Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Fake SIM registration agents on the prowl KUNLE A ZEEZ

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he Subscriber Identity Module registration exercise

Johnson

Vol. 2 N0. 521

initiated by the Nigerian Communications Commission in 2011 has been hijacked by fake agents who also demand money from innocent subscrib-

ers before getting them ‘register’, National Mirror gathered yesterday.

It was learnt that following the indefinite extension

We mustn’t lose hope on Nigeria, Syria –Pope

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

N150

Xmas tragedy:

Chidoka

94 lives lost in road crashes in five days, says FRSC

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Gunmen kill 12, raze 20 homes

...pastors, others die in church attacks Plane crash claims 29

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OUR CORRESPONDENTS

A Alison-Madueke

Fuel scarcity mars festivities

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Young members of the Campos Brazilian Fanty Association during the annual carnival at Brazilian quarters, Lagos yesterday.

PHOTO: ADEMOLA AKINLABI

Commuters groan over poor BRT, LAGBUS services

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We’ll meet demand –Officials

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t least 12 worshippers were killed in separate attacks by terrorists in the North yesterday.

Six worshippers, including the pastor of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), were killed at Piri village Potiskum, Yobe State when gunmen attacked the church early Tuesday morning during a Christmas Eve service.

After the killing of Pastor Yohana Sini, 50, and five other church members in the early hours of Tuesday, the gunmen set ablaze the church and about 20 other homes in the area.

Worshipers were also attacked at the First Baptist CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>

Nigeria’s transformation requires attitudinal change –Jonathan P.5,13

CPC flays President over broken promises Fashola

How tobacco firms enslave Oke-Ogun farmers

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Year 2012 in Review

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

2012: Poor funding bedevils ADENRELE NIYI, TERH AGBEDEH (L AGOS) AND IJEOMA EZEIKE (ABUJA)

T

he Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation was created to reposition Nigeria as the preferred tourism destination and cultural capital in Sub-Saharan Africa and help to offer diverse world class tourism products geared toward contributing at least 10% of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP. To give a comprehensive overview of the tourism and culture sector in the outgoing year and how much of core mandates have been achieved can only be done through the 10 parastatals under the ministry namely; National Council for Museums and Monuments, NCMM; National Orientation Agency, NOA; National Institute for Culture Orientation, NICO; Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, NTDC; National Gallery of Art, NGA; National Troupe of Nigeria, NTN; National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Development Studies, NIHTDS; Institute of Archaeology and Museum Studies; National Theatre and Centre for Black African Arts and Civilisation, CBAAC. The mandates include (but are not restricted to) promoting tourism and culture as a foreign exchange earner, an income redistributor as well as convincing Nigerians of the sector’s capacity to be an employer of labour and a catalyst for rural development, poverty reduction and fostering peace for nation building.

When the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, undertook his inaugural tour of agencies and parastatals within his purview in Lagos about two years ago, many stakeholders in the sector said the messiah had finally come. Looking back though, that optimism may have been out of place. This is because the same issues that have bedevilled the ministry over the years have continued to rare their ugly heads.

But Edem Duke is unequivocal about his determination to be a change agent and spearhead the repositioning of culture for national development.

“The task is daunting; however, I cannot jump ship –I’m in this for the whole hog. The good thing is that I have the opportunity to make a case for the sector before the Federal Executive Council, FEC, and will continue to do so”, the Minister had disclosed dur-

Faces of masquerades during the Abuja National Carnival

ing a recent interview with National Mirror in Lagos Issues bogging the sector which readily come to mind are those of funding (the right budget for the ministry which received N2.2bn allocation in the 2012 budget), getting corporate Nigeria involved in the funding of culture as well as putting in place the National Endowment for the Arts and National Culture Policy, among others.

To be fair to Duke, he has never shied away from shouting about the injustice of the small budget at the disposal of the culture ministry compared with the other ministries that get huge allocations; he has even gone as far as calling on corporations to weigh in for culture. Duke more or less hit the ground running with this call when at the CBAAC office on Broad Street, where his tour that had started at the National Theatre, terminated on that long day when he made a moving speech inviting corporate Nigeria to pitch in at the National Theatre with their financial muscle. It

Otunba Runsewe holds up ‘Nigeria’ at the launch

does not seem like any of such heavyweight companies have taken the call seriously yet. Perhaps this is as a result of the failure to connect rhetoric with action in terms of the required follow up legwork.

Therefore, when Edem Duke returned to the National Theatre on Saturday, July 28, 2012 for a recce on the state of the complex, he was visibly distraught by the high level of decay seen around the premises. Duke explained that the FG had recently expressed alarm “at the integrity of the very many buildings across the country. Government has called on ministries, departments, agencies and stakeholders to respond to an urgent need for integrity checks on the quality and status especially of the public buildings”. This July visit was therefore the ministry’s bid to heed that call.

Duke stated further that because of the competing demands on limited sources of govern-

ment, adequate financial appropriation had not benefited the National Theatre in the last one decade. “It is therefore of public urgent interest that the National Theatre receive attention. I must also call on co international brands which are doing perhaps their most profitable business on the continent here in Nigeria.

They must deploy their corporate social responsibilities which they deploy regularly in other parts of Africa and to look favourable in inventing in the rehabilitation and renewal of the National Theatre”, he appealed.

Likewise, in the last quarter of this year, it came to public knowledge that the FG intended to situate a second National Theatre in Calabar, Cross River State at a cost of N70m, a far cry from the N700m previously reported in news publications. Although stakeholders in the sector have queried the unilateral decision taken by the House of Assembly much earlier in the year during

review of the 2012 budgetary provision for the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Duke was quick to point out that the premier National Theatre would remain on the front burner of its rehabilitation projects.

In spite of these assurances, concerned parties are emphatic that in 2013, rapid progress to execute these objectives has to be made if the ministry is keen on breaking encumbering marginalisation when it comes to budgetary allocations and funds.

The culture ministry must find a way to raise funds and meet budget makers halfway if it hopes to be taken seriously. The one factor which is likely to count in the ministry’s favour is its commitment to implement more than 80 percent of the capital component of the 2012 budget despite the Ministry of Finance releasing less that 50 percent of the allocation for that purpose.

Earlier in November, the House Committee on Culture and Tourism took the ministry to task for what the house called “dissatisfaction with the implementation of the capital component of the 2012 budget by the ministry of Culture and Tourism”.

Holding Edem Duke answerable for any lapses, Chairman of the panel, Ben Nwankwo who spoke at the 2013 budget defence meeting with the Ministry said that if the budget was implemented accordingly, it would generate employment for the country’s unemployed youth population.

“We are not generally satisfied

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Year 2012 in Review

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

3

culture, tourism development with the implementation of the capital budget”, the lawmaker noted, adding that implementation of the budget was not a matter of choice but to be guided by law”, Nwankwo stated.

In his defence, Duke explained that 582 million Naira was allocated to the ministry in 2012 for capital project, but that between January and November, only the sum of N268m was released to the ministry, representing 46 per cent leaving a balance of N313m.

Duke said that out of the N588m allocated to the ministry for overhead, N499m was released to the ministry between January and October, representing 84 percent, adding that the level of performance of capital budget was 98 percent.

However, in an interesting statement sounding like a volteface, Hon. Nwankwo, delivering the opening remark at the Durbar event of the annual Abuja National Carnival held between November 24 and 27, described Edem Duke as “the face of tourism in Nigeria... under your leadership, tourism would contribute majorly to the nation’s GDP”. For the Abuja Carnival, N50m had been budgeted but according to credible sources in the ministry, the allocation is yet to be released even as the fiscal year winds down.

There are also those who insist that the diverse nature of our culture constitutes a problem, maybe even a disconnect. That is doubtful since corporate entities like MTN Nigeria seem to have explored this very diversity to their advantage partnering festivals from every nook and cranny of the country for branding mileage.

But the question to ask is what template is MTN adopting in its partnership with culture? Should the culture ministry therefore not provide one that will make it attractive to most companies in the country and also bring it funds?

For instance, what is the tax incentive for sponsoring a festival in Badagry area of Lagos or somewhere in Maiduguri, Borno State? Why would any company want to get involved? These are some of the questions the ministry should consider, if it has not done already, and chart a new course towards the right direction.

There is also the vexing matter of a lack of a National Endowment for the Arts, which is no doubt a result of the failure to implement the National Culture Policy drafted during Prince Tony Momoh’s tenure as culture minister in the 80s. As a matter of fact, Momoh in a recent interview

Executive Secretary, NICO, Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma

Duke

THERE ARE ALSO THOSE WHO INSIST THAT THE DIVERSE NATURE OF OUR CULTURE CONSTITUTES A Nok terracotta sculpture on display at The Louvre, France

said Nigeria loses billions for this anomaly– billions the sector desperately needs, which is why the vicious circle continues.

The culture Ministry restored hope to a sleepy town called Gidan Ajia, about 25 kilometres from Aso Rock, by commissioning and handing over to the indigenes a cultural industry centre.

The village severely deficient of modern amenities and infrastructural development, for a long time had been neglected by the government. The new centre serves as the only FG presence in the village. It will be used primarily for the development of skills and increase level of investment on vocational education which serves as an alternative to their farming profession. This kind of projects would be embarked upon in other backwaters of Nigeria to raise the standard of living and foster skill acquisition.

The book, Sure and Steady Transformation, was launched this year and a progress report on the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, lists some of the ministry’s achievements including trips to conferences abroad and the hosting of such here in the country. Among them the successful hosting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UNWTO, Commission for Africa (CAF) at the Tinapa Business, Conference and Leisure Resort, Calabar, Cross River State, from June 25 to 27; where the UNWTO Secretary General, Dr. Talib Rifai, officials from UNWTO Headquarters in Madrid, Spain, Ministers of Tourism from across the continent and NGOs participated.

Stakeholders in the tourism sector and Nigeria citizens started this year with high hopes thinking the Millennium Tour-

PROBLEM ism Tower project, started about four years ago, will be completed.

Already, the year has slipped away with no significant milestones for the Tower project until recently when the FG announced that the project, estimated to gulp N69.3bn, will be completed in 2014.

To its credit, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, NCMM, charged with the responsibility of conserving and preserving the nation’s artefacts, did capture attention in 2012 by proposing a law which gives NCMM and its representatives power to prosecute anyone who violates or loots the nation’s artefacts. The proposal is currently on queue before the nation’s lawmakers pending when it would be passed into a new law ultimately becoming an Act of the Federal Republic.

It was because of the contributions it made in the past that the federal government ranked the industry among the six priority sectors of the nation’s economy.

Looking back at incidences that happened in the last one year, one will know that a lot was done but more still needs to be done to achieve greater goals. Some of the agencies in the sector contributed enormously while few are still crawling behind.

Also, NCMM’s recent trip to Kaduna where the ancient Nok culture is located created more enlightenment for community dwellers who were enmeshed in disputes with German archaeologists conducting research work on Nok sculptures. NCMM is also aiming for a World Heritage Site recognition for the culture which dates back to 100B.C. and its sculptures reputed to be the first art form in Africa.

Similarly, the National Insti-

tute for Cultural Orientation, NICO, charged with the responsibility of harnessing the nation’s culture, held a National Conference tagged “Culture, Peace and National Security: the Role of Traditional Rulers and Local Government Chairmen” in its bid to proffer solutions to the problem of peace and insecurity in Nigeria. All traditional rulers in the 774 councils in the country gathered in Abuja to discuss and suggest practical solutions that would minimise insecurity and deviant elements perverting the land. The Institute believes there is a cultural dimension to sustaining peace in the nation’s local communities as well as in urban cities.

NICO also held different workshops to revive the nation’s indigenous languages including organising its annual workshop for art writers to motivate the media’s contribution towards the development and promotion of a multicultural and peaceful system.

However, in 2012 the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation, NTDC, was not left behind in promoting and harnessing the nation’s culture. Popular among NTDC’s initiative was the launch of a pictorial book on Nigeria called “Nigeria”. It is a compilation about the greatness of the country’s natural and human attributes, national heroes, historical artefacts, holiday resort, arts and crafts and many more. The visual delight of sorts that makes for enjoyable reading aimed at promoting and marketing Nigeria as a destination in line with international best practice.

There was also the development of the Tourism Master Plan for tourism in Nigeria and an Implementation Committee on the Master Plan was inaugu-

rated. CBAAC organised a twoday sensitisation workshop and hosting of UNESCO in Calabar, Cross River which included a Slave Routes Project with delegates from 15 countries.

The National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC, is well known for the African Art and Craft Expo, AFAC, and National Festival of Art and Culture, NAFEST. These two festivals organised by this commission seem to be fading year after year, there is indeed an urgent need for reactivation to sustain participation and interest. However, the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, NIHOTOUR, and the National Gallery of Art, NGA, were among the parastatals which failed to make significant strides in 2012.

There are also projects some of these agencies did not complete in 2012. For instance, NTDC earlier this year planned to visit states of the federation with the aim of identifying tourists’ sites, attractions and destinations in the country for the purpose of promoting, developing and marketing them to the world. The Corporation also promised to introduce biometric system of identification in the hospitality industry which it said encompasses automated methods of recognising staff working in hospitality outfits with a central database where such identities will be collated.

Also, Nigerians are still waiting for NCMM to acquire their own laboratory that will be used for proper dating and analyses of artefacts. It is indicting of a 52-year-old country with such a rich cultural history to send her artefacts abroad for carbon dating analysis, treatment and conservation at the risk of theft or damage during transportation.

2012 is best described as a year of spirited efforts by most of the culture and tourism parastatals but the level of activity is yet to resonate to appreciable dividends for the country or its citizens. One paramount reason for this is, as mentioned earlier, is the low priority the sector seems to be given by government and corporate Nigeria where it matters most –funding. The onus then rests on the sector and its public officers to articulate their goals cohesively, put aside internal wrangling, rivalry and petty divisive tendencies which has seen some parastatals operating almost independent of the supervisory ministry.

It is safe to conclude that 2013 is the time to take a step in that direction.

4

PhotoNews

Wednesday December 26, 2012

L-R: Provost of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, Very Rev. Pelu Johnson; Archbishop of Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos and Bishop of Lagos Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Dr. Adebola Ademowo; Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire and Justice Adesola Oguntade (rtd), at the Christmas church service in Lagos, yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

A man and his children riding a horse at the Bar Beach during the Christmas celebration in Lagos.

PHOTO: YINKA ADEPARUSI

Fun seekers at the Bar Beach, Lagos.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Worshippers during the Christmas service at St. Cyprian Anglican Church in Enugu, Enugu State, yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

L-R: Chaplain of the Prelate of Methodist Church, Rev. Daniel Agbese; Bishop of Tinubu, Rev. Sunday Oluyemisi; Prelate of Methodist Church, His Eminence, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde and Rev. Steven Adegbite, at the Christmas church service in Lagos, yesterday.

PHOTO: YINKA ADEPARUSI

Teenage holiday makers swimming at the Bar Beach, Lagos.

Children climbing an inflatable ‘mountain’ at the Bar Beach, Lagos.

PHOTO: YINKA ADEPARUSI

Children having fun at the beach on Ahmadu Bello Way in Lagos.

PHOTO: YINKA ADEPARUSI

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

News

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

5

Nigeria’s transformation requires attitudinal change –Jonathan ROTIMI FADEYI ABUJA

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ositive changes in thinking, reformation in behaviour and character will lead to the country’s rapid transformation in all sectors of the economy.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who said this yesterday, pointed out that the church and other religious leaders in the

country had a great role to play if the transformation agenda of his administration must have resounding success.

He said: “You can’t transform without reformation and it is the role of the church to do so.”

Jonathan, who was at the Diocese of Abuja Anglican Communion, the Cathedral Church of the Advent Life Camp, Gwarinpa, with his family

members for the Christmas Day service, said the church had a critical role to play if democracy must be sustained.

The President urged the church to come up with various programmes to talk about how Nigerians can be reformed.

Jonathan said a situation where some criminals vandalised government properties to sabotage government’s effort to provide

stable power supply and other critical infrastructure, must be condemned.

According to him, no transformation can succeed without reformation.

He said: “For our transformation to be sustained, we Nigerians must be reformed. We must not see our country as where we make money only and build walls and live as prisoners because of the criminal activities of few.

PHOTO: OLUFEMI AJASA

“People play politics with things that affect even their own lives. You wonder why a person carries a saw to go and cut down a conductor carrying cables that produce electricity, because you want a government to fail. This happened somewhere in Enugu. You begin to wonder if they are humans; that is why we need to reform if we must transform.”

Jonathan said with the solid foundation laid in critical sectors like agriculture, power, transportation, roads, the country’s infrastructure development would be sustained.

He said: “When we were planning for our campaign, we spent a whole day debating on what should be our theme and we settled for transformation.

“At the time, it sounded strange and many people even asked what are we transforming but I’m glad that today people are beginning to see the transformation.

“By human thinking, our administration is slow.

I won’t say we are slow but we need to think through things properly if we are

to make lasting impact.

If we rush, we will make mistakes and sometimes it is more difficult to correct those mistakes.”

The Bishop of Abuja Diocese, Most Rev Nicholas Okoh, challenged the Federal Government to ensure that in the New Year, Nigerians are free from Boko Haram harassment, armed robbery, kidnapping, those who practice political wickedness and the likes that have kept them in constant fear.

Oko condemned the activities of kidnappers holding Nigerians to ransom and have heightened tension in the land to the extent that people are afraid to travel to their home towns to spend time with family and friends.

He said: “We cannot justify them (kidnappers) by looking at the issue of unemployment. A kidnapper is looking for big money and not a job.

“There is no place of employment that can pay you N50m or more for one job done. There is something wrong with our psyche if kidnappers have settled for that as a source of livelihood.”

tails of the attack to Agence France Presse, but declined to be named, while Yobe’s Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufa’i said “this is a security issue” and refused to comment further.

The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Yobe, Idi Garba, told AFP that many worshippers at ECWA “are still missing.”

“I have been informed that six bodies have been recovered,” Garba said, adding that some people who lived near the church “fled their homes during the attack and it is assumed that they are still hiding in the bush.”

Residents reported that the gunmen also set fire to several of the homes surrounding the church.

Reacting to the killing in a telephone interview with National Mirror yesterday, CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, described the incident as a bestial act against a people exercising their right to worship.

He said: “It is highly dis-

turbing and very barbaric.

It is archaic. It is totally against God and anything that has to do with Him. You wonder how people will go through this extent in the name of God. “Let us not continue to deny that there are jihadists, extremists and Islamists in this country.

They are here. Let us agree that it is time for us to take certain steps to bring this madness to an end.”

He urged the worshippers in the area not to succumb to evil perpetrators by absconding their ancestral homes, stressing that doing so would spark off cowardice.

Oritsejafor explained that even though he was not cut out to disparage adherents of other faith, the truth must be told.

His words: “Let me again say that I have high respect and regard for my Muslim friends and brothers. I’m not against Muslims. We need their help. We have been saying it and we will continue to say it. Not only

do we appeal to them to condemn it, we are asking that they must help us take this message to the grassroots.

“We (Christians) are not their enemies. The clerics that preach in the mosques, they should help us spread this news. With this goodwill, they will be able to flush out those people from among them. When an American ambassador was killed, the ordinary Muslim got angry. This is too much.

Americans knew these people and they went and flushed them out of their camps.”

Oritsejafor also noted that it was not enough for the Northern leaders to condemn any act of violence whenever it occurred; he said they must do something about it.

“These people are not really helping them. They are destroying their economy.

When things like these happen, many (northern leaders) come out to condemn these acts. Condemning it as it is now is not enough.

Children queuing for costumes in celebration of Christmas at the National Arts Theatre in Lagos, yesterday.

Gunmen kill 12, raze 20 homes CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Church in Maiduguri, in Borno State yesterday with a deacon and five church members reported killed.

Details of the Maiduguri attack remained sketchy as at press time yesterday.

The attacks were the latest violence likely to be blamed on radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram, which has repeatedly targeted churches during times of worship, including multiple attacks last year on Christmas Day. In his traditional Christmas message from the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI prayed for “concord in Nigeria, where savage acts of terrorism continue to reap victims, particularly among Christians.”

Boko Haram attacks have often targeted churches, as well as police and other symbols of the establishment in the country.

The gunmen in the Yobe attack, according to an eye witness, Garba Degubin Audu, killed Pastor Sini and Daniel Edi, by slitting

their throats, while four other residents were also shot dead in their heads and chests before their wives and children about 1.45a.m.

Speaking on the casualties of the attacks, Audu said: “We were woken up and terrified with the sporadic gunshots and multiple explosions at this Church at about 1a.m., when the gunmen set ablaze 21 houses in the village in their threehour attacks and killings in Biri village.

“They also killed our pastor, Mallam Yohana Sini in the presence of his wife and children by slitting his throat at about 1.36a.m. of that tragic night.”

National Mirror learnt that eight hours after the attacks, the Emir of Fika, Alhaji Muhammadu Idrissa Ibn Abali Mohammed Idrissa, visited the village and pledged that more soldiers and policemen will be deployed to prevent further attacks and killings.

The four villagers that were killed in the attacks,

according to Audu, include Adamau Garba, Ishaku Garba, Solomon Saleh and Haruna Lawal.

Confirming the incident yesterday, Yobe State Police Command spokesman, Salisu Adamu said: “At about midnight of yesterday (Monday); suspected gunmen attacked one of the villages near Potiskum and burnt down one church and over a dozen houses.”

Adamu said the pastor of the church was also feared killed along with some residents of the village.

He said no arrests were made yet by either the Police or JTF. “A group of gunmen came into the village at midnight and went straight to the church,” said Usman Mansir, a resident of Peri village near Potiskum, the economic capital of Yobe.

“They opened fire on them, killing the pastor and five worshippers. They then set fire to the church,” he added.

A senior police official in the state confirmed the de-

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News

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Fake SIM registration agents on the prowl CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

of the registration of existing telecoms subscribers and the continuous registration of new SIMs, some agents registering subscribers have started taking advantage of the public by charging subscribers minimum of N100 per SIM card.

Further findings also revealed that some accredited SIM registration agents working for a particular telecoms firm disguise to register for all networks.

Explaining the new antics of the SIM registration agents to make illegal money, one of the victims explained: “I went to Iyana Ipaja Bridge in Lagos to register a SIM card for my daughter. I had tried some other agents around who told me they only register for other networks and not Glo. Later, I came across another agent, who told me he registers all networks.

“The agent claimed that they now charge N100 for SIM registration. Though, I didn’t want to offer money because I know personally that the SIM registration is free, but because I was in a hurry, I asked him to register it and that I would pay him the money.

“But I became suspicious as he was punching the keyboard and I had to

move round to his side to see what he was typing, only then did I realise that what he had on his system was Airtel software for registration and not Glo. That was how I got his ploy and challenged him, collected back my SIM and left.”

Another subscriber, Mr. Olawunyi Olayinka, a resident of Ojodu area of Lagos State, also disclosed a similar experience to National Mirror.

According to Olayinka, some SIM registration agents now indulge in wanton extortion from unsuspecting subscribers.

“They will tell you the operators have asked them to be charging telecoms subscribers for the registration and since there is nowhere to confirm their claim, many people would just give the money to the agent, especially when the individual who want his or her SIM card registered is in a haste to continue with their daily business routines.”

President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, who decried the development also called for a re-accreditation and reorientation of the SIM registration agents by their principals, the telecoms

firms, while also urging the Nigerian Communications Commission, telecoms industry regulator, to design measures for dealing with such fake agents.

“There is a need for concerted efforts so that at the end of the day, some unscrupulous elements would not make a ruse of the exercise because of their selfish interests. Measure should be taken to sift the wheat from the shafts and for the operators and the regulator to begin public awareness to let the public be aware and

report cases of any agent demanding money for the registration,” he said.

Ogunbanjo said the latest development, if not checked, was capable of rendering the eventual database a ruse.

However, the President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, has absolved telecoms companies of the illegal act by some SIM registration agents.

“As we all know, no operator is collecting any money for the SIM registration

exercise, In fact, the operators have spent more money than you can ever imagined in driving the process through various freebies given in promos to ensure that subscribers participate in the free exercise. Those who are charging should be dealt with because the exercise is free,” he said.

NCC Spokesman, Mr. Reuben Muoka, also insisted that the commission had all along been vigilant of activities of some unscrupulous elements capable of discrediting the credibility

of the exercise, noting that NCC would spare no efforts to bring the culprits to book.

According to him, “The registration is free and we want Nigerians to be aware of this. NCC and the operators are not asking the agents to collect any charges from the subscribers before they register them.”

While asking members of the public not to pay any money to the registration agents, when such money is demanded, he stressed that the “SIM registration exercise is free.”

L-R: Chief Operating Officer, Mouka Ltd, Mr. Jerome Ernstzen; Assistant Sports Secretary, Police College Gym, Mark Balogun; Head of Commercial, Mouka Ltd, Mr. Jude Abonu and Assistant Secretary, Police College Gym, Aghedo Fred, during the renovation and donation of materials to Police Gym at Police College, Ikeja, Lagos recently.

Gunmen kill 12, raze 20 homes CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

They must go a step further.

They must condemn these acts. Nigeria belongs all of us and we must join hands to make this nation what it is supposed to be.

“Nobody is against them.

Their minds must be disabused not to believe that these extremists and jihadists are fighting for them.

We need these leaders to save us. If they were in Warri, we will know how to flush them out. The northern leaders can do more.”

In other parts of the North, Christians marked the birth of Jesus Christ peacefully amidst fear despite the tight security mounted by police and troops.

In some of the flashpoints noted for serial attacks on churches, security was tight, while some Christian faithful also stayed away from churches.

In Kano, churches re-

corded low turnout of worshippers apparently out of the fear that trailed the attacks on two service providers, the MTN and Airtel, in the city by two suicide bombers, who were the only victims of the incidents.

Our correspondent, who went round the city, reports that all places of Christian worship had low attendance at services, particularly the catholic churches of Our Lady of Fatima, Saint Louis and Saint Thomas, while the Anglican’s St Stephen’s and St George’s suffered similar fate.

It was gathered that in keeping with the promise to provide adequate security around churches, there was heavy security presence mounted by armed military personnel and riots policemen.

Armoured vehicles from 3 Mechanised Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Kano and the Bompai Police Com-

mand Headquarters were visibly seen in sensitive areas, especially locations with high concentration of churches and security formations The Police however confirmed that two isolated attacks occurred in remote parts of the city, in which two lives were lost in two separate incidents, when gunmen riding on a motorbike hit another motorcyclist.

The second attack, it was gathered, was targeted at the Caretaker Committee Chairman, who was shot in the hand and is currently on admission for medical treatment.

The council boss’ driver was however not lucky as he died instantly from bullet wounds.

The Kano Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, described the celebration as vastly successful, adding that the security arrange-

ment would continue to heighten, especially during the festivities.

The Command expressed its profound gratitude to the good citizens of Kano for their maximum cooperation and support with security agencies, especially in terms of providing timely and useful information.

In Kaduna, worshippers and residents celebrated the Christmas under security blanket following threat by terrorists to strike during the Yuletide period.

Security was beefed up in churches and public places in the state ahead of the Christmas Day celebrations.

Our correspondent who monitored the celebrations within the metropolis observed high security presence with air surveillance and ground patrol.

Speaking with National Mirror, Resident Pastor of

a protestant church, Nongu U Kristu u Ken Sudan Hen Tiv (NKST), Rev. Chris Annger called on clerics to continue prayers for God’s intervention.

“Our church service today went on smoothly.

Worshipers were in large numbers too. I am a pastor and the only thing I can do is to preach and seek God’s intervention over this insurgency. Security operatives are the ones to go after terrorists, not churches. We are praying and we keep on praying to God,” he said.

Spokesman of the State Police Command, Mallam Aminu Lawan, said security in the state was tight to avoid any break down of law and order.

He stressed that the force is prepared to confront any security situation within the state throughout the festive season, adding that adequate security have been deployed in strategic loca-

tions throughout the state.

He added that special security forces have also been placed in public places, including worship, recreational centres and parks among other places.

Plateau residents joined their counterparts the world over to mark the Christmas this morning amidst tight security, especially in Jos metropolis.

There was also aerial surveillance on the state with helicopters hovering in the skies to ensure a peaceful festivity.

It was observed that as early as 6a.m., security men were stationed on major streets of Rayfield, Bukuru, Hwolshe, Tudun-Wada, Zarmaganda and Farin Gada.

Reports by: Augustine Madu-West, Femi Adeosun, Aza Msue, James Abraham and Hassan Mohd Jirgi.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

News

Wednesday December 26, 2012

7

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

Threats of violence worry Gombe residents DANJUMA WILLIAMS GOMBE

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he fear of violent attacks to disrupt Christmas celebration led to a low turnout of Christian worshipers in some churches in Gombe, the Gombe State capital, yesterday.

Although Gombe town was peaceful at press time, it was observed that many people remained indoors.

The General Overseer, Dominion Power Assembly International, Gombe, Apostle Paul Thompson Odola, told our correspondent that the Gombe Divisional Police Officer, DPO,

had earlier advised all pastors to tell their members not to come to church with their cars on Christmas day because of the security reports the police had received.

He said this could be the reason why most members did not turn up for the Christmas worship because of the hardship of trekking a very long distance to the church.

Odola added that many members had also travelled to their villages for the celebration.

He said: “In fact, some churches around us did not even hold their Christmas worship service but

I had earlier encouraged my congregation on the need for today’s worship service and that is why many turned up.”

However, at the Evangelical Church Wining All, ECWA, Good-news Church GRA, Gombe, Rev. Micah B. Yaute, said there was low turnout of worshipers at the beginning of the Christmas worship in the morning but that the number increased to normal before the end of the worship.

He attributed the lateness to the worship to the very busy schedule of members who might be cooking or engaged in

other preparations since the day was special.

Yaute agreed there were security challenges with threats here and there, but said that people still came for the worship.

He commended the security agents for their pro-active approach to the situation, which ensured a hitch-free worship.

While appreciating the state and Federal Government for the steps taken to ensure a hitch-free celebration, Yaute advised that the measures should continue in the New Year and should also be improved upon.

On his part, the Bishop

L-R: Wife of the Vice-President, Hajiya Amina Sambo; First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan; President Goodluck Jonathan and VicePresident Namadi Sambo, during a Christmas visit to the President in Abuja, yesterday.

PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

Let’s embrace national unity, Akpabio urges Nigerians

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kwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio has asked Nigerians to allow Christmas to engender a greater spirit of unity among them.

Akpabio made the call yesterday in his Christmas message in a radio and television broadcast to Akwa Ibom people.

He said: “We must let this season engender in us a greater spirit of unity.

“His (Jesus Christ’s) message strengthens our hope in God as a people, gives us the assurance of divine mercies in our journey as state and binds us together in brotherhood.

“To honour Him, we must make this season one of love and generosity.

We must let this season be

a time for sharing the love of God with our brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends.

“Today, we celebrate a story, which is historic, beautiful and simple. The story of a child, who was born in the field, because there was no room for Him at the inn; but His message of love and salvation has become the freedom anthem of mankind and a clarion call for us to love one another.

“His story has also become the centre point of human history.”

The governor said as the year draws to a close, the people should count their blessings and thank God for everything.

He added: “As a people and state, we have moved

from the fringes of national life to the centre of national attention. We have run a good race in terms of infrastructural development, human capacity building, economic growth and educational advancement and healthcare services.”

Akpabio thanked Akwa Ibom State people for the kind sentiments they expressed during his 50th birthday celebration.

He said: “We set out to change Akwa Ibom State, but it looks like we are changing Nigeria. The tidal wave off development that we have unleashed upon our state has caught the imagination of the nation.

Our state has become the destination of choice for conferences in Nigeria.”

in charge of the Anglican Communion, Gombe, Rt. Rev. Henry Ndukuba, applauded the turnout of members to the Christmas worship despite threats and intimidation in the state.

He commended the worshipers for not allowing the threats to deter them from worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ, saying no threat or intimidation should stop Christians

from worshiping God. Most of the messages in the churches visited centred on peace, love and the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ for mankind which most preachers stressed as the reason for the season.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Fwaje Atajiri, could not be reached on his phones to get the reaction of the police.

Christians, Muslims enjoy peaceful coexistence in Ogun –Amosun

G

overnor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has said that adherents of Christianity and Islam lived together peacefully in the state.

According to him, there is no family in Ogun State and the South-West that does not have followers of the two faiths under the same roof.

Amosun spoke yesterday at the Government House, Oke-Igbein, Abeokuta when he hosted the Ogun State branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and the state chapter of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN. He said: “Despite being a Muslim, it was not a major issue marrying a Christian. This is the situation in our state. I attended Christian schools even though I am a Muslim.

“We live together in

Ogun State as one family without the differences in religion being an issue. I do not think there is any state in Nigeria that enjoys such harmony more than our dear state.”

The governor lauded the achievements of mission schools in the state, saying that “the church and government are partners in progress.”

Speaking earlier, the state CAN Chairman, Rt. Rev. Timothy, commended the governor for fostering religious harmony in the state and celebrating Christmas with the Christian community.

In his goodwill message, the Primate of the Church of the Lord (Aladura), The Most Rev Okikiola Oshitelu, commended the giant strides of the governor in education and urban renewal.

Low turnout of worshippers in Bauchi EZEKIEL TITUS BAUCHI

The Bauchi State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, said there was low turnout of worshippers in church services in the state following bomb threats by hoodlums.

The state CAN Chairman, Rev. Lawi Pokti, made the disclosure while speaking with journalists.

He said following rumours of attacks people shunned church services to avoid being victims of bomb attacks similar to that of last year in Madala Catholic Church in Niger State where innocent people were killed.

Pokti said most of the churches were empty, add-

ing that that indicated fear in the minds of the people, especially when there was insinuation that it was going to be a bloody Christmas.

The CAN chairman expressed dismay over the recurrent attacks on churches, particularly in the northern part of the country.

Asked why CAN decided to announce a change of time in church service against the normal time of attending church, Pokti said it was a strategy adopted to beat would be bombers and to save lives.

The CAN stressed the need for prayer among Christians not only in the state as it was the only panacea to end the unfortunate insecurity

challenges bedevilling the country, pointing out that only justice could save the country from the present predicament.

He maintained that Christians should be conscious at this period to avoid being victims of hoodlums.

Pokti said that about three people were shot in Bigi village, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis by gunmen.

The CAN chairman, however, expressed satisfaction over the giant strides made by the administration of Governor Isa Yuguda.

He said the governor took pro-active measures on security matters, especially at Christmas, to ensure a hitch-free celebration.

8

News

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

CHRISTMAS MESSAGES

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Fashola, Akpabio urge citizens to embrace peace, love T L agos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has called on Nigerians to live in peace and harmony as a way of achieving meaningful progress.

He made the call in a Christmas message signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Hakeem Bello and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ikeja, yesterday.

The governor urged Nigerians to support and cooperate with the authorities to enable the leaders and the governed contribute to the development of the country.

Fashola, who said security was one of the challenges being faced by Nigerians, enjoined the public to be safety and security conscious, es-

pecially during this festive period.

His words: “This passing year has been a challenging one. particularly in the area of security. I therefore, urge you, as you celebrate this season of sharing, giving and receiving, to be vigilant and stay safe.

“Be safety and security conscious. Do not drink and drive. Be alert and report all suspicious activities around you to security agencies, using the toll free numbers 767 and 112.’’

The governor also urged Nigerians to love one another and be their brothers’ keepers, saying that love for humanity was the very essence of Christmas.

While wishing Nigerians, particularly the people of La-

gos State, a merry Christmas, Fashola urged residents to continue to exhibit tolerance and to avoid acts capable of undermining the peace in the state.

In Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Governor Godswill Akpabio urged citizens in the state to always embrace peace, love and unity to promote the interest of the state.

He said in a radio broadcast that: “We celebrate the story which is historic and simple; the story of a child who was born in a manger because there was no room for him at the inn.

“But his message of love and salvation has earned the freedom anthem of mankind on earth.

“We should emulate his qualities of peace, love and

unity as a people.

“I urge you to remain tolerant towards one another as Christ tolerates us and pray for the peaceful coexistence of the country, irrespective our religious differences.’’

The governor assured the people that 2013 would witness more infrastructure and human capital development in the state.

The Federal Government declared December 25 and 26 as public holidays to mark the Christmas celebration nationwide.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that during the period, Christians seized the opportunity to worship in their different churches, visited relations and well-wishers and exchanged gifts among themselves.

L-R: Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ogun State chapter, Rev. Timothy Ajibola; state Governor, Ibikunle Amosun; his wife, Olufunso and The Most Rev. Okikiola Ositelu, during the governor’s Christmas parley with the Christian community in the state, yesterday.

K

ogi State Governor, Idris Wada, has urged Nigerians to continue to exhibit the spirit of love and brotherhood anywhere they live.

Wada, who stated this in his Christmas message in Lokoja on Monday, congratulated the people of the state for living in peace.

He said government would take advantage of the existing love among the people to attract development to the state.

The governor particularly congratulated Christians on the occasion of the Christmas celebration, urging them to always remember the poor and the

Wada sues for peace, love

less privileged in the society.

“It is my prayers that the Christmas and the New Year will usher our country into a season of unprecedented peace, security, joy and economic well-being.

“For us as a government, this year’s celebration is unique. It is the first Christmas/New Year season our administration is marking in office.

“Let me therefore commend the indigenes and other people resident in our state for the level of orderliness and peace in our society.

“Your unflinching support and cooperation with our administration have ensured the steady transformation being recorded by government,” Wada said in the statement.

He urged Nigerians to remember the country and its leaders in their prayers this festive period.

The governor expressed the hope that with determination and commitment, the country would overcome the numerous challenges facing it.

“We recall the enormous challenge posed by the recent flood that rav-

aged our state and other parts of the country.

“As we go into the New Year, government will continue the execution of programmes that will emancipate our society from the shackles of despair and poverty,” he said.

Wada

Adeboye urges Christians to embrace righteousness

he General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, yesterday urged Christians to turn to God and forsake their sinful ways.

Adeboye said this at the ‘2012 Lets Go A-Fishing’ programme, a soul-winning programme of the church.

He said the faithful should embrace righteousness so as to attract God’s favour.

The programme, with the theme: ‘Highly Favoured’ was organised by the RCCG National Headquarters at the Centre for Management Development (CMD), Shangisha in Lagos.

He said any nation with

the fear of God and that is filled with righteousness, would earn God’s favour.

