Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Inculcating smartphones into business
Create a visual checklist for your employees
Are your employees sloughing off or ignoring your daily checklists? Maybe they are visual learners and cannot appreciate what an awesome checklist you have created. Send them the lists with visuals of what the end result of each task should be.
Create instant testimonials
Got a super happy customer that just made a purchase? Ask them if you could take a picture or video of them in their excited state.
Have a face-to-face with your employees
Need to have a talk with one of your employees but you are both in different cities or countries? Instead of a text message, why not use your phone to host a video call? Mobile apps like Skype and Google Hangouts make it easy (and free) to have a quick video conference with someone.
Document your belongings before you travel
Have you had your luggage take an unexpected trip at the airport? Before you head out, take a few minutes to snap pictures of your luggage, and it is unbroken contents. This will help if you need to produce an inventory at some point.
Take pictures of your business cards
Got too many business cards floating around your desk, glove compartment and wallet? Why not use your mobile camera to snap and store them digitally? Use an app like like CamCard to scan a digital version of a business card and add detailed notes for a later follow up.
Send product images instantly to potential customers
Got a customer calling or emailing you asking about a new product? Take a snapshot of it with your camera and email them a visual while you are still on the phone to increase your chances of making an instant sale.
How you can use smartphones for presentations
Here are 10 ways you can incorporate smartphone users into your presentation and become the topic of conversation online and off.
Encourage and reward people for using their smartphones
At Cause Marketing Forum’s annual conference in Chicago in June this year, someone asked people to use their smartphones. To show them how serious he was, he offered a copy of a book and a $100 gift card of donorschoose.org <http://donorschoose.org> to the person that mentioned him the most on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
Give your presentation a hashtag
At the CMF, the person also asked people to use the conference, hashtag#CMF12, and the hashtag for his presentation, #CMLight, as he was speaking on ‘The Lighter Side of Cause Marketing’. That way they could see and interact with other people that were talking about his speech. His audience didn’t have to remember those hashtags as he included them at the bottom of every slide.
Give them suggested tweets
Between slides he gave his audience clever and funny things to tweet and Facebook about him: “That @JoeWaters is wicked funny… good looking too! #cmf12 #cmlight.” He also encouraged people to rant and rave about his Boston accent and love for the Boston Red Sox.
Give people your Twitter handle
This was a great way to answer people’s questions during and after his presentation. He also picked up a lot of new followers!
Talk about things that people can check out on their phones
He always mentioned his blog <http://selfishgiving.com/> and Pinterest boards <http://pinterest.com/joewaters/>, which are both optimised for mobile devices. If people are not listening to him, maybe they wil find something more useful on something else of his. At least they are still being engaged by him instead of ‘Angry Birds’.
Poll your audience via text
He has seen this a lot at conferences, most recently at the Cause Marketing Forum where the facilitators used mGive <http://mgive.com/>. The speaker asks a question and the audience can text their answers. The best part is that you can see the results live and instantaneously on the screen.
Tell people to ‘write this down’
Encourage listeners to use their phones and tablets as notepads to jot down those nuggets in your speech that they need to remember.
Encourage people to e-mail you for more information
Information Technology-savvy people love to do this once or twice during a presentation. They pick a juicy topic and ask people to email them for more details. So they won’t forget, they told them to do it right now. By the way, they do not give them a sales pitch. This is something they want and it is free.
Upload your presentation to slideshare
That way listeners can follow along on their smartphones and review past slides or jump ahead in the presentation. You may be thinking, ‘Why would I want to give my audience an excuse to tune you out?’ There is a good chance they will anyway. At least they are looking at your presentation and not updating their Facebook page.
This last tip is yours
Have you ever engaged smartphone users in a presentation? If so, how? Will you use some of these tips in your next presentation?
It is funny that when researching this topic, one found a lot of advice on getting people to turn off their phones during a speech. One tip was to stand near the offender to shame him into submission. Sorry, but some people think that ship has sailed. Smartphones and mobile technology are an inescapable part of our lives and we as speakers need to adapt or risk being unheard.
Unholy alliance between government and commercial banks
The discussion of the nation’s economy
is nearly always done in jargon that goes completely over the heads of
most Nigerians including unfortunately, its political leadership. The
proliferation of terminologies such as “stagflation”, “cost-push
inflation” and “recession” in the current discussion of the economic
hardship being suffered by Nigerians is no exception. The Minister of
Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo-Udoma, the Minister of Finance,
Kemi Adeosun, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin
Emefiele, may know what they mean by these terms. Some of the solutions
they are proposing may even have some merit, but they fail to address
the fundamental iniquity of the Nigerian economy, namely that most of
the citizens and small businesses of this country are being denied
access to bank loans. If this is not corrected, no amount of economic
jargons or palliative measures will produce any lasting cure for an
injustice that has become chronic.
