08/21/17

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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

Nigerian Tulip International College has secured two semi-final slots for Kaduna State in the ongoing 2017 Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics TV Quiz Show, sponsored by Cowbell, the flagship brand of Promasidor Nigeria Limited.

This means the Northern part of Nigeria will be represented in the semi-finals for both the Junior and Senior categories in this year’s competition.

In the Group C preliminary contest last weekend, Olayinka Abdulwakil of NTIC, Kaduna and Deborah Oyekunle of Deeper Life High School, Ibadan, Oyo State emerged as semi-finalists in the Junior category.

With 115 and 90 points respectively, Oyekunle and Abdulwakil came ahead of Donald Peters of Sacred Heart College, Apapa, Lagos State; Oluwatimilehin Oluborode of Greater Tomorrow Model College, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State; Kachi Fidelugwuowo of University of Nigeria Secondary School, Enugu, Enugu State; and Moshood Abdulbasit of Basaura Institute of Comprehensive Education, Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State.

Abdulwakil, who aspires to become a software engineer, scored 93 per cent in the qualifying examination conducted nationwide in March 2017.

He ascribed his victory to the grace of God and serious preparation.
He said: “I am happy that I made it. It couldn’t have been better. I really thank God. I prayed hard and also worked hard and the result is very pleasant to me.”

The thrill continues as Deborah, 13, who is participating in the Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics TV Quiz Show for the first time, felt “very excited and happy” qualifying for the semi-finals.

“My expectation is to win and wear the crown. I pray this dream comes true. And if I win, I will give my prize money to my parents,” she said.

In the Senior Category, Chizitere Okey-Awuzie of NTIC, Kaduna and Rukevwe Ugorji of Saint Augustine’s College, New Karu, Nasarawa State with 105 and 100 points respectively crossed in to the semi-finals.

In the preliminary rounds, Okey-Awuzie and Ugorji survived stiff challenge from Chidera Offor of Federal Government College, Enugu, Enugu State; Chisom Etteh Calvary Arrows College, Gboko, Benue State; Francis Mbonu of Top Faith International Secondary School, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State; and David Degold of Evangel College, Gombe, Gombe State.

Okey Awuzie, whose first name, Chizitere, means God sent, expressed high hope of getting to the finals and winning the ultimate prize.
“My expectation is to win this competition. I don’t want to think of losing at all,” he said.

Ugorji, who was also very excited by his feat, maintained that winning at the finals was his target.
“I just pray I win the ultimate prize, though I don’t know what I will do with my prize money yet,” the 16-year-old said.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
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Ten sailors are missing after a United States warship collided with an oil tanker east of Singapore on Monday, the US Navy said.

According to the Navy, this is a second accident involving US Navy destroyers in Asian waters in little more than two months.

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with the merchant vessel Alnic MC before dawn while heading to Singapore for a routine port call, the Navy said in a statement.

“Initial reports indicate John S. McCain sustained damage to her port side aft,” the Navy said.
It added: “There are currently 10 sailors missing and five injured.”

Four of the injured were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Singapore with non-life threatening injuries, while the fifth needed no further treatment.

The USS John S. McCain’s sister ship, the USS Fitzgerald, almost sank off the coast of Japan after it was struck by a Philippine container ship on June 17.

Collisions between warships and other large vessels are extremely rare, with naval historians going back more than 50 years to find a similar previous incident.

A search-and-rescue mission was under way for the sailors missing from the USS John S. McCain involving Singaporean ships, helicopters and tug boats, as well as US Navy aircraft.

The warship was currently sailing under its own power toward Singapore’s Changi Naval Base and there was no sign of fuel or oil visible near the ship, the Navy said.

The Alnic MC is a Liberian-flagged, 183 metre-long oil or chemical tanker of 50,760 deadweight tonnes, according to shipping data in Media.

An Alnic crew member told Media by telephone there was no oil spill from the tanker, which was carrying almost 12,000 tonnes of fuel oil from Taiwan to discharge in Singapore.

“We have not discharged the tanker yet,” said the crew member, who asked not to be identified.
He added: “We are proceeding to Raffles Reserved Anchorage, where the owners will investigate the matter.
There was some damage to the valve but no oil spill.”
However, Malaysian navy chief, Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin, told Media the collision happened in Malaysian waters and it had sent vessels to assist.

