Saturday, September 27, 2014

U.S. military: Air strikes disrupted ISIS abilities

The U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have disrupted the group’s infrastructure, its command and control and logistical abilities, said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday.Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Dempsey said he expected a “persistent and sustained” campaign against ISIS, which has seized swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.On Friday, airstrikes targeted the militant group’s oil facilities for a second day, a monitoring group said Friday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported new air strikes in eastern Deir Ezzor province and north-eastern Hasakeh province, both of which were targeted a day earlier by the coalition.Additional strikes hit an area in Hasakeh, where the target was not immediately clear, the group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said. There were no immediate details of any casualties from the strikes.Oil sale has been a major source of funding for ISIS since it captured several oil fields across the country.The group reportedly stopped oil extraction from fields in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria after the U.S.-led strikes.“Oil extraction has been halted because of the security situation,” said Leith al-Deiri, an activist in Deir Ezzor who spoke to AFP via the Internet.“People... would wait four days to get oil, because there was so much demand. But now there are no customers... There are no traders or clients going to the fields, fearing the strikes,” he said via the Internet.Deir Ezzor is home to six major oil fields and the Coneco gas field. Experts say the group could be earning between $1 million and $3 million a day from oil sales alone.All the fields have fallen into the hands of ISIS since the militant group took over the majority of Deir Ezzor province. While speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Friday, Dempsey said a Western-backed opposition force of around 12,000 to 15,000 would be required to retake areas of eastern Syria now controlled by ISIS. “Five thousand has never been the end state ... Twelve to 15,000 is what we believe they would need to recapture lost territory in eastern Syria,” Dempsey said.Last week, Congress gave temporary approval to a plan for the United States to train members of Syria's moderate opposition to combat the Islamic State, which is seeking to expand its hardline rule from a base in eastern Syria. The initial number of opposition fighters to be trained by the United States is expected to be around 5,000.

Arabiya News

Friday, September 26, 2014

Leading Iraqi Human Rights Activist Killed After Anti-ISIS Posts

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A prominent female Iraqi human rights lawyer and campaigner has been publicly executed days after posting anti-ISIS messages on her Facebook page, the U.N. said Thursday. Samira Salih al-Nuaimi was killed by a masked firing squad in a public square in the city of Mosul, an act described as "horrifying" by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. She was tortured before her death on Monday, the U.N. said.Al-Nuaimi, a well-known figure in Mosul, was remembered for her courageous work promoting the rights of women and helping the poor. "She used to stand before courts in order to defend those who were detained by U.S. forces, and she did that for free," a Mosul resident told NBC News. Al-Nuaimy was detained Sept. 17 after she posted messages on Facebook describing ISIS' bombing and destruction of mosques and shrines in Mosul as "barbaric." She was accused by the self-styled Islamic court of apostasy and sentenced to death by ISIS fighters. Her body will be handed to family who have been warned against conducting a funeral ceremony, a local journalist told NBC.
Source: NBC News

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Fayose beats up Ekiti court judge

