Nigerian ‘Prophet’ T.B. Joshua’s prolonged public absence is not only raising concerns among his followers but severely damaging local business in the area where his church is situated.

The last time Joshua was seen in public was nearly three months ago at a ‘Miracle Crusade’ in Mexico City, allegedly attended by over 150,000 worshippers.

However, since his return to Nigeria, the cleric has uncharacteristically not appeared in any church service at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), all of which are broadcast live on Christian television channel ‘Emmanuel TV’.

On June 7th 2015, Joshua released a statement via Facebook, stating, “I came back from the revival trip last week Saturday, waiting for God’s command on what to do next. I can’t wait to join you.”

However, almost two months down the line, which has seen the controversial conclusion of a coroner’s inquest into the tragic building collapse of a guesthouse within his church last year, there’s been nothing but silence.

Last Sunday 26th July made it 12 consecutive weeks of absence.

It’s the first time in over 25 years of ministry that T.B. Joshua has missed a church service, barring foreign ministration and his arrest and 2 week incarceration by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over charges of drug-dealing in 1996, which were later dropped.

A report by Nigeria’s Sunday Guardian newspaper chronicled the economic effects Joshua’s ‘disappearance’, coupled with the reduction in church services since the building collapse last year, has had on the local environment.

“If you come here on Sunday, you will find that a lot of shops are closed. There’s no more business,” a shop owner on the street close to the church lamented to The Guardian reporter, the welfare of most businesses in the area connected to the church’s fortunes.

“If you go there now (Ikotun-Egbe) and see the market, you will realise how bad things have become. If it were before, at this time, you would be seeing many people, foreigners, coming and going… Even those hotels – the workers are crying because people don’t come there again.”

“I think all you newsmen should come together and talk to this man and see what is happening,” a Nigerian cab operator angrily told The Guardian.

“Programs have totally stopped. Foreigners don’t even see him on TV live. If they just see him on TV in the Sunday services, they will come. A lot of them bought their tickets. But there has been no prayer line,” he continued.

“We are just waiting and praying to God to make him restart the programs. The bitter fact is that there is nothing that can be done to stimulate business in this area. Without foreigners coming and injecting their resources, there is nothing, virtually nothing else to fall back on.”

A Muslim fabric trader in the region, Mrs Eyitayo, however, stated that the evolving events were ‘retribution’ for the selfish antics of local house owners who evicted many tenants in order to cash in the church’s popularity by converting their houses to hotels.

“The man (T.B. Joshua) is doing good but some people are doing bad because of the money they are seeing. When you drive tenants out, and they don’t have anywhere to go, some of them will cry to God. This thing that has happened will let them know that there is God.”

Eyitayo reminisced the time she regularly ordered new clothes from Dubai when visitors, especially foreigners, streamed en masse to the area to worship at the church.

“Two years ago, if you came here, you would think you were overseas because we traded in dollars,” she stated, bemoaning the regions recent drop in fortunes.

Engr. K. Y. Aminu, owner of Kaywy Lodge, a hotel along Segun-Irefin Street near The SCOAN, admitted that his customers were currently paying half-price.

“Business is zero,” he lamented. “I am partially closing down. The 10 rooms here are undergoing conversion,” he explained, adding that he was forced to reduce his staff due to inability to pay their wages.

According to The Guardian report, even international airlines are feeling the impact, as one of Nigeria’s foremost tourist destinations is passing through an uncannily ‘dry’ phase.

Joshua’s supporters believe the pastor is in a period of ‘fasting and prayer’ but the call for him to reappear is certainly heightening, evidenced by various petitions on the cleric’s Facebook page.

“I know that when he eventually steps out, it will be with an explosion of prophetic fire,” a shop owner near the church in Lagos optimistically told the Guardian reporter, hoping that Joshua’s eventual re-emergence will revive the waning local economy

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/07/synagogue-church-vs-lagos-coroner-community-groans-as-prophet-lies-low/

The Ministry of Education has confirmed that as per advert the minimum qualification for the teacher recruitment exercise for primary teachers, just like for secondary, is a teacher’s diploma.
The ministry spokesperson Hillary Chipango was responding to a press query from the Zambian Teachers Forum Media this morning.
Mr. Chipango reminded the ZTF Media that the ministry has been in a process of phasing out the certificate qualification.
Government is expected to recruit 5000 teachers this year. According to the advert inviting teachers to apply the primary certificate holders have been left out.
Only teachers with early childhood qualifications as well as primary diploma, secondary diploma and secondary degree shall be considered for the jobs.

