What makes a good husband?

Is it true that a good husband is fast becoming a “scarce commodity” in our society? No doubt you just might yell a resounding YES! This is the 21^st century and you will agree that things change with rapid astonishment. That good husbands are seemingly hard to come by doesn’t mean none exists. Whether you’re a married woman, a single lady or even a man (married or single), you’ll find this discussion quite useful. So here are some qualities that define a good husband.
So here we go!

1. Good provider
A good husband is one who is able to take care of the needs of his family. One who is willing to do honest work to take care of his family. He is the breadwinner of the family. Even the Bible (and I believe other religions as well) enjoins men to work and take care of their families. Men are wired and configured naturally to be providers. Hence you know you’ve got a great husband when he strives at all times to provide for his family. There are times when the husband is unable to provide due to job loss, ill health. This doesn’t automatically make him a bad husband. And being a good provider alone does not make him a good husband either.
2. Never a Dictator
A great husband knows that carrying his wife and family along when it comes to major decisions doesn’t make him a weakling but makes him accountable. He doesn’t run his home like a corporation or a military barracks. He wouldn’t make his wife inferior to him but rather reassures her that they both co-equals. He doesn’t act unilaterally and tells the wife afterwards. When it comes to decision-making he seeks for and values the contribution of the wife.
3. Communicative
One of the qualities that make a good husband is good communication. Good communication strengthens your relationship and builds trust. In this part of the world, most men feel that they aren’t supposed to tell their wife about all their dealings. Truth be told, when men begins to hide things from their wives, it goes a long way to breed distrust. The hallmark of a good husband is one that is open and communicative almost to a fault, shares his pain, shame and fame, his mood, feelings, values, attitudes, likes and dislikes with his wife. He has nothing to hide because he understands that in marriage the two are one.
4. Helps his wife
In Nigeria, before now a man would be considered a “Woman Wrapper “or better put, ‘a weakling’ when  he is found helping out with the house chores like doing dishes, laundry, bathing the baby, cooking and even babysitting. Times have changed; a good husband drops his pride and helps out with home chores especially when he sees his wife is striggling. Every responsible husband should be able to recognize when his wife is struggling and be happy to help her out with some chores. It doesn’t make him a weak man but a strong man and a great husband.
5. Does not Cheat
John Gray, PhD, in his book “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus”, pointed to the fact that men are polygamist in nature, but it takes a disciplined and good husband to stick to one partner all his life. A good husband is faithful to his wife and considers it inappropriate to cheat on his wife. A good husband loves and respects his wife enough not to indulge in any extra marital affair, no matter how ‘harmless’ it may seem.
6. Finds ways to express his love

Do I need to belabor this point? A good husband seeks ways to express his love to his wife every time in all ways possible. It may not necessarily be an expensive dress, an exotic trip. It may just be a little smile, an appreciation of her efforts, a family picnic, little love letters hidden in places you know she would find, frequent calls/text messages while in the office or away from home. You may pay someone to drop flowers for her at her office. Get creative. Look for and learn new ways of expressing love to your wife. Another way a good husband shows love to his wife is by loving his children and spending time with them. Ask the women and they will tell you that loving their children is same as loving them. You can never love your wife and family too much, trust me.
7.  Understands the difference between nuclear and extended family
When a man gets married and starts a family, his parents and siblings become his extended family. There are no ifs or buts about this. A lot of Nigerian men never seem able to draw the line between their nuclear and extended family which leads to a lot of inlaw wahala. Any family (woman are most guilty of this) that doesn’t allow a man to grow his new family without interference is not acting in the best interest of their son/brother. However, a man who cannot protect his nuclear family from his extended family is also not acting in the best interest of his marriage and family. A good husband recognizes that his wife and children come first and any other family member is jara.
Is there more to being a good husband?
You bet there still are! However, any man who possesses these basics as listed above, sure would make a very good husband. Just to balance up this article, while on your search for what makes a good husband, take the time and efforts to ensure that you too are a good wife.
Therefore, if you’ve done a check and find these qualities and much more in the man in your life, treat him like a king and be ready to be treated as a queen who you no doubt are.

Seven die as gunmen raid hotel in Lagos

Main gate to the hotel.
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Some gunmen stormed a hotel in Ajah area of Lagos State on Sunday, 04 Hotel, killing the owner, identified as Olanrewaju Subair, and three others.

The police authorities said one of the gunmen was killed in the operation which lasted for about an hour.

However, two people died from a fire outbreak that was caused by intense shooting in the hotel.

It was learnt that several people were injured.

Our correspondent, who visited the area, observed heavy security as policemen, attached to Rapid Response Squad, were seen patrolling the area.

All attempts by our correspondent to enter the hotel proved abortive as policemen attached to MOPOL 10, Bauchi, prevented him from going in on the grounds that investigations were ongoing.

A source, who craved anonymity, told our correspondent that there was a fire at the hotel shortly after the shooting.

He said, “The gunmen came for Subair but ended up shooting others in the process. They killed his girlfriend who was with him and then killed two other people. They then shot two others but those ones did not die.

“The shooting caused fire and two customers, who were in another room, were burnt to death. The fire continued to rage so we had no choice but to call on the fire service.”

The Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Razaq Fadipe, told our correspondent on the telephone, that his men were able to put out the fire. He also confirmed the death toll.

“We received the distress call around 7am on Sunday that there was a fire. On getting there, we were able to put it out but two people were burnt ,” he said.

It was learnt that the matter was reported at the Area J Command but was later transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja.

A police source, who craved anonymity, said the gunmen were probably robbers that were on a revenge mission.

“A notorious armed robber was arrested at the same hotel sometime ago. We are working on the assumption that it was members of his gang that came to the hotel to carry out a revenge mission,” a source said.

The spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, confirmed the attack to our correspondent on the telephone.

Braide said she could not say the casualty figure but confirmed the murder of Subair.

She however said the police were able to kill one of the culprits.

