U.S. WON’T TOLERATE EFFORTS TO HARM AMERICANS – OBAMA

President Barack Obama has declared that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths. 

Obama in his weekly radio address said, “Yet there is never any justification for violence …. There is no excuse for attacks on our embassies and consulates.”

Angry anti-American protests have swept the Muslim world in response to a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad. An attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others this week.

A day after Obama led a somber ceremony marking the return of the bodies of the Americans killed in Libya, he acknowledged that a surge of anti-American violence in the Middle East is disturbing.

The Pentagon is sending Marines to beef up security at the U.S. embassy in Sudan, following similar reinforcements to Libya and Yemen.

The Libyan attack and the U.S.-directed outrage have raised questions about Obama’s handling of the so-called Arab Spring, a series of revolutions that have unseated entrenched authoritarian governments.

The turbulence in the Middle East has had ripples in a tight U.S. presidential election, with Obama’s Republican challenger Mitt Romney saying Obama has weakened U.S. authority around the world.

However, Obama repeated a vow to bring the attackers of the U.S. consulate in Libya to justice. “We will not waver in their pursuit,” he said.

The president also said the turmoil should not deter U.S. efforts to support democracy in the region or elsewhere.

“Let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom, and dignity, and hope that our flag represents,” he said.

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£2.2m PHCN Pension Fund Traced To London Bank

The eight-man panel set up by the former minister of power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, to investigate pension matters in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has discovered about £2.2 million (N572 million) PHCN pension money stashed away in Barclays Bank, United Kingdom.

This was disclosed during the presentation of the committee’s report to the minister of state for power, Arc. Darius Ishaku, in Abuja yesterday.

The committee headed by former auditor-general of the federation Mr Joseph Ajiboye noted that although it met with initial difficulty in getting the financial statement of PHCN, the panel was eventually able to access all required documents and began its search from 1990.

He said the sum of £2.2 million which was traced to the UK bank was unutilised for over 20 years, and efforts to retrieve it were met with bottlenecks. “But we believe the Nigerian high commissioner in London can help in retrieving the money,” he said.

Explaining how the money got to Barclays Bank, Ajiboye said PHCN had expatriates at the initial stage whose pensions were supposed to be paid. “We understand that the last expatriate has since died, so there’s no need for the account to continue to exist,” he said.

More findings, he said, also revealed that, between 1990 and 2010, the total amount of money remitted to the PHCN superannuation fund was N53.6 billion. A breakdown showed that between 1990 and 1999 a total of N1.7 billion was paid into the fund while N51.2 billion was remitted between 2000 and 2010.

On the controversial 25 per cent allegedly deducted from PHCN workers’ salary, Ajiboye explained that findings from meetings held with the Nigerian Union of Pensioners and pay slips up to April 2012 presented by PHCN workers revealed that there was no evidence of deduction from any worker’s salary.

“All 25 per cent remittance into the superannuation fund was made by PHCN management. The pension fund is not funded by government as was the case of the police and military pensions. It was from their revenue that they funded their pensions.

“Since they have been recording losses for some years now, sometimes there was no money to set aside to fund the pension. The current expenditure of PHCN is not budgeted for; they make their money and pay their staff and run their business,’’ he said.

The panel also disclosed that one of PHCN’s properties in Kado, Abuja, was purportedly sold by PHCN management to generate money for the pension fund but noted that there was no record of the money paid into the fund.

In his remarks, Ishaku commended members of the panel for their effort to deliver the report on schedule. He expressed the hope that the report will aid in finding a lasting solution to the lingering PHCN/labour issue which has now been transferred to Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

He said government would also explore ways to retrieve the money stashed overseas.  The meeting ended with a visit to the site of PHCN’s property.

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Must Read: Prevent Sack Letter or Salary Deduction- Prevent Lateness at work!

Prevent Sack Letter or Salary Deduction- Prevent Lateness at work!

Overcoming lateness at work can sometimes be challenging. The fact that you might be hooked up with one activity or another is no excuse for your boss. He just want competency!

No employer cherishses lateness, as he will one time or the other make emphasis that "punctuality is the sole of a business"(which is true).

However, an employer will always have great pleasure to know that his workers are always punctual and with no doubt this could bring some reward to you especially when you have a very generous boss.

Most at times you wonder why you can't always get to work before or on resumption hour, this is very common in our system. But if you can make that choice of been punctual at work you are going to be one of the most valued and credible emplyee in your organization.

Lets look at some of the 5 reasons we go Late to work

I have been able to analyze the some of the issue of lateness to work and  have realize that even though this can be very challenging to overcome, knbowing ts a challenge can solve the problem

 1. Get Motivated:

Do you remember your first day at work? You were punctual that nobody had to question you of you late-coming to work. you always got up early from bed. you were always punctual, you had more energy  you were very determined never to go late, and all of a sudden you can't just explain how you improve in late-coming. Motivation has an imporatnt role to play in our life. 

When you begin to loose motivation, chances are that you would go down the drain.  

ops! This is not to say you couldn't have stayed motivated.

The lack of motivation is one of the most primary cause of lateness no matter your pay if you really lack external motivation apart from your organization lateness won't be far from you.

 However, you must keep yourself motivated. You might want to follw this simple steps to staying mottivated at work.

- Dont drain yourself with too much task.

- Give yourself time to rest (even if its few hours)

- Eat when you are hungry:

- Drink enough water

- If it's possible take a walk outside your office: I remember doing this when I felt stressed out at work two years ago.

 - Amongst all, you will have to stimulate your energies, to ensure you do not have a psycological breakdown.

 - Look for ways to create new operating standard through your strength.

2. Do your Thinking before you Sleep:

   If you are in the habit of making retrospect on your preparation to work. You might want to focus mainly on today's work instead of wasting valuable time thinking of how you spent your yesterday at work then quickly focus at what is on ground. This might not look like an obstacle but from my gathered experience you will go much late if you spend the whole of the day just thinking.

3. Don't Procrastinate!:

If you know what I mean don't beat about the bush trying to gather some document ,write some plans, go for an assignment.

Stop procrastinating. There is a common saying that procrastination is a thief of time. Time waits for no man. Learn to take every single action that comes to your mind at once for example:yu might want toyou might also want to try Napoleon Hill's simple advice which is DO it now!. when and idea flashes through your mind. Do it Now. He calls it the self starter.

4. Wake up Early: 

The popular saying goes "early to bed early to rise". Avoid sleeping late so as to wake up early for work. If you wake two hours from your resumption time it can really help. Also ensure you do not over weigh yourself with food overnight.

5. Never Rush to Work:

Be at the bus stop at the at least 50min from your resumption to work.


Going early to work will really help in your work affairs. It will relieve you of some guilt and stress, since coming early will help you plan your day well and also for the next day.

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Jonathan canvasses global support for job creation efforts

President Goodluck Jonathan has appealed to international development partners and the private sector to support his government’s efforts to create jobs for the youth.

The President made the appeal on Monday when he inaugurated the second edition of the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme aimed at providing grants to about 1,200 entrepreneurs.

The President said he decided to devote the edition solely to female entrepreneurs in recognition of the increasingly central role women were playing in the nation’s overall economic development.

He said, “I urge all stakeholders, including our youths and their leaders in the private sector, as well as international and development partners to join hands with us as we expand this laudable initiative and give fresh hope to our young people.

“People may ask why the government talks about YouWin; of course, we know that the present administration is committed to creating jobs for Nigerians. And jobs can be created through direct employment by government and her parastatals and agencies; but, we believe that a more sustainable approach to job creation is encouraging the private sector.”

“And to do that, we need to build young entrepreneurs who will be able to employ five or more people and that multiplier effect will give us more job opportunities than even government expanding the parastatals that will make them less productive. That is one of the cardinal points of YouWin,” he added.

He said the edition would also help address the relatively low participation of women with just about 17 per cent of winners in the first edition, which was designed for both men and women.

Under this phase, he said 1,200 women would receive between N1m and N10m over the next 12 to 18 months.

In addition to the grants provided for the 1,200 winners, Jonathan said at least 6,000 aspiring young entrepreneurs would be selected, trained and equipped with high quality business skills each year.

This, he added, would enable them harness their business and job creation potential.

The President said, “The first reason why we are focusing on women solely this time is that globally, the world talks about women and children. It is a topical point globally and Nigeria must be among the comity of nations.

“So, we must come up with programmes that will help women and protect and save lives of children, that is at the UN level. So, we must do things that other nations will copy from us, we should not only be copying from others.”

“In another ways too, women, in terms of using small money to create opportunities, have done it better than men,” he added.

Jonathan also reiterated his position that the era of godfathers must end in the country, saying it was high time for things to be done based on merit.

He said, “One of the awardees said earlier that after filling the forms, she wanted to get a contact in the Ministry of Finance that will facilitate the process of her winning; unfortunately, she couldn’t but later realised she didn’t even need it.

“We want to change that mentality and syndrome that you must know somebody to talk to somebody and we have begun with the YouWin Programme. That mentality must change. Gradually, we are changing it. You cannot change a society overnight, it is step-by-step. I promise Nigerians that I will sanitise Nigeria.”

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the programme was designed for women because they occupied a very strategic place in entrepreneurship in the country.

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Nigeria News:N5000 note: It is an indication of currency devaluation. – Tinubu

Former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu has described the plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to introduce the N5,000 note as a sign of currency devaluation, even as he accused the Peoples Democratic-led government of being irresponsible.

Tinubu, who spoke to journalists in London at the weekend on his way to the US Democratic Convention, said the government was spending much more than it has, and has been mismanaging the economy.

“It is an indication of currency devaluation. It is not his (CBN governor) own problem. He is a banker for the entire nation. He keeps eye on the economy and comes up with policies. The problem that we have is that we are spending what we don’t have. We are not managing our resources very well.

“If you (government) are losing over $6bn in oil revenue to theft, if you are losing $6bn to $10bn to oil subsidy theft, and if you spend 75 per cent of your budget to service recurrent expenditure and you are borrowing, not for long term activities and development that will sustain the nation on the long term, you get devaluation and you are seeing the effect of devaluation,” said Tinubu. “The economy is on reverse, it’s a yoyo economy. This government is not serious, they don’t know what they are doing.”

On the Ondo election, Tinubu accused Ondo State governor,Dr Olusegun Mimiko of betrayal of trust, adding that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) will win the election.

“We are going to defeat him. He is a betrayer, like he has betrayed others in the past. He got into Adefarati’s cabinet in 1999, betrayed him and moved to PDP. He later betrayed Olusegun Agagu and came back. He promised that within 30 days of his declaration, when we were fighting the case in the court, he would come to ACN and, after being sworn in, he started dillydallying. That is his trait. He’s not principled; a person with character would not do that definitely,” said Tinubu.

On the new Lagos traffic law, he said the law is not anti-people but against those who want to violate the traffic.

“The opposition parties which are criticising the law are bereft of ideas. Governance is about idea. The law is for safety and the government has the responsibility of safety of lives primarily, then properties. So you are saving lives and property. Vehicle is an asset. People should learn to obey simple law, it is for their own good. It is not for government. If you are not in violation, no one will arrest you. If you are in violation, the court will listen to you. In that if you don’t have money to defend yourself, Office of the Public Defenders is there, established by the government for those who don’t have money. We should clap for the government. We have to be civilised. Look how clean this place is (referring to London),” said the former governor.

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