Keshi invites bench warmer, ignores Uche

nterim Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi has announced his squad for back to back African Nations qualifiers against Sudan next month.

Stephen Okechukwu Keshi

There are some strange untested new faces in the squad list made public on Friday afternoon, with as many as four players earning call ups for the first time. The coach still ignored inviting Ike Uche.

Striker Sunday Emmanuel, a bench-warmer at Austrian Bundesliga strugglers SV ScholzGrodig, who has 65 minutes of playing time since the start of the season was considered good enough by Stephen Keshi.

Also in line to make his international debut is Ugonna Anyora, a central defender cum defensive midfielder currently on the payroll of Haugesund.

The 23 – year – old has struggled to earn a starting shirt for his Norwegian team in the current season, having made 11 starts out of a possible 24.

Reading midfielder Hope Akpan and in- form Guangzhou R & F attacker Aaron Samuel will get their chance to don the colours of the Super Eagles for the first time, after they both missed out on the provisional World Cup roster.

There are recalls for Babatunde Michael, Victor Moses and Raheem Lawal while Villarreal striker Ikechukwu Uche remains in the international wilderness after being ignored by Stephen Keshi.

Family petitions Jonathan over alleged extra-judicial killing of 31-yr-old graduate

Federal Government’s plan to pay off the over N200 billion gas supply debt owed by defunct PHCN will avert the impending systemic non-performing loans in Nigeria banks.

economyThe payment of the debt overhang by the Federal Government will help power generating companies (GENCOs) meet their debt-service obligations to banks on loans of almost N500 billion, on which some have been falling behind. It has also headed off a threat to the banking industry by assisting the struggling GENCOs with an intervention fund.

The N213 billion ($1.3 billion) fund announced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration on Sept. 19 will be used to pay off gas-supply debts owed by power companies and to cover revenue shortfalls.

The exposure of banks to the power sector indicate that UBA Plc , Nigeria’s fourth-biggest bank by market value, granted $700 million in loans to several investors, including Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, which got $215 million to buy Ughelli Power, the country’s second-biggest gas-fueled plant with capacity for 900 megawatts.

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, the largest lender by market value on its part advanced $170 million to Mainstream Energy Solutions Ltd for the concession of Jebba and Kainji hydropower plants.

Zenith Bank Plc, the second-biggest lender, provided N40 billion for the acquisition of two electricity distribution companies in Lagos. Others such as Ecobank Transnational Inc., Diamond Bank Plc and Skye Bank also provided loans to power investors.

“The government is reacting to the risk affecting the power industry as a whole and the sustainability of the reform, which dovetails to the banks,” Pabina Yinkere of Vetiva Capital Management Ltd. told Reuters. “This intervention fund will ease the stress in the industry and in effect reduce the probability of loans going bad.”

Nigeria dismantled its power monopoly and sold the hydro-and gas-powered plants it ran last year to try to bring in investment needed to expand electricity supply, with demand more than three times the current output of about 3,800 megawatts.

Companies including Transnational Corp. of Nigeria Plc, Korea Electric Power Corp. and Forte Oil Plc (FO) paid more than $3 billion for controlling interests in 15 power generators and distributors.

Authorities in Africa’s largest economy are putting together new regulations to protect lenders, electricity consumers and other utilities in the event that the power companies fail, according to central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele and Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.

While the ratio of non-performing loans in Nigerian banks remains low at 4 percent of all borrowings, compared with a high of 35 percent in November 2010, it is expected to increase for electricity companies “as the new distribution and generation businesses pile up debts and struggle under the early phases of liberalization,” Philippe de Pontet, Africa director at New York-based Eurasia Group, said in a Sept. 24 e-mailed note to clients.

The prominent role the central bank is assuming in managing the bailout indicates that Emefiele, like his predecessor Lamido Sanusi, is keen to give the bank “an active role in the economy” through areas including power, agriculture and manufacturing, according to de Pontet.

Under Sanusi, the central bank fired the chief executive officers of eight lenders in 2010 for mismanagement as Nigeria reeled from the effects of the 2008 global financial crisis.

The banks were bailed out with 600 billion naira while the government set up the Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, or Amcon, to buy bad debts from lenders and save the financial system from collapse. Amcon said last month it won’t buy any more bad debts from lenders.

“The government is sending out strong signals about its intention to make the power sector work,” Dolapo Oni, Lagos-based head of energy research at Ecobank Research, said in an e-mailed response to questions.

“If these interventions allow the declaration of the Transitional Electricity Market, then they may have averted a crisis.”

The bailout will enable an October start to the electricity market, where generators and distributors can buy and sell energy in a process mediated by the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trader, according to a timetable set by regulators.

