NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 29 - Kenya on Monday confirmed the first case of Swine Flu involving 20-year-old British student who is on a field trip in Kisumu.

Public Health Minister Beth Mugo broke the news on Monday, saying that the patient may have had contact with the initial suspected case that turned negative on Saturday in Nairobi.

“The patient has been quarantined at a hotel in Kisumu,” she told a press conference at her Afya House office.

On Saturday a suspected case of Swine Flu in Kenya tested negative after momentarily spreading panic across Nairobi.

Ministry of Public Health officials said tests conducted at the Kenya Medical Research Institute – based Centre for Disease Control produced no traces of the H1N1 influenza virus.

Samples were taken from a 20-year old Kenyan female student who had arrived from London and reported that she may have come into contact with someone exhibiting symptoms of the flu.

She was rushed to the AAR Health Clinic at Sarit Centre, Westlands where doctors immediately alerted KEMRI officials who took over the case.

AAR Public Relations Officer Juliet Ratemo said: “We closed the AAR Health Centre and took all measures to ensure that our staff and other patients present did not come into further unprotected contact with the patient.”

News about the patient had spread across Nairobi via SMS overnight on Friday, spreading panic as people sought to know the authenticity of the text messages.

In mid this month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the Pandemic alert status from phase 5 to phase 6, which meant that the disease had reached the emergency level.

“It’s not killing more people, it’s not more aggressive than before so don’t think because we have elevated the phase to 6 the disease has become more severe, no! It is about geographical spread. We have been expecting the worst, we are lucky it’s not that bad,” Dr David Okello, WHO Kenya Director had said.

After the alert was raised, Public Health Minister Beth Mugo said the government had stepped up surveillance of the influenza H1N1 and over 50,000 doses of the drug Tamiflu was in the stock pile for use in case of an outbreak in the country.

She had also said there was a ready isolation facility at the Kenyatta National Hospital in case of an outbreak.

The first case of influenza H1N1 virus was reported in late April in Mexico.

According to the WHO website, by Friday, there were 59,814 confirmed cases of the swine flu around the world. 263 people have died of the disease.

The H1N1 strain is a new type of virus that has not circulated previously in humans. The virus is contagious, spreading easily from one person to another and from one country to another.

Young people under the age of 25 years are the main casualties in all the countries.
A similar outbreak occurred in 1918 but was more severe than the current epidemic but the WHO warned that this may change hence the need for more vigilance.

Kenyans can get more information on the disease through the following contacts: 0722- 331 548,020-204 0542, 271 8292.

HOW IT SPREADS AND SYMPTOMS

The virus typically spreads from coughs and sneezes or by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching the nose or mouth. Symptoms are similar to those of the seasonal flu, and may include fever, sneezes, coughs, headache, muscles or joint pain, sore throat, chills, fatigue and runny nose.

The CDC notes that most hospitalizations have been people with underlying conditions such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or a weakened immune systems. In an attempt to slow the spread of the illness, a number of countries, especially in Asia, have enforced strict quarantines on travellers showing any symptoms, along with travellers seated nearby any infected persons.

PeaceNobel Lecture, Oslo, December 10, 2001

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness's, Excellencies,
Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, in Afghanistan, a girl will be born. Her mother will hold her and feed her, comfort her and care for her – just as any mother would anywhere in the world. In these most basic acts of human nature, humanity knows no divisions. But to be born a girl in today's Afghanistan is to begin life centuries away from the prosperity that one small part of humanity has achieved. It is to live under conditions that many of us in this hall would consider inhuman.

I speak of a girl in Afghanistan, but I might equally well have mentioned a baby boy or girl in Sierra Leone. No one today is unaware of this divide between the world’s rich and poor. No one today can claim ignorance of the cost that this divide imposes on the poor and dispossessed who are no less deserving of human dignity, fundamental freedoms, security, food and education than any of us. The cost, however, is not borne by them alone. Ultimately, it is borne by all of us – North and South, rich and poor, men and women of all races and religions.

Today's real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another.

Scientists tell us that the world of nature is so small and interdependent that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest can generate a violent storm on the other side of the earth. This principle is known as the "Butterfly Effect." Today, we realize, perhaps more than ever, that the world of human activity also has its own "Butterfly Effect" – for better or for worse.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further – we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions. A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status. A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all – in pain as in prosperity – has gripped young and old.

