NEWS: 2017Budget: NBA commends Buhari for increased allocation to Judiciary

The Abuja Chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari over the increase in the budgetary allocation to the judiciary in the 2017 budget.

Mr Ezenwa Anumnu, the Chairman of the chapter, made the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
NAN recalls that President Buhari on Wednesday, before the joint National Assembly disclosed that N100 billion was allocated to the judiciary in 2017 budget compared to N70 billion in the 2016 budget. “The increase in the judiciary budget for 2017 is an improvement, but we cannot rest on our oars, judiciary needs a whole lot of funding to be able to carry out its functions effectively, including meeting the needs of the judges.
 “The judiciary is the last hope of the common man, so, we must properly prepare it for it to work properly. “Our expectations are much more and we will keep on demanding that our Judges and judiciary are well taken care of because of the sensitive nature of their work,’’ he said.
 According to him, lawyers are major and critical stakeholders in the nation building as such, the judiciary must be well funded. (NAN)

EDU: WAEC releases results for 2016 Oct/Nov exams with 38.5% candidates passing English, Maths ‎

 CANDIDATES

Only 38.5 % candidates have been announced to have passed, following the release of the 2016 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

 This result was announced, Friday, by the Head of WAEC’s‎ National Office, Olu Adenipekun in Lagos. According to the release, the 38.5 percent candidates obtained five credits including English Language and Mathematics.

 Details soon….

SOURCE: VANGUARD NEWS

NEWS: Coronation anniversary: Book bares intrigues behind emergence of 20th Olu of Warri

Areyinka noted that the passage of an Olu and the enthronement of a successor was not a “Christmas party”, explaining that issues came up and took argument, debates, spirituality and unity of purpose to resolve to get a new king. According to him: “The book is filled with contents and graphical images from the announcement of the passage of the immediate past Olu through his obituary and the undercurrents that informed the coronation of the 20th Olu. The management of information, intrigues and from immediate family to ruling houses, and the Council of Chiefs in the mixture of sadness and joy that played out in the transition from one Olu to another could only have been so well captured by an insider and a partaker like the author. The writer satisfactorily used his vantage position as a partaker in the whole exercise to lead the reader into that process. That makes this book historic as a pool of rich history not only for Iwere nation, but for scholars and lovers of literatures.” Earlier, delivering the anniversary lecture, former commissioner and ex-Delta State House of Assembly member, Misan Okubeyinje, pleaded with the Itsekiri to cash in on “Cassava, Oil Palm, Aquaculture and Poultry Value Chain of Federal Government, for Prosperity of Itsekiri nation.” Arising from the cross pollination of ideas on the anniversary lecture, the Olu, Ogiame Ikenwoli directed the “Council of Chiefs and the Olu in Council to set up a committee to explore the agricultural potentials within his kingdom to come up an effective framework to maximize same taking advantage of existing FG incentives.” The first coronation anniversary of Ogiame Ikenwole continues today with an anniversary quiz for students and the command performance of Olu Akengbuwa, a stage play by Alex Eyengho featuring Nobert Young, Ejike Asiegbu, among other casts.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/coronation-anniversary-book-bares-intrigues-behind-emergence-20th-olu-warri/

By Egufe Yafugborhi THE insight into the emergence of the 20th Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli, came to the fore yesterday during a public presentation of a book, The Emergence of His Majesty Ogiame Ikenwoli As 20th Olu of Warri, authored by Toritseju Emiko, a prince of Warri Kingdom.
 The book which was unveiled as part of the celebrations of Ogiame Ikenwoli’s first coronation anniversary also featured an anniversary lecture which examined the agricultural potentials in Itsekiri. Reviewing the book, Chief Solomon Areyinka, said: “The attempt to document publicly so much of what transpired in secret in the making of the 20th Olu is a bold display of transparency.
 It shows the reign of Ogiame Ikenwoli is a very transparent one.”

Areyinka noted that the passage of an Olu and the enthronement of a successor was not a “Christmas party”, explaining that issues came up and took argument, debates, spirituality and unity of purpose to resolve to get a new king.
According to him: “The book is filled with contents and graphical images from the announcement of the passage of the immediate past Olu through his obituary and the undercurrents that informed the coronation of the 20th Olu.

