Nigerian observer 10 04 2014

The Nigerian

PUBLISHED SINCE MAY 29, 1968 • Vol . 38 • NO. 458 • THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 20 14 • N 100.00

MOTORING Page 20 Understanding your car Battery

Oronsaye Report

Jonathan orders set up of committee

ABUJA - President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday directed establishment of a White Paper implementation committee on the report of Presidential Committee on the

Restructuring and Rationalisation of G o v e r n m e n t Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.

The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, made the disclosure after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided

over by the president.

Maku said that the committee, to be approved by the president, would ensure prompt implementation of the White Paper released Continues on page 2

the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st December, 2014.

Of the recurrent budget, education is allocated the lion share of N373,532,095,037, followed by Defense N314,347,339,871; and Police Formation and Commands -

N295,561,812,085.

Clause by clause consideration of the bill on the floor of the Senate went smoothly but for N7billion envelope for the on-going National Conference which was opposed by Senators mostly of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

NASS passes N4.7trn 2014 budget

By JOSES SEDE

MAN AND NATURE Page 27

Life

ABUJA - Senate of the Federal Republic yesterday, approved a total budget package of N4,695,190,000,000 for the 2014 fiscal year, with a call on the executive to ensure satisfactory implementation.

“While we have less than the N4.987 worked hard to pass this trillion of last year, budget, we hope the 2013. executive will work hard Of the total budget, to implement the budget N408,687,801,891 is fully”, presiding Senate for Statutory President David Mark hit Transfers, while N712 the gavel. billion has been However, the earmarked for Debt approved sum is Service, and N52.230 billion in excess N2,454,887,566,702 of initial is for Recurrent (nonN4,642,960,000,000 debt) Expenditure. proposed by President The balance of Goodluck Jonathan for N1,119,614,631,407 2014 and N292 billion is for contribution to

It took the maturity and tact of the Senate President, David Mark, to push the clause through.

The opposition lawmakers had echoed in the negative when the Senate President first put forward the question but realizing the danger in giving the ruling at that time, he paused a while

to allow his People’s Democratic Party colleagues re-strategize.

By the time he put the question again, there was an overwhelming approval for the confab vote to the disappointment of APC lawmakers.

Continues on page 2

CAC Budget, Appointments

Senate strips President of powers

By JOSES SEDE ABUJA - The Senate yesterday amended the Companies and Allied MatterAct which stripped the President unilateral powers to approve the annual budget of the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Senators unanimously adopted the report of the committee on Trade which recommended for the introduction of Sections 14 and 15 to make annual estimates of the commission to be

subjected to the scrutiny and approval of the National Assembly.

Speaking to Journalists after the passage of bill, committee chairman, Senator Odion Ugbesia (Edo Central) explained that the CAC law was a left-over of the military era and that there was need to make it conform to new reality of democracy and separation of powers.

The new amendment now makes it mandatory for the president to

TIT BIT “There is a category of men who never amount to very much; they are those who can do nothing better. Find a better way, and make that way better.”

- Hon. Peter Eson

forward names of nominees for the positions of the CAC chairman, secretary and board members to the Senate for n e c e s s a r y confirmation.

Ugbesia also Continues on page 2

CONGRESS: Edo State Deputy Governor, Dr. Pius Egberanmwen Odubu (right) and other members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on queue during the party’s Ward Congress in Urhonigbe North Ward, Orhionmwon Local Government Area on Tuesday. Photo MOSES OBOH.

Peaceful APC Ward Congress

Odubu thanks Oshiomhole

By CLIFFORD AGBAJOR

URHONIGBE – Edo State Deputy Governor, Pius Egberanmwen Odubu

has expressed gratitude to the State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for providing the needed peace for the smooth conduct of All Progressive Congress

(APC) Ward Congress in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of the State.

He made the remark shortly after the declaration of congress

results at Ward 7 (Urhonigbe North) where he queued for the exercise.

The Deputy Governor thanked the people of Orhionmwon for the

and end the 10-monthold strike by the lecturers.

Representative, AASU Nigeria, Mr Umar

Continues on page 2

Students appeal to FG over ASUP ABUJA - The All to resolve its differences Abdulrahman, made African Students’ strike with the Academic Staff the call in an interview Union (AASU) The Country with newsmen in Union of Polytechnics yesterday urged the Federal Government

massive turn-out for the ward congresses and appreciated the security agencies for making adequate arrangement for security during the congress.

Dr. Odubu who described the exercise as an ingredient of democracy said the ward congress is intended to elect executive officers to pilot the affairs of the Continues on page 2

News

Jonathan orders set up of Continued from page 1 committee

on the report on Monday.

“Today in Council, the president said he will be moving ahead as quickly as possible to ensure the implementation of the white paper.

“One thing that has become a recurring

observation has been the cost of governance under the new democracy and the Federal Government is very serious to bring down the cost.

“Today, the president directed the SGF to begin to put up a committee for his

approval, that will work on the actual merger of those agencies that have been accepted to merge to bring down cost of governance,” he said.

The minister explained that besides saving cost, the

disturbing phenomenon. The obvious reason has been traced to the obstruction to oil production as a result of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft”, he continued.

The Committees also decried what they described as inability of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to fully implement budgets, stressing that the development, which has become a recurring decimal was becoming worrisome.

“The appalling state of budget implementation in the country is still a worrying recurring decimal for our economy; unspent funds that are rolled over into the economy only make a mockery of development which is a dire necessity across the nation.

Government must be seen to be taking steps to improve on this.

The 2014 Budget, which is described as one of job creation and inclusive growth, deserves to urgently rise to the occasion to defend itself,

in view of the yawning gap between employment created and the army of the unemployed”, the committees added.

President Jonathan had on December 19, 2013, through the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi OkonjoIweala, laid before both Chambers of the National Assembly, the 2014 Appropriation Bill, containing the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the federation for the 2014 fiscal year.

The Senate subsequently debated the general principles of the Bill and read it the second time on January 23 after which, it was referred to the Committees on Appropriations and Finance for further legislative action.

With the passage at the Senate, the budget Bill now awaits the concurrence of the House of Representatives before it is sent to the President for assent.

NASS passes N4.7trn 2014 budget Continued from page 1

Presenting the joint report of the Committees on Appropriation and Finance on the 2014 Appropriation Bill, Senator Ahmad Maccido (Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations), explained that “in preparing the details of the 2014 Bill, the Committee adopted a benchmark price of $77.50 per barrel of crude oil”.

The Budget was also predicated on the Executive proposal of crude oil production of 2.3883 million barrels per day (mbpd) and exchange rate of N160 to US$1.

Senator Ahmed Maccido, observed that “the 20142016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, upon which the 2014 budget was based, just like the previous editions, will require being refined and re--tooled both in procedure and process”.

“A major issue here is in the planning required and the engagement processes with all stakeholders which will have added effective value to the budget process, with obvious multiplier effect on the economy.

The drop in oil production volume as reflected in the budget estimates of the past two years remains a

Senate strips President of powers

Continued from page 1

disclosed that one of the amendment done was to ensure that appointments into the board of the CAC complied with Federal

Character provisions in the 1999 constitution so that no single geo-political zone or ethnic group dominate the membership.

Under the existing Act, the

Students appeal to FG over ASUP Continued from page 1 students and their strike counterparts in the colleges of Abuja.

Abdulrahman said that the lingering strike by the lecturers was having a toll on the students, hence the need to end it and prevent idle polytechnic students from taking to crime.

He said the education sector was getting to a ‘near collapse’.

He also lamented the recent strikes embarked upon by the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU. Abdulrahman said that students were at the receiving end of the strikes in the sector.

He noted that if nothing was done urgently, it might have a

long time effect on the future of the country The union leader said the negative effect of the strike were more on the students due to the idleness, stressing that some of them might not return to school after it had been called off.

“Some don’t even make it back to school as a result of deaths, sickness or complete withdrawal from school.

“Students should not always be at the receiving end anytime there is strike.

“We call on the Federal Government to immediately meet ASUP and COEASU’s demands so that polytechnic

Odubu thanks Oshiomhole

Continued from page 1

party at the various ward level.

The ward chairmanship contestants in ward 7 (Urhonigbe North) were Mr. Anthony Edegbe who got 87 votes as against the incumbent ward chairman, Chief Isaac Omoruyi, who was re-elected with 1,204 votes.

Meanwhile, in Ofunmwegbe Primary School, Ugboko-Niro

approved rationalisation would improve efficiency, enhance productivity and service delivery.

“We discover that some of the agencies that have been doing overlapping functions, apart from the wasteful expenses, they become less effective.

“But, when you synergise their efforts and expertise, they will do better,” he said.

The rationalisation committee, headed by a former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Stephen Oronsaye, in its report submitted on April 16, 2012, recommended a reduction in the number of Federal Government agencies from 263 to 161.

The government rejected some of the recommendations, such as the merger of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission and Code of Conduct Bureau.

It, however, accepted the recommendation for National Poverty Eradication Programme and Fiscal Responsibility Commission be scrapped.

The government also accepted that Nigerian Airspace Management Agency NAMA, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency NIMET be merged to form Federal Civil Aviation Authority.

venue of ward 5 congress, Orhionmwon Local Government Area, the exercise was peaceful, free and fair with Mr. Theophilius Obasuyi emerging as the ward chairman of the party.

Other wards in Orhionmwon, including Ukpato, Evboesi, Ugu, Iyoba, Ugbeka, Aibiokunla one and two, Igbanke East and West also witnessed a peaceful election.

education can resume their academic activities.”

The ASUP and COEASU are asking government to improve the education sector, especially the polytechnics and colleges that have suffered neglect.

“Let government and the unions strike their balance without affecting our academics or studies,’’ Abdulrahman said.

2015:

president does not need the confirmation of the Senate in the appointment of chairman, secretary and members of the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Senator Ugbesia maintained that the alteration was the right step in the right direction, considering the fact that the Commission plays a major role in the evolution and development of the totality of the Nigerian economy being the business gateway into the country.

He said Section 14 and 15 of the Principal Act empowers the commission to submit its annual reports and estimates through the minister to the president, a development he noted, contravened the Fiscal

NOA ready to partner INEC

ABUJA - Mr Mike Omeri, the Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA) has reiterated the agency’s commitment to partner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure free and fair elections in 2015.

Omeri said this in a statement made available to newsmen by Paul Odenyi, his Chief Press Secretary yesterday in Abuja.

The statement said that NOA would continue to work with INEC in the area of voter education, adding that their partnership would extend beyond elections period.

The statement commended the roles played by the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in previous elections, while thanking them for being stakeholders in nation building.

The statement however advised CSOs to remain impartial, adding that they should not see themselves as oppositions to government.

The statement also quoted the INEC chairman, Prof.

Attahiru Jega as saying that INEC had been able to evolve ways to curtail election malpractice.

It said this was made possible with the introduction of smart card to detect impersonation and multiple voting.

It stated that new measures would make Nigeria achieve election standard ‘reminiscent’ to international bench mark in 2015.

Dr Hussaini Abdul of Action Aid, Abuja, in the statement said that achieving credible elections should be the responsibility of all CSOs. It added that if the nation’s resources were used to conduct elections, there should be a probe of utilisation of such resources by the electoral management body.

Education MDG Goals

Nigeria ‘ll attain 2015 NABUJA- Dr Tunde target Adekola, Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank country office, yesterday in Abuja expressed optimism that Nigeria would attain 2015 deadline for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on education.

Adekola said this in an interview with newsmen while commenting on the World Bank projects on education in Nigeria.

“I am sure Nigeria will achieve MDG goals, but it is not an issue of attaining the 2015 goal; but the issue of looking back to where we were in five,10 to 20 years ago and where we are now.

“We also have to look at the mileage which Nigeria has covered and we will appreciate that Nigeria has really improved in terms of providing education for all.”

According to him, the World Bank and other global partners are making efforts to assist Nigeria in meeting the MDGs target in education and Education For All (EFA) target by the year 2015.

He added that the bank proposed to have a global partnership on education projects which would be based on the development of schools across the country.

Adekola further explained that the project would be of global standards, to ensure that educated children were different from others.

He said that global partnership for education would involve development partners such as UNESCO and the Japanese

International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Adekola said the projects would cost about 100 million dollars.

The official said that 16 states would benefit from the project, including Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto, and Katsina.

“We want to bring more children into school and our major effort will be to support the basic education in the northern part of the country.

“This will also create an opportunity to ensure that more girls attend schools, especially in the Northern part of the country.

“Whereas in the south, we are focusing more on post basic education, which is about skills acquisition, especially for the boys.”

The World Bank official further stated that the institution was also working with other government agencies to carry out advocacy programmes, to sensitise people to the importance of education.

He spoke of the need to place more emphasis on importance of sending children to schools, saying ‘’this will be an added advantage for Nigeria to achieve MDG goals in education’’.

“We need a lot of advocacy; people must understand that sending children to school is an investment into the future of any state and in any country.

“More importantly, people must understand the difference between a child that goes to school and child that does not attend any.

By MIKE OSAROGIAGBON

Indications are the command under which he is currently serving is shielding him from the press because of the negative publicity his case might bring to the police.

Corporal Samuel Abiola, had on Wednesday, March 25, 2014 allegedly bitten and strangulated his baby boy, Ayomide Samuel after his wife, Mrs. Abigail Abiola escaped after severe beating from her husband.

She stated that the horrible incident occurred in their apartment at flat 1c, Omorogieva Compound, Sam Enobakhare Crescent, Off St. Saviour Road, Benin City.

Mrs. Abiola stated that they never had dispute before the domestic aggression.

Alleged killer cop now in our custody - PPRO BENIN CITY- The Edo State Police Command has said that the corporal alleged to have bitten his 19-month old baby to death, a fortnight ago, is now in its custody in Benin City.

Spokesmen of the command, DSP Moses Eguavoen disclosed this in Benin City.

“As I speak with you now, the corporal is in our custody “, he stated.

Investigation revealed that the corporal was taken to the police by his father.

Sources said he went to take refuge with his father, a retired police officer in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

Attempts by our crime reporter to speak with the suspect was resisted by the command.

Across The Nation Boat Mishaps

NGO Makes Case For Children With Autism

House Summons Commissioner LAGOS- The Lagos State House of Assembly has summoned the Commissioner for Transport, Mr Kayode Opeifa, over boat mishaps in Majidun and Mile 2 areas of the state.

The reports state that also summoned are Mr Yinka Marinho, the General Manager, Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) and the Association of Ferry Operators All the parties are to appear before the House on April 14.

A member of the House, Mr Sanai Agunbiade had moved the motion under matters of urgent public importance at plenary.

Agunbiade called for a minute silence for those who lost their lives at Majidun, Ikorodu boat mishap, which was observed by the House.

Contributing, Mr Gbolahan Yishawu (APC-Eti-Osa II) said

the mishaps were as a result of non-enforcement of the laws that guided road and water transportation in the state.

Yishawu said that laws that guided road transportation were not properly adhered to.

He called on the House to treat the issue as a matter of urgency.

Reports state that eight people died, while 12 others were rescued by local divers after a wooden boat capsized at the Majidun River in Ikorodu on April 2.

It came weeks after a similar incident in Mile 2, which also resulted in loss of lives.

Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal (left), Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar (right) and others at the turbaning of 21 new district heads by the Sultan in Sokoto recently.

Mrs Itsueli For Burial

FUGAR - The families of Itsueli and Abebe of Ivhiokpo Quarters in Fugar, Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State have announced the death of their wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Late Madam Janet Omobumhe Itsueli who passedon on March 27, 2014. She was aged 88 years.

A burial programme released by the families indicated that there will be a vigil mass on Friday 11, 2014 from 6pm-8am while requiem mass would hold at the Christ The King Catholic Church, Fugar at 10am on Saturday April 12, 2014 and interment would follow thereafter.

At 1 pm, there will be a social dance and entertainment of guests at Obe primary school play ground while a thanksgiving service comes up on Sunday 13, 2014 at Christ The King Catholic Church, Fugar by 9 am to climax the burial ceremony.

Late Madam Janet Omobumhe Itsueli

The Executive Chairman, Edo State Internal Revenue Service, Chief Oseni Elamah (5th right), with Momodu Abu (5th left), Permanent Secretary, Office of the SSG, Mrs. Vera Obadan, Permanent Secretary/Board’s Secretary, Edo State Internal Revenue Service (4th left) and Management Staff of EIRS during the thanksgiving/reception for Mrs. Vera Obadan in Benin City recently.

Reverse LASU Fees, NGO Urges Fashola

LAGOSThe SocioEconomic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State to reverse the high tuition fees at Lagos State University (LASU).

SERAP, a civil society group, made the appeal in Lagos in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni.

The group said it considered the increase in the tuition fees as “manifestly unfair, unjust, discriminatory and retrogressive”.

It advised Fashola to ensure that no LASU student would be denied access to education because of their inability to pay the high fees.

“By reversing the tuition fees, your government will be demonstrating its sacred duty to promote equality in the society and showing respect for international law requiring states to move towards free higher education when setting fees policy.

“Increased fees limit access to education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and directly violate the right to

education.

“If the fees are allowed to stand, society as a whole will suffer.

“We believe that next in importance to freedom and justice is access to quality education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be maintained.

“The increased tuition fees have constituted a disincentive to poorer students attending LASU because we continue to receive reports of decreasing level of enrolment to the school due primarily to the increased fees,” SERAP added.

It said the increased tuition fees discriminated against poorer students as most students wishing to attend LASU could not do so because of their economic and social conditions.

“Their (students) right of access to education is clearly being severely curtailed, if not extinguished.

“A hike in fees cannot be in the best interest of the child, which is a fundamental principle entrenched in

international law, in particular, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Nigeria has ratified.”

According to the group, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides that higher education should be made equally accessible to all on the basis of capacity and by every appropriate means.

“The covenant thus requires all states to introduce progressively free university education in all subjects and at postgraduate level as well.

ABUJAAn NGO, Thoughtful House Foundation, has appealed to the Federal Government to develop early intervention programmes for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the country.

Mrs Kemi Barrow, the cofounder of the organisation, made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

She said the plea became necessary in view of the challenges facing affected children in the society.

Barrow noted that the organisation had on April 5, organised an Autism Awareness Walk in Abuja to sensitise the public about the importance of taking issues on the disorder seriously by relevant stakeholders.

According to her, the challenges facing affected children include stigmatisation, the lack of funds, health-related issues and impaired social interaction.

“Autism is very expensive to deal with; talking about the therapy, the nutritional supplements and getting people who are specialists to work with the affected children.

“So, we look at these and we say we will subsidise the expenses of 12 children in our foundation but what about those affected children in the villages who are less privileged?.

“Since 2010, we have run a unique and highly differentiated autism education programme in Abuja that provides children with behavioural therapy and education, using a combination of effective intervention methods.

“Autism education and therapy require a lot of funds and the children enrolled in our programmes are subsidised by funds raised through donors and partners.’’

Herdmen/Farmers’ Clashes: Institute

Wants ECOWAS Intervention

VOM (PLATEAU)- Dr Ahmed Mohammed, the Executive Director, National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Vom, wants ECOWAS members states to establish grazing reserves as a solution to the current clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

Mohammed, a veterinary expert, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Jos on Sunday.

According to him, there is a

“massive’’ influx of foreign herdsmen into Nigeria due to the country’s porous borders, leading to the frequent clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

He said that Nigeria’s 16 to 17 million cows could only get the required respite, if ECOWAS commission intervened and prevailed on some members of the sub-regional organisation — Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Burkina-Faso, Ghana and Mali — to also establish grazing

reserves.

“The herdsmen take advantage of the ECOWAS treaty on free movement and free trade, to just enter into Nigeria anytime they want.

“If Nigeria establishes designated cattle routes and grazing fields for its herdsmen, ECOWAS must force other nations to do same, otherwise the expected gains could be neutralized.

ECOWAS Commission has a livestock unit

that can handle that.

“The River Niger comes through some of these countries, so it should not be difficult for them to establish their reserves,’’ he said.

According to him, cattle routes and grazing fields will be mapped out, if the Grazing Commission Bill becomes law.

However, he said that the gains may not be much, if the massive influx of herdsmen from other West African nations was not checked.

News Anambra Lawmakers Condemn Exam Malpractice AWKA - The Anambra House of Assembly has adopted a motion condemning the increase in examination malpractices in the country.

The Chairman of the assembly committee on education, Mrs. Rita Maduagwu, (APGA Nnewi South in a motion cosponsored by five other legislators, called for proactive measures to reduce the ugly trend.

She lamented that the trend was affecting the intellectual ability of many certificate holders in the country.

“The situation is now rampant among students taking JAMB, WAEC, NECO and other examinations in the country and it has to stop forthwith.

“It is an issue of urgent national importance that this cankerworm be urgently checked.

“We may end up having a society full of certificate holders who lack the commensurate intellectual faculty or practical ability to prove their worth,’’ she said.

Maduagwu said that parents and guardians, school authorities, the ministry of education and relevant security agencies should partner to curb the menace.

Supporting the motion, Mr Emeka Idu (PDP-Onitsha North I), said the malpractice was an improper conduct, which the society must condemn as it would further breed corruption in the country.

“Some graduates at different levels of education cannot defend their claimed certificates.

“Emphasis should be on the employment of professional teachers against the

employment of those who engage in other economic ventures at the detriment of imparting quality learning in students,’’ he said.

Also contributing, Mr Romanus Obi (APGA-Orumba North) said that security operatives should be sent to examination centres to ensure that those who had no business were not allowed within the centres.

He urged parents to engage the services of qualified teachers for extra-lessons for their children in place of hiring people who assist their children to write examinations.

Gov Obiano Sends List Of CommissionerNominees To Assembly

Cross section of teachers during the recently concluded computer training for teachers of Technical Colleges in Edo State

National Conference Can Heal Wounds - Gov Ahmed

ILORIN Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara has said that the ongoing national conference had the capacity of healing age-long “wounds” in the country and strengthening national cohesion.

Ahmed made the disclosure in Ilorin at the opening of the 2014 Biennial Law Week of the Ilorin branch of Nigeria Bar Association.

“Indeed, the national conference is recommended by its capacity and potential to heal our country’s woes and give her constituent nationalities greater sense of belonging in the way our affairs are conducted’’, he stated.

He urged lawyers to play a greater role in the process of refocusing and uniting the country in spite of NBA’s reservations on the composition of membership of the conference.

According to him, the role of lawyers is pivotal, not only in capturing the spirit and letter of the decisions reached, but in ensuring that such outcomes comply with the laws of our

land.

Ahmed said that the problem of democracy in the country did not arise from the perceived shortcomings of the 1999 Constitution. ‘’Although the legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution is often challenged due to its military

origin and the lack of popular participation in its emergence, I hold that the problem is not with the Nigerian Constitution.

“Rather, the challenge lies in our tendency to circumvent constitutional provisions and statutory laws by exploiting loopholes and unintended

ambiguities,’’ he said.

The governor noted that the theme of the lawyers’ conference, “A Centenary of Legal Practice in Nigeria (1914 – 2014): Legacies and Lessons for the Next Century” was timely.

According to him, this is in view of the role of the bar in national development.

Sanusi Vs FG: Court Fixes May 20 For ABUJA - A Federal High and serious Judgement irreparable Court in Abuja has reserved damages. judgment till May 20 in the case

by Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the suspended CBN Governor, challenging his suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, fixed the date after hearing the respondent counsel’s preliminary objection and Sanusi’s counsel’s originating summons, as well as the adoption of same.

The reports state that Sanusi had on Feb. 24, challenged his suspension from office by the president and urged the court to reverse the decision.

The President, the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and the Inspector-General of Police were joined as first, second and third defendants respectively, in the suit.

He had urged the court to restrain the defendants from “obstructing, disturbing, stopping or preventing him in any manner whatsoever, from performing the functions as Governor of the Central Bank’’.