In the early beginnings of the 21st century – a century already violently disabused of any hopes that progress towards global peace and prosperity is inevitable -- this new reality can no longer be ignored. It must be confronted.

The 20th century was perhaps the deadliest in human history, devastated by innumerable conflicts, untold suffering, and unimaginable crimes. Time after time, a group or a nation inflicted extreme violence on another, often driven by irrational hatred and suspicion, or unbounded arrogance and thirst for power and resources. In response to these cataclysms, the leaders of the world came together at mid-century to unite the nations as never before.

A forum was created – the United Nations – where all nations could join forces to affirm the dignity and worth of every person, and to secure peace and development for all peoples. Here States could unite to strengthen the rule of law, recognize and address the needs of the poor, restrain man’s brutality and greed, conserve the resources and beauty of nature, sustain the equal rights of men and women, and provide for the safety of future generations.

We thus inherit from the 20th century the political, as well as the scientific and technological power, which – if only we have the will to use them – give us the chance to vanquish poverty, ignorance and disease.

In the 21st Century I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound, awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion. This will require us to look beyond the framework of States, and beneath the surface of nations or communities. We must focus, as never before, on improving the conditions of the individual men and women who give the state or nation its richness and character. We must begin with the young Afghan girl, recognizing that saving that one life is to save humanity itself.

Over the past five years, I have often recalled that the United Nations' Charter begins with the words: "We the peoples." What is not always recognized is that "we the peoples" are made up of individuals whose claims to the most fundamental rights have too often been sacrificed in the supposed interests of the state or the nation.

A genocide begins with the killing of one man – not for what he has done, but because of who he is. A campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' begins with one neighbour turning on another. Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life, all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.

In this new century, we must start from the understanding that peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities. The sovereignty of States must no longer be used as a shield for gross violations of human rights. Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.

The rights of the individual are of no less importance to immigrants and minorities in Europe and the Americas than to women in Afghanistan or children in Africa. They are as fundamental to the poor as to the rich; they are as necessary to the security of the developed world as to that of the developing world.

From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict, and promoting democracy. Only in a world that is rid of poverty can all men and women make the most of their abilities. Only where individual rights are respected can differences be channelled politically and resolved peacefully. Only in a democratic environment, based on respect for diversity and dialogue, can individual self-expression and self-government be secured, and freedom of association be upheld.

Throughout my term as Secretary-General, I have sought to place human beings at the centre of everything we do – from conflict prevention to development to human rights. Securing real and lasting improvement in the lives of individual men and women is the measure of all we do at the United Nations.

It is in this spirit that I humbly accept the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize. Forty years ago today, the Prize for 1961 was awarded for the first time to a Secretary-General of the United Nations – posthumously, because Dag Hammarskjöld had already given his life for peace in Central Africa. And on the same day, the Prize for 1960 was awarded for the first time to an African – Albert Luthuli, one of the earliest leaders of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. For me, as a young African beginning his career in the United Nations a few months later, those two men set a standard that I have sought to follow throughout my working life.

This award belongs not just to me. I do not stand here alone. On behalf of all my colleagues in every part of the United Nations, in every corner of the globe, who have devoted their lives – and in many instances risked or given their lives in the cause of peace – I thank the Members of the Nobel Committee for this high honour. My own path to service at the United Nations was made possible by the sacrifice and commitment of my family and many friends from all continents – some of whom have passed away – who taught me and guided me. To them, I offer my most profound gratitude.

In a world filled with weapons of war and all too often words of war, the Nobel Committee has become a vital agent for peace. Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory.

What it does have is the Nobel Prize – a statement of hope and courage with unique resonance and authority. Only by understanding and addressing the needs of individuals for peace, for dignity, and for security can we at the United Nations hope to live up to the honour conferred today, and fulfil the vision of our founders. This is the broad mission of peace that United Nations staff members carry out every day in every part of the world.

A few of them, women and men, are with us in this hall today. Among them, for instance, are a Military Observer from Senegal who is helping to provide basic security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; a Civilian Police Adviser from the United States who is helping to improve the rule of law in Kosovo; a UNICEF Child Protection Officer from Ecuador who is helping to secure the rights of Colombia's most vulnerable citizens; and a World Food Programme Officer from China who is helping to feed the people of North Korea.

