Tag Archives: Failure

FG in Secret Talks with Niger Delta Militants Despite Failure to Formally Name Negotiating Team- Report

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Despite its reluctance to officially set up a negotiating committee to hold talks with militants in the Niger Delta, the federal government has continued discreet talks with the belligerent groups in the region.

It was gathered that at least three meetings had taken place in the last few months between the militants and federal government emissaries coordinated by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Mohammed Moguno (rtd).

The backroom discussions, which have incorporated other smaller aggrieved groups, are continuing, it was learnt, just as there is growing anxiety among elders and leaders in the region over the inability of the government at the centre to formally name its team of negotiators about six weeks after their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

All the meetings between the agitators and the office of the NSA, took place in Abuja, after the Joint Task Force (JTF), a special security outfit fighting militancy in the area, cleared and certified the various groups which have attacked oil installations since the beginning of the year.

A source close to the goings-on between the government and the agitators, said government agents reached out directly to the groups instead of going through third parties to learn first hand the underlying reasons for the several attacks on the oil infrastructure aside the ones publicly voiced by the warlords.

To avoid the complaints of exclusion that has continued to trail the amnesty programme, the government was said to have gone beyond only the known violent groups like the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) two groups that have publicly claimed responsibility, to reach out to smaller groups.

But the source added that to avoid making the meetings an “all-comers-affair,” the security agents subjected the groups to serious scrutiny which ensured that ‘portfolio militants’ were screened out.

According to the source, most of the issues being discussed still bordered on the 16-point demand by the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), led by Chief Edwin Clark.

However, it was gathered that the Iduwini Volunteer Force (IVF),  one of the groups operating along the coasts of South-western Delta State and North-western Bayelsa State, in the last meeting with the office of the NSA, insisted that one of the conditions for peace should be the direct payment of 13 per cent derivation to the source of the oil, the communities, rather than the state government.

The group reportedly told the government negotiators that it was an aberration to pay the derivation funds to the state governors who were hardly accountable to the oil producing communities in the Delta.

The IVF, led by one Commander Johnson Biboye, it informed, maintained during one of the meetings that the part of the constitution that set aside the 13 per cent derivation specifically said that the monies should be paid directly to the source of the natural resource and not the states where they are found.

Confirming the discreet discussions between the parties, the source  said: “We have been meeting and interfacing with the government through the office of the NSA. We have told them that the last amnesty programme did not carry many genuine groups along. So, after clearance, several groups have been meeting with them, though there is no definitive conclusion on the discussions.

“As far as you are cleared by the JTF, and they (security agencies) know you have antecedents, you are allowed to be part of those they are talking to. But we have also told government to be consistent.

“If they want peace, let them follow through with the withdrawal of soldiers from the creeks. They cannot be looking for peace and deploying soldiers to harass innocent people at the same time,” it added.

On how the talks were progressing, it said that though the federal government has not made any particular concession, it had agreed in principle to allow the Marine University in Okerenkoko, Tompolo’s town to continue as originally planned by the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Read More: thisdaylive

Samsung Flags $5.3 Billion Profit Hit From Note 7 Failure

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Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Friday said it expected to take a hit to its operating profit of about $3 billion over the next two quarters due to the discontinuation of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

The outlook brings to about $5.3 billion the total losses the global smartphone leader has forecast as a result of the overheating issues, after it said on Wednesday it would suffer a $2.3 billion hit to third-quarter profit.

The premium device that was meant to compete with Apple Inc’s latest iPhones at the top end of the smartphone market had to be scrapped earlier this week, less than two months after its launch, due to safety fears.

The South Korean tech giant said in a statement on Friday it expected the blow to profit to be in the mid-3 trillion won over the next two quarters – in the mid-2 trillion won range in the October-December period and about 1 trillion won ($900 million) for the first quarter of 2017.

Samsung shares, which have fallen about 8 percent this week, edged up 0.6 percent as of 0228 GMT on Friday, versus a 0.5 percent gain on the broader market.

To make up for the lost revenue, Samsung said it would expand sales of gadgets like the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge phones, and make “significant changes” in its quality assurance processes to improve product safety.

Investors and analysts said that while the company had to move quickly to reassure the market about the potential financial costs, deeper losses from one of the tech industry’s most spectacular product failures could not be ruled out.