Sanusi had also sought to be allowed to fully enjoy the statutory powers and privileges attached to the office, arguing that any delay might cause him

Reps of LINPICO and Price Water House Cooper (PWC) after the signing ceremony with Edo SEEFOR.

Ruling earlier, Kolawole had taken the substantive suit and preliminary objection together.

“In the instant case, where time is of essence, so that the plaintiff’s tenure does not expire before the case is determined, the court rules necessitate we hear both applications together.

“By Order 1 Rule 4 of the Federal High Court, it is judicially expedient that the hearing of the originating summons be heard with the preliminary objection,’’ he said.

AWKA - Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra has presented a list of 19 commissioner and 10 special adviser nominees to the state house of assembly for approval.

The list includes Dr Chinedu Emeka, a former deputy governor in the administration of Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju as the designated Commissioner for Water and Public Utilities.

Two former commissioners in Gov. Peter Obi’s administration, Mr Callistus Ilozumba and Mrs Azuka Okeke retained their portfolios in the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs respectively.

Others are a former member of the Nigeria Football Association, Chief Tony Nnacheta, who is penciled as the Commissioner for Sports, as well as a professor of mass communication at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof.

Kate Emenugha, who will occupy the education ministry.

Also nominated are Mr Chuddy Anah, as the AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Gringory Obi (Finance), Mrs Florence Chinwuba (Housing), Prof.

Solomon Chukwu (Economic Planning and Budget), Ifeatu Onyejeme (Trade and Commerce) and Anthony Onyimah (Information).

The list also has Ricky Chukwumelu (Women Affairs), Chukwuma Mbonu (Transport), Mr Evaristus Ubah (Environment), Stella Onuorah (Land), Norbert Obi (Special Duties), Dr Josephat Akabuike (Health), Nnamdi Meko (Agriculture) and Osita Obinwankwo (Science and Technology).

Pray For Peace, PDP Governors Forum Urges Clerics DUTSE - The Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, Mr Godswill Akpabio, urged clerics to pray for God’s intervention in the problem of insecurity confronting the nation.

Akpabio gave the charge when he led his counterparts to pay a courtesy call on the host, Gov. Sule Lamido, in Dutse.

The reports state that the governors on the platform of PDP are in Dutse for a meeting of the forum.

Akpabio said the level of security needs God’s intervention for solution.

The governor said that people now hide under the insecurity bedeviling the nation to inflict mayhem on political opponents.

“People now use the security challenge to cause ethno-religious crisis in the country which is unfortunate.

“I am equally unhappy in what is happening in the north eastern part of the country.

The insecurity will take the region 20 years backward”, he said.

Akpabio commended Lamido for his developmental strides in the state.

In his remarks, Lamido said he was honoured to host his colleagues.

He said that his party was the only hope for the country and called for unity among members to move the party forward.

Reports that 15 governors and four Deputy Governors were in attendance.

South West Fraud:

L-R:Oyo Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Atinuke Osunkoya, wife of Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Mrs. Janet Adeyemo and wife of the Governor, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, addressing market women at Oje market in Ibadan during International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

Man, 46, Docked

SANGO-OTA (Ogun) An Ota Senior Magistrates’ Court in Ogun has, granted a N500, 000 bail to one accused who allegedly collected N1.6 million under pretence to purchase a Jeep for Bola Agboluaje.

The accused, Olarewaju Ferreira, 46, whose address is unknown, is being tried on a three-count charge of obtaining money under false pretences, conspiracy and stealing.

He, however, pleaded innocent to the offences.

Earlier the Prosecutor, Mr. Olajide Michael, had told the court that the accused, and others at large, committed the offences on February 8, 2012, at No.2, Alafia St., Ijoko, in Ota. He said the accused, and others at large, collected N1.6 million from one Bola

People living with disability during pay parade for their monthly allowance in Dutse, Jigawa recently.

Man Jailed For Stabbing Woman

ADO-EKITI - An Ado-Ekiti

Magistrates’ Court has sentenced one Peace Etteh to four months’ imprisonment for stabbing a woman with a broken bottle.

The Magistrate, Mrs. Moni Afeniforo, convicted Etteh after he pleaded guilty to the offence.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Oriyomi Akinwale, told the court that Etteh attacked one Mrs. Bukola Yusuf and stabbed her with a broken bottle without provocation.

Akinwale said the convict stabbed the woman several times on her body thereby causing her grievous harm and making her to be hospitalised.

He said the offence, committed at about 11 a.m. on April 1 at Igbehin Street in Ado Ekiti, contravened Section 355 of the Criminal Code, Cap C16 Vol. 1Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.

While pleading guilty, Etteh told the court that Yusuf sold alcoholic drink to him and he became drunk and did not know when he committed the crime.

The accused promised to pick the hospital bill of the woman.

His counsel, Mrs. Blessing Ajileye, urged the court to “tamper justice with mercy”,

saying her client was “sick in the head”.

But the prosecutor told the court to discountenance the plea of sickness, saying the accused faked it.

I Will Continue To Miss My Late Deputy - Fayemi ADO-EKITI - Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has said that the vacuum left by his late deputy, Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka, had remained unfilled.

Fayemi made the remark at the first year remembrance service held in memory of the former state deputy governor at the Cathedral Church of Emmanuel, Ado-Ekiti.

He said that he and the entire state would continue to miss the selfless services as well as robust contributions she used to render while alive.

Fayemi promised to stand by the pledge he made during the deceased funeral a year ago not to abandon her parents, children

and other members of her immediate family.

He said he would also ensure that the plans and aspirations which the late deputy had for the state were accommodated in his policies and programmes.

The governor later laid a wreath at the deceased burial site located adjacent the entrance of Government House.

He was supported by other important dignitaries including the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe.

Earlier in his sermon at the service, the Dean of the Church, Rev. Francis Bankole, eulogised the humility and dedication to service exemplified by the late Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka.

The prosecutor added that his behaviour was quite normal at the police station.

The magistrate said the convict could not have been ill and be able to say that he would foot the hospital bill of the victim of the attack.

She found the accused guilty as charged and sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment without an option of fine.

Adultry:

Abgoluaje under the pretence to procure a Jeep and a 10 tonnes truck, but they allegedly failed.

Michael said the offences contravened sections 390 (9), 419 and 516 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun, 2006.

The Magistrate, Titi Bello, in her ruling, granted the accused bail in the sum of N500, 000 with two sureties in like sum as part of the condition for bail.

She said that one of the

sureties must be a senior officer in the state civil service not below Grade Level 14 while the second surety should be a landed property owner.

In addition, Bello said, the sureties must be resident within the court’s jurisdiction, show evidence of gainful employment and tax payment to the state government in the last one year.

The case was adjourned until April 28 for mention.

ASUP Protest Lingering LAGOS - The Academic Poly Strike Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) Chapter, on Tuesday sensitise the public on the polytechnics’ six-month-old strike.

Mr. Adeyemi Aromolaran, Chairman of the Chapter, told newsmen in Lagos that the protest was to draw attention to the Federal Government’s lukewarm attitude to its demands.

He said the union was not bothered by the government’s ‘no work, no pay’ directive, describing it as an old policy, which would not yield any positive result.

“Majority of our members have vowed to continue with the strike, in spite of the no work, no pay threat.

“We have been expecting such directive; it is the only weapon that government always uses to frustrate union members,” he said.

Aromolaran said, however, that few members of the union were afraid of the threat, adding that a majority of the members were solidly in support of the struggle.

“We have been able to eliminate the fear from the mind of the few members, and we will continue with the strike until our demands are met,” he added.

Aromolaran expressed the members’ readiness to surmount any pressure from the government to discourage them from carrying on with the

strike.

“The threat will not yield any result for the government, as we are determined to fight the battle to finish.

“This is not the first time such a directive will be issued; but in the end, the government will still pay the money; so, what is the need for the threat,” the chairman said.

He said the union would study the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) drafted by the Presidential Committee in March, adding that the document would determine the union’s next line of action with government.

“The document will decide our next line of action; the union will study it and see if it is favourable to its members’ cause.

“The union will call a National Executive Council meeting by the middle of April to take a stand; we cannot suspend the strike without a NEC decision,” he said.

Aromolaran urged the government to consider the impact of the lingering strike on the students, whose time was being wasted by the lingering strike.

“Government should stop toying with the future of the students; it is a sign of government’s insensitivity to polytechnic education, if it allows the strike to linger on,” Aromolaran added.

Couple Choose Out-Of-Court produced the child.

The respondent said that her Settlement desire to make heaven prompted

IKOLE (Ekiti) - An Ikole Customary Court has granted the request of an out-of-court settlement by a couple over a husband’s allegation of adultery against his wife.

The President of the court, Mrs. Yemisi Ojo, held that “the court is not opposed to amicable settlement of dispute out of court.

“Rather courts are enjoined to promote amicable settlement in as much as nothing is proved to the contrary that defendant wrote the letter of restitution under duress.”

Ojo, therefore, struck out the case and appealed to the couple to forget the past and live harmoniously again.

Olayemi Jemibola had asked the court to appeal to her husband to forgive her extra marital affair to save her 25-yearold marriage to Isaac.

Jemibola, 57, had on January 21 urged the court to dissolve his marriage to Olayemi, 48, over her alleged extra marital affair.

Olayemi, a mother of five, confessed before the court on February 11 that her husband was not the biological father of her fourth child.

She confessed she was involved in an extra marital affair with her former boss and that it was the ensuing pregnancy that

her to make the confession.

The court had adjourned the case for possible reconciliation.

At the resumed hearing, the court clerk informed the court that the woman wrote a letter dated March 25 to the court.

In the letter the woman declared that the child in question was actually the petitioner’s son and expressed regrets for her action.

She further stated in the letter that the court should assist in appealing to her husband to forgive her for the sake of the children.

Lagos

EFCC Witness Recounts Payment

Fuel Subsidy Fraud: IKEJA - A prosecution witness, Mr. Effa Okim, has told an Ikeja High Court how an oil marketer, Abdullahi Alao, allegedly conspired with others to commit N1.1 billion fuel subsidy fraud.

Okim, an investigative officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) testified at the resumption of Alao’s trial.

The accused is the son of prominent Ibadan-based businessman, Alhaji Abdullazeez Arisekola-Alao.

The accused is being prosecuted alongside two other oil marketers, Opeyemi Ajuyah and Olarenwaju Olalusi and their companies— Majope Investment Ltd. and Axenergy Ltd. They are facing an eight-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretences, forgery, altering and use of false documents.

Okim, under crossexamination by Alao’s counsel, Mr Aderemi Oguntoye, explained that he was the head of the EFCC subsidy team which investigated the transaction.

He said their investigations revealed that the marketers imported 15,000 metric tonnes

of petroleum products, but only discharged 4,264 metric tonnes at Lister Jetty in Apapa.

According to him, the 4,264 metric tonnes was taken by Oando Plc, while the products remaining on board the vessel, MT Brave, were taken away to

an unknown location.

“My Lord, the over 10,000 metric tonnes remaining on board was not discharged within our domestic shores.

“We do not know where the products were taken to,” the witness said.

Okim said the marketers were charged to court because they had obtained the subsidy payment for 15,000, instead of the 4,264 metric tonnes they discharged into the facility.

The matter was adjourned to April 8 for continuation of trial.

LAGOS - A Lagos housewife, Bunmi Banjo, who allegedly beat up a bus conductor, was charged before an Oshodi Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.

Banjo, 28, who resides at No.34, Agbelekale St., Mafoluku, Oshodi, is being tried for breach of peace and assault.

The prosecutor, Cpl. Kehinde Olatunde, told the court that the accused committed the offences on

Housewife Arraigned For Beating Conductor April 5 at Ewenla Junction on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.

He alleged that the accused assaulted a bus conductor, Tijani Jamiu, and also tore his clothes.

“The accused, who was a passenger in the complainant’s bus, suddenly slapped him, claiming that he touched her hand.

“When the bus finally stopped, the accused alighted from the bus, pulled him out of the bus and started beating him.

“In the process, she tore the complainant’s shirt,’’ he alleged.

The offences, Olatunde noted, contravened Sections 166 and 171 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

According to reports the accused may be sentenced to a three-year jail term for offenders.

The accused pleaded not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of N50, 000 with one surety in like sum.

The Magistrate, Mr. Akeem Fashola, adjourned the case to April 15 for mention.

Customs display seized cars in Benin recently.

NURTW Official Remanded Over Murder Trucks loaded with rice seized

by Customs in Benin City recently.

LAGOS - An Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos has remanded a man, Lateef Jimoh, in Ikoyi Prisons over alleged murder of his friend, Nurudeen Adio.

The Magistrate, Mr. O. O. Olatunji, said the accused should be kept behind bars pending advice from the State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Jimoh, 42, is an official of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and a resident of No. 42, Oyedeji St., Ajegunle, Lagos.

He is facing a charge of unlawful killing.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp.

Clement Okuiomose, told the court that the accused committed the offence on March 9 at about

Demolition: Court Restrains BADAGRY (Lagos State) - A Badagry High Court has ordered the Nigerian Police Force to obey its order and stop further demolition of houses on the Atimporomeh land in Badagry, Lagos State.

Reports say that on December 18, 2013, the police demolished houses at the Atimporomeh area, rendering hundreds of people homeless.

The residents of the area had sued the Nigerian Police and the Lagos State Government over the demolition of their buildings and property worth millions of naira.

The residents have sued the police and the Lagos State

Government seeking N100 billion in compensation for damages.

In her ruling, the judge, Mrs. A. Adesanyo, noted that the demolition was still ongoing, despite an earlier court order prohibiting it.

“No one is above the law and rules must be followed.

“Despite the court order prohibiting demolition activities on the land, till the conclusion of the ongoing suit, it is sad that the order of this court is not being obeyed.

“No one is above the law, no matter the person’s position; a court order must be obeyed and no one should be intimidated,” she said.

Earlier, counsel to the

Police

defendants, Mr. Samuel Ajanaku, urged the court to dismiss the case, noting that the residents trespassed on the land belonging to the police.

“Despite several warnings, they kept on building on a land that did not belong to them,” Ajanaku said.

However, counsel to the claimants, Mr. Joseph Nwokedi, told the court that most of the land on which the buildings were demolished belonged to the community.

“Most of the land belonged to the community; the police

should not have gone ahead with the demolition.

“Moreover, protocol must

be followed before going ahead to demolish houses and render several people homeless,” he said.

The judge, however, adjourned the case till May 12, 2014 for further hearing.

5.30 p.m. in Amukoko area of Lagos.

According to him, both the accused and the deceased were friends and had a quarrel over money.

“The accused was to collect N800 from some commercial bus drivers, instead the deceased collected it and this led to a misunderstanding between them.

“They engaged themselves in a fight during which the accused broke a bottle and stabbed the deceased on the chest.

“The deceased was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead,” Okuiomose told the court.

The prosecutor noted that the offence contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

Counsel to the accused, Mr. Spurgeon Ataene, pleaded with the court not to remand him in prison, citing Section 264 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The magistrate adjourned the case to April 7 for mention.

ICT Can Reduce Poverty - Expert

LAGOS – Mrs. Bukola Onilenla-Idris, the Sales Executive, Maxwell Technocrats Ltd, said that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) could be used to reduce the level of poverty in the country.

Onilenla-Idris told newsmen in Lagos that government needed to put in place infrastructure that would support ICT usage and accessibility, especially in the rural areas.

“If the relevant ICT infrastructure is put in place, it

will increase innovation, create employment, reduce rural-urban migration, and inadvertently reduce poverty,” she said.

The sales executive said that the facility had the potential of reducing poverty in the country, as well as guaranteeing access to global markets.

“ICT can be used by developing countries to further enhance their advancement in technology, and to achieve both economic growth and broad-

based development, which Nigeria should exploit,” she said.

Onilenla-Idris said that Nigeria required development in security, stability, and the integration of information systems, to facilitate digital information exchange, to meet global business needs.

“This will open up market opportunities in Nigeria, and as soon as bandwidth and Internet speed problems are solved, it will indirectly reduce poverty levels in the country,” she said.

Across The Nation UNTH: Hundreds Protest Poor Services, Rising Bills

Vice Chancellors and Rectors at stakeholders town hall meeting on TETFUND Intervention in Tertiary Institutions in the North East Zone in Bauchi recently.

ITUKU/OZALLA Hundreds of people taking care of patients at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku/Ozalla in Enugu State, have protested rising charges and poor services in the hospital.

The placard-carrying protesters chanted songs as they moved round the wards to mobilise more people before they converged on the administrative block.

Some of the placards read “Poor food: Akamu N10, okpa N50 = N300,’’ “N19,000 daily for I.C.U bed,’’ “No ultra sound machine,’’“ University of Nigeria Cheating Hospital,’’ “No provision for toilet,’’ “No water,’’ and “N3,000 daily for bed. Stop it now,’’ among

Group Decries Ritual Killing, Kidnapping Of Women

ABUJA - A group, Women Arise, has called on authorities to arrest what it described as targeted ritual killings and kidnapping of women in the South West.

The group said in a statement in Abuja signed by its President, Dr. Okei JoeOdumakin, that it was disturbing that victims of latest incidents were mostly women.

While we are yet to recover from the rude blow we got from the Ejigbo pepper torture, sodomy and murder case in Lagos State, a new outbreak of this bestiality around the South West is quite disturbing.

“At Soka in Ibadan, the kidnappers’ den of horror was discovered where several people had been held hostage. “e women victims also have had several children for their captors who raped them in the cells where they were falsely

imprisoned.

“The women Arise recalls that one of the women upon her rescue said that she had been in the den since 2008 - six years of captivity and rape!

“At the Iyana Egbado village in Ewekoro LGA in Ogun, another kidnappers’ den was discovered with underclothes of victims, mostly of women were found,” she said.

Okei-Odumakin said it was regrettable that the new direction that inhumanity was taking in the country, particularly against the women folk.

“In all three, cases of rape, kidnap and ritual hostages mentioned above, including the Ejigbo sodomy, it is clear enough that women have become the targets for horror.

“Women Arise is perturbed over the barbaric ritual premiums which some wicked souls have equated with values

Orji Sworn-in New Chief Judge

UMUAHIA - Governor Theodore Orji of Abia has sworn in Justice Nnenna Oti as the new Chief Judge of the state.

In his speech at the inauguration, Orji said that Oti’s appointment followed due process.

He expressed the hope that the chief judge would help restore the confidence of the public in the judiciary, which he described as the last hope of the common man.

He noted that there had been a series of petitions and pressure on him to appoint a substantive Chief Judge after the retirement of Justice Sunday Imo in 2010.

“People think that I have all the powers in the world to appoint a Chief Judge but I made sure that I followed due

process and the provisions of the 1999 constitution.”

The governor expressed disappointment that no judge from Abia made the list of the newly appointed judges of the Court of Appeal.

He, therefore, urged the judges in the state to work harder to merit elevation to the Court of Appeal in future.

He appealed to the Bar and the Bench to cooperate with the new chief judge to take the state’s judiciary to the next level.

In a vote of thanks, the chief judge thanked the governor for the appointment, saying that he would strive to justify the confidence of the people in the judiciary.

He commended the governor for the development of infrastructure in the judiciary.

of women.

“We condemn in strong moral terms, the barbaric, crude and bestial handling of women in this country and declare it as grossly unacceptable,” she said.

Okei-Odumakin, however,

condemned the resort to jungle justice against the suspects by members of the public, which she said, resulted into maiming the mentally disordered patients on the streets.

“We call on members of the public to desist from jungle justice. It pays no one. We

should avoid a recurrence of the Ejigbo pepper jungle justice.

“While it is possible that perpetrators may pretend, it is not right to take laws into our hands, especially as all mentally impaired persons on the streets who are innocent may also become circumstantial victims in this case.

others.

A spokesperson for the protesters, Mrs Joy Agu, said there were clear cases of extortion where the hospital collected money for services not rendered.

Agu said that in a country where many people still lived under one dollar a day, it was inhuman to ask the sick poor to pay N2,800 daily for bed space in a federal hospital.

She said the cost of surgery had doubled in less than six months without any commensurate improvement in services, adding that patients were still made to pay as much as N7,000 for theatre gowns.

She said the hospital’s security men and cleaners always complained of poor salaries and were always reluctant to perform their duties.

On his part, Mr Ibe Oledi said the patient he was looking after was placed on special diet because she was hypertensive, and was being served rice and a small piece of fish as the diet.

Oledi said a patient in the same ward was recently bitten by a rat and that a snake was also sighted in another ward.

Long List Of Governorship Aspirants Worries Gov Orji UMUAHIA - Governor Theodore Orji of Abia has expressed worry over the long list of governorship aspirants from Ukwa/Ngwa area for next year’s general elections.

Orji who spoke in Umuahia at the Ngwa Patriots’ Forum, said there were at least five aspirants

from each of the nine local government areas in Ukwa/ Ngwa area.

The theme of the summit was: “Appreciating the man that will make history: Governor Theodore Orji and Ngwa nation

in 2015.’’

The governor was represented at the summit by his deputy, Emeka Ananaba , who hails from the area.

Orji had reiterated that his successor must be from Ukwa/

illegal activities in land matters.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Lands, Alhaji

centralised land allocation, to eradicate illegal allocation.

Kebbi To Construct Housing Abdullahi Raha, told the BIRNIN KEBBI - Governor Estate governor that the ministry had Saidu Dakingari has announced that the Kebbi Government will soon begin the construction a model housing estate, to ease workers’ accommodation problems in the state capital.

Dakingari made this known in Birnin Kebbi when he inspected the proposed site along the Sani Abacha bye-pass.

He said the estate would be allocated to government officials as well as public and private organisations.

The governor then directed the Ministries of Works and Transport, Water Resources, Health, Education and Environment, to provide the blueprint on modern amenities to be provided in the new estate.

He gave the assurance that his administration would provide access roads, water, health, security and environmental protection facilities in the estate.

The governor also warned unscrupulous officials against

Ngwa to ensure equity, justice and fairness in the state Orji further envisaged that more people from the area based abroad would also swell the number as the election approaches.

He charged each of the aspirants to evaluate his or her prospect of winning the election before making formal declaration.

“People always know the examination they would pass and the one they would fail,” he said.

Olomo of Omu-Aran, Oba Charles Ibitoye (left), handing over keys of two vans to Special Adviser to the Governor of Kwara on Security Matters, Alhaji Musa Bello (2nd right), on behalf of Omu-Aran Community to Kwara Police Command in Omu-Aran recently. With them are President, Omu-Aran Development Association, Chief Peter Oyinloye (2nd left) and Kwara Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ambrose Aisabor.

Abuja

Lawmaker Calls For State Police

ABUJA - A member of the House of Representatives, Malam Ibrahim El-Sudi (PDP-Taraba), has called for the creation of state police as a panacea to the security

challenges in the country.

El-Sudi, who represents Ashaka/Kurmi/Sardauna Federal Constituency, made the call when he spoke with journalists in Abuja on

Monday.

He said that he had already drafted a bill to that effect.

“I know it’s a very controversial issue but we have no alternative than to

support state police.

“I am absolutely in support of the state police, I have already drafted a bill to that effect,” he said.

He said that the bill has a component on the

relationship between the state and federal police.

On the on-going national conference, he said the conference’s outcome would be sent to the National Assembly for legal backing.

He said the current insurgency in some parts of the country had nothing to do with religion.

“People keep blaming the federal government; I have been to the states, what are the state governments, and

the local governments doing about it.

“Jonathan is one single individual and we shouldn’t be heaping blames on him because he doesn’t have solution to everything,” he said.

He called on local and state authorities to fashion out ways of containing the activities of herdsmen to stem the wanton clashes between them and farmers.

ABUJA - The Islamic Brotherhood of Nigeria (ISBON) has elected members of its Board of Trustees and Executive Council members to pilot the affairs of the society for the next three years.