Distinguished guests,

The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world’s ills, or one solution to humanity’s needs, has done untold harm throughout history – especially in the last century. Today, however, even amidst continuing ethnic conflict around the world, there is a growing understanding that human diversity is both the reality that makes dialogue necessary, and the very basis for that dialogue.

We understand, as never before, that each of us is fully worthy of the respect and dignity essential to our common humanity. We recognize that we are the products of many cultures, traditions and memories; that mutual respect allows us to study and learn from other cultures; and that we gain strength by combining the foreign with the familiar.

In every great faith and tradition one can find the values of tolerance and mutual understanding. The Qur’an, for example, tells us that "We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other." Confucius urged his followers: "when the good way prevails in the state, speak boldly and act boldly. When the state has lost the way, act boldly and speak softly." In the Jewish tradition, the injunction to "love thy neighbour as thyself," is considered to be the very essence of the Torah.

This thought is reflected in the Christian Gospel, which also teaches us to love our enemies and pray for those who wish to persecute us. Hindus are taught that "truth is one, the sages give it various names." And in the Buddhist tradition, individuals are urged to act with compassion in every facet of life.

Each of us has the right to take pride in our particular faith or heritage. But the notion that what is ours is necessarily in conflict with what is theirs is both false and dangerous. It has resulted in endless enmity and conflict, leading men to commit the greatest of crimes in the name of a higher power.

It need not be so. People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what – and who – we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.

This will not be possible, however, without freedom of religion, of expression, of assembly, and basic equality under the law. Indeed, the lesson of the past century has been that where the dignity of the individual has been trampled or threatened – where citizens have not enjoyed the basic right to choose their government, or the right to change it regularly – conflict has too often followed, with innocent civilians paying the price, in lives cut short and communities destroyed.

The obstacles to democracy have little to do with culture or religion, and much more to do with the desire of those in power to maintain their position at any cost. This is neither a new phenomenon nor one confined to any particular part of the world. People of all cultures value their freedom of choice, and feel the need to have a say in decisions affecting their lives.

The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the States in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being. It is the nearest thing we have to a representative institution that can address the interests of all states, and all peoples. Through this universal, indispensable instrument of human progress, States can serve the interests of their citizens by recognizing common interests and pursuing them in unity. No doubt, that is why the Nobel Committee says that it "wishes, in its centenary year, to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations".

I believe the Committee also recognized that this era of global challenges leaves no choice but cooperation at the global level. When States undermine the rule of law and violate the rights of their individual citizens, they become a menace not only to their own people, but also to their neighbours, and indeed the world. What we need today is better governance – legitimate, democratic governance that allows each individual to flourish, and each State to thrive.

Your Majesties,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

You will recall that I began my address with a reference to the girl born in Afghanistan today. Even though her mother will do all in her power to protect and sustain her, there is a one-in-four risk that she will not live to see her fifth birthday. Whether she does is just one test of our common humanity – of our belief in our individual responsibility for our fellow men and women. But it is the only test that matters.

Remember this girl and then our larger aims – to fight poverty, prevent conflict, or cure disease – will not seem distant, or impossible. Indeed, those aims will seem very near, and very achievable – as they should. Because beneath the surface of states and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in need. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.

Thank you very much.

A record-shattering vinyl album and its moonwalking maestro. A paper poster of a golden-haired beauty in a one-piece swimsuit that was gossamer and clingy in all the right places.

It all seems so quaint now, the fragmented dream memories of a fleeting micro-era that began with words like "bicentennial" and "pet rock" and ended with MTV, Atari and absurdly thin cans of super-hold mousse.

The man-child named Michael Jackson and the luminous girl known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors jumped into our consciousness at a plastic moment in American culture — a time when the celebrity juggernaut we know today was still in diapers. When they departed Thursday, just a few hours and a few miles apart, they left an entire generation — a very strange generation indeed — without two of its defining figures.

"These people were on our lunchboxes," said Gary Giovannetti, 38, a manager at HBO who grew up on Long Island awash in Farrah and MJ iconography. "This," he said, "is the moment when Generation X realizes they're grown up."

