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Teenage Pregnancies On The Rise In Kenya As Lockdown Impact Schools

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Confinement they say is a necessary preventive measure during outbreaks of significant diseases, but studies have shown it can have a far-reaching and substantial deleterious psychological impact in the population subjected to isolation

COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown which was intended to bring about a sense of fear and anxiety around the globe and amongst individuals has led to a far reaching consequences; leading to a phenomenon that has led to short term as well as long term psychosocial and mental health implications for children and adolescents.

Global lockdowns could also lead to rising rates of adolescent pregnancy, non-governmental organisations working on reproductive health have warned.

In Kenya, some preliminary data suggests that this is already happening.

In the far northern town of Lodwar, teenage pregnancies among clients of the International Rescue Committee aid group nearly tripled to 625 in June-August this year, compared with 226 in the same period a year earlier, IRC data show.

In the nearby refugee camp of Kakuma, adolescent pregnancies among clients jumped to 51 in the March-August 2020 period, compared with 15 in the same period in 2019.

At the clinic that Bosibori one teenager who got pregnant during the lockdown, attended for antenatal visits – often with her classmate, who also became pregnant around the same time as her – the number of expectant girls has been climbing.

And more pregnant girls may be skipping doctors’ visits altogether.

“We know that young girls who get pregnant do not access healthcare services like adult females because of the judgment,” said Ademola Olajide, the United Nations Population Fund representative in Kenya.

That makes them more vulnerable to health complications and unsafe abortions, he added.

A NIGERIA WITHOUT POLICE

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A state well-defined is where law and order reign. And it is not difficult to have a country of degraded, disappearing statehood. We already have it. We say when the roots of a tree begin to decay, they spread death up the stem to the branches. Across the south west where I live, the police are on work-to-rule. If you travel from the coasts to the northernmost part of Southern Nigeria, you are not likely to see a single presence of law enforcement. Everyone has been in charge of their lives since the EndSARS protest made the police withdraw their services. We have outsourced our country to criminals and they are not disappointing themselves. Street gangs are in their season of boom. They man ‘police’ road blocks, they control traffic, they mend roads and demand their pay. A robbery happened, daylight and on a busy road, at Lekki, Lagos state last week. The only people who “sleep peaceably in their beds at night” today are those who can afford George Orwell’s “rough men (who) stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” The Hobbesian state of nature has no other definition; it is a state without law – or a state with law without enforcement; it is where life is nasty, brutish and short. It is almost here.

In the far north where I do not live, we read that criminals levy farmers before allowing them to farm and to harvest their crops. “Bandits are collecting the sum of N800,000 as tax from local farmers in Ɗan Kurmi under Maru local government area of Zamfara,” one AM Saleem tweeted last week. Ibrahim Umar Rufai, also on Twitter added his own voice: “Exactly, that’s what happened to us in Damari village under Sabuwa LG, Katsina state. We have to negotiate with the bandits before they allow us to harvest our crops.” Still on Twitter, Aminu Yaro said: “Same with Yankara community under Faskari LG of Katsina state. Before they allow you harvest your crops, you’ve to negotiate with them and pay a minimum of N300,000. The bigger the farm, the higher the price. If you refuse to pay the ransom, they’ll burn the crops. #SecureNorth.” Senator Shehu Sani lent his strong voice to those speaking out against the tragedy going on. He did not write his usual satires with their twisted contours; his outrage bellowed straight on Twitter: “Bandits in Zamfara and some North Western states reportedly collecting Tax or VAT from peasant farmers to permit them to farm should be seriously tackled.” Two days later, he widened the scope of his worries. He pointed at “the eastern part of Niger State that shares borders with Kaduna state and the FCT.”  Here, he said, “bandits determine who lives, who dies and who moves…there is virtually no state control there.”

There is no state control anywhere. As the elite focus on the benefits derivable from the state, they have left the state to drift into the control of non-state actors. Today, wherever you go, you meet zones of lawlessness and ‘forests of failure’ dotting the landscape. You have this north and south. The difference is that while the south historically has an army of noisemakers, the north enjoys the ‘peace’ of conformist silence. But for Twitter and Facebook with their unmediated impudence, these tragedies in the north would just go unnoticed, hidden even from (or by) the mainstream media. I understand each time bad incidents there are reported, the power elite get irritated and angry. Our north is uncomfortable with anything that exposes its ugliness. That explains the current anger at the social media and its irreverent behaviours. It also explains a recent distribution of 1,650 transistor radio sets to rural women in a state there. In slave camps, iPhones and Androids are subversive chatter engines; radio sets are perfect tools for the opposite of subversion.