She said, “The Special Anti-Robbery Squad had raided the hotel sometime ago and had arrested the leader of the robbery gang as well as two members of the gang. The gang members at large stormed the hotel and shot the owner and some of his employees.

“The robbers told the customers at the hotel that they came on reprisals however one of the employees was able to call the police and on sighting the policemen, the robbers opened fire. The policemen shot back and one of the robbers was killed. An AK47 rifle was recovered from the robber.”

Braide said the police high command was interested in the case and the culprits would soon be brought to book.

“The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Umar manko, has vowed that the robbers will be arrested.”

Get Pregnant before I marry you

Has a man given you an ultimatum to get pregnant before marriage? Then find out why you should say NO.
Itohan had spent a long time waiting and searching for her ideal man – tall, handsome, Godfearing and relatively well-to-do. When Osas came along, although he wasn’t quite her exact picture of an ideal man, she had ‘matured enough’ to see beyond the phyiscal appearance to what he is on the inside. She had gone past the age when she could afford to be “too choosy”. And to be fair to him, Osas was truly a sweetheart. He was someone she wanted very much to spend the rest of her life with. But there is a slight problem: Osas wants her to get pregnant for him before he would marry her. All her efforts to talk him out of it appear to have fallen on deaf ears. He keeps insisting that he will not make the mistake of marrying a woman that is not pregnant for him first. And some of her friends say there is nothing wrong in that. Deep down, it doesn’t sit well with her. Something about Osas ultimatum doesn’t sound right. Have you ever sat down to consider why and how ladies have been so mashed to the corner, and are dictated to by men to get pregnant before they get married to us? Perhaps what that plainly means is ‘no pregnancy; no marriage’. Phew that sounds so dictatorial!
Whatever happened to what obtained before now? In fact in the 60’s, 70’s and even early 80’s in Nigeria, it was tantamount to arrant irresponsibility and waywardness, if a lady dared venture into the ‘pregnancy before marriage’ wahala. Then the belief that after marriage comes pregnancy was sacrosanct, held so tenaciously by guys and ladies alike. Today, the opposite is becoming increasingly common, as ladies get pregnant every now and then, just to fulfill the mandates of the men. These men are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to being assured with ‘hard evidence’ that their future partners have the natural ability to bear children when the time comes.
Does This Act guarantee a blissful marriage?
Perhaps what these men don’t know isthat knowing that their ladies got pregnant before marriage doesn’t guarantee a successful marriage. In fact there have been cases where the woman was pregnant before marriage and such marriages eventually crashed two years along the line based on what some of them called ‘irreconcilable differences’.
Ladies, here are reasons why getting pregnant before marriage is a NO NO!
1. Marriage is for companionship – children are an added blessing
Marriage in the first place is for two people who genuinely love one other and want to walk the path of life together sharing life’s ups and downs. A man who gives a woman such an ultimatum is looking for a baby making machine and NOT a partner. Such a man is unlikely to treat a wife like the true partner she is or even accord her the respect due to her. What happens if indeed the couple has problems conceiving before the marriage and it is the man’s fault? A lot of problems conceiving these days can be traced to the man so this is not entirely far-fetched. Will the man be happy for the woman to leave him? What if the woman indeed gets pregnant but loses the baby after marriage and experiences delayed conception after then? Worse still, what will you do if after you get pregnant for him he dumps you? You are already pregnant and not too many men find the idea of marrying a ‘+1’ quite appealing. When this happens, the innocent child, that was the condition for the marriage in the first instance, usually ends up the victim. So many things could go wrong with this ultimatum. Children are a part of the blessings in marriage and should not be used as a pre-requisite for marriage.
2. Wrong Perception
If you yield to man’s insistence to be pregnant before marriage, it is a tacit implication that you are easy to manipulate; you can be controlled emotionally quite easily. I don’t really think marriage should be contracted under duress; by putting one party under pressure or in a tight spot. In the days of yore, grooms used to present goats and other things to the parents of his bride if he ‘met her at home’. But in our contemporary times, who cares for chastity nowadays? In fact, you are considered naïve if you are still a virgin. Pregnancy before marriage seems to be taking it a notch higher. Using pregnancy/child bearing as a pre-condition to marriage is quite a twisted concept of the procedures leading to marriage.
3. High Likelihood to Cheat
A man who wants you to be pregnant for him before he marries you is unlikely to value and respect you as a wife. If you consider pregnancy AFTER marriage as a virtue and you eventually compromise, he may feel you would compromise on several other things like allowing him keep a mistress or two. Afterall, when you could take a stance before marriage you didn’t. It will now be too late to start taking stances when a man knows that all he has to say is JUMP and you ask how high.
What about Ladies, who don’t mind going the whole nine yards?
And yes, there are hundreds, probably tens of thousands of ladies in our society who don’t think there is anything cynical and inappropriate about getting pregnant before marriage. In fact they think this is one of the best ways to trap a guy whom they have been dreaming would walk them down the aisle some day. With men increasingly becoming ‘scarce’ these days, a lady got to do what she got to do, so they rationalize – taking advantage of such an opportunity would hook a husband for them. If you fall on that side of the divide, then you must be ready to bear the brunt of whatever comes out of this gun-in-the-head decision. Just before you run off thinking it is wise, have you taken time to ponder on the fact that you will be a mother someday and will not be happy if your daughter comes to say she wants to get pregnant first before marrying. That would not be laying the right and solid foundations for your children and especially your daughters. Pregnancy should not be used as a pre-condition to marriage. Ladies never you yield to that. It is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. Whoever wants you to be pregnant for him before he marries you doesn’t truly love you enough. If he truly loves you, he would not want to put you in a situation where you may have to do something you really don’t want to do. He would respect your wishes and decisions. You already know the saying that ‘love is blind’. However, it pays a great deal to go into marriage with your eyes and full senses intact.
Just then you would have saved yourself the tales of woes. Ladies, please look before you leap.

"It Hurts When I See Priest, Nun With The Latest Model of Car"

Pope Francis said it pained him to see priests driving flashy cars, and told them to pick something more "humble", Saturday. 