It was a long time coming. Cynical, disaffected, rife with ADD, lost between Boomers and millennials and sandwiched between Vietnam and the war on terror, Gen X has always been an oddity. It was the product of a transitional age when we were still putting people on celebrity pedestals but only starting to make an industry out of dragging them down.

Its memorable moments were diffuse and confusing — the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt, the dawn of AIDS, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It had no protest movement, no opponent to unite it, none of the things that typically shape the ill-defined beast we call an American generation.

These were the people who sent to the top of the charts a song called "We Don't Need Another Hero," then figured out how to churn them out wholesale, launching the celebrity obsession that is now an accepted part of American cultural fabric.

And that was personified nowhere better than in the two people who died Thursday.

She was, perhaps, the last in a line that began with Betty Grable in World War II — the bathing beauty who seemed kissed by the sun and exuded a potent combination of innocence and sexuality. But her "Charlie's Angels" jiggle-show image presaged another world entirely. It was the one that would come to be dominated first by Brooke and her Calvins and ultimately, as the hunger grew tawdrier, by American Apparel ads and the celebrity sex videos of Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton.

She struggled for credibility after the poster and the Angels. She got it in 1984 with a dramatic turn as an abused wife in "The Burning Bed." But her last stand — a documentary about the cancer that killed her — was tainted by her run-ins with insatiable paparazzi and tabloids.

He was another thing entirely — perhaps the most recognizable face in the world, even more so than the pope or Barack Obama. His musical genius and energy seemed boundless for a time. They were rivaled only by his quirks, which consumed him.

He had a bumpy, extraordinarily public childhood. Then he spent an off-the-wall lifetime trying to get it back, erecting a ranch named after the fantasy land of Peter Pan and inviting children to share his life and his bed — with results that some said drifted into the criminal.

He caught fire in a Pepsi commercial. He shrouded his children in full-body coverings and dangled one over a balcony to show his fans below. His fabled multiple plastic surgeries turned him into someone almost unrecognizable. Nose sunk into face, cheekbones became caricature, ebony drifted into ivory.

Yet through it all, even when the years of his quirks outstripped the years of his glory, he remained one of the planet's most popular figures, selling out shows wherever he went. "Icon," the Rev. Al Sharpton said, was "only a fraction of what he was." But icon was, of course, what he always acted as if he wanted to be.

Today, celebrities aren't merely created for our consumption. Audiences are passive no longer. We demand a part in creating our icons: Jon and Kate Gosselin and their ilk might as well be publicly held companies, and we all insist upon buying a few shares. Farrah and Michael Jackson were other — above us, maybe, or apart from us. Now, when we crown new icons, we want them to BE us.

"We want everything right now, and there's a blurring of reality. When does the celebrity world stop and our world begin?" said Penni Pier, an associate professor of communications at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

When Farrah gazed at us in her swimsuit and, a single moment in history later, MJ dared us to moonwalk, they commanded giant audiences. The world had not yet become fragmented into the microcommunities that exist today. We liked them or we hated them, but we shared the experience just as Walter Cronkite told us each night that "that's the way it is."

Today, when Lindsay Lohan Twitters pictures of herself to her legions of followers, the notion that a paper poster bought in a shopping-mall Spencer Gifts could change the celebrity game seems rustic. And the vinyl version of "Thriller," redolent of raw materials and production lines, is a ghost in the virtual world of iTunes — a world that the generation after X negotiates with the fluidity of natives.

In the 1990s, members of Generation X would often laugh in bars about how the time of the Boomers was passing — about how the quaintness and naivete that made up the 1960s was, finally, a grave being danced on by Kurt Cobain. Today, members of that same generation sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings of pop.

A sexy poster upon a boy's wall in which a young woman grins wholesomely. A record album called "Thriller" and its attendant music videos, built upon the notion that sexiness came in the frisson of hints and suggestions rather than in cutting directly to the big reveal.

In the end, finally, they stand as the relics of a generation — one that struggled to find its place and now, suddenly, while still young, one that must wonder if it is as passe as the paper and vinyl that its icons' most memorable moments were etched upon.

We don't need another hero? After this week, are we sure?