  Kasama Central PF member of parliament Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba says PF wouldn’t be in power if it wasn’t for his money,

And Mwamba says the PF are just scared, frightened little men.

Last week, President Edgar Lungu mocked Mwamba saying ‘may the rich continue in opposition’ before he left for Uganda.

A Mazhandu bus caught fire at Mpongwe turn off, bout two hours ago on the way to Lusaka from Ndola.

Several Zambians and her close friends expressed their anger and surprise at the claims that were made by a woman calling herself Keisha Fisher. From the comments sections of the same story that was published, several readers expressed their disgust and challenged Keisha to tell the truth of what happened as opposed to demonizing the country to cover up her misdeeds.

Nalwamba Kay is one of the readers that consistently disagreed with Keisha’s story and had given her up to Monday to retract the falsehoods. Nalwamba and her sister Womba hosted Keisha in their Olympia home at the time she was in Zambia and below is her story of Keisha Fisher.

Hi, Here is what i know about Keisha….

Keisha came to Zambia on an outreach programme under Youth With A Mission, Perth Australia (YWAM, Perth), this is an inter-denominational, non-profit christian missionary organisation. My sister Womba, was under the same organisation at that time and that is how she knew Keisha.

When on outreach, YWAM students are always required to stay together in group and move as a team for safety and security reasons, but Keisha never wanted that, she said she wanted her freedom and that is how we resolved to accommodate her at our family home.

However, we noticed that she seemed to like to go out to Garden compound or Mandevu and spend time with men and on many of these occasions she would get back home late, around midnight or after midnight (At these times, ‘”Men”would drop her off at home) and at times she would go for 2-3 days without coming back home. Once she even left our house to go and leave in Mandevu for about a week.

She told us that this was not her first time in Zambia but that some years ago she lived in Kitwe and during her stay there, she fell pregnant but had a miscarriage.

She said she was relocating to Tazania because she had interest in a particular man she met whilst there on an outreach programme.

I was therefore surprised to read of her in the papers with a different surname because we know her as Keisha S Garber. It was shocking to learn that she said she was afraid that the so called rapist could be stoned to death if she had him reported.

To me, her story does not add up. Ask her how she came up with that “Munana”surname for her baby. Could it be that she knows the man who raped her? Was the man her boyfriend and refused responsibility?

Most messages she wrote to me on Facebook have been blocked, i think she changed the privacy settings because she knew that i would use those messages against her.

However i have attached screen shorts of some messages that am able to retrieve, notice that she has also changed her user name on Facebook, she is now using BabygAndme as her user name.

From the messages, she speaks without any indication that something was wrong with her pregnancy. If she was raped, the tone and style of writing would have been different, just like it was with her story in the SUN newspaper

SPEAKER of the national Assembly Patrick Matibini has declared the Kasama seat Vacant.

This simply means, Newly appointed opposition UPND Veep Geoffrey Mwamba has lost his seat as a Kasama Parliamentarian under PF ticket and thereby calls for a by-election.

Southampton striker Emmanuel Mayuka is set to join Russian club Spartak Moscow after being stripped of his squad number.

Mayuka, 24, has played just 16 Premier League games, without scoring a single goal, since moving to St Mary’s from Swiss club Young Boys in a £3million deal in the summer of 2012.

The Zambia international was left at home for Saints’ pre-season tour of Holland last week after being told he is not part of manager Ronald Koeman’s plans for the new season.

Mayuka scored his only competitive goal for Southampton in a 5-1 Capital One Cup win at Barnsley in 2013.

The Saints are reportedly eyeing Queens Park Rangers striker Charlie Austin to bolster their forward options.