As part of his drive to make the Catholic Church more austere and focus on the poor, Francis told young and trainee priests and nuns from around the world that having the latest smartphone or fashion accessory was not the route to happiness.
"It hurts me when I see a priest or a nun with the latest model car, you can't do this," he said.
"A car is necessary to do a lot of work, but please, choose a more humble one. If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world," he said.
The former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina that succeeded Pope Benedict in March has eschewed some of the more ostentatious trappings of his office and has chosen to live in a Vatican guest house rather than the opulent papal apartments.
The pope's car of choice for moving around the walled Vatican City was a compact Ford Focus.

Siblings hack mother to death with machete.

Two siblings have been arrested in Edo State for allegedly killing their mother.

It was learnt that Omolayo Ojeifo, 25, and her younger brother, Taiye, 20, in Lampese, Akoko-Edo Local Government, allegedly lured their mother, Itowo Ojeifo, to a farm road, where they allegedly killed her with a machete.

The elder sibling, according to reports, had been having issues with her mother, who she accused of being behind her financial stagnation.

She was said to have however apologised to her mother few days to her murder, saying she was misled into believing that her mother was responsible for her misfortune.

On the reported day the mother was killed, the suspect was said to have appealed to her to accompany her somewhere.

The victim reportedly relented after much persuasion, abandoning the cassava she was said to have been peeling, to accompany her daughter.

Itowo was said to have been led through a bush path and midway, the younger sibling brought out a machete, with which she was hacked to death.

An eyewitness was said to have rushed down to the community to report what he saw.

Confirming the incident on Sunday, Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, Moses Eguavoen, said the incident happened on July 3.

The PPRO said it was the former husband of the victim, Sunday Itowo, that made a formal report to the police on the incident.

Eguavoen said the suspects ran to Uzebba in Owan West LGA, but that covert police intelligence work led to their arrest.

He said the case will soon be transferred to the state command for further investigation.

JTF Arrests Borno ANPP Chairman Over Terror Allegations

The Joint Task Force (JTF) yesterday in the crisis ridden State Bornu confirmed that the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP) chairman Alhaji Mala Othmanis has been taken in custody heightening fear of imminent arrest of other top members of the party for alleged cooperation with the terrorrist sect Boko Haram.
Just last week a vigilante group consisting of young Bornu state indigene's had attacked Alhaji Othman but he managed to evade the youths but they however set his GRA residence on fire.
The Bornu State Governor Bakura Shettima swiftly reacted to the news stating through the state secretary of the party that the arrest was nothing more than a political motivated crackdown on ANPP.
The JTF spokesman Sagir Musa however revealed that the chairman is only being investigated But Alhaji Umar Duhu Senior Special Assistant to former Borno State governor now ANPP BOT chairman, Ali Modu Sherriff, condemned the arrest of the party chieftain. He said in Kaduna that the arrest of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) chairman in Borno State Mala Othman over ECOMOG group was condemnable.
According to him, ECOMOG was formed as a political group and has nothing to do with the Boko Haram insurgency. “The political youth wing named ECOMOG has nothing to do with Boko Haram. In fact, the ECOMOG is greatly hunted by the Boko Haram members. I can vouch for Mala Othman because he is honest, clean and God fearing and did not deserve this kind of treatment after some youth called ‘civilian JTF’ burnt down his house,” Duhu said.
However, “the JTF has arrested the chairman of the ANPP, Alhaji Mala Othman. He is in JTF’s custody undergoing interrogation. Investigation is ongoing and the press will be accordingly briefed at the end of the investigation,” Sagir said, when contacted to shed light on the arrest of the party chairman.
Othman has been the ANPP chairman right from the days of former governor Ali Modu Sheriff and observers say his arrest is a prelude to other high profile arrests over allegations on the protracted Boko Haram crisis. Duhu who is the chairman of the ANPP in Adamawa State and Vice Chairman, North-East of the yet-to-be registered APC alleged that Othman is been witch hunted by political opponents.
“God willing, the truth will come out and justice will prevail. It is just sad that people are playing politics with the security of lives and property. The action of the so-called ‘civilians JTF’ that burnt down his house must be investigated and their sponsors apprehended,” Duhu added.

Two die after inhaling generator fumes

Two men, identified simply as Kunle and Sule, have lost their lives after spending the night in their workshop with a working generator at Bola Street, Ebute Meta, Lagos State.

A commercial bus driver and a panel beater respectively, the two friends were said to have chosen to spend the night in the makeshift workshop due to a pressing business the next morning.

Their dead bodies were said to have been discovered the next morning by the owner of the workshop.

A resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “Both men worked late that Friday night and instead of going home, decided to spend the night there, possibly to finish up whatever they were doing the next day. As there was power failure that night, they put on the generator.”

PUNCH Metro gathered that the generator, which was initially kept outside, was later brought into the room, in the middle of the night when a downpour began.

The source said, “There was a downpour that Friday night. To keep the generator out of the rain, they brought it inside the room and continued sleeping. Unfortunately, no one noticed anything until the next morning, when the owner of the workshop came around and found it locked from inside.”

After raising the alarm, concerned residents were said to have broken into the workshop and discovered the lifeless bodies of the two men and the workshop filled with fumes from the still functioning generator.

A report was said to be made the at the Denton Police station, after which the bodies were said to have been recovered by policemen from the station led by the Divisional Police Officer.

“We learned that the families of both men came to claim their bodies. In fact, Kunle was taken to Ibadan and buried that same day, while Sule has been buried at Aton Cemetery,” the source said.