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the German development finance institution DEG announced that they have created a new private equity fund that will invest in Africa’s health sector. The Health in Africa Fund will invest in small- and medium-sized companies in sub-Saharan Africa, such as health clinics and diagnostic centers, with the goal of helping low-income Africans gain access to affordable, high-quality health services. The fund will help implement key recommendations of IFC’s report, ‘The Business of Health in Africa: Partnering with the Private Sector to Improve People’s Lives,’ which found that the private sector already delivers about half of all health-related goods and services in Africa, and that greater investment in private health companies could have major health and economic benefits for low-income Africans.

The World Bank’s Environmental Department is seeking civil society representatives to serve as observers on two Climate Investment Fund (CIF) Trust Fund Committees. The Bank has contracted a leading public policy dispute resolution organization, RESOLVE, to manage this self-selection process. The CIFs, which are managed by the World Bank and implemented jointly with the Regional Development Banks, were established through an inclusive and consultative process in support of the Bali Action Plan and approved by the World Bank Board in July 2008. Application forms, criteria, and instructions for the observer seats are available on the RESOLVE website (www.resolv.org/cif). Application instructions and criteria will be posted in Arabic, Bengali, Cambodian/Khmer, French, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tajik, and Turkish during the week of June 15. Completed applications are due by Wednesday, July 2. CSO Observers Sought for Climate Investment Funds (CIF)
The Bank’s Environmental Department is seeking civil society representatives to serve as observers on two Climate Investment Fund (CIF) Trust Fund Committees. The Bank has contracted a leading public policy dispute resolution organization, RESOLVE, to manage this self-selection process. The CIFs, which are managed by the World Bank and implemented jointly with the Regional Development Banks, were established through an inclusive and consultative process in support of the Bali Action Plan and approved by the World Bank Board in July 2008. Application forms, criteria, and instructions for the observer seats are available on the RESOLVE website (www.resolv.org/cif). Application instructions and criteria will be posted in Arabic, Bengali, Cambodian/Khmer, French, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tajik, and Turkish during the week of June 15. Completed applications are due by Wednesday, July 15.

Visit the website: www.resolv.org/cif for more details

Be careful about International House in New York. I innocently applied for a housing in this place for 6 months, but I did not know it was actually a SCAM.

I went through a very bureaucratic process. First I had to pay a NOT REFUNDABLE 65 USD fee for the application. Then, there are admission criteria that I really think I was fulfilling, but I then received a letter telling me I was denied the housing.

I then asked why I was denied the place, and after 3 phone call attempts, the person told me that I did not fulfill the criteria in the same extent than other candidate, but could not explain why exactly or specifically.

She told me that it was like a university application!!!
I am really upset against International House, which basically steals international students or young people's money!!!!

I you feel you were in the same case and this is actually a SCAM, please write me a email at: sigar14@gmail.com.
The more we are the more powerful we will be.

Cheers,

Simon

I have learned many things in these past months. I now know that what you see is not always what is. There is the face value-the reality, but below the surface, there is the truth.

I have learned that to get at the truth, we must always scratch the surface. While this is not always possible, it must be seen as a necessary step to the truth, even if we fail to do it.

This an important fundamental truth that we must learn to observe in all our interactions. For it is only the truth that will finally set us free. I will be telling you about the truths I have learned this past months. Do not take people at face value, whether they have an angelic face, or the face of a beast. Scratch the surface, if you can. Peace.

I met Temitope Florence Adejumo recently and agreed to grant this interview. Temitope is a Gospel artist that just launched her first album recently. Enjoy…
Can We Meet You?
I am Temitope Florence Adejumo, also known as T. P. Crown. I am from Ojah Community of Akoko Edo Local Government in Edo State. I am the [...]

The Presidency is satisfied with the conception and implementation of the Seven-point Agenda of the Administration and therefore has no plans to either prune or adjust it.

Presidential spokesman, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi said that the agenda was crucial to the survival of the Nigerian economy and the pivot on which Vision 20-2020 was anchored.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity was reacting to the suggestion put forward by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi during his confirmation hearing on the floor of the senate.

Mr. Adeniyi noted that since the Seven-point agenda is not an ad-hoc measure, any attempt to prune it would amount to economic suicide and urged Nigerians to see the views expressed by Governor Sanusi as “a suggestion with the best of intention and not an attack on the government focal policy.