Notice of the election is contained in a statement issued by the Publicity Secretary of the society, Alhaji Muhammad Rufai, on Sunday in Abuja.

The Board of Trustee members include: Alhaji Mansur Abdulhameed as Chairman, Alhaji Taoheed Akiwande as member and Alhaji AbdulGaniyu Abayomi, also a member.

Others are: Alhaji Salihu AbdulRaheem, member, Alhaji Uthman Aliyu, member, Hajia Hafsat Belgore as Legal Adviser and Alhaji Musa Abdul as Secretary.

The National Executive Council members are Alhaji Ishaq Odewale; Chairman, Alhaji Abdulqahar Adama; Vice Chairman, Alhaji AbdulRazaq Lawal; General Secretary and Hajia Silifat Ahmadu; Amira (Women Leader).

The society urged the new officials to be

dedicated and strive harder to uplift the society to new heights.

It also urged the outgoing executive council members to give all necessary support to the new officials in the discharge of their duties.

The new Board of Trustees Chairman, Alhaji Mansur Abdulhameed, promised to do his best to get new plot of land for the society at the Central District of Abuja.

He urged members of the society to work together as one family in order to move the group forward.

During the election, the National Vice Chairman of the society Alhaji AbdulQahar Adama, launched the newlyamended constitution of the society.

Adama highlighted some new provisions of the constitution that include three year-tenure for the executive council, and an increase in membership of the group’s board from seven to nine members.

He advised members of the society to be dedicated and work harder for the progress of the association.

Society Elects National Officials

L-R: Head, Population and Nutrition Office, USAID, Dr. Nancy Lowenthal, Acting Director, Disease Control and Immunisation, National Primary Health Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Adamu Nuhu and PHCDA Executive Director, Dr. Ado Muhammad, at a news conference on 2014 Africa Vaccination week in Abuja Tuesday.

Confab Delegate Berates Governance In N/Delta

ABUJA - Prof. Godini Darah, a delegate representing Delta State at the ongoing National Conference, has described the Niger Delta region as the worst victim of inequity, corruption and bad governance in Nigeria.

Darah made the claim in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

“Niger Delta states are the worst victims of inequity, bad

laws, plunder, corruption and bad governance that have happened in Nigeria.

“This is because we are the ones whose resources have been stolen for 45 years since 1969, when the petroleum Decree No 51 was enacted by the military regime of Gen. Yakubu Gowon.

“By that degree, the Federal

Government has monopoly over income and revenue that come from oil and gas and Niger Delta is floating on oil and gas.

“So, we are the most injured, most exploited and the most dispossessed region in the country.’’

Darah said for this reason, Niger Delta delegates were

functioning very well in terms of providing basic amenities, eradication of poverty and improved education system, nobody will care about the state or Federal Government,” he said.

Ahmed said that the forum of local government chairmen, in addition to participating in other discussions, would be using the national conference to canvas support for the autonomy and democracy at local government level.

He said that the forum would also be calling for the amendment of revenue allocation formula to empower local governments to improve the basic amenities in rural areas.

“We will make sure that the local government is strengthened to improve the wellbeing of Nigerians.

“You know that about 80 per cent of Nigerians reside in the rural areas.

“If they have access to basic amenities in the rural areas, it will decrease the rural-urban migration and unemployment.”

Ahmed, however, advised all delegates to the conference to contribute their quota toward resolving the development needs and unity of the county.

“We should all realise that there are high expectations from Nigerians on this conference because we have conferences in

prepared “morally, philosophically and intellectually’’ not just to set the tone for the conference but also to correct the injustice that had allegedly been meted to the region.

He said that the delegates had conducted an extensive research on all the ramifications of petroleum resources and how it had harmed and injured their people, society and territory.

Empower Local Councils, Confab Delegate Advocates

ABUJA - Mr. Abubakar Ahmed, a delegate at the national conference, has advocated empowerment of local government councils to tackle problems of insecurity and unemployment in the country.

Ahmed, representing the Forum of Former Local Government Chairmen in North Central, made the call in an interview with the newsmen in Abuja.

He said if the local government system was strengthened and democratic enough, all minor agitations and problems in the country would be solved.

“The local government system is a very vibrant tier of government that we need to develop and encourage.

“All these unemployment and security challenges that we are facing is because the local government system is not strengthened.

“By the time we have a stronger and strengthened system, all these issues will reduce.

“All these agitation that people are being marginalised or neglected is because the local government system is not functioning very well.

“If the local government is

the past without concrete results.

“The only way we can meet up to these expectations is to allow the conference of this nature with divergent views to produce implement able recommendations.

“Although it is not an easy task, I believe that within three months of sitting, positive things will happen,” Ahmed said.

Pastor, 3 Others Docked ABUJA - The police has arraigned four men in a Senior Magistrates’ Court in Wuse, Abuja, for fighting in public and disturbing public peace.

The accused persons are a lawyer, Stephen Otokhine; a businesswoman, Banke Otokine; a pastor, Agustine Apuna and Ngozi Aguma, a trader.

The prosecutor, Insp. Jeremiah Elijah, told the court that on March 31, at about 4 p.m, the accused persons, who were neighbours, engaged in a fight within the neighbourhood.

According to Elijah, their

action caused disturbance in the area until the police came to the scene and arrested them.

He said that the offence contravened section 113 of the Penal Code.

If found guilty, they are liable to one year in prison each or with a a fine of N600 each or both.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty.

The counsel to the accused persons, Mr. Mike Omosegbon, applied for their bail under section 36(5) of the Penal Code which presumes an accused innocent until proven otherwise.

L-R: National Programme Manager, Federal Public Administration Reform Programme, Mr. Ben Arikpo, Secretary, National Planning Commission, Mr. Fidelis Ugbo, Director, Micro, National Planning Commission, Mr. Tunde Lawal, at a Workshop on Policy Skill Gap Assessment in Federal MDAs in Abuja recently.

Business + Economy Rice Processing

Institute Develops Technology BADEGGI (Niger) - The National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) in Niger says it has developed appropriate technology for processing paddy rice into milled grains.

Dr Lawrence Oluremi, the Director, Outreach Department of the institute, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Badeggi on Friday.

Oluremi said that the technology would ensure high quality polished rice that could compare with imported parboiled grain anywhere in the world.

He declined to give details of the technology and advised grain farmers, especially rice farmers, to form cooperative societies and partner with the institute for the production, processing and packaging of rice and other crops.

The director said that the technology would unlock the employment potential in the rice value chain and also help the country to achieve self-

Osun Approves Subsidy On Agric Implements OSOGBO - The Osun Government has said that it had approved a 15 per cent subsidy on agricultural implements for farmers in the state.

Mr. Solagbade Oladepo, the Chairman of the state’s Agricultural Development Corporation (OSSADEC), made this known during a board meeting in Osogbo.

Oladepo said the farmers would benefit from the government’s agricultural loan scheme, which would commence in May. He said the state government had procured agro-processing equipment such as cassava chipping and grain processing machines, multi-grain thresher, rice reaper and yam flour processing machine for sale to women and youths at 40 per cent subsidy.

“This is in line with the government’s policy to banish hunger and poverty and to create wealth and employment, which are part of the six Integral Action Plan.”

He said that the commitment of farmers to food production would go a long way to reduce hunger, and thereby reduce criminal activities.

He urged farmers not hesitate to contact, visit and make enquiries at the corporation’s headquarters at Ilobu Road, Osogbo, saying that the government has packages for farmers to increase food production.

The chairman commended the state government for its continued support to farmers, especially in granting agricultural loan to improve farmers’ activities.

sufficiency in rice production by 2015.

He said that the institute has the mandate for genetic improvement of rice in the country, including other crops such as soyabeans, sugarcane, beniseed, castor and acha.

Oluremi also said the institute has the responsibility of ensuring farmers in the country have the technical knowledge for the production and processing of these crops.

The institute has the mandate for genetic improvement of rice and cereal crops such as soya beans, sugarcane, beniseed, castor and ‘acha’ and to ensure that farmers in the country acquired the technical knowledge for the production and processing of these crops.

Former Minister of Interior, Capt.

Emmanuel Ihenacho, greeting APGA supporters during a sensitisation visit to Umuneke Ngor in NgorOkpala LGA in Imo recently.

Fishmen Lament Extinction Of Bonga Fish

ABUJA - The Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria, has claimed that ‘bonga’ fish and sardine, for which the Niger Delta is known, have disappeared from the waters due to the bonga oil spill.

Mr Inyang Ekong, the Coordinating Secretary of the association, made this claim in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, adding that the oil spill had negatively affected fishing activities in general in five States.

The states are Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ondo and Rivers.

Ekong said that members of the association had not recovered from the effect of

the spill which occurred in 2011.

According to him, members of the association in the five affected states complied with the directive of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to withdraw from fishing when the spill occurred.

“It is not only `bonga’ that is going into extinction; our fishing activities are going into extinction because the entire water has been polluted.

“We are not only talking about fishing but we are also talking about the entire water;

it has been polluted since 2011 and we use the water for everything,” he said.

Newsmen recalls that the Bonga oil spill occurred on December 20, 2011, during a routine export operation to transfer crude oil from Bonga’s Floating Production Storage and Off loading (FPSO) of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), with a loss of 35,000 barrels.

Newsmen learnt that since the disaster, economic activities, especially fishing in the affected states, had been at

Internet Users Reduce To 63m LAGOS - The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) recorded 63,474,364 internet users in February, as against 64,079,270 users in January, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said.

According to the Internet Subscriber Data released by the NCC, the users that browsed the Internet through the GSM networks reduced by 604,906 within the period.

The data showed that Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) Nigeria, occupying the first position on its table, had 32,809,357 users in February, as against 33,327,955 users in January, thus losing 518,598 users.

Also, Globacom, occupying the second position, recorded 14,908,109 users that browsed the World Wide Web (WWW) through its network in January, while it recorded 15,109,791

users in February and lost 201,682 users.

Airtel Nigeria was placed third with 9,647, 217 users in February, as against 11,065,534 users in January, losing 1, 418,317 subscribers.

Etisalat, which was placed on the fourth position, offered internet services to 6,109,681 users in February, as against 6,364,573 users in January, losing 254,892 users.

Youths from Ngor-Okpala in Imo State, welcoming former Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho to Umuneke Ngor, during APGA Sensitisation visit recently.

their lowest ebb.

Ekong stressed that the livelihood of members of the association, had declined massively and called on Shell to pay adequate compensation to the association.

“All we catch now is sea weeds; sardine is no more there again because oil is still in the water.

“Sea weeds normally serve as food for fish; there is no way fish can come near it now since the water has been polluted,” he said.

He said that the association had presented its case to the National Assembly and NOSDRA for necessary actions.

It will be recalled that the association had in April 2013 threatened to drag the company to the International

Court of Justice, The Hague, the Netherlands, over the spill but NOSDRA prevailed on it to seek others means of redress.

Meanwhile, he said that the association had filed claims amounting to N433 billion as they were deprived of their livelihood for nine months following the NOSDRA directive.

“We have presented our claims to the company; we presented the claims of N433 billon as compensation for depriving our members of their livelihood for a period of nine months.

“We have not heard anything positive from SPDC and so we are appealing to them to look into the claims and act promptly,” Ekong said.

Newsmen reports that the bonga oil spill is said to be one of the largest spills in the country in recent times, covering over 100 nautical miles from the ocean.

Telecom Masts Dangerous To Health KADUNA - The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has said that the erection of telecommunication mast close to residential buildings is dangerous to human health.

Malam Sharif Ibrahim, the state Coordinator of the agency said this in Kaduna in an interview with newsmen.

“Telecommunication mast erected in residential areas is illegal, if they do not conform with the regulatory standards; that mast will be removed.

According to him, the measurement from the foot of the mast to the nearest residential area should be 15 metres, adding that anything less is dangerous.

He expressed concern that people were ignorant of the health implications of the closeness of masts to their homes.

“People do not know the

- NESREA

dangers of having mast near their houses; there are radiations coming down from the mast that do not have immediate effect but a longterm one which affects the skin.

He listed other effects as oil spill from generators which contaminates wells and vibrations which, over time, leads to the collapse of buildings.

Ibrahim said: “once the mast is planted it becomes very difficult to remove due to the fact that people sold those lands or leased them to communication companies.

“That is why when a mast is coming up, before final erection, we stop it and relocate the mast.”

He gave assurance that the agency would continue to respond quickly to any issue brought to it by the general public.

From The National Confab

God Not Religious

A DELEGATE to the ongoing National Conference on the platform of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Nurudeen Lemu, yesterday, canvassed religious harmony in the countty.

This is even as Mrs. Yemi Mahmoud-Fasominu called for the establishment of a special court where issues of rape and other criminal acts against women would be addressed.

She also urged that laws setting up such a court must specify that convicted perpetrators of such a crime should be castrated to serve as deterrence to others.

Making his comments on President Goodluck Jonathan’s inaugural speach, Lemu asserted that God Almighty is neither a religious nor ethnic bigot and that the problem with Nigerians is that both Muslims and Christians always over-estimate their virtues while down-playing the goodness in others.

He condemned both the murdering and the murderers of Christians and Muslims in the country under the cover of religion.

“As a delegate and as a people representing people of faith in God from Islamic perspective, one thing we believe is that God will protect the community that stands for justice even if they are not Muslims and God will not protect the community that goes contrary to justice even if they call themselves Muslims.

“God is not a religious bigot. He is not a male chauvinist. He is not an ethno-centric tribalist. God is not the oppressor of anyone.

God is with those who care, those who want for others those things they want for themselves.

“One tendency for people who claim to follow a religion is to slide into the position of believing that they are better than the others. We over-estimate our virtues and under-estimate the goodness in others.

“The tendency is for us to be spiritually arrogant and forget that others are people like us. And if you are in other person’s position, you probably will be like someone else.

“As delegates from the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, we condemn the

By JOSES SEDE

murder and the murderers of all Christians; we condemn the murder and the murderers of all Muslims; not because they are Christians or Muslims but because they are all human beings—creatures of God. “There is no compulsion in religion. We all own Nigeria.

We all belong here. And we all have rights to self

selection of delegates has accorded every section of the society an opportunity to be represented.

He called for creation a standing frontier force to protect the Nigerian borders as a remedy for the current security situation in Nigeria especially the murderous insurgency in northern Nigeria.

- Lemu

should focus on job creation; peace and security; elimination of corruption at all levels; justice for all, patriotism, qualitative education; and security of residents in every part of the country; adding, “Nigeria is waiting for us to offer

President Goodluck Jonathan and members of the on-going National Conference in Abuja.

determination. We should respect that right and do onto others what we will do onto ourselves.

“Every ethnic group is an oppressed minority somewhere. Every majority or settlers is an indigene somewhere. In one way or the other, we are all settlers.

“We just don’t remember where we came from and why we came. But ultimately, we are all visitors to this planet; from God we came and to Him we will return.

“As Muslim delegates, we come against the exploitation of religion and religious sentiments; we come against stereotyping, stigmatizing and dehumanization of each other. We come against the use of religion as a political decoy and distraction from the critical things that bedevil our nation.

“I pray that at the end of this conference, we will all grow in our humanity and respect for each other.”

On his part, retired General Zamani Lekwot observed that beyond the courage and wisdom by Jonathan to convoke the conference,

Lekwot suggested that the functions of the force should include curbing illegal movements in and out of the country and most importantly halting with military precision any infiltration by insurgents and other criminals.

Ambassador Yusuf Mamman submitted that the violence in the north has presented an ideological challenge that has defied the use of military force and that the conference must find a out.

On education, he said beautiful as the issue of almajarin school concept may sound, government should de-secularise education by bringing the almajarin education in the mainstream curriculum instead of giving it a special treatment.

Ambasador Hassan Adamu in his comments said the Conference presents a good opportunity to talk rather than to fight and declared his belief that something positive will emerge from the Conference.

He said the Conference

solutions.”

Another delegate, Adeniyin Akintola, said it was pathetic that whenever the issue of corruption was being discussed, those who should be in jail for corrupt practices are the most vocal.

Akintola disclosed that if government were to compare the assets of public office holders between when they entered public service and at the time of departure, all of them, including former state governors, would be in jail.

He said sometimes, public officers declared in their assets form what they do not have and on entering public office would begin stealing desperately to meet the target earlier declared.

Wednesday session however started with a motion by Dr Bello Mohammed asking the federal government to take drastic action against people engaged in act of kidnapping and other violence.

He drew the attention of the Conference to last week’s kidnapping of Chief Edwin Clark’s son and prayed that

the Conference should send a letter of felicitation to the 86 years old delegate after the release of the son last weekend.

Engineer Adefemi Kila, who seconded the motion, said the ineffectiveness of the local government administration in the country is to be blamed for the high rise in crime rate nationwide.

“These kidnappers, these Boko Haram members, they are not spirits; they live with us. They can be identified”, he strrddef.

He also called on the federal government to do more in the area of security, adding, “our lives also are not safe.”

In view of the above, Nasiru Ibrahim Jinju said it was high time government ensured in practical terms, the autonomy of local government councils.

So far, he said state governors have held council areas by the neck, by not allowing them to function independently.

He explained that most of the security problems faced by the nation could be traced to non-functionality of local government councils.

Professor Sambo Junaido from Sokoto described the President’s speech as comprehensive and that it touched on several aspects of the lives of Nigerians.

He appealed for speedy implementation of the resolutions that would be arrived at in the course of the Conference.

Is’haq Modibo Kawu of the Nigerian Guild of Editors told the Conference that poor economic management is the main cause of Nigeria’s problem; he described a situation where a state governor is richer than the state based on his ability to steal.

Ibrahim Khaleel was of the opinion that insurgency is a product of the bastardisation of the local government structure which has made it impossible for people at the grassroots to feel the impacts of governance.

In his contribution, Adefemi Kila described Nigeria as being very sick in abject poverty; sick in the spiritual sense “and that is why we have problems of how to serve our God; it is a terrible spiritual poverty.”

Remi Kuku called on every Nigerians to repent. She said if Nigerians were to love one another as their religions teach them, there would be no room for bickering and religious enmity.

Mohammed Kumalia reminded the delegates that the spirit of the speech made

by Jonathan was for everyone to put aside their prejudices and parochial feelings and talk Nigeria instead of their ethnic groups.

He said if representations at the Conference were through election, it would have been impossible for most of the delegates to have been there to discuss issues of national importance as they affect their different groups.

Ledum Mitee from Rivers State informed the conference of the need to attach practical solutions to issues raised at the Conference and for government to act in accordance with the wish of the people.

He told a story of how he met some Niger Delta youths during an awareness campaign and confronted them on why they were breaking pipelines only to be told that since all government plans are always in the pipeline, they were breaking the pipelines to bring them out.

Bello Mohammed in his contribution said there was nobody in the north who does not know about the environmental problems faced by the Niger delta people; and that no southerner could claim ignorance of existing poverty and illiteracy in the north.

He said what is required is for both groups to agree in solution to the existing problems both in the north and in the south instead of behaving as though only one part of the country has problems.

A 24 year old girl, Yadomah Bukar Mandara, who said her father died exactly one year ago, moved the hall with her presentation when she spoke concerning the rise of insurgency in the country.

“So many children have turned orphans. So many women have turned widows.

We must unit to fight our common enemies. Our common enemies know no Christian. Our common enemies know no Muslims.

Let us unite against them.

THE Federal Government says 86 persons out of 1, 623 reportedly infected by the cholera outbreak in some parts of the country have died. As its response, the Federal Government directed the Nigeria Centre for disease Control to immediately coordinate all its response activities and report to the ministry of health daily on both the patterns of occurrence. The Federal Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, in a statement by his Special Assistant (Media and Communications), Mr. Dan Nwomeh, directed all federal health facilities in the country to provide free services to cholera patients.

AS at the last checks, the cholera outbreak has affected a number of states including Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Lagos with fears of possible spread to other parts of the country. There is also gastroenteritis outbreak in Sokoto and Katsina states which have not been confirmed to be cholera.

WE are alarmed at the sudden outbreak of cholera in the country and the fast rate of its spread. The death toll is also disturbing because it show the parlous state of our attention to basic hygienic practices in the country.

IT is shameful that while other countries in sub-Saharan Africa are making progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goal on Sanitation, Nigeria is off track. Also shameful is the fact that Nigeria is off track in meeting the Millennium Development Goal for Water.

Cholera, as we all know from basic science or hygiene is a water-borne disease. It is sad that in spite of billions of dollars earned from crude oil since its discovery in commercial quantity in 1958, access to potable water is still a mirage to many citizens as 42 per cent of Nigerians still take water from unwholesome sources.

WE also decry a situation where the Federal Government still saddle itself with provision

THE NIGERIAN

Curbing The Spread Of Cholera of water to Nigerians, a responsibility it ought to have devolved over the years to the States and Local Governments, which are the tiers of government closest to ordinary citizens.

ALSO, owing to the failure of government to provide potable water to its citizens, many resort to self help with poor regulation of the sector by government whose responsibility it is to regulate the sector. Many boreholes are located near sewage and pits while a good number are located near graves in residential premises. Some citizens as a result are practically drinking their faeces. These situations predispose citizens to water- borne diseases such as the cholera epidemics that is ravaging parts of the country.

IN some parts of South-West of Nigeria, human faeces and wastes are exposed close to sources of drinking water in such a way that the outbreak of cholera is as good as a time bomb waiting to explode.

WE therefore call on governments at all levels to rise up to their responsibility of providing safe drinking water to Nigerians and take steps to regulate the sector in such as way that private persons involved in water provision for self-use comply with international best practices.

WE urge governments of affected states to take a cue from the federal government by ordering free medical services to all cholera

patients in secondary and primary health institutions across the country.

AS the nation is currently undergoing the process of amending the 1999 constitution, or producing a brand new constitution as being demanded by Nigerians from the national dialogue advisory committee, we urge the law makers and conference participants to make access to water and sanitation a right for all Nigerians. It should be expressly stated in the constitution. This is, more so, when a number of International instruments and convention exists governing the right to water and sanitation. However, governments of all countries need to domesticate these instruments for the rights of citizens to be assured.

ON 30 September 2010, the UN Human Rights Council affirmed for the first time that the human right to water and sanitation is legally binding. Nigerian authorities need to guarantee this right for all citizens. The right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to adequate standard of living, which is recognised in several international treaties.

These include the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) to which 160 States are party, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has reached nearly universal ratification.

IT is instructive to note that the Council’s resolution helps those denied the right to water and sanitation to hold governments to account. It is for these reasons we call on Civil society and those at risk to actively claim this right from duty bearers. The Society for Water and Sanitation, NEWSAN, Nigeria’s umbrella body for Civil Society Organisations working in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector to rise up to the occasion by holding government to account and ensuring that Nigeria moves speedily in guaranteeing the rights of all citizens to WASH.

Issues Sociology Of Crises: WE live in a world that is ridden with conflicts and crises. From the climate change, war on terror, militarism and warfare, world poverty, financial meltdown, energy crises, food insecurity, forced migration, fast moving pandemics to human rights abuses, etc, the world each day draws to the brink of precipice.

How we collectively recognize and respond to these different threats to humanity depends on how they become defined and deliberated, constructed and contested in contemporary news media.

Despite arguments supporting selective media effects approach whereby the blame of public misdemeanor is not necessarily heaped at the door of the media, there are strong beliefs by many people that the media is key instrument for ‘negotiation’ of the outcome of conflicts.

Writing about the role of journalism in the crises ridden and prone world, Kofi Anan, the former UN Secretary General notes: By giving voice and visibility to all people including and especially the poor, the marginalized and members of minorities — the media can help remedy inequalities, the corruption, the ethnic tension and the human rights abuse that form the root causes of many conflicts (Quoted in Terzis 2008, p.142) The point here is that the media and journalism can help to transform today’s global tension into a process of growing confidence. How the media can do this forms the crux of this paper.

