CC Video Feature
Tuesday
Monday
As Jonathan's witch-hunt continues, outspoken critic Femi Fani-Kayode ordered to be re-arraigned for money laundering
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| Femi Fani-Kayode |
LAGOS, NIGERIA - A Federal High Court on Monday, ordered the re-arraignment of former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, facing charges of money laundering.
Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, who was recently mired in controversy surrounding her physical assault on a clerical officer attached to her office, gave the order while ruling on an application of objection filed by defense counsel for the accused, Femi Fani-Kayode.
The prosecutor, Mr Festus Keyamo, on Jan. 27, filed an amended 40-count charge bothering on money laundering against Fani-Kayode and urged the court to order him take his plea.
Fani-Kayode was first arraigned December 2008, on a 47-count charge of money laundering and he had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He was then granted bail, at the time.
The prosecutor told the court that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 15(1) (a) (b) (c) (d) and 15 (2) (a) (b) of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, 2004.
But Adedipe objected to the amended charge preferred against his client.
He argued that the amended charge was invalid as it did not disclose the identity of the source from whom the accused allegedly obtained the money.
He further submitted that his client was therefore not in a position to take his plea in the matter and described the charge as “ incompetent”.
Ruling on the application on Monday, Ofili-Ajumogobia ordered the accused to take his plea.
She held that it was an abject misconception on the part of the defense counsel to have raised the objection in the first place.
"The charge against the accused is valid and hereby sustained. The objection raised by the defense counsel lacks merit and should not have been raised in the first place. The accused is hereby directed to plead to the charge.”
The judge also agreed with the Prosecution’s submission that the non disclosure of the identity of the giver or receiver of the money was immaterial and could not affect the validity of the charge.
She, therefore, adjourned the case to March 5 to enable the prosecutor re-arraign the accused on the charge of money laundering.
Thus, as it has now become common place with the Jonathan administration, the current Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, continues in that same role despite allegations and evidence of high level corruption (including egregious Code of Conduct violations) while the president continues his ill-advised witch-hunt of political opponents.
Holder’s same-sex marriage move stirs up separation of powers debate
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| Attorney General Eric Holder |
Attorney General Eric Holder is making sweeping changes about how the federal government extends rights to legally married same-sex couples, in areas where the Justice Department has jurisdiction. The move should add more fuel to the debate over the roles of the executive, Congress and the states in deciding social issues.
The official policy statement will come from Holder on Monday, but news of it leaked out on Saturday before Holder made a public speech in Manhattan on Saturday night.
Holder, in the latest series of steps promised by the Obama administration, will issue a Justice Department policy memo. The directive will say that same-sex couples, who are legally married under the laws of a state that recognizes such unions, should receive equal benefits and treatment in areas like federal lawsuits and the U.S. court system, as well as in federal prisons.
“This means that, in every courthouse, in every proceeding and in every place where a member of the Department of Justice stands on behalf of the United States — they will strive to ensure that same-sex marriages receive the same privileges, protections, and rights as opposite-sex marriages under federal law,” Holder said at the Human Rights Campaign’s Greater New York Gala at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
The move comes almost three years after the Justice Department said it wouldn’t defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court and about seven months after the Supreme Court said a key part of DOMAwas unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment, in the United States v. Windsor case.
Two groups opposed the move, issuing statements questioning the Justice Department’s policy directive as infringing on states’ rights or overstepping the Executive’s constitutional authority.
“This is just the latest in a series of moves by the Obama administration, and in particular the Department of Justice, to undermine the authority and sovereignty of the states to make their own determinations regulating the institution of marriage,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, said in the statement. “The American public needs to realize how egregious and how dangerous these usurpations are and how far-reaching the implications can be. The changes being proposed here . . . serve as a potent reminder of why it is simply a lie to say that redefining marriage doesn’t affect everyone in society.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the Justice Department’s move was a stretch into territory not yet settled by the Supreme Court.
