Be informed!!! I Never Said Fuel Scarcity Will End By April 7th – Kachikwu

This is just at the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has clarified that he never informed the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) last Tuesday that the fuel shortages will end between April 5 and 7, but assured THISDAY in a phone conversation that concrete measures had but put in place to end them soon.

NNPC said in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Garuba Deen Mohammed, that the open bid exercise was a demonstration of the determination of the federal government and NNPC to increase the nation’s refining capacity from 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 650,000bpd. It quoted its chief operating officer (COO) of refineries, Mr. Anibo Kragha as making this disclosure when the technical bids of the companies were opened in Abuja. According to the statement, a technical evaluation committee has been set up to study the bids and announce winners as soon as possible.

It said the exercise was witnessed by representatives of the Nigerian Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). Kragha, according to the statement, said the corporation was committed to boosting the nation’s refining capacity which in turn would end the perennial fuel shortages in the country. He said: “The aim is to leverage on the existing facilities to fast track the take off of the refineries as soon as possible.”

Also, Kachikwu has waded into the lingering crisis in the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) with the aim of ending the fuel shortages in the country. According to NNPC, Kachikwu invited all stakeholders within the IPMAN hierarchy to his office where he raised a 14-man committee to resolve the lingering leadership crisis in the association. He told them that IPMAN was a critical stakeholder in the downstream petroleum sector and as such should be united.

Members of the 14-man reconciliation committee set up by Kachikwu include Danladi Pasali, Dibu Aderigbe, Abubakar Maigandi, Hemmed Fashola, Leo Nkememe, Chukwudi Fred Ezinwa and Chief Ben Odjugo. Others are Andrew Ashiga, Igwe Ezekwesili Maduaguna, Emma Ihedigbo, M. A. Shettima, Augustine Erhabor, Prince I. Dunuje and Lawson Ngoa. They are expected to help the government monitor the distribution of petrol to their members as well as the protection of pipeline facilities in the country.

But as NNPC grapples with ending the perennial fuel shortages in the country, a report from the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), a UK-based natural resources accountability group, has shown that under President Muhammadu Buhari, the state-run oil firm has continued to withhold billions of dollars in oil revenues from the treasury. The report titled, “NNPC Still Holds the Blank Check”, is a follow up to a 2015 report on the activities of NNPC by the NGRI and was obtained by THISDAY yesterday in Abuja.

It said the corporation still holds on to oil revenues without effective rules or oversight, adding that despite Buhari’s personal resolve to curb graft in Nigeria’s oil industry, the corporation in the second half of 2015 made up to $6.3 billion from sales of export crude, domestic crude and oil from its subsidiary the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), out of which only $2.1 billion was entered into the Federation Account.

According to it, the NNPC retained 66 per cent of sales proceeds from these three types of transactions. This, it noted, was 12 per cent higher than what it retained between 2013 and 2014. It said that while the NNPC’s withholding covers known costs, notably its share of the joint venture expenditure, the corporation has however not fully explained others, especially revenues retained from NPDC and domestic crude sales.

NNPC’s spending on this scale, it said, raises questions about its adherence to fiscal responsibility, especially at a time when public finances are stretched and the government is looking for monies to fund its budget. The report advised the government to establish a clear, legally enforceable rule governing what revenues NNPC could keep and how they can be spent now that it is undergoing some sorts of reforms. Otherwise, it said oil sector corruption and waste could return to their prior devastating levels once Buhari leaves or crude oil prices rise again.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s oil minister has said 12 countries have agreed so far to participate in a meeting it will be hosting next month to discuss a freeze in oil output levels. Qatar announced earlier this month that it would be the meeting venue for OPEC and non-OPEC producers on April 17to discuss the production cap. The talks are aimed at bolstering oil prices that have fallen from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to less than $40 a barrel at present.

According to Reuters, the Minister of Energy and Industry, Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada, said yesterday that Qatar was still expecting official confirmation from producers that had verbally expressed plans to attend the meeting. Those confirmed so far are Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Nigeria, Algeria, Indonesia, Ecuador, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Since the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s two biggest oil producers, agreed to an output freeze at January levels, the price of oil recovered some of its losses from $30 a barrel to about $40 a barrel.

However, Iran has said it will not freeze oil output, as it is keen on raising production following the lifting of international sanctions after it agreed to stop its nuclear programme. But as OPEC and non-OPEC producers prepare to meet, the United States has fast become a big importer of oil again, Bloomberg has reported. In the three months since the U.S. lifted its 40-year ban on crude oil exports, U.S. crude shipments to foreign buyers have stalled.

