Just 4 Rubies

Today is the International Day of the Girl-Child! And the theme for this year is "EmPOWER Girls: Emergency Response and Resilience Planning". How true that we as individuals and as a nation must give all it takes to protect our girls! We must treat them with utmost care and respond swiftly to issues of their safety and wellness. As families, communities and nation, we must show resilience and total committment in planning for thier future. And we must empower them with education and life skills that will make them excel in their choice career, in marriage and in nation building. Let's unite to give them a Voice! Let's assure them that they Matter! They are our Daughters! They are our Assets! They are our Joy; our Pride! They are our Future!

Kingsley Moghalu was 46 when he was appointed as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009. A Lawyer, he has a Ph.D in International Relations. He had barely left his job at the United Nations, after 17 years when he was appointed Deputy Governor. He had not worked in a bank for one day, from what I know, so could not have risen to the position of Executive Director. He was Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at a time and in charge of the Operations Directorate at another. Kingsley Moghalu was one of those favoured to suceed Lamido Sanusi as Governor, before the crisis and the appointment of Godwin Emefiele thereafter. I t was no surprise when Kingsley Moghalu resigned months after he was returned to the Financial Systems Stability, FSS Directorate from the Operations Directorate by Governor Emefiele. Is it not ridiculous that a lady with 20 years of banking experience will be deemed unqualified to serve as Executive Director where people from different fie...

The wife of the President Her Excellency Mrs. Aisha Buhari has called upon wives of the state Governors to champion the cause of advocacy and commit to support Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn Child, Adolescent Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) programmes in their various states. Mrs. Buhari was speaking at the one day RMNCAH+N stakeholders meeting held in Abuja, which had wives of governors in Nigeria in attendance, Her Excellency asked the Governors Wives Forum to dedicate a section of their meeting agenda to updating themselves on advocacy activities in each of their states. The wife of the President noted that although Nigeria is one of the countries with the worst health outcomes for women and children globally, significant progress has been made over the years, but a lot still needs to be done, this she hopes to achieve by creating a strong coalition with the wives of Governors that will create awareness on the importance of improving RMNCAH+N, promoting advocacy for bet...

I screamed as he held me against the bed, his strong hands covering my mouth. I had just turned five some days ago. The pain was intense. I tried to push him away, but I couldn't and I gave up just as I had done some weeks ago when I tried to lift the sofa in the living room. When he finally got down from the bed, he spat on the ground, pulled up his trousers and left the room in a hurry. I wiped the tears with the back of my hands and tried to sit up. But my thighs hurt so badly and so I lay there numb. He walked back into the room and stood in front of me. 'Sarah!' I didn’t answer. He called my name again and as if my crying button was suddenly powered on, I began to wail. He rushed to my side and rolled me over, pulling out the bedspread smeared with my blood. I continued to scream. He slapped me. I stopped screaming. 'Listen to me. If you tell anyone about what happened here, I will kill you.' He barked, his big eyeballs boring ...

First Lady and wife of Nigeria’s president, Aisha Buhari has called for a probe of the State House Medical Centre over poor health facilities in the hospital despite the huge budgetary allocation to it. Mrs. Buhari who condemned the “lack of facilities” at the hospital during a programme in Abuja on Monday equally lamented the total or dearth of some necessary hospital facilities such as syringe, drugs and equipment needed for saving lives. She lamented that she wanted to do an x-ray at the clinic few weeks ago but was told the X-ray machine was not functional. Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, The call by the wife of the President for a probe on the hospital is in line with her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari’s drive to free every sector of the Nigerian polity of corruption. Recall that ever since the administration of President Buhari who, upon election, vowed to kill corruption in Nigeria, so many high-profile corruption cases have been exposed with billions recov...

LARGEST functional brain imaging study to date has identified specific brain differences between women and men, according to a new report in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The researchers compared 46,034 brain SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) imaging studies provided by nine clinics, quantifying differences between the brains of men and women. Men and women brains, according to Founder of Amen Clinics Inc., Psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen said that the study shows that brains of women were significantly more active in many more areas of the brain than men, especially in the prefrontal cortex, involved with focus and impulse control, and the limbic or emotional areas of the brain, involved with mood and anxiety. “This is a very important study to help understand gender-based brain differences. The quantifiable differences we identified between men and women are important for understanding gender-based risk for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. ...

The first ladies of West Africa have called for an end to the age-long tradition practice of female genital mutilation because of its negative effect on women and image for the sub-region. The women made the declaration in Niamey recently at the 2017 edition of the Forum of West African First Ladies’ Meeting. They discussed extensively the issues of Female Genital Mutilation, Obstetric Fistula and gender equality in the sub-region. The meeting, hosted by the First Lady of Niger Republic, Dr Malika Issoufou, stressed the need by leaders of the sub-region to strengthen mechanisms for the suppression of gender-based violence. “ A quit notice has been given by wives of heads of state and presidents of the West African countries against female genital mutilation,’’ the women resolved. They recalled that obstetric fistula was the consequence of early marriage and the result of long labour during child birth. The women condemned all forms of obstetric fistula and called on member ...