APM asks for one day to open, close its case against Tinubu

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June 20, 2023

A police officer has been shot dead by gunmen who attacked the convoy of a former Nigerian Governor, Rochas Okorocha, in Imo State, Nigeria’s South-east.

The attack occurred on Friday at the Ihube Community along Okigwe- Enugu Expressway in Okigwe Local Government Area of the state.

Okigwe-Ihube Axis, which shares a boundary with communities in Abia State, has witnessed increased attacks by armed men lately.

Several people have been killed while others were kidnapped for ransom in the area in recent times.

Mr Okorocha, who served as the governor of Imo State between 2011 and 2019, told reporters on Sunday, that he was returning from Enugu State after attending the burial ceremony of the wife of a former Nigeria’s Senate President, Ken Nnamani, when the convoy was attacked.

The former governor spoke at the birthday celebration of the Imo State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Samuel Anyanwu, in Amaimo, Ikeduru Local Government Area of the state.

“I am very angry. I am angry because I spent two days in Enugu and nothing happened to me but it is in my own state that the convoy released to me by the Governor of Enugu state (Peter Mbah) to attend the burial ceremony of Ihedioha’s mother at Mbaise, was attacked and one policeman killed,” said Mr Okorocha, who represented Imo West District from 2019 and 2023.

The former governor said the slain officer was among police officers deployed from Enugu State Government House to escort him to the burial ceremony of Dorothy Ihedioha, mother of the former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha.

He expressed displeasure with the security situation in Imo State.

“What is happening in Imo state makes me angry,” he said.

“Many people who are running to govern Imo State are not capable but I have seen one man whose cap fits. When it is time I will speak,” the former governor added.

Mr Okorocha is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in the state.

But he had been in a longstanding face-off with the state governor, Hope Uzodinma, who is seeking a reelection in the 11 November governorship election in the state under the APC ticket.

When contacted on Monday morning, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, confirmed the attack and the killing of the officer to PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Okoye, an assistant superintendent of police, said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Ahmed Barde, had deployed police officers in Okigwe, where the incident occurred, to track down the attackers.

Source: premiumtimesng.com

Trillions of dollars wasted on subsidies could help address Climate Change

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June 20, 2023

Trillions of dollars are wasted on subsidies for agriculture, fishing and fossil fuels that could be used to help address climate change instead of harming people and the planet, a World Bank report says.

The report, ‘Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies,’ says global direct government expenditures in the three sectors are $1.25 trillion a year—around the size of a big economy such as Mexico.

To subsidise fossil fuel consumption, countries spend about six times what they pledged to mobilise annually under the Paris Agreement for renewable energies and low-carbon development.

“People say that there isn’t money for climate but there is – it’s just in the wrong places,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director of the World Bank.

“If we could repurpose the trillions of dollars being spent on wasteful subsidies and put these to better, greener uses, we could together address many of the planet’s most pressing challenges.”

The report notes that government subsidies of $577 billion in 2021 to artificially lower the price of polluting fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal, exacerbate climate change, and cause toxic air pollution, inequality, inefficiency, and mounting debt burdens.

Redirecting these subsidies could unlock at least half a trillion dollars towards more productive and sustainable uses.

The problem is bigger than direct government expenditures. The report assesses the harmful impact of implicit subsidies, which amount to $6 trillion each year.

These represent the costs on people and the planet from pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, road congestion, and the destruction of nature ultimately resulting from the subsidies.

In agriculture, direct subsidies of more than $635 billion a year are driving the excessive use of fertilisers that degrade soil and water and harm human health.

Subsidies for products such as soybeans, palm oil, and beef cause farmers to push into the forest frontier and are responsible for 14 percent of forest loss every year.

Fisheries subsidies, which exceed $35 billion each year, are a key driver of dwindling fish stocks, over-sized fishing fleets, and falling profitability. With more than 1 billion poor people obtaining most of their animal protein from fish, it is critical that the world’s fish stocks are restored to healthy status.

The burning of oil, gas, and coal causes 7 million premature deaths a year around the world through the bad air that people must breathe. The burden falls mostly on the poor.

“With foresight and planning, repurposing subsidies can provide more resources to give people a better quality of life and to ensure a better future for our planet,” said Richard Damania, Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group at the World Bank.

“Much is already known about best practices for subsidy reform, but implementing these practices is no easy feat due to entrenched interests, challenging political dynamics, and other barriers.”

For successful subsidy reform, governments must compensate the most vulnerable groups through social assistance programs, like cash transfers, and should:

Build public acceptance through transparent communication.
Give people and businesses time to adjust.
Show how freed-up revenue is being reinvested to support longer-term development.

Strengthening Capacity for Measuring Valuing Natural Capital in Ghana

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June 20, 2023

Ghana, a West African country rich in natural resources, is in the midst of a transition to holistic landscape management to benefit national wealth and the livelihoods of its people.

