By Ifeanyi Nwoko

The National Assembly has endorsed the commencement of Higher National Diploma course in Official Reporting at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).

The programme will commence in June, following its approval by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

The Institute is the research arm of the National Assembly.

Director General of NILDS, Prof. Ladi Hamalai, stated this on Monday while declaring open a two-week certificate training programme on Official Reporting.

The event was put together by the Institute for staff of Anambra and Ogun State Houses of Assembly.

Represented by the Director of Research and Training in the Institute, Adeyemi Fajingbesi, Hamalai said the training was specifically designed to acquaint participants with information, methods and modern tools to report parliamentary practices and proceedings accurately.

The DG said topical issues to be discussed at the training include: Principles and Elements of Speed Writing/Shorthand Development, Hansard Styles Manual, ICT in Official Reporting, Editing, Keyboarding as well as Record Management and Archiving of Parliamentary Reports.

The central role of the legislature in the overall development of the nation particularly in the areas of law-making for the good governance of the country, oversight of other arms of government and representation of their respective constituencies cannot be overemphasized.

The present certificate programme is therefore part of NILDS efforts to assist the State Houses of Assembly to develop skills of Official Reporters to meet the present global challenges especially in the area of the use of modern technology, Hamalai said.

Source: NAN

The Senate on resumption from its two-week Easter break suspended plenary in honour of its member, the late Mustapha Bukar who died on April 4.

Until his death, Bukar, 63, represented Katsina North Senatorial District in the Red Chamber and was Chairman Committee on Capital Market.

Leader of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, moved a motion for suspension of plenary.

A minute silence led by the President of the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki was observed for the deceased.

Saraki, thereafter, said a valedictory service would be held on Wednesday in honour of their deceased colleague who served the country immensely.

It is a great loss, Saraki said.

In separate interview, Sen. Abu Ibrahim (APC-Katina South) said every life will test dead.

We are in this world as actors on stage: we come and do our action and leave.

He was a prominent politician, a well known person, he was my in-law, my son is married to his daughter, he was a highly respected person, he said.

Similarly, Sen. Victor Umeh (APGA-Anambra) prayed God to spare the National Assembly of these deaths.

We carry a lot of stress , a lot of problems of Nigerians here.

These sudden deaths are signs that those who are in the National Assembly to take things easy.

Nigerians should pray for the members of the National Assembly, he said.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari in a letter to the Senate dated April 4, 2018 said I was saddened to receive the news of the deaths of Senators Ali Wakili and Mustapha Bukar.

He said their various contributions to the Senate deliberations and the wider democratic process in the country had been of immense values.

Please accept Mr Senate President, the expression of my deepest sympathy, Bugatti said.

Source: NAN

NAN Reporting

The Presidency has uncovered plans by those described as “Nigerian looters” to disrupt the ongoing official visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to London.

Sources in the presidency told State House correspondents on Tuesday night that the alleged looters and corrupt elements had rented motley crowd of professional demonstrators to protest against President Buhari on his arrival in London.

The sources said: “Barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari declared his intention to contest for another term in office as President of Nigeria, the camps of alleged looters and corrupt elements within and outside the country have been jolted.

“This has forced them to push panic buttons including renting a motley crowd of professional demonstrators to protest against the President on his arrival into the United Kingdom.”

According to the impeccable sources in Aso Villa and Britain, extremely corrupt Nigerians who are custodians of slush funds stolen from Nigeria, and hiding in UK or are resident cronies of such elements, have colluded to form a league of protesters.

The sources maintained that the protesters’ singular aim was to distract and disorganise the scheduled state visit of the President to England.

President Buhari is billed to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Theresa May and other dignitaries.

“Esteemed Nigerians home and abroad, friends and business investors in Nigeria, should please see through the veil of the motive behind the Abuja House, Kensington London demonstration.

“It was an orchestrated act of desperation and a ploy to blackmail and hoodwink the President from concentrating on his anti corruption campaign , which is fast gaining grounds locally and internationally,” our source stated authoritatively.

