Monday, February 25, 2013

Nigerians spent N1.28trn on phone calls in 2012 –Investigation EXCLUSIVE

KUNLE AZEEZ

Johnson

Vol. 3 N0. 564

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elecoms subscribers in Nigeria may have spent an estimated

N1.28trn making phone calls in 2012, National Mirror investigation has revealed.

The figure represents one quarter of the N4.8trn 2012 budget and demonstrates the huge earning power of the telecoms industry.

2013 Budget: TUC moves against N4bn First Ladies’ House

The estimate, though conservative, is the accumulative outgoings of telephone users on the three segments of network operators in the country.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6>>

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Mrs. Jonathan

Monday, February 25, 2013

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Presidency, governors battle over NGF chair Jonathan, PDP seek postponement of election AYODELE OJO AND OBIORA IFOH

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he Presidency and the state governors will today engage in the test of might over the election of the chairman and principal officers of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF. The election is coming amidst a schism within

the NGF occasioned by leadership crisis threatening the all-powerful association of the 36 state governors.

Incumbent NGF Chairman and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, is seeking re-election while the Presidency and pro-Jonathan governors are pushing for the emergence of Katsina State CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>

13 die in Zamfara, Kaduna, Yobe killings P.5

Abubakar

RMAFC wants state/LG joint account abolished P.49 THE

BUSINESS SECTION

Bank growth’ll reflect in real sector –CBN Group Managing Director, Energy Group, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, OFR, (right) and Senator Bode Olajumoke at the 46th birthday celebration of Dr. Ibrahim in Lagos yesterday.

PHOTO: YINKA ADEPARUSI

Auto crash claims infant, 7 others in Ogun

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PHCN workers want implementation committee inaugurated P.21,A5 Free ree inside d

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Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, February 25, 2013

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PhotoNews

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

DR. JIMOH IBRAHIM’S 46th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

The celebrant, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (5th left), with guests cutting the cake, during his 46th birthday in Lagos, yesterday.

L-R: Honorary Consul of Hungary to Nigeria, Chief Billy Aigbe; Dr. Ibrahim and Barrister Stanley Adeyemi.

L-R: Otunba Stephen Ojo; Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, National Mirror, Mr. Steve Ayorinde and Resident Director, The Premier University, Sao Tome, Dr. Yele Akinrolabu.

L-R: Bishop Jim Okewu of Grace and Glory Word and World Outreaches and his wife, Ene during the church service to mark Dr. Ibrahim’s birthday.

L-R: Editor, Sunday Mirror, Mr. Bolaji Tunji; Managing Director, Daily Newswatch, Mr. Moses Jolayemi; former presidential aspirant and publisher Ovation, Chief Dele Momodu and Editor, National Mirror, Mr. Seyi Fasugba.

Publisher, City People, Mr. Seye Kehinde (left) and Chief Tunde Akindehin.

L-R: Managing Director, NICON Insurance, Mr. Emmanuel Jegede; Managing Director, Nicon Properties Ltd, Barrister Olanrewaju Alonge and Dr. Ibrahim, during the church service.

Dr. Ibrahim at the church service.

L-R: Chairman Nigerian Re, Dr. Amos Akingba; Dr. Ibrahim and Mrs. Gwen Akingba.

PHOTOS: BAYOOR EWUOSO, ADEMOLA AKINLABI, YINKA ADEPARUSI AND OLUFEMI AJASA

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News

Monday, February 25, 2013

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13 die in Zamfara, Kaduna,Yobe killings A Z A M SUE AND I NUSA N DAHI

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t least 13 people died over the weekend while scores of others were injured in three separate attacks carried out by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect in Zamfara, Kaduna and Yobe states.

A university lecturer was also kidnapped in the troubled Borno State capital, Maiduguri, in a renewed surge in violence in northern Nigeria In Zamfara State, gunmen numbering about 30, attacked Beni village in Dansadau Emirate of Maru Local Government, killing seven people, while several others were injured.

Eyewitness told National Mirror that the incident occurred in the early hours of yesterday, when the villagers were saying the Zubuhi (morning) prayers.

A source said the hoodlums stormed the village with automatic rifles and other offensive weapons and moved from house to house attacking the innocent villagers.

According to the source, those who were not lucky to escape the gunmen were either killed or severely wounded.

Findings by National Mirror indicated that about seven people were reported to have died as a result of gunshots, while several oth-

ers were injured and have been taken to the General Hospital, Tsafe for medical attention.

As at the time of filing this report the corpses of the seven deceased people had already been buried according to Islamic rites.

Efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, Zamfara Command, DSP Lawal Abdullahi, to comment on the incident were unsuccessful as he could not be reached through his GSM lines.

However, a police source who pleaded for anonymity told National Mirror that a detachment of the mobile policemen has been dispatched to the area in order to crack down the hoodlums.

Similarly, gunmen suspected to be terrorists at the weekend attacked a community in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, killing five persons and injuring many others.

National Mirror gathered that the incident happened at about midnight on Saturday along the Aduwan Zonkwa - Madakiya Road.

A resident, who narrowly escaped death, said the attackers took the community unawares, as most people were asleep when the invasion started.

“They came in large numbers in the night. What we heard were gunshots everywhere, there was nowhere to go. I heard people crying.

Some people died while many were injured but I can’t tell exactly the number of victims,” he said.

Reports said corpses of those killed and he injured residents were taken to Saint Louis Hospital, Zonkwa, while others were rushed to Jos University Teaching Hospital in Plateau State for medical attention.

Kaduna State Police Command’s spokesman, Mallam Aminu Lawan, confirmed the incident, but said only three persons were killed.

He said: “I can confirm to you that only three people were killed during the attack by yet unknown gunmen in the area.

“We are on top of the situation as we have also mobilised our men to the area.

Everywhere is now calm and peace has returned with people going about their normal businesses.

“Investigation has also commenced into the inci-

dent to arrest the perpetrators of the attack.”

Meanwhile, violence has erupted again in Yobe State after a long period of relative peace, as gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram sect attacked a beer parlour at Ngalda in Fika Local Government Area, killing the proprietor (name withheld) and injuring six others at about 8p.m. on Saturday.

Ngalda, a rural community, is 172 kilometres west of Damaturu, the state capital.

A source told our correspondent that the gunmen took the proprietor of the pub and the customers by surprise.

“The people had to run for safety as many of them sustained various degrees of injuries in the stampede when several shots were fired at them last night,” he said.

The source said the assailants came on two unmarked motorbikes, headed straight to attack the beer parlour and fled towards Nafada in Gombe State via the Potiskum-Gombe road at 8:35p.m.

He added that the way the suspects attacked and killed the proprietor was similar to that of Boko Haram sect members that had been attacking and killing people at mosques, churches, markets, houses and shops in the state.

Fika town, which is about 15 kilometres from Ngalda, had experienced attacks in recent times where churches, police stations and beer parlours had been set ablaze, in addition to the killing of five people, including two policemen at their duty posts.

The state Police Command’s spokesman, Salisu

Adamu, confirmed the incident.

In another development, a senior lecturer at the University of Maiduguri, Dr. Abba Kagu, was abducted on Saturday evening by unknown gunmen in Maiduguri, eyewitnesses and security sources have said.

Kagu, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Coordinator of General Studies (GST), was snatched by a gang of armed young men around the Federal Low Cost Estate.

A top security official in the Maiduguri Department of Security Services confirmed the incident to newsmen in Maiduguri on the phone.

“Dr Kagu’s abduction was reported to us shortly after it occurred yesterday (SatCONTINUED ON PAGE 6>>

L-R: Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Olugbenga Obadara; Director, Vigeo Power, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, Chairman, Mr. Gbolade Osibodu and Director/Chief Coverage Officer, Africa Finance Corporation, Mr. Oliver Andrews, at the signing of transaction and industry agreements for PHCN successor companies in Abuja at the weekend.

Presidency, governors battle over NGF chair CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Governor Ibrahim Shema.

Of all the 36 governors, only five – Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Theodore Orji (Abia) and Gabriel Suswam (Benue) – are in the President’s camp.

Impeccable sources told National Mirror that the Presidency had made spirited efforts to scuttle today’s election by calling for the postponement when it became clear that Amaechi might carry the day.

Jonathan is concerned that Amaechi’s re-emergence as NGF chair could

jeopardise his ambition of securing a second term in the 2015 elections The source added that the governors were however adamant on going ahead with the election.

Some powerful interests in the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the weekend personally contacted some of the governors elected on the platform of the party “to elect a new chairman different from Amaechi who the President can work with.”

Some of the governors were in a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga

Tukur, last night where the postponement of the election and the possibility of Amaechi stepping down as the chairman were discussed.

A source said the meeting became necessary to avoid confrontation between the governors and the Presidency by reaching a consensus on the leadership and principal officers of the NGF. Though the meeting, scheduled for 7:30p.m at House 7 inside the Presidential Villa, did not end before press time, the source told National Mirror that no other member of the party except Tukur was admitted into the

meeting.

As at the time of going to press, it was not clear if Amaechi had agreed to step down, but an aide of the governor told our correspondents that “the issue is beyond Amaechi.

“It is a collective issue.

The probability of Amaechi stepping down for reelection does not arise at all,” he said.

Investigations by National Mirror, however, revealed that serious and underground lobbying by the leadership of the PDP had been on since last week where most PDP governors had been persuaded to attend last night’s meeting and take a position in the

interest of the party.

One thing that appears certain is that PDP will produce the NGF chairman, while the opposition picks the vice-chairman.

Today’s meeting will kick off at 4p.m. at Rivers State Lodge, Abuja according to the invitation sent out at the weekend by the NGF’s Director-General, Asishana Okauru, Top on the agenda is the election of the forum’s officials. The other item on the agenda is tagged “AOB (Any other business).”

National Mirror reliably learnt that the governors were likely to constitute a Board of Trustees, BoT, of the NGF, made up of for-

mer governors.

At the heart of today’s election is the 2015 Presidency.

The Presidency believes that having Amaechi as NGF chairman is dangerous to the re-election bid of President Jonathan.

Also, the alleged presidential ambition of the Rivers State governor makes the Presidency uncomfortable with him.

Coordinating the Presidency’s plot against Amaechi are Governors Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Shema (Katsina) and Dickson (Bayelsa).

Some of the governors opposing Amaechi’s return are latching on his CONTINUED ON PAGE 6>>

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News

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Nigerians spent N1.28trn on phone calls in 2012 –Investigation CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

These include the telecoms operators in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), including MTN, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat and Mtel; the Code Division Multiple Access, (CDMA), which include Visafone, Starcomms, Multi-Links and Zoom Mobile; as well as the fixed wire/wireless networks in the country.

The estimate was arrived at using the Average Revenue Per User, ARPU, for 2012, estimated at N949 by Business Monitor International, BMI, -a United States-based research firm.

ARPU is the average industry benchmark for estimated spending of a telecoms subscriber to get services usually on a monthly basis.

Going by the industry’s 2012 ARPU by BMI, therefore, National Mirror’s calculation revealed that over N1.28trn was spent by subscribers on the purchase of airtime credit to make calls on their phones.

The subscribers’ spending also represents the amount of revenue accrued to telecoms networks from voice calls in 2012.

According to the investigation, in January 2012, when active telecoms subscribers’ base stood at 96.1

million and given an ARPU of N949, the estimated spending of subscribers was valued at N91.1bn. This increased to N91.6bn in February when the subscriber base was 96.6 million.

Similarly, the cost of making calls moved up to N94bn in March as subscribers hit 99.1 million; N95bn in April with 101 million subscriber base while in May 2012, the telephone calls spending reached N96bn with 101.8 million subscriber base and in June, the figure rose to N97bn with subscriber base standing at 102.3 million.

Also, the subscribers’ spending on phone calls hit N98bn in July; N99.8bn in August; N101.9bn in September when the subscriber bases for the three months stood at 103.4 million, 105.2 million and 107.3 million respectively.

By the end of October, November and December, with subscriber bases standing at 109.3 million, 110.3 million and 113.1 million respectively, the phone calls spending by Nigerian telecoms subscribers were estimated at N103.8bn; N104.6bn and N107.3bn respectively.

However, GSM operators received the lion’s share of the revenue accrued to the industry as their subscribers’ base increased by the

13 die in Zamfara, Kaduna, Yobe killings CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

urday) evening. We are seriously working to locate his whereabouts; we believe his kidnappers may not have exited the Maiduguri metropolis yet,” said the source who didn’t want to be named in this report.

Other academics in the university have expressed fears for their safety now that they have become one of the targets of kidnappers.

The spokesman of the university, Ahmed Muhammed, told journalists that he could not make detailed comments on the incident.

In another development, a splinter group of Boko Haram, led by Sheikh Abdulaziz Ibn Adam, on Saturday insisted that it was ready to dialogue with the government.

Ibn Adam, who said this at a news conference in Maiduguri, noted that the group had realised that it could not achieve its aims through violence.

“You will recall that we announced a ceasefire last month as a precondition for talks with government. But sadly after a few days of respite, violence began again in the country,” he said.

Ibn Adam said that the group was not responsible for the renewed violence in some parts of Borno State, stressing that “those currently engaged in this violence are not our people because our people are obedient to their leaders.”

“Since the leadership has asked them to cease fire, they won’t continue with violence,” he said.

Ibn Adam said that the group would go after those who still engaged in violent campaigns since they had been warned, adding that the leader of the sect, Sheikh Abubabak Shekau, was behind the ceasefire agreement and hence, all members must abide or face sanctions.

millions month-on-month, while the CDMA and fixed line operators witnessed declines.

In 2011, the total estimated spending on phone calls by telecoms subscribers in Nigeria stood at N1trn However, the Nigerian Communication Commission’s latest statistics has provided a breakdown of the subscribers’ data in the industry.

The NCC data indicated that MTN Nigeria ended the year with 47.4 million active telephone lines on its network, leading the industry as the biggest telecoms network in the country.

This was followed by Globacom with 24.1 million subscribers and Airtel with

23 million while Etisalat which started operations three years ago grew faster to reach 4.9 million subscriptions at the end of December 2012.

The data provides for respective segments of the industry such as GSM, CDMA and fixed network.

It said the GSM active subscriptions, which stood at 91 million in January increased to 92 million in February and 94.5 million at the end of March.

The figure continued its upward growth, reaching 96.6 million in April and in May, the figured grew to 97.5 million active subscriptions.

In June, July and August, the combined active GSM subscribers’ base increased

to 98.3 million; 99.4 million and 101.4 million respectively.

The figure thus moved up to 107.3 million in September; 109.4 million in October; 110.3 million in October and 113.1 million at the end of December 2012.

The CDMA operators and other fixed lines operators had their subscriber bases crash abysmally in the year.

The data also showed that the CDMA networks experienced a fall in their subscriber bases from 3.1 million in October to three million at the end of October 2012.

Similarly, fixed wire and wireless network operators also record a decline in their meagre active subscriptions from 454,644 lines in October

to 432,899 during the same period.

However, active subscriber base on CDMA networks, which was estimated at 4.4 million in January 2012, was hovering around slightly over Four million between February and March, but fell to 3.9 million in April.

The figure plunged further to 3.7 million in May; 3.5 million in June and in July it fell to 3.4 million and finally to 3.3 million at the end of August, 2012.

In September, active CDMA subscriptions fell to 3.2 million with a further decline of 3.1 million; three million and 2.9 million recorded on the networks in October, November and December respectively.

L-R: Bishop of Makurdi, (Catholic Diocese) Most Rev. Atanesius Usu; Papal Nuncio, Most Rev. Augustine Kasuja; Most Rev. William Avenya and Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, at the installation of Avenya as the Catholic Bishop of Gboko in Gboko, yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

Presidency, governors battle over NGF chair CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

alleged ‘arrogance and dictatorial’ stance.

As a result, the 28 PDP governors have been divided into pro-Jonathan and pro-Amaechi groups.

Investigations revealed that most of the governors were queuing behind Amaechi. All the 10 opposition governors that recently formed the All Progressives Congress, APC, are also solidly behind the return of Amaechi as NGF chairman.

Within the PDP, Amaechi is counting on the support of Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Abdulfatahi Ahmed (Kwara), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and

Liyel Imoke (Cross River); The opposition governors supporting Amaechi are: Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Kassim Shettima (Borno), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe), Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara) and Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo).

Governors Idris Wada (Kogi), Ramalan Yero (Kaduna); Theodore Orji (Abia); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi) and Martin Elechi (Ebonyi) are still sitting on the fence.

The position of Taraba State Acting Governor, Garba Umar, is still also uncertain.

Governor Isa Yuguda (Bauchi) is unpredictable, sources said. He may go the way of the pro-Jonathan governors as he is said to be lobbying to become the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in replacement of his presidential ambition.

Governor Peter Obi (Anambra) is the vicechairman of the forum and is an ally of Jonathan.

A governor, who preferred anonymity, told National Mirror yesterday that the state governors would overwhelmingly re-elect Amaechi as NGF chairman.

The governor said: “This is not a PDP affair.

The Presidency cannot dictate to us how we run the forum. We are a body

of governors elected on different platforms. So, you can be assured that the will of the majority will prevail.

“This is a game of number. A larger percentage of the governors are solidly behind the retention of Amaechi as NGF chairman. We know the Presidency is plotting against his return and sponsoring a candidate, but that I can assure you won’t work.

“The PDP governors are divided while the opposition governors are willing to re-elect Amaechi.

“Most of the issues they are accusing Amaechi of are the collective decisions of the governors. The stance on Excess Crude Account, ECA; Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, among others are what the governors agreed upon,” he said.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

News

Monday, February 25, 2013

Privatisation exercise is fraud in Nigeria –Reps TORDUE SALEM ABUJA

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he Privatisation and Commercialisation Committee of the House of Representatives has declared as fraud the on-going privatisation exercise of the Federal Government.

Besides, the committee urged the Federal Government to start its war against corruption from Aso Rock.

Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Uzoma Abonta, who spoke on behalf of the committee at the weekend in Abuja, said that from the available report, the privatisation exercise was a sham and not intended to succeed.

He said: “Privatisation is fraud in Nigeria. The essence of privatisation is to make public corporations work better to the benefit of the people. But in our own case, almost all the public corporations that were privatised have become worse than they were before they were sold. Corruption that

• Want war against corruption to begin in Aso Rock

has bedeviled Nigeria is also trailing privatisation.”

He particularly lampooned the NITEL privatisation process, saying: “The money set aside to pay the disengaged NITEL workers is not enough to pay them. The problem is that the Federal Government wants to auction NITEL for peanuts. How much was the licence granted the GSM companies? It was about $280 million and yet the government wants to sell the entire NITEL with MTEL and its other components for less the cost of the license given to the new companies.

“NITEL has the largest optic fibre network across Nigeria. It is everywhere and no country abandons such an investment in preference for the GSM companies, especially when you consider the national security implications of selling off such a strategic firm.

“My position is that government should revive NI-

TEL rather than sell it. If the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) could stake more than N1billion to support failing banks belonging to private individuals why can’t we do the same to revive NITEL as a national carrier?”

The lawmaker identified corruption as the bane of Nigeria and recommended a drastic action against the scourge starting from the Presidency.

He said: “I make bold to say that corruption is the problem of Nigeria. Peter Tosh once said that everybody is talking about the criminal; who then is the criminal? Nigeria is a very corrupt society and we are not fighting corruption. We are romancing with corruption; we are sleeping with corruption; we are doing our valentine with corruption and do everything with corruption.

“Corruption is fast becoming a norm in Nigeria.

“President Goodluck

Jonathan must sit up and fight corruption; the war must start from the Villa.

We need a very radical leader who will fight corruption.

“The Asian countries of China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia were more corrupt than Nigeria until one day when their leaders rose to the challenge and introduced capital punishment as penalty for corruption.

“As soon as the law came into force anyone caught stealing public funds or engaging in any form of corruption was either hanged of shot dead. Today we talk about the Asian Tigers because their leaders decided to have zero tolerance for corruption.

“But here, our laws are loose and some of us would not mind going to jail and come back to inherit N10billion. We know that you can even steal billions and just pay a paltry fine and go home to enjoy your loot.

“I make bold to say that civil servants are the worst problem of Nigeria.

I call them ‘evil servants” because they are not civil in any way. Once you are appointed a minister, they send you one big memo; they tell you how you can buy a house where you will live. Once you sign that memo you are finished.

“Look at our annual budgets; the amount of money spent in the month of December is greater that all the money spent in the remaining part of the year.

Why is it that under personnel and overhead costs all the funds must be finished at the end of the year?

“They told us they discovered 45,000 ghost workers in the civil service. How many are the civil servants if 45,000 are ghosts? In all these, no one has been punished and we have directors and permanent secretaries in those ministries. I think that something drastic has to be done.

ProServe: FG begins products, services’ listing OLUFEMI ADEOSUN ABUJA

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he Federal Government has commenced products and services registration under the Consumer Protection Council’s products and services monitoring and registration scheme, known as ProServe programme.

According to the Budgetcoat Nigeria Limited, the consulting firm serving as the registration project team, over 500 youths had been recruited and trained to interact face-to-face with products’ manufacturers and services’ providers in some selected states.

The scheme, aimed at increasing consumer confidence in the listed Nigerian products and services and eliminating counterfeiting and quackery, was launched by the Federal Government on August 23, 2012.

ProServe will also enhance traceability of products and services through the creation of data bank for genuine products and services.

L-R: International Adviser to the Ministry of Development Industry and Foreign Trade, Republic of Brazil, Mrs. Andrea Watson; Brazilian Minister of Development Industry and Foreign Trade, Mr. Fernando Pimentel and Nigeria’s Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, during a bilateral meeting between the two countries in Abuja, at the weekend. PHOTO; ROTIMI OSASONA

Nigeria, Brazil may double trade volume by 2015 –Aganga OLUFEMI ADEOSUN ABUJA

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igeria and Brazil at the weekend agreed to strengthen their trade and investment relation by leveraging on the areas of competitive and comparative advantage.

Both countries also resolved on strategies to increase the volume of trade from the current N1.6 trillion to N3 trillion by 2015.

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, disclosed this at a meeting with the Bra-

zilian Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Mr. Fernado Pimentel.

“The volume of trade has increased significantly over the year. Today it is $1.6 billion dollars and we can do much more. We are working on how we can double that by 2015,” Aganga said.

The minister said the two countries had agreed to put in place mechanism aimed at accelerating the trade development between thema.

He said: “Brazil is our

number three trading partner in terms of trade in oil after India and United States of America. So they are very important to our economy, knowing that crude oil sale is 90 per cent of our export.

“In terms of imports, sugar, rice, automobiles -buses and cars - come from Brazil and we are working to improve upon what we have at the moment.”

Aganga added that Nigeria was discussing with the government of Brazil to have a direct flight from Nigeria to Brazil to help fa-

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Recruitment: NSCDC parades fraudster OMEIZA AJAYI ABUJA

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he Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, at the weekend paraded one Mr. Shedrack Adubo, who was arrested for defrauding job applicants through a personal website, with which he claimed to be recruiting for the corps.

Adubo, a final year Civil Engineering student of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, was reportedly nabbed after a tipoff from a new generation bank when he was trying to withdraw some of the money paid into his account by applicants who had registered and were told to pay certain amount into the account number displayed on the site.

Parading the suspect in Abuja, the NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Okeh, said one of the numbers displayed on the site was actually Adubo’s number.

According to him, Adubo was working in partnership with one Barry Ehigie named as Ajali Joachim on the website, shadman4real, purposely designed to take advantage of the unemployed.

Okeh also disclosed that the NSCDC, in conjunction with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, had arrested over 460 job scammers across the country and prosecuted them.

He said: “Recently, members of a three-man syndicate were arrested in Abuja and prosecuted for collecting N250,000 from an applicant.

cilitate trade.

He said: “We will have a direct flight from Nigeria to Brazil. Today, a flight that should take six hours is taking us 24 hours. That is not good for business; it is not good for investment.

“We have a trade commission in place that will accelerate that process as quickly as possible.”

The minister explained that the forum was to further strengthen the trade relationship between both countries, by exploring some work- Ade Abolurin, NSCDC able strategies.

Commandant

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News

Monday, February 25, 2013

FG set to release list of new fuel importers UDEME AKPAN

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he Federal Government will this week release a comprehensive list of companies that have been granted permits to import refined petroleum products for the second quarter National Mirror has learnt.

The list, it was learnt would include 32 firms engaged to import the product in the first quarter and others recently considered for the purpose.

An official of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources who confirmed the development yesterday said: “We may have up to 40 names this time because new firms who indicated interest have been added to the previous list.

The source who preferred not to be named said: “The increase is based on the need to ensure that more competent firms with adequate capacities are given the chance to participate in the business in order to have sufficient fuel for consumption.”

The Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Commission, PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley, also said that 4.22 billion litres of fuel would be imported into the

Alison-Madueke

country during the period.

The companies may include: The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Alteo, Ascon Oil, Avidor Oil & Gas, A-Z Petroleum, Bovas Limited, Conoil Plc, Dee Jones Petroleum and Gas, Dozzy Oil and Gas, Folawiyo Energy, Fresh Synergy Limited, Forte Oil Plc and First Deepwater Discovery Limited.

Others are: Gulf Treasure Ltd, Heyden Petroleum, Ibafon Oil Ltd, Integrated Oil and Gas Industries, IPMAN Refining and Marketing Ltd; Mobil Oil Plc, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, NIPCO Plc, Northwest Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Oando Plc, Obat Petroleum Ltd, RainOil Ltd, Rahamaniyya Oil & Gas, Sahara Energy Ltd, Shorelink Oil, Swift Oil Ltd, Techno Oil Ltd and Total Nigeria Plc. The list is exclusive of global oil traders, including Trafigura, Glencore and

Vitol, which have traditionally supplied large volumes of refined fuel to the NNPC. Unlike last year when the importers witnessed irregular payments, PPPRA and the Ministry of Finance have put in place some measures to ensure the importers are paid as soon as claims are verified.

The arrangement is enhanced, particularly because the Federal Government has budgeted N971billion for fuel imports which are targeted at achieving improved stability in the supply of the product this year.

The PPPRA stated that it would effectively monitor the operations of firms selected for the exercise in order to ensure that they carry out their activities according to set rules and regulations.

For instance, Stanley said: “The practice of discharging and trucking simultaneously is against established industry practice and henceforth shall attract appropriate sanctions except where such is required to create haulage in which case conditions for floating operations are met.

He said the agency would conduct periodic checks on active tank farms to ensure that facilities used for back

loading were demobilised always, in addition to ensuring that marketers comply to set guidelines.

The executive secretary called on inspectors to ensure that marketers did not hoard products in their tank farms by refusing to truck-out while those who violated the policy should be reported to the agency for appropriate sanctions.

Investigations showed that this has raised the interest of the importers who were discouraged following continued indebtedness in the past.

Some local banks that had hitherto shut down credit lines to fuel traders due to uncertainties in the payment of subsidy were said to be discussing with the marketers to open letters of credit for importation.

Investigations showed that major and independent marketers who were owed in the past looked forward to participating in the programme following increased commitment of government to pay them.

The Executive Secretary, Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Mr. Timothy Olawore, said: “The government has been paying and our members are now encouraged to import the product.”

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Infant, seven others die in Ogun auto crash FEMI OYEWESO ABEOKUTA

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t least eight people, including an infant, were yesterday confirmed dead in an auto crash that occurred at Aiyetoro village, near the headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, campground in Mowe, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The accident, which happened at about 4.20pm was said to have involved a blue DAF truck with registration number: YOBE XB 503 FAA and a blue Mitsubishi Space Wagon car with registration number: LAGOS GGE 540 XC. The Sagamu Unit Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Lasisi Ogundele, who confirmed the acci-

dent said 13 persons were involved in the accident which claimed the lives of four males, three females and an infant.

Ogundele, who attributed the cause of the accident to speed limit violation by the Mitsubishi car driver, also said that corpses of the victims have been deposited at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, OOUTH, in Sagamu, Ogun State.

Eyewitness account said all the dead were passengers of the Lagos bound Mitsubishi car.

The account further added that the DAF truck was reversing on the highway when the passengers’ car that was on high speed rammed into it, killing all the eight occupants instantly, including the driver.

Esiri: Colleagues pledge support to family NGOZI EMEDOLIBE

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he late Justus Esiri’s Lagos home in Mafoluku area of Osodi, yesterday witnessed a large gathering of Nollywood stars, who came to commiserate with the family and announce their plans towards giving the late veteran a befitting burial.

The group was made up of representatives of guilds like the Association of Movie Producers, AMP, the Directors Guild of Nigeria, DGN and the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, also had in attendance Nollywood stars like Genevieve Nnaji, Stephanie Okereke-Idahosa, Monalisa Chinda, Ibinabo Fiberisima, Chidi Mokeme and Segun Arinze, among others.

Resist gay lifestyle, primate tells new bishops RICHARD EGHAGHE

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hree new bishops were yesterday consecrated by the Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, at the Cathedral of Saint Jude, Diocese of Lagos Mainland, Ebute-Meta.

The three new bishops are the Very Rev. Simeon O. Borokini, as Bishop of Akure. He was until his election, Provost of the Cathedral Church of St. David, Akure; Ven. James O. Odedeji, as Bishop of Lagos.

He was formerly the Dean of Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja and Ven. Geoffrey E. Okoroafor, as Bishop of Egbu. He was the former Vicar of Zion Anglican Church and Archdeacon of Okpala Archdeaconry.

In his message, the primate charged the new bishops to “concentrate on the spread of the gospel, main-

tain high standard of morality among the people and to, in every way, resist the attempt to make homosexual lifestyle a standard in the church.”

Okoh maintained that; “The biblical tradition about Christian marriage is a man and a woman and as such; “same sex marriage should not be condoled in our church.” He charged the new bishops to make sure they watch the people and watch their lifestyles.

“Those who have problems with their sexual orientations should come for counseling and prayer. But those who insist on imposing their ways upon the church should have no place in the church,” he said.

Describing the consecration of the new bishops as “renewed energy” for the church, Primate Okoh noted that “it is a laid down rule in the church for every bishop to retire at the age of 70, so as to give room to the younger ones to perform.

“As the old ones are retiring, new ones are coming on board,” he said.

He enjoined the bishops and Christians generally to be addicted to the religion, pointing out that “If a person is really not addicted as a Christian, or let say to Christ, or to the things of Christ, the truth is that he is not a Christian.

“If he cannot stand out to be counted, he is really not a Christian. If a bishop is not addicted in preaching the gospel, living the life of a believer through and through, or put in another way, work righteously, vigorously and even contagiously, as a Christian, so that his life can affect or impact others positively, then that person is really not a bishop.

Reacting to Pope Benedict XV1 final resignation this week, during a chat with journalists, Primate Okoh commended the Pope, saying that his resignation has only set a good example for others.

This Day in African American History

February 25: On this day in 1870— First Black U.S. Senator, Hiram R. Revels Takes Oath of Office!

Hiram R. Revels comes from a mixed-race heritage—Revels’s father was mixed-race and his mother was Caucasian. Born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1827, Revels was both well-traveled and well-educated. He attended schools in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Maryland, and conducted religious work in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. Revels also served as a chaplain during the Civil War. In 1869, after the war, Revels was elected to represent Adams County in the Mississippi State Senate. In January 1870, Revels

gave the opening prayer in the state legislature. The prayer was powerful and left a lasting impression on those who heard it, leading to Revels being elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate the next month by a vote of 81 to 15.

Revels’s path to the U.S. Senate was not without its hurdles, however. Citing the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, conservative Southern Democrats officially challenged

Revels’s credentials on the grounds that he was not a U.S. citizen for the requisite period of time (nine years), and therefore was not eligible to hold office.

Although the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all African Americans, the amendment was only adopted two years prior in 1868.

Revels, his opponents claimed, had only been a U.S. citizen for two years, when election to the Senate required nine years prior citizenship; therefore, Revels was ineligible to hold such office.

Revels’s supporters successfully argued that he had been a citizen for his entire life since Revels was not of pure African ancestry, the Dred Scott decision did not apply to him. The state legislature voted to approve Revels’s admission 48 to 8.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Monday, February 25, 2013

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Fire kills 72-year-old woman, grandson KEMI OLAITAN IBADAN

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ragedy struck at the weekend when a 72-year-old woman, Mrs. Olubisi Anike Nihinlola, and her 11-year-old grandson, Waris Ajasa, were burnt to death by a mysterious fire which en-

gulfed their apartment.

The incident occurred at Abolade community of Omi-Adio in Ido Local Government area of Oyo State.

Many sympathisers, including relatives and members of the community were thrown into mourning as the charred

bodies of the victims were retrieved from the fire which was said to have been noticed about 11pm.

The only survivor, a 13-year-old girl, Latifat Ajasa, was said to have been rescued by spirited neighbours, who responded quickly to cries of help from the occupants of the

building.

During a visit to Emiloju Hospital, Agbatomi, Teachers’ Quarters, OmiAdio, Latifat was bandaged up on the bed and was said to be responding well to treatment.

The nurse on duty, Mrs. Olarewaju Opeyemi, said she was brought to the

hospital about midnight on Friday with severe burns on her legs, face and other parts of her body.

She said: “We thank God she is responding very well to treatment and her condition, as you can see, is very stable now.”

Latifat’s mother, who lost her 72-year-old mother and son, Waris, to the fire, said she was at a vigil when her apartment went up in flames.

The landlord, Pa Amusa Okegbemi, who narrowly escaped death in the fire, said was rescued by neighbours who forced the door open.

He said: “I heard a strange sound from the main parlour then I decided to check the corridor where I discovered that everywhere was full of smoke and flames.

“I cried for help before the door was forced open and I was rescued by neighbours.”

Mimiko begins second term •He is a caretaker gov, says PDP FELIX NWANERI AND HAKEEM GBADAMOSI

O L-R: Chairman of Ikoyi Club 1938, Mr. Richard Giwa-Osagie, General Manager, Acquisitions, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Wole Abu and the club’s Entertainment Chairman, Mr.Tunji Okesola, at the presentation of BlackBerry Z10 from Airtel in Lagos, yesterday.

Disagreement, errors delayed workers’ salaries –Osun

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overnor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration has explained the delay in the payment of salaries of some workers in Osun State.

The Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, said the delay was caused by the determination not to allow errors in payments and the failure by some stakeholders to immediately buy into the new payment methods aimed at ensuring transparency and promptness.

He said: “The state commenced biometricbased salary automation last year to achieve faster processing of salary and recording of the bona fide workers. This has the buy in of workers, whose labour unions were also part of the standing stakeholders’ committee.

“The automation went live in October and was used to pay November and December salaries in parallel with manual payroll. Then there was a disruption of the exercise in

January and therefore, automated processing could not commence as usual on the 7th of January.

“All entreaties to labour failed and they submitted that their members have agreed that January salary will be delayed until they clear their issues with the government.

“They pulled out of the stakeholders’ committee

meeting and there was no way we could know the issues until a meeting was held with Mr. Governor on January 21st.

“The issue was that 120 workers were left out in Hospital Management Board November salary out of 3,000 staff and that it was reduced to 60 workers in December.”

Bolorunduro also explained that Aregbesola intervened in the matter

to save the situation.