“While the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Windsor case last summer required the federal government to recognize such unions in states which also recognize them, the Court was conspicuously silent on the status of such couples when they reside in a state which considers them unmarried,” Perkins said. He wants the issue settled in Congress and pointed to proposed legislation that would force the federal government to defer to the states when it comes to treating same-sex couples married in another state.
Holder cast the decision as the latest step in the nation’s evolving struggle with Civil Rights.
“The Justice Department’s role in confronting discrimination must be as aggressive today as it was in Robert Kennedy’s time,” Holder said on Saturday. “As Attorney General, I will not let this department be simply a bystander during this important moment in history.”
Currently, same-sex marriages are legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia, while 33 states don’t recognize same-sex marriages through various legal or statutory means.
Holder’s move has already agitated opponents who believe President Obama is legislating from the White House by using executive orders and Justice Department memos to make policy decisions that should fall to Congress, or the courts.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also is supporting a possible Obama executive order that would ban workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender federal contractors. The Senate has passed a bill on the matter that has been stalled in the House.
Every president since George Washington has issued executive orders, with the assumed authority under Article II of the Constitution, based on the president’s role as the chief executive and commander in chief, and his powers to make sure laws are “faithfully executed.” (Holder’s directive, while not an executive order, will have a similar policy effect.)
This power is limited, however. In 1952, the Supreme Court overturned an order to nationalize steel mills during the Korean War. “The President’s power to see that laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker,” said Justice Hugo Black.
In the Windsor decision about DOMA, Justice Anthony Kennedy did confirm in the Court’s majority opinion that “by history and tradition the definition and regulation of marriage has been treated as being within the authority and realm of the separate States.”
But Kennedy said since DOMA affected more than 1,000 federal statutes by limiting federal benefits eligibility to opposite-sex couples, it violated the rights same-sex couples already had in states where they were legally married, by forcing them to live as “unmarried” for federal purposes.
Since the June 2013 DOMA decision, the Obama administration moved to extend equal work benefits and tax considerations to same-sex couples who are federal employees.
Holder is also involved in a controversy in Utah over a U.S. district judge’s ruling in December that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court later stayed that decision pending appeal, and Holder said he would ensure that about 1,300 same-sex Utah couples married in a 17-day period between judicial rulings would receive federal benefits.
Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.
Wednesday
John Thompson is Microsoft's new Chairman
CC Insight
Former CEO of data security company Symantec Inc. and current CEO of Virtual Instruments John Thompson, is to replace Bill Gates as the new Chairman of the Redmond, Washington based software giant.
Here (below) is an insight into the search process he (Thompson) oversaw that ultimately led to the selection of the new CEO, Satya Nadella.
Former CEO of data security company Symantec Inc. and current CEO of Virtual Instruments John Thompson, is to replace Bill Gates as the new Chairman of the Redmond, Washington based software giant.
Here (below) is an insight into the search process he (Thompson) oversaw that ultimately led to the selection of the new CEO, Satya Nadella.
Niger Republic calls on U.S. and the West to "deal with what they created....."
Niger Republic on Wednesday called for Western intervention to eradicate a growing threat from Islamist fighters who have established bases in southern Libya since the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi.
"The powers who intervened to overthrow Colonel Gaddaffi -- after which Libya became the main sanctuary for terrorists -- need to provide an after-sales service," Niger's Interior Minister Massoudou Hassoumi stressed to reporters.
"It would be totally legitimate for France and the United States to intervene to eradicate the terrorist threat in the south of Libya," Hassoumi added during a visit to Paris.
Niger, an impoverished but mineral-rich former French colony which adjoins southern Libya, has had to contend with numerous Islamist attacks and kidnappings on its own soil, some of which have threatened the security of its uranium production.
Hassoumi said US intelligence chief James Clapper had been right to highlight, in an annual report published in December, the extent to which sub-Saharan Africa had become a "hothouse" for extremists, thanks to the Western-led overthrow of Gaddaffi.
"More precisely, he should have said that the south of Libya is now an incubator for terrorist groups," Hassoumi added.
"I think awareness of the threat posed by southern Libya is quite strong and an intervention is within the bounds of the possible."