Temperamental Ekiti state Governor elect, Ayodele Fayose, slapped a court judge today for being rude to him and then ordered his thugs to beat him further.The victim is Justice John Adeyeye of the Ekiti High Court, Ado Ekiti.The action of Fayose and his thugs triggered some pandemonium in the court, with judicial workers and others running into safety. The sitting of the Ekiti State Governorship Election petition Tribunal could also not hold.Premium Times quoting witnesses said that PDP thugs had besieged the court premises as early as 6am, while a detachment of policemen from the police headquarters were also seen on major streets and around the court.
Justice Adeyeye of High Court 3, who was miffed by the huge number of the thugs as they surged towards the court premises had approached Mr Fayose and urged him to prevail on “his supporters” to keep a safe distance from the court premises.“An enraged Mr. Fayose was said to have shouted the judge down, slapped him and ordered his men to beat him up.Immediately, thugs numbering about 20 pounced on Justice Adeyeye, beat him up and tore his clothes, while his co workers scampered and shouted for help.Following the development, judicial workers hurriedly shut down the court premises thereby preventing any court proceeding for hours before the police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the hoodlums.Justice Adeyeye is presently receiving treatment at a private hospital in Ado-Ekiti.On Monday, PDP thugs had also attacked Justice Adeyeye, adjudicating in a case filed by Ekiti 11 to determine Fayose’s eligibility for the June 21 governorship election.At a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, Fayose had accused the state judiciary of working in cahoots with the ruling All Progressives Congress to disqualify him and dispossess him of his governorship mandate.The governor-elect said this was the primary reason a socio-political group, Ekiti-11, went to court to ensure that it could achieve this through the back door.He said it was through what he called a ‘dubious’ court judgement that a former governor, Segun Oni, was ousted, paving the way for Governor Kayode Fayemi of the APC in 2010.Fayose, however, vowed that the people of the state would not allow his mandate to be stolen, as they were now more enlightened than before.He said, “The whole scheming in Ekiti State is just about the APC obtaining judgement through the back door after losing elections on June 21, 2014. You will recall that Segun Oni’s tenure was truncated through this back door judgement by some judicial officers who have been compromised.“They can go as far as losing their career if and when politicians pay them well. The Ekiti people have spoken and they have spoken well. I came back into the country on Tuesday night and I have been briefed on the developments in the state. I want to state clearly that we will not allow any back door judgement to stall my inauguration.“Their target is to install the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, who is an APC member, claiming that Fayose is not qualified to contest. I want to state that the people of Ekiti State are interested and they are equally more enlightened than before where someone will just come and obtain a judgement through the back door to stall a process and steal the people’s mandate.”He said there was the need for the judiciary in the state to be objective and fair, alleging that the judges in the state had been compromised because some of them were members of the Ekiti-11

P.M News

The Wages of Impunity, By Wole Soyinka

The dancing obscenity of Shekau and his gang of psychopaths and child abductors, taunting
the world, mocking the BRING BACK OUR GIRLS campaign on internet, finally met its match in
Nigeria to inaugurate the week of September 11 – most appropriately. Shekau’s danse macabre
was surpassed by the unfurling of a political campaign banner that defiled an entry point into
Nigeria’s capital of Abuja. That banner read: BRING BACK JONATHAN 2015.
President Jonathan has since disowned all knowledge or complicity in the outrage but, the
damage has been done, the rot in a nation’s collective soul bared to the world. The very
possibility of such a desecration took the Nigerian nation several notches down in human
regard. It confirmed the very worst of what external observers have concluded and despaired
of – a culture of civic callousness, a coarsening of sensibilities and, a general human
disregard. It affirmed the acceptance, even domination of lurid practices where children are
often victims of unconscionable abuses including ritual sacrifices, sexual enslavement, and
worse. Spurred by electoral desperation, a bunch of self-seeking morons and sycophants
chose to plumb the abyss of self-degradation and drag the nation down to their level. It took
us to a hitherto unprecedented low in ethical degeneration. The bets were placed on whose
turn would it be to take the next potshots at innocent youths in captivity whose society and
governance have failed them and blighted their existence? Would the Chibok girls now
provide standup comic material for the latest staple of Nigerian escapist diet? Would we now
move to a new export commodity in the entertainment industry named perhaps “Taunt the
Victims”?
As if to confirm all the such surmises, an ex-governor, Sheriff, notorious throughout the
nation – including within security circles as affirmed in their formal dossiers – as prime
suspect in the sponsorship league of the scourge named Boko Haram, was presented to the
world as a presidential traveling companion. And the speculation became: was the culture of
impunity finally receiving endorsement as a governance yardstick? Again, Goodluck Jonathan
swung into a plausible explanation: it was Mr. Sheriff who, as friend of the host President
Idris Deby, had traveled ahead to Chad to receive Jonathan as part of President Deby’s
welcome entourage. What, however does this say of any president? How came it that a
suspected affiliate of a deadly criminal gang, publicly under such ominous cloud, had the
confidence to smuggle himself into the welcoming committee of another nation, and even
appear in audience, to all appearance a co-host with the president of that nation? Where does
the confidence arise in him that Jonathan would not snub him openly or, after the initial
shock, pull his counterpart, his official host aside and say to him, “Listen, it’s him, or me.”?
So impunity now transcends boundaries, no matter how heinous the alleged offence?
The Nigerian president however appeared totally at ease. What the nation witnessed in the
photo-op was an affirmation of a governance principle, the revelation of a decided frame of
mind – with precedents galore. Goodluck Jonathan has brought back into limelight more
political reprobates – thus attested in criminal courts of law and/or police investigations –
than any other Head of State since the nation’s independence. It has become a reflex. Those
who stuck up the obscene banner in Abuja had accurately read Jonathan right as a Bring-back
president. They have deduced perhaps that he sees “bringing back” as a virtue, even an
ideology, as the corner stone of governance, irrespective of what is being brought back. No
one quarrels about bringing back whatever the nation once had and now sorely needs – for
instance, electricity and other elusive items like security, the rule of law etc. etc. The list is
interminable. The nature of what is being brought back is thus what raises the disquieting
questions. It is time to ask the question: if Ebola were to be eradicated tomorrow, would this
government attempt to bring it back?
Well, while awaiting the Chibok girls, and in that very connection, there is at least an
individual whom the nation needs to bring back, and urgently. His name is Stephen Davis, the
erstwhile negotiator in the oft aborted efforts to actually bring back the girls. Nigeria needs
him back – no, not back to the physical nation space itself, but to a Nigerian induced forum,
convoked anywhere that will guarantee his safety and can bring others to join him. I know
Stephen Davis, I worked in the background with him during efforts to resolve the
insurrection in the Delta region under President Shehu Yar’Adua. I have not been involved in
his recent labours for a number of reasons. The most basic is that my threshold for
confronting evil across a table is not as high as his – thanks, perhaps, to his priestly calling.
From the very outset, in several lectures and other public statements, I have advocated one
response and one response only to the earliest, still putative depredations of Boko Haram and
have decried any proceeding that smacked of appeasement. There was a time to act – several
times when firm, decisive action, was indicated. There are certain steps which, when taken,
place an aggressor beyond the pale of humanity, when we must learn to accept that not all
who walk on two legs belong to the community of humans – I view Boko Haram in that light.
It is no comfort to watch events demonstrate again and again that one is proved to be right.
Thus, it would be inaccurate to say that I have been detached from the Boko Haram affliction –
very much the contrary. As I revealed in earlier statements, I have interacted with the late
National Security Adviser, General Azazi, on occasion – among others. I am therefore
compelled to warn that anything that Stephen Davis claims to have uncovered cannot be
dismissed out of hand. It cannot be wished away by foul-mouthed abuse and cheap attempts
to impugn his integrity – that is an absolute waste of time and effort. Of the complicity of ex-
Governor Sheriff in the parturition of Boko Haram, I have no doubt whatsoever, and I believe
that the evidence is overwhelming. Femi Falana can safely assume that he has my full backing
– and that of a number of civic organizations – if he is compelled to go ahead and invoke the
legal recourses available to him to force Sheriff’s prosecution. The evidence in possession of
Security Agencies – plus a number of diplomats in Nigeria – is overwhelming, and all that is
left is to let the man face criminal persecution. It is certain he will also take many others
down with him.
Regarding General Ihejirika, I have my own theories regarding how he may have come under
Stephen Davis’ searchlight in the first place, ending up on his list of the inculpated. All I shall
propose at this stage is that an international panel be set up to examine all allegations,
irrespective of status or office of any accused. The unleashing of a viperous cult like Boko
Haram on peaceful citizens qualifies as a crime against humanity, and deserves that very
dimension in its resolution. If a people must survive, the reign of impunity must end. Truth –
in all available detail – is in the interest, not only of Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent,
but of the international community whose aid we so belatedly moved to seek. From very early
beginnings, we warned against the mouthing of empty pride to stem a tide that was assuredly
moving to inundate the nation but were dismissed as alarmists. We warned that the nation
had moved into a state of war, and that its people must be mobilized accordingly – the
warnings were disregarded, even as slaughter surmounted slaughter, entire communities
wiped out, and the battle began to strike into the very heart of governance, but all we
obtained in return was moaning, whining and hand-wringing up and down the rungs of
leadership and governance.But enough of recriminations – at least for now. Later, there must
be full accounting.
Finally, Stephen Davis also mentions a Boko Haram financier within the Nigerian Central
Bank. Independently we are able to give backing to that claim, even to the extent of naming
the individual. In the process of our enquiries, we solicited the help of a foreign embassy
whose government, we learnt, was actually on the same trail, thanks to its independent
investigation into some money laundering that involved the Central Bank. That name, we
confidently learnt, has also been passed on to President Jonathan. When he is ready to
abandon his accommodating policy towards the implicated, even the criminalized, an attitude
that owes so much to re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law
to take its course” to galvanizing the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name.
In the meantime however, as we twiddle our thumbs, wondering when and how this
nightmare will end, and time rapidly runs out, I have only one admonition for the man to
whom so much has been given, but who is now caught in the depressing spiral of diminishing
returns: “Bring Back Our Honour.”

Wole Soyinka, writer, Nobel laureate, and inveterate campaigner for human freedom,
who turned 80 last July, sent in this article from his country home in Abeokuta

“He Caught me on our Matrimonial Bed…”

My name is Susan (real name disclosed) and I have been living in utter misery because my sins have caught up with me and the guilt alone is killing me.It would have been better if it was my guilt alone, but my husband has refused to utter a word after he caught me with my ex 3 weeks ago on our matrimonial bed.We have been married for over 3 years now, getting to 4 and he has been an amazing man to me, despite the fact that I have not been able to conceive for him yet. He has been patient and his family in return encourages us to be strong as they join us in prayer, as we wait for God’s timing. Most times I feel I do not deserve a man like him but tell me, which woman on earth will refuse a good man? The answer is NONE!!!I started sneaking out with my ex a year after our marriage because my husband’s business takes him away from home very often. Prior to our wedding, my ex and I have dated for like 2 years but he suddenly asked me to move on because he was leaving for a training abroad and will not be able to commit to distance relationship. I was heartbroken because he promised to marry me but eventually left me like the others did.I found myself living in a teary world and begging God to ease the pain. Barely 4 months after the break up I met my husband who helped me get over the hurt and he loved me like I’v never been loved before. He eventually proposed and we got married.A year after our wedding, my ex came back from his training and we became friends because my husband had helped me erase all the bitterness I felt towards him. My husband was not comfortable with the friendship and warned me not to become very close to him.However, my ex invited me to a private party while my husband was on a business trip. The boredom was unbearable, so I went. Spending the night with him in the party brought back memories and he eventually convinced me to sleep in  a room within the house because it was very late and we were both tipsy, so he could not risk driving me home or let me drive. To cut the story short, he came to the room I was and cuddled me and we began sleeping with each other from that day.I knew what I was doing was wrong but I could not control it, talk less of stopping it. It got to the point where my ex would secretly sneak into my matrimonial home and I eventually started asking the security guard to leave anytime my husband was out of town.Unfortunately, my husband walked in on us while my ex was on top of me. I still don’t know why he came back home that night because he left home that morning on another business trip. Maybe the trip was cancelled or something happened, which I still haven’t been able to figure out because he has refused to utter a word to me. He still eats my food and still wakes me for morning prayer but he hasn’t said anything regarding the incident in 3 weeks.Just like he walked away when he caught us, he does same when I approach him for a conversation.Please someone tell me what to do because this feeling is tearing me apart. The shame and filth I feel is heavy even though I have asked God to forgive me, but God knows that his silence is what I cannot live with. Please I need helpful suggestions on what to do because I love my husband and my home.

Source: omojuwa.com

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

US Ambassador To Nigeria Reveals How Ex-Army Boss Ihejirika Diverted Military Funds Abroad

A former Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihejirika is in the cross hairs of the United States as that nation is insisting that the former army top gun be probed for alleged diversion of funds meant for the procurement of weapons and other warfare equipment meant for the army.

Local sources hinted that Ihejirika who arguably one of the wealthiest retired Generals allegedly pocketed billions of naira meant for the Army.According to a source, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle raised the issue when he met recently with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.Ambassador Entwisle at the meeting at the Presidential Villa, said the U.S is particularly concerned about the sudden riches of Ihejirika.Ihejirika, who was fingered as one of the sponsors of Boko Haram by the Australian hostage negotiator, Davies, is the front-runner for the Abia state Gover‎norship seat.Investigations revealed that the US Ambassador told Jonathan that the Americans who were in Nigeria to assist in the fight against insurgents were shocked to find out that what was on ground did not match the billions allocated under Ihejirika’s watch.

There have been pockets of grumbling amongst the army rank and file over obsolete and some times lack of top shelf weapons. This boiled over when some soldiers mutinied against a General. Those soldiers were court martialed and sentenced to death.In 2012 alone the defence budget for capital expenditure was N34.36 Billion‎ with a whooping N5.71 Billion earmarked for the acquisition of equipment by the Army.U.S President Barack Obama or the Secretary of state, John Kerry is expected to discuss the issue with Jonathan at some close sessions during the United Nations General Assembly.The alleged rot and high level corruption in the military, sources said, has affected the morale of the Americans who here as technical partners and advisers.

Entwistle, it was learnt told Jonathan, every top military officer should be held accountable if he wants the US to be part of the fight against insurgents.

Pointblanknews.com also gathered that the high level corruption, contract inflation and purchase of obsolete equipment and arms cut across the three services.This rot made Defence minister General Aliyu Gusau to insist that every contract or procurement must pass through his office. Curiously, this move did not go down well with the service chiefs who had hitherto enjoyed autonomy.Said our source ” the Americans want Ihejirika and his cohort probed.

They are insisting that the Government must hold thieving Generals accountable if Nigeria wants them to be part of the fight against Boko Haram”“The Ambassador expressed his nations unhappiness with what Ihejirika did with the billions allocated to the Army. They are insisting he be probed. We all know he is one of the riches retired Generals‎ around. He made billions that is why he wants to be Abia Governor,” said our source.

Source: PointBlankNews

Monday, September 22, 2014

Tony Blair's solution to combat Isis sounds familiar

Tony Blair has called for the UK to consider using ground troops in the war against Isis, saying the fight against Islamic extremism is similar to the ideological and physical battles the West fought against communism and fascism.In an essay for his Faith Foundation the former Prime Minister also says that Britain and America need to ally themselves with Russia and China to defeat extremist groups across the world.But he warns that unless what he calls the “spectrum of Islamism” is taken on as well then similar groups to Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, will continue to form and threaten Western interests.In his essay Mr Blair says while it is “right in the immediate term to concentrate on defeating Isis”, in the longer term “another Isis will quickly arise to take their place unless we go to the root of the issue and deal with this ideology wherever it shows itself on a co-ordinated global basis”.Mr Blair says in military terms he is not advocating new “armies of occupation”. But adds:

We are, in certain situations where it is necessary and subject to all proper limitations, talking about committing ground forces.You cannot uproot this extremism unless you go to where it originates and fight it.And he suggests that Russia and China must be key partners in the fight so it is not seen as the West versus Islam. “This is a challenge which East and West share … So the great powers of the East, without doubt, desire the right outcome to this battle as much as us.

Independent News

Sunday, September 21, 2014

At least 8 Ebola aid workers reportedly killed 'in cold blood' by villagers in Guinea

At least eight Ebola aid workers and journalists were reportedly murdered and dumped in a latrine in a remote village in Guinea in a frightening example of the growing distrust locals have of foreigners coming to help stem the mushrooming health crisis.These deaths are believed to be the first resulting from resistance to international efforts to curb the Ebola outbreak in the region, Reuters reported. Other aid teams have been forced to turn back by crowds in several locations, and a treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia was attacked and looted.

Villagers in an area near the city of Nzerekore used machetes and clubs to attack eight members of a team trying to raise awareness about the disease, officials told the BBC."The eight bodies were found in the village latrine," Albert Damantang Camara, a spokesman for Guinea's government, told Reuters on Thursday, adding that they had been "killed in cold blood by the villagers."Prime Minister Fofana reported that the aid mission included "local administrators, two medical officers, a preacher and three accompanying journalists." They were reportedly attacked by a large crowd, throwing stones, from the village of Wome.The delegation had arrived on Tuesday to do disinfection work and educate people about preventing Ebola, but residents pelted them with rocks and beat them, according to the Los Angeles Times, citing Guinean radio reports.  The group fled into the bush. One journalist who escaped said she heard people looking for her while she hid, according to the BBC.On Thursday, the bodies were found in the septic tank of a village school in the village, according to Camara. Six people have been arrested and the village is now reportedly deserted. Although a motive for the murders has not been confirmed, a BBC report says many villagers have accused the health workers of spreading the disease.Ebola first surfaced in March in southeastern Guinea, where the attacks took place. Since then, it has spread through the lower continent despite international efforts to combat it.More than 2,600 people in West Africa have died from the disease.Complicating efforts is the lack of education in remote areas, where some residents don't believe the virus exists. Last month, in the same area where the aid workers were killed, people rioted out of fear that workers disinfecting a market were contaminating people, according to the BBC.Security for aid workers, for clinics and hospitals, remains a concern in the region. All of the governments affected and the international agencies fighting the epidemic are trying to reach out to the rural communities where misinformation and fear have prevented effective measures to control the spread of Ebola. Until all of the areas with infections have been reached and controls implemented, a reservoir of Ebola will remain and continue to spread, say experts.The United Nations Security Council declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a "threat to international peace and security" Thursday.  Since March, the virus has infected at least 5,357 people, according to World Health Organization (WHO), mostly in Guinea, neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia. It has also spread to Senegal and Nigeria.It is the world's worst outbreak of Ebola, with officials warning that more than 20,000 people could ultimately be infected.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he will create a special mission to combat the disease and deployed staff in the worst-affected states.Neighboring Sierra Leone has begun a controversial three-day curfew to try to stop the spread of the disease.

Fox News

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Lady Gaga says wary of pro-ISIS rallies in U.S.

U.S. pop star Lady Gaga said in a recent interview that she is “scared” to hear of rallies held in the United States in support of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).“It makes me scared when I hear that there’s pro-ISIS rallies in America because I think that social media has created this sort of negative undertone in the universe,” she told the Associated Press.The 28-year-old “Paparazzi” singer, who has recently had hip surgery and parted ways with her longtime manager, says things are looking up for her. “I’ve very centered now. I meditate a lot. I’m happy. I am more sober than I’ve ever been,” the singer said interview this week. “It’s a very happy time in my life.”

Parting ways

Last year, Gaga parted ways with longtime manager Troy Carter, who helped the pop star achieve multiplatinum status, dominate the pop charts and win multiple Grammy Awards. She said she was overworked and that greed led to their split.“Part of what was making my sort of artistic experience so unpleasant was that I felt that I was not able to truly freely fly as an artist,” she said. “In some ways my talents were not being used to their full potential.”Gaga says part of her happier state of mind comes from working with Tony Bennett on the album “Cheek to Cheek,” out on Tuesday.Gaga is currently on an international tour that wraps up Nov. 24 in Paris. 

Source: Al Arabiya News

Monday, September 15, 2014

The CBN, ATM Charges, and Regulatory Capture, By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

On 13 August 2014, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular announcing the “re-introduction of ‘Remote-on-Us’ ATM cash withdrawal transaction fee, which will now be 65 Naira per transaction to cover the remuneration of switches, ATM monitoring and fit-notes processing by acquiring banks.” The CBN explained that “the new charge shall apply as from the 4th‘Remote-on-Us’ withdrawal (in a month) by a card holder, thereby making the first three ‘Remote-on-Us’ transactions free for the card holder but to be paid by the issuing bank.”This circular was not designed to be understood by even highly educated Nigerians and there’re legitimate questions whether its contents are indeed in the interest of the average Nigerian. The reasons it gave for introducing the charge on Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) transactions addressed the interests of bankers and did not at all advert to the interests of users of financial services or consumers of banking products.To appreciate its implications, the CBN’s new policy on ATM transactions needs to be broken down in terms that mere mortals can understand. The ATM is an essential outlet for retail banking. Deposit money banks issue account holders with ATM cards, with which they can, by keying in their personalized identity numbers (PIN), access their deposits from the ATM.It is not unusual for customers seeking to use ATMs to encounter problems. In many neighborhoods outside the big cities, many banks don’t deploy ATMs. Customers sometimes travel long distances to access them. May times, the ATM has no cash to dispense. At other times, it debits accounts for money not dispensed. Quite often, many of the ATMs are down or suffering some form outage.Because of these not infrequent glitches, the Switch system enables customers to access their funds from ATMs operated by Banks other than the ones with which their accounts are domiciled. Clearly, the biggest single reason why account holders use ATMs operated by banks other than their own is system-wide inefficiency. The choice of sticking with the ATM deployed by your own bank doesn’t exist.To any regulator interested in even-handedness between the industry and the consumer, it would make sense to take measures to progressively minimize these problems with a view, ultimately, to eliminating them. Rather than do this, the CBN chooses to penalize the customer, effectively making inefficiency a revenue stream for banks.Thus, by this new directive, whenever any customer uses more than thrice in a month an ATM other than that operated by the Bank with which they have an account, they will be charged 65 Naira. To those who are rich and comfortable, this may sound like nothing. But in a country in which over 70% live around or below poverty lines, it’s like robbing the poor to make rich bankers even richer. It’s wrong. Even worse, it looks unlawful.The powers of the CBN are not at large. They are established and circumscribed by law. Section 42 of the CBN Act sets up two standards with reference to which regulatory measures by the Bank may be assessed, namely: “high standards of conduct in the banking system” and “in the national interest.” With reference to the former standard, this policy rewards banks for maintaining an abysmal ATM payments system. With reference to the latter, the CBN has manifestly failed to take account of the interests of customers. On both counts, the legality of the new CBN directive can be questioned.The CBN provides no evidence of monitoring or performance of the ATMs. What is the penetration of ATM deployment relative to the footprint of retail banking? What proportion of ATM transactions are failed or frustrated? What are the statistics of down time or outage on ATMs? How many complaints are logged about ATM transactions; how many are resolved satisfactorily and what is the average resolution time? Why now?Yet, these are necessary questions because they help to explain the logics of the decision making and ensure compliance with service quality by the banks. Banks have a legitimate interest to make profit from quality service delivery. But by “re-introducing” charges before guaranteeing service quality, the CBN penalizes customers for industry inefficiencies and offers to the industry that it is supposed to regulate a perverse incentive at the expense of the customer. That’s neither in the interest of higher standards of banking nor of the public.

Dr. Chidi Anslem Odinkalu is the Chairman of Nigeria’s Human Rights Commission Governing Board.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Fans responsible for our quarrel - PSquare

The PSquare duo, Peter and Paul in a recent interview said that their fans were the ones who helped escalate the crisis between them.According to the Square brothers, they are human and have blood running through their veins and as such want their fans to know that brothers and parents do quarrel and reunite.Peter explained that though he was not under pressure when the crisis occurred but as time went by he started feeling pressurised as fans kept challenging him on the whereabouts of his brother, Paul.PSquare noted that though they had issues with each other, it never had any effect on their songs because the group was still together.Peter despite blaming the fans, also attested that they helped make them identify their differences and they were able to come back together as one.They also thanked some top officials in the country who also lent their views and advice towards ensuring that they came back as a team.Speaking on their new album, they revealed that they want to break the record which they set with the ‘Do Me’ video which they say is still their best song.

Culled from Daily Trust