The Pedra Branca area near where the collision happened has long been contested by both countries, with an international court ruling in Singapore’s favour in 2008.

Malaysia filed an application to review that ruling earlier this year.
The waterways around Singapore are some of the busiest and most important in the world, carrying around a third of global shipping trade.


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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Late Jerry Lewis

Veteran American entertainer Jerry Lewis, whose goofy brand of physical comedy endeared him to millions in a career spanning six decades, died on Sunday aged 91, his agent told AFP.

One of the most popular comic actors of the 1950s and ’60s, Lewis perfected the role of the quirky clown in slapstick comedies like “The Nutty Professor” but also won acclaim as a writer, actor and philanthropist.

“Very sadly Jerry Lewis has passed,” his agent Jeff Wijtas told AFP. Variety reported that the comic legend died in Las Vegas early Sunday morning.

Honored with accolades at home and abroad, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, Lewis became known as much for his tireless efforts to promote awareness of Muscular Dystrophy as for his unique brand of physical comedy.

Over the course of 45 years, he raised some 2.45 billion dollars for combatting the disease with an annual television event.

Born Joseph Levitch in Newark, New Jersey to two New York City entertainers, Lewis first took center stage at the tender age of five, when he performed “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”

He began playing at resorts outside New York City that catered to Jewish patrons, known by touring entertainers as the Borscht Circuit.

By age 15, he had assembled his own routine of comedic lipsynching and made the rounds of New York talent agents, although only a burlesque house in Buffalo was interested.

At the age of 20, however, everything changed for Lewis, when he embarked on arguably one of the most successful entertainment partnerships of all time with smooth crooner Dean Martin.

The two fed off each other in now-classic comedy gags, including pratfalls, slapstick and lots of seltzer water.

They signed a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures, and starred in 1949’s “My Friend Irma,” where Lewis delivered a performance described as “the funniest thing in the picture.”

 ‘Finish what I started’
Other notable films in Lewis’ repertoire include
“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1959),
“The Geisha Boy” (1958) and “Funnybones” (1984).

His box office grosses, spanning nearly 50 years, total 800 million dollars — an impressive figure since movie tickets cost no more than 50 cents during the height of his popularity.

After 17 films together, the Lewis-Martin partnership split in 1956, but Lewis continued his career in comedy and Hollywood.

He won acclaim for his dramatic role in the 1983 Martin Scorsese film “The King of Comedy,” co-starring with Robert De Niro that showed his acting versatility.

In recent decades, Lewis had been plagued by health problems, and was declared clinically dead in 1982 after a heart attack.

Ten years later he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and in 1997 found out he had diabetes. A diagnosis of spinal meningitis in 2000 further caused his health to deteriorate.

But he was determined not to let ill health keep him from working as long as possible, including on a Broadway musical adaptation of “The Nutty Professor” as recently as 2011. “I have to finish what I’ve started,” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 2010 interview. “I want to do it before I leave.”
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Acting Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr. Waziri Adio,

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Sunday,  expressed concern over Nigeria’s level of indebtedness, declaring that Nigeria’s debt in relation to revenues appears to have reached critical levels.

Disbursement from the Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee, FAAC, disclosed that  a total of N513 billion was spent on debt servicing by the three tiers in the first quarter of 2017, compared to total disbursements of N1.276 trillion.

It said: “This means that debt servicing took up 40.27 per cent of FAAC disbursement for the first quarter of this year.

“The figure reveals that debt servicing as proportion of total FAAC allocations is generally higher in the first quarter of the year, after which it falls to lower levels.

“Based on this, the figure of 40.27 percent observed in the first quarter of 2017 might be an upper threshold and it would thus be expected that this figure will be lower for the remaining quarters of the year.”

However, the report noted that the Debt Management Office, DMO, is yet to provide data on the figure for the second quarter of 2017.
It added that domestic debt servicing constituted 90 per cent   of total debt servicing, explaining that domestic debt servicing consistently outstripped external debt servicing.

According to the NEITI report,   in the first quarter of 2015, domestic debt servicing made up over 93 per cent of total debt servicing, while the figure did not change much by the first quarter of 2017 as domestic debt servicing was over 92 per cent of total debt servicing.