“When God decides to favour you, it does not matter where you are, the favour of God will surely locate you.

“Once the favour of God locates you, it changes your destiny, you will get to the top and the blessing will flow to others.

“When God decides to favour you, you are empowered, it turns you into anointing and it brings you in contact with greatness.

“When God decided to favour David, He gave him power,” Adeboye said.

The cleric urged the congregation to live a holy life.

Eight prisoners granted pardon in Abia

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bia State Governor, Theodore Orji, has granted pardon to eight prisoners in commemoration of this year’s Christmas celebration.

The governor’s gesture was announced in a statement issued in Umuahia on Monday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue.

The beneficiaries included Ngozi Simon, Ngozi Esina, Okwuonu Eme, Lawrence Egbu and Sunday Amala, who were serving various jail terms for murder.

The rest were Chidiebere Jacob and Pius Anizo, who were convicted of manslaughter and Chibuzo Azuonwe, who was convicted of robbery.

Meanwhile, in a Christmas message also made available to journalists, Orji urged Christians in the state to “continue to exhibit those virtues Jesus Christ symbolises.”

He charged them “to use this period to pray for the peace and unity of Nigeria” in view of the current security challenges facing the country.

The statement quoted the governor as saying that prayers can change situations for good.

“The governor said he is optimistic that the country will soon become the envy of other nations.’’

The statement assured the people of adequate security during and after the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

ACN seeks divine wisdom for Anambra leaders CHARLES OKEKE AWKA

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he Anambra State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), yesterday prayed to God to endow all the leaders of the state with divine wisdom.

The party saluted all the strata of leaders in Anambra and prayed God to grant them the wisdom to preside over the affairs of the state.

The party’s call on God to clothe political leaders in the state with wisdom was contained in a Christmas message released to journalists by its Publicity Secretary, Okelo Madukife.

“Wishing all the tiers

of government fruitful and happy Christmas and New Year celebrations.”

The party said they have committed the Governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi, the leadership of the state House of Assembly, the three senators and 11 members of the House of Representatives into prayer asking God to lead them Himself.

ACN also paid glowing tributes to the judiciary, the law enforcement agencies at all levels of government for their assistance in controlling crime in the state.

“Best wishes for Christmas and happy 2013, the year Anambra State has a date with history,” the ACN spokesman said.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

National News

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

9

94 died in road crashes in five days –FRSC OLUSEGUN KOIKI

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bout 94 deaths occurred in 191 road crashes across the country in the last five days.

The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka, who disclosed this, said speed violation was a major cause of the crashes.

Chidoka, however, said the corps had devised speed-reducing measures as part of strategies to engender safer traffic culture among motorists, especially during the festive season.

He said: “It is an attitudinal issue as this year witnessed rehabilitation of major corridors of the highways. People tend to disregard traffic laws bordering on speed limits and accelerate beyond recommended speed thus resulting to the figures we have witnessed the last five days.

“We have devised measures to address this unpleasant development.”

An online statement signed by the Deputy Corps, Education, FRSC, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, said that Chidoka who stopped over in Lokoja in the course of the aerial monitoring of traffic situation on Lokoja - Abuja highway and other major roads,

appealed to motorists to reduce their speed and obey traffic regulations to reduce carnage during the festive periods.

He expressed delight over the free flow of traffic on Abuja – Lokoja – Okene highways, attributing the success to the activities of his men and other security agencies and the improvement in road conditions across the country.

The Corps Marshal urged motorists to be mindful of road regulations, warning that phoning while driving and drunk driving, over-speeding, overloading and seat belt violation would be visited with severe punishment.

Chidoka promised that the FRSC would re-double efforts to cope with expected influx of traffic during the New Year to avert further crashes.

The state Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Mohammed Garba, commended the Federal Government for the timely repair of a section of Lokoja - Abuja road, which was washed away in the recent flood disaster.

He said the action contributed immensely to the free flow of traffic being experienced on the road now.

Garba also said that enough men and vehicles had been deployed to strate-

gic points in the state, adding that the current level of patrol would be sustained till January.

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, the Corps Marshal said the FRSC had sustained aerial surveillance to get real-time information on the traffic situation on the nation’s roads during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

He added that the purpose of the surveillance was to identify areas of gridlock and resolve them to ease travelling.

According to him, the helicopter flight will take the commission’s officials over Gwagwalada, Lokoja, Onitsha, 9th Mile and other areas that usually experience serious jams during Yuletide.

Chidoka said the surveillance would enable the FRSC to monitor the flow of traffic in many parts of the country.

He explained that the commission recently carried out a road audit which was submitted to the Federal Ministry of Works.

Chidoka was also at the Niger Bridge in Onitsha to

monitor traffic which extended into the city and the neighbouring city of Asaba, Delta State, where he directed realignment of patrol strategies.

Based on the directive, the Anambra State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Hyginus Omeje, had to relocate to Onitsha from Awka on Sunday.

The traffic yesterday, however, was heavier at the Asaba end of the Niger Bridge as thousands of motorists struggled to gain access to the bridge

from the western and northern parts of the country.

Vehicular movement in other parts of Anambra State had increased as many citizens of the state and their families trooped out for the Christmas celebration.

However, the presence of the FRSC operatives in Onitsha and the support from component commands in Delta State contributed to normal traffic flow along the Asaba - Onitsha highway.

L-R: Chairman, Yoruba Tennis Club, Bolaji Cole; Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola and Vice-Chairman of the club, Babaseyi Joseph, at the club’s 2012 Christmas Eve Dance in Lagos, yesterday.

Momoh bemoans loss of billions to cultural policy TERH AGBEDEH

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igeria loses billions of naira annually because of the failure of the leadership to implement the country’s cultural policy which has been in place since the 1980s.

Former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, disclosed this in a telephone with our correspondent.

He said: “Do you know that even the native dressmaking alone, someone estimated that it brings in about N25 billion per annum and that was in the 1990s not to talk of now.”

Momoh added that Nollywood (the Nigerian movie industry) was part of cultural policy and that it was an outcrop of the manifestation of culture.

He said: “We are talking about the preservation of the culture of Nigeria. We

are talking of the presentation, manifestation and funding of culture in Nigeria. It is there in the cultural policy.

“We had all the culture family; artistes, writers, actors, all of them were there.”

The former minister explained that he was the one, who on the basis of the cultural policy, presented the paper in council for the country to have a Ministry of Culture.

At that time culture and information were one ministry under his purview.

Momoh insisted that the country has had a cultural policy since the 1980s. He explained that if it was not operational, that did not mean there was no cultural policy.

He said: “Cultural policy was inaugurated by me as minister of information and Colonel (Tunde) Akogun as director of culture.

“We have had a cultural

Momoh

policy. Even the communication policy was adopted in April, 1990. Ministers have been organising communication policy and I just laugh. If the ministers consult the directors who have been there and whose tenure outlives that of ministers they will get all the information.

“But whenever a minster comes, someone comes from somewhere and says he wants to give a policy to Nigerians. And they start spending money. We had a cultural policy before we had a communication policy. If you ask anybody in the culture department, the

culture family, they will give you the cultural policy.”

Asked what could be done to implement the policy, Momoh said it was being implemented but it was not regulated.

He said: “The structures are there; CBAAC (Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation), National Theatre, the National Troupe, all these were part and parcel of cultural manifestation.

“A people without culture, is a nobody in the comity of nations. It is what you bring to bear on the world arena that makes you a particular human being from a particular piece of territory on our planet.”

Momoh was adding voice to the sentiments that stakeholders in culture sector of the country have adduced over the years.

One such stakeholder is Oba Gbenga Sonuga, the Fadesewa of Simawa, Makun, Sag-

amu in Ogun State, who has not only written a book on the matter but has petitioned the National Assembly to compel the Federal Government to articulate the country’s cultural policy.

Addressed to Senator Gbenga Kaka, the letter made available to our correspondent reads in part: “I believe your time is the most auspicious to rectify a great anomaly in the development of the national psyche towards achieving one great, indivisible and strong country. The anomaly is precisely the lack of an operatable National Cultural Policy.”

Sonuga, whose new book is entitled: “An Introduction to Cultural Activism in Nigeria,” added that although a cultural policy had been launched in 1988 by the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida administration, it had been under review for decades.

Also speaking on the matter, Chief Eddie Ugbomah, who was a member of the committee that drafted the policy, said its failure created the confusion in the country.

He said: “Nigeria will always lose because they never remember yesterday.

“This is a country that has no identity, no cultural awareness, therefore we are not existing, we are just ‘wobbling and fumbling’ like Coach Fanny Amu said.

“A cultural policy was made, written and passed to the Army to pass the decree when Tony Momoh was minister of information.

We were camped at ASCON (Administrative and Staff College of Nigeria) in Badagry, Lagos for 10 days, the ‘who is who’ in the sector.

“The NFC (Nigerian Film Corporation) came into existence as a result of that.

They also wanted Nigerian artefact to tour the world.

10

News

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Fuel scarcity mars Christmas festivities

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he persistent fuel scarcity in the country yesterday marred the Christmas festivities in Abuja and Lagos, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The report said that many filling stations in Abuja had no fuel while the few that were selling had to contend with long queues of motorists.

Anxious motorists were seen at the Forte Filling

Station and NNPC Megastation in the Central Area of the federal capital.

Some motorists told NAN that they had to use the Christmas holidays to shop for fuel.

A civil servant, Mr. Samuel Ogah, lamented that it was becoming increasingly difficult to get fuel on working days when there was long queues at filling stations.

“You know work will

resume on Thursday, so, I want to seize this opportunity to fill my tank.’’

A lawyer, Mr. Andrew Omoh, expressed disappointment with the worsening fuel crisis.

He wondered why fuel would not be available at a time people were celebrating Christmas.

However, the scarcity did not prevent fun seekers from visiting recreation spots in the FCT.

At the Wonderland Amusement Park along Airport Road witnessed a high turnout of people.

An official of the park, Mr. Godwin Amodu, told NAN that Christmas season was always busy for the park.

“You know we always look forward to this season for high patronage but Boxing Day is usually more lucrative for us.”

In Lagos, many residents

L-R: Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, Lagos branch, Comrade Idowu Adeleke; National President, Nigeria Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees, Comrade Lateef Oyelekan; Acting Secretary, Comrade Lamidi Danjuma and Executive Secretary, Distiller and Blenders Association sector of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Aare. Fatai Odesile, during a media briefing on the influx of smuggled alcoholic wines and spirits into Lagos, recently.

Clerics bemoan commercialisation of Christmas

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lerics in Lagos yesterday advised Christians not to commercialise Christmas either by increasing cost of goods or transport fares.

In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the clerics said it was time for Christians to understand the lessons from Jesus and reflect on them.

Bishop Francis Oke, the National Vice-President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (South West), in a statement, said that the essence of Christmas was that God, in love, sent Jesus Christ to redeem humanity from sin.

“Buying of cows or rams and use of bazooka are part of the celebration. They are good because we are celebrating the King of kings.

“If my daughter, for instance, is getting married, I will celebrate it. The problem, however, is that Christmas has become commercialised. The festivities and holidays are okay because we are celebrating our Saviour.

“But when everything

becomes commercialised, it’s wrong. Materialism is wrong.

“Whatever we do at this season and any other season must be done with the fear of God. When we do this, we would have realised the essence of why Christ came to the world to die for our sins,” he said.

The Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Ola Makinde, said Christmas had been abused and commercialised, adding that there were so much emphasis on commerce.

“The essence of Christmas is sacrifice, humility and self-sacrifice. It is a time of giving; it is a time of offering succour.

“Today, we have commercialised the occasion as the rich use the season to oppress the poor. It is a time when we should visit people in prison and the less privileged and let them feel the impact of Christmas. It is a time for giving rather than receiving.

“We should spiritualise the season. The festivities that go with it are part of the celebration.

“Commercial drivers should not use the occasion to hike transport fares, which is not the spirit of Christmas. We should be moderate in whatever we do at this period,” Makinde said.

According to the Director, Centre for Media Development, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Rev. Fr. Mike Umoh, the essence of Christmas is the celebration of hope, which is fulfilled at Easter.

“Just like every good thing, Christmas has suffered a fatal blow; it has lost its essence.

“We seem to pursue shadows; we are more concerned about industrialists turning out their products because they want to make more money during this period.

“How many churches take time to lead their members to retreats? How many people are happier today?

“Merriment is meaningless without Christ, who is the reason for the celebration,” he said.

The Chief Executive

of Peace Worker, African Projects for Peace and Love Initiatives, Rev. Titus Oyeyemi, said commercialisation of the season was bad.

Oyeyemi said that apparently, the essence of the celebration had been lost.

“These days, a lot of things have been added.

People struggle to do things that are quite unnecessary and unconnected with Christmas.

“When the person we are celebrating is not reflected in whatever we do, the reason for the celebration is lost,” he said.

Pastor Gbenga Ajadi, General Overseer of His Praise Deliverance Chapel, Ogudu G.R.A., Ojota, Lagos, said that the “society has changed Christmas to carnivals with drinking and throwing of fireworks.”

He said that many lives had been lost in the process of celebration, adding that commercialisation of Christmas did not portray what Christmas was about.

“Christmas is a time for Christians to be prayerful and draw closer to God,” Ajadi said.

lamented the fuel scarcity which they said, had hampered the movement of people celebrating during the yuletide.

Some of the residents who spoke with NAN called on government to urgently intervene by ensuring adequate supply of petroleum products.

The residents expressed displeasure over the sudden scarcity of fuel which they said, became noticeable on December 24.

Many filling stations in the city were closed to business while hundreds of motorists queuing up at the few filling stations struggling to buy the commodity.

A motorist, Mr. Jare Olorunshoga, who had been on queue for several hours, told NAN that it was unfortunate the scarcity was happening this season.

“I have been in this queue for two hours now which is so frustrating.

“The government should act fast on this,” Olorunshoga said.

Mr. Ibrahim Olowo also told NAN that the fuel scarcity was a deliberate act to make Christmas dull for everyone.

“This scarcity has paved way for fuel attendants to make money by selling above the official pump price,” Olowo said, urging government to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Mrs. Ifeoluwa Daniel told NAN that the fuel scarcity had made the Christmas season dull.

“There is no light in this area and people still cannot get petrol to buy to enjoy the festive period,” Daniel said.

Meanwhile, a source at the NNPC told NAN that the scarcity was caused by the pipeline explosion that occurred at Ijeododo in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos last week.

The official, who pleaded anonymity said that system ‘2B’, which convey petroleum product to South-West states from the Atlas Cove was destroyed.

Too many parties unwieldy for elections –INEC Commissioner

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he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner in-charge of Election Monitoring, Mr. Ishmael Igbani, has said that too many political parties are unwieldy for elections in a developing country like Nigeria.

Igbani, who said this in Abuja yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that; “For election purposes, Nigeria doesn’t need too many political parties.

“Even though having too many political parties is not a crime, all of them cannot be participating in one election.

“Looking at the ballot with over 65 candidates having their names on a ballot paper would be confusing to the electorate, and the worse scenario is when there is more than one election in a day, it becomes more confusing.”

The INEC commissioner advised politicians to come together and set criteria on how names would be placed on the ballot papers.

He said it was time for politicians to stop tying their existence to elections; rather they should focus more on issues that would engender socioeconomic growth of the nation.

“The smaller parties instead of fighting for a place on the ballot papers can exploit various avenues with focus on different areas that include gender, environment, health, social issues and other areas of development.”

On de-registration of some political parties by INEC, Igbani said the exercise was done in accordance with the law.

He explained that the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, declared that: “Any political party which contests elections and does not win a seat shall be deregistered.

“Our constitution allows for a multi-party system, but INEC has the power to de-register parties and it has started and it is a continuous process as the commission will continue to de-register parties that do not meet stipulated requirements.”

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South West

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

11

Commuters groan over poor BRT, LAGBUS services MURITALA AYINLA

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ommuters across Lagos metropolis have criticised what they called the “shoddy arrangement” in the operation of LAGBUS and the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT. Investigation by National Mirror revealed that passengers spend a long time, waiting for the mass transit buses at the various designated bus stops on a daily basis.

From Berger to Ojota, TBS to CMS, Mile 12 to Onipan, Ikorodu to Lagos Island, Iyana-Ipaja to

•We’re working to meet demand –Officials

Ikotun/Igando, stranded and frustrated passengers groan in the long queues following endless wait for the buses.

While some commuters decried the endless wait at bus stops, others accused LABUS and BRT drivers and officials of deliberately refusing to ply some remote areas.

A stranded passenger, Mrs. Tobi Adesokan, told our correspondent that at times, she had to wait for almost two hours at Ojota BRT corridor, which is close to her house.

According to her, the

LAGBUS drivers refused to go to CMS, even after she had purchased the N120 CMS ticket.

She said: “Government ought to do something about these drivers and those operating BRT. Those drivers prefer to go to Palm Groove, Onipanu, Costain bus stops instead of CMS that we paid for.

That is why the queue is long.

“They sometimes ask us to abruptly alight halfway to join another bus which may even break down on the way. Is this how traffic law will oper-

ate when people are getting stranded, waiting for the bus we can’t see?”

Another passenger at Berger LAGBUS bus stop, Mr. Ikenna Julius, decried the operation of the scheme, saying he had waited for over three hours at CMS bus park without any bus in sight.

Also, when National Mirror visited Leventis bus stop, over 300 stranded passengers were waiting for the buses going to FESTAC, Berger and other designated routes.

One of the stranded passengers, Mrs. Bunmi

L-R: First Ekiti female pilot, Capt. Bolaji Agbelusi; wife of Ekiti State governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi and her husband, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, at the 2012 Merit Awards ceremony in Ado-Ekiti, at the weekend.

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he Chief Executive Officer of Egbin Power Plant, Mr. Mike Uzoigbe, has disclosed that the plant was now generating 1,030 megawatts of electricity, up from 600mw.

Uzoigwe told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, yesterday in Lagos that five of the six turbines of the plant were now working at full capacity.

The Egbin plant power generation dropped from 1,080mw to 600mw on December 5, because of a national system collapse.

The collapse led to a shutdown of the station.

Uzoigbe assured that the station would meet its generation capacity of 1,320mw fully as the unit six, which was

Egbin power plant now generates 1,030mw –CEO faulty, was being repaired.

He said: “Egbin is generating at 1,030 megawatts capacity on five turbines, which is being distributed based on demand.

“When all the units are working to capacity, we will distribute in full blast.

“What we are doing is to maintain and improve on existing generation.’’

Uzoigwe denied the insinuation that the Egbin plant had been shut for its inability to generate power.

“Over the years, we have had problems of

obsolete equipment and spare parts.

“But since government started tackling the problems of the power sector very seriously, things are picking up gradually.

“It is only the sixth turbine that is still down, but government is making necessary arrangement to revive it.

“By the grace of God, we will be able to bring it back and be in a position to approach the 1,320 megawatts,’’ he added.

Uzoigbe said that contract for repair of the faulty turbine was

awarded to Marubeni Power International, a Japanese company, on December 19.

He said: “The sixth turbine, which contributes 200mw to the national grid, is expected to be repaired within 90 days.”

The Federal Government pledged to commit N1.5 billion to fund the repair of the faulty turbine.

The Egbin Power Station is the biggest electricity-generating plant in the country.

The station has six turbines, each with a capacity of 220mw.

Ogunkoya, who works with an insurance firm in Marina, on the Lagos Island, said she had been waiting for about two and a half hours.

She said: “Look at the time now, it is 7:30pm, no bus is in sight. I don’t know why our government is like this! Do you take something from people without replacing it?

You have in your traffic law policies that are unfriendly to the people.

“The effective transportation systems that will cushion the effect of the law on people are not there. Now, the masses are left to suffer as a result of the implementation of the law.”

Reacting to the development, the General Manager of LAGBUS, Mr. Babatunde Disu, agreed that there had been increase in the demand for the public transport system in the state.

He, however, said that measures were on to meet commuters’ demand.

Disu said the restriction of the commercial motorcyclists on some of the major roads could also be responsible for the high demand of the LAGBUS/BRT services, adding that more fleets were expected to be added to the existing ones.

He said: “There is no doubt about the fact that we are recording increase in the demand for our services.

“Firstly, we cannot rule out the impact of the restriction of operations of the commercial motorcycles in the sudden rise in the number of those patronising our buses.

But the fact is that we are making efforts to increase the fleet of the buses we have.

“Of course, traffic congestion on the road could equally be responsible for the travel time of the LAGBUS drivers which may delay in the arrival of the bus to the park.

“The task of improving the service of LAGBUS is a collective responsibility of everyone. It is a private partnership scheme.”

On the allegation that the drivers and the officials of the scheme dodge

Opeifa

some routes, Disu said: “People must also know that the buses run on designated routes and that the drivers can only stop at authorised bus stops.

“Meanwhile, they can report any driver or official to us. In the case of the driver, they take note of the code number on the bus.”

Also speaking with our correspondent on the development, the Commissioner for Transportation, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, said the crowd of stranded commuters at bus stops was normal in a city like Lagos.

He said: “If you see people at the bus stops in the evening, it is normal. Go to America and London train stations; you will see people there at rush hours. But when you get there at 10am, do you see people there?

During the period, you will see more buses there than the people.

“So, it is a function of demand and supply and rush hour. What we are doing in Lagos is to provide mass transit that can be reliable.

“After awhile there will be special re-distribution of these resources. Some commercial buses are not plying some roads because there are too many motorcycles there. So, when they see that Okada is longer there instead of going empty, they find their way to where passengers are.

“Besides, we are doing the re-routing of the commercial buses so that those areas with more people will have more buses.

“By the time we start the re-routing; you won’t find all this again. We put them where there is demand.”

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News

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Youths invade Imo community as they avenge kinsman’s killing CHRIS NJOKU OWERRI

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he Umuochii village in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State was on December 24 invaded by rampaging youths from a neighouring community.

The angry youths from Umuohie-Ihitte-okwe community invaded the village following the death of their kinsman, Ikechi Eke, who was allegedly stabbed to death by one Obinna Opara, an Umuochii indigene.

National Mirror learnt that the over 30 youths mobilised and invaded Umuochii to avenge the killing of their kinsman.

The youths invaded the village even as they also destroyed property and other movable items.

A resident of Umuochii, Mike Nkwocha, said that nobody expected the invasion of the village as everyone was preparing for the Christmas celebration.

Nkwocha said: “The unfortunate incident threw the entire village into confusion as many people lost their houses and property in the invasion carried out by the neighouring Umuohie youths.”

He traced the invasion to the quarrel between Obinna Opara and the deceased, Ikechi Eke, which he said happened late Sunday night at Umuochii.

Nkwocha said that about 8:pm on December 23, 2012, the late Ikechi, who had attended social function in Umuochii, was about to kick start his motorcycle when Obinna Opara, the

suspect, blocked him and flashed his touch light into his eyes.

He said that it was at that point that a misunderstanding ensued between them leading to a fight.

Some people settled the quarrel, but unknown to them, Obinna went away and reappeared a few minutes later with a dagger and ambushed Ikechi

on his way to Umuohie, his village.

It was Ikechi’s cry for help that attracted the villagers to the scene.”

“We saw Ikechi in the pool of his own blood while Obinna Opara, his attacker, fled the village,” an eye witness said.

The witness said that effort by the people to save the life of Ikechi

failed as he died later.

He said: “We took him first to Hossana Hospital in Logara, but he was rejected. We also took him to Umuowa Cottage Hospital, but it was at Ugo Medical Centre that we were advised by the doctor to take him to Emekuku General Hospital.

“The doctor said he had excessive internal bleed-

Senator wants Oronsaye committee report implemented

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L-R: Rev. Fr. Fabian Obi; wife of the Secretary to the Anambra State Government, Mrs. Ofunne Obaze; her husband, Mr. Oseloka Obaze; Anambra State Governor Peter Obi; his wife, Margaret; state House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Chinwe Nwebili; Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi; Rev Fr. Sebastian Anokwulu and Commissioner for Education, Dr. Uju Okeke, after the Christmas Mass at the Governor’s Lodge Chapel in Awka, yesterday.

CPP advocates people-oriented National Conference

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ational Chairman of Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Mr. Maxi Okwu, has called for a national conference which decisions must be subjected to a referendum

by Nigerians.

Okwu, who stated this in Abuja on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN),

said the present National Assembly would not be able to midwife a people’s constitution.

He called for a comprehensive review of the constitution in such a way to accommodate peoples’ yearnings and aspirations.

He said: ‘’We want restructuring; we want a

return to true federalism which the army truncated; in many states, governors act as military administrators.’’

The party leader said there should be a national conference which would give the Nigerian people an opportunity to air their views on issues of general interests.

This, he said, was not the same as the Sovereign National Conference being demanded by some sections of the country, On the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the CPP leader expressed regrets on ‘’the pace at which the Bill is moving in a very slow manner and may not meet with the standard

of the operators in the oil and gas sector’’.

The chairman decried the level of lobbying in the oil and gas sector which he said had contributed to the slow passage of the Bill.

Okwu said the petroleum Industry should be manned largely by Nigerians content and not controlled by foreigners

Fashola donates gifts to less privileged

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agos State Governor Babatunde Fashola has donated gifts to less privileged people at the SOS Children’s Village in the Isolo area of the state.

The Village’s Director, Mr Benjamin Buraimoh, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

Buraimoh said that the governor donated two cows, foods and clothing.

“Governor Fashola is among notable people that have shown love to the less privileged.

ing. So, it was at Emekuku General Hospital that we transported him to UNTH Enugu where he was eventually confirm dead by the doctor at about 12noon on December 24”.

The suspected killer was, however, apprehended by his kinsmen yesterday while trying to board a Lagos bound bus on OwerriAba Road.

“He donated cow, food items and other things to the children for them to celebrate the Christmas.’’

Buraimoh said that the village had been receiving donations, including food items, clothing and cash from individuals and corporate organisations since the beginning of the season.

The director listed other organisations that had shown love to the lessprivileged as Emzor Pharmaceutical, Nigerian Bottling Company and Total Nigeria Limited, among others.

“We have been receiving

items and cash from people and organisations since the beginning of December in support of our work.

“These items have helped us in the day-today running of the village,’’ Buraimoh said.

The director said that the village had instituted a programme called Family Strengthening Programme that would help to take care of children living with their parents but in need of help.

According to him, the programme helps in supporting the children with their parents to pay

school fees and pay their medical bills.

“This family support programme is to help pay educational and medical bills of children living with their parents but who don’t have other means to survive.

“This family support programme is in Lagos, Ibadan, Jos and Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory.

“We are planning to expand to touch the lives of other children who are in need,’’ he said.

Buraimoh appealed to government to provide

subventions for the village to enable it sustain its programme in helping the less privileged.

He said that the organisation, which was formed after the Second World War by a German, who came to Nigeria in 1973 after the civil war, was devoted to working for vulnerable and abandoned children all over the world.

He urged stakeholders to help in strengthening families by putting in place sustainable structures to protect the rights of children all over the world.

hairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, has called on the Federal Government to implement the Steve Oronsaye Committee report to reduce recurrent expenditure.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee headed by Oronsaye, former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, to restructure and rationalise Federal Government’s agencies.

This was with a view to identifying overlap or duplication of functions and make appropriate recommendations to the government.

Enang told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that if the report was implemented, the cost of governance would be drastically reduced and more funds would be available for capital expenditure.

He said: “I am urging the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to take courage and implement the recommendations made by the Oronsaye Committee.

“Ministries and Departments with duplicating functions should be merged and officers transferred to the main service and dealt with according to civil service regulations.”

Enang also noted the need to reduce the increasing funds budgeted for fuelling of generators in public offices by exploring the option of solar energy.

He added that the recurring demand for the purchase of computers by ministries and agencies should be discouraged so as to have more funds for visible projects.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

PDP-led govt has lost focus – Rep

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

13

Politics

How anger put Akpabio in ‘trouble’ in Kenya

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CPC blasts Jonathan over broken promises OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

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he Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has described the Christmas message of President Goodluck Jonathan to Nigerians as nothing but “a hollow ritual” that portends no hope for the teeming masses as a result of several broken promises.

In a press statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, the CPC while congratulating Nigerians

heartily “for stoically wading through a very horrendous year, largely made so by the deliberate pauperisation policy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)led Federal Government,” said that it is doubtful if President Jonathan “truly believes that Nigerians can trust him, after many broken promises in the past one year and sheer unwillingness to assuage the cruelty unleashed on them by his administration’s lethargy and incompetence.“ The CPC described the outgoing year as one “that

started with the crude and perilous 49 per cent increase of petrol pump price by a very cruel and insensitive regime, eventually unveiled the most bizarre incongruence in national life in the over five decades’ existence of the Nigerian State!”

Fasakin added: “Indeed, this President and his forebears in the ruling behemoth have collectively mismanaged – in the last 13 years – the hopes of Nigerians and brought the nation into impecunious status through unprecedented

corruption and profligacy.”

The CPC said that with N3.72 trillion said to have been expended on fuel subsidy between 2011 and 2012, the Jonathan-led administration has created a bleeding pipe through which the scarce resources of state are siphoned into private pockets of cronies and acolytes of the ruling PDP. The party said: “The conundrum that this administration has brought the nation is that: any increase in world crude oil price would not translate into the prosperity of the Ni-

geria and her citizens. The administration of the fuel subsidy, under the regime, has become a phenomenon in legendary opacity and monstrous corrupt tendencies.”

On security, the CPC said the Jonathan administration has demonstrated its incapacitation in tackling the myriads of insecurity challenges that had reared their heads and assailed the country in the outgoing year, saying: “After each deadly bomb blast - with attendant fatalities - it had become a regular template of presidential response to listen to assurances of investigation and security cover for all under the nation space. This is why, as a party, we believe the President’s season’s

message is a damp squib.”

It said that an administration that continually carries on with impunity while the rights of the people to good living conditions are continually trampled upon cannot be trusted, adding that an administration that cannot prioritise the needs of the people against the avaricious comfort of its principals and minions can no longer be entrusted with the national commonwealth and welfare.

Fasakin added: “As a party, we know too well about the extemporaneous foundation of this regime.

It was more interested in seizing political power rather than the adequate planning for effectual governance.”

Dickson tasks Nigerians on nation-building

T L–R: Managing Director, Anambra/Imo River Development Authority, Engr. Onu Eluwa; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha; Nnanna Igbokwe and H.R.H Eze Emma Nwaaimo during the flag-off of Mbutu-Ngor Okpala road project in Imo State on Monday.

CNPP urges de-registered parties to join ACN, CPC, ANPP merger plan

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he Conference of Nigeria Political parties (CNPP) yesterday urged all de-registered parties to join the merger plan of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

CNPP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the conference supported the merger proposal.

“CNPP is in support of the three political parties that are trying to merge and calls on those de-registered

to join the merger plan. ‘’We applaud the CPC, ACN and ANPP for trying to come together, this will enable them to form a united front,” he said.

Okechukwu urged the INEC’s National Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to ‘’pay more attention to those things that can bring to bear, free and fair election in Nigeria.”

“Government has stopped funding parties and if it has stopped funding parties, they would find ways to sustain themselves,” he said.

Okechukwu urged the INEC boss to pay more attention to the Uwais

Electoral Reform since he (Jega) was a member of the committee. ‘’He should pay attention to advance those courses recommended by the com-

mittee. We need free and fair election; if there is free and fair election, the political parties on their own will do their own internal censorship,” he said.

he Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson has called on Nigerians to renew their belief and faith in the Nigerian project.

Dickson, in his Christmas message to the people of Bayelsa State said: “As a nation, I wish to seize this opportunity to call on all Nigerians to renew their belief and faith in the Nigerian project.”

He also admonished Nigerians to emphasise on issues that unite them as a people rather than on those things that are capable of disintegrating them, saying, “it is only by so doing

FCT election: Aspirant promises to tackle falling cil was under-represented standard of education in the University of Abuja

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he Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) chairmanship aspirant in Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT, Malam Ibrahim Yahya, has promised to tackle the falling standard of education in the area, if elected.

Yahya made the promise in Abuja shortly after his formal declaration to run for the office.

“Good education is the

bedrock of all civilizations.

As a former Supervisory Councillor of Education, I am with all humility, better placed to know what is wrong with education in Gwagwalada.

“It is unacceptable for our primary and secondary schools to fail to provide our children the basics that will prepare them for higher education,” he said.

He added that the coun-

admission intake, because the students could not make the required grades in their SSCE and JAMB examinations.

“If nominated, we will make supervision of our primary schools a top priority; special attention shall be given to secondary schools students to help them make the required grades that will facilitate their entry into the university.”

that our nation can truly regain its true glory.”

He said: “We must take advantage of the joy and good tidings of this season to reach out to one another in love as the birth of Christ aptly symbolises.

“On behalf of my family and the entire members of my team, I bring warm greetings to all the good people of our dear state and indeed to all Nigerians on a day like this that the whole world is celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

“To us in Bayelsa, this Christmas season offers us a unique opportunity to renew our strength in the love of Christ whose birth today has brought us good tidings of joy and goodwill.

“The birth of Christ is a clear reminder that all hope is not lost. Our tragedies of yesterday are wiped away

by His (Christ) birth. If anything, it is often in our tragedies that new bonds of friendship and communal spirits are sometimes formed to enable us forge ahead even at a faster pace for the rapid development and progress of our dear state.

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Politics

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

PDP-led Govt has lost focus – Rep Hon. Abayomi Dauda Kako-Are is the member representing Mushin 1 Federal Constituency in the National Assembly. In this interview with FELIX NWANERI, he speaks on the alleged implementaion of anti-people’s policy by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-led government in Lagos State as well as other national issues. Excerpts: Some members of the opposition in Lagos State have accused the ACN-led government in the state of implementing policies that are anti-people. What is your take on the issue?

The issue of Lagos, if we must be frank about it, is that the state has achieved much under the ACN government, starting from when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was the governor. But I can assure you that the issues of okada ban and relocation of traders, which the opposition is raising, are challenges that come with development. Lagos has to continue to move. And in the process of development, some things have to give way. This is not the first time that traders are being relocated. You are aware that the traders at the Alaba International Market were at Orile before and it was as a result of development that they were moved to the present place.

It is not the case of Lagos State alone; some people had to be relocated during the last Olympics in London. On the okada ban; although it is a highly sensitive matter, we must however put sentiment apart and ask ourselves a question: did we have okada 10 years ago? May be the government should have slowed down, but that is not to say that we have to stay permanently with okada for the rest of our lives. Again, Lagos is not the first state to ban okada operations, though you will agree with me that it was not an outright ban as the government directed that they should limit their operations to certain areas.

There is a renewed call by Lagosians for a special status to be granted to the state, given the rising population and neglect of infrastructure left by the Federal Government since the relocation of the federal capital to Abuja. How will this address the various challenges facing the state?

The demand for a special status for Lagos is as a result of our inability to practice true federalism. We wouldn’t be talking about a special status for Lagos or any other state if we have true federalism. We have a situation where even the Value Added Tax (VAT) collected in Lagos State is taken over by the Federal Government and only a mere percentage of it is returned to the state. When you look at the population of the state vis-à-vis infrastructure, you will realise that there is no way the state government can do it alone. People keep trooping into Lagos from other parts of the country every minute of the day. In most countries where the seat of power is different from the commercial capital, there is always that consideration. So, there is need for a special status for Lagos, else the state should be allowed to keep what it generates and pay some percentage to the Federal Government.

If we don’t have a special status for Lagos, how do we take care of the infrastructure left by the Federal Government? Lagos remain the number one in this country and if that is the case, is it not fair for the Federal Government to assist the state in taking care of the Apapa-OshodiOworonsoki Expressway that leads to the ports? In any case, is it not the same special status that states in the South-South are enjoying through derivation, Niger Delta Development Commission and the Niger Delta Ministry?

I am not against that; if they want to keep all the money from oil, fine, but let us keep our own too. We have forgoten that we had agriculture before the advent of oil and people consequently abandoned the villages for the cities.

Are you then backing the call for a return to regional government, as some people believe that most of states

mies with the rising insecurity across the country? Will any foreign investor think about Nigeria? All these arguments of the governors abusing state police lack merit. In any case, what is the level of the Federal Government’s funding of the present Police force; is it not the states that are providing logistics for them? The issue of a Police commissioner taking orders only from Abuja should be discarded. Let the governors who are on ground in the various states be responsible for the security of their domains.

Transparency International recently ranked Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt country in the world, what does it portend for our polity?

It is a very bad one, but who do we blame? We blame the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government. Let us look at the statistics; how many of the past governors that are being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) belong to the opposition parties? Almost all of them are members of the PDP and as long as we still have the party in power; they will keep on protecting them because we know where all the money went to - campaign donations. So, how do you fight them because it will be a case of if you pull me, I will pull you. But I think that Nigerians are taking note of all these things and will act accordingly when 2015 comes because we are gradually getting beyond voting along party lines.

Kako-Are

that we have are not viable?

Being in the National Assembly has exposed me to so many things. Who will allow his or her own state to die if we are to go back to the regions? For instance, as a Lagosian, I won’t allow Lagos to die and I believe that is the thinking of so many Nigerians. They want their states to remain as they are. However, one thing that I don’t support, which is also the position of Lagos State, is that we don’t need more states because some of the ones we have now are not viable.

The people of the South-East will disagree with you, as they are insisting on an additional state to bring them at par with other zones of the country.

I used to tell my colleagues in the National Assembly that there is no way that we won’t have the issue of marginalisation. How come that the North has 19 states today while the South has 17? If we are talking of one section being marginalised, it means that we have to go back and do it all over again. So, I will advise that we leave the issue the way it is because if we continue to think about what happened yesterday, we are likely not to make any progress.

The people of Lagos State have endorsed state police, which some other parts of the country, particularly the North has said no to. Are we politically matured to have state police?

Sometimes, we Nigerians speak from both sides of our mouth. We want to be among the 20 most industrialised nations by 2020, but we don’t want to go the way of such nations. How can one say that people will not be safe if the governors are allowed to control the police in their respective states? Is it not some of these governors that will still become the president? Was Jonathan not a governor before he became the vice president and later the president? We should stop talking about people but institutions. How can we be talking about being among the world’s top 20 econo-

SANUSI LOVES BEING IN THE MEDIA... DO YOU KNOW THAT THE CBN’S HEADQUARTER IS NOT ON PHCN, BUT RAN WITH GENERATORS, YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT THE COST WOULD BE

How will the PDP lose its grip of power at the centre when the opposition parties are not ready to close ranks and work together?