We elected the president so that he would give us security. Do you secure the people by withdrawing the police from the state? There is a reason why airports have control towers. Imagine having persons in your tower who do not believe in controlling any traffic. Before you doubt my drift, ask yourself why the Inspector General of Police and the Police Service Commission are forever in court over who has the powers to recruit 10,000 policemen. They first tested might cross firing in the media. But when they saw there was no one holding the gavel against their show of shame, they went to court leaving the job undone and the nation gravely under-policed.

We are in gridlocks which have become a metaphor for Nigeria. Everyone is stuck in the intersection of Nigeria’s incompetence – or tragedy. There used to be an unmanned street junction without official traffic controllers. A madman saw that loophole and filled the void. He became the lord there, controlling the flow of cars and lorries and their human contents. And drivers learnt to obey his command. Sometimes he did it well, some other time his lunacy took control. Like all nameless actors on our stage in Nigeria, no one can tell what eventually became his fate. But beyond our insane traffic situation and its control, take a look also at the abandoned roads and those filling the potholes. How many of them can you read? But these are the people serving us where governments have failed.

Regardless of where you live, the only place of relative safety today is the home. The street is the new rogue poaching its livelihood from every unlucky wayfarer. The Nigerian state stopped working for the people a long time ago. That is why the police won’t be at work, every junction becomes a crime scene and all the Federal Government does is hold its weekly FEC meeting (eating), award contracts and issue threats. Three weeks ago, the Police Service Commission pleaded with its “officers to, in the spirit of nationalism, return to work while government works out enough protective programs for them.” We, of course, know that lawlessness cohere perfectly wherever there is no firm political control. We also have law enforcement commanders ordering their officers and men to go back to work. But in vain were those orders given.

The Black Lives Matter protests happened to the United States earlier this year but the US government did not abandon the state to abolitionists. Lack of an effective, functioning central government is a very loud symptom of state collapse. When a country cedes its mandate to warlords and client groups, it is no longer a state. That has been the lot of that failed country called Somalia since January 1991. It has been without a central government. The vacuum in its life is effectively filled with (and by) anarchy. History says in the absence of competent leadership, society degenerates to anarchy. May Nigeria not drag its wobble into that hole of fire with its present cluelessness. Honest people know that we are a country on autopilot – even the pilots themselves know this. Except they are worse than we think, they must be surprised that the plane has not crashed. We have the law but there is no one to enforce it. Plato, in his ‘Eleventh Letter,’ argues that having a constitution or enacting laws is not enough. He said there must be “some authority in the city to look after the daily life of the citizens and to insure that both free men and slaves live in a temperate and manly fashion.” This precisely informed my question: Where is our president in all this? Shouldn’t anyone who applied for a job, and got it, and draws benefits from it do the job? We should not allow President Muhammadu Buhari close his eyes as bandits reign north to south. He has been very loudly absent, turning our executive presidency to a ceremonial office.

“Every ship needs a captain. The crew is important but the captain steers everything. You need to have a clear vision to lead.” That is one of my favorite leadership quotes, the author is unknown. Each time Nigeria drifts, the quote comes to my mind and I cast a glance at Abuja and the wreck the deck has become. A good captain is not made from calm seas; it is in a time of crisis as we are that we know the leader we have. We should just thank our governors for holding the forte. They may not have scored As, but they have individually shown leadership when it mattered. They run when running is recommended; they walk when walking is the presumed solution. They speak when it is necessary to talk to us. They do not ignore us as Abuja does us and our problems. Imagine having our governors copy Abuja and also adopt the toothpick approach to the existential problems in their states. The governors, warts and all, are the reason we still have not defeated Somalia in the championship among the ungoverned.

©Lasisi Olagunju

Armenian Foreign Minister Resigns After Unpopular Karabakh Ceasefire

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Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia October 21, 2020. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan resigned from his post on Monday in a sign of political fall-out in the ex-Soviet republic after a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that locked in territorial gains for Azerbaijan.

Mnatsakanyan, whose departure was announced by the ministry’s spokeswoman on its Facebook page, had held the position since May 2018.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has faced a popular backlash over the ceasefire accord that ended six weeks of fighting, with thousands of protesters last week demanding he resign.

