Prof. Benedict Obumselu Passes On

Director-General of the United Nations Foodnand Agricultural Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva has said it is imperative to immediately ramp up humanitarian assistance to hunger-threatened rural communities in the strifetorn Lake Chad Basin region.

FAO has developed a threeyear strategy for the Lake Chad Basin crisis to improve food security and nutrition and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities in the affected areas. With a budget of $232 million - $191 million for north-eastern Nigeria alone - required over the next three years, the Strategy targets three million people in the region; focusing on women and youth.

Speaking weekend during a visit to some of the affected areas in Northeastern Nigeria, Graziano da Silva said, “If we miss the coming planting season, there will be no substantial harvests until 2018. Failure to restore food production now will lead to the worsening of widespread and severe hunger and prolonged dependency on external assistance further into the future. The time for all of us to act is now.”

Insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin - which incorporates parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and northeastern Nigeria - has resulted in the largest humanitarian crisis in Africa. The conflict has forced an estimated 1.9 million people to abandon their homes and their predominantly agricultural livelihoods, in northeastern Nigeria alone.

Across the Lake Chad Basin region, some 7 million people risk suffering from severe hunger during the lean season and require immediate food and livelihood assistance.

“The situation we have now is largely due to the conflicts and armed groups that have devastated the lives and livelihoods across the whole of Lake Chad region. It is like an opportunistic infection, which is largely taking advantage of an already weak body from underlying problems of environmental degradation, related droughts, low investment in rural development and limited employment and livelihood opportunities for young men and women. We need to work on the symptoms by restoring peace and treat the disease by making the body stronger. This is all about resilience,” Graziano da Silva stressed. in Benin City The Court of Appeal in Benin City has thrown out the appeal filed by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), against the ruling of the tribunal on the recounting of ballot papers.

Ize-Iyamu had asked the appellate court to order a complete recounting of used ballot papers from four local government areas produced before the lower tribunal. Thefour localgovernment areasare Akoko-Edo, Egor, Estako West and Estako East.

He contended that the tribunal erred when it stopped the recounting of the ballot papers once the 14 days given to the petitioners to present their case have elapsed.

Ize-Iyamu also requested an order that the period utilised by the in Otukpo After taking stock of his immediate journey through life at 69, the immediate past President of the Senate, David Mark has extended an olive branch to his adversaries, asking them to bury their differences in the interest of peace.

Similarly, Senator Mark, who recounting be discounted from the 14 days granted the petitioners to prove their case. He pleaded that the time be restored in order for him to call more witnesses. Delivering a unanimous judgment on the appeal, Justice Mudasiru Nasiru who read the lead judgment said he decided to take great caution not to go out of bound since the tribunal was yet to deliver judgment on the main petition.

Justice Nasiru held that paragraph 41 of First Schedule of the Electoral Act prescribed the time upon which petitioners and respondents were to prove and defend their case. He ruled that any action done outside the prescribed time would be a nullity and that the tribunal was right to stop the counting of ballot papers after the 14 days have elapsed. was born on April 8, 1948 in Otukpo, Benue State, resolved to continue to serve God and humanity for the rest of his life.

Mark made this moving declaration yesterday while addressing well-wishers at a special thanksgiving mass to mark his 69th birthday at his Otukpo country home. The Obumselu family of Ezelle, Oba, Anambra State, announces the death of their son, Benedict Ebelechukwu Obumselu, which took place on Saturday, March 4, 2017, in Lagos. He was aged 86. Prof. Ben Obumselu was born on September 22, 1930 and was a formidable academic presence. First President of the association of Nigerian University Students and a College Scholar, he was one of the first two graduates of English from the University College, Ibadan, where he was contemporary to Emeka Anyaoku, and the late Gamaliel Onosode, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Bola Ige and Christopher Okigbo, amongst others. He took a doctorate from Oxford University before returning to Ibadan in the 1960s to lecture. The upheavals and political crises of the mid-60s forced Ben Obumselu back to the East where he became one of Emeka Ojukwu’s closest advisers, playing a key role in the 1968 AhiaraDeclaration.AftertheCivilWar,helecturedattheSorbonneandheld the Cadbury Fellowship at the University of Birmingham. He retired from academia in 1988, becoming a prominent leader of the Ohaneze Ndigbo. His powerful commitment to scholarship endured over the decades, and he continued to study, write and publish in prestigious academic journals. Obumselu is survived by his widow, Mrs. Fidelia Obumselu, his first wife, Mrs. Christine Clinton-Obumselu, eight children and several grandchildren. Funeralarrangementsshallbeannouncedbythefamilysoon.