Photos from scene of the Airforce Helicopter crash in Kaduna

Some more photos from the scene of the Air-force Helicopter crash that happened in Kaduna state this morning. All 7 on-board the helicopter died. A statement from NEMA says the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has aborted his official trip to Port Harcourt to visit the site of the crash and families of some of the deceased personnel. He has also set up an investigation panel headed by an Air Vice Marshal to unravel the cause of the accident with immediate effect...

The World Celebrates the Power of Youth Civic Engagement on International Youth Day

Secretary-General's remarks to Commemoration of International Youth Day [as prepared for delivery]
Happy International Youth Day!
We are meeting together at a very promising time.
Governments have just agreed on a bold new sustainable development vision to transform our world by 2030.

Today’s young people can help realize the sustainable development goals. Youth face many challenges, including poverty, conflicts and unemployment.
But young people are not simply accepting this as their fate. They are rising up to challenge power structures… speaking out for justice and human rights … and advocating global action for people and the planet.
As we mark this Day on the theme of civic engagement, I stand with these young activists.
The sustainable development goals are for you – and they will only be achieved with you.
The new agenda aims to end poverty. It takes a comprehensive approach, integrating the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development.
This agenda is for all countries – no matter what their income.
The goals aim to tackle systematic problems that young people understand so well – like inequality, wasteful consumerism and the lack of decent jobs.
More and more governments, businesses and individuals understand that we cannot burn our way to prosperity without damaging the planet. This agenda reflects that awareness.
Member States know it will take more than “business as usual” to succeed. We are forging a revitalized global partnership to mobilize everyone for our common future.
Young people have participated actively in drafting the new development agenda:
Millions of youth have told the UN about the world they want. Others contributed to drafting the Global Youth Call. And the Major Group for Children and Youth has spared no efforts in mobilizing youth-led organizations all over the world to make sure youth are at the forefront of the new agenda.
I am urging member states to include youth in the delegations for the upcoming summit to adopt the agenda.
When it comes to carrying out this agenda, I count on the world’s youth to be torchbearers of sustainable development.
I am pleased that the Office of my Youth Envoy is launching a new youth “Gateway” to help engage young people in the implementation of the new agenda.

This is the largest generation of young people in history – and with this agenda, they can shape history.
A child who is ten will come of age with the sustainable development goals.
I call today’s youth the ‘SDG generation.’
We need to support young people’s health, well-being and human rights.

I am especially concerned about young women. They deserve reproductive health services.
  For years, I have been leading a global push to improve the health of the most vulnerable through our Every Woman, Every Child campaign.
We have made progress – but we have to keep pressing for better results for all people.
Next month I will launch an updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health.
Young people are at the heart of this effort.
Wherever I go around the world, I do my best to meet with young people – in refugee camps, university halls and small groups.
Just two days ago, I made a video call to students in Palestine at a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA.
I expressed solidarity with the students and called for resources to support them.
The children were so inspiring. One young girl appealed for funding so students like her can become doctors and engineers and “make our own future.”
These children, like all children, deserve to realize their potential.
I have asked my Youth Envoy, Ahmad Alhendawi, to mobilize more support to help young people everywhere, particularly youth affected by conflicts.
He is spending the Youth Day this year in the Philippines engaging young people displaced by conflict and promoting civic engagement.
These young people have unprecedented networks. They can mobilize the world. They can lead us to a better future.
On International Youth Day, I call on the world’s young people to join forces with the United Nations. Use your strength to advance our goals for a better future. Together, we can create a life of dignity for all.
Thank you.