There seems to be an unholy codependent
collusion between Nigeria’s commercial banks and the principal consumers
of their bank loans, specifically our governments. The CBN Governor
recently articulated how this unholy alliance operates:
“And I will give you an example. Is it
fair that the government allows ministries and agencies to release its
money to the banks and those banks do not pay any interest to the
government? At best they pay one or two per cent but at the same time
when government wants to borrow by selling Treasury bills, government
goes back to these banks and these banks use the liquidity that the
government gave through ministries and pass back to the Federal
Government at 12, 13 or 14 per cent.”
Of course, this did not begin with the
Buhari administration. In fact, it is the government that has been
courageous enough to impose the Treasury Single Account in an attempt to
check the abuse. Although it is clear that the collusion between
commercial banks and Nigeria’s government has perennially starved the
economy of investment and consumer loans, previous administrations have
looked the other way. It is no wonder that banks would rather lend to
an apparently very dumb government at the expense of the Nigerian
economy.
Over the years, the over-reliance of our
commercial banks on government’s deposits and borrowing has tended to
limit – if not completely crowd out – any appetite on the part of
commercial banks for consumption and investment loans to most citizens.
The banks could not care less about extending such loans to Nigerians
because the profits and safety of high-yielding government debts are so
much more attractive. And different administrations in Nigeria, all the
way up to the Jonathan era and beyond, have pretended and continue to
pretend that this unstated collusion against the real economy does not
exist. But it does.
It involves denying many businesses and
consumers credit through a liquidity squeeze that is marked by rates of
interest that are almost perpetually high. Instead, the banks provide
money to the government to use, steal or waste by stacking cash into
Treasury bills at dumbfoundingly high yields that make many bankers
millionaires and billionaires without breaking a commensurate sweat.
Under this profane symbiosis, the banks and the government win. The
economy and the people lose.
This connivance between government and
commercial banks can single-handedly shrink economic growth and may have
contributed to Nigeria’s negative growth over the past two consecutive
quarters (current recession) and the high unemployment that we continue
to suffer. Small businesses are the major victims of high interest
rates, yet the world over; small businesses are recognised as the main
key to job creation.
That’s why the Minister of Finance was
right to make her recent distress call for the reduction of interest
rates. Such a reduction would encourage consumers to borrow money from
banks with which to buy goods and services from businesses. That is
what obtains in a normal economy that has not been booby-trapped by what
I hereby christen “GABIA”: Government and Bankers Iniquitous Alliance.
Increasing economic growth and
employment of citizens is certainly part of the macroeconomic objectives
of the Buhari administration, but it is one that can only be achieved
when there is money in the pockets of citizens to buy the things they
need. That is why the minister had to call for interest rate reduction,
but if there is any doubt about the extent to which GABIA is
entrenched, it should be erased by the lukewarm – and even dismissive –
response to her call by some pundits, a situation which points to a
certain affection for GABIA.
It is true that the increasing levels of
inflation in this period of recession have further complicated a
situation for which the textbook response is to raise rather than lower
interest rates. Many analysts tend to parrot this as the only possible
response to our present situation.
But suppose we step out of the box to
ask whether our present condition really is in that same text book? And
whether what we are facing is cost-push inflation – as the
administration claims, or inflation caused by increases in money as the
data seems to suggest? A bit of economic theorisation is in order.
Some economists have argued for donkey’s
years that most rises in prices are due to rapid increases in money
supply. In fact, the CBN’s own analysis confirms that this is the case
in Nigeria. Only last year, an empirical, rigorous and non-evangelical
CBN Working Paper entitled, “Monetary Growth and Inflation Dynamics in
Nigeria”, confirmed a direct relationship between the growth in money
supply and inflation in Nigeria. This suggests that inflation can be
managed through the manipulation of money supply, meaning that the
inordinate fear that we are in a killer stagflation (a combination of
recession and inflation) is tenuous at best.
The truth is that our recession will not
last for long because its underlying causes (including the impact of
devaluation on raw material costs, and low receipts from crude oil
sales) may in fact be temporary. The International Monetary Fund has
recently confirmed as much. In its October 2016 World Economic Outlook,
it forecast that the current recession in Nigeria will end in 2017, as
the economy will grow by 0.6 per cent that year. Well, 2017 is just
around the corner. This is why I call our much hyped stagflation – baby
stagflation, to stress the point that it does not deserve the irksome
hubbub that has consumed public commentaries.
Given that many of our citizens are in
the grip of recession-induced suffering, any administration worth its
salt must do whatever it takes to give them some immediate relief. That
is where the Minister of Finance seems to be coming from, and she has
my full support.