The bulk trader has almost $1 billion in risk guarantees provided by the World Bank and Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Investment Authority, with an additional $750 million to back trading by generators and distributors. While the bailout doesn’t address all the challenges, it is a step in the right direction, Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Co., a risk advisory firm, said.

“The signal is that the power investors will be supported,” he said. “Power is too important that the government cannot let it fail.”

World Bank provides $400m to tackle Ebola

Following alarming evidence of the spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the World Bank Group has announced that it will nearly double its financing to $400 million to help the worst-affected countries address the emergency and build stronger health systems for the years ahead.

HEALTH PERSONNEL IN PROTECTIVE  KITS AT THE NATIONAL HOSPITAL IN ABUJA ON TUESDAY (12/8/14).This represents $170 million in new funding. With this announcement, the bank will put $230 million toward the emergency response and $170 million for medium- and long-term projects.

The new resources – which the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will consider in the coming weeks – will be targeted at rapidly increasing the health care workforce and purchasing needed supplies in order to bring care and treatment to all parts of the affected countries.

The funding also is aimed at building a stronger health care system because it will aim to train cadres of health workers to bolster care at a community level throughout the affected region.

“The global community is now responding with the urgency and the scale needed to begin to turn back this unprecedented Ebola crisis,” said World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, who was speaking at a special session on the Ebola crisis at the UN.

“The real challenge now is to bring care and treatment to the most remote areas as well as the cities and then to build a stronger health care system. This funding will help the countries start a massive scale up of training of community health workers and bring needed supplies and equipment.

The World Bank Group previously announced that it was mobilizing $230 million for the three countries hardest hit by the crisis—Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—including a $117 million emergency response.

This support – coordinated closely with the World Health Organisation, the UN, US and other international and country partners – has assisted countries in treating the sick, cope with the economic impact and improve their public health systems.

The additional planned support will make $113 million that had been earmarked in the earlier package for longer-term help immediately available for the emergency response. The new package will have $170 million set aside in medium- to longer-term assistance for the countries’ health systems.

More people have died in the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa than in all previous Ebola outbreaks combined since the virus was first discovered in 1976.

A World Bank analysis, released last week, found that if the virus continues to surge in the three worst-affected countries, its economic impact could deal a potentially catastrophic blow to these already fragile states.

However, the analysis also found that economic costs can be limited if swift national and international responses succeed in containing the epidemic and mitigating fear resulting from people’s concerns about contagion, which is fueling the economic impact.

Labour Party crisis: NLC disowns Daniel’s faction

The controversy over the authentic executive of the Labour Party in Ogun may have been finally laid to rest as the Nigeria Labour Congress endorsed the Sunday Oginni’s faction.
The NLC which is the original owner of the Labour Party has waded into the controversy between former governor Gbenga Daniel and Sunday Oginni’s factions over the authentic executive of the party in the state.
The NLC in a letter titled letter of introduction of Labour Party officials in Ogun State signed by national president Waheed Omar and addressed to the state Chairman of the NLC Akeem Ambali said it has chosen Sunday Oginni and Abayomi Arabanbi as the officials of the party.
The letter read in part “this is to introduce to you the gentlemen, comrade Oginni Olaposi and comrade Abayomi Arabambi , both of whom are Ogun State Labour authentic officials.
“We had very useful discussion on how to move the party forward. Sequel to the discussion of congress NEC in Enugu on repositioning the labour party.
“I hereby urge you to please discuss and work with them towards realising the NEC’s resolve”, Omar said.
Journalist however, gathered that, the duo of Oginni and Arabambi had held a meeting with the state Chairman of the NLC, Ambali where they reportedly perfected to reposition the party.

Pope Francis denounces neglect, abandonment of the old people

Pope Francis has denounced the neglect and abandonment of the old as “hidden euthanasia”.
He said this on Sunday at the Vatican City, while addressing over 40,000 elderly people, which includes grandfathers, grandmothers, widows and widowers, during the festive event in St. Peter’s Square.
Francis called for more respect for the vital role of old people, particularly in rich countries, as vital transmitters of experience and knowledge.
He said homes for elderly people should really be homes, and not be seeing as prisons where people live “forgotten, hidden and neglected.
Frances stressed the importance of the old in society and he said homes for the elderly could not be allowed to become “prisons” where care took a back seat to business interests by those who run them.
He said a data by World Health Organisation, indicated that there are more than 600 million people in the world today.
Francis said the data indicated that the figure was expected to double over the next 11 years and reach two billion by 2050, most in the developing world.
“Old people are just discarded, as victims of abandonment that is tantamount to hidden euthanasia,’’ he said.
“This is the result of a throw-away culture that is hurting our world so much,” he added.
Elderly people, including former Pope Benedict, attended the gathering tagged “A gathering of the wise and wrinkled.
Francis, 77, warmly embraced his older predecessor twice during the service and told the crowd that having Benedict, who now has the title, Emeritus Pope, living in the Vatican was “like having a wise grandfather at home”.
This was the third time since his resignation in February, 2013 that Benedict, 87, attended a public event.
He looked relatively healthy as he walked into the square using a cane and took a special seat in the front.
Benedict, wearing a white overcoat, stayed for about an hour to hear old people speak about their lives and listen to a speech by his successor.
The crowd was entertained by singers including world renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli.
One of the elderly couples who addressed the gathering, Mubarak and Aneesa Hano, are Christian refugees from northern Iraq who had to flee their home because the area had been taken over by Islamic State militants.

