Thursday, February 28, 2013
Video - Bill Clinton says Nigeria among 10 most important countries in the world
Former U.S President, Bill Clinton has said that Nigeria is among the 10 most important countries in the world.
Clinton, who was speaking on Tuesday in Abeokuta as part of an awards ceremony put on by ThisDay newspaper and its flamboyant publisher Nduka Obaigbena, who has invited the former president several times to Nigeria, said it would be difficult to imagine how the world be if Nigeria fails.
"I made a list of the 10 important countries in the world for the 21st century and Nigeria is on the list," the former president said.
He listed three big challenges that Nigeria must overcome for it to actualize its potentials.
Related story: Bill Clinton lists challenges for Nigeria
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Bill Clinton lists challenges for Nigeria
The former US president, who was speaking at the 18th Annual Awards of Thisday newspaper, organised to celebrate Nigeria's best teachers, further tasked Nigerian leaders to tackle unemployment, brain-drain and to maximise the potential of the citizens.
The 42nd American President, who spoke in the presence of former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, his counterpart in Delta, Emmanuel Uduaghan and other notable Nigerians, said Nigerian leaders mismanaged the proceeds from oil, under-utilised technology and failed to retain its best brains.
Clinton said: "When I became President, my Secretary of Commerce did a lot of work in Africa before he was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1995.
"I said he should make a list of 10 most important countries in the world for the 21st century. Nigeria was in the list.
"Imagine the future of the entire continent if Nigeria fails or South Africa fails. So, you are a country of potential. I will say you have about three big challenges.
Oil money, economic distribution, brain-drain
"First of all, like 90 percent of the countries, which have one big resource, you haven't done well with your oil money. You should have reinvested it in different ways. Now you are at least not wasting the natural gas. You are developing it in pipelines but you don't do a better job of managing natural resources.
"Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don't have. This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. Almost in every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas.
"So you have all these political problems: violence, religious differences, and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram.
"But the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area. To deal with that, you have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together.
"As you keep trying to divide the power, you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help in sharing prosperity.
"The third thing is there has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organisational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here, so that the country as a whole can rise.
"One of the people on my trip with me today, who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go and visit his family, is a young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all pro-quarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles.
"He's a wonderful man; he does great work in America for poor kids in Arkansas City and he became a friend of mine.
"Both his parents have PhDs. His sister has a PhD. He often says 'I'm the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.'
"My point is: there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world. What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success encourages others in the country.
Solutions
"So, I think solving the economic divide that is in your country will help the political divide; making better use of your resources.
"Nigeria is trying to set up an investment fund where the Federal Government will set it up and the governors are being consulted so that they can concentrate the capital. That is the problem in India.
"They have unbelievable entrepreneurs but they are not very good at collecting capital and investing it in infrastructure so that they can unite the poor part of the country with the rich part. That's what you have to do. And then, you have to empower people with education so they can succeed at home as well as around the world."
Speaking on the essence of education, Clinton said: "I have to explain that education is more important in dealing with the challenges facing Nigeria. On the continent and the entire world, we are living a revolutionary time, full of positive and negative forces.
"The information technology is good for people who can take advantage of it. I see this all over the world. Cell phones give farmers the access to information about crop prices and fish prices in Africa and Asia.
"It increases their income by reducing their ignorance. It is empowerment. People are using cell phones to have banking services for the first time.
"I see it even in the United States where people who thought they have no money to help others donate a billion dollars to Haiti during the earthquake because ordinary citizens use their cell phones to make transfer to an account and they had a billion dollars.
Education, globalisation
"It is an age where if we are sufficiently educated we can be empowered but with enormous challenges. First of all, with all of these new opportunities which technology had given us, we have not yet succeeded in automatically reducing poverty and inequality of opportunity in accessing education and health care.
"It is a global phenomenon. If we really want to take advantage of education, empowerment and information technology, we have to tackle this problem. The second problem we have in the world is instability as we all know.
"We have to stop this problem. One major problem of unemployment is this instability all over the world. We have not yet solved the problem of how to embrace our potential and common humanity.
"And until we do this, the globalisation of the economy, the globalisation of the society for information technology will continue to face serious trouble. We have to deal with how to maximise the capacity of all the people through education.
"We have to find a way through education, through the information technology revolution to change the way we produce and consume energy and to change the way we use local resources in a way that sustains them.
"We have to know how to do this and do it right. And in every case, education will play a major role whether in developed or developing countries. We need intelligent people to take a new way to challenge themselves.
"There is a lot of work to be done but we cannot ever neglect the role of education. So I want to end my remarks by saying two things. Every year at the opening of the United Nations, I sponsor a meeting where we invite the global leaders to come.