Chinese plane crash victims were student leaders

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GILLIAN WONG and DIDI TANG 20 minutes ago

BEIJING (AP) — The two 16-year-old girls killed in the San Francisco plane crash were close friends and top students who were on Asiana Flight 214 for the same reason: to get a taste of American education and possibly brighten their futures.
Wang Linjia showed talent in physics and calligraphy; Ye Mengyuan was a champion gymnast who excelled in literature. Both were part of a trend among affluent Chinese families willing to spend thousands of dollars to send their children to the U.S. for a few weeks in the summer to practice English and hopefully boost their chances of attending a U.S. college — considered better than China's alternatives by many Chinese families.
Wang's family was staying at a hotel when they learned that the daughter was one of the two people killed when the Boeing 777 crash-landed Saturday at San Francisco International Airport. Officials said 182 people were taken to area hospitals.
When visited by a state media reporter, Wang's mother sat on a bed, crying silently and her father sat in a chair with a blank expression, said the Youth Times, an official newspaper in the girls' home province of Zhejiang, in eastern China.
Wang's next-door neighbor, a woman surnamed Xia, described Wang as quiet, courteous and diligent.

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In this undated photo made available Monday, July 8, 2013, Ye Mengyuan, left, and Wang Linjia, right …

"She was very keen to learn. Every time she came home she would be studying. Very rarely did she go out and play," Xia was quoted as saying. She said Wang's father proudly displayed her calligraphy and art pieces on the walls of his office.
Wang and Ye were part among 29 students from the city of Jiangshan who were on board to attend a summer camp, sightsee and visit several U.S. universities in California. Parents have told Chinese state media that the 15-day trip cost each student about $5,000.
An additional 30 students from two middle schools in the central Chinese city of Taiyuan planned to visit Columbia and Harvard universities, the University of California, Berkeley, and Hollywood, Times Square and the Lincoln Memorial during their two-week, coast-to-coast itinerary.
Nearly 200,000 of Chinese students studied in the U.S. in 2011-2012, more than any other country and accounting for more than a quarter of the United States' international student population.
The number is expected to grow, and Chinese families hoping to have their children attend American colleges see such summer trips as another way to gain an edge in applications and to help with the cultural and linguistic acclimation expected of the young students once they are abroad.

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An unidentified family member of one of two Chinese students killed in an Asiana Airlines plane cras …

The popularity of these summer programs has grown significantly over the past five years, according to Alex Abrahams, the general manager of Shanghai-based Blue Sky Study, which consults families who want to send students abroad.
"It's a significant cost for someone who's earning an average salary in China," Abrahams said.
An American education has become desirable among China's growing number of middle-class families, who believe it can better prepare their children in a globalized economy, and who are less willing to put their children — often their only child — through China's cruelly competitive education system.
Yan Jiaqi, a Beijing-based education consultant who helps Chinese students apply to U.S. schools, said the summer tours mix having fun with preparing for college.
"Those kids sooner or later will go to U.S. schools, and the trip is an opportunity for them to get to know the U.S. and help them choose a university later," he said.

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An unidentified family member of one of two Chinese students killed in an Asiana Airlines plane cras …

While there are no firm figures available on how many students take these trips, the English-language China Daily reported in 2011 that more than 60,000 Chinese students planned to go to summer camps in the U.S., and the number probably has increased substantially in the past two years, according to industry insiders.
Wang and Ye were classmates at a Jiangshan school known for its students' high academic caliber, the Youth Times said. Wang was class monitor for three years, and teachers and schoolmates described her as excelling in physics and being good at calligraphy and drawing, according to the paper.
Ye also was a top student who excelled in literature, playing the piano, singing, and gymnastics. The Youth Times said Ye recently won a national gymnastics competition and routinely received honors at the school's annual speech contests.
The two girls were classmates from four years ago and became close friends, the paper said.
The girls posted their last messages on their microblog accounts Thursday and Friday. "Perhaps time can dilute the coffee in the cup, and can polish the outlines of memory," Wang wrote on her microblog Friday.

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An unidentified family member of one of two Chinese students killed in a crash of Asiana Airlines' p …

Her final message was simply the word "go."
Of the 291 passengers onboard, 141 were Chinese. At least 70 Chinese students and teachers were on the plane heading to summer camps, according to education authorities in China.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said Monday that U.S. officers are working as quickly as possible to issue visas for family members of the deceased and the injured to travel to America. The official Xinhua News Agency said the parents of Wang and Ye were to leave for the U.S. on Monday.
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Associated Press writers Louise Watt contributed to this report.

Rate Of Unemployment In Nigeria Gives Me Sleepless Nights – Okonjo-Iweala

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, has said the spate of unemployment in the country is giving her sleepless nights.

Speaking while inspecting an ultramodern Information and Communications Technology factory of Omatek Nigeria Plc in Lagos on Friday, Okonjo-Iweala said, “According to the National Bureau of Statistics, each year, about 1.8 million young Nigerians enter into our labour market and we need to ensure that our economy provides jobs for them.
“In fact, some people ask, ‘What keeps you awake at night, with regard to this economy?’ I say it is the issue of job creation. And I know this is what keeps Mr. President awake at night as well.
“That is why we have responded to the challenge of creating jobs by trying to transform several sectors of the economy; from agriculture, where we’re expecting to create 3.5 million jobs and where the progress of reaching our goal of feeding this country is already well advanced.”
The minister said Nigeria lacked institutions on which to build its developmental programmes.
“When you look at Nigeria, for over 50 to 60 years, we’ve been working without the key institutions that some other people have. We keep making stopgap solutions. For 50 years, we didn’t have a Bureau for Public Procurement; for 50 years, we didn’t have a Debt Management Office.
“So many of the institutions that we have now are new and if you stand back, you’ll see there are still many gaps. It is now our job to try to fill those gaps.”
The minister said the Federal Government was putting in place more initiatives to encourage small and medium scale enterprises
She noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria had put in place a N200bn guaranty fund for SME’s to access bank loans.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “Let me mention that the Minister of Information and Communications technology has started a Venture Capital Fund with about $15m, which is being financed by the government and other donors.
“The idea behind it is to help support innovative enterprises in the field of ICT. This is designed to lift up some of the young people in Computer Village doing all sorts of innovations.”
She asked investors to encourage public investment in their businesses and to list their companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The minister said the capital market had been revamped to allow the listing of SMEs through the Alternative Securities Market.
According to her, the platform has made it easier for SMEs to list their companies and to raise additional resources from the capital market.
She added that there were advisers to help small scale investors meet their listing requirements and to help them on how to get listed.
The minister, who described the stock market as a challenging one due to “infrastructural bottlenecks,” said in spite of the challenges, companies had kept growing and maintained high quality standards.
She noted that ICT remained one of the main platforms for the creation of jobs, adding that e-commerce was striving in Nigeria, while more companies were carrying out transactions online.

