FEC meeting fails to hold Wednesay

The weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting failed to hold on Wednesday due to inability of the Secretariat to circulate relevant meeting documents as a result of the Easter holiday.

The government had declared last Friday and Monday as public holiday to allow Christians mark the anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Presidency on Wednesday also denied speculations that the cancellation could be because of President Muhammadu Buhari’s health.

Similar speculations had trailed the absence of President Buhari last Wednesday when the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo presided over the meeting.

Speaking on the matter on Wednesday, the Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said that it was canceled because the FRC secretariat staff had no opportunity to circulate relevant documents for the meeting because of the Easter holiday.

He said “I think it is because of the Easter holiday. The secretariat had no time to circulate the necessary documents,

“The staff on the Council secretariat  resumed on Tuesday after the Easter. There was no time to prepare and circulate memos to ministers.

“By practice, the ministers receive council memos two or three days ahead of meetings because they must read them and sometimes undertake research.

“It is not a rubber stamp council so everyone must prepare themselves well for debates,” he added.

On why the documents were not circulated before the holiday since the secretariat knew before hand that there would be a holiday, he explained that as human beings, they also needed the break.

He denied the suggestion that the cancellation was related to the president’s state of health.

Stressing that it would be wrong to make such assumption, he said “That will not be fair.”

Explaining the President’s absence at FEC last week, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had said that Buhari did not attend FEC meeting because he was attending to other issues.

He said: “Clearly when we came in this morning, Mr President was not in the chambers but the Vice President did preside over the council meeting.

“Understandably, that has sparked a lot of controversies and imputations in the mind of people.

“I just want to make this clear, Mr President is in town. Mr. President is attending to other issues. Mr president looked at the agenda, it was a very light agenda and decided that the Vice President should preside.

“It’s not unusual for the kind of interest that is shown especially given the fact that Mr. President was away for a while on medical treatment and is not. We are not surprised that people will be wondering is he ill again?

“He is not ill, he is not sick. Am sure that later in the day or tomorrow morning he will be back in the office. I just want to clear that misconception.

“Is not unusual even if Mr. President is hail and hearty and everything is going on well for the VP to come and preside over meetings of the federal executive council.

“The fact that Mr. President is not in the office does not mean that he is not working.

“I have just been told now that the Secretary to the Government is already with with him in the residence working.

“So, the fact that you did not see him in the office does not mean that he is not working at all,” he stated

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Trader in court for beating co-tenant

A 34-year-old trader, Patricia Osuma, on Wednesday appeared before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court for allegedly beating her neighbor, Princess Rachael, to pulp.

Osuma, who resides at No.6, Oluwa-Ajani St., Jibowu Estate, Abule-Egba, Lagos, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault preferred against her.

The Prosecutor, Sgt. Ishola Samuel, told the court that the accused committed the offence on April 1 at her residence.

Samuel said the assault by the accused on Rachael, her co-tenant, followed an argument between the duos.

He said the case was reported to the police and the accused was arrested.

The offence, he added, contravenes Section 171 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sections 171 prescribes three-year jail term for assault.

The Magistrate, A.R. Onilogbo, granted the accused bail in the sum of N20, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

He stated that one of the sureties must be gainfully employed and must show evidence of   two-year tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

Onilogbo adjourned the case till May 2

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Google plans to train 6,000 media practitioners in 2017

West Africa Google says it  plans to equip more than 6, 000 media professionals in the region on the appropriate use of Google tools in 2017.

Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, the Head of Communications of West Africa Google made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.

He said that Google had already trained more than 300 media professionals in West Africa in the first quarter of the year.

“We are currently working on a programme where we can train thousands of media people across West Africa.

“Every discovery usually starts with a search. People usually go online and search for ideas, innovations and what is trending in the global world.

“Google has provided a platform for young people who are seeking to bridge the knowledge gap by connecting with people of like-minds in order to make their innovation a reality,” he said.

The communication officer explained that the focus on media was because of the extreme important influence as a primary mode of communication of informing the public on new developments.

“When the media knows most other people know. Helping the media to tell stories more interesting and also helping to ensure the media has the right tools to inform others is important to Google.

“That is why we have decided to embark on a massive training procedure to equip the media with the appropriate use of utilising the Google tools to their benefits,” he said.

Kola-Ogunlade said that basic data tools for media such as web basics, advanced search, trends, news verification and other social media search techniques were taught at the workshop.

He said that other tools such as storytelling with geography tools, web-stripping and data visualisation were also added to make the workshop more informative and educative.

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Lawmakers salaries will be made public this time , - Saraki says to Nigeria

Senate President, Bukola Saraki has vowed to provide a breakdown of the earnings of each lawmaker.

He stated this while speaking in an interview with Arise TV.

“On the National Assembly budget, we hope to change the way it’s been perceived, because in the past, not much was known about the National Assembly budget,” Saraki said.

“But when I came in, I said we were going to change that and make it transparent. We hoped that we could have done it in 2016, but in 2015, unfortunately, we did not settle down as a united Senate as quickly as we could.

“But now that everything is fine, the National Assembly’s budget will be transparent. Nigerians will know what every member receives.

“By the time the budget is passed in the next few weeks, we will make it public and it will be to our advantage, because we hear statements like National Assembly members are the highest paid, because what people do is to take the budget and divide it by 469 members and arrive at our salaries.

“But by the time we present the budget and by the time people see what goes to salaries of aides, what goes to capital, what goes to management, what goes to running costs, and what goes to actual salaries of legislators, the commentary will stop after they see the breakdown”, he assured.

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