By Oswald T. Brown AfricaNow, International From The Washington Informer

The Biafra Nations Youth League (BNYL) has reacted to the statement by the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo that Biafra is not feasible, the Daily Post reported May 20.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo last week advised pro-Biafra groups to accept restructuring.

BNYL Leader Princewill Richard, responding in a statement Sunday, advised Ohanaeze to stop building castles in the air, stressing that Northern Nigeria will never support the restructuring of the country.

He further described efforts of the apex Igbo group as a “waste of time.”

DSW Boss Promises to Curb Corruption

The newly appointed acting head of Durban Solid Waste (DSW) promises to be like a new broom — not just cleansing the city but also sweeping clean the department of corruption, the Durban Sunday Herald reported on May 20.

Noluthando Magewu has taken on the leading role after DSW head Raymond Rampersad took three months leave last month.

The unit has been in a mess with workers downing tools and officials being implicated in alleged tender irregularities. There has been a consistent public outcry about a dirty Durban.

The situation has recently seen several church-based organizations get down and dirty to clean up the city. Magewu has acknowledged that there was a big mess to clean up.

“We have been experiencing and we still do experience problems in terms of the standard of service we deliver and the biggest challenge is to standardize the operations and stabilize them,” Magewu said.

Her promise to sweep clean the department comes amid Hawks commercial branch investigations into an allegedly irregular awarding of the orange bag (recycling bags) tender.

Magewu said she was not privy to investigations into the orange bag tender scandal but agreed that corruption needed to be dealt with.

Young Jamaicans Urged to Participate in Political Process

Alando Terrelonge, Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, is urging more young Jamaicans to participate in the country’s political process.

He said their involvement can assist in the creation of new laws and policies which are critical to the development of the nation, the Jamaica Observer reported May 20.

The state minister, speaking Friday during the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Roadshow at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston, also argued that politics and policies will determine daily happenings in one’s life.

“It will determine … what type of goods come into the country, what kind of goods go out, export duties, tariffs, [among other] things,” Terrelonge said.

The state minister also urged young people to become activists for a cause, noting that they can have an impact on the lives of their peers.

“Young girls and young boys you can also be activist in this democratic world or if you live in a country that’s not democratic, you can be activists for a cause and I always tell persons believe in the power of one,” he said.

UPP: CIP Expansion is Foolhardy

The Antigua government’s plan to create a fourth investment option for the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) at a cost of $150,000 is foolhardy, said the United Progressive Party’s (UPP) Damani Tabor, the Antigua Observer reported May 19.

Tabor argued that few will find the new option attractive when they could get citizenship for $100,000.

“Everything is self-interest. With the real estate option you have the benefit of the property you invested in, or if you invest in the share of a hotel then you get the dividend. No investor is going to plunk down any kind of money out of the goodness of their hearts unless of course there is some side deal,” Tabor said.

Speaking on OBSERVER AM, the UPP’s public relations officer said the plan will fail.

He added that there would need to be some sort of incentive to convince prospective investors that putting their monies into what is expected to become the fourth University of the West Indies campus, is an investment opportunity.

The CIP currently has three investment options: making a direct cash contribution of $100,000, making a real estate investment worth $400,000, or making a business investment worth $1.5 million.

Media Leaks Giving GuySuCo Fits

Senior officials of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) are prepared to engage the Ministry of Agriculture over what they believe is the alleged deliberate sabotage of the company’s agenda by sources from within, the Guyana Chronicle reported May 20.

Information coming out of the sugar company is that senior managers and officials have had enough of dishonorable behavior from a named partner and will urgently seek the government’s intervention in the problem.

The Guyana Chronicle was reliably informed that the senior managers are apparently at odds with certain actions being taken by the Special Purpose Unit (SPU), the body which was created to aid in the “right-sizing” of the sugar company and the management of its disposed assets.

In a public missive, Corporate Communications Manager Audreyanna Thomas said that senior managers had requested an urgent meeting with their acting Chief Executive Officer, Thursday, expressing growing concerns, disgust and impatience with the less-than-honorable manner in which the management of the Corporation is being projected in certain sections of the media on particular matters.

She said the managers believe that information shared in confidence with their partners over the past six or seven months is finding its way to the press, some being sensitive information relating to contractual arrangements between the Corporation, its employees and corporate partners.

IMAGE: Courtesy of Biafra Nations Youth League via Facebook

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