Rate Of Unemployment In Nigeria Gives Me Sleepless Nights – Okonjo-Iweala

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, has said the spate of unemployment in the country is giving her sleepless nights.

Speaking while inspecting an ultramodern Information and Communications Technology factory of Omatek Nigeria Plc in Lagos on Friday, Okonjo-Iweala said, “According to the National Bureau of Statistics, each year, about 1.8 million young Nigerians enter into our labour market and we need to ensure that our economy provides jobs for them.
“In fact, some people ask, ‘What keeps you awake at night, with regard to this economy?’ I say it is the issue of job creation. And I know this is what keeps Mr. President awake at night as well.
“That is why we have responded to the challenge of creating jobs by trying to transform several sectors of the economy; from agriculture, where we’re expecting to create 3.5 million jobs and where the progress of reaching our goal of feeding this country is already well advanced.”
The minister said Nigeria lacked institutions on which to build its developmental programmes.
“When you look at Nigeria, for over 50 to 60 years, we’ve been working without the key institutions that some other people have. We keep making stopgap solutions. For 50 years, we didn’t have a Bureau for Public Procurement; for 50 years, we didn’t have a Debt Management Office.
“So many of the institutions that we have now are new and if you stand back, you’ll see there are still many gaps. It is now our job to try to fill those gaps.”
The minister said the Federal Government was putting in place more initiatives to encourage small and medium scale enterprises
She noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria had put in place a N200bn guaranty fund for SME’s to access bank loans.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “Let me mention that the Minister of Information and Communications technology has started a Venture Capital Fund with about $15m, which is being financed by the government and other donors.
“The idea behind it is to help support innovative enterprises in the field of ICT. This is designed to lift up some of the young people in Computer Village doing all sorts of innovations.”
She asked investors to encourage public investment in their businesses and to list their companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The minister said the capital market had been revamped to allow the listing of SMEs through the Alternative Securities Market.
According to her, the platform has made it easier for SMEs to list their companies and to raise additional resources from the capital market.
She added that there were advisers to help small scale investors meet their listing requirements and to help them on how to get listed.
The minister, who described the stock market as a challenging one due to “infrastructural bottlenecks,” said in spite of the challenges, companies had kept growing and maintained high quality standards.
She noted that ICT remained one of the main platforms for the creation of jobs, adding that e-commerce was striving in Nigeria, while more companies were carrying out transactions online.

Rate Of Unemployment In Nigeria Gives Me Sleepless Nights – Okonjo-Iweala

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, has said the spate of unemployment in the country is giving her sleepless nights.

Speaking while inspecting an ultramodern Information and Communications Technology factory of Omatek Nigeria Plc in Lagos on Friday, Okonjo-Iweala said, “According to the National Bureau of Statistics, each year, about 1.8 million young Nigerians enter into our labour market and we need to ensure that our economy provides jobs for them.
“In fact, some people ask, ‘What keeps you awake at night, with regard to this economy?’ I say it is the issue of job creation. And I know this is what keeps Mr. President awake at night as well.
“That is why we have responded to the challenge of creating jobs by trying to transform several sectors of the economy; from agriculture, where we’re expecting to create 3.5 million jobs and where the progress of reaching our goal of feeding this country is already well advanced.”
The minister said Nigeria lacked institutions on which to build its developmental programmes.
“When you look at Nigeria, for over 50 to 60 years, we’ve been working without the key institutions that some other people have. We keep making stopgap solutions. For 50 years, we didn’t have a Bureau for Public Procurement; for 50 years, we didn’t have a Debt Management Office.
“So many of the institutions that we have now are new and if you stand back, you’ll see there are still many gaps. It is now our job to try to fill those gaps.”
The minister said the Federal Government was putting in place more initiatives to encourage small and medium scale enterprises
She noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria had put in place a N200bn guaranty fund for SME’s to access bank loans.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “Let me mention that the Minister of Information and Communications technology has started a Venture Capital Fund with about $15m, which is being financed by the government and other donors.
“The idea behind it is to help support innovative enterprises in the field of ICT. This is designed to lift up some of the young people in Computer Village doing all sorts of innovations.”
She asked investors to encourage public investment in their businesses and to list their companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The minister said the capital market had been revamped to allow the listing of SMEs through the Alternative Securities Market.
According to her, the platform has made it easier for SMEs to list their companies and to raise additional resources from the capital market.
She added that there were advisers to help small scale investors meet their listing requirements and to help them on how to get listed.
The minister, who described the stock market as a challenging one due to “infrastructural bottlenecks,” said in spite of the challenges, companies had kept growing and maintained high quality standards.
She noted that ICT remained one of the main platforms for the creation of jobs, adding that e-commerce was striving in Nigeria, while more companies were carrying out transactions online.

Nigerian church leaders react to John and Love Kumuyi's suspension

The son of the General-Superintendent of Deeper Life, Pastor William Kumuyi, was suspended after his wife wore a wedding dress the church termed 'inappropriate'. If you missed it, read the story here

Church leaders are now reacting to the suspension of John and Love Kumuyi, calling it hypocritical. The General Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare said:

“I personally did not see what they have done wrong. A man is entitled to his own authority in his own home.1st Peter Chapter 3. A wife should dress to please the husband and not the members of the church or public. It’s sheer wickedness to the couple, they should leave them to enjoy their honeymoon. They should not squeeze them to the modus operandi of a particular organization. I did not see anything wrong in the wedding. The bride was not naked or dressed inappropriately and  the groom didn’t. Esther the queen was beautifully dressed in the bible to gain the king’s attention. They should not make mountain out of a molehill. I was in the Deeper Life Bible Church for five years and nobody compelled me to dress the way I dressed. My wife was with me in the church though we weren’t married then. She wears earrings and dresses nicely. All this talk about this couple should stop.”