The issue of an alliance, which I hope you are refering to, has a lot to with the personalities involved, but I am assuring you that we in the ACN will not decieve Nigerians.

You know that because of the structure of the incumbent, you may need one or two alliances to dislodge it, but you will attest that our party remains the most viable opposition in the country today. However, change is not the duty of the opposition alone; Nigerians should look at individuals on what they can offer and not party lines.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi recently called for a unicameral legislature as well as reduction in the workforce to reduce cost of governance, what is your take on that?

Sometimes if you have to value yourself, you may over do it. The issue of whether the two houses of the Natioanl Assembly should remain or not is for Nigerians to decide.

But I can tell you that the houses are very necessary. If anyone tells you that democracy is expensive, tell the person that he doesn’t know what he is saying. Take a trip round the country and you will see infrastructure that were not there before the advent of the present democracy. Nigeria is not good today because of the long years of military involvement in government, but we have seen elected representatives doing one thing or the other to uplift their respective constituencies.

Talking about Sanusi, you will agree with me that the man at times confuses himself. Was he not the one who proposed the N5,000 note at the same time he told us that there is too much cash in circulation? Sanusi loves being in the media, do you know that the CBN’s budget is in trillions and that is why they don’t want us to look at it? Do you know that the CBN’s headquarters is not on PHCN, but ran with generators; you can imagine what the cost would be and this is being overseen by the same man who is talking about cost reduction.

What do you make of the plan by the Federal Government to build a banquet hall worth over N2 billion at the Villa?

May be we should just go and pray to God to save us from these emergency leaders; people who were not prepared before they became governors and the president. As far as I am concerned, the PDP-led Federal Government has lost focus. When I was going to Abuja in 2007, I went by road and work was in progress on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as well as Lokoja-Abuja Road. Is it not a shame that they have not completed those projects till today?

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Politics

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

15

How anger put Akpabio in ‘trouble’ in Kenya Recently, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State stunned his audience when he bagged a lifetime award in Nairobi, Kenya. He spoke on the driving force - anger for development - that has made him to turn the fortune of his state around. JAKSON UDOM, Special Assistant on Media to the governor, who covered the event reports.

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kwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, may have finally landed himself in trouble.

Like the proverbial mouth that bit more than it could chew, Akpabio, who has been at the helm of affairs in the 25-year-old state known as “The Land of Promise” has fulfilled the words of the song of the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, about a man who went to wake trouble from its sleep and must ‘get palaver.’ Through his anger, he has courted trouble and would have to manage the situation in order to remain ahead of the leadership pack in Nigeria today, as he already is.

Make no mistake, His Excellency has not joined the bandwagon of bad leaders, neither has he gotten on the wrong side of the people - his best companions and reason for success in governance. Rather, he has brought ‘trouble’ to himself by allowing his anger, an anger he has harboured since 2007, when he was first elected governor, to have the better of him but this time around at the international forum.

Governor Akpabio, who spoke in Nairobi after being honoured by the Millennium Excellence Foundation, with the Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize 2012 on Sustainable Development in Africa, exposed the reason for his matchless success in transforming Akwa Ibom State and that was when the trouble started.

Mounting the rostrum to answer questions in an interview on what the secret behind his success in the oil-rich state, Akpabio simply said: “Anger.” It was a response that elicited spontaneous reaction from the audience and Akpabio, known for his passion for his people and why he has done so much in less than six years, used the audience’s reaction to roll out what caused the anger and how far the anger in him had gone in turning around for good the fortune of his people. At the end of the five-minute pre-investiture interview, it was obvious that the governor had courted more trouble for himself as he became the doyen of investors who had thronged the venue of the award to see the man from Nigeria who has been widely reported to have turned a mere pedestrian state in Nigeria to a destination in just five years. There and then, it was from one un-arranged engagement to the other.

Akpabio made no mistake in telling his brother African leaders that the honour done him was an indication that more Nigerian leaders and his governor colleagues would be honoured outside the shores of Nigeria for their selfless ser-

Gov. Godswill Akpabio (right) presenting an award for Humanitarianism and Equity to Paul Kamlesh Pattni while Mrs. Pattni and former Ghanian First Lady, Dr. Edestina Attah watch with interest.

THE CONDITION I MET MY STATE WHEN

I ASSUMED OFFICE IN 2007 CAUSED A GREAT ANGER IN ME AND THAT LED

TO WHAT HAS BEEN WIDELY RECOGNISED AS UNCOMMON TRANSFORMATION IN MY STATE vice to their people.

“This award by the Millennium Excellence Foundation is an indication that other Nigerian leaders and governors who have the genuine interest of their people at heart would be recognised. I cherish this award and I dedicate this to Nigerians. It is a proof that government is working in Akwa Ibom State, nay Nigeria.”

But before that could be applauded, Governor Akpabio threw up a theory that was novel to hundreds of leaders and captains of industry in attendance. A theory which hypothesis he said he had tested and had succeeded in turning to a law; that anger could be good for positive development; that anger could transform a locality, a state, a country; that anger could touch lives and build human capacity; that anger could change the history and lives of a people positively.

The governor, in a move that shocked bookmakers, said anger pushed him to achieve all he had done in Akwa Ibom State as a governor and it was at that point that he became the toast of the conference and a cynosure of governance in Nigeria.

On why he was able to achieve all that

he had done as a governor, Akpabio said: “Anger has made me to achieve what I have done so far. I will hereby recommend positive anger to African leaders so that we can move away from this present position we are to an advantaged one in the committee of nations.”

Speaking further, the governor said: “The condition I met my state when I assumed office in 2007 caused a great anger in me and that led to what has been widely recognised as uncommon transformation in my state, where we declared free and compulsory education from primary to secondary school levels, free heath care for children from five years and below, free medical treatment for pregnant women and the aged. We have also been able to put in place an international airport and independent power plant to ensure that we have uninterrupted power supply to boost large and small scale business outfits in the state.”

By the time the session finished, not only had the governor been invited to several other sessions and meetings with African leaders and captains of industries.

On a lighter note, Akpabio’s chain achievements as he reeled them out at the international event, caused another trouble for him as he had to change his date of departure. The organisers of the event saw him most suitable to present an award to one of the awardees and business mogul, Paul Kamlesh Pattni, who bagged the Humanitarian and Equity Award. The person that was detailed to ensure the presence of Governor Akpabio was no other person but the wife of the late Ghanaian president, Dr. Edestina Attah Mills, an assignment she perfectly executed.

Akpabio, while the event lasted, succeeded in attracting to himself more troubles of having to host hundreds of investors and leaders, who will take up his challenge by coming to the state to see for themselves; the trouble of having to keep all channels open for more development, having to ensure that government

continues to work so as not to let down the people. But can this really be seen as troubles for Akpabio, a man who faced the challenges of underdevelopment in Akwa Ibom State head on and came out unscathed? The truth is, he actually gave an open invitation to those in attendance when he said “with all we have in the state, it is the safest destination for investors in the oil, gas and other sectors of the economy and that is why I use this occasion to invite you to my state because it is safe for investments.”

Right from the end of the programme in Nairobi, it had become clear that Akpabio’s anger has achieved more than developing his state, it has opened him up to more meetings and demands, but he is up to the task. For the same anger which has driven him to enviable heights in transforming the state has also brought him honour across the world. As a matter of principle, Governor Akpabio’s anger resonates with many development thinkers as a progressive anger and he has also courageously called on people within and outside the country to come and see what his anger has achieved in Akwa Ibom.

“Come and see Akwa Ibom,” he would say whenever he was among the who is who in the country and several Nigerians including Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar; President Goodluck Jonathan; former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Guild of Editors; the Nigeria Bar Association and lately the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), who have honoured his invitation, have seen the positive impact of the governor’s anger— the anger which the people will want to see in all the governors that will come after Akpabio in the state and the same anger which people from other states in the country would want their governors to have.

Udom is Special Assistant to the Governor of Akwa Ibom State on Media.

16

Editorial

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

All the Facts, All the Sides A PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, OFR PUBLISHER

T

STEVE AYORINDE

MD/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

YELE AKINROLABU

ED OPERATIONS

SEYI FASUGBA

DAILY EDITOR

BOLAJI TUNJI

SUNDAY EDITOR

GBEMI OLUJOBI

SATURDAY EDITOR

DOZIE OKEBALAMA

COORDINATOR, EDITORIAL BOARD

ADESOYE ADEKOYA

CONTROLLER, PRODUCTION

CALLISTUS OKE

EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

ISE-OLUWA IGE

ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

KAYODE BALOGUN JNR

SM, STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

FRANK OBOH

HEAD, GRAPHICS

Management of the nation’s airspace

he recent crash of the chopper conveying Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Andrew Owoye Azazi from Bayelsa to Rivers State, which claimed the lives of both prominent Nigerians and others onboard, has again brought to the fore the self-afflicted rot in the nation’s airspace. The helicopter reportedly crashed into a swampy location near Okoroba community in the Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. The victims were said to be on their way to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital after attending the burial ceremony of the father of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Research, Documentation and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas, when tragedy struck.

Not quite long before the incident, a private jet flown by the Taraba State Governor, Danbaba Suntai, also crashed with multiple casualties, including Suntai, who is still in a critical medical condition in a German hospital.

The Taraba governor’s crash came months after the ill-fated Dana plane crash of June 3, this year, in which all 163 passengers on board perished,

NO MATTER HOW NEW PLANES MAY BE, THEY ARE STILL VULNERABLE TO DISASTERS WHEN FLOWN IN A ‘BLIND’ AIRSPACE alongside some casualties on ground. That all is far from being well with the aviation sector was confirmed by the recent revelation of the National Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (NATCA), that ‘blind-piloting’ of planes had been in practice for long. In other words, pilots have been flying planes blind without being guided by any functional radar system. The air traffic controllers decried the absence of reliable radio communication for decades; and warned of more dangers ahead unless something urgent was done to address the situation.

The NACTA President, Victor Eyaru, said the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s (NAMA) acceptance that Very High Frequency (VHF) radios in use at two Area Control Centres (ACC) located in Kano and Lagos were in bad shape confirmed the

association’s claims. Indeed, NAMA reportedly confessed recently that Nigerian airspace was not only managed with obsolescent devices, but that communication gadgets for flight monitoring were faulty. According to Eyaru, pilots have been complaining about the poor condition of the 124.1MHZ radio for KanoEast. Between October 17 and November 24, there were 58 different reports on the frustrations of duty air traffic controllers and pilots on 128.5 MHz (Kano- West radio), with six reports of total failure.

More revealing was Eyaru’s claim that over N400 million spent on ‘total VHF coverage’ projects in the past four years yielded no tangible result. He likewise dismissed suggestions that NAMA’s ongoing Aeronautic Information Service (AIS) automation project would solve the communication problem, stressing that urgently needed was a complete overhaul of the facilities for effective performance.

We commend the air traffic controllers for their boldness in opening up the can of worms on the inept management of the country’s air space; and warning on the inherent dangers if nothing is quickly done to save the situation. The group’s exposition

validates repeated complaints against the lacklustre attitude of NAMA in paying adequate attention to the task of efficiently and effectively managing the nation’s airspace.

It is baffling that NAMA waited until NACTA spoke up, whereas retooling the nation’s airports with modern operational navigational equipment is the agency’s statutory duty. Of what relevance then is NAMA, if with its retinue of management and staff, recruited and heavily maintained to ensure safe skies for air travelers, the agency appears to be trifling with its job? To ward off another avoidable air disaster, the Ministry of Aviation, NAMA and other relevant agencies in the aviation sector should emulate their counterparts in other parts of the world, who painstakingly ensure that their air traffic control equipment meets the highest and safest standards. Using poor equipment compromises air transport safety. Instead of embarking on worthless ‘road shows’ abroad, funds should be quickly made available for the procurement of state-ofthe-art air space management tools. No matter how new planes may be, they are still vulnerable to disasters when flown in a ‘blind’ airspace.

ON THIS DAY December 26, 2009 An oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria exploded, killing at least 260 people. The 2006 Abule Egba pipeline explosion is a disaster that occurred in the heavily populated neighborhood of Abule Egba in Lagos, on December 26, 2006, killing hundreds of people. There were originally believed to be around 500 deaths, but it was later confirmed that the loss was smaller. The incident occurred after an elevated pipeline carrying petroleum products was punctured by thieves.

December 26, 2004 A 9.3 magnitude earthquake created a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000 people including over 1,700 on a moving train. A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake.

December 26, 1996 Six-year-old beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey, was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado, United States.

The body of Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996), an American child beauty pageant queen was found in the basement of the family home nearly eight hours after she was reported missing. She had been struck on the head and strangled. The unsolved case continues to generate public and media interest.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

17

Still on corruption and death penalty PUBLIC DOMAIN

DELE

SETEOLU

deleseteolu@nationalmirroronline.net (08033137577 SMS only)

T

he Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) recently canvassed death penalty for corruption offences in Nigeria. The group opted for capital punishment in the light of the debilitating impacts of the social malaise on the country’s socio-economy. The religious insurgency and terrorism in northern Nigeria are largely linked to pervasive socioeconomic deprivations.

The pro north youth forum made the suggestion to buttress the pervasive nature of corruption and how it has perverted the growth of the country.

The death penalty recommendation, however, will not likely discourage corruption. We currently have the death penalty law for armed robbery offences in this country. It is doubtful if capital punishment has substantially deterred armed robberies in the country. The death penalty law is receding in nation-states, having been deleted from the statute books of several countries. The sociology of crime suggests that there are pre-disposing factors to crime and criminality. There is logic therefore, to dealing with these socio-economic factors that precipitate criminality.

Obviously, political and bureaucratic corruption has severely altered the country’s political economy. The collapse of the Second Republic had been largely linked to the massive corruption among the political elite and their cronies. Scholars had described this phenomenon in various terms. Richard Joseph had described the politics of the Second Republic as ‘predendal politics’. Jean-François Bayart describes this phenomenon as the ‘Politics of the belly’. It is often characterized by the personalization of state resources and political power, using primordial considerations.

The corrupt political elite often lack autonomous economic power and rely on state apparatuses to secure economic benefits and advantage. The abuse of import license system, massive election rigging, rice importation scam and profligate lifestyles pervaded the dominant fraction of the political elite in the Second Republic.

The collapse of the First Republic largely bordered on the contradictions in the polity - census question, revenue sharing, January 1966 coup and July 1966 counter coup d’état, massive killing of Igbo in the North and the Western Region crisis of 1965.

The regions then were competitive and set the pace for competitive federalism in the country. The derivation fund was largely spent on massive social infrastructural development. The West Region, for example, built the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Cocoa House building, first radio and television station in Africa and implemented a phenomenal free education programme. The political elite in this republic were largely nationalist, welfarist

THE DEATH PENALTY LAW IS RECEDING

IN NATION-STATES, HAVING BEEN DELETED FROM THE STATUTE BOOKS OF SEVERAL COUNTRIES and passionate about people-based policies and programmes.

The perversions in the First Republic viz ethnic politics, political violence and cross carpeting were ‘over shadowed’ by the relative socio-economic growth in the regions.

The military dictatorship in Nigeria, especially the Ibrahim Babangida administration elevated corruption to a state policy.

That administration also pursued the policy of co-optation of opponents to deliberately contain opposition. That administration could not account for $12.4billion oil windfall that accrued to the country during the Gulf War. The succeeding Sani Abacha administration was highly repressive, authoritarian and corrupt. Administrations afterGeneral Abacha found secret accounts in foreign countries where the late maximum ruler and his family kept their loots. The successive civilian governments, especially the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, has not accounted for some of the retrieved looted funds. The political elite since 1999 till date have been largely self serving, pa-

Congratulating our own Wole Soyinka SOYOMBO OPEYEMI

P

rofessor Wole Soyinka has won the inaugural Awolowo Prize for Leadership. When I read the criteria that won him the award I knew it was a honour well deserved. For instance, under credibility, the candidate must be a person in whom people believe and repose trust. That triggered some recollections: You can leave your heart with Wole and travel to Hong Kong. When you come back, it would still be beating. Femi Johnson had confided that compliment “in his second wife, Folake, who passed it to mine, her name sake.” (See You Must Set Forth At Dawn, page 191) What about ‘selflessness’? The first Awo leadership laureate had returned from England “on the wheels of a Rockefeller Fellowship on New Year’s day, 1960, to research dramatic forms.” He could have ensconced himself at the University College, Ibadan or chosen the path of the establishment but for his public spiritedness.

The governor of Ogun State, Senator IbikunleAmosun therefore, hit the nail on the head when he put it on record that “the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature has spent his entire adult life leading the crusade for a just and united society founded on the sanctity of the rule of law and press freedom. Prof. Soyinka is an embodiment of integrity, credibility, discipline, courage, selflessness, accountability and tenacity of purpose. He has continued to use the arts as a tool of social re-engineering.”

PROF. SOYINKA IS AN EMBODIMENT OF

INTEGRITY, CREDIBILITY, DISCIPLINE, COURAGE, SELFLESSNESS,

ACCOUNTABILITY AND TENACITY OF PURPOSE Indeed, the playwright, through his revues and writings in the press has, since returning from Leeds in 1960, not only continued to tilt at any execrable conduct of any political leadership but harped on the imperative of a society founded on justice, equity and fairness.

I must confess, I sometimes feel for Prof.

Soyinka. He’s not growing younger. Even though I have proclaimed he will attain 100 years, even such a landmark is merely two decades away. A man that has devoted his entire life to the cause of the downtrodden deserves to see better days, some glimmer of hope in public affairs management.

Is it fortuitous that the writer-activist’s redoubt should be here in Abeokuta? Well, the gods are not asleep. Right here in Abeokuta, in the abode of the recipient of the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership, governance by billboards is giving way to concrete governance. I’m quite sure our revered Nobel Laureate must have passed through the international standard

Ibara-Totoro road, sighted the on-going flyover bridge, the state-of-the-art footbridge under construction and imagine what a modern city centre is in the offing in the state capital…

The poet will readily admit that his life was shaped at the Government College, Ibadan (GCI). Government College, of course, is a public school. We all know what has now become of public education in Nigeria, especially the fall of those citadels of learning all over the country.

“We are all products of public schools,” Senator Amosun often declared, “and we must do everything possible to restore the glory of public education in Nigeria. Although it is costly, we will close our eyes and provide functional free education to our children. Once they get it right at the primary and secondary levels, they will excel at the tertiary level.”

It is most likely Prof. Soyinka would have noticed our efforts in this direction. Here, I do not speak of a flash in the pan, but genuine and unwavering efforts of Governor Amosun to provide access to free functional education to the teeming children of the state, which includes free textbooks and writing materials, prompt payment of teachers’ salaries, rehabilitation of dilapidated school buildings, training and retraining of teachers and construction of world class model schools, among others. For an administration in the present day Nigeria to continue to devote over 20 per cent of its annual budget to education is certainly a sign of dogged commitment.

rochial and uninspiring.

This historical phase has been characterized by several scams; the ‘Ettegate’, ‘Bankole gate’ Salisu Buhari certificate scam, subsidy scam, et cetera. The cost of government has been increasing against the backdrop of massive poverty, unemployment, child mortality and morbidity rate, social infrastructure collapse, health and security deficits. The Presidency, governors and local government chairmen appoint large retinue of aides, indulge in frequent overseas travels and mismanage public resources.

For emphasis, the death penalty has not considered the nature of Nigerian state and character of its political elite.

The Nigerian state lacks autonomy and is vulnerable to the primitive accumulation politics of fractions of the political elite. There is a slim distinction between the political and economic class in Nigeria. The control of political power guarantees economic power to the political elite without necessarily owing or controlling the production process.

The challenges are to recreate the Nigerian state; reduce the perks of public office; alter the basis of political representation from majoritarian rule to proportional representation system; introduce part time legislation; appointive local government managers; and recognise independent candidacy, especially at the local level, to attract individuals with experience and competence into politics, and the evolution of a benevolent state to pursue human development.

Our efforts in revamping the comatose health sector, generating direct and indirect employment through collaboration with institutions like the Bank of Industry and multilateral agencies, revival of interest in agriculture, gradual elimination of bottlenecks in the interface of the public with government offices etc, could possibly not have escaped the notice of our world renowned scholar.

When the debt burden inherited by the administration is juxtaposed with the meagre monthly allocation from the federation account, it seems patent that the Senator Amosun administration is squeezing water out of the rock to be able to do all these things in less than two years in office. That’s a product of prudent public finance management and ingenuous way of raising the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile of the state.

Once more, I join other well-meaning Nigerians to congratulate the inimitable Soyinka for winning the distinguished Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership.

Soyombo, densityshow@yahoo.com, Special Assistant on Media to the Governor Amosun, wrote from Abeokuta Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mail@ nationalmirroronline.net mirrorlagos@ yahoo.com or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs.

Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.

18

Mail Mirror

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Lagos BRT management, wake up

O Re: Fresh Crisis Rocks Aviation Ministry ... Ex-staff petition Jonathan, David Mark, Obasanjo, others

T

he attention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has been drawn to a news story, with the above headline, published in the November 25, 2012 edition of the Sunday Mirror Newspaper and taken from a petition allegedly authored by a few of the staff affected by the recent staff rationalization in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria namely Messrs Gideon Solanke, Adeoye Adefarakan, Biodun Oyedepo, Samuel Komolafe and Kayode Bello.

It is curious that a petition allegedly written by retired public servants to the President and other top ranking government officials, asking for justice, could find its way into the media, even before the recipients received them. It will be recalled that this story was published in some national dailies last month under the same misleading headline.

“Fresh Crisis Rocks Aviation Ministry.”

The Authority is constrained to issue this release in order to expose some of the lies contained in the so-called petition and by so doing, hope that the public will see that the real motive for writing that petition was mischief, on the part of the petitioners.

For example, the petition states, according to the Sunday Mirror, that “the present General Manager, Audit, who is on (grade) level 17 only graduated about four years ago.” Nothing could be further from the truth! The General Manager, Audit, Mr. James Okoye graduated from the University of Nigeria with a BSc degree in Civil Engineering (2nd Class, Upper) in 1990 and obtained an MBA degree from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu in 2002. His working experience took him through top management positions in Citizens International Bank Ltd from 1997 to 2003 and Assurance Bank of Nigeria Ltd from 2003 to 2005. He later left for Unlimited Oil Service Company Ltd in 2006 as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and was there till his recent appointment.

Nnaekpe Onyekwere

ne mass-oriented programme the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration in Lagos State would be remembered for is the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). It was rolled out in March 2008 by his successor, Governor Babatunde Fashola with two operators – the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Cooperative’s driven blue buses and the Lagos State owned LAGBUS (red buses) and managed by Asset Management Company.

This strategic intervention in the transportation system of the state substantially broke the back bone of the shylock commuter drivers and thus crashed transport fares in the state.

However, as laudable as the programme appears to be, there are certain developments that are militating against its efficiency. The first is the inadequacy of buses.

Even at this, I find it curious that many buses litter the NURTW Cooperative headquarters

located between Ojota and Ketu. We also see grounded LAGBUS buses within this same vicinity. The question is why was there not a well oiled maintenance department in place before the take off of the scheme?

Flowing from above is the man hours wasted at the terminals by commuters. This is particularly the case in Ketu.

It is not uncommon to wait close to one hour, especially in the mornings, before you board a bus. The major culprit is

TRACES OF LIFE….Poverty and Hopelessness amid Luxury

Check insecurity now!

I

t is time our security agencies woke up from their slumber and to their responsibility to find solution to the problem of insecurity against the backdrop of the recent kidnapping of the

mother of the Minister of Finance, Prof (Mrs.) Okonjo in Delta State and the Boko Haram bombings in the North.

Nigeria’s security has become a laughing stock in the comity of nations and also it

To the people’s newspaper

T

o National Mirror, the media house that is truly the voice of the people of Nigeria. Your two years of existence has shown the way to others what the central objective of

a newspaper should be.

I wish you happy anniversary; may God add more grease to you elbow.

Ola Ago, Oko Abeokuta, Ogun State

Letters to the Edi-

the NURTW buses. The reason for this is that the buses would roll out from the major park, go and turn in Mile 12 before coming to Ketu. A more efficient way out of this must be found.

I appeal to Governor Fashola to call for the evaluation of the programme four years after it was unfolded. This could help to unravel the ills of the two government controlled BRT. Wahab Adediran, Mile 12, Lagos

PHOTO: BAYOOR EWUOSO

causes developmental setback as investors are scare off from the country. The Presidency should provide logistics as per insecurity, because Nigerians are

tired of condolence and sympathy messages to victims of insecurity.

Gordon Chika Nnorom Umukabia, Abia State.

Govs and excess crude account

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hy must the 36 governors be asking the Federal Government to release billions of dollars from the excess crude account to solve their pressing needs?

Why can’t they generate funds from the resources in their states?

All the states have resources to boost their

financial status. Our governors are just lazy leaders since they cannot generate money internally to settle problems rather than depending on monthly federal allocation.

Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

Yakowa, Azazi died for nothing

T

he Bayelsa helicopter crash last Saturday that consumed Patrick Yakowa, governor of Kaduna State, the former National Security Adviser to Mr. President, General Andrew Azazi and four others is though a very big blow to the nation, it should serve a very big for men in power.

Oronto Douglas was burying his father in the remote part of Bayelsa State. Is it such a big deal that all the big players in corporate Nigeria and the political domain should fall over themselves to attend? Douglas is just an aide to President Goodlucjk Jonathan, why can’t political minions represent the governors and ministers that had to attend.

The calibre of people that attended the burial rites necessitated the deployment of military aircraft to meet their transport needs. Why would one helicopter do 14 or 15 shuttles before the last ill-fated one? Even machines should rest. It was arrant demonstration of impunity to deploy public resources to service private needs. I support the position of the Senate on restriction on the use of public aircraft.

However, Nigerians do not need platitudes, they want action. How we can prevent the expropriation of public resources by public servants for their own private needs is what should engage our federal lawmakers.

If this is not done, we should forget about saving Nigeria from political vampires.

Ahmed Musa, Abuja

Yakowa

Send your letters or mails to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mirrorlagos@yahoo.com and info@nationalmirroronline.net or 08056180209, 07033375481 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject letters or photographs. Psuedonyms may be used, but must be clearly marked as such.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

19

Health & Wellbeing Minister restates commitment to healthrelated MDGs

Major food-borne diseases to watch at Christmas

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Check your blood pressure this season ... your heart needs it!

L ATEEFAH IBRAHIM-ANIMASHAUN

Y

ou’ve made a list about the Christmas party and the New Year feast for your family and even checked it twice. Perhaps you should check again. Which item on your menu list is specially packaged to strengthen your heart? Are the seasonal festivities likely to add to your stress?

Unknown to most people, festivities like Christmas and holidays could be chronic stressors which could aggravate heart conditions. This makes the period most appropriate for a blood pressure check, according to Prof Richard Stein, a renown American Cardiologist and a representative of the American Heart foundation.

According to Stein, most families drop their nutrition guard during festivities, going for high-fat foods, and too many sugary or salty treats which, he said, could be a concern for those with high blood pressure or hypertension. Not only that, it is also a period when people with depression feel even more depressed.

“People who are subject to depression are more likely to have depressive episodes during the holidays and that can definitely cause heart-healthy patterns to get worse.”

Stein has a recommendation: the festivities and holidays should not be reserved for food, pleasure and the stress of organising merrymaking events alone. It should be a time to pay some attention to your heart.

“Start with the basis BP check, for instance,” he recommends. “The only way to stay active and reasonably healthy in the hustle and bustle of the season is by integrating healthy behaviours into your daily activities.”

Incase you’re the party host, “challenge yourself to make your menu as delicious and intriguing and heart-

A BP check this Christmas holiday could save life

healthy as you can imagine,” Stein said. Your guests will probably thank you!

“You’ll do better not to plan to do everything — overhaul your diet, exercise 30 minutes a day, make an appointment to get your blood pressure checked — because the likelihood of succeeding is almost zero,” Stein said.

When the invitations pile up, “if you can’t say no, it is cardiovascular,

cognitively and socially not fun during the holidays,” he said. “Hold your own schedule and don’t overbook yourself.”

A Consultant Neurosurgeon and Stroke specialist, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo agrees with Prof. Stein. According to him, about 40 per cent of Nigerians are living with factors that could predispose them to developing stroke and such factors include obesity, alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exer-

cise, poor diet rich in salt and fat, high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels which are predominant activities during this season.

Ogungbo said, “The incidence of hypertension is high in Nigeria. Almost half of the patients I see for the first time in clinic for other problems such as back pain have high blood pressure”.

“Hypertension is common in black people. We do not know why. It is therefore common in Nigerian and some statistics say over 40 per cent of adults in the country have hypertension”.

“Unfortunately, for some reasons, younger people in Nigeria are becoming hypertensive and suffering the consequences and also increasing the incidence of stroke and heart failure in people in their productive years.”

“We have some evidence that over 60 per cent of patients with stroke die within three months. That is significant and makes stroke almost a certain death sentence in Nigeria.” he stated.

Ogungbo noted that there was need for urgent awareness among Nigerians considering the fact that stroke is a preventable disease if hypertension and diabetes are detected early.

He said, “Anyone with a pressure consistently above normal has high blood pressure. The cut off is pressure above 140/90 mmHg. It does not give any warning and usually no one knows if their pressure is high or not until they do a test. By the time you have definite symptoms such as headaches, organs such as the heart, brain and kidneys may have been damaged.”

He said, “The real prevention must start from childhood. We need to encourage healthy living.

“Fat forms layers in the blood vessels and causes them to become narrow. This increases the work of the heart in pumping blood through the vessels leading to high blood pressure.

“Eat plenty fruits and vegetables.

Do not smoke, avoid alcohol and lose weight. That 20 minutes walk or exercise daily may just save your life.”

Here’s wishing you a merry Christmas and a heart healthy new year.

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Health & Wellbeing

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Cholera

C

holera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) there are an estimated 3–5 million cholera cases and 100 000–120 000 deaths due to cholera every year.

Cholera is an extremely virulent disease. It affects both children and adults and can kill within hours. About 75% of people infected with V. cholerae do not develop any symptoms, although the bacteria are present in their faeces for 7–14 days after infection and are shed back into the environment, potentially infecting other people.

Among people who develop symptoms, 80% have mild or moderate symptoms, while around 20% develop acute watery diarrhoea with severe dehydration. This can lead to death if untreated.

Treatment Cholera is an easily treatable disease. Up to 80% of people can be treated successfully through prompt administration of oral rehydration salts (ORS). Very severely dehydrated patients require administration of intravenous fluids. Such patients also require appropriate antibiotics to diminish the duration of diarrhoea, reduce the volume of rehydration fluids needed, and shorten the duration of V. cholerae excretion. According to WHO, mass administration of antibiotics is not recommended, as it has no effect on the spread of cholera and contributes to increasing antimicrobial resistance.

Salmonella Salmonellosis is an infection with bacteria called Salmonella. Salmonella germs have been known to cause illness for over 100 years. They were discovered by an American scientist named Salmon, for whom they are named.

Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhoea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most persons recover without treatment. However, in some persons, the diarrhoea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. In these patients, the Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other body sites and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.

Children are the most likely to get salmonellosis. The rate of diagnosed infections in children less than five years old is higher than the rate in all other persons.

Young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised are the most likely to have severe infections.

Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium that is commonly found in the gut of humans and warm-blooded animals. Most strains of E. coli are harmless. Some strains however, such as enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can cause severe foodborne disease. It is transmitted to humans primarily through consumption of contaminated foods, such as raw or undercooked

Major food-borne diseases to watch at Christmas patients with EHEC disease and may possibly increase the risk of subsequent HUS.

Prevention

Basic good hygiene practice can prevent transmission of water-borne diseases

ground meat products, raw milk and contaminated raw vegetables and sprouts.

Symptoms of the diseases caused by EHEC include abdominal cramps and diarrhoea that may in some cases progress to bloody diarrhoea (haemorrhagic colitis).

Fever and vomiting may also occur. The incubation period can range from three to eight days, with a median of three to four days. Most patients recover within 10 days, but in a small proportion of patients (particularly young children and the elderly), the infection may lead to a life-threatening disease, such as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). HUS is characterized by

acute renal failure, haemolytic anaemia and thrombocytopenia. It is estimated that up to 10% of patients with EHEC infection may develop HUS, with a case-fatality rate ranging from 3 to 5%. Overall, HUS is the most common cause of acute renal failure in young children. It can cause neurological complications (such as seizure, stroke and coma) in 25% of HUS patients and chronic renal sequelae, usually mild, in around 50% of survivors.

Persons who experience bloody diarrhoea or severe abdominal cramps should seek medical care. According to WHO, antibiotics are not part of the treatment of

Preventive measures for E. coli infection at the household level are similar to those recommended for other foodborne diseases. Basic good food hygiene practice, can prevent the transmission of pathogens responsible for many foodborne diseases and also protect against foodborne diseases caused by EHEC. Such recommendations should in all cases be implemented, especially “Cook thoroughly” so that the centre of the food reaches at least 70°C. Make sure to wash fruits and vegetables carefully, especially if they are eaten raw.

If possible, vegetables and fruits should be peeled. Vulnerable populations (e.g. small children, the elderly) should avoid the consumption of raw or undercooked meat products, raw milk and products made from raw milk.

Regular hand washing, particularly before food preparation or consumption and after toilet contact, is highly recommended, especially for people who take care of small children, the elderly or immunocompromised individuals, as the bacterium can be passed from person-to-person, as well as through food, water and direct contact with animals.

A number of EHEC infections have been caused by contact with recreational water. Therefore, it is also important to protect such water areas, as well as drinkingwater sources, from animal waste.

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Health & Wellbeing

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

21

First aid for wounds, others F

or serious cuts and wounds:

If a piece of glass or other object is sticking in the wound, do not remove it. It may be preventing further bleeding, and removing it could make the injury worse.

If the child is bleeding heavily, raise the injured area above the level of the chest and press firmly against the wound (or near it if something is stuck in it) with a pad made of folded clean cloth. Maintain pressure until the bleeding stops.

Do not put any plant or animal matter on the wound, as this could cause infection.

Put a clean sterile bandage on the wound. Allow for swelling by not tying the bandage too tightly.

Seek medical help immediately.

Ask a trained health worker if the child should have a tetanus injection.

For choking: If an infant or child is coughing, let him or her try to cough up the object. If the object does not release quickly, try to remove the object from the child’s mouth.

If the object is still lodged in the child’s throat: For infants or young children: Support the head and neck.

Turn the baby or young child face down with the head lower than the feet.

Deliver five careful blows to the back between the shoulder blades.

Turn the baby face up and press firmly on the breastbone between the nipples five times. Repeat (face down and face up) until the object is dislodged.

If you cannot dislodge the object, take the child to the nearest health worker immediately.

For larger children: Stand behind the child with your arms around the child’s waist.

Form a clenched fist with your thumb against the child’s body, above the navel and below the rib cage.

Put the other hand over the fist and give a sharp inward and upward thrust into the child’s abdomen. Repeat until the object is dislodged.

If you cannot dislodge the object, take the child to the nearest health worker immediately.

For breathing problems or drowning: If there is any possibility of injury to the head or neck, do not move the child’s head. Follow the breathing directions below without moving the head.

If the child is having difficulty breathing or is not breathing, lay the child flat on the back and tilt her or his head back slightly. Pinch the child’s nostrils closed and blow (breathe) into the mouth, keeping all the mouth covered. Blow gently but hard enough to make the child’s chest rise.

Then, count to three and blow again. Continue until the child begins breathing.

If the child is breathing but unconscious, roll the child onto his or her side so the tongue does not block breathing.

If a person who cannot swim sees a child drowning in deep water, the person

Researchers develop test to identify ‘best’ sperm

R

esearchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered a method to select sperm with the highest DNA integrity in a bid to improve male fertility. The method is comparable to that of the egg’s natural selection abilities, according to the study published in the June/July issue of the Journal of Andrology.

“Our results could help address the fact that approximately 40 percent of infertility cases can be traced to male infertility,” said the senior author of the study, Gabor Huszar, M.D., director of the Sperm Physiology Lab and senior research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale.

Huszar said that past semen analysis focused on sperm concentration and motility. It was assumed that if a man had a high sperm count and active sperm, that he was fertile. But there was no information on the sperm’s fertility or its ability to attach to its mark, the female gamete. In an ideal case, the egg naturally selects the optimal sperm, but during in-vitro fertilization treatment of men who had only a few sperm, clinicians did not know whether they were injecting the correct sperm into the egg for fertilization. “We have now found a biochemical marker of sperm fertility so that we can select sperm with high genetic integrity,” Huszar said.

should immediately throw a rope, floating device or tree branch to the child and shout loudly so that others can come to help rescue the child.

For poisoning If a child has swallowed poison, do not try to make the child vomit. This may make the child more ill.

If poison is on the child’s skin or clothes, remove the clothing and pour large amounts of water over the skin. Wash the skin thoroughly several times with soap.

If a child gets poison in his or her eyes, splash clean water in the eyes for at least 10 minutes.

Take the child immediately to a health centre or hospital if any of these situations occur. If possible, bring a sample of the poison or medicine or its container with you.

Keep the child as still and quiet as possible.

SCIENCE

Huszar and his colleagues tested the idea that binding sperm to hyaluronic acid selects sperm with high DNA integrity. They studied semen samples from 50 men, and a part of the sperm in the semen was allowed to bind to hyaluronic acid. These sperm were isolated, and the DNA chain integrity was compared to the original sperm in semen. The team used a reagent that stained sperm with high DNA integrity green, whereas sperm with fragmented DNA, and diminished DNA integrity were stained red.

“The sperm with fragmented DNA work like scratched CDs,” Huszar said. “They seem to be operational, but when you play them, some of the information is missing.

R

If a child is bitten by a venomous or rabid animal, it is important to see a healthcare provider immediately for treatment.

Emergencies: Preparedness and response Emergencies such as conflicts, disasters or epidemics, expose families to risks that make them especially vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and violence. With the right information and support, families and communities can establish measures that map out what to do in an emergency.

Girls, boys and women typically are the most affected by emergencies. An estimated 26 million people were displaced by armed conflicts and violence in 2007. Each year, up to 50 million people are displaced due to disasters. Climate change could increase these numbers.

