Scotland, Canada add hijab to Police uniform

Police women in Edmonton, Canada

As France obsesses over what women ought to be wearing — or not wearing — on its beaches, Canada and Scotland have adopted new rules allowing female police officers to sport the hijab in an attempt to attract more Muslim women to their respective forces.

In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) recently unveiled the new internal policies, which would add the traditional head-covering to the iconic red Mountie uniform.

"This is intended to better reflect the diversity in our communities and encourage more Muslim women to consider the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a career option," a spokesperson for Canada's minister of public safety said in a statement.

The move makes the RCMP the third police force in Canada to make the change.

Phil Gormley, Chief Constable of Police Scotland, heralded his force's change as an ideal way to show that Muslim women are welcome on the force.

"I am delighted to make this announcement and welcome the support from both the Muslim community, and the wider community, as well as police officers and staff," Gormley said in a statement.

"I hope that this addition to our uniform options will contribute to making our staff mix more diverse and adds to the life skills, experiences and personal qualities that our officers and staff bring to policing the communities of Scotland," Gormley went on.

Police Scotland could use the help. According to a report published in June by the police agency, less than three percent of their applicants came from non-white individuals.

"Based on these figures, it is clear to see that challenge Police Scotland faces," the report concluded, noting that they would need some 650 more non-white applicants to meet their target. "Considering current application trends this would appear to be unachievable."

Related: Burkini wearers are being forced to disrobe on French beaches

The policies make the two countries amongst the first to make broad exceptions for the hijab, alongside Sweden and Norway. In the United States, there are no broad rules regarding the headscarf. The St. Paul Police Department, in Minnesota, is one of the few that permits the hijab, and recently swore in its first hijab-wearing officer.

Western police forces have recently been forced to confront a lack of diversity in their ranks, faced with a litany of police shootings in minority neighbourhoods and with the rising problem of homegrown radicalization.

The changes also come at a time when hate crimes against Muslims, especially Muslim women, are on the rise throughout North America and Europe.

The moves have been celebrated from a litany of groups, but have also attracted opposition from the expected anti-Muslim channels, who blasted the move as Islam infiltrating secular life.

Of course, Canada has some experience in allowing religious headwear in their police forces. Sikh police officers won the right to wear the turban while on duty over 20 years ago. One of the beneficiaries of that policy, Harjit Singh Sajjan — who served both in Afghanistan with the Canadian Armed Forces, earning the Order of Military Merit, one of the country's highest honours; and with the Vancouver Police Department — is now Canada's minister of national defense.

In the United Kingdom, Sikh men recently won the right to wear the turban in most workplaces. Police officers, however, cannot carry a firearm if they do so, unless a helmet can fit over their head-dress.

159 die in Italian quake

Matteo Renzi (Prime Minister, Italy)

Rescue crews using bulldozers and their bare hands raced to dig out survivors from a strong earthquake that reduced three central Italian towns to rubble Wednesday, killing 159 people but the number of dead and missing was uncertain given the thousands of vacationers in the area for summer’s final days.

Residents wakened before dawn by the temblor emerged from their crumbled homes to find what they described as apocalyptic scenes “like Dante’s Inferno,” with entire blocks of buildings turned into piles of sand and rock, thick dust choking the air and a putrid smell of gas.

“The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of the hardest-hit town, Amatrice. “I believe the toll will rise.”

The magnitude 6.2 quake struck at 3:36 am on Thursday and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, where residents woke to a long swaying followed by aftershocks. The temblor shook the Lazio region and Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast, a highly seismic area that has witnessed major quakes in the past.

Buhari wants emergency powers

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari will be seeking emergency powers from the National Assembly to push his planned stimulus for the economy.

The objectives of the action-plan on the economy, which is in recession, include shoring up the value of the naira, creation of more jobs, boosting of foreign reserves, reviving the manufacturing sector and improving power.

Government sources said the decision to seek emergency powers for the President was based on a proposal from the economic team headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The team reviewed the various policies so far introduced and how they have affected the economy.

The economic team, it was learnt, gauged the mood of the polity and decided that unless there is an urgency which some of the extant laws will not permit, “the recession may be longer than expected and Nigerians will not get the desired respite, which is the goal of this government”.

An executive bill titled: “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016” is to be presented to the National Assembly when the Senate and the House of Representatives resume from vacation on September 12.

In the bill, the executive will be asking for the President to be given sweeping powers to set aside some extant laws and use executive orders to roll out an economic recovery package within the next one year.