Sometimes, a government has to intervene
subtly – but resolutely – in the free market to protect infant
industries, domestic producers, the security sector, and generally, the
health and well-being of its citizens and economy. In Nigeria, the time
for such an intervention is now. Suggesting that the interest rate be
lowered is a good place to start in the fight against recession. I
therefore identify with the finance minister, with the caveat that GABIA
must be caged and, hopefully, stopped.
- Prof. Onwudiwe wrote this piece from Abuja
Perspectives on the forthcoming US election
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I have decided to write this article in
view of the fact that with less than 100 days to the date of the United
States of America’s presidential election on November 8, one of the
prominent candidates, Mr Donald Trump of the Republican Party, had to
say that it would be “a waste of time” if he lost the election. (CNNReport
, August 3, 2016). As a result, the election is likely to end with a
crisis of confidence if Trump loses. Such an outcome will be a
disservice to democracy all over the Western world generally and the US,
its avowed champion, in particular.
But what is democracy? The ancient
Greeks, as contemplative thinkers, fashioned out in the City of Athens ,
a radically people -oriented system of government that was operative
from 508 until 322 BCE whereby power was placed in the hands of the
people (demos) to debate among themselves, rich or poor and decide on
how they wanted to be governed by three important Institutions in the
polity as their pillars of Democracy , namely ( a) the Assembly of the
Demos (b) the Council of tested Elders numbering 500 and (c ) the
People’ s Court . The Assembly gave opportunity to all male citizens of
18 years and above, whose parents and themselves were free citizens and
not slaves to speak their minds and exercise their vote regularly.
After two centuries, the system broke down due to the inordinate
excesses of demagogues led by Demosthenes who perverted the wishes of
the people.
Since the modern era, democracy has
become the system of governance in the Western world with variants of
the system being championed by Britain and the United States of
America ever since. The rest of the world has come to respect democracy
defined by one of the finest presidents of the USA as “the government
of the people, by the people and for the people”. Its greater
workability and better success in lifting the innate spirit of man to
soar higher to achieve socio-economic exploits not only for himself
but for the good of the generality of the governed has endeared the
system to its friend or foe the world over.
It is clear from the names, Democratic
Party and Republican Party , the two dominant political parties in the
USA, that it has always been the intention of the founding fathers
and subsequent leaders of the country that their desire was to be
governed as a “democratic republic “ as distinct from a “monarchical
democracy” that still obtains in Britain from which the US broke away
in 1766. With this background, it is my intention to express my
observations, reflections and fears for the future of democracy in the
US from the prism of an “armchair” dispassionate observer of what has
transpired since the campaign for the election of the next President
of the greatest ( not largest) democracy in the world started about a
year ago.
Incidentally , I also had the
opportunity to comment on the 2000 election between George W. Bush
and Al Gore in the article, “One Shot in the Bush and an Ox is Gored”
published that year in The PUNCH.
For the success of democracy, most
writers are agreed that there must be some minimum preconditions. Some
essential Institutions must exist and function effectively to ensure a
level playing field. Political parties must exist as midwives for
ushering in the modus operandi of regulating the number of contestants,
political party manifestoes and guidelines , practical and ethical
arrangement for conduct of elections , funding of party and candidates
, and generally satisfying the people’s expectations and making it
easy for them to make their preferred choice of the party’s
torch-bearer. There must be an overall umpire – like a state
organisation and a legal court of last resort for resolution of
conflicting interests and disputes. As I will indicate later, my first
adverse observation is that imperfections in the setting up and
weakness in empowering the political parties vis – a -vis the
ambitions of the political gladiators constitute the Achilles’ heel of
the American system. Maybe, this is as a result of the respect for
individual freedom of choice as against the collective standpoint as a
way of American life and living .
Constitutionally, when there is a
sitting President not seeking reelection, as Barack Obama in this his
second term, it is provided that electioneering for the ensuing year
cannot begin earlier than 644 days before the Election Day. Therefore,
the candidates of the two major parties entered the race for the 2016
presidential election as follows:- (a) Hillary Clinton: a brilliant
Attorney at Law, former US Senator and who, was First Lady as wife of
President Bill Clinton later vied against Obama for the Presidency in
2014 and later served as Secretary of State during his first term of
office, started her campaign on April 12, 2015, that is 517 days to,
or one year and seven months before the Election Day. She was joined by
two others in the Democratic Party list including another strong
candidate, Bernie Sanders, a serving Senator who calls himself an
independent Socialist. ( b) Donald Trump: a reality Television star
and a real estate developer, a self-declared “multibillionaire “ who
was formerly a member of the Democratic Party, declared his
candidacy under the platform of the Republican Party on June 16, 2015,
that is 573 days or one year and nearly five months before the
election. Joined by a large motley team of contestants originally, 20
thinned down to 16 comprising four serving/former senators, 15 serving
/former governors, one businesswoman and one businessman in total.
