Ekiti 2014: Will Gov Fayemi break four-year jinx?

When it comes to high rate of churning out governors, no state can be compared to Ekiti  in Nigeria. Within the last eight years, Ekiti has produced  seven governors after the exit of the Second Civilian Governor of the State,Mr Ayo Fayose in October 2006.
Among the seven people, who have ruled the state since 1999,  Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo,the first civilian governor of the state is the luckiest. So far, he is the only one who has completed a tenure in the Government House even though he failed to secure a second term.
No other governor of the state since then had recorded such a feat, to make the matter worse, the people of Ekiti State had  witnessed tenure of a governor as short as two days, 79 days, three months and three and- half years.
All things being equal, Governor Kayode Fayemi, the current governor of the state is  expected to also complete  his four-year first term but whether or not he will be handed a second term mandate is  contentious given unfolding events in the state christened the Fountain of Knowledge.
With the fixing of the governorship election for June by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the leading political parties and aspirants are currently engaged in a flurry of activities to claim the Ekit Government House.

Brush twice daily, oral hygiene is important

Bad breath is not the only reason why you should take care of your teeth. According to experts, tooth and gum decay does not only affect your dentition, it could also lead to some serious health problems like cancer of the mouth.

Physicians have linked poor dental hygiene to other health problems which include heart attack, diabetes and dementia. In fact, they say, poor oral hygiene can even jeopardise your overall health!

Many studies have found a link between periodontal disease and heart disease, with people who have gum disease more likely to also have poor heart health, including heart attacks.

How possible is it be that poor oral care leads to heart attack or cancer? Consultant Dental Surgeon, Dr. Olurotimi Olojede, says because 50 per cent of the bacteria in the body are in the mouth, they often escape into the bloodstream and injure major organs when neglected.

Olojede says the symptoms of many life-threatening diseases such as diabetes and cancer often start in the mouth, and they could have been prevented with good oral hygiene practices.

According to him, poor oral health can lead to low sperm count in men and also increase the chances of a woman having a premature baby or low birth weight babies.

Reps reject bid to simplify impeachment of President

Members of the House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a proposal to simplify the process of removing the President and Vice-President from office.

The proposal was contained in a bill seeking to amend Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution by deleting it and replacing with an entirely new section 143.

The bill, which was sponsored by a lawmaker from Bauchi State, Yakubu Dogara, sought to remove the “ambiguity” in the procedure for impeaching the two highest political office holders with a notice of impeachment initiated by the House of Representatives and terminating in the Senate.

However, the amendment proposal failed to secure the mandatory two-third majority support as members voted on it and 18 other proposed amendment clauses on Thursday.

Out of the 297 lawmakers, who registered to vote on the amendment, 172, supported it, 122 opposed it, while three abstained.

The Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, who presided over the session, therefore, ruled that the amendment had “failed.”

Why I declined to run against Obasanjo – Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday adduced reasons he refused to run against former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003.

He said he declined the invitation, which would have made him to contest for the presidential ticket of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, on moral grounds.

Atiku, who was responding to a remark from one of the participants in his South-West consultative meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State on Thursday,  noted that contrary to the notion that his best chance to have become the president of the country was in 2003-when stakeholders in the PDP offered him the opportunity to contest against Obasanjo – he still found it difficult to accept the offer because doing so would be going against the position the PDP had earlier taken at a caucus meeting to retain the presidency in the South.

A statement issued by Atiku’s media office in Abuja said the former vice president noted that his ambition and indeed that of any politician could not be realised in negation to party decisions.

Mark’s absence stalls formal defection of Saraki, others

The absence of Senate President David Mark  from Thursday’s Senate plenary, stalled the defection of  11 aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party senators to the All Progressives Congress.

The aggrieved senators had written to Mark informing him about their decision to leave the PDP for the APC.

But during Wednesday’s plenary, neither the Senate President nor the 11 senators made reference to the letter, which  ought to have been read  on the floor of the Senate.

But during plenary on Thursday, the  Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over session, did not  read the  letter.

He said Mark had told him that he had scheduled a meeting with the aggrieved senators whenever he returned from his official trip to Jigawa State.

However, the APC said this development was a pointer to the fact that the Senate leadership wanted to stall the defection. This attempt, the APC said, would fail.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents.

CHAN: Ghana stop Nigeria

Nigeria on Wednesday lost to eternal West African rivals, Ghana in a semi-final match of the African Nations Championship holding in South Africa.

The Super Eagles, who started the match as favourites following their dramatic quarter-finals win, lost to a 10-man Black Stars 4-1 in the penalty shootout. Both sides had played 0-0 at full time and the extra 30 minutes at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. The penalty kicks finally separated both sides from the final and third place matches.

Ghana will face Libya in the final match on Saturday while the Eagles will play Zimbabwe in the third-place match. Libya had also defeated Zimbabwe 5-4 earlier via penalty shootout after both sides settled for a goalless match.

The tension soaked match saw the Eagles showing their intention to progress to the final from the first blast of the whistle. The Ghanaians were also no lay backs as they matched the Nigerians man for man but they hardly threatened Chigozie Agbim in the Nigerian goal.

Senators accuse Okonjo-Iweala of imposing W’Bank/IMF policies

The debate on the 2014 Appropriation bill entered the  second day in the Senate on Wednesday with some Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress senators describing the document as anti-people.

 They chided the  Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the way the bill was packaged and therefore called for its review.

But others  like Senators Odion Ugbesia and Ayogu Eze argued  that  the bill  was  merely only a working document, which could be subjected to alterations in the interest of the masses.

 Among the  senators  that picked holes in  the Appropriation bill were Smart  Adeyemi, Abdul Ningi, Olusola Adeyeye,  Ganiyu Solomon, Kabiru Gaya and  Gbenga Ashafa.

Adeyemi and Ningi,who lamented the high recurrent expenditure as contained in the budget   and the continued depletion of the foreign reserves,    accused Okonjo-Iweala of imposing economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Nigeria.