NFA election: Police promise adequate security amidst high expectation in Warri

Ahead of the 2014 Election Congress of the Nigerian Football Association (NFA) in Warri, the Delta Police Command has assured of adequate security.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Celestina Kalu, disclosed this on Sunday in a telephone interview.
“Though the NFA has not written officially to the police but we will give them the adequate security needed to ensure a hitch-free election,’’ she said.
The Chairman, Delta Sports Commission, Amaju Pinnick, who is also one of the contestants in the election, said that Delta was fully prepared to host the election.
Similarly, Mike Ikeogwu, Chairman, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Delta chapter, promised to provide adequate media coverage of the election.
“Expectations are high and I am particularly happy about the NFA election coming up in Warri; I assure you, we are going to give it the best of coverage,’’ he said.
A grassroots football administrator, Anthony Uvwie, in his remarks, said that the election would put to rest the crisis that had rocked the NFA in the last four months.
He noted that Nigeria football had undergone some turbulence resulting in poor performance of the players in the last two qualifying matches against Congo and South Africa
“The two qualifying matches against Congo and South Africa in the 2015 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) was very poor because we failed to put our football house in order,’’ he said.
Also, a sport analyst in Warri, Timothy Mba urged the warring factions to sheath their swords and work together for the common interest of the nation’s football.
“What should be paramount to the NFA is how to qualify for the 2015 AFCON to be hosted by Morocco,’’ he said.
He said that the issue of who would take over the mantle of leadership from the incumbent Aminu Maigari as the federation’s president should been secondary.
“Crisis cannot take our football to the enviable height we desire.
“In fact, I am afraid that if the situation persists, the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) may have no other option than to sanction Nigeria,’’ Mba said.
Another soccer enthusiast, Sunny Akpokona, said that he was optimistic that the election would be successful adding that any of the contestants that emerges winner would definitely improve the sport.
“We in Warri are very much ready to host the NFA come Sept. 30 and I am sure that all the contestants have what it takes to carry the nation’s football to the next level,’’ he said.
It would be recalled that the NFA converged on the ancient city of Warri on Sept. 20 to draw a roadmap to successfully host the election into the federation’s executive positions.
Prior to the Extra-ordinary general assembly of the federation, a Federal High Court in Jos issued an injunction restraining the NFA from holding the congress.
The NFA, however, denied receipt of any court order, claiming that they were not served.
A Warri-based lawyer and human rights activist, Oghenejabor Ikimi, said that legally, the NFA could go ahead with the election since they were not served with the court order.
“Everything in Nigeria is about desperation; they should stop the desperation, personal interest and greedy motives before FIFA raises its hammer on them.
“As far as I am concern, it is still a rumour since they were not served with the court injunction; so they can go ahead with the election,’’ he said. (NAN)

Gunmen invade Enugu varsity, shoot 3 students

THREE students of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Agbani were, Friday night, shot and wounded by suspected armed bandits who invaded their hostel.

The students were undergoing treatment at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu, where they were rushed to in the early hours of yesterday.

The father of one of the students said  his son was undergoing surgery at the hospital.

He said  the student was shot in the stomach and it was suspected that some bullets were lodged in his abdomen which doctors were battling to remove.

The two other victims were also undergoing surgery at the hospital while efforts were being made to contact their parents.

The Unique Hostel, where the incident occurred and other hostels within the Agbani permanent site of the university, according to a  source, have been placed under security watch as it was suspected that the gunmen could be members of a secret cult.

To forestall a reprisal attack, the source said, the management had taken measures to beef up security at the hostels with plain-clothes policemen deployed to strategic locations.

Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, who confirmed the attack, said  preliminary investigations revealed that the gunmen could be “student-robbers”, assuring that the police would do everything to get to the root of the matter