NIGERIA RANKED 43RD WORLD MILITARY POWER AHEAD OF PORTUGAL, BELGIUM

Nigeria has been ranked the 43rd military power in the world and 4th in Africa.

But the United States (US) retained its prime position as the country with the greatest military firepower beating Russia and China in the latest military firepower ranking for 2018.

However, Nigeria is ahead of European countries of Portugal and Belgium as well as Central American Cuba.

In Africa, Egypt tops the military power followed closely by Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria.

A global military ranking institution, Global Fire Power(GFP- https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp), citing United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Fact book, said the country retains the first spot in global military strength.

The ranking is based on population of the country, manpower/personnel strength, financial strength and military arsenal.
The United States has a total military personnel strength of 2,830,100 with available manpower of 145 million from a total population of 326 million.

The country is also credited with 13, 362 total aircraft strength comprising attack, fighter, transport and trainer aircraft and 20 aircraft carriers in addition to 38, 888 armoured fighting vehicles in addition to 5,888 combat tanks, 1,197 rocket projectors among others.

Nigeria is credited with 181,000 total military personnel , 172, 400,000 available manpower, those fit for service stood at 40, 710,000, citizens reaching military age stands at 3, 456,000.

Out of the total military personnel, 124, 000 are active while 57,000 are reserved..

Source:  https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp

2019 Guber: Akpabio Endorses Candidacy of NDDC MD, Ekere to Fly APC Flag in Akwa Ibom

Former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio has endorsed the candidacy of the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nsima Ekere, for the 2019 Akwa Ibom State governorship election.
Akpabio, who made the declaration, through a statement, said Ekere was the right person to fly the All Progressives Congress’ flag in the coming election for his experience and commitment to the party.
The former Minority Leader, who recently left the Peoples Democratic Party for the APC, begged the people of the state to forgive him for supporting Udom Emmanuel in the 2015 elzzxxzection to be governor, adding God has opened his eyes and given him a second chance to make amendment, hence his support for Ekere.
According to him, he made a mistake for not allowing Ekere to be Governor in 2015, sayingnit is only God who cannot make mistake.
Akpabio said: “I made a mistake as human being, it is only God who is perfect, making mistake just shows us that we are human. Part of my mistake is for not allowing Ekere not to become Governor, but as a human being, God gave me a second opportunity to redeem my past mistake. I must not let him down now.”
Ekere, a former Deputy Governor in the state was the leader of the G22, a group of 22 PDP governorship aspirants for the 2015 governorship election but due to internal party decisions and elections, Emmanuel emerged as the governorship flagbearer of the PDP.
Ekere had resigned his membership of the PDP and joined hands with Umana Okon Umana in the APC in their quest to win the 2015 governorship election in the state.
He once chaired the Akwa Ibom State Emergency Management Agency and simultaneously with that of Ibom Power Company, the independent power generating company owned by Akwa Ibom State.
His appointment to the current position as MD of NDDC by President Muhammadu Bihari in 2016 was celebrated by the APC in the state.
Reacting to the appointment, the Akwa Ibom State Working Committee of the APC in a statement jointly signed by the then leader of the party, Obong Umana Umana and the state Chairman of the party, Dr. Amadu Attai, commended the President for the reconstitution of the board of the NDDC.
“On behalf of the State Working Committee and the entire membership of the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), we want to commend President Muhammadu Buhari on the reconstitution of the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The party described the former Deputy Governor as the right pick for the top job at the Commission in terms of his track record, exposure and other indicators of leadership and expressed confidence in his ability to discharge the office of Managing Director of the Commission with utmost prudence, dedication and exemplary sense of duty.

OPINION: UDOM EMMANUEL - A NIGERIAN GOVERNOR WITH MYSTERIOUS PROJECTS

By Franklyn Isong

Today is the 1st day in the month of September, 2018. The first Saturday in a new month. Kick-starting a new calendar month with a weekend sometimes can be very stressful to many. So, this article may serve as a good remedy for stress. It may be a stress killer, and may also be a stress multiplier, depending on how you may see it. It is up to you! Be that as it may, I wish all my readers a very blessed new month and stress-free weekend! 

On Thursday, August 30, 2018, a former House of Representatives Member and Chairman of Cross River Basin Development Authority (CRBDA), Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, held a breakfast ‘meeting’ with members of the fourth estate of the realm at the Ala Carte Restaurant, Uyo. As a policy, I do not attend meeting of political party, no matter, the coloration. So, when I got invitation for this ‘meeting’, I had to call the sender to extract commitment from him, that it was a purely media parley, and nothing more. Before I could attend.

Eyiboh, used the parley to advise Mr Udom Emmanuel not to seek a re-election into the governor’s office in the forthcoming 2019 general election. Eyiboh is from the same Eket federal constituency with the governor. While the governor is from ONNA, Eyiboh is from Esit Eket. 

Eyiboh’s reasons are that Udom Emmanuel’s administration has marginalised the people of Eket federal constituency, especially Eket, Esit Eket and Ibeno. The federal constituency is made up of Eket, Esit Eket ONNA and Ibeno LGAs. But, according to Eyiboh, the governor only concentrates his projects in Awa clan of ONNA LGA. He promised to start up market place campaign against the governor’s second term bid in Eket. This is interesting!   

As a journalist, I have fought so many battles with my pen and the ink in my pen has never gone dry. I elected to be a journalist with the intention to use my pen to fight the ills of the society; give a voice to the voiceless and speak for the oppressed in the society, like the people of Eket, Esit Eket, Ibeno and a section of ONNA that are being marginalised by the Udom Emmanuel’s government, going by Eseme Eyiboh’s assertion at the media parley. I did not become a journalist to be a sycophant to anybody, institution or government. I came to the media profession with my integrity intact, and I will leave with my integrity intact. I am like a lion, I choose my fight wisely and I do not run away from any battle I elect to fight. Henceforth, I have become an ally to the marginalised people of Eket federal constituency until the government remember them! 

Unfortunately, in Akwa Ibom state today, the media industry has been polarised with pettiness and unnecessary sentiments. Any journalist that criticises government, government agency or her official(s) is tagged as opposition journalist or accused of being sponsored by the opposition elements in the state. What a world? And my question has always been; ‘between the government and opposition political parties, who is disposed to enormous financial resources to either buy the media or sponsor same to attack(s) each other?’ I do not belong to the school of thought that the media can be bought either for or against the government. Sorry to disappoint my readers in this argument. But this is my thought, though!

Was it not the same media that fought the military regime to a standstill and secured our democracy in 1999? Was it not the same media that our forebears used to fight for Nigeria’s independence from our British colonial masters? Believe you me, the media has not changed. But the society has changed and every society begets the kind of media it deserves.

The administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel is gradually winding up his first term. The political atmosphere in the state has been heightened. The governor has made public his intention to seek for a renewal of his term in 2019. 

Mr Emmanuel has repeatedly told those that care to believe him that his government has performed “superlatively” in his first term. He kept on saying he has industrialised Akwa Ibom state – one of the policy trust of his administration in the Five Points Agenda. This is like an argument of the deaf. Because, the more the government strive harder to convince the people that it has industrialised the state, the more doubts it creates in the minds of the people. 

The government finds it very difficult to sell his achievements to the people perhaps, because, the people are yet to see, feel and touch these mysterious achievements of Udom Emmanuel’s administration after three and half years in the state. 

What more? “My government has brought Pencil and Toothpick-manufacturing Company, Metering Company, Coconut Refinery,” amongst other industries to the state within the first term, governor Udom Emmanuel struggling to market his mysterious achievements to the people of Akwa Ibom during his second term declaration rally in Uyo. 

Still at the second term declaration rally, the governor said his administration, “has done over 1,700 kilometres of roads in the state in less than three years; renovated over 349 schools, brought down the cost of garri, (a staple food in the state), at least by 50 per cent, and revived the healthcare system,” 
I am from Akwa Ibom state. I live and do business in the state. I know the nooks and crannies of this state, at least, as a journalist. It is very doubtful where these 1,700kms roads are located within the geography of the state. This is one assertion by government I consider offensive to the sensibility of educated Akwa Ibom people. It falls among the mysterious achievements of this administration.   

I have on many occasions, to the glory of God sponsored road grading for the people of Ifa Group of Villages in Etoi clan in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital. And on one occasion, after I sponsored grading of a 2.5kms road for some communities in Ifa that are still suffering deplorable roads network, I took it upon myself to approach the state Commissioner for Works, Mr Ephraim Inyang, with a letter from village councils of these affected villages in Ifa, seeking government intervention on road construction. I got assurances of state government through Ephraim Inyang to intervene “soonest”.

Is it not the Udom Emmanuel’s administration through its Works Commissioner who after several months of assuring the people of Ifa of good road network, failed to construct even a kilometer of road in Ifa but, turned around to retort that government had to abandon her plans to construct roads in Ifa because, Mr Uduakabasi Ikpatt (a critic of government) from Etinan local government area had written on social media that “the Commissioner for Works, Ephraim Inyang, wanted to construct roads in Ifa in order to give access to his plots.”? 

I and others at the event where the commissioner made the statement were shocked to our bone marrow, that such a flimsy reason could make a supposed people’s oriented state government marginalised and abandoned a group of communities to their fate. 

It will be my word versus theirs. I put Udom Emmanuel’s administration into a simple task to list the sites and/or locations of these “1,700kms of roads” in Akwa Ibom state if these are not mysterious achievements only known to this government.  
And so, to this extent, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh’s advice that Mr Udom Emmanuel should forget about his second term ambition, until he is able to fulfil his five points agenda listed in his 2015 electioneering campaign to the people of the state, is perfectly in order! 

Truth be told, I hate to say that Udom Emmanuel is living in a fool’s paradise with invisible achievements thinking that Akwa Ibomites are uneducated people.

Happy new month my brother and Governor of Akwa Ibom state!

• Franklyn Isong is a public affairs commentator and conscience of the society. 

Culled from Radar Newspaper online

Akpabio, 9 ministers join Buhari to China!

PRESIDENT BUHARI DEPARTS FOR CHINA TO ATTEND FOCAC, DISCUSS INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING WITH PRESIDENT JINPING

President Buhari and his Chineses counterpart XI Jinping, inspecting a guard of honour in China

President Muhammadu Buhari has on Friday Friday departed for China to participate in the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled to hold September 3 - 4, 2018 in Beijing.

The President’s first engagement in Beijing will be an interactive session with the Nigerian Community in China at the Nigerian Embassy.

Before the formal opening of the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari in his capacity as current Chair of ECOWAS, is expected to deliver remarks at the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African leaders, business representatives and African entrepreneurs.

The Nigerian President is scheduled to join President Jinping and other African leaders for the opening and roundtable sessions of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit under the theme: “Towards an even Stronger China-Africa Community with a shared Future.”

After the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari will hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang to discuss infrastructure financing for strategic projects in Nigeria and the upgrading of Nigeria-China relations “from strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership.”

The President will also use the occasion of his audience with the Chinese leadership to assess the progress made so far in Chinese interventions in Nigeria’s key priority infrastructure projects, particularly on-going projects in the railway and power sectors.

It is noteworthy that since the last FOCAC VI Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015 – the first attended by the Nigerian leader – and his successful State visit to China in April 2016, the current administration has pushed forward practical cooperation with China in the areas of infrastructure construction, trade, investments, finance, power, agriculture, education cooperation, among others.

It would be recalled that President Buhari has consistently acknowledged Chinese support for infrastructure development in Nigeria.

In January 2018 while receiving the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, the President had said:

‘‘We send our gratitude to the Chinese for all their support to Nigeria. Since independence, no country has helped our country on infrastructural development like the Chinese. In some projects, the Chinese help us with 85 percent payment, and soft loans that span 20 years. No country has done that for us.’’

President Buhari will be accompanied to Beijing by his wife, Aisha, who is scheduled to participate in a Spouses’ Programme on China-Africa at the Great Hall of the People, under the theme, ‘‘Joining Hands for a Future of AIDS.’’

Also on the President’s entourage are Governors Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, Akinwunmi Ambode, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Bauchi, Lagos, Jigawa and Imo States respectively.

Others are Senators Abdullahi Adamu, George Akume, Godswill Akpabio and Aliyu Wamakko representing Nasarawa, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Sokoto States respectively.

Also accompanying the President are: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of FCT, Muhammad Bello; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu; Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

Others are the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the Director General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar; and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Maikanti Baru.

GARBA SHEHU
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
August 30, 2018