He said: “Mr. Governor enjoined them to consider the percentage and the improvement trend in the automated salary system. They promised they would get back to their union members (workers) in their next congress and that automation will not resume until then. It is their salary and if they don’t send inputs, there is no way we can process.

Exam fraud: Ekiti varsity expels 29 students MOJEED ALABI

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he authorities of Ekiti State University, EKSU, AdoEkiti, have expelled 29 students, including those on sandwich programme, for involvement in examination malpractices.

The university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ajibade Olubunmi, said in a statement that 10 others were also placed on suspension for two academic semesters for similar offences.

He said: “Having appeared before an inves-

tigation panel on examination misconduct, the expelled students were found liable for misconduct ranging from use of fake examination permit, procurement of fake scanned permit, use of mobile phone, handbook and written materials relevant to the paper, to impersonation.

“The 10 students suspended were found guilty of bringing sheets of paper containing information relevant to the courses into the examination hall, exchanging of question papers and inscription at the back of answer scripts.

“These were offences they committed during the 2009/2010, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 academic sessions.”

Olubunmi, who promised to make available the list of the affected students, warned them to stay away from the university, adding that plans had been concluded to arrest any of them found within the university community.

He appealed to parents to always take interest in the affairs of their wards, adding that they should contact the institution for information about their children.

ndo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, and his deputy, Alli Olanusi, were sworn in yesterday in Akure, the state capital, for their second term in office, with a promise to continue to work for the people.

The state Chief Judge, Justice Olaseinde Kumuyi, administered the Oath of Office and Oath of Allegiance on the governor and his deputy.

In his inaugural speech as the fifth democratically elected governor of Ondo State, Mimiko recalled his promise to work for the people during his first term in office.

He said: “I promised to work for you. With all sense of humility, you are witnesses to the fact that I have worked for you, I have worked with you; together we have posted great accomplishments.”

But the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described Mimiko as “a mere caretaker governor whose tenure will most certainly expire at the end of the legal fireworks currently in place” despite being sworn in for a second term.

In a statement by its Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka, the party also criticised the governor for spending over N1 billion on his inauguration when millions of unemployed youths in the state continue to roam the streets in search of job opportunities.

It said: “Our attention has been inevitably drawn to the absolutely elaborate and flamboyant week-long inauguration programme of the governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

“We take full cognisance of the fact that this inauguration is taking place, though mandatorily, in view of the fact that our petition against his election at the Election Petitions Tribunal is ongoing.

“Therefore we declare that given the quantum of evidences of electoral fraud that Mimiko and his party perpetrated during the October 20 election, which we have laid bare before the tribunal and given our renewed confidence in the judiciary, particularly the current puritanical actions of the Chief Justice of the Federation, we are confident that Mimiko for now is a mere caretaker governor whose tenure will most certainly expire at the end of the legal fireworks currently in place.”

However, Mimiko promised to cooperate and key into the regional integration of other SouthWest states to give room to cooperation and to benefit from the strength of each state.

“We assure our sister states of our commitment to cooperation such that our region can benefit from the individual strength of each state and possibilities of our aggregated potentials.

“We remain steadfast in our call for a restructuring of the country to achieve true federalism.

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Ondo community petitions Jonathan over oil firm’s activities OJO OYEWAMIDE AKURE

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esidents of Akpata community in the coastal area of Ondo State have petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources over the activities of Conoil Petroleum Company.

Members of the commu-

nity said the management of the oil company, through its agents, allegedly damaged their farmlands, waterways, fish ponds and equipment while carrying out oil exploration survey.

According to them in a petition by their lawyer, Legbon Akinsola, the survey was carried out last year following the discovery of oil deposits in the community Akinsola said that Conoil

signed an agreement with the community and owners of the affected fish ponds and farmlands, promising to compensate them for the damage done.

The people, however, lamented that since the survey was concluded, the company had refused to compensate them as promised.

They estimated the damaged property at N65 mil-

lion, warning that the consequences of the failure to fulfill the promise might not be in the interest of the company.

“The people of Akpata community are peace-loving and hardworking and they will never trade their means of livelihood for anything or allow any person, group of persons or corporate organisation to jeopardize the community’s means of live-

lihood for their selfish interest,” their petition reads.

They urged President Jonathan to call the management of Conoil to order and as well as prevail on the oil firm to fulfill the promise in the interest of peace.

They also warned that the oil company was capable of truncating the relative peace in the Niger Delta region and the Federal Government’s effort at

ensuring synergy and symbiotic relationship between oil companies and their host communities.

But an official of Conoil, who did not want his name mentioned, admitted that the company carried out the survey, but added that he was not sure whether or not the Akpata community farmlands, fish ponds and waterways were destroyed as claimed by the people.

Ekiti 2014: Aspirant advises PDP on choice of candidate

AIG seeks robust police, public relationship

ABIODUN NEJO

ABIODUN NEJO

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ADO EKITI

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has been advised to prioritise credibility, ability to deliver and passion to serve in the choice of its candidate for the 2014 governorship election in the state.

One of its governorship aspirants, Dr Peter Obafemi, urged the party to pick a “sellable candidate” so to win the poll.

The Director General of Obafemi Adewale Campaign Organisation, Dr Tunde Ajayi, told journalists at weekend in Ado-Ekiti that “there is the need for the best candidate who can clinch power to emerge”.

Ajayi, who described zoning as a convenient arrangement, said: “We need to get power first before reallocating it which zoning represents. And to clinch power from a government in power, a strong candidate with clean records is needed”.

Speaking against the clamour in some quarters within the party for zoning of the governorship position to Southern Senatorial District, the organisation said that it would be dangerous for the PDP to rely on zoning for the emergence of its candidate.

It said that it would earn the party great political goals if it picks its candidate from the Northern Senatorial District where the flagbearer of the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) hails from.

The campaign boss, who said Obafemi had all it takes to defeat the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi, assured that the PDP aspirant, who he described as grassroots person, would provide the missing link by giving Ekiti people sense of belonging in government.

ADO EKITI

L-R: Area Operations Director, British American Tobacco Nigeria, Mr Francisco Toso; Vice-Chairman of Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Adegbenga Kaka; Permanent Secretary, Oyo State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Kunle Adeduntan and recipient of award, Alhaji H. Afonja, at the BATN/BATIA Farmers’ Productivity awards ceremony in Iseyin, Oyo State, at the weekend.

Oyo acquires Ibadan land to build GRA –Commissioner

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he Oyo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adebayo Ojo, has explained the rationale behind the acquisition of the land at Idi-Ishin Alalubosa area of Ibadan by the state government, saying that it was for the purpose of developing it into Government Reserved Area (GRA).

This was contained in a statement issued yesterday by the Attorney-General in Ibadan, the state capital.

Some land owners in Ibadan had sued Governor

Abiola Ajimobi, the Attorney-General as well as the Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Survey for the acquisition of the land by the state government.

They prayed the court to declare the acquisition illegal and declare them the rightful owners of the land measuring 404.74 acres.

But the Attorney-General, in the statement, said that the legal action against the state government did not involve any traditional ruler.

Rather, he said only a faction of the land-owning

families sued the governor in his official capacity and also joined the Ministries of Justice and Lands, Housing and Survey over the land.

The land had formerly been acquired by the state for Nigerian Institute for Horticultural Research and Training (NIHORT) and the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) in Jericho and Idi-Ishin areas of Ibadan respectively.

The family had contended that since NIHORT and FRIN were unable to use the entire land, the un-

used portion should be released to them, being the original owners.

Mr. Ojo said that the land was meant to be developed into a GRA as part of government’s efforts at providing decent and affordable housing to the people.

He also said those who filed the action against the government had been disclaimed by the real heads and members of the concerned families “as impostors and fraudsters”, saying that the suit was filed without their knowledge, consent and authority.

Book on Obasanjo’s legacy for launch March 5 FEMI OYEWESO ABEOKUTA

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he complexity of the character, as well as those factors that formed the fulcrum for policy formulations of the administration of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 till 2007 will be unveiled in a book to be launched and presented to the public on March 5, 2013.

The management of Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) stated this at the weekend while addressing a press conference to announce the activities scheduled for the five-day event and the celebration of the 76th birthday of the former President and his legacy in Africa.

Speaking at the press conference jointly addressed by the leader

of the Obasanjo Legacy Book Project, Prof. Oladipo Akinkugbe and Alhaji Ahmed Joda, Akinkugbe said the book, which is entitled: “Olusegun Obasanjo: The Presidential Legacy 1999 till 2007” is “a quashihistorical efforts, richly illustrated and constitutes a dispassionate appraisal” of the former President’s eight year tenure in office.

Akinkugbe said though many publications exist

about Obasanjo, but the book was well researched and was forwarded by the former President of South Africa, Dr. Nelson Mandela.

“It quintessentially blazes an untrodden path in the political history of an African nation through that period. It bristles with national, regional, continental and global lessons for stated goals and proven performance,” he said.

he Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 8, Mr Johnson Jonathan, has asked officers and men to improve their relationship with the public.

Jonathan, who is in charge of police formations in Ekiti, Kwara and Kogi states, said: “I have not been getting reports of police brutality from Ekiti and the other two states in this zone, so I urge my men to keep the tempo by improving the synergy between them and the public.

The AIG, who spoke during an inspection tour of facilities in Ekiti State Command, also asked his men to embrace maintenance culture to keep their infrastructure in good condition.

He assured the men and officers of the Ekiti State Police Command that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, was determined to transform the Force through adequate provision of infrastructure that would make the police discharge their duties with courtesy and patriotism.

Jonathan said: “I am here in Ekiti on the instruction of the IGP to ascertain our infrastructure to know areas that are good and where to improve upon. But I am happy that the police in Ekiti are not only good professionally, but they have beautiful buildings and structures.

“I have not been getting bad reports of police brutality from Ekiti and other two states from this zone, so I urge my men to keep the tempo by improving the synergy between them and the public”.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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South-East

Monday, February 25, 2013

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Flooding: Anambra begins de-silting of drainages CHARLES OKEKE AWKA

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nambra State government has commenced de-silting of water drainages and gutters in Awka, Onitsha and other major cities in the state to prevent the outbreak of diseases and facilitate easy flow of flood during the rainy season.

Disclosing this in an interview with National Mirror, Anambra State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Sabestine U. Okoye, said the measure is part of the programmes being put in place by the government to prevent flood in Anambra this year.

The commissioner

condemned the situation whereby residents of the major cities were using the flood channels as dump sites.

Okoye, who said his team has been busy at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Avenue, Awka and Nwangene areas of Onitsha, identifying flood channels and clearing them of debris, said if the de-silting is not done now, the entire wastes will be scattered everywhere when it rains.

Shedding light on the extent of the job done so far, the commissioner for environment contends; “We are trying to de-silt the Sakamorie in Onitsha, it is like a gutter already built, but at the end of each rainy season, it is filled up with wastes, and at the Ose areas of Onitsha, we are opening up all the blocked-flood outlets to avoid the incident of flooding, and in Awka, we are opening up the gutters,

especially, the key areas of Arthur Eze Avenue that has been a constant problem.”

He urged the public to cooperate with his team as they move around de-silting gutters and water drainages.

“With what we are planning to do, if our people will avoid blocking the gutters, I bet you, we will think less of the danger of the flood arising from the drains,” Okoye stressed.

He also disclosed that they have made a proposal to the state governor, Mr. Peter Obi, on how to de-silt the gutters in all the key cities of Anambra State.

He stated that his ministry is now partnering with some NGO’s like the ‘Roll Back Malaria’ and LAGGA company to maintain a healthy environment in Onitsha and Awka.

The commissioner sympathised with members of

Apple Cosmetics rewards students with free hair styles DENNIS AGBO ENUGU

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Ndigbo tasked on Igbo President in 2015 KEMI OLAITAN IBADAN

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he Eze-Ndigbo of Ibadan and Oyo State, Eze Alex C. Anozie, has warned selfish politicians in the SouthEast geo-political zone of the country not to work against the bid of the Igbo race to produce the next President of the country in 2015.

In a press release made available to journalists in Ibadan yesterday, the leader of the Oyo Igbo community said no excuse would be taken for the non-emergence of an Igbo President in 2015.

His words: “Any Igbo man or woman that works against the emergence of a Nigeria President of the Igbo extraction come 2015 should be properly examined in order to find out if truly he or she is born with Igbo blood.”

He, therefore, urged all Igbo sons and daughters, as well as other Nigerians, to work for the actualisation of an Igbo President in 2015 for the country to experience the natural peace and progress that flows from the barrel of justice and fairness.”

He also used the opportunity to commend Dr. Fredrick Faseun, for coming out recently to advocate the emergence of an Igbo President in 2015, urging leaders of other tribes in Nigeria to emulate him.

the public who complained about the risks posed by concrete slabs that were pulled out from the gutters and abandoned on the highway, after the de-silting exercise at Zik Avenue, Awka.

He promised that the concrete slabs will be restored to their appropriate places in no distant time.

L-R: Wife of former Vice-President, Mrs. Beatrice Ekwueme; her husband, Dr. Alex Ekwueme; His Royal Majesty, Eze Nri, Obidiegwu Onyeso and Chairman, South-East Council of Traditional Rulers, His Royal Majesty, Cletus Ilomuanya, at the 2013 Igu Aro Festival sponsored by MTN, at the weekend.

PHCN introduces new billing system in Enugu DENNIS AGBO ENUGU

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he Enugu Distribution Zone of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, has introduced a new billing system known as Electricity Management System, EMS-2000, to take care

of ‘crazy bills’ and at the same time make payment easier for customers.

The Managing Director of the PHCN Enugu Zone, Engr. Suleiman Yahaya, while launching the new billing system at the weekend, noted that the webbased system is another landmark by the zone to provide better services to

its customers.

His words: “It will check the incidence of crazy billing and at the same time make payment easier for customers as they can make payment through ATM machines, online, and would no more be required to queue in the office for payment.”

He said the new billing

Offor donates $1.3m to polio eradication, says Rotary Int’l OLUFEMI ADEOSUN, ABUJA

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otary International at the weekend in Abuja, said that the donation by a philanthropist and billionaire, Sir Emeke Offor, to efforts at eradicating polio and other diseases in the country, has reached $1.3million.

The donation, according to the organisation, makes him the highest donor to Rotary International from Africa.

The Chairman, Rotary Foundation Trustees, Mr. Wilfred J. Wilkinson, said this during the induction ceremony/dinner in hon-

our of Sir Emeka Offor, organised by Rotary International (District 9125), Nigeria.

His words: “Your generous contributions this year to the Rotary Peace Centres, the PolioPlus Initiative, Education and Literacy, Maternal and Child Health and the Annual Fund have brought your total gift to the foundation to $1,031,000. Your financial contributions as of this date total the highest of any donor in Africa.

“Your exceedingly generous gifts will help to bring about peace throughout the world, will provide opportunities for children to be educated and will help to bring

about healthier mothers and children.

“When Nigeria is removed from this list of polio-endemic countries, you will have the joy of knowing that you assisted in attaining that special milestone.

Thank you for all your gifts.”

Offor in a similar gesture at the event donated another N50 million in support of the building of the Rotary PeaceCentre in Abuja.

In his speech at the occasion, he promised that he would remain in the service of humanity, especially now that his deeds have been acknowledged by Rotary International.

system ensures that SMS alerts are sent to customers’ phones and e-mails at the end of the month and as soon as payment is made through any of the newly introduced means of payment.

Yahaya lamented the ever growing figure of debt owed the company which has been estimated at about N15 billion with the governors of the five states of the South-East and security agencies, among the top debtors.

He lamented the effect of the debt on the company which he noted has recorded a remarkable improvement, blaming the governors and security agencies, including the army and police for the rising debt figure in the zone.

Yahaya also disclosed the setting up of a taskforce to go from street to street in Enugu to verify all prepaid meters following a recent discovery that 70 percent of prepaid meters in the state are being bypassed thereby incurring more losses to the company.

s a way of rewarding costumers’ loyalty and patronage in the past 20 years, NN Fems Industries Limited, makers of Ozone and Apple cosmetics is making free hair styles to students of tertiary institutions across the country.

The company is currently going round different higher institutions in the South-East with professional hair stylists making free hairs styles to as many students as volunteered to visit their stands in the campuses.

Speaking with our correspondent at the premises of Enugu State College of Education, Technical, Enugu, at the weekend, the South-East Regional Manager of the company, Mr. Emeka Iheonu, said the company is rewarding its customers, especially the younger ones that have patronised their products in the last 20 years.

Iheonu said the free hair styles reward is an activity that is a prelude to a grand finale national draw where customers would win fabulous prizes, ranging from brand new cars to other prize categories.

He said their target is to touch every institution of higher learning in the country preparatory to Apple Cosmetics Stylist of the Year contest, where winners will emerge in Lagos.

“We want to empower the stylists. We want to make millionaires among stylists and the young ones for being partners in the business and continue to support us,” said Iheonu.

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Politics

2015: Stakeholders’ recipe for free polls

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Nigeria’s economy heading towards collapse, ACN warns SINA FADARE

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he Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned that the economy ship of the country is drifting swiftly towards collapse, unless the Federal Government cuts the astronomical cost of running a bloated government and takes urgent measures to diversify the economy.

The ACN stated this in Lagos yesterday in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, warning

that if urgent measures were not taken, the government may not be able to pay its bills, including workers’ salaries, within the next few years.

The party pointed out that the Federal Government should not see this as a political statement but rather a clarion call to save the country from impending economic disaster that is looming.

Mohammed said the red alert was based on four empirical evidence: “The cost of oil production which has skyrocketed from $4 per barrel in 2002 to $35

presently; the massive corruption in the oil sector, with oil theft and sabotage leading to lost production and costing Nigeria some $6 billion annually in crude theft; the sharp fall in the discovery of new oil and gas reserves due to the low investment in the sector, and the most serious of all, the challenge posed by alternative sources of global supply of oil and gas.”

On the discovery of new oil and gas reserves, the ACN said the disastrously-

low level of exploration activity in Nigeria is supported by the statistics released by the US Department of Energy for deepwater discoveries from 2009 to 2011 in which Brazil alone contributed some 40 new discoveries or 20 per cent of the global total, US and Australia contributed 10 per cent each, countries like Ghana making nine new discoveries or 5 per cent of the global total, while Nigeria had only four discoveries or 2 per cent of the global total

during this period.

“This paltry discovery of new oil and gas reserves is due to the low investment in the sector, which needs to attract $15 billion annually in capital investment, up from the present $3 billion in order to remain a significant global oil supplier and a respected player in OPEC,” the party said.

It said, however, that all those challenges pale into little significance when placed against the serious challenge posed by alter-

native sources of global supply of oil and gas seriously - that is Shale oil and Shale gas.

The ACN therefore called on the Federal Government to put on its thinking cap in order to rise to the challenges listed above and save Nigeria’s economy from collapse, adding that any delay could mean that those in charge of the country’s affairs would not have enough time to change course as the ship of the state heads for the rocks.

Eko Atlantic: PDP carpets Fashola over Clinton’s invitation OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

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he Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Governor Babatunde Fashola-led government of a deliberate attempt to internationalise its Eko Atlantic project by inviting former President Bill Clinton to grace its flag off.

Speaking through its Publicity Secretary, Taofeek Gani, the PDP reiterated that “the Eko Atlantic project is a misplacement of priority in the state and only capable of encouraging stealing in the state as a plot of the land is sold for N450 million and a buyer is expected to buy at least two plots.”

It said: “It is our strong belief that Governor Fashola has indeed adopted propagandist’s style of governance by ‘mobilising’ Clinton to the site of the Eko Atlantic Project in order to give the notion that the project has got international acceptance. As far as we are concerned, in Lagos PDP, the project remains a waste of public funds.”

It added that the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan at the ceremony cannot remove the toga of misplaced priority from it.

While putting blame of the incessant flood in Lagos

at the doorstep of the Eko Atlantic Project, the PDP said that the recent “unprecedented ocean surge at the Kuramo beach was the resultant effect of the sand filling of the Bar Beach.”

Gani therefore advised Fashola to stop wasting taxpayers’ money on the project, saying that locating such project in an already congested Lagos Island is “nonsensical.”

But in a swift reaction, Lagos ACN Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, said the PDP is only blind to the realities on ground, adding that if Clinton’s invitation is a propaganda, what would it describe the attendance of its national leader and President Jonathan at the event?

He added: “A hut builder would not understand what someone who is building a 50-storey building is doing. The PDP is a hut builder and it would never understand what the Eko Atlantic project is all about.”

Igbokwe, while speaking to National Mirror, said that Lagos PDP is suffering from self delusion and cannot see beyond its nose, adding that if Fashola is a propagandist, then President Jonathan has endorsed Fashola’s propaganda by being part of the epoch-making event.

L-R: Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson and his Enugu State counterpart, Sullivan Chime, during a solidarity visit to Chime in Enugu at the weekend.

G37 denies floating political party OBIORA IFOH ABUJA

T

he G37, a new movement, yesterday denied reports that it is about to float any political party, saying it would rather restrict itself to making appropriate comments on various national issues from time.

The group said its primary mission is to join efforts with others from across party lines to move Nigeria forward.

The group said that the false impression in the media at the weekend about their mission was regretted as it has never discussed the issue of floating a political party even as its members are mainly leaders of political parties and associations.

It was reported yesterday that the group comprising of eminent political figures including former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, Akin Osuntokun; former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu; Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), a former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olabode George, Ambassador Fati Abubakar, Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to Ghana, Musiliu Obanikoro, a former Minister of Aviation in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Femi Fani-Kayode, and Chris Uche (SAN) among others have met several times in Abuja hatching how it would transform

to a political party.

But in a statement by the Publicity Secretary of the group, Senator Emmanuel Onwe, he said that G.37 will not float any political party but intends to make its input to national development in a very unique and innovative way, saying: “we will discuss and make appropriate comments on various national issues from time to time.”

Onwe said: “The G37 comprises of politicians, professionals and businessmen from all over the country who have interest in the unfolding political scenario in our country and who seek to make an input in the development of Nigeria.

“We are non-partisan, which means that our members and leaders are drawn

from all the major political parties and indeed some of our members are not in any party at all. We have created a strong platform where Nigerians from every part of the country and from all the various political divides can sit together and discuss national issues, forge national unity and cohesion and help our country to move forward. Every state of our country is well represented in the group and we are not affiliated to any political party even though most of our members are playing leading roles in all the major political parties that exist in Nigeria today.

It is not our intention to form a new political party and neither did we ever discuss or deliberate about the single term agenda in our last meeting.

14

Politics

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

2015: Stakeholders’ recipe for free polls Despite the ongoing constitutional amendment to address seeming imbalances in the Nigerian federation, participants at the recent convention of the Igbo Youth Movement, insist on a national conference to save the country from the likely dangers of the 2015 general elections, writes FELIX NWANERI.

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he need for the convocation of a national conference to discuss critical issues affecting the unity of Nigeria before the 2015 general elections topped deliberations at the recent annual convention of the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) held in Enugu, the Enugu State capital.

The convention, which is the 14th edition had the theme: “National conference before 2015 elections: The only roadmap to a greater Nigeria.” It brought together political leaders from the South-South, South-West, Middle-Belt and South-East zones of the country, who brainstormed on how to salvage Nigeria from the numerous challenges she is facing.

Among those who graced the event were foremost constitutional lawyer and former Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ben Nwabueze (SAN); former Chief of Defence Staff, Alani Akinrinade; chairman of Ethnic National Movement, Solomon Asemota (SAN); Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Inter-Party Affairs, Senator Ben Obi; former governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Col. Joe Achuzie (rtd) and Admiral Nubuisi Kanu (rtd).

Others were Secretary General of the Patriots, Chief Mike Orabator; Col. Ben Gbulie (rtd); J. U Ayalogu; Emeka Onyeso; Guy Ikoku, Professors Felix Oragwu and Mark Odu, and Rev. Ukandu Ucheya among others.

The leaders, who took turn to address the large audience at the lecture, unanimously agreed that anything short of the convocation of a national conference before the 2015 general elections would spell doom for the nation, as there is the need to bring the country’s ethnic nationalities to deliberate on how to attain greater heights and fashion a constitution that would be people-oriented before the next polls.

Nwabueze, who was the guest speaker, set the tone of the discourse when he stressed the need to preserve Nigeria as one indivisible entity. According to him, the convocation of a national conference is overdue, as there are so many variables indicating that Nigeria is a failed state.

The former Education Minister warned that if proactive steps are not taken to checkmate the impending danger, through a round table dialogue of the various segments of the country before 2015; there is the possibility that the country might head to the rocks.

His words: “This country is on the verge of becoming a failed state, there are so many failed states in Africa and Nigeria is on the verge of getting that status of a failed state. Before now, we didn’t know about kidnapping, but it has become a

Nwabueze

way of life. We did not know about bombings before, but today churches, schools and offices are being bombed on daily basis. The worst is that the bombers are not coming from outside the country, we are bombing ourselves.”

Maintaining that Nigeria is on the edge, he said a nation that cannot provide a credible election for its people is a failed state.

“In 2003 and 2011 we had no credible elections, yet we are talking about democracy.

A country that cannot secure social and economic rights for its people is a failed state.

Read Chapter Two of Nigeria’s constitution and you will understand what I am talking about; we don’t have leaders but looters.”

Corruption, he also noted, is another disturbing issue in the country, saying that “any state that allows the kind of unbridled corruption being perpetuated in Nigeria is failing.” This is as he faulted the outrageous cost of governance while the masses are suffering and living in abject poverty.

“The National Assembly members have all kinds of allowances running into millions of naira. Come out and tell me if in all these, this country is not on the verge of a failed state,” he said.

To move away from the current situation, Nwabueze insisted that a national conference should be organised as soon as possible, emphasising that it should not be seen as a way to destabilise Nigeria.

According to him, “it is for us to come together and deliberate, it will lead to peace, it will lead to a constitution which source of authority is the people, we can’t have any substitute for the people. We are serious about it, we are working to achieve it and we shall succeed.”

Also speaking, Akinrinade and Achuzie agreed that the situation in the country is so bad that the present leaders must go beyond rhetoric and seek solution to “what has obviously become a complex problem for the country.”

Akinrinade, who attributed the country’s problems to the 1999 Constitution that was handed over to the country by the military, averred that a nation-state cannot be ruled by military fiat and advised that efforts be made to prepare an acceptable and workable constitution by Nigerians themselves.

Achuzie, a former scribe of Ohanaeze, on his part said the existence of many na-

Akinrinade

A NATIONAL CONFERENCE SHOULD BE ORGANISED AS

SOON AS POSSIBLE...

IT SHOULD NOT BE SEEN AS A WAY TO DESTABILISE

NIGERIA

tions within Nigeria has become a major threat to her continued existence as one nation, but noted that the national conference will help in addressing the challenge.

“Unless we go back and convene a national conference where all the ethnic nationalities will say how they will coexist, there will be no movement forward.

Something must be done to rescue the situation,” he said, decrying the continued suppression of a “perpetually vanquished people” despite the claim of federalism as a result of the “no victor, no vanquished” declaration after the civil war.

Ezeife, who said the call for a national conference was faultless, noted: “I agree that Nigeria must have a national dialogue.

If not for anything else, after 100 years of our existence, we should be able to talk about ourselves. We will remain together but we have to understand ourselves.”

Similarly, Asemota, said: “The constitution we are operating now is very defective.

Even the National Assembly has agreed to that and that is why 60 areas have been shortlisted for amendment. The constitution gave us the right to vote but no corresponding right to be voted for. Rather political parties have right to be voted for. So, credible elections demand that we have a people’s constitution. Also, asking for a national conference before the next elections is very valid.”

Prof. Odu, a former national president of the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, in a paper titled: “Ndigbo: Identity crisis has ended,” predicted an end to the era of “cash and carry politics” and admonished the people of the South-East against another identity crisis.

“It is definite that our population is ample enough to guide Nigeria’s positive evolution. Our experience forbids another crash. It also forbids forcible struggle for

national leadership. What matters is to identify with the positive volitions of true Nigerians and stick with them at all time,” he said.

Odu regretted that Ndigbo have been short-changed by a nation they had contributed so much to maintain, saying: “In all their wave-making outside their homeland, they left little evidence at home.

When displaced they returned to little infrastructure losing their resources in foreign lands and starting afresh with bonds of ancestral cognateness and benefits of will to survive and guts to start afresh.”

He, however, urged them to embrace an enduring Nigeria, advising that no patchwork should be tolerated in the Nigerian Project. “It is either a country with fairness and equity based on right principles or we sue for confederation of parts,” he said.

On his part, Senator Obi said President Jonathan and indeed the Federal Government is not against the convocation of a national conference, but that its agitators must organise themselves and meet with both the president and the leaders of the National Assembly.

His words: “We’ve all agreed to a national conference, but at this time, we should be able to go beyond calling for a national conference and initiate action towards realising same. Even the president himself has never said he is opposed to the conference but we need the right calibre of men and women to go to Abuja and demand from both the president who is heading the executive and Senator David Mark who is heading the legislature on the need to convoke a national conference.

“We must move towards solving the problem. Let it be said that there is an eminent delegation demanding for the conference; by then, the ball would have been firmly played into the court of the executive and the legislature, who of course are the proper authorities to convoke such conference.”

He also urged the youths to rise up to the challenge of helping the nation sail out of its present challenges by refusing to be used as thugs by politicians during elections and ensuring that only people with credible and verifiable integrity are elected into positions of authority in the next elections.

“President Jonathan has put in place machineries that would help in conducting credible elections in the country, henceforth today votes are counting. We tried it in Edo, it worked; we tried it in Ondo, it worked. It will be tried in Ekiti and Osun states where elections will come up in a matter of months. It is now left for you, the youths to equally team up with the president and ensure that your tomorrow is guaranteed,” Obi said.

The national president of IYM, Eliot Ukoh, in his remarks described the lecture’s theme as apt, as the survival of Nigeria as one indivisible entity is blinking.

He added that though Igbo youths believe in one Nigeria, such would not be effective without a restructuring of the country.

“I want to make it very clear that we so much believe in Nigeria, but what we are saying is that the country must be restructured. For such restructuring to be done, we believe that a national conference is inevitable,” Ukoh said.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Monday, February 25, 2013

15

The gnats in PDP IT IS ALSO FOR THE HeartBeat

SAME REASON OF

CALLISTUS

ASSERTIVENESS THAT

OKE

Callistusoke@nationalmirroronline.net 08054103275 (SMS ONLY)

A

ssuming I am asked told to do a profile of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I will accept the offer, no doubt. This will be my synopsis: “The PDP was the ugliest but richest of the three political parties burnished by the departing military in 1998 to compete for the mandate to rule Nigeria after their exit in May 1999. The other two parties, All Peoples Party (APP) and the Alliance for Democracy had more appealing look, but without the enormous resources needed to seduce the electorate.

And so, with the money for hand, back for ground political philosophy of the average Nigerian voters, it was not therefore a surprise, the PDP won the hearts of Nigerians in 1999 to form the government at the centre and in the majority of the 36 states of the federation.

“And through a combination of judicial activism and untrammeled pro activeness of the likes of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the political space was expanded by the introduction of new

I

t cannot be denied that there is anomie in our land. When a nation, more than 50 years after attaining nationhood still thinks of dissolution rather than rebirth; when citizens see more of their differences rather than what unite them; when those who should proudly declare themselves the future of the nation are already seeing themselves as a wasted generation; when yesterday’s leaders, who should sit back in the comfort of their retirement to mentor new leaders, still see themselves as real players in the polity, then it becomes difficult for us to have a new beginning.

When there is a collective amnesia in the land, hope is lost and right purposes are defeated. The beauty of nationhood is obliterated while the evils of diversity are magnified. The recipe for national collapse are collated and highlighted for everybody to cook the nation’s downfall. In this anaemic state and collective amnesia, more enemies of the state are sired to set the stage for war of national dissolution.

At a time China, now a colossus, still romanticized on the Chineseness of Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Singapore. There was also a time South Korea dreamt of the Korean reunification. The history of Germany still plays out as a worthy example of unification, so it is surely madness to advance the cause of Nigeria’s disintegration. Today, Europe celebrates its union, while the United States, a richly diverse continental shelf,

EXISTENTIALIST EXPLAINS

PRESIDENT

GOODLUCK JONATHAN’S CURRENT DRIVE TO CONTROL THE PARTY MACHINERY players in the nation’s political game in the build up to 2003 general elections. Before the current exercise of INEC sieving the wheat from the chaffs, a motley crowd of over 50 political parties were available to woo the Nigerian electorate for their love and hearts.

“We are now in 2013, two years to the 2015 general elections. Fourteen years in power at the centre and in the majority of the 36 states of the federation, the popular imagination is that Nigerians’ love affair with the PDP is a heart breaking experiencing that should end in divorce.”

The synopsis above is my objective assessment of the 14 years of PDP administration in Nigeria. There is no disputing the fact that the PDP has enjoyed a string of good fortune. It is the most politically accepted party in the country, and this has

translated into enormous resources at its beck and call. However, its stifling grip on the politics of the nation has also foisted a culture of impunity on the polity. The access to the ticket of the party in an election is seen, in most cases, as victory assured. Unfortunately, this very development is the reason for the fissiparous crises that have engulfed the party.

Mark it, only a reinvention could save the party. But this is a prospect not seen in the horizon. Ponder over this: The three presidents produced by the party since May 1999 were politicians with non-existent political structures. At the beginning, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s political machine, held sway in the amalgam of interests called the PDP. It was therefore, existential that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo pick Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a key member of PDM, to be his running mate for the April 1999 presidential election.

It was only after securing his second term that OBJ could sufficiently assert himself as the party’s numero uno. The ousting of Audu Ogbeh as the national chairman of the party in February 2005 and the taming of Atiku later, are instructive.

It is also for the same reason of existentialist assertiveness that explains President Goodluck Jonathan’s current drive to control the party machinery. Presido has demonstrated that he learnt from the master himself when he foisted Alhaji

Bamanga Tukur on the party’s hierarchs as the national chairman in March 2012.

This singular act unsettled the power equation of the party and established the unassailable lordship of Dr. Jonathan in the ruling party.

You and I know what this bravado is all about: To soften the political turf and muffle opposition to his second term presidential bid in 2015. However, the modus operandi is at the heart of the raging crises within the party.

The PDP is a coalition of vested interests. The Governors Forum, geopolitical caucuses of the party, big businesses, and of course, the founding fathers club are the assertive vested interests; and they make enormous demands on the party.

Alhaji Bamanga Tukur leads the National Working Committee of the party, but he carries on as if he exists to do the biddings of only his master: GEJ. If Jonathan wants the 2015, the governors would also want to be allowed to control the machinery of the party at the state level. This is the root of the governors’ angst. The Adamawa State example, where there is supremacy war between Tukur and Governor Murtala Nyako, is symptomatic of the clash of interest among the party wigs. The PDP’s brand of politics must change, if its continuing relevance is to be assured.

Puzzle: How politically correct would be for someone of the calibre of OBJ to suffer humiliation in a party he was once numero uno?