Before the campaign matured, Trump was considered a weak candidate but
he turned the table against all odds and to the bewilderment of all. (
c) Until late July 2016, when the candidate of the Libertarian Party,
Governor Johnson and his running mate surfaced, the contest was
essentially between Clinton and Trump who had been officially
adopted as candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties
respectively.
However, the electoral campaign of both
candidates became some kind of hot, bitter, acrimonious and divisive
contest, described by the CNN as “election unlike any before” for several reasons.
Both can be seen as rebels not ready to
toe party lines, manifestoes (if any) and ideals. Both tend to succumb
to the dictates of the off-the-run young members of both parties and
some undecided voters but opinion- moulding or vocal community
influentials . Trump champions not only his own vision of government run
as a one-man business wary of what many business entrepreneurs of his
type call “paralysis of analysis”, jumping into conclusion without
careful investigation which may run his effort down the ditch. On the
other hand, Sanders sees himself as championing a movement ( don’t
call it a revolution ) towards the far -left repugnant to a majority of
Americans except the impatient young voters who feel left behind by
the system. Both are not party loyalists but their campaign slogans
seem to catch the fancies of the young, impatient, undecided voters or
new voters who seem at this point in time and history of the
American socio-economic landscape to be led by wrong champions. Trump
is too self-opinionated to build a cohesive team and too inexplicably
dirty- rich to successfully lead a rebellion of “ have-nots”.
However, given the challenges
confronting each of the candidates outlined above, Clinton and Trump
have had to use their best endeavours to run their campaigns without
rubbishing their political parties. This means that they would try to
utilise their personal qualities , resources and social and other
experiences gained over the years. On doing so, it is observed that
there are glaring challenges that can mar the success of their
campaigns. They both have clear chips over their shoulders. Clinton
having been in the public glare directly or indirectly for nearly
40 years is considered jaded by many of the young , undecided voters
and having loyally served Obama lately and so deserving some rest
and that having functioned as First Lady during the Presidency of Bill
Clinton is considered a surrogate of her husband or that of Obama both
of whose approval rating in their second terms would have qualified
them for a third innings if the American constitution had permitted.
In any case, she is considered generally as an “establishment
candidate “ , too smartly knowledgeable to be tainted by political
mudslinging or bothered by spurious inquisitions lined up by the
Republican Party. On the other hand , Trump, weaker in intellectual
prowess , political experience and lacking the social polish of
Clinton right from the beginning did not hide his aversion towards
research-based policies or what he termed “political correctness”.
Electricity consumers, AKHA lament unrealistic bills
Electricity consumers in Akwa Ibom State have accused the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company of extortion.
The consumers alleged on Wednesday in Uyo that the PHEDC had abandoned their responsibilities to members of the public, but circulates outrageous bills to Akwa Ibom residents.
A consumer and resident of Anwa Nsa Street, Uyo, Mr. Idongesit Ekpenyong, said the idea behind the estimated billing system was the company’s calculated plan to gain at the expense of the public as any appropriate billing system would have revealed the true state of services rendered.
Ekpenyong alleged that after one year of total blackout owing to faulty transformer, the company, after installing a new one, sent bills covering the one-year period of blackout.
“Imagine a situation where you had no light in your area, not even a flash for one full year, and after one year they brought in bills covering the entire period of total blackout. Some flats were receiving bills of N150, 000 and single rooms N50-70,000 for the period,” he said.
Another consumer and resident of Esuene Street, Mr. Isaiah Udofia, said PHEDC had defied every sense of responsibility and duty to members of Akwa Ibom public.
He said the company supplied powers to most streets in Uyo just within 48 hours to distribution of bills as a bait to lure the people to pay bills.
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly had, in response to the public outcry, criticised the power distribution company. This followed a notice of motion brought before the House by the member representing Ibesikpo Asutan State Constituency, Mr. Aniekan Uko, during its plenary, with the motion titled, ‘The unwholesome and alleged fraudulent charges on electricity consumers in Akwa Ibom State by PHEDC.’
The team leader, Public Communications, John Onyi, said consumers were charged according to the amount of energy they are supplied.
I was not flown abroad for treatment – Okowa
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, on Wednesday, dismissed report that he was flown abroad for medical treatment as a result of the injury he sustained in a domestic accident.
He, however, confirmed that he was involved in a domestic accident when one of the wall tiles at the Government House Asaba fell on his head while trying to wash his hands last week Wednesday.
The governor said he sustained a minor injury in the process which confirmed Tuesday’s exclusive report in The PUNCH.