The US intelligence assessment presented by Clapper warned that a power vacuum in Libya, where the government is struggling to counter well-armed militias, was fuelling extremist groups across the region, posing an "acute" terror threat that neighbouring countries lack the capacity, and sometimes the will, to counter.
Gaddaffi, who had ruled Libya as a dictatorship from 1969, was toppled by a popular uprising that was backed up by Western military action.
Saturday
Protect R&D tax breaks to help stimulate the economy
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| Credits: RandDTax |
There is one thing that has always set the American economy apart; it is the spirit of innovation that drives the American entrepreneur across all verticals to dream big, think hard and take calculated risks, with one singular purpose in mind - change the way things have always been done!
It is however important to understand that the main reason why the innovative spirit has always been alive and well in the United States, is due to the environment that has fostered, encouraged and engendered that spirit.
Over the years, perhaps due to the culture of greed and unbecoming avarice that permeated Corporate America, governmental regulations have become necessary, with the objective of not only protecting the American consumer, but also potentially preserving the integrity of the capitalist system.
My motive for writing this piece is centered in the belief that the bad behavior of corporate executives over the years has projected the wrong image (of Corporate America) with most Americans blaming the recent culture of careless risk-taking and greed, for the economic collapse of 2008.
While there is the push by most state governments and perhaps the federal government to find a way to tax corporations more, as they (the former) seek to balance their budget(s), they are however losing sight of one thing - the path towards real economic recovery and increase in jobs (particularly in the private sector) is through formulation and passing of initiatives, that promote growth, through innovation.
One of the surest ways to promote growth through innovation is in the area of Research & Development (R&D) tax credits.
Created by the U.S. Congress in 1981, the R&D credit has always been supported by the largest group for businesses in the United States - the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as business and industry watchers.
Recently though, critics of the R&D credit have been campaigning against it (and losing, thankfully), calling the tax credit a costly corporate hand-out that has done little to encourage more hiring and investment.
What opponents of the R&D credit however fail to mention is that it remains one of the surest ways to not only help manufacturers achieve cost and efficiency savings, but also help stimulate the economy, through more hiring and increased investment.
At a time when unemployment in the technology sector remains rather low (at less than 3% compared to the general unemployment rate of 8%), removing an avenue for increased investment and improved efficiency would indeed be fool-hardy.
One can only hope that the pervading anti-corporate sentiment does not becloud sound judgment on the part of our elected officials.
Prophet predicts World Cup semi-final berth for Nigeria's Super Eagles.... among other prophecies for 2014
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| Super Eagles for semi-finals of World Cup? |
A new year is upon us and I for one wonder what the fuss is all about - why the fireworks, the endless parties, the resolutions, the yearning to know the future - when in reality the new year for each and everyone should be the day our mothers gave birth to us.
But let us run with the herd and pretend there is a new year to celebrate and that making it into 2014 is worthy of raising a glass and that being alive at the beginning of January is somehow worthier of notice than being dead in December.
And it is a time to look ahead and speculate about the immediate future of this, our continent.
Increasingly, this has become an impossible task - for who could have known that before December was over South Sudan and her precarious peace would have unravelled and the prospect of another war loom large over the long-suffering South Sudanese?
Or that more than 100 people would die in the Democratic Republic of Congo as followers of evangelical Christian pastor Joseph Mukungubila attacked state institutions with gunfire on the second last day of 2013?
Pastor Mukungubila is known as the "prophet of the eternal" and he issued a press statement on his Facebook and Twitter accounts from "the office of the prophet" saying his followers had spontaneously rebelled against soldiers who had attacked his home.
And perhaps it is to these so-called prophets, the seers said to be blessed by holy visions that we should turn in predicting what this year has in store for us all.
Not only do these men say they can predict our uncertain future, they are also credited with performing astounding miracles.
Prophets are everywhere you look in most African countries, ministering to the poor, the needy and the rich.
In Lagos, Nigeria, TB Joshua receives men and women of influence and presidents of different lands.
In Ghana, for these holy men are everywhere, Victor Kusi Boateng replenishes the spiritual needs of other prophets.