The management of information, intrigues and from immediate family to ruling houses, and the Council of Chiefs in the mixture of sadness and joy that played out in the transition from one Olu to another could only have been so well captured by an insider and a partaker like the author. The writer satisfactorily used his vantage position as a partaker in the whole exercise to lead the reader into that process.
That makes this book historic as a pool of rich history not only for Iwere nation, but for scholars and lovers of literatures.” Earlier, delivering the anniversary lecture, former commissioner and ex-Delta State House of Assembly member, Misan Okubeyinje, pleaded with the Itsekiri to cash in on “Cassava, Oil Palm, Aquaculture and Poultry Value Chain of Federal Government, for Prosperity of Itsekiri nation.”
 Arising from the cross pollination of ideas on the anniversary lecture, the Olu, Ogiame Ikenwoli directed the “Council of Chiefs and the Olu in Council to set up a committee to explore the agricultural potentials within his kingdom to come up an effective framework to maximize same taking advantage of existing FG incentives.”
The first coronation anniversary of Ogiame Ikenwole continues today with an anniversary quiz for students and the command performance of Olu Akengbuwa, a stage play by Alex Eyengho featuring Nobert Young, Ejike Asiegbu, among other casts.

EDU: JAMB meets CBT centre owners over 2017 exams

LAGOS — The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has said arrangements had been concluded to have an interaction with owners of Computer Based Test (CBT) centres in the country ahead of the 2017 UTME.
The board’s Head, Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, made the disclosure in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday, in Lagos.
According to the statement, the meeting which comes up today at the University of Lagos, is to fine tune all areas of challenges geared towards conducting a hitch-free examination in 2017.

It said the meeting would determine the number of centres to be used for the 2017 all CBT Unified Tertiary Matriculation Board (UTME) exercise.
It said: “These are centres that must have a minimum of 250 and above terminals (computers). “We will not hesitate to disqualify any centre that falls short of the requirements.”
“We will equally not compromise on the selection of these centres as they will fully be responsible for our registration and examinations and other related responsibilities that they will be saddled with from time to time as we introduce new measures.”
 It added that the board decided to come face to face with owners of these centres to ensure it got first hand information on the challenges they face in the course of the examinations

SOURCE: VANGUARD NEWS

SPORTS: Europa League: Pogba brothers at war

Manchester United’s Europa League adventure will continue with a last-32 tie against St Etienne, a match-up that Paul Pogba will relish as it sees him taking on his brother Florentin. Tottenham will travel to face Belgium club Gent having entered the competition following their third-place finish in the Champions League group stage.
 United will be away for their second leg on Wednesday February 22 in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, as local rivals Lyon are at home to AZ Alkmaar on the Thursday.
The level of intrigue in United’s tie with St Etienne is heightened by the prospect of former Juventus midfielder Pogba facing his brother over two legs. pogba-brothers Florentin, a Guinea international defender, is not to be confused with his twin Matthias, who plays for Sparta Rotterdam.
The 26-year-old was linked with a move to the Premier League in the summer with both Sunderland and Hull expressing interest.
 With the January transfer window opening in three weeks’ time, there is the possibility he may not be at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for much longer.
The Ligue 1 outfit are eighth in their domestic league but were unbeaten in their six Europa League group games, winning three and drawing three in matches against Anderlecht, Mainz and Qabala.

SPORTS: Iwobi: I will reclaim my place in Arsenal

Arsenal midfielder Alex Iwobi is determined to “kick on” and reclaim his place in Arsene Wenger’s starting line up. Iwobi started seven consecutive Premier League games for the Gunners between September and November, appearing to cement his place in Wenger’s plans.
 But the 20-year-old has slipped down the pecking order of late due to fierce competition for places, particularly given Theo Walcott’s outstanding form.

Iwobi came off the bench to score Arsenal’s third goal in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Stoke City and the Nigeria international is hopeful he has done enough to receive more game time. “I just need to kick on now and show what I can do to get into the starting team again,” he told the club’s official website. “It was much needed win [against Stoke City] – even though we started off a bit shaky, we were able to get through in the end and it was a great performance from the team.