The PUNCH had on Tuesday reported that Okowa sustained an injury on his head following a domestic accident while preparing to attend the World Teachers’ Day held in Asaba, the state capital last week Wednesday.
But the governor while speaking on media reports concerning the incident on Wednesday dismissed being flown abroad for medical treatment.
Okowa said, “The truth is that last Wednesday, I entered the washroom in my office and one of the tiles fell off from the wall and I had a minor cut on my head and I had two stitches and it was treated, and I was ok.”
He expressed surprise that the incident was blown out of proportion by a section of the social and main stream media suggesting that he collapsed and was flown abroad for medical attention.
Sale of two aircraft not enough
FACED with an economy in a tailspin and a citizenry impatient for a turnaround in their fortunes, a reluctant President Muhammadu Buhari has been forced to put up for sale two out of the 10 aircraft in the Presidential Air Fleet. On Monday, the Presidency also handed over two helicopters in the fleet to the Nigerian Air Force to aid its operations in the North-East. According to one of his aides, Garba Shehu, the decision was influenced both by the President’s election campaign promises and the need to cut down on waste.
Ordinarily, a sensible step to take, it however does not still address some pertinent questions, especially those regarding why it took this long for a decision to be taken on the fulfillment of a simple, straight-forward campaign promise and why only two out of a fleet of 10 are being put up for sale.
By taking 17 months to set his plan in motion, the President lost the opportunity to convince Nigerians that he is indeed different from his predecessors, who spent the country’s vast fortunes to acquire this personal comfort for themselves. Just the way he rejected plans to acquire five new armoured Mercedes Benz S-600 (V222) cars for him, because of what doing so symbolised, he could as well have done away with the aircraft as soon as he assumed office and his action would have been loudly applauded.
But, by delaying his move for this long, he has failed in one of his stated objectives, which is to cut costs. Already, billions of Nigeria’s hard earned money that should have been committed to other areas of need has been wasted on the maintenance of the aircraft and the upkeep of the crew. Although it is not exactly clear how much must have gone into the maintenance of the aircraft, yet an unnecessary controversy that occurred in November last year can shed some light on that.
Following a publication alleging that over N6 billion had gone into maintaining the fleet between the May 29 inauguration date of the administration and November last year, Shehu was at pains trying to explain that N2.3 billion was the amount released for the maintenance of the PAF, and not N6 billion as was alleged. Between then and now, a period of almost one year, it is expected that much more could have gone into the maintenance costs; but that is money that could have been saved or put to better use had the Presidency acted promptly.
As the question was asked then about 10 aircraft, it will also be asked about the six: what is the Federal Government doing with six aircraft at a time when the country’s economy is in straitened circumstances? Although two of the aircraft have been given to the Air Force, that is not convincing enough. It could be safely argued that, as long as the aircraft remain with another government establishment, it is as good as belonging to the PAF, which could make use of them whenever it feels like doing so.
More importantly, the government has no business keeping more than two aircraft in its pool when the convention is that many presidents now travel with commercial flights. In a recent instance, the South African President, Jacob Zuma, travelled on a South African Airways flight to and from New York, where he attended the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly. While expressing his “satisfaction about the excellent service and restful journey,” a South African congressman reportedly said, “President Zuma must continue to use South African Airways for his international flights, as doing so would cut unnecessary costs.”
Also, in 2012, Francoise Hollande announced, upon taking over from Nicolas Sarkozy as the president, his intention to use train for his official journeys in France and to European Union summits in Brussels, Belgium. It is important to note that Hollande was taking that decision based on the need to save money. If the president of the sixth largest economy in the world with a Gross Domestic Product of over $2 trillion can seek a cheaper means of travelling, what is the Nigerian president, with a GDP of $300 billion, doing with a fleet of aircraft?
In 2010, a former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, saved his country a whopping £300,000 when he travelled on a commercial flight, business class, while on a state visit to the United States. For a man who was preaching fiscal austerity, there was no better way to walk the walk than what he did. A CNN report on the trip said the amount saved might not have been much for a country like Britain, with GDP of $2.84 trillion, but it sent out a message on the fiscal policy direction of the government.
As for some of the experts saying that the aircraft should form the nucleus of a prospective national carrier, the point should be made that, much as the country would welcome such an idea, it does not necessarily have to be floated or funded by the government. At a time when the government is being called upon to divest from business because government-run businesses are not run in a profitable manner, the last thing that anyone should urge the government to do is to get directly involved in a national carrier.
So, if the government wants Nigerians to sacrifice and be patient with its policies designed to pull the country out of the woods, the people should be able to see sincerity in government actions. There should be genuine efforts to cut costs in every aspect of governance. One of the ways to start it is by putting up most of the aircraft for sale.