Reputational damage remained the great unknown and potentially more harmful than recall costs, with rivals in the cut-throat industry eager to pounce on any sign of weakness in the market leader’s standing among consumers.

“The sales impact on other models remains unclear,” said Kim Sung-soo, a fund manager at LS Asset Management, which owns Samsung Electronics shares.

“The end of the premium model will damage Samsung’s brand, and hurt demand for its other models. It is difficult to measure such impact.”

Samsung posted earnings of $7.2 billion in the second quarter, with mobile profits – its biggest earner – soaring 57 percent.

Read More: reuters

FG Urged To Criminalize Failure Of Parent To Enrol Children In Schools

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A group has urged the Nigerian government to criminalize the failure of parents to enrol their children in schools.

The charge was given in Abuja by a nongovernmental organization, Paulash Initiative, during its programme to increase awareness of the impact of girl child education.

The founder of the group, Folashade Okomayi, said unless the government makes non-enrollment of school-aged children an offence punishable by law, Nigeria will not be able to rid itself of out- of-school children.

“I think what the government should do is that when children are seen hawking; or doing menial jobs during school hours; government should take them somewhere and trace their parents or wards,” she said.

“If they punish one or two parents under a certain law that should be enacted for the purpose; others will take caution.”

Mrs. Okomayi added that the rally was organised to enlighten Nigerians about the growing challenges facing the girl child in the country.

“A lot of girls are still being subjected to the background in our society. When you talk about growing number of out-of-school children, the greatest number of those affected is girls,” she said.

“In terms of domestic violence, girls are also mostly at the receiving end. The story is the same when you talk about child marriage.”

Credit: PremiumTimes

Power Outage Disrupts Senate Probe On Power

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The Senate’s investigation of the power sector was disrupted on Wednesday by repeated power outages at the venue of the hearing.

The power cuts, which occurred in frequent intervals, aroused suspicion and prompted the visibly irritated Chairman of the ad hoc Committee on Power, Senator Abubakar Kyari, to investigate the disruptions during the hearing.

The situation compelled those making submissions to either use the light from their phones or the glow from video camera to make their presentations.

Yesterday’s probe, which began at 11:30 am was a continuation of the hearing which started on Tuesday, but the persistent outage forced the committee to adjourn at 4.00 pm.

The outages, which started at 2pm when the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali, was making his submission on behalf of various electricity companies, lasted for 10 to 15 minutes.

Read More: thisdaylive

ISIS Threatens Hamas In Video Message On Failure To Implement Rigid Laws

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ISIS has threatened the Palestinian armed group Hamas, vowing to end the faction’s rule in the territory.

In a 16-minute long video shared by social media accounts sympathetic to ISIS on Wednesday, fighters based in Syria’s Aleppo province condemned Hamas for its crackdown on Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip, and its failure to implement a rigid enough interpretation of Islamic law.

“The point of jihad is not to liberate land … but jihad as defined by God, is fighting for and implementing the law of God,” said one masked fighter who appeared in the video, who further condemned Hamas for its dealings with Iran and Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, as well as “nationalist”, “secularist”, and “communist” factions.

“They raise their children to respect this (Palestinian) flag,” the fighter said, telling Palestinians that Hamas could not secure their freedom.

“The road to liberate Palestine goes through Iraq and we (ISIS) are getting closer, day by day … while they (Hamas) are moving away from that goal.

Read More: aljazeera

Blame Obasanjo For The Failure In Power Sector- Atiku

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Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, has blamed his former boss, Nigeria’s ex-president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for the prolonged crisis in the power sector.

Atiku, who served under Obasanjo’s regime from 1999-2007, said this in an interview with Punch on Sunday, May 24, where he alleged that the latter’s adoption of a reform modeled after the gas power stations resulted in the lingering power crisis in the country.

Atiku said  he advised Obasanjo to adopt a short-term, medium-term and long-term solutions to the power sector reform. He said the country had gotten foreign investors, who were prepared to come and invest between $250m and $500m to set up small and medium -size power stations.

He faulted Obasanjo’s  long term solution, which involved the building the of gas infrastructure.

“By now, we would have been self-sufficient, but he said, ‘Oh, we must go gas’ and I said, ‘Gas? There is a problem. It’s long term; a lot of investments. There is instability in the region (Niger Delta). You must bring peace, before they would allow you to evacuate the gas.”

Read More: naij