Understanding conflicts and crises Conflict may be defined as a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. Conflict is inevitable in any society as it is often difficult to avoid. However, the results of conflict are not predetermined. Conflict might escalate and lead to

Responsibility For Peace Journalism

By KATE AZUKA OMENUGHA

nonproductive results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to quality final products. Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to a highperformance society.

Whether conflicts result to full blown crises depends so much on how the communication aspect of the conflict is handled. Using political communication as an example, Oladokun Omojola writing in the Preface to the book “Communication Aspects of Conflicts and Terrorism” notes that defective political communication is a breeding ground for conflicts and “sometimes, political communication is appropriate but the interpretation that the media give it is inapt and tactless” (Omojala 2011, p. ix). Here again is a pointing finger that the media can indeed assist at pre-crisis, during crises and post-crises periods.

Journalists have been severally warned: Be “very careful and more considerate” while managing information during crisis.

• “The world is now a global village and a picture of crisis can be sent across the world within minutes with a single click on the button of a handset”.

• “Such picture could trigger a lot of consequences, even worse than what had happened. So, people who send stories and pictures must always consider the consequences of their action on the society before doing that,” • “Avoid any tendency to jettison ‘national interests and security’ because of the need to produce “screaming headlines that would engender higher circulation”.

The reasons for these warnings are obvious: from a communicator’s perspective, conflict can degenerate to crises, and crises to further crises, if there is

disinformation, misinformation, malinformation, informationlack etc.

Crisis is a state of feeling; an internal experience of confusion and anxiety to the degree that formerly successful coping mechanisms fail us and ineffective decisions and behaviors take their place. As a result, the person in crisis may feel confused, vulnerable, anxious, afraid, angry, guilty, hopeless and helpless. In such situations, the person acts out of tune

Haram insurgency that is becoming a phenomenon in Nigeria, bloody clashes and crises are becoming almost a daily occurrence. What role can the journalist play in the midst of the confusion that is Nigeria?

What is conflict resolution journalism?

Conflict-resolution journalism goes by various names. It is called “peace journalism”. It is also called conflict-sensitive journalism.

Whatever name it is called, it denotes a sensitive and responsible reporting on events in conflict-torn areas of the world. Journalism

with the societal expectations. Crises could lead to very dangerous situations such as arson, murder, terrorism, loss of lives, destruction of property, etc. The society thus is at disequilibrium. Nigeria has faced a lot of these crises in the present day. Omenugha and Ukwueze (2011) in an overview of crises in Nigeria between May 1999 and September 2000 noted an average of one bloody clash per month. With the Boko

assists citizens to rebuild their society and to reduce tensions — or at least not exacerbate existing divisions. Conflictresolution journalism helps citizens live peacefully and move toward democratic institutions.

Again, this is a pointer that journalism plays a part in rebuilding societies, but it cannot do everything By itself, journalism cannot end conflict. But it can at least try not to worsen it, at best try to reduce it.

“Again, this is a pointer that journalism plays a part in rebuilding societies, but it cannot do everything By itself, journalism cannot end conflict. But it can at least try not to worsen it, at best try to reduce it.”

Towards Peace journalism and conflict reduction journalism The trend toward conflictreduction journalism emerged by the l980s. There was a need to develop free and responsible media in Eastern Europe, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Increasingly in many countries, the powers of the media to incite hate became recognizable.

Easily cited is that of Rwanda that showed how

media could spark genocide.

Many countries work towards establishing and reestablishing responsible press. In 1998, Galtung has addressed the power journalists hold, and coined the term ‘peace journalism’ to describe reporters’ responsibility to include new perspectives different from the more typical conflict coverage which he calls ‘war journalism’. War journalism, he called the ‘low road’ and peace journalism he termed the ‘high road’. Journalists have a choice to make on which road they tend to take when writing about conflicts.

Differences between high road and low road in reporting conflicts High road (Peace journalism)- Low road (War Journalism)

1. Focuses on peace Focuses on violence orientation 2.

Focuses on truth on all sides - Focuses on onesided propaganda 3 Focuses on voices of the common people - Focuses on voices of the elites 4 Focuses on solution Focuses on victoryorientation 5 Promotes fairness to all parties and accuracy with regard to the complicated nature of the conflicts -

Partisan and lop-sided in presentation of ‘facts’ Conflict resolution/Pcacc journalism: what are the issues It always appears easy to proffer solutions to journalists and point accusing fingers on what they are not doing right. But solutions are not as straight forward as that.

There are issues that keep rearing their heads up as journalists strive to do their work. They include but not limited to the following: 1. Ownership. Can conflict resolution journalists feel free to go against their owners who often are partisan in prevailing conflicts? Can they afford to hold the governments accountable in such a country as Nigeria where governments are sensitive to criticisms?

To be contd.

Ajuwaya

CDS Meetings Relevant As a social being, it is pertinent to belong to a particular group wherever you find yourself, even outside the NYSC scheme, one needs to be identified.

Belonging to a group is a necessity for humans, as we grow, as we travel through life, we feel the need to belong.

Belonging to a group is an important part of life as, by belonging to a

group we feel complete and some may even see their purpose in it.

However, sometimes through this overpowering desire to belong, we maybe forced to sacrifice some values and beliefs. This is not necessarily a bad thing as we may learn new things from this sacrifices or further develop ourselves.

Apart from the relevance of the NYSC cardinal points, C o m m u n i t y Development Service (CDS) meeting is one of the most important part that intrigue the corps

To Corps Members

By MBA PRISCILLA N.

members, because of the joy they derive in the gathering. CDS meeting is a channel via which corps members that belong to a specific CDS group gather in a particular day of the week to communicate their different ideas or

opportunity for greater communal involvement and interaction through working with the local community towards self reliant project. This service is equally designed to instill in corps members, the tradition of dignity of

national levels, cases abound of those who secured laurels, awards (local and national), jobs and the like because of the wonderful feats they performed in the area of community development service.

This is not just work one will do because others are

activities that will better the host community. In the gathering, corps members look out for what can improve the standard of life of the host community, it can be building of structures, e m p o w e r m e n t programmes, among others.

Moreso, Community Development Service is another aspect of the National Youth Service Scheme and it comprises welfare service and projects by corps members aimed at improving the host community. The idea is to afford corps members the

labour. Like we have rightly mentioned above, it is imperative to know that the CDS is as important as other cardinal programmes of the NYSC. Infact, many corps members who had passed through the scheme have made marks both at the local and

doing it, it imbibes in the corps members the spirit of self-reliance and entrepreneurial skills.

C o m m u n i t y Development Service brings people together to share ideas, experience and at the end they execute the plans. It will interest us to digress a

little bit to bring us a story about the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs) CDS group who went to a school to execute a project, these young corps members did a marvelous project work by renovating a library which was painted and equipped with books all by themselves. You see, a tree can never make a forest unless they come together. To this end, more emphasis needs to be given on the nature of C o m m u n i t y Development Service.

There are two type of CDS namely, Group CD and personal CD. No matter your status in the society, as long as you are undergoing the national service, you must participate in the group C o m m u n i t y Development (CD) which is also known as the general CD. Group Community Development: This is a process whereby one selected day of the week (in most cases, between Tuesday to Friday) corps members doing their primary assignment within a local government area or locality, come together as a group to embark on any project that would better the lot of the host community. For instance, the local government authority in the area may decide to embark on the construction of market or classroom blocks. With the corps members present, in the area, it becomes easier for such a project to be executed with relative ease and at minimal cost, since the

corps members of different areas of study of ten come together to brainstorm the problem for sourcing for and jointly carry out the project, labour would not arise.

Apart from that, corps members on their own may decide to embark on environmental beautification of an area to enhance the general outlook.

Personal Community Development: This is personal in the sense that you are not under compulsion to embark upon it. It is simply a matter of choice and an opportunity to excel and soar above your contemporaries during the national service year.

This is a golden opportunity available for one to make a mark or actualize one’s dreams.

All you have to do here, is to take a close look around your host community and see how you can evolve an idea that can improve or greatly enhance the living standard of the inhabitants of the host community. You are to note that you must not execute your personal community development service at the expense of your primary assignment.

That is, your primary assignment must not suffer because you are pursing personal interest.

In a nut shell, NYSC C o m m u n i t y Development Service is not just a means of making Nigeria a better place but it is a channel through which we better ourselves and learn humility and true service.

“This is not just work one will do because others are doing it, it imbibes in the corps members the spirit of self-reliance and entrepreneurial skills. Community Development Service brings people together to share ideas, experience and at the end they execute the plans.�

Child Health And You

Home Management Of A Child With Fever

HOME MANAGEMENT OF A CHID WITH FEVER BY DR DAMIAN, U NWANERI Fever is not a disease but a symptom or an evidence of possible presence of a disease.

Most times, fever is one of the most prominent manifestations of acute systemic inflammation or diseases. Fever is an elevated body temperature above 37.2 o C. Normal body temperature ranges from 36.6oC to 37.2oC. Caregivers/ mothers usually observe fever by feeling warmth on the body of their children most times using the back of their hands.

This is a subjective assessment of presence of fever; however this assessment is important and many times correlate to an elevated body temperature.

Grading of fever include hyperpyrexia which is the axillary temperature more than 39.0 o C or rectal temperature of 40.0 o C; hyperthermiabody temperature more than 42.0oC. Body temperature can also be below normal such as sub-normal temperature which is the body temperature less than 36.6oC; hypothermia (body temperature less than 35.0oC). A simple instrument for measurement of body temperature is the clinical thermometer) (insert picture of a simple thermometer).

Persistently low body temperature usually connotes a serious systemic disease especially in new born infants.

Types of fever include continuous fever which is the body temperature that remains higher than normal but does not fluctuates more than 1oC in 24 hours and never returns to normal range. There is the remittent fever in which the body temperature remains higher than normal but does not fluctuates more than 2oC in 24 hours and never returns to normal range. Intermittent fever is when fever is present for several hours in a day and returns to the normal range.

The sub-types of intermittent fever include quoditian fever that is when fever comes and goes during the day.

Sometimes such fever is usually worse at night; tertian fever in which fever occurs in alternate day and quartan fever in which there is usually 2 days intervening between consecutive episodes of fever.

Body temperature is regulated by thermo-sensitive neurones located in pre-optic or anterior hypothalamus in every individuals brain that respond to changes in blood temperature as well as to

direct neural connections with cold and warm receptors located in skin and muscles.

Fever occurrence in individual depends on humoral signals from the body (usually resulting from chemicals secreted in the body known as pyrogens) and coordinated effort of the thermo-sensitive (heatsensitive) area of the brain called the hypothalamus.

However, these events involves orchestration of wide range of activities known as Acute-Phase Reaction (APR) of the endocrine, autonomic, and behavioural responses.

For example; fever can result from pyrogens triggered on from worn-out body cells (aging) and sometimes from body metabolic products such as lipids metabolites AND in disease state; exogenous pyrogens from infectious organism such as malaria parasites, viruses, bacteria and other parasites causing diseases. These pyrogens act on the heat-sensitive area in the brain as well as stimulate the sympathetic nervous receptors that cause vasoconstriction (reduction of blood flow to the skin) and thereby causing heat retention due to reduced heat loss from the skin of the individuals.

Behavioural activities that increase body temperature are controlled by the higher centres of the brain such as covering once self or shivering to generate heat that increases the body temperature.

Fever in most times is caused by a known disease entity. These diseases causing organism depends on age of the child. Fever is common finding in all age group; however low body temperature can be a more deleterious sign in new born child. Common causes of fever in children in most age group include malaria, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, ear infection known as acute otitis media, mastoditis; throat diseasespharyngitis, tonsillitis, to mention but a few. Children with fever and specifically those who had neither an apparent nor obvious site of infection is said to have fever without localizing sign of infections or fever without focus of infection. Malaria and urinary tract diseases are the most common cause of such fever in children. Sometimes fever is a sign of severe disease process in children and such diseases include meningitis (disease affecting the ‘water proof cover’ of the brain and manifesting with fever and

convulsions, loss of consciousness, brain damage and death); complicated malaria in which there is fever accompanied by any of these signs-prostrations (inability to drink water, sit-up or stand in a child), multiple convulsions, impaired consciousness or altered sensorium, deep acidotic breathing or respiratory distress, shock, yellow eyes, sometimes abnormal or spontaneous bleeding and death. Virtually,

Tepid sponging: this procedure can be comfortably be carried out by the mothers/ caregivers at home and when it is appropriately done have been observed to ameliorate fever in children. Tepid sponging requires tepid water (lukewarm water placed in a bowl or bucket), woolly cloth (preferably towel), and then the helper (in this case the caregiver/mother who administers the procedure).

The procedure is as follows:

with fever is inappropriate as such practice will worsen the peripheral blood vessel constriction of the skin and worsen heat conservation and fever. If the child is shivering (known as rigour), the child should be covered with a thick cloth (example a blanket) for few minutes during which the child is observed until the shivering stops. As soon as the shivering stops, the blanket is removed immediately and then the child is tepid sponged immediately as described above. Simple and most common drug recommended

all infectious disease processes are accompanied by fever. Therefore, a child with fever requires medical attention (thorough evaluation by medical personnel by obtaining good history, physical findings and laboratory investigations) in view to identify and treat the cause of the fever. This process saves life as well as prevents complications that may arise from the diseases causing fever in children.

When a child develops fever, what can the caregiver/mothers do at home before seeking for medical attention? The following procedures could be carried out by caregivers/ mothers: The child could be exposed by removal of all clothing and in some cases fanned with the local or electric fan or moved to an airy place especially during a high environmental temperature periods.

prepare lukewarm water.

Drop the towel in the lukewarm to give warmth to the towel. Squeeze out some of the tepid water from the towel. Apply the warmth towel by dapping it on the body of the child in systematic fashion starting from the region of larger body surface (front chest and abdomen to the upper and lower back and vice versa) until the entire body is sponged. The warmth of the tepid water on the towel causes vasodilation of the peripheral blood vessels to the skin thereby allowing evaporation and dissipation of the latent heat of vapourization. This helps to regulate the heat-sensitive are of the brain and there is an internal cooling and reduction in body temperature when the latent heat of vapouriaztion for each individual is reached by the tepid sponging procedure. Pouring ordinary water on the body of a child

for ameliorating (reducing) fever in children is a c e t a m i n o p h e n (paracetamol). Paracetamol is used to reduce fever (return the body temperature to normal) BUT paracetamol in most cases does not treat the cause of fever in children.

Paracetamol is given to a child with fever while full medical attention is sought immediately. Paracetamol is not useful in treating the cause of fever in most children.

Most common causes of fever are known and as soon as the disease cause is detected and treated, the fever disappears and/or treated as well. Most media advertisement on paracetamol which emphasizes on seeking medical attention only if fever symptom persists after 2 days of administration is completely inappropriate; rather emphasis on management of fever should

By DR. DAMIAN UCHECHUKWU NWANERI

be in identifying and treating the cause of fever. Mothers/ caregivers should please seek medical attention at the health facility immediately after paracetamol has been given to a child with fever. Early detection of the cause of fever and addressing it immediately saves life. For example, the most common cause of fever without sign of localized infection in Nigerian children is malaria (disease known as suspected malaria). Fever in such children can be treated by tepid sponging as described in this write-up paracetamol administered to the child a well. However, the caregivers should after giving paracetamol to the child for the fever should as well procure and administer appropriate anti-malaria medicine (arthemisinin-based combination therapy) for the child immediately while seeking for further evaluation at the health facility. This home practice for treatment of suspected malaria in children is termed home-management of malaria and has been recognized by the World Health organization (WHO).

This practice has been found to save lives of children with suspected malaria worldwide.

In some instance, fever in an otherwise healthy individual requires no treatment.

However, such an individual is said to be otherwise healthy only when there have been thorough evaluation by a physician with accompanied specific directed laboratory investigations and there was no abnormality or disease detected.

DR DAMIAN UCHECHUKWU Research Fellow I, Institute of Child Health, University of Benin And Consultant Paediatrician, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City Edo State, Nigeria.

‘CHILD HEALTH AND YOU’, a Weekly Thursday Feature, is a collaborative initiative between the Institute of Child Health, University of Benin, and the Bendel Newspapers Company Limited (BNCL), Benin City.

Comments on this page should be forwarded to The Editor, Bendel Newspapers Company Limited, Benin City or Director, Institute of Child Health University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State.

Media

Continued from last week

Field

Interviews

THE field interview is one of the commonest type of talks programme. In conducting a field interview, keep a sharp ear to the general acoustic background. Too much room echo or low frequency, rumble of traffic may distort the sound of the speaking voices and make it difficult for the listener to understand what is said. This is done by listening carefully to overall level of background and watching the deflections of Vu meter of the recorder before beginning the interview.

Where a recording has been done in an office, often the best position is to lean on a windowsill and speak out into the open air thus reducing the room resonance, (see chapters 10, 11 and 12 volume I Osemewegie Ero (2005).

A field interview at Dam site under construction may usefully begin with the sound of a near- by tractor at work.

The interviewer could then begin: ‘I am standing right on the site of the new Ikpoba Dam, Benin City, Kaijin Dam, Nigeria.

Volta Dam Ghana, just nearing completion. With me is the resident engineer Mr Richard lyasere. Mr lyasere, what is that machine we can hear ……? And then progress to the intended questions.

Most microphones used for field recording have a wind moving the diaphragm and causing a disturbing rumble (see chapter 13 — the microphone and voices) where a wind shield is not available one can often use a handkerchief or robe over the microphone. With the high quality equipment available nowadays, there is no reason why the sound quality of a field recording should not equal that of a studio recording.

2. THE DISCUSSION PROGRAMMES The discussion is a part of talks programme in media or communication (radio and television). The discussion programme provides a platform for the exchange of ideas.

Such ideas could be very important ones which concern us as individual, members of a community, education of our children, Health education on HIV/AID, political, agriculture and others. The discussion may be serious or light — hearted, but its purpose is always to set us thinking.

The simplest discussion is an extension of the interview in which the interviewer plays a more positive or provocative role. He may present his own ideas so as to bring his guest out or perhaps, to delve deeper into a subject. This kind of discussion is best handled by a staff or station personality.

Formal Discussion Formal discussion are conventional in nature because they are presided over by a chairman who act as adjudicator or moderator and not participating in the discussion himself unless to spark off a new line of inquiry. The panel of discussion are three to four participants.

Usually one subject only is dealt with and it is examined in some depth. However, several topics could be treated in this programme arising from listeners’ letters which may be discussed. Another type of discussion follows the line of a debate and is usually held before ‘an audience either in the studio or in the public center, perhaps in a town hall or a university auditorium. A chairman or an executive producer or a director from the broadcasting organization could preside.

They can be two protagonists put forward opposing views on the question under debate. The audience had been invited to join in their discussion. This type is popular in the urban areas (political) campaigns but it is appropriate in rural areas.

The essential ingredient of any discussion is conflict.

Members of the panel must have differing points of view. A discussion programme in which everyone agrees with every one else makes very dull listening. It has been noted that discussion programmes are best organized in series whether in radio, television or in educational institutions.

Unveiling Today’s Print And Br Some discussion programmes with specific educational purposes invite listeners to form their own community discussion groups. Broadcasting organization should organize educational institutions into debates or discussion groups, sending them lines of argument likely to be heard and suggesting questions for the groups to discuss.

Results of these discussions are sent back into media station and points time in the programme as a transcript.

Preparing For Discussion Both discussion and interview need a very careful preparation. The producer needs to research the subject and make very certain in his own mind that the subject is one that is capable of being discussed. This has made discussion programmes to fail because some producers have no sufficient time to plan, prepare or show concern on the subject matter.

In many broadcasting organizations the planning of discussion programmes are of a very paramount affairs. This is the reason why they set up a discussion committee to plan a discussion of programme subjects. This committee will surely help the producer to determine whether there are enough different points of view to frame the question for a discussion.

The choice of subject has considerable bearing on the choice of participants as does the way in which the question is put.

Aspinall (1973) gave the following example of questions.

Do we need more lawyers or more practical engineers? This is a better approach to what may be the same question but again would limit the discussion and the choice of speakers.

It is a question for lawyers, economists and engineers.

Would you advice your son to be a lawyer or an engineer?

This is a far broader question and one that is likely to stimulate immediate listener interest. It offers scope for discussion of national objectives, views on the present situation and discussion of employment opportunities. It immediately suggests possible participants, a leader, a graduate who feels that he has entered a wrong calling.

The study of economics is better than the study of science — Discuss. Such a topic is better for schools or colleges. It gives them opportunities to express themselves in the national objective and the philosophy of education.

All discussions need careful planning. The subject must be thoughtfully chosen, and the microphone personalities of the participants should be carefully considered.

The Production of a Discussion The producer as earlier said, should talk with all the participants to learn about their points of view before arranging his rehearsal. A brief typed summary of these should be given to the moderator or chairman who should also have the opportunity to talk with the participants or groups himself before the recording starts.

During the rehearsal, the moderator or the chairman or the producer should find out which of the participants is likely to have the most to say on any particular aspect of the subject.

The producer should note the amount of time which each stage of discussion is likely to require and prepare a running sheet of paper indicting time from –to- minutes to starts.

During the recording he can then signal. These ‘time gates’ to the chairman as each one is reached. He should brief the speakers carefully showing them how to face up to the microphone and he should point out the difficulties which arise from over talking - that is breaking in on a speaker and talking at the same time as he is talking. The best is to cut in.

The chairman or the moderator can then let one participant complete his idea before calling in another.

In this way a good moderator can control the discussion without taking any of the life out of it. In the early part of a

“Both discussion and interview need a very careful preparation. The producer needs to research the subject and make very certain in his own mind that the subject is one that is capable of being discussed. This has made discussion programmes to fail because some producers have no sufficient time to plan, prepare or show concern on the subject matter.”

By OSAYOMWABO O. ERO

programme the moderator should name the speakers frequently until the listener is able to identify them by voice, that is in radio.

Paying special attention to the sitting of participants particularly if the table lacks round table. If the only table available is a long one, it is better to put the more effusive speakers at the ends. If it is a school debate where two schools A and B opposed each other, the sitting arrangement differs particularly in the television studio. The school debate or school challenge has been produced for several years in N.T.A and other stations in Nigeria. When shy speakers are seated in the extremes of a table, they start to take comfort in their isolation and fail to contribute freely to the discussion.

Note that pads, pencils and glass of water should be provided for each participants.

Most discussions end with summary from the chairman or the moderator. It is important that this is purely a summary and not a speech in which the chairman airs his own views or raises new questions which have not been touched upon in the general.

But in schools challenge, or debate, the result of the debate must be heard and winners are known.

3. THE MAGAZINE PROGRAMMES The regular magazine whether in radio or the television, programme is derived from the news reel.

It is a useful outlet for great deal of informational and soft news material which cannot be programmed elsewhere.

Magazine programmes vary in length usually either 15-30 minutes, its one hour in some stations. They consist of short talks interview, on — the - spot reports and eye — witness accounts of events commentaries, music and sometime poetry and short stories.

The longer magazines such as the ‘IBOTA’ in ITV radio in Benin City Nigeria and such related magazine programmes are very common in different languages in Nigeria and Africa. They are generally aimed at a both wide and small audience, such as women, school teachers,

farmers, businessmen, students, listeners having a special interest in science, art, or hobbies.

The item in the short magazine programme seldom are longer than two and a half minutes. Thus a 15+ minute magazine may have four or five separate items. The length of item in the longer magazine is usually between 3 and 4+ minutes. The shorter items are, the quicker the pace of programme. A fast moving programme appeals to urban

ligh mate mag It Mus prog song min simp to se Th of a and as th iden stan Li Li mag

Journalists on duty

listeners, whereas rural listeners generally expect a more leisurely pace but there are no fixed rules. The producer must understand his audience and pace the programme accordingly.