The General Overseer of the Royal Family Life Ministry, Pastor Sam Segun-Progress said:

"Dressing in any way does not affect the faith of any individual. Putting on earrings and making up do not by any way mean sinful acts. It’s not against Christian faith to dress the way the woman dressed. But it was actually against the doctrine of Deeper Life Bible Church, and since the church is not the Kingdom of God, the couple should be allowed to do that which pleases them and their belief.”

“There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. For any church leader to condemn a member contravenes the standard of the scripture, which is the symbol of our Christian faith. The doctrine of any church has nothing to do with the kingdom of God. Every individual should be allowed to do that which pleases his faith.

"I would have appreciated it better if this affected couple were just disciplined within the church and were not suspended. The suspension of the two notable members of the church is capable of sending them out of the church and Christianity totally.

"All I can deduce from what happened in the Deeper Life Bible Church is hypocrisy and this is not too good for our churches and the church leaders. I will urge the leadership of Deeper Life Bible Church to read the book of Exodus and see what God says about hypocrisy. The development in the church was a bad omen for the body of Christ and did not portray the church well before the public, especially the non-Christians.”

Kumuyi’s son suspended over his bride's wedding dress: what do you think?

By now most of you must have heard about what's going on at the Deeper Christian Life Ministry but just in case you haven't heard/read any of it, let me summarize it.

The second son of the General-Superintendent of Deeper Life Pastor William Kumuyi got married on June 15th in Jamaica to a lady named Love Odih. A day later, photos from the wedding flooded the internet - and that was when trouble started.

The bride was accused of breaking the church's conservative dressing rules by wearing make-up, a fitted wedding dress, with see-through sleeves. (bride and groom pictured above. The photo on the right is the appropriate way to dress in the church).

Now, John and Love Kumuyi have been suspended by the leadership of the church for this despite the fact that the couple tendered an apology letter to the church. Continue...

The couple said:

“We unreservedly and wholeheartedly state that we did not intend that our acts or omissions will, in any way, undermine the great works that God has done through the Deeper Christian Life Ministry worldwide and  more especially, through our Father in the Lord, the General Superintendent.We also use this medium to profusely and sincerely apologise to the General Superintendent for the embarrassment and heartaches our actions have caused him, more so that he had earlier declined to be at the events.”

But the church wasn't having any of that (Here's where you ask 'what would Jesus do?) they still went ahead and suspended the couple from carrying out any activity in the church - an instruction that came from the GS himself, Pastor William Kumuyi. The church said:

“The church, Deeper Life, remains committed to the biblical practice and standard of almost 40 years Christian dressing and still remains and does not compromise on biblical Christian dressing. Hence, deviation warrants the displeasure and frown of God and the leadership of the church. John and Love are now under discipline"

My problem with this is - You preach forgiveness but can't practice it! What do you guys think?

Kumuyi’s son suspended over his bride's wedding dress: what do you think?

By now most of you must have heard about what's going on at the Deeper Christian Life Ministry but just in case you haven't heard/read any of it, let me summarize it.

The second son of the General-Superintendent of Deeper Life Pastor William Kumuyi got married on June 15th in Jamaica to a lady named Love Odih. A day later, photos from the wedding flooded the internet - and that was when trouble started.

The bride was accused of breaking the church's conservative dressing rules by wearing make-up, a fitted wedding dress, with see-through sleeves. (bride and groom pictured above. The photo on the right is the appropriate way to dress in the church).

Now, John and Love Kumuyi have been suspended by the leadership of the church for this despite the fact that the couple tendered an apology letter to the church. Continue...

The couple said:

“We unreservedly and wholeheartedly state that we did not intend that our acts or omissions will, in any way, undermine the great works that God has done through the Deeper Christian Life Ministry worldwide and  more especially, through our Father in the Lord, the General Superintendent.We also use this medium to profusely and sincerely apologise to the General Superintendent for the embarrassment and heartaches our actions have caused him, more so that he had earlier declined to be at the events.”

But the church wasn't having any of that (Here's where you ask 'what would Jesus do?) they still went ahead and suspended the couple from carrying out any activity in the church - an instruction that came from the GS himself, Pastor William Kumuyi. The church said:

“The church, Deeper Life, remains committed to the biblical practice and standard of almost 40 years Christian dressing and still remains and does not compromise on biblical Christian dressing. Hence, deviation warrants the displeasure and frown of God and the leadership of the church. John and Love are now under discipline"

My problem with this is - You preach forgiveness but can't practice it! What do you guys think?

Yobe State Shuts Down All Secondary Schools Following The Gruesome Murder Of Over 20 Students

The Yobe state government yesterday has ordered the closure of all secondary schools after a massacre that saw suspected Islamist extremists kill over 20 students in a gun and bomb attack on a boarding school.

The governor directed that all secondary schools in the state be closed down from today, Monday 8th July 2013 until a new academic session begins in September.

Meanwhile Senate President David Mark has also condemned the act. Read what he said after the cut.


“Even in war situations, children and women are protected. Killing children is akin to cutting down the future of a people.“This is inhuman, barbaric and unacceptable to any right-thinking member of the society.“For no reason, the lives of these promising children were needlessly cut down by the heartless people. This cannot be a way of life; enough of this bloodshed’’.

Mark quoted some verses from the Holy Bible to buttress his argument that children deserved protection under any circumstances whatsoever.“Mathew 18: 10 states `take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for in heaven their angels always behold the face of my father which is in heaven.“Mark 9:42 states `whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him hat a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea.