At the same time, imports into the U.S. jumped to a three year high in what looks to be a reversal of a yearslong decline in the amount of foreign crude brought into the American market. According to the report, refineries are choosing to buy imports instead of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), an oil variant produced in the US. One of the major beneficiaries is Nigeria, which is regaining lost market share. Imports from Nigeria surged to 559,000 barrels a day in mid-March, compared with an average of 52,000 in all of 2015.

This is Nigeria’s First Frozen Egg Baby (Photo)

Nigeria has recorded the first successful birth of a baby conceived from frozen egg of a 44-year-old woman, who had suffered infertility for eight years, making it the first in the country and West Africa.

The birth and conception of the baby, named Tiwatope, which is the 5001st in the world, were carried out by Nigerian fertility specialists at The Bridge Clinic, a Lagos-based fertility treatment centre, where the mother had her eggs frozen using the vitrification (flash-freezing) process. Announcing the medical milestone, a fertility physician at the Bridge Clinic, Lagos, Dr Emmanuel Owie, said the birth of the baby on February 16, 2016, effectively puts Nigeria on the global map as regards the practice of oocyte (egg) freezing or cryopreservation, a new offering in the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) space.

He said prior to the birth of Tiwatope, the new practice seemed to be an exclusive preserve of the developed world of Europe and North America. He said: “Tiwatope’s mother had her eggs frozen for two months, using the vitrification, also known as flash-freezing, process. This is the cutting edge technology in cryobiology, where the eggs or oocytes of a woman is dehydrated and the water content is replaced with ‘anti-freeze’ solution (cryoprotectants) before freezing. This will prevent the formation of ice crystals which could destroy the cell.”

On her readiness for pregnancy, Owie noted: “We fertilized the eggs using a standard technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to overcome the egg shell which normally gets hardened with freezing. “The fertilized egg was subsequently transferred into her womb, resulting in the pregnancy with Tiwa. She had her antenatal care in her family hospital and delivered the baby boy through Caesarian Section.

“At The Bridge Clinic, we celebrate Tiwa’s birth as it is a further demonstration of our coming of age in the practice of assisted reproductive technology. It is a show of the sum of our strengths — our people, our process and our infrastructure. It demonstrates our commitment to global best practices which ensures that our offerings are in tandem with what is obtainable in the developed world, both in variety and in quality.”

Recommendation Noting that the baby and his mother are in good health, Owie said egg freezing was particularly recommended for women diagnosed with cancer, who may lose their fertility during chemotherapy; women with a family history of early menopause; women with objections to storing frozen embryos for religious and/or moral reasons; and women who want to delay child-bearing in order to pursue some personal goals.

He said: “This offering is being delivered to many women in the developed world and is now being offered in Nigeria at a cost more affordable than what is obtained abroad. We encourage women who need this service to come up and have their eggs cryopreserved.” Also speaking, Coordinator, Corporate Communications & Customer Client Relations, The Bridge Clinic, Dr Dayo Omogbehin, stated: “We are the first in-vitro fertilization (IVF) centre in Nigeria to achieve this success. It is great news for the family and fertility health research in the country and world at large.”

How it works On how egg freezing works, Omogbehin said although sperm and embryos had proved easy to freeze, the egg was the largest cell in the human body and contains a large amount of water. He said: “When frozen, ice crystals form that can destroy the cell. We must dehydrate the egg and replace the water with an ‘anti-freeze’ prior to freezing in order to prevent ice crystal formation. “We also learned that because the shell of the egg hardens when frozen, sperm must be injected with a needle to fertilize the egg using a standard technique known as Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection.

This Diesel Tanker Ran Into School Wall In Lagos (Photo)...

A diesel tanker rammed into the walls of Corona School Gbagada, Lagos at about 10 last night. But thankfully, none of the staff or students were around when it happened.

New Music: Wizkid ft Rihanna & Jay Z – Baba Nla (remix)...

StarBoy Wizkd finally surprise his fans by dropping the remix of the hit single Baba Nla with Rihanna… Nobody saw this coming… Enjoy Listen & Download Wizkid Ft. Rihanna – Babanla (Remix) Below:

The story of My Life As a Cab Driver & How A Naval Officer Slapped Me – Bola Tinubu

Many are of the opinion that former Lagos state governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was born right at the middle of a money-printing machine, but that is not true. Some rumours also have it that his parents were very wealthy, so he practically worked for nothing in his life but that is also not true.