The 7 Point Agenda are:

1. Critical Infrastructure
2. Niger Delta
3. Food Security
4. Human Capital
5. Land Tenure Changes & Home Ownership
6. National Security & Intelligence
7. Wealth Creation

Having painstakingly laid the foundations of economic development, as articulated in the Seven-point Agenda and Vision 20:2020, there is a visible resurgence in Nigeria’s international economic relations under President Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s administration. There is a new impetus, a fresh dynamism as well as growing momentum to open up Nigeria and make it ready for solid and sustainable investments. It is not just a case of doing more of the same old drive for foreign direct investments.

Though the concept of using Investment Forums/Fairs to interact with investors is not new, the style of the current investment drive is novel. The current exercise is not just a series of talk-shops or seminars. The campaign involves networking sessions, investment dialogue forums, informal and interactive engagement sessions as well as road shows and rallies as each particular occasion demands.

This time around, there are conscious efforts to diversify Nigeria’s economic diplomacy away from restriction to traditional partners in order to engage new and more development partners in the international arena. Through diplomatic contacts and hosting or making official visits, the current administration has concretized Nigeria’s economic relations with Asian tigers such as India, Japan, China and South Korea. It has also forged links with Brazil, South American and Caribbean countries. Of course, the traditional partnership with United States of America, United Kingdom, France, and continental Europe as well as with North America continues to be strengthened.

It is no longer about telling investors fairy tales about Nigeria, rather it is about letting them know the immense potentialities as well as the daunting challenges while encouraging them to come on-board. The government is also going beyond offering incentives and palliatives to creatively engage investors in fixing and improving the critical infrastructures in order to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria.

Moreover, the investment drive is not just about wooing big companies, conglomerates and trans-national corporations; it is more to do with encouraging partnership between Nigeria’s small and medium enterprises and their foreign counterparts. It is about encouraging information exchange, technology transfer and personnel exchange/training collaborative schemes in a way that will integrate Nigeria into the global economy matrix.

It is within this context that the present administration has enlarged and re-energized the Honorary International Investors Council (HIIC), which it inherited from President Olusegun Obasanjo’s civilian regime. The HIIC has been enlarged to become more representative of different economic sectors as well as the various geographical locations and investing populations of the world. Beyond the two six-monthly meetings held annually, Council Members scattered around the globe are now more practically engaged to organize investment meetings and dialogues in their different geographical regions as occasions demand.

From a high-brow technocratic talk-shop on investments, the HIIC is gradually becoming an interventionist and activist agency for attracting investors to Nigeria’s rich but challenging economy. HIIC has become more pro-active, pragmatic and sector-specific in its drive to too investors into the Nigerian market.

This administration is not just urging investors to come to Nigeria; it is also making the investing environment more conducive to investors and fertile for their investments. Definite steps are being taken to reduce corporate taxes, eliminate double taxation and end the rash of illegal levies on manufacturing companies. Following the advice and at the instance of members of the HIIC, the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has instructed Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs ministry to make issuance of visas in our embassies abroad more investor-friendly. In the same vein, the Vice President said our immigration laws must be more investment-oriented and tourist-friendly.

According to him, “It is in the overall national economic interests of our country to issue long-term visas and make procurement of visas easier for investors and tourists. We must also make our airports and ports less cumbersome and more people-friendly if we are serious about getting foreigners to partner with us in our development efforts.” With the effectiveness of Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission’s (NIPC) one-stop-investment-centre (OSIC), where foreigners can access information and register new business without delay, a brand new deal is being forged for investors in Nigeria.

A lot has changed as far as Nigeria’s investing environment is concerned. Yet, the world out there is still stuck with the old stereotype of Nigeria as the tottering sleeping giant. Not much is known is about the positively altered macroeconomic situation or more favourable policy environment.

It is against this backdrop of changed circumstances in Nigeria vis-à-vis global ignorance -- at a time when the country is in dire need of international resources and support -- that this administration has been organizing or facilitating a series of investment forums in key development centres across the globe.

The first in the series of investment forums was a two-legged conference on Stating the Case for Investing in Nigeria scheduled to take place in Dubai and London, which was jointly facilitated by African Matters Limited and Developing Markets Associates. While the Dubai Forum was postponed for logistic reasons, the London Forum was successfully held at IET Savoy Place on April 22, 2009 with about 200 participants comprising government officials, prospective investors, business tycoons, development activists, non-governmental organizations, diplomats and representatives of the international community.

