ONE WORD

by Kingsley Omonobi Abuja—Indications have emerged that hundreds of officers and soldiers of Nigerian Army and other services who have served the mandatory 35 years in service or attained 60 years of age have been served letters of retirement by the services. Army Towards this end, it was gathered that many officers from the ranks of Major to one and two-star Generals have been told to proceed on terminal leave pending their date of disengagement. The duration of the terminal leave varies from three months in some instance to six months. Sources knowledgeable about the development said those involved include officers who either joined the military as Non-Commissioned Officers and later got commissioned as officers and officers who entered the Army, for instance, from Nigerian Military School, NMS. It was furthered gathered that the distribution of the letters on the part of the Army  by the office of the Military Secretary, Army, has unsettled many officers, having recei

By Owei Lakemfa WHEN I was an undergraduate in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, one of our teachers (not lecturer) was the famous Ugandan writer, Okot P’Bitek, author of best sellers like ‘Song of Lawino’ and ‘Song Of A Prisoner.’ We had two Nuns in the class and quite often, P’Bitek who came to class, singing, would stop in front of one of the Nuns and ask rhetorically: “Sister, your mother gave birth to you and you say you don’t want to give birth?”  The class would roar and he would move on to the front of the class, still singing. Behind this P’Bitek mind game are issues of culture, nature and beliefs. These issues were once more brought to the fore this Tuesday when Pope Francis lamented that Nuns have been and are being sexually abused by Catholic priests and bishops, and that some are being held as sex slaves by otherwise celibate priests. He revealed that “Pope Benedict had the courage to dissolve a female congregation which was at a certain level, because thi

In a few days, Nigeria- Africa’s biggest democracy will again queue to pick new leaders; but the candidates in the presidential race have not gone beyond political rhetoric. Rhetoric is about persuasion. In politics, persuasion is either achieved by using rational, empirical arguments or appeals to emotions or tightly held beliefs. In their scripted speeches and conversations, the candidates have ignored the most potent tool in nation rebuilding- information and communications technology (ICT). Despite the excitement in the air, most Nigerians are dissatisfied with current economic conditions and not impressed with the country’s democracy. As a country, Nigeria is unparalleled in her diversity – cultural, religious, social, and economical as well as political. One glue that binds all of these together is transparency in governance. This can only be made possible by an ICT driven government. Unfortunately, either by ignorance or deliberate actions, the key actors have larg

Photo credit: Absolute Wellness Center A new research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, finds that sleep deprivation increases sensitivity to pain by numbing the brain’s painkilling response. The effects of sleep deprivation on the brain are numerous, from inducing an inebriation-like state of cognitive impairment to hindering our ability to learn and form new memories. New research highlights another neurological effect of insufficient sleep: heightened sensitivity to pain. A lack of sleep impairs the brain’s natural mechanisms for relieving pain, finds the new study, which draws attention to potential links between the public health crises of sleep deprivation, chronic pain, and prescription opioid addiction. Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California in Berkeley carried out the study, together with doctoral candidate Adam Krause. Walker and Krause induced pain in 24 healthy, young study participants by applying

CBN building The National Collateral Register (NCR), registered about 628 financial institutions, including 551 Micro Finance Banks (MFBs), and 21 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), as at December 31, 2018. Also, registered collateral rose to 58,843 with 39,786 financing statements valued at N1.23 trillion, while 16,500 searches have been conducted on the NCR portal within the same period. NCR is an online, centralised and publicly available database that allows financial service providers to register movable assets such as vehicles, jewellery, farm equipment and machinery after accepting such assets as collateral for loans. The initiative, established under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) mandate on sustainable economic inclusive growth and financial inclusion, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), enables banks to lend to individuals, micro entrepreneurs and Small and Medium scale businesses. It is also aimed at enhancing financial inclusion in N

Leah Sharibu Speaking  during the presentation of Mr. Onyekachi Nwaulo as the Lay President of the Methodist Diocese of Onitsha, at St Andrews Cathedral Awada, Idemili North Local Government Area, Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Rev. Livinus   Onuagha and Dame Etiaba said the Federal Government seemed to have forgotten the school girl. Sharibu is one of the 111 girls of Government Girls Science and Technical College who were allegedly kidnapped from their hostel in Dapchi, Yobe State on February 19, 2018. She has not yet been released by her captors 354 days after her kidnap. Her Muslim colleagues have been released but she is still being held by the Boko Haram insurgents. While Bishop Onuagha accused the Federal Government of inaction over the release of Miss Sharibu, Dame Etiaba urged Christians not to allow her  die in detention by the Boko Harm insurgents because she represents the existence of Christianity in Nigeria. “The Federal Government is playing politics with the re

I watched the story of Inikpi as executed by Segun Arinze and others while preparing for a wedding in my hotel room and it brought tears to my eyes. Segun Arinze spoke my language (Igala) so well and I was proud to be an Igala. What was moving was for me to see Inikpi submit herself to be sacrificed readily when the gods chose her to do so to forestall a looming danger. Equally depressing was that other slaves had to be buried alive with her. This is no news right? We do not question anything in Nigeria, the people in the days of yore as well as now. What came to mind over and over again when Segun Arinze asked the priest to ask the gods for a second time was that, suppose the priest was begrudging the Attah and needed to use Inikpi to settle accounts with the Attah? How anyone could have known bothered me all day. Oh! Those innocent slaves went into the gibbets like lambs to the slaughter to be buried alive, resigned to fate, they never complained. These were other people’s childre