On Monday, hundreds of protesters rallied in the capital Yerevan’s central Freedom Square.

The ceasefire signed by leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on Nov. 10 halted military action in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians. Some 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops are now being deployed to the region.

Mnatsakanyan met Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov three times in the past month and a half in search of a ceasefire arrangement, but each effort quickly broke down.

For over 25 years until fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh resumed on Sept. 27, ethnic Armenians held military control over the entire mountainous pocket and substantial swathes of Azeri territory ringing it. But when the guns fell silent, they had lost much of the enclave itself – including its second city Shushi, which Azeris call Shusha – as well as adjoining terrain.

EU Tells Britain, Time Running Out For Brexit Deal

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Britain received warnings on Monday from European Union diplomats that time was fast running out for a Brexit deal, and that it may already be too late to ratify one, as negotiators in Brussels began a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous exit at the end of December.

Almost five years since the Brexit referendum campaign began, Britain and the EU have still not worked out how nearly $1 trillion in trade per year will operate once Britain leaves a status quo transition arrangement on Dec. 31.

Britain, which left the EU in January, called on the EU to show “more realism” if there was to be more progress in coming days.

Ireland, the EU nation most exposed to Brexit, said there were just days, or possibly weeks, left to find a way to unlock trade talks, while a senior EU official said there may no longer be time to put any trade deal agreed into force.

“It’s getting terribly late and may be too late already,” said the senior EU official, as talks between the bloc’s negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, resumed in Brussels.

$500m Chinese Debt Sparks Confusion In Airport Concession

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Federal Government of Nigeria’s plan to concession airports has run into difficulties over an existing debt and pact with China to build four new terminals at the cost of $500 million.

The “concession within concession”, according to the coalition of aviation workers’ unions, is untidy and not in the best interest of the country. Hence, this among other concerns regarding the airport concessioning should first be resolved.

A group of former Managing Directors and Directors of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) warned against a Mezzanine Clause in all Chinese sponsored projects, adding that any contravention of agreement with China on the $500m loan for the construction of the new terminal buildings may lead to invocation of the clause.

In reaction to these concerns, the House of Representatives has set up a sub-committee to interface with the Ministry of Aviation, the financial adviser (FAD) and the project delivery team (PDT) on the proposed airports concessioning. The sub-committee is to review the reports of the FAD and the PDT, which according to the House Committee on Aviation chairman, Nnolim Nnaji, fell below expectations.

Zambia Trades Blame With Bondholders Following Default

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Zambia’s Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu said creditors were at least partly to blame for the country defaulting on one of its Eurobonds last week, while a group of bondholders said the missed payment risked setting a more adversarial backdrop for debt negotiations.

The southern African nation became the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign default, after holders of the debt refused to grant it a six-month interest payment freeze on Friday. The bondholders demanded more information on Zambia’s debts to Chinese lenders, but wouldn’t sign the necessary confidentiality agreements, Ng’andu said in an interview broadcast by state television.

Zambia missed a $42.5 million interest payment on $1 billion of Eurobonds maturing in 2024. The default was unavoidable because the country, which had received some debt relief from China Development Bank, had to treat all creditors equally and had already built up arrears on other loans, Ng’andu said.

The country’s $1 billion in Eurobonds due 2024 fell 1.8% to 44 cents on the dollar by 11:13 a.m. in London. The non-payment has triggered cross-default provisions in all the outstanding dollar bonds.

The bondholders committee, whose 15 members represent in aggregate more than 40% of Zambia’s $3 billion in outstanding Eurobonds, said on Monday investors had been unable to consent to a debt standstill because they never received information they needed for an informed decision. That includes details on Zambia’s “policy trajectory” and fiscal framework, and transparency on how the government intends to deal with other creditors.

There had been no direct discussions between bondholders and the authorities to date, the committee said in an emailed statement.

Reserving Rights

“The committee views the authorities’ decision as both unnecessary and unfortunate, and this unilateral action risks establishing a more adversarial backdrop to future discussions with bondholders,” the committee said. While members are ready to engage constructively, they “reserve the right to consider other options and remedies,” the group said.

Zambia has announced plans to continue borrowing over the next three years, and to service these debts, said the committee. It therefore has “no basis to conclude that the authorities intend to treat bondholders on an equitable basis,” the group said.