Itemizing Magazine Programme The producer of a magazine programme should be very careful in considering the needs to be given to the placing of items in the magazine programme. The producer should have a journalistic flair which is the ability to itemize topics and evaluate them in the magazine.

The better magazines generally open with a short and topical item to catch the listeners or viewer’s interest, weightier material is best held in reserve for use about two third of the programme. The

conti exper us wh shoul Wher much The progra and it surger Docto Now surger Suc examp cocoa And m breast Docto develo In a report this w stadiu the w State. comp

roadcast Journalism (10)

hter ones which are often of humorous erial is customarily used at the end of a gazine programme. is interesting that longer magazine items. sic can also make a complete item in a gramme — ‘the top of the week’ or a regular g spot which can last one minute to two utes. It is not professional to use music ply because there is no other apparent way eparate or link two items in a programme. he same narrator should be used for edition magazine programme. He gives it a stamp identity of its own much in the same way he “flag” or title of a printed magazine ntifies it amongst many magazines on a news nd. ink Writing ink writing is like narrator’s lines in a gazine. Linking can also be called link

impressive step forward which will profit each one of us ….

Sometimes in link — continuity or writing link, it’s very important and a sign of good production to give listeners or viewers a ‘picture’ of the person who is about to speak: Mrs. Imade Abolo is a tireless worker in the cause of women’s rights. A tall very dignified woman, she was dressed in a fine blue cotton, wrap around and a brilliant brown head-tie, when we called on her at her office this morning to talk about her new campaign on women in politics.

Good link writing and good transitions make a programme lively. A magazine script should include all that is necessary for the technical operator and narrator to know. The in-and out cues of the tape inserts and the duration of the inserts must be clearly marked on the script. This is editing the tape.

(Tape Sule): BEGINS “The rail officer told me that the estimated increase …..

ENDS ‘ …. in the record time of one year and six months’ (Time 2’l0”.)

nuity or transitions. This, if handled by an rienced script writer or a moderator, it should tell hat we need to know about what is to follow and it d appear to make the magazine hold together. re the link writing is good, there is little need for h music bridges between items. ere could be two items or topics in a science amme. One has been a talk about a new insecticide t is to be followed by another talk about breast ry. A very bald and poor link would be: “That was or Obiora talking of a newly developed insecticide. here is a talk about new development in breast ry by Doctor Arase. h a link can be made much more interesting; for ple “A new insecticide may be bad news for the a beetles but it’s good news for the cocoa farmers. more good news in science is the rapid progress in t surgery at Uwelu Specialist Hospital. Here’s or Arase to bring us up to date with the latest opments in the cure of breast cancer. a general magazine with two on — the — spot ts following one another, we may write the link in way. While reporter Ero Efe was out at the sports um, this afternoon, Kuka Yahaya went to look at ork being done on the new Rail terminal in Dodo This billion Naira development work should be leted by the end of the year. As Kuka says, it’s an

Where the same cue appears twice the script should carry a warning not to this effect to avoid the danger of an operator accidentally cutting the insert ahead the time.

Where pronunciation are likely to be difficult or unfamiliar, the script should include guides for the narrator ‘- Mr. Olayes Crhymes with Davides ….)

SUMMARY For the talks magazine programme, in this chapter, we can realize that nearly all the other forms of spoken word broadcasting — the educational programme, for school, the documentary, the magazine, special programmes, for particular audiences — children, women and farmers. It is a very basic form of broadcasting and one which in a sense, existed long before radio began. The talk, the interview and

Media discussion are all part of our daily lives.

We talk to someone giving our views on topics of the day and about the things we see. We all ask and are asked questions about ourselves, about the things we do, about the things we want to do, about what we know or about what we want to know.

We discuss our ideas and our plans with other people, members of our families, our friends and our associates. We join together in groups at village and town meetings, in councils and in parliaments to discuss our ideas and prepare plans for action.

The best of radio talks programming is simply an extension of the talking we do in our everyday lives. The talks producer should therefore be guided by the talks activity of his town or his people.

If in his own society, there are meetings of elders and tribal meeting either for community development or cultural festivals, he should try to find ways of adapting these to radio, particularly in the language spoken by the people in broadcasting. We producers must know that it is only working through the existing framework of society that radio and television can help to broaden our ideas and put distant peoples in touch with one another.

The kinds of talks, magazine programming sketched in this chapter, are the conventional ones which have been tried and proved elsewhere, but they are not the only ones. In the English — Speaking radio world, Richard Aspinall the author of Radio Programme Production (1973) Unesco, says that formal talk began in Britain, the interview in the United State of America and the town meeting and rural forum in Canada. They have changed over the years and being adopted in various forms by broadcasters in other parts of the world.

In each case, they entered into radio and TV because there were means of communication, which were already known outside the radio and television.

The radio and television listeners and viewers were familiar with most of the techniques. As the radio or TV, reaches out to other lands, it must adapt itself to other people and takes its programme inspiration form the way other people think and live.

To do their work, radio or television became vitally and closely related to the lives of the listeners and viewers, but not to the listeners or viewers in some distant countries.

However the radio listeners could be in the remotest areas of the world where they can listen to any broadcast, either documentary, talks the magazine the discussion programmes in radio?

Projects of Action.

Analyse a popular printed magazine. What kind of reading public is it intended for? What kinds of stories does it publish? What is the relative prominence given to the different stories? Compare the stories and the space given to them with the stories and time given to topics in a radio magazine, programme broadcast by your station.

Plan a radio or television documentary, which has relevant social purpose.

The subject may have to do with community welfare or a current national project in programme to your class and evaluate its effectiveness.

Do you agree that the purpose of the documentary is primarily to educate while that of magazine programme is to inform?

The short talk and the short interview are always more difficult than the long talk and the long interview. How would you prepare your self in both, a-d.? (a) Prepare a talk of 3+ minutes duration on a subject with which you are familiar — perhaps about your job or how and why you began a career in broadcasting. (b) Prepare a talk of up to 12 minutes on a subject requiring research on something in history, something about your customs or about a new proposed community development. (c) Prepare and record a short interview of 3 minutes duration with one of your classmate or one of your stations personalities. Play back and evaluate these projects with other members of your class. Were the materials well organized? Was the message clear?

How could they have improved? (d) Where and for what reasons in your community do people come together and talk? How are the meetings organized? Who sits in the chair? What is discussed? Are there established precedents for speaking? Can these meeting be adapted to broadcasting and used as the idea for series of radio or television programmes?

“However the radio listeners could be in the remotest areas of the world where they can listen to any broadcast, either documentary, talks the magazine the discussion programmes in radio?”

With Obuseh Jude 08033510173

Security Issues

Do Business And Build Peace THE need for cordial and peaceful relations between business organizations and the communities within which they are domiciled cannot be overemphasized.

But this has not always been the case as serious frictions occur from time to time in relations between business organizations and their hosts.

The bone of contention has sometimes bordered on the perceived insensitivity of some business organizations to the plights of residents of their host communities viz-aviz: Provision of infrastructures and basic amenities, youth engagement, capacity building, job creation, environmental protection, peace, security, etc.

Some of the conflicts that occur between business organizations and their hosts often escalate into violent confrontations as depicted by the sad scenarios in the oilrich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria (before the commencement of the peace process that ultimately doused tensions in that region). The violent conflagrations in the Delta region were due largely to the uncensored exploration activities of the giant multinational oil corporations operating in the area, and the people’s collective conviction that these activities were exploitative, harmful to the environment, and inimical to their development and growth.

The Niger Delta Conflict is a graphic example of the possible negative consequences of poor rapport between business organizations and their host communities.

In a bid to stem the ugly tide of distrust between corporations, their hosts and other concerned parties, the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become integral aspects of the operations of most – especially - large business organizations the world over, with varying degrees of

successes and failures. CSR, as an essential tool in modern business practices, has the potential of bridging the divide between business organizations, their clients, host communities, government, nongovernmental organizations, (NGOs) and other equally significant stakeholders. It is a set of standards to which a company subscribes in order to make its impact felt on society. It has the potential of contributing to sustainable development, poverty alleviation, growth of the national economy, peace and security. It is a tool utilized by corporations to positively impact on society, and the parameters on which the efficacy of their programs can also be measured.

Today, most well structured business organizations carry out extensive CSR projects. In partnership with different governmental and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), some corporate organizations promote causes that have direct bearings on the lives of their clients and communities of residence.

These projects apart from being developmental in their thrusts’, also serve as confidence-building mechanisms that are geared towards placating restive host communities. These include: Building of classroom blocks, construction of health care centers, sinking of boreholes, construction of roads, establishment of skills acquisition centers, some level of employment generation, and award of scholarships to selected students from some host communities.

To create awareness about their developmental programs and win more public support, most modern business organizations establish Community or Public Relations Departments, which apart from educating the public and the communities within which they operate about

their activities, also help in image laundering and damage control, in the event of failed or ineffective service delivery. They also help in setting agenda for future actions. Convincing as these efforts are, they have not completely removed the animosities and mutual suspicions that exist between some organizations and their hosts. One major reason for

this is that public relations stunts only succeed in selling the image of business organizations, but do not translate into objective efforts at putting value back into their host communities in form of developmental programs. This perceived lack of social empathy on the part of business organizations in their quest for capital accumulation is at the fore of the several frictions between them and other key stakeholders.

The suspicion with which the indigenes of communities playing host to some business corporations view most of their developmental initiatives are premised on the general conviction that most

of the programs - laudable as they appear to be on the surface - are mere handouts compared to the stupendous profits being appropriated by these corporations; as caveats masking the real capitalist motives of big businesses; as deceptive gimmicks meant to exploit and further impoverish them. This has inadvertently deepened the gulf of distrust between both

parties. In the haste to cover up their inadequacies, most large corporations, especially in the third world where there are less legal regulations to check their excesses, rather than accepting their shortcomings, resort to cheap propaganda in attempts to convince their clients, host communities, government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regulatory agencies, and other equally significant stakeholders, that they are adhering to the laws regulating their activities as legal entities.

A peace-building approach to addressing the traditional animosities between business corporations and their host

“The suspicion with which the indigenes of communities playing host to some business corporations view most of their developmental initiatives are premised on the general conviction that most of the programs - laudable as they appear to be on the surface - are mere handouts compared to the stupendous profits being appropriated by these corporations; as caveats masking the real capitalist motives of big businesses; as deceptive gimmicks meant to exploit and further impoverish them.”

communities suggests that: The CSR practices of all business organizations should only be better structured, but more extensive and sustainable.

The usual practices in the past where corporations see CSR initiatives as philanthropic gestures should be completely jettisoned for more focused, more resultoriented approaches;

responsibilities by creating the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Apart from churning out legislations, the provision of infrastructures and basic amenities will go a long way towards making businesses more profitable and encouraging them to put something back into their host communities. Other measures such as expanding

development-oriented approaches that are geared towards gratifying the communities that play host to these businesses.

Corporations must be ready to make valuable contributions to the communities playing host to them.

Towards achieving the above-stated ideal, this writeup suggests that a solid regulatory framework to ensure that all big corporations operating in the different productive sectors of the global economy are compelled to perform their CSR functions to the letter, be expressly put in place, especially in developing sections of the world where businesses have developed the proclivity for operating irresponsibly without checks and balances. To this end, necessary legislations should be passed and enforced by governments to keep all stakeholder organizations in line. Governments should also wake up to its

the definition of what constitutes corporate to include other societal institutions whose functions impinge to some extent on the lives and environment of their hosts must be expedited.

Communities and businesses should begin to see themselves as partners in progress - not as strange bed fellows without consideration for each other’s interests. The growing air of distrust of corporations by the public can be overturned if corporations become more socially responsible by engaging in genuine efforts aimed at building a better world. The public is looking forward to a time when there will be a growing sense of social responsibility among most businesses and industry groups. From support of local arts initiatives, to international efforts to improve the environment, corporations must do more to help in making the world a better place for all to live in.

A]. DEFINITION: A matrix is an array or arrangement of numbers or elements enclosed within square or circular brackets. We use capital letters to denote a matrix and small

B]. SOME TYPES OF MATRICES Square Matrix: A square matrix is a matrix, where the number of rows is equal to the number of column for a 2 x 2 matrix, the

Mathematics With Stanley Osobase 08023454887 Osobase2001@yahoo.co.uk

Matrices And Determinants letters to denote its elements. With square matrix is of the form, suffixes which uniquely define the a11 a12 A = positions of a given element in the a21 a22 and for a 3 x3 matrix The plural of matrix is matrices.

Matrix, the square matrix is of the Consider the matrix form

[

A=

(

a11 a21

a12 a22

[

A=

[

0 0

[

0 and B = 0 0 0

[

0 0

0 0

[

It is denoted by the letter 0

Equality of matrices: Two matrices a11 a12 a13 are said to be equal if they have the B= a21 a22 a23 same order and their corresponding a31 a32 a33 elements are equal.

Consider the matrices: Note: In the matrix B, the elements b b a 11 , a 12 and a 33 are along the A = a11 a12 and B = 11 12 b21 b22 a21 a22 imaginary line called principal diagonal, while the elements a13, a22 ) a11 = b11, and a31 are imaginary line called A = B if and only if ( ordinary diagonal. a = b a = b and a = b

[

(

[

The element of a11 means the element is in the first row and first column. a12 means first row and second column; a21 means second row and first column; a22 means second row and second column.

In general, aij means the element is in the ith row and jth Scaler Matrix: This is a matrix column.

Example 1 where all the elements along the -5 2 principal diagonal are the same while If A = 4 -3 other elements are zero. For example the matrices Find: (a). a21 (b). a12 2 0 0 2 0 P = 0 2 0 and Q = 0 2 Solution: 0 0 2 (a). In the given matrix, a21 refers to the element in the Unit Matrix: This is similar to the scaler matrix, except that the second row and first column elements along the principal diagonal :- a21 = 4 (a). a refers to the element in are unit or 1. For example

[

Example, in the matrix

[

[

[

12

the first row and second column. :- a12 = 2 Note: A matrix with m number of rows and n number of columns is known as an m by n matrix, denoted as m x n matrix. Thus, matrix A above is known as a 2 x 2 matrix

[

[

[

12

[

[

12,

21

21

22

[

22

Example 2 Given that

[ x5 3y [ = [ 65 -23[, Find x and y.

Solution: From the rule of equalitry, x correponds with 6 while y corresponds with 2. :- x = 6, y = -2 Answer

Transposed Matrix: A transposed matrix is a matrix whose rows and columns have been interchanged.

1 0 0 Consider the matrices.

M = 1 0 and N = 0 1 0 0 1 a b 0 0 1 a c A= :- AT= c d b d The unit matrix is denoted by the In general, if B is a matrix of order letter I m x n then B transpose is the matrix Null Matrix: This is a matrix where of order n x m.

To be continued all the elements are zero. For

[

[

[

[

[

[

[ [

Motoring With OSAGIE AIFUWA 08023412452

Understanding Your Car Battery

THE Auto car battery is generally of the lead acid type: though at different time’s attempts were made to introduce alkaline batteries.

The plates are made primarily of lead mesh frame work with lead paste filling the gaps i the mesh.

Prior to fitment, the plates are recharged and formed into positive sets and negative sets. The positive plates set surface become covered with lead peroxide: that is, it is covered with brownish like paste called lead peroxide and the negative plates surface are purified and become pure lead or what is referred to as spongy lead.

Voltage rating (i.e 6V and 12 volts) — to form a battery. The battery cells are - filled with dilute sulphuric acid which acts as the chemical link between the plates in each cell. In the process of charging and discharging, the electrolyte or the dilute sulphuric acid: which acts

as the vehicle for carrying the electrical charges between the plates in the’ cell, experience chemical transformation of either losing its water portion in its composition during charging process in form of emission of hydrogen and oxygen gases or during discharging the plates in the cells are pasted with soleplate group loosely, initially, and maybe hardened on the plate surface for too long. If this happens, it will be difficult to restore the battery to its original state by charging with the alternator in the car.

As it is sulphated it may require a long charging at a slightly higher voltage than the alternator is designed to produce under normal working condition. In this sulphated condition, the electrolyte will be composed of only the water element, hence the drop in its specific gravity. This is the reason why the state of charge of a battery can easily be verified by using an hydrometer to check the electrolyte’s specific gravity. Normal

value is 1.250 and when it drops to 1.18-1.5 the battery is discharged and needs external long hours of recharging to bring it back to its charged state. Like reserve overhead Water tank that it represents in the Automobile electrical system, the duration of supply of electricity to any electrical unit in the car depends on its designed capacity. Therefore, if you form the habits of installing extra electrical gadget in your car, you may inadvertently be loading it beyond its

capacity and putting extra load on the Alternator in the car. For example if you are having a 55Ah battery in your car which is not fitted with an A/C and you install an A/C unit radio, fog lamps security system, extra brake lamps without replacing the battery to say a 75AH battery to take care of the extra load, and you do not operate the car on long distance journeys daily to provide ample time of the Alternator to supplement the battery supply of electricity to these gadgets and charge the battery adequately each day, the battery will run

down constantly and may not last long. Please note that the average service life of an automobile battery is between 1.5 years and 2.5 years depending on many variables which we shall, discuss in this article.

Incidentally the capacity of an automobile battery is determined and rated in terms of the time it could supply a specified amount of current before it becomes discharged.

For example a 40 AM battery could supply 40 Amps of electric current for one hour or 4 AMPS much more conveniently for 10 hours it is rated 40 AH. In the same vain 100 AMPs for one hour or 10 Amps for 10 houses.

So much about the make up of automobile batteries and its ratings, lets now deal with its maintenance aspects.

Some batteries have transparent casing with markings for electrolyte minimum and maximum level in the battery casing, such that at a glance one can see clearly the level of the electrolyte in the battery.

Some will require the unscrewing, of the filler plugs on each cell and peeping into it to find out the actual level of electrolyte.

Whatever the provision

for checking the level, it must be emphasized that the electrolyte level must be maintained at about 13mm of + inch above the plate in each cell.

BATTERY CARE Your battery needs as special attention and care at a period like this when we have occasional downpour and the rate of charge drops to the drop in atmospheric temperature.

Dirty batteries are likely to have electrolyte collect on the surface causing leakage of electrical current to earth, so that the battery will discharge.

Electrolyte on the surface of the battery can also cause the terminals and connectors to corrode, which will stop the battery from working efficiently.

You are therefore to check the acid level periodically at least once in two weeks or after every 800 kiloimetres. If the level drops below plates, top up with pure water.

Never add acid.

Do not overfill cells Normal level is 6-10mm above the separators. An overfilled battery can cause acid over - flow through the vent plugs when the battery is charged and the acid can cause damage to the battery compartment and other metal parts in the vehicle.

Always ensure the top of the battery is clean and dry.

Apply Vaseline or petroleum jelly to battery terminals battery clamps.

“You are therefore to check the acid level periodically at least once in two weeks or after every 800 kiloimetres. If the level drops below plates, top up with pure water. Never add acid.”

Parenting THE most common issues between parents and teens arise due to poor communication, power struggles and a lack of empathy. If you use the same parenting methods that you did when your teen was a child, you won’t get positive results. You’ll just exhaust your energy.

There are five secrets to help you move from conflict to cooperation. Let the acronym - CLEAR aid you in remembering what they are.

1. Connect Connection is everything. You do that by having rapport. It’s easy to be in rapport when you like your teen. Yet teenagers are often difficult to like. Did you know that liking someone is not a prerequisite for rapport? The ability to find something likable, however, is necessary.

To develop rapport, focus on something you can appreciate about your son or daughter. It can be a physical trait (eye color or bright smile), character trait or talent you can admire. If that feels hard, think back to when your child was an infant or

toddler. Focusing on a positive aspect of your teen will build connection and prepare you for your next interaction.

Then, notice the difference as you feel more connected and in accord with each other.

2. Listen Before you can be a good listener, you need to be willing to get more information.

When you listen without being attached to your own point of view, you can become open and less defensive. I suggest you listen consciously without interrupting.

Imagine you are hearing the words from the smartest arid most admirable person you know.

Identify feelings, resist the impulse to dismiss feelings or give unsolicited advice. Be interested in your teen; don’t make the conversation about you. That would be a turn-off, and over time, you would run the risk of turning your teenager further away, eventually looking for family and “love” in all the wrong places.

3. Empathy Many arguments and much strife would be avoided if you take

5 Secrets For Handling Difficult Teens a moment to step into teens’ shoes, to learn how they perceive their situation. Then, empathize right away.

This ability to truly hear and seek to understand causes your teen to feel heard—vital for s m o o t h communications.

When you empathize, be sincere.

Focus on the words and feelings that are given and speak to them. Let your teen know you feel their pain or their joy.

Experiencing empathy feels like receiving a hug.

Without it, we feel empty and alone.

By PASTOR TUNDE ABDULLAHI

Empathy enhances self-worth and builds harmonious and trustful relationships.

4. Acknowledge Acknowledge your teen’s thoughts, feelings, or

heard so that they know it’s safe to talk to you. Empathy together with acknowledgement magically combines into a healing balm for the child in the “pain

complaints; this does NOT mean that you are agreeing with them! You are simply and effectively connecting to them by validating what you heard. Some of you might be tempted to skip this step, so strong is our “need to be right.” Don’t do it!

Kids need to feel

of anger.” Even outof-control kids will begin to let go of their resistance.

5. Request In coaching teens to success, there is an emphasis on making requests vs. demands.

A request is asking someone to do something. When you demand, you paint yourself into a corner.

If a demand is declined, it can cause damage to the relationship. Why? Because the biggest stumbling block you’ll run into relates

“Before you can be a good listener, you need to be willing to get more information. When you listen without being attached to your own point of view, you can become open and less defensive.”

to being controlling.

Control leads to resentment and resistance - not cooperation.

Here’s an example of a request that states your clear expectation, “1 request that you don’t

call your sister names

or use put - downs.

If you have suggestions that you think would be helpful to her, and then say it in a respectful and constructive way.’

Teens are more likely to listen when you make a respectful request. If you find that you resort to demanding things, you’re probably letting your frustrations build up and are waiting too long to ask for what you want.

Spectrum Of Women’s Rights Violations SPECTRUME OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (By Nogi Imoukhuede, culled from WOMAN, Magazine of the women’s Rights Watch, Nigeria) NIGERIA is traditionally a maledominated society though women make up half of our estimated (140 or 150 million) population. Inspite of the advances in education, women still lag behind in all areas of national development.

Nigerian women face barriers to full enjoyment of their rights because of ethnicity, Culture, religion or lack of education; many Nigerian women encounter specific

Gender Advocacy With Ijeoma Umeh

email: ladywithegoldenpen@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 08102954489 (SMS only)

obstacles related to their family status as single women or junior wives or their socio-economic situation living in rural, isolated or impoverished areas. The traditions in Nigeria can be characterized as a system of beliefs and practices which put women in a position of inferiority. The inferior or status of women is protected in the name of tradition, culture and religion and has deprived women of their rights as human beings.

Under Nigerian law, all citizens are guaranteed equal rights and there is no law that discriminates against women. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, in Chapter 4, enshrines the

Donate To An Orphanage Today!

LOOKING for orphanage home? We have a list of them. There are over one hundred registered orphanage homes in Edo state and there are more in all the states of the federation.

Partner with one and change the lives of innocent and vulnerable children for the better! Invest in an orphanage home today! Get an authenticated list of orphanage homes all over the federation from our desk!

Physically Challenged Persons are humans like you.

Don’t discriminate against

them! Empower them, employ them, make friends with them! They don’t need your pity, they need your support, love and care! Give it all to them!

Paedophiliac Alert!

They are on the loose!

Half humans, half beasts! We will reform them, but parents should be on the look out.