 “We’d like to clean a sheet but we were able to get three points, we defended well and it will boost our confidence,” he added. Iwobi will not have to wait long to discover whether he has secured another starting berth with Arsenal in action against Everton on Tuesday night.

NEWS: MMM Nigeria freezes all confirmed accounts as panic, confusion grip Nigerians

MMM Nigeria- Members of the famous money-doubling scheme, Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox, MMM Nigeria have been thrown into panic and great confusion, Tuesday, following the message from the ponzi scheme freezing all confirmed Mavros, otherwise known as money due for withdrawal for one month. This means, all the accounts of members who are due to be paid after having ‘provided help’ (PH) to another person since the last month have been frozen and hence, have no access to request for payment, known as ‘Get Help’ (GH) until after one month.

 All members woke up with the shock message displayed on the screen as soon as they logged into their accounts. Giving reasons for freezing the Mavros, the scheme said it is experiencing heavy workload and want to deal with the attacks coming from the country’s mass media.

It also said it wants to prevent hitches in the coming new year hence, the freezing of the access to requesting for payments even when such person is due for payment.
The message read thus: “One-Month Freezing of Confirmed Mavros” “Dear members!” “As usual, in the New Year season the System is experiencing heavy workload.

Moreover, it has to deal with the constant frenzy provoked by the authorities in the mass media.” “The things are still going well; the participants feel calm; everyone gets paid – as you can see, there haven’t been any payment delays or other problems yet – but!.. it is better to avoid taking risk.:-)) (Moreover, there are almost three weeks left to the New Year.)” “Hence, on the basis of the above mentioned, from now on all confirmed Mavro will be frozen for a month.”
 “The reason for this measure is evident. We need to prevent any problems during the New Year season, and then, when everything calms down, this measure will be cancelled. (Which we will definitely do.:-))” “We hope for your understanding, Administration”

MAVRODI'S MESSAGE

Panic quarters and Lamentations: In a whatsapp group, MMM Nexus Solution, members of the ponzi scheme, many who are Guilders, have launched their displeasure over the new development. Many have lamented that they don’t know how to communicate the development to their downliners (Those they persuaded to stake their money in the ponzi scheme). 

They also argued that this decision of the scheme’s management will trigger the downfall of the scheme. 

They said most people will hence, be skeptical in staking their money while a good number of them said such decision is selfish and would have been better if it was conveyed to members before now. One of the members with the name, Rosy, said thus: ” This rule is obnoxious, unscrupulous, provocative, insensitive….they did not advise them well, evil prophesy coming to pass.” 

 

Another, Samroyal said: “it shouldn’t have been now when both the media and govt are predicting that it will soon collapse thereby trying to discourage pple from it.” Another member lamented thus; ” One of my down lines was supposed to pay 50k today and he has just called me to tell me he isn’t paying again till this is sorted out. Exactly my point.

 If millions GH in January, how will the system manage that, bearing in mind that this act of suspension of GH this period will discourage many people from joining; who will pay the January GH?” And yet another member lamented thus: “I am a member of NBA Abuja branch, tomorrow, we have a seminar on lottery, gaming, casino, MMM etc hosted by Nat lottery Comm.

 

 I have been a strong MMM advocate amongst Abuja lawyers, what do i tell them tomorrow?” Another member said: “I have been an advocate of MMM since I joined in September but this act of shifting the goalpost in the middle of the match is a very useless and stupid one by MMM. I have 3 new down lines whose 50 dollars bonus is supposed to mature on thursday, what do I tell them? I tried so hard to convince them to join mmm.

 What they could have done is to make all new PH to stay for one month.” However, this member seemed to be very courageous despite the message. He wrote thus: “I was drinking Hollandia yoghurt when someone called me to say that MMM has been frozen. 

 

Oboy, the Hollandia started tasting like Alomo. But no shaking….. I dey kanpe.” Recall that a similar ponzi scheme, Ultimate Cycler, crashed last two weeks and up until now, the site is yet to be alive. Although a message displayed on the site said it is undergoing maintenance, a routine it said would only last for about 6 to 12 hours, yet, for two weeks now, the site is still unaccessible.

