Mandela Is Dead!

 

Nelson Mandela is dead!South African President Jacob Zuma announced late Thursday.

Mandela was 95. In his words President Jocob Zuma said;

"He is now resting in Peace"

"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father."

"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human," the president said in his late-night address. "We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."

Mandela will have a state funeral. Zuma ordered all flags in the nation to be flown at half-staff from Friday through that funeral.

Mandela, a former president, battled health issues in recent months, including a recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalizations.

With advancing age and bouts of illness, Mandela retreated to a quiet life at his boyhood home in the nation's Eastern Cape Province, where he said he was most at peace. He was later moved to his home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, where he died.

Despite rare public appearances, he held a special place in the consciousness of the nation and the world.

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Senate President David Mark has described the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, as a failure as a result of its inability to deliver on its mandate since its establishment about 13 years ago.

Senator Mark, who was speaking at yesterday’s sitting when the Senate confirmed appointments for management and board positions in the commission, lamented that the NDDC “over the 

years has completely failed to perform and I remember that the last time we passed their budget here all of us without exception condemned the fact that they were not performing”.

An unhappy David Mark apportioned some of the blame for the commission’s failure on the Senate standing committee on Niger Delta chaired by Senator James Manager, which he said did a poor job of performing its oversight function.

The Senate President, therefore, urged President Goodluck Jonathan not to waste time in removing the new appointees “if they don’t show that they truly can perform within the next few months”.

“They are indulging into many irrelevant projects, projects that have no meaning and no impact on the livelihood of the Niger Delta people,” Mark charged.

The session, however, did not go without some mild drama as two Rivers State Senators – Wilson Ake and Magnus Abe, die-hard loyalists of Governor Rotimi Ameachi, opposed the nomination of two of their state’s representatives on the board of NDDC.

They hinged their opposition to the confirmation of the nominees on grounds that the state government was not consulted before President Jonathan forwarded their names to the Senate for confirmation.

Senator Ake and Abe jointly wrote a minority report protesting the nomination and subsequent screening of Mr. Itotenaan Henry Ogiri as Executive Director Finance and Administration and Chief Ephraim Sobere Etete as a board member representing Rivers State.

Ake, therefore, urged the senate to reject the nomination arguing that if two of the three senators in any state oppose any nomination, it stands rejected.

But their protest was ruled out of order by the Senate President, who argued that “reason why we say if two senators disagree is that senators complained here that there was no reference to them at all in getting nominees and governors were bringing nominees who had total disrespect for senators”.

Subsequently, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw (Cross Rivers State) was confirmed as chairman of NDDC board and Barrister Bassey Dan-Abia as Managing Director.

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Former Gospel artist or Gospel artist turned nudist - Maheeda releases yet another set of nude pictures posted on her instagram page today >>> See  below

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How To Exercise And Develop 6 Packs Even When Watching TV At Home

If you have trouble finding the motivation to break away from the television and exercise, try couchersizing—staying on or near your couch and exercising during commercial breaks. Why bother?A growing body of evidence links the amount of time spent sitting to illness and even death. “Minimizing long periods of inactivity, like exercising during commercial breaks, can help reduce the risk of injury and may even help you live longer,” says Kailin Collins, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

You can work many different muscle groups while seated upright on a couch. Want to get your heart rate up, work the oblique muscles on the sides of the abdomen. To whittle your waist, try twisting your torso from side to side for the length of a commercial break. You can even exercise while lying on the couch: with your legs extended, squeeze the quadriceps on the front of the thigh for a count of 10, then relax. Repeat several times. Try leg lifts while lying flat to build abs, or side lifts to strengthen hip muscles.
Here are more ideas for the couch potato set. Consider trying some of these exercises during the typical three-to-four-minute TV commercial break.

Sit to stand

Why it helps: This exercise works the quadriceps in the front of the thigh and gluteal muscles in the buttocks, which helps protect your ability to get up from a chair, out of a car, or off a bathroom seat. “In addition, it’s possible to use repeated repetitions of this exercise to get your heart rate up,” 
How to do it: Go from sitting to standing to sitting again, 10 times in a row. Rest for a minute, then repeat.

Calf stretch

Why it helps: “Keeping your calves optimally flexible can keep your walking stride longer, reduce your risk of tripping over your toes, and reduce your risk for common foot injuries such as plantar fasciitis,” 
How to do it: Sit on the edge of a couch with your feet flat on the floor. With one leg, keeping your heel on the floor, lift and point the toes toward the ceiling, so that you feel a stretch in your calf muscle. Hold for 30 seconds, then do the same with the other leg, three times per leg.

Stand on one leg

Why it helps: “Balance gets better if you practice it, which can decrease the risk of falling,”  
How to do it: Holding on to the back of a chair for stability, lift one heel toward your buttocks. Hold for 30 to 45 seconds, three times per leg. To improve your balance on unsteady surfaces, try this with shoes off on a balled-up beach towel.

Shoulder blade squeeze

Why it helps: “This can help prevent that rounded, shoulders-forward posture that can develop from many years of sitting, especially at a computer,”  
How to do it: Pinch your shoulder blades together, but not up (don’t shrug). Hold for 10 seconds, then repeat 10 times.

Hand squeeze

Why it helps: “Keeping your grip strong makes it possible to turn a door knob, open a jar, and grasp a gallon of milk,”
How to do it: While seated upright, hold a ball (the size of a basketball) over your lap with both hands, then squeeze the ball as if you’re trying to deflate it. Hold for a few seconds, then release. Repeat 10 times, rest, then do another set of 10 repetitions. You can also improve your grip strength by squeezing a small rubber ball in one hand

Source: Harvard Health Publications

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