It would be foolish for anyone to cast aspersions on the acts of the divinely gifted, these miracle workers, these gardeners of the desert.
But seeing as so many of Africa's urban populations are filling the churches and the prayer halls in search of signs and miracles and salvation, I thought it wise to spend some time surfing the web in search of 2014 predictions for you from those in the know.
For the World Cup, no prophet goes out on a limb to hand the trophy to Africa, although one sees Nigeria's Super Eagles making it to the semi-finals.
Another man of vision informs us that African politicians who depend on corruption for their wealth will fall by the wayside in 2014.
It seems, though, that a principal talent a prophet needs is the ability to foretell a leader's death, or to warn of some kind of attack or natural disaster before it occurs - but without giving us the specifics.
So it is possible we may hear a prophecy that a long-serving African leader will leave us in this 14th year of the new century and we, believing our prophets, will cast our roving eyes around to Eritrea, Zimbabwe or Cameroon and wonder where the prophet really wanted us to look.
We will watch the explosions in Somalia and the kidnappings in Libya or the murders in northern Nigeria and Mali and understand that the prophets have been telling us for some time that terrorism in Africa has been strengthening its grip and our governments must remain alert.
And what of the fate of all Africans all over the world? Despite the Bible and a love of scriptures, the world at large will watch us die in leaking boats in the Mediterranean or killed while crossing deserts as we demonstrate for the right to stay in places like Israel and Saudi Arabia where we are not wanted.
One thing you can be sure of is that 2014 will come and go of its own accord regardless of the prophecies - and it may well be more of the same but not necessarily in that order.
OPEC cuts exports to lowest level in over a quarter
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will cut crude shipments to the lowest level since September of 2013 as refineries trim imports before conducting maintenance in the spring, according to industry reports.
OPEC, which supplies roughly 40 percent of the world’s crude oil, will reduce sailings by 390,000 barrels a day, or 1.6 percent, to 23.71 million barrels in the four weeks to January 25, 2014.
That compares with 24.1 million in the period to December 28. The figures exclude two of OPEC’s 12 members, Angola and Ecuador.
Industry watchers believe the reductions were initiated by Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest member.
Exports from Iran declined to about 900,000 barrels a day in December from 1.03 million a day in November, the reports said. An agreement between Iran and world governments in November eased some restrictions on insuring cargoes of the nation’s crude, in return for a delay in its nuclear program.
Tuesday
Sanusi's poignant take on the politics of vested interests in Nigeria
CC Video Insight
A rather articulate and insightful take on how deeply entrenched vested interests continue to stand in the way of meaningful growth and development in Nigeria.
A rather articulate and insightful take on how deeply entrenched vested interests continue to stand in the way of meaningful growth and development in Nigeria.
"Ménage à trois" at the Champs-Élysées
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| Hollande - "Watch my nose grow as I lie." |
Socialist French President Francois Hollande has said he is experiencing a "difficult time" in his private life, following claims of an affair with an actress.
But he refused to answer questions over the report, saying "private matters should be dealt with privately".
Mr Hollande was speaking at his first news conference since the allegations in the magazine Closer last week.
He said he would clarify whether Valerie Trierweiler was still first lady before a February trip to the US.
The news conference was a long-planned event aimed at unveiling policies to help France's struggling economy.
In a speech lasting more than half an hour he addressed the main areas where business wants to see reform.
Facing hundreds of journalists at the presidential palace, Mr Hollande said it was "neither the time nor the place" to answer questions about his personal life.
He said he would not be drawn on the reports of the affairs with actress Julie Gayet "out of respect for those involved".
Ms. Trierweiler has been in hospital since Friday suffering from "shock", her aides say.
Asked about the state of his partner's health, Mr Hollande said she was resting and that he had no further comment to make on the subject.
On the issue of his personal security - which some reports of his affair suggested had been compromised - Mr Hollande said: "When I travel officially and when I travel on a private basis, I have protection that is less suffocating. But I am protected everywhere.''
The president left open the possibility of suing Closer over its report.
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