The source added that, “this unpatriotic act is not unconnected to the Federal government policies to name and shame corrupt citizens and looters; to collate database of Nigerians with homes in UK who are not paying the right taxes, and the hot drive to prosecute all financial defaulters through bilateral and multilateral means.”

A public affairs analyst who preferred anonymity also said “the protest was benchmarked on an assemblage of local grievances and national challenges which the government is already tackling head on.

“Such as the herdsmen versus agrarian farmers clashes, fuel scarcity which no longer exists and trumped up charge of hunger in the land at a time when prices of food items are beginning to drop and inflation on the decrease.”

His view was buttressed by our Presidency sources who further repeated the position of the President who famously said that “corruption is endemic and Nigerians need to kill it before it kills Nigerians.”

According to the source, it is obvious that this is a clear cut incident of corruption fighting back.

The source believed that many of the beneficiaries of corruption and slush funds could not withstand another devastating blow of Buhari’s anti corruption sledge hammer.

“Hence, they are resolute to derail the apple cart in order to save their ugly faces and sit back to enjoy the loot in their personal banks.

“Some of the protesters are not even Nigerians but hired hatchet men paid to do the dirty job.

“According to security sources, the protesters are said to be bent on embarrassing and humiliating the President throughout his stay in the UK.

“An insider vowed that they will take their demonstrations to the venue of CHOGM holding later in the month in Britain, which President Buhari is attending as a Commonwealth Head of State,” the source further revealed.

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said while reacting to the London protest that the President would not be distracted from his mission in the UK.

Source: NAN

In a bid to defend her master, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday slammed American Urban Radio reporter April Ryan, during press briefing for asking if President Donald Trump hasthought about stepping down.

Ryan, asked: With all of this turmoil, particularly this last week, has the president at any time thought about stepping down before or now?

Sanders fired back, No, and I think thats an absolutely ridiculous question.

Ryan was presumably referring to reports that Trump has been especially upset since the FBI executed a search warrant on his lawyer Michael Cohen.

She tried to defend her question, but Sanders quickly moved on to the next reporter.

Were moving on, Sanders said before Ryan claimed, Its not ridiculous.

Ryan has emerged as one of the most combative members of the media when it comes to dealing with members of the Trump administration.

She famously sparred with former Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who once asked her to report the facts instead ofsticking to her agenda.

Social media quickly erupted with takes on Ryans question about Trump stepping down.

Conservative pundit Wayne Dupreetweeted that Ryanpicked the wrong person to ask a question like this!

Earlier in the day,Ryan tweeted, Oooh! Today today today!!!! What a newsy day!

:

Source: NAN

The UN failed three times on Tuesday to take action over an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, as the US and its allies consider taking military steps.

Russias veto of a US-drafted attempt in the UN Security Council to establish a new probe to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria was followed by two Russian drafts, both of which were voted down.

The attempts to revive a probe that was disbanded last year come days after at least 43 people were killed in an attack on Douma, the last rebel-held suburb of the capital Damascus.

Russia accused the US, France and Britain of putting forward the text knowing Moscow would not agree so they could use the veto as a pretext for military action.

Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia asked the US to refrain from the plans that youre currently developing for Syria after the third failed vote.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said Russias proposals were designed to give them veto power over the findings and staff of an independent investigation and thus protect Syrian leader and Russian ally Bashar al Assad.

US President Donald Trump cancelled his first trip to Latin America to focus on his countrys response, which he has warned would be imminent.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was consulting with the US and Britain and would announce a decision on a military response within days.

At the invitation of Syria and Russia, investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were en route to Douma on Tuesday to collect evidence of whether there was a chemical attack.

The watchdog said it has been analyzing information since the first reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons in the April 7 attack.

It is only responsible for determining whether chemical weapons were used not who used them.

The Syrian and Russian moves to involve the OPCW came hours after Trump described Saturdays attack in Douma as atrocious and warned of some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours.