Larry Page to head Google Umbrella Company

 

The search engine company Google has restructured its self under the name ALPHABET, headed by Larry Page. Alphabet is simply a collection of companies, making Google the biggest. Google will still be its search engine’s name, mapping service and related products.
“This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead.” Google co-founder, Page, said in a blog post this afternoon.
In other words, Google will continue to run internet-eccentric services such as Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android. But “moonshot” projects such as the X Lab and the Calico life extension project will operate as somewhat separate entities. “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence,” Page wrote.
“In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well. We’ll also make sure we have a great CEO for each business, and we’ll determine their compensation,” Page said.
Page will serve as CEO of Alphabet, while Google co-founder Sergey Brin will serve as president. Longtime Page lieutenant Sundar Pichai will take over as Google CEO

Sokoto governor calls for end to rice waivers

In a move he believes would spur local production of the product, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has asked the Federal Government to end the current waiver regime enjoyed by rice importers in the country.
He said the waiver is hampering local production of the commodity and should be phased out, has said.Tambuwal stated this when he received the new Customs Area Controller for Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi States, Alhaji Muhammad Kabir, who paid him a courtesy call in Sokoto city.
The governor argued the quality of rice produced locally was of international standard and far better than many of the ones imported into the country.
The governor said preliminary studies undertaken showed that despite efforts to boost local rice production, unfavorable government policies especially with regards to waiver to importers, coupled with other policies, impeded the states' objectives to achieve local self-sufficiency.

Join The Movement To Get Every Child into School and Learning

Education is a great driver of social, economic and political progress. As people learn to read, count and reason critically, their prospects for health and prosperity expand exponentially. But our advances in education have not benefited everyone equally—and primary school enrollment rates tell only part of the regrettable story. Millions of children who start primary school are unable to finish and still more miss out on secondary school. Today, some 59 million adolescents—in low-income countries—are receiving no post-primary education. We can no longer afford the cost of excluding them.

Barriers to school enrollment and completion in education includes:

• Unaffordable costs: Poverty is the greatest barrier to high-quality education. Even when primary school is technically free, additional charges for uniforms, textbooks, teacher salaries and school maintenance create financial barriers for many families. In surveys from countries with “free education”, parents consistently say these indirect costs keep them from sending their children to school. While some governments have withdrawn formal fees for basic education, few have dropped fees for secondary education. In sub-Saharan Africa, children from the richest 20 per cent of households reach ninth grade at 11 times the rate of those from the poorest 40 per cent of households.

• A shortage of classrooms: The poorest countries need almost 4 million new classrooms by 2015, largely in rural and marginalized areas, to accommodate those who are not in school. More classrooms will alleviate overcrowding, cut class sizes and reduce the long travel distances. Children in rural areas sometimes walk two to three hours to attend school. Dilapidated classrooms also need refurbishing or upgrading to acceptable minimum standards for learning.

• Humanitarian emergencies, especially conflict: The need to fulfill the right to education is greatest in humanitarian crises. More than 40 per cent of out-of school children live in conflict-affected poor countries, and millions are forced out of school by natural disasters each year. In emergency situations, education can save and sustain lives. A safe school environment can give children a sense of normalcy during a crisis. Schools can also aid in post-conflict reconstruction. Yet only 2 per cent of all humanitarian aid goes into education. Schools should be a higher priority during humanitarian crises, and national education plans should include contingencies for emergencies.

• Gender discrimination: Girls face a unique set of barriers to education, such as child marriage, early pregnancy, and expectations related to domestic labor, not to mention unsafe travel and a lack of sanitary facilities. Many countries under-value girls’ education, with the result that fewer girls enroll and those who do are more likely to drop out. Some 34 million adolescent girls are out of school around the world, and women make up nearly two thirds (almost 500 million) of the world’s illiterate adults. The gender gap has significantly narrowed in primary education but there has been limited progress at the secondary level.

• Child labor: Poverty and vulnerability are pushing far too many young children out of school and into the world of work. Some children remain in school, but are disadvantaged doubling up studies with work. For households living in poverty, children may be pulled out of school and into work in the face of external shocks such as natural disasters, rising costs, or a parent’s sickness or unemployment. By leaving school to enter the labor market prematurely, children miss a chance to lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of a cycle of poverty. Sometimes children are exposed to the worst forms of labor that is damaging to their physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Join the movement to get the world #UpForSchool by signing the petition here: upforschool.org/p/iamupforschool

 

Photos: Buhari attends National Defence College graduation ceremony

 

 President Buhari attended the National Defence College Course 23 graduation ceremony which took place in Abuja earlier today. Continue to see more photos...

