A Spanish doctor has been sentenced to a year in prison, for his role in the death of the former first-lady of Nigeria, Stella Obasanjo.

The wife of Olusegun Obasanjo had visited a clinic in Marbella in October 2005 to undergo cosmetic surgery.

She underwent liposuction to reduce the size of her abdomen, but left the operating theatre with fatal injuries.

The judges said the surgeon had shown carelessness and neglect.

Mrs Obasanjo, 59, came to Spain in October 2005, checking in at the Molding Clinic - a discreet and luxury facility, specialising in cosmetic surgery.

The court heard that a tube used for removing fat had been placed by mistake into the patient’s abdominal cavity - puncturing her colon and lacerating her liver.

Mrs Obasanjo became seriously ill the following day.

But prosecutors said the surgeon initially failed to answer his mobile phone, and then waited more than four hours before driving the patient in his own car to an intensive care unit, where she died an hour later.

The doctor - identified in court documents only by the initials AM - was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for causing homicide through negligence.

He was disqualified from practising medicine for three years, and ordered to pay $176,000 (£108,000) in compensation to Mrs Obasanjo’s son.

The court said simple blood tests or an ultrasound procedure would have detected the internal injuries - which, with more time, could have been treated.

Nigeria airline carrier formally called  Virgin Nigeria have ended the 5 years technical agreement between him and Virgin Atlantic airline, the agreement which lead to the name Virgin Nigeria have seizes to existence. The national carrier have rebrand to a new name called Nigerian Eagle Airline. The adoption of the new name, was unveiled at a world press conference by the chief executive officer of the airline, Captain Dapo Olumide and his management team.

The chief executive officer of the airline, while making the announcement for new name, took time off to explain what it took his management team to come up with the new idea. The announcement of the new brand name, coupled with the technical partnership the national carrier entered into with Ethiopian Airlines a month ago, finally brought to an end the romance it had with the British carrier as its core technical partner of the airline.

Captain Olumide said the management chose the new name based on the airline’s determination to make the airline true African airline. Despite the new brand, the airline chief, however, said “the status quo remains as it affects the airline shares with the former British airline core technical partner (Sir Richard Branson) , Virgin Atlantic, still retaining its 49 per cent shares while the remaining 51 per cent still belongs to the Nigerian investors.” he also said that Virgin Atlantic is free to do whatever it want with its shares in the airline, the genuine agreement the airline have under the former name with the federal government through the former technical partner remains.
Captain Olumide who tagged the adoption of the new name as ‘The Birth of an airline said:” He who dares wins. We are trying to create a brand not just to change name, airlines around the world have their names and logo and it is reasonable to be African. From today, the name of Virgin Nigeria seizes as we now have Nigerian Eagle Airline. We are creating a brand that has never been done.” Captain Olumide however attributed the dropping of the airline’s former name and logo to the need for it to stand on its own and start carrying the Nigeria flag and logo. It will be recalled that the adoption of the airline’s former name and composition of its shareholders generated serious criticisms on the excuse that it did not represent a true Nigerian carrier.

The airline had sought the assistance of the most profitable airline in Africa-Ethiopian Airlines, after Virgin Atlantic Airways stopped technical assistance to the airline. The agreement will allow Ethiopian Airline to service Boeing aircraft in the fleet of the Nigerian carrier, training of pilots, cabin crew and aircraft engineers, with a training network and capabilities.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Sunday said for Nigeria to be successfully rebranded, every Nigerian has a role to play by applying the right principles and processes that will make the society a worthy one.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the Eko FM Open Field Radio House, Ikeja venue of the 5th Justice Muri Okunola Memorial Ramadan Lecture, said rebranding is a collective responsibility in which men, women, young and old must participate to achieve success.

“There is nothing esoteric about rebranding. It is a collective responsibility; a collective resolve to follow due process and change”, the Governor said, adding that the whole thing has to do with attitude change.

Governor Fashola who attributed some of the ills of the society to the long period of Military rule in the country, “My generation can only relate with the last ten years of democracy. What I remember is coups, horsewhips and so on. That was how I grew up”, adding that changing that attitude of arbitrariness to enforcement with fairness is a task for everyone.

“It is easy to cast the stones and say the public servant is highhanded, but in what ways have we contributed to it? Are we ready to take our turns when we have something to do with public officials or are we surreptitiously asking them, ‘please I can’t wait, have this?”, the Governor asked.

Calling on parents to monitor the activities of their children, Governor Fashola said, “People, in the name of politics, incite young men and women to engage in violence. This is where we as parents must take our responsibilities as guardians even more seriously”, adding that parents must engage their children in acts that will mold their character positively.

“Tell your children that whenever they ask them to go and lead violence, they should tell the people to go and bring their own children. Let them ask the people where their own children are”, the Governor advised.

He said the State Government has provided a choice for the children by providing leadership and character-molding clubs like Boys Scout, Boys Brigade, Girls Guide, Sheriff Guide among other such uniform voluntary organizations to help build the children up.

Exhorting parents to follow up on this choice, the Governor queried, “Are you as parents enforcing and ensuring that your children participate in it? We have started recreational activities to engage their youthful energies, are you ensuring that your children participate?”

“It takes the whole of us to build this nation. Everybody must participate. We have roles to play”, Governor Fashola further urged adding that we must look inward to discover the things that unite us as a nation.