 

When accessed, the site initially displayed an error line of code, before displaying ”Error 500” in bold letters, then it proceeded to display another message: “Be right back. We are currently updating the site to give you a more pleasurable experience and will be back online shortly. Our update estimation is to be complete over the next 6 – 12 hours. Thank you, Peter Wolfing. 

 

Also read: Fear grips Nigerians in MMM, others as ponzi website, Ultimate Cycler, crashes With the current freezing message from MMM, the fear is that it could tour the line of the crashed Ultimate Cycler. This tends to further give grounds to another school of thought who have it that all ponzi schemes do not last more than one year. In defence of MMM:mmm However, the following is a response message to members by the first Nigerian Guider, Chuddy. 

“Hi Mavrodians, As we all must have seen in our PO of the news on Mavro frozen for a month.” “This isn’t the first of its kind. It happens when their are excess PANIC in the system It was placed on Zimbabwe and after the duration it was lifted.” “This idea is brought forward to Calm the members down on intending Threat the FG and Mass media has planned on the system. 

 

It doesn’t mean that their is no more money in the system because in my PO now as a guider, I have about 2million+ PH orders. And I know it would be like that in most Guiders PO too. So you see!!! Money to pay out the orders wouldn’t be a problem.” “But the Admins needed to apply measures to sustain the growth of the system.

 In order to fight issues that may arose as a result of Massive PH already this xmas. Issues like * Uploading of Fake POP *non confirmation of orders and the rest.” “So this is the best strategy to put FG to shame. We all need not panic as our money is in safe hands. Check out your Mavros and you see your money is intact both for 30% bonuses and 20% accrued bonuses.”

 “You can keep PHing if you have the money, though you will definitely not be matched until Mavros are unfrozen. But that will really go a long way for you as your PH made this December will surely be giving you extra 20% after paying out next year. No cause for Alarm. 

We live to expect a stronger MMM by January 14th, 2017.” “Guider Chuddy.”

 

And yet, another member wrote thus in defense of MMM: ” “MMM HAS OVER ten(10) SAFTY NETS WHICH WILL NEVER MAKE IT CRASH AND U NEVER NOTICE BUT I WILL MENTION TEN(10) OUT OF THEM.

 1, Pause mode 

2, 14 days defrost 

3, Extension of the getting help hours 

4, Seeking help from neighboring country 

5, No central account attached 

7, Peer to peer system 

8, Guider’s efforts 

9 PH match hours extension 

10, Website upgrades and security” 

 

“1, Pause mode This process is applied when the numbers of the people getting help is greater than the people help. The system will pause the GH transactions and allow more PH to come into the system for the duration of 2 and half months, WHICH IN OUR CASE IS JUST ONE (1) MONTH (30 DAYS) then the system will now restart and work perfectly PH means provide help and the GH means get help” 

“2, 14 days defrost The participants will not be able to withdraw their money until after 14 days when the payments have been confirmed. During this process, more PH would have come into the system therefore there would be pool of cash to pay the old participants. 

“3, Extension of GH hours this occur when there is a public holidays when the banks are not working therefore, there won’t be transaction and it may cause the problem to the system. The system will now extend the hours of the people who are getting help at that period to allow more People providing help into the system.” “

4, Help seeking from neighboring country When there are more GH than PH in a country, MMM will look into the other countries which are doing well and match them together, pending the time that the affected country will be OK.” 

“6, No central account attached MMM does not have a certain account that we are sending to. MMM doesn’t collect your money.” 

“7, Peer to peer system Participants pay directly to the bank account of the other participants seeking help.” 

“8, Guider’s efforts Guiders are the heartbeat of MMM, guiders make sure each and everyone in MMM understand the Ideology of MMM and how it works.” 

“9, PH match hours extension. When the system finds out that there are more GH than PH, the system will extend the hour of old PH so that to hold down their order matches duration and during this period, the system will allow more new PH to come into the system to get it balanced.” 

“10, Website upgrades and security MMM spends million of dollars in taking care of their website to cub online fraud in MMM, such as scam and other Threats. Goodmorning Mavroidians.”
 