Resistance to cocaine addiction may be passed down from father to son

esearch from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reveals that sons of male rats exposed to cocaine are resistant to the rewarding effects of the drug, suggesting that cocaine-induced changes in physiology are passed down from father to son.

The findings are published in the latest edition of Nature Neuroscience.

“We know that genetic factors contribute significantly to the risk of cocaine abuse, but the potential role of epigenetic influences -- how the expression of certain genes related to addiction is controlled -- is still relatively unknown,” said senior author R. Christopher Pierce, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry at Penn. “This study is the first to show that the chemical effects of cocaine use can be passed down to future generations to cause a resistance to addictive behavior, indicating that paternal exposure to toxins such as cocaine can have profound effects on gene expression and behavior in their offspring.”

In the current study, the team used an animal model to study inherited effects of cocaine abuse. Male rats self-administered cocaine for 60 days, while controls

were administered saline. The male rats were mated with females that had never been exposed to the drug. To eliminate any influence that the males’ behavior would have on the pregnant females, they were separated directly after they mated.

The rats’ offspring were monitored to see whether they would begin to selfadminister cocaine when it was offered to them. The researchers discovered that male offspring of rats exposed to the drug, but not the female offspring, acquired cocaine self-administration more slowly and had decreased levels of cocaine intake relative to controls.

Moreover, control animals were willing to work significantly harder for a single cocaine dose than the offspring of cocaine-addicted rats, suggesting that the rewarding effect of cocaine was decreased.

In collaboration with Ghazaleh Sadri-Vakili, MS, PhD, from MGH, the researchers subsequently examined the animals’ brains and found that male offspring of the cocaine-addicted rats had increased levels of a protein in the prefrontal cortex called brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is known to blunt the behavioral effects of cocaine.

22

Health & Wellbeing

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Minister restates commitment to health-related MDGs MARCUS FATUNMOLE ABUJA

W

ith about six per cent of 2013 Appropriation Bill, recently passed by the National Assembly, committed to the health sector, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu has promised to further advance the realization drive of healthrelated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and improve general health service delivery for Nigerians in the coming year.

The Minister made this known to National Mirror,

while speaking on Federal Government’s aspirations on the MDGs for the incoming year in an interview recently.

He said “the Federal Government does not relent in its efforts towards achieving the MDGs. We are making progress every day. There are set parameters for every country on the MDGs. We will continue to work hard to see how far we can go. The MDGs are global targets. Nigeria is not doing badly and we are stepping up efforts everyday to see that we are better positioned as we work to-

wards the MDGs’ targets.”

Health related MDGs include reduction of child mortality, improving maternal health and combating HIV, AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

“Every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 underfive year olds and 145 women of childbearing age.

This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world, said United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

“Although analyses of recent trends show that the country is making progress

in cutting down infant and under-five mortality rates, the pace still remains too slow to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by a third by 2015”, the agency noted.

Meanwhile, national HIV/AIDS prevalence is currently put to 4.1 zero against the over five per cent few years ago.

Director General, Prof. John Idoko National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) Prof. promised increased awareness in the fight against the scourge in the com-

ing year towards the attainment of global zero tolerance for HIV/AIDSrelated death’s drive.

He made this known to National Mirror at the weekend during an end of the year briefing of the agency’s activities in Abuja. He also called for more response on the provision of anti-retroviral drugs which are required for about two-third of persons living with the disease in Nigeria. About 300,000 new infections are recorded in Nigeria annually. While 1,500,000 people require anti-retro-

Lagos trains 60 on quality assurance in health facilities MURITALA AYINLA

T

he Lagos State Government has said that it had trained no fewer than 60 of its health facility managers on how to develop quality assurance systems as well as improve the quality of service delivery in all health facilities in the state.

The trained officers included medical directors, medical officers of health, doctors and other heads of hospital units.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris who disclosed this at the workshop, said the exercise was in line with government’s commitment to move from the era treatment of patients to the era of care for the patients, adding that the training would elicit positive results of the government’s hugely resources at improving the state’s health indices.

He said: “We have spent hugely and made a lot of investments in the health sector and there is a need to start getting the results.

We believe that all the investments that have been put in the health sector in terms of infrastructure, human resources, the changes we are trying to effect and the issue of health sector reforms should reflect on our health indices.

What will be the outcome of these investments on the lives of patients, and that is relating to the performance of the system

itself, our health workers, and performance of our health facilities?”

Idris stated that if health indices are not improved upon, then the investment would amounts to nothing in respective of the levels of policies and strategies that could be introduced to improve the health sector.

“We want to improve our performance and that is the essence of this workshop and training.

Improving performance in the health sector is a big issue, it is a big topic, it is something that is not really focused on in this country but here in Lagos, we want to benchmark our performance with what is happening in other countries so that we can now match our outcomes, measure them and relate them to other outcomes in other climes”, he added.

He noted that the workshop is part of the strategy being employed by the government to address the lingering issue of the care of patients which bothers on empathy stressing that the whole idea is patients focus and patients centered to ensure that patients who report at the health facilities are satisfied with services rendered.

Idris added that the care of patients goes beyond treating of diseases stressing that a patient can go to the hospital to treat a disease and still come out of the hospital not satisfied, this he noted means the patient has not gotten care.

viral drugs for survival, the drugs available in the country can only cater for 500,000 HIV patients.

Meanwhile, Nigeria remains the world’s most burdened nation with malaria; contributing about a quarter of global burden.

Noting the enormous challenges the disease poses on the lives of the citizens, Prof Chukwu listed the disease as one of the areas of focus for the new World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representatives to Nigeria, Dr Rui Gama Vaz, who paid him a visit in his office recently.

Doctors should be more involved in politics –Osibanjo L ATEEFAH IBRAHIMANIMASHAUN

A

L-R: Rotn Linus Adaba, District Governor Kamoru Omotosho presenting a unit set of Incubator and treated mosquito nets to the Medical Director, Ifako Ijaiye General Hospital, Dr. Mrs. Sodeinde during the first phase donation of Incubator towards reduction of Infant mortality in the hospital.

Health writers urged to build health sector L ATEEFAH IBRAHIMANIMASHAUN

H

ealth reporters have been called upon to help rescue the country from its current health challenges through responsible journalism by calling the government, health organizations and companies to order whenever the need arises.

The President of the Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN), Mr Azoma Chikwe made this call during the 3rd HEWAN symposium held at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) last Saturday.

Mr. Chikwe described health writers as the last hope for the revival of the health sector in the country and urged them to always disseminate useful information concerning health so as to improve the well being of the people of the country.

He cited an example of a prominent Nigerian product whose content as sold in the country is different from the one sold in the US. “The one sold for Nigerians can expose us to diabetes and also includes caffeine which is harmful to the body while the one sold for them in America has been refined to help sustain good health”.

Meanwhile, the Chairman Board of Trustees of HEWAN, Dr, Emmanuel Enabulele told health writers to give accurate unbiased reporting which he said would draw attention of the organisations or the government bodies that are not performing up to expectation and will spur them to improve.

“When you report issues the way they ought to be reported, affected organisations will sit-up and this will pay them in the long run as they themselves will even get more profit after improving”.

He advised them to have good sense of commitment and purpose in reporting.

former Attorney General of Lagos State, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo has advised medical professionals to be involved in active politics so as to help deliver the poor majority from the burden of poverty.

He told them to stop focusing on their problems as a group but to join hands with other professional bodies so as to be collectively responsible for driving development in the country.

Osibanjo, said this at the Annual Scientific Conference of the Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) chapter entitled:’ Medical Profession: our pride, our heritage’..

He described medical professionals as agents of transformation in the country and urged them to use their privilege of education to shape up the country and put a stop to corruption.

“It is beyond argument that anyone who has gone through medical training belongs to what can be described as the elite class”, he said.

“It is the elite class in any developed society that influence its transformation. The medical profession has been good as a recruiting ground for political leadership in the past.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

23

Arts Lounge

Sefi Atta launches new novel

‘Lasekan deserves national honour’.

26

25 SPECIAL REPORT NGOZI EMEDOLIBE

G

oing by the dictionary’s definition of a library as ‘a collection of books and other forms of records housed, organised and interpreted to meet broad and varying needs of the people such as information, knowledge, recreation and aesthetic-values’, it becomes regrettable to describe the structures scattered in the country as libraries.

Over the years, while a library is supposed to be set up essentially to serve a social role, facts on the ground point to obsolete facilities in most of the public libraries run by the government in Nigeria.

While library services, which have existed for nearly 70 years, judging from the time the first public library was established in Nigeria is supposed to have grown to near-perfection like in other climes, statistics available show that it has been a tale of outright neglect from all geo-political zones of the country.

Like most legacies left by the colonial masters, libraries have undergone profound stagnation. Presently, libraries scattered all over the country are being controlled mainly by the Federal Government, State Governments and some tertiary institutions. But the libraries being controlled by the FG, which are directly under the Federal Ministry of Education, are yet to brace up to the ideals of what a standard library ought to be.

The National Library, situated on Herbert Macaulay Road in Yaba, Lagos is the biggest library complex with a federal presence in Lagos. From the location, right at the middle of Yaba metropolis, it is obvious that city life with its attendant noise, usually of buses plying the major road that is just a few meters away from the compound, has caught up with the complex. However, that is not as disappointing as the facilities in this library. It is a complex with three major reading halls. The main library which is located on the far right of the compound houses resource materials that are made available to users.

Owing to the fact that it is the power house of the complex, it is usually more difficult to get into the complex. Always, it requires proper identification as well as documentation, before one can get in.

The ground floor of this complex, houses the cataloguing section which is still largely a ‘manual and laborious affair’ in this age. It is also the section that has bound newspapers available for readers. Newspapers here are one of the resource materials in this library that appear up to date from my investi-

Nigerian libraries: Archaic system of scholarship Are libraries still revered centres where records are easily shared amongst people? Most unlikely; with dilapidation, lack of funding and dearth of qualified personnel, taking their tolls on the facilities over the years. What is left are reading rooms which reek of despondency.

Exterior of the National Library of Nigeria, Yaba, Lagos.

gations. Papers that are, however, available at this library are still the major national publications. Chances of laying one’s hands on publications from other remote corners of the country are overtly slim. Many of the users of the ground floor are people working on research to do with news documentation. Investigation on the day I visited revealed that a greater portion of these researchers were lawyers.

On the upper floor is located another reading floor with books. But books on the shelves here are mostly outdated and consist mainly of books donated by foreign donor agencies. While on a visit to this library, I deliberately asked for Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope, modern and contemporary books written by the American President, Barack Obama, which ordinarily should grace every library shelf that is worth its salt. It was surprising that their stock did not include these two bestselling books.

In fact, most of the books available at the National Library in Yaba, are books on foreign ideologies, which are usually shipped out from those countries on donation when newer editions of the

READING INSIDE THE

NATIONAL

LIBRARY IS A

HELLISH EXPERIENCE BECAUSE THE AIR CONDITIONERS ARE NOT WORKING OPTIMALLY books are re-issued. Aside this, another startling discovery is that 80% of the books stocked in this library are essentially for academics, especially literature, leaving pleasure-seeking readers very little options.

The collection of books in Yaba may paint a gloomy picture but not as much as the structural facilities. With the worsening electricity situation in the country, reading inside the National Library is a hellish experience because the air conditioners are not working optimally. A regular reader who spoke with me at the library confirmed that

even though the reading room upstairs remains the most comfortable reading area in the library complex, it could be worse on days when there is no electricity. According to him, readers would not only contend with the humid and hot room but also visibility challenges as well. “Without the lights on, you would need to sit close to the windows to be able to make use of the library. You must locate a space near the window to read”.

Under such situations, concentration which reading requires would be highly hampered.

There is yet another section of the library which serves as a reading hall with unlimited access to users, located by the entrance of the compound. It has desks and chairs and used mainly by students preparing for ordinary level examinations.

In terms of comfort, this hall lacks it –no fans and sometimes no shade when the sunlight is receding, allowing the sun to cast its shades on readers, stealing the little concentration these young students need to prepare for their West African ExaminaCONTINUED ON PAGE 24

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Special Report CONTINUED FROM 23

tions School Certificate Examinations, WASCE, or University Matriculation Examinations, UME, as the case may be.

A reader captured it thus: “Which kind of National Library is at Yaba Lagos? That is the worst library I have ever been to in my life. A library where users are not allowed access inside but only read outside (under a shade). My reading table is better than that library.

When you even manage to go in there all you see are newspapers of Zik and Awolowo. Call it national archive instead”.

The story of the library at Enugu is similar. According to an Enugu resident, the structures are not befitting of a library complex. “When was the last time you drove past there? Last time I passed by, the whole building was soaked in heavy brown dust! And I can bet the latest book there will likely be those published in the 60s. The government doesn’t understand that well stocked and developed libraries can keep youths engaged in creative thinking and free from criminal activities. I think in no distant time, private libraries will spring up to make up for the poor state of libraries”.

In Abia State, the government still maintains the library at Umuahia, even though nothing has been done to improve it in terms of facilities.However, the library at Aba located on Port Harcourt Road has been taken over by a Pentecostal Church. Inquiries I made revealed that the library has since been operating on rented space. What serious government concerned about the knowledge of her people would situate a library on rented space?

Another startling discovery is the lack of ICT application in library services in Nigeria. At the National Library located on Herbert Macaulay Road, Yaba, Lagos there is complete dependence on manual efforts for such tasking duties as cataloguing and information retrieval. Available computers are mainly deployed for administrative duties.

In the south eastern part of the country, the story is similar, according to a research work carried out by Jacintha Eze earlier in the year on the level of ICT cataloguing in the five south eastern states. The survey, which sampled the inputs of senior librarians in the states library boards, showed that about 85% of the collection made in the libraries come in the form of books, which are usually gifs from foreign donors, which is quite similar to the discovery at the library in Lagos. Aside this, computers which are available at the headquarters of the library boards in the various states capitals are for administrative works rather than real library cataloguing.

As a way forward out of this doldrums, Eze recommended good funding for the library services in Nigeria.

According to her, “Without positive change in the funding of public libraries – accommodating these libraries in government budgets and implementing such, the dream will not be actualised. Acquiring current reading materials in different formats – prints

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Archaic system of scholarship

Inside the National Library in Ilorin, Kwara State

(books, journals) and non-books – CDROM; accessing on-line catalogues like OPAC; creating internal union catalogues all revolve around adequate funding”.

Although libraries owned by tertiary institutions seem to be more effective in terms of service delivery more than the conventional Federal-owned libraries located across the county, indications also show that funding is hampering their efficiency. While libraries are expected to run on at least 5% of the total allocation made available to these schools, through their coordinating commission, which is the National Universities Commission, NUC, a study undertaken by Segun Fowowe, a librarian at the University of Ilorin, shows otherwise.

In reality, of the total recurrent budget allocated to university libraries, only four libraries (40%) indicated that they actually received up to this percentage of their university’s budget. Five libraries (50%) indicated that they do not usually receive up to the recommended 5% percent, while one library (10%) stated that while they sometimes receive up to the five percent, they at times receive less.

The reasons given by respondents on why universities fail to honour the five percent recommended level of funding to libraries range from uncooperative attitude of university authorities to the importance of library, while some respondents said it is due to other pressing needs in the university.

Suggesting a way around this imbalance, Fowowe, thinks academic libraries should look in the direction of wealthy Nigerians for funding just like in the developed countries.

“Endowments and Foundations as a way of attracting more funds specifically into university libraries must be given a trial. Unfortunately, so far, wealthy Nigerians prefer to spend

LIBRARIES SHOULD LOOK IN THE DIRECTION OF WEALTHY

NIGERIANS

FOR FUNDING LIKE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES money on wasteful donations. The time has come when these wealthy Nigerians should be educated by librarians to establish foundations or to donate huge sums of money as endowment specifically for the development of libraries. Indeed, endowments and foundations as a supplementary source of funding for universities are now common in the developed countries”.

If given a shot in Nigeria, this could actually yield dividends by naming some of these public libraries after money bags.

While the libraries remain in a deplorable state, one would not lose sight of the fact that the Internet search engines have done a lot in reducing the dependence on public libraries. The advent of Google has almost wiped off the idea of going to the library to conduct a research. A final year student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Amaka Okafor, told me that 90% of her fellow classmates prefer to use Google to get materials for their degree projects rather than libraries.

“It is faster; it comes in a digital form. All you need to do is to type in the key words and it brings up the materials you can choose from. Most of the students rely on that rather than going to libraries, especially for projects”, she confessed.

This attitude makes the library not only endangered but also creates the need to digitalise some of our local facts so they can be accessed online. Failure to do this would mean total alienation of facts and perhaps history as they would not be accessible.

BRIEF HISTORY OF LIBRARIES IN NIGERIA

C

onstruction of the first library began in 1962 but it was finally opened in November 1964. The headquarters was moved from Lagos to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory in 1995.

The Library Act enacted by the House of Representatives of Nigeria guaranteed financial assistance to the project, the act also provided provisions for the training of staff and the creation of a board of directors made up of professionals.

In concord with the demands of the Nigerian Republic and the Assembly, a group of 15 trained librarians were hired to provide a positive role in developing and manning the

library.

A board, made up of government officials instead of professionals as written in the original act, was inaugurated in April 1966 by a new military government. The board tried to improve on the original objectives of the library, but the Nigerian civil war hampered funding and formal government actions were not taken until 1970.

In 1970, a new legal precedent was set with the creation of the National Library decree, the decree was partly enacted on the advice of the board which wanted to expand the library to other state capitals in order to create a network of repositories of knowledge.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Arts Lounge

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

25

MIDWEEK JUMP

Mavado rocks Lagos today

D

ancehall Superstar Mavado, signed to DJ Khaled and Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records will light up Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, Lagos, with Akon’s World Famous DJ, Benny D, alongside 40 other African performers and DJs today, Boxing Day. The all-night rave and concert themed Sound Clash Festival will take place in a secured open air venue with a 3000-man capacity, high tech light designs and a variety of side shows.

One of the organisers of the event, Mr. Solomon Sonaiya, explains further; “Sound Clash is about quality entertainment. We are creating an en-

Atta

Sefi Atta launches new novel TERH AGBEDEH

S

efi Atta will launch the Nigerian edition of her latest novel, A Bit of Difference at the Glendora Bookshop, Ikeja City Mall, Lagos on Saturday, December 29.

It is Atta’s third novel and has been hailed as “an immensely absorbing book”, by Chika Unigwe, winner of the Nigerian Prize for Literature 2012.

The novel tells the story of 39-yearold Deola Bello, a Nigerian expatriate in London who is dissatisfied with being single and working overseas where she works as a financial reviewer for an international charity.

When her job brings her back to Nigeria in time for her father’s five-year memorial service, she finds herself turning her scrutiny inward. In Nigeria, Deola encounters changes in her family and in the urban landscape of her home and new acquaintances who offer unexpected possibilities. Deola’s journey is as much about evading others’ expectations to get to the heart of her frustration as it is about exposing the differences between foreign images of Africa and the realities of contemporary Nigerian life.

Sefi Atta is the author of the critically acclaimed and award winning Everything Good Will Come, News from Home and Swallow. She has been awarded the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa (2006) and NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa (2009).

Her plays have also been performed internationally on stage and radio.

vironment of pure unadulterated excitement that people can look forward to every year on Boxing Day”.

The event promises to celebrate the season in style with over 30 performers on stage, seven DJ’s spinning the latest Dancehall, Hip-Hop, R’n’B and House music, wet T-shirt contest, a dance clash, food vendors, bazaar, assorted bars and loads of surprise features.

VAN screens films4peace in Lagos

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he PUMA.Peace films4peace screening event organised by Video Art Network, VAN, Lagos, in conjunction with Uzora Projects and The Life House, will take place at The Amphitheatre, Freedom Park, Lagos, on Friday.

Curated by Mark Coetzee, it is an annual film commission by PUMA. Peace featuring 21 of today’s most innovative artists visually interpreting the subject of peace.

Films to be featured are from the following: Janet Biggs (USA); Ergin Cavusoglu (Bulgaria); Magali Charrier (France); Gregory Crewdson and Costanza Theodoli-Braschi (USA and UK respectively). Others are Yang Fudong (China); Tom Gran and Kayleigh Gibbons (UK); Max Hattler (Germany); Isaac Julien (UK); Peterson Kamwathi (Kenya); Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy (Ireland); Nandipha Mntambo (Swaziland); Michael Nyman (UK); Noriko Okaku (Japan); Jacco Olivier (Netherlands); Bill Porter (UK); Levi van Veluw (Netherlands); Hank Willis Thomas and Terence Nance (USA).

VAN Lagos, requests that guests should come with one item that symbolises peace to them to the screening.

Jazzy Boxing Day with Inspiro

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oday, the NAIJAZZ train moves again to Eldorado Ikoyi-Lagos as the very best Nigerian Jazz artistes end 2012 with a special jam session. Powered by Inspiro Productions and supported by Eldorado performing artistes include: Pianist Dapo Dina; Guitarist Ayodel; Bassist Bright Gain, Trumpeter Victor Ademofe; Highlife singer Daniel Bankole; Jazz Standards Proponent Adesuwa, Saxologist Dotun Bankole, Bassist Ola Timothy and Percussionist Iroko Samson.

Dapo Dina

LET’S

T AL K FAD with

Fidelis Duker

fidelisduker@yahoo.com

What a nation...

R

ecently, Nigeria was thrown into sadness as some lives were again lost in another tragic but avoidable aviation tragedy during the final burial rite for the late father of presidential aide, Oronto Douglas, in Okoroba community of Bayelsa state.

It will not be out of place to review the number of private jets and helicopters owned by prominent Nigerians, even though the helicopter crash involving the late governor of Kaduna State Sir Patrick Yakowa; former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi and others was a military aircraft. The fact still remains that there was a crash and lives of promising and eminent Nigerians were lost.

There have been arguments and counter arguments on how a naval helicopter became civilian property used as transit flight to ferry guests to a private event. Some other reports and speculations have said that this chopper was on its 10th trip that day when it developed a fault.

However, as we complain about this unfortunate incident we must ask ourselves some pertinent questions because this is the second helicopter crash this year– the first one claimed the lives of former Deputy Inspector General John Haruna and others in Jos; till date, no report on the cause of crash has been made public.

There are several questions that need answers like when did a naval helicopter become a shuttle carrier for civilians and who authorised the use of the said chopper at the funeral event?

Some reports have said the particular chopper had gone on nine trips dropping guest including some Nollywood practitioners who have demeaned the profession by hobnobbing with politicians for their selfish intentions of getting monetary largesse for attending such high profile events of politicians.

Before I digress from the issue of the number of trips and the allegations that the chopper had faults, which could be a reason for crash. If a chopper has gone on nine trips in one day, then there is a need for routine checks and basic servicing which I don’t think took place from eye witness accounts.

It is instructive to state that majority of the crashes happening in Nigeria can be attributed to human errors where the “management” mentality of Nigerians play a prominent role. It is only in Nigeria that the culture of impunity and disregard for procedures pervades and runs supreme. Some accounts have said that the pilot of the chopper had complained about the safety of the helicopter but he was pressured to “manage” and make his last trip for the day, which unfortunately became his last trip on earth. Sadly

KIDNAPPING IS A BUSINESS AS KIDNAPPERS HAVE COME TO TERMS WITH THE FACT THAT IT IS AN EASY WAY OF MAKING MONEY.

though, he cannot defend himself.

It is, therefore, sad that this is coming on the heels of the recent plane crash involving the Governor of Taraba, Alhaji Danbaba Suntai and his aides when he also decided to fly after warnings. When we review all this crashes, there is a reoccurring decimal, which I will refer to as negligence and nonchalance and this will continue tuntil we change our approach to issues as a nation.

This takes me to another issue facing the country –the new “business” of kidnapping which has taken a frightening dimension. I call kidnapping a business as kidnappers have come to terms with fact that it is an easy way of making money. The trend has become so ridiculous; recently the Minister of Finance’s 82-year-old mother, a professor and monarch, was abducted and a ridiculous one-billion-dollar ransom demanded, though it was later reduced before the older Prof. Okonjo was released. Just as we were grappling with the release of the Prof., Nkiru Slyvanus, popular Nollywood actress and aide to the Imo state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, was also kidnapped and N100m was demanded. She was released eventually.

What I cannot understand in all this kidnap stories is the outrageous demands and ransoms by the kidnappers and yet the security agencies keep saying that ransoms are never paid. Strangely if ransoms are not paid, why is the trend still continuing with impunity?

In my opinion the only reason the ugly trend can continue is that there are elements of insincerity as per the payment of ransoms which the security agencies have continued to deny.

Yes, it is a known fact that globally, payment of ransoms are not encouraged but truth be told, the security agencies can not contain the activities of kidnapers which has led to the continuity in business by perpetrators.

Unfortunately, these ugly trends in the aviation and security industry will continue if urgent steps are not taken to overhaul the aviation and security sector in the country.

26

Arts Lounge

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

FAR AND NEAR

NFC parleys Lotto commission for funding NGOZI EMEDOLIBE

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he Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) have gone into talks on the possibility of providing additional funding windows for Nigeria’s motion picture industry. This came to the fore when Mr. Afolabi Adesanya, Managing Director/Chief Executive, NFC visited the headquarters of the NLRC in Abuja last week.

Received by Mr. Peter Igho, Director-General, NLRC, Adesanya disclosed that the Nigerian motion picture industry was still in dire need of both direct and indirect funding to enable the sector sustain its growth.

Funding of any vibrant business sec-

tor worldwide, he said, can never be said to be enough and therefore other sources of funding for the sector has become desirable.

Both acknowledged that there were indeed other funding windows available, including lottery, which could be legitimately explored to fund the local film sector.

The NLRC, according to Igho, would partner with NFC in her quest to provide the enabling environment for the development of the motion picture sector. Igho also said that the Nigerian motion picture industry has recorded tremendous progress and development since Adesanya became CEO of NFC and craved for the sustenance of the giant strides recorded so far.

On the visit, Adesanya was accompanied by Mr. Tekena Benibo (Executive Director, Operations); Mallam Sanusi Sambo (Director, Finance and Accounts); Mr, Teddy Hanmahkyuh (Director, Film Market and Development) and Brian Etuk, the Corporation’s Head of Public Affairs.

Hausa reality TV show debuts in 2013 IJEOMA EZEIKE ABUJA

I

n a determined drive to engage the teeming Nigerian youths, Sarewa Africa, a youth empowerment project by Habiba Gazelle Foundation has concluded plans to host the first-ever reality TV show in Hausa language come July 2013.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja recently, the executive producer and Chief Executive Officer of Sarewa Africa and Habiba Gazelle Foundation, Hajia Habiba Abubakar Ismai’l said the talent hunt will welcome music compositions ranging from social crises, romance, unity, non-violence, corruption, political stability and any other developmental needs in the society.

Noting that the project requires enormous resources, Hajia Ismai’l disclosed that their professional experiences have been fully deployed to ensure effective coordination of the reality TV project.

According to her, the star prize for the winner of the show is a brand new car

provided by the foundation and a cash prize of N2.5m.

In her words, “Sarewa Africa reality TV show is coming at a time when there is an increasing need for youth development; this is one area that the project will address by showcasing talents as well as stepping up technical and professional content thereby making it competitive in the contemporary market.

“This television project is a conscious dream that started over 24 months ago with the aim of providing the necessary platform for talented youth to find a voice, express their talent. It is a way to support these talented youths in building a career in music and acting in Hausa language”.

Sarewa Africa, the executive producer said, is proposed to encourage the growth of Hausa language, while in addition promote the developmental potentials of “Kannywood”, the Hausa film industry, ‘whose contribution to national development cannot be over emphasised’.

L-R Prof Ola Oloidi and HRH David Victor Olateru Olagbegi III at the media briefing to flag off the symposium arts exhibition in Lagos.

‘Lasekan deserves national honour’ TERH AGBEDEH

T

he arts community in Nigeria has called on the government to recognise and reward the efforts of the pioneer artist whose maiden four-day Akinola Lasekan Symposium and Art Exhibition held at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos late last month. It has been 40 years since Lasekan passed on.

Chairman of the occasion and one of Nigeria’s foremost art collectors, Omo Oba Yemisi Shyllon, said at the opening ceremony that Lasekan deserves an award and should be recommended for a national honour. “He led a fulfilled life.

Life is not how long or many houses built or children begotten but what you leave behind for mankind. The impact you make”, Shyllon said.

He urged the audience to take a cue from Lasekan, reorder their priorities so they can etch their names on the pages of dignity for mankind to cherish. “Akinola Lasekan is being honoured and remembered for what he did for Nigeria. Please do your bit so that generations to come

Art losses inhibitions LINUS KINGDOM AND ADEBIMPE OLATUJA

A

Collection of works for ‘Removing the Veil’ inside the gallery

n art exhibition, themed Removing the Veil, opened its collection of art works from very talented Nigerian artists – prominent and upcoming ones on December 15 at the City Mall, Onikan-Lagos.

This exhibition is the first of such to be hosted at the newly-opened gallery owned by Nigerian visual artist, Mr. Biodun Omolayo.

The banker-turned-art-enthusiast also operates out of the Biodun Omolayo Gallery located in the premises of the National Museum, Onikan, which had existed for many years.

According to him, “The exhibition is to open up the gallery to the public and the place is free for any artist to have an exhibition; it’s free for exhibition and not just art, any kind of prod-

will remember and honour you”, he counselled.

The opening ceremony was attended by, among others, HRM David Folagbade Olateru Olagbegi III, the Olowo of Owo Kingdom, father of the day; Prof Ola Oloidi, guest speaker and Bruce Onobrakpeya one of the discussants, as well as traditional rulers and arts enthusiasts.

Prof. Oloidi traced the footprints of Lasekan from his humble background, how his creative mind endeared him to leaders of the Nigerian nation at that time, particularly Nnamdi Azikiwe with whom he worked closely on the West African Pilot newspaper project, contributing immensely, even at personal risk to the nationalist struggle with his political cartoons.

On display were numerous works by Lash, as he signed his works, as well as from his children and grand children and a great-grand child rearing to join.

He taught in secondary school and lectured in two of Nigeria’s foremost universities – the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN and the University of Ife, (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife).

uct exhibition will be allowed in the gallery as well”.

Comprising of paintings, sculptures, mixed media and metal casting, Removing the Veil has works from artistes like, Abdulrazaq Ahmed, Biodun Omolayo, Soji Yoloye, Joseph Eze, Adeyemi Matthew, Francis Denedo, Kehinde Oshho, Bode Umeh and many more. It runs till January 5, 2013.

Biodun further said that since the exhibition began, art collectors and enthusiasts such as Chief Femi Olagbaju and Engr. Yemisi Shyllon have turned up at the gallery.”And as the gallery grows, artists will keep exhibiting their collections and people from all over the world will come in to see and buy as well”, he enthused.

Some of the works include a beautiful Fisherman fibre glass sculpture by E. Awiya and the flagship work, a haunting painting titled Removing the Veil by Abdul Razaq, among other magnificent art.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

AFCON 2013: Ibrahim faces selection test

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

27

Sport

I expect Arsene Wenger to realize that the exit door wouldn’t be far away if his inconsistency prevails –Arsenal legend, Ian Wright

29

Ameobi, Shittu in my plan –Keshi AFOLABI GAMBARI

S

Cease fire, Runsewe urges Keshi, Osaze NTDC boss b Olusegun Ol Runsewe R believes b li only l a united i d Nigerian Ni i team can make k hay h in i South S h Africa Af i

AFOLABI GAMBARI

D

irector General of the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Chief Olusegun Runsewe, has cautioned Super Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi, to end his war of words with striker Osaze Odemwingie who was excluded from 32-man Eagles’ provisional list for the Nations Cup finals in South Africa.

Runsewe said in in Lagos yesterday that the seeming altercation between the duo was ill-timed and could distract the team’s concentration ahead of the AFCON. “There is no need for all this at a time when everyone should work together to ensure total victory for Nigeria in South Africa,” Runsewe, who is a patron of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) said.

According to him, there was absolute team spirit when Nigeria won the Cup of Nations at home in 1980 and in Tunisia in 1994.

“I do not see an issue such as a player’s exclusion from the team list causing any uproar since it is a normal occurrence,” the NTDC boss contended, adding, “It is time the Nigeria Football Federation and the Sports Minister intervened to stem the tide that could derail Nigeria’s plan for the competition.”

Runsewe, who is an advocate of sports tourism, said the NTDC had worked out modalities at using the organization to drive Nigeria’s quest for honour in South Africa.

“We are partners in progress and I have no doubt that Nigeria can win the Cup of Nations because Keshi has the winning attitude and the players look strong enough to deliver,” he said, stressing, “Nigerians must give the Super Eagles the maximum support to enable the team to perform well.”

Meanwhile, Super Eagles Coach,

Stephen Keshi, has said that there is no animosity between him and West Brom striker, Osaze Odemwingie after the latter reacted angrily to his exclusion from the team’s train to South Africa next month.

“Nigeria is blessed with a lot of good players and we cannot invite every player,” Keshi told the BBC yesterday.

“Osaze is a professional and he should be able to accept my decision to exclude him from my plan,” the coach added.

Kalaba set for Chipolopolo return

Z

ambia’s inspirational midfielder, Rainford Kalaba, could be back to full team training by New Year’s day, according to team doctor Joseph Kabungo.

Kabungo told MTNFootball.com yesterday that he would take a fresh look at the TP Mazembe star when Zambia enter camp in Johannesburg today.

Kalaba has been out of action since October 10 after sustaining a groin injury on CAF Champions League duty with DR Congo club TP Mazembe.

“We will determine how well he

progress in the next few days and he might actually be back sooner than you think,” Kabungo said.

Kabala has been doing light training alone since the main team Zambia kicked off its 2013 Africa Cup of Nations preparation on December 15 in Lusaka.

Meanwhile, the team doctor has disclosed that the injury sustained by defender Chintu Kampamba on his left leg against Tanzania before he was taken off in the second half on Saturday is not serious.

“It is a minor strain and we will give him a couple of days to rest but he should be okay,” Kabungo said.

uper Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi, has declared that there is no going back on including the duo of Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi and Millwall defender Danny Shittu in Nigeria’s train to South Africa next month.

Eagles spokesman, Ben Alaiya, told National Mirror yesterday that Keshi would not enter a deal with the players’ coaches over their release for national service.

“Both players are international stars and the rules are very clear about when they should be released for international assignments,” Alaiya said.

Speculations were abroad on Monday with regard to the players’ availability, with Nigeria’s campaign in South Africa starting in barely three weeks.

Newcastle contended that Ameobi would not be permitted to join Nigerian camp in Faro, Portugal on January 4, claiming there was an agreement with Keshi on its stand, while Millwall also argued that Shittu’s unavailability was beyond question.

According to Alaiya, Eagles’ Team Secretary, Dayo Enebi Achor, had written to both clubs “in good time” to seek the players’ early release in line with FIFA’s statutes.

“We do not see why the clubs should turn around as say we will not have our players,” the spokesman said.

Keshi

Wakaso tips Black Stars

E

spanyol midfielder, Mubarak Wakaso, believes his Ghana teammates must work hard to win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

Wakaso has been named in the Black Stars provisional 26man squad which begins preparations in Abu Dhabi on January 5 and it widely believed that his combativeness and stamina in midfield should strengthen Ghana to advance from Group B which comprises DR Congo, Mali and Niger.

The 22-year-old, who is eager to make his debut in the continent’s flagship event, wants his compatriots to expect tough tests.

“I don’t think the Na-

tions Cup will be easy for us,” Wakaso told journalists in Accra yesterday.

“But I am confident we can win the cup and we want the fans to support and pray for us as we are not going to underrate any team because if we do, it could prove disastrous for us.”

Wakaso says the Black Stars can take a leaf out of Zambia’s book and win a fifth title.

“Nobody have Zambia the chance to win the Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, but we’re witness to their impressive performances,” he said, adding, “What is important for us is to work hard and keep our eyes on the ball.”

Sport

28

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Villa backlash rattles AVB

T

ottenham Hotspur Manager, Andre Villas-Boas, does not believe Aston Villa’s humiliating defeat at Chelsea will influence the club’s clash with his side today.

Villa was hammered 8-0 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, the heaviest topflight defeat in the club’s history.

Nevertheless, VillasBoas singled out Villa striker Christian Benteke as the player to watch out

Terry

for this time around after his recent goal scoring exploits.

“He has been outstanding, for sure. He has eight goals so far and I think he is surprising everybody and he has strong competition from Darren Bent,” Villas-Boas said.

“I think Paul Lambert was courageous in his decision to keep on persisting with a player that he got so well in the transfer market, so credit to them,” he added.

Chel manag Benitez is too d say wh captain action.

The sideline Novem to be fit earlier t “We availab adding he will

Drog

Juve yesterd being c out in it Chelsea Didier D Altho Beppe with Dro the club sign the Drog Turin ov hunting asking

Michu

Michu enters Spain radar

T

he red hot form of Spanish Michu since arriving in the Premier League is set to be rewarded with a first national team call-up.

The Swansea striker has made a massive impact in his first season in England, and his 13th league goal of the season against Manchester United on Sunday put him on top of the scoring charts at Christmas.

Michu cost Swansea only just over £2m and has proved to be a real bargain buy, his form helping the Swans into a comfortable mid-table position.

Spain faces Uruguay in a friendly in Doha on Febru-

ary 6 and the La Furia Furi Roja coach Vicente del Bosque said yesterday that the 25-year-old is in his reckoning for invitation.

“Michu and Iago Aspas will appear,” Del Bosque said.

Celta Vigo striker Aspas has also been linked with a move to Swansea in the press, although an asking price of more than £8m could prove to be a stumbling block.

Aspas has been with Celta since his early days in their youth set-up and was instrumental in getting them promoted to La Liga last season with 23 goals and has added six more in 12 top flight outings in 2012-13.

Higua

Frank Lampard

Lampard blanks future

C Villas-Boas

Benitez delays team’s rating

C

Benitez

Real striker, G Higuain terday t ready to club, cit playing The A sideline new co first-cho ing 201 “I rea sagging Higuain decisio

helsea midfielder, Rafa Benitez, will reserve judgement on the club’s title chances until the Christmas programme is out of the way.

Sunday’s 8-0 trouncing of Aston Villa took Chelsea into third with a game n hand on the two Manchester clubs.

Although there is still an 11-point gap to leaders United, the manner of victory suggested Benitez’s side could yet have a part to play in the title race.

Next up are back-

to-back away games at Norwich today and on January 2 away to Everton before a home game against with QPR. “We will see after two or three more games.

