterances that will aggravate the situation.”

“Federal and state governments must take urgent steps to arrest the deteriorating security situation in northern Nigeria which has led to insurgency, terrorism, banditry, ethnic and religious disturbances all over the north.

“The government, particularly state governments of the northern region should pay adequate attention to agriculture which offers more opportunities for diversification and the development of a more sustainable economy for the north and the country,” part of the communique read.

-  DAILY POST

Bakare, Adeyemi, others who refused to open churches are fake – Oyakhilome

 

Founder, Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome has lashed out at churches that refused to open for worship in Lagos State, describing them as fake.

Founder, The Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare; founder, Day Star, Pastor Sam Adeyemi and some others have refused to open their churches for services after the Lagos State Government lifted the ban on religious centres’ re-opening.

But Oyahilome during a service said ” if you refuse to open church for fear of being infected, you were never a believer.

“This is a great concern because there were churches that were thought to be churches until recently. We find a lot of ministers who were thought to be advocates of the gospel advocating for shutting down the churches. (Because they cannot guarantee safety).

“It is pressure like this that reveals what is a church and what is not. Do they really believe in God, the same God of the patriarchs in the Bible?

“I have laid hands on some of the most infectious people on earth and had no fear of being infected. The Word of God guarantees life in Christ.

“When you get to that point where you are afraid of opening churches for fear of being infected, you have denied the faith. You never believed,” he said.

He said one could be a preacher but “your fear and unbelief has put you in bondage. If Jesus is real and you have him inside you, shouldn’t you be a healer of diseases? Should you be afraid? The Bible says ‘if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them’. Don’t you believe that? Do you question the validity of the words of Jesus?
If these things are not true, then what is true? If one part of the Bible is not true, then what is true?

“What the Lord expects us to do: There was a time the Church didn’t have knowledge of anything going on.
I believe why God allowed the Churches to be shut down was because God wanted to get our attention.
Usually there should be a separation of Church and State. But different leaders started making rules about wearing masks before we worship.”

Oyakhilome added that “these guys don’t have any research that shows that using a mask saves you from the COVID-19. On the contrary we have abundant research results that prove that the mask doesn’t save you: in fact it kills you slowly. So why the mask: it keeps you subject to them. It reminds them of their power over you.

“Don’t look at the USA because its not a good example for any country to follow right now. It’s been politicized. They are caving in to the protagonists of the left to reduce criticism. I tell you, after the elections, nobody will wear masks.”

He stated that the testing for COVID-19 is one of the biggest fraud.

According to him, “from different countries we have heard complaints of this fraud of a test. Those who are doing the test are behind the fraud. Every government needs to wake up now and question the fraud! Paid Journalists had better be sincere to themselves, their country and to God. I have done my research. You do yours! Get the right information.”

- PM NEWS

Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases surpass 50,000

 

The number of coronavirus infections in Nigeria crossed the 50,000 mark on Wednesday with 593 new cases confirmed in 15 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The Wednesday figure is the highest daily record of new cases in August, with Plateau topping the list of states with 186 positive samples, followed by Lagos with 172.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced the new cases in its update for August 19, 2020.

Before Wednesday, the highest number of positive samples for August was 457, which was confirmed on August 5.

The development comes less than four weeks after Nigeria crossed 40,000 cases – the country had confirmed a total of 40,543 infections as of July 26, out of which 17,374 recoveries and 858 deaths were recorded.

However, according to the current data, while more than 100 new deaths have been recorded in the past three weeks, the recovery rate has more than doubled.

Four persons were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications on Wednesday, increasing the fatality toll to 985, while 253 patients were discharged bringing the country’s total number of recoveries to 37,304.

Out of over 360,000 tests, a total of 50,488 samples have tested positive in all 36 states and the FCT.

- THECABLE