The diminutive Nigerian politician had to work his way up the ladder. He was once a cab driver and even a security guard who worked very hard to reach where he is today. In a special publication by TheNEWS magazine, Tinubu detailed how he worked has a cab driver and a security guard. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Q: When did it strike you to travel out of the country? A: I was lucky. Even though I was ambitious about travelling out of the country, particularly as my friends like Folabi Salami and Tokunbo Maxwell had just travelled to Germany, I would say that I was just lucky.
Others, like Nurudeen Olowopopo, of blessed memory, and Sola Popoola headed for the United States and it remained Tunde Badejo, Bolaji Agaba and myself. So, the three of us were determined that we must get out of Nigeria, too.

I went to Ikenne, with my late sister, for a big ceremony. We had gone to pick bottles of Coca-Cola from the cold room and wanted to quickly return to the St. Saviour’s Church, where my sister was. There was a sudden rain of bullets and had we not been rushing to the church to ensure that we didn’t miss what was going on there, I would have died. The young man that was standing with me was hit. He slumped and died. Based on the sad incident and how I had narrowly missed death, my family said to me: ‘This boy, you have always said that you wanted to travel out of the country, it is time to do so.’

So, my mother gathered some money, sold her trinkets to make up for the remaining part of my allowances and joined it with proceeds from the sale of the Volkswagen Beetle given to me by my uncle, the late Ganiyu Tinubu, who used to work at Simpson Street, Ebutte-Metta. He had a Beetle car he bought from a Canadian and had it converted into a convertible, which I used to drive. Nobody taught me how to drive. He asked that I sell it and add the proceeds to the money I needed for my trip. That was what I did.

Bolaji Agaba and I left the same day for the United States, while Badejo left some months later. We got our visas through my family connections. Bolaji’s own had almost expired before we left. On our arrival in the US, we thought we would stay in New York. But Nurudeen Olowopopo said no and we put some money together for Bolaji’s ticket and we headed for Washington D.C. I stayed with the late Sola Popoola at Washington before we started finding our way. We were running out of funds then.

He helped us secure a one-room apartment in Alexandria, Virgina. We got an unregistered used car (they left the licence open) commonly called Gypsy, which we ran as a taxi. We operated at the airport, where we picked passengers, and not anywhere else, like the hotel because it was forbidden for unlicensed cab drivers to do so. We did that for a while to raise some money. We did, and Bolaji went to Tennessee, while I headed for Chicago. Q: Can you tell us some unpleasant moments that you had then?

A: One experience I will not forget was when I over-charged a naval officer, who was returning to the country. It was not intentional. Apparently, I didn’t know the direction; there was no GPRS in those days to locate directions. So, he gave me the direction to his house in a Virginia suburb. I gave him the price and the man responded with a slap to my face. He said I should know the correct fare to charge to the location he mentioned. He slapped me and gave me the money. Another experience was when I took a guy whom I didn’t know was drunk. When I drove to his house, he pointed a gun at me instead of paying the fare. He took my leather jacket and said: ‘Get into your car and get lost.’ He did not pay.

Another interesting one was when I was taking the third Accounting class and equally working as a security guard at a construction site. They were very serious with their kind of security. You just had to do that job. There were about six points with six clocks at the site, which the security man must wind every hour and with a dog in hand. So, there was never a chance of trying to catch a nap.

As I was doing my accounting assignment, I fell asleep. I was dead asleep! The inspector came to the site and found me sleeping, with my head on my books. He simply pulled the register and wrote: ‘I have been here. You were sound asleep. So, see me tomorrow.’ When I woke up, I found that Skiddo (the dog’s name) was gone, and then the register. I just went to a corner, cleaned my face and concentrated on my assignment because I knew the job was already gone.


You can’t lose two things. I ensured that I read well for my test and passed the next day. I opted to post their uniform and the cap to them, but suddenly ran into the man and he handed me my cheque and said the job was gone. I told him I knew and we said goodbye to each other! I had to start looking for another job. Source: PMNews

In Photos: Soldiers marching on Ozumba Mbadiwe cause serious traffic...

Soldiers marching on Ozumba Mbadiwe road in Lagos this morning, caused serious traffic and delay for commuters as cars were prevented from driving past the marching soldiers. A military patrol van was stationed behind the soldiers which prevented motorists from driving through. More photos after the cut..

Amber Rose made a whooping $4million off her app

The 32 year old model who just spent $4 million on a house has made back the bucks from her emoji app. The new app which comes with over 900 icons is being downloaded by millions of her fans all over the world. According to TMZ Amber Rose can drown out all the critics of her new emoji app by stuffing $100 bills in her ears ... 'cause she just made $4million off the damn thing. Sources close to Amber say she got a fat check just for signing on with the company that developed the app. That's not all ... we're told the MuvaMoji raked in over $2 million on its opening day, and she's getting a cut of that too. Photos of the Emoji app