Earlier, a French government spokesman would not be drawn on a timeline for any possible response, but said Trump and Macron had agreed to speak again within 48 hours.

Once again, its once the facts are established, Benjamin Griveaux said. I cannot tell you today if its a matter of hours or days.

Macron has repeatedly said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria is a red line that would trigger reprisals.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would be speaking to Macron and Trump on Tuesday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the use of chemical weapons in the strongest terms.

This was a horrendous attack, which killed dozens of people, including many children.

It took place in an area where the Syrian regime operates.

It is an area where Syria and its allies Russia and Iran are denying access to international monitors, Stoltenberg added.

Meanwhile, pro-government forces were on alert across Syria and had evacuated some of their posts in anticipation of possible foreign strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.

Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons in a Russian-brokered deal in 2013, after hundreds of people were killed in a poison gas attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs.

However, there have been repeated allegations of government chemical attacks since then, including the April 2017 sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

Days after that attack, the US launched dozens of missiles on Shayrat airbase in central Syria in response.

Russia at the time called for an OPCW investigation, but then rejected the report of the joint UN-OPCW panel that blamed the government, and later used its veto to prevent the panels mandate being extended beyond November.

Source: NAN

By Prudence Arobani/New York

The National Population Commission (NPC) has put Nigerias current population at 198 million people with urban population growing at an average annual growth rate of about 6.5 per cent.

Chairman of NPC, Mr Eze Duruiheoma, stated this in New York while delivering Nigerias statement on Sustainable Cities, Human Mobility and International Migration at the 51st Session of Commission on Population and Development.

Duruiheoma said: Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa, the seventh globally with an estimated population of over 198 million.

The recent World Population Prospects predicts that by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populated country in the world.

Over the last 50 years, the Nigerias urban population has grown at an average annual growth rate of more than 6.5 per cent without commensurate increase in social amenities and infrastructure.

It grew substantially from 17.3 in 1967 to 49.4 per cent in 2017. In addition, the 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects report, predicts that by 2050, most of the population 70 per cent will be residing in cities.

The 2010 human mobility Survey report revealed that 23 per cent of the sampled population were of more females than males.

He said the category of population mostly engaged in urbanisation and migration were young people of teenage and adolescents girls and boys, women of child bearing age and the working age population.

He said existing urbanisation trend coupled with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in cities, pose critical challenges to securing sustainability of our cities, including efforts to make them smart and responsive to human influx.

The Displacement Tracking Matrix round XXI of January 2018 identified estimated 1.7 million IDPs in over 321,580 households across six states of North-East Nigeria with 40 per cent residing in camp-like settings in urban areas plus 1.4 million returnees.

The number of IDPs represented 4.5 per cent increase compared to the 1,702,680 identified in Round XX (Dec. 2017).

Duruiheoma said like in other developing countries, Nigerian cities hosted wide spread poverty, under-employment and unemployment at an average of 18.4 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics 2017 report.

The NPC boss bemoaned the insecurity and inadequate and inequitable health care services for adolescents and women of child bearing age.

Nigeria continues to commit to solving the challenges of insurgents in the Northeast, which has induced a high number of internally displaced persons.

We acknowledge that women, children and particularly the girl child are often the most vulnerable in these displacements, and in this regard, we remain focused on the wellbeing of these vulnerable parts of our population.We are committed to providing adequate health care services, reducing maternal mortality, rebuilding safe schools and empowering our women, ensuring no one is left behind in terms of achieving sustainable development.

Duruiheoma said these challenges adversely impacted on the quality of life and standards of living of the urban populace.

According to him, Nigeria stays committed to the twin goals of the Habitat Agenda adequate shelter for all and the development of sustainable human settlements in an urbanising world. (NAN)

Source: NAN

A Brazilian judge on Tuesday denied former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the right to receive a visit from nine regional governors and other politicians in the prison where he is staying in the southern city of Curitiba, the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported.