’’Mark, however, appealed to the security agencies to step up their surveillance and monitoring activities to halt the trend and bring the perpetrators to justice.The senate president gave the assurance that the National Assembly would continue to give priority attention to budgetary allocations to the security agencies to enable them to carry out their duties without hitches.

LUTH acquires scanner that detects death in 10 seconds

Lagos University Teaching Hospital LUTH said they have acquired a CT scan equipment that has the capacity to run a check on all organs of the body, from head to toe in less than 10 seconds and fish out a patients death points for immediate treatment. The machine, called the 128-slice Aquillon CT scanner is the first of it's kind in West Africa.

Speaking on the machine, the Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Professor Akin Osibogun told Nigerian Tribune: 

"The Aquillon CT scanner is a 128-scanner and the main advantage it has over other CT scanners of earlier generations is its ability to penetrate deeper into the tissues and organs to show clearly the state of those tissues and organs. Of course the CT scanner is an imaging device and because it is able to provide images of tissues and organs inside the body. We are able to see the state in which those tissues and organs are and we are able to make diagnosis that help us to provide appropriate treatment for the patients.

"Earlier generations CT scanners are of course far better in terms of diagnostic capability than the x-ray because they provide clearer definitions than the x-ray but moving to a 128-slice CT scanner, in fact, that it is in terms of where current knowledge is, with regards to ability to get clearer images of tissues and organs that are internal to the body and therefore we are able to make better diagnosis. A further advantage of the 128-CT scanner is its speed with which it works and that means it is able to capture parts of the body that are in motion.

“So the Aquillon CT scanner is a very fast machine, able to pick items in motion and that advantage enables us now to study even the heart as it is beating and as it is pumping out blood, so we are able to study the arteries, the veins as the blood flow through them, so if there is a thin blockage or a blockage is developing, the scanner is able to pick it.”

“So in coronary heart disease for instance, the scanner is a vast advantage over other imaging devices because we are able to pick them up early and we can then advise that patient on dietary changes or whatever changes that are necessary and if you have the capability, you can actually combine it with what we called interventional cardiology.

“You can remove small plague or small particles that are already forming on the way. It is just simply by introducing a catheter, you guide the catheter under the imaging device and go to where you want to go and remove what you want to remove, without opening the chest. The CT scanner can be combined to some extent with the interventional cardiology which we would introduce at a latter point. At this point because we just acquired the equipment, we will be using it largely for diagnostic methods to pick disease conditions and do that in a more precise manner.”

Commenting about possible kidney transplant in Nigeria, LUTH Chief MD said that the procedure was possible at the hospital with just N3 million but the donor must be a relative of the patient.

“Maybe if you help us make that public, that all they need to do, is to bring a relative who is willing to donate kidneys to them and with N3 million, we work them up, carry out the transplant and follow them up” he stated

Plane carrying 307 people crash at San Francisco Airport

Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 carrying 307 people (291 passengers and 16 crew members) and flying from Seoul, South Korea to the US crashed and burst into flames as it came to land at San Francisco International Airport yesterday morning Saturday July 6th.

Of the 307 passengers, only two died. The victims have been identified as Chinese school girls, 16 year old Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia. Their bodies were found on the runway after the tail of the plane. The two girls were part of a group of 29 students and five teachers who were on a class trip to the US. They were all seated near the back of the plane when it crashed during landing.

180 people suffered various injuries, five people, including two children have been listed in critical condition.

Of the 307 passengers, 41 of the were Chinese, 77 were South Korean, 61 were Americans and 1 was Japanese. See more photos from the plane crash after the cut...

 

Pastor's Wife Goes Braless

Meagan is reportedly married to Pastor Devon Franklin, who she was said to have dated for 10 months before tying the knot. At that time, she also revealed she was remaining celibate before they officially became husband and wife.
Although she was not raised in the church, Good says she is a Christian and considers herself very spiritual and has said many times that she will not do roles that she feels disrespects God and that Jesus is her hero.
But when she stepped out at the 2013 BET Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, the 31-year-old actress flaunted her cleavage in a plunging blue gown.

Dana Crash: The Anyenes speaks out on why they Reject Compensation, Urge Reform

The Anyenes, which lost almost a whole family, six members and three in-laws, on June 3, 2012 in Dane plane crash, met again on Saturday and resolved not to negotiate for any financial compensation from the airline for their loss.
The family members came to Lagos to hold first year memorial lecture and service of songs in honour of victims from the family.
Spokesperson of the family, Christian Anyene, who is a New York medical doctor, said the family’s interest was beyond financial compensation.
Anyene said, “Keeping the family together within the last one year was tough, but as children of a catechist in the Catholic Church, we were determined to move on. It was rough but we were resolute in our decision.
“The Anyene family wishes not to deal with Dana Air to negotiate any compensation. We lost a whole family and money will not bring them back.”
Christian claimed the family would rather appeal to the Federal Government to show interest in the life of air passengers.
“We will prefer that the government erects functional air safety measures so that no family will suffer such a painful loss again in Nigeria. To honour more than 150 victims of the crash, government should show more interest in the safety of those who choose to fly.”
Onyeka’s mother had to be taken away from the event as she broke down in tears a few minutes after entering the venue. Hovewer, Christian insisted that the family members were putting the grief behind them.
He stated, “I’m quite glad that we are at this stage. A year ago, we were depressed, we cried and grieved for months.
“Today, We have out sad event behind us. We remember the successful life that my brother, Onyeka, his wife, Maimuna and their four children lived. They used their God-given gift to help many others and that is what we remember them for a year after their demise.
“When he was leaving Connecticut, US for Nigeria, I went to the house and picked the whole family and our in-laws to the airport, I never knew that I was seeing them for the last time. A week later, they were all gone.
“When Onyeka was born as twins, the civil war had just started in Nigeria and I helped in taking care of him and the twin sister because our father was posted away from where we lived. He was an active boy in his youth and his brilliance earned him success in the short life he lived.”
Onyeka’s aunt, wife of the former Vice President of Nigeria, Alex Ekweme, Beatrice, said it was important to recognise the positives in the lives of the victims.
Beatrice said, “I was in Onyeka’s house when I heard the news. We were waiting for his arrival but instead of welcoming him, we heard of the tragic news of his death and that of other members of the family. It’s a day we wish to put behind us.”

