Brotherhood, a unique and global brand, says NUJ chairman

Eyo Charles

Comrade Ndoma Akpet, chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists in Cross River State has described Brotherhood of the Cross and Star as a conspicuous brand, which has become accepted in most countries of the world.
He made the remark at the BCS world headquarters, No 34 Ambo Street Calabar Nigeria when he led a 20-man delegation of journalists to pay courtesy call on the King of kings and Lord of lords, His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu.
Comrade Akpet maintained that through perseverance, the Holy Father has successfully created this religious brand that has no equal anywhere in the world, and which can easily be recognised anywhere in the world with unique features.
According to him, the brand has today become influential, sought-after and was magneting increasing number of faithful all over the world.
Akpet who is a pastor in his local church said: "I do not care what opinion anyone has about the Brotherhood and her leadership, but it has to be so for her to become conspicuous and unique as a brand. Brotherhood organisation has worked hard and passed many trials to be something to reckon with today. There is no organisation quite like it."
He recalled that a week earlier he was in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, and heard how a set of young people were rendering sonorous, divine tunes in a taxi he was travelling in. He said he was engrossed. Although he said he could immediately trace who they were but he had to ask them, and to his suspicion, they said they were children of Father Olumba Obu.
"Brotherhood has made Cross River State proud going by her ability to continually pull tens of thousands of her members to converge in the city frequently for religious service.
"To me, this is religious tourism. And I want to encourage Brotherhood to continue to champion this brand of tourism.
"Cross River was supposed to be tourism destination, according to the state government. But I do not know how much they have so far succeeded compare with India and Brazil which are seen to be leading in medical and carnival tourism respectively. My own description of tourism is what Brotherhood is doing", Akpet said.
Also commending the Father for appointing and consecrating nearly 220 new bishops at one go, chairman of the state Correspondents' Chapel, an arm of NUJ, Mazi Judex Okoro of the SUN newspapers, said Father Olumba Olumba Obu has lived an exemplary lifestyle which is worthy of emulation.
He explained that they came to introduce the newly elected officials of the chapel and to solicit for Father's usual blessing to enable them succeed during their tenure.
He said that journalists in the state have always been on the side of the Father and will continue to be because the Father is embodiment of peace and love, and has always been their dependable Supporter, Friend and Patron of note.
He lamented however that when the Father instituted Investigative Award for Journalists many years ago in the state none of them met the required standard, promising that if such was revived and with the calibre of well trained and experienced reporters now, they would not miss the award.
He regreted that there was a slight disconnect between them and the Brotherhood for a period which led to their inability to regularly have one-on-one meeting with the Holy Father, praying that such unique opportunity should resurface.
"We are very ready to cooperate and continue to splash news features in our print and electronic media about Brotherhood and the Father", he assured, and appealed for Father's continued support.
Spokesman of BCS, his lordship Bishop Princely Ibeabuchi who received the large delegation of Cross River journalists on Father's behalf, apologised that due to very tight schedules of the Holy Father, especially as preparations for Eton Day/Consecration of new Bishops had become intense, He was therefore present at the meeting spiritually to bless them.
He used the opportunity to formally invite them all to the event, which he said bishops and other brethren were already arriving from around the world.
He said the Father was very happy to have them visit Him and encouraged them to continue to work sincerely and with absolute commitment to promote the works of truth such that inundate the BCS.
He said the Father will ever extend His large-heartedness and grace to them any time not only as their Patron but as the Sole Spiritual Head of the Universe.
The spokesman who presented a cheque of N300,000 to the Correspondents' Chapel for their welfare and equipping their new office, encouraged them to realise that they constitute a powerful bloc which position they should use to galvanize popular opinion necessary for the national parliament to make useful laws to benefit them and larger society.
In a press statement he later distributed to them, Father condemned same-sex marriage which was being championed by America.
He cautioned political leaders to stop to dip their hands into public treasuries and use same to better the lives of the citizenry.
Father urged all to live in peace, and the authorities to regularly resolve cases of civil disobedience using peaceful means.

FG asked to pursue completion of Ajaokuta, other steel mills

THE Federal has been called upon to vigorously pursue, complete and put the Ajaokuta iron and steel complex, the Aladja steel rolling mills and the Oshogbo machine tools and Aluminum Smelter project into full and efficient production in order to boost the performance of PRODA, NASENI and FIIRO.
Obibuzor Ifeanyi, President/Chairman of Council Institute of Business Development, who made the call in Lagos, said if   the nation’s steel and petrochemical plants are working well, producing raw materials for hand tools and machine tools, PRODA, FIIRO and NASENI will be in a better position to perform well by getting   those machine to equip their factories to mass produce engineering infrastructure.
Obibuzor, who spoke on the occasion of the Institute’s  summit on ‘Africa Regional Integration for sustainable comparative advantage’ with focus on ICT/telecom, agro-allied, aviation and finance, noted that  these technology development centers for now are doing simple  machine design and production and are capable to mass produce those machines  instead of importing everything from abroad.
“Nigeria, and indeed, the continent will go nowhere without the development of indigenous engineering infrastructures. We must as a nation, and continent develop engineering infrastructure in order to be independent of foreign machines.  We must get our priority right and every other thing will follow; engineering infrastructure must be done by the governments because it takes a lot of gestation period.
There must be commitment from the top to the local government –this is because the entire developed world gave attention to it.  We can’t stop talking about it and unless we do it, there is no where this country is going, there is no where Africa is going because you keep depending on developed countries and they will be laughing at you” he said.
Key speaker, Dr. Mohammed Kafafy, President, World Federation of Business Organisation/ Chief Consultant UNDP- GEF Energy Efficiency Project, noted: “We also need to develop people, not just education for certificates but we need quality education, education that changes mentality, individual life styles. This is the real education.
Source:  vanguard

Proper Funding of Medical Education Will Help Health Tourism- Arogudande

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The President of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Prof. Rasheed Arogundade has advised President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to accord funding priority to the medical colleges across the nation.
This he argued would address the challenge of frequent visits to foreign nations for medical attention by wealthy Nigerians.
The Professor of Radiology, who gave the advice while delivering his inaugural lecture at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, said the focus of government has always been on the hospitals while neglecting the institutions that produce the human resources for the health sector.
Arogundade, who expressed his fulfilment for reaching the peak of his career, also revealed that many medical graduates from Nigeria are usually challenged abroad when confronted with modern facilities, which he said are unavailable for their training in their home country.
The lecturer, whose lecture was entitled; 'The Detective in a Radiologist,' linked the dearth of facilities to the raging problem of wrong diagnosis being faced in the country's health sector, adding that Nigerians are as brilliant as their counterparts anywhere in the world but are hindered by the poor equipment available.
He said; "Well, the solution to the myriad of challenges facing us as a nation should be that government should pump a lot of money into education and medical education in particular.
They currently don't allocate enough funding to the education sector and that is why the equipment we are supposed to be using to teach are not there. Most of our students who go abroad are usually as if they are starting afresh because they were more concerned with theories here without adequate practical experience. "

Nigerian Army re-engages retired soldiers

The Nigerian Army has re-engaged a number of its retired officers to serve as consultants and instructors at the Nigerian Army School of Artillery (NASA), Kachia, Kaduna state.

“This will no doubt greatly ensure the sharing of knowledge and expertise between serving and retired officers of the Nigerian Army Corps of Artillery (NACA), “Major-Gen. Lawrence Jokotola (rtd) said Friday in Kaduna.

He spoke at a pulling out parade organised for him and 32 other retired generals of NACA at the Kalapanzi Barracks.

Jokotola said that the Nigerian Army should sustain the initiative arguing further that, “as retired gunner offices, we are available at all times to contribute in whatever way the corps send us fit to perform in the achievement of its organizational goals and indeed those of the Nigerian Army.

“There is no gainsaying that that the challenges the military is currently facing are not unsurmountable if the old ideals of training, good administration and discipline address are extolled.

“I therefore enjoin all gunners to rise to the occasion and do the nation proud by providing timely, accurate and effective for support for the Nigerian Army in its drive to meet up with its constitutional responsibilities at all times.

“We all started the journey in the service of our fatherland as young men and grew up to become the retired generals that we are today.

“We were privileged to get the best education and training while in active service and these opportunities moulded all of us into responsible citizens that we are today.”
(VANGUARD)

Man Successfully Sues Wife Over Ugly Children and Judge Orders Wife to pay $120,000

Jian Feng sued his wife for giving birth to what he called an “incredibly ugly” girl.

“I married my wife out of love, but as soon as we had our first daughter, we began having marital issues,” he told the Irish Times. “Our daughter was incredibly ugly, to the point where it horrified me.”

Initially Jian accused his wife of infidelity, because he knew he could never be the father of an unattractive child. However, DNA tests proved that the child was indeed his. Feng’s wife then came clean and admitted she had about $100,000 worth of cosmetic surgery done in South Korea before they met.

Feng sued his wife on grounds of false pretenses, for not telling him the truth about the plastic surgery, and duping him into believing that she was beautiful. A judge agreed with Feng’s argument and ordered his wife to fork over $120,000.

Source: kinida.com

One word!!

HIV flushed out by cancer drug

HIV can be flushed out of its hiding places in the body using a cancer drug, researchers show.
The cornerstone of treatment, anti-retroviral therapy, kills the virus in the bloodstream but leaves "HIV reservoirs" untouched.
The study, published in PLoS Pathogens, showed the drug was "highly potent" at reactivating hidden HIV.
Experts said the findings were interesting, but it was important to know if the drug was safe in patients.
The power of the HIV reservoir was shown with the case of the Mississippi baby.
She was given antiretroviral drugs at birth. Despite appearing to be free of HIV for nearly two years after stopping treatment, she was found to be harbouring the virus.
'Kick and kill'
A strategy known as "kick and kill" is thought to be key to curing HIV - the kick would wake up the dormant HIV allowing the drugs to kill it.
The team at the UC Davis School of Medicine investigated PEP005 - one of the ingredients in a treatment to prevent cancer in sun-damaged skin.
They tested the drug in cells grown in the laboratory and in parts of the immune system taken from 13 people with HIV.
The report said "PEP005 is highly potent in reactivating latent HIV" and that the chemical represents "a new group of lead compounds for combating HIV".
One of the researchers, Dr Satya Dandekar, said: "We are excited to have identified an outstanding candidate for HIV reactivation and eradication that is already approved and is being used in patients.
"This molecule has great potential to advance into translational and clinical studies."
However, the drug has still not been tested in people who are HIV-positive.
Prof Sharon Lewin, from the University of Melbourne, said the results were "interesting" and marked an "important advance in finding new compounds that can activate latent HIV".
She told the BBC: "This study adds another family of drugs to test to potentially eliminate long-lived forms of HIV although much more work needs to be done to see if this works in patients.
"Although PEP005 is part of an FDA approved drug, it will first take some time to work out if it is safe to use in the setting of HIV."

Source : BBC

PDP shows evidence that current DSS is an APC member

PDP insist that the current DSS is an APC member. Photo evidence after after the cut...