Amnesty for Nigeria’s ‘enemies’ is proud of its oneness and vastness. Indonesia offers a very good case study of nationhood in diversity. An archipelago comprising more than 300 islands with diverse languages and cultures colonized by the Dutch, Indonesia had found its national bearing ever before its independence with the resolution at a youth conference, declaring Indonesia as one indivisible and indissoluble nation with one national language, BahasaIndosnesia, and not the language of the Dutch which colonized them.

The problem with Nigeria is not peculiar. What is peculiar to us is the lack of faith in ourselves. What is peculiar to us is our arrogance to one another. What is peculiar to us are our complexes, unfounded phobias and misdirected hatred towards one another. Nations are not built on phobias and complexes, but on shared values and common purpose.

It is the enemies of the nation who latch on differences and diversity of tribes, ethnicity, language and religion to play up centrifugal tendencies in the country. They sing the songs of war and speak the language of separation; they remind the citizens of the past odious wars of attrition. They are the funders and financiers of destruction of national assets, human and material, causing distraction from the pursuit of national development.

Somehow, they may have some justifications from what they have suffered.

But these are not sufficient to compro-

CELEBRATION OF TRIBALISM AND ARROGATION OF ETHNIC SUPERIORITY ARE ALL INDICATIONS OF IGNORANCE mise the essence of unity and brotherhood of humanity. Nationhood is one of the paths to achieving the unity of mankind.

As a student of the Quran, I am always enthralled by a particular verse which suggests that the essence of the diversity of mankind is not for unnecessary competition and despise, but just identity. The best of you is he who fears God most, that verse concludes. This verse is amplified by a prophetic saying that the Arabs have no superiority over the non-Arabs, nor do the rich over the poor. There is an illustration of this reality in the position of Bilal, an African of Abyssinian, being the preferred muadhin in the time of the Prophet. When an Arab denigrated him because of his colour of his skin and the incident got to the attention of the Prophet, the Prophet excoriated the Arab, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, for still possessing traces of jahilliyyah (ignorance) in him.

Celebration of tribalism and arrogation of ethnic superiority are all indications of ignorance. Liberated and enlightened be-

Mirror of the moment ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE korewarith@yahoo.com, 08090585723 (SMS only)

ings discount such ignorant attitude towards one another. We are all the same.

It is the enemies of the nation who call for and support disintegration. But they can be forgiven because they are acting on ignorance and not of enlightenment. So, as we approach a century of our togetherness, despite the hate we nurture against ourselves, we should think of amnesty for all the enemies of Nigeria, who by errors of omission or commission, have been responsible for the anomie in our land, anaemia of our economy and consequently our collective amnesia and also the cry of marginalization and campaign of national dissolution.

Perhaps when they see the beauty in our diversity, they will lead the call for our continuity and stability. There is grace and power in the unity of our nation, Nigeria. There is beauty in our diversity.

Solanke is the Head of Voice of Nigeria Training Centre, Ikorodu, Lagos.

16

Editorial

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

All the Facts, All the Sides All the Facts, All the Sides

A PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD A PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

STEVE AYORINDE STEVE AYORINDE YELE AKINROLABU YELE AKINROLABU SEYI FASUGBA SEYI FASUGBA BOLAJI TUNJI BOLAJI TUNJI GBEMI OLUJOBI GBEMI OLUJOBI LANRE OYETADE DOZIE OKEBALAMA DOZIE OKEBALAMA ADESOYE ADEKOYA ADESOYE ADEKOYA CALLISTUS OKE CALLISTUS OKE ISE-OLUWA IGE ISE-OLUWA IGE KAYODE BALOGUN JNR KAYODE BALOGUN JNR FRANK OBOH FRANK OBOH

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Journalists’ need for discretion

he echoes of the February 8 killing of nine female health workers involved in the polio immunisation exercise in Kano State rang very loud last Friday when the strong hammer of Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) landed hard on Wazobia FM, Kano. The licence of the popular radio station was revoked, thus, technically banning all broadcasting operations of the station in the ancient city. For both the Nigerian journalism and democracy, the development is a very sad one as it reminds us of the dark days of military government. It detracts from the substance of our democracy, especially the culture of tolerance and restraint it imposes. We are therefore, appealing to the authorities to take another look at the ban and adopt a less combative approach to the resolution of the case of the media house.

There is no doubt that the February 8 senseless killing of the female health workers by unknown gunmen in Kano and the subsequent killing of three North Korean doctors in Yobe State two days later, are capable of unnerving the strongest of leaders and thus precipitate the harsh punitive actions now being meted out to the offending journalists and

THE POWER OF THE PRESS IS ENORMOUS; WE PLEAD THAT IT MUST BE EXERCISED WITH HEAVY SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY their media house. However, in deciding what punitive measures must be taken to both deter such seemingly unholy conduct and sufficiently act to propitiate the authorities and families of the deceased, care should be taken not unleash further collateral damage on the society.

We see the ban on the media house as an over kill act, an overreaction, which goes with a lot of socio-economic consequences.

The Federal Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, last Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, hinted on this punitive action when he stated that both the Federal Government and Kano State government had made a case for sanctions against the media to NBC. The ban, coming only just two days after such hint, shows that not enough consultation was made before the ban was placed. We feel that all the critical stakeholders, including the Nige-

ria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), ought to be carried along. If this had been, perhaps, the outcome would have been different.

It is instructive also to note that the Kano State Police Command had arrested three journalists working for the media organisation immediately after the killing of the nine and charged them to court for criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide. Since the trial is still on, going ahead to ban the station, to us, is a serious assault on the judicial process of the country. We see this as a case of scape-goatism.

Our position is borne by the history of the opposition of some sections of the North to immunisations, an opposition that is both cultural and religious. It could be a freak of coincidence that the killings occurred after the broadcast of the offensive materials.

They could still have happened without the broadcast. After all there have been senseless killings in the region not instigated by anybody or groups.

We are not in any way excusing the unprofessional conduct of the concerned journalists or the failure of the management of the media house to put in place effective gate keeping mechanisms that would have prevented such

an ugly occurrence. Our Constitution could have guaranteed freedom of expression and given the press the necessary leeway to operate without unnecessary inhibitions. This, however, is not any license for media practitioners to be reckless. The power of the press is enormous; we plead that it must be exercised with heavy sense of responsibility. The press can only flourish in a well ordered society. Journalists have the social corporate responsibility to contribute meaningfully to the promotion of law and order and advance only causes that would lift the country economically and politically.

For the press to be a responsible fourth estate of the realm, the journalists must be properly trained and retrained; they must be imbued with values that could make them function professionally. The drive for enhanced professionalism is what we feel the Kano saga has underscored.

Therefore, we urge that the NUJ, BON and media owners, must collaborate in ensuring that only the right people find their way into the profession.

Once again, we appeal to the federal authorities and the Kano State government to reconsider their stance against the erred media house and lift the revocation of its license.

ON THIS DAY February 25, 2004 The premiere of the film, The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson, began. It was highly acclaimed by those who wanted to view the exact nature of what happened to Jesus on the cross.

There was some criticism made of the film, suggesting that it was intended to indicate that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.

February 25, 1948 Under pressure from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, President Eduard Benes allows a communist-dominated government to be organized. Western observers decried the virtually bloodless communistcoupasanexampleof SovietexpansionintoEasternEurope.

Eduard Benes, head of the London-based Czech government-in-exile during the Second World War, returned in 1945 to take control of a new nationalgovernmentfollowingtheSovietwithdrawalinJulyof thatyear.

February 25, 1921 The Soviet Russian Red Army entered the Georgian capital, Tbilisi and installed a Bolshevik regime in the country, thus overthrowing the Social-Democratic (Menshevik) government. The conflict was a result of the expansionist policy by the Soviets, who aimed at control of the same territories which had been part of the Russian Empire until the turbulent events of World War I.

A2 18

Business Courage

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Cover

Another hope br The prospect of finding lasting solutions to the lingering electricity challenge in the country brightens with the signing of Sale and Purchase Agreement between the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and 15 firms that acquired distribution and generation companies created from the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)

By Semiu Salami

L

ast Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria inched nearer what many have seen as the closest attempt in addressing the ageless power sector crisis, with the signing of sale and purchase agreements between the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and the 15 firms that won the bid for the takeover of power distribution and generation companies unbundled from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

Fifteen firms were last October shortlisted by the NCP to acquire 60 per cent of the 10 Distribution Companies (Discos) and five Generation Companies (Gencos) formed after the PHCN was unbundled as part of the power sector reform.

The preferred bidders for the Discos as approved by the NCP include Kann Consortium for the Abuja Successor Company at $164 million, Vigeo Power Consortium for Benin at $129 million, West Power &Gas for Eko at $135 million, Interstate Electrics Ltd for Enugu at $126 million, Integrated Energy for Ibadan at $169 million and NEDC/KEPCO for Ikeja at $131 million. Others are Aura Energy Ltd for Jos at $82 million, Sahelian Power SPV Ltd for Kano at $137 million, 4Power Consortium for Port Harcourt at $124 million and Integrated Energy Distribution & marketing for Yola at $59 million. For the Gencos, the preferred bidders are Amperion for Geregu Plant at $132 million, Mainstream for Kainji Plant at $50.76 million plus commencement fee

of $237,87m, North-South for Shiroro Plant at $23.60 million plus commencement fee of $111 million, Transcorp/Woodrolck for Ughelli Plant at $300 million and CMEC/Eurafric for Sapele Plant at $201 million.

With last week’s signing of the Sale and Purchase agreement, the firms are expected to make a down payment of 25 per cent of the share purchase price within 15 business days and are expected to pay up the balance of 75 per cent with six months for the transaction to be finally sealed.

By implication, by Monday, March 18, Kann Consortium would have to pay $41 million, Vigeo Power Consortium will pay $32.25, West Power &Gas will cough out $33.75 million and Interstate Electrics Ltd will be required to pay $31.5 million. By the same day, Integrated Energy would also be required to pay $42.25 million and NEDC/KEPCO will pay $32.75 million. Aura Energy Ltd will pay $20.5 million, Sahelian Power SPV Ltd, $34.25 million, 4Power Consortium will pay $31 million and Integrated Energy Distribution & marketing will also pay $14.75 million.

For the Gencos, Amperion will pay $33 million, Mainstream to pay $72.2 million, North-South will pay $33.65 million, Transcorp/Woodrolck $75 million and CMEC/Eurafric $ 50.25 million.

Part of the agreement signed was a Gas supply and Aggregation pact between Geregu, Sapele, Ughelli power plants and their respective gas suppliers.

The Generation Companies

(GenCos) also signed ancillary agreements with the Transmission Company of Nigeria, thus paving the way for compensation to providers of services like black start, spinning reserve, frequency support etc, in line with best practices in the power industry.

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) also signed its first set of Power Purchase Agreements with six of the legacy power plants, as well as some vesting contracts with all the 11 distribution companies.

The process which analysts say reached a major milestone last week started about eight years ago, when the vision of reforming the power sector was legally backed with the enactment of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act that provided for the unbundling of the PHCN successor companies.

In 2011, when the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) be-

gan the process, 301 Expression of Interests (EOIs) were received but the number was later pruned down to 207 firms, based on those that met the minimum qualification standards set. Out of this number, only 163 firms purchased bid documents.

Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who chairs the NCP, described the event as “important landmark”, as it marked several important milestones in the on-

going reform of the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry.

Sambo, who was represented by the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, thanked the World Bank for “its support towards making these agreements bankable through the provision of Partial Risk Guarantee credit support instrument.”

The Acting Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Benjamin

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Cover

ightens

Ezra Dikki, said the ceremony “underscores President Jonathan’s commitment to move Nigeria from darkness to light, and leave Nigeria a better place than he met it. “Today’s signing ceremony is a clear indication that where there is a will, there is always a way.” He noted.

As part of the effort to address the power challenge, the BPE had in 2012 signed a $23 million Management Contract Agreement with Manitoba Hydro of Canada for the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria for an initial period of three years. For months, the contract was embroiled in serious controversy. Since July last year when Manitoba had been on ground and reportedly drawing from the agreement fee, government is yet to inaugurate its board for it to effectively take charge of the company.

The Chairman of Transcorp/ Woodwork, Tony Elumelu, described the signing as very sig-

nificant for the country in its quest to generate enough electricity for the populace.

He said the signing of the agreement was particularly significant to Transcorp, stressing that the company would employ its magic wand in turning around the Ughelli Power Plant to the benefit of the people.

“Today is a very significant day for Nigeria, significant because the issue of Public Private Partnership is in action. For us at Transcorp, it is a very symbolic platform that we have just acquired. We believe that power is so significant for the economic development of the country, not only economy but also social development of the country.

When we get power right, it will lead to the development of Nigeria economy and will touch the society in so many other areas. And for us, this is what we preach; we must use our platform to create economic prosperity as well as social wealth.

So, it is a good day for Nigeria and good luck to every one of us and congratulations to government for making this happen,” Elumelu said.

Also last week, the government took another further step in its effort at boosting power generation in the country, when the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) signed a contract with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for technology transfer in furtherance of government’s resolve to build a nuclear plant for the generation of electric power by 2020.

Chairman and Chief Executive of NAEC, Dr Franklin Osaisai, signed the Country Programme Framework (CPF) for Nigeria while Kwaku Aning, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, endorsed it for the global body.

NAEC, in a statement, explained that a country technical cooperation between a member state and the IAEA identifies priority areas where the transfer of nuclear technology and technical cooperation resources would be directed to support national development goals.

“This Country Programme Framework (CPF) serves as the frame of reference in the area of Technical Cooperation (TC) between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),”

the NAEC statement said.

It noted that the document was thus the reference for use by IAEA in preparing programme requests by Nigeria, and in appraising those requests and allocating resources.

However, it appears that the hitches in the privatisation process may not be over yet as Labour is alleging a shortfall in the computation of PHCN workers’ entitlements, less than 24 hours after the Federal Government announced the approval of N384 billion to offset the entitlements of employees of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, had announced the package after the Federal Executive Council Meeting last Wednesday.

The two unions in the sector which had engaged government in a protracted negotiation over the ongoing reforms in the power sector and had resisted the handover of the subsidiary companies to private investors until after all labour issues have been resolved, said what the government announced was not in conformity with the agreement reached.

General Secretary, National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Joe Ajaero, in a statement said Alexander Forbes and the BPE had discovered and accepted fundamental errors in the data used for their computation in the course of the Committee’s discussion and had agreed to reconvene at a later date to address the errors.

“It is amazing that figures can be conjured to calculate the exit benefits without reference to the technical Committee.

The N384 billion is laughable because government is aware that one third of the staff population is excluded, and majority of those captured had their entitlements calculated based on two grades lower than their actual grades,” Ajaero said.

Ajaero described the offer as provocative adding that the technical committee set up by the Federal Government to look into the workers’ exit package issue had not concluded its report.

He claimed that the committee had discovered some errors in the data used for the computation of the package. “So, the union was surprised to hear that the Federal Government had concluded the computation

Sambo

Atedo

of the exit benefits of members without reference to the technical committee,’’ the statement said.

The statement described the package as inadequate, noting that one third of the workers were excluded and majority of those captured had their entitlements calculated on two levels lower than their grades.

The union urged the Federal Government to allow the technical committee to finish its work.

“I said the matter on regularisation of casual staff had yet to be concluded and their benefits were supposed to be included

too. The calculation of the exit package was not based on accurate data and, therefore, unacceptable by the union. The union will resist it through legal means,” he said.

Also last week, President of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Bede Opara, said that President Goodluck Jonathan was not properly briefed on the agreement reached at the technical Committee meeting held last month. Specifically, he said the N384 billion announced has a shortfall of about N97 billion. BC

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News

Oyedele

Outrageous tax rates discourage tax compliance – Expert

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partner in Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Taiwo Oyedele, has said that outrageous tax rates in the country are discouraging tax compliance.

Oyedele told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that taxpayers would always tend to evade outrageous taxes.

He said rather than increase tax rates, government should simplify the process of tax payment and also ensure judicious use of tax proceeds.

Oyedele said that by simplifying tax payment procedure, government would be encouraging voluntary tax compliance and boost revenue generation.

“The way to encourage voluntary tax compliance and increase revenue from tax is to ensure that taxpayers enjoy the benefits of taxes.

Increasing the tax rates will encourage tax evasion because people will like to avoid tax when the rate is too high,” he said.

Oyedele said that full implementation of the National Tax Policy would address some challenges in the tax system.

He said that Nigeria was yet to attain its peak in terms of revenue generation from taxes, adding that a way to improve the tax system was to encourage the taxpayers by way of judicious use of their taxes.

COREN calls for regular monitoring of projects

T

he Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has called on experts in the construction industry to ensure regular monitoring of projects.

Umar Jibrin, the Chief Inspector of COREN’s Engineering Regulatory

Monitoring (ERM) committee made the call in Abuja when he led a team on an inspection tour of ongoing projects in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Jibrin said that regular monitoring of the projects would ensure that quality materials were used, and warned engineers to abide by the ethics of their profession or be sanctioned.

He also said that proper monitoring of projects would make engineers maintain set standards, to check the rate of building collapse in the country. ``We expect site engineers to visit sites regularly to reduce cases of building collapses.’’

He also warned against the use of unqualified personnel to execute projects, adding that it would no longer be business as usual as anyone caught would be sanctioned. ``As we monitor, we will continue to ensure that such persons are sanctioned by the council as they are quacks and are out to destroy the industry.’’

Jibrin also called on professionals to register with the council and to make sure they had licences to practice.

According to him COREN’s enabling laws insist on the use of registered engineers, drawings, plans and designs as approved by the Development Control Board.

He said that it was only from monitoring and inspection that they could eliminate the use of substandard materials in projects.

The chief inspector, however, expressed satisfaction with the sites inspected by the team.

The projects inspected by the ERM team of COREN in Abuja were the new sites for the National Industrial Court, the High Court of Justice and a commercial development site for shopping Malls.

Bulama, COREN President

Nigeria signs fiveyear technical cooperation agreement with IAEA The Federal Government has signed a five-year (20122017) technical co-operation agreement with the Geneva-

Osaisai

based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The notice of the signing of the agreement was contained in a statement signed by the Director-General of Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Dr Franklin Osaisai, in Abuja last Friday.

The statement noted that the accord was signed in February 2013 and contains six priorities areas -- energy and infrastructural design, human health, food and agriculture, nuclear safety, radiation and water resources.

It stated that Osaisai signed on behalf of Nigeria, while Kwaku Aning, the Deputy Director-General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation of IAEA, signed on behalf of the agency.

It pointed out that the technical co-operation, known as Country Programme Framework (CPF), was to assist member states and the IAEA to identify priority areas in the transfer of nuclear technology and technical cooperation.

Resources would be directed to support national development goals in the identified areas, it added.

The statement said that education and training in nuclear power programme development would be pursued to enhance national capacity for sustainable nuclear power infrastructure development and management.

It noted that there would be development of national capacity for the maintenance of nuclear devices through the setting up of a hub and network of national nuclear infrastructure maintenance centre.

Infrastructure and national capacity would be developed to assess the impact of contaminants level on food quality and toxicity elevations to enhance the assurance of food safety, the statement added.

It emphasised the installation of equipment to control diseases such as cancer.

The agreement, the statement added, would assist in intensifying efforts toward making the Hydrology

Laboratory facility at Centre for Energy Research and Training, Zaria, Kaduna State, to become operational. ``And when it becomes operational, it will support studies in hydrological basins for safe and potable water supply.’’

The statement noted that food and agriculture would be developed, while crop and animal production would be increased to enhance food safety.

It noted that Nigeria would ensure that it got assistance from the IAEA to combat the menace of tsetse fly, which is the animal vector for trypanosomiasis in Nigeria.

full payment of premium in advance would be legally unenforceable.

Uzodike

Inadequate data, poor sensitisation frustrate arrest of tax evaders

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Ngama

MDAs owe insurance companies N24bn premium

T

he Federal Ministry of Finance has said that government agencies owe N24 billion premium debts to insurance companies.

This was contained in a circular with ref. no: F15441/S.11/111/312 issued by the ministry and made available to newsmen in Lagos last Friday.

The circular signed by Dr Yerima Lawan Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance said that it was not proper that these agencies owed the debts in spite of the yearly budgetary provision for the premiums by the government. ``The ministry is making effort to end the menace and era of non- remittance of insurance collections and premiums.

It is aiming to consolidate the ongoing effort to sanitise the insurance industry. The MDAs and other stakeholders are directed by this circular to make returns on premium collected and remitted to the National Insurance Commission in compliance with Section 50 of the Insurance Act,`` the circular said.

It said that any agency that failed to comply with the directive to pay their debts would be sanctioned, adding that any insurance contract entered into without

nambra Commissioner for Information, JoeMartins Uzodike, has said that inadequate data and poor sensitisation had stalled the state government’s plan to clampdown on tax evaders.

Uzodike who stated that the state government was determined to stop the habit of people refusing to pay tax, The state government had at the State Executive Briefing a fortnight ago, announced that it would commence daily clampdown on tax evaders from February 11.

The commissioner said that the plan to arrest tax evaders was postponed because the issues of uniforms for the tax officers had not been finalised.

He said that a mock exercise of the campaign was carried out in Eke Awka Market on February 11 from which some implementation deficiencies were identified.

“At the Eke Awka Market exercise, we found out that most people were not aware of this government’s programme. Despite the bulk SMS messages on payment of their taxes, many people still claimed ignorance of our drive to rid the state of tax evaders. We also found out that we needed more vehicles as well as more tax officers and security men to do the job effectively. It is pertinent also that our tax officers needed to be in a special uniform to clearly differentiate them from unscrupulous elements who will want to sabotage our effort,” he said.

The commissioner said the identified pitfalls from the mock exercise would be addressed, adding that ``Gov. Peter Obi will lead the flag-off exercise of the campaign on its first day’’.

He assured that the plan would be carried out to the

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Monday, February 25, 2013

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News latter and its objectives realised for the benefit of the state’s socio-economic development. (NAN)

Opara

Barau

Bank growth’ll reflect in real sector – CBN

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Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Suleiman Barau, has said that the apex bank will ensure that the growth recorded in the banking sector is transmitted to real sector.

Barau made the pledge in Lagos on Friday while delivering a paper on “Balancing Global and Local Regulatory Requirements” at the 4th Annual Eurofinance Conference in Lagos.

Barau, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Banking Supervision, Steve Nwadiuko, said that the CBN planned to use the Basel III programme to impact positively in the real sector.

The CBN adopted Basel II in June 2004, while the apex bank is soon to begin implementation of Basel III. According to Barau, Basel III will improve banks’ liquidity and cash adequacy, help Nigerian banks to meet international risk requirements as well as improve their global competitiveness.

He said that Basel III would lead to the development of many financial products due to higher levels of competition among local and international banks. ``One of the advantages of Basel III adoption is that it will lead to higher credibility and trust in our banking system.

And all these pluses will be to the advantage of our real sector where more cash will be available for its advancement, `` he said.

of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Bede Opara, has called for immediate inauguration of an implementation committee to oversee the disengagement process of PHCN workers.

Opara said that failure to inaugurate the implementation committee would stall progress on the disengagement of PHCN staff. ``We have agreed with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that an implementation committee comprising us, government and other stakeholders should be inaugurated to oversee PHCN staff disengagement.

But up till now that committee has not been inaugurated. We hope that those calculation errors we pointed in what government wants to pay as severance package to each staff will be looked into by the committee. The rescheduled meeting with the BPE to discuss the technical issues and about the formation of the committee has not held up till now, `` he said.

Opara said that it would be more profitable for the government to engage PHCN unions in constructive discussion to bring sanity to the process of paying-off the staff.

The Federal Government last Wednesday announced that it would commence the payment of N384 billion severance packages from February 21, the decision which trade unions in the PHCN rejected barely 24 hours after government’s announcement.

PHCN workers want implementation Committee inaugurated

Ando

T

T

he President General, Senior Staff Association

Provision of water, responsibility of the state, says Exminister he former Minister of Water Resources, Obadiah Ando

has said that the provision of potable water is the sole responsibility of the state and local governments.

Ando who spoke with news men last Friday in Abuja however admitted that it was the responsibility of the Federal Government to construct large water projects, including dams. ``In the constitution, Federal Government deals with big dams and produces massive projects, but potable water for people to drink is the responsible of the states and local governments.’’

He said the Federal Government could only intervene on behalf of state governments in special cases in partnership and international donor agencies to ensure the provision of potable water for the populace.

Ando commended the effort of the Ministry of Water Resources for organising a presidential summit on additional funds to boost water coverage in the country.

He said that such efforts would help the ministry to overcome funding challenges in the implementation of its projects, adding that the ministry requires huge sums of money to implement water projects across the country.

The former minister said the officials of the ministry were doing their best to fulfil the ministry’s mandate, noting that the crucial point was inadequate funding. ``There are so many competing ends; every ministry is asking for the same money the water sector wants, so there is need to source for additional funds. Until we get funding from the private sector, it will be a difficult task for us to improve water coverage in the country. Water supply is very important to health and productivity.

Water-borne diseases make people unproductive, and so the more we provide potable water, the more we will reduce water-related diseases,” he said.

Ando, however, said that the states and local of governments should also come up with innovative ideas to source for additional funds to complement federal government’s efforts. ``I believe if we can bring innovative ideas; we will be able to fund the water sector effectively, not from government alone but from all of us,” he said.

Surveyor links flooding to poor attitude to surveys

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certified surveyor, Olujugba Oluropo, has attributed Nigeria’s flooding problems to

poor attitude to surveys.

He said that huge financial crisis would be imminent if the flooding happened again.

Oluropo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that people’s tendencies to disregard structural planning during construction was responding for the flooding, adding that the casualties from the incidence of building collapse and flooding in the country were too much for the nation.

Oluropo said that adequate planning was not being applied in the design of drainage and canals in the country. ``A good land survey will show the status of every land and building. It will reveal the structural pattern and drainage system ideal for the land. “So, the incessant flooding that torments the country could have been averted if proper surveys were insisted upon,” he said.

According to him, application of modern surveying techniques remains the main solution to avert flooding. ``Arresting the scourge of quacks doing the job of certified surveyors is one area that requires more attention, `` he said.

Oluropo advised various professionals in the construction industry to collaborate and proffer solutions to the flooding problem in the country. ``But the government has the largest role to play; it should enforce the policy mandating lands to be surveyed before any construction can be done,`` he said.

Oil trade: We are strangers in our own land-ISAN

By Francis Ezem

N

igerian ship owners under the aegis of Indigenous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) have said that the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigerian with the active connivance with their cronies in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have excluded the indigenous shipping firms from the lucrative oil trade.

The Federal Government had enacted the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003 which restricts the carriage of refined petroleum within the coastal and inland areas to Nigerians unless where it is proven that they lack the requisite capacity to do the job.

Similarly, the government had also passed the Nigerian Content Act, 2010 designed to increase the participation of the indigenous players in the oil and gas business in the

Jolapamo

country.

Chairman of ISAN, umbrella body of all Nigerian shipping companies, Isaac Jolapamo, who spoke in Lagos, disclosed that despite these two legislations, Nigerian players have not been accepted in the business by the IOCs and their cronies in relevant government agencies such as the NNPC. “Nigerians are yet to be accepted in this trade. There is no standard fr being an oil trader in the country and thus it has become an all comers affair’, he lamented.

Recent statistics released by the association indicates that Nigeria loses over N2.2 trillion annually in the freighting of her crude oil.

The association had alleged that in addition to the loss of over N2.2 trillion to capital flight in the freight component of her crude oil trade, the country also loses in excess of five million jobs annually to foreign ship owners arising from the failure of Nigerianowned vessels to lift the product, which has been made exclusive preserve for foreign shipping firms.

It was gathered that as a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Nigeria exports between 2.4 million and 2.6 million barrels per day at the freight cost of $2.5 per barrel of the product, which the benchmark charged by the foreign shipping companies to freight the product.

Jolapamo regretted that despite the passage of the two important legislations designed to empower the indigenous operators, nothing has changed because the enforcement has been weak.

‘We have not seen the impact of the Cabotage and Local Act. The Local Content Act may have made some achievement in the areas of engineering, but definitely not in freighting the products because it has been reserved for foreigners”, he said.

One of the reasons advanced by the IOCs and officials of the NNPC for denying the indigenous operators of cargo was based on the allegation that their vessels are single haul and that most of them are not classed.

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News The association in response to this allegation had in 2007 floated the ISAN Shipping Line, a mega shipping company owned by all the 45 members to enable it acquire sophisticated ships like Very Large Crude Carrier to enable Nigerian ship owners participate in the lucrative crude oil trade currently reserved for foreigners.

“ISAN Shipping Line was set up to enable Nigerian ship owners participate effectively in the lifting of the nation’s cargo including crude oil because the indigenous operators in the shipping industry have been in a sorry state”, Jolapamo had said in an earlier interview.

“The industry has been floundering like a rudderless ship for a very long time and we appear helpless. We are not only helpless now but are now spectators in an industry where we should be calling the shots and this is the major challenge for seasoned players whose fortunes are dwindling by the day”, he lamented.

Sequel to the formation of this mega shipping line, the association recently requested the Federal Government to grant the ISAN Shipping Company Limited a national carrier status, having met the requirements.

The firm was floated with an initial Paid Up Share Capital of N1bn contributed by members, who also make up the shareholders of the company.

The primary aim of floating the company was to enable Nigerians own ocean-going ships to participate in lifting and transporting of Nigeria’s crude oil export and other international trade goods, which seem to be exclusively preserve for foreign shipping companies because their Nigerian counterparts lack the requisite capacity.

British stockfish fraudster offers N38m out-of court settlement

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British fraudster identified as Nigel Francis currently standing trial at an Aba Magistrates Court for offences ranging from criminal breach of trust to obtaining by false pretence has offered a 150, 000 Pound Sterling (N37.5 million) for an out of court settlement.

The suspect, who was arrested in Cotonou last September through the efforts the Cargo Defence Fund of the Nigerian Shippers Council and the Nigeria Police, specialises in defrauding Aba-based stockfish importers by falsely pretending to be a stockfish exporter.

Francis, who trades in several fake business names such as Skafur Marine

Products, Maple Fisheries, Chafling Limited, Finmar Fisheries Ltd among several others is said to have defrauded Nigerian stockfish importers of over N216 million between 2005 and 2009.

Sources close to the fraudster, who is also reportedly on the wanted list of Iceland security authorities, said the family of the fraudster has offered to pay his victims a total of N37.5 million for them to withdraw the case out of the court to pave way for an amicable settlement.

The source hinted that the family of the accused has provided 150,000 British Pounds for out of the court settlement.

Confirming this, development, Rowland Nwosu of Rowland and Irene Trading Co/JS Christian Merchandize, a victim admitted that such offer had been made to them.

Another victim identified as Okechukwu Eze, who also confirmed the development in a separate interview, however disclosed that this new offer has neither been documented nor accepted by the victims numbering over 12.

“You see, what he duped me alone of is N54 million and he is offering about N37 million.

That is a slap on us and so we cannot take it. This is less than 10 per cent of what he duped us. So my dear it is not an offer yet,” Nwosu said.

Eze, who also foreclosed the acceptance of the offer by the victims, insisted that he would prefer to have him jailed at the end of the day than accept the peanut.

It was gathered that at the last hearing on February 15, 2013 at Aba South Magistrate Court, the State prosecution counsel and the affected traders opted for the case to be transferred to the Federal High Court in the state but the defence counsel insisted the case be fully concluded at the magistrate court.

“Our intension is to move the case to the Federal High Court where formal and more serious trial would commence and also the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could come in but his lawyer knows this, that is why they are afraid of accepting our moves up,” Eze said.

It was further gathered that Nigel, who has nt shown any remorse, is making frantic efforts at compromising everyone that has any thing to do with the case in order to get himself out of the mess.

Sources had also disclosed that he would have succeeded but the timely intervention of some of the victims, who are said to be very wealthy and connected, a development that also informed frantic efforts by the victims to move the case to a higher court and also involve

the EFCC. It was gathered that Francis started his criminal exploits on Nigerian importers as far back as 2005 when he defrauded an Aba based importing firm identified as My Dickson & Jones Ltd of $40,750 arising from short shipment and mixing of lower qualities with higher qualities.

He was said to done the business with the name: Finmar Fisheries Ltd and in 2006, he picked on Onwuka & Brothers Trading Co using Chafling Limited and defrauded them of the sum of $67,000, as he was said to have received the money from Onwuka & Brothers through an appointed third party who also sent a confirmatory letter that the money was sent to Francis.

Luck however ran out of him in September last year when he was apprehended following a tip-off by the Aba traders while he was making a fresh move to obtain the sum of $5,500 from one Obinna Echianu under false pretence at Cotonou, Republic of Benin.

It was gathered that Mr. Echianu was discouraged from remitting the money and was advised to request that they meet for a direct cash collection, which he accepted and subsequently arranged for their meeting in Cotonou on Saturday,September 15, 2012 in Cotonou.

It was at this point that a group of seven stockfish importers, six of whom he had earlier duped and whose petitions were already with the Interpol, through the Nigerian Shippers Council were asked to join Echianu in company of some police officers, which led to the arrest of the criminal.

Mikano donates 3,000 traffic stands, police patrol vehicles

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

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s part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, Mikano International Limited has donated over 3000 police stands worth over N150 million, all over the country to the Nigerian Police Force.

The Chairman of the company, Mofid Karameh, who presented the new look traffic stands to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, said the organization was aware that police personnel work under the sun and in the rain and required shelter while serving.

Alongside with the Police traffic stands, the company also donated two pickup patrol vans to Area G and Lagos State Traffic Command for their efficient services.

Karameh said the

Abubakar

organization is ready to support the police to succeed in the war against criminality and in serving the community.

He said his company is not limiting its promise to only Lagos Police Command, but it is also extending the gesture to all Police Commands across the country by supporting them with generators, renovation or construction of various stations, supplying with furniture and computers to various station or area commands across the nation.

Receiving the stands, Abubakar thanked the organization for its good gestures and promised that the Traffic Stands / vehicles would be judiciously used. He said it came at the period when police needed the Traffic stand as its personnel work under the sun and in the rain and would not be smitten by sun or drenched by the rain while controlling traffic.

He also said such encouragement would motivate the force to do more in serving the public. He challenged other private individuals and corporate bodies to emulate the good gesture of Mikano by supporting the police to succeed in crime fighting.

Mikano International Limited, utilizing the latest high tech industrial machines, has been in the forefront of the manufacture and assembly of CKD generators and providing 24/7 after sales services on all its products. Diesel generating sets ranging from 9kva to 5000kva at the same time providing a 24/7 after sales option for its customers, The Company has also embarked on as an assembler of large Gas driven engines in the 300Kva to 1500Kva ranges.

Mikano has a Power Solutions division which designs and builds custom electrical control panels, markets a wide range of electrical control equipment.

The Company has a state of art steel fabrication plant where it designs, manufactures and fabricates a wide range of steel products including generator canopies of all

sizes, underground tanks, steel chairs and supermarket shelving to name but a few.

With a wide operational base and branch network which spreads across the region, the Company has maintained a leadership position especially in the generator sales and after sales sector.

Mikano International Limited is also currently involved in the sales of a wide range of industrial/ household power generator brands including Perkins diesel and gas engines, MTU engines, its alternators include Stamford and Mac-celte and is also the exclusive distributor of Hyundai Construction equipment and Channel partners of ABB electrical products.