Photo above?President Uhuru’s Personal assistant A, Jomo Gecaga, being chased after he touched Obama’s car – Limo One.

Reports are claiming that Kenya President, Uhuru Kenyatta‘s PA, Jomo Gecaga, was chased away from touching President Obama’s official vehicle.

A picture of Gecaga been prevented from further touching the bulletproof limousine referred to as ‘The Beast’ has since gone viral on Twitter.

[Unedited]

Dear editor,

Please allow me to use your media to expose the unprofessional manner in which Power tools bus services has began operating. I bought a ticket for my mother for 11:30 bus and sure enough we were in time for boarding Only to be told the bus was full just because another passenger paid the ticketing officer Mr ngoma a bribe to be put on the bus despite him being left. Hardly had another bus shown up did the same incident occur to two other passengers.

Even UBZ bus services did not operate in such a manner. Passengers have rights but its unfortunate that the authorities that be including the power tools bus management do not regard them even when complaints are brought to them.

From a Tumfweko female reader

GOVERNMENT says it will dismiss Copperbelt University (CBU) lecturers if they do not resume work.
And Government has resolved not to yield to lecturers’ demands to fire senior management at the learning institution.
Lecturers who have been on strike for about a month now are demanding the resignation of their vice-chancellor Naison Ngoma and senior management.
They argue that Professor Ngoma’s continued stay at the helm of the CBU management is counter-productive.
But chief government spokesperson Chishimba Kambwili said at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that Government has made a resolution that it will not fire Prof Ngoma under duress.
“On behalf of the government, I want to warn lecturers at CBU that those who will refuse to return to work will be fired.
“The lecturers who want to resign should just resign and stop calling for the resignation of CBU management. Government has not found anything wrong with the CBU management,” Mr Kambwili said.
He said Government has observed with dismay the tendency by some lecturers in public institutions to call for the resignation of their managements whenever there is a grievance.
Mr Kambwili said it is sad that the Copperbelt University Academics Union (CBUAU) has turned down all requests and opportunities to dialogue but has continued with the illegal strike.
He said CBU is a public institution and that striking lecturers who do not want to resume work will be fired.
Mr Kambwili said firing the CBU management for no justifiable reason would set a bad precedent.
CBU was closed after a prolonged stand-off between management and lecturers culminated into a violent protest by students.
And reacting to Mr Kambwili’s statement, CBU lecturers and academic staff said they will not resume work if Prof Ngoma and his management continue clinging to their positions, NKOMBO KACHEMBA reports in Kitwe.
Speaking at a press briefing in Kitwe yesterday, CBUAU general secretary Kawungu Nyirenda dared Mr Kambwili to go ahead and fire them.
“We want to challenge Mr Kambwili to fire us, but we want to warn him to do it properly. No one will leave this institution,” Dr Nyirenda said.

Daily Mail

Zambia’s most popular singer Mampi shared her twin  tatoo on her boobs in new  hot photos on her social media media page. 

A hunter accused of helping a US tourist kill Zimbabwe’s most famous lion has been released on bail.

Theo Bronkhorst pleaded not guilty to a charge of “failing to prevent an unlawful hunt”. He was granted bail of $1,000 (£638) and ordered to appear in court again on 5 August.

His co-accused – farm owner Honest Ndlovu – will appear at a later date.

