Senator Barnabas Gemade has now cut the image of a political nomad. A former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman, Gemade joined the All Progressives Congress in 2014, where he was handed the ticket to run for the Senate seat in Benue North East.

Then a few months ago, the Senator followed Senate President Bukola Saraki to his old party, the PDP, along with a dozen other senators of APC.

Today, Gemade said he has moved again as he announced his defection from the PDP to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

According to him, he bolted out of PDP because Governor Samuel Ortom betrayed him by giving Benue North East senatorial ticket to someone else.

The 70-year-old politician has been around for long, first in the boardroom, before he plunged into politics.

He was born on 4 September 1948 and he is today a chief of his Tiv ethnic group.

Gemade was the chief executive officer of the Benue Cement Company (BCC) from 1985 to 1992. He was a member of the 19941995 Constitutional Conference during the military regime of General Sani Abacha.

He even served the regime as a Minister and later became National Chairman of the Congress of National Consensus party, which was one of the parties sponsored by Abacha.

After the return of politics in 1999, Gemade became the chairman of the PDP when he was elected in the first national convention after the PDPs electoral victory. He lost the seat two years later to Audu Ogbeh, who is also from his state.

He was expelled from the PDP in 2003 for anti-party activities, but later readmitted as a member of the Board of Trustees. He ran for the senate seat in 2011 and won on the PDP platform. The APC gave him a second ticket in 2015. And he won.

It remains to be seen, whether his switching to the SDP will enable him return to the Senate in 2019.

Source: NAN

By Ishaq Zaki

Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State has condemned attack on his convoy by All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters who are loyalists to aggrieved governorship aspirants in the state.

Yari, in a statement issued on Sunday in Gusau by Malam Ibrahim Dosara, his Special Adviser on Media and Public Enlightenment, cautioned his loyalists to desist from revenge.

He urged people of the state to be law-abiding citizens and avoid any form of violence in the name of politics.

Any law-abiding citizen needs to respect the peaceful atmosphere concerning politics in Zamfara.

The governor said that his administration had done a lot to stop loyalists and all youths, especially supporters of APC, from engaging in any activity that would endanger the peace among political associations and parties.

He urged politicians to enlighten their supporters on peace and stability in relations to all political associations and gatherings

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some APC supporters had attacked the governors convoy at Lalan Roundabout in Gusau on Sunday as he was travelling to Kaduna.

The seven aggrieved governorship hopefuls including the deputy governor, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala, had organised a rally in Gusau on Sunday, where a multitude of their supporters turned out to receive them.

While the rallying aspirants and their supporters were coming into town,they ran into the governors convoy and the irate supporters attacked the governors motorcade destroying glasses.

However, the quick intervention of the mobile police and governors security details who fired gunshots in the air, dispersed the mob.

NAN reports that calm has since been restored in the state capital after the confrontation.

Source: NAN

The Philippines environment minister on Monday ordered the stoppage of all small-scale mining activities in a mountainous region in the countrys north following major landslides after super typhoon Mangkhut hit the country.

I officially order the cease and desist of all illegal small-scale mining in Cordillera Region, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu told a media briefing.

Mangkhut, with hurricane-force winds well over 200 km per hour (124 miles per hour), barreled past the northern tip of the Philippines on Saturday, killing at least 50 people, the majority of them due to landslides.

It then skirted south of Hong Kong and neighboring Macau, before making landfall in China.

Source: NAN

By Racheal Ishaya

The Country Director, Actionaid Nigeria, Mrs Ene Obi has urged federal and state governments to take decisive steps to increase the funds allocated to the education sector in order to improve the quality of education.

Obi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos on the sidelines of a workshop on Breaking Barriers for Girls Education.

She tasked the governments to break the barriers to quality public education by improving tax revenue, particularly corporate tax, as a way of providing sustainable funding to the sector.

She listed some of the barriers to public primary education as poor school infrastructure, violence and discrimination, failure to recruit and retain good quality teachers among others.

If states commit to finding resources to increase the size of their education budget for globally agreed targets, all children including the poorest and most marginalised will enjoy free, quality public education, Obi said.

Obi revealed that Actionaid had received 6.2 million dollars grant from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) to influence policy making and initiatives to increase the size and share of education budget.