Buhari will be seeking powers to:

abridge the procurement process to support stimulus spending on critical sectors of the economy;

make orders to favour local contractors/suppliers in contract awards;

abridge the process of sale or lease of government assets to generate revenue;

allow virement of budgetary allocation to projects that are urgent, without going back to the National Assembly;

amend certain laws, such as the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, so that states that cannot access their cash trapped in the accounts of the commission because they cannot meet the counterpart funding, can do so; and

to embark on radical reforms in visa issuance at Nigeria’s consular offices and on arrival in the country and to compel some agencies of government like the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the National Agency for Foods Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and others to improve on their turn around operation time for the benefit of business.

The extant law on procurement does not allow contract award earlier than six months after decision. Part of this is a mandatory advertisement of the contract for six weeks. The economic team has found this to be unacceptable, given our present circumstance.

Although the president has the power to order the sale or lease of any government asset to raise cash, “the procedure is cumbersome and long”. The draft bill is meant to ease the process.

The government source said about nine government assets may be leased or sold to generate around $50billion to shore up the nation’s foreign reserves and the value of the naira against the United States dollar.

The source said: “Nigeria may be broke at the moment but we are not a poor country, given our assets and capability.”

About N58 billion is trapped in UBEC’s coffers because the states cannot access it as a result of the key condition, which is the payment of 50 per cent counterpart funding. The government is seeking an amendment to the law so that states will pay only 10 per cent as counterpart funding.

The objective is that state governments will have access to cash to develop education. This will facilitate creation of jobs since contracts will be awarded for the projects.

As for contract awards, the government, by the provisions of the law, cannot mobilise contractors with more than 15 per cent of contract sum. This is considered to be undesirable by the economic team given the pace the government wants to move in turning the economy around and in the provision of critical infrastructure. The bill will seek to allow the government to mobilise contractors with 50 per cent of contract sum.

The move to get government agencies to fast tract their operations is to enable foreign investors to come into the country without the current bottlenecks.

Consular offices will now be expected to make visas available within 48 hours and visitors, especially tourists who intend to pick up visas at the entry point, will be able to do so.

Time wasting at the airport with duplication of agencies screening incoming passengers is to be eliminated. Those leaving the country should go without hassle.

For the power sector, the government plans to truck gas from source to the power plants to enable them get what they need for generation.

A government source said: “This may be more expensive but it is a price to be paid for Nigerians’ comfort”.

It was learnt that President Buhari will engage the leadership of the National Assembly before their resumption to solicit support for the bill’s quick passage.

Culled: The Nation

Banks pinch on funding power sector

Minister for Power, Babatunde Fashola touring a site in Benue state

The inefficiencies in the privatised power sector have made the deposit money banks  (DMBs) unwilling to provide loans to electricity generation and distribution firms as they are no longer convinced about the viability of investing in the power sector, judging by the happenings in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, as The Punch reports.

Officials of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc, as well as those from the financial sector said the lenders were becoming very cautious about lending to investors in the power business. The inability of the power firms to meet their various contractual obligations to the NBET, gas suppliers, the DMBs and other service providers, had made some banks to shut their doors on loans to the electricity companies.

Also, it was learnt that the banks were not comfortable with the happenings around the tariff, as they argued that aside from the fact that the tariff was low, there was no sign that the Federal Government would raise it any time soon in order to adequately meet the revenue requirements of the power sector.

In a related development, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has said its on-going five year expansion programme, designed at expanding electricity transmission capacity to 11,500 Megawatts by 2019 will require $7.5 billion.

The Managing Director of TCN, Mr Abubakar Atiku, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Monday. He said part of the strategic plan, aimed at ensuring steady power supply, was to boost its transmission capability to 8,200MW by the end of 2018. He added that it would be realised by completing eight of its new projects in 2018.

Atiku said that the completion of the projects would eventually lead to a total transmission capacity of 11,500MW.He said that the ultimate expansion programme was designed to ensure the completion of 59 projects by 2019 in line with the envisaged Federal Government’s realisation of 10,000MW.

He explained that the five-year plan had also been carefully developed with the overall aim of realising an uninterrupted power supply with the realisation of 20,000MW by 2022.

Giving the breakdown of the measures envisaged to source the fund, Atiku said the project was expected to receive concessionary loans and grant of $3.4 billion from TCN’s support international finance agencies.

Furthermore, the Federal Government was expected to contribute $1.5 billion while the financing initiatives of TCN were expected to contribute $2.6 billion in realisation of the project.