NEWS: Budget 2017 gets boost as oil price hits $58

By Emeka Anaeto, Babajide Komolafe, Ediri Ejor & Prince Okafor

LAGOS—Nigeria’s hope of returning to economic recovery brightened, yesterday, as crude oil price hits an 18-month high of $58 per barrel. With the proposed 2017 budget based on crude oil price of $42.5 per barrel and 2.2 million barrels daily production, this development translates to additional N500.4 billion revenue inflow outside the budgetary estimates. The federal government is proposing a budget of N7.28 trillion for the year 2017.
The aggregate revenue to fund the 2017 budget, according to the budget framework, is expected to increase over the 2016 estimate of N3.855 trillion by about eight per cent or about N313billion. Thirty-three per cent of the amount is expected from oil sources while the balance is derivable from non-oil sources in consonance with the government’s renewed focus on diversification of its revenue base.

Though the 2017 budget came against speculation that 2.2 mbpd oil output was too ambitious given the Niger Delta crises which had forced down output to about 1.4mbd mid this year, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu already indicated that the various negotiations with the Niger Delta leaders have yielded stability leading to uptick in output to about 1.9mbpd in November with expectations of continued rise in production level to even surpass the budgeted benchmark.
Oil prices, yesterday shot up by over 4.5 per cent to hit $57.89 per barrel, its highest level since July 2015. The renewed price surge came after Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and other producers over the weekend in Vienna reached first output cut deal since 2001.budget The cut was in order to rein in over-supply and prop up prices in the market.

 Meanwhile, latest survey conducted by S&P Global Platts, has shown that oil production from OPEC for November rose for the sixth straight month to a record of 33.86 million barrels per day, mb/d, while further rises in December are expected as members and other parties to the production cut agreement try to maximize lead time ahead January 1, 2017 when the output cut agreement goes into effect. The survey also indicated that Nigeria, which is exempted from the OPEC cuts, had remained at 1.68 mb/d in November, contrary to the figure given by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who said output level has grown to about 1.9 mb/d in November. On current price development, Brent sweet crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, soared to $57.89 per barrel in overnight trading between Sunday and Monday, its highest level in 18 months. U.S.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also hit a July 2015 high of $54.51 a barrel. With the OPEC output deal finally signed after a year of negotiations, the market’s focus will now switch to compliance with the agreement. ANZ Bank said that Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company, had informed customers that their allocations would be reduced in January 2017, in line with the recent OPEC production cut agreement.
OPEC has said it will slash output by 1.2 mb/d from January.

1, with top exporter Saudi Arabia cutting around 486,000 bpd in a bid to end glut. Glut has dogged oil markets for over two years and pushed the economies of many oil exporting countries, especially Nigeria and Venezuela, into crisis.
On Saturday, producers from outside the 13- country OPEC group agreed to reduce output by 558,000 bpd, short of the initial target of 600,000 bpd. However, November production figure saw a 320,000 b/d rise from October output and illustrates the challenge OPEC faces in implementing a production cut it finalised in Vienna with the aim of accelerating the global oil market rebalancing.
At the moment, many OPEC members appear to be pumping at or close to their full capacity to maximize revenues before the organisation deal goes into force on January 1.
Under that plan, the organisation will, for six months, cut 1.2 mb/d from its October output level, as calculated by an average of Organisation’s six secondary sources, including Platts, and freeze production at around 32.5 mb/d.

Saudi Arabia, which has committed to holding its output at 10.046 mb/d, saw its November production at 10.52 mb/d, indicating it is involved in maximizing output before complying with cut back. Reacting to yesterday’s development in the international oil price, Dr John Erinne, Managing Consultant, Matrix Energy, stated:
‘’To my mind the deal is a natural reaction of all producers (OPEC and non-OPEC) to the daunting challenges in the global oil market. I believe that in principle they are all interested in restoring equilibrium in the market at a reasonable interception of price and volume.
 ‘’That however does not necessarily rule out the possibility of some trying to cheat or possible negative effects of internal rivalries amongst the signatories. Hopeful that stability is achieved, Nigeria should expect a price regime of up to $55-60/bbl implying reasonably enhanced revenue potential for the country.
‘’It is unlikely that Nigeria will produce above 2.2m.bbls/day in the near future. Our production capacity, disruptive activities of militants and OPEC quotas will combine to limit our output.’’