Also, the report stated that N760.18 billion was released by the Federal Government to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, paid in two tranches.

According to NEITI, the money represents refunds of over deductions from FAAC allocations to states and local governments used for quick payment of debt relief granted to Nigeria by the Paris Club between 1995 and 2002.

The report disclosed that Rivers received the highest amount of N44.93 billion followed by Delta with N37.61billion and Akwa Ibom N35.98 billion, while Bayelsa got N34.9 billion and Kano state received   N31.74 billion respectively.

It added that the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja received the lowest amount of N2.05 billion. NEITI further acknowledged the fact that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had completed the refund of N450 billion owed the Federation Account, as a result of portions of domestic crude receipts withheld by the Corporation from November 2004.

 It noted that this followed the implementation of a payment schedule worked out between the Corporation and the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee.

It said:  “From the NNPC debt refund which commenced since 2011, a total of N206.242 billion was paid to   the   Federal   Government, N151.446 billion to the 36 states and FCT, while the 774 local governments collectively received N92.311 billion.”

Furthermore, NEITI disclosed that the three tiers of government, including federal, states and local governments, shared N2.788 trillion between January and June this year, a 38 per cent increase on the N2.019 trillion shared in the first half of 2016.

Out of $2.788 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017, it said the Federal Government received N1.09 trillion, 36 state governments received N923 billion, while N549.8 billion went to 774 local governments in the country.

“ A further   breakdown   shows that total releases to the three tiers of government was N430.16 billion in January; N514 billion in February; N496.40 billion in March; N418.82 billion in April; N418.82 billion in May; and N462.36 billion   in   June,” NEITI stated.

It said the review was based on data obtained by NEITI at the meetings of FAAC and data from National Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office.

It added that its interest in providing timely information and data on the FAAC allocations to the three tiers of government was in line with its mandate to monitor and enthrone transparency in the management of extractive industry revenues.

“NEITI’s is also interested in the FAAC disbursements in view of the fact that over 70 per cent of the funds involved are derived from the extractive sector,” it argued.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

The Nigerian Union in South Africa on Thursday said another Nigerian, Uchenna Eloh, has been killed in the Western Cape Province of that country.

Kanayo Onwumelu, the Chairman, Western Cape chapter of the union, told the News Agency of Nigeria on telephone from Cape Town that Eloh was strangled to death by South African policemen.

NAN reports that Eloh hailed from Eziagu in Eziagu Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Onwumelu said: “We want to call the attention of Nigerian Government to the senseless killing of innocent Nigerians by the police in South Africa.

“At about 11am South African time on Wednesday, a Nigerian, Uchenna Emmanuel Eloh, popularly known as Monkey, was killed by a South African police officer.

“He was walking out of his house toward the bus station when a police van stopped to search him, suspecting that he might be in possession of illegal substance.

“Three policemen accosted Eloh, one of them, by the name Williams, held him on the neck suspecting that he swallowed a substance, while another police officer held him by the legs.”

The union official alleged that the policemen dragged Eloh on the ground until he started foaming and suffocated to death on the spot.

He lamented: “This is not the first time such senseless killing of innocent Nigerians was carried out by South African police officers.

“We have reported similar killings to the South African Government and Nigeria High Commission in South Africa and nothing was done to bring the culprits to book.

“We want the Nigerian Government to intervene to stop this brutality against innocent Nigerians and stop killing Nigerians out of hatred, racism or xenophobia.”

Ikechukwu Anyene, President of Nigerian Union in South Africa, who also confirmed the incident, called for an end to the incessant killing of Nigerians in South Africa.

Anyene said: “Our government needs to do something urgently to make it clear that Nigerian lives matter.
“We have made suggestions on what can be done, but it is now clear to us that the endless talks cannot yield any positive result.”

He said that the union had engaged a lawyer to take up the case against South African Police Service.
He said: “But this kind of legal service should form part of consular services to provide legal services to victimised Nigerians.”

The union said the police have opened an inquest into the case.
NAN recalls that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had in February said that a total 116 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa through extrajudicial means in the last two years.

The presidential aide had said during a meeting with the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu Louis Mnguni, in Abuja that nearly seven in 10 of the killings were carried out by the South African police.



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