Atiku said that to key into the incremental power plan of FG, TCN planned to realise the completion of 22 critical projects captured in the 2016 Budget.

He said that TCN increased its present transmission capacity from 5,500MW to 6,00MW, adding that efforts were on to increase the wheeling capacity to 7,500MW with the completion of 31 projects by 2017. He pointed out that TCN restored unavailable service equipment to boost and strengthen the national grid.

According to him, with the restoration of critical equipment hitherto neglected by the previous management, the transmission system has been relatively stable with zero system collapse.

The MD said that TCN was focused at ensuring that no power was left stranded in the generating stations, adding that efforts were being intensified to ensure stability of the national grid.

He said this was being archived through the introduction of changes in TCN’s operational ways of conducting business.

NAN

State Legislators refund car loans to EFCC

Gov. Sam Ortom of Benue State

Gov. Samuel Ortom has said that 22 state legislators have started refunding car loans they collected for personal vehicles to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ortom, who said this when he received youths of Turan in Kwande Local Government, said they were expected to refund N317million to the anti-graft agency in Abuja.

He said the refund was necessitated by the shoddy manner in which the loans were disbursed to the lawmakers.

The governor said that the process fell short of best practices required in such financial transactions.

Ortom explained that out of the number, 12 legislators were from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) while 10 were from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He expressed regrets that due process was jettisoned, which led to the lodgments of cash into the accounts of the legislators for the purchase of the cars.

“After the Executive Council approved the contract for the procurement of Prado Jeeps for the assembly members, only eight were procured”, he stated.

He said the contractor blamed his inability to purchase the remaining 22 vehicles on the high cost of the dollar.

“Instead of the contractor to get back to the government, he decided to meet the members directly, who opted for cash.

“The EFCC after studying the contract document ordered the 22 members, who collected cash to refund the money to the commission as due process was not followed”, he added.

The EFCC had over the past one month, played host to Benue legislators, including its leadership, in their role in the loan disbursement saga.

Ortom also assured that his former amnesty boss, Terwase Akwaza, who was fleeing from arrest over his alleged role in the killing of his security aide would be arrested and brought to book.

He said more than 60 of his gang members had been arrested for various crimes in the state. (NAN)

Buhari strenghtens Islamic Bank ties

IDB President, Dr. Madani and President Buhari

Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, according to reports, in Abuja today said the Federal Government will deepen its partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to fund critical projects in health, water and the infrastructure sector.

This was occasioned whilst receiving Dr. Ali Madani, President of the IDB Group at the State House, Abuja. The President commended the bank for supporting several developmental projects across the country.

He further acknowledged that the bank has funded several people-oriented projects in Osun, Kaduna, Jigawa, Niger, Katsina, Kano and Ebonyi states, demonstrating its “soft spot and robust support’’ for Nigeria.

‘‘We can’t thank you enough for the height you have achieved for the bank in 41 years. Now that you are about to retire, we thank you for the quality leadership which the world has recognized,’’ the President said.

The Presdent also expressed appreciation to the IDB Group and other countries for extending their assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in the North-East.

The President assured the visiting IDB chief that Nigeria, a major financier of the bank, will meet all its obligations to the development institution within the shortest time possible.

The President highlighted efforts of the current administration at diversifying the economy with emphasis on agriculture and expressed strong optimism that Nigeria will achieve self-sufficiency in rice and sugar; and export both commodities in the next three years.

In his remarks, Dr Madani congratulated President Buhari on the positive outcomes of the war against corruption and terrorism.

He said the bank was ready to mobilize resources from Arab fund for developmental initiatives of the Nigerian government and the private sector, particularly on agriculture.

Kerry to visit Sokoto, parley Buhari

Reports according to the Nation newspapers state that the United States Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Nigeria tomorrow on a two-day visit. He will visit Sokoto before going to Abuja to parley with Pres. Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry

Mr. Kerry is due for talks with Kenya President Uhuru Kemyatta today. He arrived in Kenya yesterday for the start of a three-nation visit to Kenya, Nigeria and Saudia Arabia to meet with leaders and hold talks on countering terrorism.

Kerry will discuss with Kenyan President Kenyatta on “regional security issues and counterterrorism cooperation, as well as bilateral issues,” according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.

Kerry then be in Sokoto and Abuja on Tuesday and Wednesday. He will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss “counterterrorism efforts, the Nigerian economy, the fight against corruption, and human rights issues.”

Kerry then travels to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to meet with senior Saudi leaders, his counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the United Kingdom and the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen.