NCC, CBN halt Etisalat’s takeover

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NCC Building

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have got reprieve for Etisalat on the loan default crisis facing the company.

Mr Tony Ojobo, the Director of Public Affairs of NCC said in a statement on Saturday in Lagos, that the reprieve came following a meeting convened by CBN and NCC to find a quick resolution to the crisis.

”Friday’s meeting succeeded in halting the attempt by Etisalat’s creditors at bringing it under any form of take over.

”Receivership was completely taken off the table in a meeting that was very productive and constructive.

”The meeting, which held at the CBN office in Lagos, had the consortium of banks being owed and Etisalat in attendance.

”The banks and the mobile network operator agreed to concrete actions that will bring all parties closest to a resolution,” Ojobo said.

He said that CBN and NCC were able to secure for Etisalat the necessary “oxygen” to enable it continue to meet urgent operational expenses.

Ojobo said that CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele who chaired the meeting, was firm in declaring what needed to be done by both parties towards a quick resolution.

He said that NCC equally made it clear that everything necessary must be done to protect the 23 million Etisalat subscribers.

The director said that there was also the need to protect the telecom industry to prevent potential investors from developing cold feet.

According to him, effort has been made to ensure that Etisalat remains in business while the consortium of banks meet their obligations to their customers.

”A meeting will hold on March 16 to agree on a payment restructuring path going forward.

”The NCC will lead the CBN in a possible crucial meeting with Etisalat’s shareholders anytime soon,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on March 8, there was an attempt by a consortium of banks to take over Etisalat, because of its N541.8 billion debt.

A consortium of some foreign and Nigerian banks, including Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank, have been having a running battle with the mobile telephone operator, over a loan facility totalling 1.72 billion dollars (about N541.8 billion) obtained in 2015.

The banks said their attempt to recover the loan by all means, was fuelled by the pressure from the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), demanding immediate cut down on the rate of their non-performing loans.

NCC appears not to be favourably disposed to the takeover proposal; as it believed that Etisalat is not only a viable going concern, but also willing and able to negotiate the servicing of its loans.

Etisalat is Nigeria’s fourth largest telecommunications operator with about 21 million subscribers as at January 2017.

It commenced business in Nigeria in 2009.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2nfXff0

Somalia to elect president amid security, drought woes

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Somalia is to hold its presidential election on Wednesday after numerous delays, with ongoing security concerns and warnings of famine topping the agenda for the new administration.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is seeking re-election against 22 other candidates.

The troubled Horn of Africa nation, which has not had an effective central government in three decades, had been promised a one-person, one-vote election in 2016.

However political infighting and insecurity, mainly due to Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militants who control swathes of countryside and strike at will in Mogadishu, saw the plan ditched for a limited vote running months behind schedule.

The presidential election had been due to take place in August, four years after the previous vote in which just 135 clan elders chose MPs who then voted for the country’s leader.

Elections instead began in October with an electoral college system that excluded ordinary citizens and instead involved 14,025 delegates voting for candidates for both parliament and a new upper house.

The elections were marred by widespread allegations of vote-buying and intimidation.

In a report on Tuesday, Somalia-based anti-corruption watchdog Marqaati said the elections “were rife with corruption”. Repeated delays meant the new lawmakers were only sworn in in December.

– Delays and disillusion –
The tortuous process has left some disillusioned. “I really don’t care who becomes president. We just need to be free to attend to our business,” said Qoje Siyad, a Mogadishu day labourer.

“This thing is taking too long,” said housewife Samiya Abdulkadir. “People will be relieved to see an end to this drama.”

While falling well short of the election that was promised, the process is more democratic than in the past and is seen as a step towards universal suffrage, now hoped for in 2020.

Wednesday’s voting will see members of the 275-seat parliament and 54 senators cast ballots inside a hangar within the heavily-guarded airport.

No candidate is expected to get the two-thirds majority needed for a first-round win, with two further rounds permitted before a winner is declared.

In the absence of political parties, clan remains the organising principle of Somali politics.

All 23 candidates are men after the only declared female candidates dropped out.

And each one has paid the $30,000 (28,000-euro) registration fee although few have any serious chance of winning.

One of them is the current president, a 61-year-old former academic and civil society activist from the Hawiye clan.

Also in the running is ex-president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a fellow Hawiye and 52-year-old former leader of the Islamic Courts Union which pacified Somalia before being driven out by US-backed Ethiopian troops.

The leading Darod candidates are Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Shamarke, 56, and a former premier Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ‘Farmajo’, 55.

Both hold dual nationalities having lived for years in Canada and the US respectively.

– Famine looms again –
The overthrow of president Siad Barre’s military regime in 1991 ushered in decades of anarchy and conflict in a country deeply divided along clan lines.

The clan rivalries and lawlessness provided fertile ground for the Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab to take hold and seize territory, frustrating efforts to set up a central administration.

Shabaab has been in decline since 2011 but still launches regular, deadly attacks against government, military and civilian targets in the capital Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Security and overcoming Somalia’s adversarial and divisive politics will top the agenda for whoever wins the vote as will dealing with a growing humanitarian crisis.

The UN warned last week of “possible famine” in Somalia as a severe drought has pushed nearly 3 million people to the edge of starvation.

After two failed rain seasons, aid workers fear a repeat of a 2010-11 drought which left more than 250,000 dead.

“The levels of suffering in the country, triggered by protracted conflict, seasonal shocks and disease outbreaks, are typically hard to bear, but the impact of this drought represents a threat of a different scale and magnitude,” the UN’s office for humanitarian affairs said in a statement last week.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kmtUA0

One million sign petition to cancel Trump’s UK state visit (Read full details)

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US President Donald Trump / AFP PHOTO / DON EMMERT

A petition demanding Britain cancel a planned state visit by US President Donald Trump passed one million signatures on Monday, following outrage over his travel ban on mainly Muslim countries.

“Donald Trump should be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US government, but he should not be invited to make an official state visit because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen,” the petition on parliament’s website says.

“Donald Trump’s well-documented misogyny and vulgarity disqualifies him from being received by Her Majesty the Queen or the Prince of Wales.”

Parliamentary petitions can be signed by anyone with a British postcode and those doing so are asked if they are a UK resident or citizen. Such petitions must be considered by lawmakers if they attract more than 100,000 signatures.

Last January parliament debated banning Trump from Britain following a petition signed by nearly 600,000 people, after the then White House candidate promised to drastically restrict US entry to people from Muslim countries if he became president.

Trump on Friday signed an executive order suspending the arrival of all refugees for at least 120 days, Syrian refugees indefinitely — and barring citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.

One million sign petition to cancel Trump’s UK state visit

Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2k83IHv

Shocking! Wife cuts off husband’s penis, cooks it with noodles for cheating on her with the househelp (see photos)

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An aggrieved wife has taken the adage ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ to another level. According to the tweet shared by @whitney_beryl, the wife caught her husband sleeping with the house help and she sliced off his male member, cooked it with noodles and shared the photo on Snapchat. Check out the graphic photos after the cut and tell us if you think it’s real or a hoax*.

Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2jlKukH

Australian Open Final: Serena beats Venus to win record 23rd Slam title

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Serena Williams of the US looks at the championship trophy during the awards ceremony after her victory against Venus Williams of the US in the women's singles final on day 13 of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2017.
WILLIAM WEST / AFP

Serena Williams of the US (R) hugs Venus Williams of the US after winning the women's singles final on day 13 of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2017.
WILLIAM WEST / AFP

Serena Williams of the US reacts after beating Venus Williams of the US to win their women's singles final match on day 13 of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2017.
SAEED KHAN / AFP

Loser Venus Williams of the US (L-facing) is embraced by her sister Serena Williams of the US following the women's singles final on day 13 of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2017.
Greg Wood / AFP

Serena Williams rewrote history Saturday to surpass Steffi Graf and capture a record 23rd Grand Slam title as well as the world number one ranking by beating her sister Venus in the Australian Open final.

The dominant American swept past her greatest rival 6-4, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena for her seventh Melbourne Park crown to finally clinch the record for Open-era major titles, nearly 18 years after winning her first.

The 35-year-old, who equalled Graf’s mark of 22 at Wimbledon last year, now stands just one behind the all-time 24 won by Margaret Court, who was in the president’s box to witness Williams’ feat.

Her astonishing achievement also means she again becomes the world’s top-ranked player, ending the brief stay of Angelique Kerber who knocked Williams off the top after three-and-half years in September last year.

Fittingly, her sister and closest confidante Venus was on the other side of the net to share the moment, another chapter written in their long rivalry.

It was Venus — still a teenager with beads in her hair — who knocked Serena out in round two on her Grand Slam debut in Melbourne 19 years ago, and they have since played nine major finals together, living each other’s highs and lows.

At 36 and seeded 13, Venus had turned back the clock to make her first Grand Slam title match since Wimbledon in 2009, but adding to her seven major successes was not to be.

Showing the single-mindedness that has propelled her to greatness, a focused Serena, seeded two, overcame a scratchy and nervous start in which all four opening games were breaks and when she smashed a racquet in frustration.

But she soon settled to get a decisive break to go 4-3 in front with an unstoppable backhand, and served out the set with an ace.

Serena was fired up and after the first two games of the second set went to serve, she worked three break points in the third only for her sister to negotiate her way out of trouble with some big forehand winners.

The tense battle went with serve to 3-3 before Serena cranked up the pressure to break with a scintillating crosscourt backhand and take a 4-3 lead.

With history beckoning, she wasn’t about to throw it away and she served out the match, falling to the floor in celebration before a long embrace with Venus to share the biggest moment of her career.

Vía The Guardian NigeriaThe Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2jpeGq1