You could see the team had confidence in themselves, they believed, and that was there to the end,” Benitez said.

“The players were really focused from day one. They knew they had a new manager and they had to perform. The players, from day one, were trying to learn, to improve.”

helsea midfielder, Frank Lampard, has refused to speculate on his future, days after he helped Chelsea romp to an 8-0 victory over Aston Villa.

Lampard recently revealed he has not entered discussions with Chelsea over a new contract, and could leave the club in the summer.

If no new contract is in place by the New Year, Lampard will be permitted to start talking to foreign clubs, with the MLS mooted as a possible destination for the 34-year-old.

But despite the uncertainty surrounding his future, Lampard, who made his 500th Premier League start on Sunday, insists he is focusing all his efforts on Chelsea’s bid to get back into the title race.

“I’m not concentrating that far ahead because I am under contract here and I love playing here as everyone knows,” Lampard said yesterday.

“I am going to continue game by game and I’m just pleased to be fit and I believe I have got a lot left in me so I will try and show that.”

Making his first Premier League start since October, Lampard became Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer in the top flight with his 130th league goal for the Blues as they ran riot at Stamford Bridge.

“It means I’m old,’’ Lampard joked of the record.

“But I’ve been fortunate to play for a great club and the managers had team-mates around me.”

Taara

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Tit bits...

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lsea ger Rafael z says it difficult to hen exactly n John Terry will be back in

centre-back has been ed with a knee injury since mber 11 but was supposed t for the Club World Cup this month. cannot say when he’ll be ble,” Benitez said yesterday, g, “I don’t know how long be out.”

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ntus day feared crowded ts bid for a legend Drogba. ough General Manager Marotta has denied contact ogba’s camp, reports said b is “actively pushing” to e Shanghai Shenhua striker. gba was reported to be in ver the weekend houseg, Juve directors fear his price could be “too high”.

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Madrid Gonzalo n, said yesthat he is o leave the ting boredom and lack of g times.

Argentine, currently ed with injury, has seen ontract talks stall and his oice status disappear dur2. ally need to re-ignite my g career elsewhere,” n said, stressing that his n is final.

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nham ur goal, Brad , has he’ll be move from the London

41-year-old, who has isplaced by Hugo Lloris rs’ number one in recent and has been linked return to former club urn, Tweeted yesterday: w there has been quite speculation regarding ure. All will be revealed in ouple of days.”

Sport

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

T/tennis: Onaolapo seeks Rio relief

Wither Eagles without Osaze, Martins?

MTNFootball.com asks whether the Super Eagles could afford to be without two of the country’s most prolific strikers, Osaze Odemwingie and Obafemi Martins, at the Nations Cup

B

etween Osaze and Martins, they have netted 27 international goals, but coach Stephen Keshi has said he will be fine without these two strikers who have proved themselves in the top flight in Europe.

Keshi has considered the likes of Sunday Mba, Ejike Uzoenyi, Bright Dike, Uche Kalu and the desperately inconsistent Emmanuel Emenike ahead of these players for his preliminary squad.

Mba is best remembered for his brace against Liberia in a February friendly in Monrovia and ever since then his goals have dried up.

Uzoenyi has struggled to impress after the huge promise he showed early in Keshi’s year-long reign, while USbased Dike may just have done enough in the recent friendly against Venezuela to get another recall, but no more.

Uche Kalu has done well in his first season in the Turkish second division from Enyimba, but Kalu Uche has done even more at the higher Super Ligi but was not considered.

Emenike has proved he knows his way to goal in both Turkey and Russia, but in more a dozen appearances he has only scored a goal in a green-white-green shirt.

So, what do Osaze and Martins bring to a team that they ought to be on the flight to South Africa next month?

Osaze has for a third season running proved his class in the English Premier League, one of the top leagues in world football. He has shown versatility upfront as he could play as top striker, behind the top man or even on the flanks, while putting in a decent defensive shift.

Officials have been most uncomfortable with his outspokenness, which again came to fore this past weekend via his Twitter handle.

Keshi has insisted that his bust-up with the West Bromwich striker in Rwanda in February is in the past, but like the player said on Twitter it does not seem so because if it were for football reason, he would be in South Africa.

Obafemi, on the other hand, has rediscovered his killer instincts after he seemed all washed up while at Russian club Rubin Kazan.

But after he took a huge pay cut to move to Spain, Martins

is again banging in the goals on a regular basis.

He failed to take his chance in last month’s friendly against Venezuela, but after what he has produced for the country, he ought to have been at least called up to Faro for him to either bomb again or be on his way to his fourth AFCON. In a year in charge of the Eagles, Keshi has recorded six wins, six draws and one loss even though half of his victories were in friendlies.

His team has scored 21 goals in 13 matches, while a further breakdown shows that 12 of these goals were from competitive games including the 6-1 routing of Liberia in Calabar.

This clearly showed that before the big win against the Lone Star, Keshi’s team has struggled to score goals in competitive matches, just as it is most likely that in South Africa against stronger opposition the goals may be more difficult to come by.

Nigeria has struggled to score goals at their last two Nations Cups. In 2008, the country managed only three goals in four matches, while two years later in Angola, they scored six goals in as many matches in open play.

With the array of attacking options at their disposal, Nigeria ought not to struggle in front of goal not just at the AFCON but at any major competition.

29

Rabiu Ibrahim (in white shirt) mesmerising an opponent during his U-23 days

AFCON 2013: Ibrahim faces selection test AFOLABI GAMBARI

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uper Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi, has said that midfielder Rabiu Ibrahim will have to play blinders in training and test games to earn a place in the 23-man squad for the African Nations Cup. Keshi named the 21-year-old in his provisional 32man squad for the tournament, but said yesterday that the inclusion was for the purpose of assessment at close quarters.

The former youth international has struggled from Portugal to Scotland, but Keshi says he has a potentially match-defining craft.

“I just want to look at him. I saw him play one or two matches and I think he he’s a very crafty player. The type we don’t have in the national team at the moment.

“If he is as sound as what I saw, we’ll take him. If he’s not, he goes home.”

Kotoko plots Tamale’s fall

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hanaian reigning champion Asante Kotoko must beat Real Tamale United today to breathe life back into its title defence.

The Porcupine Warriors suffered their first defeat of the season after going down 2-0 at Berekum Chelsea.

Kotoko will be without defender Kwabena Adusei who was sent off in their match against Chelsea.

Head coach Mas-Ud Dramani blames his defence for their defeat and must fix it before playing RTU at the Baba Yara Stadium.

Real Tamale United is yet to record its first win of the campaign and doeas not look like a side capable of causing havoc.

The Pride of the North has managed just four points from the available 24 and has emerged as of the candidate for relegation.

Osaze Odemwingie First Bank’s Business Development Manager, Public Sector South, Ekpe Ndiyo (l); Winner of the 2012 Mary Slessor Charity Golf, Jackson Offem, and Cross Rivers State Acting Governor, Barrister Effiok Cobham, at the recent Mary Slessor Charity Golf Tournament sponsored by First Bank in Calabar.

30

Sport

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Nigeria N ig Premier League with

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Cricket

IIKENWA NNABUOGOR ikenwa.nnabuogor@gmail.com

Kaduna coach unhappy with league date

K

aduna United’s coach, Saleh TankoLato, is an unhappy man over the uncertainty surrounding the start of the 2012/2013 NPL season.

The NFF at its Annual General Assembly in Port Harcourt added a new twist to the confused state by posting an indefinite January kick-off date.

Tanko-Lato said the fluidity of the league take off date had made nonsense of their well tailored pre-season programmes.

“Psychologically, it has impacted negatively on us. We thought the league will start in December as a result of which we drew a compact pre-season programmes that will culminate in the start of the

league.

“Now the league is yet to start and more confusing is no definite date in sight at the moment.

“The whole scenario has left us in a confused state and is taking a huge toll on us. It’s giving us a deep cause for concern.

“The gains of our preseason activities including the elaborate eight-team invitational tournament which we won are being wasted.

“However, we’ve refused to be distracted but keep focus believing one day the new league season will start.

“I’m sure we’re on course towards experiencing our best season in the history of the side,” he concluded.

Israeli club drags NFF to FIFA over ex-Ocean Boys star

I Abalogu granted compassionate leave E Andrew Abalogu (left), in a match

nyimba’s new signing Andrew Abalogu has been permitted to travel to Aba to see his sick mum at a private hospital in Aba. The former Bukola Babes striker was given a five-day compassionate leave to visit the mum, who is said to be hospitalised for leg problem. The Aba boy is expected to rejoin his team mates at their Ota camp today.

Abalogu, one of the new season’s signings, had been with the team at their Ota camp since they arrived early last week. He was unsettled when news broke that his mum had been hospitalised and the management granted him leave to be with the mum.

The youngster was one of the last season’s revelation and the People’s Elephant wasted no time in bringing the striker who netted 12 goals, to his home town. He caught Enyimba’s eye in the league fixtures in Ilorin and Aba, forcing the management to dangle carrots at him.

Meanwhile, Enyimba players are groaning over delayed payment of their December salaries, decrying their inability

to send their families money for the Christmas celebration. Some of the aggrieved players told National Mirror that they would have to wait until after Christmas to have a glimmer of hope to receive their salaries.

The team currently camping at Otta will go on break for two days and is expected to resume on December 27, but the players clearly not happy about the non payment of their wages, were not amused about the break.

“There’s no way we would be happy with the break because we have no money to have fun and besides, Otta is very boring for us,” the players fumed.

“We will have to wait till Thursday to get our salaries if the words of the management are to something to rely on.

“It wasn’t like this last year; we got our salaries on time, enabling us to send monies to our families. It’s really a sad situation.”

Heartland offloads Togo international

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igerian-born Togo International Emmanuel Matthias has told National Mirror that he has been sacked at Heartland.

The former Esperance central defender, currently in Togo with the national team preparing for the 2013 Nations Cup, said the management told him he was no longer needed at Heartland and that he was free to come and collect his free clearance.

Matthias said he got the shocker from the Federation Cup champions shortly after he lost his sister in October. He said he was occupied with the national team and did not have time to attend to the matter.

“The Heartland MD told me to come and collect my papers meaning I have been sacked but I don’t have

time yet,” he said.

“I don’t really understand why it would be so especially at a time when I was mourning my sister. But that’s life.

“I’m not attached now with any club but doing very well with the national team. I hope to get selected in the final squad.

“The picture regarding my next club will be clearer after the Nations Cup because hopefully clubs will table better offers if I get to play.”

Kaduna-born Matthias returned home to sign for Heartland after his contract at Israeli club Hapoel Petach Tikva expired some months ago.

He played a sub role in the Federation Cup title win victory over Lobi Stars in August.

sraeli club Maccabi Netanya has reported the Nigeria Football Federation to football’s governing body FIFA following their refusal to issue an International Transfer Certificate to Under 20 National Team midfielder Ugonna Ezenwaka, reports the respected local Israel website, Sports Walla.

It will be recalled that Ezenwaka, who played in the NPL last season for relegated Ocean Boys, signed a one - year contract ( four years option inserted in deal) with Maccabi Netanya three weeks ago.

Since then, he has failed to make his debut in the league because the Nigeria Federation did not release his clearance. Maccabi Netanya had contacted the NFF, and there were claims by the Federation that the Flying Eagles player was not on the database. The NFF were reported quoted to have declared the former Ocean Boys star a ghost player.

Shocked by the reply of the Nigeria Federation, Maccabi Netanya conducted independent checks and discovered that Ugonna Ezenwaka has caps for the Under 20 National Team.

Thus, Maccabi Netanya has taken the NFF to FIFA. Such matters are adjudicated in a period of 30 days and if the club gets a favourable decision, Fifa will mandate the NFF to release Ezenwaka’s ITC. Ezenwaka is seen as a long term investment by Maccabi Netanya. He is regarded as a top talent and the club hope to sell him in future at a premium.

Ugonna Ezenwaka

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

31

Business & Finance We’re lucky with security in Nigeria’s aviation sector Chief Executive Officer, Scope Centre Limited, Adebayo Babatunde

We are just talking about poor quality of services. What we need to clear poor quality of service is further investment EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRMAN, NIGERIAN COMMUNICATION COMMISSION, EUGENE JUWAH,

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Property values grew by 15% in 2012 - Expert DAYO AYEYEMI

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ontrary to what was obtainable in 2008 and 2009, property values grew by 15 percent in 2012.

According to the latest report from the Bismarck Rewane’s led Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), property valued improved moderately by 15 per cent as the market stabilised from the bust.

The report noted that the real estate market is slowly recovering from the slump in 2008 and 2009.

Despite lull that was prevalent in housing sector in first and second quarters of 2012, the managing director of FDI stated that property market grew by 10.24 per cent in third quarter compared to 10.86 in third quarter of 2011.

He noted that crash in real estate due to the nation’s cash-squeezed economy was more structural in the year espe-

cially in the prime areas such as Victoria Island, Lekki and Ikoyi, Lagos.

Despite this, he expressed that property market in 2012 still lover boom era but better than 2011.

The FDI boss explained that rental values are becoming more realistic as property owners now factor in economic condi-

tions in pricing, adding that price appreciation and capita value were felt more on the Lagos mainland due to affordability.

He said, “Hot spots for property development in 2012 included Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikeja.

Hot spots for property lease include 1004, Lekki, Maryland and Ikeja.

He noted that impact of flood on rental values was short-lived, adding that vacancy factor inched up slightly in 2012 compared to 2011, while vacancy factor in Ikoyi average 41 per cent and 28 per cent in Victoria Island.

Rewane predicted rise in property development in

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he latest indigenous airline to be issued Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Skyjet

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Aero Contractors

L-R: Anchor of the event, Mr. Alionye Emmanuel Chigozie; Senior Product Manager, Nokia West Africa, Ms. Linda Yeo and representative of National Lottery regulation Commission, Mr. Ita Calix, at the Nokia Asha Millionaire Christmas Promo draw in Lagos, yesterday.

Skyjet Aviation invests $5m in facilities acquisition OLUSEGUN KOIKI

2013 as economic conditions improve. It would be recalled that since the 2006-2007 economic meltdown in the United States of America which spread across the world, housing prices which peaked in early 2006, started declining in 2006 and 2007, and reached new lows in 2012.

Increased foreclosure rates in 2006–2007 among U.S. homeowners led to the crisis in August 2008 for the subprime, Alt-A, collateralized debt obligation (CDO), mortgage, credit, hedge fund, and foreign bank markets.

Aviation has disclosed that it has invested at least $5m (N800m) in acquisition of facilities for aviation in Nigeria.

Saying this recently in an interview with journalists in Lagos, was its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alhaji Kashim Shettima in an interview with aviation correspondents.

According to Shettima, Skyjet Aviation, which

is based in Kaduna has invested in maintenance facilities with Embraer Aircraft Manufacturing Company and hoped to expand its services with the issuance of AOC by NCAA. He, however, decried that Nigerian carrier with foreign registration number who lease aircraft abroad pay massive taxes on aircraft leased.

He insisted that the high taxes paid by the carriers could never make them to operate profitably, stressing that the method of taxation is another challenge facing the airline sub-sector in the country.

He disclosed that Skyjet Aviation is an airline company that renders services like charter services, maintenance and also sell aircraft, adding that

with issuance of AOC by NCAA, it was ready to go into scheduled operations soon.

He said, “We have inflight, who are with us here today, they are one of Embraer’s service facilities in London, and they are one of the biggest in Europe. They flew in with me a few days ago and they are here to see our facility because we want to partner with them on maintenance.”

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Lagos Airport gets emergency airfield lighting

Nigeria Diaspora remits $21bn in 11 months

Nigerians yet to feel impact of Sure-P

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Business Finance

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

NCC to leverage broadband potential for economic growth KUNLE A ZEEZ

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he Nigerian Communications Commission has reiterated its commitment to leverage the huge potential offered by application of broadband to all processes in the country for economic growth.

Giving the assurance in Lagos recently, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr, Eugene Juwah, said for the past two years, broadband had dominated discussions in the telecoms industry, globally.

“In a way, this was championed by the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, which set up the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, launched in May 2010 in collaboration with the United National Education, Scientific and Cultural Orgainsations, UNESCO, comprising of government leaders from around the world, and the highest-level representatives of relevant industries, international agencies and orgainsations concerned

L-R: Deputy Marketing Manager, KFC International, Mr. Damilola Owolabi; Head Marketing , Mr. Vikram Varma and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Rahul Takaklkar, at the media launch of the new KFC’s Fish Zinger Shrimps, in Lagos recently.

with development,” he said.

He noted that the first report of the Commission titled “A 2012 Leadership Imperative: Towards a Future Built on Broadband” was released in September 2012, while the second report that followed, also in 2010 was aptly titled: “Broadband: A

Telecom workers lament unfair work practices MESHACK IDEHEN

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orkers in the telecommunications sector under the auspices of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE) have said operators should promote decent agenda in the workplace in order to minimise industrial disharmony in the sector.

According to them, owners and operators of telecommunications companies in the country must promote good working environment for workers in the sector so that enhanced productivity and sustainable growth can be achieved.

National President of NUPTE, Mr. Sunday Al-Hassan, said on Tuesday, that telecoms workers need to undertake their daily economic activities in dignified and conditions that promote respect for the worker.

According to Al-Hassan, workers in the private sector especially in majority of Nigeria’s private telecommunications and courier companies are suffering from absence of any mechanism for the guarantee or protection of their rights, or of organising themselves, and representation.

He traced this development to the “nature of employment in the private telecommunications

sector, which is characterised by outsourcing, casualisation, time specific employments”.

The NUPTE president said further that most of the private companies operating in Nigeria comply with the labour laws in their home countries as a result of workers being allowed to organise and unionise in their parent companies.

However, Al-Hassan said the situation is different in Nigeria, adding the companies deliberately breach the country’s labour laws as they operate with impunity with clear anti labour policies that are neither practiced nor tolerated in their home countries.

“As a result of this obvious unfair labour practices, workers in the private sector, particularly those in the telecoms sector in Nigeria are caught up in conditions that defile decency at work and rather work in conditions that are deficit in dignity”.

He added that the union is urging the Ministry of Labour and Communication Technology to regulate the operations of these operators to avoid confrontation with the Union, while also declaring the support of workers to the privatisation of NIPOST, saying though that NUPTE would oppose any privatisation exercise that will prioritise the retrenchment of workers as its core drive.

Platform for progress.”

Speaking further at the forum, Juwah said, “The highlights and focus of discussion on broadband were indication that it is a subject that will still dominate the future of discussion in the telecoms industry.

“So, today, we are here again,

engaged ion this engaging subject whose impacts on development, especially the Gross Domestic Product, are measurable. Its impacts are now easily translated to growth indices in all economies. This is why every country is now working hard to ensure that broadband counts

in future plans for growth.”

The NCC boss, pointing out that in the drive to push the frontier of broadband for economic benefits, Nigeria cannot be left out, especially if the country desires to fast-track its status of becoming one of the leading industrialised economies in 2020.

Explaining that Nigeria was working hard to leverage the potential of broadband, Juwah said, “We are working hard to take advantage of this technology and service. Recently, we are at the ITU World which held in Dubai in October, 2012, led by His Excellency, Vice President Namadi Sambo, to present Nigeria’s potentials on the broadband state.

“The presentations were derived from the plans that the NCC has been putting together in the past one year, and it was basically to explain to the world that huge and untapped potential exists in our nation. Given our stable and predictable telecommunications regulatory environment, we hope the investors would come.”

Lagos Airport gets emergency airfield lighting OLUSEGUN KOIKI

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fter over five years of complaints from the Nigerian aviation stakeholders, professionals and Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) over the absence of airfield lighting on the domestic runway (18L) of the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, the runway was yesterday installed with an emergency lighting equipment.

The emergency lighting equipment will serve as a palliative measures to local airlines, which have been craving for one since 2006.

The absence of the airfield lighting on the runway had restricted flight operations on the

runway to only visual flights by domestic operators while they make use of international runway for night operations.

Night operations commences from 6pm, which forced arriving and departing aircraft to make use of the international runway for their operations.

The absence of the equipment on the runway led to extra burning of fuel by the operators, which AON put at several billions of naira by their members.

Today, a litre of aviation fuel otherwise known as Jet A1 in aviation parlance is between N190 and N200 per litre depending on the litres and airport an operator is buying from.

In a bid to remedy the situation, the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah earlier

in the year handed over the airfield lighting to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

An online statement signed by the General Manager, Public Affairs, NAMA, Mr. Supo Atobatele stated that the agency’s personnel early yesterday morning successfully deployed emergency airfield lighting on the popular 2.7 km Runway 18 Left.

Atobatele stated that absence of the airfield lighting on the runway, for half a decade had forced the domestic airlines to land after sunset at the international wing, thereby burning extra fuel to taxi down to their various terminals before disembarking passengers.

Senator calls for implementation of Oronsaye Committee report

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en. Ita Enang , Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, has called on the Federal Government to implement the Steve Oronsaye Committee report to reduce recurrent expenditure.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee headed by Oronsaye, former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, to restructure and rationalise Federal Government’s agencies.

This was with a view to identifying overlap or duplication of functions and make appropriate recommendations to the govern-

ment.

Enang told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that if the report was implemented, the cost of governance would be drastically reduced and more funds would be available for capital expenditure.

He said: ``I am urging the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to take courage and implement the recommendations made by the Oronsaye Committee. ``Ministries and Departments with duplicating functions should be merged and officers transferred to the main service and dealt with according to civil ser-

vice regulations.’’

Enang also noted the need to reduce the increasing funds budgeted for fuelling of generators in public offices by exploring the option of solar energy.

He added that the recurring demand for the purchase of computers by ministries and agencies should be discouraged so as to have more funds for visible projects.

“We need to reduce the demand for diesel and computers as this would reduce the cost of governance; there will be huge savings which will increase the capital budget and attract development.’’

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

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Business Finance

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Nigeria Diaspora remits $21bn in 11 months STANLEY IHEDIGBO

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s part of effort to contribute to the development of their home country, a group known as Nigerian in Diaspora disclosed that they remitted $21bn in 11 months this year.

Speaking at the African Diaspora Conference in Lagos, the Coordinator of the Group in Nigeria, Mr. Roy Ojom AKinwale, said according to a report released to him by one of their supporter, Western Union Money Transfer stated that N21bn was remitted in 11 months in Nigeria this year.

He added that they want to go beyond the remittance of their earning from overseas to skills

transfer, in order to create jobs and wealth in the country.

He said, “Nigeria in Diaspora is very relevant on the economy of Nigeria, we really want to support the economy, and we don’t want to send money in fun of sending money. We want to look at things and how it can really be better, by bringing in investment and create wealth to the people of our home country,” Launching of the Diaspora Innovation Institute in partnership with Enterprises Development Centre of Lagos Business School, Akinwale, said that the institute is to incubate all the ideas of Diaspora for the development of the country and supporting young entrepreneur by

giving them soft loan.

In her remark, the Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on the Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who have use her own platform to encouraged the Nigerians in Diaspora to come home and help in building the country, assured the group that Government will assist them to achieve whatever plan they have for the country .

“We are going to have a Diaspora Commission, because we are working on it right now in the house, where directorate of Nigerians in Diaspora in each of the state of the federation will be made available , to able the commission plan with them and create landing for them they come back home.”

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

PHCN tasks customers on prompt power supply

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he management of PHCH EKO Electricity Distribution Company of Nigeria, on Tuesday appealed to electricity consumers within its zone to pay their outstanding bills to enable the station to discharge its duties effectively.

Chief Executive Officer of the zone Mr Oladele Amoda, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that consumers should assist the company in its efforts to provide stable and efficient power supply.

He said electricity supply had been stable in the zone due to the Federal Government’s effort at ensuring adequate supply of gas and effective rehabilitation of power plants nationwide.

Amoda stressed that it would be difficult for PHCN to con-

NUPENG wants urgent action on anti casualisation bill MESHACK IDEHEN

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he Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has said it is urging the National Assembly to thoroughly examine the anti-casualisation bill that is before it, before passing it into law in 2013.

According to NUPENG, the bill on anti-casaulisation that is presently before the National Assembly if passed into law is capable of stopping what the union referred to as “present modern day slavery by multinationals oil companies and their indigenous collaborators in line with the new trend in international best practice”.

NUPENG General Secretary, Mr. Isaac Aberare, told National Mirror on Tuesday that the union in reviewing its activi-

ties for 2012 agreed that it cannot continue to allow foreign oil firms to come and enslave their members, pay them pittance while declaring huge profits for themselves.

Furthermore, Aberare said NUPENG is calling on the Federal Government not to be in a hurry about the deregulation of the sector, adding that the refineries are still working below capacity.

He explained that the proposed deregulation of the petroleum sector cannot be import-driven, and that the government must as matter of compulsion and necessity fix the refineries and commit to building new ones, including roads, depots, pipelines, before the deregulation can work and be acceptable to oil and gas workers.

Aberare said if this is not

done that oil and gas workers in the country will join forces with the other labour movement in Nigeria to resist it.

While calling on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on job creation and security in the country,Aberare said that the unemployment situation has become alarming and a timebomb which has now made large pool of idle youths to indulge in violent crimes.

He added that NUPENG is appealing to the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to pay subsidy claims to verified marketers to enable them import fuel to meet the shortfall presently being experienced, because the truth is that Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) alone cannot meet the present demands of the nation.

He said the zone invested so much in all the units under its network to sensitise customers to the need for the settlement of their debts ``so that the money would be returned to the source’’.

He said PHCN had no other source of funds, adding that increasing debts would impede its development in the areas.

He noted the cost of capacity improvement for the Agbara 132/33/11KV station from 90MVA to 150MVA and the creation of another 33KV and 11KV feeders meant to relieve the Badagry 33KV feeder, was quite enormous.

Retail investors can buy bond in secondary market - DMO JOHNSON OKANLAWON

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L-R: Brand Manager Bournvita, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Mrs. Adebola Williams; Legal Officer, Lagos Lottery Board, Mrs. Mayowa Okuyiga and Marketing Manager, Food Drinks, Mrs. Chioma Afe, during the Yummy Life Promo draw held in Lagos recently.

tinue its operation in an environment where there was no corresponding response to investments and services rendered.

he Director General of Debt Management Office, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, has said that retail investors who are interested in the Federal Government Bond can now do that through the secondary market, with the appointment of Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers to manage the bonds.

Nwankwo disclosed this at the presentation of Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, as government stockbrokers to its bonds.

He said, “Since 2003, we have been trying to develop the sovereign bond market in Nigeria and we have been

taking various steps to do that. Recently, JP Morgan included the Nigerian Bond market in its index.

“That shows that in their independent assessment, our bonds market is growing, though we still have some more challenges to deal with, but it is appreciated all over the world that we are doing the best to develop the bond market.”

According to him, the office needs a bond broker so that the FGN bond could be actively traded on the Exchange. “ The FGN bond is currently being traded on the counter. Though it is good, but in every economy, you also need it to be traded on the floor of the Stock Exchange.

Skill and Enterprise Development Centre opens in Lagos STANLEY IHEDIGBO

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he Skill and Enterprise Development Centre (SEDC) announced an array of programs and resources to help students develop new skills and turn it into a viable business of the future.

The Centre is a foremost institution in Africa with a framework and unique business model that gives students opportunities of skill acquisition, enterprise development and internship.

According to the Director of Programs, Mrs. Olanrewaju Oniyitan, “SEDC seeks to address the need to empower Nigerians to develop competencies to effectively start and/or manage their businesses, “adding that the centre would enable participants to gain hands-on industry experience combined with mentoring support - all within a course structure”.

She said that the centre has also included expanded programs to directly engage participants with real-world business challenges.

“The Centre will play a galvanizing role in transforming the economy’s largely informal Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) into a sector of well-structured, efficient and profitable businesses.

The time has come to create a new breed of entrepreneurs ready to make a difference in Nigeria so as to alleviate poverty, expand gainful employment, create wealth and promote sustainable economic growth and development”, Oniyitan said.

She added that the vision of thwe centre , to be a world-class centre promoting integration between skill and enterprise capacity building, internship experience, mentorship and industry research to promote enterprise growth in an atmosphere of high ethics and professional performance.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Energy Week Nigerians yet to feel impact of Sure-P udemea@rocketmail.com 07031546994

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hen President Goodluck Jonathan administration emerged with the nation’s subsidy reinvestment fund, targeted at providing adequate palliatives to the masses, there were great expectations that the negative impact of the state policy would be ameliorated in the nation at least for a reason.

First, the programme was to be executed by the Federal Government, 36 states governments, the Federal Capital Territory and 774 local government councils.

The Federal Government gets 41 percent of the subsidy revenue, while the state and local government get the balance for their projects.

Second, the Committee which has the former High Commissioner to United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade as chairman attracts representation from many segments of the society, including the National Assembly, organised labour, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the Nigeria Union of Journalists, one representative of Nigerian women groups, Nigerian youths, civil society organisations, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy/Minister of Finance, the Minister of National Planning, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the Minister of State for Health, the Special Adviser to the President on Technical Matters, and individuals from the six geopolitical zones in the country, three of whom will be women.

Third, it has the mandate to oversee the fund in the petroleum subsidy savings account, and the programmes specifically initiated to improve the quality of life of Nigerians in line with the transformation agenda of the President. For instance, it is the responsibility of the board to determine, in liaison with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the subsidy savings estimates for each preceding month and ensure that such funds are transferred to the Funds’ Special Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The board has the mandate to approve the yearly work plans and cash budgets of the various Project Implementation Units (PIUs) within the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and ensure disbursement of funds by the PIUs in order to certify, execute, monitor and evaluate projects.

It is the duty of the board to update President Jonathan regularly on the programme, periodically brief the Executive Council of the Federation on the progress of the programme, appoint consulting firms with international reputation to provide technical assistance to the board in financial and project management, appoint external auditors for the fund and do such other things as are necessary or incidental to the objective of the fund or as may be assigned by the Federal Government.

More than that, most Nigerians also thought that funding would not consti-

The Federal Government had emerged with the SURE-P programme targeted at ameliorating the pains of the last fuel subsidy removal in the nation. UDEME AKPAN who investigated the subject reports that not much has been accomplished to justify huge government funds so far injected into the programme.

Queue at a filling station

tute the problem as the programme was expected to enjoy adequate funding while every state and local government was expected to design its programmes utilising its portion of the subsidy re-investment funds.

In fact, the hope of the masses was raised following the key sectors the programme was expected to address. These include water which managers of the programme observed to be essential to humans and other life forms. As it puts it: “Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.

There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita.”

The programme was further targeted at boosting electricity for various applications. It stated that: “Energy transfer can be used to do work, so power is also the rate at which this work is performed. The output power of an electric motor is the product of the torque the motor generates and the angular velocity of its output shaft.”

The programme also aimed at making positive impact on different modes of transportation, especially roads and rail.

This was specifically aimed at establishing infrastructure to enable people and goods move from one part of the nation to another. For instance, N11billion was allocated to the Abuja-Lokoja road in the 2012 Budget, with an additional N14billion from the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empower-

MOST

NIGERIANS

ALSO THOUGHT THAT FUNDING WOULD NOT CONSTITUTE THE PROBLEM AS THE PROGRAMME WAS EXPECTED TO ENJOY ADEQUATE FUNDING WHILE EVERY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT WAS EXPECTED TO DESIGN ITS PROGRAMMES UTILISING ITS PORTION OF THE SUBSIDY RE-

INVESTMENT FUNDS ment Programme. N6billion was allocated to Benin-Ore-Shagamu, with an additional N16.5billion to be financed through SURE Programme.

N3billion was allocated to Port-Harcourt– Onitsha road, with an additional N5bn from the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme. N18.5billion was allocated to Kano-Maiduguri road, with an additional N1.5billion from SURE Programme.

Provision is made in the 2012 budget for construction of the Second Niger Bridge (N2bn) and Oweto Bridge (N3.5bn). An additional N5.5bn and N4bn would be spent on both bridges respectively from the SURE Programme.

The programme is also targeted at promoting health which it described as a functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person’s mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain (as in “good health” or “healthy”. The programme was targeted at developing public works, particularly in the areas of bridges, parks, roads, municipal buildings, dams, railroads, schools, hospitals, beaches, and other, usually long-term, physical assets and facilities.

However, the questions many people are asking are: how far has managers gone in meeting the yearnings of the masses? What problems are being encountered and how can they solved?

Expectedly, the managers of the programme believed they have done well. For instance, Kolade documented that, over N105 billion have been spent on the various programmes. The committee stated that N17.8billion was released for the Federal Government’s mass transit and youth empowerment programmes, while N8.9billion was released to the Infrastructure Bank of Nigeria for the acquisition of buses for transporters under a revolvCONTINUED ON PAGE 36

36

Energy Week

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Sure-P: Masses still wait for rescue

Kolade

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35 ing loan arrangement. He stated that the bank would lend at a low interest rate to transporters, who are also the operators of the buses. Kolade said an intervention of N5bn had been made in the railway sector.

A breakdown showed that N2.3billion was spent on the modernisation of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line project; N2.2billion for the rehabilitation of the Port-HarcourtMarkurdi rail line; while N388million was spent on the Jebba-Kano route. Kolade said N3.9billion was spent on empowerment programmes for about 3,600 youths.

Total beneficiaries are to be increased to about 15,000 youths by 2015.

The chairman stated that progress made on the execution of the East-West road, the Abuja-Lokoja road and the BeninShagamu Expressway, among others. As he puts it: “As an intervention organ charged with the responsibility to oversee and ensure effective and timely implementation of projects to be funded with savings accruing to the Federal Government from subsidy removal, the committee at inauguration on February 13, 2012 received the mandate to spend the funds on impact areas of citizens need such as maternal and child health, community service, women and youth employment, infrastructural

Ohuabunwa

Okonjo-Iweala

WE NEED TO COMPELL SOME STAKEHOLDERS, ESPECIALLY THE STATES TO SHOW US WHAT

THEY HAVE DONE.

FOR NOW, THERE SEEMS

TO BE NOTHING ON GROUND TO SHOW THEIR COMMITTMENT TO THE PROGRAMME development, public works and vocational training.”

The masses expected to benefit from the various schemes think differently.

Their contention is that they have not yet benefited from the schemes despite huge sums that managers claimed to have committed into their execution in various parts of the nation. Feelers from different states, especially non Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), states showed that not much have been done to enable the people enjoy the benefit of the programme. Take Osun State which is controlled by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as an example. The government is said to have rejected the SURE-P programme as a PDP programme.

This, it was learnt has degenerated into conflict between the parties. For instance, The Chairman of the Osun State Implementation Committee on SURE-P,

Dr Bayo Faforiji is said to have accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of non commitment to the programme. Some people have also accused managers of the programme of favouring PDP candidates.

The Communication Officer of SURE-P in the state, Tewogbade Latona, Faforiji is said to have dismissed the allegation.

Faforiji, who called for the cooperation of stakeholders, especially governors stated that: “Such gesture was germane to the successful implementation of the intervention programmes in the respective states.”

He is said to have added that: “Some states are not giving SURE-P enough public awareness in their domain yet they draw huge amount of money every month from the proceeds from the subsidy removal. Some states deliberately kept mute about the gains accruing from partial fuel subsidy removal. Many Ni-

gerians are not aware of the fact that state and local governments appropriate funds from subsidy removal on a monthly basis and that the federal government is ploughing back its own portion into the various state and the local governments through SURE-P.” A member of the SURE-P Committee, Mr. Sam Ohuabunwa, who went round many parts of the country to inspect the projects, told National Mirror in a telephone interview that the Federal Government has done a lot, but the states have not done much to justify the huge funds at their disposal.

He said, “We need to compell some stakeholders, especially the states to show us what they have done. For now, there seems to be nothing on ground to show their committment to the programme.”

Ohuabunwa stated that: “While the Federal Government is utilising its 41 per cent share of savings from subsidizing petrol, nothing seems to be on ground to justify the shares accruing to states and local governments and only the central government’s action cannot bring visible relief to Nigerians.“ From all indications, there is a need for Federal Government’s intervention so as to rescue the programme from stagnation.

‘Skills acquisition, tool for development of mining industry’ CHIDI UGWU ABUJA

I

n a bid to keep abreast with modern technology in the mining industry, Federal Government has reiterated its resolve to constantly expose professionals in the sector to constant training in order to make the minerals and metals sector vibrant.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Musa Mohammed Sada reiterated the need for acquisition of effective skills through training saying that embracing modern technology would help develop and position Nigeria’s mining industry as a major revenue earner.

Sada was speaking at a two -day Professional Development and Training Workshop in the Solid Minerals Sector organised recently by the Nigerian Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientists in collaboration with Geoprobe Limited.

Sada said that acquisition of relevant skills through regular professional

training programmes for practitioners would result to a vibrant mining industry in Nigeria.

In order to realise that vision, the Federal Government is prepared to continuously expose professionals in the minerals and metals sector to such training programmes within and outside the country.

Sada said that the Nigerian Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientists is mandated by the Vision 20:2020 and the transformation agenda of the present administration to facilitate the establishment of professional training programmes for its practitioners aimed at imparting current world best practices, adding that it was in fulfillment of that mandate that the training programme was organied.

The minister noted that the minerals and metals sector was faced with some challenges which include: inability of mining operators to access project financing arising from lack of acceptable bankable feasibility study reports; inadequate processing of min-

erals won which leads to lower realisable revenues for both the operators and government; inadequate compliance with the requirements of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007 as well as the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Regulations of 2011; a low technology operated sector with low output and low mineral recoveries.

The minister said that through the training programme, the participants would be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to overcome the challenges militating against the development of the minerals and metals sector. Consequently, he urged the participants to make the best use of the training programme.

Chairman of the Nigerian Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientists, Chief Chamberlain Oyibo in his remarks, said that the council is mandated to commence professional training programmes for its members which is aimed at improving professionalism in the Extractive industry to facilitate human capacity develop-

ment to enable the country provide at least 50 per cent of skilled manpower required for all segments of the Extractive industry, especially the Solid Minerals sector.

Oyibo disclosed that the Nigerian Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientists is mandated by Act.No.40 of 1990 to regulate and control the practice of Mining Engineering and Geosciences in all ramifications.

The chairman said that the Council had noted the need to regularly organize induction, basic and advanced professional courses for its practicising members in the Nigerian Extractive industry.