Judge Carolina Lebbos pointed to an earlier order from judge Sergio Moro, who issued an arrest warrant for the popular politician and said he could have no prison privileges other than a television set in his cell.

The prison regime allows visits only on Wednesdays.

Lula arrived at the prison on Saturday, capping two days of drama over whether or not he would submit to the arrest warrant.

The 72-year-old is to serve a 12-year sentence following his conviction on corruption charges last year.

Lulas Workers Party meanwhile said he remained its candidate in the October 7 presidential elections and announced plans to move its leadership to Curitiba.

Lulas party comrade Dilma Rousseff, who succeeded him as president from 2011 to 2016, said the party would mobilize Lulas supporters to press for his freedom.

There is no plan B for the elections, we maintain Lulas candidacy, Rousseff said during a visit to the Spanish capital Madrid.

Hundreds of people were camping outside the prison Tuesday in a show of support for Lula.

Supporters regard the judicial proceedings as a plot to take Lula out of the presidential race, which he had been expected to easily win, while opponents say jailing him boosted Brazils fight against impunity.(dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN

Biologists from St. Petersburg have created a compound that causescancer cells to repair their DNA or self-destruct after fatal genome damage occurs.

The efficacy of the new compound is much higher than that of the most powerful drugs developed in the U.S.
and Europe, TASS reported, quoting Alexander Garabagiu, professor of St. Petersburg State Technological
Institute.

It could be a new step toward more effective and safer chemotherapy.

A large number of cancerous tumours are caused by the breakdown of the p53 gene, which is responsible for DNA repairand self-destruction in case of fatal genome damage.

This is often caused by the increased activity of a protein called MDM2, which neutralises the molecules of p53.

Scientists have been trying to create or find a molecule that will neutralise the protein and help cells fight
against small mutations and larger breakdowns in DNA.

During their experiments, the compound created by Russian researchers was able to kill about 40 per cent of
cancer cells.

Source: NAN

Caring for migrants and the poor is as holy a pursuit as opposing abortion, Pope Francis declared in a major document issued by the Vatican on Monday morning.

Pushing back against conservative critics within the church who argue that the 81-year-old popes focus on social issues has led him to lose sight of the true doctrine.

Pope Francis again cast himself, and the mission of the Roman Catholic Church, in a more progressive light.

The other harmful ideological error is found in those who find suspect the social engagement of others, seeing it as superficial, worldly, secular, materialist, communist or populist, Pope Francis wrote in an apostolic exhortation on the subject of holiness.

Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned.

The popes vision of holiness explicitly highlights migrants, whose plight he has sought to elevate to global attention perhaps more than any other issue.

We often hear it said that, with respect to relativism and the flaws of our present world, the situation of migrants, for example, is a lesser issue, he said.

Some Catholics consider it a secondary issue compared to the grave bioethical questions.

That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian, he continued, adding that welcoming the stranger at the door was fundamental to the faith. This is not a notion invented by some Pope, or a momentary fad.

The popes 103-page document an apostolic exhortation titled Gaudete et Exsultate, or Rejoice and Be Glad is less authoritative than a papal encyclical, but is nevertheless an important teaching pronouncement.

At its outset, Francis makes clear that it is not meant to be a treatise on holiness but to re-propose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time.

As he put it elsewhere in the document, Seeing and acting with mercy: That is holiness.

That statement is a distilled expression of Francis vision of the church, which is consistent with a view articulated by Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, the archbishop of Chicago who died in 1996, and who called for a consistent ethic of life that.

Read More at:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/world/europe/pope-francis-migrants-abortion.html

Source: NAN

Gunmen shot and killed the mayor of Koutougou commune, in Burkina Fasos
northern province of Soum, on Sunday evening, local media reported on Monday.

The attackers fled the scene after killing Hamidou Koundaba outside his home, reports said.

The president of Burkina Faso, Roch Kabore, condemned the cowardly and despicable act and offered his
condolences to the family of the deceased. (Xinhua/NAN)

Source: NAN