Don’t leave your babies in the care of strangers, or familiar people you are not sure about. They could be paedophils who would defile (sexually assault your innocent child) Beware!

NO matter your gender, you may have an incident that keeps playing up around or within your neighbourhood, even right in your home. Do you suffer or know anyone, particularly a woman, girl-child or youth that suffers from anyform of violence: domestic (sexual or physical abuse), forced labour, child labour/abuse trafficking, forced prostitution, sexual servitude, wife battery, widowhood rites that are oppressive and dehumanizing, infringement

of property rights, mistreatment, denial of fundamental rights and privileges or subjugation of conjugal (marital) rights and privileges? You don’t know how far human rights groups may go in enforcing your rights and ensuring your liberty, peace and joy until you speak out! Don’t die in silence. E-mail your information to the columnist or send an s.m.s, include your phone number or E-mail address, or residential address and promptly, you will get a response! Act now!

Break the silence!

Violence: Dont’t Hoard Information

• Hajia Zainab Maina, Minister of Women Affairs.

following fundamental human rights: Right to life right to dignity of the human person, right to

personal liberty, right to fair hearing, right to private and family life, right to freedom of

By AMATO BEN-KUMASI

them sleep at night. Early in the morning, they are already up and planting flowers on their father’s grave. It makes them feel better, though Awa has not stoped demanding for his resurrection. This week, Ben’s family will have a meeting to discuss issues regarding Ben’s (our) property.

Diary Of A Widow One Week After

I HAVE got to the point of resolution already, even before I heard the sound of shovelled brown earth on Ben’s coffin. However, my three children, Awanir, Gobir and Ben’s spilt image, seven year old Andelle won’t adjust yet. Their eyes look forever bloated. My first child, 15 year old fastgrowing girl, Awa, would come into my room where I sat in my grey mourning cloth on the bare floor and demand, ‘Mammy, dadaa loved us. He can’t die and just leave us alone. You have to call Pastor Hemze to pray.

Dadaa will live again.

We have started giving the children sedatives to help

expression and the press, right to peaceful assembly, right to freedom of movement, right to freedom from discrimination, right against compulsory acquisition of property.

In reality, violations of women’s rights in Nigeria are numerous and fall under the following broad categories: violence in the home, sexual harassment at school and work, rape and

defilement, harsh and punitive widowhood rites, female genital mutilation, forced childhood marriages, sexual violence (both domestically), in conflict situations and during Execution of armed robbery, enforcement of gender biased laws, discrimination against the girl-child, disinheritance of wives and daughters, Harmful traditional practices.

The following news headlines speak for themselves: “Girl sets self ablaze… to protest forced marriage!! The Punch, Tuesday, April 2000.

“Rapists invade female hostels as Abu workers students protest”.

Guardian February 16, 2001.

“Obasanjo ranks women trafficking third largest illegal business”.

The Punch, February 20, 2001.

“Police Turn back female reporter for wearing trousers”.

Sunday Punch February 25, 2001.

“Assaulted Eight year old still in pains (four years after) The Guardian, November 2, 1998 (to be continued.

NOTE: Nogi wrote this article as a Rights Advocate and not as a judge, the position she now occupies in Edo State judiciary)

The Yell! Empowerment Place (YEP!) AN initiative of the Partnership for Women and Justice (PWJ), is set to open soon in Benin City. The centre will cater to the empowerment needs of women, the girl-child and persons with all form of physical challenge. It is the first of its kind private

initiative to come out in this region and it is free and certificated!

The centre, set in the heart of Benin City will cater to all areas of empowerment needs-in craft, technology and resources, including assisting participants in

accessing funding widows to kick- start their own initiatives.

The departments include information technology, fashion designing, Art and Craft, catering, hospitality, tourism etc. There is also a crèche! Look out for updates on this column.

With REV. DR. A. A. OPARA

Religion The Ministry Of The Super Natural MANY Christians even some enlightened ones often misinterpret the supernatural ministry and cannot even distinguish it from EVIL supernaturalism.

This is because spiritual things are only discernable by the Holy Spirit by gifted servants in their particular field.

For example a Christian no matter his level of Christian maturity who does not believe in the gifts of the spirit will not be able to understand the operation of the gifts. If you don’t believe in tongues; tongue speaking may never come to you and you may never understand the operation of the tongue speaking ministry. A child of God who does not believe in the gift of prophecy may never experience it let alone understand the ministry of prophecy (1Cor 2:11-14).

THE BIBLE SAYS: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” 1Cor 2:14.

Now such persons fall into ignorance of deep spiritual phenomena and easily condemn the powerful move of the Holy Ghost as occultic.

What has also compounded the supernatural ministry of God is the readiness of Satan to counterfeit it and therefore cause confusion in the minds of many.

It must be stated clearly here that Satan knowing the power of divine manifestations and its attractions has so permeated into the ministry, counterfeiting almost every aspect of it except his inability to counterfeit the fruit of the spirit which provides the best pedestal for judging between Gods servant and the servant of Satan.

For example while the Holy Spirit operates the supernatural ministry using the vessels of honour, Satan operates the evilsupernatural ministry usually referred to as “evil supernaturalism” using vessels of dishonour and deception.

While in the supernatural ministry you may talk of visions, Satan has counterfeited it with false visions called delusions and hallucinations. while you may talk of miracles in the supernatural ministry; satan has counterfeited it with “pretended signs” or magic; when you talk of trance in the supernatural

ministry; satan has counterfeited it with false trance called “séance” while you may be speaking in tongues in the supernatural ministry, satan has counterfeited it with false tongues called tongues of baal, or tongues of demons or simply gibberish. You see how Satan has brought confusion to dispel the supernatural ministry of God. Therefore to appreciate the supernatural ministry and to prove God is a supernatural God and moves in the supernatural, it is good to have a close study of the supernatural ministry explaining it point by point with full biblical proofs. This is what this booklet seeks to achieve. Don’t forget that the ability of Satan to counterfeit what God is doing in the supernatural realm stemmed from his original vantage position with God as Lucifer the arch cherub and the head of the cherubim guarding the throne of God before his fall.

(Isa 14:12-23) It is not good to condemn the supernatural move of God in the church, as it is commonly done today. Any supernatural move is simply described as occultic. Elijah commanded fire from heaven at the word of God. And physical fire descended and consumed the sacrifice at mount Carmel (lKgs 18:36-39): When Philip the evangelist preached to the Ethiopian Eunuch and eventually baptized him, the Holy Spirit vanished him from one spot and instantly he was seen in Azotus preaching the word of God (Acts 8:37-40). When Paul and Silas were in chains in prison they sang and prayed, the Holy Ghost came down and their bands were loosened and the prison doors opened (Acts 16:24-27); Ananias and Saphira lied against the Holy Spirit before Peter the Apostle and they died instantly one after the other (Acts 5:1-10 ) All these and many more in the scriptures were super natural actions which if they had happened today will simply pass for occultism, yet we read in the scriptures that God does not change (Mal 3:6) In Cana of Galilee Jesus turned water to good wine (Jn2:7-10); in Capernaum Jesus paid his tribute money form the mouth of a fish which he had directed Peter to catch in the sea

(Mattl7:24..2 ; the handkerchiefs or aprons from the body of Paul healed the sick (Acts 19:12) the shadow of Peter healed the sick( Acts 5:15) All these are supernatural events which could easily be mistaken for occultism for persons who do not understand the scriptures.

WHERE IS THE SPIRITUAL PLANE. It is good to address this issue biblically where the spiritual plane lies, It is obvious that there is spiritual plane from these Bible instances when Elijah was to depart from the world, he led his servant Elisha through a short course of journey until he got over Jordan River, when the lord sent a whirl wind and Elljah

plane: “And David lifted up ‘his eyes and saw the Angel of the lord between the earth and the heaven having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem” 1Chron 21:16 Thirdly when Elisha the prophet was to be physically arrested by a battalion of the Syrian army at Dothan; the spiritual plane came again clearly into focus. It was indeed a clear display of the confrontation of the physical plane vis-a-vis the spiritual plane. A battalion about one hundred physical soldiers coming to arrest a man of God guarded by a large number of Gods’ unseen angels (The spiritual plane) The servant of Elisha who was terribly afraid of the physical not realizing the

was lifted up and Elisha had a glimpse of the spiritual plane.

The Bible puts it this way: “And Elisha saw it (the spiritual plane by which his master was to ascend) and he cried: My father: my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof” 2Kgs 2:12.

When David sinned against God by disobeying God on the issue of a census for Israel and the anger of the lord came against the whole of Israel and seventy thousand men were destroyed. An angel was sent on the spiritual plane to destroy the people. “And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it and he was destroying it” 1Chron 21:15 The Angel operated from the spiritual plane not the physical plane because no body saw him physically David was also privileged to see the spiritual

spiritual plane but was prayed for by Elisha “And he answered. Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” 2Kgs 6:16.Do you understand thisthat the Syrian army operated from the physical plane; Elisha a physical man operated from the spiritual plane. The fearful servant was made to be convinced by sight rather than by faith. He ought to have been convinced by faith (2Cor5:7) “And Ellsha prayed and said lord, I pray there open his eyes that me may see. And the lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire round about Elisha” 2Kgs 6; 17.

From these clear Bible examples we are convinced that there is a spiritual plane that is invisible to the ordinary eyes, except when God decides to

“It is not good to condemn the supernatural move of God in the church, as it is commonly done today. Any supernatural move is simply described as occultic. Elijah commanded fire from heaven at the word of God. And physical fire descended and consumed the sacrifice at mount Carmel (lKgs 18:36-39):”

open the eyes to see the spiritual plane.

I can easily identify three planes from the foregoing- that the spiritual plane is the spiritual universe; while the physical plane is the physical universe and there is a third plane- the eternal plane (Heaven and Hell) Now the spiritual plane is within the physical universe but is spiritual hence invisible; and it is coordinated by the forces of light or darkness depending on who or what is involved.

The supernatural is operated in the spiritual universe and coordinated by Heaven whereas the “Evil supernaturalism” also operates in the spiritual universe but coordinated by hell- satan and his demons.

Since the spiritual supercedes the physical as the example of Elisha and the Syrian army clearly depicts, then it goes to say that the physical universe or world is at the mercy of the spiritual world; and so also is the fact that men and women who live in the physical world are at the mercy of the spiritual world depending on who they owe their allegiance to whether God the father or satan the deceiver!

The man with a supernatural ministry Prays faithfully and fervently; the prayers activate the spiritual forces of God in the spiritual universe coordinated by God into action, The angels of God stand at alert. He prays by faith backed with a powerful unction of the Holy Spirit. That was what happened with Elijah at mount carmel when fire came down physically from heaven to consume the sacrifice. But the baal prophets could not call fire from hell even though fire exists in Hell. In this contest above there was a conflict between the spiritual forces of God and the spiritual forces of satan in the spiritual universe and the spiritual forces of God triumphed over the forces of the

devil and satan was defeated!

Look at the case of the prophet Daniel- (Dan 10:1-14) Daniel the prophet of God had gone on a three week fast presenting his petition to the Lord; he prayed fervently and persistently to God for twentyone days; the spiritual universe was activated through the powerful prayer of the saint Daniel.

“O Daniel; a man greatly beloved understand the words that I speak unto thee fear not, Daniel for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before the God, thy words were heard and I am come for thy words” Dan 10:11-12 But there was a conflict in the spiritual universe: “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but To, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me” Dan 10:13) You can see the conflict that can arise in the spiritual universe. This is why I earlier said that the spiritual universe is also subject to the eternal plane. God operates from the eternal plane in Heaven reaching the physical environment via the spiritual plane: so also the devil operates from the eternal plane (Hell) to reach the physical universe via the spiritual plane. While Gods action plan is termed supernatural the devils action plan is termed “evil supernaturalism” or occultic.

So why God can do great supernatural things satan can do less via the occult. So it is not right to condemn every supernatural manifestation as evil as if portraying God as less supernatural than satan I will rather not judge a supernatural manifestation by an outright condemnation but by the source- if it be by the hand of God or by satanic manipulation; because God is super-natural and can still move in the super-natural like of old as in the ministries of Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Peter and Paul etc. Satans supernatural power is simply a mimicry of Gods super-natural powers; ideas which he stole from God while serving as one of his arch angels as angel Lucifer. Therefore can the imitator be more powerful than the originator? God is the originator and the source. Satan is simply an imitator. Just as he has tried to counterfeit most of Gods activities; he also has counterfeited this super-natural power of God in occultism. So I shall not condemn supernatural manifestations except I under-study the source ‘Jesus Christ our lord warned against such hasty condemnation.

(Mattl2:22-30 Mark 3:22-30)

International Bomb Blast In Pakistani Capital Kills 18 ISLAMABAD - A bomb ripped through a fruit and vegetable market on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad yesterday morning, killing at least 18 people and leaving dozens more wounded, officials said.

The massive blast was the latest attack to shake Pakistan even as government negotiations with the Taliban pick up pace in an attempt by the authorities to resolve years of deadly fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people in the northwest.

The bomb went off as morning shoppers were buying supplies at the market, located on the outskirts of Islamabad.

The power of the blast sent cartons of fruit and vegetables flying. Police quickly cordoned off the scene, which was littered with guavas, shoes, and prayer caps. Blood stained the ground in many areas.

“I saw body parts flying in the air,” said one of the fruit traders, Afzal Khan. “People were dying. People were crying.

People were running.”

The dead and the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals.

Dr. Aisha Eisani, the spokeswoman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, said her hospital had received 18

dead and had reports from police that more dead bodies were on the way.

The hospital was also treating more than 74 people who were wounded, said another doctor, Zulfiqar Ghauri. More wounded were also taken to hospitals in Rawalpindi, the sister city to

Islamabad and another hospital in the capital, Pakistan state television reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the Pakistani Taliban in a statement emailed to reporters denied responsibility for the attack. The militant group said they were sticking to a previously agreedto ceasefire.

TOKYO - Japan and the United States yesterday began a round of crucial talks aimed at concluding a trade pact seen as critical to the success of regional negotiations, although officials warned that bridging differences would be difficult.

Tokyo and Washington are seeking a two-way trade deal, regarded as a key part of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific

Police officials and rescue workers gather at the site of a bomb blast in a vegetable and fruit markt in Islamabad yesterday.

Trade Negotiations: Japan, United States Face Off

Partnership (TPP) that is the centerpiece of Washington’s push to increase its Asian presence, before U.S. President Barack Obama travels to Japan for an April 24-25 state visit.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has touted the multilateral framework as a key part of his growth strategy but the outlook for a Japan-U.S. deal is cloudy as both sides accuse each other of inflexibility.

“I think if there is good will on both sides we can make progress on bridging our differences,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters before talks with officials including Economy Minister Akira Amari.

Working level discussions on Monday and Tuesday made little substantial progress in narrowing gaps, a Japanese government source said, and Froman’s talks with Amari were likely to continue today.

“The president’s visit is one important juncture, but it is not a deadline,” Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko told a news conference. “What is important

Presidency: Indonesia Vote To Set Governor On Course JAKARTA - Indonesia’s main opposition party took an early lead yesterday in parliamentary elections expected to bolster the presidential ambitions of its popular candidate, Jakarta governor Joko Widodo.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was in first place with 19-20 percent of the national vote, according to two unofficial tallies, putting it in first place but lower than recent surveys had predicted.

Golkar, the former party of

dictator Suharto, was in second place with about 15 percent, while the Gerindra party of exgeneral Prabowo Subianto — also a presidential contender — was third with about 12 percent.

Millions had earlier streamed to polling stations across the huge archipelago, which stretches across three time zones from remote and mountainous Papua in the east

to the crowded main island of Java and to Sumatra in the west.

“We hope for representatives who care about our interests rather than their own. I’ve picked the most honest and fair candidates,” Ilyas Hasan, 43, told AFP in Jayapura, the capital of deeply poor Papua province.

Some 186 million people were eligible to vote for around

230,000 candidates competing for about 20,000 seats in national and regional legislatures, although the most important vote is for the lower house of the national parliament.

Yesterday polls also determine who can run in presidential elections in July and all eyes are on frontrunner Widodo and the PDI-P, which has long been tipped to win the biggest share of the vote.

“I’m very confident my party will do very well,” said the 52year-old governor, smiling

broadly after voting near his official residence in Jakarta, as he was mobbed by a scrum of about 200 journalists.

An unofficial tally, known as a “quick count”, by pollster Indonesia Political Indicator put the PDI-P on 19.68 percent of the national vote, with around 20 percent of a sample of votes from some 2,000 polling stations counted.

A tally from pollster Indonesian Survey Circle gave the party around 19 percent, with about 30 percent of votes counted at some 2,000 polling stations.

is to achieve our country’s national interests.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Abe confirmed a basic trade agreement on Monday, overcoming sticking points on beef and autos that had threatened to stymie a deal, and agreed to work towards signing it as soon as possible.

“Clearly we are looking for a level of ambition in TPP that is significantly higher than that,” Froman told reporters on Tuesday upon arriving in Japan.

Froman told U.S. lawmakers last week that Japan’s reluctance to lower trade barriers was holding up agreement on the TPP, a 12nation grouping that would stretch from Asia to Latin America. Japanese officials say Washington needs to be more flexible on its side.

The United States wants Japan to open its rice, beef and pork, dairy and sugar sectors politically powerful sectors that Abe has vowed to defend.

Japan wants a timetable on U.S. promises to drop tariffs of 2.5 percent on imports of passenger cars and 25 percent on light trucks.

Abe called for flexibility and said he hoped that both parties would end up feeling that they were in a mutually beneficial situation, as with the JapanAustralia agreement.

“I think we can say Japan and the United States are dominant among parties participating in TPP talks in terms of economy,” he told Japanese television on Tuesday.

“If Japan and the United States fail to reach an agreement, TPP could collapse ... The important thing is that it would be pointless if Japan and the United States remained unyielding and that happened.”

Ukraine Separatists Hold Hostages; LUHANSK, UKRAINE Activists Deny Charge More than 50 people left a state

Police condon off the area of a blast in Islamabad, Pakistan, yesterday. A bomb ripped through a fruit and vegetable market on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad yesterday morning.

security service building overnight that had been seized by pro-Russia activists in eastern Ukraine, following negotiations between protesters and officials, Ukraine’s state security service (SBU) said early yesterday.

The SBU said on Tuesday that the protesters who seized the local headquarters of state security in Luhansk on Sunday had wired it with explosives and were holding 60 people hostage, though this was denied by the protesters themselves.

After negotiations overnight, 51 people left the building without weapons, the SBU in the Ukrainian capital Kiev said.

It was unclear if they were

protesters or hostages.

Interfax Ukraine news agency later put this number at 56 and said negotiations were continuing between the protesters and local officials to end the occupation.

The activists denied on Tuesday they had any explosives or were holding hostages. But they conceded they had seized an armory full of automatic rifles.

“We do not need hostages to get what we want,” said Anton, who declined to give his second name.

The Luhansk building was one of several seized by protesters in the east of the country demanding regional

referendums on independence from Kiev.

Protesters in Donetsk, to the south, remain in control of the main regional authority building, but authorities ended the occupation in the city of Kharkiv.

The Ukrainian government says the occupations are part of a Russian-led plan to dismember the country.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russian agents and special forces on Tuesday of stirring separatist unrest and said Moscow could be trying to prepare for military action as it had in Crimea, annexed by Russia last month.

International

Reeva Died In My Arms - Pistorius PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA — Oscar Pistorius testified at his murder yesterday that girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp died in his arms after he shot her in his home last year.

The double-amputee runner was testifying for a third day, returning to the witness stand after weeping and wailing a day earlier while describing the moments he said he realized he had fatally shot his girlfriend by mistake. He said he thought an intruder was in the house.

In early testimony yesterday, Pistorius mostly kept his composure, though he often paused and his voice quavered in apparent distress while

describing what he said were his desperate attempts to help the 29-year-old model after shooting her through a closed toilet door.

“Reeva had died while I was holding her,” Pistorius, 27, said after describing how he put his fingers in her mouth to try to help her breathe and put his hand on her hip to try to stop bleeding from one of several gunshot wounds.

Pistorius said he felt “helpless,” and that he wanted to take Steenkamp to a hospital, but a neighbor advised him to wait for paramedics to arrive.

Police later appeared on the scene.

“I asked a policeman if I could

wash my hands because the smell of the blood was making me throw up,” Pistorius said.

“Every time I saw Reeva, I got sick. So I stayed more inside the kitchen. I sat in the pantry

against the washing machine.”

Pistorius was being led in questioning by chief defense lawyer Barry Roux and will later be cross-examined by prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who

maintains the Olympian killed Steenkamp after an argument.

Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder and could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted of that charge.

Pistorius broke down Tuesday as he recalled bashing open the toilet door through which he shot Steenkamp in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013. He sobbed and howled in court, causing the trial to be adjourned.

Iran, 6 Powers Face ‘Significant Gaps’ In Nuclear Talks VIENNA- Negotiators from Iran and six world powers struggled yesterday to narrow “significant gaps” in talks aimed at clearing the way for a longterm accord on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program.

The negotiators from Iran and the so-called P5-plus-one - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany plan after their two days of talks in Vienna to start drafting the agreement to meet a selfimposed July 20 deadline.

“The Iranians clearly have a sense of urgency to get a deal done, as does the P5+1,” a Western diplomat close to the talks told Reuters.

“We know that there are still some significant gaps that remain and know this process will not be easy. But we’re all committed to getting it (the draft) done by July 20,” he said, in an assessment echoed by other Western diplomats.

The toughest areas to be tackled are Iran’s future uranium enrichment capacity, nuclear facilities that Western powers believe have little or no civilian value, and future nuclear research work, as well as a schedule of steps to remove the international sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.

South African paralympic tract star Oscar Pistorious react during his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria recently.

Netanyahu Orders Cutback In Contacts With Palestinian Authority

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a halt to high-level contacts with the Palestinians on non-security related issues, but exempted his chief peace negotiator from the ban, government officials said yesterday.

One Israeli official called Netanyahu’s order a response to “the Palestinians’ grave violation of their commitments in the framework of the peace talks” — an apparent reference to their signing of 15

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VARGAL – I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Marta Vargal now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Marta Millecker. All former documents remain valid. Concerned authorities and the general public should please take note.

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international conventions last week.

The edict came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that Israel’s announcement on April 1 of plans to build about 700 housing units in East Jerusalem was the immediate cause of peace talks plunging into crisis.

Another official said Israeli cabinet members, directorsgeneral of government ministries and other senior bureaucrats would no longer be allowed to meet their counterparts in the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s negotiating team in the troubled U.S.brokered peace process, and defense and security officials could continue to engage with the Palestinians, the officials said.

There was no immediate Palestinian comment on Netanyahu’s decision and no

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clear indication of what would be the practical outcome of the move.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have been cooperating for years on civilian issues such as the environment, water and energy.

At the weekly meeting of his

cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu pledged to retaliate for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s signing of the international agreements, including the Geneva Conventions covering the conduct of war and occupation.

Palestinian officials said

Abbas signed the conventions in response to Israel’s failure to carry out a promised release of several dozen Palestinian prisoners four days earlier. They were further angered by the subsequent settlement announcement.

Israel said the tender to build new houses in East Jerusalem had already been issued last year and was resubmitted because there had been no initial takers.

Iran Nuclear Deal Being Implemented OSLO Iran is As Planned - IAEA Chief implementing last year ’s interim nuclear deal with six world powers as planned, U.N. atomic energy chief Yukiya Amano said yesterday,almost three months after the accord took effect.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a pivotal role in checking that Iran is complying with the terms of the November 24 agreement, under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions easing.

The U.N. body issues monthly updates to IAEA member states about the implementation of the deal that entered into force on January 20, designed to buy time for negotiations on a final settlement of the decadeold dispute over Iran’s nuclear activity. The next one

is expected around April 20.