Also, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Linus Awute who was represented by the Director of Human Resources Development in the Ministry, Mr. Igwe Eleke said that the training workshop came at a time when efforts were being made in the ministry to build the capacities of professionals in the minerals and metals sector.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Energy Week

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

37

OPEC daily basket price stands at $107.20 per barrel Oil slumped after the budget talks dissolved. President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the key negotiators, are out of town for Christmas; the Capitol was deserted on Monday, and the Treasury Department was closed. Congress returns from recess later this week, just days before the January 1 deadline.

Even as the cliff looms, Brent crude has yet to test the $106-$107 region that has provided key technical support since September, with many traders doubting that lawmakers will risk the fragile U.S. economy tipping again into recession.

“Although the magnitude of Friday’s sharp selloff suggests that the market is pricing in a lack of fiscal cliff agreement by year’s end, we still feel that some type of last-minute resolution will be forthcoming,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based Ritterbusch & Associates, wrote in a note.

Some investors are now looking at a stop-gap that puts everything off for a while as the most promising alternative. Such a fix may help delay the spending cuts and tax hikes further into 2013 as well as work to address in a long-term way a budget that has generated deficits exceeding $1 trillion in each of the last four years.

UDEME AKPAN WITH AGENCY REPORT

T

he price of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OPEC), basket of 12 crudes stood at $107.20 dollars a barrel over the weekend, compared with $107.10 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

This means that the foreign exchange for 2012 budget execution would end on a positive note as the current price is still in excess of budget reference price of $72 per barrel.

Available data showed that oil prices largely recovered early losses but still closed a hair lower this year as a late gasp of holiday-thinned buying failed to counter fears that the United States “fiscal cliff ” budget crisis could erode oil demand in the world’s top consumer.

Reuters stated that with no apparent talks to avert the year-end budget

Alison-Madueke

deadline that will trigger harsh spending cuts and tax hikes, oil tracked equity markets slightly lower for most of the session, with trading volume less than one-fifth the norm. Markets closed early and will be shut for Christmas.

The agency stated that Brent crude staged a light rally into the close, shaking off earlier losses of more than 80 cents to settle at $108.80, down 17 cents on the day.

U.S. oil settled 5 cents lower at $88.61, down 10 percent on the year. U.S. equity markets dipped marginally, while the dollar was little changed.

Manitoba moves to make TCN technically sound UDEME AKPAN

M

anitoba has started the process of making Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), to become more technically sound company with ability to transmit sufficient electricity for consumption in the nation.

This, it was learnt would involve losses and maximising power supply to consumers in all parts of the nation.

Manitoba stated that: “MHI expects to turn TCN into a technically and financially efficient, stable, and sustainable company; a company that will be marketdriven and capable of utilising its maximum generation capacity and then distributing the energy throughout Nigeria 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

The firm stated that it would focus more on developing local content to accomplish such aspiration.

Meanwhile, the nation has succeeded in transmitting 4,517.6 megawatts, of electricity for consumption. This being

the highest in recent times raises hope for improved supply in many parts of the nation during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

TCN that confirmed the development said the feat was recorded on Sunday. The firm, presently managed by Manitoba International of Canada stated that: “TCN efficiently wheeled yet a new generation peak of 4,517.6 mw Sunday, December 23, 2012.”

The Assistant General Manager (Public Affairs), Mr. Dave Ifabiyi stated that the feat is in fulfillment of Mr. President’s promise for improved electric power delivery to Nigerians.

Ifabiyi said before then the nation’s transmission stood at 4,502.2 mw as at Friday, December 21, 2012.

He said that this new generation peak of 4,502.2mw is an improvement on the 4,454.1mw attained on Wednesday, 19th December, 2012 and assured that as gas supply continues to improve and more National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP come on stream, the transmission and distribution companies will continue to harness every

available generation to ensure that stable electricity supply is delivered to electricity customers.

Ifabiyi said the Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Olusola Akinniranye has assured that TCN would not relent in its efforts to continue to strengthen the transmission grid, noting that efforts are presently ongoing to restore the Benin-Egbin 330kV line as well as complete the new transmission – distribution interface projects which will further enhance the company’s power evacuation capacity.

TCN appealed to all citizens of the nation to continue to partner with her in protecting electricity installations nationwide.

The need to forestall any act of vandalism, it said, is vital in the transmission and sustenance of power generated, as vandalism constitutes major setback in the improvement of power supply situation in the country. Jubilee makes produces 90,000 bpd.

MHI that was awarded a management contract stated that: “The operation of TCN includes, but is not limited to, the key three functions of Market Operator (MO), System

Energy & Oil Prices

Source: Bloomberg

OIL ($/bbl) Nymex Crude Future Dated Brent Spot WTI Cushing Spot

PRICE*

CHANGE

% CHANGE

TIME

85.95 111.01 85.54

0.41 0.90 -0.74

0.48% 0.82% -0.86%

07:42 07:52 10/29

PRICE*

CHANGE

% CHANGE

TIME

310.55 275.30

-0.97 -0.38

-0.31% -0.14%

07:37 07:41

OIL (¢/gal) Nymex Heating Oil Future Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future

NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)

PRICE*

CHANGE

% CHANGE

11:19

New York City Gate Spot

3.77 3.43 3.57

-0.03 0.09 0.11

-0.84% 2.69% 3.18%

07:43 10/29 10/29

ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)

PRICE*

CHANGE

% CHANGE

TIME

% CHANGE

09/24

Nymex Henry Hub Future Henry Hub Spot

Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot

32.95 35.23

-0.40 -0.76

-1.20% -2.11%

10/26 10/29

BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON

30.25

2.04

7.23%

10/26

Source: Oilprice.com

Operator (SO), and Transmission Service Provider (TSP).

It stated that throughout the term of the contract, one key objective for MHI will be to reorganize TCN such that the TSP becomes a separate entity from the MO and SO allowing it to become a privatized commercial company.

MHI promised to turn TCN into a technically and financially efficient, stable, and sustainable company; a company that will be market-driven and capable of utilizing its maximum generation capacity and then distributing the energy throughout Nigeria 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi said the improved transmission and supply was targeted at meeting consumers, demand in different parts of the nation.

He said electricity consumers are important stakeholders in the scheme of things concerning the power industry. They are to be protected from the service provider.

Amadi assured that NERC is determined to achieve adequate, reliable, safe and affordable electricity in line with international best practice in electricity service delivery.

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Energy Week

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Review of oil market in 2012, outlook for 2013

WAGP maintenance to be completed

he first quarter of this year witnessed a significant increase in the value of OPEC Reference Basket. The upward push was driven by a number of factors, including supply disruptions in the North Sea and some countries in West and East Africa, supply fears due to geopolitical tensions, and increasing speculative activities in the crude futures markets. By the end of the quarter, the Basket’s value had reached over $120/b.

In the second quarter, prices fell below $100/b, as ample supply and concerns about the gloomy economic outlook, particularly in the Euro-zone, outweighed any lingering supply fears, leading to a speculative sell off.

However, in the third quarter, the Basket bounced back to around the $110/b level, where it currently remains. While the world economy experienced another year of deceleration in 2012, some indicators are pointing to a tentative recovery in the second half of the year and this momentum is likely to be carried over into 2013. The main support comes from the improving economy in the United States, which has been lifted by some advances in the labour and the housing markets.

Moreover, the contraction in the Euro-zone has been less-than-expected in the 3Q12.

With the most recent initiatives helping to foster growth, the Euro-zone could potentially return to growth in the coming year, although this might prove challenging. However, Japan is the main economy in the OECD that is forecast to continue decelerating significantly in 2013, although the economy could also benefit from renewed momentum in its largest trading partners. Meanwhile, the major emerging economies appear to have engineered a soft landing in 2012 and growth levels should be at higher levels in the coming year.

China, and to some extent India, are particularly expected to benefit from improving world trade in 2013.

As a result, the coming year could see an end to the deceleration in the world economy, with growth of 3.2per cent, compared to growth of 3.0per cent in the current year (Graph 1). However, many uncertainties remain.

The most important will be avoiding the fiscal cliff in the US, further decisions on austerity issues in the Euro-zone, and balancing the need to reduce the fiscal debt burden while stimulating growth in Japan. In the emerging economies, it remains to be seen how domestic demand will be improved, given the likely continuation of low growth in their main exporting markets in the developed world.

The forecast for global oil demand in 2012 has seen ongoing downward revisions to currently stand at 0.8 mb/d. Unlike in the previous year, the downward revisions in oil demand growth were not confined to the OECD, but also came from China and India. In contrast, Japan’s shut down of almost all its nuclear power plants led the country to rely more heavily on other types of energy. Japanese oil use in power plants increased from 7.5percent of the total energy consumption in the previous year to 19.7per cent.

Similarly, India’s oil demand was boosted by the massive electricity shut-down and summertime flooding. World oil demand growth in 2013 is expected to remain at 0.8 mb/d. However, weakness in the global economy is causing a great deal of uncertainty for the forecast for world oil demand, which has a downward risk, especially in the first half of the year. A large amount of this risk can be attributed not only to the OECD but also to China and India.

The forecast for non-OPEC supply growth in 2012 also experienced downward revisions to stand at 0.5 mb/d. Since the start of the year, non-OPEC supply has suffered various setbacks due to technical, geological, weather and geopolitical factors. North America is leading the supply growth in 2012, while OECD Western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East are driving the decline. In 2013, non-OPEC production

STORIES: UDEME AKPAN

T

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

T

he hope of gas consumers in West Africa to take delivery of natural gas from Nigeria seems to wane as the pipeline rehabilitation may not be completed till next year.

Investigations showed that the maintenance work would not likely be completed again this year following increased volume of work that still has to be done.

A source close to the firm who confirmed the development said: “It is not likely that the pipeline rehabilitation would be completed in December 2012 as earlier planned. A lot still needs to be done.”

He said the maintenance may be completed in the first quarter of 2013 if efforts are made to solve some undisclosed problems.

This means that the major consumers of the product such as Ghana, Togo and Benin may have to think of substitutes that abound in their environments.

The Managing Director of WAPCo, Mr. Charles Adeniji remarked in Lagos that: “The WAGP was broken into two parts on August 28, 2012 when a vessel dragged anchor over the pipeline at the Lome T- junction. WAPCo has identified the location and the magnitude of the damage. Damaged pipe joints have been removed and are in the process of replacing them.”

Adeniji said divers have removed the damaged pipe joints for disposal while the remaining pipe ends have been aligned back to their original positions.

He said construction barge was hired on Septem-

Adeniyi

ber 24, 2012 while a team was mobilised on September 28, equipped with crane, welders, pipe and machines.

6 Pipe joints loaded on the barge.

On completion, Adeniji explained that: “Line scraper, called “pigs” will be inserted into and launched at one end of the line to remove water which will be received at the other end. Adeniji said: “Compressed gas

Oando to fund ConocoPhillips deal with debt, equity

O

ando Plc has concluded plans to fund its $1.79 billion purchase of ConocoPhillips’ local unit through a sale of debt and shares.

After paying a cash deposit of $435 million, Oando plans to raise the balance of $1.36 billion through private placements, a share sale and an $800 million loan from local and international lenders, it said in a statement. “This will be a transformational transaction,” Wale Tinubu, chief executive officer of the Lagosbased company, said in the statement. Oando is seeking to become one of Nigeria’s top oil explorers and producers, he said.

Oando pumps 4,800 barrels of oil a day from its Abo and Ebendo fields. The Conoco assets give it about 43,000 barrels a day from onshore fields, 213 million barrels of oil-equivalent in proved and probable reserves, and a 17 percent equity stake in the proposed Brass liquefied natural gas project.

ConocoPhillips (COP) has been selling assets to raise cash for spending plans and to focus on more profitable businesses. Its latest divestment allows Oando to expand in Africa’s top oil- producing nation, which is dependent on crude exports for more than 90 percent of foreign income and about 80 percent of government

Tinubu

revenue.

Oando expects the transaction to close in the first half of next year. Oando had on 20th December 2012, announced that its affiliate Oando Energy Resources has entered into agreements with ConocoPhillips to acquire its entire business interests in Nigeria for a total cash consideration of $1.79billion plus customary adjustments.

Phillips Oil Company Nigeria Limited holds a 20per cent non-operating interest in Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 60, 61, 62, and 63 as well as related infrastructure and facilities in the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited Joint Venture.

The other partners are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with a 60per cent interest and NAOC (20per cent and operator); and Phillips Brass Limited, which holds a 17per cent shareholding interest in Brass LNG Limited, which is developing the Brass LNG project, a Greenfield project to develop a two-train, 10 million ton per year, Liquefied Natural Gas facility in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.

The other partners are NNPC (49%); Eni (17%) and Total (17%).

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

in 2013 or Nitrogen will be used to push the pig- Main line/ Laterals. As the pig travels, water in line will be pushed out, while the compressed gas or Nitrogen will dry the internal surface of the line.”

He said: “The amount of moisture in the gas/ nitrogen will indicate when the line is dried and when pigging can stop. After drying / inerting, the operating valves will be opened to flow, and gas will be introduced into the line and will commence gas transportation operations.”

Already, a construction barge has been hired to fabricate the replacement 6-pipe joint spools.

Adeniji said: “Concurrently, action plans are being developed for removing water and drying the main and the lateral lines after which gas will be introduced. We expect to commence operations before December 25, 2012. Shareholders have been responsive and supporting.”

The firm, which is the operator of the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) system, shut the pipeline system after experiencing a loss of pressure around the Lome segment of the pipeline.

Consequently, WAPCo stopped all gas deliveries to its onshore stations and is working closely with the government agencies and other relevant organisations to investigate the cause of loss of pressure and to ensure safety while rectifying the situation.

Total procures North Sea Forties Crude; Vitol fails to sell Urals

T

Energy Week

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

otal SA bought a cargo of North Sea Forties crude for less than a deal yesterday. Vitol Group failed to sell two lots of Russian Urals grade.

PT Pertamina, Indonesia’s state-owned oil company, is seeking to buy low-sulfur crude for delivery during March to its Balikpapan and Cilacap refineries, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News.

Vitol Group sold Forties lot F0104 at 25 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent to Total, a Bloomberg survey of traders and brokers monitoring the Platts pricing window showed. That compares with deal at a 60 cent premium in the previous session.

Reported crude trading typically occurs during the Platts window, which ends at 4:30 p.m. London time. Before the session, Forties loading in 10 to 25 days fell 17 cents to 58 cents more than Dated Brent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Brent for February settlement traded at $108.77 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London at the close of the window, compared with $109.81 in the previous session. The March contract was at $107.95, a discount of 82 cents to February.

Platts said it will leave the discount for Forties cargoes with a high sulfur content unchanged for next month.

Sellers will pay 35 cents a barrel for every 0.1 percentage point of sulfur over that limit in January, unchanged for a fourth month, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.

Vitol offered 140,000 metric tons of Mediterranean Urals crude at a 95 cent discount to Dated Brent on a delivered basis to Augusta, Italy, according to the Platts survey.

The company also failed to sell 100,000 tons of the grade at 50 cents less than Dated Brent on a delivered basis to Rotterdam, the survey showed.

The Urals differential to Dated Brent in the Mediterranean narrowed 5 cents to minus 25 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In northwest Europe, the discount to Dated Brent decreased 26 cents to 77 cents, the data showed.

OAO Surgutneftegas, Russia’s fourth-largest oil producer, issued a tender to sell two cargoes of Urals crude for loading next month from two Baltic Sea ports, according to two people with knowledge of the tender.

39

Local content policy implementation to save N91.3bn

T

he increased commitment of government to local content implementation is targeted to conserve N91.3 billion in the nation.

THE Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Ernest Nwapa who confirmed the development said that about $571 million (N91.3 billion), presently expended to patronize foreign goods and services would be conserved locally.

The Executive Secretary who was speaking at an event in Abuja said the nation would also benefit from the full implementation of the policy with the retention of oil and gas industry spending overseas.

He said the Board was implementing the Nigerian Content Act to end the era of job export and capital flight in the country.

Nwapa said the industry exported two million job opportunities and suffered an estimated capital flight of about $380 billion in the last 50 years.

He said that while an estimated $191 billion could be retained; 300,000 new job opportunities could be created in engineering, sciences and technical services to justify over 65 per cent of industry spending, which would be domiciled in the country.

The Managing Director of Total, Guy Maurice said that gas utilisation represents another opportunity that could make technology and competences available to Nigerians, with the policy implementation.

He stressed the need for active partnership between the investing companies, the Nigerian state, and the communities so as to derive maximum benefit from the influx of foreign investment into the country.

“Such partnerships would be enhanced through readiness of all parties to boldly listen and engage, mutually support, work inclusively to develop the society in sustainable ways. Nigeria can benefit from experiences from other lands, but Nigerians themselves would have to decide the pace, quantum, and impact they want the gas era to have in their nation. The best way forward is to redefine regulations that foster active engagement of all parties across the gas value-chain.”

In a communiqué issued at the end of the two day event, President of the association, Dr. Chima Ibeneche, said Nigeria was yet to fully exploit the available opportunities needed to achieve industrialisation through ex-

tensive domestic penetrations and development of gas based industries.

Although government had since embarked on an extensive gas network infrastructure across the country, issues relating to fiscal, financing, pricing and regulation were still major challenges to gas export, utilisation and penetration in the country’, he said.

The association therefore urged the Federal Government to engage the Organised Private Sector and other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector in a comprehensive, inclusive dialogue and negotiations on the contents, direction and intention of the PIB so as to address all differences and enact a law that will reflect national aspirations.

“Government should begin a reduction in its commercial participation in gas and power sectors and instead focus more regulatory supervision and the role of providing favourable environment needed to attract investors in the value chain.”

Nwapa

CSR: Total, France collaborate on educational development

A

joint scholarship scheme titled TEPNG/ Quai d’Orsay’, has been established between Total and the Embassy of France in Nigeria. Under the new programme, five Nigerians are to benefit from an annual scholarship sponsored by Total in collaboration with the French Embassy in Nigeria with effect from the 2012/2013 academic year.

The agreement to formalize the programme was signed at the French Embassy, Abuja recently between Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) and the Embassy. The Managing Director/ Chief Executive of TEPNG, Mr Guy Maurice signed for Total while the Ambassador of France, Jacques Champagne de Labriolle signed for the Embassy of France in Nigeria.

The programme started with a pilot scheme this year when a candidate was jointly selected and sponsored to study International Law in France.

The agreement makes provision for a four-man steering committee to manage the scheme on behalf of the parties.

The cost of each of the international scholarship is about 54,000euros. The benefits to be enjoyed by the selected beneficiaries amongst others include a sum to cover travel expenses, academic fees if in a private university or institution in France, living expenses for a period of 10 months (including food, housing costs and academic text or materials) and logistics support in obtaining necessary permits or visas for the selected students.

They also include Health insurance for each Beneficiary such as will give the Beneficiaries the “status” of French government scholarship’s beneficiaries and

the health care benefits associated with this status, 60 hours minimum language training in Nigeria for the selected students and school fees for Beneficiaries of selected into public universities in France.

“Understanding changes in your environment is not a matter of specialisation but a matter of personal balance and culture”, said Ambassador Champagne de Labriolle as he explained that the programme was borne out the need to contribute to the training of Nigerians in different fields. He thanked Total for its contributions to the development of the Nigerian society.

Also speaking, Maurice noted that such initiatives on the part of the company was a reflection of its confidence in the country and continuation of what it did in the past The Quai d` Orsay educational cooperation between Total and the French Embassy started in 2011 and already operates in other subsidiaries Total’s delegation to the event included the Executive General Manager, Corporate Services, Mr. Vincent Nnadi; Executive General Manager Public Affairs and Communication, Mr. Chidi Momah; Training & Development Manager, Mr. Sam Nkwo and Senior Legal Counsel Mr. Adesina Salawu.

The ambassador’s team included the Counsellor for Co-operation and Culture, Mr. Patrick Perez.

TOTAL has been collaborating with top rated institutions around the world as part of its contribution towards human capacity development in its host communities. It is the main sponsor of the Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS), a post graduate institution at the University of Port Harcourt run in collaboration with the prestigious Institute France du Petrole (IFP) France.

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Energy Week

Review of oil market in 2012, outlook for 2013 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 38 is expected to increase by 0.9 mb/d, supported by growth from North America, Africa, Eurasia, and Latin America, while OECD Western Europe is likely to see a continued decline. OPEC NGLs and non-conventional oils are expected to increase by 0.4 mb/d and 0.2 mb/d in 2012 and 2013.

Based on these projections, the growth in total non-OPEC supply including OPEC NGLs and non-conventional oils of around 1.1 mb/d is expected to outpace the increase in world oil demand growth in 2013. This would result in demand for OPEC crude averaging 29.7 mb/d in 2013, or around 0.4 mb/d less than the level estimated for the current year (Graph 2). Despite the considerable uncertainties affecting supply and demand in the market, and without underestimating the potential impact of non-fundamental factors, the improving economic outlook for the coming year should help support oil market stability.

In line with global crude oil prices, the monthly average price of the OPEC Reference Basket slipped for a second month in a row in November, despite a late-month improvement in the global figure. Lingering concern about the struggling world economy and its impact on oil consumption weighed on prices earlier in the month.

However, from mid-month on, the focus shifted back to concern about disruptions to Middle East supplies following a flare up of geopolitical tensions in the region. Furthermore, crude markets continued to balance up risks to demand from the United States‘ fiscal cliff‘($600 billion in automatic budget reductions and expiring tax cuts at the end of 2012) against concern about disruptions to Middle East supplies.

The Basket fell by $1.50 to settle at a monthly average of $106.86/b in November, i.e. down 1.38per cent, but remained above the key $105/b level. Year-todate, the Basket averaged $109.76/b, compared with last year‘s average of $107.44/b for the same period, a y-o-y increase of $2.32/b or 2.15 per cent.

Eni-Anadarko to be world’s second-largest LNG plant

E

ni SpA and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation have agreed to build the world’s second-largest liquefied natural gas plant in Mozambique to start exporting fuel in 2018.

Italy’s largest oil company and Anadarko will coordinate development of gas fields and cooperate in the construction of the plant in the Cabo Delgado province of northern Mozambique, which could have an eventual capacity of about 50 million tons a year, The Woodlands, Texas-based Company said today in a statement. That would make it the largest LNG plant outside Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of the fuel.

Mozambique’s offshore fields may hold as much as 250 trillion cubic feet of gas, enough to meet world consumption for more than two years, according to national oil company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

World Bank pledges support for NEITI STORIES: UDEME AKPAN

T

he World Bank has expressed its determination to provide support to enable the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI succeed in the implementation of aspirations.

The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Africa Region Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly who paid a courtesy the new Chair of NEITI Ledum Mitee with a promise to assist the agency meets some of its challenges.

The Country Director who was at the NEITI Secretariat in company of the Lead Economist John Litwack, the Procurement Consultant Chief Bayo Awosemusi, and Amanda Lumun Feese, the Extractive Industries Specialist, all of the World Bank Country Office Abuja said the assistance was in line with the Bank’s commitment to promoting transparency and accountability in the world.

The country director promised to specifically assist NEITI in the conduct of a Scoping Study on the extractive revenue streams to the various tiers of government from the Federation Account.

This study becomes very imperative in view of NEITI’s determination to urgently conduct a resource allocation, disbursement and utilisation audit in 2013.

The bank will also consider the request of NEITI to assist in the conduct of a

Mitee

study on the metering infrastructure in the oil and gas sector; the lack of an authentic study in this regard has deprived the nation of huge revenues in taxes and royalty calculations.

Other areas of support promised by the World Bank include the provision of a strategic analysis of NEITI’s 2009-2011 oil and gas industry report to be released shortly and collaborating with NEITI to see that the Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) undertakes measures to resolve several pending remediation issues contained in NEITI audit reports.

The NEITI chair, in company of the Executive Secretary and other management staff expressed gratitude to the Country Director and her team for the visit and assured them of NEITI’s full cooperation.

Meanwhile, NEITI has published the first EITI audit in the solid mineral sector covering fiscal years 2007 to 2010.

The nation has sizeable amounts of gold, aluminum, lead, and copper, but the sector is largely informal and is characterized by artisan miners, medium scale operators and illegal miners. Therefore most of the government income arises from the quarry, cement and construction sector.

The solid minerals audits reveal that the government of Nigeria has collected an average of almost $100 million per year. This compares to almost $60 billlion received from the oil and gas sector in 2008 (the last report). Corporate tax paid by mostly quarry and construction companies accounted for 95per cent of collected revenues with royalties representing a further 4 percent.

Mirroring the findings of NEITI audits in the oil and gas sector over the past ten years, this mining audit identified significant weaknesses in the management of the sector. These included inadequate record-keeping of titles and tax payer’s registration, lack of production data, obsolete price references in tax calculations, and the absence of a suitable mining tax regime.

These flaws, the report asserts, imply that the Federal Government is losing revenues. The report contains a wealth of recommendations for the improvements in the way the sector is taxed and revenues are collected.

Chevron to acquire interest in the Kitimat LNG project

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hevron Corporation has declared interest that its Canadian subsidiary, Chevron Canada Limited, will acquire a 50 percent operating interest in the Kitimat liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and proposed Pacific Trail Pipeline (PTP), and a 50 percent interest in approximately 644,000 acres of petroleum and natural gas rights in the Horn River and Liard Basins in British Columbia, Canada.

“The Kitimat LNG development is an attractive opportunity that is aligned with existing strategies and will drive additional long-term production growth and shareholder returns,” said George Kirkland, vice chairman, Chevron Corporation.

“This investment grows our global LNG portfolio and builds upon our LNG construction, operations and marketing capabilities. It is ideally situated to meet rapidly growing demand for reliable, secure, and cleaner-burning fuels in Asia , which are projected to approximately double from current levels by 2025.”

Under the terms of the agreements, Chevron Canada Limited will acquire all of the interests currently owned by affiliates of EOG Resources Canada Inc. and Encana Corporation in the proposed Kitimat LNG Project and PTP. Thereafter, Chevron Canada Limited will equalize interests with an Apache Corporation subsidiary, resulting in Chevron Canada Limited and Apache each holding a 50 percent interest in both the Kitimat LNG Project and PTP. Operatorship of both facilities will transfer to Chevron Canada Limited .

The proposed two-train Kitimat LNG

Project, currently progressing through the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase, has a Canadian National Energy Board license to export 10 million tons per annum of LNG. Additionally, Chevron Canada Limited will acquire approximately 110,000 net acres in the established Horn River Basin from Encana, EOG and Apache, and approximately 212,000 net acres in the Liard Basin from Apache. Chevron Canada Limited and Apache will each hold a 50 percent interest and Apache will operate these two natural gas resource developments.

The agreements are subject to regulatory reviews.

Gary Luquette, president, Chevron North America Exploration and Production, said, “This investment by Chevron Canada Limited captures significant resource and acreage in proven and emerging natural gas basins in Canada, and is a key opportunity to expand our overall North America exploration and production portfolio. It will enable our North America op-

LNG plant

erations to play an increasingly important role in Chevron’s global growth.”

Jeff Lehrmann , president, Chevron Canada Limited, said, “We look forward to working with the Governments of British Columbia and Canada, First Nations, and local communities to grow this development, realise the project’s long-term economic potential, and open new markets for Canadian natural gas.”

Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide.

The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

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Executive Discourse

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

‘We‘re lucky with security in

Mr Adebayo Babatunde is the Chief Executive Officer of Scope Centre Limited, a firm that provides security technologies and training for the country’s aviation industry and some neighbouring countries such as Ghana and Liberia. In this interview with OLUSEGUN KOIKI, he speaks extensively on the performance of Nigerian aviation industry in 2012, level of Aviation Security (AVSEC) and the roles of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), among others. Excerpts: What is your assessment of the Nigeria’s aviation industry in 2012?

When we look at an industry in a particular year, you will want to balance your review by segmenting them so that you can effectively capture fairly some of the parts that are needed to be covered. We would look at the industry from the economic point of view, safety point of view and security.

Let’s start from the airline sub-sector; I’m not sure any discerning observer would accept that it was a good year for the airline industry in Nigeria. As at January this year, we still had Air Nigeria, but today, it has suspended its operations. In January this year, Dana Air was still flying and for a reason we all know, it stopped flight operations. Although, they have told us that they are coming back, but as I’m still talking to you now, they are yet to fly. Other smaller airlines like First Nation, Chanchangi have all gone within the year. Now, very few airlines are in the air. From the Nigeria airline industry point of view, it’s not a great year.

Reasons are not far-fetched; cost of funds in this environment is prohibitive. The airlines can not borrow money under the commercial banking in Nigeria. Long term funds at 25, 26 and 27 per cent are not feasible for the airline industry. So, the idea of soft loans for the airlines is overdue.

Secondly, economic oversight of the airlines, which presently is part of the statutory functions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), I think, deserves to be reviewed. In other climes, the civil aviation authorities have the sole mandate of overseeing safety and security. They have that mandate to focus on issues relating to safety and security of the aviation industry. That does not allow for any economic compromise.

In a situation where the safety police is also the economic police, leaves some gaps. So, going forward in the New Year, we expect a policy shift that will lead to an Act that will devolve the economic function away from the NCAA. Look for example in South Africa, its CAA is responsible for safety and security oversight, but there is an economic management committee that is set up under the civil aviation law that oversees all economic and service rendered. The same thing applies to United Kingdom where the monopoly, oversights all economic issues.

So, going forward in 2013, we expect this type of policy shift so that we can allow NCAA to fully concentrate on safety and oversight functions and this new body will be able to oversee economic issue of the airline thereby there will be no clash of interest.

Also, you are aware that in June this year, we had the unfortunate Dana Air crash with attendant tolls on the industry; perception wise and patronage wise.

The first thing that happens when there is a crash is that people are skeptical about the system, but I think confidence is coming back gradually and with a stricter safety oversight and control, we hope we can avoid such unfortunate accident in the future.

You are also aware that other crashes occurred within the year, the crash involving the governor of Taraba State and the recent one involving the former National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi and governor of Kaduna state, Mr. Patrick Yakowa.

It is difficult to situate the last one because that is military aviation and military aviation is not controlled by the civil aviation regime, but we expect that there should be minimum standard for all aircraft that fly on our sky because whether military or civil, they are all operating in the same sky and they use the same facilities provided by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

If they use facilities provided by NAMA and they are not subjected to civil control, there is a vacuum

somewhere. So, we have to find a balance to resolve the gap between military aviation and civil aviation. That is briefly about the airlines.

You have talked extensively about the airline sub-sector, what can you say about the airports and infrastructure?

Here, it is a matter of what you can see on ground, a lot of achievement was recorded this year in the upgrade of airports and aerodromes. 11 of them were remodelled. The ambience looks good, but what we are about to test is the efficiency of the facilities on ground. We expect that the facilities would match the aesthetic of the building because the airport building is not just the major issue, but the aesthetics; it’s a combination of the conveyor belts, security equipment and all the other things that make a good airport work.

If I look at the airport infrastructure, I will score the government high because what we have on ground are now the resemblance of what you see in other civilised environments and we will encourage them to extend these facilities to other airports in the country. While this is going on, we would also expect that the equipment and the facilities provided in these new airports meet international standards so that we don’t have beautiful airport buildings, but terrible services provided.

The other thing I would like to talk about is the status of our airports, I’m not aware that there is any amendment yet to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Act. Presently, the FAAN Act presumes that all airports in Nigeria are owned by the Federal Government and are managed by FAAN. Except for some aspects of civil aviation authority Act, which mentioned something about private development, there should be an airport Act that states clearly the ownership, roles, functions and responsibilities of the airports such that the private development that we are having now being spearheaded by State Governments and private companies would be adequately covered under the Act. If you look at what we have today, it is just FAAN and aviation development has gone beyond that. Akwa Ibom State government owns an airport, it doesn’t belong to the Federal Government, Asaba Airport is owned by Delta State, Osubi is owned by Shell, Mobil owns Eket Airstrip and many others.

So, we need a new airport Act that will clearly state the roles of government and private sector in airport ownership. It will also help us to address the situation of airport security. Once you have a new airport Act that states that airports are owned by different segments in the society, you will also need to clearly identify where airport security belongs to.

But looking at the current situation, it is not good for airport security to go out of the government, even the Transport Security Administration (TSA) in America is operated by the American Government.

So, you now have a scenario where the airport Act will clearly show where security belongs.

What do you have to say on aviation security in 2012?

I think so far we’ve been lucky that no major security breach has happened in any of our airports despite the volatility of the environment. The security operatives can claim credit for it whether rightly or wrongly, but the fact is that as we are reviewing the airport infrastructure, we also need to review most of our security architecture and all aspects of the airport security. When I say all aspects, that will include a security programme; National Airport Security programme, it is supposed to be a function derivable from a comprehensive airport security risk assessment.

It is also part of the safety management system of the airport, every two or three years, you must review the security of your airport because the security profile of each of the airport differs. The airport profile

Babatunde

WE NEED A NEW AIRPORT

ACT

THAT WILL CLEARLY STATE THE ROLES OF GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECTOR IN AIRPORT OWNERSHIP of Lagos is different from that of Maiduguri and Maiduguri is different from Port Harcourt while Port Harcourt is equally different from Abuja. When you are talking about the security profile of an airport, you are going to know that our profile five years ago is not the same today. Therefore, as threat levels change, we need to do periodic security risk assessment. This will throw up all issues that need to be addressed from access control to human functions to training and others. We need to do a comprehensive risk assessment of our various airports as we are upgrading the infrastructure so that we can address threat issues that are arising.

Aviation industry globally is a dynamic one with changes in equipment and technologies, so far, what is your impression on technologies on ground in Nigeria?

This is a very sensitive question, but I will tell you here that we need to also upgrade our technolo-

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Executive Discourse

Nigeria’s aviation sector’ ONE OF THE MAJOR PROBLEMS OF ACCESS CONTROL IS FAMILIARITY.

FAMILIARITY BRINGS PROBLEM, BUT

TRAINED PROFESSIONALS WOULD INSIST ON DOING THE RIGHT THING.

SO, WE NEED

TO PROFESSIONALISE OUR AVIATION SECURITY

gies and equipment in use by our personnel. Before now, you won’t abhor the thought of somebody carrying a bottle of water and that bottle of water is a bomb, we’ve gotten to that level. Before now, nobody will think that the ink cartridge could be a weapon of mass destruction, but such is the situation today in the globe. Therefore, we need to address technologies that will assist us in detecting all these threats. Mind you, the best brains are even among the terrorists.

That is why they can even improvise anything, they couple up a few things and it becomes a bomb. Things you and I don’t even know. A terrorist is somebody who is working a year ahead of you.

As the threat level develops, you need to upgrade your technologies; otherwise solutions of yesterday cannot be adequate for tomorrow. Of course, international aviation also compels us to upgrade our technologies. Take for instance, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US made it compulsory that effective from December 2012, all couriers, cargoes going to aircraft and are US bound must be screened by explosive detectors and they have a list of approved explosive detectors.

I’m also aware that within the next one year, all cargoes, baggage going into aircraft to the US and Europe must be screened by dual view instrument. What we have presently are single view equipment, but the dual view equipment are more intelligent and they have capacity to even point out where threats are. So, international civil aviation compels us to upgrade in

some instances. We will be looking at a very busy year in 2013 when we will need to upgrade our technologies to meet up with the international standards.

In terms of the soft elements of security, it is said that no matter how much investment you make on technologies, if you don’t address the soft issues, which is the human element, it is all a waste. When you are addressing the human elements, you have to start from foundation, what kind of personnel do you have manning the technologies? Did you do comprehensive background screening before you gave them employment? Because if you employ a fundamentalist with the best technologies, it wont work. If this fundamentalist has some grievances against any government policies or he’s religious bias or whatever, then, you could have a compromise.

Also, if you have people with crooked past, you are also in trouble. This is not isolated to Nigeria alone, even in the US, it happens. I read a story of a TSA operative who overtime has fleeced passengers of over $800, 000 before he was finally arrested. So, you have these characters everywhere. It is important that not only do we employ sharp people, but also employ people that are fit to perform the task of aviation security, people that their backgrounds have been checked severally and not found wanting.

As aviation security expert, can you conveniently say Nigerian security personnel are in tune with latest security devices in the globe?

Having done that, training is critical as you invest in new technology, you must also invest in training the manpower, train them on how to use the new technologies, you train them on how to detect new trends of threats and you train them on how to manage crises when they arise. It is also important that personnel working at the airports receive basic security training about how to report, how to provide information when a breach is imminent and train them on how to avoid abandoned baggage and how to administer emergencies when the need arises. These are all essential training for non-security staff at the airport.

Generally speaking, the focus of the industry this year has been on infrastructure replacement where we have done very well, but we must look beyond just the façade, the beautiful airports that we have and begin to address issue of security and technology in the country What is your impression of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) in 2012?

Looking at the airspace, NAMA said it has completed the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project and so far, I think it is working well and of course the airspace area is subjected to technology improvement, we have gone fully digital now and therefore, the air traffic control will not just be by voice, but now more of data presentation. We have to assist them too on how to operate well.

There is also a lot of money that they can make from it, if they are adequately improved, they can provide these services for our nearby African countries. I’m aware that the South African air navigation services provide these functions for so many countries even up to South America, that is also a major source of income for them and it is possible for us here in the country.

Generally, 2012 has been a mixed bag no matter how much progress you make, once there are fatalities, it erodes it. Therefore, we should look at policies and investments that will minimise economic destruction and fatality to human lives in the forthcoming year.

There have been security breaches at the airport recently and some of them involved security officers attached to the airport, what can be done to curb this in 2013?

When I was speaking earlier, I mentioned the soft issues and I said there is a need to do a comprehensive data screening of the operatives so that you don’t employ criminals as security men.

It is unfortunate that FAAN operative that was trying to help someone to launder money abroad was trying to make some money from illegal transaction. That is a criminal case. I’m not sure there was a comprehensive background screening of such person before he was employed and if it was done, it would be an exception. There was a similar case in the North and such happens outside the country also. There are criminals in the bag, but it is critical that we set up a system through which we ensure that those we employ as security operatives are properly screened.

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On the issue of stowaway, it also has to do with human efforts because I expect that there are cameras in strategic places around the airport most especially the airside and there are people in the control rooms who are supposed to monitor these cameras such that if there are any movements, such can be exposed immediately.

There are also patrol teams going round the perimeter of the airport, if they were doing their work correctly, I’m not sure this would have happened. So, it calls to question the same soft issue that we were talking about earlier.