"We actually ask people to make a commitment to do something and we are all making progress."
Obaigbena speaks
Speaking earlier, Editor-in-Chief and Chairman, Thisday, Nduka Obaigbena explained that the choice of Abeokuta as the venue for the 18th edition of the award was made by Clinton due to the presence of Presidential Library.
According to him, Delta, Port Harcourt and Abeokuta were the options presented to Clinton as the venue before Abeokuta was chosen by the ex-American President.
He eulogised eminent media personalities present, including former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Chairman and Publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka, among others.
Obaighena disclosed that 15 best teachers were selected by a panel headed by Vice President World Bank (Africa) and former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, from 700 nominees.
Awardees
Those who bagged the Builder of Modern Nigeria awards were Oba Otudeko; professor of musicology, Laz Ekwueme; deposed Sultan, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki; Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, and Chief Rasak Okoya.
The 15 best teachers, who received N2 million each, were Mrs Victoria Jolayemi, Mrs Dorothy Ugwu and Mrs Christie Ade-Ajayi, for primary school category.
For secondary category, Rev. Father Angus Frazer, Chief D.B.E. Ossai, Mrs Yakubu Dimka, Chief Reuben Majekodunmi, Chief Dotun Oyewole, Mrs. John O. B. Adeaga, Mr. Bawa Mohammed Faskari and Hadiza Thani Muhammed were honoured as best teachers.
In the universities category, Prof. Iya Abubakar, Prof. Frank Ugiomoh, Prof. Michael Obadan and Prof. Eunice Nkiruka Uzodike, were given award.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Video - Manhunt in Nigeria for kidnappers of French family
Security forces in Nigeria say they've launched a 'massive manhunt' for the kidnappers of a French family of seven. It's believed they were taken to Nigeria, after being kidnapped in Cameroon this week.
Related stories: Video - Seven foreign workers kidnapped in Nigeria
Nigerian fraudster on FBI most wanted list caught
A notorious US born Nigerian fraudster who was placed on the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 'Most Wanted list' has been captured after eluding authorities for over four years.
Mr. Tobechukwu Enyinna Onwuhara, 33, described as 'a criminal mind' by the FBI for stealing $44 million dollars from US banks using sophisticated methods, including stealing bank customers' personal information, Home Equity Lines of Credit details and account numbers, was nabbed in far away Australia.
FBI had previously explained how the conman escaped arrest in the state of Florida and went underground afterwards.
Although, FBI did not say how and when Onwuhara was captured, a mug shot of the scammer on its website listed him as 'captured.'
FBI agents say Onwuhara was born in Houston and sent to live with his wealthy Nigerian father, Prince Doris Onwuhara who the Bureau say is a 'well-known con man who made a fortune from the notorious Nigerian 419 scheme' before returning to the United States when he reached his teenage years in 1999.
Having settled in the southern state of Texas, he got a job with US lender, Capital One Financial Corporation where authorities believe he gained insider knowledge on how to work the US financial system.
His first brush with the law happened in April 2002 when he was arrested by Lewisville city police in Lewisville, Texas after police got a tipoff that he may be using stolen identification to steal money from credit card accounts. When police raided his apartment, they found stolen credit card account numbers, fake driver's licenses and materials used to forge identification.
Same year in December in the western state of Seattle, FBI said 'Onwuhara walked into a local bank and tried to max out the cash withdrawal limit on a stolen credit card' but fled the bank when he sensed trouble. He was said to have jumped into a waiting car driven by a friend of his, Abel Nnabue and they led Seattle police on a high-speed chase but were eventually caught when they tried to flee on foot.
Both men were charged, convicted and sentenced to two years in a Seattle prison but spent only eight months of their sentence for good behaviour.
After their release, they relocated to Texas and went low for a while until sometime in 2005 when the real estate market was at an all time high and Home Equity Lines Of Credit loans became available. Though it was harder to steal from Home Equity Lines of Credit, Onwuhara and his co-conspirators found a way around it.
FBI say Onwuhara painstakingly researched home owners credit reports to see if they opened home lines of credit accounts and how much they had available. At this time in the real estate market, it was very common to find homeowners with $300, 000 - $ 400, 000 in home equity.
Onwuhara impersonated such homeowners after learning their passwords and home phone numbers through extensive research.
The Nigerian acquired multiple prepaid phone lines and wireless internet cards to prevent anyone from successfully tracing their numbers. He then also signed up to a spoofing service which allowed a home owner's number appear on the bank representative's caller ID when he called a bank to request a wire transfer from the account to a home owner's regular checking account before the funds are eventually wired to accounts in Asia and then the monies would go to a Hawala in Africa.
'Hawalas' are funds transfer systems that are not regulated instead, they operate on trust. 'Brokers or Hawalanders would take a cut and then transfer the money to an African Bank, eventually returning to a US bank,' according to America's Most Wanted.
Most of the funds returning to the United States came through accounts belonging to Precious Matthews or one of the other conspirators.
Investigators say Onwuhara made most of the calls himself but when an account belonged to a female, he would get his girlfriend, Precious Matthews to make the call while other co-conspirators would be delegated other duties including finding new home owners with equity in their homes.
According to FBI records, Onwuhara and his crew had stolen more than $20 million dollars before the bureau were notified of the scam and by the time the FBI penetrated their well-organized syndicate and learned their identity, they had stolen an additional $20 million dollars.
Mr. Tobechukwu Enyinna Onwuhara, 33, described as 'a criminal mind' by the FBI for stealing $44 million dollars from US banks using sophisticated methods, including stealing bank customers' personal information, Home Equity Lines of Credit details and account numbers, was nabbed in far away Australia.
FBI had previously explained how the conman escaped arrest in the state of Florida and went underground afterwards.
Although, FBI did not say how and when Onwuhara was captured, a mug shot of the scammer on its website listed him as 'captured.'
FBI agents say Onwuhara was born in Houston and sent to live with his wealthy Nigerian father, Prince Doris Onwuhara who the Bureau say is a 'well-known con man who made a fortune from the notorious Nigerian 419 scheme' before returning to the United States when he reached his teenage years in 1999.
Having settled in the southern state of Texas, he got a job with US lender, Capital One Financial Corporation where authorities believe he gained insider knowledge on how to work the US financial system.
His first brush with the law happened in April 2002 when he was arrested by Lewisville city police in Lewisville, Texas after police got a tipoff that he may be using stolen identification to steal money from credit card accounts. When police raided his apartment, they found stolen credit card account numbers, fake driver's licenses and materials used to forge identification.
Same year in December in the western state of Seattle, FBI said 'Onwuhara walked into a local bank and tried to max out the cash withdrawal limit on a stolen credit card' but fled the bank when he sensed trouble. He was said to have jumped into a waiting car driven by a friend of his, Abel Nnabue and they led Seattle police on a high-speed chase but were eventually caught when they tried to flee on foot.
Both men were charged, convicted and sentenced to two years in a Seattle prison but spent only eight months of their sentence for good behaviour.
After their release, they relocated to Texas and went low for a while until sometime in 2005 when the real estate market was at an all time high and Home Equity Lines Of Credit loans became available. Though it was harder to steal from Home Equity Lines of Credit, Onwuhara and his co-conspirators found a way around it.
FBI say Onwuhara painstakingly researched home owners credit reports to see if they opened home lines of credit accounts and how much they had available. At this time in the real estate market, it was very common to find homeowners with $300, 000 - $ 400, 000 in home equity.
Onwuhara impersonated such homeowners after learning their passwords and home phone numbers through extensive research.
The Nigerian acquired multiple prepaid phone lines and wireless internet cards to prevent anyone from successfully tracing their numbers. He then also signed up to a spoofing service which allowed a home owner's number appear on the bank representative's caller ID when he called a bank to request a wire transfer from the account to a home owner's regular checking account before the funds are eventually wired to accounts in Asia and then the monies would go to a Hawala in Africa.
'Hawalas' are funds transfer systems that are not regulated instead, they operate on trust. 'Brokers or Hawalanders would take a cut and then transfer the money to an African Bank, eventually returning to a US bank,' according to America's Most Wanted.
Most of the funds returning to the United States came through accounts belonging to Precious Matthews or one of the other conspirators.
Investigators say Onwuhara made most of the calls himself but when an account belonged to a female, he would get his girlfriend, Precious Matthews to make the call while other co-conspirators would be delegated other duties including finding new home owners with equity in their homes.
According to FBI records, Onwuhara and his crew had stolen more than $20 million dollars before the bureau were notified of the scam and by the time the FBI penetrated their well-organized syndicate and learned their identity, they had stolen an additional $20 million dollars.
Related stories: Nigerian native Adekunle Adetiloye given 18 years in jail for one of the most sophisticated fraud schemes in U.S. history
Monday, February 25, 2013
Nigeria donates to Mali
Nigeria yesterday in Bamako handed over a total of 1010 tons of assorted relief materials to Malian government in aid for internally displaced persons and those in need in northern Mali as a result of ongoing armed conflict in the region.
This is besides the deployment of Nigerian troops to participate in the ongoing military support mission in the country.
The relief items, which were presented in the presence of officials of the National Emergency Relief Agency (NEMA) from Nigeria led by its director of search and rescue Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, comprised foods, clothing, hygienic materials and household utilities.
The items included 1500 bags of millet, 2241 bags of guinea corn and 1278 bags of maize, 1000 cartons of macaroni, 500 cartons of spaghetti, 1000 cartons of tomato puree, 1000 bags of rice, 2000 cartons of couscous and 2000 bags of semovita.
Others are sugar, beverages, vegetable oil, women and children clothing, mosquito nets, cooking pots, plastic buckets, mattresses, mats and many other household items.
Nigeria's Ambassador to Mali Mr Iliya Ali Nuhu, who presented the items to Malian minister of humanitarian affairs Mamadou Sidibe in a brief but colourful ceremony at Nigerian Embassy in Bamako, said the donation was in fulfilment of President Goodluck Jonathan's earlier pledge to assist Mali in this trying period.
Ambassador Nuhu said the humanitarian gesture was in line with mutual cooperation and the friendly relations between the two countries, saying the gesture also demonstrates collective solidarity towards sustaining peace and stability in the West African sub-region.
The envoy expressed hope that the gesture will also help in assisting the victims and assured that Nigerian government and its people are always willing to assist people of Mali in the spirit of African brotherhood.
Receiving the items, Malian minister of humanitarian affairs Mamadou Sidibe described the gesture as timely, and therefore thanked people and government of Nigeria for the humanitarian effort which he said will further strengthen the existing ties between the two countries.
"Our country and people indeed appreciate Nigeria's participation in the ongoing military support mission in northern Mali and we shall remain grateful for this gesture", he said.
The minister, who assured that the relief items will be delivered to the victims in a few days time, said Mali urgently needs humanitarian assistance following the closure of Mauritanian and Algerian borders because of the ongoing armed conflict in northern Mali.
NEMA's director for search and rescue Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, who spoke on behalf of the agency's director general Alhaji Muhammadu Sani Sidi, commiserated with government and people of Mali in this "challenging period of their national history".
"As Africans our common geography, cultural affiliation and historic experience imply that the challenges of one nation will always have a quick repercussion on the other just as the growth and development of one country will create positive impacts on its neighbours", he said.
This is besides the deployment of Nigerian troops to participate in the ongoing military support mission in the country.
The relief items, which were presented in the presence of officials of the National Emergency Relief Agency (NEMA) from Nigeria led by its director of search and rescue Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, comprised foods, clothing, hygienic materials and household utilities.
The items included 1500 bags of millet, 2241 bags of guinea corn and 1278 bags of maize, 1000 cartons of macaroni, 500 cartons of spaghetti, 1000 cartons of tomato puree, 1000 bags of rice, 2000 cartons of couscous and 2000 bags of semovita.
Others are sugar, beverages, vegetable oil, women and children clothing, mosquito nets, cooking pots, plastic buckets, mattresses, mats and many other household items.
Nigeria's Ambassador to Mali Mr Iliya Ali Nuhu, who presented the items to Malian minister of humanitarian affairs Mamadou Sidibe in a brief but colourful ceremony at Nigerian Embassy in Bamako, said the donation was in fulfilment of President Goodluck Jonathan's earlier pledge to assist Mali in this trying period.
Ambassador Nuhu said the humanitarian gesture was in line with mutual cooperation and the friendly relations between the two countries, saying the gesture also demonstrates collective solidarity towards sustaining peace and stability in the West African sub-region.
The envoy expressed hope that the gesture will also help in assisting the victims and assured that Nigerian government and its people are always willing to assist people of Mali in the spirit of African brotherhood.
Receiving the items, Malian minister of humanitarian affairs Mamadou Sidibe described the gesture as timely, and therefore thanked people and government of Nigeria for the humanitarian effort which he said will further strengthen the existing ties between the two countries.
"Our country and people indeed appreciate Nigeria's participation in the ongoing military support mission in northern Mali and we shall remain grateful for this gesture", he said.
The minister, who assured that the relief items will be delivered to the victims in a few days time, said Mali urgently needs humanitarian assistance following the closure of Mauritanian and Algerian borders because of the ongoing armed conflict in northern Mali.
NEMA's director for search and rescue Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, who spoke on behalf of the agency's director general Alhaji Muhammadu Sani Sidi, commiserated with government and people of Mali in this "challenging period of their national history".
"As Africans our common geography, cultural affiliation and historic experience imply that the challenges of one nation will always have a quick repercussion on the other just as the growth and development of one country will create positive impacts on its neighbours", he said.
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