“I can tell you, these measures are being

implemented as planned,” Amano said during a visit to Oslo.

DAMASCUS - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad advanced into the rebel-held Syrian border town of Rankous yesterday, consolidating their control over a former rebel supply line from neighboring Lebanon.

The assault on Rankous is the latest stage of an offensive by the army and Hezbollah fighters to seal off the border region and secure the main highway leading north from Damascus towards central Syria, Homs, and the Mediterranean coast.

Hezbollah’s television channel Al-Manar said Rankous was under complete control of Assad’s forces, but Syrian state television and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said fighting

continued on the edges of town.

“Units of the Syrian Arab Army are advancing in Rankous and are pursuing the remnants of the terrorists groups on its northern fringes and the surrounding farmlands,” Syrian television said.

The fight for Rankous takes place less than a month after Hezbollah and the Syrian army recaptured the rebel stronghold of Yabroud, choking off the vital supply line into central Syria.

Backed by Shi’ite fighters from Hezbollah and Iraq as well as Russian weapons and Iranian military commanders, Assad has regained territory around Damascus and central Syria leading to the coastal strongholds of his Alawite minority.

Syrian Forces Advance Into Rebel Border Town

IN a rented public hall not far from Poland’s parliament, about 150 people gathered one afternoon late last year to hear speeches by a collection of farright leaders from around Europe.

The event was organized by Ruch Narodowy, or National Movement, a Polish organization that opposes foreign influences, views homosexuality as an illness and believes Poland is threatened by a leftist revolution hatched in Brussels.

Chief attraction was Marton Gyongyosi, one of the leaders of Hungarian far-right party Jobbik.

In a 20-minute speech, Gyongyosi addressed the crowd, mostly men in their thirties and forties, as “our Polish brothers,” and railed against globalization, environmentalists, socialists, and what he called a cabal of Western economic interests.

Poles needed to resist the forces hurting ordinary people, he said, before urging “regional cooperation between our countries.”

It is a familiar rallying cry.

Far-right groups have emerged or grown stronger across Europe in the wake of the financial crisis, and they are increasingly sharing ideas and tactics.

Reuters has found ties between at least half a dozen of the groups in Europe’s exCommunist east. At the network’s heart, officials from those groups say, sits Jobbik.

The party won 20.54 percent of the vote in Hungary’s parliamentary election on April 6, up from the 15.86 percent it won in 2010, cementing its status as by far the largest farright group in Eastern Europe.

From its strong base at home, Jobbik has stepped up efforts to export its ideology and methods to the wider region, encouraging far-right parties to run in next month’s European parliamentary elections, and propagating a brand of nationalist ideology which is so hardline and so tinged with antiSemitism, that some rightist groups in Western Europe have distanced themselves from the Hungarians.

The spread of Jobbik’s ideology has alarmed antiracism campaigners, gay rights activists, and Jewish groups.

They believe it could fuel a rise in racially-motivated, antiSemitic or homophobic street attacks. Longer-term, they say, it could help the far-right gain more political power.

In a statement sent to Reuters, Jobbik said that it hoped the people of central and eastern Europe would unite in an “alliance that spreads from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea,” to counter what it called EuroAtlantic suppression.

Jobbik rejected any link between the growing strength of radical nationalists and violence. “Jobbik condemns violence, and its members cannot be linked to such acts

International Features Poland: Far-Right Party Spreads Ideology, Tactics

either,” it said.

The day after Gyongyosi’s speech last November, Jobbik’s leader, Gabor Vona, addressed another rally in a Warsaw park.

“The path to final victory involves a million small steps,” he told the crowd, through a translator. “You should take up this challenge. Take part in the European elections.”

The crowd chanted: “Poland and Hungary are brothers!”

As they marched through the city earlier that day, some of the Polish participants fought pitched battles with police and

elsewhere?”

Broadly speaking those shared values include a strong opposition to Brussels, a dislike of immigrants, and a suspicion of Jews and of the Roma, an ethnic minority who number about 10 million in Eastern Europe and who have faced centuries of discrimination.

Hromoslav Skrabak, leader of 19-year-old Slovakian group Slovenska Pospolitost, has

them a chance of winning one of Bulgaria’s allocation of 17 seats. The elections for the European Parliament take place on May 22-25 in all 28 member states of the bloc.

Jobbik has had less success in Western Europe, where more established nationalist parties reject its anti-Semitic views. In 2012, Jobbik’s Gyongyosi told the Hungarian parliament that Jews were a threat to national

Cas Mudde, assistant professor at the School for Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia in the United States, said that Jobbik is driven in part to look for allies “to show that it is not some kind of marginal phenomenon. There are two ways to do that: You can do it nationally, which is very hard, or you can do it internationally by saying: ‘Look, we have friends all over the place.’”

Far-right protesters, with covered faces, shout slogans during their annual march, which coincides with Poland’s National Independence Day in Warsaw. set fire to a rainbow sculpture erected as a symbol of diversity.

Poland is not the only example of Jobbik’s regional outreach.

Far-right groups in Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, and Bulgaria told Reuters they have ties with fellow parties in several countries in the region. Jobbik sat at the center of that web, the only one with contacts with all the parties.

Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party (BNP), one of the few far right parties in Western Europe with close relations with Jobbik, said the Hungarian party is the driving force behind efforts to forge a far-right coalition.

Other groups say they admire the party because of its success in Hungary and its organizational muscle.

Jobbik appears to operate on a shoestring. It has an annual budget of $2.34 million, according to the Hungarian state audit office, most of it from a state allowance to parties in parliament. Jobbik denies giving financial aid to other groups, but it can afford its own staff, travel, and facilities - all factors that enhance its influence.

“Jobbik is a market leader of sorts,” Gyongyosi said. “There are shared values, and the way Jobbik grew big, why could the same thing not happen

argued for racial segregation and “humanitarian” methods to reduce Roma fertility. Skrabak said his group cooperates with far-right groups in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Serbia to jointly fight “against the dictate of Brussels,” and to spread the idea of pan-Slavism, a union of ethnic Slavs.

Frano Cirko, a member of the Croatian Pure Party of Rights, said cooperation between farright groups helped take on “neo-liberal” capitalism, which he said threatened national values in Europe and made it too easy for foreign firms to buy Croatian companies.

Angel Dzhambazki, deputy leader of Bulgaria’s VMRO, a movement that has its roots in the late 19th century and was revived in 1990, said its “close cooperation” with Jobbik and a Croatian group had helped it grow. “We invite them to participate in our meetings, and at the same time we take part in events organized by them.”

VRMO is in the process of forming a coalition with a new populist party called Bulgaria Without Censorship. A poll by Bulgaria’s Institute of Modern Politics showed that, together, the parties would have 5.6 percent support for the European Parliament election, putting them third and giving

security and should be registered on lists. He later apologized and said he had been misunderstood. But parties such as the Dutch Party of Freedom, which is staunchly pro-Israel, and France’s National Front, which has sought to move away from its anti-Semitic past, are both wary of the Hungarian group.

Jobbik’s principal ally in Western Europe is the British National Party. Griffin, its leader, said the BNP and Jobbik were working together on building a functioning bloc of nationalists within the European Parliament.

“I would say probably I do more of the work in eastern and southern Europe than they (Jobbik) do, whereas they tend to concentrate on the center and the east,” Griffin said in a telephone interview.

Opinion polls in Britain suggest the BNP will lose the two seats it currently holds in the European parliament.

One far-right party that polls predict will win seats in Brussels is Greece’s Golden Dawn, which says it wants to rid the country of the “stench” of immigrants. But Jobbik told Reuters Golden Dawn was “unfit” for the Hungarian party to cooperate with. Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris said there was no official cooperation with Jobbik.

Last May, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) urged European governments to consider banning neo-Nazi parties that threatened democracy and minority rights.

The WJC met in the Hungarian capital Budapest to underscore its concerns about Jobbik.

Rafal Pankowski from Never Again, a Polish anti-racist association that tracks cases of racially motivated violence, said he feared that Jobbik’s efforts to spread its tactics and ideology could lead to more violence against minorities.

“This is dangerous,” he said of Jobbik’s international influence. “If similar groups in other countries copy this model ... then the situation might worsen.”

Robert Biedron, a gay member of the Polish parliament, said Polish far-right activists ran a website called Red Watch where they posted pictures and personal details of people they described as “queers and deviants,” as well as lists of left-wing activists and Jewish academics.

Biedron reported to police that he was beaten up in Warsaw at the end of February in what he believes was a homophobic attack.

Biedron said he did not expect Ruch Narodowy to win seats in this year’s European election,

but the Polish party’s support was rising, and it had a chance in next year ’s Polish parliamentary polls. If that happens, he said, it will use parliament to promote its rhetoric “based on hate for others.”

Jobbik’s network-building has been most successful in Poland in part because Poland and Hungary have no historical claims on each other’s territory, an issue that has often hindered cooperation between Jobbik and nationalists from other neighbors.

On a sandy riverbank in the shadow of a bridge over the river Vistula, members of the paramilitary arm of Ruch Narodowy rehearsed for their role as stewards before November’s rally in Warsaw.

Some looked like the stereotype of far-right skinheads. Others were middleclass professionals. One showed up in an Audi saloon, another in an expensive sports utility vehicle. The unit’s leader, Przemyslaw Czyzewski, said several members were lawyers.

A diagram of the organization’s structure showed it had a military-style hierarchy, and units called “choragiew”, a word which was used in the past to describe Polish cavalry formations.

Explaining why he decided to join the unit, one man said he wanted to defend Polish values under threat from foreign influences. “I finally had to do something,” said the man, in his thirties, who did not give his name.

The group denies it takes its inspiration from Hungary, but it has striking similarities with Jobbik’s paramilitary wing, called “Magyar Garda,” or Hungarian Guard. In 2008 a court ruled that Magyar Garda threatened the dignity of Roma and Jewish people. The group disbanded but was quickly replaced by a similar organization.

Robert Winnicki, the bookish, bespectacled 28-year-old leader of Ruch Narodowy, has described homosexuality as “a plague” and talked of creating a “new type of Pole” disciplined enough to take on the country’s enemies.

He told Reuters that the aim of his movement’s contacts with foreign peers was to “exchange experiences, learn from each other.”

Winnicki traveled to Hungary in March last year to address a rally of Jobbik activists.

“Inspired by your example, we are organizing a national movement today in Poland,” he told his Hungarian hosts, according to a published transcript.

“An army is quickly growing in Poland which soon, on its section of the front, will join the battle that you are conducting.

And together we will march to victory.”

Courtesy: REUTERS

LIFE, real life is something completely autonomous, something completely independent, otherwise, it could not be designated as “Life”. Such life is in God alone. And since besides God nothing is truly “living,” it follows that He alone holds the power which lies in life.

Thus, He and He alone is the Primordial Power or simply the “Power”, so referred to.

And again in this Power Abd-ru-shin says there is Light. Here again the expression “Primordial Light” is just as false as the expression primordial power, for there is but one light and one power – God. The existence of God, of Power, of Light, i.e., of life alone inevitably brings into being the creations for the living light, the living powers, cannot but radiate.

And these radiations contain all that is necessary for creation (Abd-ru-shine).

The radiations, however, are not the light it self.

Hence, all that exists outside of God has its origin only in the radiation of God. This radiation is a natural effect of the light, however, an effect that has always existed from all eternity.

Abd-ru-shin, the author of Grail message – in the light of Truth says, the strength of the radiation is naturally greatest in the proximity of the light, so much so that, there can be no other movement in it than the “Perfectly straight line” movement, which is an intrinsic quality of the radiation. Thus, it issues from God and proceeds for fabulous distances, the extent of which a human spirit is unable to imagine.

When, however, he say this inflexible forward propulsion, which is equivalent to an immense and constant pressure, come to the point where it as last eases off a little, the nature of the movement change from the hither to, straight line to a circular movement.

This circular movements is produced by the attraction of the living power simultaneously pulling backs all that has been flung beyond the border of the full

Life

radiation to that point where only the straight line movement predominates. In this process, the rotating movements take on an elliptical form, because they are not independent movements, but only produced by this flingingout-of-the-mainstream and the subsequent puling back through the attraction which rests in the power, that is, in God Himself.

Moreover, the process of dividing the radiation into positive an negative species, which takes place after the radiation leaves the sphere of Divine white – Heat, also, plays a part here. In these rotating movements, in which the immense pressure of the original radiation has diminished, a slight cooling off also, takes place in the course of nature. This in turn causes a certain deposit to be precipitated.

This deposit Abd-ru-shin says sinks deeper or recedes further away from the original radiation, but is still held by the all pervading attraction of the power. Yet, it simultaneously retains enough of the straight line impetus of the radiation to gain produce new rotating movements, which always remain within very definite but quite different limits.

Thus, one deposit after another is precipitated and corresponding elliptically rotating planes of motion form, which bring accumulations of substance and finally ever more solid forms receding further and further away from the original Radiation and its enormous forward pressure.

Abd-ru-shin says, the gradations thus, produced, form planes in which definite species link together and settle, conforming to the degree their temperature has cooled off He has already described these planes or species in the message as

being the great fundamental planes of spiritual substantial in the uppermost region of creation, uner which successively range the spheres of Animistic substantiality, of Ethereal substance and finally of Gross matter, with their many sub-divisions. It is quite natural that the more perfect species should

remain higher, thus closest to the point of origin, because they must nearly resemble it and are most strongly affected by the attraction of the living power.

But God did not allow this radiation to penetrate further and act beyond the limits at which the forward drive of the stream still forms and absolutely straight line so that the pure Divine Radiation still remained luminous and clear without any cooling off and consequent precipitations.

This formed the Divine

sphere which, as with God Himself, is eternal. In this clear transparency these could never be any dimming, nor, can there be any swearing aside or change. Only perfect harmony with the source, with the light itself, was possible. And this sphere is inseparably connected with God, because this radiation of the living power, being its natural effect, can never be avoided.

To this Divine sphere, which because of its close proximity to the living power is subject to a pressure incomprehensible to the humain spirit, belongs the actual castle of the Grail as the most exteme outpost and

anchorage, as a terminating counter-pole, so to speak.

This still stands within the circle of Divinity and has therefore, existed from all eternity and will remain unchanged for all eternity, even if in times to come creation would have to fall to ruin.

Abd-ru-shin says it was from all eternity that, it is something the human spirit is unable to comprehend. It was not till God, in His volition, sent forth the great words: Let there be light,” that the rays shot out over the limit hitherto

“God, who is light does not need this creation, should He again limit His Radiation to its unavoidable minimum, so that only a sphere of Divine Purity would remain into which no dimness can ever enter, as it was in the beginning, then the end of all that has been subsequently created would be at hand. Man would then also cease to exist, as he can be conscious only within creation.”

Man And Nature With O.C. MADU 08056379608

set them into the universe, then in utter darkness, carrying movement and warmth. This was the beginning of creation, which gave birth to the human spirit and could become his home.

God, who is light does not need this creation, should He again limit His Radiation to its unavoidable

proximity of God. The pressure creates motion which in turn produces warmth, heat and white heat.

Pressure, however, is, but the resultant effect of the power and not the power itself, just as the radiations come into existence only under the pressure of the power, but they are not the power itself. Therefore, the

minimum, so that only a sphere of Divine Purity would remain into which no dimness can ever enter, as it was in the beginning, then the end of all that has been subsequently created would be at hand. Man would then also cease to exist, as he can be conscious only within creation.

The immediate radiation of the light can produce only what is perfect. In the changes from this first pressure, caused by the ever-increasing distances, however, this original perfection diminishes because, in the progressive cooling off, individual particles constantly separate themselves and remain behind. Purity in perfection necessitates the pressure of Divine Radiation at its greatest intensity, which is possible only in the

radiations within creation are but the consequences of a corresponding motion, which in turn must adjust itself to the particular pressure at the time. Thus where there are no radiations in creation, there is also, no motion or as man erroneously calls it no “life”.

For all motion radiates, while stagnation is nothingness, an absence of motion which men call death.

Abd-ru-shin says that the Great Judgment comes about only through the increased pressure of a Divine Ray, passed on through an Envoy from God incarnated in the World of Gross Matters, to whom God has given a spark of His Living Power. Only that which swings aright in the laws manifesting the power of God can withstand the pressure of this living power-spark.

West Ham Reject Steven Gerrard Claims WEST Ham United have denied Steven Gerrard’s claims that Sam Allardyce’s side “tried everything to upset” Liverpool ahead of Sunday’s match.

Freedman Relief At Bolton Win

BOLTON boss Dougie Freedman expressed his relief after Bolton withstood a second-half onslaught to claim a 2-1 win at Doncaster.

Two goals inside 15 minutes from Neil Danns and Joe Mason set the visitors on their way and, despite Rovers pulling one back almost immediately through David Cotterill, the Trotters held on to stretch their unbeaten away run to six matches.

“It was an excellent three points and I thought we deserved it with the way we imposed ourselves on the game at the start,” the former Crystal Palace manager said.

“You have to give credit to them for the way they came back at us and we had to make one or two changes to combat that.

“It was all about the first 15 minutes for me because we dominated possession. I want us to control games but it’s not always possible when the other side have a say.

“Fair play to Doncaster, they are battling away and have got an attitude that they are not going to lie down.

“We’ve always felt we were looking upwards rather than down and it’s a pity the first 12 games never gave us a chance to be more prominent.

“But we’ve done well more recently to get where we are.”

Rose Barkley

Liverpool beat the Hammers 2-1 at Upton Park on Sunday courtesy of two Gerrard penalties, but the Reds captain told the Daily Mail afterwards: “We knew what to expect and we got a bit more than we expected — a hot dressing room, a dry pitch and the bus had to park a mile away.

“I think they tried everything to upset us. It was a good test of character. They were throwing 70 yard balls into our penalty box from every different angle. They have got giants in there who are going up with their elbows and we stood really strong.”

West Ham co-chairman David Gold used his Twitter account to play down his claims.

Jose Mourinho dishes out instructions to his players

It’s Demba Drog-Ba Says

CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho lauded his much- maligned strike force and even compared Demba Ba to Didier Drogba after the Senegal striker fired the Blues into the Champions League semi-finals.

Ba, whose appearances Tuesday night to draw 3-3 have been fleeting and on aggregate and advance mainly as a substitute this on the away goals rule. season, scored the decisive Mourinho has bemoaned strike three minutes from his forward options for time as Chelsea beat Paris much of the season, but all St Germain 2-0 on three - Ba, Samuel Eto’o,

Ross Barkley Primed For ROSS Barkley has Prem Run-in warned Everton’s rivals for Champions League qualification that the big games bring the best out of him.

The midfielder turned in a starring performance on Sunday to help inspire a 3-0 victory over Arsenal. That victory increased fifth-placed Everton’s hopes of securing a top-four Premier League finish as they moved to within a point of the Gunners, who are immediately above them in the table.

And with testing home games against Manchester United and City to come, Barkley is looking forward to having a big say over the closing weeks of the season.

He told the Daily Star: “I love the big games. You have to be a good player to play in big games and shine, and I like getting the chance to step up and show what I am capable of.”

Barkley’s emergence as a first-team regular at Goodison Park — having previously been on the fringes — has been a major success story in his team’s season.

The 20-year-old has taken a while to blossom after suffering a triple-leg break when he was 16, and last season even struggled to get a regular game while on loan in the Championship at Leeds United.

But having won his first three England caps this season, Barkley is a strong contender to go to this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

For now, though, he is focusing on a bid to help Everton qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2005.

He added: “You saw against Arsenal that we can play, and that we’re good enough to be in the top four. On our day, we can beat anyone.

“Now we have to go into every game thinking we can get all three points.

“We’ve got confidence now, and we have to take that into our remaining games.”

Joyful Jose

and Fernando Torres were on the pitch for a frantic finale and played their part in a memorable occasion.

It led Mourinho to compare Ba, who has started three times this season, to Drogba, the scorer of the crucial penalty as Chelsea won the 2012 European Cup. “His contribution was massive in the game,”

Mourinho told Chelsea TV. “After (the goal) he was fantastic. Fantastic central defender.

“He reminded me a bit of Didier in the old times when we needed him (in defence) in the last minutes.

“And Nando playing right back and chasing Maxwell all the way.

Fantastic spirit.”

Jose Mourinho

Mourinho darted down the touchline in celebration of Ba’s goal and to issue instructions to his attacking players to defend.

“I ran to tell him (Ba) and Nando that in this moment at 2-0, everything changes,” Mourinho added.

Ba played down a moment which may prove indelible for many Chelsea fans.

Ba, who last started against Steaua Bucharest in December, told Chelsea TV: “(A) very great moment for the fans, for the club, for everybody, (but) it takes more than that to become a legend.

“We do what it takes to win it. When it’s meant to happen, it happens.”

On his defensive duties, Ba added: “It takes what it takes. If I have to play behind for the last few minutes, I’ll just do it.

“I had to work hard, had to help the team. I just did it without even thinking”

Arsenal Lack Winning Mentality

ARSENAL midfielder Santi Cazorla has told Sport 360 the Gunners lack a “winning mentality” to compete for the top honours in the game and has encouraged the club to sign some of the world’s top stars this summer.

Spain international Cazorla, who signed for Arsenal from Malaga in 2012, has also hinted that he may return to his homeland should he fail to fulfil his ambitions at Emirates Stadium.

“Arsenal has everything to win,” said Cazorla, who

revealed he has spoken to his Spanish teammate Iker Casillas about the possibility of moving from Real Madrid to Arsenal this summer.

“History, infrastructure, an incredible stadium and great players, but we have to improve at crucial moments and sign the best football players because if you don’t do that, you may lag behind others.

“That is what makes it different at other clubs. You’ve a good example in Manchester City who signed Fernandinho, [Alvaro] Negredo... or even

- Cazorla

Manchester United with [Robin] van Persie and [Juan] Mata.

“Arsenal know what they need next season, but it’s almost impossible to win a title if we haven’t got these kind of things.”

He continued: “We haven’t got a winning mentality and we have to believe in ourselves.

Sometimes you can get used to not fighting, but we can’t do that.

Arsenal is and will always be a historic football club and we have to look forward.

Ramirez Eyeing Serie A Return THE agent of Southampton midfielder Gaston Ramirez claims his client is keen on returning to Serie A after struggling to settle in the Premier League.

Pablo Betancourt told Italian website IlSussidario.net that Ramirez, 23, is not happy with his lack of opportunities with the Saints and would favour a return to Italy, with AC Milan a possible destination.

“We’re just trying to understand which club can make the right

Gaston Ramirez

Klopp Could Not Be More Proud Despite Elimination

JUERGEN Klopp said he could not be more proud of his side after Borussia Dortmund lost 3-2 on aggregate to Real Madrid.

Their fighting spirit and attacking prowess were again on full display as they embarrassed the Spaniards with a dazzling performance to win 2-0 at home on Tuesday but they were unable to balance out the deficit of their first leg loss in Madrid.

For coach Juergen Klopp, however, to see his makeshift team of youngsters and veterans dominate the nine-time European champion’s expensively assembled squad with such verve and passion was a pure joy.

Hit by a string of injuries that sidelined half a dozen players, Klopp brought on veterans Oliver Kirch and Manuel Friedrich, who was a free agent without a side before being signed as an emergency replacement in January.

He also gave starts to 21year-old Oliver Durm and 22year-old Milos Jojic.

“I could not be more proud of this team and the way they played,” Klopp said.

“The players who came in - it was Jojic’s first game for Dortmund in the starting team were extremely strong.”

“Oli Kirch has had the most impressive development for someone his age and Manuel Friedrich is so fit that you wonder if we should not talk to him (for another year).”

After a slow start, last season’s runners-up put on a sensational attacking performance that left Real chasing shadows and praying for the final whistle to be blown as soon as possible.