Ghana’s wealth and sustainable development is strongly linked to natural capital – the plants, animals, air, soils, water and minerals on which the country and its people depend. Nature has been a major contributor and driver of economic growth and development. In the past 40 years, Ghana’s real GDP has quadrupled.

Yet, The Changing Wealth of Nations (2021) showed that natural capital per capita peaked at $9,000 in 2014, falling more than 30% to $6,000 in 2018.

Likewise, the cost of environmental degradation due to the unsustainable use of land alone was 2.8 percent of 2017 GDP. If this trend continues, it will amplify destruction of the natural resource base, disproportionately impacting the poor and increasing exposure to climate risk.

Going beyond GDP

The Government of Ghana (GoG) recognised that, despite impressive GDP growth, the degradation of nature is having an impact on the future they want for their people.

As a result, they are taking strategic action, in cooperation with the Global Program on Sustainability (GPS) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), to implement the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting in order to integrate the value of nature and its services into development and investment planning.

To successfully mainstream natural capital accounting, GoG found it was not necessary to start from scratch. It was possible to build on existing alliances by first identifying active tools, structures and partnerships that were already working well, like the Cost of Environmental Degradation Working Group.

They then boosted collaboration across institutions to help spread best practices and leverage knowledge among ministries. This made it possible to build capacity more quickly among the technical officers inside the different ministries.

With the right structures in place, the next step will be to improve reliability and timeliness of data. This would provide the basis for indicators required in planning, policy, and implementation programs.

Preliminary results

Already there are several promising results. Ghana is developing land and ecosystem extent accounts, ecosystem services accounts and deriving environmentally adjusted macroeconomic indicators.

As a result, GoG will be able to better target landscape restoration interventions, inform land-use planning and conservation policies, and derive key indicators for monitoring and reporting.

Transitioning towards a sustainable future

As Ghana continues to make steady progress, institutional capacity to generate quantitative and qualitative information is impacting policy decisions at all levels.

It is also contributing to the success of other projects like the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project, financed by the World Bank, with funding from IDA, PROGREEN and EGPS.

This brings Ghana yet another step closer to its national objective of strengthening the country’s foundation for a more sustainable future.

Source: World Bank

Jay Z wins over $7 million as lawsuit against Parlux Fragrances comes to a close

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June 20, 2023

Parlux Fragrances has paid $7,259,061.31 to Jay-Z after losing a lawsuit, claiming he failed to live up to his contractual obligations to promote the cologne, Gold Jay Z.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2016, and a jury ruled in Jay Z’s favor more than a year ago. Parlux filed an appeal which they lost at the end of May, 2023. The payout reflects the court’s ruling that Parlux pay the music mogul $6.8 million plus interest for unpaid royalties, TMZ reported.

During the legal battle, Parlux argued Jay Z “ghosted” the perfume brand and abandoned his contractual obligations, according to Yahoo. Jay Z countersued the company, saying he satisfied his contractual obligations and the corporation was withholding funds that were due to him.

A five-judge panel agreed with a previous 2021 jury verdict that Jay Z was not negligent in his promotion of Parlux. “There were multiple rational bases for upholding the jury verdict, and plaintiffs have not set forth a sufficient basis to overturn it,” according to Yahoo.

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, originally entered into an agreement in 2012. The music icon agreed to promote a new perfume that was released under the name Gold by JayZ.

The fragrance was released for sale a year after the agreement was made, but the fragrance sales failed to impress.

Men don’t get anything on Fathers’ Day – John Dumelo

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June 20, 2023

Actor cum Politician, John Dumelo is wondering why men are not celebrated as much as women during Fathers’ Day.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Candidate for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency in 2020 Parliamentary elections has ignited a discussion about the recognition of Father’s Day compared to Mother’s Day.

In a tweet,Mr. Dumelo pointed out the discrepancy in the way Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are celebrated.

He emphasized that multinational and local businesses organise Mothers’ Day events and giveaways for mothers, whereas fathers often receive little recognition or appreciation on Father’s Day.

“When it’s Mother’s Day, all the multinational/local companies and brands will organize events and do giveaways for mothers. But on Father’s Day, all WE get is……nothing. God Dey” Dumelo, who is a father of two tweeted.

Father’s Day, celebrated worldwide on the third Sunday of June, is a special day dedicated to honouring and appreciating fathers and father figures for their contributions to their families and society.

In some social media reactions, a user said, “Mr Dumelo, may I remind you that most of the local and MULTINATIONAL companies are owned and led by MEN.”

Another added, “Fathers dey suffer ooo. A father who earns 5k a month pays kids school fees of 2k bills and expenses of 1.5k gives alimony of 2k and sorts other members. In fact, spends over 7k yet has little love”

A third stated, “Which gender occupies the highest positions in those multinational/ local companies?? Men. Let’s blame ourselves.”

Western Music Awards releases nominees for 2023 edition

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June 20, 2023

A total of 101 Artistes and stakeholders of the Creative Arts Industry from Western and Western North Regions have been nominated in the 7th edition of the prestigious Western Music Awards.

Organised by the Westline Entertainment, the 7th edition of Western Music Awards is themed ‘This is Music.’

In a nominee’s announcement on Thursday 15^th June, 2023 which was broadcast on Westline TV on Youtube, the head of Public Relations of Western Music Awards, Nana Kwesi Coomson mentioned that, “there are a total of 30 categories this year. We have introduced the Unsung category which focuses on the Senior High School talents.”

“This category is to discover the music talents early from the Senior High Schools. We brought on board Entertainment Masters of selected SHSs in Western Region to nominate their best talents to represent them.

This will ensure that we give such talents early support by introducing them to the market and audience for smooth transition when they are out of school” Mr. Coomson added.

The participating schools for this year’s ‘Unsung category’ in the 7th edition of Western Music Awards include; St. Johns School which is represented by Oliver Nimo, Adiembra Senior High School is represented by Christabel, Bompeh Senior High Technical School is also represented by Heridity, Takoradi Technical Institute is represented by Omar x and Ohema represents Ahantaman Girls Senior High School.

The Entertainment Masters who have hailed the awards organisers for thinking about the next generation of talents have given their word to support the awards scheme to make the category a success.

In the flagship Artiste of the year category, AyaRamzy B, the reigning Artiste of the year battles 5 others; KDM, Lasmid, Fameye, Ayesem and Kweysi Swat.

VGMA has become window through which you can see what Ghana is doing – CEO

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June 20, 2023

Mrs. Theresa Ayoade, the CEO of Charterhouse, has stated that the awards scheme has become a platform that throws spotlight on the Ghana music industry.

The CEO of the organisers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) says the awards has become the light on the music industry for both local and international audiences.

In an interview on JoyNews, Theresa Ayoade explained that through the show, Charterhouse has been able to create a platform for musicians where musicians both old and new can take advantage and sell their art.

“It has really thrown a spotlight on the industry. The show has become a window through which you can look into and see what Ghana is doing in its creative space and music industry; we are talking about creating a platform for our music to be promoted internationally,” Mrs. Ayoade mentioned.

Mrs Ayoade added that she believes that VGMA has succeeded in celebrating and projecting musicians and their works as well as increasing their image and profile in the public space.

Talking about the genesis of the awards scheme she said her Nigerian husband got the idea when he saw two Ghanaian Artiste arguing over who is the most popular at the backstage of Agoro, another TV production he came up with.

Being a sales expert with the Multimedia Group at the time as well as a creative lover, the CEO said she hopped onto the idea and that led to the creation of the country’s most reputable music award event.

Rosoboronexport to exhibit cutting-edge naval equipment

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June 20, 2023

During the forthcoming 2023 International Maritime Defense Show (IMDS), Rosoboronexport JSC (part of the Rostec State Corporation) will exhibit and present to international partners the latest Russian naval equipment and coastal zone surveillance and defense systems.

The show will be held from June 21 to June 25, 2023 in Kronstadt (St. Petersburg).

“For years, the maritime show has successfully contributed to the strengthening of friendly ties and fostered open, mutually beneficial sharing of experiences between representatives of leading shipbuilding industry enterprises and consumers of their products,” said Alexander Mikheev, Director General of Rosoboronexport.

“Rosoboronexport is a traditional exhibitor and sponsor of the show, and every time, with great pride for the Russian industry, we introduce to our international partners products of the domestic shipbuilding sector, coastal defense systems and naval weapons.

In 2023, Rosoboronexport and Russian enterprises participating in the naval show will demonstrate to visitors surface ships and submarines in service with the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation, the Zaslon and Mineral-ME shipborne radar systems and the Rubezh-ME coastal defense missile system,” he added.

Rosoboronexport’s exhibit at IMDS reflects the basic needs of today’s market, showing representatives of naval forces from Russia-friendly nations the country’s advanced level of technological and scientific progress.

Naval equipment and weapons are among the most sophisticated types of military equipment, and the capability of industrial enterprises to produce them on a full-cycle basis is an important indicator of a country’s development.

In 2023, the International Maritime Defense Show will be held for the first time in Kronstadt, a city of Russia’s military glory, where it became possible to combine in a convenient way a display of ships and submarines on the pier and pavilions that accommodate exhibition space and rooms for negotiations.

The conditions provided at the show correspond to the high status of the foreign delegations, with the necessary infrastructure built according to all modern requirements.

Scale models of the Projects 677E and 636 submarines, the Project 22800E Karakurt-E-class guided-missile corvette, the Project 11356 frigate, the Project 20382 Tigr-class corvette, coastal defense missile systems will be on display at the company’s booth.

Surface ships, submarines, support vessels and other boats are berthed in close proximity to the pavilions.

Within the framework of the 2023 IMDS business program, Rosoboronexport will hold presentations of Russian products for international partners, and will unveil proposals for industrial cooperation in the field of naval shipbuilding.

Source: Rosoboronexport

Why Are My Testicles Itchy?

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June 20, 2023