There was a particular issue about four or five years ago where an operative that was monitoring the cameras on a Saturday evening and focus one of the cameras on a television trying to watch a football match. When this fellow was questioned, he didn’t know the implication of what he was doing. There is a need to train and retrain our operatives not only on how to detect, but they also need to know the implications of what they are doing.

One of the major problems of access control is familiarity. Familiarity brings problems, but trained professionals would insist on doing the right thing. So, we need to professionalise our aviation security.

The Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), operators of MMA2 is having some issues with the Federal Government on its contractual agreement and recently, the Lagos State Government also said it wants to construct an airport on Lekki-Epe axis, do you see any legal battle in this?

Well, despite the agreement BASL had with the Federal Government on the construction of MMA2, if a state government decides to partake in an activity that will ease transport problem for its people in its environment and improve commerce and they can scale through the civil aviation requirement, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, but I have to say here that I don’t know what will happen in the future on this because I’m not a lawyer. However, I want to say a state as big as Lagos requires more than one airport.

London for instance has about five airports and Heathrow Airport alone has several terminals. So, that is the issue. This applies to other countries with multiple airports.

44

Global Business

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

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Draghi’s cash triggers unprecedented drop in bank lending stress

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uropean Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s $1.3 trillion of cheap loans and pledge to do whatever it takes to stand behind the euro helped push indicators of stress in the continent’s money markets down by an unprecedented degree this year.

The difference between the euro interbank offered rate and overnight index swaps, a measure of European banks’ reluctance to make unsecured loans to one another known as the Euribor-OIS spread, contracted a record 0.85 percentage point this year to 0.12 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Frankfurt-based ECB has lent financial institutions more than 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) under its longer-term refinancing operations since December and is committed to providing cheap, unlimited cash for lenders to boost the economy. Draghi’s pledge to stand behind the currency of the 17- nation euro area in July eased stresses in money markets, where banks fund their day-to-day business.

“The key catalyst behind this year’s contraction has been Mario Draghi and

Draghi

the ECB,” said Chris Clark, a Londonbased interest-rate strategist at ICAP Plc, the world’s largest interdealer broker. “First through the three-year LTROs and later with Draghi’s commitment to do whatever it takes and subsequent announcement of the outright monetary transactions.”

Euribor-OIS

BOJ’s $267bn JGB buys spur record win streak

Shinzo

J

apanese government bonds are headed for the longest run of annual gains on record, buoyed by central bank purchases almost equivalent to Malaysia’s economic output.

The bonds have returned 2.1 percent

on an annualized basis in 2012, set for a ninth year of gains that’s the longest streak since at least 1986, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index shows. Ten-year yields have declined 22 basis points to 0.76 percent. U.S. Treasuries are poised to post a third annual gain with a 2 percent return, while the benchmark rate has fallen 10 basis points.

The Bank of Japan (8301)’s JGB holdings increased 22.6 trillion yen ($267 billion) in 2012 as it sought to pump funds into a deflation-plagued economy that contracted for two quarters through September 30. With incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe planning a “large-scale” extra budget to bolster growth, analysts forecast the 10-year yield will rise to 0.99 percent by the end of 2013, a Bloomberg survey shows, which would still be the third lowest globally.

“Public-works spending will kick-start the economy” under an Abe administration, said Koichi Kurose, chief economist in Tokyo at Resona Bank Ltd., which oversees about $178 billion. “But the BOJ will increase asset purchases to keep a lid on borrowing costs.”

Spanish unemployment to swell as public jobs vanish

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erez de La Frontera, a Spanish town of 214,000 in southern Andalusia, is negotiating with unions to fire 13 percent of the 2,000 government workers who absorb 80 percent of its budget. “It’s not easy because these are people and families,” said deputy mayor Antonio Saldana.

With a quarter of Spain’s workforce already jobless, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s efforts to retain investor confidence by shaving more than twothirds off the nation’s budget deficit by 2014 will worsen the highest unemployment rate in the European Union. Tenyear yields at 6.86 percent mean “we can’t finance ourselves,” Rajoy said on September 1.

“There’s going to be less hiring and

more firing for the spending cuts to be made,” said Ricardo Santos, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London who sees unemployment climbing to 27 percent next year from 24.6 percent currently. “The more unemployment persists, the more difficult it’ll be for the government to meet budget goals and implement reforms.”

Television stations, airports, hospitals, schools, fire brigades and social services from Spain’s southernmost tip to the Balearic islands in the east are reducing headcount as Rajoy tasks regions and municipalities with shouldering 60 percent of the cuts needed to reduce the budget shortfall to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product in the next two years.

The Euribor-OIS spread narrowed from as much as 2.07 percent four years ago, and is now little more than twice its typical level before the financial crisis broke. The spread widened in 2011 and 2010 and this year’s contraction is poised to beat the 84.5 basis-point drop in 2009. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Low interest rates also helped spur a

drop in money-market stress indicators.

The ECB held its main refinancing rate at an all-time low of 0.75 percent on Dec. 6, a month after Draghi fueled speculation he would put reductions back on the agenda, saying the euro debt crisis was starting to hurt Germany and that inflation risks were “very low.”

While low interest rates were beneficial for banks’ borrowing costs, they meant trouble for money-market funds investing in Europe.

Because they’re designed to be haven investments that return members’ cash intact rather than make huge profits, the ECB’s zero-percent deposit rate, as well as the negative yields on some of the safest European government bonds, narrowed the field of investments for these funds.

Fidelity Worldwide Investment, an affiliate of the second- largest mutualfund company in the U.S., extended the average maturity of its holdings to boost yields earlier this year, while Ignis Asset Management Ltd. responded to the record-low interest rates by broadening its range of investments.

Merkel, Monti step up diplomacy as ECB comes in focus

E

uropean leaders are stepping up shuttle diplomacy this week as details of a bond-buying plan emerged from the central bank, fueling gains in the euro and a surge in some Spanish and Italian debt.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy traveled to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel today as Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti hosts French President Francois Hollande in Rome. They were given a hint about what may be in store when European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he would be comfortable buying three-year government bonds to aid nations struggling to fund themselves.

The stewards of the single currency, who have sparred as borrowing costs diverged in the 17 nation-euro area, have a chance to fall in line behind Draghi.

Merkel, whose country shoulders the largest cost of bailing out weaker governments, has indicated she would back a more active crisis-fighting role at the ECB and yesterday told a crowd of beer drinkers in Bavaria that Germany must show solidarity with Europe.

“I think there is broad agreement among these people,” said Luca Jellinek, head of European interest-rate strategy at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in London. “Many people are realizing that monetary policy is broken in Europe, badly broken.”

The euro traded near a two-month high against the dollar today, gaining 0.1 percent and adding 0.4 percent against the yen as of Monday in Rome. Italian and Spanish two-year yields dropped the most in about a month. In both countries, the two-year yield fell to the least on record relative to 10-year bonds.

Leaders are back from summer va-

cation and facing what Merkel called a “very ambitious agenda” this month to quell what has been a three-year sovereign debt crisis. Talks haven’t always gone smoothly, as Merkel and Monti clashed last week in Berlin over details while agreeing on the broad principles of collective action. Monti has pushed for flexibility on market intervention, while Merkel has focused on budget rigor.

“We have to press for reforms in other countries even if they sometimes say we’re hard-line,” Merkel said to a packed beer tent in the town of Abensberg, northeast of Munich. “It’s not enough just to keep muddling through. But I also say that in such a difficult phase these countries deserve our solidarity and that we root for them to overcome their difficulties.”

Merkel

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Global Business

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

T

he yen rallied from a 20-month low against the dollar on speculation that monetary easing bets had driven the Japanese currency down too rapidly.

The yen earlier weakened to the brink of 85 per dollar after Japan’s incoming prime minister said he may change the law governing the central bank unless it boosts its inflation target. Demand for the dollar was supported as investors sought the safety of the world’s reserve currency amid concern that U.S. lawmakers will fail to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Japan reopened after a holiday yesterday while most other markets are closed for Christmas.

“Dollar-yen rose to try 85 on the back of Abe’s comments, but it was sold off in front of key resistance levels,” said Michiyoshi Kato, the senior vice president of foreign-currency sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in Tokyo.

“The yen moves are probably caused by limited liquidity in the market.”

The Japanese currency touched 84.96 per dollar, the weakest since April

Yen rises from 20-month low on speculation drop overdone

Japanese yen banknotes

11, 2011, before trading at 84.85 Monday in Tokyo, 0.1 percent stronger than the New York close. It gained 0.1 percent to 111.86 per euro, following a 0.8 percent slide yesterday. The dollar was little

Japan’s fiscal impasse threatens stimulus to spur growth

J

apan’s political gridlock threatens to curtail the government’s ability to apply fiscal stimulus as a rebound falters in the world’s third-largest economy.

Opposition parties in the upper house of parliament stymied legislation approved in the lower house Aug. 28 that enables the issuance of 38.3 trillion yen ($490 billion) of deficit- financing bonds, seeking to force Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda into an early election. The government could hit a spending ceiling as soon as October, according to the Finance Ministry.

The freeze may suspend outlays from this year’s budget for the first time, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and limits Noda from proceeding with the supplementary spending package he mooted in July. With economists increasingly seeing an economic contraction this quarter, the deadlock adds to risks facing global expansion that include a so-called fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax increases in the U.S. at year-end.

“The impasse on deficit-covering bonds may delay the compilation of a stimulus package and would be a drag for the economy,” said Taro Saito, Tokyo-based director of economic research at NLI Research Institute and a past winner of a Japan Center for Economic Research award for accuracy in forecasting. “This is not as severe as the U.S. fiscal cliff but could be said to be Japan’s fiscal slope.”

Japanese stocks headed for a fourth day of declines, the longest losing streak in more than a month, on pessimism about the global expansion. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average was down 0.4 percent Monday in Tokyo. The yen was at 78.37 per dollar, about 4 percent from its postwar high, underscoring the threat to exporters of a strong currency.

Besides exchange-rate appreciation, Japan’s manufacturers are facing diminishing demand abroad, hurt by the European crisis, China’s slowdown and stunted

45

changed at $1.3183.

Shinzo Abe said on Fuji Television on Dec. 23 that he’ll consider revising the central bank law if the Bank of Japan (8301) fails to increase its inflation

Slowing Polish economy may force Tusk to ease budget cuts

P

Yoshihiko Noda

American growth. A government report yesterday showed capital spending rose 6.6 percent in the second quarter from a year before, less than the 7.8 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

Yesterday’s report spurred economists to cut forecasts for Japan’s second-quarter gross domestic product, initially reported at an annualized 1.4 percent gain. Officials may pare that calculation to 0.9 percent on September 10, according to the median of seven projections in a Bloomberg survey.

target to 2 percent from 1 percent at its January meeting. Abe has called for unlimited monetary easing from the BOJ to spur inflation and growth.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which swept to power in lower house elections this month, today reached an agreement with the New Komeito Party on a policy package that includes the 2 percent inflation goal. The LDP lacks a majority in the upper house, and backing from New Komeito increases the chance the package will become law.

Japan’s consumer prices excluding fresh food probably slid 0.1 percent in November from a year earlier, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey before the data on Dec. 28. The so-called core inflation rate has fallen an average of 0.2 percent every month in the past decade.

oland’s slowing economy is putting pressure on Prime Minister Donald Tusk to ease deficit cuts to avoid the fate of other European Union nations where austerity measures to tackle the debt crisis helped suffocate growth.

Tusk’s Cabinet met in Warsaw to discuss a revised 2013 budget after the economy expanded at the slowest pace in 11 quarters in the three months through June. While Poland will stick to a plan to cut the 2012 budget gap within the EU’s limit of 3 percent of output, the slowdown means its “ambitious goal for a 2.2 percent deficit next year is out of the question,” Maja Goettig, a member of Tusk’s Council of Economic Advisers, said by phone on August 31.

“Everyone, including markets, would understand and maybe even appreciate it, if the government avoided excessively harsh austerity for the sake of growth, which is now key to financial stability,” said Goettig, who’s also a Warsaw-based strategist at KBC Securities.

Tusk, the first Polish premier to serve a second term since communism ended in 1989, must weigh EU deficit demands

against concerns that further spending cuts may damp growth in the nation of 38 million people, whose GDP-per-capita is 40 percent below the 27-nation bloc’s average. While his Cabinet still enjoys broad support in polls, governments across Europe have collapsed after protests against austerity policies that helped plunge economies from Romania to Spain into recession.

Donald Tusk

Manufacturing in U.S. probably stagnated amid global slowdown

M

anufacturing probably teetered between growth and contraction in August, a sign the pillar of the recovery is now struggling, according economists surveyed before a report Monday.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index was little changed at 50 compared with 49.8 in July, according to the median estimate of 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between shrinking and expanding. Spending on construction projects probably rose in July, other figures may show.

The possibility that taxes will rise and government outlays will fall if U.S. lawmakers don’t act by January may shake confi-

dence and cause consumers and businesses to curb spending. The European debt crisis represents another stumbling block that threatens to limit orders to American factories.

“Domestic uncertainty and global weakness are both restraining growth in manufacturing,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

“It’s a weak sector of the economy right now. We don’t expect a lot of pickup in investment activity this year.”

The Tempe, Arizona-based ISM released the report Estimates ranged from 48.7 to 51.5. The group has said that an index (S15MACH) reading above 42.5, while signaling contraction in manufacturing,

is generally consistent with an expanding overall economy. The gauge averaged 55.2 in 2011 and 57.3 in 2010.

Other reports show manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy, weakened last month. Factory activity in the New York region contracted in August for the first time in 10 months, and production in the Philadelphia-area shrank for a fourth month, Federal Reserve reports showed.

The Institute for Supply ManagementChicago Inc.’s business barometer also fell in August, indicating manufacturer’s pace of expansion was slowing and that companies may hold the line on production until sales pick up.

46

Capital Market

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Only 17% of Nigeria’s economy reflected on NSE - Oteh JOHNSON OKANLAWON WITH AGENCY REPORT

T

he Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh has said that only about 17 per cent of Nigeria’s economy is reflected on the Nigerian capital market.

Oteh, who spoke to Bloomberg in Abuja on Monday pointed out that the commission has attempted to encourage listings and bring bigger trading volumes by introducing short selling, market making and securities lending this year.

She said that the country’s sold-off state power companies is required to list on the Exchange within five years, as the bourse

targets a $1trn market value by 2016.

“Within a five year period these companies will be expected to list. We cannot make the mistake that we made with telecoms” which were granted cellular licenses in 2001 and weren’t required to list their shares”, she said.

None of the main four telecommunications companies, including Africa’s largest operator MTN Group Limited, are listed on the Nigerian exchange.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s local unit, which is the West African country’s biggest private oil company, isn’t represented on the market either.

“They need to invest and invest aggressively, so I don’t even agree that

there’s sufficient cash flow that they need financing, but more importantly people can have empathy for these companies. We’ve had vandalisation of pipelines, we’ve had base stations being blown up. If people in those neighbourhoods had even one or two shares in these companies they would protect these base stations or pipelines like hawks.”

Oil theft and spills are common in Nigeria, where Shell said last month it removed 135 illegal connections from its pipelines in the first 10 months of the year. The country loses 150,000 barrels a day from theft, Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said last month.

Telephone companies,

including MTN, Bharti Airtel Limited and Emirates Telecommunications Corporation have had offices and transmission towers bombed and attacked since September in the country’s mostly Muslim north where the government is fighting an Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Also, she said that the Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange may be ready within 12 months.

“We’re prepared to give licenses to other people and we’ve had three companies approach us. If you don’t have a commodities Exchange you will not be able to leverage subsistence small-holder farmers and provide consistency in pricing and quality.

European shares end last session before Christmas flat

E

uropean shares closed provisionally lower in a thin last trading session before the Christmas break with investors opting to trim positions in the absence of a resolution to United States budget talks.

French, Dutch, Spanish and UK markets traded for only half the session while those in Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland were closed.

The FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 0.1 per cent, at 1,138.14 points, still just a few points shy of an 19-month high of 1,144.15 hit last week.

“There are very few people in the office and most of the business being done is trimming positions after some decent year-end gains,” a London-based trader said.

The euro zone’s blue chip Euro STOXX 50 index and France’s CAC 40, which are trading around 16-month highs, closed down 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

Spain’s IBEX finished up 0.1 per cent and Britain’s FTSE 100 index was up 0.2 percent; they are both at around 9-month highs.

Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said the march higher was largely

the result of investors betting U.S. policymakers will avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and that Europe’s debt crisis is abating.

After shunning European assets most of the year because of fears the crisis would lead to a break-up of the euro zone, investors have shown appetite for European stocks recently, according to EPFR Global data.

But momentum has been stalled by concerns over the talks between U.S. Democrats and Republicans to avoid around $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that could drag the world’s biggest economy

back into recession.

“Events last week highlight the yawning gap that still remains between the Republicans and Democrats and suggest that investor optimism may be misplaced,” Interactive Investor O’Keeffe said.

The majority of sectors ended in negative territory, but media shares managed a 0.3 per cent rise boosted by M&A activity at London-listed broadcaster ITV. ITV rose 0.6 percent after announcing the purchase of a 61.5 percent stake in U.S.-based Gurney Productions, which makes reality programmes

China stocks erase year’s losses as Yen drop drives Japan shares

C

hinese equities rose, with a benchmark gauge erasing losses this year, amid expectations for a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy. Japanese shares and rubber gained after the yen touched a 20-month low.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.3 per cent on Monday, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.5 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 1.4 per cent.

The yen rallied 0.2 per cent after falling to 84.96 per dollar earlier, the weakest since April 2011.

Rubber futures rose 1.6 per cent in Tokyo. Most markets in Europe are closed and the US is shut for the

Christmas holiday.

China is due to release figures this week on November profit for industrial companies, following a more-than 20 per cent earnings surge in October.

Japan’s incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with a coalition ally on a policy package that includes bold monetary easing to reach two per cent inflation.

Japanese consumer prices excluding fresh food slid last month, economists said before data this week.

“There are growing expectations that new leaders will take measures to reform the economy and the financial system will find China new growth drivers,” said Wang Zheng,

the Shanghai- based chief investment officer at Jingxi Investment Management Co., which manages $120m. “That’s why you see all these big-caps rallying today. The ongoing economic recovery is spurring the rebound as well.”

Almost three stocks rose for every one that fell on MSCI’s Asian gauge, with only energy shares down among the 10 main groups in the measure. Japan’s Topix Index, the nation’s broadest gauge of stocks, rose 0.6 per cent as Japanese markets reopened after a holiday.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.1 per cent as Taiwan’s Taiex Index gained 1.3 per cent.

Asian markets outside of

Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are closed. Russia’s Micex Index climbed 0.1 per cent, Turkey’s benchmark index increased 0.4 per cent, a second day of gains and the highest level since at least January 1988, according to data compiled

by Bloomberg.

Property developers led gains on the Shanghai Composite Index, which slipped as much as 11 per cent this year.

Poly Real Estate Group Company and China Vanke Company, the biggest Chinese developers, gained more than 4.7 per cent after Soufun Holdings Limited said it sees improvement in the property market in 2013.

Source: NSE

Source: FMDA

Market indicators Market indicators

All-Share Index 7,853,874,916 points All-Share Index 22,191.14 points Market capitalisation 24,671.47 trillion Market capitalisation 7,084 trillion

Stock Updates GAINERS COMPANY

OPENING

CLOSING

CHANGE

FO

7.75

8.13

0.38

% CHANGE 4.90

NPFMCRFBK

1.03

1.08

0.05

4.85

RTBRISCOE

1.34

1.39

0.05

3.73

JAPAULOIL

0.56

0.58

0.02

3.57

TRANSCORP

0.92

0.95

0.03

3.26

ZENITHBANK

18.20

18.60

0.40

2.20

NEIMETH

0.95

0.97

0.02

2.11

PRESTIGE

0.51

0.52

0.01

1.96

NEM

0.56

0.57

0.01

1.79

ETI

10.62

10.80

0.18

1.69

CHANGE

% CHANGE

LOSERS COMPANY

OPENING

CLOSING

IKEJAHOTEL

0.80

0.76

0.04

-5.00

LIVESTOCK

1.44

1.37

0.07

-4.86

FIDSON

1.05

1.00

0.05

-4.76

JOHNHOLT

3.57

3.40

0.17

-4.76

GUARANTY

23.35

22.25

1.10

-4.71

MAYBAKER

1.55

1.48

0.07

-4.52

UBA

4.52

4.38

0.14

-3.10

FIDELITYBK

2.29

2.23

0.06

-2.62

OANDO

12.45

12.22

0.23

-1.85

AIICO

0.59

0.58

0.01

-1.69

Primary Market Auction TENOR

AMOUNT (N’mn)

RATE (%)

DATE

91-Days

21,83851

12.70

27-Dec-12

182-Day

57,729.22

15.31

27-Dec-12

-

-

-

-

Open Market Operations TENOR

AMOUNT (N’mn)

RATE (%)

DATE

70 Days

60,717.10

14.00

27-Dec-12

84-Days

50,282.86

14.00

27-Dec-12

Wholesale Dutch Auction System AMOUNT OFFERED

MARKET DEMAND

AMOUNT SOLD

DATE

$300m

N/A

$300m

19-Dec-12

$200m

N/A

$300m

17-Dec-12

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

South South

Wednesday December 26, 2012

47

Gunmen abduct senior NUPENG offi cial in Delta Union protests incident SOLA ADEBAYO WARRI

A

senior official of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) was on Monday night abducted by five gunmen in Warri, the commercial city of Delta State.

The victim, Mrs. Eribabor, is the Chairperson of the Delta State chapter of the Surface Tankers Kerosene Dealers Association of Nigeria (SOTAKEN), an arm of NUPENG. National Mirror learnt yesterday that Mrs. Eribabor was abducted on Nelson Williams Street in Warri at about 7:30pm on

Monday.

Mrs. Eribabor, who was making a last minute preparations for the Charismas celebration, was ambushed on her way home by the gunmen.

Family sources told National Mirror yesterday that she was ordered out of her car into the vehicle driven by the gunmen and subsequently whisked away amid sporadic gun-

shots.

Residents and passersby scampered for safety as the unrestrained gunshots of the hoodlums rent the air.

Mrs. Eribabor’s whereabouts was yet to be ascertained at press time yesterday.

Family sources said the abductors were yet to contact them for the victim’s release.

However, the leadership of NUPENG in Warri Zone has protested the incident.

It was learnt that the union’s Zonal Chairman, Mr. Edward Ofudje, reported the incident to the Delta State Government and the police.

Ofudje confirmed the abduction of the woman to National Mirror yesterday, adding that he

reported the incident to the government through the Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters, Mr. Mike Okeme.

Ofudje said the police spokesman, Mr. Charles Muka, had also been contacted over the matter.

Ofudje, however, urged security agencies, especially the police, to ensure Mrs. Ebirabor’s release unhurt.

Cleric decries deplorable state of Nigeria AMOUR UDEMUDE ASABA

T

he General Overseer of God’s Ministry International Incorporated, Evangelist Samson Mamamu, has expressed concern over what he called the deplorable state of Nigeria.

Speaking yesterday at the 36th Annual Spiritual Convention and Feast of Ingathering of the church held at Salvation City in New Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, the cleric said Nigeria’s democracy had become “satanic.”

Evangelist Mamamu, however, called for a modification of the nation’s democracy or an outright change of the system of government for a more suitable one that would address the myriad of problems confronting the country.

He said: “The Federal Government has been tasked to modify the adopted democracy as not much has been achieved 14 years into its practice.”

On the Central Banks’ revelation that the country spends 70 per cent of its annual budgets on salaries and the running

of “the nation’s expensive government with a meager 30 per cent left for infrastructural development,” the cleric called on the government to prune its political appointees by 50 per cent so as to have enough for development which the country was in dire need of.

He said: “It is very disheartening that since independence in 1960, the country had largely remained with deplorable roads, a situation that called for more bridges and better roads in the country, particularly in the Niger Delta.

“The spate of corruption has brought the country down on her knees, including insecurity, armed robbery and kidnapping and government must be decisive on how to tackle the ugliness.”

The General Overseer, therefore, called on Nigerians to pray for the country.

He said: “Jesus started with prayers and ended with prayers. Prayers are agreed to be the master key, so Nigerians should continue in prayers and end with prayers as the prayers of Nigerians could be the master key to our solution and progress.”

L-R: Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu; celebrant, Lady Rebecca Ifeoma Mojekwu and her son, Dr. Nonso Mokeju, at her 80th birthday celebration in Lagos, yesterday.

Fishermen flay frequent spills at Qua Iboe Oil Fields

R

esidents along the Atlantic coast in Akwa Ibom State have decried frequent spills at the Qua Iboe Oil Fields operated by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that MPN, an affiliate of the United States oil major ExxonMobil on December 19, 2012 reported a fresh oil spill near the Akwa Ibom coastline.

NAN recalls that separate spills had occurred at the oil field on August 13, August 24, November 9 and December 19.

FRSC launches new driver’s licence in Edo SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN BENIN

T

he Edo State Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has launched a new driver’s licence for commercial drivers and other vehicle owners.

Speaking during the introduction of the new commercial driver’s license in Benin, the Edo State capital, FRSC Sector Commander, Mr. Kenneth Nwaegbe, said it will dras-

tically reduce road crashes because only qualified and healthy drivers would be issued the license.

Nwaegbe said: “The launch of the commercial driver’s license is strategic at this festive period because of the build-up of vehicular movements across the nation.

“This will further inculcate safety consciousness in the minds of our ever mobile professional and private drivers in this season and beyond.”

The new license has a simple procedure for applicants. According to Mr. E. E. Julius of the sector’s driver’s licence centre, a fresh applicant for the commercial driver’s licence must first be holders of a private class of National Driver’s License (NDL).

Julius particularly explained: “The completion of medical tests like blood pressure, vision, hearing and epilepsy, among others will go a long way in curbing road crashes.”

Reacting to the development in separate interviews with NAN yesterday, the residents said that incessant spills in the area had destroyed fishing at the coastal communities.

The Secretary of Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria, Chief Inyang Ekong, said the impact of spills on the fishing communities in Southern Akwa Ibom had led to dwindling fortunes for fishermen.

“The spill seriously contaminated the waters, causing fish drought and distorting the marine food chain because of the toxic chemicals the oil company uses to disperse the oil.

“Whenever a spill occurs, fishermen are thrown out of business because when the waters become toxic, fishes migrate from the reach of fishermen and for you to have any catch you have to go beyond Nigeria’s territorial waters at the mercy of the Cameroon gendarmes.

“The first thing we do is to instruct our members to withdraw from fishing to avoid catching contaminat-

ed fish and we have asked Mobil to compensate us for the lost income within the period they are cleaning the spill,’’ Ekong said.

Chief John Etim, a community leader in Ibeno Local Government Area, noted that the frequent spills were depriving the communities their economic rights.

He said that the frequent spills had impoverished the fishing communities along the coastline.

“Oil spills have been a major obstacle to us who depend on the marine environment for survival; it is very worrisome that rather than contain the spills and mitigate the impact the oil firm looks the other way.

“The previous spill of Nov. 9 is currently under investigation and this one occurred so which one are they investigating, the same thing applies to the recent spills they have always been swept under the carpet,’’ Etim said.

Mr Effiong Victor, a fisherman in Ibeno, said the news of the spill had thrown the communities

into uncertainty.

“We fishermen were shocked and surprised at the latest disaster while the pain of the last one is still with us, what a Christmas gift from Mobil?,’’ Victor said.

When contacted on the latest spill, Mobil’s Communications Manager, Nigel Cookey-Gam, confirmed that the oil firm had received reports of fresh oil spills from members of its host communities in Akwa Ibom.

“Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN), operator of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/MPN Joint Venture, confirmed that on Dec. 19, 2012, community representatives notified the company of slight oiling on short sections of the shoreline of Ibeno, Akwa Ibom.

Akpabio

48

North

Wednesday December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monitor money sent to flood victims, commissioner tells FG

T

araba State Commissioner for Water Resources and Rural Development, Mr. Rebo Usman, has urged the Federal Government to monitor how money sent to assist flood victims was spent by the affected states.

Usman, who made the

call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday, said such effort would help to provide succour to the people affected by the disaster.

He said government should monitor how states had been spending the

money to ensure it was spent on the purpose it was meant to achieve.

Usman said the Taraba State government got N400 million from the Federal Government to mitigate the impact of the flood on the affected people.

His words: “Immediately

we got the money, the state government put in place a committee and as I am talking to you now, we are still moving relief materials to the affected people.”

The commissioner said the state had started rehabilitating some of the water facilities damaged by

the flood.

“We have started doing the assessment of some of the water schemes completely submerged by the flood and very soon, we will have them back.

“Although some of the projects are very expensive, we have started doing those ones we can do before we call for the support of the Federal Government.”

Usman told NAN that the major role of the state government was to educate its citizens on the danger of living on flood-plain areas.

“You will agree with me that it is not easy to move people from their ancestral settlements; that is the major challenge we are facing now.

“A lot of facilities were affected by the flood and those are the things we should rebuild; that is the main thing that the state government should be doing.”

The commissioner added that a committee had been established to assess the impact of the flood on members of the public.

He said while the state government wouldn’t be able to build houses for everyone affected, it would re-build affected infrastructure to restore services to the citizenry.

“That is why we want to do the assessment so that we can begin to do some things on our own before the Federal Government comes to do the major works.”

NAN reports that the September floods ravaged no fewer than eight local government areas of the state.

Taraba has a large stretch of river and many communities at the bank of the river from Lau to Ibi Local Government Areas were badly hit by the flood.

Council donates cow, rice to Christians

M Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo (left) and the Mai of Kaltungo, Alhaji Sale Mohammed (2nd left), during the funeral of second republic senator, Sen. Uba Ahmed in Kaltungo Local Government Area, Gombe, on Monday.

PHOTO: NAN

FCT poll: Aspirant promises to tackle falling education standard

T

he Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) chairmanship aspirant in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Ibrahim Yahya, yesterday promised to tackle the falling standard of education in the area, if elected.

Yahya made the promise in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja shortly after his formal declaration to run for the office.

“Good education is the bedrock of all civilizations. As a former Supervisory Councillor of Education, I am, with all humility, better placed to know what is wrong with education in Gwagwalada.

“It is unacceptable for our primary and secondary schools to fail to provide our children the basics that will prepare them for higher educa-

tion,” he said.

He added that the council was under-represented at the University of Abuja’s admission, simply because the students could not make the required grades in their SSCE and JAMB examinations.

“If nominated, we will make supervision of our primary schools a top priority; special attention shall be given to secondary schools students to help them make the required grades that will facilitate their entry into the university.

“More so, education that catalyses entrepreneurial skills will also be pursued for those out of school to make them become self reliant,” he said.

Yahya, however, said his administration, if elected, would provide fertilizers to farmers and ensure strict supervision of the distribution of the commodity to

farmers.

The CPC aspirant also promised to focus on other key areas like agriculture, healthcare delivery, security and job creation.

He called on residents of Gwagwalada and its environs to vote for him en mass during the April 2013 chairmanship election.

He added that a vote for him would transform to progress and development of the area.

On his part, the CPC Chairman in the area, Mr. Sadiq Abba, promised to ensure a level playing field for all contestants and urged the party supporters to select a credible candidate.

ashi Local Government Area in Katsina State has donated a cow and 10 bags of rice to Christians living in the area to celebrate the yuletide.

Council Caretaker Chairman, Alhaji Hamisu Gyarta, presented the donation to the Igbo Community Welfare Association in Mashi, yesterday.

The chairman said the gesture was to assist the Christian community in celebrating the yuletide in an atmosphere of conviviality.

His words: “As our brothers who live with us peacefully, the Christians deserve all the support from the council.”

Gyarta, who expressed the council’s commitment to providing the dividends of democracy to all, commended the Christians for co-existing peacefully with their neighbours.

The chairman called on the people of the area to continue to live in peace and unity for the progress of the council, Katsina State and the nation as a whole.

Responding, Chairman of the welfare association, Mr. Samuel Kadigbo, thanked the local government for the gesture and assured that the Igbo community would continue to support the council in its efforts at developing the area.

NMA backs quit notice on Kano drug dealers

T

he Kano State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has expressed its support for the quit notice served on drug dealers by the state government.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman of the association, Dr Shehi Abubakar, and Secretary, Dr Sherihudeen Mashi, issued in Kano yesterday.

The statement noted that the government’s directive stopping the sale of drugs at open markets

was aimed at sanitising the sale of pharmaceutical drugs in the state.

The statement said the measure would also go a long way in reducing the distribution of fake and counterfeited drugs.

The association also said that the government’s decision to ban the sale of drugs like vegetables and grains in Sabon Gari Market should be supported as the practice was capable of jeopardising the people’s health.

It recalled that the recent collaboration of the

state government and NAFDAC had led to the destruction of adulterated drugs worth over N600 million.

“Statistics have also shown that Kano State is number one in drug abuse in the country which is detrimental to the health status of the citizens, especially the youths who contribute to the productive segment of the state’s population.”

The NMA appealed to stakeholders to give maximum support to the state government’s idea initia-

tive to eradicate fake and counterfeit drugs.

NAN reports that the state government had given drug dealers up to December 31, to leave Sabon Gari Market or face the wrath of the law.

Kwankwaso

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

49

World News

Worshippers rejoice in Jesus’ Bethlehem birthplace

50

PAUL ARHEWE

WITH AGENCY REPORTS

P

ope Benedict used his Christmas message to the world yesterday to say people should never lose hope for peace, even in conflict-ridden Syria and in Nigeria where he spoke of “terrorism” against Christians.

Marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, the 85-year-old read his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message to tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square and to millions of others watching around the world.

Delivering Christmas greetings in 65 languages, Benedict used the Biblical analogy of the “good soil” to underscore his view that the hope represented by Christmas should never die, even in the most dire situations.

“This good earth exists, and today too, in 2012, from this earth truth has sprung up! Consequently, there is hope in the world, a hope in which we can trust, even at the most difficult times and in the most difficult situations,” he said.

In his virtual tour of the some of the world’s trouble spots, he reserved his toughest words for Syria, Nigeria and Mali.

“Yes, may peace spring up for the people of Syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenceless and reaps innocent victims,” he said.

“Once again I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for

“He (President Chavez) was in a good mood.

He was walking, he was exercising.”

– Venezuelan Vice President, Nicolas Maduro

Xmas message: Pope says hope mustn’t die in Nigeria, Syria the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict.”

The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics also condemned conflicts in Mali and Nigeria, two countries where Islamist groups have waged violent campaigns.

“May the birth of Christ favour the return of peace in Mali and that of concord in Nigeria, where savage acts of terrorism continue to reap victims, particularly among Christians,” he said.

In Nigeria, the Islamist sect

Boko Haram has killed hundreds in its campaign to impose sharia law in the north of the country, targeting a number of churches.

In Mali, a mix of Islamists with links to al Qaeda have occupied the country’s north since April, destroying much of the region’s religious heritage. They have also carried out amputations to help impose strict Islamic law on a population that has practiced a more moderate form of Islam for centuries.

Benedict also held out a Christmas olive branch to the new government in China, asking is mem-

bers to “esteem the contributions of religions”. China does not allow its Catholics to recognize the pope’s authority, forcing them to be members of a parallel statebacked Church.

Late on Monday night, Benedict presided over a Christmas Eve Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, where he urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets.

“Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself ? We begin to do so when we have no time for him.”

F

One of Cameroun’s most senior Christian leaders on Tuesday called same-sex marriages a “crime against humanity”, ramping up anti-gay rhetoric in the Central African state.

As in most African nations, homosexuality is illegal in Cameroun. But a number of incidents have highlighted the clash between a largely conservative culture backed by draconian law and youth for some of whom it is less of an issue.

“Marriage of persons of the same sex is a serious crime against humanity,” Victor Tonye Bakot, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Yaounde, told followers at Christmas Day mass.

“We need to stand up to combat it with all our energy.”

Zimbabwe’s truck crash kills 18

Pope Benedict XVI delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the City and to the World) speech from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, yesterday.

PHOTO: AP

Mandela looking much better – Zuma ormer South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is looking much better after more than two weeks in hospital, President Jacob Zuma said yesterday.

Zuma, who visited Mandela on Christmas Day, said in a statement that doctors were happy with the progress the elder statesman was making.

“We found him in good spirits.

He was happy to have visitors on this special day and is looking much better. The doctors are happy with the progress that he is making,” said Zuma.

The 94-year-old Nobel Peace laureate has been in hospital in Pretoria for more than two weeks after being admitted for routine tests. He then underwent surgery

WORLD BULLETIN Cameroun’s archbishop calls gay marriage crime against humanity

to remove gallstones.

Mandela, who came to power in historic elections in 1994 after decades struggling against apartheid, remains a symbol of resistance to racism and injustice at home and around the world.

He has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis while in jail as a political prisoner. But this is his longest stay in hospital since he was released from prison in 1990. He spent time in a Johannesburg hospital in 2011 with a respiratory condition, and again in February this year because of abdominal pains though he was released the following day after a keyhole examination showed there was nothing serious.

Zuma, who has just been re-

elected as president of the ruling African National Congress party, last week described Mandela’s condition as serious.

“The Mandela family truly appreciates all the support they are receiving from the public. That is what keeps them going at this difficult time,” said Zuma.

Periodic statements from the presidency continue to stress that the veteran politician is responding to treatment. No date has been given for his release from hospital.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off Cape Town.

After his release, he used his popularity to push for reconciliation between whites and blacks.

This reconciliation is the bedrock of the post-apartheid “Rainbow Nation”.

Sworn in as South Africa’s first black president in 1994, Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term in office and has largely been absent from public life for the last decade.

Mandela

Zimbabwe state radio says 18 people headed home for the holidays died when their open truck veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine in northeastern Zimbabwe.

The radio said Tuesday another 46 passengers crowded on the back of the truck were injured in the crash in the remote Honde Valley region known for its steep and winding roads and tracks.

Bus and truck accidents, common in Zimbabwe, are mainly blamed on poor vehicle maintenance and speeding.

Zimbabweans traditionally travel to their rural villages for the holidays. Travelers this year complained that bus companies hiked fares, in one case from $4 to $10 for a 150 kilometer (90 mile) trip.