 

The Power Of Youth

If we are to reach real peace in this country and world at large. We shall have to begin with youths.

This is a time of bold measures. This is the country, and you are the generation. Great changes in the destiny of mankind can be affected only in the mind of youths. This world demands the qualities of youth; not a state of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.
The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society will run itself quite nicely until they at some distant point in the future will take over the reins. For the society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile.

“We are all creative, the more we increase the active participation and partnership with young people, the better we serve them and the more comprehensively we work with them as service partners, the more we increase our public value to the entire community”.

This is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This administration and old wealthy people have declared war on young people. That is the real war we have got to talk about.

Where after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world, yet they are the world of the individual person. Such are the places where every man, woman, child, seeks equal justice, equal opportunity and equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.

Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. Young people are free to act on their initiative and can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown. The children, and the young, must ask questions that we would never think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established so that the elders will be permitted to work with them on the answers.

“Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth”.

Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare.  If it is clear, youth will be encouraged, and listened to, and preparations are well thought out, you are certainly set up for success. Having youths on boards and commissions has been a rewarding experience for everyone involved.

Youth feel their voice is valued and that they have an impact on city decisions. Adult members benefit from the fresh perspectives, optimism and enthusiasm youth bring to the table. Youth involvement has moved forward, it is no longer seen as a rebellious act, the way it was a few decades ago.

Rather than standing or speaking for youths, we need to stand with youths speaking for themselves.

We need to build environments and policies for our collective future. There’s a radical and wonderful new idea that youths could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people’s ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on the world. It is an idea with revolutionary implications, if we take it seriously.

“Youth voice is crucial to overall effectiveness of service”. Any society that does not tap into the energy and creativity of its youth will be left behind, we all benefit by having young people exposed to the way things are done in a democratic society.

Isn’t it time to tap the power of youth?

JOY TIKU ENIGHE

A World at School Global Youth Ambassador

Photo Speak: VP Osinbajo commissions Dangote's cement plant in Zambia

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo commissioned a 1.5Mt Dangote Cement plant & 30MW coal-fired power plant in Ndola, Zambia today August 4. He was joined by Zambian President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
More photos after the cut...
 

Boko Haram initiates moves for dialogue – CCC

The Executive Secretary of the Center for Crisis Communication CCC, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (rtd) says Boko Haram members have made contacts with the center to initiate dialogue with the federal government on how to stop their activities in Nigeria.
This comes after President Buhari stated in a recent CNN interview that he's open for dialogue with the sect members.Air Comodore Anas said this during a press briefing in Abuja today August 4th.

“The efforts by some members of the group to get across to the Centre and the discussions we have had, have been encouraging. We have taken measures also to ascertain the genuineness or otherwise of these persons. We believe they are ready for genuine dialogue. However, discussions are still ongoing and nothing concrete has been arrived at, but it is an opportunity to interact with what I call insiders in the Boko Haram group. Some prominent Nigerians have in recent times canvassed the idea of dialogue with the Boko Haram. The option of dialogue according to them, at the moment provides a leeway of not only safely rescuing the abducted Chibok School Girls alive but also possibly bringing to an end, the orgy of violence unleashed on innocent Nigerians by the group. Considering the unspeakable atrocities which the group has visited on Nigeria and Nigerians, this option is no doubt a hard sell. However, the recent statement of President Muhammadu Buhari on government’s readiness to negotiate with credible members of the sect has rekindled hope for dialogue. From discussions held so far, the members seem to be speaking on behalf of a cross section of the group. They expressed willingness to come forward to make certain proposals on behalf of other members of the group. If we pursue this line, I believe something positive will come out. The Centre however suggests that such dialogue should be done with every sense of caution and responsibility bearing in mind the previous disappointments that attended attempts at negotiations" he said

Buhari appoints Umaru Garba Danbatta as new NCC boss

President Buhari has approved the appointment of Professor Umaru Garba Danbatta as the new Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission.


Prof. Danbatta, who holds a Doctorate Degree in Electronic Engineering, takes over from Dr. Eugene Juwah whose tenure expired on July 29, 2015.