Ng’andu also called on the International Monetary Fund for support as he tries to convince commercial creditors to accept an interest payment holiday while Zambia restructures as much as $12 billion in external debt.

Some key comments from Ng’andu’s interview:

On defaulting:

  • “The information they wanted required very elaborate information relating to loans we have with other creditors. The view and position of the other creditors was, ‘OK, you can do it but you must first have a confidentiality agreement with bondholders.’ As it turned out, they didn’t sign. The position of the Chinese banks is ‘you’re not going to give anybody any information’” without the confidentiality agreements in place.
  • “The issue of paying bondholders alone is a fundamental issue to the other creditors. If I pay, the moment I pay, the other creditors are going to put dynamite under my legs and blow off my legs. I’m gone. I can’t walk anymore. If I don’t pay the bondholders, my legs will remain intact, but I’ll probably have a shot in the arm, and I’ll be bleeding in the arm. I can walk.”

On talks with the IMF:

  • “A team is supposed to be coming next month for us to finalize agreement on exactly what specific instrument we are going to use. Is it the extended credit facility, is it a staff-monitored program? All those are the things that we need now to discuss. It’s not like there’s no engagement going on. There’s a lot of talking going on behind the scenes. The director for Africa will be coming most likely next month to continue the process.”
  • “I said to them: ‘Imagine being us; a man drowning in a fast-flowing river. And you, the IMF, are standing by the bank with your arms folded and I’m screaming to you, help me, I’m drowning. And then you say to me, oh, we’ll help you when you come out of the water.’ That’s not helpful.”

On debt transparency:

  • “Right now, we have given out a lot of information. To the extent that there is not very much left to be hidden, if there was anything to be hidden. There may be challenges around the issue of trust, but the fact of the matter is that the information is available and we will give it.”

Zambian government seems to have found itself in a precarious situation which stems from a leadership devoid of vision. However the story of Zambia isn’t peculiar to it and tells the story of most poor nations on the continent who cannot resist the lure of foreign aid and fallen into a debt trap.

The debt trap scenario has been term as a neo-colonialist tool used in ensnaring corrupt leaderships in Africa who end up enslaving future generations through debt. China is said to be the new face of modern colonialism, a submission they refute claiming that if such Nations hasd used the money for what it had been borrowed for they wouldn’t be in the situation they find themselves.

Can China absolve itself of responsibility of ensuring that these nations are fiscally responsible with the funds given to them? Is China truly an ally of Africa? These are the questions that arise as Africa becomes the coveted bride and the last frontier for an industrial revolution.

By Matthew Hill and Taonga Clifford Mitimingi

I Stumbled On A Video Of Him Advising Young People- Williams Uchemba’s Wife

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Nollywood actor and comedian Williams Uchemba recently tied the knot with his fiance Brunella Oscar over the weekend.

The couple’s marriage was met with several well wishes from fans and loved ones.

Brunella has shared the details of their love story with Wedding Digest Naija as she disclosed that they met on Facebook after she sent him a message.

According to her, she sent him a message after she stumbled on a video of his where he was preaching the gospel and advising young people on the path to follow in life.  She added that while watching the video, she heard a voice saying, “This is my husband”.

She went on to disclose that everyone thought she was crazy because although she did not get a reply, she went to school where she was pursing her masters degree the next day, “happy and smiling” and telling everyone that she had met her husband the night before.

She said she got a reply from him on the afternoon of November 23, 2016, and he asked her where she’s from.

After she told him, she asked where he’s from and he replied: “I am from that state your mother doesn’t want you to marry from.”

Things got interesting from there as he gave her his number and asked that she sent him a Whatsapp message. They spoke for hours that night on video call and this soon became their norm, marking the start of their relationship.

The rest is history….

Lagos bye-election: Court hears suit seeking Abiru’s disqualification Dec 9

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The Federal High Court, Lagos has fixed December 9, 2020, for definite hearing in a suit seeking to disqualify the All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Adetokunbo Abiru, for the forthcoming Lagos East Senatorial District bye-election.

The senatorial district seat became vacant following the death of Senator Bayo Osinowo in June.

The Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate in the election, Babatunde Gbadamosi, who filed the suit, are urging the court to disqualify Abiru from participating in the election on the grounds of his alleged possession of two voter cards and violation of Section 31 of the Electoral Act.

Listed as defendants in the suit are Abiru, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), are praying the court to order INEC to “delete the name of the 2nd and 3rd defendants (Abiru and APC) from the list of the candidates and political parties to participate in the Lagos East by-election.”

They are also praying for an order “nullifying, cancelling and voiding the nomination, submission and acceptance of the name of Abiru as the candidate of the APC for the by-election,” as well as an order disqualifying Abiru from contesting the bye-election.

But Abiru and the APC have, through their lawyers, Messrs Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN) and Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), filed preliminary objections to the suit, asking the court to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction.

Among other things, Abiru and the APC are contending that the suit is statute-barred and failed to meet the requirements of Section 285 (9) of the Constitution.

At the Monday proceedings in the case, Justice Chuka Obiozor told the lawyers of his intention to hear all pending applications alongside the substantive suit.

He subsequently adjourned the matter till December 9 for definite hearing.

Common Entrance Examination:NECO releases 2020 results

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The National Examinations Council has released the 2020 National Common Entrance Examination results and fixed the national cut off marks at 142.

NECO said that “16,713 candidates were absent due to the #EndSARS protests that rocked the country recently.”

According to the organisation, a total of 70,580 candidates sat for the examination nationwide, out of which 24,416 candidates passed, scoring a minimum of 66.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Prof. Godswill Obioma, while presenting the results to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu in Abuja said three students got the highest scores.

They were Umeonyiagu Chinua Crucifixio from Anambra State (199), Onwuamanam Udochukwu from Enugu State (198) and Salaam Mariam Aderemilekun from Lagos State (197).

After receiving the results, Adamu said he was delighted with the speed with which the leadership of NECO conducted the 2020 National Common Entrance Examination despite the setbacks occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19 and the #EndSARS protest.

He said that with the Unity Colleges now 110, admissions carrying capacity has been shored up to 26,625 for the current academic year.

Adamu said, “I understand that a total of 70,580 candidates sat for the examination, out of which 24,416 candidates passed, scoring a minimum of 66. I noted also that the total carrying capacity of our 110 Unity Colleges now stands 26,625, having added 720 slots with the establishment of six more Federal Science and Technical Colleges across the six geopolitical zones.

“As has been the tradition for decades, the admission criteria include 60 per cent strictly on merit, 30 per cent based on states’ representation in the Unity Colleges and the remaining 10 per cent to cover other sundry considerations such as special needs candidates, gender, local community and biological children of teachers, PTA, SBMC and old students organizations, etc.

“Consequently, in this year’s admission, the 60 per cent merit based on admission will come first, followed by the 30 per cent equality of States and 10 per cent discretion.

“I have, therefore, directed that within 72 hours of the receipt of the results, principals are to complete both the merit-based (60 per cent) and 30 per cent of equality of states admission.

“The selection meeting to be held at a designated date and venue will deal with the shopping and swapping of candidates to meet the 30 per cent states representation as much as possible.”

18-Year-Old Zimbabwean Blessing Chitapa Wins The Voice UK

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Blessing Chitapa has been crowned as the winner of The Voice UK. The 18-year-old singer, who was born in Zimbabwe and moved to the UK aged seven, was named as the winner during Saturday’s episode of the ITV talent competition.

Chitapa, who lives in Dudley in the West Midlands, sang Robbie Williams’ Angels and James Bay’s Hold Back The River in the final.

The latter song was a duet with her mentor Olly Murs. A tearful Chitapa said she is “so happy to have sung on this stage”.

“It has been an honour and my privilege and it has been unforgettable,” she added. After she sang Angels, Murs said, “You are just a phenomenal talent and even I am getting emotional here after that performance.”

Earlier in the series, Murs became Chitapa’s mentor after he was the only judge to turn his chair during her audition. Chitapa said winning the competition “is my biggest achievement yet. I am so proud of how far I have come and I’m so intrigued to see what the future holds for me,” she said.

Chitapa was raised in a family of gospel singers. She is the daughter of a pastor and reverend at a local church in Dudley.

Chitapa has recorded Angels as a single, which is available to download and stream.

The Voice UK had filmed its blind audition stage and much of the show before the country went into its first COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year. The event came to a halt due to the pandemic and returned to TV screens in October following a seven-month break.

Chitapa was chosen as the victor by the programme’s virtual audience, who voted for her to win.