Loss would be colossal waste of time, says Trump
Donald Trump cast the US presidential race in stark personal terms Wednesday, telling voters that if he loses against Hillary Clinton it will be the “single greatest waste” of his time and money.
The provocative billionaire, in a disjointed speech in Ocala, Florida with just 27 days before the election, reminded supporters that he will have spent some $100 million of his own fortune on his campaign.
“If I don’t win on November 8th, I will consider this the single greatest waste of time, of energy and money,” the Republican nominee told the crowd.
“We’ll not be able to reduce your taxes, or save your Second Amendment and appoint Supreme Court justices, and take care of your vets and fix up your very depleted” military, he said.
Trump trails his Democratic opponent Clinton in national polls, and his campaign is limping after last week’s release of a 2005 tape in which he is caught bragging about groping women.
He has since apologized for the comments, saying they were just “locker-room” banter.
Several fellow Republicans have abandoned him, and the nation’s top elected Republican is refusing to defend or campaign with Trump.
In Florida, Trump bashed Clinton as a criminal who has skirted punishment for her use of private email while secretary of state, which he said put America’s national security at risk.
“Other people’s lives have been ruined, destroyed for doing a tiny fraction” of what Clinton has done.
“I am ashamed of what has happened to our country and so are you,” he said.
With the race boiling down to three final weeks and Clinton in the driver’s seat, Trump appeared to be savaging his rival to keep her supporters or undecided voters away from the polls on Election Day.
“She pledged to dissolve the borders of the United States of America,” Trump fumed, referring to a hacked email, allegedly to a Clinton aide, that included quotes from her closed-door speeches to Wall Street banks and other corporations.
Clinton apparently told a Brazilian bank in 2013: “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, sometime in the future with energy that’s as green and sustainable as we can get it.”
The Democratic nominee was in Colorado on Wednesday, where her communications director criticized Trump’s “scorched-earth policy” aimed at driving down Democratic turnout.
“Obviously Hillary Clinton is very concerned about how divisive this race has been, and all that Donald Trump has done to try to divide Americans,” Jennifer Palmieri told reporters.
“We feel energy is growing on the Democratic side,” she said, citing growing Democratic voter registration in some key swing states.
Arms scam: FG converts Badeh’s N1.1bn mansion to office
A N1.1bn mansion seized from the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.), has been converted to an office to be used by the Federal Government, The PUNCH has learnt.
Our correspondent, who visited the property located on Plot 6 Ogun River Crescent, Maitama, a highbrow area in Abuja, learnt that the property is being used by the Presidential Committee on the North-East Intervention headed by Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, a former Minister of Defence.
Our correspondent observed that the warning, ‘EFCC, Keep Off!’ which was written in red ink on the fence, had been wiped off.
However, a second building (although uncompleted) seized from Badeh, which is located directly opposite the one converted by the Federal Government, still has the EFCC inscription on its fence.
Some gardeners and other domestic workers were seen clearing the grass and sweeping the compound when our correspondent visited the place.
Our reporter, who entered into the main building, noticed that the rooms had been converted into offices while desks had been set up at strategic positions.
When our correspondent approached one of the workers, he said, “The property was given to us by the government to work. I know that the EFCC seized the property some months ago but it was given to us to work.”
The EFCC is prosecuting Badeh alongside a firm, Iyalikam Nigeria Limited, on 10 counts of money laundering bordering on alleged fraudulent removal of about N3.97bn from the Nigerian Air Force account.
A
former Director of Finance and Account of the Nigerian Air Force, Air
Commodore Aliyu Yishau (retd.),who is a prosecution witness against
Badeh, had informed the court that while Badeh was the Chief of Air
Staff, he routinely helped Badeh to divert the sum of N558.2m by
converting it to its dollar equivalent.
He said he personally helped Badeh to buy the N1.1bn property which has now been converted to Federal Government’s use.
He had said, “Sometime in January 2013, when I was taking the normal amount to him (Badeh) in dollars, he directed that we should pay for the house. So, he brought out the balance in dollars and made up the equivalent of N1.1bn.”
The EFCC lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had told the court that the EFCC searched the property and recovered $1m in cash.
Jacobs said although Badeh had denied ownership of the property, his belongings, including photographs, were found in it during a search by the operatives of the commission.
Our correspondent learnt that the decision to convert Badeh’s property may be connected to the Federal Government’s plan to convert seized properties to government use and save cost.
It will be recalled that the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, had disclosed at the opening of a meeting with the members of the National Steering Committee of the Efficiency Unit on June 10, 2016, that the Muhammadu Buhari-led government was planning to convert some of the seized properties to offices in a bid to save money spent on rent.