Julius Berger wins 2nd Niger bridge contract

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he Federal Government has completed the procurement process for the construction of a second Niger Bridge with Julius Berger-Africa Infrastructure Management (AIM) Consortium emerging the preferred bidder.

Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, said the government had earmarked N30 billion under Subsidy Reinvestment Empowerment (SURE-P) programme for the project.

Onolememen said that Julius Berger-AIM Consortium emerged winner after slugging it out with other world-class construction companies which included ARM Consortium, Bouygues Consortium, China Harbour Consortium and Johnson-Matiere Consortium.

According to him, the project, packaged under PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) arrangement for a period of 25 years, will be delivered under design, finance, built, operate and transfer model.

Onolememen said that the ministry had obtained a ``no objection’’ from the Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory Commission (ICRC), which regulates all transaction under PPP. ``Having obtained the no objection, the ministry launched into the second phase of the project,’’ the minister said.

He said that the second phase included detailed Hydrological and Topological Survey, Geotechnical Survey, detailed Environmental Impact Assessment and in-depth Traffic Survey of the project.

He said that building a second Niger bridge was one of the election promises of President Goodluck Jonathan to the people of Nigeria.

The bad state of the first Niger Bridge had elicited calls, particularly from the people of the South-Eastern part the country for the construction of a second bridge. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, February 25, 2013

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Business Courage

Monday, February 25, 2013

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Global News

Jacob Zuma, South African President

S. Africa environment not SME-friendly – Study

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t is becoming increasingly difficult to operate a small business in South Africa, and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) community expects that this will become ever more so in the future, according to the SME Growth Index.

The index is produced by business environment specialists SBP. The SME Growth Index is a multi-year research project, investigating the views and experiences of a panel of some 500 SME operators in South Africa.

These firms employ between 10 and 50 people, and are active in three sectors of the economy regarded by government as having growth potential: manufacturing, business services and tourism.

Nearly three quarters of the firms surveyed, or some 74 per cent, feel that it had become more difficult to operate a business in the year preceding the survey. A mere six per cent feel that it has become easier, with the remaining 19 per cent indicating that it has not changed.

Manufacturers are most negative about the business environment, with around 81 per cent feeling that things have become more difficult.

Some 71 per cent of business services panelists feel that things have become more difficult and only seven per cent that they have become easier.

Respondents in the tourism and business services sectors are more positive, although large majorities of both groups still feel that operating a business has become more difficult.

These results are jarring when measured against government’s emphasis on manufacturing as a growth area. Manufacturers are the most negative about trends in the business environment.

Given that manufacturing is also an endeavour that is likely to require specific fixed capital investment whose options for disposal in the event of failure are limited, that its input

prices are climbing, that it may require scarce and pricy hard artisanal skills, and that it is prone to unionisation (even in small scale plants), it is a tough sector to operate in. This may also explain why manufacturing in South Africa is in long-term decline.

Tourism, less subject to these conditions, evidences much greater confidence.

These results point to a need for serious policy adjustments for manufacturing if industrial plans are to have a chance of succeeding.

Larger firms, particularly those employing more than 40 people, are more likely to feel that things are getting more difficult than their smaller counterparts. This is deeply worrying, as it points to barriers and disincentives to firm growth – which means barriers to creating the employment opportunities South Africa desperately needs.

Those who feel that operating an SME was more difficult gave a range of explanations: the overall state of the economy; poor governance factors; the price of utilities; and the political climate.

Legislation and regulations (“red tape”) are repeatedly raised. A heavy compliance burden is diverting time and resources away from firms’ core business, and labour legislation makes employing staff risky. When asked specifically about the regulatory burden, not a single respondent says that it has decreased.

A little over half report an increase in the burden, and slightly fewer than half say it had stayed the same.

Eurozone recession ‘to persist’

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he eurozone recession will persist into 2013, the European Commission has conceded in its latest forecast.

Governments face an uphill battle to rein in their overspending, with Spain, France and Portugal all failing to cut their deficits to agreed targets.

Spain’s deficit, at 10.2 per cent of GDP in 2012, was well above its 6.3 per cent target, and would stay above target into 2014.

The eurozone economy would shrink 0.3 per cent in 2013, the Commission said, making the governments’ task even harder.

Previously, the Commission had expected the 17 economies in the eurozone to collectively enjoy 0.1 per cent positive growth this year. In 2012 the economy is estimated to have shrunk 0.6 per cent.

Delivering its winter forecast, Commission VicePresident Olli Rehn said that unemployment across the single currency area expected to continue rising to 12.2 per cent this year as the recession lingers. Last year’s jobless rate was 11.4 per cent.

However, he said the eurozone was expected to rebound in the last three months of this year, registering 0.7 per cent growth in the fourth quarter.

The forecast appears somewhat more pessimistic than the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who last month said he believed the eurozone would begin recovering in the second half of this year.

The Commission’s acknowledgement that the eurozone is in worse economic shape than previously mirrors a change in the International Monetary Fund’s thinking.

The IMF said in January that it expected the eurozone to experience a “mild recession” in 2013, having previously predicted growth.

The austerity measures being implemented by eurozone governments are widely blamed by economists as a major contributor towards the Continent’s economic woes, although there is disagreement among economists as to whether governments should therefore go easy on the spending cuts.

Spain, which has one of the biggest budget deficits, made the least headway in bringing its finances back under control, and faces one of the nastiest recessions.

Of its 10.2 per cent deficit in 2012, 3.2 percentage points was due to the cost of cleaning up its banking system, which has been decimated by loans made to property developers and speculators during the last decade’s housing bubble that have since proved unrepayable.

More worryingly, the Commission does not expect Spain to improve greatly over the next two years. Its deficit is forecast to be 6.7 per cent this year, compared with a 4.5 per cent target, and 7.2 per cent in 2014, compared with a 2.8 per cent target.

Spain cannot simply blame its weak economy for this

Draghi

outcome, the Commission implied. Madrid’s structural deficit - which strips out the effect of the recession - fell only by 1.4 per cent of GDP last year, barely half the 2.7 per cent target set by the Commission.

However, overspending by governments across the eurozone as a whole is still expected to fall on average this year. That is despite the persistent economic downturn, which typically reduces governments’ tax revenues and increases their benefit bills The Commission said that the aggregate deficits of the 17 eurozone governments would fall from 3.5 per cent of economic output or GDP last year, to 2.8 per cent this year.

its flights to more than 83 per cent as demand for longhaul trips rose, but its cargo business continues to struggle.

Meg Whitman

Hewlett-Packard sales drop by 6%

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Spinetta

Air France-KLM posts big loss

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ir France-KLM, the FrancoDutch airline, says it made a big loss in 2012, blaming sharply rising fuel costs and trouble with its cargo business.

Net losses increased 47 per cent to 1.19 billion euros (£1bn; $1.57bn), after a 471m-euro restructuring charge and a 890m-euro increase in its fuel bill.

But operating losses fell to 300 million euros, from 353 million euros the year before.

Revenues rose 5.2 per cent to 25.6 billion euros, thanks in part to increased prices on its North Atlantic routes.

Debt fell from 6.51 billion to 5.97 billion euros after selloffs and spending cuts - the company plans to reduce its net debt by two billion euros by the end of 2014.

Chief executive JeanCyril Spinetta said in a statement: “The year 2012 was characterised by a slowdown in global growth and recession in Europe, but nevertheless saw a sharp increase in the fuel price. In 2013, we will maintain strict discipline in terms of capacity management, investments and costs.”

Air France-KLM is renegotiating pay and conditions with its staff and cutting more than 5,000 jobs, as high fuel costs and competition from low-cost airlines take their toll on the debt-laden company.

The airline managed to increase filled capacity on

he world’s largest maker of personal computers, Hewlett-Packard, has seen a six per cent drop in firstquarter sales as demand for PCs continued to shrink.

Net sales in the three months to the end of January fell to $28.4 billion (£15.3bn), while net profit fell 16 per cent from the previous year to $1.2 billion. But the results beat forecasts and HP shares rose six per cent in after-hours trading.

Chief executive Meg Whitman has said she will turn HP around but has warned it may take several years.

Earlier this week, rival PC maker Dell reported an 11 per cent drop in revenue and a 31 per cent fall in quarterly profit.

Both companies have struggled to grow sales as they battle the surge in popularity of smartphones and tablet computers.

In May last year, HP revealed plans to cut 27,000 jobs by the end of 2014. It said this would reduce costs by up to $3.5 billion a year.

“While there’s still a lot of work to do to generate the kind of growth we want to see, our turnaround is starting to gain traction as a result of the actions we took in 2012 to lay the foundation for HP’s future,” Ms Whitman said in a statement.

HP said it had returned $511 million in cash to shareholders in the quarter through dividends and share buybacks.

It also said it had improved its net debt position for the fourth quarter in a row by over $1 billion.

It forecast earnings per share of 80 to 82 cents in the second quarter, higher than the average Wall Street forecast of 77 cents.

“Our primary focus is to deliver on the full-year outlook, and I feel good about the rest of the year,” Ms Whitman said. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, February 25, 2013

Business Courage

A9 25

An entrepreneur by accident His entry into the entrepreneurial world was accidental. But after starting off as a hardware vendor in 1992, Austin Kwesi Okere has transformed Computer Warehouse into an IT utility company with presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda and an eye to capture 14 more by 2015

By Salami Semiu

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orn to a Nigerian father and a Ghanaian mother, Austin Kwesi Okere, founder and chief executive of Computer Warehouse Group, CWG, has emerged, in the last 20 years, as an example of a classic entrepreneur, who through sheer determination, hard work, cando spirit, clear-headed and far-sighted business strategies raised a company from ground zero to an enviable international status.

Imbued with the humility of his Ghanaian mother and the aggressiveness of his Nigerian father, Austin has managed to beat all odds to survive in a turf mostly seen as the preserve of Western companies.

After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Lagos, and Agricultural Science from the University of Ghana, Legon, Austin served out his compulsory National Service (NYSC) with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. He had hoped to secure a permanent job with the corporation, but that was not to be.

He had to wait a little while before securing his first job with Tritech.

Incidentally, his engagement with the company did not last more than eight months before he moved on to Inlaks Computers, an Indian company based in Lagos.

At Inlaks Computers, Austin dutifully worked as sales executive and within a short period, had a good number of clients he served. But then, as much as he enjoyed the job, the

Okere

young computer engineer could not withstand the barrage of embarrassment he was almost daily subjected to by clients over Inlaks’ failure to meet their job specification and delivery schedule.

At a point, the satisfaction he initially enjoyed thinned out and his integrity, he claimed, became compromised as a result of late delivery of customers’ orders. Though he admitted that some of the delays were genuinely caused by difficulties encountered in clearing shipments from the ports, it was he who had to give all the excuses and “I felt I could serve the customers better on my own instead of squandering my goodwill.”

So, after spending four-anda-half years on the job, he was convinced that he could stand on his own. He decided to take a plunge and in September 1992, he floated Computer Warehouse Limited, CWL with $31, 000 raised from five friends, including a loan of $5, 000 which he used his old Peugeot 504 car and a video player as collateral.

Though he was good at hardware vending, he had little idea of how and where to get his supplies until he met Andy Nwani of Data Flex who gave him his price lists and address of where to get the supplies in America.

While leaving the services of Inlaks, he ensured that his relationship with the company remained unstrained. He kept the line of communication open and the strategy paid off as he later became one of Inlaks’ distributors. He later signed on with Dell Corporation, UK, and just within five years, CWL, through Okere’s effective salesmanship, upstaged many older, more entrenched computer brands in the country. In 2007, CWL was awarded Dell Distribution Award for the fastest growing business in Africa territory. Today, CWL is Dell’s sole distributor in Nigeria.

The challenges at the beginContinue on pg A8

Business Courage

ning were very unsettling, and like Austin explained in a recent interview, he almost closed shop. At that time, while other companies, including his former employer, Inlaks, got 85 per cent advance payment from clients, his CWL was virtually pushed to the end if his tether.

Prospective customers needed companies with proven track record. Yes, he made a little mark while at Inlaks, CWL was green and as such, he had to look for money to fund his supplies in the few companies that gave him attention.

Besides, unlike his contemporaries who would be distributors for all hardware companies such as HP, Compaq, IBM and other computer brands, Austin remained faithful to the Dell brand, but that almost proved very fatal. Yet, he endured it.

That, coupled with the June 12, 1993, political debacle and its attendant disruptions, gave Austin and his team sufficient reasons to contemplate a shutdown of their operations.

However, rather than buckled, he stubbornly held onto the dream and as it later turned out, his decision to remain uncowed saved the business from collapse and launched him into the path of prosperity. “I couldn’t sack the staff because I knew business would pick up again, but the bank loans were running, salaries were running and receivables were not coming in.

It was so difficult that I almost called it off,” he admitted. The challenges soon became the opportunity, shortly after the June 12 saga subsided, as lot of companies, including those on the same business line with him went under.

After the crisis, companies re-opened and naturally, the services of IT providers were needed but only few stuck it out and so, it became a boom time for the business. For him, he admitted, “that was our first jump.”

Okere admitted that what kept him and his colleagues on primarily were the grace of God and self-discipline. They were their own bosses but careful with the money as they had to conserve the little they had to pay salaries. At that time, he even had to use his car to do deliveries. “We were not about the image, but getting the job done,” he said.

Though they had few businesses to hang on to, CWL’s major break came in 2000 when the global community struggled to contend with the Y2K bug. It was at the time when individuals and corporate organisations, particularly the banks were running with purchase orders in a desperate need to change their banking software.

At that time, Okere saw the need to expand the scope of his business beyond hardware vending to software and other associated information technol-

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Monday, February 25, 2013

However, rather than buckle, he stubbornly held on to the dream and as it later turned out, his decision to remain uncowed saved the business from collapse and launched him on the path of prosperity

ogy segment. He had previously before then bought over Expertedge, a software company that had developed software applications for banks.

It was also the time that Infosys, Indian software firm came into Nigeria and needed a local partner, to which Okere’s CWL and Expertedge became a ready suitor.

Through that relationship, the company secured software contracts with three banks at the same time. At that time, it had expanded its presence in Nigeria to eight offices. By 2002, the company took a strategic decision to open offices in Accra, Ghana and floated CWG Ghana Limited to serve same customers it has been serving in Nige-

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ria. The decision was strategic in the sense that, the period coincided with the time most Nigerian businesses were moving across the West Coast, particularly Ghana, in the spirit of economic integration.

At the initial stage of CWL’s interface with clients, particularly the multinational companies, it paid little or no attention to issues such as business models and best corporate practices.

But then, as it began to enjoy some look in by companies such as Shell and Dell Computers, it was forced to raise its bar in terms of best practices.

In fact, Business Courage learnt that Okere’s CWL had failed to win a bid for its first job from Shell due to issues such as

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absence of a fire safety regime and workmen’s compensation.

Determined to play big, Okere restructured his business and persuaded Shell to do another inspection of the company’s facilities a year later.

During the inspection, its officials were forced to participate in a fire drill, when one of CWL’s staff deliberately set off the fire alarm. “That got us the job, and with a reference from a company like Shell, it was easy to get jobs from the likes of ExxonMobil and Statoil,” Okere told a recent gathering.

Today, what started out then in one small office at Surulere, Lagos with only four staff has grown into an IT conglomerate of sort. The company has an annual turnover of over $120 million as of the end of 2011, 550 people, 85 per cent of which are IT experts on its pay roll with presence in three African countries and indirectly serving seventeen others with a vision to be the number one IT Utility Company in Africa by the year 2015.

Not that CWG’s story is an over-achievement, but it is an African story conceived in Africa with African players and setting, and that makes it special.

The dream was nurtured and executed right on the shores of Africa by a man whose only motivation is a “desire to achieve excellence”.

It has multiple top-rate industry certifications, including Cisco Certified Network Associates, Dell Certified Systems

Experts, Systimax Certified Installers, Microsoft Certified Professionals, Microsoft Certified Engineers, Microsoft Certified Trainers, BICC Certified Installers, Accredited Compaq Technicians, Oracle Certified Professionals and Sun Certified Engineers among others.

In the past 20 years, CWG has grown to become a fully integrated ICT firm offering systems integration of hardware and infrastructure solutions, communications and networking solutions and software applications and deployment across West Africa, and now Uganda. It currently runs partnerships with global ICT companies across the world, including DELL, CISCO, Infosys technologies, Oracle, NetApp, Gilat and many more world-class ICT brands.

For now, CWG covers the tripod of Information Technology.

While Computer Warehouse Limited, CWL specializes in the supply and integration of computer hardware, e-payment systems and ancillary equipment, DCC Satellite & Networks Limited, a communication company specializes in VSAT, Metropolitan and Wide Area Networks (WAN), Local Area Networks (LAN), Systems integration and deployment, systems analysis and e-payment systems design and implementation.

It handles the VSAT technology which today serves 22 out of the 24 Nigerian banks (11 of them running its Finacle applications) as well as oil and gas

and manufacturing companies and telecom companies, particularly, MTN where about 94 CWG staff running its IT. Of the about 9000 Automatic Teller Machines, ATMs, in Nigeria, CWG has sold, and supports 3500 and with the cashless policy being introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the figure is bound to increase.

The third of the tripod is Expert Edge Software and Systems Limited, considered to be the biggest software company in Nigeria today, providing software support for more than 75 percent of banking transactions in Nigeria today.

How was Okere able to break in so rapidly within such a time in an industry where multinationals and big-time companies held sway long before it floated his company?

Those who have either worked with him or have one relationship or the other with him have attributed his meteoric rise to his business strategy, culture of innovations, professionalism and the willingness to make sacrifices in order to bring value to their customers.

The first test of the principles, according to close sources occurred in the 90’s when CWG was still a struggling company. Ashaka Cement had problems with computer hardware it bought from Dell and invited CWG, which was Dell’s representative, to fix it. The group rendered the service but the cement company stood on the warranty it had from Dell and refused to pay for the services.

Rather than make a case out of that, CWG took it in good

Michael Dell and Austin Okere during Dell visit to Nigeria recently

Business Courage A11 27

Monday, February 25, 2013

stride and, but as it later turned out, the good deed was never lost on the cement company.

Years later, when Ashaka Cement wanted to buy some more computers, it did not go abroad because it saw CWG as a reliable company to relate with locally. This relationship later turned out to be the first major source of a breakthrough for the Group.

Another proof of CWG’s commitment to honest dealing in business came when Chevron Nigeria Limited ordered for the supply of computer units. The order came at a time Dell was introducing its mouse product into the market. CWG, Business Courage learnt, supplied the computer units along with the mouse without charging additional cost for the mouse. This came as surprise to Chevron which had been paying heavily to other suppliers.

“So before we knew it, our stars started shining. The lesson there is that you may give up something small and get something bigger in return.

If you tell people that the secret of your business growth is faithfulness and candour, they would not believe you. But that is the secret of our business,” Okere was quoted as saying.

Again, one other factor that saw the company through, rather steeply was its sales strategy based on customer referrals. At CWG, the magazine gathered that principle is that, the more the number of satisfied customers that proclaim their success, the better for the businesses in terms of retaining old clients as well as getting potential cus-

tomers.

In fact, the magazine learnt that the bond from this relationship has transformed it from being a provider of ICT into a trusted advisor to its customers.

Such level of trust is informed by the fact that the organization has always maintained consistent and impeccable track record in its niche operations.

At a time in the past, CWG had to absorb cost of import duty, which it paid in error on a supply contract with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Oyo State, leading it to winning a very huge contract with the same organisation in Benin Republic. That job, it was learnt, led to the for-

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mation of DCC. Born 46 years ago in Accra, Okere had his primary education at New Nation Nursery and Primary School, Cape Coast, and attended St Augustine’s College for his secondary education.

After completing his secondary education, Austin had wanted to study Medicine or Engineering and he applied to the University of Accra, Legon and University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, but was turned down and offered a course in Agricultural Science instead. He however missed the qualifying exams while trying to make up his mind whether to read the offered course or not.

Before we knew it, our stars started shining. The lesson there is that you may give up something small and get something bigger in return. If you tell people that the secret of your business growth is faithfulness and candour, they would not believe you. But that is the secret of our business

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It was at that confused state that the young Austin reportedly came in contact with an Indian dean who told him about Computer Science that was just starting off in the University then. So, rather than face the embarrassment of not being in school, he settled for the course and to his surprise, the course became very natural to him because like he told a Ghanaian newspaper, “I enjoyed it right from the start. It has to do with logic and I am an analytical person.”

But then, after just a year into his studies, the military government of Jerry Rawlings in Ghana closed down schools for months after students’ protest and he was moved to Nigeria where he continued his course at the University of Lagos in 1984. That was after he reportedly passed the first semester examinations, though he did not attend the classes.

A bright student he was, Austin graduated with a Second Class Upper in 1986 though he had to borrow textbooks and supported himself through school by teaching mature students following the collapse of his retired father’s poultry business.

Now, having pushed CWG and its affiliate companies to the frontiers as global brands, Austin’s next ambition is to get it listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

He believes that what separates his companies from successful companies overseas is that the latter run as entrepreneurial businesses for a while and go public. Dell went public. Apple went public. So, why not CWG? Austin believes that when a business starts, it needs flexibility in order to grow faster in the market and that flexibility has to be balanced with governance, as the organisation grows bigger.

This governance factor, he stresses, is much realisable as a public company. “A public company will also be able to attract more businesses and confidence than a private business.

Going public also makes bigger capital accessible from the capital market, so you are not curtailed in your growth. These are the reasons why we are going public,” he was recently quoted as saying.

For now, whether he will make good his intention to list CWG is a matter which only he can answer. What is however clear is that, Austin Okere is has brought his entrepreneurial savvy, which he admits came by accident, to bear on the company in the past 20 years. So, when he decides to open his books and business to the investing public to participate in the ownership, he would only be taking another giant stride in his ambitious move to capture the IT world across the African continent. BC

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Monday, February 25, 2013

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10 Questions

Nigeria ‘ll witness bountiful h Recently, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development was in Lagos, where he fielded questions on a wide range of issues, particularly as it has to do with the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Federal Government.

Stanley Ihedigbo was there for Business Courage. Excerpt:

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here has been so much talk about job creation, particularly for the youths under your ministry’s Youth Agriculture Empowerment programme. How far have you gone in this respect?

Agriculture has the greatest potential, more than any other sector to create jobs in a way that is inclusive of the youths whether it is primary production like they produce themselves on their farms or in the business of selling inputs, seeds and fertilizers. It could even be in the area of processing and adding value to crops and livestock.

We can create a lot of jobs. In fact, from the transformation agenda last year alone, an estimated 2.2 million jobs were created and our target is to create 3.5 million jobs by 2015.

Apart from the jobs created, we also protected 1.2 million jobs of those that would not have been able to cultivate.

I mean farmers that are very poor, by providing them with input for their farms.

Again, to get the youths into agriculture, we have to see agriculture for what it is; it is a business where they must make money. Today in agriculture, we are not talking about agriculture as a development activity, but talking about agriculture as a business- whether you are in cassava, rice, and cocoa, oil palm or cotton production. Everything, we are doing now is about making agriculture as a business. We have changed the mindset of the people about agriculture today.

The youths and young graduates stand to make a lot of money from agriculture.

We have developed a programme called Youth Employment in Agriculture programme. We are targeting 760,000 young graduates, commercial farmers with whom we want to change the entire labour composition of the agricultural sector, so that we have much younger dynamic farmers that can feed us today and secure Nigeria’s future and competitiveness in agriculture.

What strategy is the government going to use to make agriculture attractive particularly to Nigerian graduates?

It is a major structural thing that we are doing which is going to cost the government N37 billion, but it is an investment that is worth making. We will

also be going back to our universities of agriculture, asking them to teach people about entrepreneurship. So they will not become job hunters when they graduate but job creators. We are also going to provide them access to land, mechanization services, and finance.

We are going to work closely with the state governments and I believe that within five years, we will have a lead core of younger, commercial, market -driven farmers that are graduates in this country that will transform the face of agriculture from what you know.

Many Nigerians have continued to express fears of an impending food crisis as a result of the 2012 flood.

How can Nigeria avert food crises in 2013?

First and foremost, people like to use things like looming food crises; there is no basis for it. That is the fact. We had the flood which was unfortunate for us because it happened in our first year when we were working aggressively, but don’t forget that in the first quarter of last year, we did achieve the following; we produced a total of 8.1 million metric tons of food into the domestic food supply. When we started a year ago, we told the nation that we would add 20 million metric tons of food to our domestic food supply by 2015 and that means five million metric tons per year.

Last year, we did 8.1 million metric tons, that is, 70 per cent above the target we set for 2012 and that is 41 per cent of the journey to 2015.

So, what is the implication of all these?

Now, if we had not done that when the flood hit Nigeria, if that amount of food was not in the system as most of the crops had been harvested before the flood which created a significant buffer in the system, Nigeria would have been short by 10.2 million metric tons of food and we would have had crisis. So, what I am saying is that by adding the 8.1 metric tons of food and all the things we did in 2012, we were able to save this country from that crisis. We distributed to the farmers, 67,000 metric tons of seeds of hybrid maize which were planted on 3.5 million hectares with a production of seven million metric tons at the very least. We distributed 30 million stem

cuttings of cassava for farmers. Also, we distributed to our sorghum farmers, 540 metric tons of sorghum which were planted on well over 37,000 hectares of land. Again, if you check our work on rice, we distributed well over 9,000 metric tons of seeds that were planted all across the rice producing areas.

So, if the government has truly done and achieved all these, how come these fears persist?

We need to understand also that the biggest business in Nigeria is the panic business; people create a lot of frenzy.

When the flood happened, you hear people say three or five million hectares of land were washed away. Now, if all that land had been washed away, even the map of Nigeria would have changed.

People tell you that 500,000 cows were washed away but for me, I didn’t see any cow floating on water, where are the cows?

So, a lot of rent seekers that want to bring in food and scuttle the transformation agenda of Nigeria to become self sufficient in food were peddling all kinds of doom stories. What we did was to bring in the International Water Management Institute, the world’s leading institute and a research centre on flood and water management.

We used accurate and sophisticated tools- remote sensing, satellite imagery to look at how much area that was actually flooded, and not based on media stories, and also to find out by how much the water was receding and when we could quickly go back and plant after the water had receded.

So, what is the result of all these efforts?

The result revealed that the total area that was flooded was 1.4 million hectares; the total area under which we suffered crop loss was 463,000

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Business Courage A13 29

harvest in 2013 – Adesina

now simultaneously, the total amount of rice we will produce will be 2.1 million metric tons that is well above our estimated 1.2 million metric tons which we lost. The Federal Government put in place the Flood Recovery Food Production Intervention, a robust plan that creates resilience in the system.

We will respond to the shock, there is no need for any panic; Nigeria will not experience any food crisis. What we need to understand from all of these is that, we need to plan better, flood or drought may come, and we must have a robust system that responds to it.

hectares. However, you must have a sense of proportion, the total cultivated area in Nigeria is 40 million hectares, so the total area where we suffered crop loss as a share of a total area cultivated in Nigeria is only 1.17 per cent and so, there is absolutely no way we can have food crises and famine in Nigeria.

Is this also part of the strategies and measures taken by the government to ensure Nigeria is self sufficient in rice production before the implementation of ban of rice importation?

Yes, but I will come to that, I want to finish up on the flood and crises, because the total production we are expecting from the dry season for rice alone is 1.2 million metric tons.

When you add that to the 880,000 metric tons we are expecting from the Flood Recovery Food Production Intervention which we are running

What is the role of states and local governments in the Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA)?

In fact, we are working today with the state governments in Nigeria in ways that have never happened before. I have decentralized the entire Ministry of Agriculture to the states. As we speak, we have 36 state offices and each of them is manned by a full director, we have six regional offices with each headed by a director of agriculture working with the states, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating with them.

We are partners.

My job as a minister is to help the states to succeed and that is what I do on a regular basis. Take for example, investments in the value chain, you can take rice for example, I took to Taraba State, the Dominion Farms which is investing $40 million in the state. That is going to be the largest rice farm in Africa with 30,000 hectares in about 24 months.

When we got to Kogi State, we brought in from the Federal Cargul, the world’s number one manufacturer of starch, we are working with Kogi State government to provide them about 20,000 hectares of land to produce cassava for their plant, that is Federal Government helping the state government.

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Again, to get the youths into agriculture, we have to see agriculture for what it is; it is a business where they must make money. Today in agriculture, we are not talking about agriculture as a development activity, but talking about agriculture as a business- whether you are in cassava, rice, and cocoa, oil palm or cotton production

If you go and look at what we are doing with mechanization, since I joined the government, I have attracted back into this country a company called AGCO out of Virginia .That Company is the largest manufacturer of massive Ferguson tractors in the world and that company is now opening up farm mechanization centres at the state level.

So, you see that every single amount that we generate is for the state, we’ve attracted in the last year that we started our drive, about $8 billion of private sector investment commitment to agriculture but they are going down to the states and finally I just want you to know that we rolled out last year our new fertilizer programme where we supply fertilizers to farmers using mobile phones, called Electronic Wallet.

Yes, that brings us to the issue of corruption in the fertilizer distribution system. How are you addressing the issue of round tripping in fertilizer distribution?

The reason you have round tripping was because the government in the last 40 years was doing the wrong thing. It was buying and distributing fertilizers in an arrangement where not more than 11 per cent of the farmers got the fertilizers because the rich and powerful cornered them. The small farmers don’t get anything. Even then, people were supplying sand as fertilizers and even in undersized bags.

Again, the nutrient composition and quality of fertilizers was bad and the government for decades had been subsidizing corruption and not subsidizing farmers. Mr. President directed that we must solve that problem, and it took me only 90 days into my administration to dismantle the entire system of 40 years of corruption of fertilizer in this country.

Today in Nigeria, the Federal Government doesn’t buy any fertilizer,

it doesn’t distribute any fertilizer. As a minister, I don’t sign any fertilizer contract and I have said that throughout my tenure, I will not sign any fertilizer contract because government is not the user of fertilizer. So don’t bring fertilizer to government, go and sell it directly to farmers and this has helped, because the most important thing in round tripping is being able to make sure that the fertilizer get into the hands of the right people. What we have done is that we developed a database of farmers, we know the farmers, we know their biometric information, we target the subsidies amount for them, each farmer will get per bag N2500 as subsidy, the information is sent through their mobile phones, you go to the input retailer, you send that information to them, you pay the 50 per cent balance, because we give only 50 per cent subsidy and you collect your fertilizer and seeds and go home. There is no government, no minister, you don’t need to call anybody and it worked. Round tripping happened before, because government was doing flat subsidy, general price subsidy which means anybody can get the fertilizer. Today, those that get the fertilizer are the targeted farmers, that are registered and they get it through their mobile phones.

How can Nigeria’s self sufficiency in rice production be fully achieved?

Let me say that our plan is for Nigeria to be self sufficient in rice by 2015 and to do that, we had already taken the following measures. We have increased tariff on brown rice and on finished rice, the reason is because we are getting cheap rice that is heavily subsidized from India and Thailand dumped on our market and that is destroying our own domestic production.

So, we raised the tariff because we must protect our own market from dumped rice in the market.

Secondly, we have been distributing massively, a lot of high quality rice seeds all across the country in the last one year that we started the rice policy.

Thirteen new integrated rice mills have come up in the country all owned by the private sector. They have a total capacity of 240,000 metric tons and today, you have UMZA Rice in Kano, ACHI Rice and MEVAP Rice in Benue.

All these are fantastic local rice better in quality than any imported rice. For the first time as a country, you go to the supermarkets now you see a lot of high quality Nigeria rice but to secure our success and scale going forward, we are importing 100 large scale integrated rice mills that will have a total capacity of 2.1 million metric tons and we are doing that again through the private sector. We got over $1 billion from China NEXIM Bank to finance the acquisition of these mills, so within 1824 months, Nigeria will have these mills and for the first time ever as a country, we will have the full milling capacity for all the rice we import and even export, why not, if we raise production. BC

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Protecting telecoms infrastructure Against the backdrop of the incessant poor quality of telecoms services in the country, telecoms operators and the government say there is need for subscribers to join hands in the campaign to protect telecoms infrastructures in the country

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

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rdinarily, Williams, a young boy of 12 years had always been the pride of the family. Full of life, vigour and highly intelligent, on a good day, one of the reasons everyone would have loved to be around him is the fact that his cheerful smile had always lit up the room whenever he walked in. For the JSS 2 student of one of the private schools in the metropolitan city of Maiduguri, his dream had always been to become a computer scientist one day. Sadly however, his dream would not come into reality. Diagnosed a couple of years ago with Asthma, little Williams became a regular visitor to the hospitals at various times the crisis erupted.

Today, Williams is dead. Few weeks ago, if only his elder sister had been able to put a call across to her mother in order to locate where his inhaler was, Williams would have been alive today.

In that part of the country, making or receiving calls has always been practically impossible as most of the telecoms masts had been vandalized few months back. If the telecoms infrastructure had been protected, who knows, such an ugly situation could have been averted.

Just like Williams’ case, there are thousands of other people across the country who have either lost their lives, their loved ones, business transactions as well as vital appointments as a result of the incessant poor quality of telecoms services caused by the vandalisation of telecoms infrastructure either consciously or unconsciously by the citizens.

It is no longer news that while Nigeria’s telecoms sector could

be said to have witnessed phenomenal growth in the last decade, emerging as the leading mobile telephony market in Africa, in terms of subscriber base and revenue, the phenomenon of poor quality of telecoms services in the country has continued to give stakeholders, operators and users of telephone service sleepless nights.

Apparently, perceived to have been a major cause of poor telecoms service, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had few months ago placed an indefinite ban on all telecoms promotions and lotteries. But unfortunately, despite the ban, in some cases, where services are not partially good, many areas are in perpetually “no service” status. Many, who spoke with Business Courage last week, admitted that poor quality of service still persists across the country. Apart from challenges of dropped calls, call diversion, weak call signals to activate calls, poor voice clarity, delay in SMS delivery, among others still being experienced, data services are also affected, as subscribers still find it difficult accessing the internet.

According to stakeholders, contrary to the thinking of the NCC that the major source of the poor quality of service has been the promos ran by the telecos, the real albatross to having good quality of service can largely be traced to the vandalisation of telecoms infrastructure across the country.

In fact, that vandalisation of telecoms installations across the country is fast becoming a daily occurrence is no longer a hid-

den fact but sadly, government has continued to ignore calls by stakeholders, mobile operators to accord telecoms installations the status of critical national infrastructure. This has become quite evident due to the recent spate of bomb attacks on telecoms infrastructure in some Northern states of Nigeria.

For instance, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), affirmed that the vandalisation of telecoms equipment would continue to have an impact on the current efforts to improving quality of service across the nation. Adebayo noted that the poor service quality should be blamed on natural and man-made disasters that had affected the telecom operators’ Base Transceiver Stations (BTS). According to him, last year, the telecos, for instance, lost about 530 BTS to attacks on them by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members in the Northern part of the country as well as natural disasters in different parts of the country, thereby worsening the quality of service, evident in the rise in dropped call rates, poor connections and lack of voice clarity.

