President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived in Daura, Katsina State, from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea where he attended a one-day 5^th Summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

A statement today, November 29 by his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said that Buhari arrived the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport at 4.20 pm and was received by Governor Aminu Bello Masari.

The President, who is on a five-day official visit to the state, will on Monday participate in a ground breaking ceremony for the University of Transportation, Daura and commission the Kwanar Gwante (Shargalle Road), which is off Kano-Daura Road.

The specialized university, which will be built by CCECC Nigerian Ltd, will focus on research and development of human capital for the transport sector.

The statement said that the President will depart Daura on Tuesday for Kaduna.

Meanwhile, before he left Malabo for Nigeria, President Buhari signed an agreement on behalf of Nigeria with Iran to set up a bi-national commission that will promote trade, investment, agriculture and technology transfer.

The agreement came in the wake of a meeting between President Buhari and Iranian Vice President for Economic Affairs, Mohammad Nahavandian.

Speaking at the bilateral meeting, President Buhari said that he was impressed with the speed in transformation of Iranian oil and gas industry from what it used to be when he served as Nigeria’s petroleum minister in the 1970s.

“I will work very hard towards the joint commission. We will go back and identify sectors of common interest. In particular, we are interested in how you utilized your gas, with 95 per cent of your national population wired to gas.

“The evolution of our gas industry is too slow. We are still flaring gas. I will work with you on how to harness and utilize our gas. I am very impressed.”

President Buhari asked to be given up to second quarter of 2020 on the modality of the bi-national commission.

The President said that Iran also flared gas in the 70s, expressing his delight that the fires had all been put out. He expressed optimism that Nigeria would soon attain the same feat.

He recalled his close association as Nigeria’s oil minister with Iran, adding that if the blueprint he left behind as petroleum minister had been followed, Nigeria would have had 12 Liquefied Natural Gas trains by 1983.

“Instability and partisan politics thwarted all that, leaving us with just six, and the seventh we are now working on. We would have been earning more from gas.”

President Buhari said that the future of oil and gas is in value addition, even as he extolled Iranians for attainments in oil and gas, electricity generation, agriculture and petrochemical industry.

The President commended the Iranian defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, saying the dispossession of the terrorists of their oil wells meant that they had lost access to resources used in supporting Boko Haram in Lake Chad sub-region.

The Iranian Vice President, who was emphatic that Nigeria and Iran can do a lot, said: “a lot can be done. We can do miracles. We have the vision.”

He suggested four major areas of economic cooperation:  petrochemical, power, irrigation agriculture and industry.

The Iranian Vice President also offered cooperation in counter terrorism, citing the routing of ISIS in Iraq and Syria as major contribution to the global anti-terrorism efforts.

He used the meeting to brief the President on the political and security situation in the Middle East region.

Senior Special Adviser to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike on Physically Challenge Matters, Tekena Zephanian-Altraide has resigned his appointment.

In a fifteen-page resignation letter to the Governor, Zephanian-Altraide regretted that as an SA to the Governor, he could not pay his father’s medical bill which led to his death in September, since he was owed from July till date.

He complained that since his appointment in 2016, his office had never had money to run its affairs, adding that he struggled to pay his staffers their allowances from his personal salary of about three hundred and twenty-eight thousand Naira.

It is not known if the Governor has accepted or rejected the resignation.

Nigeria is rich in petroleum resources, but the challenges confronting the country are so enormous that they render the oil earnings insignificant, President Muhammadu Buhari has said.

The President, who spoke today, November 28, as he received in audience, the outgoing Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Carlos Trejo Sosa, who has been here for five years, said that he was pleased with relations between Cuba and Nigeria, particularly the hand of fellowship extended in the area of health care and transfer of knowledge, among others.

“We have deficit in infrastructure, in education, health care, and many other areas, but Cuba has always been helpful. What we earn from oil does not meet our needs, and we can use any assistance we get. Cuba has always been friendly and helpful.” President Buhari said that whether in uniform or out of it, he had always been glad to collaborate with Cuba, and hoped relations between the two countries will wax stronger.

Ambassador Sosa said that his five years and nine days in Nigeria were filled with warmth, love and friendship, adding that he would never forget the country.

“I am not just being polite, I mean every word. We appreciate Nigeria a great deal.” 

At another audience with the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Total Group Worldwide, Mr Patrick Pouyanne, President Buhari said that investments cannot thrive in an atmosphere of social and political instability, saying that the Federal Government would do all within its powers to safeguard the interest of investors.

“The relationship between us and Total has been long and mutually beneficial. We want it to remain so. We have to be honourable, honest, and work together, so that we can improve. At our end, we promise social and political stability, so that you can recover your investments. It’s our duty as government, and we will do it, so that we can maintain mutual confidence in each other.”

This was even as Mr. Pouyanne disclosed that apart from oil and gas, which is its core activity, Total was also willing to develop the solar power potentials of Nigeria.

“Our portfolio is large. We have many more projects to come. The prospects for Nigeria in oil and gas remain huge. More developing activities are possible, and we need to keep the momentum, and commit more investments to Nigeria.”

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has descended on four Nigerians alleged to have been involved in rice scam amounting to N22.4 million.

Those involved are Baba Aliyu, Musa Shuaibu, Joshua Agbaji Unazi and Michael Godwin Okibe and have been charged before Justice A.B.Aliyu of the Federal High Court, Minna, Niger State.

They were charged on a nine-count charge that borders on conspiracy, forgery and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N22.2 million.

They were arrested and arraigned by the Kaduna Zonal Office of the Commission following a petition from one Thomas Ogwu, managing director, Tomgray Engineering Services Limited, who alleged that three of the defendants: Aliyu, Shuaibu, Unazi and Ahmed Abubakar Ismaila(at large), sometime in November 2018, fraudulently convinced him that they work with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative  Society Limited, Minna, Niger State and requested for a supply of 1,800 bags of Nigerian parboiled rice, worth N30.6 million from his company.

He said that the defendants paid N8.2million only, upon the supply of the said quantity of rice, adding that since then, all his efforts to get them pay the balance of N22.4 million have proved abortive.

He said that he was forced to approach the ministry with a request for the payment of the balance where he was told that the four defendants were not its staff and that it did not place any order for rice.

One of the counts reads: “that you Baba Aliyu, Musa Shuaibu and Ismaila Abubakar (now at large) between November and December 2018 in Minna, within the judicial division of this honourable court did conspire amongst yourselves to act, to wit: conspiracy to obtain 859 bags of Nigeria parboiled rice worth N14.6million only being property of Tomgray Engineering Services Limited, when you falsely represented yourselves as staff and members of Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, Minna, which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”

Unazi is alleged to have conspired with Okibe to obtain N1.620,000 being proceed from the sale of  the 1,800 bags of rice.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge against them, prompting prosecuting counsel Y.J.Matiyak to ask the court for a trial date and for the defendants to be remanded in custody of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS).

Counsels to the four defendants: E.N.Anita, Drisu Ajodo and G.E.Edah respectively, prayed the court to grant bail to their clients.

Additionally, counsel to the second defendant, Shuaibu told the court that he has filed an application for fundamental human rights abuse, seeking N5 million damages for an alleged illegal arrest of his client.

Justice Aliyu adjourned the matter to December 10 and January 21, 2020 for hearing on the bail application and judgment on the fundamental rights action respectively and ordered that the defendants be remanded in the custody of NCS.

The First Lady, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari has expressed concern over the increase of AIDS amongst Nigerian youths, even as it is proved that no fewer than 47 AID patients die every day in the country.

Aisha Buhari, who spoke today, November 28, at the 2019 World AIDS Day at the Presidential Villa, Abuja stressed the urgent need for the government o to factor all relevant communities, including the HIV support groups and adolescent and youth communities into the strategies for preventing the spread of HIV.

She is worried at the trend of a growing number of young persons with new infections, especially girls with the implication of increased risk of having new babies born HIV positive.

“This trend will lead to higher chances of spreading the disease and invariably more deaths.

“Our younger generation, therefore, need to be aware and equipped with skills to access HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care.”

Meanwhile a global snapshot on HIV and AIDS released by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has established that more than 47 children and adolescents died every day from AIDS in Nigeria.

It said that low access to antiretroviral treatment and limited prevention efforts are the leading causes for these deaths, with only 54 per cent of children aged 0-14 living with HIV globally in 2018 – or 790,000 children – receiving lifesaving antiretroviral therapy.

The UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative, Peter Hawkins was quoted in a statement as saying: “progress has been made in the battle against HIV and AIDS, but we must do more, especially when it comes to Nigerian children and adolescents,

“Testing and treating for children and adolescents is a matter of life and death and we must choose life.”

According to latest global data, regional disparities in access to treatment among children living with HIV is very high, with West and Central Africa faring worst.

Access is highest in South Asia, at 91 per cent, followed by the Middle East and North Africa (73 percent), Eastern and Southern Africa (61 percent), East Asia and the Pacific (61 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (46 percent) and West and Central Africa (28 percent).

Access to treatment by children living with HIV in Nigeria is only 35 percent.

Mothers’ access to antiretroviral therapy to prevent the transmission of the virus to their babies has increased globally, however, reaching 82 per cent, up from 44 per cent less than 10 years ago. This figure in Nigeria is 44 percent, up from 22 percent in 2009.

Peter Hawkins said: “it is good news that more and more pregnant women are receiving antiretroviral treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, which has helped avert about 2 million new HIV infections and prevented the deaths of over 1 million children under five years old around the word.

“But we need to see the same kind of progress in ensuring that children who already have the virus are receiving lifesaving treatment. HIV programmes need to be fully funded and equipped to preserve, protect and improve the quality of life for Nigerian children. We cannot and must not abandon these children,” said Hawkins.

Additional data from the report include:

• In 2018, around 160,000 children aged 0-9 were newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number of children in this age group living with HIV to 1.1 million.

• 89,000 children under the age of five were infected during pregnancy or birth and 76,000 were infected during breastfeeding in 2018

140,000 adolescent girls were newly infected with HIV in 2018, compared to 50,000 adolescent boys.

To end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat for future generations, UNICEF is urging governments and partners to:

Improve HIV testing and treatment data for children and adolescents to better respond to the needs of this vulnerable population.

Invest in and implement effective and innovative interventions to urgently close the persistent testing and treatment gap for children and adolescents living with HIV.