Seven banking services you can enjoy online
Internet banking, also called online banking, has become very popular in Nigeria. However, there are still many Nigerians who have the capacity to carry out Internet banking that are not doing so. This partly explains the reason for the long queues and crowd seen in the banking hall.
This causes a lot of inconveniences not only to bank workers but customers as well. There is a need for more people to embrace Internet banking and enjoy the full benefits it offers.
According to www.online-sciences.com, Internet banking refers to the banking services provided by the banks over the Internet. It is performed through a computer system or similar devices that can connect to the banking site via the Internet.
You can also carry out Internet banking on your mobile phones using a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.
There are only a few services banks do not render on their Internet banking platforms. These are often services that require physical presence of the customer at the banking hall. With the emergence of digital banking and financial technology phenomena, more banking services will continue to be rendered online. Banks will continue to push more of their products online.
While banks render a number of services on the Internet banking platform via the Automated Teller Machine, the beauty of Internet/online banking is that it provides more comfort. In the comfort of one’s home, Internet banking services can be enjoyed via the laptop, desktop or smartphones. Here are a few of the services banks render on the Internet banking platform.
Paying bills
Various kinds of bills including utility can be paid online. Taxes, digital or cable television subscription bills can be paid online, among other services
Funds transfer
This is perhaps the most common Internet banking service enjoyed by most customers. A larger percentage of customers who log on to the Internet banking platform do so to transfer funds. While the ATM transfer is limited to N200,000 per day for most banks, millions of naira can be transferred from one bank account to another via Internet banking.
Viewing account statement
While the ATM allows the customer to view only account balances, a customer can view his or her account statement via the Internet banking platform.
Purchase of airtime, air ticket, etc
Commodities such as airtime and air tickets can be purchased via the Internet banking platform.
Opening of accounts
Customers can open a domiciliary or fixed deposit account on the Internet banking platform. This is possible because the bank already has some details of the customer in its custody.
Foreign exchange transactions
Certain foreign exchange transactions are also possible via the Internet banking platform.
Loan applications
Some banks allow customers to apply for loans through the Internet banking platform.
Other products
Other services will continue to be available online via the Internet banking platform. This is because banks are delivering or pushing their latest products and services over the Internet.
Declare state of emergency on kidnapping, Reps tell FG
The House of Representatives on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on kidnapping in the country to curb the escalating cases of abduction, some resulting fatalities.
It said the police, the armed forces and telecommunication service providers should also convene a national security summit to find urgent solutions to the rising kidnapping incidents.
Aside identifying the harsh economic realities of today as a factor, members observed that criminals found kidnapping to be “more lucrative these days than armed robbery.”
A member from Ondo State, Mr. Babatunde Kolawole, had raised the issue on the floor under matters of urgent public importance to set a debate in motion.
Leading the debate on his motion, titled ‘The need for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on kidnapping in the country’, the All Progressives Congress lawmaker stated, “In the last 10 years, the incidence of kidnapping for ransom in the country has escalated to a very disturbing level and has reached a point where no one is safe anymore.”
He said available statistics indicated that in 2013, “Nigeria had the most kidnap attempts in the world, accounting for 26 per cent of all such recorded incidents, followed by Mexico with 10 per cent and Pakistan with seven per cent.”
Kolawole reeled out a list of major kidnapping incidents in the country.
He stated, “Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s foster father, 72-year-old Inengite Nitabai, who was kidnapped from his home in Otuoke in Bayelsa on Tuesday, February 16, 2016, was released in March after 35 days.
“A Kaduna State House of Assembly member, Ibrahim Ismail, was kidnapped on Tuesday, August 23 and released the next day. Margaret Emefiele, the wife of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, was kidnapped on Thursday, September 29, 2016 and released on Saturday, October 1, 2016.
“Former Minister of Environment, Laurencia Mallam and her husband, Pius Mallam, were kidnapped along Bwari/Jere Road on Monday, October 3, 2016.
“A House of Representatives member from Katsina State, Mr. Sani Bello-Mashi, was also kidnapped alongside his aide at Goburawa village, Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna State on his way to his farm in August this year.”
The lawmaker added, “Before that, Mike Ozekhome, a human rights lawyer, in August, 2013; Archbishop Ignatius Kattey and his wife, September 6, 2013, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Mrs. Kamene Okonjo, mother of former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was kidnapped in 2013; Chief Olu Falae, a chieftain of the Social Democratic Party from Ondo State, was kidnapped in 2015 and thousands of other unreported cases because of people’s distrust in our security agencies.”
It’s usual to step on toes in graft war –FG
The Federal Government on Wednesday said it was not unusual to step on sensitive toes in its current fight against corruption.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in an interview with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Mohammed was reacting to the outrage that had been trailing the recent arrests of judges and raids on their homes by officials of the Department of State Services.
While asking Nigerians to separate emotions from facts, the minister advised that the fight against corruption should not be mistaken for a fight against the judiciary.
He insisted that the arrests of the judges were carried out within the ambit of the law since they (the judges)did not have immunity against investigation and prosecution.
Mohammed said the fact that about 11 of the President’s ministers were lawyers out of which about five had Senior Advocates of Nigeria’s titles showed that Buhari had a lot of respect for the judiciary.
Mohammed added that the fact that the President took the cases of his three failed attempts to become the President before the judiciary also demonstrated that he had a lot of respect for that arm of government.
The minister said, “Do not confuse the fight against corruption as a fight against the judiciary. What the government is concerned and passionate about is to fight corruption.
“In the process of fighting corruption, it is not unusual that you step on some very sensitive toes but the question to ask and I think this has been adequately answered by the Attorney General is that let’s remove emotion from facts.
“One, do judges have immunity? The answer is no. Can judges be arrested? The answer is yes. Have judges that are serving been arrested in Nigeria? The answer is yes. Justice Okoli had been arrested and tried.
“Now, the next question to ask is, what is the proper procedure for arresting anybody including judges? There must be a properly acquired search warrant. Was such presented? The answer again is yes.
“People have tried to muddle the facts about when do you search the person’s house. The truth of the matter is that under the new criminal justice law, you can search anybody, anywhere, anytime.
“Again, they have tried to muddle issues by trying to say that the NJC is the only authority that can attend to complaints and discipline. The answer once again is no.
“When a judge is accused of professional misconduct is quite different from what is happening now. If you suspect anybody including governors who have immunity, they are still subject to investigations. So, I want to make it clear, this government has the highest respect for judiciary and we are not in any way trying to ridicule the judiciary.”
N’Assembly aides protest non-payment of salaries, allowances
Aides to senators and members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday protested the non-payment of their salaries and allowances.
The dramatic protest started about 10.15am after the angry aides stormed the main lobby of the National Assembly building.
They chanted songs and lamented the alleged maltreatment by both the management of their National Assembly and their immediate bosses.
“All we are saying, pay us our money, our salaries; Solidarity forever,” they chanted as they massed around the lobby.
The PUNCH observed that it took the intervention of the Sergeant-at-Arms, the police and other security personnel to diplomatically disperse the aides, but not before they had made their point that they were owed accumulated entitlements of about N1.5bn.
They alleged that the over 3,000 aides had not been paid allowances or attended any training in the last one year besides being owed salaries, making it difficult for them to feed, pay rent and settle other pressing bills.
The aides stated that they resorted to the protest after several meetings with the management and complaints to their bosses yielded no result.
They threatened that in their next outing, they would block the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, from entering the chambers to preside over proceedings if no actions were taken to address their plight.
One of the aides, Mr. Ucho Kingsley, described their situation as humiliating.
Kingsley stated that the aides were denied basic training.
He added, “Today is the 12th day of the month (October) and our salary has not been paid for last month.
“Our entitlements such as transport allowance for five quarters have not been paid to us.
“It is the same for our 28-day allowance, which has not been paid to most of us. We are entitled to training at least once each quarter but till date, we have never been sent for training.
“Nobody has come to address us; nobody has come to speak to us. When we ask questions, they give us excuses that the problem is from the management or another person.
“All we want is for our salaries to be paid on time; the same thing with our entitlements which we are being owed.”
The protesters chorused that they had met with the management for “at least 17 times” to ask questions but received no positive answers.
Another aide, Mr. Yusuf Modu, complained of discriminatory practices by the management.
He claimed that the management would sometimes pay the entitlements of the regular members of staff of the National Assembly but neglected them.
Modu added, “I don’t know why this discrimination exists despite the important role we play to senators and members of the House of Representatives.
“Today’s protest is to tell the management that enough is enough. The next time we storm this place, we will not allow the Speaker and the Senate President to enter the chambers until they address us.”
When The PUNCH sought the reaction of the management of the National Assembly, it said the payment of entitlements was tied to the release of funds.
The Director of Information and Publications, Mr. Dibal Ishaku-Adamu, told The PUNCH that the normal practice was that lawmakers and the aides were paid at the same time.
He explained that the lawmakers too were owed money because funds had yet to be released for payments to be processed.
Ishaku-Adamu stated, “Legislatives aides and members are paid together. They are paid the same time.
“So, if the members have not been paid, there is no way the aides will be paid because the money comes together.
“It is wrong for them to accuse the management of the National Assembly of withholding their money.”
The 2016 budget of the National Assembly and its organs, including the National Assembly Service Commission, is N115bn.
Ogun land grabbers risk 25 years jail or death
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