While over 150 sites were affected by way of direct damage or consequential impact; another 380 sites were reportedly affected by floods and the effects of floods.

Explaining that both the primary and secondary impacts are said to have a significant impact on service quality in 2012 and the telecos are currently working hard to restore them, the ALTON boss said the development will not only slow growth in the

sector but set the industry back considerably, as requisite funds that could have been invested in deploying more base stations would now be used for replacements. The cost of building a Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) stations from the time you secure the land where you want to install the BTS and the time it goes live is around $250,000 (about N39 million).

Explaining why subscribers still suffer poor service quality, since only 530 base stations were destroyed out of 20,000, Adebayo said every BTS is connected to another in the same locality, and that if one is affected, the effect would be felt on several others that are connected to it.

While the wilful destruction and vandalism of telecoms infrastructure and equipment has become a worrisome development, the NCC, through its Consumer Outreach programme and the telecoms service providers have started going round the country educating the masses on the need to help secure telecom facilities in the domain.

Speaking recently at the 54th edition of the consumer outreach programme held in Ikorodu, Lagos with the theme ‘Protection of Telecom Infrastructure’, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, NCC, Okechukwu Itanyi, said the theme became imperative as telecoms infrastructure have a direct and indirect impact on the spread of telecom services to the nooks and crannies of the country as well as the Quality of Service being experienced by the consumers.

NCC consumer outreach was established to bring together

consumers, service providers and the regulator under one platform for the purpose of addressing consumer related issues as well as to educate stakeholders on contemporary issues generating attention in the industry.

At the event, which was largely attended by residents and other stakeholders in the Ikorodu community, Itanyi, who described telecoms infrastructure as the blood that sustains the industry, stressed that without telecoms infrastructure, there would be no telecoms service. He added that protection of telecoms facilities in every locality is a collective responsibility.

According to him, while the Commission has created a conducive environment that has attracted Foreign Direct Investment into the industry which has eventually made telecom infrastructures to be widely available in the country, Nigeria is virtually covered by these infrastructures in terms of optic fibre cables, copper cables, mast and towers, bandwidth, and internet facilities.

He noted that while this is expected to bring about a phenomenal growth in the telecom industry and other sectors of the economy which has been the focus and priority of the commission for quite some time, “It is our collective responsibility to protect these infrastructures from vandalism, stealing and any other abuses. In fact, telecom infrastructures should rank among the critical infrastructure, which should enjoy priority attention and protection in the country.”

“On this basis, I wish to enjoin you as responsible citizens of

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this country to know that one of our obligations is to discourage unauthorised usage and conversion to other uses of anything called telecom infrastructures,” he said.

In the same development, representatives of the telecoms firms such as MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat, who bemoaned the various damage hauled against their infrastructures at different localities in the country in recent time, also appealed to the subscribers on the need to support the operators.

In his own submission, speaking on the theme, “Security challenges to telecommunication infrastructure”, Bello Sani, Director, Technical Standard and National Integrity, noted that while over 1000 cases of vandalisation are being made annually by operators across the country, over 500 BTS have been reportedly burnt down in the Northern part of the country due to insecurity especially in states like Borno, Yobe, Kano and Adamawa. Explaining that vandalism could either be man-made or non man- made, he noted that the man-made vandalism could be in form of destruction of roads, theft, community interference or government interference. Decrying the willful destruction of the of fibre cables due to road constructions, Sani lamented that the high rate as he said operators have reported over 1200 cases of fibre cut in the last few months across the country.

Earlier this month, MTN Nigeria had said multiple fibre cuts in the eastern part of the country have led to service outage in the area. The telecoms company said that the fibre cuts were as a result of ongoing road construction on various routes around Aba, Enugu, Owerri, PortHarcourt, Eket, Ikot Abasi, Ete, Uyo and Calabar.

In a statement released by the mobile services provider, MTN Corporate Services Executive, Wale Goodluck said that the company’s engineers were currently battling to restore service quality to acceptable levels following the massive attack on the company’s extensive fibre network.

“To put matters in perspective, MTN on average suffers more than 70 fibre cuts in various locations across the country every month, but this is most unusual in terms of the spread and the coordination. It is almost as if it is a deliberate act targeted at disrupting service delivery.”

Goodluck said.

Appealing to the people of Nigeria, Goodluck called on members of the public to assist by reporting any suspicious activity around telecommunications installations, which he said are critical national infrastructure.

“By so doing, you will play your part in protecting your right to good services and the full benefits of the ICT revolution,” he said.

In the same vein, Osondu Nwokoro, director, regulatory affairs, Airtel Nigeria lamented that no fewer than 53 telecoms

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Technotips

Things to look for in a computer

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Eugene Juwah, NCC Boss

Adebayo

sites belonging to the company were directly affected during the bomb attacks in the northern east part of Nigeria last year.

“But 193 sites were impacted in all as huge outages were sustained. The way the network architecture is designed, we have some telecoms masts that are hubs and control other base stations. So, if a hub is destroyed then other masts that depend on the hub will be affected. However, the Indian owned mobile network operator has managed to resuscitate 112 out of the 193 telecoms sites but at great financial costs. “The rising levels of insecurity, according to Nwokoro have stalled network restoration and rollout as field operations personnel refuse to work in areas prone to violence. The Airtel director bemoaned the fact that the loss of capacity occasioned by these threats in most cases has been greatly affecting quality of service delivery and customer experience, leading to a drop in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Emmanuel Enyinnaya from Etisalat gave a graphic description of some of the security men attached to one of the BTS who

were tied down in order for them to siphon diesel from the station.

Deolu Ogunbanjo, president, National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), said terrorist attacks on telecoms infrastructure amounted to economic sabotage; adding that it was unfortunate as some jobs would indeed be lost. Ogunbanjo said there was a need to declare a state of emergency in the telecoms.

Maintaining that BTS are very critical because without them there cannot be telephone services such as calls making, SMS and internet services, since the coming of the GSM in 2001, no sector has provided more jobs opportunities to the people more than the telecom sector. Hence, Ogunbanjo appealed to subscribers to see the telecom infrastructure as their properties and guard them jealously so that it is not destroyed or tampered with in any form.

To Martins Akinboyewa, a resident who also spoke at the forum, the service providers should go a long way in installing equipment such as CCTV to monitor activities around the telecom equipment. BC

omputers are becoming more and more important in everyday life. Computers are everywhere, like them or not. For work, for amusement, for searching some useful information and to use it to contact with others.

Besides keeping people connected and allowing the free flow of information, computers are used by every business and government agency to help record keeping, complex computations and personnel use.

There are many things you can do with a computer. You can control your house from a computer. You can make money from a computer.

But before you purchase one, here are some tips you need to have in mind.

1. Gigahertz: Gigahertz can be defined as the number of cycles per second of a processor. The top industry speeds are around 4.0 ghz or gigahertz (4 billion operations per second). Unless you are an advanced gamer playing a very high end game you will not need 4 gigahertz. The average user needs approximately 1.6-2.4 gigahertz, anything in that range should be adequate for basic online games, videos, music, and most software.

2. Hard Drive A hard drive,HDD,or hard disk is the part of your computer that stores all your files. The average netbook comes with 160 gigabytes of memory while the average laptop has around 320. Most users will never need more than 160, and considering how cheap external hard drives are hard drive space should never be an issue.

3. Accessories Some businesses offer you the option to add “accessories” to your order, but usually if you shop around you can save money on these accessories. The accessories they offer range from cases , extra batteries, chargers, keyboards/ mice.

4. Ram/Memory RAM or random access memory is a form of data storage similar to your hard drive. To explain simply RAM is one of the things that determine how fast your computer will run applications, and start programs. If you plan on running games or very intensive software you will need at least two gigabytes of memory/ram.

5. Webcam/Microphone/Input Devices I would wish you luck in finding a laptop or netbook that does not have a microphone or webcam. The type of webcam or microphone should not really go into a computer purchase.

6. USB Ports So if you have ever hooked a mouse or keyboard into a netbook/laptop then you have personally used a USB port.

Most netbooks/laptops come with three usb 2.0 ports, but occasionally they only have two. The issue with using two is if you have a mouse/keyboard plugged in you have to unplug one to use a USB flash drive or printer. So your best option is to get three USB ports.

7. Card Readers There a lot of different types of cards that store data, but the two most commonly used ones are SD and micro SD cards. Every laptop/netbook on the market has an SD card slot, but very few have micro SD card readers.

8. Battery Life Now, battery life is a very important factor when choosing a laptop/netbook. If you travel often you’re going to want a much longer lasting battery than say, someone who rarely travels. Depending on how often you cannot keep your laptop/netbook plugged in easily will determine how important battery power is. The length of laptop/netbook batteries is between 3-8 hours; this is usually advertised.

9. Screen Size The preferable screen size really depends on your uses, but the recommend size is about 14-15 inches. If it is any smaller some programs/websites may not display correctly, but if it’s too big the laptop could be too heavy to carry around. Statistically the cheaper laptops have smaller screens.

10. CD-Drive Not everyone needs a cd-drive, but if you do then you should not buy a netbook because the fundamental difference between a laptop and netbook is that netbooks have no cd-drives. Remember you can buy an external cd-drive for less than N10,000. BC

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Business Courage

Monday, February 25, 2013

ATCON President appointed ICANN special group member

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Lenarz

IT exhibition: CEBIT appoints Nigeria’s representative Stories by Kunle Azeez

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rganisers of CeBIT, reputed globally as the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions, Deutsche Messe AG, have appointed Nigerian representative.

The Nigerian representative, IT & Telecom Digest, is the country’s footprint for Fairpros, a the German company and international trade fair marketing company, which has been appointed by CeBIT as its representative for Sub-Saharan Africa.

With this appointment, Fairpros, which has offices in Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe to consolidate its headquarters in Germany, is now effectively the company officially responsible for registering trade visitors to events such as CeBIT and others organised by Deutsche Messe AG in Hannover, Germany.

The Fairpros Nigeria Representative office is managed and run by Africa’s leading award-winning and foremost Information and Communications Technology Magazine, IT & Telecom Digest.

Managing Director of Deutsche Messe Worldwide, Wolfgang Lenarz, had during a working visitor to Nigeria late last year, held a meeting with Mkpe Abang, Editor-inChief of IT & Telecom Digest to cement discussions that had begun with Fairpros in Germany.

The appointment of Fairpros to take over the management of registration of visitors to events such as CeBIT in Hannover, comes on the heels of its similar efforts in overseeing and handling trade visitors to events in German cities such as Ber-

lin, Nurmberg and Cologne.

With this appointment, Nigerians willing to attend CEBIT in Hannover can now have quick and easy access to all processes here in Nigeria, thus leveraging also on IT & Telecom Digest’s long years experience in organising conferences for the international event.

Prior to this appointment, the Nigerian office of Fairpros International Marketing, the Official Representative for Sub-Saharan Africa to Messe Berlin, KoelMesse and MesseNurmberg, is effectively run

by IT & Telecom Digest, thus registering trade visitors for several leading international fairs in Berlin, Cologne and Nuremberg, Germany; and now, Hannover has been added to the list.

This appointment came just as preparations hit top gear for CEBIT 2013, which is scheduled to hold between March 5 and 9 2013 in Hannover Germany.

The event has been a regular platform for the discovery of world’s exciting new products and services, while valuable contacts are made for business developments.

With its platforms such as CEBIT Pro, CEBIT gov,CEBIT lab and CEBIT life, attendees can easily find what they are looking for while its new services make matchmaking easier than ever before.

Coming under the tagline “Shareeconomy”, CEBIT 2013 explores the sharing and communal use of knowledge, reseources and experience.

CEBIT Global Conference also offers a 360 degree overview of the four most important core markets of the digital world: IT and Telecommunications, digital media and consumer electronics.

In selected keynote addresses and panel discussions, experienced guest speakers from all over the world are expected to talk about current trends, interesting innovations and their impacts on work and society.

he President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria, Lanre Ajayi, has been appointed into the Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services of the Internet Corporation on Assigned Numbers and Ajayi is the Managing Director of Pinet Informatics Limited, one of the first ISPs in Nigeria and has served as the Vice-Chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) and Africa ISP Association (AfrISPA).

He is a founding member of AfriNIC. He also has served as a member of the National Cybercrime Working Group of Nigeria . He currently serves as a GNSO Council member appointed by the NomCom and is based in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that on 13 December 2012, President and Chief Executive Officer, ICANN, Fadi Chehadé, has announced the creation of an Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services (EWG) and invited volunteers to submit applications to indicate their interest in serving on it.

The EWG is the first step in fulfilling the ICANN Board’s directive to help redefine the purpose and provision of gTLD registration data. This project is designed to provide a foundation for the creation of a new global policy for gTLD directory services, and requisite contract negotiations, as appropriate.

Over 70 highly-qualified experts from across the Internet ecosystem were considered.

In selecting the EWG, each candidates’ operational knowledge and experience with registrant data or directory services (or analogous systems) was considered, along with consensus-building skills, aptitude to innovate, geographic diversity, and other published criteria.

After an extensive evaluation of each candidate, 14 individuals were selected to participate in this critical project.

Ajayi

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Others selected alongside Ajayi are Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Blyk, a mobile media company based in Finland, Pekka Ala-Pietilä; Director, Verisign Labs based in the United States, Scott Hollenbeck; Assistant General Director and Director of CNNIC R&D center at CNNIC, based in the People’s Republic of China, Jin Jian; and Domain Name Manager at Facebook, Susan Kawaguchi.

Others are Nora Nanayakkara, United Kingdom-based expert in start-ups and SMEs in the digital and technology spaces, with particular experience in registry and registrar operations; Michele Neylon, Ireland-based Chief Executive Officer of Blacknight Internet Solutions, an Irish registrar, and sits on the Eurid Registrar Advisory Board; Michael Niebel, Belgium based head of the Task Force on Internet Policy Development in the Directorate General CONNECT of the European Commission; and Rod Rasmussen, US based co-founder, President and CTO of Internet Identity (IID), among others.

The EWG is expected to commence its analysis and deliberations immediately, with the objective of discussing its progress online and with the community at the Beijing ICANN Meeting.

According to the mandate of ICANN, a Board-directed Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) policy development process (PDP) is expected to follow the work of the EWG to evaluate the policy implications of the EWG’s recommendations. The EWG’s objectives are to define the purpose of collecting and maintaining gTLD registration data, and consider how to safeguard the data, as well as provide a proposed model for managing gTLD directory services that addresses related data accuracy and access issues, while taking into account safeguards for protecting data.

The EWG will be informed

by Internet stakeholders’ activities, and the extensive work of the GNSO work over the last decade. The group also will consider the WHOIS Policy Review Team Report, address key questions set forth by the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), and take into consideration current and future Internet operations and services.

In addition, the EWG will address concerns of the parties who provide, collect, maintain, publish or use gTLD registration data as it relates to ICANN’s remit.The EWG’s activities are expected to be conducted from February through May 2013 and may be extended, if needed. Work will be conducted online and through conference calls and periodic face-to-face meetings.

New technology to save Nigerian varsity N150bn annually

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he use of Information and Communication Technology that guarantees virtual education can save Nigerian universities over N150 billion annually, according to the Managing Director and Chief Executive of New Horizons, Tim Akano.

According to him, Ghana our West African neighbour earns $1billion from Nigerian students annually. “This is my point: $1 billion retained in Nigeria will create 1 million jobs in the education sector! The answer is in Virtual Universities!”

Akano maintained that the feelings among some top government functionaries that ‘Nigeria cannot succeed with virtual universities was the same thinking on the eve of Nigerian joining the league of GSM countries.

“One of the bidders who later regretted his decision said openly that Nigerians are too poor to afford GSM telephone in a way that would make the successful bidders recovers their $150million investment in five years.”

He continued: “There is a global wave of change across the educational industry`.

There is clamor for the ‘’reeducation of education’’.

The system today is too expensive and ‘’wall-off’’ so many brilliant young minds because of space constraints and limited infrastructure in the traditional universities.

This will be achieved through online education.

For instance, last year, a small startup company that hosts classes for 30 universities in the US trained 1.7million students in its online courses last year. This is 1.7 million that the tradition brick- and- mortar universities would have fenced-out.

Akano opined that the issue of quality of virtual university should not be used as a factor to sustain the Berlin Wall of traditional university.

“No. After all, even the quality of the graduates in the present system is being questioned every day. Water will always find its level.

Those who go to Virtual or traditional universities will have to compete for limited jobs at the end of the dayso lets the employers be the judge.”

He stressed that right now, thousands of Nigerians are undergoing courses like Money Management, Information Technology, Sales and Marketing to complex ones like Artificial Intelligence and Engineering at IMT, Harvard, and Stanford among others. BC

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Behind d Wheels This page is open to sponsorship

Rav4 2013,

simply exotic T

he 2013 Toyota RAV4 builds on the core values of its predecessors, while introducing distinctive new styling, a premium quality interior, stronger and more rewarding dynamic performance and more fuel-efficient powertrains.

The 2013 Toyota RAV4 is longer (+205mm over SWB model without rear wheel carrier) and wider (+30mm) but lower (-25mm) than its predecessor, and presents a new silhouette that expresses its versatility, roominess and improved dynamic capabilities.

The exterior displays elements of Toyota’s new family ‘look’ in its frontal appearance.

The new Toyota“face” includes a stronger treatment of the lower grille and a smaller upper grille extending the full width between the headlamp units. The new approach is also witnessed in the keen-edged design of the headlamps and detailing in the arrangement of the LED daytime running lights.

The tailgate itself is now tophinged with an integrated roof spoiler.

The new RAV4’s cabin is spacious, comfortable and provides the driver with a cockpit-like position at the wheel. It extends the practicality of its predecessors by offering more room, higher quality finishes and a more focused and engaging driving experience.

The new dashboard comprises strong upper and lower beams, interrupted by a curved, metal-finished spar to frame the instrument binnacle, steering wheel and driver’s foot well.

The design introduces high quality materials, including soft padding on many of the touchpoints for driver and passengers, crisp trim finishes, new colours and more leather around the instrument panel.

All the instrument and switch gear is back-lit in cool blue, adding to the sophistication and consistency of the cabin environment.

Lower driving position The driving position has been designed for excellent ergonomics, greater comfort, better forward visibility and a more engaging driving experience.

The driver’s seat hip-point has been lowered by 5mm and the seat height adjustment range has been increased by 15mm.

At the same time, the steering wheel angle has been lowered by 2.3 degrees.

To give the driver a better forward view, the front pillars have been moved further outwards, increasing the field of vision from the wheel by three degrees. The pillars are thinner, too, with an eight per cent narrower crosssection.

More space, more versatility RAV4 remains compact and manoeuvrable, but within its overall length of 4,570mm and 2,660mm wheel base. Toyota has created significantly more room inside for passengers and load space that’s on a par with large saloons.

The front-to-rear seat couple distance is now a best-in-class 970mm. Combined with a thinner front seatback design, this increases rear legroom. The rear seats have been made more comfortable by increasing the cushion’s length and increasing its surface angle. Higher side bolsters have been added, too.

Thanks to Toyota’s Easy Flat system, the rear seats can be quickly and easily folded flat.

The seats divide 60:40 and each section can be reclined independently.

The load space is longer, increasing capacity to 547 litres, and an extra 49 litres of storage have been added to the under tray, taking it to 100 litres.

The side-hung tailgate that has featured on all previous versions of RAV4 has been replaced with a top-hinged unit. On some versions this is power operated.

The tailgate opening has the lowest lip height in its class, at 645mm, and a 1,370mm-wide aperture.

Powertrains The engine line-up for the new RAV4 in Western Europe includes a new 2.0-litre diesel. The range has been selected to give the new model an unmatched balance of front and all-wheel drive performance with classleading CO2 emissions across the

board.

For Europ e a n markets, there is a choice of a 149bhp 2.0-litre petrol engine, a new 122bhp 2.0-litre diesel and a 148bhp 2.2-litre diesel. Each one gives improved CO2 emissions performance, on average better by 12 per cent across the range.

Of special note is the performance of the 2.0 diesel frontwheel drive RAV4. Equipped with Toyota’s Stop and Start technology this produces just 127g/km of CO2.

Drivability Successive generations of RAV4 have built on the original’s fun to drive character and established its reputation for ride comfort, ease of driving, manoeuvrability and steadfast performance in challenging driving conditions.

As well as providing a more comfortable and focused driving position, the new RAV4 builds on its SUV attributes with retuned suspension, revised electric power steering and an Integrated Dynamic Drive System that comes with a new Sport mode.

Together, these revisions and introductions make for greater stability and agility in the wet and dry, giving a more confidence-inspiring, intuitive and involving drive.

Down-hill Assist and Hillstart Assist Control are also available. Down-hill Assist is featured on all models equipped with automatic transmission and is particularly helpful when driving in icy conditions or snow; it automatically controls gear selection, engine speed and the ABS’s individual wheel braking to help the driver keep skid-free control of the vehicle on slippery descents.

Integrated Dynamic Drive system The Integrated Dynamic Drive is a sophisticated high-speed interactive management system which co-ordinates control of

RAV4’s new Dynamic Torque Control AWD system, Vehicle Stability Control and electric power steering to improve performance, handling and safety.

The Dynamic Torque Control constantly monitors and controls the transfer of drive torque between the front and rear axles using an electromagnetic coupling located ahead of the rear differential. The torque distribution can vary from 100:0 to 50:50, front to rear. Front-wheel drive (100:0) is automatically engaged in normal driving conditions to achieve the best fuel economy.

The system determines the degree of torque transfer using data from a series of sensors monitoring vehicle speed, steering angle, throttle angle and yaw rate.

In Normal mode (when neither Sport nor Lock mode is activated), torque is transferred to the rear wheels only when slip is detected – as in the previous generation model – or when under steer is detected during cornering. This makes for better agility and driving performance, both on and off-road.

When Sport mode (standard on AWD models) is engaged, torque transfer to the rear wheels

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Courage A19 35

Monday, February 25, 2013

Behind d Wheels This page is open to sponsorship

begins the moment the steering wheel is turned. The Dynamic Torque Control AWD System, taking feedback from the driver’s steering inputs, will automatically adjust to a 90:10 front rear torque transfer to reduce the load on the front tyres.

Should under steer develop, torque transfer to the rear wheels will be increased by up to 50 per cent, further reducing the loading on the front wheels and giving better lateral grip.

As well as activating the dynamic element in the system’s torque transfer, Sport mode modifies the steering, throttle and transmission: steering assistance is reduced, throttle response is sharpened and the CVT or automatic transmission management operates with higher revs to give a sportier driving experience.

The system has a 4WD Lock button for off-road driving, allowing the driver to lock torque distribution in a 50:50 ratio at speeds up to 25mph (40km/h).

Safety and Technology The new RAV4 makes advances beyond the achievements of its predecessors to provide high standards of occupant safety and pedestrian impact protection. It features a new, highrigidity, multi-path impact load body and has been engineered to meet the criteria for a five-star rating in the 2013 Euro NCAP crash test programme.

Inside, there are new antiwhiplash seats and seven airbags, fitted as standard, including a driver’s knee airbag and twin-chamber front seat side airbags.

Two new technologies for safety and driver assistance are featured on RAV4 for the first time: a Lane Departure Alert and a Blind Spot Monitor.

Lane Departure Alert The Lane Departure Alert uses a lane recognition camera sensor mounted on the head of t h e

windscreen to determine if the vehicle is unintentionally moving out of its lane. It

will sound a warning buzzer and trigger a flashing line icon on the car’s multi-information display to warn the driver.

Blind Spot Monitor The blind spot warning system will alert the driver to another vehicle travelling in a blind spot alongside by lighting up the indicator on the door mirror on the appropriate side of the car.

The system works using radar sensors fitted to each side of the rear of the vehicle. If the turn indicator is operating, the indicator will flash at fixed intervals to signal to the driver that another vehicle is in the blind spot.

Toyota’s new RAV4 range offers more models to choose from, higher equipment specifications and lower emissions across the board, yet the line-up starts at a much lower price than the model it replaces.

Available to order now, with first customer deliveries from March 1, the fourth generation RAV4 benefits from Toyota’s new focus on designing and engineering cars that have more distinctive looks and deliver a more rewarding driving experience. It also addresses growing customer demand for more on-board space – both for passengers and their luggage.

The new model will be available in both two (front) and allwheel drive across three new grades: Active, Icon and Invincible.

Entry point is the new 2.0 D-4D Active 2WD version, available at (N5.64 million) £22,595 on-the-road. Both this model and the more highly specified 2.0 D-4D Icon 2WD M6.07 million (£24,295) undercut the current XTR 2.2 D-4D 2WD on price. At the same time, both also maintain high equipment specifications: Active grade comes with 17-inch alloys, air conditioning, Bluetooth, electric windows front and rear, rear privacy glass and front fog lights; the Icon spec’ includes a powered tailgate (now top-hinged for

easier loading), a folding function on the powered door mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, part-leather instrument panel trim and dual-zone automatic air conditioning. The Toyota Touch multimedia touchscreen system also features on Icon models, with a DAB digital tuner, rear-view camera and Bluetooth.

At the top of the range, the new Invincible adds more premium equipment features such as roof rails, leather upholstery, heated front seats, and rear parking sensors and Smart Entry and Start. Further supporting new RAV4’s wider appeal, Invincible grade offers the choice of six-speed manual as well as automatic transmission.

Options A range of options and two option packs will be available for new RAV4, giving owners a costeffective way of adding extra style, comfort and equipment to their vehicle.

The Toyota Touch touchscreen control system on the Icon and Invincible models can be upgraded to Touch & Go, adding satellite navigation and on-board connectivity to Google Local Search (with appropriate mobile phones and service plans) with access to useful applications for more detailed local information and resources. These models can also be equipped with a sunroof.

Leather upholstery can be specified for the Active and Icon models, while Invincible owners can take advantage of Toyota’s advanced safety technology by adding the Lane Departure Warning and Blind Spot Monitor systems.

A Style Pack, comprising a front guard plate, side steps and front and rear scuff plates, is available for the Icon and Invincible, while a Protection Pack (front and rear parking sensors and a rear bumper protection plate) can be added. BC

Autocare Easy steps to extend the life of your vehicle

T

he economy is in dire strait and many people don’t have a lot of extra cash to spare. Under circumstances like these, how can you extend the life of your vehicle and steer clear of costly repairs?

Discussed below are suggestions to help motorists retain value for their wheels and avoid unexpected, high-naira surprises.

1. Don’t let your owner’s manual sit neglected in your glove compartment. Instead, crack it open and spend a few minutes reviewing the recommended maintenance schedule for your particular vehicle. Follow it religiously and use quality oil, fluids and parts.

2. Don’t overwork a cold car. You don’t need to engage in a lengthy warm-up, but drive moderately until the engine is approaching operating temperature.

3. Check out your “check engine” light. It’s quite common for drivers to ignore “check engine” lights when they turn on. People also can go into prolonged states of denial about strange noises and smells coming from their vehicles. Even if money is tight, it’s worth it to get these issues checked out by a reputable mechanic.

4. Protect your car from the damaging effects of the sun.

Whenever possible, park your vehicle in the shade or inside a garage. By making that extra effort, you’ll safeguard your car’s paint and interior.

5. Check your oil and coolant regularly. By doing this, you’ll find out about leaks sooner rather than later, and you’ll sidestep the problems that can be caused by low levels. As referenced in Tip No. 1, regular, timely oil changes can help you avoid costly repairs.

6. Check your tire pressure regularly. Proper tire inflation will help the tires handle better and last longer, and it will help you get the most out of a tank of gas. It’s also a good idea to have your tires checked for wear regularly.

7. Pay attention to the way you drive. Aggressive driving, hard stopping, accelerating to stops and riding the brakes or clutch can make almost everything on your vehicle wear out early and also can hurt your fuel economy.

8. Reduce the number of short trips you make.

Cold starts cause the most wear on your engine. One way to avoid an unnecessary number of cold starts and save fuel at the same time is to run errands with efficiency. Try saving all your errands for one morning or afternoon and planning out your trip ahead of time. Consolidate drives to locations that are close to each other. If possible, park your car in one spot and walk when you get there.

9. Do you have a brand-new vehicle? If so, it’s a good idea to follow its break-in recommendations with care. An oil change at 1,000 miles, whether recommended or not, is a good idea to make sure that any impurities left over from manufacturing don’t spend too much time in your engine.

10. Keep it clean. You’ll help your vehicle retain its value and appeal if you clean it regularly, both inside and out.

Regular waxing also can help your paint job hold up nicely and can stave off rust and other unsightly blemishes. BC

A20 36

Business Courage

Trade volume to drop by 15% in 2013

T

he latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has indicated that the various unpleasant conditions which have affected businesses in the past one year may not abate before the end of 2013.

The NBS reported that the country’s merchandise trade declined by 11.03 per cent from N29.069 trillion in 2011 to N25.062 trillion in 2012 and predicted a further decline of 15.40 per cent in trade for the 2013 fiscal year. The report signed by the Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale, said that the trade value could decline from N25.062 trillion in 2012 to N21.880 trillion in 2013.

However, merchandise trade should increase to N27.36 trillion in 2014, N33.644 trillion in 2015 and N40.776 trillion in 2016, the bureau stated.

The NBS said that Nigeria’s external reserves would experience less pressure in 2013 owing to the decrease in demand for foreign exchange to settle high import bills.

For instance, it said the projected increase in the value of total merchandise trade between this year and 2016 are expected to generate higher external reserves through higher exports thereby increasing the supply of foreign exchange than the demand for it. “As at the third quarter of 2012, the value of total merchandise trade for the country was estimated at N20.885 trillion over the first three quarters of the year. Compared to levels recorded during the first three quarters in 2011, the value of total merchandise trade had remained roughly unchanged, increasing marginally by 0.4 per cent,” it said.

Yale

The NBS stated that the value of total merchandise trade points to increasing exports over the period while imports have been on the decline. Specifically, it said that imports have continued to trend downwards since the second quarter of 2011, while the value of exports, which increased substantially in late 2011, dipped in the first quarter of 2012, but picked up in the second and third quarters of 2012.

The report also stated that as at the third quarter of 2012, the value of total merchandise trade for the country was N20.885 trillion over the first three quarters of the year.

Compared to levels recorded during the first three quarters in 2011, the value of total merchandise trade had remained roughly unchanged, increasing marginally by 0.4 per cent. BC

T

Kyari

On the use of shares in CSCS depository as collateral for loan, he said that 168 shareholders used their shareholding in CSCS to receive loan facilities from financial institutions in year 2012, representing a decrease of 48 per cent in comparison with 2011 figures of 324 shareholders.

He added that more than 18,916 shareholders have used their shares as collateral for loan since inception of CSCS till year-end 2012.

“Trade Guaranty Fund as at December 31, 2012 stood at N59.36 million, as against N54.62 million in 2011. This increase is largely as a result of interest income derived from settlement banks involved in the management of the fund,” he added. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Eko Atlantic City as benchmark for urban renewal

T

CSCS settled N16.97tr transactions in 15 years he Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) has said that it had cleared and settled transactions worth N16.97 trillion since inception.

Kyari Bukar, the CSCS Managing Director, who disclosed this in a statement, said that the company cleared and settled a total of 1.65 trillion units of shares worth N16.97 trillion between 1997 and 2012.

“For year 2012, CSCS cleared and settled transactions valued at N658.72 billion against N634.92 billion in 2011, representing an increase of about 3.7 per cent in cleared and settled transactions,” he said.

Bukar said that the volume of cleared and settled transactions recorded by CSCS in 2012 was 89.18 billion units of shares as against 89.58 billion in 2011.

He said that the company dematerialised a total of 264,886 share certificates in 2012 compared with 530,140 share certificates dematerialised in the preceding year.

According to him, a total of 14.16 million share certificates have been dematerialised from 1997 to 2012 Bukar said that the number of shareholders who maintained accounts in its depository rose to 4.9 million in 2012 from 4.8 million recorded in 2011.

“These new statistics clearly represent an increase of 1.47 per cent in the number of shareholders who maintain accounts with the central security deposit.

Monday, February 25, 2013

he official unveiling of the Eko Atlantic City, planned as a new showpiece real estate development will remain one of the landmarks of the civilian administration in Lagos State.

The project, as conceived, is a departure from the rushed ad-hoc measures and initiatives that government has been known for in Nigeria for decades.

Even with all the controversy that has trailed the project, one must concede that pumping 140 million tonnes of sand to reclaim five square kilometers of land from the ocean and the erection of the eight kilometer long concrete sea barrier known as the Great Wall of Lagos to protect the entire shoreline is no mean feat of engineering.

It follows in the footsteps of similar showpiece developments such as The Palms Island in Dubai, which has become one of the reference points in human ingenuity.

Indeed, kudos needs to be given to the main promoters Southern Energix, owned by the Lebanese-Nigerian Chagoury Group which was been able to assemble credible partners including First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, BNP Paribas as well as leading engineering and architectural firms to ensure the delivery of this project.

For me, what the Eko Atlantic City does is to showcase Lagos as an emerging global financial centre and unlock possibilities that would be available in an environment offering world class facilities and ambience, will attract the rich and powerful work and play.

While the new city is expected to be home to just 250,000 people with an additional 150,000 coming in to work, the development has also created huge opportunities for investment in prime real estate, which has come into short supply in Lagos as Ikoyi and Victoria Island become increasingly crowded.

Apart from this, the project has effectively resolved the perennial flooding problem on Victoria Island due to periodic ocean surge and is likely to silence some of the critics who have claimed that the sand filling posed more of a danger in the future.

As visiting President Bill Clinton said at the unveiling, the city would attract people worldwide in the next five years and would improve the domestic economy of Nigeria and bring enormous opportunities to the world.

He must have seen in his mind’s eye, the breathtaking skyscrapers housing offices and luxury condominiums, tree-lined avenues, luxury villa and mansions for those who can pay the N150m per plot asking price, brightly lit habour, parks and jetties for private yachts that will be standard offering for the privileged would-be residents.

It is easy to imagine the huge opportunities this project will open for the

construction industry with architects, cement producers, steel suppliers, furniture makers and building professionals, artisans and the rest set to earn billions of naira, while the telecoms firms, real estate developers and hoteliers, tourism companies sector and the financial sector also being placed in a vantage position to make a killing as time goes on.

More importantly perhaps is that the project throws a direct challenge to the Federal Government and other state governments to come up with public private partnership initiatives that will address the housing requirements of a rapidly urbanizing nation and provide quality living for the middle class.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who also graced the unveiling spoke about government’s plans to build new cities - aerotropolis - around the major international airports as well as the Centenary City around Abuja, where people do not have to provide their own electricity, roads and water.

He also announced the Federal Government’s decision to set up the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Corporation (NMRC) to help in providing finance for the housing and construction sector.

Given, the growing challenge of housing the growing urban population that has been clearly identified with half of the nation’s population already living in cities and 70 per cent expected to be city dwellers in a few short years, government needs to walk the talk.

The PPP model upon which the Eko Atlantic City is based needs to be replicated in the states but there needs to be more focus on providing housing and decent living opportunities for the lower classes even the urban poor. While Nigeria is not a welfarist nation by any standard, incentives must be given to encourage investors to go into mass housing development.

The Eko project is apparently flying because it is targeted at the rich who can offer the required returns on investment. Yet the responsibility of government is to all. Already, the Lagos State Government, in spite of all its investments in improving infrastructure in the city is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as paying too much attention to the elite districts, even though most citizens live in suburban areas and villages that have become part of the Greater Lagos area due to the constant migration into the city.

What the promoters of the new city are doing is not magic. It is all about visioning and planning while taking into account scenarios that are likely to play out in the future.

Government city planners appears to be bereft of this basic ability, which why Abuja, planned to be modern capital is slowly falling into ruin, Lagos in chaos and a city like Ibadan is in a shambles.

We must reverse this now. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Courage

Monday, February 25, 2013

A21 37

NACCIMA, Kano Govt laud Nigeria-Niger business relationship

By Stanley Ihedigbo

T

he National President of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture of Nigeria (NACCIMA), Dr. Herbert Ajayi and the Governor of Kano state, Dr. Rabi’u Kwankwaso have commended the business relationship between Nigeria and Niger Republic, describing it as a good step in the right direction .

Speaking at the first General Assembly of the Nigeria-Niger Chamber of Commerce held in Kano recently , under the aegis of the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission for Cooperation, they said that the relationship with Nigeria and Niger Republic will helps both countries to work in harmony towards concretizing businesses which would enhance exchange between the two countries.

The NACCMA president expressed satisfaction with the establishment of the Joint Chamber of Commerce which has been featuring in the agenda of Nigeria-Niger joint Commission for over twentyfive (25) years.

He also commended the Secretary-General of the

Ajayi

Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission for Co-operation, Abduljalil Sulaiman for his efforts towards putting in place the Bilateral Institution for the trade exchange.

The Governor who was represented by the deputy, Dr. Abullahi Ganduje, expressed his appreciation for the honour done to Kano City by choosing it to host the first General Assembly of the Nigeria-Niger Chamber of Commerce.

He also thanked the Chambers of Commerce of both countries for giving Kano the headquarter of the new institution which aims at revitalizing the existing mechanisms towards achieving the goals of the First Trade and Investment Summit between

Kano and the Republic of Niger last September.

In his remarks , the Nigeria Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was represented

by Director of African SubRegional Organisation Division, Ambassador Pisagih, commended the two Chambers of Commerce and the Joint Commission for their dexterity in putting in place the bilateral Chamber of Commerce which, he affirmed would serve as a vehicle for promoting cross border trade.

At the event, the Secretary General , Amb. Sulaiman , drew the attention of participants to the importance of the NigeriaNiger Chamber of Commerce as expressed by the Presidents of the two countries during the High Authority Summit held in Niamey last year October, 2012.

He urged the two sides to ensure that the new institution is given adequate means and a development-oriented administration capable of proposing important reforms needed by their respective sectors with a view to making the economics of both countries more competitive. BC

Nigerian Breweries turnover hits N253 bn, declares N3 dividend

Market Indicators for Week Ended 22-02-13 All-Share Index 33,895.05 points Market Capitalisation N10,846,180,571,098

Stories By Tayo Adeleke

N

igerian Breweries Plc has announced its financial year results ended December 31 2012, with its turnover growing by 20 per cent to close at N252.7 billion from N211 billion in 2011.

According to analyst, this growth may have been underpinned by contributions from the consolidation of its acquired breweries in the fourth quarters of 2012 as well as stronger volumes. Consequently, the management has recommended N3 dividend per share as a reward to its stakeholders, translating to a yield of 1.76 per cent on a payout ratio of 60 per

cent from N5.03 earnings.

However, NB’s profit before tax and profit after (PAT) slowed by 1.4 per cent and 0.02 per cent respectively. Profit before tax stood at N55.62 billion from N56.40 billion in 2011 while PAT close at NN38.04 billion from N38.02 billion.

The results also showed that margins and profitability pressured by costs and higher finance charges. Pre tax margin dipped to 22.0 per cent in the financial year ended 2012 from 26.72 per cent in 2011. PAT margin also fell to 15.06 per cent in financial year 2012. Financial analysts note that increased

marketing spend and input costs may have been responsible for the apparent pressure on margins. Higher finance charges also impacted attributable earnings as earnings per share came in flat at N5.03 in 2012 when compared to 2011 EPS. Looking at the company balance sheet, fixed assets grew by 15.6 per cent to close at N142.35 billion, noncurrent assets up by 10.6 per cent to N196.77 billion while total current assets stood at N56.87 billion. Shareholders’ funds moved up by 15.2 per cent to N166.799 billion from N144.83 billion in 2011. BC

Diamond Bank Plc 2012 FYE statement to be announced in March

T

he Diamond bank financial report for year ended December 2012 is expected to be out next month based on statement from the bank. Diamond Bank Plc notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange last week that it has scheduled a Board of Directors’ meeting to hold on Wednesday, March, 7 2013 in Lagos. It proposed that its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2012 will be considered as top agenda at the meeting.

The statement also stated that the Company will notify The Exchange and other stakeholders of the outcome of the meeting.

The investing public are anticipating the company’s full

year results after an impressive nine months performance.

It would be recalled that the financial institution announced an impressive third quarter result with the posting of a profit before tax of N23.2 billion for the nine months ended September 2012. Highlights of the unaudited results, prepared on the basis of International Financial Reporting Standards, showed that the bank’s total assets rose to N1.03 trillion as against N960.1 billion recorded at the end of the second quarter, representing a seven per cent increase. Other highlight of the results showed that the bank recorded a net interest income of N72.4 billion, representing a 39

per cent increase from N52.09 billion recorded in Q3, 2011.

It also achieved a 163 per cent increase in other income from N8.0 billion it recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2011 to N21.0 billion.

Loans and advances to customers increased by seven per cent quarter on quarter to N539.6 billion; deposits from customers increased by 14 per cent to N776.8 billion and a decline in non-performing loans by 28 per cent to N30 billion. The bank was recently granted a $70 million sevenyear convertible subordinated loan facility by the International Finance Corporation and Africa Capitalisation Fund Limited.

Stock Updates GAINERS COMPANY

OPENING PRICE

DANGCEM

146.99

CLOSING PRICE 160.00

CHANGE

FIDELITYBK

3.17

3.38

6.62

MCNICHOLS

0.81

0.85

4.94

AFRIPRUD

1.85

1.94

4.86

RTBRISCOE

2.29

2.40

4.80

8.85

LOSERS COMPANY

OPENING PRICE

CLOSING PRICE

CHANGE

PRESCO

24.20

21.85

-9.71

ASHAKACEM

25.25

22.80

-9.70

PRESTIGE

0.97

0.88

-9.28

INTBREW

23.50

22

-6.38

1.65

1.55

-6.06

FIDSON

Inter-Bank Rates TENOR

RATE%(PREV) 15-Feb-2013

RATE%(CURR) 22-Feb-2013

CALL

11.0000 – 12.0000

10.1500 – 10.5000

OBB

11.0000 – 12.2500

9.0000 – 10.5500

Primary Market Auction TENOR 91-Days

AMOUNT (N’mn)

RATE (%)

DATE

25647.81

9.20

20-Feb-13

182-Days

30,000

9.45

20-Feb-13

364-Days

80,000

9.54

20-Feb-13

Open Market Operation TENOR

AMOUNT (N’mn)

90-Days

30,000

RATE (%) 10.00

DATE 22-Feb-13

97-Days

50,000

10.05

22-Feb-13

111-Days

70,000

10.19

22-Feb-13

Wholesale Dutch Auction System AMOUNT OFFERED

AMOUNT SOLD

DATE

$120m

MARKET DEMAND $120m

$120m

20-Feb-13

$120m

$120m

$120m

18-Feb-13

A22 38

Business Courage

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Ekocorp Plc: Struggling to stay afloat

By Tayo Adeleke

F

inancial analysis carried out on Ekocorp Plc has revealed a weak performance in the company’s finances in the last nine months of 2012. The company recorded a marginal growth in majority of its measuring indices. Revenue amounted to N840 million in 2012 as against the N737.5illion recorded in 2011. The liquidity position of the health care company is one of the weak points of the company.

Both quick ratios and current ratios are far from accredited 1.5 and 2.0 for a strong company respectively. Current ratio closed at 0.31:1, while quick ratio stood at 0.29:1. The company is currently running its activities with negative working capital of N361 million, implying that the company is struggling to meet its daily financial obligation.

The EKPOCORP PLC, an acronym of the first letters of the founder’s surnames in alphabetical order i.e. “E” for ENELI, “K” for KUKU and “O” for OBIORA is a successor to Eko Hospital limited established in 1982 as a Joint Medical Practice patterned after both a teaching hospital and a Medical Center. The Hospital has grown in leaps and bounds in the last thirty-one years.

The board consist of ten member led by Sonny Folorunso Kuku, (OFR) as Chairman/Joint Chief Medical Director. Kuku is an outstanding and gifted professional, with strong academic credentials, holding more than 14 degrees and fellowships including two doctorates. He has distinguished himself in his chosen field, having risen to the position of the President, West African College of Physicians, the highest position in Medicine in West Africa that any Doctor can aspire to. He is also currently the Chairman, Board of Management, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

Financial Performance The healthcare company, Ekocorp plc recorded a marginal earnings growth in its recent results for third quarter of the ongoing financial year. The unaudited third quarter 2012 result for the period ended September 30, 2012 shows that the company posted N840.97 million turnover, an increase of 14 per cent compared with N737.41 million in the corresponding period of 2011. However, the company was not able to manage its cost effectively during the period as cost of sales increased from third quarter 2011 figure by 116 per cent to N526 million from N243.5 million. Consequently, gross profit declined from N493.87 million in 2011 to N314.88 million in the review period.

Meanwhile, the decline recorded in operating expenses by 52 per cent translates into an improved bottom line indices during

The profit before tax (PBT) margin in the third quarter of 2012 decreased over the third quarter of 2011. The PBT margin decreased to 15.44 per cent in third quarter, 2012 from 16.35 per cent as at third quarter, 2011. Profit margin currently stands at 13.56 per cent down from 16.35 per cent in the corresponding third quarter period of 2011.

The result also revealed that the percentage of turnover, PBT, and PAT in the third quarter 2012 to the full year audited turnover, pretax profit and profit after tax for the period ended December, 2011 are: 85.8 per cent, 155 per cent and 190 per cent respectively.

Kuku

the period. Profit before tax (PBT) increased by 7.7 per cent between 2011 and 2012 to N129.85 million from N120.58 million.

The tax provision which stood at N8.98 million in the review period resulted in the Profit after Tax of N114.1 million, up from N108.45 million in 2011 representing a growth of 5.2 per cent.

The only quoted Hospitals Services providers on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange under the Healthcare sector also grew its Earning Per Share (EPS) from 14 kobo in December 31, 2011 to 23 kobo as at third quarters (Q3)

2012 due to the increase in quarterly operational profit.

If the current trend persists, the company’s distributable earnings will increase further above 23 kobo and that might enhance shareholder’s expectations for the year ended December 31, 2012.

Profitability Ratio Ekocorp recorded a decline performance in its profitability ratios indices. Return on Equity closed at 5.82 per cent, representing a significant increase of 1.77 basis points from 7.59 per cent.

Ekocorp Plc Financial Data

Q3 2012=N=

Q3 2011=N=

%CHG

Ekocorp Plc Financial Data

Q3 2012 (‘N)

Q3 2011 (‘N)

% CHG

Turnover

840 971 227

737 408 668

14.04

Cost of sales

526 092 911

243 538 272

116.02

Gross Profit

314 878 316

493 870 396

-36.24

Profit Before Taxation

129 848 807

120 583 324

7.68

Profit After Taxation

114 073 006

108 450 241

5.18

2 857 169 009

1 916 775 085

49.06

179 172 198

372 311 565

-51.88

8 980 452

5 843 444

53.68

1 958 749 469

1 429 037 146

37.07

Total Assets Operating Expenses Taxation Shareholders fund Interest Expenses

6 795 329

6 289 639

8.04

Current Asset

161 076 975

738 254 617

-78.18

Current Liabilities

521 905 557

418 578 469

24.69

Current Assets-stocks

153 029 600

725 836 040

-78.92

Trade Debtors

139 570 050

719 344 272

-80.6

Trade Creditors

471 531 948

349 160 963

35.05

Profitability Ratios Return on Equity(%)

5.82

7.59

Gross profit Margin(%)

37.44

66.97

Profit Margin(%)

13.56

14.71

Pre tax Profit Margin(%)

15.44

16.35

Current Ratio

0.31

1.76

Quick Ratio

0.29

1.73

60.58

356.06

Liquidity Ratios

Debtors(No of days) Creditors(No of days) Working Capital

327.15

523.3

-360828582

319676148

Cost Management A cursory look at the operating costs incurred by Ekocorp during the review period, shows that its direct cost of sales grew significantly from N243 million in third quarters 2011 to N526 million in third quarters 2012, representing a growth of 116 per cent. A point worthy of note here is the difference in growth trend between the direct cost of sales and the gross income earned by the company.

The variance between its growth rates was significant. Turnover had 14 per cent increased compared with 116 per cent increase in cost of sales. However, the cost of sales growth does not impair the after tax earnings because the company has been efficient in its administrative cost control.

Administrative cost incurred has helped profit before tax and profit after tax to increase from previous period.

Liquidity The liquidity position of Ekocorp shows that the company has a mixed performance in its capital structure despite the fact that it has a higher proportion of its funding from equity than debt.

Analyzing the relationship between its shareholders fund and its short term borrowing shows a debt to equity ratio of 0.39 per cent in the third quarters of the review financial period compared with 1.82 per cent in 2011, giving an average proportion of 1.1 per cent of Ekocorp shareholders fund in the last two years. This

implies that, short term borrowing was 0.011 times the shareholders fund. Thus, it can be said that the company has been able to handle its medium term debt efficiently.

However, when put side by side, the current assets against the company’s current liabilities (current ratio), it shows a different picture. As at nine months period ended September 2012, the monetary value of the company’s readily available assets (current assets) are less than its short term debt obligations as the current ratio dropped from 1.76:1 to 0.31:1 in 2012. The illiquidity position is also reflected in its quick ratio which declined sharply from 1.73:1 in 2011 to 0.29 in 2012.

Trade debtors close at N139 million from N719 million in 2011 while trade creditor stood at N471.5 million. Thus, the company debtors made payment within 61 days (trade debtors) while it took the company 327 days to pays its creditors. The short term borrowing dropped to N7.6 million from N26 million in 2011.

Working capital closed at a deficit of –N360.8 million from a positive figure of N319.6 million.

Operating Performance Operating performance ratios measure how well a company turns its assets into revenue as well as how resourcefully a company converts its sales into cash.

The Fixed Assets Turnover of Ekocorp stood at N0.34 in third quarters 2012 from N0.62 in third quarters 2011. This shows that the company is not doing well in generating revenue through its investment in fixed assets. However, fixed assets of Ekocorp Plc increased to N2.45 billion, a 109 per cent growth from N1.17 billion which it had at the end of its third quarter ended September 30, 2011. Total assets moved by 49 per cent from N1.92 billion in 2011 to N2.86 billion in 2012.

Future It could be inferred from the financial analysis that the company is facing serious liquidity challenge which needs urgent intervention by both the management and board. If the current trend should persist, the shareholders of the company may not get reward from their investment in the company in years ahead. However, the company has strong assets base that could turn around its fortune. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Courage A23 39

Monday, February 25, 2013

STOCKWATCH Stock Exchange weekly equities summary as at Friday, Feb 22, 2013 SECURITY

PRICE (=N=)

AGRICULTURE/AGRO-ALLIED Crop Production FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 0.61 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 52.36 PRESCO PLC 21.85 Fishing/Hunting/Trapping ELLAH LAKES PLC. NT Livestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 2.45 CONGLOMERATES Diversified Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1.90 CHELLARAMS PLC. NT JOHN HOLT PLC. 1.59 S C O A NIG. PLC. NT U A C N PLC. 50.00 CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction ARBICO PLC. NT CAPPA & D’ALBERTO PLC. NT Building Structure/Completion/Other COSTAIN (W A) PLC. NT G CAPPA PLC NT Non--Building/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 54.00 ROADS NIG PLC. 10.07 Real Estate Development PINNACLE POINT GROUP PLC NT UACN PROPERTY DEV 16.00 Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC NT UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INV NT CONSUMER GOODS Automobiles/Auto Parts DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 0.50 Beverages--Brewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 4.56 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. NT GUINNESS NIG PLC 276.30 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 22.00 JOS INT. BREWERIES PLC. 1.33 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 166.00 PREMIER BREWERIES PLC NT Beverages--Non-Alcoholic 7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 47.50 Food Products BIG TREAT PLC NT DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 9.02 DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 8.22 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 77.00 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 2.81 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC NT N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. NT NATIONAL SALT CO. NIG. PLC 9.47 P S MANDRIDES & CO PLC. NT U T C NIG. PLC. 0.88 UNION DICON SALT PLC. NT Food Products--Diversified CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 37.05 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 890.00 Household Durables BETA GLASS CO PLC. NT NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. NT VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3.51 VONO PRODUCTS PLC. NT Personal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 40.50 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 49.50 Textiles/Apparel UNITED NIG. TEXTILES PLC. NT FINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. 11.58 DIAMOND BANK PLC 7.25 ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INC. 13.81 FIDELITY BANK PLC 3.38 FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC. 4.90 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 25.01 SKYE BANK PLC 6.03 STERLING BANK PLC. 2.65 U B A PLC 8.00 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 10.00 UNITY BANK PLC 0.80 WEMA BANK PLC. 1.10 ZENITH BANK PLC 20.51 Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services AFRICAN ALLIANCE INS. COY. PLC NT AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 0.96 CONFIDENCE INSURANCE PLC NT CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INS. PLC NT CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 1.05 CORNERSTONE INS. COY. PLC. 0.60 CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC 2.05 EQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. NT GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC NT GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 0.50 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. NT INTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INS. PLC 1.41 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INS. PLC 0.50 INVESTMENT AND ALLIED ARN. NT LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. NT LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 MANSARD INSURANCE PLC 2.22 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. NT N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 0.91 NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. NT OASIS INSURANCE PLC NT PRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.88 REGENCY ALLIANCE INS. COY PLC NT SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 0.53 STACO INSURANCE PLC NT STANDARD ALLIANCE INS. PLC. 0.50 UNIC INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC NT UNIVERSAL INS. COMPANY PLC NT Micro Finance Banks FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC NT NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 1.09 Mortgage Carriers, Brokers &Services ABBEY BUILDING SOCIETY PLC NT ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC NT RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 0.50 UNION HOMES SAVINGS&LOANS PLC NT Other Financial Institutions CRUSADER ( NIG) PLC. NT DEAP CAPITAL MGT & TRUST PLC 2.02 FBN HOLDINGS PLC 20.00 NIG SEW. MACH. MAN. CO. PLC. NT NIGERIA ENERYGY SECTOR FUND NT ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 0.98 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 13.21 HEALTHCARE Healthcare Providers EKOCORP PLC. NT Medical Equipment UNION DIAGNOSTIC &CLINICAL PLC 0.50 Medical Supplies MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 2.34 Pharmaceuticals EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 1.54 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 1.55 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER PLC 47.96 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 2.28

NOTE NT=Not Traded on 22-02-13

QUANTITY

52 WK HIGH

52 WK LOW

SHARES OUTSTANDING

EPS

MOV. (%)

Previous

7 716 252 568 502 465 575

0.64 52.36 21.85

0.50 14.53 6.40

2 200 000 000 476 955 000 1 000 000 000

0.10 6.73 2.75

N/A -15.04 -18.86

0.56 61.63 26.93

NT

4.26

4.26

60 000 000

0.00

N/A

NT

845 500

1.70

0.48

1 199 549 736

0.11

15.02

2.13

50 000 NT 110 639 NT 50 123

2.54 7.60 8.82 8.28 50.00

0.74 5.81 5.32 5.52 28.70

2 191 895 983 963 900 300 389 151 408 821 666 666 1 600 720 323

0.08 0.24 0.00 0.35 6.89

-5.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A

2.00 NT 1.27 NT 50.00

NT NT

26.00 95.49

14.09 95.49

148 500 000 196 876 000

0.00 4.50

N/A N/A

NT NT

NT NT

7.97 14.46

2.46 14.46

920 573 765 125 000 000

0.00 0.00

N/A N/A

NT NT

119 375 33

62.26 8.69

21.55 3.01

1 200 000 000 20 000 000

4.93 4.73

-18.18 N/A

66.00 10.07

NT 166 073

7.28 20.15

7.28 8.82

1 375 000 000

0.00 1.66

N/A -2.14

NT 16.35

NT NT

100.00 50.00

97.00 50.00

20 000 000 250 019 781

11.75 0.75

N/A N/A

NT NT

200 000

0.50

0.50

4 772 528 415

0.00

N/A

0.50

400 NT 246 137 613 381 1 000 1 847 066 NT

4.63 0.68 276.30 22.00 3.20 166.00 0.97

2.23 0.68 186.00 5.23 1.61 72.50 0.93

900 000 000 272 160 000 1 474 925 519 2 112 914 681 562 000 000 7 562 562 340 126 000 000

0.00 0.03 9.46 0.25 0.00 5.08 0.00

N/A N/A -4.72 N/A N/A 1.23 N/A

4.15 NT 290.00 23.75 NT 163.99 NT

50 398

48.91

38.31

640 590 362

2.69

N/A

47.50

NT 1 018 401 2 168 720 136 636 2 855 157 NT NT 275 100 NT 79 400 NT

0.50 19.90 16.20 95.00 6.60 2.70 43.96 9.47 5.66 0.88 4.22

0.50 4.15 3.64 52.50 1.91 1.00 20.41 3.86 5.66 0.50 4.22

2 000 000 000 5 000 000 000 12 000 000 000 1 879 210 666 7 930 197 658 3 722 493 620 178 200 000

0.00 0.00 0.91 3.79 0.51 0.00 2.50 1.07 0.08 1.13 0.00

N/A 0.11 -2.26 -0.95 -9.06 N/A N/A -1.35 N/A 3.53 N/A

NT 9.01 8.41 77.74 3.09 NT 20.25 9.60 NT 0.85 NT

40 000 000 1 233 375 004 360 000 000

725 474 207 881

37.05 890.00

9.15 367.83

3 129 188 160 792 656 250

1.35 25.43

-0.62 6.56

37.28 835.23

NT NT 2 465 609 NT

15.58 42.66 6.75 3.67

10.03 34.39 3.01 2.66

63 360 000 819 000 000 300 000 001

3.90 1.61 0.54 0.00

N/A N/A -14.39 N/A

NT NT 4.10 NT

10 489 270 735 303

43.50 49.50

22.07 22.56

3 176 381 636 3 783 296 250

0.70 1.44

0.62 0.00

40.25 49.50

NT

0.97

0.57

843 284 027

0.00

N/A

NT

7 141 923 4 708 398 1 329 319 32 324 787 15 875 694 50 106 698 2 107 529 7 091 487 10 855 642 1 856 964 22 230 501 12 160 389 56 232 699

11.70 9.27 17.05 3.20 8.30 25.01 10.17 2.91 8.00 10.07 1.92 1.75 20.51

4.76 2.01 9.97 1.14 3.04 11.64 2.73 0.97 1.64 1.96 0.50 0.50 11.70

17 888 251 479 14 475 243 105 9 873 614 567 28 974 797 023 16 271 192 202 29 146 482 209 13 219 334 676 12 563 091 545 32 334 693 693 13 509 726 273 33 675 576 085 12 821 249 880 31 396 493 790

1.42 0.90 2.81 0.43 0.60 2.10 0.71 0.54 0.67 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.09

-1.03 0.55 -0.07 5.62 -3.54 -0.79 -1.63 -5.36 4.03 6.50 0.00 -28.10 -2.33

11.70 7.21 13.82 3.20 5.08 25.21 6.13 2.80 7.69 9.39 0.95 1.53 21.00

NT 7 095 018 NT NT 631 616 618 000 1 191 050 NT NT 1 000 NT 1 673 500 8 115 248 NT 27 809 NT 27 809 5 016 000 NT 1 397 489 NT NT 313 000 NT 3 599 529 NT 25 200 1 474 NT NT

0.50 1.01 0.64 0.50 1.20 0.50 3.51 0.50 0.69 0.50 0.50 0.80 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.61 0.50 1.93 0.50 0.66 1.11 0.50 2.35 0.50 0.52 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50

0.50 0.50 0.61 0.50 0.61 0.50 1.31 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.95 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50

20 585 000 000 7 809 391 256 211 626 000 6 000 000 000 10 372 624 157 8 820 010 363 5 100 846 808 8 847 298 420 4 549 947 000 3 827 485 380 720 000 000 5 061 804 000 6 420 427 449 28 000 000 000 7 323 313 227 3 437 330 500 4 083 713 569 10 000 000 000 7 998 705 336 5 332 830 881 5 649 693 923 5 003 506 791 2 508 315 436 6 668 750 000 5 203 757 266 6 141 087 609 8 493 173 450 2 581 733 505 13 000 000 000 16 000 000 000

0.00 0.05 0.00 0.05 0.14 0.02 0.28 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.16 0.01 0.37 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.04 0.09 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00

N/A 0.00 N/A N/A 0.00 0.00 0.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.00 N/A N/A N/A 0.00 -14.62 N/A -4.21 N/A N/A -3.30 N/A 0.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

NT 1.05 NT NT 1.07 0.72 2.35 0.50 NT NT NT 1.13 0.50 NT 0.50 NT NT 2.60 NT 0.95 NT NT 0.91 NT 0.55 NT 0.50 0.50 NT NT

NT 331 000

6.00 1.15

0.00 1.00

NT NT 1 000 1

1.51 0.50 0.50 0.99

1.33 0.50 0.50 0.50

4 200 000 000 8 679 148 676 13 175 732 404 7 812 500 000

0.03 0.02 0.00 0.00

N/A N/A N/A N/A

1.50 0.50 0.50 NT

NT 160 000 9 762 307 NT NT 20 000 45 333 829

0.61 2.02 17.01 0.15 552.20 0.66 11.38

0.50 2.02 8.50 0.15 555.20 0.50 6.40

3 778 005 975 1 333 333 333 32 632 084 358 5 880 000 2 500 000 3 608 657 661 18 750 000 000

0.00 0.00 3.03 0.00 12.65 0.00 0.87

N/A N/A 1.47 N/A N/A N/A -11.93

NT 2.02 19.71 NT NT 1.20 15.00

NT

5.31

5.05

498 600 908

0.12

N/A

NT

386 456

0.50

0.50

3 553 138 528

0.00

N/A

0.50

157 327

10.54

7.39

152 178 750

0.06

N/A

2.34

421 539 1 150 779 167 009 514 155

1.45 3.20 39.00 5.61

0.50 0.76 19.30 1.62

486 473 856 1 500 000 000 956 701 192 980 000 000

0.00 0.44 2.62 0.20

14.93 -8.82 -12.94 -1.72

1.34 1.70 55.09 2.32

N/A=Not Avialable

0.01 0.07

NT 0.99

SECURITY

PRICE (=N=)

NEIMETH INT PHARM PLC 1.04 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. NT PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 2.30 ICT Computer Based Systems COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SLN PLC 0.50 Computers and Peripherals OMATEK VENTURES PLC 0.50 Electronic Communications Services MTECH COMMUNICATIONS PLC NT IT Services NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 17.58 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. NT Processing Systems CHAMS PLC 0.50 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC NT Telecommunications Carriers STARCOMMS PLC NT Telecommunications Services IHS NIGERIA PLC PREF SHARES NT IHS PLC NT MTI PLC NT INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. 2.86 ASHAKA CEM PLC 22.80 BERGER PAINTS PLC 10.22 CAP PLC 36.05 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 11.12 DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 160.00 DN MEYER PLC. 2.20 FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC NT IPWA PLC 0.85 LAFARGE WAPCO PLC. 66.10 PAINTS & COATINGS MANFACT.PLC 1.95 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRDT NIG. PLC NT PREMIER PAINTS PLC. NT Electronic and Electrical Products AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC NT CUTIX PLC. 1.81 NIGERIAN WIRE AND CABLE PLC. NT NIGERIAN WIRE IND. PLC NT Packaging/Containers ABPLAST PRODUCTS PLC. NT AVON CROWNCAPS & CONTAINERS NT BETA GLASS CO PLC. 9.49 GREIF NIGERIA PLC NT NIG. BAGS MANFACT. COY PLC 2.73 POLY PRODUCTS (NIG) PLC. NT W A GLASS IND. PLC. NT Tools and Machinery NIGERIAN ROPES PLC NT STOKVIS NIG PLC. NT NATURAL RESOURCES Chemicals B.O.C. GASES PLC. 7.57 Metals ALUMACO PLC NT ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. NT Non-Metallic Mineral Mining MULTIVERSE PLC 0.50 Paper/Forest Products HALLMARK PAPER PRODUCTS PLC. NT THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. NT OIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SER. PLC 0.79 Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC 14.00 Petroleum &Petroleum Products Distributors AFROIL PLC NT BECO PETROLEUM PRODUCT PLC 0.50 CONOIL PLC 23.10 ETERNA PLC. 4.10 FORTE OIL PLC. 12.88 MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. 130.00 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 29.00 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 151.53 SERVICES Advertising AFROMEDIA PLC NT Apparel Retailers LENNARDS (NIG) PLC. NT Automobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. 2.40 Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3.63 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. NT Employment Solutions C & I LEASING PLC. 0.64 Hospitality TANTALIZERS PLC NT Hotels/Lodging CAPITAL HOTEL PLC NT IKEJA HOTEL PLC 0.98 TOURIST COMPANY OF NIGERIA PLC. NT TRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC 1.59 Media/Entertainment DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.50 Printing/Publishing ACADEMY PRESS PLC. 2.55 LEARN AFRICA PLC NT STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. NT UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. NT Road Transportation ABC TRANSPORT PLCPLC 0.57 Specialty INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC NT SECURE ELECTRONIC TECH.PLC NT Transport-Related Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC 5.20 NIG. AVIATION HANDLING COY PLC 7.78 ASeM CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Property Management SMART PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC NT CONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC 0.97 Personal/Household Products ROKANA INDUSTRIES PLC. 0.60 HEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals AFRIK PHARMACEUTICALS PLC. NT INDUSTRIAL GOODS Electronic and Electrical Products NT ADSWITCH PLC. 1.63 NATURAL RESOURCES Metals W.A. ALUM. PRODUCTS PLC. NT OIL AND GAS Petroleum & Petroleum Products Distributors ANINO INTERNATIONAL PLC. NT CAPITAL OIL PLC 0.50 RAK UNITY PET. COMP. PLC. NT UNION VENTURES & PET. PLC NT SERVICES Apparel Retailers UDEOFSON GARMENT FACT. NIG PLC NT Food/Drug Retailers and Wholesalers NT JULI PLC. 2.76 ETF’s Sector ETF NEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND 2 638.00

QUANTITY

52 WK HIGH

52 WK LOW

SHARES OUTSTANDING

EPS

MOV. (%)

Previous

40 000 NT 144 656

1.96 12.91 4.28

0.76 8.59 3.50

1 925 717 268 153 786 012 100 000 000

0.09 0.00 0.00

-16.80 N/A N/A

1.25 NT 2.30

45 600

0.52

0.50

2 960 000 000

0.10

0.00

0.50

200

0.50

0.50

2 941 789 472

0.00

N/A

0.50

NT

0.91

0.91

4 966 666 668

0.00

N/A

NT

20 960 NT

18.28 3.59

13.12 2.41

108 000 000 492 825 600

0.00 0.01

N/A N/A

16.75 NT

750 000 NT

0.50 4.97

0.50 4.04

4 620 600 000 4 200 000 000

0.00 0.04

N/A N/A

0.50 NT

NT

1.47

0.50

6 878 478 096

0.00

N/A

NT

NT NT NT

2.25 3.50 0.50

0.00 2.46 0.50

4 400 000 000 4 893 594 400

0.00 0.00 0.00

N/A N/A N/A

NT NT NT

9 500 808 321 163 629 272 225 559 903 678 098 287 338 NT 102 495 508 467 4 577 NT NT

3.32 30.00 12.57 43.98 15.49 132.51 3.51 0.75 0.99 56.50 3.36 5.28 13.40

2.86 9.10 7.27 14.50 4.20 95.00 0.93 0.50 0.91 37.00 0.52 2.27 10.93

260 000 000 2 239 453 125 217 367 585 560 000 000 1 241 548 285 15 494 019 668 242 908 200 2 109 928 275 513 696 000 3 001 600 004 792 914 256 400 000 000 75 000 000

0.00 2.14 1.09 2.28 1.47 8.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.10 0.26 0.23 0.00

N/A -6.63 -14.12 -0.14 -6.16 10.34 N/A N/A N/A -4.20 N/A N/A N/A

NT 24.42 11.90 36.10 11.85 145.00 NT NT 0.78 69.00 NT 4.75 NT

NT 565 000 NT NT

2.00 2.50 0.73 2.58

2.00 1.33 0.50 2.58

510 396 608 2 220 000 000 15 000 000

0.03 0.11 0.00 0.00

N/A 8.38 N/A N/A

NT 1.67 NT NT

NT NT 805 NT 1 207 670 NT NT

3.98 6.91 12.71 15.03 3.60 1.86 0.63

3.98 2.19 9.53 13.28 1.60 1.05 0.63

N/A N/A

42 640 000 6 215 000 000 240 000 000 199 066 550

0.00 0.05 0.05 0.90 0.24 0.22 0.00

N/A 7.06 N/A N/A

NT NT 9.51 NT 2.55 NT NT

NT NT

8.69 0.14

8.26 0.14

265 409 280 2 918 000

0.00 0.00

N/A N/A

NT NT

25 000 000 683 974 528

22 000

9.20

5.70

393 120 000

0.76

15.57

6.55

NT NT

7.75 12.39

7.75 10.55

75 600 000 100 000 000

0.00 0.43

N/A N/A

NT NT

40 000

0.50

0.50

4 058 989 226

0.00

N/A

0.50

NT NT

3.22 1.38

3.22 1.38

50 000 000 220 000 000

0.04 0.00

N/A N/A

NT NT

39 835 009

1.02

0.54

6 262 701 716

0.13

-20.20

0.99

5 315 888

24.80

10.94

2 262 711 568

1.73

0.00

14.00

NT 29 764 6 452 113 145 66 013 68 077 1 263 347 162

20.71 0.70 41.89 5.59 28.69 163.50 72.00 240.00

20.71 0.50 19.61 2.12 9.12 111.51 32.29 125.00

125 487 475 3 716 976 579 693 952 117 1 249 162 828 1 080 280 628 300 496 051 253 988 672 339 521 837

0.00 0.00 0.47 0.61 0.00 6.11 3.62 14.63

N/A N/A 0.00 -8.69 -9.68 3.20 N/A 10.60

NT 0.50 23.10 4.49 14.26 125.97 29.00 137.01

NT

0.72

0.50

4 035 497 307

0.00

N/A

NT

NT

3.48

3.48

0.19

N/A

NT

2 041 717

3.65

1.12

980 294 400

0.21

4.35

2.30

49 002 NT

3.67 6.40

2.11 3.28

589 496 310 198 819 763

0.58 0.25

2.54 N/A

3.54 NT

29 170 412

1.64

0.85

865 808 912

0.08

N/A

0.56

NT

0.75

0.50

3 211 627 907

0.01

N/A

0.50

NT 293 100 NT 63 943 612

8.00 2.59 4.76 1.95

3.00 1.16 4.31 0.50

1 548 780 000 2 078 796 396 1 772 884 297 25 813 998 283

0.18 0.92 0.00 0.22

N/A 2.08 N/A -18.46

6.27 0.96 NT 1.95

1 000

0.50

0.50

8 000 000 000

0.00

N/A

0.50

20 000 NT NT NT

3.68 8.00 2.92 6.82

1.64 1.94 2.78 3.09

403 200 000 771 450 000 425 641 111

0.14 0.29 0.01 0.50

N/A N/A N/A #VALUE!

2.55 2.25 NT 4.96

275 000

0.80

0.50

1 507 000 000

0.00

N/A

0.63

NT NT

5.15 1.88

4.90 0.80

236 699 511 5 631 539 736

0.00 0.03

N/A N/A

NT NT

27 900 522 706

2.78 11.75

1.54 5.15

634 000 000 1 230 468 750

0.38 0.81

N/A -3.95

5.76 8.10

NT

1.43

1.04

45 000 000

0.12

N/A

NT

11 000

1.02

1.02

201 885 335

0.00

N/A

0.97

500

0.60

0.60

30 000 000

0.00

N/A

0.60

NT

0.50

0.50

24 898 850

0.00

N/A

NT

NT 500

1.88

1.63

125 005 250

0.00

N/A

NT 1.63

NT

0.50

0.50

6 650 000

0.00

N/A

NT

NT 20 000 NT NT

0.21 0.50 0.31 0.63

0.21 0.50 0.31 0.63

24 200 000 5 857 500 000 15 000 000 98 600 000

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

N/A N/A N/A N/A

NT 0.50 NT NT

NT NT 16 000

0.50

0.50

20 000 000

0.00

N/A

3.05

2.76

194 700 000

0.00

N/A

NT NT 2.76

100

2 706

2 422

0.00

2 638.00

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Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

41

Law & Justice nationalmirrorlaw@yahoo.com

“Human being, being not machine, does not act with the characteristic automation of machine.”

RETIRED JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT, JUSTICE NIKI TOBI

Victims of purge in Judiciary 45

Ban public officers from awarding contracts –Ayorinde 42

Justice Mukhtar

Cleansing on the Bench, a warning signal –Lawyers

“T

Battle for resource control 46

Justice Archibong

he National Judicial Council under the Chairmanship of the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, GCON, at its emergency meeting which was held on 20th February, 2013, recommended the compulsory retirement of Justice Charles. E. Archibong of the Federal High Court Lagos and Justice T.D. Naron of Plateau State High Court.”

With this statement, signed by the NJC, Acting Director, Information, Mr. Soji Oye, two senior judges were sacked in one fell swoop.

The NJC recommended the compulsory retirement of these judges on accounts of alleged professional misconduct.

Another judge Justice Abubakar Talba of the High Court of the Federal High Court Territory, Abuja, who handled the now famous case of the former Assistant Director in the Federal Civil Service who embezzled the Police Pension fund, John Yusuf, has also come critical the searchlight as the Council has set up a fact-finding committee to investigate all the allegations levelled against him.

The recommendations for retirement of Justice Archibong was based on a

The announcement of the removal of two judges from the Bench last Thursday by the National Judicial Council sends some waves across the judicial landscape, KAYODE KETEFE, Assistant Head, Judiciary Desk, examines the issues at stake. number of allegations which included findings by the council that he dismissed the grievous charges against an accused without taking his plea; that he refused to release the certified true copy of his ruling to the lawyers; and that he made unfounded and caustic remarks on professional competence of some Senior Advocates.

This last point related to what Archibong did in the open court in the trial of the former Managing Director of the Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola. Archibong had railed at five senior advocates of Nigeria including the then president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. J. B. Daudu, SAN, describing

WE CERTAINLY NEED A CLEANSING IN THE

JUDICIARY

them as incompetent. The other four senior advocates on whom Arcibong had poured acidic criticisms are Koyinsola Ajayi, Emmanuel Ukala, A.B Mahmoud and Damien Dodo.

Archibong had said, among other things that, “The prosecuting team (the senior advocates) presently employed, indulged in professional incompetence to the extreme and have been unmindful of the accused’s right to have the case against him clearly stated.”

For his part, Justice Naron was indicted for engaging in private telephone conversation with one of the lead counsel for one of the parties to the suit in the Osun State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal in contravention of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In the present case, petitions against Naron’s conduct were made when he was CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

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Law & Justice

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Ban public officers from awarding Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Notaries Public, is son of the former Chief Judge of Oyo State, late Justice Timothy Ayorinde. This versatile lawyer who has law offices in Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan is reputed for his courtroom advocacy. In this interview, with Assistant Head of the Judiciary Desk, KAYODE KETEFE, he spoke on a number of issues ranging from human rights, socio-economic and legal matters. Excerpts: information about it must get to the public immediately it is entered into.

When we have that, then the public can see what is going on. Even at that, I am not in support of lowering unduly the sentence under plea bargaining when it comes to cases of corruption. Because public trust is so significant, if a man is put in charge of public funds and he mismanages and embezzles such, then, the scope for plea bargaining should be very limited.

There is an ongoing process to amend the 1999 Constitution, if you are asked to identify one or two areas for amendment, what changes would you recommend?

I don’t get excited about amendment to law, particularly in Nigeria, this is because we have sufficient laws, our problem is with the operators of the law, not the lack of laws. Even what we have today is good enough to deliver dividends if properly operated. I also must admit that law should not be stationary. It must not be static; law must change according to times.

So there may be one or two areas that may call for some tinkering, but holistically, we have laws both in the constitution and the other legislations sufficient laws to move Nigeria forward. The problem is with the operators. I want to see a further strengthening of the local government system.

There is too much emphasis on taking powers away from the centre and giving it to the state to the exclusion of the local government. If we continue to do that we will be creating the same problem of making governors all too powerful. What we need in this country is strong local governments, in terms of administration, in terms of public services, and in terms of community development. That is what we need.

Ayorinde

Recently, the invocation of plea bargaining came to the fore in the case of Yakubu Yusuf in Abuja High Court, many people were appalled by what they perceived as disconnect between the offence and the punishment. Will you say we have got the concept of plea bargaining right?

First of all, plea bargaining as a concept is not illegal; it is how we have been applying it that has become worrisome. Mind you plea bargaining applies not only to the big men; it can also be applied to the very small offences committed by common fellows.

In fact, it should be applied more to the smaller offences whereby a man who commits a crime may be sentenced to community service.

By doing that you have saved the state expense of prosecuting the person, at the same time you have achieved a conviction.

Now the problem has been with the so-called criminal “big man” particularly, offences relating to corruption by public officials. I think the major problem that the criminal delivery justice system has been facing is the inability to correctly engage the public when you have plea bargaining issues.

Take the case of Yusuf for example, what should have been done would be to make public the offences he has been charged with, the maximum penalty under the law, the fact that he has admitted his guilt, then you move on to the issue of plea bargaining.

IF A MAN IS PUT IN CHARGE OF PUBLIC FUNDS AND HE MISMANAGES AND EMBEZZLES SUCH, THEN, THE SCOPE FOR

PLEA BARGAINING SHOULD BE LIMITED You list the 32 or so houses that you have taken from him and the corresponding value of each of those houses. You say publicly the ways and manners in which he has paid his fine and mind you, it is only one out of several accused persons. You make public your commitment of the further prosecution of the other accused persons who have not admitted guilt.

You should state that this is list of property we have taken from him; this is the value of the property we have taken from and the prosecution of others would continue. Doing this will make the procedure clear to everybody. Furthermore, you make available to the public the amount of money the state would have spent on the case if the plea bargaining method is not employed, especially, when you are making use of external lawyers. So the public has the full information on the plea bargaining. It is a good idea, but it must be more transparent and the

In Henry Okah and James Ibori cases, we have the much-criticised “freed at home, jailed abroad” phenomenon; does this cast a slur on our Judiciary?

Generally, there is an issue with the Judiciary which must be addressed, but I do not want to judge the Judiciary on the so-called high profile cases.

There are thousands of cases being handled by the court from the lower customary courts up to the Supreme Court; justice is being administered on a daily basis. There are hardworking judges all around this country, some of them working in deplorable conditions. However, there is the problem arising with the so-called few high profile cases that come up from time to time.

At about the same time Okah was being sentenced in South Africa, another bombing suspect was sentenced to life imprisonment in Abuja and their trials began around the same time. So, I do not think we have a Judiciary that may be condemned in totality.

What then would say about the allegation of corruption in the Judiciary?

You cannot take the Judiciary out of the Nigerian problem because the personnel in the Judiciary are Nigerians. It might be slow in creeping into the Judiciary because of the nature of its function, but you cannot divorce it completely. At the moment the perception of the Judiciary is very low, it is left now to the operators of the justice delivery system to reengineer and rebrand the Judiciary.

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Law & Justice

Monday, February 25, 2013

43

contracts –Ayorinde There is this criticism that our system of judicial appointment is archaic, what is your take on this?

We need to restructure judicial appointment, I agree absolutely that appointment should be open and that the system should be put in place so that we can have the best at all times. This includes appointing judges from the private bar, the public bar and the academia. For example in some other jurisdictions, once you qualify as a lawyer, you attend a Law School that is different from the Law School practising lawyers would attend.

So they prime their lawyers with the correct orientation from day one. A good example of country that has this kind of system is Congo Brazzaville.

This was a very interesting discovery I made over a private matter. So we can have a complete review of how we appoint judges. Again there is too much disparity between different cadres of judges. In the days gone by, high court judges were given about the same respect and recognition as the justices of the Supreme Court. Once you become a judge, issue of promotion is merely administrative. Even there are some magistrates, chief magistrates that the mere mention of their names would make bring to the mind the very essence of the concept of justice. So I believe that the Judiciary and its process of appointment ought to be looked into.

As a corollary to this, there is also the allegation of favoritism and nepotism in judicial appointment, with children of senior judges and prominent lawyers being especially favoured. How authentic is this?

I don’t believe that is the case all the time. You would find out that in most professions, the offspring of successful professionals tend to follow the same line. So there is no apology where the son of a judge qualifies as a lawyer, practices as a lawyer and when the time comes for such a person to become a judge or attain silk or any other distinction, comes and such person gets it. When you now raise the issue of favouritism, that cannot be fair.

At the same time, any other person who has the requisite qualification and character should be given a fair chance. So it is not unusual to have what

WHAT WE NEED IN THIS COUNTRY IS STRONG LOCAL

GOVERNMENTS, IN TERMS OF

ADMINISTRATION, IN TERMS OF

PUBLIC SERVICES, AND IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT I call judicial or legal families. It is very, very normal. For example, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti had two sons doing very well in the music industry. Can we accuse record producers of favoritism? no it was natural for those two gentlemen to follow their fathers’ footsteps and excel. So as it can happen with Fela’s sons, it can happen with a judge’s or lawyer’s son or daughter who wants to follow the footsteps of their parents. But what is important is that we must have equal opportunity. We must encourage everybody to be part of the justice delivery system, nobody should be denied because of his or her background.

There is this menace of Omo Onile when it comes to land acquisition in our urban cities which has discouraged many people from purchasing and developing land and landed properties. How in your view could law be used to curb this problem?

The menace of Omo onile is part of the corruption in the system. It has happened to me too, I had once purchased land and I was later told by the person who made contact the vendor that I need to develop the land very quickly or else, the vendors would sell to somebody else and I would lose the property.

“Of course I resisted such illegal and uncivilised suggestion. What we really need to do is to stand firm on the law. If you give up your right, then the infringement on your right becomes the norm. If you are rightly in possession of a property, you have a constitutional guarantee of that right, if you are disturbed, you take the matter to court. If such disturbance bothers on criminal activity, you report to the police.”

If you are asked to evaluate President Jonathan’s administration regarding respect for human rights of the citizenry, what will be your assessment?

Well the President as an individual portrays gentle and caring personae. This is not a sign of weakness but a good omen for democracy. It allows for citizen to enjoy their fundamental human rights because government agencies always take the cue from the temperament and demeanour of the leader.

In the days of Abacha, certain government agencies behaved in brutal ways because they believed that they had the backing of a brutal military dictator.

But now, when you know that even the number one citizen is very concerned about the rule of law, you would be very careful before trampling on peoples’ fundamental rights. So I give him a pass mark for that.

Will you then say that Nigerians have been enjoying dividends of democracy under this administration?

Dividends are many; we have just discussed the fundamental human rights for the citizens. It has been said that there have been some improvement in the power sector. I believe there is truth in this even though the improvement is slight because.

I know how much I used to expend on alternative sources in the past compared to the present time.

The major problem that is confronting not only the Federal government but every other tiers of government is how to combat corruption.

What then is your suggestion on how the battle might be won?

My take on that is that you must make it very difficult if not impossible for public officials to be in charge of the disbursement of public funds. When a man does not have access to money, he cannot steal it. So we must move awards of contracts or procurement of services and goods away from government at all levels. Government should only be in charge of policy direction, like when government decides they want to construct five new roads in a particular part of the country. That is the government’s directive and it stops there.

As we have in some other places, government must register procurement agencies from the private sector. So, if you bring on the KPMG and other companies who can handle procurement of goods and services you are on the correct path. Once government says we want to do this or that project, then it moves away from government, it goes to the agency.

It is the agencies that would call for the bids from contractors. It is the agencies that would go to the Ministry of Finance to make sure that fund for the work are available. It is the agencies, after having chosen the contractor who bid for work through due process, that would award and monitor the contract.

So it is desirable to take out of government awards and disbursements. If you do that, first of all you would be surprised that not many people would want to become governors!

That is what we need.

The procurement agencies dare not be corrupt because most of them are worldwide multinationals, if they commit corruption in Nigeria they can be punished in England or United States.

So if we move to that direction you would begin to see resources being spent on projects that would impact on the lives of the citizens. People in the government often think that the state’s money belongs to the government and that it is for the government to spend. No! That money is not government’s money. It is public money; it is the people that own that money. So we must begin to reset our minds and we must begin to review and restructure the process of awards and disbursements for government’s goods and services. It should be private sector-driven.

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Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Law & Justice

Monday, February 25, 2013

Victims of purge in judiciary Last week’s onslaught of the National Judicial Council (NJC) on erring judges brings to memory how some judicial officers were kicked out of the Bench in the past years.

FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary reports.

HOW TO ENFORCE ONE’S FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS •The Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009 is a subsidiary legislation, which serves as a veritable tool to protect individual liberty.

•The Rules are meant to facilitate the enforcement of fundamental rights contained in chapter IV of the 1999 constitution.

“A

judge like Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.

Any judge worth his while, worth his name knowing that there are so many petitions against him should resign.’’

Those were the words of the retired jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, in an interview published in ‘’The Justice Observatory Journal ’’, a publication of Access to Justice (AJ), in August 2006.

These statements made seven years ago by the revered jurist fondly called the Socrates of the Supreme Court by his contemporaries are still relevant today.

Indeed, section 153 of the 1999 Constitution establishes the National Judicial Council (NJC). Part one of the third schedule to the Constitution empowers the NJC among others to recommend to the President persons from among the list of person submitted to it for appointment to the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justices of Supreme Court, President and Justice of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge and judges of the Federal High Court.

Part of the NJC responsibilities included to recommend to the President to the President the removal of judicial officers listed above and to exercise disciplinary control over such officers.

The NJC is also charged with the duty of recommending to the state governors the appointment and removal of Chief Judges of the states and judges of the High Courts of the states.

A consideration of the first bold attempt to sanction erring judges in the country was when the Gen. Sani Abacha military regime set up in the mid 1990s, the Justice Kayode Eso reform panel to investigate allegations of cor-

45

•Thus, the rules have opened or widened up judicial space to enforce a violated right.

•Any person who alleges that his right has been or is likely to be contravened in any state may apply to the High Court in that state for redress.

•Fundamental right shall not be affected by any limitation statute, that is, human rights shall not fettered by time.

•Leave of court is no longer required before an applicant can file or seek to enforce a threatened or violated fundamental right.

Justice Olugbani

rupt practices in the judiciary.

When the Eso panel finally submitted its report, about 47 judges were indicted and recommended to the Federal Government for either retirement or dismissal.

Notable among them were the former Chief Judge of High Court of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Justice Mohammed Dahiru Saleh and Justice Bassey Ikpeme, who gave the ruling purporting to stop the June 12, 1993 presidential election acclaimed to have been won by late Bashorun Moshood Abiola, presidential candidate of defunct Social Democratic Party, (SDP).

Others included, former judge of the Cross River State High Court, Justice J.U Obasse, who was unceremoniously removed from office on August 22, 2002 and former judge of the Lagos High Court, Justice Moshood Olugbani, compulsorily retired in September 2002.

SOME PAST VICTIMS OF NJC’S HAMMER • Justice Mohammed Dahiru Saleh , Former Chief Judge, Abuja High Court.

• Justice Moshood Olugbani, former judge, Lagos State High Court.

• Justice J. U Obasse, former judge, Cross River State High Court • Justice Bassey Ikpeme, former judge, Abuja High Court.

• Justice Chukwuemeka Nwaogwugwu, former judge, Federal High Court.

• Justice Kalu Amah, former Chief judge, Abia State High Court.

• Justice Adebayo Manuwa, former judge, Lagos State High Court.

• Justice Wilson Egbo-Egbo, former judge, Federal High Court.

• Justice Stanley Nnaji, former judge of the Enugu State High Court.

The subsequent government later appointed the Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin Review committee to review Eso panel’s report. The Babalakin Review committee affirmed some of the recommendations contained in Eso panel’s report.

For instance, the Babalakin’s committee report that reviewed the findings of the Eso panel on the judiciary was quoted to have said ‘’the activities of Justice Olugbani portray him a constant and incorrigible latecomer. The judge’s action amounts to lack of dedication to duty. We therefore agree that the Eso panel rightly recommended his removal from the Bench.’’

Many of the judges affected by the Eso and Babalakin committee reports were bitter with the procedures that led to their removal from office.

Justice Saleh in his reaction said he was singled-out for punishment because of what was regarded by many as his unpopular judicial stances.

Justice Obasse, for example challenged at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the NJC, the then Attorney General of the Federation, Justice Eso, Justice Babalakin’ review committee and the Cross River State Governor. Obasee his hinged his suit on the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure Rules, 1980 and he lost. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was also dismissed.

Apart from the Eso panel report, there are a number of judicial officers who were booted out of office or compulsorily retired by the NJC for various acts of misconduct before the attainment the statutory retirement age of 65. They included, a former judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Chukwuemeka Nwaogwugwu; ex-judge of the Lagos High Court, Justice Adebayo Manuwa , former Chief judge of the Abia State High Court, Justice Kalu Amah and ex-judge, Federal High Court, Justice Wilson Egbo-Egbo.

Similarly, Justice Stanley Nnaji, former judge of the Enugu State High Court was sacked for his ignoble role in the Anambra State political debacle in 2004.

•The application for enforcement of fundamental rights begins with the payment of nominal filing fees of N500.00 only.

•The fees for motion, affidavit and written address are cumulatively put at about N350.00.

•The fees exclude the consultation and professional fees to be paid to a lawyer to argue the application on behalf of the litigant.

Cleansing on the Bench, a warning signal –Lawyers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41 presiding as a Judge of the Osun State Election Petition, tribunal in 2008. It has taken about five long years for the NJC to finally act upon it by recommending his retirement last Thursday.

National Mirror sought the opinion of some lawyers on this issue. Reacting to the NJC’s decision, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde SAN said, “We certainly need a cleansing in the Judiciary. But this cleansing must be thorough because Judiciary, as it were is the last hope of the common man. The removal of the bad eggs must be done against well-defined criteria so that only the judges who actually engaged in unethical practices are removed from the system.

“Again we must be careful the way we go about it we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater; so that we don’t create a dangerous situation where honest judges would be afraid to exercise their free and unfettered discretion on the grounds that their decisions may not be popular.”

A Lagos lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, also said “I have no problem with the decision of the NJC if these judges have been found guilty of unethical practices.

“I believe they had been given fair hearing before the decision was reached, and so their sack will only send warning signals to other corrupt judges.”

The Executive Director of a Lagos-based nongovernmental organisation, Access to Justice, Mr. Chuma Joseph Otteh, lauded the decision of NJC. He said “Access to Justice” commends the Chief Justice of the Federation, The Hon Justice Aloma Marian Mukhtar for her courage in leading the National Judicial Council (NJC) out of its long period of stupor, politicisation and inertness on to a new path of rectitude and activism.”

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Law & Justice

Justice Uwais

I

nitially, the battle for resource allocation began as a mere agitation in the country. The main issue was over how much a state was entitled to be paid of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account from the natural resources, particularly oil production and extraction in various parts of the country. However, this agitation latter snowballed into litigation at the Supreme Court. By the provision of Section 232(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the Supreme Court shall, to the exclusion of any court, have original jurisdiction in any dispute between the Federation and a State or between States, especially if the dispute involves any question on which the existence of a legal right depends.

Thus, this dispute over resource allocation had arisen between the Federal Government (FG), on the one hand, and eight littoral states of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Rivers states on the other hand as to the Southern or seaward boundary of each of these states.

The FG contended that the seaward boundary of each of these States was the low- water mark of the land surface of such State or; the seaward limit of inland waters within the state, as the case so required.

In addition, the FG maintained that the natural resources located within the Continental Shelf of Nigeria were not derivable from any state of the Federation. The eight littoral states disagreed with the FG’s contentions. Each claimed that its territory extends beyond the low-water mark onto the territorial water and even onto the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone.

The states maintained that the natural resources derived from both onshore and offshore were derivable from their respective territories and in respect thereof each was entitled to the ‘’not less than 13 per cent ‘’ allocation as provided in the proviso to subsection (2) of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

In order to resolve the dispute, the Attorney General of the Federation filed a writ of summons praying for a

Monday, February 25, 2013

Justice Karibi-Whyte

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Former AGF, Chief Bola Ige (SAN)

Battle for resource control The battle for resource allocation in Nigeria was one of the knotty issues ever resolved by the Supreme Court in the last 11 years. It is on record that no fewer than 55 lawyers appeared for the parties before the apex court during the hearing of the case. FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary reports.

THE FG MAINTAINED THAT THE NATURAL RESOURCES LOCATED WITHIN THE

CONTINENTAL SHELF OF NIGERIA WERE NOT DERIVABLE FROM

FAMOUS CASES determination of the seaward boundary of a littoral State within the county for the purpose of calculating the amount of revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from that state pursuant to section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution.

All the states of the federation were joined as defendants in the action. The case was filed in the apex court as Attorney General of the Federation v.

Attorney General of Abia State and 35 others and a panel of seven justices, including the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammadu Uwais heard the matter.

During the hearings till the judgement date, no fewer than 55 lawyers appeared at every proceedings. Notable among them are, Chief F.R.A Williams (SAN), the then Attorney General of Lagos State, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Dr. O. Ajayi (SAN) and Chief Makanjuola Esan (SAN). A host of Attorneys- General of other states also appeared in the case.

After the claims and counter-claims by the parties were made, and the respective lead attorneys in the matter

ANY

STATE OF THE

FEDERATION

had adopted their written addresses, the Supreme Court deferred the proceedings for judgement. When the lead judgment of the Supreme Court was delivered on April 5, 2002, Justice Michael Ogundare declared that the FG’s claim succeeded.

According to him, ‘’I hereby determine and declare that the seaward boundary of a littoral state within the country for the purpose of calculating the amount of revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from any natural resources derived from that State pursuant to section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution is the low- water mark of the land surface or the seaward limits of inland waters within the State.’’

The apex court also held that the 1999 Constitution having come into force on May 29, 1999, the principle of derivation under the proviso to section 162(2) of the constitution came into operation on same day and the FG was obliged to comply with it.

Besides, the apex court listed the policies and practices of the FG that were unconstitutional for being in conflict with the 1999 Constitution.

These included; exclusion of natural gas as constituent of derivation for the purposes of the proviso to section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution, and non-payment of the shares of the Delta State Government in respect of proceeds from capital gains taxation and stamp duties.

The Supreme Court had also frowned at the funding of the judiciary as a first line charge on the Federation Account and the serving of external debts via first line charge on the Federation Account.

The verdict further declared unconstitutional the funding of Joint venture contracts and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) priority projects as first line charge on the Federation Account and the unilateral allocation of 1 per cent of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

On the whole, the verdict was a majority of 6 to 1 with Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte dissenting.

The verdict was a victory to both the Federal Government and some of the state governments. Indeed, the Supreme Court judgement on resource control was truly a watershed in the country’s legal, economic and constitutional history.

Stakeholders in the administration of justice have repeatedly advocated that the verdict should stimulate the country’s resolve to establish a legal framework through a constitutional conference for the purpose of achieving sustainable economic and political development throughout the federation for the benefit of both present and future generations of Nigerians.

This would be the basis of promoting peace, unity and progress in the area, so as to attract the much- desired foreign investments in the country.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, February 25, 2013

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South South

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Project execution’ll determine NDDC’s 2013 budget –Senate GEORGE OJI ABUJA

T

he Senate Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has threatened not to work on the 2013 budget proposal of the commission unless the committee was satisfied with the level of contract execution by the commission.

Committee Chairman, Senator James Manager, who issued this threat, said his committee was not satis-

fied with the level of abandoned projects by the commission.

Consequently, the committee has summoned the Managing Director of the Commission, Christian Oboh, the commission’s Executive Director, Projects, Engr. Edikan Eshett and the Representative for Akwa Ibom State and the contractor, FCC Construction Company that has been accused of abandoning projects, especially in Akwa Ibom State, to appear before the senate

committee on Wednesday this week.

Manager gave this directive at the weekend when he led other members of the committee on an oversight visit to some of the commission’s projects in the region.

The lawmaker reiterated the Federal Government’s desire to deliver on its transformation projects. While expressing disappointment at the poor level of project execution by the commission, Manager said, if not

for democracy, the committee would have had no choice than to announce the outright revocation of the contracts.

He, however, said that the National Assembly may be compelled to recommend the termination of contracts handled by underperforming contractors and give same to contractors that show commitment to their jobs.

“The 2013 budget is with us and we have not opened a single page of it, because

we need to see the projects.

Whatever our findings are, we will present them on the floor of the Senate,” Manager said.

Some of the contractors were accused of collecting contracts only to sublet same to others and collect the percentage without showing any concern whether the jobs were done or not.

The committee expressed concern at the lack of supervision, poor work being carried out or non-availability

of manpower on sites and the disappearance of one of the contractors, who was not on hand to explain the scope of work, the contract agreement as well as to provide the needed information to the visiting lawmakers.

The senators could not hide their anger when they visited the project site of 500 Students Hostel Block sited at the Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH, Calabar South with Directed Services Limited as the contractor.

TUC moves against first ladies’ mission house •Describes project as drain pipe on economy

SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN BENIN

T

L-R: Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor; the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II and Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, at the governor’s 25th wedding anniversary thanksgiving service at the First Baptist Church, Warri, yesterday.

Ex-militant leader alleges threat to life EMMA GBEMUDU YENAGOA

A

former militant leader in Bayela State, Eris Paul, also known as General Ogbunboss, yesterday alleged that some gunmen were after his life, describing the development as worrisome.

Paul, who was a former senate member in the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, said he was being forced to return to his community or the creeks.

The ex-militant leader, who disclosed this to journalists yesterday in Yenagoa, said though his investigation on the said gunmen behind the plot to kill him had yielded no result.

According to him, the gunmen had continued to lay siege on his Abuja and Yenagoa homes in a white Hilux van with registration number YEN 157 AA. “The persistent threat by the gunmen is making my boys and myself uncomfortable. I want security agents to investigate the matter be-

cause the only places I feel safe now is my home town in Peremabiri and the creeks of the region.”

Paul said he had alerted the security agencies, including the National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd), the state governor, Seriake Dickson, and the special adviser to the governor on security matters on the alleged threat to his life.

He said the development came as a shock to him and his fellow ex-militants that embraced the amnesty deal

of the Federal Government.

“The last few weeks have been provocative and threatening. A strange vehicle has been trailing me all over Yenagoa and Abuja. The Hilux vehicle with some men armed with heavy weapons had 14 days ago blocked by house’s gate.

“My boys came out and confronted them, but, they claimed to have been on a social visit. They later claimed to have a letter for me. When asked to hand over the letter, they declined and left,” he narrated.

Uduaghan assures citizens of more development

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elta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, said yesterday in Warri, that he is committed to the development of the state.

The assurance was given even as the state Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, boss, Comrade Williams Akporehe, described the governor as a good family man, ruling Delta State with the fear of God. The NLC chairman called on the citizens of the

state not to relent in their support for Governor Uduaghan, saying he meant well for the state.

At a thanksgiving service held at the First Baptist Church yesterday in Warri to mark the 25th anniversary of the governor’s marriage, the governor assured Deltans that he will do more for them before the end of his tenure.

At the thanksgiving service were; Chief E. K. Clark; the Olu of Warri;

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and host of others; Governor Uduaghan said the challenges of leadership were enormous, but that he was determined to leave a lasting legacy.

His words: “I am committed to the development of the state. There is no way one government can do everything, but since we are still around, we will do our best for Deltans before we leave office in 2015.

“Developing all parts

of the state is not easy, but I want to remain focused and committed to good governance in the state. We have done a lot in these past years and we are still ready to do more in the remaining years.”

While urging the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and the other religious bodies to continue to pray for peace in the state and the country in general, the governor said there is no position that is easy.

he National Executive Council, NEC, of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, has berated the Federal Government for not only daring to unveil a white elephant project of N4billion at a time like this, but also for proposing it in the budget of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for 2013.

According to the TUC National President, Mr. Peter Esele, the N4billion proposed African First Ladies’ Mission House in Abuja, a project of Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan, is a “mind boggling fiscal misapplication of public funds by the Federal Government,” that his labour movement was ready to stop.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the NEC meeting held at the weekend in Benin City, and jointly signed by Esele and the TUC National Secretary General, Comrade Musa Lawal, the labour movement urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB. The communiqué, which was made available to Nation-

al Mirror reads in part: “NECin-session joins well-meaning Nigerians in condemning the misappropriation of N4billion for the proposed First Lady’s Mission House.

Also speaking on the issue, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said its pursuit would only constitute a drain pipe on the treasury of the government and enrich a few.

The TUC continued: “The session believes that this is another drain pipe on the nation’s economy and calls on the Federal Government to stop forthwith the project and ensure that all such monies are applied to create jobs for the teeming youths of Nigeria.”

The TUC further noted that in spite of the challenges in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, the delay was adversely affecting investor’s confidence in the oil and gas sector of the country’s economy and called for a quick passage of the bill.

It added; “NEC-in-session recommends that the PIB should ensure a balance between government’s stake and investors’ interest so as to ensure the continued growth of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Edo fixes new rates for transport operators SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN BENIN

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he Edo State government has rolled out the daily levies and rates to be paid by operators of commercial vehicles and others in the state.

In a release made available to National Mirror yesterday at the Government House, the Chief of Staff, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, said while the state has banned the collection of rates by some unions in the sector, it has authorised Akugbe Ventures to continue to collect on its

behalf the Personal Income Tax, PIT, from commercial transport operators.

The statement reads in part: “It is hereby announced for the information of the general public that the Edo State government’s ban on various unions including the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, Drivers’ Welfare Scheme and other illegal collectors of levies and rates in the transport sector remains in force.

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Why Buhari won’t be elected Nigerian president –Wayas AZA MSUE KADUNA

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L-R: Awardees - Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu; Sokoto State Governor Aliyu Wammako and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, during the Al-Huda Old Boys Association’s 50th anniversary held at the Sheik Abubakar Gummi Memorial College Sokoto, at the weekend.

RMAFC wants state/LG joint account abolished PRISCILLA DENNIS MINNA

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hairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mr. Elias Nbam, has stressed the need for local government’s allocation from the Federal Account to be given to directly to stop the funds from being tempered with by the states.

He said the high cost of governance is crippling the nation’s economy because of what he described as the over bloated cabinet of governors.

Speaking in an interview in Minna, the Niger State capital, Nbam said

the move to stop given the local governments funds through the states became necessary as some governors had decided to play smarter than the constitution.

He, therefore, called for the abolition of the State/ Local Government Joint Account.

Nbam said: “There have been allegations that local government and state joint account have been seriously abused by some state governors. RMAFC has stated that the joint account should be abolished. Local governments should get their fund directly from the Federal Government, but this will require the amend-

ment of the constitution.”

He noted that the idea of the joint account was embarked upon with the best of intention, but presently abused.

Nbam said: “Since the local governments are beneficiaries of the federation account, we believe they should be entitled to get their allocation directly from the Federation Government. There is no need to pass the share of the local government through the state government because some people have decided to be smarter than the constitution, it is better to revisit the constitution and change the clause about the state/

local government joint account. There have been allegations that local government and state joint account have been abused by some governors.”

On the cost of governance, he said: “We have made efforts to reduce the high cost of governance.

The aides of political officers are too many. You will see a situation where a governor has as many as 1000 aides; this has increase the cost of governance.

We need to look at the cost of wastages so that states can have resources to address other issues instead of over dependence on federal allocation all the time for development.”

ormer Second Republic Senate President, Senator Joseph Wayas, has explained why the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate in the last general elections, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, will not be elected Nigeria president.

Wayas, featuring on Guest of the Week on Liberty Radio (91.7) at the weekend in Kaduna, said although he has nothing personally against Buhari, but flayed the former Head of State for dethroning the nation’s democracy by overthrowing the elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1983.

He said: “I have nothing

Northern governors greet Shagari at 88 PRISCILLA DENNIS MINNA

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he Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) has paid tribute to the first executive President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, as he clocks 88 years today, describing him as a statesman of uncommon pedigree.

NSGF Chairman, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, in a state-

Insurgence: Families of slain policemen paid insurance claim AUGUSTINE MADU-WEST KANO

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ome policemen killed by the Boko Haram insurgents in Kano State were yesterday paid their insurance claims.

The insurance claims were paid to their families by the police authorities.

The police authorities had, on Friday, released N1.17 million to four beneficiaries, comprising families of dead victims and two injured survivours.

The Assistant InspectorGeneral of Police in charge of Zone One, Mr David Omojola, presented the cheques to the beneficiaries at the Zone One premises on BUK Road yesterday in Kano city.

Eighteen-year old Binta Ahmed, daughter of Ahmed, a police officer, who was

I.G of Police, Abubakar

killed by gunmen in Kano city in one of the violent attacks perpetrated by the Boko Haram members, received N500, 000 on behalf of her family.

The girl, while receiving the cheque, recalled that his father was brutally killed by the Boko Haram insurgents while serving his fatherland.

She said the family had suffered untold hardship since the sudden death of the

breadwinner, whose vacuum would hardly be filled.

The AIG said the decision to pay the insurance claims was in line with the police policy to cater for officers who either lost their lives or injured from attacks, including terrorists onslaught while in active service.

During the presentation of the cheques to the four beneficiaries, AIG Omojola stressed that no amount of money can substitute human life, especially that of breadwinners of the family.

Omojola pointed out that the gesture was simply to acknowledge that the police appreciated the victims’ positive contribution to their fatherland.

He said: “I want to tell you that those who lost their loved ones have not been for-

gotten, the Inspector General of Police, M.D. Abubakar and the Federal Government will continue to do everything possible to ameliorate their sufferings.

“Money cannot bring back the departed souls, but what the government is doing is to at least help to reduce the burden on the shoulders of their next of kin and the

personal against Gen. Buhari, but I cannot equally reconcile certain things in my mind. Is Buhari the man to champion democracy? That is the question I ask myself and I will answer it and say no because he dethroned democracy for a military dictatorship.

How sincere will I count on him, this is not the place for one to say everything.

“I am very serious and without painting anybody black I believe that certain people play certain role.

He is not the only military man, there are others and they have not come out to tell us that they want to champion democracy because I believe that Gen. Buhari is carrying something in him that he cannot be a champion of democracy.

IG has promised to pay all those killed or injured during the insurgency.”

The beneficiaries are Idris Abubakar, who was given N70,000; Mohammed Mustapha, given N100, 000 for the injuries sustained, while both Binta Ahmed and Abdulrasak Mamman got N500,000 each for losing their fathers.

ment signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mallam Danladi Ndayebo, said: “As Nigeria’s first executive President, Alhaji Shagari demonstrably probity and accountability and placed topmost premium on the values and virtues of Constitutional democracy.

“Shagari’s politics eschews bitterness. Even opponents concede that he is a disciplined man whose life symbolises a rejection of the corrupting influences that distracts the commitment of some leaders to improving the lot of the common man.

“The former Nigerian leader is a statesman of uncommon pedigree that we see as a tower of strength in the cause of liberty and our democracy.

“We identify with him as the greatest statesman around today. Shagari is not only the example that we all should follow, but he is truly a living legend.”

PDP sweeps Gombe council poll DANJUMA WILLIAMS GOMBE

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hairman of the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC), Mr. Caleb Maina, has announced the results of Saturday’s local government election in which all the Peoples Democratic Party

(PDP) candidates were returned winners against those of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

Speaking yesterday afternoon, Mr. Maina said that in all the 11 local government areas and 114 electoral wards, the PDP swept all the seats even as some of the party’s candidates returned unopposed.

He listed the councils in which the PDP candidates were returned unopposed to include Akko, Balanga, Billiri, Kaltungo, Nafada and Yamaltu/Deba.

But CPC Chairman, Mr. Audu Baba Kwami, rejected the poll results, saying: “There was no election in Gombe State, but selections.”

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Road crash: Wada resumes office tomorrow

NSCDC arrests 10 vandals in Plateau

OYEWALE IBRAHIM

JOS

LOKOJA

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overnor Idris Wada of Kogi State is expected to resume in office tomorrow two months after his convoy crashed while returning from an official assignment.

A statement from the Government House said Wada would resume duty in his Lugard House office, Lokoja, the state capital.

The statement added that the governor would return to Kogi State today, but would attend Governors’ Forum meeting Abuja toady.

Wada is expected to be received at Jamata Bridge on Lokoja - Abuja Road by top government functionaries, organised labour, party stalwarts, friends, well-wishers and his supporters.

The statement reads in part: “The governor will address the people at the

gate of the Government House when he finally arrived on Monday.”

Wada’s convoy was involved in an accident on December 28 while returning from an official engagement in Anyigba.

The governor and his driver were injured. But the governor’s Aide de Camp, ADC, Idris Mohammed, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, lost his life in the road mishap.

Wada resisted being

flown abroad for medical treatment, saying the Nigerian medical facilities and personnel were good enough to take care of him.

After first aid treatment at the state Specialist Hospital in Lokoja, Wada was subsequently taken to Hilder Crest Hospital in Abuja for a comprehensive treatment, from where he has now been certified fit and able to resume duties.

JAMES ABRAHAM

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he Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, said it had arrested 10 people for vandalising Nigerian Telecommunications limited, NITEL, cables and petroleum pipelines.

The Plateau State NSCDC Commandant, Mr. Vincent Bature, who spoke with journalists in Jos yesterday, said that the suspects were apprehended at Dengi, in Kanam Local Government and another at Gurun in Bassa Local Government Area of the state.

He said: “Eight were caught vandalising NITEL cables, while two were caught vandalising and scooping oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, pipe-

lines across Bassa to Jos.’’ Bature said that among those arrested was a woman, who served as a marketer of copper wires.

The commandant disclosed that the suspects would soon be arraigned, adding that the command had set up a task force consisting of 60 military and paramilitary personnel to continuously watch over the pipelines.

He said: “We have marked out 50 flash points where vandals scoop fuel.

“The task force will guard such points so as to enable the NNPC to commence the pumping of fuel through the line without any hitch.’’

Bature advised community leaders to caution their wards, especially the youths, to desist from vandalising government property.

Ilorin land dispute: Court adjourns hearing till March 21

A Members of a Boko Haram splinter group insisting on a cease-fire at a news conference in Maiduguri, yesterday.

Bauchi: Suspended lawmaker sues speaker, Assembly EZEKIEL TITUS BAUCHI

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uspended lawmaker representing Bogoro constituency in the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Mrs. Rifkatu Samson Danna, has sued the Speaker, Yahaya Mohammed Miya and the state legislature.

Danna was suspended in June last year when the Assembly passed a law relocating the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa Local Government from Tafawa Balewa town to Bununu.

All the 30 legislators supported the law except Danna, who alleged that members met somewhere before they took the decision.

She added that before the law could be passed, the Assembly must conduct public hearings to get the input of all stakeholders.

But the Assembly

asked her to apologise in writing for alleging that the lawmakers met somewhere before passing the law.

Danna was said to have apologised orally but refused to write the Assembly, which led to her suspension.

When contacted by journalists in Bauchi at the weekend, the lawmaker said she would not comment on the incident because the matter was now in court.

She said: “I took the decision to go to court as the last option because all stakeholders, including religious leaders asked the House to recall me but it did not.”

Danna showed journalists a copy of the suit she filed last Friday asking the court to compel the Assembly recall her and to pay her all her entitlements as well as N30 million general damages.

The suit with no: BA/45m/2013, which was filed by her counsel, Mr. Des Morakinyo, asked the court to declared that her suspension was illegal, unconstitutional and that it contradicts the 1999 constitution as contained in Section 36, 39, and Article 7 of the African Charter on human rights.

When contacted, the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Saleh Dumba, represent-

ing Dass constituency, said: “The House did not receive the suit filed by Danna.

“But it seems it was the suspended lawmaker that deliberately prolonged her suspension because what the House asked her to do was to write only two sentences apologising to the lawmakers over the allegations she made that they met somewhere before coming to the floor of the House.”

n Ilorin High Court has adjourned till March 21 further hearing in the case instituted by some Ilorin elders over alleged illegal sale of Ilorin Old Yidi (Praying ground) by the Kwara State Government.

At the hearing in March, the court presided over by Justice Tunde Garba will hear applications already filed by all the parties in the case.

On Thursday, the case came up for mentioning, with lawyers for the claimants and defendants making their first appearances before Garba.

While Salman Jawondo appeared for the claimants, Abdullah Daibu from the state Ministry of Justice represented the state government.

S. O. Ishola stood in for Mrs. Toyin Saraki, who is the seventh defendant in the suit.

The elders, the government and Saraki had been

locked in a media war over the suit.

In a statement on February 1, the Commissioner for Information, Tunji Moronfoye, conceded that the government had leased out the disputed land but absolved Mrs. Saraki of any wrong doing.

On Thursday, Jawondo told the court that he would be raising motions seeking interlocutory injunctions restraining the government from selling or transferring ownership of the disputed land.

But counsel to the government and Saraki both filed notices of preliminary objections challenging the competence of the suit.

Daibu said the government’s objection was hinged partly on the fact that it had sold the said land more than three months before the claimants brought their suit.

To him, the three months period

Kwara Assembly seeks bill on Sharia Area Courts WOLE ADEDEJI ILORIN

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he Kwara State House of Assembly is waiting for a bill to separate Area Courts from the conventional judicial system.

However, those to be affected are the Area Courts handling Sharia cases whose matter would be able to go to the Sharia

Court of Appeal on the basis of applicable laws.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon Rasak Atunwa, disclosed this when the Grand Khadi of the state Sharia Court of Appeal, Justice Idris Haroon, paid him a visit.

The Grand Khadi had last week, during the Sharia Legal Year celebration, requested the House to make law in this re-

spect.

Responding, Atunwa said the Assembly would be willing to give accelerated passage to the bill as long as it came from the executive through the state Attorney-General.

Haroon had suggested that that Area Courts operating Sharia should be responsible to him instead of the present arrangement in which all Area

Courts in the state are accountable to the chief judge.

This, he said, would enhance the growth and development of law and quality of judgement of the affected courts.

The speaker gave assurance that the legislature would give necessary support to the bid to fast track quick dispensation of justice in the state.

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- GALATASARAY STRIKER, DIDIER DROGBA

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est Brom Manager, Steve Clarke, said yesterday that the Osaze Odemwingie saga is over after the striker played in a 2-1 home win over Sunderland on Saturday.

Osaze, who had tried to force a transfer to Queens Park Rangers during the winter transfer window against the wishes of West Brom, was an 87th minute substitute for two-goal hero Romelu Lukaku, who took his goal tally to 12 goals-all in the Barclays Premier League-this season.

The 31-year-old Nigeria international received a mixed reception with boos intermingling with the applause that greeted Lukaku’s exit from the action.

“I never noticed it as I was too nervous about throwing away a two-goal lead,” Clarke said, when asked about the response of the Baggies’ fans to Odemwingie.

“The Odemwingie thing meant I could never affect what the supporters are going to do. He’s part of my squad and we’re going to use him. He was always going to come back in at some stage.”

W/Cup qualifiers: Eagles to have short camping AFOLABI GAMBARI

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ndication emerged yesterday that the Super Eagles will not enjoy the luxury of long camping that characterised their pre-2013 Africa Cup of Nations for the World Cup 2014 qualifiers which kick off next month.

The Eagles, who are the reigning African champions, set up training camps for at least four weeks before every game with the home-based players opening such camps for three weeks in the run-up

to South Africa 2013.

But according to MTNFootball.com yesterday, things have taken a new turn although no immediate reasons could be adduced to the change in camp programme.

“It will not be like before when the team stays in camp for a month before a game,” a top official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said.

“Coach Stephen Keshi already has a clear picture of his team and as such we don’t expect him to have an extended camping like it used to be,” the official added According to MTNFootball.com ac-

count, the NFF finances have experienced a dip in fortune after the AFCON expenses and the camping programme will be affected until the federation’s condition improves.

Meanwhile, Keshi is expected to forward his list of invitees the NFF this week for the World Cup qualifier with the Harambee Stars of Kenya scheduled for the UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar on March 23.

The Eagles are also expected to open camp next week with players from the domestic league who will be joined by their colleagues from Europe from March 17.

Board seeks female footballers’ lift AFOLABI GAMBARI

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he Nigeria Women League Board (NWLB) has sought partnership with universities in the country to secure subsidised private university education for female players.

Chairperson of the board, Mrs. Dili Onyedinma, who made this disclosure in Ibadan yesterday, said the NWLB had begun talks with two private universities.

“We have secured subsidised private university education for many of our female players with the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti and Lead City University, Ibadan,” she said.

“The board is highly concerned about the future of our players and female students in general because education for the girl child is our priority,” Onyedinma said.

According to the NWLB boss, founder of the Afe Babalola University, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has contributed immensely to the development of women football in Nigeria.

“Founder of Lead City University, Prof. Jide Owoeye, has also awarded scholarships to over 10 female footballers at the university,” she added.

Onyedinma, however, said the initiative launched by the NWLB was aimed at encouraging students to actualize their football career.

“They will all see football beyond ordinary sporting activity but a means of liberating women and girls in accordance with the United Nations Resolution at the World Congress in Beijing in 1995,” she further said, stressing, “We call on government and individuals to support this initiative with a view to helping to curb insecurity, prostitution and other social vices in the society.”

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I am having a swell time here and I want to help this club to the height that they desire to get to

Toure, Tevez crush Blues at City

Coach backs Osaze after boos

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Super Eagles’ squad players may no longer enjoy the long camping that culminated in the AFCON success in South Africa

AYC 2013: F/Eagles step up friendlies

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lying Eagles will step up their preparations for the 2013 AYC with a series of matches against Esperance and Tunisia U-20.

The African youth champions will face their Tunisia counterparts on Thursday at the Esperance training ground and will keep another date with the club next Sunday.

There are also plans for the Flying Eagles to engage Esperance U20 and Club Africain before they depart for Algeria on March 14.

Reports also indicated yesterday that Flying Eagles Group B opponents Gabon are also due in Tunisia for a training camp prior to the AYC and the West Africans are scheduled to engage Esperance and the

Tunisia U-20 side in the friendly.

Meanwhile, Flying Eagles Coordinator, Chika Nwankwo, has praised the facilities at the Esperance training ground.

“It’s a top-class facility and is just 25 minutes drive from our hotel,” Nwankwo said yesterday after the Nigerians officials inspected the training ground.

Obuh

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Crown unfazed over fixture shift SAYO OGUNDEJI

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Yaya Toure (r) and Carlos Tevez both scored yesterday as Chelsea lost 2-0 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium

Toure, Tevez crush Blues at City

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econd-half goals from Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez helped Manchester City to a hard-fought win over Chelsea and reduced the gap to Manchester United at the top of the Premier League to 12 points.

City was rewarded for a more attacking approach in the second period, after a first half in which they missed countless chances, Jack Rodwell and Sergio Aguero both going close to scoring for the hosts.

The home side had almost paid for its wastefulness when Frank Lampard had a glorious opportunity to register his 200th Chelsea

he change of date in the Nigeria National League (NNL) Week 10 game between APA United of Katsina and Crown FC of Ogbomoso will not have negative effect on the Oyo State side, according to Crown’s Media Officer, Oyeleye Oyekunle.

The Oladunni Oyekale-tutored Crown currently sits top of the Division B table on 18 points but had their week 10 fixture scheduled for February 23 rescheduled for today after the NFF secretariat communicated the development to the club on Friday.

Despite the change of plans, Oyekunle stressed the team’s readiness to strengthen its grip on the league, adding that his side’s decision to depart Ogbomoso for Katsina on Saturday was in line with their resolve to excel in the tie.

“The shift gave the technical crew enough time to strategise for the match and it is to our advantage,” the media officer said.

“We have started the season in a very good way and the team is not ready to surrender its leadership as we are targeting maximum points in this match,” he added.

goal, but his penalty was saved by Joe Hart seven minutes after the break.

Eleven minutes later, Yaya Toure kept his composure in the box to steer an angled shot into the bottom corner from 10 yards while Tevez made the game safe with a blistering shot from 20 yards.

Chelsea have now lost their last four games at the Etihad and trail second-placed City by seven points with 11 games to go.

The champion’s hopes of retaining its Premier League title still looks slim, but this was the perfect response to the loss at Southampton in the last league outing.

Laudrup cool on ‘big jobs’

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wansea Manager, Michael Laudrup, has no burning ambition to use his club success as a stepping stone to a bigger job in management.

Swansea is also set fair for a tophalf finish in the Premier League, and Laudrup’s impact in his first season in England has seen him linked with Chelsea and Real Madrid.

“I have ambition but I have never had any special dream to go to a specific team or a top team,” the 48-year-old, who played for Real Madrid and Barcelona during his career, said yesterday.

“Let’s say that years ago I had set myself the ambition to become the manager of Real, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea or Juventus, and that I finally arrived after 10 years of trying.

“It gives me much more pleasure to see how well you can do where you don’t have to win all the

time.

“I’ve been at the top clubs as a player. Maybe it’s for that reason I don’t have that dream like a young innocent manager just starting out.”

Laudrup’s Swansea contract runs until the end of next season and both sides said recently they plan to discuss an extension.

Laudrup

Crown Coach, Oyekale

Olawale eyes league crown SAYO OGUNDEJI

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uper Sand Eagles’ captain and Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt midfielder, Isiaka Olawale, says he is ready to help his side reclaim the Nigeria Premier League trophy from Kano Pillars when the new season starts on March 9.

Dolphins beat Sunshine FC of Akure to the league title in a dramatic fashion on the final day of the 2011/12 season but surrendered their supremacy to the new champions Kano Pillars in the last season.

Olawale, who joined Dolphins from Kwara United, says his colleagues have expressed their desire to ensure the league crown lands in Port Harcourt this season.

The former Lobi Stars’ talented midfielder said missing out of the continental competition hurt the players, adding that the management’s decision to give the team total support this term would help the squad to achieve their ambition.

“Dolphins FC are a club with great history but our failure to win the league last season was incomprehensible,” he said, adding “We have all resolved to bring smiles to the faces of our fans this season.”

The veteran Olawale led the Beach Eagles to retain their Copa Lagos Beach Soccer crown at the Eko Atlantic Beach Soccer Stadium last December.

Adeboye U-20: Peters sure of wards YEMI OLUS

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echnical Director of the Lagos State Table Tennis Association, John Peters, is confident that his players will perform creditably at the maiden Pastor Enoch Adeboye U-20 Table Tennis Championship which strokes off today at the Redemption Camp on Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

The competition ends on March 2.

Qualifying matches organised to select players that would represent Lagos State ended on Friday at Rowe Park. Eight boys and eight girls will represent Lagos in the competition while about 22 states across the coun-

try are expected to feature in the week-long event.

Some of the players listed include Funke Hassan, Azeez Ogunlade, Rilwan Akanbi, Samuel Samson and Bose Odusanya.

Peters, who spoke to National Mirror in Lagos yesterday, however said he did not expect the competition to be smooth-sailing for the Lagos representatives.

“We will be competing against many states,” he reckoned.

“A player like Onaolapo Ojo who got to the quarterfinals of the Youth Olympics in Singapore will be competing as well.

This is not a senior competition where we can easily predict what will happen but our players have worked hard and they are prepared.”

Competitors are expected to arrive at the venue today while the draws will hold early tomorrow as competition begins later in the day.

Winners of the men and women’s single events will go home with a cash prize of N1.5million each.

Pastor Adeboye

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Mikel, Moses return as Promise scores IKENWA NNABUOGOR

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est Brom striker Osaze Odewmiwgie returned to the Baggies squad after some weeks out in the cooler following his botched transfer move to Queens Park Rangers this past winter transfer window in the English Premier League. The former Lille of France striker had gone four games without kicking a ball for his side since his last game on January 19. Odewingie, who interestingly scored in his last Baggies game, was only good enough for three minutes of action, replacing two-goal hero, Romelu Lukaku as West Brom beat Sunderland 2-1 at the Hawthorns to earn their second straight victory since their eigth-game winless streak. Odewmingie was greeted by boos as he made his way onto the pitch as the Baggies fans registered their displeasure over his role in the QPR transfer saga.

Still in England, Super Eagles stars – John Mikel Obi and Victor Moses – returned to league action for Chelsea for the first time after winning the AFCON title for Nigeria but were on the losing side as the Blues were felled 2-0 at Manchester City yesterday. Mikel was on from start but was pulled out for Fernando Torres in the 81st, while Moses started from the bench, replacing Frank Lampard in the 68th minute.

In France, John Utaka was from start to finish for defending champions Montpellier as they claimed an important 1-0 victory at Evian TG on Saturday. Utaka, who is reportedly not impressed his club blocked lucrative transfer openings in Qatar, has continued his impressive 90-minute showing for his side that has improved their standings on the log following a poor start that saw them languish on the lower rung. Having netted five goals so far in the league, the former RC Lens star is hard pressed to increase his goal tally.

In Belgium, all is still not yet good for the big Nigerian striker Michael Uchebo who was on from start for bottom of the table Cercle Brugge, but was pulled out in the 74th minute, as they continued their free fall with yet another 2-0 bashing received at Gent on Saturday. The loss was their whopping 19th lying at the foot of the log with relegation looming large, as they are yet to win a league game since November 17, 2012. Uchebo was playing his 25th game of the season, scoring just on two occasions.

Still in Belgium, young Nigerian striker Derek Ogbu was on song for OH Leuven as they claimed a vital away victory at Mechelen. Ogbu, spending his second season at Leuven from a Qatari side, Umm Salal, was also on for 90 minutes. He made victory certain for the modest club in the 78th minute after his team mate had evened scores few minutes earlier to cancel out the hosts’ first half lead. Ogbu’s newfound goal scoring form continued with his second goal in the month of February. He has now netted seven times from 28 appearances so far this season.

Nigerian striker Kennedy Nwanganga started from the bench for his on-loan side Beerschot still in the Belgian Jupiler League, who lost 3-1 at home to visiting

Promse Isaac (right) with his coach

Mikel

Euro Leagues Results England Arsenal

2–1

Aston Villa

Fulham

1–0

Stoke

Norwich

2–1

Everton

QPR

0–2

Man U

Reading

0–3

Wigan

West Brom

2–1

Sunderland

Man City

2–0

Chelsea

Newcastle

4–2

Southampton

Rennes

2–2

Sochaux

Ajaccio

1–3

Lille

Nancy

0–3

St. Etienne

Evian

0–1

Montpellier

Lyon

3–1

Lorient

France

Derrick Ogbu

Lierse. The former Finland-based striker was introduced in the 64th minute. Nwanganga has so far made four appearances since his loan switch from RC Genk in January.

In the Netherlands, former school boy international Uche Nwofor failed to re-enact his penultimate weekend scoring form as he fired blanks for VVV Venlo who managed a 1-0 victory over RKC Waalwijk on Saturday. The former Enugu Rangers striker was on from start to finish. He has so far scored six goals in 20 outings as his side continues to wallow in relegation waters.

Still in the Netherlands, former youth international Femi Ajilore continued his superb 90-minute showing for Groningen in their 1-0 home win over PEC Zwolle on Saturday. The Zwolle victory was his 14th appearance for the former FC Midtylland midfielder who had earlier been confined to teh subs’ bench in the beginning of the season.

Super Eagles new boy Kenneth Omeruo was handed his first appearance for ADO Den Haag since winning the AFCON title with Nigeria, seeing 90 minutes of action

in their 1-1 draw at Ajax yesterday. The former youth international was in commanding role at the rear for mid-table side, helping keep Ajax strikers at bay. He has so far played 18 games this season and gone into referees’ books five times.

In Turkey, Istanbul BB new signing Simon Zenke was in 90 minute action for his new side but still in search for his first goal in his Turkey return, as visiting Eski ehirspor snatched a 2-2 draw on Saturday. Zenke did not score but he made the two goals, assisting in the first goal and earning a penalty in the second. Michael Eneramo could not save his side Sivaspor from 1-0 home defeat suffered in the hands of visiting Besiktas on Saturday.

The former Esperance striker was on for 90 minutes but failed to lift his side from the brink of defeat extending his no score show for two weeks running. He has so far netted seven times in the league in 21 outings and seen yellow five times.

Forgotten Eagles striker Ekigho Ehiosun managed just four minutes of action for Genclerbiligi in their 1-1 draw against visiting Besiktas on Sunday. The former Warri Wolves hit man has found games

Spain Mallorca

1–3

Getafe

Real Zaragoza

2–2

Valencia

Coruna

1 -2

Real Madrid

Barcelona

2–1

Seville

Celta Vigo

2–1

Granada

Rayo Vallecano 1 – 2

Real Sociedad

hard to come by but has had to manage cameo roles for his new team. He has only made three league outings this season, spending most of his time on the bench as an unused sub. He netted nine goals in 23 appearances in his first season in Turkey last term for relegated Samsunspor.

Still in Turkey, former school boy international Promise Isaac was on target for Antayalspor but failed to save his side from a 2-1 defeat at Elazı spor on Saturday. The former Manisaspor hit man, who was in action for 90 minutes in the encounter, pulled his side level on 20 minutes after the hosts had gone into the lead on six minutes. He has scored netted six times in 19 appearances so far for his side.

He has also been red carded once and seen yellow once.

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Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, February 25, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

55

World News

“The (Kenya’s) elections must be peaceful, free and fair. They must be conducted in accordance with the rule of law. They must be carried out with integrity, and must reflect the will of the people.”

– FORMER UN SECRETARY-GENERAL, KOFI ANNAN

African countries sign treaty for stability in Congo PAUL ARHEWE

WITH AGENCY REPORTS

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leven African countries signed a United Nationsdrafted peace deal yesterday to stabilize the troubled Central African country of Congo, where rebels allegedly backed by neighbouring countries last year threatened to oust the government.

Opening the agreement-signing meeting at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said peace, security and cooperation framework for Congo would bring stability to the region.

“The signing ceremony is a significant even in itself. But it is only the beginning of a comprehensive approach that will require sustained engagement.

The framework before you outlines commitments and oversight mechanisms which aim at addressing key national and regional issues,” Ban said in his speech.

Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Angola, Uganda, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, and the Republic of Congo signed the accord.

Congo’s neighbours collec-

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo has congratulated Sierra Leoneans for their commitment to democracy as demonstrated by their first post-war peaceful, transparent and credible elections that resulted in the re-election of President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma.

Speaking to journalists in Freetown at the official inauguration of President Koroma in Freetown on Friday 22nd February 2013, Ouédraogo said that by their peaceful and commendable conducts during the November 2012 polls conducted by Sierra Leoneans themselves after a decade of devastating civil war, the citizens had showed a strong determination to ensure that democracy is entrenched in their country.

Pistorius’ brother faces culpable homicide charge

Congolese tanks and thousands of displaced people streaming into Goma in eastern Congo. Photo: AP

tively promised to not interfere in the internal affairs of the Congo.

They also agreed to not tolerate or support armed groups. A U.N. report last year said that Rwanda and Uganda helped aid M23 rebels inside Congo. The two countries denied the allegations.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was present at the signing and said the agreement is a new opportunity for Congo.

“The framework recognizes

that a holistic approach that addresses the multifaceted root causes is the only way to end instability. Any meaningful contribution toward lasting peace in the DRC and the Great Lake’s region has to abandon the self-defeating practice of selectivity in both memory and responsibility regarding the known, long standing causes of recurring conflict,” said Kagame.

The U.N. says Congo suffers

from persistent violence by both local and foreign armed groups that use rape as a weapon. The conflict has displaced nearly 2 million people. The U.N. said it will undertake a review of the its peacekeeping force in Congo, known as MONUSCO, to better help the country’s government address security challenges. Ban said he would issue a special report on Congo and the Great Lakes region in coming days.

Pope gives final Sunday blessing before resigning

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ope Benedict XVI bestowed his final Sunday blessing of his pontificate on a cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square, explaining that his waning years and energy made him better suited to the life of private prayer he soon will spend in a secluded monastery than as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

On Thursday evening, the 85-year-old German-born theologian will become the first pope to have resigned from the papacy in 600 years.

Sunday’s noon appearance from his studio window overlooking the vast square was his next-to-last appointment with the public of his nearly eightyear papacy. Tens of thousands of faithful and other admirers have already asked the Vatican for a seat in the square for his last general audience Wednesday.

WORLD BULLETIN ECOWAS hails Sierra Leone on democracy

Pope Benedict XVI delivering his blessing during his last Angelus noon prayer, from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s, yesterday.

PHOTO: AP

Perhaps emotionally buoyed by the warm welcome, thunderous applause and the many banners reading “Grazie” (Thanks) held up in the crowd estimated by police to number 100,000, Benedict looked relaxed and sounded energized, in sharp

contrast to his apparent frailty and weariness of recent months.

In a strong and clear voice, Benedict told the pilgrims, tourists and Romans in the square that God had called him to dedicate himself “even more to prayer and meditation,” which

he will do in a monastery being renovated for him on the grounds behind Vatican City’s ancient walls.

“But this doesn’t mean abandoning the church,” he said, as many in the crowd looked sad at his approaching departure. “On the contrary, if God asks me, this is because I can continue to serve it (the church) with the same dedication and the same love which I have tried to do so until now, but in a way more suitable to my age and to my strength.”

The phrase “tried to” was the pope’s adlibbed addition to his prepared text.

Benedict smiled in pleasure at the crowd after an aide parted the white curtain at his window and he gazed at the people packing the square, craning their head for a look at him.

The brother of Olympic star Oscar Pistorius is facing a culpable homicide charge for a 2008 road death, compounding problems for the family after the doubleamputee runner was charged with premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Lawyer Kenny Oldwage said in a statement that Carl had been involved in a car accident “in which a woman motorcyclist sadly lost her life.” He said that “there is no doubt that Carl is innocent and the charge will be challenged in court.”

Carl Pistorius was already in court last Thursday, as his brother Oscar was facing a bail hearing, and will appear again at the end of next month.

Oscar Pistorius was released on bail Friday and his brother Carl was seen driving into the home of their uncle Arnold early Sunday in Waterkloof, an affluent suburb of Pretoria, the nation’s capital, where Oscar is now staying.

France’s military operation in Mali in final phase

French President Francois Hollande has said his country’s forces are engaged in the “final phase” of the fight against militants in northern Mali.

He said there had been heavy fighting in the Ifoghas mountains, where members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were thought to be hiding.

Mr Hollande also praised Chadian troops for their efforts in the same area.

Thirteen Chadian soldiers and some 65 militants were killed in clashes on Friday, according to the Chadian army.

Chad’s government has promised to deploy 2,000 troops as part of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (Afisma).

Speaking in Paris on Saturday, President Hollande said “heavy fighting” was taking place in the far north of Mali, near the Algerian border.

WORLD RECORD

Tallest residential building Vol. 03 No. 564

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Monday, February 25, 2013

To win the anti-corruption war

he 2012 Transparency International (IT)’s, corruption perception index (CPI) has placed Nigeria 135th out of 176 corrupt countries; and the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washingtonbased research and advocacy organization, equally placed us seventh out of the 20 top exporters of illicit financial flows over a decade, with illegal capital transfers of $19.66 billion.

Appalling as these ratings are, they must not serve, as has been the case, only as another opportunity to pummel government and its agencies, necessary as this is, but as an occasion to take another holistic look at all the factors that encourage corruption and all the forces that must be brought to bear in our efforts to tackle the monster.

Clearly, the ratings rubbish the Federal

IS THERE CORRUPTION 101 NOW

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N150

Completed in 2012, Princess Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is 413.4 m (1,356 ft) high and has 101 storeys above ground, dedicated to residential use. Completed in 2012, Princess Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is 413.4 m (1,356 ft) high and has 101 storeys above ground, dedicated to residential use.

sensational double century from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni put India firmly in control yesterday after the third day of the first Test against Australia in Chennai.

Dhoni finished unbeaten on 206, his high-

Guest Bashorun JK Columnist Randle Government’s claim that it is waging a successful war against corruption, and indeed, challenge the three arms of government, private and public institutions, as well as every patriotic Nigerian to rededicate themselves to a collective fight against this scourge.

In its 2012 CPI recently released in Berlin, Germany, TI said Nigeria scored 27 out of a maximum 100 marks to clinch the poor position, which it shares with Azerbaijan, Kenya, Nepal and Pakistan. Beyond spirited disagreements with the report by government officials, however, it is obvious to all that a lot more needs to be done to show that the country is, indeed, committed to the fight against corruption. Feigning ignorance of the embarrassing level of corruption in virtually every segment of the Nigerian society amounts to self denial, which will not encourage a more aggressive and decisive fight against the ogre which has made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

It has become common knowledge that corruption is fast becoming a way of life in Nigeria, with shady deals involving huge sums of money being carted off by corrupt individuals and groups. Besides the haphazard and largely ineffectual efforts of some of the anti-graft agencies, nothing concrete is being done, or seen to be done, to bring the corrupt to book or to recover the looted funds which should be channeled towards developmental projects. Apart from the failure of leadership to decisively tackle corruption, another major factor responsible for the problem is the failure of institutions saddled with

FEIGNING IGNORANCE OF THE EMBARRASSING LEVEL OF CORRUPTION IN VIRTUALLY EVERY SEGMENT OF THE

NIGERIAN SOCIETY AMOUNTS TO SELF DENIAL the responsibility of curbing the monster.

These institutions are clearly not doing enough, due largely to lack of capacity, insufficient funding and poor co-ordination.

The nation’s judiciary has also not helped matters, as all forms of legal bottlenecks are being deliberately put in place to shield those who have been looting the common patrimony. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has on several occasions accused judges and counsels of frustrating its efforts to bring corrupt individuals to book through frivolous applications, senseless injunctions and unnecessary adjournment of cases. The judiciary must therefore, purge itself of the bad eggs in their midst, who collect gratification to grant the baseless injunctions. The anti-graft bodies must also collaborate more closely with each other; and we believe that the establishment of an Inter-Agency Task Team should address this problem.

It is not enough for government and its spokespersons to seethe with rage and rush to condemn critics who remind Nigerians of this festering sore, or international bodies, who release reports that place Nigeria in prominent positions among corrupt nations. To show its dedication to the fight against corruption, government must prosecute, convict and jail anyone, no matter how highly placed, found guilty of corrupt practices, and implement the numerous recommendations of probe panels, judicial panels and commissions of inquiry that have always been swept under the carpet.

Though inexcusable, it is a fact that some people engage in corrupt practices to secure their future. We therefore, call on government to address the social and economic challenges that prompt fears about the future, by providing safety nets that would address these fears like reliable mortgage structures for affordable housing, a sustainable and fraud-free pension scheme and an efficient health insurance programme, especially one that takes care of the elderly.

Relevant arms of government must also play more active roles in the fight against corruption. Legislators must, for instance, refuse to be compromised while performing their duties. They would greatly reduce corruption by diligently carrying out their oversight functions and shunning all attempts to bribe them.

The TI’s CPI is a wakeup call on every patriotic Nigerian to participate more actively in the fight to rid the nation of corruption. The media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) must, very importantly, play more active roles in this mother of all battles. They should take advantage of the provisions of the Freedom of Information law to expose corruption wherever it manifests, and follow this up religiously in order to ensure that those indicted are properly prosecuted and severely penalised.

Bashorun Randle (OFR, FCA) is Chairman & Chief Executive, JK Randle Professional Services

Sport Extra

Cricket: Dhoni steers India over Aussies est Test score, while Virat Kohli also chipped in with 107 as the hosts reached 515-8 by the close of play.

Off-spinner Nathan Lyon took three of the

day’s five wickets but could not prevent India taking a 135-run first-innings lead after Australia were bowled out for 380 on day two.

India began the day on

182-3, Sachin Tendulkar adding 10 to his overnight total of 71 before being bowled through the gate by Lyon, bringing Dhoni to the crease and with Kohli well set

on 54, the pair built a stand of 128 for the fifth wicket.

Dhoni was unstoppable, blasting 22 fours and five sixes as he closed to within 11 runs of Tendulkar’s record of the highest score byNFF anPresident, Aminu Maigari Mahendra Singh Dhoni India captain.

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