For a team that has lost key players to major European rivals every year, Dortmund’s resilience is also remarkable.

“The game today was so good that we just cannot say anything else about it or accuse anyone. We have not made it easy for our fans this season but we offered them the best in this match,” Klopp said.

Ancelotti relieved to progress Real Madrid head coach

Carlo Ancelotti was relieved to see his side hold off a Bo… The 1997 Champions League winners, who have tightened their grip on second place in the Bundesliga, will no doubt give it another shot next season.

At the end of this campaign, leading striker Robert Lewandowski will be moving to Bayern Munich to join former Dortmund team mate Mario Goetze but few believe that the Poland forward cannot be replaced.

They managed to find able deputies when Shinji Kagawa left for Manchester United, when Nuri Sahin joined Real and when Goetze angered fans to sign with rivals Bayern.

“This was an evening that will not be forgotten quickly,”

said defender Mats Hummels, another player on the wish-list of several top clubs.

“We won but were

eliminated so it was only a great evening. But we showed everyone the internal strength we have as a team.”

offer to the Saints,” Betancourt said. “Ramirez played very well in Italy and a lot of Serie A clubs have positive memories of him.”

Ramirez’s chances have been limited at Southampton, whom he joined from Bologna in 2012. He has made just 17 Premier League appearances for the Saints this season, only making the starting XI twice.

“He’s hardly playing, even though they made such a considerable investment in him two summers ago,” added Betancourt. “You can’t say today that he’s all that important to Southampton, considering he’s always on the bench.

He enjoyed his time in Serie A and that’s why he

Suffering Is Good

DANI Carvajal believes Real Madrid’s defeat against Borussia Dortmund will stand Los Blancos in good stead for the rest of the season.

Madrid were beaten 20 on the night but won 3-2 on aggregate to progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Carvajal is reported by Marca as saying after the game that Madrid will benefit from having been

Juergen Klopp

would be delighted to return, but we’ve got to find an agreement with Southampton.”

Milan, who could lose Kaka in the summer due to their failure to qualify for the Champions League, would be an appealing destination, his agent said.

“It would be an honour for Gaston to inherit the place of a great player like Kaka,” Betancourt said. “How could you say no to Milan, who are a great club, among the best in Europe? It would be a huge opportunity, but let’s not get carried away.

There’s nothing definite right now.”

- Carvajal

given a torrid time by Jurgen Klopp’s side.

“We have suffered a lot and we knew it was a difficult game,” Carvajal said.

“Their two goals came from our mistakes.

Suffering and coming through it is good to learn from.

“We’re in the semifinals but we’ve suffered.

Ramos Not Worried About Facing Blues

SERGIO Ramos says he is not concerned about a possible meeting with Chelsea, and their former Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, in the Champions League semifinals.

Despite losing 2-0 at the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday night, Madrid progressed from their quarterfinal with Borussia Dortmund with a 32 aggregate victory on a night when Chelsea eliminated Paris Saint-Germain on away goals after a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge.

Ramos, who was reported to have a difficult relationship with Mourinho during the Portuguese’s final season in Madrid, told TVE after Tuesday’s game that he had no preference for who his side faced next in the competition.

“For us, [playing Chelsea] would be neither a good or a bad thing,” the Spain centre-back said. “We just worry about ourselves, and will wait on the draw. To win the Champions League, you must beat the best teams.

Chelsea deserve to be in the semifinals.”

Ramos accepted that Madrid would have to reflect on the reasons for Tuesday evening’s shambolic first-half display, which recalled last year’s semifinal at Dortmund, when Madrid were beaten 41.

“It was a ground we knew perfectly well, but we did not play a good first half,” Ramos said. “They took advantage of that with their fans behind them, which is always a plus for them. We have progressed to the semifinals and must be happy with that, but also we must reflect on what happened in

the first half. We know that if we came out with the same attitude in the second half, we were not going to make it to the semis.”

Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who made a string of saves as Dortmund pressed in the second half for a third goal to even up the tie, said he and his teammates had suffered badly through the game, which included an early missed penalty by Angel Di Maria.

“The first goal is an error from us and the second is after losing the ball in the centre of the park,” Casillas told TVE. “We had to have mental strength because at 20 down in the 37th minute a lot of things go through your head, and all this after missing a penalty. The positive thing is that we have learnt to suffer in these games and to know that we cannot make these errors in the semifinals.”

The club captain said this might be a useful wake-up call for Madrid ahead of the next stage.

“It was too much suffering, I think deserved,” Casillas said. “Maybe it is good

Sergio Ramos

to be reminded that nothing is easy in the Champions League. The errors at the back have made us suffer, but it is better it happened in this game than in the more decisive games coming in two weeks.”

Amateur Boxers Set For Boxing Fiesta In Lagos FOYINBO Jubril, a Coach of Golden Boxing Club, Lagos Island, said yesterday that its second boxing fiesta was aimed at promoting talented amateur boxers.

Jubril told newsmen in Lagos that the competition was scheduled to hold at the Campus Mini Stadium on the Island, to discover budding talents in the sport.

The official, who was also the competition’s technical manager, added that the tournament was scheduled to hold on April 19 for grassroots boxers to display their skills.

“Our mission is to explore from the abundant talents among the youth and to promote talented youth boxers to showcase their skills in a serene atmosphere,” Jubril said The maiden edition of the competition took place on December18, 2010, where about eight talented boxers were discovered and trained to become professionals.

He said that the competition was affiliated with the Lagos amateur boxing association, in conjunction with the Lagos Island East Local Government, to build upcoming champions.

Jubril appealed to private organisations to sponsor competitions that would engage the youth, so that they would not be roaming about the streets as hoodlums.

“Our mandate is to

Powerlifting:

ESTHER Oyema, a Para-power lifter representing the country at the ongoing International IPC Power lifting World Championships in Dubai, yesterday set a new world record in the female 55kg category.

The Technical Director of the Nigeria Para-power lifting Federation (NPPF), Mr Samuel Ekeoma, disclosed this to newsmen on telephone from Dubai.

According to Ekeoma, Oyema lifted 123 kg to clinch the gold in the category at the ongoing championships.

The new record erases

engage the youths and discourage them from engaging in social vices in their communities,” he said The coach advised the youth to choose boxing as a career, saying that the sport can provide them global recognition.

“Our country is endowed with talented athletes who can be discovered through continuous competitions,” he said.

Jibril urged the state government to provide modern gyms in all council areas in the state, to enhance the development of the game at the grassroots.

Fed Cup Administrator Advocates Better Medical Attention For Players

Tamuno, Sports Minister

2014 National Sports Festival

Lagos Focusing On Multi-Medal Sports, Says Director AKIN Ladigbolu, Assistant Director of Sports, Lagos State Sports Council, on Tuesday said the state would be focusing more on multi-medal sports at the 19th National Sports Festival (NSF).

The festival, tagged many medals like athletics, “Paradise Games”, will swimming, golf and some hold in Calabar from Nov. combat sports like wushu 28 to Dec. 3. kung-fu because they Ladigbolu told that bring in many medals.

Lagos would concentrate “Lagos is preparing on the multi-medal sports and concentrating on such as swimming, multi-medal sporting athletics, golf, wushu events because these can kung-fu to emerge the guarantee us emerging the overall winners of the overall winners of the festival. festival,’’ Ladigbolu said.

“Basically, I always On preparations, he like to look at the multi- said they would evolve medal sports that can bring

Oyema Sets New World Record her previous world record of 122kg, set at the 2013 Asian Open Championships in Malaysia.

He said that Oyema, who was also a gold medallist at the 2012 London Paralympics Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India, had made the country proud.

“We are happy for this additional gold medal by Esther Oyema in the 55kg category.

“She also broke her own world record set in

2013,’’ he said.

The director said that the athletes would win more medals, before the end of the championships.

Nigeria had so far won two gold and one bronze medal at the ongoing championships.

Eight male and five female athletes are currently participating at the championships, which is also a prelude to the 2016 Paralympics Games in Brazil.

The championships, which commenced on April 5, will end on April 11.

different kinds of training ahead of the festival to achieve success.

“We have a programme around this time called the ‘road map’ toward the festival. It is what has helped us to improve from the 9th position to 3rd at the last Games.

“We will observe the open camping in the stage one, while the stage two will be another open

camping, before we go into the closed camping.

“The closed camping will be the final training for six months where all the parameters will be used to evaluate those that will be eligible for selection,’’ he said.

Ladigbolu added that Lagos State was going to prepare toward success at the festival.

Lagos State was 3rd at the 2012 edition which it hosted, trailing Rivers and the overall winners, Delta.

A football administrator, Victor Nwangu, on Tuesday called for a better and prompt medical response to athletes who sustained injuries on the pitch.

Nwangu made the call in a lecture at a seminar during this year ’s draws Anambra Federations Cup in Awka.

He said sports generally and football in particular was a physical event where athletes were prone to injuries, noting that poor management of the resultant injuries often led to degeneration.

He regretted that many rising and already made stars had either lost their lives or gone on early retirement on account of pitch emergencies.

Also speaking, a national referee, Emmanuel Ikeobi, called for constant updating of referees in the country to enable them to be abreast with new rules of the game and avoidable officiating errors.

Ikeobi, who is also a Reverend Father, encouraged players to be cautious and avoid unnecessary fouls and misconducts on the field of play.

The state’s Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Edozie Aroh, who declared the seminar open, urged officials of the participating teams not to relent in their efforts to promote the game.

Aroh renewed the call for private sector participation in sports development, adding that most successful clubs in Europe were privately owned.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 19 teams would compete for the coveted trophy in five stadia located at Nnewi, Obaze, Nanka and Onitsha which has two.

The opening match would hold at the Neros Pharmaceuticals Stadium, Nanka on Thursday.

Stadium Refurbishment

Bayelsa Sports Ministry Assures Of Quality Job THE Bayelsa Ministry of Sports Development on Tuesday said the government was working hard to ensure quality work in the ongoing refurbishment of the Samson Siasia Stadium.

The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mightyman Dikuro, told newsmen in Yenagoa that the stadium when completed would meet international standard.

He said that the contract for the refurbishment covered the installation of astro-turf, upgrading of players changing rooms, the press gallery as well as public conveniences.

“Of course, the rehabilitation will take a lot of time to complete but it is

better to spend time and ensure quality job, than to execute projects that will not stand the test of time.

“We are trying to ensure that the stadium meets acceptable international standards; it is regrettable that our teams are playing outside the state this season but there is no cause for alarm.

“I believe that the stadium will be completed soon and we really want to get the stadium pitch right and get it real good this time,” Dikuro said.

Dikuro, who decried the development that forced two of the state-based clubs, Nembe City and Bayelsa United, to play outside this

season, said the state was committed to football development.

He assured football lovers in the state that before the current season would reach the mid season, Bayelsa United and Queens would return to Yenagoa to entertain their fans.

Dikuro urged the players to be courageous and focused to perform excellently in all their outings in any competition in the course of the season.

He pleaded with all stakeholders to exercise patience while the ministry worked hard to rebuild the football pitch to the best standards.

Salaries: NFA To Pay Keshi, Obuh and Others Next Week - Official

THE Nigeria Football Association (NFA) said on Tuesday that it had concluded arrangement to clear the backlog of salaries owed the coaches of the various national teams. signed as at now; they will Emeka Inyama, the Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee of NFA, who said this while briefing newsmen in Abuja, explained that government policy was responsible for the delay in payment.

‘You know the Federal Government approved some money, but at the end of the year Dec. 31, the money had to go back to the federation account to return again.

“So, that is what has delayed the payment of coaches like John Obuh and the rest of them.

‘As I speak to you, the four months outstanding salaries for coaches of the Super Eagles are being processed for payment.

“The mandate is being

get the alert by tomorrow (Wednesday) or next (Thursday).

“Also, the outstanding salaries of coaches of all national teams including those who are no longer serving with us are being processed and will be paid by next week.“ Inyama who is also a board member of the NFA pointed out that the football

house would go a step further to pay the Super Eagles coaches up to the end of June to ensure that the coaching crew was not distracted from its World Cup assignment.

According to Inyama, the strategy was deployed during the Africa Nations Cup when the team received three months’ salaries ahead of time.

He explained that former

Super Eagles assistant coach, Sylvanus Okpala, might have to wait for the outcome of the suit he filed against the NFA to benefit from the payment.

“For us, coach Okpala has taken Nigeria to court. As you are aware; he is in Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“So, we expect coach Okpala to then await the outcome of this court he has gone to rather than going to

Eguavoen Urges NFA, Keshi To Close Ranks

A former Super Eagles Head Coach, Austin Eguavoen, has appealed to Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi and the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), to work harmoniously ahead of 2014 FIFA World Cup. Eguavoen told newsmen in Lagos on Tuesday that any distraction as Eagles prepare for Brazil 2014 would not be in Super Eagles’ interest at the World Cup. “I will appeal to NFA and Keshi to bury the hatchet, and let’s focus on the World Cup. “We shouldn’t bring in troubles at this point in time.

I will also say Keshi has always remained focused, he should remain focused.

“Because distractions can lead to a lot of negative things; so let him remain focused, NFA has been battling for so long.

“They should just please forget about all these things and put them aside.

“And let’s see how far we can go in the world championship for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians who are so passionate about football that they need results so badly.

“They should just bury the hatchet and move on.”

The vetting of the Keshi’s provisional World Cup list is at the centre of disagreement between the coach and his employers, the NFA.

the media berating the federation.

“We felt he has done what he felt was the right thing to do “We will expect that he allows peace to rain and let us meet in CAS because CAS will definitely invite NFA for our own comments and side of the story.

“At the end of the day, they will give ruling and for all of us that know, it’s the highest court in sports matters.“ Inyama noted that there was no cause for alarm on the perceived disagreement between the NFA and Keshi over the submission of Eagles provisional list for the 2014 World Cup. He said Keshi had enjoyed all the support from the NFA since he was engaged as Eagles boss,

adding that all his programmes had got express approvals.

He commended Keshi for the fantastic results so far achieved in the cause of his assignment, noting that they had brought respect to the football house and the country in general.

Inyama reiterated that the NFA had no plans to hire any foreign assistant for Keshi and had no plans also to replace him with another coach ahead of the World Cup. He noted that query given to Keshi over his absence at the technical committee’s meeting two weeks ago was blown out of proportion.

The NFA board publicity chairman noted that the query was only meant for Keshi to give reason for his absence at the meeting and nothing more.

... Allays Fears Over World Cup Preparations

Stephen Keshi

Flying Eagles’ Unsure About Isaac Success, Alampasu For Now SPANISH football league club Granada CF are yet to confirm when they will release striker Isaac Success for a training camp by the Flying Eagles, an official said on Tuesday.

A statement by the Nigerian under-20 team’s Media Officer, Samm Audu, quoted the team secretary, Aliyu Ibrahim, as saying they were still waiting for a confirmation from the club.

The Nigerian under-20 male football team is preparing for next month’s African Youth Championship (AYC) qualifier against either of Kenya and Tanzania.

The statement also said there had been no news on the availability of goalkeeper Dele Alampasu, who has been

on trials at Belgian club Genk.

“Unconfirmed reports had suggested that the Abuja Football College goalkeeper may have suffered a long-term injury while on trials in Belgium,” it said.

The statement said the Flying Eagles rounded up their training for Wednesday’s friendly against their Moroccan counterparts on Tuesday morning.

“Set-plays were emphasised during the oneand-a-half-hour workout on a warm and sunny day.

“Ifeanyi Matthew, Musa Yahaya and Alhassan Ibrahim proved to be great free-kick specialists as they bent their kicks past goalkeeper Emeka Nwabulu.

“Ibrahim also won a 100 dollars bet with assistant coach Nduka Ugbade, when he curled his effort round a packed defensive wall for his second goal in the interesting exercise,” the statement said.

It said further that the Moroccan under-20 team would line up a wholly home-based side with several players from Morocco’s team to last year’s African U-17 Championship.

The Flying Eagles are expected to depart their training base outside Casablanca immediately after breakfast on Wednesday for Rabat, where the match will be played.

The match will kick off at 4 p.m. local time, which is the same time in Nigeria.

THE Nigeria Football Association (NFA) on Tuesday assured Nigerians that the Super Eagles technical crew had not been distracted in their preparations for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Musa Amadu, the Secretary-General of the NFA, told newsmen at a news briefing in Abuja that the FA was working assiduously with the team’s technical crew for a better outing.

Amadu said that arrangements had been made for the team to leave their camp for match venues, one day to the encounter.

This, he said, would enable the team to concentrate on their matches during the tournament.

Ahmadu said that air travel arrangements during the tournament had also been concluded to ease the team’s movement for their matches.

“The team base, the hotel Campiness, is on the outskirt of Sao-Paolo and this is where most of the National teams are based.

“This is where the team will stay and will be leaving to match venues in the group stage and they will move a day before these games and return to their base after the game.

“Brazil is a vast country and some of the travels you have to do are more than one, two or three hours but there are chartered flights, not that we will take commercial flights.

“FIFA has made arrangement with all the airlines there; its chartered flight just for the teams and it will take each team to their specific match venue,’’ Amadu

said.

He explained that Amb. Adamu Emozozo, the Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil and Stephen Keshi, the Super Eagles Head coach, had inspected the camp.

“The team base camp Hotel was selected by the head coach himself; he has seen everything and he likes what he has seen.

“The Consular-General was also here; we discussed with them and they have said that everything is perfect.

“So, in terms of accommodation and travel arrangements for the Super Eagles, they are absolutely perfect,’’ Amadu said.

The NFA scribe urged Nigerians to pray and support the team as they prepared for the World Cup. He said that there were no disagreements between the NFA and Keshi over team list.

He pointed out that not even the court matter between it and Sylvanus Okpala could derail the team’s preparation.

Amadu noted that the matter was now at the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) and that it would be appropriate if Nigerians refrained from making comments on it until it was determined.

Our correspondent recalls that Okpala took the NFA to court over alleged wrong termination of his contract.

Okpala was disengaged from the Eagles technical crew in April 2013 by the NFA. The football body cited poor financial standing which, it claimed, made it difficult for the federation to maintain a 17man backroom staff.

CMYK

Wanted: Amnesty For Edo Teachers C I R C U M S TA N C E S around us could change from time to time but the history of those circumstances, once properly captured, remains more permanent. History reminds us that the circumstances around the Edo teacher have been changing most rapidly.

It is only a thorough understanding of the changing situations of the Edo teacher that would show that the current imbroglio between Governor Adams Oshiomholeís Administration and the Edo teachers is absolutely unnecessary. They both want the best for the State but they only differ in their approaches to this ideal.

In the beginning, the teaching profession attracted the best brains.

Only the best went to the teachersí training colleges and this was to show up later as most of the countryís ruling elites virtually came through this noble profession.

At that time, schools were held in the highest esteem and they were seemingly personalized.

School heads were given free hands to do whatever was necessary to keep their schools on top; and in helping their schools to maintain the best academic records, including issues of recruitment and the filling of urgent vacancies. My younger brother, Solomon, as a student in Pilgrim Baptist Grammar School, Ewohimi, had passed through S.O. Ayobahan who was a senior tutor at the Institution. By early 1970s Ayobahan was the Principal of Edo Boys High School, now Adolo College, Benin City. Four of us were yet living in this cranky room at Rasaq Balogun Street, Surulere, when Solo obtained his advanced level GCE papers. As soon as news of

this achievement got to Ayobahan, he personally came to Lagos to remove Solo to teach Geography at Edo Boys. That was how Solo left his Ministry of Communications job to become a tutor ñ a big name that he paraded so jealously.

From Ambrose Folorunsho Alli to Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole: The Edo teacher had a peculiar history in these two regimes. Professor Alli was a scholar par excellence.

He could test positive for education, anytime. But unfortunately, he became the Governor of then Bendel State in 1979, at a time when there was a dearth of teachers in our schools. It was not unusual to see big schools with many students; but with only one or two teachers.

Alli needed teachers to prosecute the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, education policy, which was the partyís topmost cardinal programme. And the teachers were also needed to rescue the educational system, which was at the verge of imminent collapse. Overnight, teachers training colleges sprang up everywhere and, of course, the conditions for admission into them were liberalized.

People were granted permission to go to teachersí colleges on leave of absence, with or without pay.

The popular American belief that, it is permissible, sometimes, for people to tell small lies on their ages and on their income tax returns, came to the fore.

Under the circumstance, nobody was asking or looking for the best. We looked the other way if people presented certificates that did not appear quite straight. Women abandoned their market stalls and headed for teachersí colleges. Where a woman who had been selling pepper for 15

years at Uwa Market was being offered an opportunity to return to school she quickly reached for her cosmetics box; increased her pancake powdering to 500 grams; and headed for the nearest court registry to adjust her age accordingly, unknown to her that some day, somebody would come to demand for her primary six certificate,

colleges, they became useful right from the stage of teaching practice. On a moral high ground, it might seem unfair to treat them as expendable items towards their exit point. Their gallant gamble must not end in the dust!

There is, however, an admixture of these ìinterventionist teachersî

this, the embarrassment occasioned by the system. In a recent exercise, it was discovered that the younger ones were even the worst culprits in lying about their ages. Understandably, people who have been looking for jobs for upwards of 15 years

• Gov. Adams Oshiomhole

which when taken seriously, would indicate that she obtained that Primary Six Certificate when she was not yet conceived!

Thatís where we are now.

It is instructive that most of these teachers came on a rescue mission and they truly rescued our education system from collapse. The moment they went into the training

and those employed under the candle light. As we speak, dubious elements in the system might be busy, at the hinterland, hawking teachersí appointment letters, perhaps unknowns to headquarters. Teachers employed under the scheme are quickly regularized between board dissolutions and reconstitution. Add to

and now stand the chance of getting one, after paying heavily, also stand the chance of cutting down on their ages so that they could work for sometime to recoup their investment and get near pension-attracting before retirement.

All these put a lot of strains on Governor Oshiomhole. Who wants to be the Governor of a

State where a teacher cannot spell ìteacherî?

What future is such a Governor leaving for the children? Since when did an employer lose the right to regulate his employeesí condition of service, including occasional assessment tests for such employees if the employer so desired?

Edo teachers are engaged in a fight they can hardly win. Jawjaw is better than warwar. Anyone who knows how his behind is should be the best judge of how to bend down. Dialogue is the mother of peace. It is not yet too late in the day for Edo teachers to change their strategy; and appeal to their Governor for amnesty.

Yes, you supported the Governor during the elections but you did not support him to come and destroy the education system. If anything, you wanted an improved education system.

After the amnesty programme, which would ease out the teachers gracefully, the Edo State Government should sanitize its system and ensure that henceforth, only good teachers are employed to teach our children.

The teaching profession should return to its glorious past instead of being an all comers affair.

“It is instructive that most of these teachers came on a rescue mission and they truly rescued our education system from collapse. The moment they went into the training colleges, they became useful right from the stage of teaching practice.

On a moral high ground, it might seem unfair to treat them as expendable items towards their exit point. Their gallant gamble must not end in the dust!”

Printed and published by Bendel Newspapers Company Limited, 24, Airport Road, P.M.B. 1334 Benin City. Telephone; Lagos: 01 4930929, Benin: 052 257492, 257531 Editor. BARR. SOLOMON IMOHIOSEN (KSJI) - (07030699646), Deputy General Manager (Marketing) (08023457566), Assistant General Manager(Advertisement) (08023808856) Lagos Office: 25A Alli Street, Off Tinubu Square, Lagos Island, Lagos. Abuja Office: Floor 1, Edo House, 75 Ralph Shodeinde Street, Central Business District, Abuja. Tel/Fax: 09-5237631. All correspondence to: 24 Airport Road, Benin City. E-mail: nigerianobserver@yahoo.com (ISSN 0331-2674)