Breaking news! All Nigerians Will Have To Apply For Visas To Visit Ghana (From July)

Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama has said that citizens from Nigeria and other African countries must apply for visas before allowed entry into Ghana. The President said visas will be issued at the entry point and would attract an option of 30 days stay in the country. This policy will take off from July before they will. be allowed to enter Ghana. “With effect from July this year, we will be allowing citizens of AU Member States to enter our country and obtain visas on arrival with the option to stay for up to thirty days and experience what our country has to offer,” said President Mahama in his address.

Boko Haram put out New Video, Says “ if No Negotiations, then there's No Surrender

Boko Haram released a new video Friday denying any suggestions it would surrender, just over a week after their shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a rare message looking dejected and frail.

Shekau, who was not seen on camera for more than a year, released an unverified video late last month and said his time in charge of the Nigerian jihadist group may be coming to an end. If the video indeed depicts Shekau, he appears thin and listless, delivering his message without his trademark fiery rhetoric.

It prompted speculation from the army that the Islamist group was on the verge of collapse in the face of a sustained military counter-insurgency. However, in Friday’s message, Boko Haram maintained it was a potent fighting force, with fighters posing with AK-47s in front of Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks and a lorry mounted with a military cannon. “You should know that there is no truce, there is no negotiations, there is no surrender,” an unidentified masked man wearing camouflage said in a prepared script in Hausa, in the video posted on YouTube.

“This war between us will not stop.” The video, which was of markedly better quality than Shekau’s and included Arabic subtitles, featured nine masked Boko Haram fighters standing on sandy ground in an undisclosed desert location. It is unclear if the masked people in the video include the Boko Haram leader. Shekau was still the head of the “West African wing”, said the masked man in the video, likening Boko Haram to the Islamist insurgencies in Iraq, Libya and Syria.

In March 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, another of the world’s most deadly terror organisations. But there were few signs Boko Haram — now styled as Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) — has so far benefited from the partnership. Nigeria’s army has since then won back swathes of territory from the militants, liberating thousands living under Boko Haram control.

An estimated 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram began its campaign of violence in 2009 to carve out a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. More than 2.6 million people have fled their homes since then but some of the internally displaced have begun returning. Source: Vanguard

Nigerians Are Suffering big time, Buhari Must Stop all his Foreign Trips - Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on President Mohammadu Buhari to stop his needless foreign trips, describing the president’s trip to the United States of America on Wednesday for the 4th Nuclear Security Summit while Nigerians are suffering at home as “joke of the year.” The governor said “it remains a mystery what President Buhari that met power generation at 6,000MW and could not manage it such that power generation crumbled to Zero Megawatt yesterday, will contribute to the Nuclear Energy Summit in America.”

Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said “it is shameful that while President Buhari was far away in the United States of America, attending a summit that does not have any bearing on Nigeria and its people, an unprecedented happened – power generation stopped completely for over three hours!”

He said the sufferings of Nigerians deserved the attention of the president instead of junketing around the world, wasting the country’s scarce foreign exchange. The governor alleged that over $50 million must have been spent on the president’s frequent foreign trips, adding that Nigerians should ask President Buhari whether his trip to the United States of America to attend Nuclear Energy Summit will bring the lingering fuel scarcity being experienced in the country to an end. “Nigerians are suffering.

Petrol has become so scarce that our people now sleep in petrol stations to buy fuel at N200 per litre while the president who should alleviate their sufferings is in the USA, attending a summit that he won’t even understand whatever that is discussed there. “This is not acceptable. Mr President should stay at home and see to it that at least, power generation returns to 6,000MW that he met it if he cannot add to it.

“Mr President should stay at home and bring this fuel scarcity that has paralysed almost all activities in the country to an end. “Nigerians are saying their president should stay at home and bring to an end the killings, raping of women and destruction of farmlands by Fulani herdsmen. “Most importantly, the President should listen more to those of us who criticise him instead of those hailing every of his wrong steps either because of what they intend to gain or for fear of persecution,” the governor said.

The Recruitment Of 10,000 Policemen Nationwide Begins Tomorrow...

The recruitment of 10, 000 Policemen would commences nationwide on Friday, April, 1, 2016, the Police Service Commission has said. A statement signed by Ikechukwu Ani, head of Public Relations quoted Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Mike Okiro saying that there will be no short cut in the exercise as everything has been put in place to ensure that the integrity of the process will be preserved at all the stages of the exercise.

He explained that the Nigeria Police Force deserves the best brains in the Nigerian society, stressing that the Commission will ensure that only the best will be engaged as Policemen who will sustain the cherished tradition of the Force and also help to maintain peace as well as securing lives and property of Nigerians and non-Nigerians.

“The website portal for the recruitment exercise opens today” he said. Okiro further warned the Staff of the Commission who will be involved in the screening of candidates to avoid any act that will compromise the integrity of the exercise. Sir Okiro said any Staff involved in any misconduct during the exercise will be sanctioned in line with the Public Service Rules and may be prosecuted for sabotage.

Pastor TB Joshua Also Claims He Prophesied Deadly Indian Bridge Collapse (Photos)

Amidst the ongoing rescue mission and steadily mounting death toll in the tragic bridge collapse that struck Kolkata in eastern India, a video has surfaced online claiming the event had – yet again – been ‘foretold’ by Nigerian ‘Prophet’ T.B. Joshua.

Another calamity, another prophecy. Just a day after he allegedly predicted the hijacking of an EgyptAir plane, Joshua’s media team have released another controversial YouTube clip with a purported ‘prophecy’. “Pray for this country, India,” Joshua is seen telling congregants at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN). “I am seeing a very huge bridge broken and when a bridge divides into two, what do you think will happen to everybody?” he added, describing the location of the bridge as ‘close to the river’.

Joshua went on to say the incident would elicit ‘Breaking News’ headlines worldwide, calling on people to publicise his message online as a means of warning the Indian public prior to the impending calamity. “I am seeing this happen; they should take care of Thursday, Wednesday,” he added. “Please, pray for this nation… Innocent people going.”

On Thursday 31st March 2016, a bridge under construction in Kolkata, a city built next to the Hooghly River, tragically collapsed, killing scores of people and injuring hundreds of others. The accident took place in an area near Girish Park, one of Kolkata’s most densely populated and busiest neighbourhoods. Terrifying surveillance footage of the moment the bridge collapsed showed pedestrians desperately fleeing for their lives before a mass of solid concrete came crashing down.

Shocking images posted online showed bloodied bodies trapped under concrete slabs with hands and legs sticking out from twisted debris. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was “shocked and saddened” by the tragedy and the Indian army were quickly mobilised to support the rescue team. The death toll has been placed at 22 but is still expected to significantly rise as the rescue mission proceeds into the night.

“We at Emmanuel TV send our condolences to the nation of India and all the family members and friends of those who died in this tragic incident, praying that God would strengthen and comfort them at this trying time,”the clip of the Nigerian preacher concluded.

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.