He said Nigerians have interrelated with each other, especially, by way of inter-tribal marriages, that it is not easy to divide the nation. He admonished, “Let us not allow them to divide us. We have co-existed as a people, we have inter-married, Where do you want to start? If you look deep you may, probably, see that your daughter has married in a Muslim family with Christian roots”.

Wishing all Muslims a rewarding Ramadan period, Governor Fashola who noted that Nigerians are closer than they think prayed that all Muslims will benefit “enormously from this great month that Allah has given us”.

Earlier in his lecture titled, “Re-branding The Nation – Islamic Perspectives”, Professor Hameed Sanni of the Lagos State University, Ojo, called on the mass media in the country to help project a positive image of Nigeria to the outside world as their own contribution to the re-branding project.

According to Professor Sanni, “The Mass Media must continuously say what is good about Nigeria if truly we are going to re-brand Nigeria”, adding that scholars must also bring their knowledge into the governance of the country “because if it is impacted, it will definitely move the nation forward”.

Professor Sanni who spoke on poverty, internet scam and unemployment as negative attributes that would hinder the re-branding of the country, said if these problems could be tackled and solved successfully, the project would record a huge success.

Also in her lecture, Hajia Ganiyat Adebanjo said rebranding of the nation must begin from the various households that make up Nigeria, pointing out that if there is a proper coordination within the households, it would have a good impact on the environment, the State and the nation.

She lamented that civilization has impacted negatively on the nation’s image pointing out that it has brought corruption and other social ills that now plague the nation including unfaithfulness to the will of the Almighty Allah.

Enjoining parents to bring up their children in with the fear of God so that they will not be liabilities to their parents, the lecturer urged the Muslim brother and sisters not to look for short cuts to achieving their ambition adding, “They must wait for their turns. Both husband and wife must be prayerful because prayers will help them to move the family and therefore the nation forward”.

Also present at the occasion were Alhaji Ademola Fashola (father of the Governor), Alhaji Lateef Okunnu, the Iyaloja of Nigeria, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, Alhaji Fashinro, Alhaja Ramdat Fehintola Okunola, (widow of Justice Okunola) Rashed Muri-Okunola, Personal Assistant to the Governor, Hakeem Muri-Okunola of the the Lands Bureau and the entire Okunola Family, among other eminent Muslim dignitaries.

Microsoft Nigeria yesterday in Abuja, launched the language interface pack for Windows Vista in three major Nigerian languages, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo.

President Umaru Yar’Adua, represented on the occasion by Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Alhassan Zaku, described the development as a milestone in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) He said indeed it is a turning point in the history of technology in our beloved country. Courtesy of Microsoft, Windows Vista, an operating system of Microsoft has been localised in Nigerian languages.”

Dr Alhassan Zaku explain, the initiative as a long-awaited vehicle to take benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the grassroots in every nook and cranny of the country. “We believe that this will make IT solutions more accessible to the Nigerian local communities. It also represents a breakthrough in Nigerian linguistic and literary studies. By this innovation, most users would have the opportunity to customise leading Microsoft software applications with the local language capabilities.” He then urged Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the development of Window Vista in Nigeria Language to preserve and promote there mother languages while benefiting from IT advancement.
The General Manager, Microsoft Anglophone West Africa, Mr Emmanuel Onyeje,  said the launch was part of Microsoft Local Language Programmes (LLP) for Nigeria,  according to him, LLP strives to provide people of all regions, communities and languages with access to IT in a familiar language.

Moreover News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Language interface pack for Windows Vista in the three Nigeria languages was developed by Nigerians locally.

The Nigeria organised labour and the civil society groups begin a peaceful protest nationwide rally yesterday in Lagos to protest against some government policies, which they describe as anti-people and inimical to the welfare of workers and Nigerians.

Among the issues in contention are: the National minimum wage, the propose deregulation of the petroleum products prices and the refusal of Federal Government to adopt, the full report of the Justice Muhammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee.

Despite the several appeals by the Federal Government to labour to shelve the planned protest, labour, with its civil society group vowed yesterday that it would commence the rally in Lagos as planned and the peaceful protest rally was hold as planned.

The organised labour and the civil society groups also plan to held the rallies in other major state capital across the country, which include Asaba, Ibadan, Kano, Enugu, Maiduguri, Makurdi and the federal capital Abuja in June. President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, insisted that the NLC could not shelve the rallies at this stage because it was a resolution of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, and any decision to shelve it must be taken by the same NEC.

He also threatened that labour would commence a series of rallies to put pressure on government to reverse its planned deregulation of the oil sector, and demand a National Minimum Wage which had been put at N52,200 per month by organised labour to be implement by the Federal Government as soon as possible.

Omar also demanded for jobs creation, stimulus package and salary increase in response to the global economic crisis, end to privatisation and liberalisation, credible anti-corruption agenda, as well as fixing of the Nigerian refineries and the rail transport system in the country.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) President General, Comrade Peter Esele said the National Minimum Wage should be treated with the urgency it deserved, adding, “the new national minimum wage of N52, 200 is a sure way of bailing out the economy as it would put more money into the economy, which would, no doubt, increase the purchasing power and demand for products and also give flip to the economy and generate a lot of activities.”