Alleged mismanagement of Paris Club Funds:PLSG clears air

Using system approach and communication theory to explain what is obainable in political system,that is Transparency: clears air
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FEB
Alleged mismanagement of Paris Club Funds: PLSG clears air
News available to ViewPointNigeria indicates that the Government of Plateau state under Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong has declared that its financial books are open for scrutiny and investigation by anti graft agency over alleged mismanagement of Paris Club loan refund by 35 state governors saying it has no skeletons in its cupboard over the fund received by the state.

It would be recalled that a human rights advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has urged the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate legal proceedings against 35 state governors, who allegedly diverted or mismanaged the N388.3bn London Paris Club loan refunds.

Apparently reacting to the inclusion of Plateau State among states that mismanaged the fund, the State Governor, Barrister Simon Lalong who spoke through his aide, Special Adviser on Media, Hon. Dan Manjang told journalists that the money was judiciously utilized contrary to the insinuation in some quarters.

According to him, the state government received $74,756,013.98 (Being 50% of State and LGAs) with its Naira equivalent of N10, 497,000,000.00. The State got N6, 304,498,200.00 and LGAs N4, 192,501,800.00 representing 60.06% and 39.94 %, respectively.

He said the money was used for arrears of 3 months civil servants salaries, arrears of 7 months pensions adding that there was a shortfall of N1.4 billion which the state government had to borrow to complement.

“It is mischievous to include Plateau State among states that mismanaged the fund. What we used the money for had further helped to stabilize the state, the civil servants are happy. The benefits go to the entire state.

“Because of the action of the governor, especially on the judiciously use of the money, Governor Lalong was recently nominated as the chairman of Good Governance of Progressive Forum. You can’t earn the leadership of the group if you don’t lead well” he said.

The Special Adviser on Media said because of the magnanimity of the governor some of his colleagues are not happy with him adding that for the first time in a very long time the state is not owing and at the same time paid January 2017 salary on 25th of the same month.

He further disclosed that the government has commenced compilation of gratuity arrears adding that this would be paid as soon as fund is available.
Source:viewpoint Nigeria

Protecting your child from cyber terrorism

I was at a Parents Teachers Association meeting some time ago, when an argument broke out on the need for e-learning in the school.

Some parents were against it, as they felt it might expose their children to certain dangers amongst other reasons. But one young mother stood up to defend the need for introduction of e-learning platforms. She said that it is backward mentality to be against the use of e- learning as technology is fast advancing and children need to be in tune with the advancement.

She said all her children age 9, 11 and 12 have smart phones and she buys enough data for them to use to surf the internet. According to her, this has made her children quite brilliant and internet savvy.  

At that juncture, I interrupted her and asked her a simple question, Madam did you teach your children internet safety? ‘’erm! erm! not yet” she replied.’’ Did you filter bad sites on their phones” I continued, ‘’filter kwa! She exclaimed’’ I’m just hearing that for the first time’’ she said scratching her head. ‘’Do you monitor what they do online’’? I further asked, ‘’Hia oh! I’m too busy for that, my children are smart and they know what they shouldn’t do,’’ she said arrogantly.  shook my head slowly and wondered how ignorant some parents can be. Why would a mother buy smart phones for children ages 9, 11 and 12 and give them free access to the internet. How careless can some parents be? She obviously has extra cash to splash on phones and data but doesn’t know the right thing to do. I thought to myself, if something goes wrong as a result of her carelessness, she’ll start blaming her village people.

We can’t deny the fact that the internet is a great resource for children. They can use it to research school assignments, projects and read a lot of educational e books and articles and play interactive brain boosting games. At the same time, we can’t deny the numerous dangers that are inherent on the internet, such as cyber crime, cyber bullying and cyber terrorism. I read a chilling story of how young boys in UK became victims of cyber bullying. Many of the children got into bad gangs and some got killed in the process.

It is not advisable to buy smart phones for children below the age of 18 and even if you allow them to go online to do a research or to read, you have to check their activities online.

Unsupervised access to the internet can pose hazards to your child. You have to be aware of what your child is doing online. You have to know who they chat with and what they share online. Something shocking happened in my neighbourhood last year.  A teenage girl was manipulated by an older man to send her nude pictures to him and she fell for it and sent her nudes with her face showing. The man started threatening to upload the picture online if she doesn’t sleep with him and this girl scared of her pictures surfacing online started sleeping with this man. 

There are so many sexual predators online looking for children to prey on.  They prod children to send their personal information such as addresses and phone numbers to them thereby putting themselves and family members at risk. Some even convince them to meet with them privately. 

Aside from sexual predators, there are millions of sexually explicit materials online, so there is need to get softwares that helps block access to certain sites based on a bad list site that your internet service provider creates. Filtering programs also block sites from coming in and restricts personal programs from being sent online. Schools that allow children access to the internet must offer online protection as well.

The best person to protect your child from the dangers online is you. BY talking to them about the potential online dangers and monitoring how they use the internet, you will help them use the internet safely

Soo