At the London Event, the Ministers of National Planning, Commerce and Industry, Finance, Mines and Steel Development, Agriculture and Water Resources as well as the Governors of Kano State, Rivers State and Ondo State (represented by the Secretary to Government) were on hand to showcase Nigeria’s immense investment potentialities vis-à-vis the country’s agenda for development. Aside from fielding questions after each session of paper presentations, the Nigerian investment delegation used coffee breaks and networking moments to engage and interact with would-be investors and fact-finding tourists who had many posers about Nigeria’s social climate and economic environment.

The tone of the London Forum was set by H. E. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who spoke passionately and analytically about Nigeria’s largely untapped investment potentials amidst some daunting development challenges. He said that Nigeria remains the preferred investment destination because of its abundant natural endowment and immense manpower resources as well as because of infrastructural gaps and deficiencies that are being fixed. The investment forums, he explained, are veritable avenues to get willing and genuine development partners and investors to collaborate with Nigeria to develop, upgrade or upscale the infrastructures in order to make the country the ideal and fertile investment ground. He said we cannot wait to fix all our infrastructural deficiencies, logistics problems and legal hurdles before calling on development partners who may actually be needed to accelerate the process of getting the ideal investment climate in the first place.

Expectedly, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, Engr. Mustafa Bello was around to restate and recall all the steps that Nigeria has taken and is taking to transform Nigeria to an investor’s paradise. He spoke about the myriads of incentives, tax holidays and all sorts of sweeteners and palliatives designed to woo investors into the manufacturing sector of Nigeria’s economy. He said the One-Stop-Investment-Centre (OSIC) has removed most of the logistics challenges and bureaucratic hurdles that new investors face in a developing economy like Nigeria.

Representatives of the organized private sector in Nigeria like the Dangote Group and Total Oil were readily available to give the needed endorsement to Nigeria’s investment climate. The Chief Executive of Dangote Cement Group, Tony Hadley said “Nigeria’s improved investment climate is making it easier to do business, to source external finance and secure foreign technical partners.” He explained that investors and foreign finance institutions have more confidence in Nigeria’s economy.

Following on the resounding success of the London Forum, Nigeria’s ambassador to Sweden, Dr. Godknows Bolade Igali (who was present at the London Forum) successfully organized a Nordic Forum on Nigeria-Nordic Economic Partnership that will take the Vice President’s delegation to Finland, Sweden and Denmark between May 10 and 17, 2009. This is a bold initiative to concretize and expand Nigeria’s international economic relations with Scandinavian countries with a view to benefiting from their high technologies and other comparative economic advantages.

The first of two HIIC meetings held annually will hold from June 25 to 26 in London this year to take stock of the gains and challenges of Nigeria’s investment drive in the light of the current global economic melt-down. The second Council meeting slated for November should ordinarily take place in Abuja but may be moved to the United States to tap into the business connections and investment potential of some American members on the Council. There is also the possibility of another Nigeria Investment Forum in Germany in the first quarter of next year to engage with investors in Germany, Austria, Czechs and Slovenia.

The global meltdown or economic downturn is not a reason for Nigeria to slow down its drive for foreign investment rather it is a good reason to intensify it. For one, investors have become more wary and discriminatory in their choice of investment destinations, making it necessary for countries to deliberately publicize their investment opportunities and comparative advantages. Secondly, the fact that several investors and banks had their fingers burnt in hitherto favoured investment destinations has made emerging markets like Nigeria to become objects of favourable consideration for new equities. It is therefore the right time for Nigeria to press her comparative advantage as a preferred investment destination.

In any case, as explained by the Vice President, to achieve Nigeria’s Vision 2020-20, there is no way Nigeria can shy away from partnership with the international community by way of international trade and utilization of foreign investment. The current drive is for solid strategic investments that can deepen and diversify the country’s economy and promote sustainable development. Such investments would lead to genuine value-addition through improving and increasing local content of Nigeria’s products. Moreover, the investments would not only build personnel and institutional capacity but also create more jobs and employment opportunities for Nigeria’s huge and resourceful population

Therefore, while Nigeria continues to take concrete actions to improve her infrastructure and improve the regulatory environment, it must continue to state and reassert its credentials as a desirable emerging market in order to continue to attract and retain foreign investments.

Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, GCFR is the President, and the Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was born in the ancient city of Katsina, Katsina State on August 16, 1951 to the famous Musa Yar’Adua family that has become synonymous with politics and public service in Nigeria.

He started his primary education at Rafukka Primary School, Katsina in 1958. He moved to Dutsinma Senior Boarding Primary School in 1962 where he completed his primary education in 1964.

Between 1965 and 1969, Yar’Adua was a student at the Government College, Keffi, in the present day Nasarawa State for his secondary education, from where he moved to the famous Barewa College, Zaria for his Higher School Certificate between 1970 and 1971.

He gained admission into the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1972 and obtained a B.Sc Education degree with specialization in Chemistry in 1975. He returned to the same University in 1978, earning a Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry in 1980. Yar’Adua taught Chemistry at the Katsina Polytechnic before venturing into private business and eventually into politics.

In the political arena, Yar’Adua opted for a socialist leaning contrary to the traditional conservative posture of his renowned family. During the Second Republic, the late Malam Aminu Kano, leader of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP)and acclaimed ‘champion of the masses’, was his political mentor when most members of his family were with the more establishment-inclined National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He also associated very closely with the late Ahmadu Bello University 'radical' lecturer, Dr. Bala Usman, among others as a member of the Think-Tank.

Yar’Adua was a member of the 1989 Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) which prepared the groundwork for the return to civil democratic governance in the aborted Third Republic. In 1990, he became the Secretary of both the defunct Peoples Front (PFN) and was later elected the State Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Katsina State. A year later, he emerged the SDP gubernatorial candidate in the state. In 1999, he contested and won the governorship of Katsina State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – a positioned he retained for eight years following his re-election in 2003.

For Yar’Adua, politics has always been viewed as a vehicle for transforming the society for the general well-being of the citizens. This is evident from his commitment to the ideals of accountability, transparency and prudent management of state resources. It is on record that as Governor of Katsina State, Yar’Adua was not only able to massively change the infrastructural landscape of the state, he also radically transformed the educational sector.

His commitment to engendering qualitative education in the State has manifested in the trebling of primary school enrolment in the State from 460,000 pupils in 1999 to over one million in 2007; and the reduction of the number of pupils per class in primary schools from 250 to 40 pupils throughout the State. He also established a N1.5 billion Scholarship Trust Fund.

More remarkable is the fact that even with these laudable accomplishments, Yar’Adua was able to leave behind well over six billion naira (N6b) in the Katsina State treasury at the end of his outstanding stewardship. This, surely, is an enduring testimony to prudent management of public resources.

Given these exceptional antecedents, it is no surprise that the PDP decided to field him as its presidential candidate during the 2007 presidential election. He contested and won the election convincingly.

Today, Nigerians are beginning to see that his declaration at his inauguration of himself as a Servant-Leader was made with the highest sense of responsibility and clear vision of the legacy he wishes to leave behind for posterity.

His self-effacing style, disarming humility, transparently honest devotion to the supremacy of the rule of law, focused leadership and uncommon commitment to Nigeria’s restoration combine to evoke a new hope and abounding faith in the eventual realization of the great potentials with which Nigeria is endowed.

Yar’Adua, who holds the traditional title of the “Mutawallen Katsina”, is married to Hajia Turai and the couple is blessed with many children.

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Thursday June 11 signed a N74billion contract for the dualisation of the East-West highway running through the states in the Niger Delta.

The contract was signed in Abuja on behalf of government by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Ufot Ekaette while the chief executive of the construction firm, Setraco, signed on behalf of his company.

The contract which was first signed three years ago was then awarded to Julius Berger Plc but the company pulled out citing militant activities in the area.

The new contract is to cover Port Harcourt-Eleme Junction to Ahoada-Kiaima.

Speaking during the occasion, the minister said the present administration was irrevocably committed to improving the lives of the people in the Niger Delta.

He warned contractors handling jobs for the ministry to work in accordance with certified standards and to deliver on schedule.

The minister expressed optimism that peace will reign in the Niger Delta region.

“We believe once the details of the amnesty are worked out the people will reciprocate and imbibe the spirit of peace which the government has been preaching. Once this happens, once peace is restored in the Niger Delta, we go in and develop the area”.