Chinese lovers fall to their deaths while making love by window

Couple who met their death while having Hot! sex. 

This is a bizarre story but according to The Sun UK, it really happened in the city of Wuhan in China

A couple are believed to have fallen to their deaths when a window they were having sex against gave way. The horrific accident allegedly happened in China when the glass pane shattered.

The tragic man and woman are then understood to have hurtled to their deaths. Eyewitnesses said the couple both fell to the ground as they clinched on to each other.

A source in China said: “With the two of them holding each other tight, they fell out of the building”. Shocking photos in China appear to show the couple on the ground under sheets. Blood is splattered near their bodies on the pavement.

Medical staff and what appear to be police officers can also be seen examining the scene. The man and woman are thought to have fallen out of an apartment in the city of Wuhan, central China.

Oil thefts threaten Nigeria's economy, environment

www.millenniumblogs.com

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JON GAMBRELL 37 minutes ago Society

DIEBU, Nigeria (AP) — The first drops of crude float in the languid muddy currents of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, then slowly grow into the splatter of a massive crime scene.
Oil thefts, long a problem in the Niger Delta, are growing at an ever-faster rate despite government officials and international companies offering increasingly dire warnings about the effect on Nigeria's crude production. Some 200,000 barrels a day — representing about 10 percent of Nigeria's production — are siphoned off pipelines crisscrossing the region.
While drums end up leaking in villages and used to make crude kerosene and gasoline, the major thieves appear to belong to international criminal gangs that sell it into world markets, analysts and experts say. And the same Nigerian politicians and military leaders now targeting the small-scale local refineries that dot the delta likely are the ones benefiting from those massive thefts.
"This oil that you are buying is bought is the same thing" as blood diamonds, said Patrick Dele Cole, a former Nigerian ambassador now spearheading a group trying to call attention to the thefts. "It is bought at the expense of people's blood in the Niger Delta."
Oil is the lifeblood of Nigeria's economy. Since the company that would become Royal Dutch Shell PLC discovered the first commercially viable well in 1956, oil earnings grew to account for some 80 percent of all government revenue in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people. While corruption sees much of that money frittered away, it still provides needed funding for projects in the country.

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In this photo taken Saturday, May 18, 2013, men walk past an abandoned illegal refinery at the creek …

A government-sponsored amnesty program largely halted militant attacks in the delta in 2009, allowing production levels to return to more than 2 million barrels of oil a day. But while production grew amid the relative peace, the level of thefts grew quietly and quickly across the region of winding creeks and mangroves about the size of Portugal.
Locals call the practices "bunkering," which sees thieves use hacksaws and blades to cut into the pipes. When the companies see the pressure drop on their lines, they dial back the pressure on the lines just long enough for thieves to attach spigots to the lines. As the pressure rises back up, the thieves simply divert some of the oil out of the line to their own uses.
In Diebu, a village in Bayelsa state, the home of President Goodluck Jonathan, children ran and played around leaking drums of stolen crude oil. The crude likely came from lines run by Shell and Italian oil company Eni SpA, though residents there demanded money from visiting journalists to see the sites of the thefts. Many here view the thefts as their opportunity to have a taste of a commodity that built Nigeria's sterile central capital of Abuja, a city of gleaming towers and massive highways. In Diebu, the locals pointed out a large clinic of empty rooms without medicine and a local doctor's quarters that appeared to have squatters inside. The dilapitated schools had large holes where windows were supposed to be.
Amid the neglect, locals rationalize the thefts with a simple question: If governors, politicians and everyone else stole the money, why shouldn't they steal a taste as well?
"We are bleeding," said one man working at a nearby illegal oil refinery, who gave his first name as Prince. "We need this one to balance out our life."

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In this photo taken Saturday, May 18, 2013, an abandoned illegal refinery is seen at the creeks of B …

But that balance comes at an environmental cost as well. Operations at local refineries, which produce crude gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel, see oil spilled everywhere, soaking the ground into a mix of mud and crude that can swallow a leg up to the knee. Large dug-in pits hold the crude until it passes through makeshift piping to create fuels sometimes so volatile they can explode at will. Massive fires that send plumes of smoke towering into the air fuel the process.
"It is the only job we are doing," said an illegal refiner who gave his name as Ibeci. "There is no other job."
Nigeria's military, which maintains a presence in the delta since the militant attacks, has begun targeting illegal refineries in the region. Local refiners like Ibeci say they now work only at night, as the smoke plumes draw soldiers to their operations during the day.
The military claims to have dismantled dozens of such illegal refineries, though Associated Press journalists in the region in May came across multiple sites where the ground was still warm from refining the night before. Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, a military spokesman for the region, declined several interview requests regarding the military's efforts in the region.
But as Nigeria's government focuses on illegal refineries, Cole said the vast majority of the thefts actually see the oil taken out of the country into eastern Europe, South America and Asia for sale. Cole's organization, which received initial seed money from Shell and later received support from the Dutch government, wants there to be stricter monitoring of oil entering international markets, as well as testing done to ensure that such stolen crude can't be slipped into the system.

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In this photo taken Saturday, May 18, 2013, oil partly fill containers at the abandoned illegal refi …

However, he acknowledges the true challenge facing the effort: Those supporting the thefts include Nigeria's military and the nation's political elite.
"There must be some kind of collusion," Cole said. "The whole thing started really because of the political need to raise a lot of money during the elections. The whole idea of selling oil illegally was sponsored and maintained by our political leaders. There is no doubt about that."
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Online:
Stop the Theft: www.stopthetheftng.com

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In this photo taken Saturday, May 18, 2013, children plays outside a house at the creeks of Bayelsa, …

Nigerian Navy's website against oil theft: www.cot.navy.mil.ng
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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .