By Kingsley Omonobi Abuja – Defence Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Committee for Niger Delta, Major-General Godwin Abbe (rtd) said yesterday that contrary to belief in some quarters, there is no hidden agenda in the amnesty proposal of the Federal Government, noting that “It is real, it remains unconditional, it is a deal […]

STRONG indications emerged yesterday that top politicians from the South South geo-political zone have started lobbying members of the leading militant group in the region, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, for support ahead 2011 polls.

By this I mean Nigerians from the North-West and North-East of this country. What I must now call a lazy way of explaining this apparently well-organised and outer-directed violence, is to attribute it to joblessness, poverty or any of those social vices and disjunctions we are too quick to identify as being at the root of the violence. Poverty or joblessness is not peculiar to the North.

Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin has urged public health institutions across the nation to adopt private sector models in their operations as part of efforts to bring back integrity in the nation’s healthcare delivery services.

The need for a breast milk bank and full involvement of men in exclusive breast feeding of babies for six months as well as complimentary breast feeding for two years were issues on the front burner at a one – day sensitisation seminar organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF in Lagos last week.

Former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Monday urged Nigeria to take actions of disapproval against Republic of Niger following the constitutional changes in a referendum last weekend to elongate the tenure of President Mamadou Tandja.

The Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Mr. Doifie Ola, said in a statement that media reports of the loan bond smacks off reckless fictionalisation of journalism, stressing that neither the governor nor any organ of the state government has initiated any move to take any bond.

Doctors and mid-wives from various Lagos State government-owned hospitals recently benefitted from a comprehensive international obstetric practical skills drill session organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Health.

FOR four days, Executive Director UNICEF, Ms.Ann Veneman was in Nigeria. It was her first official visit since she was appointed UNICEF Executive Director. Although the visit was primarily focused addressing child and maternal health issues, it also served as the platform on which she announced the commitment of US$1,850,000 additional support by UNICEF towards addressing the incidence of malnutrition in Nigeria.

The Coroner Court sitting in Yaba, Lagos, which is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a member of the Thisday Editorial Board, Mr. Abayomi Ogundeji, will tomorrow temporarily move to Alagbeleye Specialist Hospital, Ikosi, Ketu area of Lagos State, to enable former Divisional Police Officer in charge of Idimu Police Station, ACP Johnson Adeniken, who is being treated for cancer in the hospital, to give his testimony on oath from his sick bed.