In addition, she said the project aimed at ensuring the public education system became more responsive to the needs of girls and marginalised children.

NAN reports that about 10.5 million children are out of school in Nigeria, with the country investing only about seven per cent of its budget on education, short of the UNESCO 20 per cent benchmark.

Experts observe that there is a link between the crumbling education service and evasion of tax by local and multinational companies in Nigeria.

They note that money accruing from a proper tax regime can be useful in addressing infrastructure deficit in Nigerias education sector.

Statistics obtained from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) show that out of the 450,000 limited liability companies operating in Nigeria, no fewer than 125,000 representing 27.7 per cent pay any form of taxes.

Dr Charles Nwaobia, an education stakeholder, observed that the Education Tax Act indicated that government intended to have a sustainable education system funded through tax.

He said the tax imposed by the act was meant to fund the federal, states and local government educational institutions, including primary and secondary schools.

Two per cent shall be charged on the assessable profit of a company registered in Nigeria.

The Federal Board of Inland Revenue shall assess and collect from a company the tax imposed by this act.

Accordingly, the higher education shall receive 50 per cent, primary education 30 per cent; and secondary education shall receive 20 per cent of the total tax collected in any one year, Nwaobia said, citing a portion of the act.

Nwaobia said the number of companies that were taxed would determine the amount of money put into the education system.

Source: NAN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to Algeria on Monday to discuss migration issues and how to combat terror.

Another aim of the talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers is to boost Algerias role as a stabilising factor in North Africa, Merkels office indicated.

The chancellor is also meeting Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia during the one-day trip.

Merkel was also expected to address the long-standing conflict between Algeria and its western neighbour Morocco.

A planned visit in February 2017 was cancelled at the last minute as a result of Bouteflikas health.

The president is 81 years old and has been in office since 1999.

Algeria is a major transit route for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

The German government is under domestic pressure to cut migration.

One of the aims of Merkels trip is to facilitate the deportation of Algerian nationals whose applications for political asylum have been denied by Germany.

Germanys grand coalition plans to characterise Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as safe countries of origin, thus, easing the repatriation process for the German authorities.

While in Algeria, Merkel is to visit a girls high school initiated in 2008 by the German Foreign Office as part of its Partners for the Future programme.

She will also hold discussions with representatives of civil society.

Source: NAN

Newly appointed Acting Minister of Finance Mrs Zainab Ahmed has assumed duty 72 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari picked her to oversee the ministry following the resignation of Mrs Kemi Adeosun on, Sept. 14.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that until her appointment, Ahmed was the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning.

Reports reaching NAN say that the minister is studying her new office and reading the handover note.

It would be recalled that Buhari appointed Ahmed on Friday to oversee the ministry of finance after the resignation of Kemi Adeosun who resigned following the outcome of an investigation into allegation made in an online medium of her Certificate of Exemption from National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).

The certificate was later discovered not to be genuine.

Meanwhile, Ahmed has described the task ahead of her in her new place of work as challenging.

The supervising minister made this known on Monday when she was received by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse alongside Directors of the Ministry.

These are very challenging times for our country. It means we are part of the economic team that has been charged with making sure there is economic stability in our country.

We have very serious revenue challenges and it is up to us to shore up the revenues of this country.

Mr President has a lot of confidence that we can do this very well together. We are working for Mr President, but at the end of the day we are working for the benefit of the citizens of our country.

There are a lot of sacrifices that I know that you have done, and we are going to push ourselves to still do more so that at the end of the day we will say Alhamdulillah glory be to God! she said.

She urged the ministry staff and officials to brace up for the challenges ahead, noting that all hands must be on deck for her to succeed in her assignment.

The finance ministry has overtime been known to have very skilled personnel; from interacting with some of you, I know that there is a lot of skill set within the ministry, and that I am in good hands.

I plan to work very closely with the whole of the directors, most especially with the Permanent Secretary.

I want to declare that today the Permanent Secretary is my new next-of-kin. What that means is that I am going to work hand-in-gloves with him, and I expect everybody to do the same thing.

There are some things I know about finance, but there is a lot that I dont know; and the knowledge resides in you.

I have been told that you are preparing handing-over notes, or more correctly briefing notes; I will be engaging each of you on a one-on-one basis with the Permanent Secretary, so that I can have a complete view of what is in the ministry, she added.

It can be recalled that Mrs. Zainab Ahmed apart from being the Minister of State Budget and National Planning, have held several critical positions in the past including being the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

She was also the Managing Director of Kaduna Investment Company and member of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG).

Source: NAN

There are 7,100 multi-millionaires living in Africa, each with net assets of $10 million or more.

There are over 320 centi-millionaires, each with net assets of $100 million or more; and 24 billionaires each with net assets of $1 billion or more.

AfrAsia Bank Wealth Report 2018, says that total private wealth held in Africa is also expected to rise by 34 per cent over the next 10 years, reaching $3.1 trillion by the end of 2027.

We expect Mauritius, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda to be the strongest performing wealth markets in Africa during this period (with 90 per cent to 150 per cent growth rates).

Our projections for Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia are also relatively solid (50 per cent to 80 per cent growth rates), the report said.

Tanzania, South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Egypt, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria, however, have less favourable forecasts, albeit positive, at between 10 and 30 per cent, mostly due to policy and economic factors that are seeing high net worth individuals hold back investments within these countries.

The African luxury sector generated about $6 billion in revenue in 2017, mainly through the purchase of luxury cars, clothing and accessories, watches, private jets, yachts and luxury hotels and lodges.

It rated Rwanda and Uganda as countries in East Africa that are leading spots for wealth growth in Africa.

The countries are projected to have some of the strongest performing wealth markets in Africa in the next 10 years.

The analysis indicates that wealth held in Africa has risen by 13 per cent in the past decade, and by 3 per cent over the past year, with Mauritius topping the performing individual markets.

In terms of wealth growth in the past decade in East Africa, Rwanda led the region with 74 per cent rate, followed by Kenya at 73 per cent, then Tanzania at 66 per cent and Uganda at 56 per cent.

As at the end of 2017, Kenya topped the region with the highest wealth that are held by individuals at $104 billion, followed by Tanzania and Ethiopia at $60 billion.

Within the continent, South Africa tops in having the wealthiest individuals holding $722 billion followed by Egypt at $330 billion and Nigeria at $253 billion.

The new report also shows that the average African individual has net assets of $2,000, with more than 148,000 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) living in Africa, each with net assets of $1 million or more.

A large portion of luxury sector revenue in Africa comes from luxury hotels and lodges, with South Africa being the main tourist destination.

In terms of wealthiest city, in East Africa, Nairobi beat its regional peers, holding more than $54 billion of private wealth held by the high net worth individuals.

Dar es Salaam was second in the region, at $25 billion, followed by Kampala at $16 billion, and Mombasa at $8 billion.

On the continent, Johannesburg topped at $276 billion, followed by Cairo at $140 billion, then Lagos at $108 billion and Durban at $55 billion.

The major South African destinations for wealthy people are Kruger National Park, Cape Town, Umhlanga and Franschhoek.

In the rest of the continent, major destinations included Mauritius, Seychelles, Marrakech and Casablanca in Morocco, Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, Serengeti in Tanzania, the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya, Livingstone Falls in Zambia and the Okavango swamps in Botswana.

In April, the Knight Franks Wealth Report showed that Kenya had created 180 new dollar millionaires last year, growing the number of persons with a net worth of over $5 million to 1,290.

Out of the 1,290 dollar millionaires, 90 were worth $50 million with less 10 individuals estimated to have a net worth of over $500 million.

Over the same period, 40 Tanzanians entered the club of dollar millionaires worth over $5 million, pushing the countries total to 250.

Source:

Source: NAN

(dpa/NAN) China has promised to retaliate if United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump goes ahead and slaps tariffs on 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports.

Beijing will have to take necessary counter-measures, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

The escalation of trade disputes does not meet the interests of either party, spokesman, Geng Shuang said, adding that the Chinese government had proposed solving the trade tensions through negotiations.

Shuang was commenting on a Wall Street Journal report that Trump has already decided to raise 10 per cent tariffs on 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports.

The official announcement of the tariffs could come as early as this week.

The U.S. and China have already imposed tariffs on 50 billion dollars worth of goods each.

If Trump goes ahead with the new round of duties, about half of all of Chinas imports to the U.S. will end up being affected.

Meanwhile, Chinas stock market has dropped to the lowest level since 2014.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.1 per cent on Monday, after weeks of steady losses.

Trump said on Thursday he was under no pressure to make a deal with China.

Our markets are surging, theirs are collapsing, he tweeted.

Source: NAN

The Nigerian government has slammed a caveat on the prophecy by the global banking giant HSBC which predicted that the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari would stunt the economy.

Dismissing the banks bleak scenario for Nigeria post 2019, government said on the contrary, what killed Nigerias economy in the past was the unbridled looting of state resources by leaders, actively supported by HSBC.

Government recalled how the bank soiled its hands with millions of US dollars yet-to-be-recovered Abacha loot, and continued until a few months ago to shield the stolen funds of one of the leaders of the Nigerian Senate,

It wondered how a bank with such a reputation could wield the moral right whatsoever to project that a second term for Mr. Buhari raises the risk of limited economic progress and further fiscal deterioration.

Rather, we ask them to heed President Buharis constant refrain: return our stolen assets, then see how well we will do, said Malam Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on the media, who issued a statement on behalf of the Presidential Villa.

From the facts available to our investigation agencies, HSBCs put down on President Buhari is no more than an expression of frustration over the administrations measures put in place which has abolished grand corruption, the type which this bank thrives on in many countries.

They may also just be out to discredit the President out of the fear of sanctions and fines following the national assets that are stolen.

With the coming of President Buhari, it is not a secret that corruption, corrupt individuals, banks and other corporate entities that aided corrupt practices are under investigation for various offenses.

For many of them, including their friends in the media, they would rather have President Buhari out of their way, for business as usual to return.

Our investigation agencies believe that HSBC had laundered more than USD 100,000,000 for the late General Sani Abacha in Jersey, Paris, London and Geneva.

Among these accounts on the records are: AC: S-104460 HSBC Fund Admin Ltd. Jersey ($12,000,000); AC 37060762 HSBC Life (Europe), U.K ($20,000,000) and AC: 38175076 HSBC Bank Plc. U.K ($1,600,000).

The bank is also suspected in the laundering of proceeds of corruption involving more than 50 other Nigerians, including a serving Senator as earlier indicated.

In a book, Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation, published in 2017, Jack Bernstein told the story of global money laundering highlighting the unenviable place of the HSBC.

This is a bank that states and federal authorities in the U.S. forced to pay $1.92 billion to settle charges of money laundering; fined $1.2 billion in Hong Kong for systemic deficiencies in bond sales and was made to pay $100 million in currency rigging settlement as reported by The Telegraph of 18th January, 2018.

Source: NAN

Sen.David Mark has arrived Minna, capital of Niger State to hold a private meeting with the former military President Ibrahim Babangida.

The meeting lasted for two hours at the Hilltop residence of the former military ruler.

NAN reports that Sen.David Mark arrived at about 1.30pm in company of Sen. Zainab Kure, Sen. Tunde Ogbeha and Sen.Suleman Adokwe, current chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation.

The 70 year-old Mark, who has been in the senate since 1999, obviously came to discuss his presidential ambition with Babangida, who had hosted several other aspirants.

Among them were the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former governors Attahiru Bafarawa, Sule Lamido and Ahmed Makarfi, all contesting under the Peoples Democratic Party platform.

Said one of Marks aides who didnt want his name mentioned: Yes my boss is discussing with IBB. Firstto brief him and seek his prayers and support for the task ahead.

Sen. Zainab Kure, who is the director general David Mark Presidential Campaign Organisation told NAN that Mark is a good materialneeded to reposition the country for optimal growth.

He was a former military Governor, communications Minister and senate president of the Federal Republic. So he possesses all the required political acumen to lead our country ,she said.

Zainab also hoped that the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) would conduct a free, fair and credible election.

I am appealing to all eligible Nigerians to support the electoral processes to enable the commission discharge its constitutional mandate , she said.

She said that the task to ensure a peaceful conduct of the 2019 election is the joint responsibility of all stakeholders especially the politicians.

David Mark also was the communications minister during Babangidas rule(1985-1993).

Source: NAN