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) secretary-general Davies Chama says the ruling party is ready to defeat and retire former Kasama Central member of Parliament Geoffrey Mwamba in the by-election.
And Mr Mwamba says he has accepted the nullification of the Kasama Central seat by Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini.
Mr Chama said in an interview yesterday that the PF has welcomed Mr Mwamba’s acceptance of the nullification of the parliamentary seat he held.
He said he is also hopeful that Mr Mwamba will also withdraw the injunction from court and instead opt to “settle the matter” with the PF by contesting the parliamentary by-election on the United Party for National Development (UPND) ticket.
“We are happy that he has accepted and we welcome this.That is as it should be. And he should have done this sometime back. I am praying that he does not chicken out but contest the seat under the UPND where he is vice-president. We will meet him there in Kasama where the ground is set and we are fully prepared for him, we want to retire him,” Mr Chama said.
Speaking on a special programme on Radio Mano on Tuesday, Mr Mwamba said he is ready to re-contest his seat on the UPND ticket and win it.
He dared the people of Kasama that he is ready to contest another parliamentary seat in Lusaka if he is not re-elected.
Mr Mwamba said he cannot claim to be a member of the PF because the Speaker has ruled that the seat is vacant.
He said he had enjoyed being a PF member but will now campaign for the UPND in the 2016 general elections.
Meanwhile, the PF has filed a notice in the Lusaka High Court to discontinue the case against Mr Mwamba’s refusal to resign despite joining another political party.
The ruling party says it has been compelled to stop the matter because Dr Matibini declared Mr Mwamba’s parliamentary seat vacant on Tuesday.
Mr Chama sued Mr Mwamba in the matter.
The PF’s decision to stop the proceedings are contained in a notice of discontinuance of action signed by PF legal counsel Tutwe Ngulube filed in the Lusaka High Court on Tuesday.
“Take note that the plaintiff in the matter herein wholly discontinues the proceedings and applications against the defendant in the matter herein pursuant to the declaration of his seat vacant by a ruling of the Speaker of the National Assembly on July 28, 2015 at 14:30 hours,” Mr Ngulube said.
He said proceeding to hear the matter will be rendered an academic exercise because the matter has been overtaken by Dr Matibini’s ruling.
High Court judge Mwiinde Siavwapa had ordered an inter parte hearing of the case and it was scheduled for tomorrow.
Dr Matibini’s ruling was based on a point of order raised by Minister of Home Affairs Davies Mwila who wanted to find out whether Mr Mwamba was in order to accept a top position in UPND but maintain his PF parliamentary seat.
On July 22, Mr Mwamba officially joined the UPND and was appointed vice-president for administration but refused to relinquish his PF seat.
This prompted Mr Chama to take legal action against Mr Mwamba, arguing that he had violated Article 71(2) (C) of the Constitution.

A 30-YEAR-OLD ex-convict has been arrested for allegedly exhuming, roasting and eating human flesh at a graveyard in Nyimba.
Eastern Province commissioner of police Eugene Sibote identified the ex-convict as Njanji Lungu of Nyimba district.
Mr Sibote said in an interview in Chipata yesterday that Lungu was found roasting human flesh at the cemetery.
“The incident happened on July 28 between 14:00 and 15:00 hours. Lungu was found with a human skull, while roasting human fresh at the graveyard claiming he was hungry,” he said.
He said the grave has been identified as belonging to a Mr Moses Phiri who is believed to have died two years ago.
Mr Sibote said members of the neighbourhood watch committee alerted police and when they rushed to the cemetery, they allegedly found Lungu eating human flesh.
Lungu allegedly told the police that he exhumed the corpse and consumed the remains because he was hungry.
Police arrested the suspect and slapped him with a charge of trespassing on the graveyard.
Mr Sibote said the suspect is an ex-convict who once served an 18-month sentence for an unknown offence.

MINISTER of Mines, Energy and Water Development Christopher Yaluma says the search for bodies of four miners who died underground at Mopani Copper Mines (MCM’) in Kitwe last week will continue until the remains are found.
Mr Yaluma said at a media briefing at MCM in Kitwe yesterday that it was important to accord the deceased a decent funeral, noting that bereaved families are looking forward to that.
The minister, who went underground to check on recovery efforts, is confident that the remains will be found.
“We went underground up to the recovery point. Few things in terms of machinery have been recovered. We could see the cubex machine equipment. It is totally mangled and it’s right there,” Mr Yaluma said.
He said some limbs have been recovered and he has instructed MCM to allow some members of each affected family to go underground and see efforts being made to recover the bodies.

TITLE-CHASING Zanaco have recruited three players, among them Zimbabwean midfielder Knowledge Moyo.
Moyo was on the books of South African side Platinum Stars while defenders George Chilufya and White Mwanambaba from Nchanga Rangers and Power Dynamos respectively are already in Lusaka.
Coach Mumamba Numba said in Lusaka that Moyo was expected to join the bankers yesterday.
“Moyo is coming in today (yesterday) from Zimbabwe, we will subject him to two days of assessment but we don’t expect to have problems with him because he is an experienced player having played at the highest level,” Numba said.
He is confident the trio will add depth to the bankers.
“Chilufya and Mwanambaba will not feature for us this weekend because we are still negotiating with their clubs. We hope that we can conclude the negotiations as soon as possible,” Numba said.
Zanaco are third on the log with 32 points, seven behind leaders Zesco United.

Nicki is known for her curvacious bod,however , the star says her bust is the work of great push up bras..Don’t ask me how this is news..lol

Yamba

Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba has told Qfm News in an exclusive interview that government in fact targeted to issue a Eurobond of between US$1 Billion and US$1.5 Billion.

Mr Yamba says government however opted to issue US$1.25 Billion Eurobond with a coupon at the conclusion of its Road show after the final book for the bond reached US$2.5 Billion.
Yamba

Mr. Yamba says this was from more than 175 investors.

He states that the redemption of the US$1.25 billion Eurobond is also in three installments in July 2025, July 2026 and July 2027.

The Secretary to the Treasury says Zambia’s debt therefore has not reached the 40 percent of GDP.

He states that there is a debt sustainability analysis to this effect in which it has been determined with a high degree of certainty that government will be able to pay interest rates for borrowed funds when they fall due.

Mr. Yamba says government does not further see any encumbrances in repaying the three Eurobonds when their redemption is due.

He adds that there are a number of modalities government is looking at which include establishing a sinking fund as well as the option of refinancing the Eurobond.

Malaysia has sent a team to the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion to determine whether debris which washed up there is from missing flight MH370.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board vanished without trace in March 2014.

Aviation experts have said the debris looks like a wing component from a 777, known as a flaperon.

Malaysia Airlines said it would be “premature” to speculate on its origin.

There were 227 passengers on the flight, including 153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.

“Whatever wreckage found needs to be further verified before we can further confirm whether it belongs to MH370,” Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters in New York where he was attending a UN Security Council debate for a separate Malaysian jet shot down over Ukraine.

“So we have dispatched a team to investigate on this issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible,” he said.

The wife of the in-flight supervisor for the missing MH370 plane, Jacquita Gonzales, told the BBC that she is torn by the news.

“A part of me hopes that it is (MH370) so that I could have some closure and bury my husband properly but the other part of me says ‘no, no, no’ because there is still hope,” she told the BBC by phone.

The two-metre-long (6ft) piece of wreckage washed up on the island, about 600km (370 miles) east of Madagascar, late on Wednesday.

The search efforts for MH370, led by Australia, are focussed on a broad expanse of the southern Indian Ocean – some 6,000km to the east of Reunion, which is a French region.

There have been other plane crashes much closer to Reunion, but flight MH370 is the only Boeing 777 to have disappeared in the area.

An US official told the Associated Press news agency that, based on the photos, investigators had a “high degree of confidence” that the part was a flaperon unique to a Boeing 777 wing.

A flaperon is a part of the wing used to manage the lift and control the roll of an aircraft.

French authorities in Reunion are also investigating the debris and Australian investigators are reported to be in touch with manufacturers over the find.

In a statement, Australian Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss said that if the wreckage was identified as being from MH370, this “would be consistent with other analysis and modelling that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern Indian Ocean”.

Any new evidence will be used to refine search efforts, the statement added.

BBC

Canada’s First Quantum Minerals has shut its Sentinel copper processing plant after Zambia reduced electricity supply to its operations by 24 percent, the company said.

Zambian power utility Zesco Ltd is limiting supplies, including to mining companies.

“Sentinel process plant has been closed since July 27, 2015. Various options to alleviate the effect on production are being evaluated,” First Quantum said in second quarter results late on Wednesday.

“Agreement has been reached to redirect the majority of Sentinel’s power allocation to enable Kansanshi to operate close to full capacity, while delaying the ramp-up at Sentinel.”

Kansanshi mine was earlier projected to produce 250 to 265 tonnes of finished copper while the Sentinel was expected to produce up to 100,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate in 2015.

Reuters