Ethnicity, ICC cases heat up Kenya presidential race Alliances forged by Kenya’s main presidential contenders for elections in March are lining up a repeat of a largely ethnic-based contest for political power which exploded into bloodshed in the 2007 vote.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founder president, lead the two main opposing camps for the March 4 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The head-on rivalry between Kenyatta, from the predominant Kikuyu tribe, and Odinga, a Luo, raises the spectre of the tribal clashes that followed the 2007 election and killed more than 1,200 people, uprooting thousands more from their homes.

50

World News WORLD BULLETIN

Fatal motor crash in UK kills three children Three children have died and two women have been seriously injured in a crash on the M6 in Staffordshire, United Kingdom, West Midlands Ambulance Service says.

The accident, which involved one vehicle, happened on the northbound carriageway between junctions 14, near Stafford, and 15, near Stoke-on-Trent.

The two women were taken to University Hospital of North Staffordshire and are in a “stable” condition, a hospital spokesman said.

The accident happened at about 1130 GMT. A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “Crews arrived to find a single vehicle that had crashed and overturned.

“Three children that were travelling in the vehicle suffered serious injuries. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of ambulance crews, nothing could be done to save the two boys and one girl, and they were confirmed dead at the scene.”

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Worshippers rejoice in Jesus’ Bethlehem birthplace

P

ilgrims and locals celebrated Christmas Day yesterday in the ancient Bethlehem church built over the site where tradition holds Jesus was born, candles illuminating the sacred site and the joyous sound of prayer filling its overflowing halls.

Overcast skies and a cold wind didn’t dampen the spirits of worshippers who came dressed in holiday finery and the traditional attire of foreign lands to mark the holy day in this biblical West Bank town. Bells pealed and long lines formed inside the fourth-century Church of the Nativity complex as Christian faithful waited eagerly to see the grotto that is Jesus’ traditional birthplace.

Duncan Hardock, 24, a writer from MacLean, Va., travelled to Bethlehem from the republic of Georgia, where he had been teaching English. After passing through the separation barrier Israel built to ward off West Bank attackers, he walked to Bethlehem’s Manger Square where the church stands.

“I feel we got to see both sides of Bethlehem in a really short period of time,” Hardock said. “On our walk from the wall, we got to see the lonesome, closed side of Bethlehem ... But the moment we got into town, we’re suddenly in the middle of the party.”

Bethlehem lies 10 kilometres (6 miles) south of Jerusalem.

Entry to the city is controlled by Israel, which occupied the West

Bank in 1967.

Hardock’s girlfriend, 22-yearold Jennifer Gemmell of Longmont, Colorado, compared the festive spirit in Manger Square on Christmas Eve, saying “it’s like being at Times Square at New Year’s.”

The cavernous church was unable to hold all the worshippers who had hoped to celebrate Christmas Day Mass inside. A loudspeaker outside the church broadcast the service to the hundreds in the square who could not pack inside.

Tourists in the square posed for pictures as vendors hawked olive wood rosaries, nativity scenes, corn on the cob, roasted nuts, tea and coffee.

An official from the Palestin-

Israeli president, Netanyahu losing altitude – Poll

A new poll shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poised for an election victory but losing support to a rival who opposes Palestinian statehood.

The Dialog poll gave 35 of parliament’s 120 seats to Netanyahu’s Likud Beiteinu list, indicating he’ll head the next government after the Jan. 22 vote. That’s down from 39 in the previous Dialog survey.

The centrist Labour Party polled second, with 17 seats.

The poll shows a continued surge by the Jewish Home Party.

Its leader, Naftali Bennett, stirred up a storm last week by saying he’d resist evacuating settlements if ordered to do so as a reserves soldier.

Bennett’s party received 13 seats in the poll published Tuesday, up from 11.

Yemen violence kills five soldiers, 11 tribesmen

Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead two Yemeni army officers in the country’s capital yesterday, and clashes between the military and tribal fighters loyal to alQaida in a north-eastern province killed three soldiers and 11 tribesmen, officials said.

The violence came as alQaida’s offshoot in Yemen, which the United States considers the most dangerous branch of the terror network, released a new video message calling on Yemeni Muslims to join jihad, or holy war, against America.

The two army officers were gunned down in separate parts of the capital, Sanaa, security officials said. The two were identified as Col. Fadhl Mohammed Jaber, who was shot outside his home, and Col. Saleem al-Gharbani, who was killed near a Sanaa military facility.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, center, holding a statue of the Baby Jesus during a prayer session at the Grotto, at the Church of the Nativity, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, early Tuesday PHOTO: AP

Two planes crash, kill 29 in Myanmar, Kazakhstan

A

military plane said to be carrying senior Kazakh security officials has crashed in the south of the country, killing all on board, reports say.

Twenty-seven people were on the flight, which went down near the city of Shymkent, officials said.

A regional emergencies head told Ria news agency the plane had been completely destroyed.

The Antonov An-72 plane was

carrying border service officers, including acting head Turganbek Stambekov.

Also, at least two people have been killed and another 11 injured after a plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Myanmar, officials say.

The Air Bagan plane was carrying more than 60 passengers.

Two Britons are believed to be among those hurt.

It was on its way from the city of Rangoon to Heho airport in

People gathering at the wreckage of the Air Bagan Fokker-100 passenger jet that crashed in Heho, yesterday.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Shan state when it crash-landed about 3km (two miles) from the runway.

Reports say a fire in one of the engines may have caused the accident.

Burmese government officials have confirmed a passenger was found dead inside the plane.

A motorcyclist near Heho airport was also killed when the Fokker jet made its emergency landing in thick fog in a rice field.

The UK Foreign Office said it was working with Burmese authorities to establish whether two of the foreigners wounded in the crash were British.

“Our acting consul is en route to Heho Airport and the charge d’affaires has been deployed to Rangoon airport as we understand that some passengers involved in the incident are being flown there,” a UK Foreign Office spokesman said.

Swiss survivor Leandre Guillod, 28, told the BBC from hospital in Rangoon that the crash happened just before the plane landed as it was flying through some clouds.

ian tourism ministry predicted 10,000 foreigners would visit Bethlehem on Christmas Day and said 15,000 visited on Christmas Eve — up 20 percent from a year earlier. The official, Rula Maia’a, attributed the rise in part to the Church of the Nativity’s classification earlier this year as a U.N. World Heritage Site.

Christians from Israel — Arab citizens and others — also boosted the number of visitors.

Information technology consultant Martin Wzork came to Bethlehem with his wife and young daughter from Krakow, Poland.

“My wife believes in God, so it’s important for her,” said Wzork, who described himself as a non-believer. “For me, it’s interesting because it’s a historical place and famous.”

On Christmas Eve, thousands of Christians from all over the world packed the square, which was awash in light, resplendent with decorations and adorned by a lavishly decorated, 17-meter (55foot) fir tree. Their Palestinian hosts, who welcome this holiday as the high point of their city’s year, were especially joyous this season, proud of the United Nations’ recognition of an independent state of Palestine just last month.

Arsonist gunman kills two US firefighters

T

wo volunteer firefighters have been shot dead and two others left wounded after they were ambushed by a lone gunman at a blaze apparently set as a trap in New York state.

Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were killed when 62-year-old William Spangler opened fire at emergency responders arriving at the scene of a house fire, shortly before 6:00 am local time (1100GMT) on Monday in the suburb of Rochester.

“This is still an active investigation, but I will say at first blush that it appears that it was a trap, that there was a car in a house that it was engulfed in flames, probably set by Mr Spangler, who later waited and shot the first responders,” said Webster police chief Gerald Pickering.

Spangler had spent 17 years in prison after killing his grandmother in 1981. He may have stolen the guns used in the shooting, said police.

“We have to keep in mind that Spangler was a convicted felon,” said Chief Pickering.

“So he is not allowed to possess weapons, so, did he legally possess these weapons? No, but we had all kinds of weapons larcenies.”

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

51

Community Mirror Governor’s wife donates food items to women

“Christmas is a season to give and expect little in return. It is a time to preachy peace and exemplify it in line with the coming of Christ.”

SENATE PRESIDENT, DAVID MARK

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Katsina craft village trains 5,000 youths JAMES DANJUMA KATSINA

M

ore than 5,000 youths, have been trained in different skills and trades at the Katsina Youth Craft Village.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Science and Technology, Nuhu Kuki who stated this, said the total number had been from inception of the village in 2009 to date.

Kuki, who was speaking on the graduation of 550 trainees, said the craft village was established as part of government’s effort to address the alarming rate of youth unemployment.

According to him, “From the commencement of training in this centre to date, more than 5000 trainees, mostly youths, including nationals of neighbouring Niger Republic and others from Borno States, have been trained”.

He said with the number so far

trained, the village has been able to live up to its responsibilities and more youths would be enrolled to acquire training in various skills and trades.

He said over 11 trades and skills that include tie and dye, welding, auto-mechanic and mobile phone repairs are currently being taught at the centre.

Kuki, said necessary materials for successful training had been provided by the state government, as he disclosed that outstanding

trainees were usually given resettlement packages, even as he urged beneficiaries to reciprocate the gesture by being dedicated to practicing the skills acquired.

Speaking, a consultant, Samaila Saulawa, advocated for the introduction of additional trades at the centre so as to give more opportunities to trainees.

He noted that plans are on to make certificates from the centre recognisable anywhere in the world.

Araromi residents appeal for health centre A BIODUN NEJO ADO EKITI

R

esidents of AraromiOke Ekiti in the Ekiti East Local Government area have appealed to the Ekiti State Government to establish an ultra-modern health centre in the community.

Regent of the town, Mrs Adenike Olusola Olabode, who made the plea, said the facility would enhance health care delivery and ensure longevity.

Olabode, who praised the state government for constructing a modern civic centre in the community, said the need for medical facility could not be over-emphasized in view of the benefits.

Governor Kayode Fayemi, however, reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensuring that every community had access to qualitative healthcare delivery.

The governor, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief GeorgeAkosile, said healthcare delivery at the grassroots was a priority of the administration.

The governor, however, stressed the need for people to complement the good gesture by making judicious use of all public facilities in their community.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Labour and Productivity, Hon Apalara WoleAdewumi, enjoined the people both at home and abroad to contribute their quota towards development of the town.

Fishermen fishing at the bank of River Benue in Markudi.

PHOTO: NAN

Traditionalist blames mishaps on neglect of deities FRANCIS SUBERU

T

he Chief Promoter of Olokun Festival Foundation and factional leader of Oodua People’s Congress, (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, has said that air mishaps in Nigeria can be prevented through the worshiping Ogun and Esu Elegbara.

Ogun in Yoruba mythology is the deity of iron and machines, while Esu Elegbara is god of mediation in times of crisis.

Gani Adams made the submission at this year’s Ogun Ajobo and Esu Elegbara festival at Ikorodu Town Hall, Lagos,even as he sub-

mitted that there would be a decrease in air mishaps if these deities are worshipped.

He said: “Everything is not about the experience of the pilot or make of the aircraft. Sometimes, you need to go spiritual to prevent evils from happening.

Do you know what most countries do to prevent air crashes?

“For clarity, Esu Elegbara is not the Satan we read in the Holy Bible and Quran. Elegbara is the Yoruba’s spiritual figure who supplied the elements that balanced the creation of our race. I believe that God knows why he created various deities and tied them to different human races.

He is not confused.

“We are lucky that Esu Elegbara belongs to us. That is the deity that helps influence orderliness in the aviation sector and because we are appeasing Elegbara today, we have saved ourselves and this nation from a lot of confusion and tragedy.

Elegbara, the Yoruba deity in charge of orderliness and conflict resolution can help take our petitions to those spirits disturbing this country.

At this festival last year, I emphasized why we should honor these deities. I talked of their power and how they can help to mend our ways as a country; I talked on how Ogun’s spirit advocates for justice and fair play.”

Lawmaker empowers constituents TONY ANICHEBE UYO

I

n fulfillment of his campaign promises, the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Samuel Ikon has empowered 32 members of Southern Iman Ward IV and all Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wards executive in Etinan Local Government Area.

The beneficiaries, mostly women and petty traders, were drawn from all villages constituting the wards.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting, Elder Ikon congratulated those who successfully emerged as wards and chapter executive, even as he donated the sum of N100, 000 each to the ward executive members with a charge to be devoted to the party’s cause.

Also speaking, the Etinan Local Government Chairman Isantim Kenneth Okon, commended the Speaker’s gesture, while pledging the support of Etinan people.

Chief Akaka Abia of Iwo Etoh village drew the Speaker’s attention to the dilapidated structure at the Salvation Army Secondary School and appealed for assistance to rebuild the infrastructure.

Also speaking, Mr. Ibanga Ekefre, called attention of the Speaker to the deplorable state of the General Hospital at Mbioto II, insecurity, and poor electricity supply.

Responding, Elder Samuel Ikon, said that the Salvation Army Secondary School is missionary owned institution, arguing that the present situation does not allow for government intervention.

He noted that since students are in the school, he would try to intervene and provide a conducive learning environment for them.

He regretted the policy that does not allow for any local government to own two general hospitals as hindering the functionality of the health centres.

Elder Ikon said that the issue of security and restoration of power by the PHCN will be resolved during the festive season.

The Speaker, who urged the ward members to remain united, assured of many projects executed so far in the area.

52

Community Mirror

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Governor’s wife donates food items to women EZEKIEL TITUS BAUCHI

T

he wife of the Governor of Bauchi State, Hajia Aisha Isa Yuguda, has donated food items worth N46million to women in the 20 local government areas of the state.

This was announced by the Commissioner, Ministry for Women Affairs, Hajia Talatu Barwa, while distributing the food items to women leaders from var-

ious churches.

She said the exercise was introduced at inception of the present administration aimed at alleviating the lots of women with particular attention to vulnerable children.

According to Talatu, 150 churches were earmarked to benefits from the gesture namely COCIN Kagadama in Yelwa, ECWA Bayara, Living faith, Baptist among others, with each receiving three bags of rice,

maize,sugar, groundnut oil and 40 pieces of wrappers.

Talatu reiterated that the decision of the governor’s wife was in line with the agenda’s of the administration to consolidate the gains of democracy and up lift the needy to eradicate poverty.

The commissioner charged women to exhibit a high sense of religious tolerance, and to caution their children against any forms of violence capable of dis-

rupting the relative peace and unity in the state.

She assured of government commitment towards the plight of women and children following the establishment of Bauchi State Youth and Women development (BAYWAD), saddled with the responsibilities of creating jobs for women and youths in the state.

She said, the Bauchi State Government has placed religious and cul-

tural beliefs as avenue for effective and efficient development to meet the yearning and aspiration of people.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Anthonia Musa from ECWA church, Yelwa, expressed appreciation for the gesture and praised the giant strides of the administration in comparison with its predeces-

Acting Governor calls for development of tourism OKAY OSUJI

T

People buying tomatoes at the Abubakar Gumi Central Market in Kaduna.

Security experts tackle FG on terrorism FRANCIS SUBERU

T

he year 2012 can rightly be described at as dreadful. The Boko Haram sect not only succeeded in creating tension across the country, it put Nigeria on the league of terrorist nations.

Thus, for the police, SSS operatives and other security agents, the focus has shifted to anti-terrorism, away from robbery, fraud, kidnapping, burglary and other forms of criminalities.

However, if the views of security experts are anything to go by, then the Federal Government has erred in the battle against terrorism.

The Society of Security Practitioners of Nigeria (SSPN) which came out with a score-card for 2012, said terrorism can only be fought successfully when relevant agencies partner

with private security initiatives.

This was made known at the annual end of year dinner, organized by the SSPN at Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

Speaking at the event, the National President, SSPN Davidson Akhimien, said that terrorism has lingered, because the Federal Government has not deemed it fit to create an enabling environment for government security agencies to partner with credible private security practitioners to tackle terrorism and other forms of insecurity.

Akhimien said: “Terrorism all over the world is unpredictable; acts on surprises with the intention of intimidating lily-livered government to submission and is a deadly war to fight.

Therefore, it is becoming increasingly clear that no government both in developing or developed

countries can crush terrorism with its security machineries alone, without the supports and active participation of the citizens.”

The SSPN leader further disclosed that as far as security and intelligence gathering is concerned, it is the guards, recruited, trained and empowered by credible private security companies that own the ace.

In his submission, the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Security Trust Fund, Fola Arthur Worrey, said the Federal Government is not sincere in tackling insecurity in the country.

Speaking on public, private partnership, Worrey wondered why the FG cannot sufficiently empower the police to execute the community policing project, which will incorporate private security practitioners, guards, community associations, vigilante groups and community based non-governmental

organizations.

Worrey, agreed with SSPN that private security practitioners are best placed to develop effective intelligence gathering methods for the government, since they are closer to the people.

But, Prof Margret Okorodudu-Fubara of the faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife took another perspective.

He disclosed that Nigeria is ranked 19th on world terrorism list, because the government and security agents are reactive, rather than being proactive in tackling the menace of Boko Haram and other insecurity issues in the country.

According to her; beyond the toothless extant laws, the police, SSS and other security agencies should be adequately empowered with tools, logistics and personnel to tackle the insurgents and insecurity related issues head on.

sors.

She then called on the women to pray for the success of the Yuguda administration, saying they custodians of peace and unity.

Anthonia, advice Christian women to give their maximum support to the government to enable it accomplish the mission of developing the state.

he Acting Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Efiok Cobham, has identified the need for effective development of tourism infrastructures by the Federal Government to bring the state to the level of a real tourist destination.

Mr. Cobham was speaking, during a courtesy call on him by the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Corporation, Mr. Otunba Olusegun Runsewe.

According to him, the development of tourist sites and road maintenance would in no small way improve the tourism disposition in the state.

According to the Acting Governor, another hitch to tourism development is the lack of visa regularisation, which needed to be addressed to cover the whole of the African Continent, as well as the need for a National Policy on tourism frame work.

He said that apart from the Calabar Carnival Festival, there are others like the Leboku New Yam Festival, which is an aspect of the tourism destination of the state.

Mr. Cobham who described Calabar as the cleanest and most peaceful city in Nigeria, solicited

for a strong partnership and interface with the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation,even as he commended the Director General, whose passion for tourism have started to yield good results in the state. He described the Obudu Ranch Resort as one of the aspects of tourism that had impacted on the economy of Cross River State.

Earlier in his address, the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Corporation, Mr. Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, expressed delight at what he described as the flagship of tourism in Nigeria.

He said there was need to position the Calabar Carnival, which has the potentials of being transformed into a Calabar AfricanAmerican Carnival.

He noted that with the expansion of the Carnival flagship, more than 65 percent of African Americans would be brought home to identify with it, as there were more than 24 million of them ready to come back.

In his remarks, the Chief Executive of Concept Partner in America, Mr. Paul Cohen, who accompanied Mr. Runsewe, expressed his willingness to support the tourism drive of the state and to put up an African American Plenary session on tourism.

NGO fetes less privileged OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

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non-governmental organisation, the Life Mentors Initiative (LMI) has distributed food and cash to the less privileged in spirit of the Yuletide.

The coordinator of theorganisation, Mrs. Toun Adeojo, said it is their own little way of helping those who cannot

afford to enjoy the festive period of Christmas.

She said: “This programme is one of the services rendered by LMI. We feel that at Christmas, we should celebrate with the poor and physically challenged, so they can have a feel of the season, especially those among who cannot afford to celebrate because of their precarious condition.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Cocktail

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

FOR YOUR SUCCESS

WITH DR. DEJI FOLUTILE

Today's Tonic (70) “The greatest power we have in avoiding the worst is to focus on what we want to happen.”

–Dr. Robert Anthony *** I love the quote that says I will keep my face to the sunshine so that I will not see the shadows. It is better to be a positive person than to be negatively minded.

It is better to say the glass is half full than to say it is half empty. Life is many times a self fulfilling prophecy. Things will happen for us according to our faith. It is what you believe that you will become.

We will get things done beyond our expectations if we can get the ideal picture of what we want and persistently focus on this day and night.

53

Oddities

After 48 years, couple’s marriage declared unofficial

A

California couple said they had to have a second wedding after discovering their 48 years of marriage were not legally official.

Bob and Norma Clark of Redlands said they were preparing legal paperwork to get their affairs in order and soon discovered the San Mateo County Hall of Records

had no documentation of their August 29, 1964, ceremony, the Redlands Daily Facts reported Monday.

The couple said the church where they held their wedding had a copy of the certificate, but they were unable to file it because it had been more than two years since the wedding.

The Clarks said they went down to the county Hall of Records on San Bernardino’s Hospitality Lane Nov. 21 with the bride’s siblings, Deanna Silvestri and Bill Thrall, as witnesses for the filing of their new marriage certificate.

“I got her a nice bouquet, and it was just a hoot,” Bob Clark said.

“There were about 35 people there who were asking us why we were there. We told them that we’ve been married ... and we brought along a book of all our pictures and showed them [off].”

Bob Clark said he abided by a man in the crowd’s suggestion that he “kiss the bride” when the filing was done.

TEL 08104942999 E-MAIL deji.folutile@gmail.com Follow me @TwitterOWOTIDE

Woman collects 500 00 black S Santas

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Florida woman who has been collecting black Santas for more than 40 years said she has more than 500 objects depicting dark-skinned St. Nicks.

Connie McKinley, 68, a retired teacher from Pompano Beach, said her collection includes 5-foottall dancing dolls, small figurines, tree ornaments, and toys depicting Santa doing a myriad of activities, including firefighting, cooking and creating art, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Mon-

day.

“There are Santas doing everything,” McKinley said.

McKinley said she bought her first black Santa about 1970, when she saw it in a catalog.

“I kept thinking, I want to show my daughter a Santa that looked like her,” McKinley said. “So I bought a black Santa.”

McKinley’s daughter, Jackie McKinley, 43, said she didn’t really appreciate the meaning of the black Santas until she reached adulthood.

Odd Xmas picture.

PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA

54

Insight

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Revealed! How tobacco firms The people of Oke- Ogun in the northern part of Oyo State feed the tobacco industry in Nigeria with their produce. But SINA FADARE discovers that the communities have nothing to show for their 72 years relationship with the industry.

CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY ontrary to what obtains on the field, Jackson said they provided a ready-made market for the farmers.

He was however silent on whether such a market was exploitative and monopolistic or not.

He added, “As part of our aims to drive continuous improvement in tobacco farming, we carried out a study in 2010 which included a review of the economic status of the farmers.

The study revealed that farmers perceived improved household income, employment generation opportunity and assured markets for their products as part of the benefits they are enjoying.”

BATN, however denied playing any role to stop the passing of the National Tobacco Bill into law, arguing, “We do not interfere with the due process of the law. We believe that the Nige-

C

THE BILL CONTAINS CLAUSES WHICH CAN RENDER THE LAW UNENFORCEABLE rian Tobacco industry must be regulated and we support balanced and evidence based regulation – one that actually helps to achieve the intended public health objective. We are also committed to working with all stakeholders to achieve a regulation that is balanced, enforceable and effective.”

The tobacco company pointed out that there are certain areas of the bill that it is not comfortable with.

Said the consultant,“The bill contains clauses which can render the law unenforceable. These include conflict in roles and responsibilities of regulatory authorities, inconsistencies in clauses that would give room to mis-

Tobacco farm

interpretation, discriminate powers given to a newly formed body without due recourse to the National Assembly. There are also clauses which we believe are anti-trade and lacking

in fairness as it denies the industry from exercising its constitutionally recognised commercial rights.”

Reacting to this, an anti-tobacco crusader, Mr. Oluwafemi Akinbode

Oldest tobacco farmer, 104-year-old Pa Amos Adedigba, demands

H

AS YOU CAN SEE, AGE IS NOT ON MY SIDE, L GAVE IT ALL TO TEN-

CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY

e asked Daniel the whereabouts of one Adigun, who it was later gathered, is his son.

Adigun took over the tobacco business from the old man.

“How l wish Adigun is around so that he will not blame me for any lapses,” he said as though to himself.

I assured him that l was not in a hurry to leave his house and that l had put a call to Adigun who would soon join us in the course of the interview.

Looking deep into my face, he nodded approvingly. A long silence followed. Then, he cleared his throat, and with a gentle voice and said “that bill-board you pointed to was the hall mark of my romance with BATN as a tobacco farmer for uninterrupted 60years”.

He went down the memory lane telling the tale of his life in Yoruba language: “My journey with tobacco started in 1939, when the first white man who introduced himself as Mr. Cooper came to this village. In those days, houses were built with grasses.

They met me at the village square where there is the market now, with his interpreter, one Mr. Fayemi from Ekiti. Those days when you see a white man, two things readily came to your mind - are they slave traders or looking for able bodied men who will be commandeered into the army? Hitler war was then in progress. My coming to the market place was divine. I was actually expecting a relation who, l wanted to follow to Ghana in search of greener pasture.

“That brief encounter with Mr. Cooper changed my earlier decision

DERING TOBACCO

Pa Amos Adedigba

to go to Ghana. Mr. Fayemi asked if we had a king. I scolded him that that question was not appropriate because a community could not be without a leader. I told him that he ought to have asked if we had a Baale Agbe, (king of farmers) and the white man nodded.

I took them to the leader of farmers.

In 1940 they came with tobacco seeds which we christened Cooper’s Tobacco, and that is what we still call it till date. That was the beginning of tobacco business in this community.”

With nostalgia, Pa Adedigba said that out of all the 18 people who start-

ed with BATN in 1940, he was the only one who had a long relationship with the company and that he is the only one surviving.

“Yes, l can tell you that of all that started the journey in 1940, there is none except me that is still living. As you can see, age is not on my side, l gave it all to tendering tobacco.”

Asked what were the circumstances that led to the removal of the advert which his picture was generously used in 2001? The aged tobacco farmer, turned his head to the left and to the right, then cleared his throat and said, “My son it is a long story; notwithstanding l thank God today that l am alive to tell you the truth. That picture you pointed to when you entered was taken by BATN, they met me at the front of the house that day, they never told me their mission or what they wanted to use the picture for, until later that people were telling me that they saw my picture on a bill board advert for BATN in Lagos and Ibadan. I was given N40, 000.

When some of my children got to know, they were not happy; to them l had been short-changed. This did not go down well with the official of BATN, who insisted that they used the advert to honour me.

“Though BATN may not like it, but I still believe that they should have done more for me as their oldest and longest farmer. That was what everyone said.

One of my sons who was a lawyer based

in Warri wrote them that what they did was bad and that if they could not do the right thing, they should remove the bill board. That was why it was removed.

Ever since then, l did not hear from them again. I still believe that there is nothing they do for me that is too much because l spent all my prime age to serve them meritoriously. Now that age is no longer on my side, l need their assistance. Let them do something in remembrance of my name as their once dependable farmer.”

Pa Adedigba pointed out that in the past when he and his contemporaries started as tobacco farmers, there was urgent need for tobacco leaves. Therefore, immediately the leaves grew, the green leaves were cut and sold to BATN and the money was paid on the spot. However, today, he said, the situation has changed drastically as farmers are required to sell dry tobacco leaves.

“A lot of money is spent before it eventually becomes dry due to labour cost. At the end of the day, tobacco is going to be graded by BATN who knows which of the tobacco falls within any of the categories. Farmers are paid at the end of all the sales in his barn and all what he incurred in terms of cost of production would be deducted at source. What is left for the farmer is very small.

When Pa Adedigba who was the former chairman of Nigeria Independent Tobacco Association (NITA) was reminded that tobacco products can be injurious to people’s health, he laughed hysterically, stating: “l can tell you that smoking of cigarette cannot kill anyone. What kills is the excesses of anything in life. That food you eat is good for the body, if you

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Insight

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

55

enslave Oke-Ogun farmers I CAN ASSURE YOU

THAT THE BILL HAS CROSSED THE RED SEA AND IT IS DEFINITELY NOT GOING BACK TO

EGYPT AGAIN

Tobacco leaves ready for sale

of Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria ( ERA/ FOFN ), noted that everything concerning tobacco business in the country is a scam.

honour take it in excess; it will make the body uncomfortable. You know that honey is very sweet, medicinal and very good for the body, if anybody takes a full glass of cup of honey, such a person will not see the next day. So, what I am saying is that excess of everything can kill, not necessary cigarettes.”

Asked to assess his 60 years of romance with BATN and what he could point to as a monumental gain from the corporation, he looked into the space and turned to me.

“Are you disappointed in the kind of environment you find me? Well people are saying that l ought to have been given a decent accommodation that is painted in BATN colour so that whoever comes to this village will know that there is somebody who has given it all to tobacco industry. But here you see me now, this house was built out of my sweat when l was still younger; there is nothing l can point that BATN specifically did for me and my family for the long years of service to them. May be because they are not government owned?”

But are there things that Pa Adedigba would want the tobacco company to do for him before he passes on? Yes. To improve the lot of tobacco farmers.

He did not stop at that. Very important to him is a befitting burial after he is dead.

His words, “The day they took the bill board picture, they asked me what I wanted and I told them that whenever I die I should be given a befitting burial. I don’t know whether they wrote it down or not. I still want that to be done. I need this type of honour any time l die”.

Concluded

He added that the government should intervene before the situation goes out of hands.

In his lamentation, Sen Olorunnimbe Mamora, the initiator of the

bill in 2008 in the Senate said he was sad that despite all efforts put to make sure that the bill was passed almost a year ago, and immediately sent to the president for his signature, it had not seen the light of the day.

Mamora, in an emotional laden voice told National Mirror that the bill after being signed into law would go a long way to provide the regulation, manufacturing, sales, promotion and control of tobacco production in the country. He added that it would also protect the right of nonsmokers in public places.

“I can assure you that the bill has crossed the red sea and it is definitely

not going back to Egypt again. There is tendency that the President has not set his eyes on the bill due to various interests. Who will be happy that the bill did not see the light of the day?

But it will assist the federal government if the bill is signed to law,” he said.

Conclusively, if the arguments by tobacco farmers from Oke Ogun area of Oyo State and the response of the BATN over the cases of alleged exploitation is anything to go by, something is amiss and needs to be addressed.

From all indications, a case of modern day slavery is here, and according to the “slaves”, the signing of the National Tobacco Bill into law holds the magic wand with which they could be rescued. But the bill is lying somewhere, gathering dust.

Even when the BATN is expressing its support for the passage of the bill it is not absolutely excited about some of its provisions, giving the impression that they would definitely impinge on its control of the tobacco industry and end its reign as the slave master.

Concluded

Tobacco business in Nigeria is a scam –Akinbode Mr. Oluwafemi Akinbode is the Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria ( ERA/FOFN ). In this interview with SINA FADARE, he explains that tobacco farmers in Nigeria are into slavery.

BUT ONE KEY ELEMENT OF THAT BILL IS THAT IT PROVIDES FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF A NATIONAL TOBACCO COMMITTEE

Akinbode

As a keen follower of developments in the tobacco industry in Nigeria, how would you access the industry?

Before we go to how tobacco companies are monopolising and manipulating the market, l want to say that tobacco farming is a threat to food security in Nigeria. Anything that has been said in terms of propaganda is just to deceive and prevent the federal government and the Nigerian people from taking appropriate actions against smoking and working towards reducing tobacco farming.

I am a child of a cocoa farmer; at the end of every harvest, there is the possibility that my father would buy us new shoes and new clothes. All our school fees were paid from the resources got from cocoa. The same thing was done with cassava money. Our school

fees could be paid up to the university level by our father. Frankly speaking, that cannot be said about a lot of tobacco farmers who are confined to what l would call the second slavery.

Tobacco farmers get the least share in the proceeds from the business. The farmers get 001 per cent in terms of profit from tobacco business. The tobacco company carefully schemed these businesses to look like that.

Imagine, they supply the seedling, fertiliser, even plough their farm for them with a condition that all these are loans. They go to these poor farmers and pretend as if they are offering them loans, which are actually outrageous when you compare to normal market.

When they finish harvesting their leaves, they ask them to take it to leave centre, where BATN will determine the grade and the price. It is a BATN official who will now bring a long list and say farmer A, this is the total of your loan from the company. At the end of the day, the farmers are left in the cold because they did not have anything as profit.

This is an illegal business that should not be allowed to continue. That is why as a matter of urgency government has to intervene.

Government has to play the role of an inter-

mediary between the tobacco farmer and the company so that the age-long exploitation would be terminated.

The tobacco business that is going on in the country is not done in the interest of our country. Two things are involved. Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State where tobacco is grown is known as the food basket of Nigeria. For every hectre of land used for tobacco, the farmer is denied the land to grow cassava, maize and beans.

We need food, we do not need tobacco.

Second is the pretence by the BATN to make people to think and assume that they actually seek raw materials from Nigeria, it is not true. The tobacco company, up till today, is still importing leaves because if you look at the volume of the tobacco being grown in Oke-ogun, it is less than 40 per cent of what they need at their factory in Zaria and Ibadan. Ironically they call it shredded leaves and do not even pay duties on it. Tobacco business in Nigeria is a scam. We have been calling government on several occasions to investigate this business, right from their recruitment to the importation of their chemicals and leaves and other related businesses they are into.

Do you think passing into law The National Tobacco Bill will address some of the problems you have spoken about?

Fundamentally the Tobacco bill is addressing the consumption, marketing and production of tobacco products in Nigeria. But one key element of that bill is that it provides for the constitution of a national tobacco committee. The committee is expected to take the issue of tobacco consumption and debate a little further. The bill is a level, not the ceiling; we are just starting. This bill is an off shoot of a framework convention on tobacco control. With the framework, government is encouraged to take steps to reduce tobacco consumption; it also gives alternatives for farmers.

WORLD RECORD

Shortest stuntman

Vol. 02 No. 521

T

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

N150

Kiran Shah (UK) (b. 28 September 1956) is the shortest professional stuntman currently working in films, standing 1 m 26.3 cm (4ft 1.7 in) when measured on 20 October 2003.

Failure as a national obsession

here is the saying that failure is an orphan, while success has many fathers and multitude of relations. That could be true of more saner and organized climes where the ethics of hard work is held sacrosanct. In Nigeria, failure is a badge of honour to be worn proudly on the chest. It is not something to be ashamed of and most times it is celebrated with elan and fanfare. Reasons for this absurdity are not farfetched.

We live in a country lacking in heroes and other acclaimed national institutions that inspire pride and reverence.

As a result, those we see and look up to for inspiration are certified and unrepentant crooks whose rise to prominence was facilitated by their opaque and murky existence. There is a bewildering dearth of motivation around us, and the few worth mentioning have been left to languish in despair.

Okay Osuji (okayosuji@nationalmirroronline.net) 08034729256 (sms only)

Nigeria is a land of few noble persons and even whatever moral suasions still remaining in them have been eclipsed by the bulging inanities of a buccaneering majority. In such milieu, there is a tendency to see the attainment of success only by cheating and beating the system. So, anyone with an honest desire to work for success is mocked at.

A cursory look reveals a surfeit of the examples of those who got to where they are by crooked means, and who wield enormous influence in society. From politics to business and from religion to the academia, there is a pervading belief that success in Nigeria can only come with incompetence, which itself is a handmaid of failure. It therefore, did not come as any surprise that the West African Senior School Examination (WASSCE) results published last week showed that more than 62 percent of those who sat for it did not obtain five credits with English language and Mathematics.

According to the Head of Nigeria National Office of WAEC, Mr. Charles Eguridu, a mere 37.9 percent, representing 150,615 out of the 413,266 candidates who sat for the exams, obtained credits in five subjects including English and Mathematics. Even at that, he said the results of 47,289 candidates were being withheld for exam fraud.

For the avoidance of doubt, the WASSCE is meant for persons, who for various reasons were unable to jostle for space in the regular classrooms. And in wanting to rake

MANY OF THOSE WHO INDULGE IN EXAM FRAUD AND OTHER SHIBBOLETHS ARE UNMINDFUL OF THE CONSEQUENCES ON THE LARGER SOCIETY in as much money as possible, the WAEC has invented many of such examinations and centres, while allowing anyone willing to pay sit for them. This has put enormous pressure on candidates, who want to pass at all cost. In doing so, they engage in all manner of fraudulent acts to shortchange the system, including bribing invigilators with money and employing the services of outsiders to write exams on their behalf.

Before now, there was uproar following the introduction of “special centres”, where so called mature candidates are allowed to sit for exams. And because such candidates are not full time students, they do not have the luxury of time to study and comprehend all the syllabus contains. The resultant effect is that they come to the exam venues armed with tons of money to bribe examiners that are likely to pose obstacle to their unwhole-

some activities. It is this banal act that prompted such lamentations from Mr. Eguridu, over what he described as “the high level of fraud at the last exams, and which must be checked at all cost, if our educational sector is to regain lost glory, and if Nigeria is to improve and compete with other countries”.

Much as he is crest fallen at the miry depth into which our educational system has fallen, I am not in the least distressed by this show of concern, because the rot now infecting the sector was long in coming. Much as other countries have realized that the only way to lasting development is through qualitative education, Nigeria has taken to dismantling all infrastructures that make and encourage scholarship and replaced them with a false ideology that encourages mass illiteracy and mindless pursuit of godless materialism.

In a country that lacks any standards for public office and governance, it is not out of place to find stark illiterates as chairmen of local government councils, state and federal legislators, civil servants, and even directors of government owned enterprises. And due to the get rich quick syndrome, those willing to spend years acquiring requisite academic knowledge and technical competence see no reason to go through such rigours. The consequence, is a backward economy unable to create enough job opportunities to reward those willing to embark on nation building.

And because everyone desires all manner of certificates without the necessary physical and mental discipline, he/she takes to the breaking of all exam rules, resulting in the mass failure we are now witnessing. Many of those who indulge in exam fraud and other shibboleths are unmindful of the consequences on the larger society. Who then would blame them, if all they see is a country willing to live with failures. It does not then matter if they do not pass their exams, so far as society is willing to live with their failure.

Sport Extra

W

orld number one, Rory McIlroy, has added yet another award to his 2012 collection after he was named Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America yesterday.

McIlroy was a runaway winner in the GWAA poll,

Golf: McIlroy ends year in grand style receiving 190 of the 194 votes with three going to FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker and one to Tiger Woods.

His latest accolade comes just 24 hours after being

named European Tour Golfer of the Year, while he has already collected the PGA Tour Player of the Year honour.

England’s Roger Chapman was also honoured

by the GWAA for his backto-back major wins on the Champions Tour last season.

Chapman picked up the seniors award after polling 60 per cent of the vote, while Stacy Lewis won the wom-

en’s Player of the Year with 79 per cent.

The trio will be formally honoured at the GWAA annual awards dinner in Augusta on the eve of next year’s Masters.

Rory McIlroy

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