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Showing posts from August, 2015

Can An African Employee Ever Grant You PATERNITY LEAVE? Never!

  70 countries around the world now provide paid paternity leave for fathers. The length of time offered and the average payment level differ drastically between countries, according to the World Economic Forum , based on an OECD report. Even though South Korea and Japan offer dads the most paid time off work, very few men avail of it due to cultural perceptions that raising a child is primarily the mother’s task. While fewer than 2 percent of fathers in Japan and South Korea take paternity leave, 89 percent of dads take time off in Sweden. In countries where the paternal leave on offer is relatively short and well paid, more fathers tend to take the opportunity to use it. You can't find an African country on the list, can you? Can you find a black country thereon? Nah. It says it all; 'YOU CAN'T GET PATERNITY LEAVE FROM A BLACK BOSS; MUCH LESS AN AFRICAN BOSS'. As a black man, my mind wonders, meanwhile, 'and what is Paternity Leave?' A father s

How China Currency Devaluation Is Buhari's Headache

Corruption, The Economy, Security - these were President Buhari's keywords as he campaigned against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. And he has kept his word, plunging straight into fighting corruption and tackling insecurity impressively. Boko Haram, who were already being swept out as Goodluck was nearing the end of his tenure, are being cleaned out presently. The fight against corruption hugs news headlines daily since Buhari became president - howbeit with appearance of going after easy victims. The Economy, as he was rightly informed by experts earlier on, has been his nightmare. He had made loud-mouthed promises that even sounded like 'exchange rate: 1naira = 1dollar'. His spokesmen have energetically debunked claims the man made such a statement. Probably because World Economy is what it is: 'beyond a Nigerian politician's pay grade' . And Buhari realized it late; when the campaign adverts expired. Well, now, the man, Nigeria's finance min

The World's Saddest Man

He's proud; he's no-nonsense; he's brash; when he wins, others are experts at failure; but when he loses, everyone loses; he is the self-acclaimed special one. But now, surrounded by a team of unhappy staff, himself the sadness pivot, he's the world's saddest man. Hear him tag himself;  "We have one point from two matches. I'm not happy at all. I'm not happy with anyone. I'm either happy with everybody or not happy with anyone. I don't like to lose or for the players to have a better mentality than I have, so we are all not happy." "I'm not happy with my form. Because I used to get better results than I'm getting now. This is the start of everything. I'm not happy with Ivanovic's form, Cahill's, John's, Azpi's, Fabregas', Matic's form. But, for me, the first thing is I'm not happy with my form." "This week, we are more active in training, we are watching more video

Sorry Kenya, South Africa. Tech Investors Are Talking "NIGERIA"

There’s too much money in Nairobi. That’s one way to explain why some venture capitalists are setting their sights elsewhere. Largely off the back of Mpesa, the hugely successful mobile money-transfer system , the Kenyan capital has gained a reputation for technological innovation—and with it an influx of no-strings (or few-strings) development funding that has crowded out some of the private investment searching for tech startups to finance. Now investors are looking to the other side of the African continent for results. Nigeria, with nearly 200 million people, a growing economy, and no shortage of local problems, stands out as an option. It’s slowly building up a tech sector of its own. The funding circuit is still small: probably no more than 10 companies investing money, says Kresten Buch, founder of the Nairobi tech accelerator 88mph (which has since expanded to South Africa). Buch recently started working with Chika Nwobi of seed investment firm Leve

AKWA IBOM APC FORGERY MADE PUBLIC

We don't break news at Jabborro, on this channel; we concentrate on researching and analysing straight news, in order to have meaty features. But we feel committed to people who read us, to air our opinion on this very news this early. The Akwa Ibom APC guber ticket is finally being threatened with revelations emerging few minutes ago concerning the news of their Governorship aspirant Mr Umana Umana's running mate, Mr Benedict E Ukpong, committing perjury by lying to Nigeria on oath, that he had resigned from his paid job, to run for election. According to news broken by Thisday and carried immediately by, interestingly, J J Omojuwa , the same blogger alleged to have received cash to write against everything Pdp in Nigeria and Akwa Ibom, Mr. Ukpong has been collecting his monthly salary and allowances from his First Bank account from September 2014 to June 2015 as a staff of the Federal Capital Development Agency (FCDA). By this act, Mr Ukpong has violated Section 18

The PUNCH Commences Sordy Journalism

On Saturday, August 15, 2015, a friend drew my attention to a report on The Punch website. The subject was on sex in government houses. I began to read the report which was presented as an investigation piece. It was titled, "How governors turn govt houses to sex havens''. (http://www.punchng.com/feature/super-saturday-feature/how-governors-turn-govt-houses-to-sex-havens/) I thought I was going to read the "juicy details" of sex in high places, only to discover that the article was filled with stories that cannot be substantiated. Frankly, those stories and, versions of them, have been circulating for decades in beer palours and the proverbial water cooler of offices. I was disappointed in The Punch. Having worked as a broadcaster for 25 years, I don't expect a newspaper like The Punch to reduce itself to the level of blogging, where anything seems to go these days. But, here we are with a supposedly respected newspaper putting out stories that could

Haliburton: Nigeria Is Watching Buhari

The commitment to rid Nigeria of corruption will be tested by how far and how well President Muhammadu Buhari handles the Halliburton bribery scandal which allegedly involved highly placed Nigerians described as sacred cows; Analysts have said. President Buhari had declared in his inaugural speech that he belonged to nobody and stated his resolve to recover the nation’s stolen funds stashed away in several overseas bank accounts. But Balarabe Musa, a former governor of the old Kaduna State, and chairperson, Conference of Nigerian Political Party (CNPP), said the President lacked the moral fibre to bring those involved in the Halliburton scandal to book. A chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Edo State told BD SUNDAY that before the President left for a three-day official visit to the US, the White House made it clear that unless those involved in the American multinational scandal were prosecuted, part of the bribe money, about $140 million, reco

8 Promotive Lessons From Mr. Udom Emmanuel’s Address At AKISAN 2015 Philadelphia Convention

             1. He’s a Team playing Leader Team-playing leaders are indispensable from the top echelon of management to the bottom of organizational operations, and in political leadership - for their abilities to establish networks of partners with single focus. World renowned Leadership trainer, John Maxwell teaches that “…leaders work with people” . This is why model leaders use the team-word ‘We’ in place of the self-term ‘I’. And all through the Governor’s address, every phrase that talks of responsibility and credit is led by the word ‘We’. In other words, on the one hand, he creates room for all to participate in the task of advancing Akwa Ibom, and on the other, he attributes his successes to ‘us’ and not ‘me’.   2. He’s a Man of Strong Memories A high profile politician in Nigeria recently showed some poverty of memory; he forgot his running mate’s name. And the media feasted on him for it; understandably so.   Dr Tracy Allo