Nigeria, India account for one third of global child deaths – UNESCO

Under-five mortality rate would have been lowered by 61 and 43 per cent in India and Nigeria, if women are educated to secondary level.

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Nigeria and India account for more than one third of child deaths worldwide, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, said on Tuesday.

The UNESCO Communications Specialist, Education for All Global Monitoring, Kate Redman, made the disclosure in a statement issued to journalists in Abuja.

She said if all women in both countries complete secondary education, the under-five mortality rate would have been lowered by 61 and 43 per cent in India and Nigeria, respectively.

This, according to the statement, would have saved more than 1.35 million children.

Quoting from the highlights of UNESCO’s next Education for All Global Monitoring Report, the statement said education has unrivalled power to reduce extreme poverty and boost wider development goals.

The highlights provided fresh proof that investing in education, especially for girls, alleviates extreme poverty through securing substantial benefits for health and productivity, and also democratic participation and women’s empowerment.

“To unlock education transformative power, however, new development goals must go further to ensure that all children benefit equally not only from primary education, but also from good quality secondary schooling.

“If all young women completed primary education, the number of child brides would be reduced by almost half a million and completing secondary education would reduce that number by two million.0
“If all children enjoyed equal access to education, per capital income would increase by 23 per cent over 40 years.

“Therefore, child marriages and child mortality could fall by a sixth and maternal death by two-thirds’’, the statement quotes Ms. Redman as saying.

Ms. Redman also said that if women were equipped with basic primary education, maternal deaths would be cut by two-thirds, thereby saving more than 189,000 women lives each year.

She said the huge benefits of quality education are sometimes invisible to donors and policy-makers; therefore education often slips off the global agenda.

According to UNECO, if all children, regardless of their backgrounds and circumstances, have equal access to education, productivity gains would boost economic growth.

Education could cause the change that would save more than 12 million children from being stunted – a sign of early childhood malnutrition, the statement said.

Taliban kidnap 35 professors

Mr. Manapal said tribal elders had started negotiating their release with the Taliban.

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Dawa-Khan Minapal, the spokesperson for Afghanistan Southern Provincial Governor, said on Tuesday that Taliban insurgents had kidnapped 35 professors from Kandahar University after stopping their van on the highway to Kabul.

He said the professors were on their way to Kabul when they were abducted.

Mr. Manapal said tribal elders had started negotiating their release with the Taliban.

He said this was coming ahead of Saturday’s run-off vote to replace President Hamid Karzai.
Mr. Manapal said security was being ramped up in Afghanistan.

Swapped U.S. soldier returns home

 Mr. Bergdahl was handed over on May 31 in return for five senior Taliban detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects.

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The Pentagon has confirmed that the U.S. soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, freed in a controversial swap with the Afghan Taliban has returned to the U.S., after five years in captivity.

It said Mr. Bergdahl arrived on Friday on a flight from Germany to San Antonio, Texas, where he would continue treatment at the Brooke Army Medical Centre.

“Since his release on May 31, Bergdahl has been treated in a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany and he will be admitted at another military hospital,’’ it said.

Mr. Bergdahl was handed over on May 31 in return for five senior Taliban detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects.

The Pentagon said the soldier would continue the next phase of his reintegration process.

“There is no timeline for this process. Our focus remains on his health and well-being.” It said.
Mr. Bergdahl spent five years in the captivity of Afghan insurgents.

The exchange for the Taliban detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison resulted in an outcry led by opposition Republicans.

Critics of the exchange say U.S. President Barack Obama gave up too many high-ranking detainees in the swap and carried out the exchange without prior notification of Congress.

Members of Mr. Bergdahl’s unit added fuel to the fire when they accused him of desertion.

Chuck Hagel, U.S. Defence Secretary defended the handling of the prisoner exchange, telling Congress that the time frame for obtaining Mr. Bergdahl’s release was narrow and uncertain, forcing the decision to proceed before congressional notification could be given.

“We grew increasingly concerned that any delay or any leak could derail the deal and further endanger Sergeant Bergdahl,” he said.

Mr. Bergdahl’s disappearance from a base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009 fuelled speculation that the soldier deserted his post before being captured and may face prosecution by military authorities.

Bosnia send spy to watch Eagles, Iran tie

Bosnia and Herzegovina manager Safet Susic had been praying for the outcome of the match between two of his next opponents, Nigeria and Iran, to end in a draw and he got his wish after both teams played goalless on Monday night.

The Bosnia Federation sent a spy, Borce Sredojevic, to witness the game staged at Estádio Joaquim Américo Guimarães, Curitiba, Paraná.

“Destiny is in our hands. Even if we play a draw with Nigeria and win the last match, we’ll be among the top 16 teams.

“Nothing is certian in our group, the most important thing is that Nigeria did not win,” Safet  Susic was quoted as saying by sportsport.ba.

Safet Susic, who featured at Italia 90, watched the match between the Super Eagles and Team Melli with his players. Ahead of the meeting with Nigeria on Saturday.

However, while Bosnia sent a spy to watch Eagles first group game against Iran,the Nigeria Football Federation failed to send any spy to watch Argentina beat Bosnia last Sunday. The Nigerian coaches prefared to watch the match on television.

Brazil 2014: Nigeria supporters to protest treatment

Official of Nigeria’s supporters’ club will protest to FIFA after they were stopped from taking their equipment into the Arena Baixada in Curitiba on Monday.

President General of the Nigeria Football Supporters’ Club, Rafiu Ladipo, said their musical instruments, including drums, trumpets and others were confiscated at the gates.

“This is unacceptable,” a very angry Ladipo told KickOffNigeria.com.

“The Nigeria supporters club has attended every FIFA World Cup since 1994, except 2006 when we didn’t qualify, and we have always gone there with our instruments.

“We cannot understand why we were prevented from taking them in this time. And we are going to make an official complaint to FIFA.”

Ladipo also accused organizers of double standards, claiming other countries at other venues had musical instruments in the stands.

“We saw Brazilian supporters with musical instruments, and we also saw some other countries too.
“Is there double standards? We want to know.”

‘15,616 jobs to go in cement sector’

The new policy of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) restricting certain categories of cement to specific uses will lead to the loss of about 15, 616 direct workers in the cement sector.

It will also affect over one million workers involved in indirect activities related to cement usage, the National Union of Chemical Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCANMPE)  has said.

Speaking yesterday in Lagos, its National President, Boniface Isok, said if the government shuts down factories that are producing 32.5 grade of cement with impunity as SON is intending to do, “Our union will lose approximately 15, 616 workers in the cement sector in companies like WAPCO, Unicem, Sokoto Cement, Ashaka Cement, and PURECHEM, among others; it will deny workers of their right to gainful employment.”

Isok said while the union was not opposed to 42.5 grade cement, other manufacturers like Lafarge Group (WAPCO and ASHAKA), Unicem and Sokoto Cement plants should not be allowed to close down, thereby sending their workers to the already saturated labour market.

He said: “As a trade union and an important stakeholder in the sector, which is saddled with the protection of workers’ interests, the introduction of 42.5 standard of cement is a welcome idea if and only if it would be allowed to co-exist with other types of cement especially the 32.5 grade.”

The group argued that there are 27 different types of cement in the world with each serving different purposes. “It is on record that none of these cement type is inferior to the other in as much as they serve different purposes. The implication is that no particular cement type is applicable to all construction works.

We have cement grades of 12.5, 22.5, 32.5, 42.5, 52. 5, sulphate resistant cement, oil-well cement, and white cement etc, all serving different and specific purposes,” Isok noted.

Emefiele urges education on GDP rebasing gains

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has urged media practitioners to educate the people on the gains of the nation’s rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Emefiele made the call at the opening of the 19th seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors yesterday in Kaduna.

The theme of the seminar is “Rebasing of Nigeria’s Economy and Implication for Financial System Strategy 2020″.

He said: “I urge our business editors and financial correspondents to inform and educate the various economic agents and stakeholders on the gains of rebasing the economy.

“This is our chance to tell our story by ourselves and let the world hear about the Nigerian resurgent economy.”

Emefiele, who was represented by the Director, Research Department of CBN, Mr Charles Mordi, said that 19 years gap before the economy was rebased posed a challenge in recording Nigeria’s accurate economic reality.

According to him, sectors like telecommunications, information technology and distributive trade of our economy recorded tremendous growth within the gap of 19 years.

He said: “It would be unrealistic to stick to the 1999 base year figures given such structural changes, in addition to changes in the price structure over these years.

“Given these dynamics, GDP rebasing becomes inevitable in order to ascertain more accurate estimates of the size and structure of the economy.”

He explained that the new GDP would help economic planners to gauge whether government was realising its goal of achieving the Vision 20-20-20 target.